The Last Golden Age of Television

When I was a student one of my neighbors in my University halls of residence popped in with a 3.5inch floppy disk, and told me that on it was a file in a new format called MP3. At the time audio compression was pretty abysmal, and a 3 min song made around a 30MB file. Given that my hard disk at the time was 200MB this didn't make for very feasible digital music. As I listened to that 1.3MB MP3 file for the first time I realised that the world had changed.

One of the reasons that the moment sticks in my mind is that I was continually amazed that this epiphany seemed to be restricted to my Computer Science friends. As the 1990's lengthened I kept coming back to that striking moment, and we wondered when the general public would realise the possibilities, and more interestingly, when the music industry would wake up. The game had changed, had changed radically, existing business models were going to fail, and the companies seemed to be sleeping.

Luckily Apple wasn't, and in 2001 they launched iTunes and saved the music industry.

So who is sleeping in 2009, which businesses are facing a tsunami of change and seem ill-prepared? Well, has anyone watched television recently?

TV viewing figures are dropping. In 2006 Ofcom in the UK released a report showing that fewer young people were watching television, and in 2007 an IBM report showed that in terms of time spent, the Internet now rivaled TV. For a child of the 80's its a weird notion, but when you think about it, is TV dying?

The irony of the question is that we are arguably living in a golden age of programming, much of it coming from the US. Consider shows like Lost, the Sopranos, 24, or the West Wing. But this quality has emerged from a system that is on the brink of failing. For example, in the UK ITV has recently announced serious cuts as its advertising revenue is shrinking.

A recent article by Paul Graham was recently highlighted on Slashdot, in it Paul describes how computers have fatally wounded TV, and argues that this is down to bandwidth, piracy and social applications that have eaten into leisure time. These are all certainly factors, but I would actually place more emphasis on the first two than the last. It is TV-on-demand that has done the damage, and much of it is unofficial or illegal, because the TV companies have not yet got their act together.

For example, I recently I decided to catch up on Lost - I stopped watching at the end of series 3 a few years back, and so I needed to get hold of a copy of series 4, which had 14 episodes, to bring me up to date.

On Amazon the dvd boxed set for season 4 is 34.98 (with blu-ray a ridiculous 44.98). I also watched several disc sets on ebay, and the average price was £26.40, which compares favorably with the price on iTunes of £25.99. However I also checked on the BitTorrent network, and sure enough the series is illegally available as a free 5GB download.

Perhaps the problem here is in a mismatch in the expectations of the buyers and sellers. Media has become temporary. Teenagers delete music after having it on their devices for a few months, something that seems quite weird to me, but then I would do the same with a TV show. Buy it. Watch it. Delete it. Two or three pounds an episode seems rather expensive when you look at it like that.

There are alternative funding models that can work in this temporary digital age, but alarmingly for fans of broadcast television they are not being recognized as important. Product placement was recently ruled out by the UK government as a potential income stream, and there is confusion and disagreement about how the BBC license fee should develop in the future.

There needs to be a much more serious and urgent debate about the future of television. In the UK we need to protect the license fee as its one of the better viable funding models, but it needs to be reformed (perhaps absorbed into general taxation) so that it more accurately reflects the radio and online activities that will form an increasingly large part of BBC effort. Product placement seems initially to be quite obnoxious, but along with show sponsorship it is viable in the digital age and resistant to piracy.

This debate is not about how we allow television companies to increase revenue, its about how we save broadcast television. We also have to face facts that in the future there will simply not be as much money in the industry - change is coming, enjoy it while you can, because this is the last golden age of television.

Must Invaders Die?

The Prodigy make angry music for calm minds. I've been a fan since a friend lent me Music for the Jilted Generation some time around '95, and since then the Prodigy's music has got angrier and louder, and thumped and twisted its way to the edges of genius.

Fat of the Land was a heavier album, and deliciously furious. Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned lacked much of the vocal talent, but was funkier, and somehow kept its aggressive edge.

So what to make of their latest album, Invaders Must Die?



Well, it's not a disappointment. Whatever witchcraft the Prodigy use to make their seminal sounds is back doing its unusual evils, and the full ensemble is in attendance. The album is less nuanced that Never Outgunned, almost a throwback to the endless layers and visceral sounds of the Jilted Generation. The Prodigy have returned to their roots and constructed another great opera of noise.

