To explain the situation simply it seems that the entertainment industry has become aware that a great deal of people are not buying their products and instead are using the internet as a medium to download material for free and in addition can participate in facilitating these downloads via P2P channels.

Realistically people have been sharing media ever since the days of early VCR recorders and tape decks. I’m not entirely sure how we find these laws getting passed in 2012, one could pin it on the ever increasingly fast internet connections, or simply that more and more people are catching the free bus. It could also just be the next logical progression in the ongoing battle against piracy.

What laws like ACTA and SOPA are seemingly trying to say is “If you can’t govern yourself to buy products legally, we’ll enforce laws that ensure you have to”. This is the romantic high level overview.

I’ll be very clear ACTA and SOPA (as entities) have no respect for the greater context of the internet, neither are they well grounded. If these laws become established there is a real danger they and their offspring will wipe the smile right off the face of the internet.

It’s early 2012 and the internet is a fairly carefree entity. There are some restrictions in ad driven content, but these are easy to bypass for the tech savvy (This video is not available in your country). It is also true there are some casualties – MegaUpload and a fair amount of private individuals who get made an example of every now and again. But in retrospect it is business as usual. You can still find mostly anything you want on the internet – and that is what makes the internet such a great tool to use.

To further understand my thoughts, it is also important to note that although the planet may not be in total recession, the vast majority of us who live in first world countries are not exactly rolling in disposable income. I’ve personally seen a decline in salaries since the last major bank crisis. Most of us also have monthly budgets and we have very real concrete costs that take precede what we can spend on entertainment. My point is if I don’t have budget now to buy 5 blue ray disks a month, ACTA and SOPA are not going to increase the budget I have for entertainment. If these laws pass the same people who are downloading free media now, will very simply go without – it’s basic economics.

The 80/20 law holds true in the entertainment industry. 80% of the wealth is accumulated by 20% of the top levels, and the rest of us just need to suck it up, cough it up and get with the program. And this here is the very heart of the problem. Until these ratios swing more in the favor of the majority – there will be pirating.

What do I propose?

I propose a more humanistic approach to piracy. Laws like ACTA and SOPA address very little. Instead the APA should be focusing on providing outlets where consumers can pay monthly nominal fees to download as much content as they want very much in the same way sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload have done all this time. The fee structure should be in the “Why the hell not” price range, if it breaches this, then there will be piracy. Most people are only willing to pay a small fraction of their income for entertainment media. As they say “You can’t extract blood out of a stone”.

Damage to the internet: The internet without these so-called “Freebees” becomes purely an information, business and commerce tool. If you further screw with the the information layer which is already happening, what you are left with is an internet only good for business and commerce – in other words A BORING and very sad internet. Would I pay for such a service? I’m not entirely sure, I think my internet access at work would most likely suffice. If the internet was just a mainframe for the boring stuff, I think it would lose a lot of traction and indeed the business models of the boring stuff would suffer.

So once again another year goes by and the prices for entertainment media are skyrocketing, the 20% are making their millions, and the wretched majority are seeing no promise of change. Piracy will prevail.

The leader in voice recognition is Google, and while the recognition is remarkably good, unfortunately voice recognition for the most part remains too unreliable to be used consistently. Can we blame Google for this failing? Yes and no.

Google have improved recognition reliability considerably by ditching voice personalization and instead have opted for a cloud solution powered by an algorithm that matches a voice pattern against popular inputs and selects the closest match. This has proved to be a way more accurate way to handle recognition and requires no voice training, however it has its shortfalls.

The older method used in Microsoft Speech Recognition or Dragon Software uses an advanced method which gets a general idea of what you are trying to say, then attempts to improve accuracy by allowing you to train the software to suit your voice and accent. Unfortunately this method also has it’s limitations.

The marriage of these systems could be the way forward. Just today I was trying to get Google to recognize the following “I am going cycling in the mountains”, which kept being translated as “I am going fighting to the mountains”. When I spoke the single word “Cycling”, amazingly Google recognized this. In a sentence though, the cloud based algorithms inadvertently break the recognition. I was disappointed, if only I could train Google to learn that one distinct sounded word, and others, boy would this software be good!

No such luck.

Which got me thinking about the problem in a new way, and about the long term future of recognition. Clearly what we all want is Star Trek quality recognition, so the question is how are we going to get there. We are either going to need vastly more complex algorithms handling the ambiguous input, or we need to strip away the ambiguity.

