Nick.

Yahoo Japan are running a photo contest for cats that sit like humans.

I like this one (currently #8) even though its ears look weird:

Japan Probe has more information on the “suko-zuwari” pose including an informative video.

I heard from Tim and Jason that my RSS feed was full of spam. I couldn’t find any trace of it until I checked via Google Reader. Then I found some PHP injection code (in some database entries) that only added spam when accessed by Googlebot.

I took the site offline, deleted all suspect database entries and files that I could find, changed all passwords, and added some additional security measures… I hope it all worked. Webpages and feeds (RSS and atom) look fine when I use curl to masquerade as Googlebot.

Unfortunately, the Google cache for this site now contains many pages of spam. Hopefully it gets updated soon and the new cached pages are clean. Since this is the first post after the cleanup, I imagine that it may trigger whatever hacks added spam if the first place (if they are still around). Fingers crossed that it’s all good.

Sigh.

Update: Seems alright (Google Reader users may have to click “refresh” though – I think it caches feed info). Oh and new theme: surprise!

This post is just a reminder for any Perth readers that the Let’s Make Games Videogame Trivia night is coming up soon (Tuesday week, June 30).

Be sure to get your tickets soon as we sold out last time! We do have more tickets available this time, but don’t get complacent! It’s late night shopping tonight and the city is open all weekend, so these are perfect times to buy. 😉

It’ll be a fun night for anyone interested in games. There will be a wide range of questions (so don’t worry if you’re concerned that you won’t know any answers) and a whole bunch of trivia night staples (door prizes, challenges, etc.) for everyone to enjoy.

Here’s a (new) flyer that really wants to be posted to blogs/forums, or maybe printed out and placed at your workplace, community centre, or local coffee shop (click image for .pdf file):

Finally, this is a non-profit event and all funds raised go straight back into the Let’s Make Games initiative to support the local game development community.

Another invite yesterday was the tipping point for me to create a profile on LinkedIn. Sorry for all the “let’s connect” spam people may be getting.

It feels a little weird putting together a profile when I’m not looking to work with people or at a company. Then again, it’s a lot more organised than the notes I keep on my work history and my contacts list.

Update: Ellen wrote me a nice recommendation. Thanks!

This looks really munted when thumbnailed, but the full-size one looks alright.

Around 4 minutes in Inkscape. Trying not to think too much or overwork these drawings. I’ll just criticize them later…

I google image searched “jump” and quickly drew something from the first page of results.

I quite enjoy using grayscale. It all started as a limitation as the OneTwenty and Let’s Make Games events posters need to be photocopy nicely, but I appreciate the simplicity of it at the moment.

Maybe after I get my linework and shading down I’ll explore colour again (hopefully with a new appreciation for it!).

With that surly look… it’s got to be Mao!

A quick sketch done in Inkscape.

I saw this a while ago and forgot to post it:

After watching that scene I ended up watching the entire movie… in 9 parts on youtube. Here’s the playlist.

The cast and humour will be familiar to anyone who has seen That Michell and Webb Look or Peep Show (which I quite enjoy). Here in Australia, both shows screen on ABC2.

Heidi and I are thinking about buying a house. Looking at what’s on the market is pretty depressing, and I’m reminded of why I didn’t want to participate in the housing market to begin with.

I remembered making a few notes and predictions a couple of years ago (when the Australian real estate market was climbing new heights of stupidity). So I searched through my Tomboy notes and was pretty suprised by what I found.

Here’s a summary:

There are three general groups (grossly divided by socio-ecomonic status and age):

1. Homeowners (own/occupy a house; many borrow against equity)
2. Property investors (also have investment properties)
3. First homebuyers (own/occupy a house and have mortgages)
4. Renting (do not own a house)

To these groups, the massive growth in the housing market means:

1. Paper money (impression of added value, but not a liquid asset)
2. Wealth (drammatic increase in value of liquid assets)
3. Insecurity (potential paper returns, but assumption of large loans)
4. Inflation (money devalued if housing prices unrealistically high)

Overall, the rapidly increasing overvaluation of the property market increases the division between rich and poor (and the older and younger generations). It also creates a pseudo-rich group who can borrow (unsustainably and unwisely) against their property equity.

When the housing market crashes, what will happen to each group?:

1. No real effect (impression of loss) or high repayments (if “leveraging” equity)
2. High losses (drammatic reduction in value of assets)
3. High repayments (relative to value of home)
4. Cash worth more (as housing prices are adjusted)

An overvalued housing market has an inflationary effect on the economy. Houses aren’t worth twice as much as they were a few years ago, the money used to buy them is less valuable.

How will the various groups respond? And what will they demand from the government?:

1. We’ve lost equity and have repayments to make! Subsidise us!
2. We’re losing money on our speculative investments! Bail us out!
3. We have high repayments (relative to new buyers)! Subsidise us!
4. We’re finally able to buy a house. (No demands.)

Given that a lot of people are caught up in the speculative property market, the government (and reserve bank) will respond with a number of measures to retain votes (and correct for overstimulation of the economy).

What will the government do for each group?:

1. We’ll arrange for special conditions to protect your home and manage your repayments (eg. lower interest rates)
2. We’ll artifically stimulate the market so you can liquidate your investments without too high losses (protecting banks).
3. We’ll give you lower interest rates and various assistance handouts. This is only in the short-term mind you.
4. We’ll give you grants to get into the market, so that you can give the money to group #2. Then we’ll take your money in tax hikes (or via a deficit) so that you can subsidise everyone else.

So maybe it doesn’t really pay to be conscientious when the majority of the population isn’t. Even less so when the government proactively tries to stimulate an overinflated market.

The first homebuyers grant is a prime example of irresponsible governance. It looks like the money is going to first homebuyers, but it’s really going to incumbant land-owners and banks via first homebuyer. It amounts to handouts for those who already have substantial assets. It assists in maintaining high property prices. This has an overall inflationary effect on the economy, and further increases socio-economic divides.

The government should instead consider: regulating how much banks can loan (to first homebuyers and those using their homes as equity), significantly increasing tax and duty on investment properties, and implementing some rental price controls. Unfortunately too many voters are already caught up in the property bubble for any government to do this.

I’m pretty happy to have made some predictions that I feel are holding up… but it’s all fairly depressing overall (especially for those that borrowed substantially against equity or bought their first house at the peak of inflated property prices).

All real estate agents we’ve dealt with recently have seemed pretty desperate, and I feel that prices will drop again after the first homeowners grant expires at the end of the month. So I’m hopeful that Heidi and I will be able to buy a house at a reasonable price at some point in future.

I recently saw a reference to “Koei Tecmo” and found out that Koei and Tecmo have merged. It looks like almost all the large Japanese games software companies now have two-part names (aside from Sony and Nintendo obviously).

The Japanese games industry consolidation has been going for a while though. I made this diagram in order to visualise recent mergers:

The pairings seem fairly natural though… except for Square Enix buying Eidos… maybe they wanted to get into Europe. Also, from a consumer perspective, Taito seemed more suited to Namco Bandai.

I’ve love to see a massive diagram showing the flow of money, ownership, licenses, staff, and intellectual property between games companies internationally. I started on something… but it became fairly overwhelming very quickly.