Mah Sanctum

Thinly Spread

2010-05-30T12:29:00.001+10:00

The intensity of work at the back end of the financial year was quite taxing, and a work conference over in Vegas at the start of the month was good for hitting the reset button.

Now I'm just trying to work out how I can stay put.

I've only had one week this month where I haven't spent some portion traveling either interstate or overseas.

Off to Brisbane next week, then another week at home where I'll probably have to do at least a day trip to Canberra, and then two weeks in the US. Then back for a week before I go on a cruise with V to French Polynesia, and then another trip to Brisbane.

It's fortunate I enjoy my job!

Ugh...

2010-05-30T12:21:00.001+10:00

Wonderful sets (although not a fan of the remodelled TARDIS), surprisingly good actors, below average writing.

I'm trying to wait til the end of the series to deliver a verdict, but the writing in this current season of Doctor Who is really disappointing. I'd rate it below any other season.

I'm hoping the final four episodes raise the bar...

The End of Time

2010-01-05T18:06:00.001+11:00

[ Spoiler Alert! I often avoid spoilers, but in this case if I do that I'll have too little to say! So consider yourself warned: this entry is full of them! ]

I watched the The End of Time Part I (TEoTP1) a few weeks ago.

After the initial viewing of the episode, my net impression was that the Tenth Doctor would meet a less than fitting end in Part II due to the poor writing of Russell T Davies (RTD). This was exacerbated by the contrast of the really great writing/fresh angles explored in The Waters of Mars -- a story which had really started to lift my expectations for the finale.

The only things I liked in TEoTP1 was the arrival of The Doctor in the start (where The Doctor was greeted by the Ood, being told he was essentially late for his own funeral, with the Doctor retorting that he was in no rush) and the cliffhanger (where it is revealed that the Time Lords are behind the sinister narration throughout the story).

Beyond these bookends, if I could use one word to describe my feelings for TEoTP1, I'd say irritation. Mainly because "plot-device-o-rama" might be considered more than one word! The plot device of a cult with no other purpose than resurrecting The Master. Random encounters with Wilf and his merry pensioners. The pointless characters of the Naismith's. The silly plot device of the two scientists who are aliens in disguise (the Vinvocci/Cactii). (And pretty crap aliens at that!)

Beyond plot devices, a few other qualms... RTD often uses in-jokes as a substitute for clever comedy. The other attempts at comedy generally being flat. The portrayal of the Master as a psychotic guy with grandiose plans, but lacking the true criminal genius of previous generations (this due to a lack of imaginative writing -- not acting). And dare I mention, flying around with energy beams coming out of his hands.

Irritating. Constant irritation throughout the episode from scene to scene.

Thanks Russell. Awesome writing. Way to go capitalising on a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Yeah, I was a little irritated by the end of that episode to say the least, fearing the worst for the end of David Tennant's incarnation of the Doctor.

I finished watching the The End of Time Part II (TEoTP2) yesterday.

A really good episode, despite the RTD hallmarks of plot devices and self indulgence. In fact, RTD impressed me with how much he was able to jam into an hour and ten minutes. Highlights included:

The scene between Tennant and Simm, with the Doctor trying to convince the Master that they could do so much more together, and that seeing (rather than owning) the universe was enough. We've seen this interaction many times, but this was probably the best and most convincing I can remember.
The humour in the Cactii's rescue of The Doctor (maybe the best situational comedy of the Tennant/RTD era?)
The exchange between The Doctor and Wilf, discussing previous portrayals of the Time Lords vs their role in the final parts of the Time War. And the revelation of the role that the Doctor played.
The gun toting Doctor switching his sights between The Master and Rassilon as the gravity of the overarching plot was revealed. Absolutely loved the revelation that the President was Rassilon! (Not to mention, Timothy Dalton played the part beautifully).
The eventual regeneration scene. Hilarious!

There were a few annoying moments in TEoTP2 as well:

Another plot device involving Cactii.
The Star Wars derivative moments (Gun Turrets and Mos Eisley). Amusing for a few seconds, but ultimately seems really cheap vs the payoff, especially in a Doctor Who episode. In this case, inferior cover versions...
The Nuclear Chamber/Radiation plot device. (A little Wrath of Khan-ish?)
That the Doctor could completely control the terms of his regeneration after absorbing so much radiation while claiming his "reward". Might as well have gone and married QE2 while he was at it. (Maybe if he had carried out just one of those tasks and collapsed on the spot...) Obviously the collage brought closure, and some really strong sentimental moments for the writer/actors/fans, but ridiculously self-indulgent. Minimally, there should have been different plot twist that caused the regeneration if this was how the episode was always going to end.

All being said, the good greatly exceeded the bad, and in fact the good moments of TEoTP2 probably provided a decent payoff for the bad moments of the TEoTP1.

But I can't help myself... If this was the first RTD DW story I had ever seen, I might have felt that the writing was rushed, but unfortunately obvious plot devices are present in almost every story he has written. I mean really -- replace the plot devices with good writing, and you could have had a really good three parter! (The problem when you are the chief writer/producer/editor is that lack of checks and balances. Let's call it the George Lucas effect.)

Some final thoughts/comments:

I sorta liked The Doctor and The Master forging a convenient alliance at the end. While I still think of John Simm's incarnation as a little too dumb (due to the writing), it was a definite improvement compared to the previous Master story. Hopefully Steven Moffat provides an opportunity for John Simm to fulfil the potential we know he has.
Who were the two Time Lord conscientious objectors? It seemed like RTD might have been suggesting the woman was his mother (which could feasibly suggest the other -- a male -- was his father)? Or maybe not. Although with references to Star Wars and Star Trek II, why not throw in a Superman-derivative moment? Either way, in an episode that neatly tied off a lot of ends, I love the fact that this thread was left hanging.
After watching TEoTP2, I read that everything post-regeneration was written by Steven Moffat. Already off to a good start, as I was laughing my ass off in that Matt Smith ending.
RTD has given us a great gift bringing back DW, with some great incarnations as the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. But the next greatest gift is that he's passed the torch while it's still brightly burning after having had a good run. I suspect Moffat will be an even greater steward.

Can't wait for next season!

It's a Wild World...

2009-12-30T23:55:00.001+11:00

After getting home from a fairly pleasant dinner/drinks with friends, I was sad to hear Rowland S Howard has passed... (I had no idea he was battling!)

Apart from being the lead guitarist for The Birthday Party, in solo capacity he was a vivid highlight for me at last year's ATP Festival.

Rest in peace, Rowland. ("...tonight we sleep in separate ditches...")

Abuse

2009-12-06T17:06:00.001+11:00

I've finally settled in back at home.

I spent most of November trekking around the US -- Phoenix, Philadelphia, Washington DC and New York. Then straight off the plane to an off-site meeting (for work) up on the Central Coast for the first week back.

On my US sojourn I saw some great sites, went to some fantastic sporting events, ate a heck of a lot of food (New York keeps getting better every time I go there in this respect), and spent some quality time with friends and family. An early Thanksgiving with the family in Philly (which took a couple of days of prep) was a highlight.

But man o man, if I needed some diet and exercise before I left for the US, I really need it now. Damn you beer! Fortunately it's summer time!

Looking forward to catching up with folks during a few weeks off over Christmas, as well as getting to plenty of Sydney Festival events in January.

Waters of Mars

2009-12-06T16:48:00.001+11:00

Wow... what a pleasant surprise.

The tension and dilemma throughout this episode really made it captivating. A great overarching plot, only occasionally let down by the details (plot devices, "ancient north martian" etc.)

But any negativity would be picky, and not representative of my true and lasting impressions. Considering the absolute crap the last 2 DW specials have been, this episode restores my faith a little, going so far as to say this should be counted as one of the finest of the New Who.

On the strength of this work, it looks like the tenth Doctor might meet a fitting end!

You want it all...

2009-06-15T20:41:00.001+10:00

...but you can't have it...

Plex

2009-06-06T13:56:00.002+10:00

I've done quite a bit of work on my media center in the brief slots of spare time I've had lately.

Have replaced dodgy hardware (mobo AND power supply) with reliable parts.

Have replaced dodgy OS (Vista) with reliable OS (MacOS).

Have replaced merely competent media center (MCE/VMC) with absolutely brilliant Plex!

I am much, much happier with the setup. Plex is a fork of XBox Media Center. It's MacOS only, and designed to maximise the beauty of a 1080p display.

Plex has a wonderful interface for browsing through your TV or Movies collection, integrating tvdb/imdb (respectively) info and artwork. I must admit I still struggle with the Music interface when I go into Library mode, but the navigation is straightforward when dealing with it as "files".

The only thing missing is native tv recording functionality, but Plex does make it easy to launch a 3rd party app, so I'll sort something out there shortly.

This now means there's only one Windows box left in the house.

But not for long...

Bugger Part 2

2009-05-17T22:23:00.001+10:00

Ugh... looks like a motherboard problem for my MCE, which will ultimately require an OS reinstall. Look out Vista, the Angels have spoken.

I'm on a mission from God!

Bugger

2009-05-17T10:26:00.002+10:00

My Media Center started to show signs of hardware instability at around Easter. Then, after returning from the US about a week ago, I noticed the thing was coughing and choking, in an "unbootable" state. It's either the CPU, the memory, or the board, but my biggest issue has been finding the time to diagnose/test/fix.

However, with a problem comes opportunity.

There's been a number of things I've been unhappy about under the current Vista set up, and I ponder whether I should redesign the whole shebang. Let's face it: Vista is The Thing That Should Not Be. I've seen various people manage to work around Vista's shortcomings to create an efficient work environment, but anyone who thinks this interface is well designed has their head in the sand.

(It reminds me of the South Park episode where Mr Garrison invents the gyroscopic motion vehicle that puts the airline industry out of business, but has a rather uncomfortable operational shortcoming.)

Anyhoo... I do think Windows continues to be the "easy option" for an underlying OS due to the requirement for an MCE to have a lot of unusual hardware drivers, but my natural UNIX biases are now whispering in my ear from both shoulders.

What tends to give those "angels" even more credence and momentum is that I think the main application -- Vista Media Center -- is merely competent in it's design, but a little frustrating in providing users minimal choice in customisation.

A possibility that has piqued my interest is MediaPortal, a port of XBMC to take advantage of modern hardware, while also allowing to record off a tuner (yay!) I will minimally evaluate this option before I undertake any major changes to the underlying OS.

Anyway, I just need to summon the willpower to start the hardware troubleshooting process...

Pigs Garbage

2009-05-17T09:26:00.001+10:00

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead.

It's been out for almost a month now, so I don't count this as a spoiler :)

Test Season

2009-05-16T22:16:00.001+10:00

With the Crusaders pipping the Blues, and the Reds predictably doing their best impression of Swiss cheese against the Canes, the Tahs have missed their spot in the S14 semi's.

(OK, that's a harsh call on the Reds - they did show some spirit. If the Tahs had allowed one less Lions' try, they'd be ahead of the Crusaders on the table in terms of points differential.)

Either way, Winter is upon us and the Aussies are out of the Super 14 -- that means it's Test Rugby time!

I thought I'd get my choices out there for a squad of 30 (starter/depth) before Robbie announces the squad -- I'm sure he's on the blower already!

Without further ado:

Loosehead Prop: Benn Robinson / Ben Alexander

Fat Cat has had a very strong season, consistent scrummaging and a high work rate around the park. Alexander is also an excellent young prospect, with generally good performances with the odd flashes of talent in the limited time he's had on the paddock. One ponders WTF has happened to all the front row talent coming out of Queensland. It's not like there's a lack of raw product up there.

Hooker: Tatafu Polota Nau / Stephen Moore

Three weeks ago I would have actually put Moore ahead of Polota Nau, but I think Polota Nau's recent performances really demonstrate that when he concentrates on his throwing, his unbelievable athleticism makes him the no-brainer pick. Both Hookers have actually struggled with consistency this year, and I'm starting Polota Nau, but if he starts throwing badly I'd instantly sub him for Moore to give him a wake up call.

Tighthead Prop: Al Baxter / Guy Shepherdson

It's funny to be saying this, but Baxter has actually become a dominant prop. It was less than two years ago when opposing front rows were targeting him, but all of a sudden under Michael Foley's tutelage, Baxter has become a star. Shepherdson is merely competent, but I'm not sure he's shown enough to be a genuine Test player. If Matt Dunning suddenly emerges he could get pipped. Either way, with Ben Alexander able to play both sides of the front row, Shepherson may not even get a lot of time on the bench.

Lock: Nathan Sharpe / James Horwill

The Wallabies suddenly find themselves with a group of locks that are very inexperienced. The talent pool generally has a season of test experience or less. Sharpe seems to have responded to Robbie's wake-up call, and his experience leading the line out could make him a valuable asset for at least another year. James Horwill is the future leader of the second row, but has spent too much time injured this year to be anything other than depth. He may emerge as that leader before the Test season is over.

Lock: Will Caldwell / Peter Kimlin

This pick may surprise a few people, but Caldwell has quietly done everything that has been asked of him this year, and has had a huge influence of the Tah's strength at the set piece. What makes this more remarkable is just how bad this bloke looked two years ago after both Dan Vickerman and Al Kanaar went down with injuries, and both Caldwell and Dean Mumm were forced into the Waratahs starting line up. This year Caldwell has looked strong at the set piece, and a great presence at the breakdown -- the only area where he is not particularly accomplished (yet) is as a ball carrier. Peter Kimlin obviously has a lot of a talent as a more versatile player (capable of playing in the back row), but I think Caldwell is a better "pure" lock. Either way, a ton of young talent in the second row.

Blindside Flanker: Dean Mumm / Ben Mowen

It would be very tempting to put Ben Mowen as the starter. In the last three weeks he's had a coming of age, being massively influential in three Waratahs wins in the republic. Great work rate, ball carrier, and tall enough to factor into the line out. But Dean Mumm proves to be consistent no matter whether he plays in the second row or at blindside, and you need those dependable performances in Tests. Mitchell Chapman could be an alternative dark horse, and if McMeniman could get through a season healthy he might factor as well, but it's all academic when Rocky Elsom gets back from Leinster.

Openside Flanker: George Smith / Phil Waugh

Not much explanation required re George Smith. Possibly surpassing McCaw as the world's best this year. Waugh's gritty performances and leadership pip David Pocock here, but you'd think Pocock would be the 31st player if you expanded the squad by 1.

No 8: Richard Brown / Wycliff Palu

Palu's got more talent than Brown, but struggles with consistency and sometimes fitness. He was also underwhelming last year in the Tests after a strong Super 14 showing. On the other hand, Brown not only gets better in terms of realising his potential week-to-week, but also shows consistency. Either way, Palu can have considerable impact off the bench.

Halfback: Luke Burgess / Josh Valentine

Burgess has given much stronger performances in the second half of the season; for a while he was looking like a possible one season wonder. Will Genia might have challenged him for a starting spot if he was healthy, but in his absence, Josh Valentine's performance this year pairing with Matt Giteau makes him the choice for depth. Albeit a distant second.

Flyhalf: Matt Giteau / Quade Cooper

Giteau started the S14 season with confidence we've not seen him with at #10, and by the end of the season has become a dominating player here. It could be scary to see what he can do with a Test level forward pack setting the platform for him. As depth I've selected Quade Cooper, who I would expect to show different form in a scenario where he doesn't feel like he has to carry the whole team.

