Film Review: V For Vendetta

 Film  No Responses »
Oct 252008
 

Format: Blueray

IMDB Entry: here

Now this one is a treat I have seen several times. The story itself is somewhat simplistic (although I believe that owes something to the studios wanting to exorcise the anarchist themes of the original comic book) being the old story of an attempt to overthrow a repressive regime. But as we learn more about the history of this regime, we begin to see parallels with what is happening in our current society.

Now being thwacked around the head with a serious political message is not usually considered to be an entertaining experience, which is why films like V need to gloss up the message in a story. And the story whilst simplistic does have enough twists to keep one interested.

The main message is that we need to be wary of sacrificing our civil liberties in the name of security.

Film Review: Dark Rising

 Film  No Responses »
Oct 252008
 

Format: avi

IMDB entry: here

Take a coming of age film (the ones in this film are in their 20’s but seem younger), a horror film, a road trip film, and a hack and slash fantasy film, throw into a blender and mix. The result will give you this film. Any interesting aspects in this film are glossed over, and the film concentrates on areas that are not just mindless entertainment, but boring mindless entertainment.

The characters are two-dimensional and exhibit behaviour that a brick would be ashamed to being dumb enough to try.

You’ll feel the time watching this film could have been better spent banging your head against the wall.

No Flash?

 Computing, General  No Responses »
Oct 212008
 

So I was trawling the web looking at chairs (one manufacturer in particular – it doesn’t matter who) available at various stockists, when I was suddenly brought up short by a little error message “Your browser does not support Flash files”.

Strangely enough the site I had just visited itself had an annoying Flash-based website … all presentation in full-screen window with non-standard navigation controls. So what was the error about ?

Well obviously my browser does support Flash, but the chances are the developers were checking for a particular version of Flash that does not exist for the operating system I use as yet. So “does not support Flash files”  is not quite appropriate, something more like “Nah! Nah! You aren’t as up to date as we are” would be more accutate.

Not really sensible however as I could have been looking to drop something like £1,000 on a chair (yes they really do cost in that region, and yes they probably are that good). Especially as the Flash site in question probably does not absolutely require all of the features of the latest version.

Ah well, I guess I won’t be buying a chair from that place then.

Corporate Stupidity – Sony and the Little Big Planet Game

 Politics, Religion  No Responses »
Oct 202008
 

It was announced today (on the news at least … Sony may have announced it earlier) that Sony have released a game called “Little Big Planet” that has a music track that may annoy some Muslims. The track in question (please send corrections if I’m wrong) is a Mali language track, and quotes from the Koran. Apparently the singer is himself a devout Muslim. Sony in their not-so-infinite wisdom have announced that they are delaying the launch of the game, recalling all issued game disks, and re-mastering a version without the track in question.

Glossing over whether this music track really is offensive, it is perfectly reasonable for Sony to do something about this. But to do a full recall of the game disks already in the distribution channels? That’s pretty costly, and I would be pretty miffed if I were a Sony shareholder.

Why not simply issue a groveling apology, point out that it was a genuine mistake, promise to remaster all future game disks without the track in question, and issue an online patch to remove the track from disks that have already been distributed ?

Incidentally the track in question (Tapha Niang) is available at the artist’s website :-

http://www.worldcircuit.co.uk/#Toumani_Diabate::Boulevard_de_lIndependance

To “excuse” this mistake, if Muslims cannot agree on what is and what is not appropriate and Islamic, how can the rest of us avoid making mistakes like this ?

Street Furniture

 General, Politics  No Responses »
Oct 152008
 

We all know that street furniture that clutters our streets … signposts, street lights, traffic lights, etc. The majority of this furniture is for providing information to motorists. So why is it all planted in the pavements where it gets in the way of pedestrians?

The obvious answer is that one or two signposts do not matter that much and avoiding the street reduces the risk of accidents. Well maybe that was true when it was just a few signposts, and on quiet pavements without much foot traffic.

But all too frequently that is not the case. Rather than plonk down the poles for that street furniture right in the middle of the pavement, why not put them right on the edge of the road ? Or perhaps reduce the amount of signage where it isn’t necessary.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries