I once thought that no political comedy could be better than "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister". Well, "The Thick of It" comes pretty close. A new series is current on BBC2. It surrounds the fictional Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship (DoSAC), the Secretary of State and the higher ranking civil servants in the department. In the first series, the Minister, Hugh Abbot, was played by Chris Langham, but after his conviction for downloading child pornography, he was naturally dropped from the programme. In fact, this even for a while became a bit of an in-joke, where during several specials he's apparently in Australia, and the other characters would mention his conspicuous absence. At the beginning of the third series, there is a Cabinet reshuffle where Hugh is replaced by Nicola Murray (played by Rebbecca Front). It it wall to wall hilarious, and I think all of the characters are great. Some of it is part improvised, and I think that is what makes it feel quite realistic. In the episode that has just gone, someone at the department accidentally wipes the immigration records for everyone who had arrived in the country in the past six months, and the Minister and her staff have to deal with the political fallout, whilst also attempting to pacify the abrasive Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker (vaguely based on Blair's spin doctor, Alistair Campbell). Filming-wise, it is done in a style similar to a fly on the wall documentary, lacking any laughter track or music.
Anyway, been reasonably busy recently. Lectures, naturally, but also the amount of time spent on extra-curricular activities I participate in seems to have increased. I haven't actually taken on more things, it's just in each of the positions I volunteered for previously I've been elevated to greater responsibility. Going for a short visit home this next coming weekend though, so that should be nice. Again, I wish I could pad out this second paragraph a bit more, but at the moment I am really running out of inspiration. Monty Python were right. It is difficult to pad these things out to thirty minutes (well, in my case, a few minutes reading time, or two full paragraphs). Oh, I just remembered: "To Kill a Mockingbird" is fantastic so far. If it keeps this up it's winning a sure fire place in my favourites.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
The 7th Dimension
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
0
No, not the sci-fi, fantasy and horror segment on BBC Radio 7 (although that is good). Windows 7. Well, it looks different from Windows XP, I can say that much. I've never used Windows Vista except on the occasional computer at the university, so it is an interesting jump in terms of complexity. So far I have been impressed. The only thing I would say is that I have noticed an occasional flicker in sound when playing a song in Windows Media Player, but this may simply be because the system need defragmenting. That, and if a program closes strangely it will simply say "A program has stopped working", which is a little annoying, but it will try to reopen the program. Nothing major, but it wasn't there in XP. There are a lot of plus points though. For one, the computer can now support DirectX 10 graphics, which means I can finally see those volumetric smoke effects in World in Conflict. The first game I have reinstalled is Fallout 3, which I am now very slowly re-downloading all of the DLC for. I plan to start a new game again, but also try to continue playing my way through the original Fallout at the same time. Anyway, the thing which has most impressed me about Windows 7 is that it is smooth in performing almost all actions. Nothing really takes a particularly long time to bring up, and the system runs without using a whole lot of background processing power. It is useful that there is a manager to stop programs automatically starting up in the background, so those useless processes can be halted. I hate it when you install a program and it starts a random background process which seemingly does absolutely nothing, except use valuable system memory.
Started reading the seminal "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It is one of the books I have on a growing list of novels I have yet to read. I've been enjoying it so far: It has a vaguely Mark Twain feel to it. Funny, but serious at the same time. Also, I feel ashamed for not realising for a while that Scout Finch was a girl. I put down "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" again, because I feel it is one of those books I will need to read on and off to be able to get through. It seems to move at the speed of a coasting motorcycle. I was pleased that I finished my short essay/commentary on Heidegger though. Heidegger does the same thing as Kant does: Uses 90 billion words where 5 would do. But worse than that, he inserts words of his own devising, or uses common words with meanings which he has invented. Here is a sample sentence from "Being and Time": "Being-in is thus the formal existential for the Being of Dasein, which has Being-in-the-world as its essential state." To understand that sentence alone, you need to know what he means by "Being-in", "existential", "Being", "Dasein" and "Being-in-the-world". Don't panic, I'm not going to explain them here; if you're interested go and look them up yourself. Dasein in particular crops up in almost every other sentence. It feels like trying to decipher some kind of an ancient text.