Teenagers have long ago pirated the English language when it comes to text based phone messages and Facebook posts. They’ve essentially created a short hand version of the language which they use to communicate quickly with their thumbs. Although I don’t condone destroying the English language, the approach is a smart one, and results in A) Quicker communication B) Cheaper Communication C) More simplified communication / comfortable.

Which got me thinking, why aren’t we doing the same for voice recognition? Is the situation beckoning for a digital Shakespeare to join us in our plight and invent new forms of “Puke” that are easier for less intelligent computer systems to recognize? Do we need a whole new set of synonyms that we can slot in and out interchangeably that would ensure a computer actually gets it right 99.9% of the time?

This is definitely food for thought.

Let’s start with the good:

• The game doesn’t hold your hand, unlike a lot of the so-called RPG’s that have hit the scene lately such as The Witcher 2, which ended up being an RPG on rails, Skyrim is much more open ended and there are a lot of things you need to figure out on your own without a help overlay. Skyrim has deep roots which go back to the fun days of gaming.
• Skyrim’s game glitches are awesome. What am I talking about? Let’s say you’re facing a powerful enemy in raw combat. Sometimes it is impossible to brute force your way to a kill. It is often easier to find a glitch such as getting your enemy stuck behind a rock, while you stand at a distance sending regular balls of fire his way. Glitches are not bugs, and good glitches make good games even better. Another unrelated example of this is Minecraft booster tracks – awesome glitchy dynamics left in the game which adds to the experience.
• There is a lot of loot you can pick up and a lot you can do in the game. Sometimes I feel like there is just too much to do. If you’re hell bent on completing all the quests and exploring the whole game, and leveling all your skills, you better be in for the long haul.
• Combat isn’t too difficult, but at times you find yourself in epic battles that require your full concentration. Those are the moments that imo are the most enjoyable in Skyrim.
• The excitement of finding new places to explore – caves especially, you can be sure it’s full of loot and you’re likely to encounter a boss at the end with some good gear.
• Alchemy: Really awesome that you can try and combine any ingredients for an effect, I think this is the first RPG to do this?
• Smithing – I know I don’t really need to learn how to craft dragon armor. I’ve already finished the main quest, and I can handle most enemies that come my way. But for some reason I’m hooked on levelling my smithing – to get it to 100 is an epic challenge, another example of good game design.
• The unknown, been playing Skyrim for a while now and still finding out new stuff. There is still a considerable amount I do not yet know. An example is – how to turn pelts into leather. Just yesterday I found a grind stone. I’m pretty sure I don’t have every shout. I’m also wondering where Lydia went, who I seemed to have lost about a week ago. I’m starting to hear rumors you can get married, but I wouldn’t even know where to start. Pretty exciting all in all.
• The fast travel. Fallout 3 was the first RPG I played with fast travel, and it was awesome but it meant the main quest line gets finished quicker. In Fallout 3, you can pretty much put the game down once you’ve done the main quest. In Skyrim the main quest line is a side show, there is MUCH more to the game than the main quest line. Point is the fast travel doesn’t kill the game.
• The voice acting is top notch. Pretty much the best voice acting I’ve ever heard in a game. There is so much voice content too.
• The graphics aren’t bad either and the water looks pretty amazing.
• The whole game feels good and well polished.

The bad:

• Lack of character immersion – for example there is one vendor I try visit at least once a day in Skyrim time. Everytime I visit this vendor its the same old dialog – “What have you got for sale” , “Swords, Armor! Don’t forget to check the shop inside!” You would think she would say “Welcome back” or “Heh buddy good to see you again”. This type of character interaction breaks the game immersion, you realise you’re playing “Just another RPG computer game”.  -> What should future games do to improve this? Include much more realistic character relationship development.
• This is a big one – the inventory management. It is super slim and a flat list. Would be good to have a real RPG inventory with drag and dropping of items and a view of what you are wearing. All Bethesda games follow the tradition of having this overly simplified inventory, but I must admit there are more classier ways to pull this off.
• I’ll make a small mention of bugs. I didn’t find any bug I couldn’t get around. I used Google and found solutions. Bugs didn’t subtract much from my enjoyment of Skyrim.
• Some robes take up the head slot too. I found this pretty cheeky, decided to sell that item right away.
• Some people will tell you there is a lack of things to do with gold – clearly they’re not leveling smithing!
• Inability to become a tycoon or manage your own outfit and have people work for you.
• The dynamics of selecting spells. Really annoying not to have hot keys which assign differant spell sets or for that matter item sets. There is a favorites menu, but that hardly helps much.
• For the likes of me, I couldn’t understand the benefit of doubling up a restoration spell. If you’ve got both hands healing, how exactly are you supposed to fight? On the subject, if you’ve got both hands bound to the same destruction spell, how are you supposed to heal?
• Given all the cool spells and leveling abilities of mages I have no motivation to roll or play a warrior type character. I don’t think I will. This really isn’t a game flaw or maybe it is? I just felt like saying this.
• Inability to track the MISC quests.
• No multiplayer.

