Important Public Service Announcement...

Every once in a while comes a cause so great, one must stand for it. We spend billions of tax dollars alerting parents that there is content unsuitable for children on the internet and that drugs can hurt you. We have all sat through the horrendous classroom sex ed courses, whereby the only interest is watching the teachers squirm in discomfort.

But today, I announce a greater cause. One that is worth fighting for. Indeed, it may well be a fight for survival.

Three days ago the (frankly, brilliant) TV show Jericho was released to DVD. Without our support, this show will die. The more people who willingly spend money to purchase this series will be giving support far greater than simply whining on a web forum. Money is power, and the more DVDs that sell, the more powerful the fanbase is. What is even better about such support, is that the American dollar is at an all time high for us, meaning that we can finally afford to give such support.

Your support will ensure the survival of a small village for small price of only $2 an episode. Buy now and get a free slip cover. What more could you possibly want?

Just about every show I watch these days I pretty much just get the DVD. Free to air television has simply become a "try before you buy" exercise, whereby the adverts drive me away from the products advertised and the networks they support.

Having said that, though, there are shows that I would happily watch on TV. Shows I do not find interesting enough to spend money on, but shows that I could enjoy should they be on at a decent hour. Or their advertised timeslot.

Although, there is a slight problem with DVDs. Once you start buying up a series, there's always something to make you regret it...

Like Stargate SG-1. Fantastic show, buy why do they have to announce the ENTIRE BOX SET of 60 dvds 3 week after I buy the first 3 seasons? No biggie, except that all up you save around $100 if you buy all of them, which I plan on doing. Although, it isn't released until the end of November, so maybe they'll reduce the price of the others before then???

Anyway, Jericho isn't coming back any time soon, so if anyone wants to ease their conscience from the illicit downloads that many obtained, now would be the time to do so.

OK, now I've ranted enough about this, I'm hoping that I've kept your attention long enough to explain the dashing fellow to the right -->>
This is in fact Hans Zimmer, who has had some role or other to play in the production of some of my favourite soundtracks including Batman Begins and The Pirates trilogy. Hell, he even had a hand in The Simpsons and the Lion King, the later of which he won a Golden Globe award for.

Anyway, I mention this to draw your attention to the fact that there is a new Pirates OST box set coming out at the end of the year - 4cds and 1dvd. According to our good friends at amazon, it will contain the following:
Disc 1: Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack
Disc 2: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest soundtrack
Disc 3: Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End soundtrack
Disc 4: Brand new remixes
Disc 5: DVD of behind the scenes, making of the music and interviews with composer Hans Zimmer

Since I've wanted this soundtrack for some time, chances are I'll pick one up. We'll see it around the same time as the latest DVD release, so around early december.

Also comming december is the Halo 3 soundtrack. If you liked the release trailer, you'll love the soundtrack. Usually the games I play have annoying rock or "doof doof" tracks that I don't really enjoy enduring, but do so because it's a good game. Halo 3, on the other hand, was addictive because it had great gameplay, with fantastic audio that suited each scene perfectly. Hopefully, it will be just as good in CD form - after all, I was busy at the time.

Between HL2 Orange Box, Crysis, and other dvd/cd releases, methinks that I'll be very poor by year's end. It's going to be a fantastic 3 month christmas break (if I can afford it)!


So, anyway, I've got too many box sets to watch to spend time blogging. Oh, and uni work - only 4 weeks behind now (was 6 two days ago...)!

The Atari 2600 celebrates 30 years of low-rez fun

Now, on to the real post...

First, let me point out that yes, I did steal the blog title from this blog. What can I say? I'm uninventive and lazy - I've got better things to do...

Anyway, I'm sure every true nerd remembers the time in his (or less likely, her) life that they were first introduced to the wonderful world of interactive media. Not that we had such a name for it then - it was still computer or video games right up until the early 2000's. It was a simpler time, when one didn't have to worry about BSODs, virii or malware (not for me, at least).

