Oh how we love the rich and corrupt:

Subittled: Hurry up and retire Dave Hartnett you corrupt waste of space.

From The Guardian:

"Audit office attacks tax deals for corporations

National Audit Office finds tax officials failed to seek proper legal advice while negotiating settlements with large companies.

The National Audit Office has found that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) did not seek proper legal advice, involve its own specialists or even take notes whilst negotiating settlements with large companies..."

Continued on http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/14/hmrc-tax-collection-failures-nao.

Now, Private Eye magazine has been following this story for MONTHS and reporting on it in nearly every issue so National Audit Office's findings come as no surprise to me. What does surprise me though is the next sentence in the piece:

"But despite these failings uncovered by the former High Court tax judge Sir Andrew Park, the NAO has concluded that five negotiated settlements which were the subject of the report were "reasonable" and fair to the public purse."

This comes across as a government department (the NAO) which has uncovered MILLIONS of pounds missing from the public purse (as companies were told they didn't have to pay it) trying to save face and avoid more embarrasment and shame. "Oh, but it's ok, the deals were 'reasonable'." Reasonable my foot, a later paragraph in the Guardian story reads:

"The report's findings may concern many ordinary taxpayers. Last year, it was alleged that companies such as Vodafone were not required to pay tax bills of up to £7bn following negotiations with Revenue and Customs while others such as Goldman Sachs have been let off up to £20m."

How on EARTH is any of that "reasonable and fair the public purse"? Even if the figures are out and Vodafone dodged only 4 billion, how is that reasonable??

Private Eye and the NAO have both pointed out that many of these important meetings, involving the taxes you and I slave away for, took place informally and no notes were kept. This was not an oversight. No notes were taken so that when the shit hit thte fan (as they probably guessed it would) nobody could get in trouble as there wouldn't be a paper-trail to follow. No paper-trail and, as we're seeing at the Leveson Enquiry, officials can lie all they like as they know we can't find the paper-trail as it's non-existent.

Dave Hartnett knew exactly what he was doing when he negotiated deals with Goldman Sachs and Vodafone in expensive restraunts in London (probably at meals paid for by Vodafone et al). Every step along the way he's been dodging and evading answering questions and it's shocking that the most senior tax collector in HMRC was able to act this way.

Incedentally, I just googled Dave Hartnetts name and the following story was top of Google's list:

Paying cash in hand is 'diddling the country', says HMRC's Dave Hartnett

People who pay cash in hand to tradesmen are “diddling” the economy and diverting money from hospitals and schools, the country’s most senior taxman, Dave Hartnett, has warned.

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9043087/Paying-cash-in-hand-is-diddling-the-country-says-HMRCs-Dave-Hartnett.html (Jan 2012)

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hartnett says that householders have a duty to ensure that other people do not evade paying their share of tax...

Oh the irony, it burns, it burns!!

Apparently Mr Hartnett is retiring this summer. Not a day too damn soon.

Sid Meir's Civilisation

It's awesome having my blog 'back' again, as it allows me to focus on things that I want to focus on which just won't fit in a Facebook post. AS you can see from my previous recent posts, these are computer-games based at the moment. I make no apologies for that, I'm obviously going though a computer game phase at the moment and therefore that's what my blog is expressing! I'm sure in 6 months or so I'll be wiritng about something different but for now, computer games it is.

I've already mentioned Under A Killing Moon as a computer game that captured my imagination many years ago, and I'm SO glad that the team have reunited to bring us Project Fedora. However, before there was Under A Killing Moon, for me, there was the one, the only, Civilisation:


(image from Moby Games).

For those not in the know, Civilization is a computer-strategy game where you start off with a single settler unit and from there spawn cities, grow a civilization and try to survive through the centuries. If you're good you can even win the game by winning the space-race or destroying the other civilizations in the game.


(image from Moby Games).

The above shows a typical Civ 1 map screen. You can see the city of Leipzig, a fairly new city (hence the 1 denoting its size); there are also some units on the right of the screen and menu across the top for various controls.

I can't even remember when I started playing Civilization. I do remember that I was a child and I'm fairly certain I was in primary school so I must have been perhaps 10 or so? However old I was, I remember it took me a LONG time to grasp the game. Which wasn't too much of a problem as the game actually came with a manual that, to my memory was hundereds of pages long. I remember trying to plough through that thing to better understand the game and make my civilizations better.

The idea of controlling everything about your Civilization from roads to research and war really captured my imagination in a way that only Civ 2 ever did. I remember spending many a summer day with a friend of mine playing Civ 1 and Civ 2 trying to survive against the Romans, Greeks and Mongols. Such GOOD memories that only an open game such as Civilization could inspire.

To the best of my knowledge, I never WON a game of Civilization. I never won the space race, I never ruled the world or such like. That does not mean I did not have fun, far from it! Every game was different, every game was a new challange and I played game after game and loved each one.

So what inspired this post? It was this Reddit update by user Lycerius who states that: "I've been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the future I could get and see what the ramifications would be. Naturally I play other games and have a life, but I often return to this game when I'm not doing anything and carry on. The results are as follows..."

This post is fascinating. It describes the state of the nation in Lycerius's game of Civ 2 that has been on-going for 10 years! He includes a screen grab link here http://imgur.com/a/rAnZs.

The fact that a game like this can be played for 10 years is mind-blowing in and amongst itself. What is also mind-blowing is the fact that Lycerius's post has attracted (at time of writing) 2919 comments. Each comment is suggesting different ideas of how Lycerius could continue the game and progress.