The vocals are very English, and I wonder if there isn't something of our frustrated little island in the frenetic beats; as if punk got lost on acid. There's also a speaking part for 8-bit classics in tracks like Colours and Piranha which made me get all nostalgic about early gaming (and also took me back to Fire starter races in Wipeout).

So Must Invaders Die? Armed with this album I suspect that the Invaders are in deep trouble. The music is merciless and the Prodigy aren't taking any prisoners. Turn up the bass, turn up the treble, then give up and buy a better stereo.

This kind of thunder breaks walls and window panes :-)

Stephen Fry: Computer Science Linguistics 101

Stephen Fry continues on his merry rise to sainthood with his latest podcast about Language and Linguistics. In fact it's more of a love poem to words, but it's so sprinkled with wry commentary on structuralism, etymology and modern day pedantry that you could use it directly as a student primer on all three.
My early research work was on hypertext systems (I did my PhD around the time the Web came to be) and that led me to look at narrative systems and onto narratology, structuralism and linguistics in the large.

Linguistics is a fascinating subject, with real relevance for computer scientists as it's all about how intelligent systems (us) express ourselves. It's thus well placed to help explain how machines (them :-) might do the same.

It impacts on aspects of agent technologies (speech acts and conversational frameworks), knowledge technologies (contextual grammars and knowledge frames) and HCI (such as *my folksonomic properties like synonymy, hyponymy, holonymy, meronymy and metonymy).

Computer Science students interested in building information and semantic systems could do a lot worse than familiarising themselves with Linguistics - and what better way to start than this informal lesson from a Grand English Gentlemen :-)

The Dangerous Future of Hard Semantics

Today I've been at a workshop organised by the JISC SemTech project (which I am a part of, but which is being led by my colleague Thanassis Tiropanis). The aim of the workshop was to discuss the possible role of semantic technologies in HE and FE, reflect on which semantic technologies are being used already, and to identify future use cases and challenges that might be targeted by JISC.

There was some good discussion, but for me, the most helpful thing was the distinction between Hard and Softy Semantics, and the most interesting was a discussion on the long term impact of Semantic Technology on Teaching and Learning in the Large.

Hard and Soft Semantics

A bugbear of mine for a while now has been the confusion that exists in the e-learning community about whether semantics is about knowledge structures for people (like concept maps) or knowledge structures for machines (like RDF/OWL documents). In the workshop it was clear that people thought about it in both ways, and it was useful to be clear about each.

Soft Semantic Technologies help people conceptualise their knowledge - for example, by using mind maps, or by tagging items in a controlled vocabulary (community tag clouds). These kind of technologies require the learner to be aware of the knowledge construction process, and to use it as a learning activity.

Hard Semantic Technologies help machines communicate - for example, by swapping RDF controlled by an agreed ontology defined in OWL. These kind of technologies might not even be visible to end users, but instead make it easier to integrate systems and develop mash-up style applications.

A standard like SKOS is interesting because it is a hard semantic description of a soft semantic activity.

Thinking of Semantic Technologies in this way makes it easier to consider the advantages and challenges for each, as hard semantics are several steps away from everyday users, while soft semantics might be included in their work or learning activities.

The Impact of Semantics on Learning in the Large

A lot of the discussion at the workshop was based around fairly short term benefits - this was deliberate, as the focus was on how to move the e-learning community forward, not speculate on the future. However, one thread did emerge that might have major consequences for education in the longer term.

Les Carr talks about the Google Test, a version of the Turing test where the question is not 'are you talking to a human or computer' but 'are you talking to an expert, or a good Googler?' The point Les is making is about the value of information in a society where information is plentiful, and therefore the worth of learning that information in the first place.

We've already seen the impact of this in education - where the web (and in particular sites like Wikipedia) have devalued the ability to memorise and recall information. It is now trivial to find information on subjects that only ten years ago would have required days in a library to unearth. This has changed the way that we assess students, and challenges the first level of Bloom's taxonomy, which is all about memorising and repeating facts.

The interesting question raised at the workshop was that if Semantic Technologies are successful, and reasoning and expert systems follow, will technology also challenge the higher levels of Blooms - such as analysis and synthesis?

At present you could ask a student to write an essay on the influence of the Royal Society and expect them to begin by finding out what the Royal Society was, when it existed and so forth - this aspect is already easy. But imagine a world in which they could gather not just facts, but an entire essay, because the system understood not just the data, but how the data was related, and not just answers, but how to structure those answers into an evidenced argument.

Such a world raises questions that go to the heart of what it is to learn, and questions the objectives and values of modern education.

I certainly don't think that outsourcing our thinking to machines is a good way to go (especially if those machines are really just glorified Prolog engines), but if there is an easy path then some students will be tempted to take it, and that is a genuine challenge for the future.

Cynical Ticket to Ride UK Variant

We all know that it was the railroads that built America, which might explain the happy and nostalgic feel for them in Ticket To Ride. However in the UK it was the Romans that built everything and frankly the railroads just cut dirty great lines across all their great stuff.

In 2007 I received an unofficial expansion to my unofficial UK Ticket To Ride board that celebrated the slightly more cynical British view with added government legislation and duff contractors. Thanks to Jay, Alex and Ubbie for sending it to me.

Happy British train traveling!

Ticket To Ride: UK Cynical Edition

This expansion was created by a small group of game playing friends namely Jay, Alex & Ubbie. It is meant as a bit of fun and is in no way endorsed by Days Of Wonder, any Railway Company or the UK Government.

After playing Dave Millard's great UK expansion we collectively decided that it played very well but lacked a certain modern Britishness. The Ticket To Ride games exemplify an idealised 19th century railway system, not the crud we have today. In the UK news a week can barely pass without some train problem or transport minister making an arse of himself. So we decided to put our not so serious heads on and invent an expansion to Dave's unofficial map to bring back those elements we miss from our modern railway system.

Warning, if you have no sense of humour and have no idea of the calamities we have on our railway network you may just not get it!

What You Need

• A Copy of Ticket To Ride, preferably Ticket To Ride: Europe, available from all fine game retailers. We all got ours from Plan 9 in Aberdeen who do mail order
• A copy of Dave Millard's UK Map
• These rather simple rules
• A print out of the event cards shown below (each file is around 1MB in size). Do the Blue Peter thing and get busy with the paper & scissors (remember to ask a parent to help you)

Updating the Map

This needs a little modification. Don't worry, you can still use the map for the normal game afterwards so no real damage done.

We have 3 new symbols that are placed on the map. 2 of these are straight out of Ticket to Ride: Europe but Bridges are all our idea. So familiarity with Ticket to Ride: Europe is useful.

Where these symbols are placed and their meanings are described below.

Ferries

As per Europe version these have a number of locomotive symbols on the route. A locomotive must be played instead of the normal coloured card for each locomotive symbol

1 locomotive ferry routes:

• Stornoway to Wick
• Londonderry to Glasgow
• Belfast to Stranraer
• Stranraer to Douglas
• Douglas to Liverpool
• Dublin to Holyhead
• Dublin to Douglas

2 locomotives ferry routes:

• Fort William to Stornoway
• Dublin to Liverpool

Tunnels

As per Europe rules. After completing these routes turn over three cards. Each of these cards that have the same colour as the completed route (locomotive cards will automatically be the same colour as the route) require the player to play an additional card of the same colour (locomotives can be used). E.g. complete red route. Turn over three cards one of which is red and one is a locomotive, player must play two further red/locomotive cards to complete. If player can't do this he takes all his cards back into his hand and his turn end.

Tunnel Routes:

• Cardiff to Aberystwyth
• Aberystwyth to Birmingham
• Aberystwyth to Liverpool

The London Underground:

The inner four spaces of the four London station double routes are also tunnels. Leave the outer routes as they are - they represent the over-ground network

Bridges

These routes require an additional card of the same colour (locomotives can be used) only score as the route length however not the number of cards expended.

We marked these by placing a \____/ symbol either side of the bridge sections (i.e. over the water bits)

Routes with a Bridge:

• Newcastle upon Tyne to Aberdeen
• Holyhead to Liverpool
• Newquay to Swansea

Playing the Game

This is the easy bit, honest.

At the beginning of the game deal out 3 of the event cards to each player where they are kept in hand. Less cards at the beginning of the game may be preferable.

Cards can only be played when stated on the card:

• Play In Turn: These cards must ONLY be played when it is your turn. They can be played IN ADDITION to anything else you do in your turn.
• Play Out Of Turn: These cards can ONLY be played during someone else's and cannot be played in your own.
• Play Any Time: These cards can be played at any time cards that are being played on other players must be played during their turn as they are carrying out the action that the card influences. You may play them on yourself or as a counter to another player playing a card on you.
• Play As Turn: These cards are played instead of you having a turn. i.e. To play one of these cards you must play it in your turn as your ONLY action effectively skipping a turn.
• Play End Game: These cards are kept in hand until the end of the game and final scoring commences. A player must show the card to finalise their score.