That just about covers what I think about Skyrim. All in all an 8/10 classic style RPG getting back to the heart of gaming, but not pushing the immersion boundary far enough to be revolutionary. But definately the best RPG of the year and I don’t think anything will top it next year either, but we’ll see

The landscape in IT is changing fast, and because of this the only way you can keep up is to learn new technologies. From a company point of view, it is likely you’re using new technologies every so often. Every time you use a new tech, your estimating mechanism needs refinement. Without experience in a new tech, estimating down to the last MD, is going to be tough depending on the complexity of the application, piece of work or task.

Should your word be your word?

Creating a complex piece of software isn’t as predictable as cooking. There are way more unknowns you need to factor in. Let’s look at a simple comparison. If someone asks you how long would it take to bake a cake, you could work out all the steps required, and give an accurate estimation of how long it would take. This is why your wife will often tell you “Food will be ready in 20 minutes”. She knows because unless the house burns down, the food always takes the same amount of time to cook, and there are not many unknowns.

Software on the other hand is complex. You might decide to use a new framework, only to find out there is a bug in it. You might be targeting a certain browser, only to find out it didn’t quite render as you expected. You might end up overlooking some small detail, which turns out to later be a stumbling block and might take you a day or 2 to solve. Connected systems might misbehave, something like a proxy server you didn’t know about or anticipate. The list is long. So long You could write a full book on what can start going wrong, when the task was considered in theory to be “2-3 hours work”.

The correct answer to how long it will take is “I don’t know”, but as a developer you are expected to give at least some kind of estimate. The problem I have found is that all too often a PM understands it is just an estimate, however, You are still required to at least be estimating semi accurately, because the estimate you give will find its way into a project plan, which in turn when the PM does status reporting to the product owner or customer he’ll be using your estimates. At this stage a whole chain of people are relying on your estimates – so without correct planning – don’t commit to an estimate – as “My word my bond”.

Scrum doesn’t solve this issue

You might think, it’s time to scrum up surely well defined sprints can help us meet our deadlines. Scrum (from what I’ve seen) doesn’t really help much. The problem is software development is complex and a lot can (and most likely) will go wrong. Scrum provides a project management framework, but it is not at all concerned with the exact technical issues you might face on a project. Yes it will help you break work down into smaller, more manageable units, but even so there is no way to predict what issues you’ll face without better planning.

Better planning helps somewhat

Estimates in IT are all to often cart in front of horse. You’re often asked to estimate a task, even prior to full blown planning. Sometimes you’ll have a workshop which might last 1-3 hours. After this workshop – the PM jumps into position with the usual question “Ok guys how long will this take?”. Here most devs try to be reasonable, and give an estimation. For example 2-3 days. A week later the PM can’t understand what went wrong, why isn’t the stuff finished.

Workshops are useful, do your quick diagrams on the white board, but before you commit to any estimation take the ideas back to your desk and (depending on complexity) open up Visio and draw up some real flow charts. Plan the whole thing properly. Workshops often are conducted in haste, and stuff gets left out. Workshops, real planning, peer review of planning, and now it’s time to provide some estimates.

Give 2 estimates:

Give a best case scenario estimate, one in which you will only encounter slight hickups but you are confident you can easily overcome. And then give a worst case scenario where you get stuck at all the identified pitfalls, and get let down by logistics and have to wait around for stuff, etc). But obviously don’t quote 3 months for a job that should reasonably only take 2 days. Be pragmatic, but don’t be unreasonable.

Should you be getting better at estimating?