For me it was the Apple Mac LCIII and the Atari 2600. The Apple came first, the second hand family computer complete with Prince Of Persia and various shareware/freeware games such as Lawnmower (all you did was mow grass, but it was SO addictive). To this day, I am yet to see a computer boot an OS as fast as that thing did on OS7, and also beat the 2 recallable software crashes it experienced over it's 10 year life. The damn thing still worked until it got compacted by the council hard waste collectors.

A year or two later came one of the original woodpaneled Atari 2600. A family friend bought a Playstation, so naturally, they palmed it off to us (the atari, that is not the Playstation, unfortunately). Who could forget classics such as Donkey Kong, Tank and Asteroids, the many countless hours spent in front of the TV, and, inevitably, the Atari becoming the dreaded awards style behavioural system, whereby it could only be used once everything had been done.

And now we celebrate it's 30 year aniversary. I was not born when it came into being, it survived 2 young families, and it is still working today. Which is more than I can say for the Playstation 1 that superceeded it at Christmas 2000, about a year or so after the Atari came into our possesion.

What's more, I feel old. The last time I had it out, 14 year olds were ripping into it's terrible gameplay and graphics. Yet without this console, arguably the most successful console ever made, we would never see the PS3, 360's and Wii's that reside in our TV cabinets today.

It lasted something like 5 to 10 years, and it was originally expected to last 3. Now it resides in museums and $30 ebay sales, it's pitiful 1mhz processor unable to keep up with a wrist watch. But what those 14yo kids don't seem to realise is that the racing games are still the same - just prettier with motion sensitive controlers.

Here concludes the "Back In My Day..." tirade. I have officialy become an old man :p. Now, back to Halo 3!!!

Interactivity: Post your first gaming machine and favourite childhood game.

Stargate Game

So, this sounds kind of promising. Basically your standard MMO, but in the stargate universe. Don't have many details, but it's not due 'til end 2008.
http://www.stargateworldswiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

Not something I'm hugely interested in, but worth keeping an eye on...

Hi, I'm a blog post!

So, here's a lighhearted look at the apple iphone vs the nokia n95. It rips of those "Hi, I'm a Mac" & "I'm a PC" ads that are fast becoming ill informed. But I'll save that rant for another day...

Anyway, so before I get accused of being anti-apple, the iPhone is a reasonably good device. But it does have it's downfalls. It has no replaceable battery, no 3g networking, and no 3rd party apps. Keep in mind that I was seriously considering purchasing it's little brother, the iPod Touch, until they ripped out most of it's software, not to mention it's screen issues. To Apple's defense in the later, it appears that this problem may have been recified, and such issues can arise with 1st gen products.

The n95, if you haven't guessed already, has these things. From what I can see, the only downside is that it has significantly smaller space (160mb internal). To compensate for this, though, it has a microSD slot, which means you can have 2gb at a time. Not to mention that you could have a couple of them, if one so wanted, to swap over if needed. Also, it is likely that microSD cards will become larger, and as such allow for more space on the cards.

The n95 also has video out cables packaged in the box, so you can connect it to a tv. The iPhone/iPod Touch on the other hand, has no such feature build in, and requires the purchase of a seperate cable.

To be honest, until I actually saw one today, I thought the iPhone was pretty good. But when you consider that the UK data plans start at 35pounds (roughly $80 to $90 AU) PLUS the purchase of the iPhone, one has to wonder if it is indeed worth it.

The downside to both phones is the poor batery life - only 3hrs talk time each.

To be perfectly honest, I doubt any of this will make a difference, because the iPhone, if it is ever released in Australia, will be with either Telstra or Optus, neither of which have plans that I would exactly call cheap.

So, anyway, enjoy. I might post more links/pics later if I can be bothered - the vid should do for now.

Something a little more positive...

Currently Listening To: Batman Begins OST

Ok, so there's been a running theme of negativity going on around here lately. Admittedly, I may have been a little harsh in my analysis of a certain company's products. Even (dare I say it) "unfairly" in the case of the iMac. I'll check this out when I'm next in store.

I still refuse to admit that the iPod Touch is a legitimate iPod in it's own right - a $200 premium for a touch screen and wifi web browser is no excuse for a country that doesn't have an iPhone. But, there are rumours afoot that this will be corrected next month when leopard is launched. I doubt this, because I don't think they'd change their software a month after release, but one can hope.

