HOKEY COKEY ON PS3

  

in out, in out,

shake it all about

do the hokey cokey and turn around..

No. You are not about to read about the latest game release for the Playstation 3.  Read on dear reader..

I have my PS3 in bits at the moment.  In fact, the main motherboard has been in and out five times in a wildly random process of trying to make it work again.  I am self-certified the fastest PS3 dis-assembler in the west.

I have what is known as the (adjust in your mind if you will to a gigantic echoey voice pattern when reading the next bit) 'Yellow Light of Death....'  death.... death...

You get the point.

Not funny though when you are as much of an addict on FarCry 2 as I.

It's been two and a bit weeks now.

The only final (fingers and toes crossed) solution is to re-flow the solder that holds in the two main processors - one for graphics, one for all other things.  Seems Sony used poor quality heat paste.  It eventually dries out and causes the chips to overheat and crack the solder fixings to the motherboard.  Yellow light.  Nothing else happening.

the culprits!

So, if anyone I know, or you know, has a good quality heatgun that can heat to 400 degrees C or more, please drop me a line.

 

SALE NOW ON!

   
Yesterday I blogged about strangers bearing gifts and the perils of letting them into your inner circle of trust.

Today it's the turn of another type of 'gift'.  The gifthorse in fact. Should you look it in the mouth, should you shy away?  Though this is NLP-based it is not about language but about absolute and relative perceptions and the way the mind works..

Day 3 - Observation 3: 50% off, Half Price! Must Be A Bargain?

Basically, your view of the world is interpreted in the order in which you see it.  You walk into a shop, you see a ticket on an item that states 'Half Original Price' or '50% off', you believe it.  Maybe you succumb and grab a bargain?


Only you then walk out and go somewhere else where you find the same item at a lower price than you just paid.  Not great.  But think about your emotions - the very few seconds before you see the second item you are still happy that you have found a bargain and bought something at half price.  You are comparing and contrasting the information you have.  Then, boom, all that elation disappears when you see the identical in all but cost item in a second shop.  You are again comparing and contrasting but with a new set of information.


[In the world of economics, this re-evaluation of something from good to bad can also happen in a relative sense.  You buy something for £200 that is half price and think it's great, only to see something that is not quite the same thing but is only £120.  Some people get disappointed - and feel deceived - by having had to pay slightly more for something that is almost the same but is lower cost.]



This works not only in commerce - and we all should be aware of it in that context given the money being spent on retail psychology in order to grab your money - but it also happens in your relationships with other people.  An example will suffice.

Somebody you find attractive and interesting to be around today can be replaced in your list of favourite friends or colleagues by others as you meet them.  Your information set is expanding.  People do this all the time, there is a constant flow of friends in my close-ish circle as people come and go and are selected and de-selected (makes me sound like a robot?) in my 'preference field'.  But, the better person will compare and contrast with all information and still not allow this to cause people to drop by the wayside.  You really can have more than a handful of friends!  Hard work, I know (but a little easier with facebook style social networking - assuming everybody has access).

But how to stop making bad judgements due to being unable to see all the facts?

The principle of shopping smart, living smart and judging friendships in a smart way and not being taken in is clear.

The key is to only consider each decision (or judgement about someone) you make by itself (but still of course with the benefit of all that information - we don't like knee jerk reactions here!).  This is best done by creating space - letting time pass between decisions.  This causes people to independently determine values - of objects and people.


Next time you see a bargain, sleep on it.


Next time you find yourself judging a person good or bad in your life, create some space and think about it.
  

CHARLIE SAYS...

  

Day 2 - Observation 2: Beware A Stranger Bearing Gifts...

An obvious one you may think.. but when someone gives us something we often feel indebted in some way to them (I'm not talking about close friends and relatives here.  We are, remember, talking of ways in which people manipulate people around them for their own ends).

This rule can take many forms.  It is not always about physical gifts that are being presented. Those who wish to deceive somewhere down the line are expert providers of 'information', often slow drip-feeds of information that bring the two people seemingly closer together (a workplace practice of experts in this field - drawing soldiers in to sacrifice them later - so called social harvesting). The same can be said of someone who appears to be spending a lot of time with you or on something you are working on with no apparent reason to be doing so. 
  
Short one today I'm afraid.. Busy working!
  

NEW-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING?

   
I've not blogged for a while - busy busy and all that.

So, today I'm going to kick off a run of daily blogs. To keep it nice and short I'm going to put down a rule a day from what I've been reading on Neuro-Linguistic Programming lately (wiki entry here for 'what is NLP?').

One rule per day from the secrets of the NLP trade.... otherwise known as factors that can affect your judgement and change your decision or mind when faced with everyday information.  Some are obvious, some less so.

Day 1 - Observation 1: Wow! You're just like me!

• Watch out when you're asked about your hobbies, interests, your home town,
  values, beliefs, favourite TV, music or foods etc. if this is followed by a
  'wow, me too' response from somebody.  If it happens a lot, then they are
  probably not being 100% truthful with you.