Left Wing: Lote Tuqiri / Drew Mitchell

While Tuqiri has lost some speed, he still has a massive presence around the park. Beyond strike power, he dominates with big hits and tackles, and in recent years has shown considerable leadership. Drew Mitchell has scored some good tries for the Force this year -- he still has games where he makes major mistakes, but when he's on the wing (instead of fullback) he shows Test level talent.

Inside Center: James O'Connor / Ryan Cross

James O'Connor not only shows flashes of brilliance in combination with Matt Giteau, but has a lot of upside and will only get better. I've also put his center partner from the Force, Ryan Cross as his backup. Cross is always right on the cusp of the Test squad, and occasionally plays a bench player, but he's got some genuine talent and could shine if he had to play in a starting role. Where's Berrick Barnes in the equation? Hold that thought...

Outside Center: Stirling Mortlock / Timana Tahu

Stirling Mortlock is still a world class Center. I think he has good leadership, but whether he should maintain the captaincy of the Wallabies is another question... Tahu has realised his tremendous talent ever since the Tahs installed the Halangahu-Beale-Tahu combo. Robbie might see Tahu more as a 12 and Cross more as a 13, and I'm happy to be flexible on that, but I think both are quite flexible players.

Right Wing: Lachlan Turner / Adam Ashley Cooper

It is unfortunate Digby Ioane is out for 6 months after what can only be described as a break out season. If Ioane was healthy, he'd be starting on the right wing, probably bumping Ashley Cooper to depth at fullback, and bumping Cameron Shepherd out of the squad altogether. In Ioane's absence, Lachlan Turner provides similar big speed/big play impact, notably saving a number of tries by holding up ball carriers over the goal line this year. Ashley Cooper is undeniably talented and may be the next best Outside Center after Mortlock, but he's had not only injuries but also a heck of a lot of up and down games this season.

Fullback: Berrick Barnes / Cameron Shepherd

We have some fairly thin positions on the Wallabies -- depth at tighthead prop and halfback are particularly noticeable. However, that's nothing compared to the dearth of talent at fullback. As a former fullback himself, this must scare the heck out of Robbie. While he doesn't have ideal speed, I think what Berrick Barnes possesses in terms of decision making, kicking skills, defense and leadership make him a great possibility for a position swap to fullback (also allowing James O'Connor to pair with Giteau). The alternatives are ugly; Turner's kicking is still very raw, Ashley Cooper is much more suited to wing or center, Mitchell is more suited to wing. Cameron Shepherd scores tons of points for the Force, but to me does not look like what you would expect from a Test level fullback, especially in terms of the consistency of his kicking -- maybe Robbie's tutelage will help here?

Hopefully Robbie can take advantage of an extra couple of weeks of training!

Head Above Water

2009-04-14T21:29:00.001+10:00

Let me lift my head above water for about 2 seconds to say, the premise behind this game sounds pretty good...

Back to dog paddling...

Sydney Festival 09

2009-03-22T22:02:00.001+11:00

As I've mentioned before, it's been a bit difficult to blog lately as I've been so busy. Since the beginning of the year, I seem to have had a very busy social calendar, and work has been as hectic as ever. And when I haven't been busy, I have not been apt to reflection during my recovery periods.

Until now...

A big highlight for me has been the Sydney Festival in January. With years past, I've often either hesitated or left it late when buying tickets to Sydney Festival events. When I do get to the odd event in January I'm often regretful I didn't get to more. Not this year.

V and I decided to to book a bunch of events, putting blind faith into the typically dependable taste and quality control of the festival curators. We were not disappointed.

A summary of our attendance...

Lipsynch: An auspicious start -- we were absolutely blown away. The play went for a whopping 9 hours (including several intermissions), but we barely noticed! The story begins with an opera singer on a flight to Montreal noticing that another passenger is slumped in a seat, dead, with a baby in her arms. From here, a handful of characters are interlinked over many decades -- the story told in a zig-zagging non-linear fashion. An incredibly ambitious story spanning several countries and languages (English/French/German/Spanish), meanwhile interweaving amazing visuals and musical themes. Fast paced, complex and ultimately satisfying.

Fanfare Ciocarlia: A wonderfully colourful collection of gypsy musicians and dancers from the breadth of Europe -- many Romanians, along with Spanish, Serbian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Macedonian (I hope I've got that right). Many different styles, beginning with flamenco style guitar, and graduating through different singers, dancers and brass/string instruments. Several audience members were dancing in the aisles of the State Theatre as the musicians played. After the show finished, the core of the Romanian gypsies re-emerged and then jumped off the stage and marched up through to the antechamber where they basically busked with their brass instruments for what seemed like an hour. Quite an amazing show.

Faith Healer: A challenging play made up of four monologues telling the story of Frank Hardy the Faith Healer. It begins with Frank setting the scene of his story, moving from town to town with his wife Grace and his manager Teddy. Grace, then succeeded by Teddy, follow Frank in telling their perspectives of their shared history -- Grace's story being quite depressing, and Teddy being quite entertaining in his cockney slang (despite the very dark subject matter). Part of the appeal of the play is that throughout, it is not clear whether Frank is merely a very talented showman or the genuine article. I thought it was a powerful performance, but the dark and stuffy conditions in the theatre made it difficult to maintain concentration all the way through (which is absolutely vital).

All Tomorrow's Parties: This might have been the most enjoyable music festival I've ever been to. The venue was Cockatoo Island, which necessitated a ferry ride to get to and from. Watching Rowland S Howard playing in sandstone ruins against a brilliant blue sky was a real highlight for me, as was seeing The Saints reunited for a very impressive set (despite some clear tension between Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey). Sadly, it's also the last time I'll see Mick Harvey play with the Bad Seeds now that he's left the band. The crowd was noticeably more mature (averaging mid to late 20's) compared to the typical music festival, and was definitely better for it.

Reggie Watts: What a dude. Amazing vocal range (10 octaves?) and mad skillz with a synthesizer, interspersed with with some interesting (absurd!) comedy between and within songs... Kept breaking into different accents and personalities. The set was only about an hour long, and left the audience wanting more. Not sure if he was a standup comic or musician, but either way I've heard he's returning to Australia for the Comedy Festival -- if I'm in country at the same time I'll definitely see him again.

Masters of Tradition: Each year, a 5 day music festival is held in the Irish coastal town of Bantry, where those considered masters of their craft play traditional Irish music in it's purest form.
A taste of this celebrated festival was played in a captivating set at the Sydney Opera House. A fairly amazing troupe of musicians (fiddlers, vocalists, guitarists, accordion and pipes) including the artistic director and MC (Martin Hayes) who also happens to be one of their most skillful performers on the fiddle. It is difficult to pick a highlight from such a quality line up, but my memories are drawn to one of the most melancholy sounds I've ever heard -- a reconstructed instrumental piece of (otherwise "lost") music played on the Uilleann Pipes (Irish version of the bagpipes). I believe the music was about a woman surveying and lamenting the remains of a battlefield. My gut stirred and my eyes were transfixed as this beautiful, powerful piece filled the concert hall.

I'm really looking forward to next January...

BSG Finale

2009-03-22T16:45:00.001+11:00

At first I wasn't sure, but after a little while to digest I have decided: a very fitting end to the show. Would have preferred they kept the 3 episodes of the "Daybreak" story line in a single sitting rather than 1 hour followed by 2 hours.

Some (albeit minor) plot details of the wrap up seemed a little goofy, but in the end, quite satisfying.

Not quite as edgy or daring as the Sopranos finale (BSG, by comparison, a little self indulgent), but I loved the fact that they chose not to answer some of the outstanding questions.

Boy I'll miss Battlestar Galactica. Some of the best writing I've seen in any TV show, and consistently -- for 4 seasons -- excellent.

Systemic Failure

2009-03-22T09:56:00.001+11:00

It's rare for me to say this, but: man I'm glad I didn't go to the rugby (Tahs vs Crusaders) last night. Just watching it on TV (glorious HD!) was frustrating enough, without having to travel back from Homebush.

Kurtley Beale has been getting his fair share of criticism from the various snipers out there -- some of it is deserved, but the problems for the Tahs are more far-reaching than just the inexperience/confidence of the player at pivot.

The most frustrating flaws I saw last night were the lack of kick chase and the the isolation of a ball runner at the breakdown after they'd made a big break. And then our efforts vs the Crusaders at rucking and counter-rucking. These are all basics, and the Crusaders did them very well while we constantly did this poorly. It makes me ponder whether there is a lack of match fitness on our part -- it certainly looked to me like there was a bit of fatigue setting in soon after the second half started.

Where the Waratahs have at least shown discipline in the past in lieu of being opportunistic in contesting at the rucks or kick chase, last night they were neither. (In fact, for all the times the Crusaders were setting us for overlap, I was surprised we were stung so little...) I was also astounded at our lineout losses; the throws did not seem poor -- it looked to me that the communication and efforts of the jumper were more the issue.

None of this should be put on Kurtley.

What I didn't like from Kurtley was the quality of his passing; if you are going to play at first receiver you cannot be hurling hospital passes -- occasionally when Norton Knight came up he was doing the same thing.

If I was head coach Chris Hickey, as much as I love Tom Carter's solid game, I'd be tempted to make a change to play Halangahu at 10 and Tahu at 12. Halangahu seems to be a better decision maker, and Tahu is too good to be only playing what seems like half an hour a game. I'd try and stick to this combination for a couple of games.

But those changes won't really matter if the Tahs don't making broader improvements with the fundamentals.

Faster Disco?

2009-02-25T07:51:00.001+11:00

Apparently Faith No More is reforming for a tour of Europe...

Home Theatre

2009-01-31T18:40:00.001+11:00

Ever since my last trip to the US (almost a year ago now), it's been at the back of my mind that I would like to upgrade my Home Theatre setup to support HD. While I look forward to the idea of BD movies high def, the real driver has been sports (if you haven't noticed, I'm a junkie).

So when Adam blogged about his TV being on the blink back in December, I made an offer to sell my SD plasma (mates rates) which would provide me the necessary impetus to go and get a new telly!

This led to a spate of rationalisation of unused components and purchasing/upgrades of new bits and pieces.

A quick summary of my journey over the last month:

TV: Even though LCD has made huge strides over recent years, when it comes down to brass tacks it still does not stack up to plasma in terms of contrast and motion -- and when you factor in my debilitating sports addiction I really had no choice but to go with a plasma. So I decided to get a 50" Pioneer Kuro - the Kuro is for plasmas what the Bravia is for LCD's (kings of their respective markets). After some calibration and tuning, I'm quite pleased with the results.

Amp: I had my heart set on a Denon. I've owned two, and they've been beautiful performers. And after seeing Bernard's AVR-3808ci in the flesh, I had visualised my destiny. But it was not to be! The problem is that Denon components in Australia are at a ridiculously distorted price. In the US, if you look around, it's not hard to find the 3808 for ~US$1200. In Australia it rrp's for A$3200, and the best price I could find was ~A$2500. After looking around, even the mid range Denon's were above A$2000! Noting this horrendous mark-up, I felt compelled to at least test the market.

Beyond the usual suspects in terms of specs, the key criteria for me was to avoid any amp that did not address HDMI clipping, as my intention was to route all video through the receiver (as is typical modern practice). While Harman Kardon and Onkyo do some nice receivers, the only brand that I think holds up consistently across the range as Denon is Yamaha, so I started with them. A bit of research revealed that all of the current mid range (663, 883 etc.) and the previous generation "bottom of the high end" RX-V1800 (i.e. what the AVR-3808ci is for Denon) were all victims of HDMI clipping - and worse yet, Yamaha had no intention of correcting the issue! However, the RX-V1900 (recently refreshed version of the RX-V1800) had addressed any HDMI clipping issues.

After doing a bit of wheeling and dealing over the phone, I managed to get this model for $1600. (Say what?!) Sold! Very easy to setup, although it's missing Denon's pretty GUI (instead it uses blocky fonts you'd expect to see on an Atari 2600's 4k address space). Beyond this, I only have a minor nitpick when it comes to this amp, which is - even compared to my 10 year old Denon - the Yamaha doesn't have a Recording Source Selector (i.e. you are forced to be on the source you wish to record from). Such a basic feature not even in the Yamaha high end! Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the amp.

MCE: With an upgrade in tv and amp, I switched from my DVI output to the HDMI option on my ATI card. 1080p is so luxurious after 848x480! After buying the Kuro and the RX-V1900, I had begun a trend of black components in my entertainment center. Ignoring my Foxtel IQ for a second, my Media Center in it's silver case was sticking out like dogs balls. Given that I wanted to install a blu-ray drive in my media center, I decided that while I was doing any mods that I would replace the case with a nice black Zalman HTPC case. Nowhere near as painful as I was expecting -- literally! Thankfully Zalman have paid some attention in the newer generation case with rounded, finished edges internally so that I managed to avoid any cuts which are typical when you are playing with nasty PC cases and other bits. A nice looking case, but I've noticed the iMon software is a little buggy (much better than the previous VFD though).

HD+: I was an early Foxtel IQ adopter, and I've always thought it was one of the best investments I've ever made. It's very intuitively designed, and just a wonderful appliance. However, after almost 4 years of use, it was starting to get a few bad blocks on the internal drive which meant the system would crash very hard whenever it tripped over one. It also only supports standard definition. Enter the Foxtel IQ2. Native HDMI out, supporting 720p on the sports channels and 1080i on the other HD channels. (You can set it to automatically scale based on your display).

Watching sports on this setup is a dream -- in fact, I've found myself sitting staring at sports I don't even follow (such as soccer and hockey) because it is so visually glorious! I've also been watching a heck of a lot more Discovery and National Geographic!

On a more technical note, a pleasant surprise with this box is that it can output to another device (eg. a VCR or an MCE) via svideo and RCA while the primary signal is sent over HDMI. A negative surprise (but easily worked around) is that for some reason the only way you can get a 5.1 signal is to use the optical SPDIF interface (only stereo over HDMI, which is a joke!).

Speakers: I've kept my Bose AM15 MkII. Bose is quite a controversial brand when it comes to sound (you either love 'em or hate 'em) because it's so reliant on the subwoofer to make up the low and bottom of the mid range. So a poorly tuned setup sounds absolutely dreadful. Really, these speakers are scientifically designed for home theatre -- which is fine for me, because if I've got my amp on, 85% of the time it involves watching the big screen.

I have to say, I was starting to go nuts when I moved these speakers on to the Yamaha - the sub and LFE seemed to be constantly over compensating, and as I was doing my tweaking, with all the earthquake-like vibrating going on I was expecting my neighbours to charge down my door in a rage. No matter how much manual tuning I would do I just could not get the setup to play nicely when the volume was up. So I finally caved in and used the Advanced YPAO/microphone feature (equivalent to Audyssey on the modern Denon's) to tune the speakers -- voila! I now have a wonderful sounding setup. (Thankyou Yamaha!)

Epilogue: Really the only untouched component in this picture is my VCR -- I'm trying to decide whether I might archive a few of my old tapes to my media center or not...

I've held off on buying a console because everytime I buy one I hopelessly under-utilise it after the first month of ownership. Seeing GTA IV on the 360 tempted me for a short while, but not enough to finally buy one. We will see what happens...

I would love an excuse to buy some B&W front speakers for more complete capabilities when it comes to music listening (and relegate the Bose to supporting components in a 7.1 setup), but as I do most of my music listening elsewhere, it is very hard to justify... (Who knows, heheh...)

Anyway, in short, I'm a pretty happy camper.

Bring on HD Superbowl Sunday (on Monday)!

Irony

2009-01-31T16:29:00.001+11:00

When life is interesting/enjoyable I've struggled to find the time to blog. As with many people, I originally started my blog during some travel with the intention of detailing some of my journeys, but with the numerous trips I've done in the last 18 months, really I've been hard pressed to record any detail.

January has been a busy, busy month for me. I've rebuilt my home theatre setup (a subject for another blog entry), I've been attending quite a few Sydney Festival events (also another entry), the cricket and NFL playoffs have been tremendously enjoyable, I've been on a little bit of a health kick (which has been very good for me), and the days where I've been back at work it's been... well... interesting and challenging in a good way!

Anyway, so far, a good start to the year...

Those Bloody Bluth Boys

2009-01-16T13:32:00.001+11:00

Just sign on, dagnabbit!

Lame

2008-12-29T23:19:00.001+11:00

I've just finished watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special (The Next Doctor).

I don't want to give away spoilers, but as per many of Russell T Davies efforts, all style and no substance. Some good ideas (and always great production values) let down by below average writing.

Not quite the worst of his "fan fiction", but certainly containing a few of the hallmarks.

As the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd.

Playoffs

2008-12-29T19:35:00.001+11:00

Unfortunately my Redskins (after a very exciting and inspiring 6-2 start) were eliminated from playoff contention last week, and today finished the season with a mediocre 8-8 record. A 2-6 collapse down the stretch? They just could not maintain the physical tone that their impressive running game set in the first 8 games -- and their receivers were way too inconsistent. I'd expect the Skins will go very hard in the offseason on getting some younger athletic linemen on offense.

What I am pleased to see is that the Dallas Cowboys had an even more disappointing collapse to miss the playoffs, having started the season as favoured to make a Superbowl appearance by many media outlets. And I think many teams in the AFC must be breathing a sigh of relief with the Pats somehow managing to miss the playoffs with an 11-5 record!

With regards to the Pats, this will generate some controversy and suggestions for a seeded playoff system, considering undeserving teams like the 8-8 Chargers and 9-7 Cardinals getting a home ground wildcard berths for winning their mediocre divisions. I love tradition, but I think a seeded system would be fairer and make more sense.

As for next weekends Wildcard Round, I'm expecting the visiting teams to dominate:
- Atlanta at Arizona (4.30pm Saturday)
- Indianapolis at San Diego (8pm Saturday)
- Baltimore at Miami (1pm Sunday)
- Philly at Minnesota (4.30pm Sunday)

Now that the Skins are eliminated, it will be nice to just enjoy football as a fan without too many vested interests.

(Except for rooting against Philly! But I think I will have to wait until the Divisional round for them to be eliminated. At least they took care of the Cowboys today...)

Slingin' Sammy

2008-12-22T21:43:00.001+11:00

A truly amazing athlete died this week -- Slingin' Sammy Baugh. Sammy was the Quarterback of the Redskins from 1937 to 1952, and turned the forward pass into the centerpiece of NFL that it is today.

When I heard that he passed, I cracked open some Jamesons and started reminiscing through my history books.

My favourite columnist from the Washington Post, Thomas Boswell, wrote:

In 1936, the season before Baugh arrived, the average NFL team scored 11.9 points a game and completed 5.6 passes. The NFL completion percentage: 36.5. The entire sport threw only 67 scoring passes to 216 interceptions. A team passed out of third-down necessity or for trickery.

Then came Baugh.

Into this thudding world, where someone named Arnie Herber held such passing records as there were, the 6-foot-2 Texan, who could throw from all angles and drolly asked "which eye" he should hit his receivers in, was a revelation.

As a rookie, starting only five games, he broke the NFL completion record with 81. By 1940, he was accomplishing the inconceivable, completing 62.7 percent of his passes.

And what is really amazing is that he was posting these numbers a modern QB would be proud of with a ball shaped like a Rugby ball rather than the modern streamlined pigskin we know today. But the guy was also a legend on Special Teams as a Punter (technically, they didn't have Special Teams back then) and on Defense as a DB.

More Boswell:

The range of Baugh's skill is almost incomprehensible now. His career punting average was more than 45 yards, but from 1940 through 1942 it was almost 50 yards (49.5). Yes, they liked to quick kick then. But 50 yards is still 50 yards.

In 1940, he intercepted 11 passes in just 10 games. How good is that? No NFL player has intercepted 11 passes since 1981 and the last man to have more than an interception per game was Night Train Lane in 1952.

Sammy won championships for the Skins in 1937 and 1942, but one of the biggest surprises came about 10 years ago when a journalist interviewing Sammy at his ranch (in Rotan, Texas) discussed the infamous 1940 championship where the Skins went down to the Bears 73-0. Sammy went on to tell the story that the Skins purposely took a dive to send a message to owner George Preston Marshall regarding his meddling. Needless to say, this was a controversial revelation!

I loved what John Madden said on Sunday Night Football this week -- that Sammy actually loved the modern game, and admired how skillful the modern players had become. How refreshing compared to the stereotypical old school Hall-of-Famer who never gives the modern sport it's due.

There will never, ever be another Sammy Baugh.

Leavez

2008-12-22T21:02:00.001+11:00

This is the end of my first official day of leave -- I'm off until January 5th. I had my office Christmas Party on Friday, and after the cigars, booze and general lack of sleep, I needed most of the weekend to recover from it. While dozing in and out of sleep on the couch, I caught up on episodes of 30 Rock, season 2 of Californication, and re-runs of Arrested Development.

(Three of my favourite American comedies right there... As an aside, Californication keeps impressing me with it's writing, but I wonder if the quality can be sustained for a third season with the upcoming changes in plot.)

Christmas just creeps up on you. I can't believe it's on Thursday. I have a number of bits and pieces around the house I need to get done before V gets back from her trip to NZ. Today was a write-off due to my debilitating sports addiction (NFL), but I did get some washing and shopping done. The good news is, after the last three days, I think I've got "lying on the couch watching TV" out of my system for a little while.

As they say where Bernard lives, "Happy Holidays!"

Fun Net Zero Gain

2008-11-29T17:35:00.001+11:00

Had a fun game of Poker with some good blokes last night. Unlike the last couple of games which I played at the end of a work week, I was in pretty good spirits and really enjoyed myself until we closed out at 1am.

I love the Dealers Choice custom in the League of Ordinary Gentlemen; really conducive to traditional bs/trash talk that are the important staples of an entertaining game. But I was getting murdered, thanks largely to losing against a straight flush with a full house in a game of Anaconda.

Until a really late run on my final re-buy, I was slated to make a pretty big loss despite my earlier tourney winnings. But 4 Queens in a game of Spit in the Ocean saved me!

Taxi: -$30
Beers: -$20
Tourney fee: -$20
Pizza: -$10
Tourney winnings: +$80
Dealers Choice + 2 Rebuys: -$60
Cash out at End of Dealers Choice: +$57
League of Ordinary Gentlemen Trophy Minding Goodwill: +$3

I'm already starting to feel a little holiday-ish!

Prague Warm-ups

2008-11-08T18:31:00.001+11:00

Over the 8 nights between 27th Oct and 4th Nov I had a peak of about 5 hours sleep a night, and an average somewhere between 3.5 to 4 hours a night.

The waking hours over that period were generally consumed by a company off-site, travel, sporting events, and alcohol-fueled debauchery. More the latter... The only price I've had to pay is a mild cold that I got once I was back in Australia (Tuesday) which has almost subsided.

I am now ready to fly out to Prague on Friday.

I've just glimpsed at the weather there -- it will vary between 3 and 12 degrees celcius while I am there!

As an aside, Hong Kong was a blast!

Netbooks

2008-10-19T13:06:00.001+11:00

I bought my first netbook about a month ago - an MSI Wind U100, featuring a 10-inch screen (1024x600) and utilising a 1.6 GHz "Atom" processor. It is extremely light -- the laptop with the battery in it weighs about a kilo.

For A$680 it also came with a 120 GB HD (at the time of ordering it was spec'd with an 80 GB, so bonus...), 1 GB RAM, 802.11g, and a 6-cell battery (good for 4-5 hours). It has 3 external USB ports and an ethernet port. The key thing it doesn't come with: a CD or DVD drive. But that's fine.

I also bought a few 3rd party add-ons -- another 1 GB RAM, replaced the Wireless G mini PCI-E card with a Wireless N, and replaced the internal disk with a 2.5-inch 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm). This brought the total spend up to around (just below) A$1000. In terms of modifying/installing the 3rd party hardware? Piece of cake.

A couple of weekends ago I configured it as a hackintosh (10.5.4). I am very impressed with the results -- the laptop is quite snappy even with I/O and CPU intensive tasks such as running a Windows XP instance in VMware or playing video.

The only HW not working is the headphone jacks and the internal microphone (easily remedied with a USB headset, which I use when I voice-skype anyways).

While I'll keep my MacBook Pro for everyday work, the netbook should be the perfect travel companion for my upcoming trips to Hong Kong and the Czech Republic. Not only is it compact and light, but it's so inexpensive that if it came to the crunch I wouldn't be too worried about replacing it if it got flogged.

For A$1000, I think the spec is unbelievably good.

Random

2008-10-06T21:50:00.001+11:00

Some other random thoughts:

- Apparently by 2030, laptops will be hotter than the sun. Semi-seriously, I wonder when we will start to see warnings on the side of laptops like they do with coffee cups...

- I've been playing around with the Windows port of xbmc on my Vista Media Center lately. I've played with it before on my retired Xbox, but my interest has been piqued by all the forks we have seen emerge recently such as Boxee and Plex. It's fascinating that open source leads the way in this industry, given the commercial potential.

- It's a good time to be a Redskins fan. I can't remember the last time I was so inspired by the team and it's coaching. I mean really and truly inspired. I didn't think much could top last week's win over Dallas in Texas Stadium until I watched the Skins rally from being 14-0 down in the first quarter to dominate Philadelphia at the Link. Not just winning, but winning with style (such wonderfully aggressive play-calling by head coach Jim Zorn). I am so freaking proud of this team right now, and I've been on a natural high all day after watching the game...

- ...possibly akin to what Manly fans feel about their team walloping the Melbourne Storm in yesterday's league Grand Final 40-0.

- I'm quite looking forward to going to Hong Kong at the end of the month to witness Dingo put some hurt on the All Blacks. Lots of new talent on display, and with plenty of time (4 weeks) to get ready. The Wallabies have so much upside between now and the next World Cup. We are very lucky to have a philosophy like Robbie's to go with the talent, rather than conservative, stifling thinking ala Connolly.

- I'm also looking forward to the new Coen brothers film Burn After Reading. Their humour almost always strikes a chord with me.

- With Nick doing All Tomorrow's Parties at the Sydney Festival this year, I think this is gonna be the year where I get off my butt to try and get some tickets to Sydney Festival events in a timely manner (as opposed to my usual ad-hoc manner). I love this time of year in Sydney.

- I feel a project coming on...

Phones

2008-10-06T20:56:00.001+11:00

A couple of random phone-related thoughts:

- There were two things that I have felt were show-stopping detractors with the iPhone which have nothing to do with it's design. The first is that iPhone sales have been tied to service provider contracts featuring very (to put it lightly) uncompetitive data rates, and the second is that they've had NDA's tied to the platform SDK, curbing efforts by communities to develop for the iPhone (including writing books). Thankfully, the latter has been fixed, and the former is rumoured to be addressed in the next few months.

- In the meantime, I have allowed my company to provide me a Blackberry Bold, simply because I am entitled to a new phone once every two years. The phone has a solid design, but I'm still trying to decide whether I like the idea of carrying around email in my pocket.

- My previous phone (the Treo 680) was without doubt the best I've ever owned, but unfortunately PalmOS is a dead platform. What a tragedy. An OS with a really great philosophy that I will miss. The phone now becomes a hand-me-down for V.

Absurd Juxtaposition

2008-09-18T19:50:00.001+10:00

If memory serves me correctly, in my first year at the University of Newcastle (1992) we had a 48 Kb connection to AARNET (i.e. the internet).

48 Kb. For the entire university.

I remember overhearing some students bickering about those pesky MUD'ers using up valuable bandwidth (probably around 2 Kb a player).

This week I spent a couple of hours watching a streaming NFL game (in HD no less) which required that I had at least a 750 Kb connection. Not a problem over 24 Mb ADSL2+.

My, how things change.

Tri-Nations

2008-09-15T08:53:00.001+10:00

I was at a bucks party on Saturday night, which means I didn't watch the 3N decider until yesterday afternoon (carefully dodging any possible clues of the result for about 14 hours after the game).

Without getting deep on analysis, the Wallabies basically lost a close one which they very easily could have won. The clear difference between these two teams at a technical level was at the breakdown. The AB's were better by a nose at this area in the first half, but they dominated in the second half.

Much like defense, I think this comes down to attitude while still maintaining discipline to play within the scheme.

Some things that Robbie must contemplate before the International Test season begins in a couple of months:

1. Who's up for it, and who ain't? I wonder whether Palu would have been dropped if there had been a regular #8 training with the squad up until recently. He's a terrific player for the Tahs (and even in past Tests), but on current form I can't think of a single Test this year that he's done more good than bad. OTOH, Richard Brown looked pretty good in his debut. Do we need another flyhalf/12 in the squad of 30? (yes -- Quade Cooper?) Should Robbie start developing David Pocock at the expense of Phil Waugh? Do we need to tweak our outside backs? Basically: who's made progress since the domestic season began, and who is still "promising potential"?

2. Leadership. I hate to do this, but you also have to question Mortlock's captaincy. In the last two losses that we've had, it's ultimately come down to the team losing it's composure; in the case of this game, we just didn't have the mental fortitude to maintain the pressure we had built in the first 50 or 60 minutes, and that's when the AB's started to dictate the game. That really reflects on team leadership and ultimately captaincy. Robbie needs to work out whether tweaking makes the difference between the results now and instead the team delivering what the promise over the whole 80 mins.

3. Addressing the Flaws. The critics like to take shots at our kicking game which is absolutely fair. It's a no brainer, and if we can find a way to fix it then we should. This comes down to talent rather than to scheming and/or game planning. But on the game planning aspects, two areas where we are getting beat badly: a) Defensive overlaps and b) at the breakdown... We need to make the necessary adjustments over the next few months to stop our opponents exploiting us here. I have a sneaking suspicion there's already some ideas in place but being poorly executed on.

As crushing as that loss is, I think Robbie has made fantastic progress with this team. In fact, I'm really surprised he's got so much done so quickly.

But the reality of difficult decisions to be made to get to the top of the mountain can be a sobering thought!

SHO RYU KEN!

2008-09-03T12:35:00.002+10:00

Street Fighter IV is looking very good. Very, very good.

It looks like incremental improvement from a gameplay perspective, but you never know until the play test. And I love modern take on the graphics, opting to make it as anime-like as possible.

Capcom also seem pretty open about the platform as well, even opening the possibility of doing a Wii version or an iPhone (?!?) version.

I love this quote from the game designer:

1UP: Well, that's cool. But what about the controller? Are you worried about people playing the game for the first time using the Xbox 360 controller? Personally, I'm not a fan of it for fighting games -- would you agree?

YO: Ha, well, you're not going to get me to say that in front of Microsoft, but let's just say that I use a joystick when playing Soul Calibur 4 on the 360.

BTW, can you believe that Street Fighter II came out 17 years ago?

