By Tom Fotherby on January 20, 2006
Fantasy, 4/10 – January 2006
This is the forth out of the seven books that make up the chronicles of Narnia.
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I love how, in children’s books, so much can happen in so few pages. There was one part where the children got attacked by a bear but they shot it with an arrow and got to enjoy bear meat. It’s weird that the humans hunt and eat animals that don’t talk but are friends with the animals that do talk. It’s that kind of adult thinking that makes me realise I’m 15 years too late to be able to criticise this children’s fable. It’s fantasy fun.
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Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 20, 2006
Fiction, 7/10 – January 2006
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This is 585 pages of fast paced action covering a political and scientific arena through the eyes of a American national security agent (who is rather cheesily, a stunning and mysterious female). The author has done his homework in order to include a lot of scientific information that holds the story together and allows it to evolve. I enjoyed all the secret military technology demonstrated in the book which seemed to cling close to what might be feasibly possible but is probably science-fiction.
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The cover says “Unputdownable”, which I don’t fully agree with, but it’s still a fun and easy read.
Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 10, 2006
Sci-fi, 3/10 – January 2006
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This novel wraps up the strand taken from Virtual Light through Idoru (the bridge series). I was disappointed because it lacked action and there isn’t much actually that happens overall, as a story. It follows the same Gibson format in that people are caught up in a technological/social paradigm shift with which the plot concludes. It’s my seventh Gibson book and it didn’t seem fresh or inspiring any more.
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Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Cyberpunk |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2006
This is the king of current generation freeview box’s and a pretty good PVR. It has a 160 GB hard-disk with enough clout to record 2 channels simultaneously while playing back a previous recording. It finds and sets it’s clock automatically when it is powered up. It has a nice 7 day EPG that you can browse through and if you see something you want to watch, you simply press a button and it gets scheduled for recording (no more fiddling around with the date and time on the VCR).
In terms of general operation it seems well thought out but the software doesn’t seem very robust – It’s had a few problems that have needed a reset and it goes completely wrong when the clocks change. The remote control is well designed but the user-interface could be better when editing recordings to cut out the advert breaks (possible but fiddly). The programme guide has to re-load every time you switch on the unit, and it can take about a minute to warm up and for all the channels to load. It doesn’t allow for rule based scheduling, for example: you can’t tell it to record all Simpsons.
Posted in Toys |
By Tom Fotherby on December 30, 2005
Sci-fi, 6/10 – December 2005
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It’s supposed to be the 2nd book in the bridge series but it’s pretty self contained. It’s about a rock-star celebrity wanting to marry a sort of computer-generated personality called an Idoru. It is not confirmed whether the Idoru is truly AI but she lives in the net more than the real world.
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The books main character is called Laney and he has a rare ability to be able to visualise data which I find fascinating because I have often wondered about it myself. Laney can look at telephone bills, credit card bills, travel logs, shopping receipts, Internet activity, etc and form a picture of what has been going on and how a particular person lives. Gibson calls this quantitative analysis and Laney is a “quant” that can find nodal points in seemly random personal data. Gibson even ponders whether a skilled quant can almost predict the future because data seems to give clues about where things are going. I have been into software visualisation for a couple of years and have written programs that look for patterns in software structures, highlight keywords and generate flow-charts for the purpose of linking software programs. So I really understood the fictional storyline of the book and the birth of the Idoru. Great stuff.
Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Cyberpunk |
By Tom Fotherby on December 15, 2005
Fiction, 8/10 – December 2005
This book is set in the present and is not sci-fi like I’m used to from Gibson. The main character, Cayce Pollard, is a rather odd fashion Guru capable of identifying any piece of clothing but so opinionated that she is actually physically allergic to some trademarks (e.g. the Michelin man). She is always tired, or in need of coffee and she is a footagehead (someone obsessed with film footage slowly being leaked onto the internet). She becomes involved with trying to find out the origin of the video.
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The book is mainly based in London, with spot-on descriptions of the London culture. It must have been good if I enjoyed it yet have no interest whatsoever in fashion and clothing. I especially enjoyed the emails from Parkaboy who writes in a random comical style which I wish I could emulate.
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Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on October 1, 2005
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We decided we’d go the extra mile and get a real granite worktop because we couldn’t resist the shiny bits of pearl sparkling in the light.
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Once the worktop was fitted we got a plumber to fit a sink and a tap that we bought on ebay. We got our gas-hob plumbed in and went and bought a nice big fridge-freezer.
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There’s more to do but at least the kitchen is now functional and we can stop living off of microwave meals.
Posted in DIY |
By Tom Fotherby on October 1, 2005
XBox,FPS,6/10 – September 2005
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Good simple FPS fun. I say simple because you can’t jump, not a bad thing but a bit old-fashioned. There is a entertaining selection of characters (ninja monkey anyone?) including brilliant undead creatures to mess around with. On the character selection screen, each character performs a move when they are selected and I liked going through each one and seeing what they did. Extra characters are unlocked as you complete levels (one of the reasons why I completed the game).
