Social Media Engagement: Attributes observed playing games

Another observation

Obviously, it isunscientific of based a whole set of presumptions on an experience that hashardly lasted 24 hours, but one will be hard-pressed not to draw conclusionsalready.

As I returned homeyesterday from a lovely rendezvous with my growing circle of friends made fromsocial media activities that included the rather usual lunch that had a finelady exhibit her mastery of Nigerian cuisine, she not being remotely African, Ireminisced about the many people I have met in person through blogging,tweeting and on Facebook.

Scrabble in motion

The train journeyback to Amsterdam was uneventful until at one of the stops a passenger boardedand as he was fiddling with his phone as everyone who has a smartphone doesnowadays, out of the corner of my eye I saw he was playing a game that lookedlike Scrabble.

A few days ago, Idid a search on the Android Marketplace for Scrabble and I ended up with a wordpuzzle – WordGame – which had some addictive qualities working against the clock butnothing like the tradition game.

Rather than be apeeping Tom, I asked the man if the game was Scrabble, it wasn’t but it was a Scrabbleclone of sorts called Wordfeud.

Handling the little things

He said he wasplaying multiple games using different dictionaries with friends all aroundthat world and I thought, when I get home, I will try it out.

Wordfeud isavailable for use with mainly European languages on the iPhone, Android andWindows 7.5+ platforms with the programmers having the good sense to differentiatebetween English (US) and English (International) – they deserve the Nobel PeacePrize for just that alone.

There is a premiumversion that removes all advertisements whilst introducing other features. Theboard and game is intuitive enough and each language has a different alphabetset with weights and frequencies differing according to the selected language.

A really good imitation

It was not longbefore I saw the dissimilarities between Wordfeud and Scrabble, the scoring onthe board is different with the premium squares allowing for more interestingplay, the ratings on the latters also differ – it is amazing how much trivialinformation one can recall from years of playing traditional Scrabble.

It offers the basicmoves as play, swap or miss with the shuffle function that allows forrearranging the letters to form new words but no penalties for wrong words, youare alerted and allowed to reply your turn. There are helpers like WordfeudHelper and Word Fraud, yes, you can get help without your opponent knowing –such dishonesty, alarming indeed.

Tardy responsiveness

However, the reasonfor this blog is to highlight an interesting trait I have found which I dobelieve is a pervasive social media problem.

Apart from Skypecalls, most interactive engagement systems are asynchronous, very much likeemail, you send a message and you cannot pre-determine when a response will bereceived. In a phone call, there is usually an unstated length of a pausebefore either party enquires of the other is still in that conversation – thatis usually not available for Instant Messaging, Twitter, Facebook or games thatare played online.

For this purpose,Wordfeud has given each player 72 hours to respond in play before that playerautomatically forfeits the game.

Appreciating the situation

My question is whystart a game you will not conclude and why is there is no sense of commitmentto complete a game you have started, albeit with strangers?

In 8 games that Ihave started since yesterday, only one has been completed, 2 resigned before 10tiles had hit the board and one gave up before placing anything.

The other four havebeen in play for as much as 17 hours, one of which is quite near conclusion. Ihave decided I will rather be beaten than resign the game and I will mostdefinitely avoid a default.

Wordfeud hasoptions to alert, remind and prompt when it is my turn and I have switched allthose options on.

The interestingthing is in a short chat session with one of the tardy, she; yes, she has afemale username said she was still in the game but was simultaneously playingmultiple games – in other words, I had to be patient.

I would not know ifthe trick is to win but drawing out the game interminably, I am however gladthat Wordfeud does not allow you to resign if it is not your turn.

Playing vulture

If anything,besides the addictive qualities Wordfeud might bring to bear, it allows peopleto divide their attention in such a way that they are not committed, attentiveor engaged to the chagrin of some.

It could also bethat the players will rather default than resign or hope that the game isforgotten especially when they are performing badly in the game so as to snatchvictory from the jaws of defeat – not with me.

This vulture is apatient bird and regardless of the social media construct, I will ensure I amcourteous and responsive to all players that have been randomly selected –niceness should be pervasive, regardless of level of acquaintance, though, I dorecognise in certain forums, some people just seek to expose your evils.

My Droid - Installing a new microSD card

An upgrade of sorts

So, I got upthis morning and thought; I have a 16GB microSD card in mydefunct Windows Mobile 6.5 HTC Touch Diamond 2 phonewhich I took out of service at the end of September 2011.

