text:
Judges: Don't know the law? It's understandable
The common assumption is that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" – but if a recent case in the Court of Appeal is anything to go by, even highly paid officers of the court are finding it increasingly difficult to know what the law says on any given matter. Late last year, an appeal in R. v. Chambers [2008] EWCA Crim 2467 was …
Database is not the answer
The answer is fewer laws, which need to be clearer and simpler, backed up by a written constitution stating the basic rights and responsibilities of people (and, where legally different, organisations).
But we've let lawyers and accountants take over politics, and obviously it's in their interest to keep it complicated.
Public interest? Who cares...
This is one database we won't ever get
We won't ever see this proposal for a database giving the consolidated legal position. "They" wish to hide it. It is part of the EU's way of doing things. If nothing else, it is handy for making sure that the "powers that be" can prosecute anyone they want to whenever they want to, because we will all have inadvertantly broken some law or other. If you donned your tin-foil hat for fear of a police state, this will do nothing to allay those fears!
Yes, it's a mess - but even if everything were online and searchable it wouldn't solve the problem that so many amendments to legislation say e.g. "in Section A, subsection 31, para 2, replace "thought likely to" with "reasonably thought likely to" - which requires a search of the amended legislation, which doesn't make sense on its own... ad infinitum - or at least until online info runs out.
I tried to review some legislation once and commented to - someone parliamentarily relevant, can't remember who - that surely there must be an integrated statement of law... otherwise how on earth could changes be drafted accurately. Good point they said, but it seemed there isn't - but that's what we need: a "law as is" publication with change history. so that we can see that, for example
A, 32, 2 now reads "A constable may arrest reasonably anyone thought likely to look at me in a funny way sometime soon" but previously read "A constable may arrest anyone thought likely to immediately look at me in an offensive manner" and was... etc. etc. etc.
Ever tried to find out what the current Construction and Use regulations for Motor Vehicles actually are?
Bugger, I've only just arrived and already it's time to make my excuses...
the one with the mouldy wig in the pocket.
There isn't a single online repository for all the laws of the land? Or even a single repository of books (which we could hand over to Google to archive for us for free...)?
Well, we're boned. Again.
Current state of affairs can be useful for the Authorities, because everyone is guilty of something, and the legal profession, who actually quite like charging £150 an hour for information that should be available in plain English from a web query. So don't hold your breath waiting for the very obvious fix.
Fewer Laws
Politicians are too eager to create their new law, it is vanity lawyering.
Instead, they should be credited with removing a law, even pop their picture up next to their John Hancock. Every law removed should get decent press coverage, and the reasons of removal discussed in the press before the removal.
In short, we need to make the removal of laws a sexy politico thing.
A legal system is only correct when there are no more laws to remove.
Exactly as intended
"This makes it very difficult to find out what the law on any particular issue is quickly and easily".
Which is exactly what our masters set out to accomplish a few years ago. As a result, the only way to find out what you are and are not allowed to do is to ask an official. And you have to assume that what she tells you is right, as you have no easy way of checking its accuracy. Compare the following farsighted extract from Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" (first published in 1957, just over half a century ago).
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with".
Agreed on fewer laws
This government passes something like a law a day. It's just not feasable.
I would love to see a chart of new laws per year over the last forty years.
Good point Julian
I've often thought that laws that come as basically a series of edits to a previous document would be better published as a patch file - applying the changes is definitely a job for a machine and not a human. Even if you do try to do it by hand a text editor is a major help, but you won't find any existing laws published in word processor formats as far as I'm aware.
Maybe these legal/political types just aren't aware of what a computer could do for them when it comes to managing all those document revisions. Given the laws they pass, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them don't even know what a computer is to be honest.
Lawyers Paradise
That's what you get when you leave a lawyer in charge of the country for 10 years.
The law should be understandable by anyone of average intelligence, without needing a law degree. There should be proper separation between the executive and the judiciary, so if your career is in law, then you can't stand for election for at least 5 years.
don't patch, re-issue
Our current law seem based around bills created which patch a series of other bills created 2 years earlier, which patch other bills from the 70's which patch original laws made 2 centuries ago, or similar.
I'd rather see a different approach. if it's decided that part of the criminal justice bill is wrong and needs changgnio, then don't pass a bill which patches/edits it. pass a new criminal justice bill which completely overrides the old bill, and then repeal the old one. they could do this even if the edit was relatively small, that means that the original law should always be the current one.
are there any major problems with this approach?
Repeals Acts
Actually, just to prove that Parliament do occasionally tidy up some things, take a look at:
This went through last year, mostly tidies up some very obscure law. But does change a few things like the 1751 Disorderly Houses Act - though possbily only as a prelude to their much more wide-ranging regulation of prostitution in the Police Bill this year.
Paris - because legality confuses her too.
Dutch system
IMHO, they should
Eliminate statutory instruments, the current gov shows that they simply abuse the system to bypass Parliament. (The world isn't so different now that Parliament can't discuss the detail of law).
... and Implement the Dutch system, if a law hasn't been used to successfully prosecute someone for a number of years (think it's 5) you can apply to have it struck off the books.
That way the batty old cow can dream up her new micromanagement laws, but the courts and jury effectively remove them by failing to prosecute successfully and we can apply to have her 'contribution' struck off the law books.
@Red Bren
> The law should be understandable by anyone of average intelligence, without needing a law degree.
Nice idea. But the law also regulates areas which are moderately complex and have a huge amount of topic-specific knowledge -- trade, banking, accountancy. You could say "understandable by a subject area expert without specific legal training" but there aren't that many of those, in the technical areas.
I don't spend a lot of time reading laws, but the UK legal drafting is mostly pretty good. It's not hard to refer to the copyright and designs acts to find out what soft of copying is legal. What's a bit mind boggling is to realise that anyone in the UK (it's different in the States) who rips a CD for their own MP3 player is breaking the criminal law....
That Database could work.
Databases aren't just tables. That's just Codd.
Way back in 1986 Marek Sergot etc published "The British Nationality Act as a Logic Program" in CACM. That's a list of sentences in symbolic logic, but it's sufficiently comprehensible in English to check, and, get this, it's executable. Any question about the meaning of the law, as written, can be answered by an interpreter. Judges will be left with the external questions "what did parliament (or the minister) mean by leaving this case undefined?, or by using this basic term?" We'll all be a little closer to knowing where we stand.
So count me as one vote for expressing all new law in Horn clauses. Hurrah!
I reckon that's an election winner!
The obivous?
If we're supposed to abide by laws - shouldn't we be able to know what they are? Isn't it as simple as that? Otherwise how do we know if something is legal or not?
If an average peson can't read the law then how can they abide by them?
The best thing I have been is: http://www.askthe.police.uk/
"What's a bit mind boggling is to realise that anyone in the UK (it's different in the States) who rips a CD for their own MP3 player is breaking the criminal law...."
Well the problem is that the UK used civil tort for copyright. There you have to prove damages. And damages for YOU copying what YOU bought so YOU can use it for YOURSELF is, approximately fuck all. Trying to get that back would see you in contempt for wasting court time.
Therefore no law says that you are committing a crime in ripping because there is no crime there to be committed: damages remain nil.
Its just that you WILL get your arse handed into court for it because someone read THAT law, not the law it bolstered (which would have told you that you have no case).
read the riot act
"Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King."
The punishments for ignoring the Act were severe - penal servitude for not less than three years, or imprisonment with hard labour for up to two years.
They don't make em like they used to...
Unfortunately when the riot act was read then you then had an hour to disperse, amazing what you could burn in that time.
" It's not hard to refer to the copyright and designs acts to find out what soft of copying is legal. "
Copyright also needs topic-specific knowledge, especially to find meaning in the case law. The legality of each sort of copying is easy to ascertain, but whether the copying you actually do is ok is a different matter, certainly in terms of extent. Care to define "substantial"?
"What's a bit mind boggling is to realise that anyone in the UK (it's different in the States) who rips a CD for their own MP3 player is breaking the criminal law...."
This would be a civil matter - the copyright owners could sue you for damages but Inspector Knacker would only come to call if you starting selling copies.
It's ok, I've already got my coat on and am halfway out of the door...
Some countries have such database
Atleast in Finland the ministry of justice maintains an online database with all current laws and regulations and even the goverment proposals to the parliament for upcoming laws, all freely available over the internet.
http://www.finlex.fi/en/ has the english explanation.
That first @umacf24 Mark wasn't me
I would never write the word fuck on a public site.
You're not supposed to be able to understand the law anymore...!
How could our Great Leaders maintain acceptable levels of FUD which allow them to pass *even more* laws whittling away our basic freedoms and liberties in the guise of "protecting us" from terrorists/ pornography/ whatever...?
Are those numbers correct?
I make that one page of legislation for every six minutes of the working day in 2005.
Old statutes can cause trouble too.