Cards that affect the actions of another player must be played during their turn as they are carrying out the action that the card influences.

Some cards may need to be laid out in front of the player to take effect - this is indicated clearly in the card text.

Players may draw one additional card as their turn. Allowing players to draw 2 cards and discarding one, or keeping both are options to use if you wish to encourage more card use.

General Card Usage Notes

• Cards can be discarded freely
• There is no hand limit
• Imposing a hand limit of 3 or 5 cards may be worthwhile if you find people are hoarding to the end of the game - this limit may or may not include cards laid out in front of the player.

To discourage similar gamesmanship you may want to ban card use after one player only has 10 train pieces left except for Play End Game cards which can still be played.

Countering Cards

Cards that cancel other players cards must be played immediately. Any player can cancel a card being played if they have the appropriate counter card - not just the target of the card.

Ministerial or Government cards are indicated by the words Minister, Gov., Government or Ministerial in the TITLE BAR. For Example:

• The New Transport Minister counter card can itself be cancelled by a card that affects Ministerial or Government cards thereby allowing the original card to remain in play.
• The Pending General Election card cannot be countered using a Ministerial or Government card as it does not contain the necessary wording in the title

Extensions

A few people have suggested new cards to me. You may like to add these to your pack:

• Influence with Civil Servants: When you play this card you can steal another randomly from another player. Play in turn.
• Vandalism is Rife: Lose one train car from your unused stock. Play in turn.
• Grant from EU: Add one extra train car to your stock. Play in turn. Compulsory Purchase: An extra grey route can be built parallel to any fully occupied route. Play in turn.
• Stock Market Crash: The second line of all grey double routes is closed if unoccupied. Play in turn provided there is a ring of occupied routes around London.
• New Rail Company: An unbuilt route is changed to whatever colour you like. Play in turn when you build the route.
• Sleaze: Honours For Cash: 4 identical train cards can be traded for 4 victory points. Play as turn.
• Cabinet Reshuffle: Any number of train cards can be exchanged for the same number of cards from the stack. Play as turn.

Credits

Put together by Jay, Alex & Ubbie.
Thanks to Dave Millard for his great UK map and for hosting this.
Thanks for Alan R Moon and Days Of Wonder for a great game.
Thanks to Ron for his suggestions for new cards.
Thanks to www.BoardGameGeek.com for just being a great web site.
Thanks to the UK Government and all the train companies folks for providing such hilarity and rich inspiration.

Ticket to Ride UK Ferries and Tunnels

One of the first updates for my Ticket to Ride UK Board was this Tunnels and Ferries version (based on the Europe edition of the game) sent to me by Rob in May 2007.

Or you can download the map as eight separate A4 (or US Letter) sheets:

• R1C1 - R1C2
• R2C1 - R2C2
• R3C1 - R3C2
• R4C1 - R4C2
  

Rob also made a few other amendments to balance the colours more evenly. He also recommends reducing the number of trains to 37 as there are fewer tracks on the UK map than the US one (definitely a good idea for games with 4 or 5 players).

His last change is to replace the longest track card with the Brunel Trophy as its more appropriate for the UK (details on the board itself).

Thanks Rob - great job :-)

Ticket to Ride UK Map

Back in 2006 I created a UK board for the Ticket to Ride game published by Days of Wonder. I posted the map on the BoardGameGeek website and to date the page has been viewed over twenty thousand times. In the Summer when I redesigned my website the Ticket to Ride page was orphaned, but in an effort to reconnect it I've decided to add the board (and the related extensions) to this blog.

You can find all the related posts by clicking the Ticket to Ride UK tag. Including an improved version of the board created by Ken Meyers.

The UK Board

I know - I should get out more - but Ticket to Ride is such a great game that I couldn't help but have a go at creating a board myself. A map of the United Kingdom is an obvious choice for a British guy, even if Britain is a bit thin and spindly. You will therefore have to excuse the creative license with the train tracks, particularly the ones which in reality would require special trains with portholes and a lot of silicon sealant.

Here is the main board, you can click here for the full size file (approx 2MB):

It may be easier for you to download the map in A4 (Letter) sized sections (each is around 250 Kb).