You should be getting better at estimating similar tasks on known technologies. But you shouldn’t ever get to the point where you become so good at estimating you give answers without even thinking. You should definitely be learning how to estimate, but estimating is a bit like Golf, no matter how good you are, you’ll never be 100% accurate at it. What you really want to do is improve your method of estimating, and learn when to say “I don’t know” or “This requires more researching”. Don’t think of estimates as hard values.

Educate your project managers. Make an estimation – and when they get back to you with “You’re late” no matter how politely this gets brought to your attention, you need to make it clear that the initial suggested time, was an estimate.

Raise alarms

If you hit show stoppers, notify your PM as soon as possible. This will mean he can start shifting the estimate. Rather than finding the delay out later when he was expecting a result.

Note to PMs:

If you don’t have a background in IT and are used to working as a general project manager, then acknowledge that the most difficult for a developer to answer accurately is “How long will this take”. Experienced developers might actually give you longer estimates, just because they realize more pitfalls, or because they’re factoring in stuff a junior can overlook. Try to play devils advocate during the planning phase to encourage the team to think about the details of the task at hand, and to minimize the unknowns on any given project.

For a while now, I’ve been thinking of getting a mechanical keyboard, mostly because I remember the good old days of the IBM keyboards, and how satisfying they were to type on.

A few keyboards caught my eye, namely the Ducky, the Razor Black Widow, and ofc the Das. I decided to pull out all stops and just go for the Das.

The Das takes a bit of time getting used to compared to a traditional membrane keyboard. One thing you’ll notice right away is the accuracy of the keys. Way more accurate. Every time you press a key it fires, unlike with a membrane which is hit and miss.

For a while now I haven’t been happy with membrane keyboards. They look great, especially the last few Logitech ones I’ve had, but looks aside they’re rubbish.

I’m a programmer more than a gamer, and I rely heavily on keyboard input sometimes for more than 8 hours a day. So these are my thoughts on the Das. I hope you find this informal review useful.

1. It is a great keyboard, but don’t expect the silent model to be silent. You won’t wake the neighbours but it definitely is not whisper quiet. I have to be quite honest, the silent model pushes the limit to what I would consider acceptable noise coming from the keyboard. But the silent model does get the balance right – this is due to the Cherry Brown MX switches. While cherry might not have audible feedback in the switch, you’ll definately get enough audible feedback from plastic on plastic as you suppress all the way down.

2. I guess the big question is should you take a professional over an ultimate. The difference being that the professional has labelled keys. This really depends on if you’re already a touch typist. If you are, then don’t worry about it. I found that within 5 minutes of using it, I could match my previous typing speed on my Logitech Desktop Wave. 99% of the time you don’t really need to look at your hands anyways. There are those moments when you need to press a special character which might be a bit strange, and sometimes its hard to guess gaps for example on certain numbers such as 5 or 6, but definitely the whole thing feels natural and easy to use.

If you’re not a touch typist, then just get a regular professional keyboard with labels. No point in having a keyboard like this for bragging rights unless you’re completely confident with how to use it.

3. The feel. The keyboard feels a little too plastic for my liking. They’ve gone with hard plastic, I guess for durability. It does feel solid, but it also feels a little smaller than I expected, I guess because my previous keyboard was so big. However not a train smash, and I am sure I will adjust. Excuse this rather subjective point of view, you might really like the stuff I dislike.

4. Usage is amazing, keys are really responsive and I haven’t worked on something this agile since an old IBM electric typewriter. There is no way your typing speed will be the same with a mechanical keyboard, this I am pretty sure of. I expect my typing accuracy to improve considerably, I’m anticipating a 10-20 wpm increase as I continue to use it. Within just a few hours of actual use I can already see an improvement. This isn’t a DAS thing, this is just the nature of mechanical keyboards.

5. No multimedia controls – really bad, you might think you won’t miss them, but it is nice to at least have volume up/down on your keyboard. typically when you use a computer your hands are on your keyboard, so it is annoying having to reach for a mouse and fiddle around on the screen when you want to change the volume – Bad! Future DAS Keyboards need to fix this.

6. Having a USB hub on the side (2 ports) – Very nice idea and this is an excellent place to plug in your wireless mouse receiver. Right there next to your mouse – no more mouse lag!

7. The piano black? A lot of people prefer matt finishings, but I have to say the piano black really works on the DAS. Pretty happy with that.

Overall its a top quality product I would recommend, but if I was the designer I would include a wrist wrest and some multimedia options. The overall ergonomics is acceptable though, and I really love how the keys fire every time.

So I’m giving this product a 9/10.

http://www.daskeyboard.com/images/products/keyboard.jpg

The deception:

It is clear to see Microsoft did not develop Win8 to provide their desktop users with the best possible experience. Instead Microsoft created Win8 to be primarily for tablet devices and desktop users will “have to adjust”. We have to ask ourselves why would they do this, and the answer is fairly simple, they want to sell tablets and they want to dominate that market place. Microsoft’s greatest “weapon” or influence is the Windows operating system. Windows 8 is more than an OS, it is a marketing tool for tablet devices tied to the pockets of Microsoft.

They try to deceive the public with their clever marketing videos demonstrating the “cool” features of Windows 8, but unless you actually own a tablet or a touch-centric device, Windows 8 will make you wish you had one. Indeed you might very well now own a laptop, and think to yourself “Well maybe next time around, I’ll get a tablet”. If you are a desktop user, you’re left wondering where did the operating system go!

The truth about touch:

Touch devices have their place. And they may be suitable for certain types of users and applications, but for those of us working in IT (Developers, Designers, CAD Designers, 3D modellers etc, hell even secretaries) when it comes to getting any work done, we require a keyboard and mouse, this is because touch is a slower and less accurate form of input. Touch also requires more labour over long periods of time. It could in the loooooooong term future be possible to interact with computers by just using your voice, but we are not there yet. To date for pure productivity nothing beats the keyboard and mouse.

Windows 7 was a desktop OS, Windows 8 is for tablets, Where is the new desktop OS?

There isn’t one. We’re expected to adopt to an OS designed for a touch device or …. To be fair Microsoft assure us that Windows 8 will run just fine on a desktop, but I have come across some features in the developer preview which makes me think otherwise.

To log into windows 8, you need to click and drag your mouse from the bottom of the screen upwards, emulating a finger action. JUST TO LOG IN! It doesn’t end there. Metro apps have no traditional close buttons, instead the apps are designed for mobile computing, and using it on a desktop feels awkward.

As a tablet OS Windows 8 is going to be great. But I’m not interested in the tablet aspect right now.

I had a Win7 desktop OS, and it seems logical that the next version of Windows I update to should be a desktop OS right? So why am I now being presented with a tablet OS? I have REAL WORK TO DO, like zounds of other IT professionals, we rely on Windows as a operating system that allows us to do our jobs. Why would I use an OS designed for a tablet?

Conclusion:

If Microsoft continue on this path, and if (at launch) Windows 8 doesn’t feel like a REAL desktop OS, I will most likely abandon using Windows as a client side OS. Instead I will install Linux (designed for desktop productivity), and most likely RDC into Windows 8 servers (Which I’m pretty sure won’t have the tablet features). I’ll be using Windows 8 server for productivity work via RDC from Linux.

I bought a Logitech Clearchat wireless headset. The headset itself is perhaps the best I’ve ever owned. Love it.

Recently I accidently broke the USB Dongle for the Logitech Clearchat headset.

Logitech do not offer replacement parts. And they expect you to buy a whole new headset.

I was disturbed, but after doing some searching found out a lot of people have the same problem. Ebay have literally 0 for sale. And yet the product is still being sold as Logitechs premium wireless headset.

If you have the same problem, leave a comment. No registration required, and don’t use a real email address if you don’t want to.

PS: I am really disappointed with Logitech for this. Sheds a whole new light on how they do business.

Affordable budget phone that packs a serious punch. 

You’ll be hard pressed to find a phone that does this much in the entry/ mid price range. The ZTE Blade makes an excellent first time Android phone.

Why Android?

The Android OS is gaining popularity and an ever increasing market share. What does this really mean? More Apps, More games, More support, More meaningful things you can do with your phone.

It is a great OS that can be customized, and already has a huge variety of Apps available in the App Market.

At the time of writing the latest (stable) version of Android is 2.3 Gingerbread, and the ZTE Blade is more than capable of running a well designed 2.3 Gingerbread ROM. See ROM section below.

THE ZTE BLADE

Gorgeous sleek looking phone. Light and feels good in the hand. Has a modest price tag. Great performance and features and has a huge community who actively BUILD custom ROMS for the device.

