Friday Zombie Blogging - So You Think You Can Dance

The auditions for American So You Think You Can Dance including an eerie zombie routine. These guys move in unusual ways, like they're gliding and their joints are coated with Teflon.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - The video was uploaded some time ago.
PPS - It does still seem to be there, though.

Disappointed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Deb and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Wednesday evening, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I believe this is the first of these movies where I've read the book first, but I have a feeling I might have been let down otherwise. The whole thing is slow, dark and quiet, including the climactic ending. The mystery of the Half-Blood Prince is only mentioned in passing, and the battle at the end adds very little to the whole picture. We agree that it would have been redeemed by sticking closer to the ending of the book, where there is a larger-scale battle.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - From an actor's point of view, the performances were adequate.
PPS - Though I think young Tom Riddle fell a little flat.

Degrees outdated before you graduate

At some point I imagine various fields of knowledge will advance so quickly that university degrees will be outdated before the students graduate, for instance, medical knowledge. That means we either require either faster (and therefore less in-depth) degrees, constant study (like a more extreme version of the current case) or some new method of creating doctors.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - New methods for doctor creation may be up to other doctors.
PPS - Or artificial intelligence researchers.

I has a shiny

Yesterday Deb and I went computer shopping and picked up a new Acer computer including a 23-inch widescreen monitor and Logitech Z4 speakers. After five years or so using a home-built machine, a few things were immediately apparent:

1. My old rig sounded like a jet engine compared to this new one.
2. It's astonishing how quickly a bigger monitor starts to feel normal.
3. External speakers are just what I needed all along.
4. The faster processor makes everything generally more pleasant.
5. Too many USB ports is never enough.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - After I plugged in mouse, keyboard, external hard drive and printer, I'd run out of USB on the back.
PPS - The wireless network adaptor needed to go in the front.

Amazon Prime has already lost my business

Amazon has been consistently advertising their Amazon Prime priority shipping deal to me for years now, so I've learned to ignore it. This is primarily because it is valid only within the continental United States, and I'm halfway across the world from there. It's okay for both of us for now - Amazon continues to tell me to sign up, then sorry but I can't, and I continue to ignore the ads. The problem will come if Amazon Prime is ever extended beyond the USA corner of the world to include me. Do you think I will notice the change and start placing orders? Not a chance. By advertising too aggressively too early, Amazon has probably lost my future business.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - This assumes they ever intend to acknowledge the presence of Australia at all.
PPS - To the best of my knowledge, they still don't stock region 4 DVDs.

Houses with service corridors

It would take extra space, but I think it would be handy to build houses with things like cable ladders and service corridors. Imagine being able to install cable TV or a new phone line without cutting any holes in walls or fastening any new wire clips to beams under the house. Imagine being able to hide all your stereo wiring out of sight and go into a narrow corridor to change it around.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It's the extra space requirement that means few people can really do this.
PPS - The rest of us just need better ways to manage our cabling.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is the big three-oh, but I don't feel like an adult yet. Perhaps I never will. I still play games regularly, watch science-fiction DVDs and spend a lot of time on the internet, though I guess that qualifies me more as a geek than an adolescent.

As for today, Deb and I will be having lunch at the local Coffee Club and meeting with some friends tonight for a barbeque, which does sound more grown-up. I had hoped to have a new job before my birthday, but I guess you can't have everything.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Many of my friends are pitching in to buy me a new computer.
PPS - That alone should be worth the hassle of turning 30.

Friday Zombie Blogging - Plants vs Zombies Purchased

Today being my birthday, Deb purchased the full version of Plants vs Zombies. It's definitely a step above the 1-hour demo, with many more plant and zombie types to pit against one another. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to play it quite as much as Deb has. ;)

Mokalus of Borg

PS - If you did like the demo, it might be worth buying the full version.
PPS - On the other hand, it is fundamentally more of the same.

Science vs religion in popular entertainment

I'm kind of tired of seeing TV episodes and movies that broadly follow the "enlightened scientist vs the evil, closed-minded, oppressive religious establishment" genre. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Science vs religion is a false dichotomy anyway.
PPS - Many of the founding fathers of science were devout Christians.

Written sarcasm

I like the use of brackets around an exclamation mark to indicate written sarcasm, such as "Oh, yes, it all makes sense now(!)". I saw it first in Stargate SG-1 subtitles. It does require establishing it as a convention before people recognise it intuitively, but it's well known that written English could use a sarcasm-mark. Whether it's this or something else doesn't bother me. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Some people prefer as the marker.
PPS - It takes longer that way, but it is clearer for the uninitiated.