hazylium: 2006

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Last post of 2006

2006's almost over. Looking back, I can honestly say that this has been a good year. I finally graduated from university and at the end of last month, I joined the ranks of the gainfully employed. That's right, I have a job. Not just any job, either- I'm a professional (as opposed to an aspiring) game designer. Well, technically my job description is "Research Assistant- Game Designer." I don't work at a commercial games studio, you see- I work at the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education. Check out my work bio! It's a bit sparse and somehow a typo's snuck in there, but that'll soon be fixed. I'm going to cut off here because it's almost midnight and I want to post this while it's still 2006, but you can expect to hear more about this (but not too much!) very soon.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

A Message of Hope from the Banker to the Poor

"The one message that we are trying to promote all the time, that poverty in the world is an artificial creation. It doesn't belong to human civilization, and we can change that, we can make people come out of poverty and have the real state of affairs. So the only thing we have to do is to redesign our institutions and policies, and there will be no people who will be suffering from poverty. So I would hope that this award will make this message heard many times, and in a kind of forceful way, so that people start believing that we can create a poverty-free world. That's what I would like to do."
Muhammad Yunus in a telephone interview with the Nobel Foundation.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The next step in our cyborg future: thought-controlled bionic arms

Claudia Mitchell, a former US Marine, lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident in 2004. Today, she is a cyborg, fitted with a Bionic Arm developed by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The Bionic Arm is a bleeding-edge technology- a mind controlled prosthesis, the first of its kind. It will allow amputees to lead richer, fuller lives than they could with previously available prostheses.

As with many state-of-the-art research efforts, the bionic arm is strongly linked to the military- part of a multi-lab effort funded by $50 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the Washington Post, as of July, 411 members of the (US) military serving in Iraq, and 37 in Afghanistan, have suffered wounds requiring amputation of at least one limb (no word on how many lost arms specifically). These men and women will be next in line to be fitted with Bionic Arms.

It is surely heartening to see military-developed technology alleviate, instead of cause, suffering, but a horrible possibility comes to mind of where this all might lead. Future advances in prosthetic technology might conceivably yield bionic limbs that are as good as, if not better, than natural human limbs. Imagine a war where soldiers lose limbs, only to go back into battle with new ones. The human body become expendable war expenditure.

Of course, this is worst-case scenario that is unlikely to come about anytime soon- it will take years for prosthetic technology to reach that point, and when it does, such artificial limbs will be very expensive indeed. The Bionic Arm itself costs between $60,000 to $75,000. This leads us to the grimmer reality- while US citizens can enjoy the fruits of such technology, who will provide Bionic Arms for the thousands of poor civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam (amongst other countries) who have lost their limbs to conflict? Where is their cyborg future? Perhaps it is overly-idealistic for me to say so, but I believe that they have an equal right to such technology as much as any soldier from a first-world nation.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Mars Rover Opportunity at Victoria Crater

HiRISE image of Victoria Crater

The Mars Rover Opportunity (whose exploits, along with that of it's twin, Spirit, I highlighted in this post back in March) is now exploring the 800-meter wide Victoria Crater- the largest crater that either of the Rovers has yet encountered. Opportunity has now been operating for over 960 days; 10 times it's expected lifetime! The Rover is now exploring the rim of the crater and will then descend into the crater itself, guided by the high-resolution images of Victoria Crater taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (or HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite. The combination of images from the Rover and the Orbiter are providing NASA with a wealth of scientific data on Victoria, which should reveal much about Mars' environmental history.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Haze woes

Singapore appears to be blanketed in haze today. It hangs low over the air like a malignant mist and it's smell permeates everything, even worming its way into my house (til I closed all the windows and turned on the aircon, anyway). The National Environment Agency website confirm my suspicions- the air quality here is at 'unhealthy levels' and the PSI reading actually went up to 130 at 10 am this morning. It's 1997 all over again.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, spoke out on the need for ASEAN to set up a haze fund, citing the fact that Indonesia lacks needed resources, and the costliness of the kind of tools that would be needed to put out large-scale forest fires. Beyond dealing with the fires as they occur, something really needs to be done about their (human) root causes as well (granted, some of the fires probably start by themselves, but I'm guessing not all- or even most).

I really hope that the governments of this region won't just forget all about the haze situation, and the out of control forest fires in Indonesia that cause it, as soon as the air quality clears up; else we can look forward to reliving this year after year for the forseeable future. Though given their track record to date, perhaps I should just invest in a filter mask.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

V.S. Ramachandran on the evolution of consciousness

"What is consciousness? This really breaks down into two questions: The first is the nature of qualia--how does the awareness of sensations like bitter, or painful, or red arise from the activity of neurons? The second: How does the sense of self—the person who experiences qualia—arise?"

Esteemed neurologist V.S. Ramachandran suggests what the answers to these questions might be in this brief article for the excellent Seed Magazine.

Jon Stewart on Habeas Corpus

The United States Senate has passed a bill that will deny suspected terrorists the right of habeas corpus (aka the right to seek release from unlawful imprisonment). Here's what comedian Jon Stewart has to say about all this, along with an educational (:p) look at the English justice system 900 years ago:

Monday, October 02, 2006

George Orwell on writing

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

"Politics and the English Language", George Orwell.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Guardian Style Guide

I was at the library last week, looking for books about writing, when I came across one published by my favourite newspaper, The Guardian. It was The Guardian stylebook, the sixth edition of the newspaper’s internal English style guide (but the first to be published for public consumption). Reading through the introduction, I found out that the book's contents were also available online as The Guardian Style Guide. Oh joy! The Style Guide is a supremely useful English writing resource, covering a range of topics from proper grammar to stylistic considerations to the spelling of foreign names and words, and I foresee myself referring to it often in the course of my writing.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Project Censored's Top 25 Censored News Stories

Every year, Project Censored compiles a list of "25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."

This year's list:

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

For details on each item, go here.

(again, via BoingBoing)

Vanity Fair punks neocon magazine The Weekly Standard

The October 2006 issue of Vanity Fair magazine comes with a fake cover flap for the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard (courtesy of writer/designer Andrew Hearst). As you can see, it's the sort of thing that would boil the blood of your average right-wing hawk. I hope someone actually pulls off the prank at a newstand and then videos people's reactions! That would be classic.

