Sousei no Aquarion
Another “reluctant-boy-gets-into-mecha” series, and the only thing which drew me to this series is the fact that Ms. Kanno has decided to grace this with her music. Three episodes in and the series has moved at a surprisingly quick pace though I get the feeling that this may be temporary. Characters are fairly cookie-cutter and the mecha action is suitably overblown and CG to be interesting but that could change quickly. Unless they start bolting on some backstory or mind-boggling character development this may be one to avoid.

Speed Grapher
Once again GONZO decend from on high and put their suitable animation talent to work on ANOTHER series that has rubbish story and slick (enough) animation. The anime screams retro from the “Girls on Film” opening to the old-school styling on the characters. So far very little has been revealed, but what has been is remarkably lacklustre and without any kind of imagination. Another one to the avoid if allergic to boredom.

Tsubasa Chronicle
CLAMP went down a notch in my estimations with this first episode. The round-table meeting for this series planning evidently degenerated into “put existing characters into a suitable fantasy setting and rub our hands with all the money we’ll make from it”. The animation is strenuously basic, especially when we’ve been spoiled with the behemoth of Madhouse and the X TV series; even Chobits manage to best this. Boring start and what is apparently an even more boring continuation.

Ichigo 100%
I read about the first two volumes of the manga after reading good things about it and I’m sorry to say the anime pretty much follows the manga to the letter. A slight (VERY slight) twist on the harem anime stereotype but follows everything else to a “T”: deadbeat male character attracts numerous female groupies. Rinse, repeat.

Eureka Seven
Bones Bones Bones. Has Bones ever produced an anime with less than stellar animation? Escaflowne Movie, Cowboy Bebop movie, Wolf’s Rain, Kurau Phantom Memory, FMA… This looks to follow in the footsteps as far as animation is concerned, though so far, that’s all it has going for it. Blah blah, mecha, particles, “waves”, kids idolises supposed criminal mecha piloting hero. The format got old a while ago, and switching the names around won’t hide a mediocre anime, so I’m hoping this won’t follow in others footsteps.

Futakoi Alternative
The raw energy displayed in the first episode reminded me of Excel Saga’s early days and with this sort of styling you can’t go wrong. While the second episode toned things down a bit, the humour and offbeat presentation remain which is what makes this show standout. It’s a shame this doesn’t evoke more of a fanboy reaction in me, as otherwise this would likely be my Anime of the Moment ©.

Bleach
Yeah it started last season but it’s still going. Unfortunately I’m now far too invested in it to stop watching, and it would take a monumental downturn in the series to force me to stop watching it. It started so well with a fast pace, good characters and a thoroughly interesting environment, it’s a shame it’s degenerated into most shounen anime in the constant introversion and the fights which last numerous episodes. Thankfully the next episode seems to have a “big” fight of sorts, though I’ll save my adulation for it when (if) it actually materialises.

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Genshiken
This was either last season or the season before, and is one I only heard about after whispers on the forums. It’s anime about otaku, which to me seems a bit counter-prodctive, but Genshiken manages to pull of an interesting “slice of life” style show about the otaku lifestyle. Some of the plot elements are a little contrived, such as the female’s presence simply to provide a “narrator” to the ongoing antics and perhaps a counterpoint to the reckless nerd-dom that ravages the show. The anime within the anime, Kujibiki Unbalance stands out though, more than likely because of the opening theme tune and also the reverence paid to it during Genshiken. Overall a worthy show to watch, if not just to reassure yourself of your otaku standing.

Kurau Phantom Memory
Another last season show but by the aforementioned Bones doing the animation. The only way I can really describe KPM is slow-burning. It never really seems to kick it into high-gear, so to speak, just idles along with it’s good story and well-rounded characters and never panders to anyone. The protagonist is refreshingly flat-chested and proactive, though I thing the main problem is the lack of a solid antagonist to really drive the series. There is the nebulous “GPO”, but that fell flat half-way through. I’ve yet to see the ending, though I get the feeling this is a series to watch over tea and crumpets rather than popcorn.

