Do you like this real-time commentary?
Three geeks talking: "That's the saddest thing I've seen since Matrix Revolutions".
Nice!
Labels: primeval, sci-fi, tv
So, onto episode 2, and the "previously on Primeval" section shows stuff that we've not seen before.
I fucking hate that.
Labels: primeval, sci-fi, tv
And it's only a pilot.
They've taken a lot of care, I'm sure, over the size, colour, sounds, etc of the dinosaurs. But they missed two basic elements of biology and physics.
But first, a little side story:
Aristotle, you know, that clever old Greek guy, thought that men and women had different numbers of teeth. All he had to do to check this, was look inside his wife's mouth and then a mate's mouth, and he'd be able to confirm that actually we have the same number.
Likewise, when the Professor in Primeval counted the number of ribs in the human skeleton to say that it was male, he might have remembered biology 101: men and women have the same number of ribs.
Secondly, I've seen the mess made of a big truck when it hits a deer. But somehow, the Professor's buddy drives a truck into a - and I quote the program here - 5 or 6 ton dinosaur, knocks it over and stuns it, and then just gets out of the car.
Er... no. I don't think so.
Oh deer. Get the back to the gravel pit, oh ITV producers.
Labels: primeval, sci-fi, tv
Yes, Americani
sed, not Americanized.
I'm just watching the first episode of Primeval, and when the Scottish professor said they could be in the Forest of Dean in under an hour (or something), I thought "Not from America, you won't", and it was only then that I realised everyone else was also British.
Bloody hell, a British sci-fi series that doesn't have wobbly walls and is filmed in that gravel pit that Doctor Who used to be filmed in.
Blimey.
Labels: tv sci-fi primeval
I've just been reading through some of the music reviews provided on tnt-audio.com, a site for audiophiles (or hi-fi buffs, as I called them over the years). And it's inspired me to write a series of posts about the music I listen to. And I mean JUST listen to. Not "put on in the background whilst working". Not "play in the car". And not "singalong to".
Just stuff I put on to play, sit back, close my eyes, and listen. And to which I maybe tap my a foot or finger, if I'm feeling particularly worked up about the song.
The sort of stuff that I'd listen to first, if someone gave me a cracking music set up to listen with which to listen. OK, occasionally, "stuff to sing-a-long with" will sneak into the list (Holding Out For A Hero by Bonnie Tyler - go on, I dare you to say you've never strutted your stuff to Jim Steinman's best!) as will "stuff to dance to" (You Got The Love by The Source and Candi Staton)
So here's the first:
Things Gonna Change, by John Lee HookerNow, I'm not a blues person. I think this is probably the only blues song in my collection, and that's after buying (yes, BUYING... that thing were you like something so much that you hand-over cold, hard, cash and get something non-digital in return) the CD and listening to it.
John's got the deep gravelly voice, and is one hot guitar player to boot (take a listen to
this sample). It's a cool little song, which summarises the first time I heard it:
Sat on the back of a boat, rocking gently in the bay of some Greek island which I forget the name of now, small enough for one village, two tavernas, and not much else. Myself and three mates where on one yacht, in a flotilla of about 10 or so others. It was in the middle of the two week break, so we'd had enough time to get to know everyone else on the boats, and scare off anyone who thought we were too young/too drunk/too balshy/all of the above.
So there were about 8 of us playing some card game, for a drachma a time or something. The music was playing. The rum was flowing. The stars were shining like you've
never seen them before. A lightning storm was playing out on the horizon. The evening was balmy but with a bit of a breeze to cool us off. And we were all well fed.
The perfect setting for the dulcet tones of La Hooker (so to speak) to come out of the boombox. I was hooked (no pun intended).
That song will forever transport me back to that delightful summer evening.
Labels: greece, john lee hooker, music
Given that Virgin Media have offered up Nip/Tuck in the free on-demand, I thought I'd give it a shot. It's always been on the periphery of my "things to watch" list, along with 6 Feet Under and a few other series I can't think of right now.