(via BoingBoing)

Creating beauty in the midst of destruction

British artist/activist Arofish paints stencil graffiti art in combat zones- Baghdad, Palestine and most recently, Lebanon. While he was in Dahyeh, a badly-damaged area of Beirut, he was asked by locals to paint something happy to reflect the spirit of the community. He came up with these stencil graffiti works of children flying kites.

The arabic text reads:
"When Ramallah, in Palestine, is put under curfew by the Israeli Army, nobody goes outside for days. The streets look completely deserted. But from a tall building, if you look out over the city, you can sometimes see hundreds of many-coloured kites, flown from the roof-terraces by the children of Ramallah. The children you can see here are flying kites to celebrate the spirit of the people of Dahyeh. Some kites you can see are flying away. These are for the children who are no longer here; they are no longer held down to the Earth".

Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars

One of the more interesting effects of Wikipedia's 'editable-by-anyone' nature is the occurrence of edit wars- where two or more authors keep editing and counter-editing a page over and over. This page lists the most egregious examples of said battles. It makes for quite a hilarious read.

A few of my favourites:

Devil's Lake (North Dakota)
Shockingly, there are multiple locations in the United States with the name "Devil's Lake." A very heated war broke out here regarding which one should be featured, whether a disambig page was needed, even over the usage of the apostrophe- eventually literally degenerating into "my lake is better than yours!"

Wii
Is this article about the Wii or the Nintendo Wii? Should it be Nintendo's Wii? Does it rhyme with "We" or "Wee"? Should "Wee" link to urine? Is "Wee" slang or a euphemism for urine? Is it a British or International word for urine? Should urine be mentioned in the article at all? Just some of the hard hitting issues that provoked in excess of 1500 edits in the space of two weeks. In addition to all of that, a massive war breaks out over "non-official external links" that leads to a huge strawpoll to end the issue.

Death Star
Is it 120km or 160km in diameter? Who cares?

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Read Cory Doctorow's new story- I, Row-Boat

Cory Doctorow's new story I, Row-Boat (a "riff" on his earlier, Hugo-nominated short story I, Robot), about "the theological wars between an Asimov-cultist AI boat and an uplifted coral-reef," can be read online at Flurb Magazine (as part of the fledgling science-fiction magazine's first issue). It's a stellar short story- Cory is one of the few science-fiction writers who has the ability to take an unimaginably futuristic science-fiction concept (such as the post-Singularity future of I, Row-Boat) and craft a story with real, human emotion out of it. Very, very impressive stuff indeed.

Banksy Punks Paris Hilton!

Guerrilla artist extraordinaire Banksy has made the news again for his latest prank- replacing 500 copies of Paris Hilton's latest album with his own doctored versions, complete with all-new artwork (warning: slightly NSFW) and music- in the form of a 40-minute long track titled "That's Hot", mixed by DJ Danger Mouse (the same man who produced the infamous and brilliant Grey Album- get yourself a copy here if you haven't already- and, more recently, Gnarls Barkley). You can find the track here as well as here (though honestly you can hear all the good bits in the following video, where Banksy shows us exactly how he pulled off the stunt).

Bill Plympton's Don't Download This Song music video

The video for "Weird Al" Yankovich's new song, Don't Download This Song, is directed by none other than the phenomenal Bill Plympton!

The song, a parody of your typical inspirational ballad (with lyrics that lampoon the RIAA's attempts to deal with music piracy by suing the heck out of music downloaders), is pretty funny. The video, a cautionary tale of a boy who illegally downloads music and is subsequently chased down by the police as a hardcore felon, is truly hilarious. If you'd like to see more cartoons by Bill Plympton, check out this blog entry by Shawn, which lists all the Bill Plympton videos that he found on Youtube (including the Oscar-nominated short Guard Dog). Thanks, Shawn!

Well, it looks like "Weird Al" has recruited some truly awesome animators to work on the videos for his new album (for which Don't Download This Song is the lead single). John Kricfalusi, creator of the famed Ren & Stimpy cartoons, is working on one of them (along with the talented illustrator Katie Rice)! I can't wait to see it.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Two brilliant CG shorts by Polish animator Tomek Baginski

EDIT: Replaced another broken Youtube video with one that works.

I discovered Tomek Baginski through the excellent animation blog The Progressive Animation Review, which highlighted his short film Fallen Art. I was highly impressed by the piece (which is winning awards everywhere), a stylish black comedy that builds up to the most hilarious yet disturbing climax I've seen in any film this year. It's definitely a must-watch for animation aficionados.

Naturally, I google'd Tomek Baginski to see what I could find. Turns out that Fallen Art was just his second released animation! His first film, Cathedral, tells a highly abstract science fiction tale about a pilgrim who visits a cathedral (what else?). One thing is clear from watching the two shorts- Baginski is not a man who likes to repeat himself. The two shorts are very different in both style and content. You can see how his directing and animation skills have improved from the first to the second. This really bodes well for his future, methinks. I look forward to seeing his future works.

Both shorts were animated and rendered in 3D Studio Max and were produced by Polish animation studio Platige Image. To learn more about Tomek Baginski and his works, check out these interviews:

Max Underground Interview with Tomek Baginski about Cathedral

Max Underground Interview with Tomek Baginski about Fallen Art

CGSociety Interview with Tomek Baginski about Fallen Art

Cathedral (2002)

Fallen Art (2004)

Rest in Peace, Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin was perhaps the best-known conservationist and wildlife expert in the world. His death is tragic and oddly unexpected- even though he put his life on the line time and time again for the sake of educating and entertaining people, his larger-than-life nature made him seem invulnerable. That he was killed by a stingray, an animal that is apparently mostly harmless, just goes to show the unpredictable nature of his line of work and of wild animals in general.

Still, one would think that Steve would be satisfied with his legacy- the Australian Zoo run by him and his wife, his television shows that have been (and will be for many more years) watched by countless people who hopefully were as educated by the shows as they were entertained and his passionate conservation efforts. Plus, he died doing what he loved best; filming a new nature documentary.

So goodbye, Steve Irwin- Wildlife Warrior. You'll be sorely missed.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Masters of animation- Derek Lamb

EDIT: Removed two embedded Youtube videos that have been removed from Youtube... a disturbing trend.

Animator, director, producer, writer, musician and teacher- the late, great Derek Lamb was all of these. He created works for the National Film Board of Canada, Sesame Street and UNICEF, amongst others, leaving a legacy of great animations. Here's a few that've made their way onto Youtube:

Every Child (1979)- produced by Derek Lamb, directed by Eugene Fedorenko.

(This video is no longer available on Youtube, but can be viewed at the National Film Board of Canada's Focus on Animation website)

This Academy Award-winning short film was created in celebration of UNICEF's Declaration of Children's Rights and the International Year of the Child. It illustrates one of the ten principles of the Declaration- that every child is entitled to a name and a nationality. It's a brilliant piece- the animation is visually dynamic, the A capella sound effects are wonderful and the story is both touching and wryly comic.

Special Delivery (1978)- produced by Derek Lamb, directed by John Weldon and Eunice Macaulay.

(This video is no longer available on Youtube, and unfortunately does not appear to be available anywhere else either, though you can view part of the animation in Realplayer format at the National Film Board of Canada website.)

Another Oscar-winning short, this one is a hilariously twisted tale of a man whose life changes completely after he makes the simple mistake of forgetting to to clear the snow off his porch.

Mystery! title sequence(1980)- directed by Derek Smart.

Oh what joy! Derek Smart brings the darkly humourous drawings of Edward Gorey to life in this fantastic opening sequence for the classic PBS TV series "Mystery!".

Finally, here's two animations Derek Lamb made for Sesame Street in the 1970s.

I Get Mad- designed and directed by Derek Lamb, animated by John Canemaker.

"It aint baaad to get maaaad!"
This cracks me up every time I see it. An adorably gruff goat sings a song about how it's ok to let off steam when people act like asses toward you.

Simple Simon and the re-arranged animals- directed by Derek Lamb.

A short yet really funny absurdist piece about a group of animals whose limbs have been re-arranged. Good stuff, especially the character of the snake- the way he says "Something is wrong... but this is great!" with a huge grin on his face is just classic!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Sefer Festival 2006: Children's Illustrations Exhibition

I took photos of the cooler illustrations at the Israeli children's book illustraton exhibition down at the National Library. Unfortunately my phone's camera couldn't quite capture the illustrator's names at the bottom of each poster, so they'll have to remain anonymous for now.

Cover songs don't have to suck

I submit the following songs as proof of the above statement:

Ted Leo's acoustic cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." The perfect trash-pop song, covered by my favourite rocker. He even one-ups the original by smoothly segueing into the chorus of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Maps about halfway through.

Speaking of which, here's the Arcade Fire's cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps". It's a pretty good take on what I consider one of the best rock songs in recent years.

I've saved the best for last. An absolutely gorgeous acoustic cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy by American folk singer Ray Lamontague. Not knowing who the man was, I didn't expect anything from the cover so I was floored when I heard this gorgeous, husky voice singing with raw, emotive passion. I'm actually going to buy his debut album on the strength of this song!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Used Books A Go Go Baby!

If you walk into a large chain bookstore like Borders or Kinokuniya or even Popular, you probably know exactly what book you want to buy. Or at the very least, you'll know what kind of book. Best-sellers, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction- everything's neatly arranged in rows to make your book purchasing decision as painless as possible. All very efficient, but not very exciting.

Used book stores offer a totally opposite experience. You never know what you'll find on their shelves, where everything's tossed together in a wonderfully dizzy disarray. Familiar authors and titles jump out at you, while unknown ones preen for your attention. At a used book store, book-browsing gains an aura of adventure.

Even in Singapore, where I have yet to find a real dedicated second hand book store, it's possible to find some real gems at stores that stock used books. I passed by such a shop today at Bras Basah. I hadn't any intention of buying a book since I was headed to the National Library, but I couldn't help glancing at the used book shelf (cunningly positioned outside the store) anyway.

To my surprise and delight, a pristine copy of China Miéville(my current favourite author)'s first novel (and the only one of his I haven't read), King Rat, was sitting on top of a stack of management books on the second highest shelf! To my even greater delight, the book was only selling for two dollars. My buying instinct having been aroused, I examined the other books on the shelves more closely on the off-chance that I might find another steal.

A nineteen year old copy of V.S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas soon revealed itself- I'd always wanted to read the acclaimed author's works and this was the perfect opportunity. Finally, I found David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars buried behind a pile of self-help books (the second highest population on the shelf- behind business books!). I'd heard the movie adaptation was excellent, which no doubt reflected on the qualities of the novel itself.

So for the low price of five dollars, I found myself richer by three fine novels. You just can't find a better deal than that in Singapore!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Holy cow, free music from Universal?!?

Colour me shocked. Stunned, even. A fledgling online music company by the name of SpiralFrog has announced that they're going to make Universal Music's entire North American music catalogue available for free downloading on their website. A test of the service is supposed to start in North America (USA + Canada) by the end of the year, with Britain and other European countries following next year.

Of course, all this free music isn't really free. Instead of spending money, you'll have to spend time to download these songs, and I don't just mean the download time. See, you'll have to watch or listen to ads on their website in order to download the songs and if you want to keep the songs, you'll just have to keep watching ads on the site regularly. As long as the service offers fast download speeds and little to no server downtime, I think people won't mind that too much.

A bigger problem is that SpiralFrog's music offerings will be encoded in Microsoft's WMA format, which isn't compatible with the iPod. Oho. That's a large segment of the digital-music market they're shutting out right there. Is SpiralFrog insane? With a name like that, you'd be tempted to think so, but it looks like they didn't have much of a choice. I'm sure they'd like to support iPod compatibility, but the iPod isn't compatible with any DRM systems but Apple's own FairPlay technology- which isn't and probably can't be used by anyone but Apple.

This leads to an interesting possibility: services like this (I'm sure more- including a yet-to-be-announced service from Kazaa- will be along the way soon) might just erode Apple's dominant position in the digital music market- but only if other hardware manufacturers can get their acts together and start offering compelling alternatives to the iPod. Microsoft's upcoming Zune doesn't count because apparently its only going to support it's own proprietary DRM encoding instead of Microsoft's existing technologies (unless they do an about-face following this news, or try to one-up SpiralFrog with their own free music service). Maybe it's time for Creative to shine?

Still, the big question for me now is simply this: When will we get services like this down here in Asia?

Sefer Festival 2006 @ Central Library

When I went to the Central Library at Victoria Street yesterday, I was surprised to find an unusually heightened level of security there. Policemen were conducting bag checks at the door leading into the Central Lending Library on the basement floor; there was even a metal detector installed there!

The reason for all these precationary measures was the Sefer Festival 2006, an Israeli book festival being held at the Central Library from the 24th to 31st of August. A librarian handed me a pamphlet as I walked in so I was able to see what it was all about and what I'd missed. It's actually quite an interesting festival, with a diverse range of books on display at the Central Lending Library! I was excited to see books by the Nobel-prize winning author S.Y. Agnon as well as a book titled 'Betzavta (Together) : Guide to teaching democracy through games', which raises the curiousity of the game designer in me.

I was told that a few of the books on display would make their way into the Library's collection, which is very cool indeed. It has often been said that literature is one of the cornerstones of Jewish culture- perhaps no other culture in the world has documented their experiences, problems and triumphs as thoroughly as they have. Through contemporary Israeli literature, I hope to find out more about the culture and lives of the citizens of this nation-state, which is sadly only known to most of us through news reports about the conflicts in which the country has long been embroiled.

The Sefer Festival also focuses on children's literature. If I'd known about the festival sooner, I would very much have wanted to go see one of the festival's events: 'Storytelling Secrets with Noga Algom,' which was held on the 26th and 27th of August. The event was a children's storytelling session; Noga Algom is said to be an accomplished writer and storyteller who conducts sessions for teachers, parents and children in Israel. I've come to be interested in traditional oral storytelling of late so I'd like to see such sessions to observe the methods and techniques of professional storytellers.

There's also an exhibition of children's books illustrations by Israeli artists, which sounds quite promising. I'll go back to the library tomorrow to take a look and snap a few photos. I hope the illustrations on exhibit are as lovely as this one by Ora Eitan (which was thoughtfully given out as a card at the library), created for an illustrated book version of Ella Fitzgerald's song "Tisket-a-Tasket."

State of Shounen Anime: 2006

Shounen anime used to constitute the bread-and-butter portion of my anime diet. While my tastes have shifted to anime with experimental animation and/or unusual and mature storytelling (FLAG, Kemonozume, Mushishi and Ayakashi are good examples from this year) I STILL enjoy a solid shounen-style anime every now and then. Here's what I've been watching lately:

Naruto was for a long time my favourite shounen anime. More than just a faithful translation of it's source manga, the show proved it's worth with excellent production values and beautiful animation. The highlight of the series was surely the climatic episode 133, where master animator Norio Matsumoto showed off his skills in a virtuoso fight sequence that is already considered by animation connoisseurs to be one of the greatest fight scenes in a shounen anime, ever. Sadly, the series dove from that high point into filler hell, where it's remained for the past year! I'll start watching Naruto again as soon as it resumes the manga storyline, but not an episode before.

Bleach started out pretty strong when it debuted in 2004, with an interesting premise, engaging characters and a nice mix of action and humour. However, the series suddenly switched gears in it's 2nd major storyline, which introduced a massive cast of superfluous supporting characters (beloved by fans because of their admittedly gorgeous character designs) and a plodding, overly-complex plotline designed to impress those who mistake complexity for depth. I stopped watching it after the 60th or so episode as it'd just become another example of everything I hate about mainstream anime.

Yakitate!! Japan, on the other hand, is an example of a great show that, despite hewing very closely to the standard shounen anime formula, managed to consistently be wonderfully entertaining. I took a break from watching it early this year as my sister, who I watched every episode with, went off on an overseas trip. She's back, but we haven't gotten around to catching up with the show just yet I was pretty surprised to find out recently that the series ended with it's 69th episode! I'm kind of disappointed- wacky, unique and fluffy-fun series like Yakitate!! Japan don't come around very often (or rather, they do but they're frequently not that good).

Eureka 7, which launched in 2005, was a surprisingly heartfelt show about growing up, young love, freedom, responsibility and giant surfboard-riding mecha. A weird combination, to say the least, but somehow the series (directed by Tomoki Kyoda of RahXephon fame) managed to make it work. I'd fallen way behind on my viewing and sure enough, the show seems to have ended! By all accounts, it was pretty good til the end. I can't wait to see what I've missed.

Noein is probably the most interesting new shounen anime I've seen this year. The first episode is all I've seen so far, but what I saw was really gorgeous! The animation was delicious, with loose, sketchy drawings (that probably made loads of regular anime fans recoil in horror) and beautiful movements. The fight scenes are truly a marvel. Disappointly, the second episode seemed to revert to a "normal" anime look, with detailed characters that lacked the free-flowing sense of movement that they had in the first, but Ben Ettinger (who has a keen eye for good animation and runs the very cool Anipages Daily blog) mentioned really great work done by the animators on later episodes so I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this series (which ended earlier this year).

I was really looking forward to Blood+ as I thought the movie it's based on was an excellent mood piece and relished the idea of it being fleshed out. However, the best part of the series turned out to be it's first ten minutes- a stylish extended introduction animated in a similar style to the original Blood movie. The rest of the show, which took the safe route with typical-looking character designs and animation, just alienated me. The storyline of the show turned out to be just as prosaic as it's look and by the 5th or 6th episode, I'd lost all interest.

If you're an anime fan, you'll have noticed that none of the above are anime from 2006! Disappointingly, none of the shounen anime released this year have been very good.

