HPNet

I have finally ordered a new flute. It is the exact same model as I used to rent, a Yamaha 211, although this one has an E mechanism unlike my old one. I look forward to getting it and seeing just how much better it plays than my last one.

Amazon informed me today that they have shipped my copy of Half-Life 2 Episode Two, and the estimated delivery date is tomorrow (the 18th). The release date is the 19th, and so I will potentially have it a day early. The question is, will Royal Mail manage to get it to me this side of Christmas? I am not confident, so I might not be playing episode two for a while.

Read on for Spooks spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am now ready for both Spooks and CSI: Miami next Tuesday, as I now have two DVB-T TV cards. However, I am still very annoyed that the BBC has decided to put it on such a stupid day.

As anyone not locked in a closet will know Apple released the iPhone in the US locked to AT&T. They are planning to do that here as well, just locked to 02 rather than AT&T. Earlier this week they bricked many iPhones which were unlocked, in the latest update. The French, however, have different ideas (you can read the “English” Google translation if you want a laugh), as any phone sold must have an unlocked version. Why are consumers in the UK not protected in a similar way? Locking phones is clearly an unfair move designed to lock customers into a certain provider, reducing competition. Everyone should be free to change providers as much as they like, as long as they follow the terms of the contract - and Apple, or any other company, should not force a provider on you.

The start date for Spooks has been updated on the website as the 16th of October. This places it squarely at 9pm (the only slot on the Radio Times website listed as “To Be Announced” on that day), which means it clashes with CSI: Miami on Five. I am not happy, as I want to watch both, throughout the seasons. I might have to buy another TV card just so that I can record both of them at the same time, which is slightly annoying as there are not many programs that I like to watch that clash like this.

The BBC has started airing trailers for the new series of Spooks, which suggests that it is coming soon, hopefully the next couple of weeks. A fan made website seems to think the 15th of October, which would be good. However, which day it will air on is currently unknown, however Wednesday is taken with Heroes. I hope it is not on Tuesday, as with CSI on Five I would have to buy a new TV card to be able to record both, which would be annoying.

I thought that the last series was a large improvement over the post series two ones, and with any luck this series will continue to improve. Who knows - it might even reach the standards of the first two series (however without bringing back Tom, Danny, Zoe, Ruth and Malcolm I cannot see this happening, especially as many of those characters are dead).

David Yates, director of the worst Harry Potter film ever, has given an interview about the next film he is directing, which is unfortunatley Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Apparently he wants to “balance the intimate with the epic”, and I do not think he means make it all epic. Well forget that, Half-Blood Prince should be epic, to make up for the last one if nothing else, and the intimate bits can get cut fairly easily, they do not add much to the plot. On the bright side, Steve Kloves is the screenwriter again, after taking a break on the last one - so perhaps less of the important epic stuff will face the chop.

Today I went to London to see an exhibition at the British Library, called Scared. It was all about ancient books from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with the oldest fragments of paper dating back nearly 2000 years. The ones I found most impressive were the ones which were best preserved. A copy of the St James bible from 500 years ago was clear enough that you could quite easily read from it, almost as if it were new. I have textbooks that are more beaten up than it.

After that was the obligatory tip to the Science Museum, where they confiscated the screwdriver I had in my bag. Fortunately I got it back at the end, I would have been a bit disappointed to have lost it. As always it was great, and I got to see the bubble show.

Google has taken a step up from there old, fairly unobtrusive, plain adsense adverts. They have introduced horrible flash monster adverts of flashing death. They move, they use flash, they have lots of distinct colours - I hate them. They used to sell their adverts on the basis of being different than companies like DoubleClick (which is now owned by Google), as the adverts were text based and contextual and therefore less annoying. Now these adverts are just as bad as all the other advertising companies. I guess it is time to start blocking adsense ads with the rest of them to prevent these horrible flash ones appearing.