This might be an interesting idea. Already on the PlayStation 3 you can record your singing performances and upload them to the My SingStar community (and there are some rather funny videos on there too). Now this video uploading is taking a new step, with the YouTube API being added to the PS3 SDK (Software Development Kit).

Now you can upload your in-game moves and upload directly to YouTube. That would be rather awesome in GTA IV (a recent time filler for me).

The first game to feature this will be Japanese game Mainichi Issho. Who knows what exactly you can upload in that game (looks rather crazy to me).

There is a website dedicated entirely to video game videos, GameVee.com, but I think they miss out due to the lack of upload API.

I’ve been a bit slack of late. While my Twitter feed has been going, I haven’t had the urge to write anything on my blog.

I even missed April 21, the day when I started writing in it. I’ve been blogging for pretty much six years now, but I’ve had issues in the past with lost hosts, backups etc. So this is my longest lasting blog. And hopefully, it’ll last even longer.

Wouldn’t you find it a bit odd that a game gets MA15+ in Australia, yet that same game gets R18 here?

Well, it’s happening (and not for the first time). Australia gets editions of Grand Theft Auto that are cut so then they could get past OFLC ratings. While Australia has an R18, it is strictly limited to films only. Any game that gets R18 is banned. The maximum game rating is MA15+.

A cut version of GTA IV is making it’s way there, and to the shock of Kiwi fans, we’re getting it too, despite us having an R18 rating and never having a cut version of the franchise before. However, the interesting thing here is that the same game is getting our maximum rating, R18, for violence and offensive language.

First thought is that Australia is being quite conservative in banning games that are R18. But isn’t it a bit liberal if a 15 year old can get the same violence, language and sex? Kotaku got a copy of the Australian OFLC report to find that not a lot has been cut, except since that article some reviews have sprouted up where it appears that sex is only displayed as a bouncing car in our version.

This is the country where porn is banned for sale or hire in all but two states. Isn’t it a bit odd that adults can’t see a bit of sex, yet killing people by either blowing them up or stabbing them (or with just a bit of fistycuffs), being able to pick up hookers and solicit sex (A/NZ version only showing a bouncing car), watching people snort cocain and the like, you have to be 15 years to enter? It seems that the intention of banning R18 games had the directly opposite effect to what it was trying to achieve.

Very recently (last month), there has been a push to introduce an R18 rating for video games. Details here. It has been met with some opposition, with a “think of the children” argument. Why don’t the ministers think that this is a Restricted classification? That’s what the R stands for, it is Restricted to persons 18 years and over. Children are not supposed to get it, and if they are, maybe they should be looking at enforcing the law as well.

I’ve started to see it here, I was in KMart when a parent was refused sale because she was buying the R18 game for her seemingly 10 year old child. Just give big warnings that they’ll be fined, and give them some leaflets and they might start refusing access. This seems to be a problem that higher-ups don’t get, you have a ratings system that isn’t being enforced. So don’t ban it, start enforcing what you’ve already got!

If Australia did have an R18 rating, then 15 year olds won’t be having legal access to this game just like they aren’t in every other country. The thought that not having R18 prevents them from seeing content that is in GTA is a farce, they are pretty much seeing brutal stuff as is evident of the R18 rating for the exact same game here in New Zealand. Archaic views that games are for children is affecting what your children do see, and maybe that “think of the children” argument should be used to actually restrict these games to adults, and not punish them.

I watched the latest Epic-Fu at SXSW asking people what they thought was the “Fu of the week” (or their best web product). One of the Rocketboomers said Bloglines as they read thousands of blogs a day.

Then it hit me, where have all the blogs I used to read go?

Last year I switched from Firefox extension Sage as my feed reader, and jumped over to Netvibes so then I could read my blogs anywhere, as well as tap into other social services I use regularly like Facebook. I made my Netvibes pages so then I didn’t have to scroll around much, and be overwhelmed by information. Unfortunately, that meant cutting some blogs.

I switched to Bloglines Beta and, well, it’s better (not perfect though, perhaps the buggiest Beta I’ve been in) and I found an old OPML export (Netvibes OPML export doesn’t work). And well, now I can see blogs that I haven’t read and read them.

To be honest, I don’t think I get a full spectrum of blogs, I certainly don’t have many on my list that I’d like to read. Usually through-out my day I stumble on about four or so blogs but read an article and move on. I’ll try and make an effort, add any blog I stumble upon to my Bloglines, give it a week and see how it goes, at least for a little while or until I get overwhelmed.

Any suggestions welcome.

Whenever I say to people that breaks aren’t a law requirement, they think I’m lying and pulling their leg. But, err, I had to study employment law to get my Certificate in Management so, yes, it’s true, unless my teacher was lying to me, but I’m even looked it up myself, and there is no provisioning for your smoko breaks. The Department of Labour merely encourages them.

So it is good to hear that finally, they are putting it into law. I’m a bit unsure why it wasn’t there in the first place, considering it was Labour that put in the current law in 2001. It will require two paid 10 minute coffee breaks and a 30 minute unpaid lunch break for every eight hours someone works. It’ll also provide for breast feeding mothers to have breaks to breast feed or express milk and have adequate facilities to do so.

And it’s about time. Seems like a subtle attempt to get you to vote for them (but then so does everything proposed during election year), but good none-the-less. Now my friends will no longer be in disbelief that their breaks aren’t in law.

It appears we all love to free-load off other peoples religions. The current trend based on the census suggests that by the time the next one rolls around we will be a non-Christian nation. Which then leads on to the question, why have Easter and Christmas off in law if only a minority actually are Christian?

So here could be a solution. Count up the days we get off due to religious reasons in law (4), and then give that to everyone that they can use for whatever reason, the main one being for Religious Holidays. They can still use these for Easter and Christmas if they want even if they are Athiest. They should not roll over and have to be used between the 1st of January through to the 31st of December, otherwise you lose out. It should also be no-questions asked, and employers should be prepared that they may have to close on Easter and Christmas anyway, especially if there are too many staff taking the day off than there are to replace them.

So there, everyone can be happy that they still get a holiday and can possibly shop on those days.