Started reading the seminal "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It is one of the books I have on a growing list of novels I have yet to read. I've been enjoying it so far: It has a vaguely Mark Twain feel to it. Funny, but serious at the same time. Also, I feel ashamed for not realising for a while that Scout Finch was a girl. I put down "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" again, because I feel it is one of those books I will need to read on and off to be able to get through. It seems to move at the speed of a coasting motorcycle. I was pleased that I finished my short essay/commentary on Heidegger though. Heidegger does the same thing as Kant does: Uses 90 billion words where 5 would do. But worse than that, he inserts words of his own devising, or uses common words with meanings which he has invented. Here is a sample sentence from "Being and Time": "Being-in is thus the formal existential for the Being of Dasein, which has Being-in-the-world as its essential state." To understand that sentence alone, you need to know what he means by "Being-in", "existential", "Being", "Dasein" and "Being-in-the-world". Don't panic, I'm not going to explain them here; if you're interested go and look them up yourself. Dasein in particular crops up in almost every other sentence. It feels like trying to decipher some kind of an ancient text.
Friday, 23 October 2009
And Another Thing...
Friday, 23 October 2009
0
In the increasingly inaccurately named 'trilogy' of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", there has recently been released a sixth book, despite the fact that author Douglas Adams sadly died in 2001. If I were to expect anyone to manage to write from beyond the grave, it would be Adams, but not even he has managed to do that, yet. "And Another Thing..." is written by Eion Colfer, the children's author renowned for his excellent Artemis Fowl series, and continues the story beyond the end of the last novel, "Mostly Harmless" and I've just finished reading it. I think for the most part, there are two types of Hitchhiker fans. On the one side, you have the raving maniacs: Those who believe that the work of Adams is the divine gospel, and that anything else is heresy. Then there are those, like me, who believe that the inconsistent and almost self-contradictory nature of the entire Hitchhiker's franchise, through the radio series to books and to film, means that it is in it's very nature to be played around with. Adams certainly wasn't one for making sure his stories fit neatly together, and my very blog, both here and The Siderial Daily Mentioner, embrace the chance to play in the Hitchhiker universe. So, down to my review, and I warn now of spoilers abound. I very much enjoyed the book. It's not Douglas Adams, but it is a great book nonetheless. For a start, I think this is a good thing to continue the story beyond the current ending. "Mostly Harmless" was easily the most depressing of the Hitchhiker novels. Everyman hero Arthur Dent has lost the love of his life, Fenchurch, and along with that the Earth is destroyed (again) and all of the main characters (including Arthur) are killed along with the Earth.
It is therefore nice to know that Dent and the others are not vapourised with the new destruction of Earth, and once again, the probability axis and a certain Infinite Improbability Drive come in handy. There are part of the book I really enjoy, and others which aren't as good. For example, for the most part I like the character development. The novel is a lot more of an ensemble production, with a lot of time dedicated to characters who had previously been given less development, such as Trillian and Random. There are also some old minor characters who are given more important roles, including Thor the Thunder God and Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. There are also some funny asides here and there to the radio series. For example, one of Trillian's imagined memories is that they all escaped from Earth to Milliways, which is precised what happened at the end of the "Mostly Harmless" radio series. One of the funniest references to Artemis Fowl was twice, Zaphod Beeblebrox called Arthur 'Arty', which several characters likewise call Artemis Fowl. Some of the things I like less are the Guide Notes. The problem with them mainly is that there are too many, and they, well, aren't funny enough. Some of them are minor asides, in the style of the radio series, but occasionally it will have a rambling story, very similar to Adams' style, which doesn't have a particularly good punchline at the end. Also, the genuine main character of the series, Arthur Dent, along with his companion Ford Prefect, who really should be at the heart of the book, are mainly sidelined. Arthur's love with Fenchurch is explored but only superficially, and Ford doesn't seem to do a whole lot (although, come to think of it, he never has). It is evident that Colfer much preferred writing about his own characters and those who had minimal characterisation, and found it less easy to write about those with complex backgrounds.