Now when you say this, you obviously mean a million pounds in money, but whose to say the entity granting you this wish is going to know that or is going to follow such a language quirk. You could get a million pounds of a random material, like coal, or squirrels or something. So, you would have to say: “I’d like a million pounds in British sterling.” This of course would be fine though there is no denomination attached, so getting a million pounds in coppers wouldn’t exactly be what you had in mind. So your wish no becomes “I’d like a million pounds in British sterling in 20 pound notes.” Getting a bit weighty on language but you want to make it clear to this deviant creature that they’ll bend space and time the way YOU want it. Of course, being able to control space and time means you could well be in possession of 20 pound notes from the far future or perhaps the distant past, which are essentially worthless now. “I’d like a million pounds in British sterling in 20 pound notes that are viable currency for this time period.” Then of course there is the source of the notes, whose to say these notes won’t be magicked out of a nearby bank vault, suddenly you’re a phantasmal bank robber. There are all kinds of pit falls like this, like there is no stipulation that the notes have to be whole and in tact. Maybe you don’t want the money in physical form at all and just a nice 1 million pound wire transfer from an indeterminate location which gets flagged up as a computer hacking attempt and suddenly you’re clapped in irons accused of being in a drug smuggling ring. With all these in mind, you suddenly have to get your genie/magic-hand/naughty god to sign a carefully constructed contract just for one wish.

This is where I think lawyers came from.

Jade Empire is a bit of an indulgence, especially seeing as I’m forking out the extra £10 for the special edition. The game comes out two days (22nd) after my operation, which means it’s my recovery present. After watching a couple of videos of it, I was convinced it was another Bioware RPG right down to the core, hence, enjoyment is almost guaranteed.

In actuality, I’m looking forward to it simply because I want some perspective on things that I don’t have at the moment. I feel I’m in a kind of malaise or reverie at the moment, lurching from one day to the next without any real purpose or outlook on events transpiring around me. It’s an odd feeling, but it doesn’t protrude into my conciousness all that often. I’m hoping being under general anaesthetic and having part of my skull removed will be able to knock some clarity into me.

Essentially my life is good at the moment. I have a stable job, fanatastic girlfriend etc. etc. My job is what I’m good at, unfortunately I realise that it’s also not what I want to do, at least not in the current area. I used to gain a real creative glow after designing a webpage or doing something “cool” with new technologies. Now though, I feel I’m really in too deep to enjoy things. I haven’t personally designed a page I’m happy with in over a year now and I feel that perhaps I’ve lost that ability. Everything is the same old shit regurgitated and rebranded to fit the latest business logic changes. I get genuinely annoyed when people change terminology of web applications I’ve worked on, it puts my own little microcosm of logic into disarray.

This is why I would never make a good programmer. I’m far too utilitarian to do good programming as well as my constant knowledge that out in the world there are thousands of programmers more skilled and who actually enjoy what they do. This really leads me on to what to do to get me out of this self-imposed rut. The one thing which still genuinely and constantly fills me with joy and aspiration is the video games industry. I left behind my proclivities long ago about who I tell that to, life’s too short and all that. But I’ve already tactically-nuked the idea of becoming a programmer, and with conditions what they are (*waves to EA programmers*) I’m not sure that’s an avenue I’d care to explore. Websites are still on the cards, hell, I have experience with that so that could always be an entry point.

Of course, blue-sky would be to be a writer for games (isn’t that an oxymoron?). Of course, gut feeling tells me that I would never get to the stellar levels of games like Silent Hill (ah how I miss thee).

So yes, this is my melancholy rant. Slow, steady and focused.

1. Setting a priority on your e-mail will do the exact opposite of what you intend. If you cannot convey through text how important your e-mail is, then don’t bother. That little red exlaimation mark in Microsoft Outlook tells me I should ideally wait at least a day before dealing with your e-mail. You’ll be lucky if I even read it.

2. You are typing at a fully fledged keyboard with all the letters of the english alphabet at your very fingertips. If you must speak in abbreviated form such as the “cool kids” are doing in text messages, your message will be subject to at least a days delay when such a time comes as I can faithfully translate your e-mail. Being on a “Blackberry” is no excuse, don’t send e-mails unless you can take the time to type in full. Text messages have limited character limits, e-mail does not.