Anyway, this has no correlation with the topic about which I am posting.

It seems that many people are not aware of the TV shows our Australian networks are airing "fast tracked" from the states. So, here's a list:

Prison Break: Starts Wednesday, 26th September 9:30pm Ch 7
House: Wednesday 3rd October, 8:30pm Ch 10

These seem to be confirmed. Possible additions include Heroes, which starts in the states next Monday. According to Ch 7 advertising when it ended, we would see it around the same time. Possibly NCIS, but I haven't heard anything - all I know is the US one is starting up.

Also confirmed is something called "Bionic Woman". Sounds like a bad cross between Terminator and Mr Gadget, but I'll give it a shot.

I thought there was more confirmed, but obviously not. Still, it's a decent start. Hopefully they get more ratings to encourage the rest.

And in other news, Shawn Micallef will have a new show on SBS, apparently. Although, the only decent link I can find is to a blog, so don't take it too seriously.

Also, the major networks are going to start multichanneling HD!!! I'm kind of excited, but I just know that it's just going to be more crap. Hopefully they'll at least air "less popular" shows such as Jericho. Although, it is notable that they particularly pick out "Sci-Fi" as being a candidate for content. Does this mean that the sci-fi shows that have previously been trashed will be aired regularly on HD? To be honest, I can't think of anything in this genre that has actually survived free to air.

And the last announcement is that Gladiators will be returning to Ch 7 early next year. I loved that show as a kid. You can't beat grown adults beating the living crap out of each other in the name of entertainment.

So, kids, I think that brings you up to date with all the latest from TV land. All I need now is an ipod touch to view it all on...

The World Is Right Once More

Now Listening To:
Album: Happy Feet OST
Song: The Story Of Mumble HappyFeet
Composer: John Powell

You know, Apple Inc. had me worried there for a bit. What with releasing some portable hardware that actually beats my current mp3 player and PDA combined (if you can edit the calendar) and the approaching release of their new OS.

But, all is right again. After seeing the new imac in jbhfi, I have to agree (with a tremendous amount of begrudging admittance), that it is very aesthetically pleasing. But, it does contain one tinsy flaw - it only has an 18-bit screen.

Now, one may not realise the significance of this revelation, so allow me indulge my predudices for one small moment of your time. Current MS windows, with all current compatible hardware, display at 32-bit. This results in a "sparkly" or "grainy" effect - in other words, pixellation.

Now, if you're spending upwards of $1700 or whatever they are on a shiny new 20" iMac, would you not expect it to have better picture quality than the most basic desktop PC?

Ok, that probably means nothing to the mac fanboys out there, but now the world is starting to make sense again. Just have to explain away watching the latest series of Dr Who, and it's all good.

"Every value I've ever held is being questioned, and I'm loving it!" - Moss, IT Crowd

Witty title use the word "touch"

So, apple have released their new ipod range. I have to admit, this was probably the first time that I've actually being looking forward to the Australian release of an apple product. But, like the iphone, I'm disappointed.

"Why?" I hear all you apple fan boys yell. Well, take a look at the hard drive size of the new ipod touch - 8gb and 16gb models. What they have effectively done is increase the functionality of the device, but halved the storage space. Those things wouldn't even fit my music, let alone videos.

And, in reference to the iphone, I don't want one until it has 3g compatibility (something they have to add when they release it in Australia), and the ability for custom apps.

Admittedly, both these features for the iphone will probably be implemented by the time we see it, but I'm guessing that apple, being apple, will have it locked in to one mobile distributor, and it probably won't be 3. This means that the cost will be exorbitant (telstra), and probably no capped 3g internet plans.

This is on top of having to use itunes to sync the device. I don't care what anyone says, I still don't like itunes.

This is not to say that they aren't good devices. It's just that if they can fit a 160gb hdd into the new ipod classic, so I can't see why they can't fit a 40gb one into an iphone. And I know, this is probably the limitation of flash memory, but I'd rather have a large hdd than the smaller flash models.

So, now I guess I'm waiting until the iphone comes here, in the hope that they'll boost the hdd for the australian release. Eventually, there might be an apple product I'll be able to make full use of... maybe.