Video Camera Quality is poor. Still photo quality isn’t great. You can barely see the screen in direct sunlight.

…

Build Quality:

The overall build quality is impressive for the price. The phone feels about as sturdy as any other smart phone. It has a very subtle rubber finishing around the sides, which make it easy to grip. Once the battery and back cover are in place the whole phone feels atomic. Nothing sliding about or moving.

All the connections appear to be top quality too. Let’s remember ZTE is the 6th largest phone supplier internationally.

The Display:

The ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco comes in 2 screen options:

• TFT Touch
• AMOLED Touch

The model I am reviewing is fitted with an AMOLED Display. Resolution is high, and image quality is sharp. This is an awesome part of the package. As I’ve said before, the screen does not look good at all in direct sunlight. You’ll battle to see anything on the screen, unless you turn the brightness up all the way.

Video Camera: 

The video camera isn’t great. It could be useful in emergency situations, but I wouldn’t rely on it for your precious memories.

SAMPLE VIDEO RECORDING ZTE BLADE

Still Image quality:

Borderline. Not as bad as the video, but not great either. Could be used when you are without a dedicated camera. Wouldn’t rely on it to take important photos with. You can find a sample image here: http://content.modaco.net/dropzone/sfsample1.jpg

GPS:

I found the GPS to be extremely quick to acquire a signal, and at the same time it can track with amazing accuracy. Do not expect perfection, but it is really close enough to be used as a fully fledged navigator, or a gps tracker. At times it is accurate down to the last 1m, while it never strays more than 5m while outdoors. Don’t try and use the GPS indoors, it doesn’t work correctly.

Battery Power:

With wifi and gps turned on the phone drains battery like a thirsty camel. But with the wifi turned off you should get about 6 hours or more of battery life, even with GPS turned on. If the phone is in sleep mode, even with wifi on, it doesn’t drain the power too badly, you’ll get more than a day of battery life like this.

Mic: Great quality, no problems, voice recognition works well.

FM Radio: Only works with the headphones plugged in. Otherwise good.

Headphones: Very soft. Seriously limiting, another flaw of the device. Max volume is about 1/2 of what I would expect.

Price: Amazing price and value for money.

Hackability:

The phone can be rooted and overclocked easily. All the good ROMS support this phone.

ROMS:

Ginger Stir Fry: http://android.modaco.com/topic/342009-romgen2zte-gingerbread-ginger-stir-fry/

Desc: Very good ROM. My personal favorite. Everything works, and runs like a dream, even quicker than Stock Froyo. Has interesting built in stuff you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get – such as Google Car Home.

Cyanogen 7: http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

Desc: Has a huge following, but some people complain about performance issues, and stuff not working.

Japanese Jellyfish RL9: http://android.modaco.com/topic/327579-rom-froyo-japanese-jellyfish-rls9-2011-01-24-oledtft/

Desc: Based on Froyo is considered to be a good all rounder, but it is considered outdated and replaced by Sweedish Spring.

Sweedish Spring RL5: http://android.modaco.com/topic/334849-rom-froyo-swedish-spring-rls5-2011-04-19-oledtft-gen1gen2/

Desc: A better performing and more recent version of Japanese Jellyfish.

For a good list of ROMS, please see this page : http://android.modaco.com/topic/329856-02may-roms-current-known-available-roms-for-the-zte-blade-gen1/

Links:

A must read site: http://sanfranciscoandroid.co.uk/

Android Market: https://market.android.com/

Full phone Specs: http://www.gsmarena.com/zte_blade-3391.php

I remember back in those days you had some really stupid users. And I mean this the non derogatory IT lighthearted kind of way. It was not uncommon to get daily calls from members of staff who had issues printing, opening an attachment or installing some software update. Back in those days it was still conceivable that someone could confuse the CD-ROM for a cup holder.

I like many bloggers on the internet recognize those times. But I have to say I disagree with the premise many current bloggers hold that things have not improved. I’m almost sure the general computing skills for the average public has increased considerably over the last 20 years. So lets discuss some reasons why this is, and also why even in year 2011, there are still a fair share of people around who battle to perform the most basic of computing tasks.