3. Always subject your e-mails appropriately, perhaps with mind as to who, past your initial recipient, will be receiving the e-mail. Simply putting “Website” in the subject line is a sure fire way to engage confusion. 13 recipients down the line, there I am, wondering which website this referrs to. Newsflash people, I deal with websites on a daily basis, try prefixing “Website” with a name perhaps?

4. Being absolutely clear in what you are asking me to do. Imagine yourself as a cleaner, janitor or maybe a PE Teacher and read over your e-mail in this mindset. Simply putting “please put on the website” means absolutely jack-all unless it is absolutely crystal clear what needs to go where, and they come along once every blue moon. If you start using words you don’t understand, clarify them at least. “Please put in latest news” means nothing to me when there is a latest news column, page and section to your site.

5. Chop your e-mails to what is relevant to what you have sent me. Having to scroll through 14 replies (all indented with >) to either get to your message or to find out what you mean (see 4. above) is compounded by people’s lack of even being able to chop off their automatically added disclaimer. I don’t care if your e-mail was virus free when it left GSi, I would openly chastise you if it wasn’t.

6. Attachment-happy people, e-mail was never ever designed to send files, and it’s a damn shame that someone made Base-64 so that they can be sent. If your file can in any possible, conceivable way be made smaller, MAKE IT SMALLER. Sending hi-res artwork, 4meg word document files and lord knows what else to me is a sure-fire way for me to spend the next hour shrinking your files. Think, this could have been the hour that your e-mail was dealt with.

Thank you for your attention.

The teens however were getting fake IDs from the internet by sending a passport photo and a tenner to a company which then did the card. They tried interviewing one of the people who ran the company who continued walking and looked a little flustered when answering the questions. I commented at the time that he should have just stopped, and done a proper, formal interview with the cameras rather than trying to continually walk away and having problems answering the questions.

In retrospect, what the program was doing was creating a flase monster out of the company and the man. They completely absolved any guilt the children, parents, shops or anybody else had when contributing to the underage drinking. Yes the man was essentially selling fake IDs (he called them “novelty cards” which is an argument in semantics), but like he said, he is not responsible for what the kids do with the cards. His site didn’t say the cards were to be used for buying alcohol. Again I find myself asking: WHERE THE HELL ARE THE PARENTS? Why the hell aren’t these kids parents telling their kids that they shouldn’t drink, that it can essentially cause them to die with the amounts they are drinking. This is the same argument for kids who go loco because of video games. These kids are not being brought up correctly by their parents as they are not having strong moral and ethica values imprinted upon them. Good parenting rarely leads to problem children.

And what about the police? Why weren’t they routinely called to disperse these underage drinking parties, who are doing it in the middle of a park in damn near broad daylight? What about the shops? Shop attendants are not given the legal backing to be able to outright refuse sale to people underage if they produce “proof”. If they refuse sale and the card is proven to be fake, then kudos all round, but if not, then the sale attendant gets a slap on the wrist and all kinds of litigious crap breaks loose.

This is of course not to mention the kids responsibility. At that age, yes, they’re going to do what their peers do, but if any of them had any kind of sense, they would moderate their drinking or not goddamn do it at all.

In all, the feature was remarkably bias and left a lot to answer for. It came across as a bunch of journalists who were hungry for a story and focused in on something which has been thrust into the spotlight. It seems once again I’ve been let down by a lack of perspective and also a lack of getting to the root of the problem.

The most worrying attempt happened last night when someone tried for a good 20 minutes to get access to root. Nice try buddy, but even if you did brute my password, you’re not allowed to login as root through SSH on my box. In fact, you’re only allowed to login on one account, and I’m not about to divulge that little secret now am I?

Ideally of course I would completely disable password based logins though OpenSSH seems to stalwartly ignore all of my attempts to do this, no matter how many times I put “no” next to “Password” in sshd.conf.