The Prodigal Son Returns

2008-09-01T13:03:00.001+10:00

While we are on John Woo...

Just over a decade ago, John Woo departed to Hollywood. With all due respect to one of my favourite directors, he has made crap ever since.

The good news: Woo has just released his first Hong Kong film in Asia since leaving, which turns out to be the most expensive Asian blockbuster in history (so far) with a budget of US$80mil.

It is an action movie based on The Battle of Red Cliffs (Three Kingdoms period of ancient China -- fast becoming one of my favourite historical backdrops in movies).

It was meant to star Chow Yun Fat, but the crazy fool decided to do a contract holdout the day principal photography was due to start, and Woo quickly replaced him with Tony Leung Chiu Wai (the guy who played the undercover cop opposite Chow Yun Fat in Hard Boiled). Chow Yun Fat tried to get back in, but Woo stuck with Tony Leung.

So far, it has been received very well in Asia, now billed as the most successful movie ever in China (US$43 mil in the first month).

In Asia it's a two parter (each over 2 hours), with the second part due for release in Jan 09. However, for the Western release it will apparently be a single two and half hour epic.

Of course, there's no way I'm settling for the abbreviated version :)

Hard Boiled, Part 2?

2008-09-01T12:37:00.001+10:00

One of my favourite Hong Kong action films of all time (Hard Boiled) appears to have a sequel: Stranglehold.

John Woo directs and Chow Yun Fat stars...

The twist? It's a video game for the Xbox 360.

I just can't imagine a video game scene having the same impact as the teahouse shoot out from the beginning of Hard Boiled, but nevertheless my curiosity has been aroused.

Kasey

2008-08-31T08:55:00.001+10:00

Kasey Chambers has always enjoyed having a bit of a wail in her songs.

Generally I didn't mind -- up until the point a few years back where she lost a karaoke competition singing Cindi Lauper's True Colors.

Kasey's rendition is just one long wail. (So is Cindi's for that matter, but it's her song). And Kasey's hurt pride for losing a karaoke comp to an amateur made her decide she would sing it as often as possible. Over. and Over. Again. (There's a reason why you lost that karaoke comp Kasey!) Ever since, when Kasey's playin' I ain't stayin'.

However, I have to say I really enjoyed Kasey and her husband Shane Nicholson on the first episode of the new series of Rockwiz last night (the show's first Wife/Husband act), and I even liked their cover of Kylie's "Can't get you out of my head".

All is forgiven.

Ellis Park

2008-08-31T00:54:00.001+10:00

That Wallabies vs Springboks game was a painful lesson. The only consolation is that we are still alive to win the Tri-Nations, but this was an amateur performance in a professional game.

Our defense was disgusting; it hasn't been as convincing ever since we switched from Muggleton's solid scheme, but this is the first game where it has been sliced and diced. (The terrible thing about this: it's directly attributable to Robbie's coaching and the attitude of the players.)

For the 3N decider, for the starting XV I think I would pick:

Robinson Moore Baxter Horwill Mumm Elsom Smith Palu Cordingley Giteau Tuqiri Cross Mortlock Ashley Cooper Mitchell

The key selection for the front row is that Moore must be the hooker. Polota-Nau's throwing has been a major "feature" in our losses under Robbie thus far, and he needs to get it fixed as quickly as possible.

We really need Vickerman as one of our Locks, but while he is injured I think I'd take Horwill and Mumm. I think I like McMeniman as depth at blindside flanker rather than Lock. Sharpe looks like he's on the outer with Robbie, not even making the bench for the Ellis Park game!

At the back row, one thing I would take out of the last few games is that Waugh is no longer neck-and-neck with George Smith any more. Smith is clearly the man. I also worry that there is a lack of players challenging Palu for the 8 role; Richard Brown from the Force might be worth consideration.

I actually thought Cordingley provided quick service, so I'd leave him at halfback. We were very obviously exposed with Tahu at Inside Center a number of times (just not enough experience in Rugby let alone the defensive scheme), and if Barnes is out then we need Cross playing there.

In our back 3, Hynes has had very little impact (if not making very notable mistakes) since the first couple of tests, and I think it's time for him to ride the pine. I would move Ashley Cooper from FB to Hynes' wing, and I would start Mitchell at FB. But one thing's for sure: we are really struggling for talent at FB.

It's too bad Hewat didn't stick around for another year -- not only would he have possibly helped the Tahs win the S14, but it's very possible he would have finally got a Wallaby jersey by now.

Greek Cuisine

2008-08-19T08:16:00.001+10:00

I am please to report I have survived eating one metric ton of Greek food on Saturday night. While the process was enjoyable, the recovery was painful.

If I had my time over, I'd do it again!

Green Wing...

2008-08-19T08:13:00.001+10:00

...appeals to my sense of humour.

I do assume most of it is written vs ad-libbed (you can see a sketch show structure behind it's "soapy" exterior), but I imagine they must lose a stack of money with the actors trying to make each other laugh during the takes (particularly Michelle Gomez's character).

BTW Adam, it was a bit of a stretch to mention this in relation to Garth Marrenghi's Dark Place :)

Consoles

2008-08-19T08:04:00.001+10:00

I thought this article provided a pretty interesting analysis of the market, particularly the commentary on PS2 owners and their next console choice.

Nintendo's having a revival...

Medal Count

2008-08-17T11:31:00.002+10:00

Wake up USA. You are the only country that cares about the aggregate medal count OVER the gold medal count.

(I know that's a bit "out of nowhere" for my Aussie readers, but due to the sheer amount of American sports content I absorb I can't help having a chuckle/reaction to the "American" version of the medal tally).

While Australians take a lot of pride for punching above their own weight, how good is South Korea?!

As good as the Michael Phelps story is, the swimmer I've really been impressed with in this Olympics is Kirsty Coventry (1 gold and 3 silvers). I could understand why she could swim like a fish if she was from the Western Cape of South Africa, but Zimbabwe is a land locked country!

And while staying on the "random sport" theme, even though I a.) don't like golf, b.) am a casual observer of basketball at best, and c.) hate reality shows, Charles Barkley's golf swing is so fascinatingly bad (think: car crash) that I think "yes, I would watch a reality show about trying to correct Charles Barkley's golf swing!" :)

Galactica

2008-08-17T11:23:00.001+10:00

I am just now starting season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, and am really enjoying.

"Only up to Season 3?" I hear you say? I was just so uncaptivated when I watched the Pilot a few years ago that I really just could not be bothered. In a way this has been good for my mental state, because if I had been watching this week-to-week I could see myself going nuts waiting for the next installment.

It is certainly very different to the original series -- it does not have the same visceral Space Opera that was characteristic of the original series with both the music and the space combat scenes being much more understated.

In fact, the style and the story are so different that rather than reimagining the original story, they could have very easily not used the original characters and rather just set it 50 years later in the same universe. (But then again, after BSG 1980, maybe reimagining had to happen :) ).

Overall, the new stories have fantastic penmanship. The constant mind games could become tedious with weaker writing, but instead the plot becomes even more gripping. I have never read the graphic novels, but when I watch the show I can very easily imagine the story boarding -- for example, the Baltar/6 interactions. (As a general comment, the TV and film industry have become quite magnificent in graphic novel adaptions!)

Final word: Most significant sci-fi series in the last decade, very much due to the quality of the writing; I think it trumps Bab-5 and the newly released Dr Who (both of which I have enjoyed immensely).

Newlands Quikkie

2008-08-17T11:10:00.001+10:00

Both the AB's and the Boks played quite a physical game, but reviewing the film will show a lot of horrid mistakes. That said, reviewing game film will be a lot easier for the AB's, as getting any win (let alone a shutout) as a visitor to the Republic is a very major achievement.

If this game was to be remembered (which it won't), it will be based on the question of the kicking. When was the last time you saw i.) Dan Carter miss 5/5 penalties, have ii.) 2/2 drop goals charged down, and also iii.) see Percy miss 2/2 on penalties.

Another thought: Brad Thorn must be right on the cusp of being dropped. He's committed a major foul in almost every game of the Tri-Nations so far which ultimately puts his team at risk when getting reduced to 14 men, and he was incredibly lucky in this game not to get a yellow for taking out Du Preez as he chased his own kick.

Graham Henry will have relieved considerable pressure, but for Pete De Villiers the nightmare has just begun. Not only did the Bokke get shutout at home, but he selected a team which was viewed poorly by the South African politicians due to "transformation". I cannot see De Villiers making it through all the way to the next Rugby World Cup; he's just not as elusive as Jake White was.

As I've said before, I think Springbok Coach is the hardest position in world sport.

300

2008-08-17T10:55:00.002+10:00

After the last 7 or 8 months, I feel like Leonidas of Sparta, except that by some miracle I've managed to live through/limp away from Thermopylae.

I've survived, and now I'm stronger for it... It's nice to see sunshine again.

(BTW, 300 -- what a great adaption! I read a little while ago that they were considering working with Frank Miller to do a prequel!)

Final Comments on HOF

2008-08-17T10:52:00.002+10:00

I finally got a chance to see the Hall of Fame acceptance speeches. I hope the 4 minute standing ovation that Art Monk got when he took the stage (this is not typical; to my knowledge, a first) sends a message to the faceless HOF voters and their politicking. And what a polished speaker!

While on the NFL, I'm feeling very positive about the Skins upcoming year and the beginning of the Zorn era. You could probably say that I'm feeling the same way every year, but the 1st stringers have looked uncharacteristically sharp and polished in their first two outings, and I just love listening to Zorn speak; he makes any topic so engaging.

And for a final comment, how's this for the amusing-because-it's-not-me dept.: Mike Holmgren's (Coach of the Seattle Seahawks) daughter was thrown out of her fantasy football league because she has "too much inside information".

My advice: sue! You are in the right country for it! :)

Skins v Colts

2008-08-02T11:57:00.002+10:00

As I mentioned back in February, two childhood idols of mine -- Art Monk and Darrell Green -- will be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame at this weekend's "Hall of Fame Game".

The game itself is meaningless (the opening preseason game) but I still would have loved to have seen the broadcast purely for the induction ceremonies.

While Green was selected in his first year of eligibility, Monk was snubbed for a number of years with the faceless politics that are involved with Hall of Fame selection.

It was nice to see Monk's typically classy self taking the positives from the situation in an interview with the Washington Post:

Q: What's the greatest moment of your career? As you look to all the accomplishments, the yards, the touchdowns, the catches, the Super Bowls, can you pinpoint what was the greatest moment or the series of greatest moments?

Monk: Of my career?

Q: Yeah.

Monk: Probably something that's sort of not on-the-field-related but off-the-field-related. I mean, it's great to be an athlete, and you want people to enjoy what you do and get excited and all of that. But just the fact that after I retired and this whole Hall of Fame thing and not making it [for several years] to see how the community really responded to that and supported me, I think that's probably the best part, for me, of my career to know that people enjoyed and respected and appreciated me more than just being an athlete, but just as a person.

Hurry up and put the brotha in the hall!

Prague

2008-08-02T10:40:00.001+10:00

I have had it confirmed I will be doing a conference in Prague mid-November!

I'll probably take a week off beforehand to do a little bit of travel, so now I just have to work out where I'd like to go.

Woo hoo!

Tonight's Contest

2008-08-02T10:36:00.001+10:00

It's hard to predict a winner, because even an All-Blacks team with weaknesses is still pretty good.

I appreciate the amount of pressure that is on Henry right now, but I am really quite surprised at his uncharacteristic meekness and excuse making in his press conferences (which actually started before the test last week). This psychological chasm opening up before our eyes with the absense of the stereotypical "headmaster" character we normally see with Henry is why the Aussies licking their chops (as opposed to any differences in talent).

The AB selectors have copped a bit of flack around Kahui on the wing, but I actually like this selection given the physical nature of his opposition, and while I think Nonu creates opportunities for both sides at 12, pairing him up with his Wellington center Conrad Smith (who is a pretty good player outright) should help that combination a little bit.

I'd expect less tries and more kicking and conservative tactics as the stakes continue to climb. Weather will also dictate a change in tactics with a slippery ball. Trying to select McDonald at fullback was a clear indicator of this. As much as the AB's are lamenting McDonald not being able to play at FB tonight, Muliaina was a standout at that spot last week, so they still have a pretty good player there.

The most intriguing matchup will be at the breakdown, with the return of McCaw for the New Zealanders, vs Robbie selecting both Smith and Waugh in the same back row. Last week would have been a very different game with McCaw's presence, given the Wallaby dominance here. The overall physicality should go up a notch which should make it an outright brutal contest, and while superman McCaw always finds a way to surprise you even when you are expecting his best, I wonder whether 80 mins at this intensity level will be too much of an ask for a guy returning from a six-week layoff.

The bench selection is interesting; Vickerman is a tremendously complete player and often makes massive contributions at ruck time, and McMeniman who in more recent years has played blindside flanker as much as lock is an absolute mongrel, and loves to throw himself into the mess.

If the Wallabies don't win tonight it might be another 20 years before they get an opportunity this ripe. But make no mistake, the opportunity is absolutely there.

Who?

2008-07-26T16:03:00.001+10:00

I have a myriad of thoughts about the new Doctor Who after finishing Season 4 a few weeks ago.

I do have some criticisms, but overall I am really happy that the show has returned, and that the people working on the show have done a worthy job.

If you have not seen the finale, beware that I will be including spoilers here.

In no particular order:-

Doctor's #9 and #10:
I really loved Christopher Eccleston's incarnation. The character had a dark, unsettling edge about him that reminded me of Colin Baker, but also had a lot of charisma which Colin's incarnation did not have. He did have a wonderful "alien" feel about him while also having a "human" side to his character. I can understand Eccleston wanting to avoid getting typecast (as Tom Baker did), but it seems a tragedy that he only stuck around for a single season. With a bit of longevity he might have become my all-time favourite...

It took me a while to warm to David Tennant. At first I thought he was annoying because it seemed that Ecclestone's intensity was replaced by some fairly weak jokes. That weak joke aspect seemed to have an uncomfortable contrast against the random threats the Doctor seemed to make every other episode of bringing down the universe if the villain-of-the-week harmed his companion etc. That's what I thought was bothering me, but then I worked out that this was not the core issue. It comes down to the chemistry between Rose and #9 vs #10. I thought Rose matched up really well with Eccleston, but there's just something wrong about it with Tennant. I only worked this out when I got to Season 3 and found David Tennant to be very enjoyable traveling with Martha even though Season 2 had better writing.

I have decided I like Tennant quite a bit now, and what really blew me away was hearing his (native) Scottish accent on DW Confidential. I had no idea! I am quite happy he ain't dead yet, but it's still a mystery on whether he will be back for Season 5 (he is only confirmed for the next 4 specials between now and the next season).

The Companions:
I've liked them all -- Rose, Martha and Donna. As I said, Rose was much better with #9 than #10. I felt Martha had a lot more potential as a "smarter" companion, but unfortunately she got sucked into the Russell T. Davies vortex of paramilitary organisations and resistance movements. (So did Rose, but at least she got two seasons). Donna was a good change of pace, but unfortunately the writers did not seem comfortable exploiting Catherine Tait's comedic talents (only exploited a handful of times throughout season 4).

I did enjoy how RTD would also get more involvement from the surrounding family (Mickie and Jackie grow on you quickly enough), but with three companions over four seasons where you are getting so involved with their families, it's probably a bit much for it to continue this way. I mean, we are talking Doctor Who, not East Enders.

