Wednesday 30 September 2009
More clogging
Oops. Seems that predictive text doesn't recognise the word "blogging". The point of this post is to test if ping.fm handles blogs ok. Let's see...
Monday 21 September 2009
Blogger follow-up
Of course, one can always send blog posts by MMS or email, as in this case, but that doesn't let Google off the hook...
(Sent from my HTC Hero)
(Sent from my HTC Hero)
Hello? Google? Anybody there? It's spelled B-L-O-G
Love the Android platform, love my new HTC Hero phone. Really clever stuff it does, like have fully-integrated GoogleMail/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Google Maps/Google Search/Google Location etc etc.
I'm showered in cute notifications about Tweets and Facebook pokes, voicemails, emails and SMSs. All in-the-background and slick. A geek's dream. Suck it up iPhone fanboys 'n' gals. Life is sweet.
However, all in the Google garden isn't rosy. So all these gorgeous Google offerings are wondrously integrated. What about Blogger? Isn't blogging one of the Holy Grails of mobile connectivity? [Not sure there can be more than one Holy Grail - Ed.] Last time I looked, Blogger was a Google product also. One logs in using one's Google Account (all nicely configured in my Android phone). So where's the standard Android app for it? T'aint one.
Let's add insult to injury (it's got to be done). Even if there's no standard app, surely there's a 3rd party app available on the Android Market? Nope. Niente. Nada. Rien. Nichts.
Not quite sure what one adds to both insult and injury, but whatever it is, here goes adding it right in. So there's no Android app, from Google or anyone else. No worries - we can still edit our blog using the web browser interface on our phone, right? Wrong.
I can view my shiny new blog page on my Android phone (and yea verily, it be VERY shiny indeed), but for some strange reason I can't edit it. I can edit Facebook entries, emails, anything else that takes yer fancy. Just not GOOGLE Blogger posts. Using my GOOGLE Android phone.
Sort it out Google. At once. No excuses, or I shall send the Prawns round to splat you. With great vengeance and furious anger. Yea verily.
I'm showered in cute notifications about Tweets and Facebook pokes, voicemails, emails and SMSs. All in-the-background and slick. A geek's dream. Suck it up iPhone fanboys 'n' gals. Life is sweet.
However, all in the Google garden isn't rosy. So all these gorgeous Google offerings are wondrously integrated. What about Blogger? Isn't blogging one of the Holy Grails of mobile connectivity? [Not sure there can be more than one Holy Grail - Ed.] Last time I looked, Blogger was a Google product also. One logs in using one's Google Account (all nicely configured in my Android phone). So where's the standard Android app for it? T'aint one.
Let's add insult to injury (it's got to be done). Even if there's no standard app, surely there's a 3rd party app available on the Android Market? Nope. Niente. Nada. Rien. Nichts.
Not quite sure what one adds to both insult and injury, but whatever it is, here goes adding it right in. So there's no Android app, from Google or anyone else. No worries - we can still edit our blog using the web browser interface on our phone, right? Wrong.
I can view my shiny new blog page on my Android phone (and yea verily, it be VERY shiny indeed), but for some strange reason I can't edit it. I can edit Facebook entries, emails, anything else that takes yer fancy. Just not GOOGLE Blogger posts. Using my GOOGLE Android phone.
Sort it out Google. At once. No excuses, or I shall send the Prawns round to splat you. With great vengeance and furious anger. Yea verily.
District 9 review
Let's kick things off with a review of the recent film release, District 9 (Peter Jackson fanboys, look away now).
So, District 9...
Synopsis
In 1990, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge.[1]
Review
There was I looking forward to something interesting and thought-provoking (overtones of concentration camps, apartheid etc). Instead there was crude characterisation, violence and gore from the outset. Loads of it. The words "gratuitous" and "splatterfest" were surely invented for this film. How on earth did Producer Peter Jackson (he of LOTR fame) become involved with such a witless project?
What irritates me most about this (can't you just tell it does?) is that underneath all the crap lurk a good basic story idea and some really interesting possibilities. A friend of mine (you know who you are Steve) is wont to describe some films with the epithet "leave your brain outside". Something the screenwriter and director clearly did when putting this together.
The documentary style is a potentially interesting device, but sadly the director is far too interested in splattering things (actually people mostly) and jerking the camera around madly to do it justice. Some subtlety would have been nice.
The bad guys of the film are a "munitions corporation, Multi-National United" - awful name, even worse idea. The "evil corporation" cliché has been trotted out too many times before, and to much better effect. Why not make it the UN? Or a "peacekeeping" force lead by the US with the Brits in tow? Oops, there I go again, using my brain willy-nilly...
On the technical side, the visuals are nothing short of stunning - only a couple of shots where I could "see the join". It's just unfortunate that a great story idea and so much visual talent has been squandered here. Not to mention a (surely) enormous SFX budget.
