Just started watching an internet TV show called The Scene. It’s very unique to say the least, it’s about a scene group who release movies onto the internet before anyone else and you can’t help but think the people involved in the project have come from such a background themselves. Presented as though you were looking at the character’s computer screen, most of the story is told by reading the IRC and IM chatting that is going on between the members of this release group. You also get to see the person in question in a kind of webcam view in the top left of the screen. It’s certainly very different and not everyone’s taste but will entertain those interested in learning more about the under ground world of the scene.
Monthly Archive for March, 2005Page 2 of 5
I’ve been looking forward to a new Audioslave album for ages, so it was great to listen to the first single from it called Be Yourself. Very catchy and keeps with the style of the previous album, us Rageoholics will have to wait a little longer for the heavier stuff I feel. Found out they are playing three nights in Brixton at the end of June so I will try to get up there and catch them live, just try and stop my chanting “Killing in the Name” ;-).
You can take Morello out of the Whammy but you can’t take the Whammy out of Morello.
The BBC announced today that the person responsible for the Dr Who leak in Canada has been fired. It still feels intentional to me though, they have managed to create a huge buzz just by leaking the first episode and that buzz continues with more stories like this popping up every week. As The Guardian points out its great timing just days before its shown on British TV. Eccleston’s comments were overkill though.
At the time Eccleston described the leak as “sick”, urging fans not to download the copy and wait for the legal broadcast on BBC1.
So he believes license fee payers are not allowed to watch this however they choose, the new doctor should be happy that people want to see it that badly instead of worrying about Saturday’s ratings, ratings shouldn’t affect a public service broadcaster but its clear with the beeb they do.
It’s sick that the BBC spun this story in first place.
Been trying out PGP Beta 9 at work today. So far I am very impressed with the encrypt whole disk feature, its something that should have been in the package along time ago. Its perfect for encrypting a USB drive or second hard drive but I wouldn’t recomend it for the boot drive. If windows buggers up or the hard drive fails it won’t be recoverable using third party tools due to how the encryption is tightly tied to Windows XP. They really need a Linux and MacOS client for WDE to make it the killer app it should be.
I have been writing a ‘diary’ while on placement using Live Journal. Reason being that I needed a quick, easy and free way of posting entries which LJ pretty much fulfills. I am approaching the time when I will need to consolidate all these entries into something presentable so I have a few things I could do.
1) Give the person reviewing my diary access to my private entries, trouble is the need an LJ account.
2) Convert the LJ into PDF. It can be done! I found this cool tool that takes the XML and produces an acrobat document. Looks pretty useful and the output doesn’t seem to shabby.
3) Port the LJ to Wordpress and do something with it later. I figure that if I can get the LJ entries into this wordpress blog using the built in import tool I can just extract them from the mySQL database and format them how I see fit.
I will probably do number 3 because I can stick the resulting posts into OpenOffice and format them how I see fit. Its very welcome that Wordpress make it so easy to port you old blogs over.
Oh and no it won’t be public if I do convert it onto this blog. What with all the company secrets and scandalous stories about colleagues it could never be published on the web. I do have some integrity 
When I first watched clips of Brothers in Arms I noticed orders were being issued to your squad mates using a blue disc that you hovered over the ground to indicate where they should move to or, more importantly, who they should fire at. This didn’t strike me as intuitive but Gearbox have done a fine job implementing it and I soon found myself commanding multiple fire teams (and later tanks) without even thinking about it. This adds a whole new depth to combat and strategy that its closest competitors Medal of Honor and Call of Duty lack. In fact the way enemy units are suppressed and outflanked is more akin to Full Spectrum Warrior released last year on Xbox, but that was pure strategy, there was no direct control when moving and shooting your way through combat zones like BIA manages.
Not only does BIA pull together those two game types but it does it with a level of polish and realism normally reserved movies and certain TV shows. To say that this bears some resemblance to the Band of Brothers TV series would be a massive understatement. From the banter and emotion between your comrades to the orchestral score the game reeks of the Spielberg show, thats not a bad thing, its a huge plus and I highly recommend seeking out the DVDs before starting this up as it gives a lot of life to the title.
One word of caution, if your used to the run and gun, almost arcade in comparison antics of MOH and COD then get used to death. The added strategy element means that if you get out flanked by the enemy your team get pretty much wiped out, on more than one occasion I have had to finish missions single handedly because of mistakes earlier on in a mission. Oh and don’t forget there is no quick saving here, its all done by conveniently positioned checkpoints ala Halo. I did find COD far too easy and I finished it in a weekend, whereas after this weekend I am still playing BIA. It hasn’t put me off but made me want to play more and get back at those Nazis.
Reading the manual it seems Gearbox have some more BIA branded titles in the pipeline as it refers to this game being part of the “Brothers in Arms Series”. Do we need another WW2 series of games? If this one is anything to go by then keep them coming. Must go, got to outflank a German patrol in Northern France. Viva la revolution!
BBC News are running a story covering the UK’s confusion with HDTV. I think the main problem at the moment is the lack of education in the difference between digital and HD. For the last few years its been rammed down our throats by the BBC, Sky and at one point ITV that digital is better than analogue and that we must get set top boxes soon because the analogue transmitions will be turned off this decade. So far this strategy has been successful, Freeview has had huge success as the prices of boxes plummeted and Sky has picked up more subscribers than predicted over the last year. For those broadcasters to turn around and ask us to pay for another box and another TV to experience high def will seem like a slap in the face to some people.
I am all for HD but the only way Sky and the Beeb can prepare us is by letting us all know early what their plans are and when its going to happen. Of course the early adopters (me included) will go out and buy into it straight away but to get the masses to switch over to another broadcast standard for second time is going to be a struggle. I can only see this really start to gain momentum when the first Blu-ray and HD-DVD players and movies are released, DVD players led to increased widescreen TV sales more than widescreen broadcasts themselves did, so it only figures that these HD players will do the same. Then we will have two very good reasons to take the plunge.
I was very surprised to see the Engadget podcast pop up in my aggregator today! After about three months off they are back with a new host and (hopefully) more regular releases. I had deleted this feed from Doppler after nothing came through for two months and realising Phil Tyrone (original host) had moved to MAKE magazine but looks like there is life in the old dog yet.
Just changed the header image by following this great guide from Janicek.com. Allows me to take any picture and convert it for use in on the header - very cool.
There is a very good article in today’s Observer about the new US version of The Office. I had written it off as soon as it was announced it was coming to fruition as The Office was a brilliant show that seemed very British and as such would suffer in the move to a US audience. Reading the piece I found myself laughing at some of the quotes from the pilot which airs this Thursday on NBC. The new boss Michael Scott (played by Steve Carrell) is involved in a racial awareness day where they bring up different races and do quirky role-plays, what does Scott say on the lack of Arabs? “I thought that would be too explosive” going on to say they may be added next year “The ball is in their court.”
I found this amusing enough to go and check out some of the clips available on the official web site and the theme continues that they have managed to translate the best qualities of the original but give it an American twist. I was dreading Thursday (well Friday really as that’s when I will have the torrent) but now it seems a whole lot more promising.
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