A final comment on the companions: sentimentality has it's place in the new Who, but when they start to go into hero-worship mode, I start to feel like I'm watching fan-fiction rather than DW.

The Writing:
As happy as I am with Russell T Davies in bringing back Who as such a high quality production, more than half of my bottom ranked stories (see Worst Stories below) are written by him. I think he's a very genuine Doctor Who fan and has a very good grasp of the history and stories of the show, but sometimes he's too much of a fan (see my previous comment on hero worship).

What does really bother me is lazy writing, which happens all-too-often with RTD. The Sonic Screwdriver might as well now be an amulet of wishes that doubles as a stun-gun, on top of also introducing "Psychic Paper" and the "Superphone". Where these items get used are genuine opportunities for creative writing, but RTD falls back on the plot devices. Even in aid of moving the story along at a brisk pace, he leans on these gadgets far too often. I can think of a few other plot devices not tied to gadgets, but the worst of them all was the Dalek "Temporal Shift" plot device. You get how these powers might have eventuated as you learn more about the Time War storyline, but these are such unnecessary and unsatisfying developments given how capable we already know how menacing the Daleks can be. (Terry Nation would be turning in his grave).

This makes it sound like I hate RTD, but I don't. He's created some great storylines, and I have enjoyed a number of the creatures that he has newly introduced into the DW pantheon, but overall I just see him more as a great producer than a writer.

On the other hand, Steven Moffat has written some terrific gems over the last four years, and the good news is that he will be taking over as head writer of the series in 2010. So RTD leaves the show in good hands, and hopefully it gets even better.

Old Villains:
I love the old villains, but I do have to say that the new versions are not as terrifying as compared to the Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker era (the Autons, the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans). The Daleks, in particular, get too much airtime (often 3 episodes out of a 13 episode season). They are the ultimate enemy, but in the old days whenever the Daleks would appear you knew the story was going to be special. I did like the mind games that Davros was playing with the Doctor in the Season 4 finale -- my favourite Dalek moment from the new Who.

Of the old villains brought back, the writing that featured the Master was the biggest waste. Why is this? All incarnations of the Master are fiendish, have machavellian cunning, and ultimately show psychopathic traits, but you never see humour from the Master. Think about Terror of the Autons, The Deadly Assassin or the Keeper of Trakken -- the Master was pretty terrifying, and he didn't try to crack too many jokes as he hatched his plots; to the contrary, he was a very serious psychopath. In the Season 3 finale, even though he was never short of an answer and consistently had an upper hand on the Doctor all the way to the end, the humourous aspects inherent in the Master's behaviour failed to convince me we were viewing the character originally played by Roger Delgado.

New Villains:
Generally I've really liked the new villains such as the Ood, the Judoon and the Slitheen. I also really enjoyed Simon Pegg's all-too-brief appearance as The Editor in The Long Game.

Hopefully we never see (or even hear of) the Sycorax again.

Favourite Stories:
I think the writing was generally pretty good in Season 1, and my favourite was The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances two-parter. Quite a good story, and Captain Jack Harkness gets a great introduction as a cool character. Generally speaking, because I liked Christopher Ecclestone so much, I might have overlooked inconsistencies throughout the season that would otherwise bother me.

Season 2 also had fairly strong writing, and I know a lot of Who-fans really loved School Reunion -- I also liked it, but I didn't rate it as the season's best. The Girl in the Fireplace is one of my favourite DW short stories of all time, and the best word I can think of to describe the dark two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is "gripping". Fantastic old-school writing there.

The highlight of Season 3 was the Human Nature/The Family of Blood two-parter. The scarecrows had a creepy feel that reminds me of the Jon Pertwee days, and I thought Harry Lloyd was brilliant as Jeremy Baines (the troublemaking, villanous and appropriately creepy schoolboy).

Finally, Season 4 seemed pretty flat in it's writing to me, but Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was a real standout as the best of the new series. You know that the fans will be begging to see River Song again, but in a way it would be a shame to get that type of closure. Along those lines, I will say that I did like the finale, but I'd also say that it really tied things up a bit too neatly for my liking. However, considering RTD's contributions to bringing Who back, and impending departure, I can overlook what is obviously a self-indulgence.

Worst Stories:
As I said before, I really quite liked Season 1. Maybe I would rate Father's Day at the bottom, but that would really have much more to do with inconsistencies and some really obvious plot holes that get opened up, which the writer doesn't bother to address. But as a storyline it was worthy of exploration, so I don't want to be overly harsh. I will say the Bad Wolf appearances throughout the season were more annoying than intriguing.

In Season 2, I didn't like Tooth and Claw all that much, but it has nothing on Love and Monsters (possibly the worst of all time?) or Fear Her -- both of which clearly fall into the fan-fiction bucket, and are not worthy of further discussion. Ever.

While there were a few stories in Season 3 that I just found weak (The Shakespeare Code, The Lazarus Experiment), the finale left a really bad taste in my mouth. The overarching idea behind the three-parter was a good one, but I think the detail really let it down. Actually, I loved Utopia which set the scene for the other two episodes beautifully, but I just thought the "Saxon" incarnation of The Master was such a pale imitation of his old self, and I would absolutely hate to think that this is the end of one of my favourite DW villains. The whole "Saxon for PM" storyline was not at all convincing, which I think has much more to do with writing than acting (John Simm is terrific in Life on Mars, and would love to see him playing a different DW character). On the positive side, I will say that I did think the Face of Boe twist was one of the best ever.

With Season 4, I found The Unicorn And The Wasp quite tedious, The Fires of Pompeii plain boring, and The Doctor's Daughter a wasted opportunity to really explore what could have been an intriguing storyline. I also noticed they areally started to go over the top with technobabble in many of the episodes.

Christmas Specials:
The Christmas Invasion may challenge Love and Monsters as the worst ever, but for different reasons -- absolute laziness with the writing, the lameness of the Sycorax, the sword fight... (Maybe this is the reason David Tennant's incarnation got off on the wrong foot with me?)

Fortunately, the other Christmas Specials have been quite good, and Time Crash was a treat.

Final Thoughts:
I read this excerpt in an interview with Steven Moffat (who will be the lead writer when DW resumes in 2010):

Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Unicorn And The Wasp," has a theory: You write Doctor Who as you remember it. He remembers it as funny and clever, so he writes that kind of Doctor Who. I remember it as being scary.

Excellent :)

12 Weeks In...

2008-05-04T23:44:00.001+10:00

...and the Test side almost picks itself. There is an impressive amount of emerging talent (Australia has never had so many good prospects at flyhalf), but there are also a few positions where depth is a real concern (Loosehead, Tighthead and Fullback).

For obvious reasons, the Waratahs dominate the forwards selection.

Right now, Pat's starting Wallabies XV looks like:

Loosehead Prop: Benn Robinson (Waratahs). This is the shakiest pick of the lot. Robinson overachieves as a smallish player, but I do not think he is a Test level prop. However, this is the weakest position in Australian rugby. The other players under consideration are either inexperienced (Ben Coutts of the Reds, and Sekope Kepu of the Waratahs) or out of form (Greg Holmes of the Reds).

Hooker: Tatafu Polota Nau (Waratahs). Clearly the best in my opinion. Already a terrific athletic specimen, and strong in line breaks, intercepts, and defense. Now showing consistency in the pre-requisite skill of line out throws, his selection is an absolute no-brainer. If he keeps delivering on potential, he could become world class. The next best hooker is Stephen Moore of the Reds (either going to the Brumbies or Force next year) who is starting to regain form, but after Moore there is a notable drop-off in talent.

Tighthead Prop: Matt Dunning (Waratahs). It's hard to believe Dunning is the best in the country, but he is. I consider him solid but not spectacular. At least Dunning is more mature than he was a few years ago. The biggest knock on him this year is that he only plays about 45-50 minutes a game. After Dunning, Dayna Edwards of the Reds looks like a rough diamond, while incumbent Guy Shepherdson of the Brumbies is out of form (often on the bench in favour of Selesi Ma'afu).

Locks: Nathan Sharpe (Force) and Dean Mumm (Waratahs). The best lock in the country is (without doubt) Dan Vickerman, but he is off to the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the year. Nathan Sharpe, in the last 2 years, has finally started to repay the ARU's faith in him and has evolved into a Test-level lock. Dean Mumm benefited from the hard knocks of last year and has had a really outstanding year for the Waratahs. Behind these two, I would consider Al Campbell (Brumbies) and James Horwill (Reds). I think Chisholm (Brumbies) is an outstanding ball runner and works hard at the breakdown, but he's too inconsistent at the line-out, and in the tight-5 set piece always comes first.

Blindside Flanker: Rocky Elsom (Waratahs). The ARU need to find a way to keep Rocky - he leads by example with his work rate, and is a Test level player a lot of countries would love to have. After Rocky, there are not too many other natural blindsides that I would consider at Test level. I think I like Stephen Hoiles' (Brumbies) flexibility even though he's played No 8 for most of this year. Alternatively, switching David Pocock (Force) from Openside might be the best way to get him into the Test side in a timely manner.

Openside Flanker: George Smith (Brumbies). As per usual, George Smith and Phil Waugh (Waratahs) create a pleasant selection headache at this position. Both of these players have had a great year so far, in terms of both positional play and leadership. Two genuinely great Test level players.

No. 8: Wycliff Palu (Waratahs). Palu's performance at this position is the most dominant I have seen for many years. After Palu, Richard Brown (Force) has been very impressive and the next best, and Julian Salvi (Brumbies) has done a very nice job filling in for Stephen Hoiles. Leroy Houston's (Reds) comeback is admirable, but lacks consistency at S14 level (let alone Test).

Halfback: Luke Burgess (Waratahs). Now that Sam Cordingley is off to the Northern Hemisphere, the decision is clear: the future is now. Burgess has very impressive speed and stamina, and his quick clear out has had a positive affect on Kurtley Beale's game. Also, since Cordingley has been injured, Ben Lucas (Reds) has looked like an excellent young prospect. There is also decent halfback talent in James Stannard (Force), Brett Sheehan (Waratahs) and Will Genia (Reds), but the Brumbies prospects (Patrick Phibbs and Josh Holmes) have been disappointingly inconsistent.

Flyhalf: Matt Giteau (Force). It seems like a long time ago since the debate of whether Giteau should play flyhalf or Inside Center, but the answer has become obvious over the last 2 months. The more interesting question is who the backup should be. Quade Cooper (Reds) likely edges out Kurtley Beale (Waratahs), but it is really, really close. Cooper's fluid pass is exceptional, while Beale's inside step can be a game breaker when he isn't overplaying his hand. (The most positive thing for Beale is that he has stopped the directionless kicking). Also, Christian Lealiifano (Brumbies) is quietly having an impressive year.

Left Wing: Lote Tuqiri (Waratahs). Lote's power and physical size still make him a world class Winger (when he's not chipping the ball), but his value to the team has improved even more with the leadership he has shown on the field and in the locker room for the Waratahs this year. Drew Mitchell (Force) has been in good form lately, and would be an excellent backup.

Inside Center: Ryan Cross (Force). This is where the hottest debate is going on, and the contenders are Cross and Berrick Barnes (Reds). Cross has had strong impact running the ball at Outside Center for the Force, and was arguably Australia A's best player last year playing at Inside Center. Berrick Barnes has also had an impressive year, building on his passing and kicking game with new strengths in tackling. Very different players, but both have great potential as Test players.

Outside Center: Stirling Mortlock (Brumbies). When he hasn't been injured this year, the incumbent Wallabies Captain has looked as good as ever playing for the Brumbies. Behind Mortlock, realistically it's Ashley Cooper or Ryan Cross, but as I've named those players as starters elsewhere I would instead name young Waratahs sensation Rob Horne as depth. Horne can do it all, is incredibly fast, and at 18 years old has a great career ahead of him. I don't know what's in the water in Canberra, but Leo Afeaki deserves an honourable mention for his massive hits in the limited game time he's had at the Brumbies.

Right Wing: Adam Ashley Cooper (Brumbies). Ashley Cooper has had an instant impact and has been consistent since coming back to the Brumbies from injury. He should definitely start for the Wallabies. After Ashley Cooper, Lachy Turner (Waratahs) deserves consideration but his poor play at Fullback will have hurt his selection chances. Brando Va'alu (Reds) is also quietly emerging as a talent.

Fullback: Mark Gerrard (Brumbies). Before the season kicked off, I would have never guessed Gerrard would be the successor to Chris Latham. However, Gerrard has taken one step forward (his kicking has been sensational) while his rivals have all taken one step back. I also would have expected to have named Clinton Schifcofske (Reds) as a backup, but after moving from Wing to Fullback with Latham's injiry at the Reds, Clinton's had a form slump. Which leaves a mediocre duel against out-of-form Cameron Shepherd (Force).

Interesting Infocom Story...

2008-04-18T13:23:00.001+10:00

Did you know Infocom had plans to release a sequel to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Neither did I...

Not only can you read the story behind this, but you can play an abbreviated prototype.

I often ponder whether the Z-machine format (or any other single player text-based Interactive Fiction) has any modern applicability, but whenever I look back at related topics, it always triggers great memories. The quality of the writing just does such a great job of capturing the imagination.

And Inform blows my mind. It makes it so ridiculously easy to write Interactive Fiction. It also makes me think about how much hard work writing the original Infocom titles must have been without tools like this.

It's hard to believe HHTTG was released in 1984!

I still remember purchasing it and opening the box like it was yesterday.

Idle Speculation

2008-04-05T11:29:00.001+11:00

Laurie Fisher interviewing as the Tahs as head coach? If there's an opening in ACT, then how about Rod Kafer becoming head coach of his beloved Brumbies?

(Would be ashame if Kafer left Fox; he's brought a previously absent level of competence to their analysis and commentating)

I don't often agree with Campo, but he has it right in his column regarding the state of the union. I, for one, will not be sad to see Arvid Petersen get bulleted as chairman on Monday assuming there is any justice in this world. It's not that I disagree on what he says - I really believe Ewen does need to adjust his tactics given that he doesn't have the kickers to play the conservative style that he favours. But Arvid, completely unnecessarily, created a lot of distractions for this team by discussing with the media what should have been sorted out behind closed doors.

While still on Rugby, the Reds (in their loss against the Sharks last week) played some of the grittiest and most inspired football that I've seen in recent years. If they keep improving consistently like they have in the last few weeks, we may very well be witnessing the genesis of a powerhouse up north we have not seen since Conolly's Reds from the Super10's. I think a lot of it will hinge on whether they can get Quade Cooper re-signed.

I continue to ponder: he might be getting on, but how can the ARU let Latho go to the Northern Hemisphere?!

Ignore that he's the best FB in the game right now; we've always known he has passion, but just think about the leadership he's displayed over the last few weeks...

Arrested Development

2008-04-05T11:04:00.001+11:00

Speaking of which, it seems official (as of a month ago) that the actors, directors and writers are all onboard to do a feature film based on the TV series. A script hasn't been finished by Michael Hurwitz yet, but Universal seems interested in possibly picking it up.

Best news in ages!

Knight Rider

2008-03-30T14:46:00.001+11:00

While I haven't seen it, I was amused to notice that there was a modernised Knight Rider tele-movie broadcast in the US back in February.

