Man, I would really, really like to go up in space. I really hope that it becomes possible/affordable in my lifetime.
But then, for how amazing visiting space would be, I see something like this and realize that the human body isn’t really equipped to deal with being up in such a foreign environment:
Still interesting stuff to think about.
Yesterday Canadian Blood Services, the group that manages blood donation in Canada, received approval from Health Canada to change their deferral policy for men who have had sex with men from an indefinite deferral (“even once, since 1977″) to a five year deferral.
As this very topic was the subject of my second year documentary, Tainted, it’s great to hear that Canadian Blood Services has finally recognized that an indefinite ban of gay blood donors is a terrible policy and have begun down the road to treating MSM individuals like the rest of the population.
But it’s important to note that the policy has been changed from indefinite to five years. I don’t know too many gay men who haven’t had sex once in the last five years, so I don’t know how much better this policy is in practice compared to indefinite deferral, but it’s the idea that’s important.
CBS has taken steps to reduce the ban. It may take another number of years for the ban to be lowered further, but right now, I’m happy that it has been lowered at all.
Perhaps an update to Tainted is in the future?
You can read the CBS press release here.
Microsoft announced the next generation of their console yesterday – the Xbox One. Here are the highlights:
On a more serious note, I have really mixed feelings about this new console.
1. Graphics – Sure I may just be a Glorious PC Gaming Master Race elitist now, but the next-gen graphics, at least as they showed them at the reveal yesterday, aren’t that impressive. Take, for example, this comparison of graphics from the Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer and Far Cry:
Sure, the new graphics on the X1 are better than the 360, but they’re not that fantastic.
2. Features – As the highlights video up there said, X1 puts a lot of focus on its features other than gaming. Live television, Skype, movies, internet. But what about for those that don’t live in the U.S.?
Congrats, that box you spent $XXX on now doesn’t have half the features available to you, because you’re not privileged enough to live in America.
3. Always-On – And in that vein, what about the possible always-on requirement? Microsoft didn’t address if the X1 must constantly be connected to the internet in order for you to access your content, but by their repeated mention of “the cloud” leads me to believe that it may be. That’s going to to alienate a lot of potential purchasers. I, for example, haven’t been able to have my 360 connected to the Internet since I lived back home, three years ago. If I had to always have it connected to the net to play my games, it would have been a brick for the last three years. No thanks.
4. Voice Recognition – It’s a well-known fact that voice recognition isn’t 100% accurate yet, even with American English, so with it so heavily-integrated into the X1 presents a problem – especially if you have an accent. Hopefully there’s a way to disable the voice controls and manage everything via controller.
5. Used Games – Another thing Microsoft has been unclear on – how the X1 will handle used games. There have been entirely contradicting reports from various Microsoft execs regarding how that will work. What seems to be the case is that the game discs contain the game data and a one-use code for validating the game. Once the game is installed and validated, you don’t need the disc any more. If a used game is purchased from a retailer like EBGames, you need to buy a new one-use validation code from Microsoft for full MSRP – meaning that buying a used game would actually cost MORE than buying it new.
I know that sales of used games really don’t benefit developers much, since they don’t get a cut of the profits and even though people say “if I like this used game, I’ll buy their next game new!” it’s rare that people actually do that, but I know that at least for me, I can’t afford to be buying every game at full MSRP, at least at $59.99-$69.99 – each. I’d have an overall smaller library of games and would be way more hesitant to shell out for new games, since if I didn’t like it I couldn’t go and trade it in for at least some of what I bought it for to try to recoup my losses. Because you know that if the discs are more or less useless without a full-price activation code, EBGames isn’t going to have much interest in the discs, so they’re either going to refuse to take/sell them outright, or the value will be a pittance.
6. Backwards Compatibility – But at least you can play your old favourites from the previous generation, right? Ha! Nope. The X1 won’t feature backwards compatibility, so you’re going to have to keep your 360 around if you want to play. And since developers will still be making 360 games for next few years, and it’s likely that a number of X1 titles will be available on the 360 (like Watch Dogs, for example, or sports games), there isn’t as much incentive to move away from the 360, at least for the first few years of the X1′s life – which isn’t going to look good on the Microsoft quarterly report.
7. Name – The Xbox One. Because if anything, Microsoft is unable to count. I can see where they’re coming from, though. It’s supposed to be all-in-one. They hope it’ll be number one. But it’s going to confuse a lot of old grannies who want to buy it for their grandkids and end up bringing home a thirteen year-old console instead.
8. Design
It’s alright. I mean, it’s a box. It’s also covered in glossy black everywhere, which is going to be a fingerprint and dust magnet, so it’ll quite quickly become much less shiny.
So those are my thoughts on the new Xbox One. Like a lot of people, the reveal is being met with some trepidation. This could go very, very wrong for Microsoft, especially if they beat around the bush on addressing the always-on and used games issues. They’re going to reveal more at E3 in a couple of weeks, so I’ll wait until then to reserve judgement, but right now, I’m leaning towards not buying the new system.