A friend of mine recommended Air Gear, citing it's similarity to SEGA's thoroughly hip Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio (aka Jet Grind Radio). Unfortunately, the show tries it's darndest to ape JSR but fails completely. The music sucks, the animation is totally boring and the storyline and characters just grate (to my horror, there's even a loli character). BORING. 'Nuff sed.

I do have a couple shows on my to-watch list that might be cool:

XXXHOLic & Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle- I really liked the first volume of CLAMP's XXXHOLic manga and it's sister manga, Tsubasa Chronicle sounds pretty interesting too, so I figure I'll check both anime adaptations out.

Tokyo Tribe 2- Santa Inoue's manga Tokyo Tribe 2 (released in English as Tokyo Tribes by Tokyopop) has fast become one of my favourite manga with it's epic story about warring street tribes on the streets of an alternate Tokyo- one that's rife with crime and corruption. Santa takes his cue from the great Hollywood gangster movies by centering the story around two characters- Kai and Mera, ex-best friends, now members of rival gangs and embroiled in what's about to become the biggest gang war to ever go down in Tokyo. The anime is being produced by the always reliable Madhouse Studios and will be directed by Tatsuo Sato, who made the surreal and experimental Cat Soup, amongst other things. Pretty exciting!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Korgoth of Barbaria

On the strength of it's pilot episode alone, I'm declaring Korgoth of Barbaria the best new American animated series of 2006. Yep, even better than The Amazing Screw-On Head, which was cool, but nowhere near THIS cool. Korgoth of Barbaria is an action-comedy that parodies Conan the Barbarian, Heavy Metal comics and well, the swords-and-sorcery genre of fantasy in general.

It's created by Aaron Springer, who storyboarded Spongebob Squarepants (and even wrote and directed some episodes), and the pilot episode's animation was directed by none other than Genndy Tartakovsky (the genius behind Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack). With animation bigshots like that, you expect quality and Korgoth delivers in spades.

The show looks great, with unique character designs, excellent animation and surprisingly lovely painted backgrounds (done by Bill Wray, according to Cartoon Brew). It's also gust-bustingly funny, thanks to some killer dialogue (people will be quoting this stuff everywhere on the web by year-end), deft comic timing and the totally over-the-top heavy metal music used in the show. I can't wait for the show to debut in September (sadly, Cartoon Network Asia sucks SO MUCH that we don't even get Adult Swim in Singapore, but there's always Bittorrent!).

So check out the pilot episode on Youtube (part one, part two and part three) or download the torrent and know the awesomeness that is... KORGOTH!
*cue wailing guitars*

Note: I forgot to point out that Korgoth is, true to it's sword-and-sorcery roots, a really violent show- blood and limbs fly everywhere during fight scenes. Suffice to say, it ain't for the faint of heart. You've been warned.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Byebye, Mr Banana?

The succulent, yellow fruits pictured above will be familiar to you as bananas, AKA the world's most popular fruit. To be very specific, they are 'Cavendish' bananas- the variety of banana most commonly sold in the West (it's not too uncommon here in the East, either :P). Unfortunately, that may not be the case in a few years time- the 'Cavendish' is being ravaged by disease and production may drop to the point where it's impossible to satisfy global demand.

The varieties of banana commonly eaten by man are, sadly, quite susceptible to disease. The reason for this is a fact that I myself wasn't aware of til a few days ago: the domestic banana plant is a clone! Genetic engineering is hardly a new science- farmers, through their selective breeding, have been doing it since time immemorial. Our domestic plants and animals have all been changed significantly from their wild counterparts through human efforts. Likewise, the domestic banana has been selected for a trait that makes it's fruit edible to us- namely, a distinct lack of seeds.

I've always wondered why bananas have no seeds and how the heck the tree reproduces. Well, I've found my answer. New banana plants are commonly grown by planting young offshoots of an existing banana plant. The new plant, then, will be a genetic clone of the plant it was propogated from. It is this practice that has allowed the spread of identical-tasting banana plants from Southeast Asia to Africa and the Americas- ensuring that everyone gets to eat the same great-tasting and nutritious fruit.

On the flipside, this also means that there's precious little genetic variation amongst the domestic varieties of banana- hence their remarkable lack of resistance to disease. What affects one banana plant can and will affect all other banana plants of the same variety. History has proved this fact- a 'banana apocalypse' has already happened once. The 'Gros Michel' variety of banana was once the favoured variety sold in the Western world until it was hit by a fungus called Panama disease in the early part of the 20th century. By mid-century, the production had been crippled. After it was clear that there was no way to save the 'Gros Michel', the 'Cavendish'- resistant to Panama Disease- entered the picture as it's replacement.

Unfortunately for us, the wild fungi weren't as genetically-static as the bananas they attacked. In 1992, a new strain of Panama Disease (called Race 4) that could affect 'Cavendish' varieties was discovered. It has since wiped out many plantations in Southeast Asia. It seems certain now that 'Cavendish' will suffer the same fate as 'Gros Michel' before it. All isn't lost, however. This fascinating Popular Science article details efforts by two groups of people to create a new, resistant form of banana: farmers who are trying to create a replacement plant similar enough to 'Cavendish' that consumers won't notice (or rather, mind) the difference and bioengineers who are manipulating the plant's genes to create a hardier, disease-resistant form of 'Cavendish.' Both groups have their work cut out for them; particularly the farmers, as new banana hybrids are hard to grow.

While the loss of the 'Cavendish' will certainly be a loss for banana-growing economies and fruit-lovers everywhere in the developed world, there is an even more pressing issue at hand. Bananas are a staple food in many parts of Africa and even though it is not the 'Cavendish' but other varieties that are commonly grown in many African countries, they too are under threat from the same diseases. The loss of the fruit would be no laughing matter for the millions of people who rely on it as a primary source of nutrition. Finding a solution to the banana's woes is thus a matter of utmost importance.

Friday, July 21, 2006

It's the 80's all over again- TMNT trailer!

Wow- movie studios are really milking 80s nostalgia for all it's worth. First Transformers (with it's very underwhelming teaser trailer) and now everyone's favourite pizza-eating amphibian ninjas get their own trailer for their upcoming big-screen comeback. Surprisingly, it looks really good!