Why things have improved:

There are a great many reasons why the public of today is more computer literate, to name a few:

• Computers are much more common today and have real functional value in the average household.
• Internet banking and shopping online has been a huge motivation for even the slackest of users to start using a computer. This also includes product research (not just purchasing).
• We live in a global economy where sometimes the only way to find the goods you want is to import them directly (buy off the internet).
• Computer prices have come down considerably, and the introduction of cheap laptops and netbooks, not to mention tablets and other more funky computers.
• Fixed monthly fee and fast broadband, bringing acceptable internet to the public.
• Operating systems have improved vastly in areas of usability, so anyone with half a brain can perform basic computing instructions.
• The amount of people who are born in the computing era rises each year, while at the same time the amount born in pre-computing days lowers each year, the effect is two-fold.
• Smart phones are now common place, smart phones are mini computers giving users an easy stepping stone into real computing.

But it’s not fun when you’re getting your ass kicked, so here is a primer on how to win on hardest against 1 computer opponent.

For this guide I suggest playing Regicide, select giant map size and for area type select Black Forest.

The Dark Age

1. You should start off with a fair amount of villagers, a King, 1 Cavalry Scout, a Castle and a Town Center. You should also be in the dark age.

1.1  Select some villagers and build a Mill close to the fruit patch, Assign a few to cut down trees in a good area. Assign just 1 villager to stone mining, and just 1 to gold. DO NOT CREATE ANY MORE PEASANTS.

1.2 As soon as 2 structures are built, advance to the Feudal Age.

1.3 While you advance send your scout to search for sheep, send the sheep back to the mill you built.

1.4 If you start acquiring an excess of wood, build a barrack.

1.5 If you’ve enabled an all visible map, then look around and take note where the Relics are.

Feudal Age

2.1 As soon as you advance, spend everything you have on creating new villagers.

2.2 Assign them to food, until you can constantly create new villagers.

2.3 Now assign loads more to wood

2.4 Keep one peasant free for creating houses

2.5 Upgrade the mill and wood chopping speed.

2.6 Build a blacksmith, and an archery range

2.7 Keep flooding new peasants and building houses till your original food supply from sheep and berries run out.

2.8 Now build farms – You should spam farms all around your town center and have another 3 mills all with farms around it. At the same time make sure you have zounds of peasants assigned to wood cutting

2.9 Keep this up until you have 800 food and 200 gold, then advance to castle age.

Castle Age

This is the age where you’ll start getting attacked, but not immediately.

3.1 Build a church, and make sure it is positioned close to the castle for security.

3.2 Build another blacksmith

3.3 Spam a considerable amount of peasants onto gold duty

3.4 Upgrade everything that will help you collect resources – Mills, Gold, Stone, Wood

3.5 Build a stable.

3.6 Start upgrading everything you can within reason

3.7 Make sure you build a university

3. 8 Build a small army of various units, mostly consisting of Cavalry and some archers, and about 4 monks.

3.9 Advance to Imperial Age.

Imperial Age

This is where things get exciting.

4.1 Don’t attack, play the defender until you’ve researched everything useful, and upgraded everything.

4.2 At the same time you need to build up your army, and have gun powder researched.

4.3 Build zounds of houses, make sure you have enough to support 150 population.

4.4 The AI will start sending waves of enemy at you, make sure you can defend it off without loosing too much men.

A note on the AI: The AI takes note of where you’re defending and sends men to that location. If you see trebuchets approaching in the distance, send 3-4 Knights or Paladins to attack it. Notice they’re virtually risk free. Send them back to the main group when you’re done.

Once everything is researched and upgraded its time to attack.

You should have a swarm of an army by now, create about 4-5 trebuchets to join your forces.

Slowly start advancing down the same path as the enemy is attacking from. When the enemy sends a wave, stop and attack.

Once you’ve reached his city, bring out a peasant, and build a castle, followed by a stable, archery range, and a church. If you want to build a town center too.

Defend, defend, defend your trebuchets! While at the same time advancing your trebuchets, and attacking. It can be stubborn to get through walls and gates because the AI quickly rebuilds what you destroy. So keep a swarm of men on the destroyed gate area.

Keep those trebuchets moving, and protected! Use your buildings to spam more men to the hot spots.

You’ll need to manually control your paladins to take care of the pesky Bombard Cannons.

Now kill kill kill, everything and anything. Keep your men well away from castles, and let the trebs do the work. moving forward as the enemy buildings get destroyed.

If you follow this, eventually the AI will resign.