You've probably heard of some of them. The statute that requires all able-bodied men to practice archery every Sunday, for instance, on an archery range that the parish is obliged to set up and maintain. It would never be invoked now, no matter how angry the authorities might be with someone, but it still has legal force.
More hazardous are the statutes that we don't know about. There are hundreds of old statutes on scrolls of vellum tied with red tape and sealed with wax, some in Old English some in Old French, sitting in vaults, long forgotten. Unless specifically repealed (or possibly, unless contradicted by more recent legislation - IANAL), these statutes form part of the law. In one infamous example, trial by combat remained a legal right until the 1830s when a man on trial for murder invoked it. To the horror of the judiciary and the victim's family, the old statute was ruled valid, and since none of the victim's family felt ably to go up against the murderer in single combat, he was acquitted. Needless to say, that old statute was repealed in record time.
English law could do with some serious purging. Unfortunately, this is less likely to happen while its guardians are so busy pumping out new stuff.
(By the way, to give reassurance and head off discussion, the so-called right of "Primae Noctes"/"Droit de Seigneur"/"The Local Lord Gets to Rumpy-Pumpy the Virgin Bride on Her Wedding Night" was never written into law. Rather, it was an application of force majeur - i.e. it happened because nobody who was prepared to stop it was powerful enough to do so.)
Even worse than it seems
"Nor does it help that government is amending laws passed as recently as 18 months ago."
Worse than that. It was pointed out in the CJB debate that the government there seeks to repeal and replace sentencing rules that were enacted in 2008, less than 10 months ago, and have yet to be brought into force.
A great deal of law is in suspended animation waiting to be arbitrarily brought into force by those self-same statutory instruments.
Parliament in its wisdom - doing whatever the whips told it, which was to do whatever the Home Office wanted - completely transformed the law of incitement in the Serious Crime Act 2007, overturning centuries of common-law understanding. Nobody has a clue what it means, except for the general intention to make the prosecution's job a lot easier. But we'll only have to find out when a Home Secretary decides to issue a commencement order, so there is always the hope it might be repealed first.
@Red Bren
In fairness Red, a legislature of lawyers isn't peculiar to new labour. Barristers and others of the legal ilk are heavily represented in all the major parties.
Simple answer to a simple problem
We simply need a number of highly skilled, and respected members of the community to rule on these matters guided by the law.
Historically we have had Judges for this, but they have gone the way of the UN and become irrelevant.
Hence the only natural solution is to replace them with people trained explicitly for this task, fully accountable to the home secretary or Justice Minister. These people will be fully briefed by the political authorities to ensure that all laws are enforced the same way, in tune with the current feeling of the populace. We shall call these officials Commissars, and they will be authorised to apply all forms of justice - from fixed penalty, corporal punishment and where appropriate - capital, with oversight directly from the Justice Minister.
easy really.
Sweden's answer
(I think it Sweden) is that when the Prime Minister is sworn in on the same day he has to enumerate the laws for that session. Any forgotten or don't fit in that day are no longer law.
Sounds good to me.
And yes, definitely kill any signing papers. A law must be made like a law.
Replacing rather than patching
David Haworth, I see three issues with that suggestion. Firstly, it will probably increase the paperwork for prosecutors because they'll have to avoid precisely the situation described in the story of putting the wrong version number down.
Secondly, and more importantly, patches have the advantage of making it easy to see what's changed. If Acts are replaced wholesale then that leaves opportunities for people to sneak in changes which they hope won't be noticed. The happy medium would be for Hansard to publish both the patchset of every Bill and the patched versions of the Acts it affects.
Thirdly, it will make it difficult to have two separate Bills in a year which amend (different portions of) the same Act. This may result in Bills being lumped together and hence in a reduction in scrutiny. (I hear the Lords still engage in that from time to time).
Better drafting, better scrutiny: more info needsd?
I'm sure I've seen clauses in Acts, amending existing law, which do nomore than say that one phrase is replacedby another.
I can't see why such amendments shouldn't be before Parliament with a clear context. Quote the whole original, list the amendments, and quote the result. Don't expect a busy MP to look up the details.
Of course,maybe the busy MPs are glad of an excuse for making a dreadful mistake.
@Julian I-Do-Stuff
> Ever tried to find out what the current Construction and Use regulations for Motor
> Vehicles actually are?
Yupe, they're not that bad. Also these days they're irrelevant anyway as EU regs take effect (CoC/WVTA) unless you're building a custom vehicle or its a very old vehicle where its registered age pre-dated the various EU regs.
you aren't alone
In the US they pretty much to the same thing. Layer upon layer of law which nobody really knows and all the old, really obsolete stuff is never taken off the books...including stuff which should have never been on the books in the first place. With the co-mingling of religion and government (yeah, forget about that seaparation of chuch and state business) we had "blue laws" on the books for probably 100 years that should never have been possible to have been put there in the first place.
Then go into the newest, greatest series of laws and "near-laws" for the uber-secret government spying and "terryist" control and you're left completely in the dark...you not only don't know....you aren't even allowed to look it up; and even if you look it up, you can't find any decisions because they are all made in secret courts. numpties
not as simple as it sounds
It may surprise some but lawyers do not go to law school to find out what the law is.
Rather they educate themselves on "how to determine what the law is" given certain facts and in certain jurisdictions.
And there is a big difference between the two.
Once educated (no longer a lay person) certain methods and procedures can be put into play in order to make that determination.
It may also surprise many to learn that judges do not research and determine the law by their own efforts. By and large they rely on lawyers (at least one on each side) to do that research and make the argument as to what law applies. And, yes, if those lawyers are not adequately trained or skip the process, there is no telling what the decision might be.
No database is going to help the untrained. And yes, law school is between a 3 and 4 year study program not to mention the very tough bar exams that follow. And, those exams do not ask anyone what the law is on any point anywhere. Rather they are designed to bring out the ability of the student to evaluate the facts in light of what the law might be.
There are many reasons why lawyers have their own profession. And, yes, most judges are trained lawyers too. But, as pointed out, judges rely very heavily upon the lawyers to dig up the relevant law and argue how it should be applied to the case before the court.
If that system breaks down (or one side does not hire a lawyer or pay enough to get the work done) the decisions do come out wrong. Just like a pile of code that won't compile. The only difference is that few people know the decision was wrongly decided. Certainly not the lawyers and judge in the case. They did their best. But, it may still be wrong.
Database not necessarily the answer
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It's natural for IT people who know about databases and things to suggest a searchable online database to keep track of the statute books, but that would be solving the wrong problem. What we really need is statute books that don't require a database to keep track of in the first place.
Also, if we're going to have a written constitution, we could run afoul of all manner of unforeseen consequences. At the very least, the government must be dissolved immediately upon the adoption of a new written constitution, so that nobody could write themself a new rôle and walk into it: they would all have to stand for election all over again.
That you can replace UK with US, Parliament with Senate and its the same situation over here... Then there is the whole issue of State laws and the county laws and even a couple of city laws that don't make much sense either.
They really should just have a system of patches but then re-issue the law every 25 or so years.
Maybe even have special courts for different areas such as a separate court for Copyright infringement, another for drugs and vices, another for capital crimes, etc..
Many judges are idiots who would not understand the law even if they happened by chance to know it.
It is a sad fact that there is no such thing as a "sure thing" in a British court (this may apply to other countries too) - no matter how clear the case or how totally iron-clad the evidence, a judge can take a fancy to the opposing lawyer and ride roughshod over you and it'll be up to you to scrape the money together for an appeal.
re: Replacing rather than patching
However, that has one of two consequences that help with clawing back the rising tide of Law:
a) The law has to be done FULLY again. If the problem isn't that important, who can be bothered to put the time and effort in?
b) They can still say "these were changed" but we can do a simple diff to check it.
It CAN be that they slip new law in there, but they can do that now (just put a rider on like the fisheries bill that had ODF support to be denied), so no loss there.
Justis consolidates amendments but still confuses
I was part of a team evaluating the usability of on-line legal databases for a European project (see Behaviour and IT, Sept. 2008 and www.addwijzer.info).
We found some commercial on-line databases (particularly Justis) were very good at consolidating amendments and producing timelines of what law applied when. They went beyond the simple recounting of legislation in one place in Bailii (http://www.bailii.org/).
But they still were unusable by people who were untrained in the law, despite being subject specialists (in this case in planning). The biggest problem was finding the relevant information in the retrieved documents, when they had no ideas of the document structure.
In the end our Dutch partners put all the planning laws into a GIS, so that people could just say "find me a legal site for an LPG filling station". The application greyed out half the map where there was some regulation preventing development. If you clicked on something you got the relevant regulation.
@ Graham Marsden
Isnt' there a legal principle in the UK that the law must be understandable, and if it is misunderstood in good faith, no offense has occurred? I may have badly garbled this concept, but I'm sure there's such a principle, wholly distinct from "ignorance of the law is no excuse."