• Another aspect of this rule is that if someone is being nice and agreeing with
  everything we are saying we tend to like them more and - as a consequence - tend
  to automatically agree with them more even if it doesn't really make sense to do so.
  This response is automatic and very difficult to fight off.

• Rapport and chat create trust that might not be correct. Talking with someone in
  a certain way, that is similar to the way they talk (speed, tone, words used etc) allows
  a person to create a psychological or emotional bridge.  If this happens to you then
  you immediately feel more comfortable, less inclined to stop and think about what it
  is the person is saying - after all they are saying it how you would..  Take great care
  if your movements, speech pattern or tone are being echoed.

On a slightly less intense theme, Michael Heppell, he of 'Be Brilliant' fame(?) posted a link recently to a great site that carries pics of 3-D street art.  Click and wonder for yourself at the skills of Julian Beever

    

Just remember, If you don't take control of your mind, others will do it for you.

  

A LITTLE FREAKONOMICS..

As I try my hardest to stay focused on something this week that really has to be finalised I am also looking for ways to kick-start my ambition.  A good few years ago I had bags of it, left home early(ish), trod the golden pavements of a big city, worked in a crazy Japanese securities house in the City, went on to study an economics degree and further, got a job, travelled and lectured, wrote a book, got another job, travelled more, advised some government departments and generally had a good time whilst doing it all (interviewing the Hungarian environment minister whilst sobering up from the night before wasn't my best move though!).

These days I find it harder to motivate myself to walk out the door let alone go and do anything like I used to. God knows why, but it's just the way it has been for a while.

But it has to change.

And so.. onto a little story about genetics, economics and games..

Recently experimental economists Lise Vesterlund (University of Pittsburgh) and Muriel Niederle (Stanford) conducted a study in which they assembled 40 men and 40 women, gave them five minutes to add up as many two-digit numbers as they could, and paid them 50 cents for each correct answer. The subjects were not competing against one another but simply playing against the house.

Then the game was changed to a tournament in which the subjects were divided into teams of two men or two women each. Winning teams got 2 dollars for every right answer, nothing for getting it wrong. Men and women performed equally in both tests.  In a third round, the participants were asked which of the two ways they wanted to play, tournament or simply against the house for the most money they could.  Only 35% of the women opted for the tournament format against 75% of the men.

So what was the conclusion? "Men and women just differ in their appetite for competition," says Vesterlund. "There seems to be a dislike for it among women and a preference among men."

Even though this research is the latest by Niederle since she began looking at gender issues and testing them in 2003 I'm not too sure this is true.  Or maybe I've just met some strange women?

I'll post some more on game theory later as it is useful in where a lot of economics is going at the moment - behavioural theory and biology to test out economic results.  Why wasn't this blend in vogue when I was studying economics? grr...

Here's a link to Muriel's web page - click

And Hal Varian also covers the research on men/women differences to
competitive environments - here
   

TOTALLY USELESS RETURN..

  
It is perilously close to a month since my last entry so to kick things back off following a trip to America (more of which in the next few days)....


http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html


A totally useless waste of time bubblewrap flash page!
 

RE-PAC-KAGED

Thanks to a follower (my only follower I think!) for pointing this BBC article out on the Pac-Man Google Search game..

The Pac-Man game Google put on its home page gobbled up almost five million hours of work time, suggests a study..

The playable version of the classic video game was put on Google's front page on 21 May to celebrate 30 years since the launch of Pac-Man in Japan. The Pac-Man game proved so popular that Google has now made it permanently available on its own page.
  
In other news, I'll be going to London with my son again this summer hols and will definitely be searching for this artifact in the Natural History Museum. If they haven't got this rare Pacman skull on display I'm going to stomp my feet and ask for my money back.. what? it's free to get into the Museum.. doh!

 

:-)

PAC-GOOGLE, GOOGLE-MAN

 
I have been away all day today in Coventry and Birmingham but it was great to catch up web-wise late on, after a nice prawn curry cooked by Mrs Polko and a quick first look at Red Dead Redemption (watch this space for more on this...)

Just in time in fact to catch the Google specialised logo of the day to celebrate Pacman's 30th birthday. Now that makes me feel a little older....

Got to play a few games and was impressed with the coding of the individual ghosts personalities - some are scared, some dumb after you eat the yellow pills!

sound too!

nice one google. roll on the 30th anniversary of Call of Duty!
  

WHAT A SCORE!

I play Scrabble on facebook (or Lexulous to use it's correct name) and ventured into a random game against a stranger for the first time today...

Thing is, I was handed an amazing first set of tiles that made up an eight letter word (the maximum) that scores double points on the first go usually.  This time though my first word (MALARKEY) extended right out to the end of the board where a triple word score space lies!

134 points in the first go of the game!

I think this is one game I have an advantage in!

Shame it wasn't a game against any friends as I could have impressed them (hence the post here! ha ha) 

Let you know how it ends...