2016 Awards

In an amazing turn of events that nobody who knows me will have seen coming, because it’s so unusual… I’m a little bit behind with some things at the moment, and sorting out this year’s awards poll is one of them.

I could possibly have done all this by now – on Saturday I concluded that everything urgent (that pays) was done, so I could have worked on it then, but I decided it was about time I had a whole weekend when I could just relax, for the first time in ages.

Before that (and a little more this evening) I have started to compile a list of initial nominations – quite a long list in some categories, so it’ll need trimming down, but I’m not quite there yet.

This year, I’ll aim to get the poll started around the middle of the month-ish. I’ll post the draft list of options here by the end of this week for discussion, additional suggestions, etc.

I will be using the same approach as last year: Up to six named options, and a free-form field for people to suggest alternatives, with an occasional round-up for those who have yet to decide – or who would like to change their minds (simple approach: when the results are processed, where there are duplicate voters, the most recent one is used).

But here’s the important question; the reason I’m opening the discussion now:

The survey. I haven’t published the results for the last couple of years. IIRC, there was an improvement on the numbers who chose to participate in that last year over the year before – but the number the year before was just dire, even for this small community.

So shall I persevere (and dig out and publish the results – which may involve a bit of effort; IIRC they’re processed, but I’ll have to turn the results into a meaningful page, with writing and everything ) ?

Or should I just abandon the survey? Give it up as an interesting experiment that didn’t really work out?

As much as I think the survey is a fun thing to read, I appreciate that it is a lot of work for you and…yeah… 22 hours and this is the first reply? :-/

Yeap, the survey is interesting. But if it’s too much job for you… you could simply drop it.

While I mentioned effort, I didn’t mean to imply it’s too much for me to do – what I really meant to suggest (or rather question) is whether the outcome is worth the effort.

Another reason for not doing it is the form itself. A straightforward form isn’t the ideal way to do it. For one thing, it makes the whole page really long and the overall form (poll and survey) look quite daunting.

If I’m going to include the survey, I should do it properly – one question per page, with some questions only appearing if relevant based on previous answers. (TBH, there’s an argument for the voting form being done like that as well.)

Not difficult, but I’m not going to spend the time setting that up now! :)

Perhaps a better solution is to only do the survey once every few years. Or run it at a separate time in the year. Or both. (Or all three – and present the questions properly, as above).

Plus…

22 hours and this is the first reply?

Yeah, that. It does suggest people aren’t that interested in the survey, doesn’t it?

Which kind of makes the point for me.

Personally, I like it. I always complete it and read the results with interest.

In the past, the survey has brought products to my attention that I didn’t know existed. From that perspective I think it’s useful. As for voting, I tend to only vote in a subset of the categories due to inexperience with the others.

The Annual Awards is a great initiative that gives back a little to the coders, engineers and innovators that put in lots of time and effort into the RISC OS scene.
Always a good read to see how other users perceive the highlights of the year.

If it takes a lot of time to create the awards html/javascript, perhaps use Google Forms. It’s 100% free and you can do surveys etc in it with very little effort.

In the past, the survey has brought products to my attention that I didn’t know existed. From that perspective I think it’s useful.

I concur. I just downloaded ArchiEmu as a result of this thread and looking at last year’s results.

As for voting, I tend to only vote in a subset of the categories due to inexperience with the others.

Again, I’m the same. Some things I don’t know about so I feel it unfair to vote on stuff I haven’t used/played with.

But I try to take part!

Stevyn/Chris:

I think you may have misunderstood – both of your comments suggest to me that you think I’m talking about ending the awards poll. I’m not.

The question of whether or not it’s worth continuing is only about the survey – the bit that asks what age group you are in, how many computers you have, etc.

Alan:

The existing form is already written – setting up the awards poll is just a matter of plugging in this year’s options, and any accompanying text. I’d have to do that regardless of whether I use my existing system or use Google Forms.

The existing survey is also already written – that is, at the moment, part of the same form. Setting that up as it stands is therefore zero effort.

Doing it properly wouldn’t be particularly difficult (as I said), but it’s more effort than doing it the way it’s already set up.

Also doing it (properly or otherwise) ‘in house’ would have the advantage of not being Google – but I’ve already put my tinfoil hat on its hat stand for the night, so I’ll shut up now.

My initial list of nominations…

As I said above, I’m going to reuse last year’s format, because from my point of view it worked quite well: That’s up to six options, with a text field for alternative options. Therefore, there are up to six suggestions in each category below.

Where there aren’t six suggestions when it goes live, that’s fine – but if they can be expanded to six, that would be better.