What a great series. The woman who plays Mrs McNamara is great as the stressed-out, unhappy-in-marriage, bored suburban wife.
Labels: tv
I've probably bored you all to death with my stories about starting work in the engineering department at Motorola, and having a recurring headache for two weeks.
This section configured mobile phone base stations. The servers / radio transceivers that handle the routing of calls, and therefore spit out a lot of power.
And how the incidences of cancer in the spine/hips apparently started rising a few years after brickies started carrying their phone on their belts.
And hence I don't carry my phone on me in the same location of my body every time, and if I get the chance, I stick in my rucksack rather than my coat pocket to get some distance.
Well, don't say I didn't warn you...
Minding the Planet: Frequent Mobile Phone Use Linked to Tumor
Somehow I missed the news, but NTL+Telewest is now Virgin Media. Queue the onslaught of branding literature through the door....
But they've launched Virgin Central. Go to the channel, press Red, and watch your favourite programs whenever you want, including pause etc.
Shows like CSI, The OC, Nip/Tuck, Grey's Anatomy, Cold Case, Spooks. Each episode being available for 2 weeks.
Plus they've got On Demand TV Hits, with, and I quote, "Fab new series". Such as One Tree Hill, Most Haunted, and....
... wait for it...
Babylon 5
Gizmodo = Gadget-whore-dom
This: A diatribe against rampant gadgetumerism ... by a former Gizmodo writer.
Class. I think I've just met my soulmate...
Him, me, and my 40-pounds-heavy MP3 player are going to be very happy together.
Holy ShitAnd good old geekologie's comments are on target as well!
http://www.nabaztag.com/en/m-3-nabaztag-what-does-he-do.html
First time I've heard of these... watch the presentation - very well done. I love the bit where you can send your loved one some music. Classy!
Oh, and if you're reading Microsoft, why the hell can't I right-click from a playlist and pick an option to totally delete the file from the playlist, the library, and my filesystem. Now it take about half-a-dozen clicks, and interrupts my playlist flow as well!
Labels: media player, microsoft, mp3s
Take the last version (or at least the last one I had installed, version 8 or 9 I think). You couldn't sort a playlist, which means if it's one you've had set up for ages, it's real easy to end up with 20 copies of "Ooops, I Did It Again" mixed in with everything else.
Well, you know what I mean.
But they've fixed that in the new one - you can sort by any column, so it's easy to sort by track title and delete all the excess Britneys.
So there, I was, brand spanking new de-duped playlists, and a stack of "unrated" songs, which means they're not in any of my playlists (I rate and assign to a play list at the same time).
So... the process used to be:
1. Listen to song
2. Click one of the stars
3. Drag the song to the playlist
3a. If the playslist was outside the visible list of playlists, you simply hold the mouse and the dragging-icon to the top or bottom of the left-hand pane, and it scrolls up or down accordingly to bring the other library items in-view.
Not any more.
Now you have to go the library pane, scroll up and down to find the playlist and then drag the song.
One step forward, one back, as usual Microsoft.
Labels: media player, mp3s, playlists
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That URL for the RSS image points here:
Labels: comments, feeds, rss
Right, AndiD, Flyguy, Madjock - my faithful audience.
Maybe this is old news to you, but it really hacks me off that when I post to one of your blogs, I can't get notification that you or anyone else has replied.
Then I saw something... the "Subscribe to this site" button in my Firefox Google toolbar. If you go to the page which only displays a specific post, and hit this button, you are given two feeds to subscribe to:
Blakeys Bits
or
Blakets Bits: Getting replies to comments you've posted here (for example)
Subscribe to the second one, dump it into a folder your rss feed reader that gives you the option to hide feeds that don't have unread items, and you're all set. If you need help on this, open a new bloglines.com account, purely for post-specific replies, and use their email notification to your gmail account. That should all make sense.
Labels: blogger, comments, feeds, rss