One can only pray for the learned justices to start finding NuLabour enactments unenforceable because they can not be understood even by someone making an effort to do so.
Ignorance of the law!
I read about this a while back on http://www.jp-bishop.com where I think they quote from the Westlaw report - it has some of the discussion that isn't in the subsequently released reports.
The issue seems to be that the government makes ridiculous amounts of secondary legislation under the authority of primary legislation. OPSI seems to be having such a hard job keeping up with the primary stuff that the secondary stuff is pretty much ignored.
As for the database, the EU has a much better online database for law than the UK - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm which is fairly comprehensive and includes caselaw.
Paris, because she might be ignorant of pretty much everything but she doesn't need the excuse...
If they're going to treat the laws like a wiki, why don't they just turn them into one?
On second thought, maybe that's not a joke. At least you could look it up then.
> Isnt' there a legal principle in the UK that the law must be understandable, and if it is misunderstood in good faith, no offense has occurred?
That may, once, have been the principle of English Common Law but (of course I'm not a lawyer!) it certainly doesn't seem to be the case any more.
To give an example from the situation I'm most familiar with, the Ministry of Justice has said of the so-called "Extreme Pornography" legisation: "it may not be possible for an individual to have absolute certainty about which side of the line an image may fall."
To justify this they carried on: "On this issue, it has been held by the Court of Appeal that "it is not necessary for an individual to be able to be sure in advance whether his conduct will be characterised by a jury as a crime" (R v O'Carroll [2003] EWCA Crim 2338). This was in relation to an argument that the term "indecent" (in the context of images of children) was too imprecise to enable the applicant to know in advance whether this conduct was criminal."
IMO, of course, this is a thoroughly specious argument because it is being mis-applied to a situation in which it is not relevant, but still the MoJ wants to justify a ridiculous piece of vague and incomprehensible legislation by using it :-(
@don't patch, re-issue
Ah, you mean that you would like a government run by engineers in place of failed lawyers, failed accademics, failed accountants and failed doctors? A good idea but, when it comes to it, how many engineers would really want to do it?
@Lukin, @Dutch
So, is it still true that if you kill someone while practising your archery on Sunday afternoon that's just your target's hard luck?
And I like the Dutch system too...
But just occasionally the law can be used to one's advantage... much disturbed once by someone's 2kW car audio system that showed no sign of running out of petrol I called the police on the local station number to do something about it...
"Sorry sir, we can't deal with nuisances..."
"How about behaviour likely to lead to a breach of the peace?"
"Don't quite follow you sir, just 'cos it's loud doesn't mean it's breaching the peace"
"No, I mean if you don't do something about it *I* am going to go down there and breach the peace!"
"Oh. Right." followed by "now we've got something to work with" or words to that effect, and 5 minutes later - peace.
So I think I might get the Hom. Sec. on the same grounds...
Delete it all
Time to start over I think. Format the Law hard disk and install a fresh copy. All these patches and service packs are just bogging the whole thing down.
Plus if we make Parliament spend the next 5 or 6 decades re-writing all the law into something someone, anyone, can understand, that will keep them out of trouble long enough for the rest of us to think of something useful they could do when they've finished.
and yes, piracy is a reason for extradition (not that we have that many seaports, but still :) )
Riot Act - in NZ
Columbus above told us about the Riot Act in the UK.
I remember many years ago my father telling me that down here in NZ , that after the riot act was read out, any rioters carrying on could be shot without further ado.
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-$45 for a ~1500 word article. This is generally more appropriate for RPGs, and for fighters and shooters that require more explanation of mechanics, or something that requires detailed information about various ports.
-$60 for a ~2000 word article. Again, this is good for RPGs, fighters, or shooters that might require a lot of character bios or supplementary information.
Generally if you're writing more than 2000 words for a single game you should probably pare it back a bit, but we'll accept more if there's a good justification for it. However, payment will still max out at $60 for a single game. For multi-game articles, the payment is roughly $15 per 500 words. So an article that covers 6 games with short pieces at around 500 words will be $90. An article that covers 3 games at ~2000 words each will be paid $180.
Payment will be made with two weeks of the article being officially posted on the site's main page.
For payment, we'll need a few things:
(1) Your Paypal address. We do all payments through Paypal so this is mandatory.
(2) If you're a US citizen and you intend to become a regular contributor (or contribute a very large article), then we need an IRS W-9 tax form completed, since we'll need to report these wages to the government for tax purposes.
(3) An invoice breaking down the services provided. This is for record keeping purposes.
To submit an invoice, send an email to email@example.com. In the subject line, make sure to include the invoice # and the total payment. The text should include:
Your Name
Your Paypal Email address
Invoice Number - you can make these up, use your initials, then count 01, 02, 03, as you continue to submit them The work performed and the payment rate, line-by-line
The total payment
So, it should look something like this:
Subject: JP001 - $150
Jack Porker
Email: email@example.com
Invoice#: JP001
Pork Ahoy! - $30
The Art of Ham and Video Games - $60
Bacon Empire II - $30
Vagrant Story - $30
Total - $150
You can submit an invoice at the same time you submit your article. However, be aware that we don't issue payment until the article is published. The amount of time that takes depends on how many submissions are in our queue, but it could be anywhere from one to two months, or even longer. We'll keep you in the loop as to when we have something solidly scheduled. Please note that we NEED an invoice before we can disburse payment.
In exchange for payment for these articles, you are giving the rights to publish your work on HG101. You still have the rights to republish the work on your own blog, sell it to another site, or basically do what you want with it.
We also occasionally publish books with articles compiled for the site. If we choose one of the articles you've written, you'll be contacted separately for permission to re-use the articles, keeping in mind they might be edited for length. You'll receive credit in the masthead and a free copy of the book, in both digital and physical forms. (For long time contributors, if we're reprinting an article from the days before we paid writers, you'll also be paid for use of the article based on our current rates.)
We create our budget based on both our ad revenue and donations to our Patreon. Our ad revenue has been flat for the past several years, but if the contributions to our Patreon increase, then our rates will increase too.
Writing Guide:
The central idea of any article should be: Why is this game interesting? It seems to be a common misconception that you only write articles about topics that you're a huge fan of, but this doesn't necessarily need to be the case. I've written a lot about Altered Beast and Alien Syndrome, two games I don't care for much - but I'm a huge Sega fan, so I have this obsessive desire to be comprehensive. Even in these cases, you need to be able to identify what made these games popular. For Altered Beast, it was the huge graphics, and the sense of power you get from turning into huge monsters and smashing things. For Alien Syndrome, it's all about the creepy atmosphere, the grotesque monster designs, the sense of urgency, and the fact that it rips off one of the best action movies ever made. Remember, just because you don't specifically like something, doesn't mean that there isn't anything interesting about it. They were popular at some point for a reason, right? You need to figure out what they reason is.
You need to ask: why is this game significant? Final Fight, for example, took the formula from Double Dragon, tightened it up and inspired legions upon legions of clones. That's pretty damn significant. Most importantly, you need to establish a sense of context to understand why something was important. The Lunar games for the Sega CD might seem like kinda generic RPGs in the 21st century, but back in the 16-bit days, it was pretty standout - it was one of the few text heavy console games with a decent translation, it had voiced characters, cinemas and a vocal song, and the publishers didn't feel the need to change the anime-style cover artwork into something more palatable for Americans.
At the same time, you needn't solely wear rose colored glasses. If a game hasn't aged well, talk about it, and be specific. Going back to the Lunar games - localizations have been getting better, far more RPGs have been getting translations, most of the world is more comfortable with anime characters, and people are getting jaded with simplistic battle and character development systems. So with the playing field leveled, the weaknesses become more apparent, so more modern gamers may find them boring.
Your articles should try to stay away from fanboy gushing and aim towards being balanced. All games have flaws, and talking about weaknesses isn't bashing it, it's just to give the reader a clearer idea of what to expect. Plus, be sure to analyze why a given title failed or was received poorly. Lots of people are eager to blame shortsighted critics or poor marketing plans, but in reality, cult games are usually obscure for a reason, because there's some element of the gameplay or graphic design that gamers might find off-putting. Like the graphics and characters of Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil were cool and interesting and all, but perhaps a bit too weird for most people to accept. You'll want to analyze these, and give the reader some kind of idea of what side of the fence they'll fall on. Try to be objective too. Obviously, if you're trying to get people to play it, you'd want to skew more towards the positive, but definitely address both sides.
Try to avoid wordiness at all cost. Your pieces should be detailed but still succinct. The biggest changes I make in articles is deleting extraneous information or rewording sentences to make them flow better. Try to avoid small sentences, and try to cram as much as possible without turning it into a run on. Also, remove any redundant information. If you've already established that the graphics are awful and the control sucks, you don't need to bring it back up again in your conclusion sentence. Conclusion sentences aren't even always necessary, depending on how you've written the rest.