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Jumping around time allows for great variety of levels and weapons and cool storylines involving having to protect your past-self or working together with different instances of yourself. Cortez is a dude. multi-player and co-op mode help the game to tick the box’s you expect from £35 now-a-days.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on September 1, 2005
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We constructed the kitchen units and replaced the handles with ones that we chose ourselves. Then we had to do quite a bit of carcase butchering to cut holes for electrics and plumbing. Before we fixed and levelled the units we got the electricians back in to finish their work. They fitted some smart stainless-steel fascias to the multitude of new sockets and finally got the power working in the kitchen (living without a kitchen has been a nightmare). They also wired in a extractor fan in the bathroom and a security light in the garden.
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Finally, we fitted the doors, levelled and fixed them together and secured them to the walls.
Posted in DIY |
By Tom Fotherby on September 1, 2005
Computing History, 5/10 – Summer&Autumn 2005
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I felt like reading an educational book on a subject which I’m interested in. I’m interested in the Internet because it is THE invention of my lifetime, one which has and is changing the world in a hugely significant matter. Ok so it was invented in the 70’s and I was born in 1980 but my generation was the first to start emailing each other to meet at the pub after lectures, doing Christmas shopping on Amazon or getting rid of junk on ebay. I can’t imagine how people coped without the internet.
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The title of the book is brilliant: What do wizards do? Magic. Being able to send a digital photo to my brother at school is a kind of magic. The book is the story of the small group of researchers and engineers whose invention became the foundation for the Internet. It concentrates on the early ARPANET development and protocols and ends pretty much when the ARPANET is shutdown in 1990. It’s very much a history book though. It stopped as it got to Routers, way before websites and browsers. It was as interesting as history books come (which isn’t very). I guess I find now and the future more interesting but understand that history is important.
Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on August 1, 2005
We painted the kitchen ceiling white and the walls a colour called “midnight dew 6”, however the difference is so subtle as to be funny. We painted the doorframes and then got to work on the floor.
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First we sealed it with PVA, then we levelled it with screed, fixed the tiles and lastly we growted. It was the first time we’ve done any tiling.
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We also put up some small shelves in the boiler cupboard and installed a new catflap that kix says we might need in the future 😉
Posted in DIY |
By Tom Fotherby on August 1, 2005
Fantasy, 7/10 – July 2005
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It’s Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts and the plot follows the usual mould of the Hogwarts school year (Hogwarts Express, Sorting Hat, Quidditch, appointment of replacement teachers, etc). Lord Voldemort’s past is explored in much more detail than previous books in the series, but we don’t actually get to meet him this time round.
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I was disappointed that Harry’s power or intelligence didn’t advance. I wanted to watch his abilities grow but he’s still nothing special – He’s brave and outspoken but his magic is no match for any adult.
I’m not a fan of unhappy endings and this has a very unhappy ending. To me, the book seems to finish half-way through a proper story. I got the feeling the author released it too early because she was under pressure. It seems to be only a bridge to the next book, it opens up so many new questions.
My guessing about the future books:
- The Prophecy says “either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives”. What would happen if Harry himself is one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes?
- Perhaps Snape is still a goody. By killing Dumbledore, he gains the trust of Voldemort and could split his soul and store it in a Horcrux, thereby becoming powerful enough to be a match for Voldemort.
Posted in Book Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on August 1, 2005
DS,Platform,5/10 – July 2005
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This game is a classic platform beat-em-up. Same old formula, mass-produced so it comes out at the same time as the films. But it is quite well done, with a good use of buttons, a bit of character progression, interesting moves and a nice level of difficulty. It also has a few bonus levels of mildly entertaining spaceship flying and two different game paths for Jedi and Sith. Unfortunately the game didn’t explore any of the DS’s features such as microphone, dual screen or stylus.
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Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on July 1, 2005
DS,Puzzle,5/10 – June 2005
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The control mechanism relies purely on the stylus and so demonstrates how quirky and different the DS is from other handhelds. It’s a fresh and original game (if-by-game-I-mean two mini games). The first game see’s baby Mario falling from the sky on the top screen and you have to draw a line of clouds on the bottom screen which, when he gets to them, will guide him down a safe path and earn maximum points. The second game involves you protecting Yoshi while he carries baby Mario home over wasp swarms, crevasses and mine fields etc.
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One cool feature is that to dissipate any clouds that you have drawn you can blow into the microphone. YOU CAN LITTERALY BLOW CLOUDS AWAY! Another cool feature is that you can draw circles and, if they are circular enough, create bubbles to capture objects.
The game feels like a DS technology demo. It interested and assumed me but I wasn’t addicted.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on May 12, 2005
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We filled in the holes left from removing the wall ourselves and then we got a plasterer to skim the entire kitchen so that it will be fresh and ready to paint.
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Posted in DIY |