My Droidwhich is an HTCSensation came with an 8GB microSD card, not that I have used half thatstorage yet, but the idea that I could double the space was appealing enough.

First, I dida search for the easiest way to transfer all the data and applications from thecurrent microSD card to the bigger microSD card and everything that came up inmy search was some convoluted and complicated method of copying the data, Ineeded to think of a better way.

Preparations

So first, Igot the card out of my Windows mobile phone and remembered I had a microSD adapterI had acquired years ago in one of my cupboards. Inserting the microSD card inthe adapter I inserted it into the slot on my netbook and copied all the datato a folder on my netbook.

Then Iformatted the microSD card to FAT-32 filesystem and it was ready for usage. As I was doing this, it occurred to me thatI could mount the SD card in my Droid as a drive through the USB connection tomy netbook.

I mounted themicroSD card storage on my Droid, unsure of the best way to copy the data andretain all the security and format of data with the applications on the SD cardI decided to use the Robocopy command.

The first copy

Robocopywhich comes with the most recent copies of Microsoft Windows is a robust filecopy utility that is quite versatile for copy and backup routines.

I used themirror option which should be used with caution because it wipes the targetdrive or target folder before copying data. I needed to be sure I noted thesource and target drives.

Using Robocopy < Source Drive > < Target Drive >  /MIR

Once thefiles were copied, I replaced the microSD card and restarted my Droid; twoerrors were displayed, one to do with MSNMessenger and the EconomistApps both of which I had to forcibly close. I could not find them anywhere onmy phone so I started up the file manager and found the .android_secure folderwas unreadable however with the Astrofile manager app I could read the folder.

Using the AndroidAssistant app, I checked to see if there were any apps on my SD card usingthe Tools | App 2 SD widget and that revealed there were no apps on my microSDcard when I was expecting at least 15 or so apps.

It becameevident that the .android_secure folder contained all the apps that I had movedto the SD card and there were no clear solutions to resolve this somewhatannoying quirk much as I did not want to accept the fact that changing microSDcards needed some rocket science tool.

The better copy

So putting myoriginal microSD card in the adapter I loaded it on my netbook then mounted theSD card on my Droid, once again making a good note of the source drive whichwas now on the adapter I selected all the folders and copied them to the targetdrive which was now on my Droid overwriting everything. This being a standardWindows copy and paste procedure.

After thecopy was completed, I restarted my Droid and all my apps were restored,especially those on the microSD card with no errors.

Now, I haveover 10GB of space free on my Droid, looks like there is much more I can put onmy Droid, my complete classical music collect and even the complete audio biblethat adds up to just over 1 GB.

Incredible India - Improving Your Koenig Solutions Experience - Part II

Incubating Part II

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog titled Incredible India: Improving the Koenig Solutions Brand – Part I, since then, I have thought about what to include in what would become Part II and I have decided it should be about improving your Koenig Solutions experience.

After all that I have written about my experiences in India, I believe given the opportunity again, I would avail myself of Koenig Solutions services if their repertoire of courses extends to include Enterprise Architecture though that would also require getting trainers out of industry rather than just having people with book knowledge of seriously impacting concepts.

Besides, there are other courses that might be of interest too as one tries to keep in line with market developments and establish a niche area of expertise.

Very useful advice

There is however a few key things that will make your experience worthwhile one that I share here comes from someone who is quite conversant with the system and the way things get done in India.

This is what he had to say, “This is India. However much we strive to root out this sort of stuff, ubiquitous chaos, poor English and even carelessness on behalf of some of the lower staff has always been and willalways be intrinsically part of the India experience of most of our students.

It takes a while to get used to and find the right mental disposition totackle. As a rule of thumb, do not take sloppiness from anyone but under all circumstances remain calm and firm about stuff that is not to your liking. Call in the center manager if necessary.

Do not depend on no one. Most staff will never take any initiative whatsoever and will expect you to do so. If people don't understand you, they won't admitto it, thus adding to confusion. When in doubt or unhappy about the answer given or services provided - especially about issues pertaining to hygiene and health, ask to talk to someone else or take it to the reception desk or center manager directly.

Adjust your notion of time. Whereas most of us are punctual on time related issues, the majority of Indian folks are on IFT (Indian Flexible Time) which tends to drive us totally mad on our first India visit.  Never wait till the lastminute to make arrangements for something. Anything asked for less than 24 hours before deadline will most probably fail as most people are unfamiliar with concepts like timely resolution or urgency.