Love their new look!

The upcoming CGI feature film (directed by Kevin Munroe, a veteran animator) is set after the first two live-action films, much like the recent Superman Returns. Another similarity with that movie is that both look to set new standards in depicting the way their title characters move by utilizing the wonders of computer animation. The flying scenes in Superman Returns were nigh-incredible and the acrobatic way the turtles run and jump across the rooftops of New York city is far above and beyond anything the first two movies, with actors clad in clunky full-body turtle suits, could offer.

With director Kevin Munroe saying that the tone of the film will hearken back to Eastman and Laird's original comics (by far the coolest version of the turtles), this movie looks to have quite a bit of potential. Colour me excited.

Bill Gates pledges $287 million to HIV/Aids research.

It was just last month that Warren Buffet announced he was giving away most of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Now, Mr. Gates and his philantrophic endeavours make headlines again- this time for pledging a quarter of a billion dollars to HIV/Aids research, to be given over a period of five years to 16 scientific teams around the world. I think this qualifies as a ray of hope in what's become an increasingly dire health crisis, particularly in Africa. It's good to see Bill Gates applying his formidable intellect and business acumen to the business of helping people- and not with token measures either.

As this illuminating Guardian Society article about a recent trip he took to Africa shows, he really does want to save the world. The man looks at the big picture and puts his money where he thinks it'll make the most difference to the greatest number of people- and with more money than several countries put together, he's got a good shot at making the world a better place. It might not be too early to say that Bill Gates stands to be remembered as a philanthropist on the level of Carnegie.

Presenting the world's cutest cephalopod (and friends)!

That incongruously cute animal is a 'piglet squid,' a member of the genus Helicocranchia. The photo was submitted by Alan Kinnear for the BP Kongsberg Underwater Image Competition 2006, hosted by SERPENT- the Scientific & Environmental ROV Partnership using Existing Industrial Technology.

Now check out these guys!

This photo, of two Chimaera monstrosa and a Cidaris urchin, was submitted by a Kerry Howell of the University of Plymouth. Pretty neat. Check out the other contest entries to see some very unusual specimens of marine life. The microscopic/specimen images category features some breath-takingly gorgeous imagery.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Youtube serves a million videos a day!

According to this Reuters report, online video site Youtube's viewers are now watching 100 million videos daily. Wow. That's a whole lot of videos. They've definitely captured the market in online videos. Blog TechCrunch raises an interesting question- given their high bandwidth costs (over $1,000,000 a month in April this year- bound to be higher now), how is the service going to make money? Increased advertising would be the obvious solution- question is where will Youtube put the extra ads? Before or after videos? More banners? Well, I'm sure the company's savvy enough to figure something out. Today, they'll be toasting themselves on their fine achievement- beating out large industry players like Google (with their competing Google Video) service to create the household name in online video.

On a sidenote, it's very amusing to read some of the comments on TechCrunch where people try and pinpoint single magic factors that led to Youtube's popularity. Of course, there isn't one. Their success, like any sucess, is due to many factors, but the most important is one that TechCrunch nails with this statement:

"It just might be that YouTube is simple, easy, works well enough and people like it - there may be no more mystery than that."

Well said indeed. Others who want to succeed in the world of "Web 2.0" should make note of that.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Trailer for Chris Nolan's 'The Prestige' is a Must-See!

I hadn't even heard of Chris Nolan's (who directed a small indie flick called 'Batman Begins' last year) 'The Prestige' until I saw the trailer down at the Apple Trailers site, but it's just shot up to the top of my Must-Watch list. One of the best trailers I've seen all year (right up there with Spider-Man 3's scintillating teaser), the movie promises to be one hell of an exciting ride.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Christopher Priest, the film is about the rivalry between two magicians in Victorian England. Said magicians are played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine and Batman together in the same movie- will you fancy that?). It also stars Michael Caine and my favourite young actress Scarlett Johanson. Everyone looks to be at the top of their games in this. Superbly compelling stuff, really. October 27th (the film's release date, in case you're wondering) can't come any sooner for me!

Spider-Man 3 gets a sexy 3D poster!

Superherohype.com, that fine purveyor of all superhero-related filmic goodness, has brought us this first image of the new lenticular (that snazzy 3D effect where a picture changes as you walk past it) poster for Spider-Man 3. Check out the twisted emblem for Spidey's black costume! It looks totally evil- but in a good way. ;-)

Symbiote suit!!!

The funniest, coolest ad of the year comes from Thailand!

A 4-part series of ads for Smooth-E Babyface Foam is by far and away the most hilarious advertisement I've seen all year. Heck, it's funnier than most films released this year. It's just totally entertaining. There's a Youtube version here but I'd recommend you watch the high-res versions of the ads at the Cannes Lions website (here's the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of the ad), where the ad won Gold in the Film category. Personally, I think it should've gotten the Grand Prix 'cos it's way cooler than the actual winner- a big budget CGI-fest made for Guiness. But that's neither here nor there. What's important is that you watch these ads, laugh merrily and then go out and buy some face wash so you can find true love. :P

Genius animator Makoto Shinkai is making a new film!

In 2001, an artist began work on an animated short film. He worked alone, using his Macintosh G4 PC to produce the animation. The film premiered in 2002 and went on to win no less than six awards as well as the adulation of the Japanese animation community.

The artist was Makoto Shinkai. The short film: 'Voices of a Distant Star." Unerringly beautiful, poetic and heartfelt, the film was unlike anything that had ever come out of the Japanese animation scene. 'Voices' used what could have been a standard science-fiction scenario- a soldier leaves Earth to fight a war in distant space while leaving his (in this case, her) lover behind- to tell a deeply personal, emotionally-charged story about love and seperation. It really is a brilliant work- one of the few anime that could possibly be considered a work of art.

Having established himself as one of the finest animators of his generation, Shinkai then proceeded to make his first feature-length animation- 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days.' This time, he worked with a full production staff and the results show in the increased technical quality of the work. Once again, the film melded science-fiction with a personal story of friendship, love and loss. Once again, the film earned much praise, winning four awards. However, a criticism often made of the work is that the pacing suffered with the longer length- perhaps unsurprising given Shinkai's inexperience at making feature-length films.