And, obviously, there will be some disagreement with my initial suggestions – so convince me why this is wrong and that is right (but be prepared for me to say “yeah but…” and so on).

At the end of the day, though, my decision is final. My final decision, that is – that’s the one that’s final. This isn’t that.

Best commercial software

• CloudFS
• Fireworkz Pro 2
• Impression-X
• Organizer
• Photodesk
• RiscOSM

Best non-commercial software

• DPlngScan
• Ovation notPro
• Pluto
• PS2Paper
• SatNav
• StrongED

Best game or diversion (Which I might have missed out before!)

• Darkplaces Quake 1 engine
• Final Doom with high quality music
• Moptops
• Starfighter 3000
• Oh, no! More Lemmings!
• ???

My notes for this category are a but raw; so it might be that I did miss it out – and/or I might have listed it but not used the same selection this time. Oops.

This time I’ve updated my notes so they reflect the list.

Best hardware

• Micro One
• pi-topRO
• PiSSD
• Raspberry Pi 3
• RISCBook Go! (although non-native)
• Titanium

RISCOSbits have a number of things, so I just picked one at random – PiSSD, and I deliberately chose the two new laptop solutions so there’s one item each from CJE/R-Comp. Plus, with both having a Titanium-based computer, I didn’t want to pick one of those to have Titanium competing with a Titanium and a Titanium.

Best solution for backwards compatibility

• ADFFS
• Aemulor
• ArcEm
• ArchieEmu
• RPCEmu
• VirtualRiscPC

I was initially considering RiscPOD here, but I decided against it because it uses either RPCEmu or ArcEM.

Best new development

• Cheaper downloadable VRPC
• CloudFS
• HDMI audio on ARMX6
• Micro One
• SatNav
• Titanium Completion of JPEG bounty/improved JPEG support in RISC OS

Best show of initiative

• Chris Hall for deciding to get GPS working with RISC OS
• Elesar for coming up with CloudFS
• Paul Emerton for his BBCMedia preservation efforts
• Raspberry Pi Foundation for giving away a computer on a magazine!
• Tim Hill for setting up and maintaining a RISC OS events calendar using Google
• David Feugey for running an ongoing Raspberry Pi contest to encourage development.

Best website or online resource

• Archive-online
• Acorn News Service
• RISC OS Open website and forums
• RISC OS Packaging Project and repositories (though I’m not sure who would be the recipient if it won)
• riscos.info
• PlingStore

Best publication or offline resource

• Archive Mag
• Drag ’n Drop
• GAG News
• Mobile Unleashed (a book about the first 25 years of ARM)
• Style Guide DDE manuals box set
• ???

Best foreign language resource

• Arcsite.de
• Big Ben Club website
• RISCOS.fr
• Steffen Huber’s blog
• ???
• ???

Best show or event

• London show
• Recursion
• RISC OS eXperience
• Southwest Show
• Wakefield
• ???

Most innovative or interesting project

• Any of RISCOSbits’ range PiPOD
• CloudFS Dual head capability for Titanium
• Satnav
• Tony Bartram’s Wavebox-esq synth project
• ADFFS / Archimedes Software Preservation Project
• AMCS from 3rd Event

Best overall contributor

No nominations – this will be a text field as before

Broken cog

• 52% of the voting public for voting to leave the EU Those who don’t attend shows and user group meetings (doubly so those who ask for reports within hours of the show being over)
• Anyone suffering from WROCC syndrome
• Archive for its publishing schedule
• ARM Ltd for being sold to Softbank Those who cling on to old hardware and complain about new things not being compatible or not working.
• Chris Evans for continuing to not use projectors etc
• Richard Keefe for not even setting up a basic website at impression-x.co.uk

52% of the voting public for voting to leave the EU

This. So very much.

I’d be inclined to list AMCOG’s games as an entry for Best new development. Not only do we have new games, but they’re varied in type, fun, and he’s not an ass with the source code – it’s plain BASIC, uncompressed, and you can fiddle with it. What’s not to like?

…actually, the hackability might count as a show of initiative too. :-)

Add the Big Ben Show for the list of shows? I haven’t been yet, but I expect some people think it’s the best.

Add the Big Ben Show for the list of shows?

The Big Ben Club is the organiser of the ‘RISC OS eXperience’
http://www.bigbenclub.nl/bbc/rox/enq_uk.html

Anyone suffering from WROCC syndrome

I hesitate to ask, but, er, what’s WROCC Syndrome?

what’s WROCC Syndrome?