Overall though, the book has significantly impressed me. It isn't, and never could be Douglas Adams, but it also brings something new and interesting to the Hitchhiker universe. The brand new character of Hillman Hunter (another car related joke, most likely), an Irish multi-millionaire who took the super-rich off Earth prior to the demolition to a small planet named after his grandmother, is a great addition. Parts of that entire plot line reminded me strongly of the mad thoughts surrounding Scientology. Similarly, Hunter's interviews with prospective Gods, including Cthulhu and Gaia, is great. Zaphod essentially is the star of the show here (what would you expect from Beeblebrox?), and his witty charm and banter with Ford Prefect come across well. There was also some great imagery, such as the section when a vast and ancient spacefreighter had travelled for millennia to deliver some rubber bands. Another lovely idea was to develop the Vogons personalities, by having one (the new character of Constant Mown, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz's son) show compassion. In the entire book, I only noticed a single mistake, which was adapted from the radio series. This was the idea that Vann Harl and Zarniwoop, who are two totally separate characters in the novels, and one and the same person. This only occurs in the radio series, because Jonathan Pryce voices both of them. In the novels, Zarniwoop works for the Guide in the earlier books, but is abandoned with the Ruler of the Universe, and Vann Harl is the new Editor of the Guide once InfiniDim Enterprises take over from Megadodo Publications. And of course if people didn't like it, they are more than welcome to pretend the whole thing is a SEP and finish at "Mostly Harmless". In the end though, a worthy addendum to the series. 4/5.
It is therefore nice to know that Dent and the others are not vapourised with the new destruction of Earth, and once again, the probability axis and a certain Infinite Improbability Drive come in handy. There are part of the book I really enjoy, and others which aren't as good. For example, for the most part I like the character development. The novel is a lot more of an ensemble production, with a lot of time dedicated to characters who had previously been given less development, such as Trillian and Random. There are also some old minor characters who are given more important roles, including Thor the Thunder God and Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. There are also some funny asides here and there to the radio series. For example, one of Trillian's imagined memories is that they all escaped from Earth to Milliways, which is precised what happened at the end of the "Mostly Harmless" radio series. One of the funniest references to Artemis Fowl was twice, Zaphod Beeblebrox called Arthur 'Arty', which several characters likewise call Artemis Fowl. Some of the things I like less are the Guide Notes. The problem with them mainly is that there are too many, and they, well, aren't funny enough. Some of them are minor asides, in the style of the radio series, but occasionally it will have a rambling story, very similar to Adams' style, which doesn't have a particularly good punchline at the end. Also, the genuine main character of the series, Arthur Dent, along with his companion Ford Prefect, who really should be at the heart of the book, are mainly sidelined. Arthur's love with Fenchurch is explored but only superficially, and Ford doesn't seem to do a whole lot (although, come to think of it, he never has). It is evident that Colfer much preferred writing about his own characters and those who had minimal characterisation, and found it less easy to write about those with complex backgrounds.
Overall though, the book has significantly impressed me. It isn't, and never could be Douglas Adams, but it also brings something new and interesting to the Hitchhiker universe. The brand new character of Hillman Hunter (another car related joke, most likely), an Irish multi-millionaire who took the super-rich off Earth prior to the demolition to a small planet named after his grandmother, is a great addition. Parts of that entire plot line reminded me strongly of the mad thoughts surrounding Scientology. Similarly, Hunter's interviews with prospective Gods, including Cthulhu and Gaia, is great. Zaphod essentially is the star of the show here (what would you expect from Beeblebrox?), and his witty charm and banter with Ford Prefect come across well. There was also some great imagery, such as the section when a vast and ancient spacefreighter had travelled for millennia to deliver some rubber bands. Another lovely idea was to develop the Vogons personalities, by having one (the new character of Constant Mown, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz's son) show compassion. In the entire book, I only noticed a single mistake, which was adapted from the radio series. This was the idea that Vann Harl and Zarniwoop, who are two totally separate characters in the novels, and one and the same person. This only occurs in the radio series, because Jonathan Pryce voices both of them. In the novels, Zarniwoop works for the Guide in the earlier books, but is abandoned with the Ruler of the Universe, and Vann Harl is the new Editor of the Guide once InfiniDim Enterprises take over from Megadodo Publications. And of course if people didn't like it, they are more than welcome to pretend the whole thing is a SEP and finish at "Mostly Harmless". In the end though, a worthy addendum to the series. 4/5.