Jayce - male, 5,11”, dirty blonde hair, milky white eyes and an unassuming build. Jayce was born completely blind after development of his optic nerve was stunted during his growth and mirrored some of the signs of glaucoma. After his mother died when he was 4, Jayce was taken into a middle-class orphanage where he learned to fend for himself. Fiercely independent, he carved a living out of freelance writing before he was turned. Jayce was embraced out of pity by a former lover, unbeknowst even to her that his eyesight would not return even in unlife. Unable to cope with the needs of a blind vampire, Jayce found himself alone and once again fending for himself. His overt charisma, forward nature and outright lack of tact has earned him an equal share of enemies and allies as he continues to play the political game with the Inviticus. Many learned Kindred have hypothesized on his continued blindness, some quoting mythical references, others biological; the common rumour is that Jayce willed himself to blindness and prefers the darkness to sight.

Story - A high-profile senator’s daughter is kidnapped unbeknowst to the rest of the world. Rumblings of political motivations abound, clues begin to point to Jayce in an attempt to blackmail the Prince in a daring move. The quiet and studious Amelia is picked, much to the chagrin of many in power, to investigate this matter.

As she questions Jayce and digs deeper into the execution and motivation behind the kidnapping, it becomes more and more obvious that this stretches far beyond political motivations and may involve a great many more Kindred. When the story hits the national media, furore breaks out amongst the Kindred leaders as the secrecy of their existence is threatened. Amelia’s loyalties are questioned as she begins to feel the pressure mounting.

 — 

For Amelia Callison life was a set of railway tracks, stretching out into the distance replete with tedium and apathy. Then in a rush of blood that was all replaced with a twisting, pulsing darkness conjoined with incestuous politicking and a knife between the shoulder-blades. Thrust into the chaotic and fine-lined world of the Chicago Kindred, she has little time to recuperate as her peers in the unlife begin to conspire against her.

A high-profile kidnapping reeks of political motives and all the evidence points to the charismatic, sightless vampire, Jayce Sandford. Under the guidance of Trey “Loki” Fischer, her surrogate mentor, Amelia begins to investigate the kidnapping; but when the story makes national news and connections point to numerous local Kindred, evidence begins to get buried. Fast. Ruthless powerplays reverberate around her as Amelia begins to learn how deep the conspiracy stretches, eventually coming full circle, back to her mentor.

After an aging property-broker sees his empire crumbling around him, he makes a final deal with the influential Prince of Chicago. In exchange for some of the most sought after land, his daughter is to be given a fresh start beyond the life he had created for her. The interpretation of his last wishes left little to the imagination. Now at ground-zero of this orchestrated transaction, Amelia must find out why she can’t remember her past and where her loyalties lie.

 — 

When Amelia Callison was Embraced, her apathetic and melancholy life was turned into politicking and brutality. Still coming to terms with her unlife, Amelia is coerced into the enigmatic Circle of the Crone by her mentor, Trey “Loki” Fischer. When a political kidnapping is revealed to have strong ties to the sightless vampire, Jayce Sandford, Amelia is encouraged by Trey to investigate.

As her investigations deepen, more and more Kindred begin to be implicated; when the story makes national news however, events begin to conspire against Amelia. A crash course in vampire politics, parties and problem-solving ensues as the mystery comes full circle back to Amelia herself.

An aging property-broker sees his empire being to wane, falling to organised crime and increasingly ferocious competition; he makes a final deal with the esteemed Prince of Chicago. In exchange for some of the most sought after land, his daughter is to be free from the legacy he has bequeathed her. Left to creative interpretation, his final wish leaves Amelia at ground-zero of a rapidly accelerating conspiracy.

The Prince may have trouble honouring his part of the deal as the First Estate’s and the Sanctified’s prejudice against a neonate follower of the Crone escalates from harassment to violence. Amelia must make hard decisions if she wishes to survive, even betraying her confidant and mentor. In the end, she may be left with an unerring image of what being a vampire means: solitude and a communion with her inner demons.

 — 

An aging property-broker sees his empire begin to wane, falling to organised crime and increasingly ferocious competition. In exchange for some of the most sought after land, he makes a final deal with the esteemed Prince of Chicago: his daughter is to be free from the dark legacy he has bequeathed her.