Also, try to avoid using the first person. You can when you're relating personal experiences or feelings, but your writing may come across weaker if you rely on it too much. For example:
Bad: "I think the graphics are outstanding."
Better: "The graphics are outstanding."
The latter speaks with more authority and is definitely preferable.
Also, don't be vague in your criticisms or praises. Say more than "The graphics are nice," or "The level designs kinda suck." Give at least one example to support these statements. "The graphics are bright and fluidly animated, especially the main character." Or "The level designs are repetitive, consisting of huge expanses of flat terrain and almost no variation in graphical design."
You can be casual and informal - I'm not a stickler for things like that, and if you want to pepper your article with some humor, go right ahead. Add in with wacky anecdotes if you want, but don't go on too many tangents. Try to avoid cursing unless necessary also. If it helps, pretend you're on a message board, recommending a game to your peers.
I know some places consider it a no-no, but you can (and should) make some comparisons to a more well known games, since they're an easy and direct way to hook readers (ex: "Senko no Ronde is like Virtual On mixed with a bullet hell shooter", "Bubsy is sorta like Sonic except total rubbish"). Since this site is aimed at people who are at least somewhat knowledgeable about games, you should assume they have some vague knowledge as to what these famous titles are, and also assume they're familiar with video game vocabulary like "move sets," "combos," "frames per second," "anti-aliasing" and stuff like that.
Stylistic Conventions:
Here are just a few short guidelines that make the editor's job easier. For spellings of terms and names, the The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual by the IGJA and Games Press (freely available as PDF download) is a good first adress in general, although everything listed below overrides it:
The most obvious difference, as evidenced in the title of that book: Write "video game" as two words.
Write as one word: cutscene, minigame, sidequest, backstory, savegame.
With the exception of headlines, game titles should be italicized. However, for the formatting it would be more useful to put <i> and </i> tags around them instead of using the word processor's function. Titles should only shorten to an acronym when the full name has been mentioned at least once and it is unambiguous (eg. only write GOW if it is absolutely clear whether you're talking about God of War or Gears of War). Acronyms should still be in italics. When using the genitive, the apostrophe is outside of italics.
Avoid all caps for emphasis. Bold text (inside <b> and </b> tags) is preferable.
Punctuation goes inside of closing quotation marks, but outside of closing brackets. Use a simple short dash and straight, non-curled quotation marks.
When referring to decades, prefer full numbers like "1990s." use abbreviations with an apostrophe ("'90s") sparsely, avoid misplacement of the apostrophe, for example "90's."
Important platform name spellings: Famicom, NES, Game Boy, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Master System, Mega Drive, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo, Neo Geo Pocket, PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16, PC-88 (or PC-8801), FM-7, FM Towns, X1, X68000, IBM PC (use "IBM PC" for DOS games, "Windows" for Windows games), PlayStation, Xbox, Xbox 360. With the exception of NES, SNES and N64, you should write the full name (minus the manufacturer's name, "Sega Saturn" is redundant unless you somehow find yourself in the odd situation that requires explicit distinction from the planet) at least once. For everything else, check the exact official spelling if unsure.
Some spellings for important software programs: DOSBox, ScummVM (note the difference to the actual SCUMM engine). For Everything else, check the exact official spelling if unsure.
Concerning genre names, "beat-'em-up" means "belt-scrolling brawler" or its modern 3D counterparts, as opposed to "(one-on-one) fighting game." Avoid writing just "shooter", rather distinguish between "first-person shooter" ("FPS") and "shoot-'em-up"
For multiple game articles, it should flow like this:
Game (etc...)
Miscellaneous Stuff
Rip Off Games/Homages
Anime/Manga/Movies/other media
The later sections can go in any order, and you can restructure various bits where you feel they make sense.
The Intro:
The Intro should establish a sense of historical context. Also do some research on the publisher, the people involved, or what kind of other games they've made. The more information you can find, the better, especially if you know how to dig through the Japanese Wikipedia to search for names, gameographies and connections.
After this, you should talk about the defining aspects of the series, and what elements are constant among all of the games. Beyond the basic game concepts, talk about graphic style (Are they consistent amongst all of the games? Who's the character designer, if they're important? Is it dark/bright, realistic/fantasy, serious/goofy?) and music style (composer, genres, etc.) This way, when you start talking about the actual games, you only need to address what's different/unique about them, instead of stating the main points over and over and over again. For single game entries, separating the introduction is not necessary.
The Game:
In the actual game section, you're analyzing the specifics of a given title, rather than the general concepts of the series. For certain topics, the first entry may be the briefest, usually because all of the main points were already brought up during the intro. For example: R-Type. Once you detail the gameplay system, talk about the pace and difficulty and graphic style, there's not much to say about the first game.
When talking about later games, you can talk about additions and changes to the formula, what works and what doesn't, changes in graphic or music style, and - most importantly - the high and low points. Try to be specific, if there's a really cool stage or setpiece, or a really annoying plot element or level, bring it up. For, let's say, a Mega Man article - once you've set down what the original games are all about, all you need to address are the different robots, the types of stages, how the music is, how the graphics have improved (if at all), the difficulty, and how it all ties together, while maybe bringing up how cool the dragon was in Dr. Wily's castle or how breathtaking the intro was in Megaman 2, or how Bright Man's stage was complete garbage in Mega Man 4.
Again, you're trying to be balanced - bring up facts, talk about how you feel about those facts, and whether they make for a fun game. If you want to lavish praise or completely bash a game, you should do it reasonably, and make it perfectly clear why this particular entry is totally the best of them, or why this one completely sucks. You should also avoid being too inflammatory, because if you sound too much like a jerk, readers may tend to tune you out. You should also have a good grasp on the attitude of the fanbase towards certain entries, and maybe try to address common complaints in a sensible manner.
Again, bringing up Mega Man - to an outside observer, all six games might seem practically identical. So you might want to bring up that the later games had worse music, or weaker boss designs, or unbalanced difficulty, or however you feel. If a fanbase is particularly nasty towards a game, and you feel that hate is unjust, defend it. If you think it's overrated, make a case for it. Just try to avoid absolutes. For example, you'll hear a lot of people say how Mega Man 4 massively sucks - when, really, you could say it sucks in the context of other Mega Man games, but it's still a fairly decent compared to other NES titles, and shouldn't be ravaged totally - it may just suffer from sequelitis, and fails because it isn't as inspired as later games. Remember, not all gamers play titles in order, so it's very possible someone could play Mega Man 4 before Mega Man 2, and feel the former is superior for whatever reasons.
When writing about RPGs and fighting games, you should talk about the major characters. This way, when readers see artwork or read people referring to them, they'll be able to identify them. Usually RPGs have different rosters in each game, so they can be addressed in each individual sections. Only concentrate on the "main" characters, and perhaps the primary villain, or anyone else that you think is interesting. Fighting games usually have rosters that remain (relatively) consistent throughout each iteration, so they can be addressed in the intro. The exceptions are entries which have completely different character rosters. In the Power Instinct article, the intro covers the characters in all of the games except for Groove on Fight, which has its own unique roster addressed in the game section.
Rip Offs/Homages:
Not entirely necessary, but you may want to examine other games that are extremely similar, or even spiritual successors. Cannon Dancer, for example, is not a Strider game, but is practically a sequel for all intents and purposes. How far in depth you want to go is up to you - even a casual mention is fine.
This is another optional section. It can include random trivia about the series including cameos, cultural influence, additional artwork or screenshots, and stuff like that. For Metal Slug, the boss design is one of the best features of the game, so I included a screenshot gallery showing all of the more impressive enemies.
Anime/Manga/Movies/Other Media
Talk about the anime, comics, live action movies, or any other appearances. Don't worry about really obscure doujin or koma (4-panel) comics, no one really cares. Try to get firsthand experience on these and analyze them. If that's not possible, just bring up that they exist.
The Conclusion:
Not completely necessary, but you can round up any remaining thoughts, maybe talk about the future of the series, if any. Other websites should be linked, especially sources you used for your article.
Single Game Articles:
Single game articles obviously need to be more in-depth than series based articles. Professional reviews answer the question "Is this game worth my money?" You should be answering the question "Why is this game important and/or interesting?" Why, of all of the other tons of games that come out every week, is this game special? The object is, simply, to make it better and more detailed than professional reviews. Delve deep into the story, talk about specific scenarios or levels or situations. Detail all of the characters, with pictures, and devote a lot of space to the graphical style or music. Talk about how the game fits into a genre, if at all, and how well it meets its goals compared to its brethren. For example, I spend a lot of time in my Rhythm Tengoku review disseminating the rhythm game genre, and where Rhythm Tengoku fits into the scheme of that. If you're looking for another example, compare HG101's God Hand review to IGN's, and see what it does differently. The Killer7 article analyzed it in a way that most other places didn't. The Psychonauts one went into the characters and a lot of situations that make it so worthwhile, while most reviews written when it came out didn't really go into specifics.