Glen A Larson helped write it, and David Hasselhoff had a guest appearance. However, the most interesting casting decision was Arrested Development star Will Arnett (Gob) as KITT's voice. I think Arnett would make a terrific voice actor, but it was not to be due to his previous voice overs in General Motors ads (the new incarnation of KITT is a Ford Mustang, so GM were not shy in pointing out the conflict of interest). The production staff were forced to swap in Val Kilmer's skillz at the last minute (two weeks before the movie was wrapped) to record over Arnett's dialogue.

Mind you, every time KITT would have kicked off saying "Michael.." I would have been thinking about Arrested Development (Gob's brother's name, and central character to the show).

Pre Mid-Season Evaluations

2008-03-24T14:22:00.001+11:00

A lot has changed in my rugby back line evaluations from the beginning of the year. Let's cut to the chase; my back line right now (based on a combination of merit and eligibility) would look like this:
9 Cordingley 10 Giteau 11 Tuqiri 12 Barnes 13 Cross 14 Schifcofske 15 Gerrard

If I'm picking a bench on this starting selection, I'd say the bench would be:
19 Sheehan 20 Quade Cooper 21 Staniforth 22 Turner

I pick this bench, because: Sheehan has been solid, and in my opinion the second best halfback in terms of consistency after Cordingley; Cooper has been tremendous in the limited game time he has had so far and should have no problem being a backup flyhalf or inside center (and combines well with the other QLD inside backs); Staniforth because he is so effective and versatile, able to cover both center positions as well as wings; Turner to cover the back three positions but I'd prefer to bring him on as a Wing and shift Schifcofske back to FB if necessary. If I'm reduced to a bench of 3 backs, I'd probably drop Sheehan if I felt Cooper could do an adequate job at halfback (or alternatively Giteau could move to halfback if Cordingley got injured, even though I've hated that experiment).

Back to the starters. Of that lot, Cordingley, Giteau and Tuqiri are set in stone. I would also select Gerrard (who has had a great year so far) as a definite starter, but I would prefer him on the Wing rather than FB. However, the only way that would happen is if I could pick Latham, who I am not counting as eligible due to his imminent departure overseas (but would otherwise be a "set in stone" choice). For the record, I would select Gerrard over Cameron Shepherd at FB, based on what I've seen so far.

I also think Cross should definitely be in the squad, who could start at either Center position, or be a utility player off the bench. Mortlock will trump Cross at Outside Center, assuming he is in form when he returns from injury, which then begs the question of who should be the guy at Inside Center -- Barnes or Cross. I like the options Barnes provides in terms of kicking and passing and also his combination with Cordingley, but I think based on merit I would have to choose Cross (who has been a huge game breaker for the Force this year). In this case, Barnes would have to replace Cooper on the bench, and really that's based on Barnes having really proved himself in Defense so far. But by the end of the year, it could be Cooper taking precedence over Barnes if Cooper can prove he is round enough player.
(Cooper, in two and a bit games is looking like the next best #10 after Giteau right now).

Also, if Ashley Cooper returns to form when he is back from injury, he could feasibly either claim Schifcofske's starting position or Turner's bench position, either way leaving Lachy in the cold. Ashley Cooper tends to be an attractive Test selection because he is a good physical and dependable tackler, and because he also has got good speed. Last year, I think he proved that he good be a solid Test level Winger or Outside Center.

So if you have read this far you might be wondering about some of my earlier selections and where they've gone. In summary, it's a bunch of youngsters who are demonstrating their inexperience in a pretty obvious way.

The most prominent of which is Kurtley Beale. I like Beale, but he is learning some bad habits at the moment. I am not referring to his defense (which would would pose a consideration at Test selection), but rather his core decision making at the flyhalf position of whether to kick, run or pass. Kurtley runs and passes instinctively, and tends to do a good job at this. However, he is now kicking way too often, and not in an intelligent way (both from a decision making and execution perspective). This would be influenced by Ewen's tendency around game planning around kicking away possession unless you are within 10m of opposition territory. Beale needs to have his head re-wired where if he is not sure what to do, that he will more-often-than-not favour running over kicking. If I was Ewen, I would be incredibly tempted to move him to inside center, simply because it would force him to focus on the other parts of his game a little bit more, and when he does get the opportunity as a first or second receiver, he could be a little more considered.

Lachy Turner, despite making the team above, has had his stock drop significantly. I think he has a lot to offer as a Winger at Test level, but from what I've seen this season he is not a good enough tactical kicker to be a Test level fullback. I would pretty much take any other provincial FB for the national side over Lachy right now.

As an aside, the combination of Beale and Turner's kicking is what is really killing the Waratahs right now. At least one of these players needs to change positions to allow Norton Knight to come into the side to bring an improvement in the kicking. (However, if you haven't blocked last year's awful start out of your head, you might remember that Norton Knight had a horrible start to the year in terms of his kicking -- I'm assuming/praying that was just a short term slump that won't be repeated!) The Waratahs are badly missing Peter Hewat right now.

Digby Ioane is toast. For all of his speed and electricity, he shows a lack of discipline and is not strong enough on defense. This is a real shame, because I really liked his enthusiasm, but his strengths are not enough to overcome his weaknesses. Basically, it comes down to maturity. Luke Burgess was also an early dark horse, but he's been way too inconsistent. Of the four games he's been a reserve on, he looked really good in one (the first), passable in another, and a liability in the other two. Similarly, Josh Holmes has also been inconsistent. Timana Tahu's issues with his hamstring have been well documented in the papers, and further it is not clear whether it would have been a great idea to move him into Center too early anyway.

On the positive side of things, I think Tom Carter is developing along quite nicely as an Inside Center, but is not ready for greater things yet. Similarly, I don't know what it is that they put in the water in Canberra, but their third string Outside Center - Leo Afeaki - is proving to be pretty good (and hits like a Mack Truck to boot). Their other youngsters at Inside Center (Tyronne Smith) and Flyhalf (Christian Lealiifano) have also impressed me. If the Brumbies keep performing so well with such young talent, Laurie Fisher may actually build a legitimate case for himself as a Wallabies coaching candidate. (I have not previously favoured him).

But enough on backs...

Pig Names

2008-03-22T13:19:00.001+11:00

As I run out the door for lunch, a non-Rugby related thought:

Gordon Ramsey is my hero. Not because of his use of the f-bomb (which I have been known to do occasionally myself). Or the numerous kitchens he attempts to save (very amusing and entertaining viewing).

I caught a brief mention on a chance viewing of an "F-Word" episode last night that he named two pigs he was rearing to eat "Trinny" and "Suzannah".

For any other blokes who have been tortured by your girlfriend or wife wanting to watch "What Not To Wear" you will immediately understand.

I will attempt to eat some pig in the immediate future in honour of your work, Gordon!

Some light...

2008-03-16T13:34:00.001+11:00

It's been a good weekend for Australian rugby.

The Tahs have had a bye week (which I think they needed to get their house in order), the Brumbies had a loss (which I think was inevitable given the ludicrous number of injuries they've suffered), and both the Force and Reds have pulled off inspirational wins.

The Force had a forgettable first half against the Blues, but the amount of pressure they amounted in the second made for some impressive displays. Giteau is clearly the in form fly half at the moment.

The changes Phil Mooney has instilled into the Reds has shown instant progress. While I wouldn't say they looked so slick to be the second coming of the Crusaders, they at least showed a lot of discipline with their lines and breakdown. On the other hand, the Bulls were embarrassingly undisciplined, and frankly showed a lot of arrogance in their approach (especially at the breakdown -- I can't recall seeing a single Bulls player roll away at any given time). Quade Cooper looked like a perfect complement to Sam Cordingley, and when Berrick Barnes (who has played very hard in the last few weeks) gets back it will be very interesting to see how well those combinations work. But more importantly, the forwards put in quite a respectable game at the set piece.

Congrats, Phil -- your bets paid off!

Reds

2008-03-11T09:45:00.001+11:00

Looks like the Reds have taken my advice and rejigged the leadership.

Sam Cordingley has just taken over for John Roe as captain for QLD.

Judas, Brutus...

2008-03-11T09:41:00.001+11:00

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released Dig Lazarus Dig a couple of weeks ago now.

I've listened to the new album a few times now. Unfortunately the opinion of the fanboy detractors are right (as opposed to the praise from the mainstream press). My opinion started somewhere between average and below average the first time around, and has been going further south with each successive listen.

I see it more as a failed experiment rather than the insult of intelligence that Nocturama was, but I do find myself asking how Nick can go from his former greatness to this? The album does not work as a concept, none of the songs are individually strong, and the great poetic lyrics (a Nick hallmark) are completely absent.

There is not a single song on this album that would hold a candle to whatever would be considered the worst song on Your Funeral My Trial or Henry's Dream.

Nick needs a bad review to help him get some anger back...

Recovered

2008-03-11T09:20:00.001+11:00

Have just about fully recovered from marathon 4am karaoke effort on Friday, this time involving appropriate amounts of piss. That I have had subsequent farewells to attend since has prevented me returning to full strength up until now.

That is all.

Oscars

2008-02-26T08:24:00.001+11:00

I'm typically NOT thrilled with the Oscars -- the whole system around how the studios campaign for films leading up to the ceremony all too often results in undeserving winners.

It's commonly the good rather than the great; examples from previous years include Denzel Washington being awarded Best Actor for Training Day, and Shakespeare in Love taking Best Film (despite my minor fandom of Tom Stoppard).

However, I'm very pleased with the results for this year, especially with the flagship awards.

No Country for Old Men taking Best Film and Best Supporting Actor awards this year was very pleasing -- a very un-Cohen like movie (in terms of their typical quips and casting), and yet you can see how their personalities would have been strongly attracted to this story and script. A really non-Hollywood film as well, not necessarily spelling everything out for the audience.

Daniel Day Lewis taking the Best Actor award for There Will Be Blood was also very satisfying. While this film had really good acting and directing, DDL's portrayal of the lead character (Daniel Plainview) was truly great. I loved so many things about this performance, but what is etched into my brain are moments from the film where you see Plainview's reactions at the point where he thinks he's got another character's motivation figured out.

(As an aside, everytime I read a quote from Daniel Day Lewis, I am impressed by his observations and intelligence.)

Hopefully this is the start of a trend...

Rugby Stocks

2008-02-24T09:40:00.005+11:00

As mentioned previously, I was very unhappy with the Waratahs. Their attack looked good (I especially loved the offloading!), but then a mistake would kill the progress. The lineout was embarrassing, the scrum was hot and cold. But the defense... Les, what the heck happened?! 80% of the time it was fine, but then the Tahs would look completely lost and create very soft try scoring opportunities for the Chiefs... And then, the kicking game... Kurtley missing in point-scoring opportunities, and while the tactical kicking was a little better, Lachy kicking out on the full twice? On the flip side, I felt the Chiefs were just as unconvincing (if not more so).

Amazingly, it seems that the new rules are still confusing fullbacks across the comp two weeks in.

Also, for some reason, all the Aussie teams are looking a little weak when it comes to the breakdown. Which is a bit strange, because two or three years ago that's where we used to dominate. I suspect it is due to philosphical change than talent (i.e. maintaining discipline along the line, rather than sending more guys) but I haven't looked closely enough to tell.

Based on Week 2, Luke Burgess most definitely loses his bench spot on my Wallabies backline, and Josh Holmes claims that spot. Burgess was not the impact player he was last week, and while Holmes killed a try scoring opportunity with an errant low pass, he generally looks like a solid and athletic halfback. Kurtley Beale was one of the few Waratahs I was particularly happy with, and while he still needs to develop into his full potential, he staves off Berrick Barnes through his solid direction (Barnes comes off as a role player rather than a leader) and his freakish ability to create opportunities.

There's noone really grabbing me yet at Center, and I'd say Timana Tahu's stock went down a little bit, but noone went signifcantly went up. The most intriguing spot turns out to be fullback. Chris Latham continues to be the star performer, but he'll unfortunately be playing for Worcester at Tri-nations time. Julian Huxley's quickness and accurate kicking made his stock rise, and Drew Mitchell looked very dangerous filling in for the injured Cameron Shepherd. Meanwhile, the stock for my two incumbents (Schifcofske and Lachy Turner) both went down. An interesting competition developing at 15, unlike the Centers, which I'd be quite worried about if I was Robbie.

Final comment is with regard to the Reds. I think they have a real nice guy and solid performer at captain, but for the second week in a row this very talented roster looked clueless at many critical moments of the game (this time losing). With hard core veterans present on the roster to go with the young talent, if I'm Phil Mooney I'm taking a very hard look at the leadership group, if not the captain, and really working out how I can get better direction from those guys at game time.

Then again, gotta be careful what you wish for -- don't want the Reds peaking when then they play the Tahs :)

Collateral Damage

2008-02-24T09:18:00.004+11:00

More steam blowing this weekend after an even more intense week. Accidentally had a big night on Friday -- wasn't really even trying...

Woke up with alcohol still coursing through my system, having to get into the city to meet Adam for some poker. Some reasonable fun, although the focus on both rehydrating and trying to not make dumb decisions playing cards meant I probably wasn't as talkative as usual :) I was fortunate to make a profit.

Capped off with a pleasant night of Rugby spectating at the hospitable Murray household. Well, one game was pleasant (ACT v Otago) but the early game was horrid and full of mistakes (Some team v Waikato).

It's only early days for the Waratahs, but how many losses can you have and still make the semis? I reckon the maximum is either 4 or 5.

In the scheme of things, that really was a wasted opportunity.

Street Fighter IV

2008-02-17T22:49:00.001+11:00

I do like the new anime styling for Street Fighter IV.

Back Line

2008-02-17T22:15:00.001+11:00

If I had to pick a Wallaby back line based on what I saw from this week's opening of the Super 14, given that the Reds and Tahs looked decent while the Brumbies and Force looked decidedly average, I think it would look something like this:

Half Back: Sam Cordingley. So clearly the best scrum half, now that Gregan is gone. He would have almost certainly displaced Gregan if he hadn't had such a bad run with injuries over the last 18 months. However, at 31 (turning 32 in a month) it doesn't seem likely that he will make it to the next world cup. Such an intelligent, accurate and tough player!

Flyhalf: Kurtley Beale. The surprising thing about the game on Saturday was that Kurtley didn't run the ball very much at all, often either offloading or kicking. It will be intriguing to see where he is in his development by the end of the season, but unless he misses some significant playing time through injury I think he has to be the guy.

Left Wing: Lote Tuqiri. Lote gets a lot of criticism, but he makes line breaks more often than not, and he draws defenders. He's still a world class winger.

Inside Center: Matt Giteau. Easily the best inside center we have, assuming the coaches don't decide to play him elsewhere.

Outside Center: Adam Ashley Cooper. If Mortlock is healthy, he owns this position, but when he's out, the next best in the country ends up being Ashley Cooper. While the Wallabies and the Brumbies like to treat him as a utility player, it became obvious in 07 where he is really suited. At Outside Center and Wing, Ashley Cooper almost always shines. At Inside Center or Fullback, he's typically a dud.

Right Wing: Digby Ioane. I like Mark Gerrard, but I think his best days are behind him and I think we need genuine speed in the back line. Outside of Lachy Turner, the most electric back-three player is Ioane. He was sensational in the Reds opening game, and is a threat every time he gets the ball. Who can forget the look of pure joy on his face when he got his first test try last year? What a great ad for rugby!

Fullback: Clinton Schifcofske. Schif gets the nod considering that Chris Latham will be departing our shores after this tournament (otherwise Latho is a no-brainer) and that Schif has a much more accurate boot than Lachy. I'd love to put Lachy in here, but I just can't. Yet.