GIYF – WROCC syndrome is a condition that somehow causes its sufferers to not send announcements to the news address of what is now the only regularly updated news website in the RISC OS community. The Wakefield group (or whoever sends out their announcements) aren’t the only people who fail to do this – and therefore aren’t the only people afflicted with this terrible condition – but it is their announcements (and the fact that I don’t receive them) that has led me to realise that it is a very real, and very serious condition.

I hesitate to ask, but, er, what’s GIYF mean? 8~)

that’s a question that just resolved itself recursively…or something like that

52% of the voting public for voting to leave the EU

That is indeed a seriously broken cog. According to my reading of history, WW2 started with the sort of thing that that liar Farage was peddling: identify a group of people who don’t go back generations in this country; blame all the ills suffered by the bottom of society on that group. Then keep repeating the lie. As the Nazis discovered, if the lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it. (The same phenomenon has been amply demonstrated this year in America with all the fake news. Pizzagate was just one example.)

I’ve made a couple of changes to the list – which I’ve edited into the original post

One of the things I didn’t want to do – but didn’t spot that I had done – was include the same person/company more than once in any individual award; but I just noticed that I’d included Elesar twice in Best new development – CloudFS and Titanium. Rob himself suggested that the JPEG bounty might fit in somewhere, and that seems to be the best place. :)

As to which one I took out, I decided CloudFS can stay in because although I’m not a fan of cloudy stuff (though I recognise it can by handy for some things), I consider being able to use something cloudy, even if it’s just one provider atm, is an important step for RISC OS.

Plus (without checking) I’m pretty sure Titanium won last year. All considered, it seemed the logical one to take out.

The next change is taking the Style Guide off of the best publication category, and dropping in the DDE manuals. Again, Rob’s suggestion – the DDE books somehow slipped under my radar. (Must add them to my shopping list for the SW show!)

CloudFS is gone from the most innovative/interesting project category, to be replaced by the ongoing dual head Titanium work.

In the same category, I’ve replaced a generic reference to RISCOSbits to PiPOD (I think that probably qualifies as the most innovative/interesting from the range).

Rick: While I appreciate and fully support what Tony has done (literally, with cold hard cash), I’m not sure I agree new games are a significant enough thing to class as a new development – and making them open source in a world with open source software-a-plenty (even some games¹) isn’t really a show of initiative. (Sorry Tony!)

Ideally, I’d like to set up the poll this weekend (which will allow it to run for two months if I leave it online until the tail end of my normal holiday).

¹ I’d point to the best game or diversion category for an example, but I can’t see it now. Did I accidentally edit it out just now, or did I forget to include it? I’d better dig out my notes and add it! Darkplaces Quake engine, for example.

Steve – WROCC syndrome is as Rick has said (though if I’d answered first it would have been a lmgtfy.com link!)

Why I’ve named it after WROCC is explained in this post

open source software-a-plenty (even some games1) isn’t really a show of initiative

Now you if had made the games category a bit more flexible you could have put in the ADFFS developments.

Having said that I have as much interest in computer games¹ as you (Vince) have in beer. Which may register in negative numbers.

¹ As an example, many years ago (school days) I built (and modified) a programmable TV games computer. The base “OS” being entered into an EEPROM using the new, fresh out of the packing, programmer at the local Polytechnic. I learned how from a slim manual and wrote notes² while testing on “spare” devices.
Having built it, tested it and cased it all up, I handed it over to my sisters who did like TV games. I’d already had my fun.
² Apologies to the students who may have had difficulties understanding the notes after they were typed up by the departmental secretary – hey I was in school, they were “adults” who should know more.

ADFFS is currently in the backwards compatibility category – and thinking about it, it’s probably worthy of the interesting project category.

I don’t keep up with it, I don’t follow the forum, etc, and only hear about it when it comes up elsewhere – but it occurs to me that while it’s not a game, if there’s any game in particular that has gained a new lease of life from it – e.g. something that’s become available recently and has proven popular amongst its users – that game would be worth adding to the games category.

If (as seems very likely) the original company is no longer around, that would in effect be an ADFFS/JASPP entry.

Have you thought of a nice glass of Horlicks; This is what sorted me out in the 60s before I discovered I was milk-intolerant!

It was the 70s before I discovered that!

Give it a try!

Well, that’s completely random. In which category are you suggesting I include “A nice glass of Horlicks” – and why? What does it have to do with RISC OS?

“A nice glass of Horlicks”

You seemed to be worrying too much and in need of a good night’s sleep – which, by the timings of postings, you seemed to have eventually managed.

“A nice glass of Horlicks” – and why? What does it have to do with RISC OS?

I think “Horlicks” is the comment you make when a bit of code doesn’t quite run as you thought. Should that be in the Style Guide or the DDE docs?
Off to Aldershot folks…