James’s post reminds me that it’s time to check back on my eight wishes for 2008 to see how they turned out. 1. That the fourth series of <DOCTOR.WHO> will be at least as good as the third; that the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be at least as good as the first; and that the new series of Torchwood will be better than the first (and I’m sure it will). No, yes and yes. The most recent series of Who had the usual mix of good (Midnight and Turn Left) and not so good episodes (Planet of the Ood, The Doctor’s Daughter), but overall it couldn’t match the third season - but then it had a lot to live up to. SJA put in an excellent second series (although I’m yet to see the finale) and Torchwood was much improved. 2. That the Lib Dems get...

When I twittered Rory Cellan-Jones to ask why he didn’t mention Wordscraper in his blog post about Scrabulous, he replied “cos i couldn’t be bothered!” Years from now, when British journalism has finally breathed its last, this phrase will be engraved on its tombstone. The thing is, the Wordscraper thing is about the most interesting thing about this whole sorry saga. Cellan-Jones misses the point. Badly. While Scrabulous did indeed cross the line by using the same look as Scrabble and using a name that was far too close to a trademarked property, the fact is you can’t copyright an idea and they have been free to set up an almost identical game. Intellectual property law is at its murkiest when it comes to games. History is littered with people who sold...

Ever since Facebook Applications exploded onto the scene, there has been a problem. Well, I say it’s a problem, but in reality it is actually an amazing thing. It is only perceived to be a problem by old fashioned companies that just Don’t Get It. For several months now the old Scrabulous saga has been playing out. Some smart guys thought it would be a great idea to be able to play Scrabble with your friends on Facebook. They were right. It became Facebook’s most popular application, and could even count Mark Zuckerberg among its users. Unfortunately, the creators of Scrabulous didn’t own the intellectual property to the game. The people who do own the IP, Hasbro and Mattel, have gone on the assault. They are suing Scrabulous’s creators Rajat Agarwall and...

It has amazed me that Hasbro and Mattel have demanded the removal of Scrabulous, the online Scrabble application, from Facebook. Scrabulous was a social marketer's dream; many agencies spend endless hours developing Facebook applications hoping to catch a big social media wave, but very few ever make it. The "stars" reach more than 500,000 active users. Scrabulous was one of that elite group; it reached over 650,000. So, given that Scrabulous was effectively a social marketing campaign to die for, why did Hasbro and Mattel ban it? Their lawyers have argued copyright was being infringed. Executives at these leading toy companies probably felt that players playing Scrabulous would dent or damage sales of the original Scrabble board game. Let's not forget that before all this happened,...

Oh dear, it seems people will no longer be able to play online Scrabble.This is thanks to the makers of Scrabble (quite unreasonably in my opinion) claiming that the makers of Scrabulous in some way have breached the copyright of the game by producing something identical online, with nearly exactly the same name.It amuses me that users of Facebook - where you can play Scrabulous - are lobbying Hasbro (the makers of Scrabble) for spoiling players' fun by wanting money for the game, and idea, they own the rights to. Surely people should be grinding their axe (10 points) with the dozing (17 points) wurzels (19 points) who make Scrabulous calling on them to quit (13 points).As an infrequent user (actually I've only played once, and won) of Scrabulous, the ideal situation would be for Hasbro...

I am a great fan of scrabble. I play an internet version and I play scrabulous on facebook. I like internet scrabble because if I can't thinnk of a word I can leave the game while I go and do something else and go back to it with a fresher mind. It also gives you the opportunity to larn from many different players and to play wiht friends and family who are not in the house.Apparently scrabble/scrabulous has really become a big hit with younger people through the scrabulous application on facebook. It has however seen the rise of people using anagram generators in order to improve their chances of winning. Before scrabulous exploded my son in law created something called the cheat-o-matic ( not only does he make my daughter happy but he is clever as well) and in his blog he notes that,...

I must admit being sceptical about facebook, probably because at first I thought it would be a Myspace (which I hate) clone.But after using it a while it has been quite useful.However, now I think, like a few other people I've reached the 'tipping point' on using it. Whilst I've found a few of the applications useful, I've reached the critical mass on my 'friends' and I don't think its likely I'll find anymore of my old friends through it.I have had a bit of a resurgence thanks to the brilliant Scrabulous application that has been developed.Otherwise though, I have to say i'm pretty bored of it now, and I'm gradually returning back to my blog. If other applications come along that are good as scrabulous fair enough, but I'll probably just keep my profile ticking along.I wonder how many...

Sorry about my absence over the weekend. I was here all along. In fact, I was here more than usual. It was one of the least busy weekends I’ve had in a while. But I somehow misplaced my blogging mojo and I was distracted by other things. Other things like my latest internet addiction, Scrabulous! Jeremy Bentham thought that humans wanted to maximise pleasure rather than pain. Goodness knows what he would have thought if he saw me inviting Facebook friends to play Scrabble against me. It has mostly been a demoralising affair. I hadn’t realised quite how rusty I was at Scrabble. I knew it was bad when I changed my target in my games to staying within 100 points of my opponent. Apologies to everyone who has had to put up with my awful Scrabble standards. Still, I did win one...