Submission Guidelines:
Please e-mail submission to email@example.com. Include the text in a TXT, RTF, or DOC file, and include all of the images together in a zip file. Try to find the box shots in at least 250 x 250 resolution. Label the full size images "gametitle.jpg" and the thumbnail "gametitlea.jpg". If you're using Japanese or European covers, use "gametitlej.jpg" or "gametitlee.jpg" to differentiate. Include as many screenshots as possible. Pick which ones you want me to use and name them "gametitle-1.png", "gametitle-2.png", etc. Include as many as possible as well - it's better to have extras, since there needs to be enough screenshots for the right column to match up to the text on the left. If there's not enough, I may have to go back and request you supply more.
When taking screenshots, try to capture the most interesting moments of the game. You need to be able to show different parts of the game as well. Try to avoid using multiple screenshots of the same level, unless there really is no variation in graphics. If there are amusing cutscenes or dialogue, grab some of those too. If you're playing a game that has been fan translated, please try to supply the original Japanese screenshots, as I definitely prefer them. If not, just make sure to clarify in the article that you're playing a fan translated version.
Screenshots must be in the native resolution for the platform. Please do not supply screenshots that have been upscaled and filtered. Refer to our screenshot guide with instructions to get screens for common systems and emulators. Most screenshots should use the PNG format - however, if they grow too large (usually screens for HD games can grow to be 1 MB+ each), then use JPG with extremely low compression. For anything captured from a video capture card, please supply the original image titled "gametitle-1.jpg" and a half-size image named "gametitle-1a.jpg". Use very low JPG compression for these.
If there are character profiles, please supply portraits. They should be roughly 150 x 150, although you can make them smaller or larger if necessary, as long as they're consistent. If they're screenshots, they should be in PNG format, but otherwise use JPG if they're scans. You can also supply a larger, full size image if you want to the reader to be able to click on them to get a bigger view. Please supply these in the format "charactername-1.jpg" for the full size, and "charactername-1a.jpg" for the smaller thumbnail.
For comparisons across platforms screenshots, please use the format "gametitle-platform.png". (For example: "shinobi-c64.png", "shinobi-sms.png", "shinobi-genesis.png".) Remember that when you take pictures, they should be in approximately identical situations, usually the first screen of the first level.
If you can provide your article pre-formatted in HTML, that will be amazing and practically guarantees your article will go up really quickly. However, it is not necessary.
The best way to put together the article is by downloading and using our templates. There is a simple one that only accounts for a single page with no particular featues like character tables, boxouts and the like. Please download by right clicking the link and selecting "save as..." Opening and saving through the browser's "file -> save page as" dialog might mess up the formatting of the code! The full template contains placeholders for all of those. The base name for folder and html files should be a representation of the game's title in lowercase with no spaces, although long titles can be shortened as long as it is clearly distinct (Good: goemon for Ganbare Goemon, zamn for Zombies Ate My Neighbors; not good: gow for Gears of War or God of War). Note that you need an internet connection while reviewing the page on your computer for it to get displayed correctly.
You can open the file in any text editor. The basic Windows Notepad will do, but using something that color-codes tags makes it more easily viewable (like Notepad++). Please avoid HTML editors that mess around with the formatting of the code!
Basically you can just search the file for "!!" (without the quotation marks) and replace them and the following all caps statement with content. For the first two for example you delete "!!TITLE" and fill in the title of the game (or series) instead. Every "!!" that follows on a filename and a #, for example company.htm#!!COMPANYNAMECODE refers to the anchor link in the index (here the author index). You can get those by clicking on the link in that index page and checking how the file name in your navigation bar changes. The !!SHOWCASESCREENSHOT should link to a representative screenshot of the game.
If you need more lines in the quick info box, you can copy&paste everything from the <a... to </a> and put a <br> in between the two.
It may be a bit confusing to weed through the file, but larger structures are enclosed by comments. Every line that starts with a "<!--" (without the quotation marks) is a comment that marks the beginning and end of a larger structure. In Notepad++, these are green. Should you need more than one instance of any given structure (for example two games on one page), simply copy everything from the opening to the closing comment.
Smaller structures don't have the comments, though. For example in the screenshot column, this block is a screenshot with a caption:
<p class=image><a href="!!IMAGEFILENAME"><img src="!!SMALLIMAGEFILENAME"></a></p>
<p class=caption>!!TITLE (SYSTEM)</p>
Here you can just replace the all caps portions (always including the "!!") with the file names (the first one is the full size image that opens upon clicking the thumbnail, the second is the thumbnail itself) and game title & system, then copy the whole block for as many screenshots you need and replace the file numbers.
Below all that is a gallery for comparison shots or additional screenshots. You can expand the table with more rows by copy&pasting everything from and including <tr> to </tr>
Japanese kanji/kana titles are run through this converter before inserted into the HTML. What it puts out looks like garbage in the text editor, but is more compatible with different browsers and settings.
The header table for each article may contain up to three images. The left-most should use the American box cover, and the other two should be box covers of other regions if available. If there's no variation between box covers other than the logo, don't bother putting them up. The captions below each image should indicate what region the box cover is.
For the screenshot column, the width limit for the thumbnail images is 360 pixels. There must be enough images to fill up space next to the text. For long texts, it is advisable to put a few images in between paragraphs, as well. Those can be up to 600 pixels in width. The character profile images should be around 150-200 pixels wide. Try to avoid having the descriptions take up more space than the portrait. Finally, the related articles should be either games from the same genre, thematically similar, or something from the same developer.
That should do it. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at email@example.com. Questions specifically about the article template and HTML formatting can be adressed to email@example.com, while actual article submissions go to firstname.lastname@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Audrey Hendricks
In this oral history from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Audrey Hendricks recalls her arrest and jailing at the age of nine for participation in the Children's Crusade of 1963.
Principles of Effective Online Teaching
Principles of effective online teaching helps you understand and develop your own e-learning by presenting various approaches, options, and decisions involved in e-learning. The book also provides the necessary overview of constructs, relevant pedagogical theories, and definitions common to the field. It has been designed to help you navigate the virtual forest of e-learning and the rethinking and modifying of your teaching, curriculum, and methods of planning necessary to become more effective
"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka
Students study the symbolism, setting, and characterization in Kafka's work.
Developing a Service Based Architecture in the Mobilearn E-Learning Project
Mobilearn is a project within the 5th Framework Programme of the European Union. Its objective is, to investigate the use of mobile technologies in different learning contexts. In order to achieve this, a service based software architecture is developed. In the following paper we describe the architectural approach taken within the Mobilearn project and some of the experiences gained. The author is a member of the Mobilearn Project Management Board. His institute maintains the Mobilearn Softwar
Constructive Interactions
The new paradigm of "knowledge construction using experiential based and collaborative learning approaches" is an outstanding opportunity for interdisciplinary research. This document is an attempt to introduce and exemplify as much as possible using the lexicon of "social sciences", considerations and tools belonging to "artificial intelligence" (eg.:the machine learning tradition). In the paper we first draw a conceptual framework for rational agents in conversational interaction; then we use
Identifying RAFT elements in writing prompts and assignments
Student will read writing prompts and practice identifying RAFT elements: role of writer, audience, writing format, and topic. This is the first lesson in a series of three based upon LEARN NC's 9th grade writing exemplars.
Lever an Obelisk
Investigate the mechanical advantage of the lever in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.
Kid Meteorologist
ZOOM guest Amy wants to be a meteorologist and volunteers at a weather observatory. In this adapted video segment, she shows us instruments used to predict the weather and describes how air pressure affects weather patterns.
Think Like Einstein
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site challenges you to think like Einstein and understand how time travel might be possible.
Mixing Microworld and Cas Features in Building Computer Systems that Help Students Learn Algebra
We present the design principles for a new kind of computer system that helps students learn algebra. The fundamental idea is to have a system based on the microworld paradigm that allows students to make their own calculations, as they do with paper and pencil, without being obliged to use commands, and to verify the correctness of these calculations. This requires an advanced editor for algebraic expressions, an editor for algebraic reasoning and an algorithm that calculates the equivalence of
Red Rover Robotics
This lesson begins with a brief history of robotics, describing how robots are beneficial to engineering and society and then explores how robots have been used in recent space exploration efforts. The engineering design of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are examples of advanced engineering design for space research. The maneuverability of these two spacecraft's robotic arms and the functionality of their tools is discussed.
The Amazing Red Planet
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the planet Mars. This lesson will begin by discussing the location and size of Mars relative to Earth, as well as introduce many interesting facts about this red planet. Next, the history of Martian exploration is reviewed and students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. The lesson concludes with students learning about future plans to visit Mars.
Landfills: Building Them Better
Waste disposal has been an ongoing societal problem since medieval times. In this lesson, students learn about the three methods of waste disposal in use by modern communities. They also investigate how engineers design sanitary landfills to prevent leachate from polluting the underlining groundwater.