It is interesting, then, that his next animated film, '5 Centimeters per Second,' will consist of 3 short stories, centered around a boy, that take place in Japan from the 1990s til today. Dividing the film in this way should allow Shinkai to play to his strength in creating short stories, while also allowing him to create a rich, deep work. He's also decided to eschew the science-fiction trappings of his previous works, instead focusing on making the story and setting as realistic as possible.

However the story turns out, one thing's for sure- the film will be utterly gorgeous, if the trailer on the film's site is anything to go by. Both streaming or HD-downloadable versions of the trailer are offered and I highly recommend the latter if your PC can support it. Fansubbing group The Triad has also kindly released a translation of the trailer on their BitTorrent tracker.

'5 Centimeters per Second' is set to debut in Spring 2007- it'll surely be one of the animation highlights of the year! I await it's arrival eagerly.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Pirates 2 smashes box-office records!

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest raked in an incredible $135.6 million dollars in it's opening weekend, setting a new box office record for the highest three-day opening, ever(Spider-Man was the previous record holder, with it's $114.8 million opening weekend)! Wow. I knew the film would do well (you'd have to be a right curmudgeon not to love Captain Jack Sparrow) but this is astonishing. I don't think even the guys who made the film predicted it would do this well. I can't wait to see it for myself this weekend (oddly enough, it's not out just yet here in Singapore)!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

New Readings

The web (in particular, the *ahem* blogosphere) is an important source of information for me but I still hold the humble book, that ancient technology of pulped-wood and ink, in highest regard. From the day I started reading books as a young lad til now, I doubt there's been a week in which I haven't read a book. Indeed, there would be few such days.

Unsurprisingly, I'm a big fan of bookstores and India has, in my opinion, some of the finest such establishments in all of Asia- with diverse selections of books across all genres, often at prices cheaper than can be found anywhere else (and that's not even counting India's famous second-hand book scene, which I have yet to delve into).

I was in Bangalore recently and had the pleasure of visiting a few of it's bookstores. Every time I go to Bangalore I come back with as much books as my luggage can carry- this trip was no exception. However, while my previous previous book-buying sprees in Bangalore yielded mostly fiction and the odd science book, this time I decided to purchase a few choice non-fiction works (though I yielded to temptation and bought a gorgeous new leather-bound collected edition of Robert E Howard's Conan stories).

This change in buying habits was actually inspired by another book that I'd been rading recently-Jeffrey Sachs' inspiring 'The End of Poverty.' Now, despite it's eye-catching title, it's not a book I would normally consider reading simply because of it's subject matter: Economics, a subject I abhorred in junior college (I wasn't particularly bad at it, but I found it tedious and devoid of real-world value as it was taught). How I ended up with a copy of the book was that I was bringing it to a cousin in the Maldives as a gift- she'd been very keen to get her hands on it. Being the curious reader I am, I couldn't resist taking a peek inside en-route.

To my great surprise, I found myself hooked. This was more riveting than 10 airport thrillers put together. Jeffrey Sachs is a more entertaining writer than any economist has a right to be and he argues his case persuasively- that it is within our collective global ability to eradicate extreme poverty (the most extreme form of poverty, where people have no access to basic survival needs such as food, water and shelter) within our lifetimes. A bold claim, certainly, but the man backs it up with weighty (but not ponderous) intellectualism and weathered experience. I won't go into more details (the book is absolutely worth your time- I can't recommend it more) but suffice to say that Mr Sachs has made me deeply interested in economics, a field that prior to this I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot stick- an achievement in and of itself.

My first purchase was another copy of 'The End of Poverty'- this time for my own personal reading. Next, I chose a work that can arguably be called the foundation of modern economic study- Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations.' A cursory reading revealed it to be remarkably accessible, despite it's 1776 publication date. I was also on the lookout for books by John Maynard Keynes, but sadly none turned up.

I did, however, see an interesting contemporary book that invited comparison to Smith's classic text with it's title: 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.' This book, by David S. Landes, seeks to explain the great inequalities in wealth that exist between the rich and poor countries of the world today. I haven't touched the book just yet, but it looks to be a thought-provoking read. The last economics-related book I picked up was Thomas L. Friedman's 'The World Is Flat,' a book on that hot-topic of Globalisation that looks to be similarly stimulating.

Finally, I rounded off my purchases with three science books. Charles Darwin's 'The Origin of Species' and Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' to start me on the path of filling the woeful gap in biology knowledge left by my formal education and 'Genius'- James Gleick's biography of Richard Feynman- one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. I've always enjoyed Gleick's writings- his biography of Isaac Newton was a superlative work- so I have high hopes for this book too.

Further impressions on all these books as I read them!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Amazing Screw-On Head Debuts Online on July 13!

The Sci Fi Channel's animated adaptation of Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola's weird, wonderful and hilarious one-shot comic 'The Amazing Screw-On Head' will be premiering on the networks's Pulse broadband channel in just 3 days! According to Newsarama, viewers will be given a survey to fill out to help the network's executives decide whether to green-light the series or not. Given the show's unique premise and well-known cast (see above picture!), I think this fantasy-adventure-comedy series has a good chance at capturing viewers.

Don gets an uninspired first poster- plus SRK's costume from KPBW remake!

The upcoming Bollywood film Don is one of my most highly-anticipated movies of the year (over and above even Superman Returns and Pirates 2!) for 2 reasons:

1: It's a remake of the 1978 movie of the same name- one of the most superbly entertaining Bollywood masala-films ever made, starring Amitabh Bachchan at the height of his coolness. The song Khaike Paan Banaras Wala (abbreviated in the post title for length), an ode to India's favourite snack (and mild intoxicant!), alone is worth buying the movie for.

2: It's directed by Farhan Akhtar, whose 2001 movie Dil Chahta Hai is still, for my money, the best mainstream Bollywood film of this decade. Judging by this interview, he's as much of a fan of the original Don as I am- which hopefully means his remake will be far from a soulless retread of the original.