Abducted and Embraced, Amelia Callison is left with only hazy memories of her previous life. Her apathy and despondence now replaced with politicking and brutality. Taking solace in her mentor, Trey “Loki” Fischer, she is coerced into the enigmatic Circle of the Crone. When rumours of a kidnapping spread throughout the Kindred grapevine, Amelia is encouraged by Trey to investigate.

The investigation leads her first to the charismatic, sightless vampire Jayce Sandford. As her investigations deepen, more and more Kindred begin to be implicated. However, when the kidnapping hits the national media, events begin to transpire against Amelia. A crash-course in vampire politics, parties and problem-solving ensues as the mystery comes full-circle and Amelia is left with the grim revelation.

The First Estate’s and Sanctified’s prejudice against a neonate follower of the Crone escalates from harassment to violence, threatening the agreement the Prince and Amelia’s father made. She must make hard decisions if she wishes to survive, possibly even betraying her confidant and mentor. In the end, she may be left with the harsh reality of what being a vampire means: solitude and a communion with her inner demons.

I’m not a legal expert, but the way I understand liability is that you have ordinary, common-or-garden variety liability which is when you know about something a do nothing, you are then liable for actions taken. There is then strict liability whereby even if you don’t know about something, you’re still held accountable. This I think would ideally be applied to computers.

Lets say a malicious person uses your computer in a zombie attack against some other website. I think the person should then have a letter drop through their doing saying, “You and the other computer users involved in this attack now owe us money for loss of business.” If something existed that could stop this attack and the person did-not take it upon themselves to get that item, I think they should pay up. This isn’t shifting blame. Obviously the perpatrator(s) of the attack would be hunted down, but if you start putting the risk there, that if you don’t do something you’re liable, then people start taking notice; rather than some slack-jawed yokel drooling on his keyboard while he downloads faked nude pictures of “Brittany Speers” while his desktop machine churns out hundred of spam messages a day.

You own a computer, you have to take a test. Like “What do you do when you get an e-mail attachment?” “Click on it furiously until it does something?” or “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T FUCKING OPEN IT.” You know, little questions like that, things which can be applied in every day life.

I’ve been waiting patiently for Series 2 and 3 to come down in price so I can buy them, well Play.com did that a while ago, and I finished up series 3 last night. I have to say that it is without a doubt one of the best TV series I have seen, not without flaws, but it doesn’t pull any punches.

Series 2 (or “Day 2” as I’ve heard salivating fans call it) is (and I hate to say this Steve, but Matt is right) probably the best of the trilogy. It builds on the premise of the first but manages to magnify the good parts by a factor of 10. Jack Bauer is still a badass, President Palmer is still a good president and everything feels as it should. Series 3 is still a good series, but unfortunately, the weight of the characters began to drag it down. It’s probably a good thing then that most all of the major character were killed off or bunked off their roles, so with Season 4 steamrollering at the moment, we should have a fresh outlook on the series.

Series 3 suffered because it tried to focus far too much on the characters. They are good characters, don’t get me wrong, but the storyline didn’t have the sense of impending doom and apocalyptic overtones that Series 2 had. I feel it was a pod-person scenario as suddenly, everyone had fringes. But suddenly Jack Bauer had a drug addiction, he had a sidekick, President Palmer is all waffy and ill and it all just feels as if these afflictions are there to make us identify with characters who were previously fairly invincible. Unfortunately that takes away some of the shinyness of the show, Bauer suddenly isn’t so bad ass and Palmer is taking more and more bad decisions. What I will commend Series 3 for is getting rid of the pointless Kim Bauer thread where she manages to have the worst day in existence. I would have topped myself after a day like that, but then I got to thinking, what if every day is like that for her? It’s a grim prospect.

One thing that I won’t commend 24 for (trying saying that out loud) is the painfully obvious plot devices. “How do we build suspense? Why not kill off our main source of information?!” Saunders got shot in Series 3, and Sayed Ali got snipered in Series 2. “What about a mole from inside CTU? We haven’t done that before!” It all just becomes a bit cliché after a while.