Bench (4 Players):
Luke Burgess at half back. He's competent in the skills, but his incredible speed makes him an ideal guy to bring on at the 60th minute. Berrick Barnes covering flyhalf and inside center. While I wouldn't say he was brilliant in the opener, he's quite good at both positions, and also has a developing kicking game. Timanha Tahu covering the centers and wings. It's early days to be picking him, and this is the one I would waiver on the most (I'd strongly consider Ryan Cross), but his upside is massive. Lachlan Turner at wing and fullback. One of the Tahs' favourite sons at the moment. His flexibility works against him, but I'd bring him on at the wing at around the 50th minute, and if anything happened to the fullback I'd move him there.

Players to Watch:
Force: Scott Staniforth, when he comes back from injury. Ryan Cross, who was right on the cusp of getting into the test side last year.

Waratahs: Brett Sheehan, who has impressive toughness but maybe not enough finesse for test level. Tom Carter, who I think has massive upside, but has to stay healthy to fulfill that potential.

Brumbies: Josh Holmes, who has shown genuine promise when he has gotten his chances, and is potentially a Wallaby starter at halfback if he continues to develop. Julian Huxley, who is a better fullback than flyhalf, but is probably not good enough for either position at test level.

Reds: Quade Cooper, if he matures in his attitude (and the NRL don't sign him), could become a tremendous player either at flyhalf or inside center. Amazing skills for his age. Chris Siale, who the Reds are experimenting with at inside center, but who is potentially a good utility player with enough speed to play at wing.

Neo-Tokyo

2008-02-17T19:11:00.002+11:00

How cool is this? Some crazy Otaku in Japan is building functional, roadworthy replicas of Kaneda's bike from Akira.

I wonder what the handling is like?

R&R

2008-02-17T17:36:00.001+11:00

Work has been a bit of a pressure cooker lately -- in fact, the last 5 weeks have been uncomfortably intense.

So this weekend has been good for letting off a bit of steam.

Saw Polly Jean Harvey at the Opera House on Friday night. Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of the support act (long time Nick Cave collaborator Mick Harvey -- no relation to PJ). While I didn't love PJ's set list (I don't really dig the new album White Chalk) I thought the performance was quite good (mostly solo, with the odd cameo from Mick), and the venue was special. The highlights for me were Angeline (I have always loved this song, and it's always even more incredible performed live) and To Bring You My Love (which has really grown on me over the years).

Afterwards (11.30pm), I caught up with Nigel for his birthday to do a bit of singing of my own at Karaoke World. It's not something I normally indulge in when stone cold sober, but it turned out to be a good steam blowing activity.

Last night I went to the Waratahs game with Adam. We were sitting up high (I haven't done that for a while) just behind the corporate boxes at the 50m line, but it turned out to be a really good vantage point for observing the whole field while still being close enough to see who's who. The Tahs' kicking game was terrible and there were a lot of turnovers by both sides, but you always expect a bit of rust this early, and I think NSW would be happy holding the Hurricanes to 3 points. I thought the performance of the guys coming off the bench for the Tahs was particularly good - lots of speed and skills injected into the side as both teams began to tire. Final note: the change in music at the stadium and the new mascot "Tah Man" was on the yellow side of piss weak.

Afterwards, I headed to Tony's farewell (he is moving to Coffs Harbour). It would have been tempting to leave the Tahs jersey on with the number of Kiwis present, but I decided to stick with the party's theme (Tropicana) with a suitably floral shirt. Was nice to catch up with a few people and sink a few beers. Didn't get home til 3.30am.

Anyway, just goes to show the best thing for recovering from hard work is hard play.

Insane!

2008-02-13T08:19:00.001+11:00

But I love it! (pretty fast 32 GB SDHC cards)

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/pma08-32gb-sand.html

New Who

2008-02-10T10:51:00.001+11:00

During my travels, I've had some opportunity to watch some of the "new" series of Dr Who. When I say "new", I mean what the BBC has revived over the last three years. Up until now, I had dared not go near Dr Who after the psychological damage incurred from the wretched American tele-movie blessed by the BBC which revealed gems such as the Doctor being half human etc etc. [How can it possibly be considered canon?!]

The good news is, the newly revived Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) is excellent. While there are some things that break the mold of previous Doctors, overall the writing is good, the characters are likable, and the production values are high. The romance factors and the humour seem to have much more emphasis in this incarnation which seems like a modern quirk, but overall it is a very entertaining and fast moving show.

The first three episodes of the first series are self-contained one hour episodes, and I figured this was a format change as well (i.e. none of the famous cliffhangers) but there are multi-part stories as well. Unfortunately, the people producing (and broadcasting) seem rather clueless, as when you see a potential cliffhanger, in the very next segment ("Next Week...") you see the Doctor jumping up and down happily, clearly out of harms way.

I do have to make an exception for "Dalek". Loved the concept, but hated the writing. It's not the "internet" references, which are laughable (or maybe even make you want to cry) -- it's the whole "absorbing" thing which seemed just a silly plot device. Then again, in a show which routinely features the sonic screwdriver, maybe I should just get over it :) "Father's Day" seemed to leave a whole bunch of strings holding the universe together not just undone but totally frayed, but I don't want to get too bitchy.

I look forward to getting caught up to the current episodes...

iPod Video

2008-02-10T10:47:00.001+11:00

I really thought this was a stupid idea.

I mean, who is going to wanna watch video on such a tiny screen?!

It turns out it is a godsend for making the time go by quickly on my semi-frequent (often enough) journeys between Sydney and the US (and back again). Not only does the 160 GB iPod hold all of my music, but I can catch up on TV episodes I simply don't have the time for in my regular day-to-day grind.

And the battery life is extremely impressive, which is why I eventually decided to replace my old 20 GB 3G iPod in the first place. I can watch several hours of video and then go to sleep listening to music, and I'll wake up with plenty of battery left.

Paired with my noise canceling Bose headphones, it is a very handy traveling companion.

That's Entertainment!

HOF

2008-02-10T10:45:00.003+11:00

What made Superbowl day even greater than the game was the fact that two of my all-time favourite players (Art Monk and Darrell Green) were elected to the NFL Hall of Fame. I feel so privileged to have watched them play, and I cannot think of two better role models for the league. These guys personify class and what it means to be a Redskin. Unfortunately it's very rare to see this level of class from modern athletes.

I dream of being able to fly to Canton, Ohio for the induction ceremony! (Very unlikely)

Congrats boys!

Comeupance

2008-02-10T10:45:00.001+11:00

I haven't said anything yet, but man-o-man was this years Superbowl a great game. An instant classic. And it was two teams I can't stand!

This one day of my life I had to put divisional rivalry aside and do what 90% of the rest of the US was doing - hoping the NY Giants would upset the seemingly unstoppable New England Patriots.

You may shrug off that last sentence, but you have to understand, the only emotion that compares to screaming for the Redskins on gameday is rooting against their divisional rivals (NY Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles). I HATE those teams.

This year, however, a greater evil emerged. The 18-0 New England Patriots. Since 1972, no other team has won every single game of the regular season. I've actually liked previous editions of the Pats, but their arrogance this year (personified by Bill Belichick) has gone too far. It has nothing to do with Spygate (the scandal where the Pats were caught video taping the NY Jets defensive signal calling -- specifically listed as an illegal practice by the League). Despite this allegation (nay, proof) of cheating, it is impossible not to admire their execution -- maybe the best I've ever seen. They are a smart and talented football team, and clearly they are extremely well coached.

However, they do have a distinct lack of class. Exhibit A was Belichick not even bothering to shake Tony Dungy's hand in the come-from-behind regular season victory against the Indianapolis Colts this year. Exhibits B - Z were all the times they were beating the heck out of some other opposition (eg. 38-0) in the fourth quarter, but still left their starters in. I've never wished for injuries to other players before, but it's hard not to let the thoughts creep in while the Pats ran up the score against teams that were clearly beaten. I'm certain there's an untapped market for voodoo dolls with a Massachusetts theme!

Anyway, the game was gritty and competitive from start to finish. Eli is getting a lot of platitudes right now, and he deserves most of them. The Giants set the tone when their first drive on offense went for about 10 minutes! While it only resulted in a FG, it importantly kept the dangerous Pats O off the field and began the long process of wearing down the Pats D. The other heroes are the NY D-Line. After an entire year of the New England O-Line keeping Brady's uniform pristine, cracks in their pass protection appeared in the second quarter, which turned into a literal earthquake for Brady as the game progressed. Not just the sacks, but the knock-downs too. So very impressive after watching every other team fail at the task of putting pressure on Brady this year.

While the Giants have another Lombardi in the trophy cabinet (which is ultimately bad news for any other NFC East team), the greater evil in the league was vanquished for the day. Not only did the Pats lose the Superbowl, but this is arguably the biggest choke in league history after being on the verge of going 19-0. Maybe the only thing more improbable than the Giants pulling off the win against the Pats last Sunday is being in the position to go 19-0 in the first place.

I must ponder: intervention of a higher power? :)

High Def

2008-02-10T10:37:00.001+11:00

Last week, Foxtel finally announced their high definition offering, which includes a new higher capacity HD capable PVR (the IQ2). It includes four HD channels, which doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm pleased to see that two of them are sports channels (Fox and ESPN). Based on what I have seen in the US, sport is particularly good in HD; the higher res makes it easier to read microscopic names on the back of jerseys or see what's going on when the producers decide they are going to zoom out to encompass the whole field.

When I got to California last Saturday, I went to Bernard's house. He has a very sweet high def setup; it was more or less the exact configuration I would love to own myself -- 52" Bravia at 1080p, a high def set top box/PVR for his cable provider, a borrowed PS3 (which includes a bluray drive), and the Denon 3808 which supports upscaling and many HDMI inputs (4!). I have had my eyes on the Denon for a while, so it was nice to see it in action. It did not disappoint.

I spent a fair percentage of the evening slack-jawwed, looking at the various HD content, including a very _very_ sweet dedicated Kungfu channel. While the Kungfu content was not high def, someone has gone to a lot of effort to restore some old chopsocky (and Samurai - we are talkin old school 60's here) movies into a digital format, as well as immaculately subtitle it. On the upscaled setup it looked terrific. Also, the nice thing about watching films in HD on the bluray disc player is that they actually look like films (i.e. the quality you see in the theatre).

Then on Sunday, I went to my friend Richard's house (in Palo Alto) to watch the Superbowl. He also has a nice HD setup, with an impressive array of speakers and an HD projector which illuminates a 150" screen. Definitely the way to go for a big sporting event!

I may hold out for a little while before I adopt, but this visit to California did not do a good job of providing me with more willpower :)

Back Again...

2008-02-10T10:27:00.001+11:00

I've literally just got back from the US this morning. I've been there for a week doing some good ol' technical specialist style training. It's one of the activities I really enjoy in my role -- getting together with a bunch of people from around the world in the same specialist area as you, and having lots of interesting discussions.

In terms of my absence (i.e. very few blog posts), it's been an extremely busy three months for me, basically due to some additional (ad-hoc) responsibilities I've inherited (or is that "invented"?). I'm doing my best to untangle myself, to not only have more time but also attempt (yet again) to establish some balance.

For blogging, I'm using MarsEdit on my Mac. It gives me the luxury of being able to put together posts for Blogger without having to be online. This may not sound like a big deal, but I really do love offline tools (coincidentally, written by the same people who built my favourite offline RSS reader NetNewsWire. As an aside, NetNewsWire is now free!).

Anyway, time to drink some coffee and publish my MarsEdit drafts :)

Hail!

2007-12-31T11:24:00.000+11:00

Hail to the Joe Gibbs' Redskins! We are back in the playoffs!

It's gonna be tough flying to the West Coast in a short work week to take on Seattle, but the Seabirds are as inconsistent as hell right now. I like our chances!

Sean would be proud!

Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
Fight for old D.C.!
Run or pass and score -- we want a lot more!
Beat 'em, Swamp 'em,
Touchdown! -- Let the points soar!
Fight on, fight on 'Til you have won
Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah!

Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
Fight for old D.C.!

Zoidberg

2007-12-21T07:00:00.000+11:00

An interesting article on how Dr Zoidberg got his name!

Disbelief

2007-11-28T10:36:00.000+11:00

There are a lot of unexpected tragedies in life. In fact, last week was the 10th year anniversary of the death of INXS lead man Michael Hutchence. While INXS had already peaked long before he died, as opposed to the stereotypical parody of the aging rocker Hutchence was still quite a charasmatic performer with spark. While he left behind a young daughter he certainly departed already having left his mark on the world...

I woke up this morning to the news that Sean Taylor, the best defensive player for the Washington Redskins (my favourite football team) was dead. He had been shot yesterday in the leg near the groin area, had lost a lot of blood (the bullet grazed a major artery), was air-lifted to the hospital, and was in a coma. However, when doctors attempted to solicit a response from Taylor, he squeezed a nearby person's hand. I went to bed optimistic that he would be OK, and hoped he would not be brain damaged from the loss of blood. When I turned on the TV this morning from my California hotel bed, news of his death was all over the headlines.

Taylor had only been in the league for 4 years, but forged a reputation as "The Reaper" for putting the hardest hits on opposing players. In sport which rewards combined bursts of energy/skill, he was one of the finest athletes I had seen in terms of the defensive plays he could make (there are numerous highlight reels of him on YouTube). He could intercept when he dropped back in coverage, hit as hard as a linebacker (often causing a turnover) and could also effectively blitz the quarterback. Speed, power, finesse.

He had a number of on-field and off-field incidents early in his career, but had made major strides in maturity over the last 18 months after becoming a father. Sadly, he had barely made his mark on what he was capable of in the NFL (Hall of Fame potential), as well as what he could achieve in life as a father and husband (Taylor had plan to marry the mother of his daughter).

It's strange that you can feel this depth of sadness for a person you have never actually met. Mike Wise uses the perfect word in his Washington Post column: disbelief.

RIP Sean. For me personally, this is by far the saddest day in the history of sports.

So far, so good -- almost...

2007-10-26T23:37:00.000+10:00

Showing uncharacteristic braveness, I installed the newly (zero day!) released version of Apple OS X -- Leopard (10.5). One pleasant surprise is that a lot of things seem a lot zippier; I'm guessing there's a lot of optimisation in the code for the hardware I'm using.

Overall, the upgrade has been incredibly painless, and everything seems to run very nicely...

...except for my VPN client, which means I can't get to my work email!

Is that a feature or a bug?

[Update: latest version of the VPN client works! As an added bonus, it is logo compliant. I don't like Cisco's new logo, but now it's staring at me from my dock!]

Core Memory

2007-10-25T18:10:00.001+10:00

While I'm not sure I'd agree that computers are sensual...

...I would love to have a few of these photos as a series of full sized prints.

Congrats Boks!

2007-10-21T18:45:00.001+10:00

You've saved the world from another four years of Pommy bragging. It wasn't the finest Rugby ever, but the intensity from both sides was terrific.

I will now reverse my national colours back to the Australian Green and Gold (err... Gold and Green), and carry on with business as usual: hating you :)

Grindhouse - Death Proof

2007-10-21T17:37:00.000+10:00

Two of the most drawn out hours of my life that I will never, ever get back.

I appreciate Tarantino's attention to detail in attempting to make a movie in homage of B-grade 70's drive-in flicks and exploitation films, but sadly this has resulted in a C-grade movie whose only redeeming feature is some nice casting/eye candy.