Oh and it also happens to star Shah Rukh Khan- by far and away India's most famous leading man. If anyone can fill the mighty Amitabh's shoes, it's this guy.

So suffice to say, I have very high hopes for this film!

However, the film's first poster is completely underwhelming.

Ripping-off 'The Matrix' in 2006? Way to bore your potential audience! Where's the fun in this?

On the bright side, Farhan Akhtar has stated in an interview that his Don will deliver a new version of the 1978 Don's highlight sequence- the delightful Khaike Paan Banaras Wala song and dance sequence.

Heck, SRK even wears a similar outfit to Amitabh's, as seen in this photo of SRK on the set of Don (posing with a fan):

(Photo from IndiaFM)

Well, he's got the look. But can he beat Amitabh's funky performance? We'll find out when Don comes out on October 21, 2006.

Meanwhile, check out the original Khaike Paan Banaras Wala song, courtesy of Youtube:

Update: Newer Snakes on a Plane trailer and a new poster!

Samuel L. Jackson on a plane full of snakes- what beautiful insanity! Check out the new trailer here.

Update: There's another trailer up here (in the crappy Flash video format that's all the rage these days).

I just love this new French poster for the movie. That crazed look in Samuel L. Jackson's eyes is priceless!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Electric cars- not quite dead

A few weeks ago, my sister showed me a cool trailer for a documentary called "Who Killed the Electric Car?"- an examination of the life and death of General Motor's pioneering electric car, the EV1. Released in 1996, the car was fast, efficient and a big hit with the select group of people who drove the car. Sadly, the EV1 line of cars was discontinued in 2002 and commercial development of electric cars in America seems to have died with it.

However, electric vehicle enthusiasts are a passionate lot and it looks like the fate of the electric car isn't quite sealed yet.

Behold the Eliica:

Developed in Japan by Professor Hiroshi Shimizu and his team at Keio university, this 8-wheeled beast of a machine can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in under 4 seconds- faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo- and has a top speed of 370km/h. UK motoring magazine Auto Express reports that the car is both speedy and fun to drive- it's lack of a transmission means that it can accelerate smoothly with no jerks between gears. The prototype car has been in development for quite a few years and was recently officially unveiled at Togu Palace with the Crown Prince and Princess in attendance. The team intends to produce at least 200 units of the car once they receive corporate sponsorship.

As cool as the Eliica is, it's mostly intended as a demonstration of power- proof that electric cars aren't the slow, cumbersome vehicles that they're popularly perceived to be. Back in the USA, however, some enterprising companies are planning to bring electric cars to the commercial market- in a big way.

One of those companies is Wrightspeed, with their Wrightspeed X1- the fastest electric car in the world and one of the world's fastest cars, period.

This speed demon beat both a Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche Carrera GT in a quarter-mile drag race (which you can watch here!), going from 0-60mph (or 96.6 km/h) in approximately 3 seconds. Entrepreneur Ian Wright is the man behind the X1 and he's got a plan to turn the current prototype into a production car for the high-end speedster market.

Interestingly enough, Ian Wright's background is in information technology (he's engineered routers and switches for companies like Cisco in the past)- according to this Business 2.0 article, he's part of a new wave of Silicon Valley upstarts (see also: Tesla Motors, who have bold plans and the venture capital to back them up) who intend to do what existing automobile makers have been failing at for years- bring an electric car to the mass market. They believe their technological expertise will enable them to design the highly-complex electronics and battery systems that will drive the electric cars of the future.

Speaking of batteries, they are commonly cited as the biggest problem with electric cars (as well as the main reason for them never taking off) as they're still too expensive and don't deliver the desired level of performance. However, a few start-ups down in Silicon Valley are working on just this problem and claim that big advances are on their way that will drive prices down significantly while improving performance to acceptable levels. With oil prices soaring sky-high and unlikely to ever come back down significantly, the time may finally be right for the electric car!

New Windows Live Messenger unimpressive, VP in charge of Windows Live disappears! UPDATED- 2

UPDATE2: MICROSOFT- DON'T RELEASE BUGGY SOFTWARE AS AN OFFICIAL RELEASE! This stupid program crashes on me with near-clockwork regularity. Now I'm just plain irritated. This isn't a Beta version and I didn't expect it to perform like one. Even better, the damn thing installed itself over my old MSN Messenger installation (which I really wasn't expecting given it's Brand-New name) and I can't go back to using that... Whoopee. Oh and the offline chat feature that I was so in love with is totally broken! Half the messages I send my friends while I'm in offline mode don't get to them- and vice versa.

I can't un-recommend this program enough. Argh!!!

UPDATE: OOH FINALLY MESSENGER LET'S ME CHAT WITH PEOPLE WHILE I'M IN OFFLINE MODE!!! Yeah, ICQ had this feature like a decade or so ago so Microsoft is busy playing catchup, but I still really appreciate the feature. OK I'm a convert- if for that feature alone.

So I've been using the recently-released Windows Live Messenger client for the past few days and well, it's basically MSN Messenger with a new coat of paint. OK, it's got VoIP but... oh wait, MSN Messenger did voice chat too. OK OK, so Windows Messenger Live also lets you call normal telephones from your PC! Whoa! But oh wait, Skype already provides an excellent VoIP solution- and it runs on Mac OS X and Linux too! So there's that. Well, colour me totally unimpressed.

Also, what's the deal with this "Windows Live" branding thing? Who is Microsoft trying to fool? Windows is an operating system. Sticking it's brand-name on everything from the new version of Hotmail (speaking of which, dropping Hotmail- one of the Web's most recognizable brand names- for 'Windows Live Mail' is just plain stupid) to the new version of MSN Messenger is just going to dilute the Windows brand.

Stupefyingly enough, the VP in charge of marketing Windows Live mysteriously left Microsoft just after the release of the new Messenger client. Very bizarre, considering he was scheduled to give interviews about the program's release on the day he left! Just what is going on at Redmond these days? I hope these guys have a plan. I'm quite ambivalent towards MS these days, but the company has done so much to push computing into the mainstream over the past decade and a half that it's just downright sad to see them floundering like this now.

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