I never got very far with Civ 3 and only had a brief experience with Civ 5 a few weekends ago when it was on Free to Play thanks to STEAM. This post on http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/whatwentwrong.html shows what I realised when I played this free trial, that the game has, in many ways been simplified and seems to have made some drastic mis-steps with regards to the actual design of the game.

I wonder if I can find my Civ 2 CD? See you in 10 years!!

If you've never played Civ then it seems that Civ 4 was a good update, though it created Multiplayer problems but was great at single-player by all accounts.

Brief Post: Public Service cuts: Passport control

Ok, so we all know that the Tory government in the UK is making some pretty savage cuts on the basis that "Labour left us in debt". Whilst that may have been the case when the coalition was formed, I don't think they can continue using that excuse.

Anyway, recent arguments on Radio 4 (amongst other places) have focussed on Passport control and how it's going to get swamped and not be able to cope at peak periods. Cue government ministers swooping in and saying "No, the system is built around flexibility and we can draft staff in from elsewhere to cope with demand. There is no problem." Otherwise known as the Ostritch argument.

You might well have believed that (if you were an idiot) and gone on with your life.

Except of course, the government was lying and, thanks to Twitter, we actually have photograph proof. Twitter user @Amandagore posted two updates which I'll reproduce for you below (because I'm awesome like that). Links are https://twitter.com/amandagore/status/212315087099269122 and https://twitter.com/amandagore/status/212319151027519488.





Yeah, everything's working just fine Tories, keep doing what you're doing. *Sigh*

The Two Guys from Andromeda Kickstarter

I'm writing this blog-post up against a time limit. Also, I'm suffering from being sleepy and having a cold (not MAN-FLU but still REALLY annoying).

Why is there a time limit? Because the The Two Guys from Andromeda Kickstarter is ending on June 12th at 13:27 EDT (which is 18:27 in GMT or 'proper' time :P) and, at time of writing, still needs $51,000 to succeed. Why is that important? Well, that would be the content for this blog post wouldn't it?

Unlike my previous post, I'm going to split this one up into headings to try and organise my thoughts. Let's see how it works shall we?

Who are the Two Guys From Andromeda?

The Two Guys From Andromeda are, in real life, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. They have been in and out of the computer-games industry for over 25 years so they know a thing or two.

Ok, so it's Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, so what?

So what?!!? SO WHAT?!?!?!? Just follow me my friend. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe used to work for a small developer called Sierra On-Line (Wikipedia link). Sierra earned their place in the computer gaming hall of fame by creating series after series of computer adventure games. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, the Two Guys From Andrmeda, created the legendary Space Quest series of computer adventure games.

Space Quest?



Yes, Space Quest. Released in 1986 and using Sierra's AGI computer game engine, Space Quest took you on a piss-take tour of space, playing the character of a janitor who in Space Quest could be called anything you like but in later sequels (of which there have been 5) would be known as Roger Wilco. As the Wikipedia link shows, your character in the game wakes up in a broom cupboard to find your spaceship has been taken over by the Sariens (bad people). You then bumble through an adventure that sees you giving the Sariens a good (if comic) sorting out.

Obviously, if you look at the game now, the graphics don't look that good, but trust me, back in the mid 1980s they were great. The faux-3D engine in the game allowed you to move behind and around things. Not overly exciting except when you realise that other computer games (not console games) were still using plan-text for a long time after.

Not only were the graphics good for the time but the jokes in the game were good too. Space Quest was, throughout its whole run, a comedy, sci-fi space adventure series. Space Quest 2's plot revolves around the bad guy (Sludge Vohaul) releasing millions of cloned insurance salesmen upon the galaxy for crying out loud! One of the features that fans remember fondly is the sheer variety of death sequences and how the game would mock you if you died stupidly (i.e. walking off the edge of a cliff etc.) Don't believe me? Check it out on the AWESOME Many Deaths of Roger Wilco site. These were amazingly funny at the time, and, having refreshed my memory of some of them, I'd say they still are! The only time you'd get annoyed is when you realised that your last save-game was from AGES ago! Doh!

In a clever twist the duo inserted themselves into Space Quest lore by making themselves characters in SQ3 who had to be helped by Roger Wilco. I'm not going to mention anymore to avoid spoiling the plot more than I already have but it's a funny twist and worth exploring. You can buy the originals from Gog.com links here: SQ 1->3 and SQ 4-->6.

Speaking on a personal level, The Space Quest series taught me to type and encouraged me to read more. Because the games were text-heavy you couldn't avoid it if you wanted to know what was going on. They also encouraged me to think things through logically. What had I missed? Why couldn't I progress? How could I get through this puzzle? Now whilst some of the puzzles were 'out-there', I still maintain that the majority of the puzzles in the game followed an element of logic more than the trial-and-error that I've experienced in adventures since then. The Space Quest series were also a bonding experience for me as I played them alongside my father (distracting him from running his own business but he didn't seem to mind too much).

Alright, so these guys created a series of games many years ago. So what's the fuss now?

Well, the duo created the Space Quest series which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of each game all around the world. They worked together on Space Quest 1 to 4 then split up. Now, in 2012, thanks to Kickstarter, they're able to work together again. After a break of 20 years or so this is very big news and should be celebrated by computer game fans the world over.

From the look of their Kickstarter, their new game is going to bring all the humour of their previous games to a whole new generation of players. The link is on the right-side of the page there with all the latest info and you can donate from $1 but obviously, if you donate more you recieve rewards for doing so. Whilst their new game is not a Space Quest game that does not detract from the level of awesomeness it will have by defautl. So go ahead, go, donate and be part of computer gaming history by helping to bring space-adventure-comedy to a new generation of people! Go on...Go now!