I wanted to like this movie, I really did. I loved the references/inspiration/ideas, but hated the execution (where Tarantino normally excels). I loved the idea of getting Snake Pliskin (err.. Kurt Russell) to drive the Death-Proof-mobile.

What kills it is that, while the characters all have sharp tongues, the character-driven (read: monotonous) dialogue fails to reward the viewer any truly Tarantino-trademark-worthy sound bites. While the movies Tarantino references are drawn out by nature, the interaction between characters is where this film falls down; for the lengthy exchanges, there's no legitimate wit. The sparse action between dialogues cannot salvage the film. And while the music (another Tarantino trademark) is OK, it also fails to leave a distinctive mark.

[Minor note: if you are going to put in all the extra film grain, jagged splices/transitions and "accidental" artefacts, do it for the whole film. It seemed to be concentrated into the first half hour, and then only very occasionally for the remainder of the film.]

Maybe a shorter edit from when it was paired in the double feature with Planet Terror would be watchable. But the 2 hour standalone edit is simply self-indulgent, and I don't mean that in a good way.

If it is your fantasy to be a voyeur watching a script writer masturbate to Cosmo and Street Machine, then I recommend this film.

Otherwise, watch this short clip on Tarantino's theories about Top Gun instead :)

The Gold Standard

2007-10-20T08:50:00.000+10:00

While I've been a little disappointed by the second season of Heroes, I'm really enjoying Entourage (season 4 has just ended in the US). The premise is a little cheesy: a young actor (Vincent Chase, played by Adrian Grenier) is starting to hit it big, and is using his newfound fame and fortune to have a good time with his closest childhood friends. Vincent is a laid back and free spirited guy who grew up in a poor neighbourhood in New York, and generally doesn't care about material things, but does love to have a good time.

However, what makes the show really work are the interactions with Vince's agent, Arie Gold (played beautifully by Jeremy Piven). Arie is well connected, aggressive and abusive. On the surface, he's a stereotypical Hollywood asshole and his exaggerated personality comes across like he's speeding on amphetimenes. The funniest moments in the show are the frequent barrages of insults he will fire off at his gay PA, or the actor's manager, really for no reason other than ball busting.

Yet, while he'll do anything to get the job done (work is unquestionably his highest priority in life), he's never cheated on his wife (in four seasons) despite his high flying lifestyle. It's not unusual to see Arie put himself into a very precarious position between a deal he's desperate to win and resolving a family situation (such as trying to get his daughter into a prestigious school).

While Arie generally acts in Vince's best interests, the tension created from the misalignment between Vincent's principles and artistic values vs Arie's mission to maximise Vincent's earnings can make for some excellent viewing.

Watch a few good episodes and you'll be hooked.

Somebody's Hero

2007-10-20T08:27:00.000+10:00

I don't know what's happened to the writing staff of Heroes (maybe they've changed writers?), but from the first three episodes of Season 2 it doesn't seem anywhere near as compelling as the first season.

Something that did work very well in the first season was that it was never quite clear if the bad guys were really bad, or the good guys (or girls) were really good. Obviously the race against time to stop the obliteration of NY added some urgency to the actions of the characters.

Unfortunately the new season seems to contain neither of these elements. Also, with Isaac Mendes no longer painting after getting capped in the first series, it seems to have lost "live comic book" styling that I enjoyed.

It's early on, so I'll keep watching...

Die Bokke!

2007-10-15T19:10:00.000+10:00

I'm not a South African rugby fan. In fact, while I respect their strength as a Tri-Nations opponent, I generally root against them.

However, for one week only, I'll be cheering for the Springboks. They play England in the Rugby World Cup 2007 final, and it would be a very, very bad thing for the sport if England claimed victory.

Consider this:

Albeit legal, England play with negative tactics which go against the spirit of the game (defined in the first page of the law book as scoring as many points as possible). On the other hand, South Africa have finally developed a truly expansive and skillful brand of play. There were a lot of columnists post-RWC 2003 suggesting field goals should be dropped from three points to one; at the time I reduced this to sour grapes after a genuinely good English side claimed victory over Australia. However, with the amount of mindless kicking we've seen in an otherwise entertaining world cup, I've come around.
There hasn't been another world cup where such an undeserving team had a shot at being the champion (defending a previous title, no less!) From the day after England won the previous title four years ago up until the quarter final victory over Australia two weeks ago, England have been consistently bad -- either underachieving or losing against comparatively weak opponents. There is no question that in previous world cups that the victor of the tournament has been at least considered in the world top 3. On the other hand, the Springboks have been slowly building in strength and ranking, consistently improving their team over the last 4 years. (No mean feat for Jake White, considering the union and race politics in South Africa).
I just couldn't handle yet another four years of bragging rights to England!

Unfortunately, the game will probably be on in Australia at a time too late/early for a Braai...

A Quick Update...

2007-09-20T03:44:00.000+10:00

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last 3 or 4 weeks. Things have been pretty busy, and internet access (not to mention phone reception) has been a little sketchy. We are just finishing up in Paris...

I'm not sure that spare time or net access will get any easier in Romania, which is where we will be for the next week (as of tomorrow), but worst case I'll work on a few entries on the plane ride from Bucharest back to Sydney.

Au revoir!

Silly Toys

2007-08-28T00:47:00.000+10:00

Working in IT with the occasional trips to Silicon Valley, you meet the odd people who have made a lot of money -- a few odd million to 10's of millions. The paupers hanging out in Santa Row would still be sickened by some of the moolah being thrown around in Monte Carlo. (So you can image how po' ol' me feels...)

This is the random selection of cars parked outside of the hotel I was staying at in Monte Carlo:

The array of Ferraris and Lamborghinis outside of the Casino is even more impressive.

However, these seriously are children's toys. The real status symbol in Monte Carlo is boats:

I'm pretty sure I've seen both Larry Ellison's and Paul Allen's boats parked outside the balcony of where we were staying on different days. They are noticeable because they dwarf the other nearby boats. We are talking about boats worth 100's of m's.

And the horrible thing is, I don't think these guys do any fishing!

Monte Carlo

2007-08-28T00:38:00.000+10:00

I am sitting out on the patio of my hotel room -- I'm not even trying to make this look good, but this is seriously the view:

The temperature is perfect as well -- around 30 degrees celcius with no real humidity.

No wonder the Billionaires flock here!

Spidey

2007-08-28T00:18:00.000+10:00

To be able to take a month off work, I feel like it added a further 5 weeks worth of workload to my last month at work. As long as that seems, the trip from Sydney to Monte Carlo (via Singapore/Heathrow/Nice) seemed even longer -- roughly about 30 hours from home to here.

Not that I am complaining; at the end of long travel is typically a good destination. (This is not a record for me -- I once went to Washington DC via Hawaii, Vancouver and Chicago, which ended totaling up more than 40 hours).

On the plane, I caught a few movies including Spiderman 3. I've loved Sam Raimi's work in the first two movies, but even a Stan Lee cameo couldn't make the third installment stand up. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't up to the standard we've come to expect (three stars vs five). I think one of the key detractors is the Hollywood trap of trying to double the number of villains to make the movie "twice as good".

On the other hand, Blades of Glory (which I would have never otherwise considered watching if I hadn't been a captive audience) was hilarious. I like Will Ferrell, but none of the plugs I had seen on TV made me think I would like it. Think Zoolander on ice, but much better execution.

OK... that's enough on air travel :)

Kevin Smith, a Hero?

2007-07-31T09:45:00.000+10:00

I just noticed that Kevin Smith will be directing one of the episodes of the upcoming Heroes: Origins.

The question would have to be: which Hero?

Grinderman is Coming

2007-07-29T20:43:00.001+10:00

Almost by accident, I discovered a few days ago that Grinderman will be touring downunder in October. Apparently the first Melbourne show sold out in 5 minutes, and the following 3 Melbourne shows sold out soon after.

Fortunately, I live in Sydney :)

Facebook

2007-07-29T14:44:00.000+10:00

I never have (and likely never will) understand the attraction of the kids to MySpace. As a friend of mine remarked, it is a modern day GeoCities. Sure, I love the blinking text on the dark photos, and of course I love shouting out to all mah homies. It's just, even with a translator, I can't interpret the l33t speak. I blame the public school system (for my own inability to read it, of course!)

Yesterday, I got an email from a friend, asking me to click through to their Facebook entry. You've seen this before with LinkedIn and other social networking variants... Based on a comment from another friend about Facebook a few weeks ago, I clicked through and registered to take a look.

For all of my loathing of MySpace, I have to say, Facebook is absolutely fascinating. It's simple to configure your profile. The "add a friend" core functionality has a very clean simple interface, and the ability to interact and collaborate with others seems quite easy and simple to navigate.

But the real killer aspect of this site is in it's applications. You choose applications (which are multi-user in nature) from a list, which are then installed into your profile ready for you to use and configure appropriately. For example, there is an app of "where have I been in the world", which you then can use to compare against where your friends have been in the world. You can play Texas Hold 'em tournaments with your friends. There is a lot of useful innovation and imagination here.

Between the clean interface design of the social networking side, and then the multi-user applications, the verdict: a real time waster!

You can see why Zuckerman held out!

From the "a fact that is only of interest to me" dept.

2007-07-29T14:27:00.000+10:00

I can now see the floor of my home office.

The blur of many long work days followed by hectic and eventful weekends has seen me regress into a fetal position on top of the papers on the floor of my cave.

You see, I live a clever double life at work; my friend/colleague Steve used to suggest I was a psychopath due to the organised nature of my cubicle at work.

As organised as my cubicle sometimes/usually is, my home office is the ying to my cubicle's yang.

Until now!

(Not quite true; I can see floor, but there's still a bit of sorting to do...)

Squiddy

2007-07-14T14:25:00.000+10:00

I, for one, welcome our new marine overlords...

Busy

2007-07-14T13:16:00.000+10:00

I've barely been around for the last few weeks with a hefty load at work (boring!), as well as a fairly hectic social calendar out of hours. Highlights include:

Seeing Mike Patton's "Peep Show" at the Enmore. I really wasn't sure what to expect, because he's done a pretty interesting and weird range of projects since (and during) Faith No More. Peep Show seemed to have a lot of hip hop influence in it, but he was very, very good. He's very comfortable with the crowd - seemingly always looking for the opportunity to antogonise (some things never change) which the fans always love. The supporting cast were quite impressive, including a girl named Butterscotch who would put Michael Winslow to shame as a human sound effects machine.
Playing a poker game in the back room of a pub put together by Adam's friend Luke. Most of the attendees (12?) seemed quite hardened and aggressive, which I found pretty enjoyable as I more-often-than-not find myself as the guy throwing out the barbs. Due to the hard core nature, we cranked through quite a few games. I came first twice and second twice (no points/cash for second place). Given the beers, bourbons, pizzas and cigars I bought over the duration, I did only slightly better than "break even" after factoring in cab fare.
Another wedding-on-a-boat for V's friend Venessa (I'm a veteran on boat weddings now :) ). V was the matron of honour, and did a good job looking after the bride on the day. Quite enjoyable overall, and (maybe it was the beers, but) some very fine speeches. V fortunately had enough to drink so that by the time I got home I was able to watch the Wallabies beat the All-Blacks in peace!
A house warming at Nige's, after going to the ruggers with Adam to watch Wandwick nawwowy beat Norths. I had six beers before I even got to the house warming, so things only escalated once I got stuck into wine and cigars. I probably should have had a bit more to eat over the 13 hour stint.

I'm having a quiet weekend to collect myself before we go down to Melbourne for V's sister's 30th next weekend.

The year is going very quickly!

Travel Amendments

2007-07-14T13:11:00.000+10:00

After some healthy discussion, V and I have decided on a less ambitious, more relaxing holiday in September. The plan is now Monaco -> Northern Italy -> France -> Romania.

I've also decided I'll start a crash course in French.

Err.. tomorrow.

Quick Hit Mac Book Pro Impressions

2007-07-14T12:46:00.000+10:00

To put it mildly, I've been busy lately - hence the radio silence.

Apple were kind enough to exceed expectations with an even earlier delivery of the MBP. I've been using it now two weeks, and I'm quite happy with the upgrade. Some thoughts:

It's bigger than I expected. Yeah, 15 is bigger than 12, but the widescreen caught me a bit by surprise. Everyone who has seen the MBP has more-or-less asked the same question: "is that 15 or 17 inches?" Strangely enough, for how big the screen is, the laptop is bloody thin -- slightly thinner than my old PB12. On the positive side, I appreciate the extra screen real estate, but I tend to favour smaller notebooks.
Man, is the screen bright! I'm pretty sure I'd have no issues seeing the screen in the noon day sun.
I'm loving Parallels. No more am I having to go to a PC on the odd occasion when I need a Windows app. Due to patching and other Windows niceties, it actually took me about 3 times longer to set up the Windows guest compared to installing and getting Mac OS X up and going with my apps and patching.
Obviously it's a lot faster. Everything is more or less instant, I'm guessing due to the excessive amount of memory configured (4 GB). Rosetta does a pretty nice job with PowerPC apps. Office2004 opens very quickly, not even considering the system is having to do binary translation. Even when I flick between desktops to my Windows XP virtual machine, it's literally instant and responsive after the key press of the shortcut.
The MagSafe connector has been handy, which is suprising because it looked like a useless feature to me when Steve first announced it on stage. In the last two weeks, I've avoided near-calamity on at least 3 occasions with people tripping over the power cord.

Noice!

Christmas Comes Early

2007-06-28T20:53:00.000+10:00

I got some good news today: my configure-to-order MacBook Pro will arrive earlier than predicted. Originally it had been estimated it would arrive on July the 12th (another two weeks from now).

If I'm a little distracted next Tuesday, you'll know why :)

Holiday...

2007-06-28T20:13:00.000+10:00

My European holiday is starting to shape up. I'll be away for five weeks, visiting a multitude of cities and countries, topping it off with a visit to my friend George, who lives in Romania.

As we'll be in France or French speaking cities for around 15 days of the trip, I'm trying to decide whether I should commit to a crash course in French for the next two months. V can probably cover us in Northern Italy (shy of a week).

Better start saving some bikkies!

The Forbidden Kingdom

2007-06-17T21:07:00.001+10:00

I have just been reading that there is a Jackie Chan/Jet Li collaboration in the works to be released next year. The Forbidden Kingdom is another movie based on the legend of the Monkey King. It is rumoured that Zhang Zi Yi will also star.

I've enjoyed other Monkey King movies, and most of the modern Chinese movies targeting the US (Crouching Tiger, Flying Daggers, Hero, Fearless) have actually been quite watchable.

So why do I have a bad feeling about this one? While I'm a fan of these actors individually, they have very different styles - I don't see a natural chemistry there. And in theory, considering the post-Fearless era, Jet Li won't be too focused on Kung Fu (rather, acting?).

We will see. In 2008.

Monte Carlo

2007-06-17T16:30:00.000+10:00

I was happy (and grateful) to receive the news that we (V + me) are going to Monte Carlo (Monaco) for a week at the end of August.

I am going to spend a few extra weeks in Europe while I'm there. Given the location, the French riviera is a no-brainer, but I'll try to finalise the itinerary within the next week and a half.

This should be great -- I really loved the trip we took to Europe (Italy/Spain/UK) back in 2004.

Thinking Out Loud...

2007-06-14T17:39:00.000+10:00

I wonder how much AC/DCs' Back in Black influenced The White Stripes' Denial Twist? (Musically; not lyrics)