Scores on the Doors
Basic Story - 8/10
Lots of potential for being thought-provoking, interesting and even controversial. All wasted, sadly. It's so criminal, somebody should be locked up.
Screenplay/realisation - 2/10
"Ah'm a white Saath Efrican and I hate aliens because they're different to me." Duh
Direction/characterisation - 2/10
Woman in slum, matter-of-factly to camera: "the aliens take your trainers, your mobile and then they kill you". That would be the same kind of nasty, casually vicious alien that is noisily scavenging just 6 feet away from her, about which she isn't even remotely concerned.
Acting - 7/10
Some people in particular explode very convincingly. Pig carcasses fly through the air with considerable aplomb - give that Stunt Pig an Oscar someone.
Photography/Visuals - 9/10
Lights, camera, action, SPLAT!, wipe lens.
Soundtrack - 6/10
Impressive variety of different splatter sounds. Like eskimo words for snow - you never knew there were so many (I know that's really a myth - I watch QI too you know).
Overall - 5/10
Could do better. Should have done much better. Bah humbug.
In Summary:
If you like puerile gory splatterfests, then this is for you. Be it alien, human or indeed bovine/porcine/caprine, gore is coming your way. Big time. All over the camera lens at every opportunity. Every possible decapitation/amputation/mutilation/experimentation/mutation is captured in glorious detail - taste and discretion be damned! Hang onto your lunch...
Can I recommend this? I don't think so. My overall feeling (apart from nausea) is one of disappointment at a huge opportunity lost.
No doubt the Peter Jackson fanboys will love it.
(Venue: Greenwich Picture House - great cinema, thoroughly recommended. That's Greenwich, ENGLAND, y'all. The original and best)
[1] Synopsis courtesy of IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/plotsummary), 'cos let's face it, I'm lazy.
So, District 9...
Synopsis
In 1990, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge.[1]
Review
There was I looking forward to something interesting and thought-provoking (overtones of concentration camps, apartheid etc). Instead there was crude characterisation, violence and gore from the outset. Loads of it. The words "gratuitous" and "splatterfest" were surely invented for this film. How on earth did Producer Peter Jackson (he of LOTR fame) become involved with such a witless project?
What irritates me most about this (can't you just tell it does?) is that underneath all the crap lurk a good basic story idea and some really interesting possibilities. A friend of mine (you know who you are Steve) is wont to describe some films with the epithet "leave your brain outside". Something the screenwriter and director clearly did when putting this together.
The documentary style is a potentially interesting device, but sadly the director is far too interested in splattering things (actually people mostly) and jerking the camera around madly to do it justice. Some subtlety would have been nice.
The bad guys of the film are a "munitions corporation, Multi-National United" - awful name, even worse idea. The "evil corporation" cliché has been trotted out too many times before, and to much better effect. Why not make it the UN? Or a "peacekeeping" force lead by the US with the Brits in tow? Oops, there I go again, using my brain willy-nilly...
On the technical side, the visuals are nothing short of stunning - only a couple of shots where I could "see the join". It's just unfortunate that a great story idea and so much visual talent has been squandered here. Not to mention a (surely) enormous SFX budget.
Scores on the Doors
Basic Story - 8/10
Lots of potential for being thought-provoking, interesting and even controversial. All wasted, sadly. It's so criminal, somebody should be locked up.
Screenplay/realisation - 2/10
"Ah'm a white Saath Efrican and I hate aliens because they're different to me." Duh
Direction/characterisation - 2/10
Woman in slum, matter-of-factly to camera: "the aliens take your trainers, your mobile and then they kill you". That would be the same kind of nasty, casually vicious alien that is noisily scavenging just 6 feet away from her, about which she isn't even remotely concerned.
Acting - 7/10
Some people in particular explode very convincingly. Pig carcasses fly through the air with considerable aplomb - give that Stunt Pig an Oscar someone.
Photography/Visuals - 9/10
Lights, camera, action, SPLAT!, wipe lens.
Soundtrack - 6/10
Impressive variety of different splatter sounds. Like eskimo words for snow - you never knew there were so many (I know that's really a myth - I watch QI too you know).
Overall - 5/10
Could do better. Should have done much better. Bah humbug.
In Summary:
If you like puerile gory splatterfests, then this is for you. Be it alien, human or indeed bovine/porcine/caprine, gore is coming your way. Big time. All over the camera lens at every opportunity. Every possible decapitation/amputation/mutilation/experimentation/mutation is captured in glorious detail - taste and discretion be damned! Hang onto your lunch...
Can I recommend this? I don't think so. My overall feeling (apart from nausea) is one of disappointment at a huge opportunity lost.
No doubt the Peter Jackson fanboys will love it.
(Venue: Greenwich Picture House - great cinema, thoroughly recommended. That's Greenwich, ENGLAND, y'all. The original and best)
[1] Synopsis courtesy of IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/plotsummary), 'cos let's face it, I'm lazy.
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