These days, I've gotten used to all things you describe and by finding ways towork around them by adjusting my mindset to how things work in India.”

I think this is be on the frontpage of every tour guide or brochure you get concerning India, it will go along way to helping you adjust to the severe culture shock you might experienceon your visit to India.

Your preparations

In terms of preparations to goto India, these are the things you probably need to note. Whilst a majority ofpeople using Koenig Solutions get a Tourist Visa, be prepared to consider getting a Business Visa and if your stay will be more than 30 days you might have to get an Entry Visa.

If based in Europe obtain information about Koenig Solutions’ bank account in Belgium rather than travelling with thousands of Euros, Pounds or Dollars of Traveller’s cheques.

On arrival in India, if you are unsatisfied with anything let the management know and do not be fobbed off with excuses or apologies if you are not satisfied with the resolution proposed. Attimes, you might be offered a compensation which in Indian terms might be huge but in general terms in paltry if not insulting, be ready to stand your ground and escalate – you paid for a service, get the service you paid for.

Insist on these, all the time

When it comes to course material, your books should be shrink-wrapped, if not, they are second-handbooks, do not sign the receipts until you have been provided with new books.

For the curriculum delivered from PowerPoint slides, I have found it is quite difficult to take useful and relevant notes – insist on having those PowerPoint slides printed out at noextra cost for you to annotate throughout your training. You cannot annotate electronic copies and to be honest any decent PowerPoint-based training material provideshard copies.

For each test-based curriculum that you take, allow for at least 2 days after the course for study and preparation for the tests. Whilst some might be able to walk into tests and pass immediately after the training, others trying that might find that they will be repeating tests before scoring a pass.

If you have non-lecture days and need to study, the provided accommodations can be quite Spartan; I have however not found out if public libraries are better equipped for this.

Other useful tips

For the cost, I will advisethat you hire the mobile Internet dongle because Internet connectivity at both the training centre and the accommodations can be patchy at time.

If you obtain an Indian SIMCard ask that mobile data be enabled as part of the package if you need to use your smart phone to surf the Internet.

Get a TravelCard if you use the New Delhi metro, it means you do not have to join interminably long queues for tokens to travel.

New Delhi of all the Koenig Solutions Training Centres is nearest to Agra some 200 kilometres South where the Taj Mahal is but the road to Agra has Mathura – the birthplace of Krishna with the great statue of goddess Durga, Sikandra where the Tomb of Akbar the Great is – the grandfather of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal, a good deal of the Agra Fort and the Red Fort back in New Delhi.

It is better to get Koenig Solutions to book a train to Agra or arrange with other colleagues to book a more confortable bus that the Koenig city transit buses which will also allow you to stop at these other places than just the journey to the Taj Mahal where you are also put in the hands of unscrupulous restaurants or persons ready to fleece you. If you have amongst you someone who speaks Hindi you can get much done and if you have to be really assertive, have one amongst you who is articulate, forceful and insistent on getting the results without backing down.

Be street wise

When it comes to food, be careful, circumspect and wise. Cooked and cooked well is important, keep off cold vegetarian dishes if you have no resistance to the local bugs. Most visitors pick up Traveller’s Diarrhoea, so pack your Imodium take lots of yoghurt/curd and eat lots of bananas. Lassi is a yoghurt drink that can settle your tummy quite well but don’t even venture Bhang Lassi – it contains cannabis but you might get more than a high, you could end up in hospital paying bills as part of a medical scam.

For lunch you usually have the choice of McDonalds, Subway, Dominoes or Hakka, then you have to decide between vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes – I stuck with rice in most cases. Haldirams which is purely vegetarian chain has many choices but be careful whatyou choose and be sure you have the stomach for that choice.

When shopping, only use reputable shops, it is better to see the price tags up front than attempt tohaggle then realise you have just become a victim of daylight robbery. If you don’t know cashmere you might end up with a fine hybrid of polyester and nylon,the real factory markings are not on the edges of the cloth, if the bales were taken off the shelf, that chalk-like factory marking with the true composition of cloth would have been cut off.

Always negotiate up front for services that do not have a clear price tag – in the end, India can be fun but you have to be aware, smart and really streetwise with a presence so you do not get taken for granted and end up the worse for it. Be aggressive if you must and walk away if you can. Click on the Koenig Solutions label below this post to see my other related posts.