• Left 1 - Right 1
  
• Left 2 - Right 2
  
• Left 3 - Right 3
  
• Left 4 - Right 4

The map has it's quirks but then there's no point in replicating the feel of the original US map. If you're looking for a further alternative then you might want to take a look at the Les de Jeux de NIM, Belgium version as well (I used their stuff as a guide - so thanks guys!).

Bare in mind that in order to get a suitable number of tracks in (and make them an appropriate length) I've had to make some difficult decisions about which cities to use and also had to shift the cities around a bit. So apologies if the place where you love to live has moved around a bit while you weren't looking.

The UK Cards

You will also need to download and print out the following ticket card sheets (sheet1, sheet2). The cards follow a similar points distribution to the ones in the USA set.

I've included two blank cards if you want to experiment with your own routes.

Tactics and Notes

• Each of the UK capital cities is a hub, this means that more routes run through Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh than any other city. Dublin has the same number of routes (although of course it is the Irish Capital). London is represented by four of its principle stations, collectively they participate in more routes than any other city on the board.
• One of the UK cards is called the Circle Line, it represents a route between all four of the London stations. You only need three of the four routes to achieve the card (because the fourth can be satisfied by the other three in a chain). You get double points for the Circle Line (six) because it is so easy to block.
• There is a bottleneck in Scotland around the Glasgow-Edinburgh point. If you want to get those high value South to North routes then you need to grab a route through here early.
• There are three lanes between the UK's second city, Birmingham, and Paddington. Only one can be used in a 2-player game, two can be used in a 3-player game and all three can be used in a 4 or 5-player game.

FAQ

Over the years I have received a few email comments from people who have tried out the board - thanks to everyone who has commented, either directly or via the BoardGameGeek website. Apologies if I have paraphrased you!

Q: How does the board play with the Europe rules?

Actually I haven't tried it with the European rules. It seems a fairly obvious candidate since so many of the routes represent ferry routes and could use engine ferries on the spaces where the route crossed water. There are also a few candidates for tunnels, particularly in Wales and Scotland.

However, I have a few reservations about how the stations would effect the game. This is a high scoring board (lots of routes) and blocking people can be a major strategy. Stations can prevent this and would probably make for very high scores. There are also a number of long routes (unlike the Europe version) and snatching those can easily connect two disparate parts of the map. I'd be interested to hear of peoples opinions.

Q: How much play testing did you do - did you make any changes as a result?

Lots of playtesting, very few changes. When I made the board I did an analysis of the US version to see how many routes there were, what their distribution was and how connected everything was, and tried to mimic that in the UK map. Given the statistical similarity its interesting that they are so different to play. On reflection the main thing I would now change is not the board but the cards; I think that there are probably too many north-south routes and not enough east-west ones.

Q: Isn't Britain a little less stubby in real life?

Erm... yes it is a bit. The UK really is rather long and narrow and to make best use of the board space I squashed the map slightly (the country is about 20% shorter than it should be).

Q: Have you though about doing an African or Asian map?

Both Africa and Asia would make splendid boards, and might actually teach me a little non-western geography which must be a good thing, but I think its better left to people who actually know those continents well. Johannesburg to Cairo anyone?

Q: I am looking to ask an online digital photo shop if they can print out the jpeg for me, but was wondering what size I need them to do it?

It is designed to be printed out on 4x2 A4 pages - which is the equivalent to an A1 sheet (A1: 841mm x 594mm, 33.11 inches x 23.39 inches) - Im guessing that a 30x20 inch print should be okay.

Q: I am thinking about doing my own map - how did you create yours, and can I have a copy of the files?

I used a copy of Adobe Photoshop to create the main file, with many, many, many layers. The background is a faded out physical map of the UK which has been edge highlighted to define the coastline, this is surrounded by a scanned track which I took from the Belgium extension. The cities and (horror) tracks are placed by hand by defining and rotating buttons to make each track piece. The cards are scanned from the boxed game and then altered with a much smaller version of the map, which has been washed with grey and then speckled to get a suitably grainy effect. Im afraid that the original files are locked away on an old PC at the moment, but I'll try and make some of the different layers available as a resource to other people as soon as I can.

Q: Any ideas about how this might be used with the Marklin edition?

I've never played the Marklin edition so I haven't really got any firm ideas. If anyone has any thoughts then I'd be happy to add them here.

Smallprint

This is an unofficial extension - you need the full version of Ticket To Ride to play this, and it's well worth the cash! This material is my own and is no way associated with Days of Wonder (although their Art Director dropped me a message at one point to say that he liked it - so I think they are pretty supportive of community extensions! :-)