A River Ran Through It
Students learn how water is used to generate electricity. They investigate water's potential-to-kinetic energy transformation in hands-on activities about falling water and waterwheels. During the activities, they take measurements, calculate averages and graph results. Students also learn the history of the waterwheel and how engineers use water turbines in hydroelectric power plants today. They discover the advantages and disadvantages of hydroelectric power. In a literacy activity, students
Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies
The website of the Institute of Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies (IAMS), an international research body which since 1973 has promoted the study of the origins and developments of metallurgy within its cultural and historical context from the earliest period to recent times. The website sketches the background to previous research in ancient metallurgy and provides a useful chronicle of IAMS-sponsored projects in major metal producing areas of the ancient world, including the Sinai, the Negev (parti
Utopian Hope and Apocalyptic Religion
Editor's note: The original event recording started slightly after the beginning of the introduction by Professor Lord Meghnad Desai. Where does the utopian impulse in politics originate, and does it have a future? John Gray argues that though they often claimed to be rooted in a scientific analysis of history and society the revolutionary political movements of the past were informed by a utopian vision which derives from religion. Is the age of secular utopianism over, and if so how will relig
Kings and Queens of England (1066 - 2008)
A very simple slideshow with paintings and other artwork depictions of the Kings and Queens of England and later the United Kingdom. Irrelevant electronic music background. (4:04)
Reading picture books
Two strategies for helping children understand a story through illustrations.
A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 17 Calne
Calne, a small town in north Wiltshire, stood on a large royal estate, and the witan met there - St Dunstan survived the partial collapse of a building at one meeting.
Pairwise Comparisons in SAS and SPSS
This site provides information for SAS or SPSS software users, who would like to use multiple comparison methods available in either software package to carry out pairwise comparisons. The site provides a short description of available methods and a recommendation based on the comparisons of the procedures. Some of the methods, namely step-down Holm-Bonferroni and Holm-Sidak, are not directly available in SAS or SPSS, but can be easily implemented using results of appropriate SAS or SPSS procedu


text:
Daddies and daughters, and sons and mothers spent some formal time together.80 big and little ballgoers attended Colleyville's inaugural Winter Ball.The event replaces the city's annual Daddy, Daughter dance in an effort to include the whole family. "I think the participants that were there seemed to have a really good time," said Lisa Escobedo, the city's recreation and city events manager. "We of course had more daddies and daughters, than mothers and sons."The night featured dancing, games and treats.The city plans to continue the event annually and will look at how to improve next year's event."What we'll probably do in the future is pick out some daddy, daughter songs and mother, son songs so they can have that special, unique moment when they have that individual dance."
— Dustin L. Dangli


text:
The many sides of Billy Childish
courtesy of Violet TimesOne of Electric Eel John Morton's surfing skeletons. Foggy Notion Art Show Opening: art by Neil Michael Hagerty, Hamish Kilgour, Timmy Vulgar, John Morton, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Oblivia, and Peggy Snow; live performances from Sightings and Garbage River Live With Animals ... More >>
Other than this poor guy everyone had a lovely time. Pics by Mike.Capsul/Purling Hiss/Home Blitz/Tom Surgal/Mad Scene Cake Shop Saturday, January 22 Better than: Any other rock show you could've seen tonight Letha Rodman was a significant presence on the pre-Internet indie scene in NYC -- c ... More >>
In this week's installment of Hugs and Kisses, Everett True reports back on his DJ set, the one he was fretting over last week. One week less than last week nine more months until ATP NY [sigh]. Hugs and Kisses The Down Under Outbursts of Everett True This week: ATP Australia, part two So t ... More >>
Bloozed-up San Franciscans slobber a mess beneath their noise
Girls Take Center Stage in Their Own 'Warped Tour' Spin-0ff and Other Shows Around the City


text:
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My name is Steve-O, and Im the High Tech Redneck on youtube! I make videos about anything from jumping cars to fixing electronics


text:
Boere Breyani
Boere Breyani
Recipe by:
Jeremy & Jacqui Mansfield
Ingredients Tick boxes to send shopping list to email
Boere Breyani
Cut the boerewors into 3-5 cm-long pieces. Place the boerewors on the bottom of an ovenproof dish and top with the drained peach slices.
Season with salt and ground black pepper and add 2 cups raw rice and 1/2 cup brown lentils.
In a separate pan, brown the onions in a little olive oil and add the green pepper. Add curry powder (mild, strong or very hot), turmeric, Mrs Ball's chutney and water. Mix well, remove from the heat and pour over the boerewors mixture. Ensure the rice and lentils are covered; if not, top up with water.
Cover and bake at 180°C for 45 minutes until the rice and lentils are cooked and all the liquid has been absorbed. If there's still some liquid, put it back in the oven, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes. Serve with the usual curry condiments.
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Acer Iconia W4-820-2466
SpecificationsNotebook: Acer Iconia W4-820-2466 (Iconia Tab Series)
Processor: Intel Atom Z3740
Graphics Adapter: Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail)
Display: 8.1 inch, 16:10, 1280x800 pixels, glossy: yes
Weight: 0.417kg
Price: 349 euro
Average of 22 scores (from 30 reviews)
Reviews for the Acer Iconia W4-820-2466
Pocket Windows II. Acer launched an 8-inch Windows tablet based on the Clovertrail platform just a little under a year ago. Now its successor is beginning to take shape with the Bay Trail SoC. Does it add power to the pocket?
Source: Gadgetspeak
The supplied short micro USB to USB lead enables standard USB sticks to be read. I have reviewed quite a lot of Android Tablets this looks similar but is a Windows Tablet. This means that all your Windows programs will be able to run. It has an SSD and will accept OTG or USB sticks up to 64GB as well.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 10/10/2014
Rating: Total score: 70% price: 60% performance: 80%
Source: PC Authority
The Acer Iconia W4 is a huge improvement on its predecessor, largely thanks to the inclusion of an IPS screen and faster processor. It also narrowly beats the VivoTab Note 8 thanks to eMMC storage, improved battery life and additional video output. It lacks the Note 8's stylus, but overall the Iconia W4 is one of the most persuasive Windows 8 tablets we've seen yet.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 05/06/2014
Rating: Total score: 83% price: 83% performance: 67% features: 83% workmanship: 83%
Source: Trusted Reviews
The Acer Iconia W4 certainly makes a better impression than Acer's first attempt at an 8-inch Windows 8 tablet. While we prefer the look of the Dell Venue Pro 8, it's a still a well-built tablet with a slightly slimmer and lighter body. The screen might not be class-leading, but it is a big improvement on the W3 and like its rivals, it has the capacity to keep you working throughout the day. The Acer Iconia W4 is another 8-inch Windows 8 tablet that offers a solid all-round performance, but the combination of full Windows on a small tablet still isn't one we'd recommend to everyone.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/30/2014
Rating: Total score: 70% price: 70% performance: 70% features: 80% display: 70% mobility: 80% workmanship: 80%
Source: PC World
The Acer Iconia W4 is a good tablet, but so are all the other options in the 8-inch Windows 8 realm. If HDMI is an important feature, we've seen the 64GB model selling online for $300 (that's $50 less than Toshiba's Encore 8). If battery life is more important, Lenovo's 64GB Miix 2 is selling online for about $329, and Dell's 64GB Venue 8 Pro is also going for about $300.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 04/28/2014
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: PC Mag
The Acer Iconia W4-820-2466 is a vast improvement over last year's Acer Iconia W3, mainly due to a much nicer screen. However, Asus VivoTab Note 8 remains our Editors' Choice for entry-level Windows 8 slate tablets, as it includes more features, such as a pressure-sensitive digitizing stylus with built-in storage, GPS capabilities, an included carrying case, and a price tag that's $50 lower. The only thing the Iconia W4-820-2466 has over the Asus Note 8 is a large 64GB SSD, though the Asus tablet does have a microSD card slot for adding storage. If you don't think you'll ever need to take handwritten notes or draw on your tablet, the W4-820-2466 is a good alternative.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 04/25/2014
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: Zdnet.com
Good battery life should keep the Iconia W4 going through the working day, so long as you're not taxing it with over-strenuous workloads. With an external Bluetooth keyboard and mouse it could probably cope with more serious work than web browsing, email and light document editing/creation. However, as you ramp up the usage, you may find yourself squinting at the small screen and becoming hampered by limited storage capacity and processing power. The £208.33 (ex. VAT) Iconia W4 could be a useful adjunct to your workhorse notebook, but it's never going to replace it.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 04/25/2014
Rating: Total score: 77%
Source: CNet
The Acer Iconia W4 is, first, a big improvement over the mediocre original W3 from 2013. Compared to other current Windows 8 tablets, it's thick, heavy, and a bit ugly, but if you can work with that, for a reasonably $299 it has a big 64GB SSD, all the requisite ports and connections, and most importantly, the best battery life in its category.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/25/2014
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 80% mobility: 90%
Source: NDTV Gadgets