Saturday, 17 October 2009
Our Redesigned World
Saturday, 17 October 2009
2
Well, the redesign has finally come to Qualvista. I hope you like it, even if it isn't as Web 2.0 as I might have first liked. I'd initially imagined a three column page, but in the end I couldn't figure out what I would put in the third column, so I dropped that idea. One thing is for sure: I'm certainly not doing that again in a long time. Getting a rough template I actually liked was havoc, and then fitting it out so there weren't adverts left right and centre took a bit of HMTL editing. Finally, changing around the colour scheme and editing a few of the images and other hypertext things was rather tiresome. I'm definitely not redesigning The Siderial Daily Mentioner for a few weeks yet, and when I do I hope it's not going to be as complex. I need a rest after Qualvista. It drained me, perhaps emotionally. I'm just glad it looks relatively snazzy now. The last thing I may do is add a banner image of some sort, but that can wait. The main advantages of the design change are 1. we are now slightly wider (sadly not properly wide yet, but wider than Twitter and about the width GameSpot deigns to be considered "wide"), and 2. the inbuilt comment function, which instead of having a page devoted to comments, can now be found underneath the article page in question. I know I don't get many comments, but I thought that was a useful feature nonetheless. During my arduous task of the redesign, I discovered some free website templates by this freelance designer (I forget his name), one of which would be perfect for this choir website I'm supposed to be putting together. So I am definitely going to pursue that option, since I've found I'm alright-ish at HTML editing. I don't think I can code from scratch yet though.
I debated about whether or not to have the Blogger navigation bar visible, but in the end I decided to keep it. I like being able to click the "New Post" and "Customise" buttons on it. Anyway, moving to a different topic for the latter half of this posting, I just pre-ordered Windows 7 Professional Edition. I'm currently running on Windows XP, and most of the time it has been good. I also have an unopened, boxed version of Windows Vista that I won in a competition, but have never opened it because of all the negative things I heard regarding it. However, recently noticed that Microsoft were having a promotion for people who had recently bought copies of Windows Vista, where they could upgrade them for free to Windows 7. After calling Microsoft and explaining to them my situation, they said that the offer was only for recent purchases, and since I had won my copy some time ago, I was not eligible. However, I did discover that Microsoft are currently offering Windows 7 at a highly reduced (I mean, over £120 less) rate for students. So, being a student for not a whole while longer and wanting to savour the moment, I went ahead and pre-ordered it. My reasoning for doing so is that I can hopefully sell my boxed Windows Vista and try and break even overall. Windows XP is coming to the end of it's life, so I decided it was time to jump on the upgrade train. The downside to all this is that I have to do a clean install for my computer. Luckily I have a second hard drive to which I can copy the files and programmes, but the tutorial on the Microsoft website said that upgrading could take several hours. Ah well, there's no gain without strain.
I debated about whether or not to have the Blogger navigation bar visible, but in the end I decided to keep it. I like being able to click the "New Post" and "Customise" buttons on it. Anyway, moving to a different topic for the latter half of this posting, I just pre-ordered Windows 7 Professional Edition. I'm currently running on Windows XP, and most of the time it has been good. I also have an unopened, boxed version of Windows Vista that I won in a competition, but have never opened it because of all the negative things I heard regarding it. However, recently noticed that Microsoft were having a promotion for people who had recently bought copies of Windows Vista, where they could upgrade them for free to Windows 7. After calling Microsoft and explaining to them my situation, they said that the offer was only for recent purchases, and since I had won my copy some time ago, I was not eligible. However, I did discover that Microsoft are currently offering Windows 7 at a highly reduced (I mean, over £120 less) rate for students. So, being a student for not a whole while longer and wanting to savour the moment, I went ahead and pre-ordered it. My reasoning for doing so is that I can hopefully sell my boxed Windows Vista and try and break even overall. Windows XP is coming to the end of it's life, so I decided it was time to jump on the upgrade train. The downside to all this is that I have to do a clean install for my computer. Luckily I have a second hard drive to which I can copy the files and programmes, but the tutorial on the Microsoft website said that upgrading could take several hours. Ah well, there's no gain without strain.
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