The Acer Iconia W4 is cheap enough to make Windows RT devices feel totally pointless. There's just no reason now to buy a Windows RT tablet and restrict yourself to the Modern UI and Windows Store apps. You might find yourself spending less and less time in the Windows desktop, but it's really good to know it's there, and that all familiar Windows software is just a few taps away.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/10/2014
Rating: Total score: 70% price: 80% performance: 70% display: 70% mobility: 80% workmanship: 70%
Source: Engadget
Going into this review, we were skeptical that Acer could fend off its challengers. And yet, for the most part, it has. The Iconia W4 has the screen we were looking for the first time around, better battery life than some of its peers and the performance to handle most apps with grace.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/21/2014
Rating: Total score: 83%
Source: Techspot
Eight-inch Windows 8.1 tablets simply aren't a great proposition right now. If you're dead set on the platform and form factor, and waiting is not an option, it boils down to what compromises you're willing to make. Performance-wise we've seen pretty much the same from the trio of tablets tested. Overall Lenovo's Miix 2 8 would be our go to pick if it weren't for an annoying touchscreen responsiveness issue. Between the Encore and Iconia W4, Acer's tablet will save you $50, but Toshiba's uses a much better camera -- if that's important to you.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/20/2014
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: Techradar
If you pick up the Acer Iconia W4 tomorrow, you're unlikely to be disappointed. It can perform a far wider range of tasks than your average iPad or Android tablet thanks to the inclusion of Windows 8.1 and the ability to install legacy Windows programs. However, you would be better off with one of the aforementioned platforms if you're looking for a more 'classic' app-driven tablet experience. If that's the case, a sharper screen and beefier processor can be found in Apple's iPad Mini with Retina.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 02/28/2014
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Laptop Mag
Acer's Iconia W4 is a very capable Windows 8.1 tablet that packs a beautiful display into a sturdy frame. We also like that the Iconia W4 offers a micro HDMI port, which lets you easily share content on a big screen. However, while the W4 is sleeker than its predecessor, it's heftier than competing 8-inch Windows 8 slates.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/28/2014
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: T3
So, is it worth a look? A lot will depend on what you think of Windows 8.1. If you're happy using it, and are after a cheap but relatively cheerful tablet with a decent camera bolted on, the Acer Iconia W4 is maybe worth a look. But a low-powered processor and underwhelming screen mean most of us will be better off elsewhere.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 02/20/2014
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: PC Pro
The Acer Iconia W4 is a huge improvement on its predecessor, largely thanks to the inclusion of an IPS screen and faster processor. It also narrowly bests the VivoTab Note 8 thanks to its faster eMMC storage, improved battery life and additional video output. At £250, it's a good £50 cheaper, too. It might be lacking in premium appeal, but the Iconia W4 is one of the most promising Windows 8 tablets we've seen yet.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 02/14/2014
Rating: Total score: 83% price: 83% performance: 83% features: 67% workmanship: 67%
Source: Trusted Reviews
Set to go on sale in February for around £250-£260, the Acer W4 addresses some of the issues that blighted its predecessor, notably the sub-standard screen. However, it's not the massive jump up in quality we had hoped for. It does run nice and quick and makes a better first impression than the Toshiba Encore did so it's one of the better options to get that full Windows experience on a smaller slate. Whether the W4 is a better alternative to the iPad Mini 2 retina or the Nexus 7 is something we are not entirely convinced about so the search for a great portable Windows 8 tablet still goes on.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 01/06/2014
Foreign Reviews
Source: PC Welt DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 07/11/2014
Rating: Total score: 85% performance: 88% features: 84% display: 83% mobility: 86%
Source: Notebookinfo DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/15/2014
Rating: Total score: 86% performance: 88% display: 85% mobility: 90% workmanship: 75% ergonomy: 90% emissions: 90%
Source: Netzwelt DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 05/08/2014
Source: Chip.de DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 04/02/2014
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 71% features: 78% display: 74% mobility: 89%
Source: Connect - Heft 5/2014 DE→EN
Single Review, , Length Unknown, Date: 04/01/2014
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: SFT - Heft 3/2014 DE→EN
Single Review, , Length Unknown, Date: 02/01/2014
Rating: Total score: 89%
Source: Netzwelt DE→EN
Positive: compact chassis; appropriate performance; Windows 8.1; good allround package
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/14/2014
Source: Wintech PT→EN
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 03/29/2014
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 80% display: 90% workmanship: 70% emissions: 80%
Source: 01Net FR→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 06/06/2014
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: PC Lab.pl PL→EN
Positive: Good screen, performance, battery life, and HDMI port. Negative: High price; poor workmanship; poor quality of the speakers; thick and heavy.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 03/26/2014
Source: Zoom RU→EN
Positive: Compact size; good appearance; decent performance; good battery life. Negative: Relatively high price.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 04/29/2014
Source: Notebook.cz CZ→EN
Positive: Good battery life; excellent viewing angles. Negative: Missing stand; you can not connect a USB device to charge.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 02/13/2014
Source: Tablet.bg BU→EN
Positive: Good performance; quality IPS display; long battery life. Negative: Only 32GB of internal memory.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 08/31/2014
Source: Tablet.bg BU→EN
Positive: Quality 8-inch display with IPS and Zero Air Gap Technology; Powerful quad Intel Atom (Bay Trail) processor.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 02/07/2014
Source: Notegear KO→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 12/28/2013
The Acer Iconia W4-820-2466 is an 8 inch Windows 8.1 tablet that aims bring desktop PC productivity in a tablet and comes preinstalled with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013. It weighs at 0.41 kg (14.6 ounces), roughly the weight of a paper book, and has a nice overall finish. At the heart of the device there are an Intel Atom Quad-Core Z3740 processor clocked at 1.33 GHz, 2GB LPDDR3 RAM and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD graphics chip.
The tablet comes with an Active Matrix TFT Color IPS LCD with a resolution of 1280 x 800 that promises sharp and vivid images even under sunlight. The Acer Iconia W4-820-2466 comes with a 5 MP rear facing camera and a 2 MP front facing camera. The hardware is powered by a 4960 mAh lithium polymer battery, which is enough for 8 hours of 720p video playback. The tablet comes with a 64 GB internal storage and is expandable using a MicroSD card. There is an option to attach a Bluetooth keyboard making it more like a notebook while still maintaining its portability. Another handy feature is that a big screen TV can be connected in FullHD using the Micro-HDMI port. All things considered, it is a powerful and versatile device.
Intel HD Graphics (Bay Trail):
Integrated GPU for tablet and notebook Bay Trail SoCs. Based on the Ivy Bridge GPU with four Execution Units and support for DirectX 11.
Only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Atom: The Intel Atom series is a 64-Bit (not every model supports 64bit) microprocessor for cheap and small notebooks (so called netbooks), MIDs, or UMPCs. The speciality of the new architecture is the "in order" execution (instead of the usual and faster "out of order" execution). Therefore, the transistor count of the Atom series is much lower and, thus, cheaper to produce. Furthermore, the power consumption is very low. The performance per Megahertz is therfore worse than the old Pentium 3M (1,2 GHz on par with a 1.6 GHz Atom).
Z3740: Soc with an integrated quad core Atom processor clocked at up to 1.86 GHz (Turbo), an Intel HD Graphics GPU and a dual channel LPDDR3-1067 memory controller.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
8.1": » To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
0.417 kg: This subnotebook is one of the most lightweight of all notebooks and can be carried very easily. There exist hardly any models in this extreme class of weight. 7-9 inch displays are normal for this class of weight.
Acer: Acer Incorporated is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer. Its product lineup includes desktops and laptops, as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users. Acer is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world (by sales) after HP and Dell Inc (2007). The company owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan. Originally named Multitech, it was founded in 1976. Gateway and Packard Bell are economically connected with Acer. Market share regarding sales of personal computers in 2007 (market research IDC): HP 18.9 %, Dell 16.4 %, Acer 9.9 %, Lenovo 7.5 %, Apple 5.7 %
76.59%: This rating is not convincing. The laptop is evaluated below average, this is not really a recommendation for purchase.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.


text:
November 28, 2014
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- State lawmakers will get more time to debate a massive bill that lays out sweeping renewable-energy goals for Wisconsin.
The Clean Energy Jobs Act would make a number of broad changes. For example, it would require that the state move toward greater use of renewable energy.
Opponents say it would be too expensive to comply.
The bill originally hadn't been scheduled for debate Tuesday in either the state Assembly or Senate. That would have left just Thursday, the last day of the session, to get it done.
But a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, says he has now added it to the Assembly's calendar so it would be available for a vote Tuesday.
If it passes that house, that could pressure the Senate to act before Thursday's adjournment.
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text:
Lake St Catherine Cottage Rental Photos and Description
2 Bedrooms, Queen sofa, Twin sofa chair, full bath with shower, sleep 3 (or 6)
Thank you for seeing this as your vacation location for a remarkable family experience. You can spend your days entirely on this campus outdoors or in our covered arena.
Lake St Catherine is the big attraction for swimming right off our beach or dock as well as with our included canoe and funyak !! Toilets and Changing rooms are at the back of the Main House for you to use.There are lawn chairs, dock space for fishing.
The cottage is across the road where you can watch all the sports from your deck. All ages enjoy Horseshoes, Badminton, Tennis, Tetherball, Disc Golf, or Tennis. Campfires, storytelling and sm'ores abound! Picnic and umbrella tables by the cottage.
The upper campus beckons hikers, soccer and ball players as well as bird and frog catching enthusiasts. Star gazing on the hilltop is awesome.
So much to do...: There are many area attractions to choose from (local auctions, museums, libraries, the old Lincoln family estate in Manchester is open to public viewing and there is a 6 Flags owned Great Escape Theme Park all within about 10 to 30 minutes drive time away).
Nearby is the old D&H Rail Road that has been converted as part of the Rails to Trails pathway system (that in this area weaves it's way through the wild fields and forests passing through local villages along the way) and is ideal for biking, riding, and other activities the year around.
Many local towns and villages host many planned activities through out the year from car shows, arts and crafts fairs, farmers markets, to local concerts in the park.
- Suitability:
- Long-term Renters Welcome
- children welcome
- non smoking only
- pets considered


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Get fit and stay healthy with celeb-approved workouts and tips that keep the stars (Alicia Keys! Gwen Stefani!) and more looking great
(14 Photos)
Joy Simon
Oct 29, 2012 at 12:06AM
Pacific Coast News
Actress Emma Watson is a firm believer in the motto, "There's nothing to it, but to do it!" Working out, that is. Watson is a dedicated athlete, and her regimen involves five days per week of intense cardio -- such as Pilates and sprint running -- coupled with weight lifting three times per week, according to Glamour. Her intense regimen may not be an easy one to follow, but you can modify her routine to fit your lifestyle. Carve out some time for fitness every day during the week -- whatever you choose to do, just try to keep consistent.
Yummy recipes, DIY projects, home decor, fashion and more curated by iVillage staffers.
The very dirty truth about fashion internships... DUN DUN @srslytheshow http://t.co/wfewf
Behind-the-scenes pics from iVillage.


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Yankee Magazine Names Top 25 Foliage Towns
(4.) Williamstown, Massachusetts
(5.) Middlebury, Vermont
(6.) Camden, Maine (tie)
(6.) Waitsfield, Vermont (tie)
(7.) Conway/North Conway, New Hampshire
(8.) Sandwich, New Hampshire
(9.) Rangeley, Maine
(10.) Blue Hill, Maine (tie)
(10.) Woodstock, Vermont (tie)
(10.) Waterville Valley, New Hampshire (tie)
Please Note: This article was accurate at the time of publication. When planning a trip, please confirm details by directly contacting any company or establishment you intend to visit.


text:
Site Index |
Yangtze Strategy - Our commitment to the Golden Waterway
Latest News
22 June 2014
Bulk cargo port and infrastructure group PYI Corporation Limited ("PYI", 0498.HK) announced its annual results for the year ended 31 March 2014, with net profit attributable to shareholders of HK$86 million. The Board has proposed a final dividend of HK0.5¢/share.
Disclaimer |
Copyright � 2014 PYI Corporation Limited


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Attorney Catherine Shelton returns to court to defend her law license
Two people took part in the shotgun murder of Michael Hierro. Prosecutors got one.
Eyes wide shut; Vigilante justice; Long live the queen; And more
Dallas lawyer Catherine Shelton on her troubled pastand the Rowlett murder she says she didn't commit
A Rowlett murder shines a light on the practices of notarios who victimize illegal immigrants desperate for a chance to remain in the United States
Within days of a shotgun attack in Rowlett, tempestuous Dallas lawyer Catherine Shelton found herself in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. It isn't the first time.


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For a band that tours fairly often, it's amazing how much the members of the Mountain Goats are able to pop up in so many other areas of pop culture. From writing books to appearing on podcasts, frontman John Darnielle, bassist Peter Hughes, and drummer Jon Wurster keep busy in their spare time cons ... More >>
Walter Mitty is a clown's stab at a masterpiece.
Last night, 20,000-plus fans and their parents filled the American Airlines Center to witness the world's biggest boy band take their victory lap after almost three years of steady fan-base-building. It would be easy to talk about One Direction as a study on how watered-down pop music has become, an ... More >>
See also: *Candy Corn: The Worst Halloween Candy in the History of Ever Buzzfeed is reporting, brace for it, that Monday, September 10, will be the day the twist-off cookies officially jump the shark: Nabisco will debut candy corn-flavored flavored Oreos. So often you've sunk the crispy cookie into ... More >>
I love bakers. Not because they smell like brown sugar and cinnamon. Or even because they make superhero birthday cakes. Nope. I love bakers because they're scrappy. Back in June, the state enacted the Cottage Food Law, allowing home bakers to sell their goods under a few guidelines. Within that l ... More >>
How long has the Hershey's bar occupied grocery shelves? It's just a sheath of inferior chocolate, but you can pick one up just about anywhere. Meanwhile, far more interesting treats disappear from the shelves.The way we eat and our taste in foods is subject to whims, nudged by marketing campaign ... More >>
Brad and Colin use their powers of improv


text: 'Second City's American Mixtape' Review: Fair and Balanced Comedy ... to a Point Print article Send a Tip by Christian Toto 9 Jun 2014 post a comment Given the cultural winds blowing through the entertainment community, Second City's American Mixtape might be as fair and balanced as one can expect. The traveling show, playing through June 29 at the Garner Galleria Theatre in Denver, hits both bleeding heart liberals and flyover country denizens. It's like Saturday Night Live suddenly realized there are two ideological sides available for mockery. The SNL comparison isn't accidental. The Second City comedy institution remains a feeder system for SNL casts (Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Seth Meyers), and American Mixtape's barrage of music, stand-up and wacky skits feels like that NBC show firing on every cylinder. If only that happened more than once a season. Yes, put aside the cultural point scoring, and Second City's American Mixtape is a comic blast. It often relies on lazy liberal assumptions--if you don't believe in global warming hype you're a troglodyte, for starters. Still, the quartet of performers is as good as any traveling show might possess, and the laughs are fresh from start to finish. The show focuses as much on dating tropes as anything else, using the '80s mixtape medium to tie the story strands together. We see shallow men and lonely women flirting in singles bars and laundromats, navigating the dating rituals with pained expressions. American Mixtape squeezes in confessional moments as well as zany crowd interactions. Its improv sequences prove exhilarating, a blend of prepared bits and spontaneity that proves how mentally nimble this foursome can be. You'll laugh--and applaud their ingenuity. The performers--Randall Harr, Nicole C. Hastings, Meghan Murphy and Travis Turner--can sing, dance and crack up a crowd. Hastings and Turner could easily assume a spot on the SNL roster. Lorne ... are you listening? The show doesn't delve directly into politics. It merely skims the surface without drawing blood. President Barack Obama is name checked but once, and only as a time capsule marker. Instead, the material hits on money corrupting politics, feel-good liberals ("I'm winning at yoga!") and speech codes that shackle the American spirit. The edges here can be rough, but that's a welcome texture. The physical comedy, though, is seamless. Consider a bit where Harr romances his sex doll (Hastings) to the tune of Wicked Game. Hastings, her limbs stiff and ready to be moved into position, draws laughs without saying a syllable. Her eyes radiate comic energy, but she never oversells her gifts. A song blasting the NRA has enough straw men to make President Obama burn with envy, but the focus is more often on the funny, not partisan points. Second City's American Mixtape mines humor from obvious but rarely tapped sources. It may lean left, but it's so eager to make us laugh that it puts partisanship mostly aside. In 2014, that's a minor revelation.


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Lafayette Carnival, Burke's Fall Festival this Saturday
This Saturday, October 25, two elementary schools in the neighborhood will be holding their annual fall festival fundraisers.
LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CARNIVAL | 12pm – 4pm
4545 Anza Street
Enjoy a huge inflatable bouncer for the kids, different classes selling food (pizza, baked goods, hot dogs, ice cream, spam masubi, and more), old school carnival games, a dj doing music, and a cake walk. Admission is free but there are tickets that will be on sale to play the carnival games ($0.25 each or $5.00 for 25 tickets).
KATHERINE DELMAR BURKE FALL FESTIVAL | 10am – 4pm
7070 California Street
Stop by for games, bouncy houses, shopping, a giant slide, festival treats, food trucks and much more. Admission is $5 per person and certain activities require tickets which can be purchased on-site. Note that dogs are not welcome at the festival and there is no parking along 32nd Avenue during the event.