Sky One is remaking The Prisoner starring Christopher Eccleston (who is currently playing Doctor Who on Sci-Fi, or played him LAST year if you leave on the eastern side of the pond.) I'm torn. On the one hand I think remakes are almost always a bad idea. On the other hand, I'll admit Eccleston is a great choice for Number Six. Which reminds me, has anybody compared an episode of Doctor Who on Sci-Fi to the BBC original version? I understand they are making edits to allow for commercials, but I'm hearing some rumors that the edits are significant. I guess the big question is if I should either crank up ye' old BitTorrent or simply wait until July and watch the DVD version. In particular there is a recurring theme of the symbol "Bad Wolf" showing which is relevant at the end of the season and it's getting edited out of several episodes in the Sci-Fi version. And I'll also note that I'm not watching tonight's episode until next week. I believe it is the first of a two-parter. David Louis Edelman has a great writeup of what Empire Strikes Back means to to a certain demographic. Worth reading. Did everyone who wants to try out the Loco Roco demo for PSP? If you need explanations on how to download it (or the controls) drop me a line and I'll give some pointers. Basically it's a Japanese demo but it runs on any PSP with the 2.70 firmware. I have to give it a firm "eh" myself. First off, the Japanese music must go. It's "claw out your own eardrums J-Pop happy". Second of it's kind of neat but I find some jumps in it to be very frustrating. My problem is that you can tilt the world but you have no real feeling for how close you are to the extent (you can't spin the world around 360 degrees, and there's no artificial horizon that shows how close you are to the limits.) Seriously though, if it comes out in the US with that music? I seriously don't think I could stand it. Everyone have a good weekend!

(Welcome back. In our last installment Captain Arcolier had discovered that the supposed civilian frigate was actually a disguised Cantrellan destroyer. She attempted evasive action just as a false bulkhead broke off and was hurtled right at the Beauteous Revenge. If you're new to our tale you'll want to start here.)      Captain Arcolier called for evasive action a split second too late. The false hull was abnormally massive, as it was designed to serve this exact purpose. On the one hand it slowed down the trojanned destroyer, making it maneuver like a pregnant guppy. On the other hand after it was jettisoned it might work in precisely this case - a secret projectile aimed at the brash pirate who dared lock it with a tractor beam. The energy dumped into the hull by the Revenge's own tractor beams now propelled the masking shell towards the pirate ship. Jaimie's intuitive leap meant the modern-day cestus struck a glancing hit instead of the the crippling strike the Cantrellan engineers envisioned but it was still a mighty blow. The hull of the Beauteous Revenge rang like a bell as the heavy mass struck aft. The Revenge spun erratically as the delta-vee was imparted, and Captain Arcolier reflexively gripped her armrests as the bridge wobbled erratically.

     "One-Eye! That ship is a trojan. I'd expect Imperial Forces to greet you soon. We'll be there as soon as we can, but I'm afraid you'll be on your own for a bit. Acknowledge!" Captain Arcolier knew this fight wasn't over, and the best ratings came from tight battles. She wasn't licked yet, not by a long shot, and her communique was cool and collected. Her stomach told the lie here, as acid boiled away and etched into her awareness. Luckily nobody had managed to develop true nerve system recordings yet, so as long as her face remained impassive her fans would never know what burned inside her gut.

     The display from Assault Pod One flashed brighter as One-Eye spoke, raising an eyebrow sardonically at his Captain. "Oh a trojan? Y'think? I'll alert the Marines. We'll need the calvary soonish. Bring it, would you? Thanks!" Through his entire spiel his hands never stopped flying over the control boards, trying every trick in the book and a few that had never been written down. If anyone could break the tractor beam, One-Eye would bring it home. Even in these dire straits he never stopped playing to the cameras. Jaimie smiled inwardly, even as her stomach roiled from the sacrifice her crew was making. One-Eye was a trouper, in all senses of the word and she knew the First Marines would play along. How could their Captain do anything less? The show must go on and she'd be damned if some crazy Cantrellan plot would bring the Revenge low.

     "Damage Report. Status?" Captain Arcolier rapped out in her famous ice-cold tones. Fanboys in dozens of systems would eat this up. All she had to do was make this out alive.

     Stinky Pete chuckled quietly to himself. One day he'd see the jam that would crack Cap'n Arcolier's cold reserve, but this? This was a walk in the park! Who did the Cantrellans think they were dealing with? "Engineering reports no significant damage. Electro-shielding absorbed most of the impact, and ablative shielding took the rest. Oh, Tammy says that ablative is down five percent. Shall I order some more padding?"

     Jaimie smiled wryly to herself, despite the dire situation. Stinky Pete was almost too much of a ham to bear. If he wasn't such a genius at his board she'd have to scold him. But he was a genius and enough talent excused any amount of showboating. And besides, Stinky Pete always tested in the top five 'Q' ratings for her bridge crew. He'd never be his own captain, but a sizable crowd followed his exploits. And truthfully, in her secret heart of hearts there was a tiny little voice of doubt that Pete always reassured.

     "Alright my pretties, I think the Cantrellans have shown their claws. Maybe we should show ours. Close and engage. I want to see One-Eye and the First Marines come home safe. Oh, and whoever is controlling that? I'd like to see him in our brig. Make that happen would you?" Jaimie made a show of stretching luxuriously in her padded chair as she highlighted the revealed destroyer with her pointer. Oh that stretch! Jaimie smiled inwardly, knowing that she just provided all sorts of mental fodder to underaged youth in all of the central systems. Her hair could go take a flying flattish leap - she was on fire today, and this recording would smoke up the sales charts! Assuming One-Eye made it back she would easily gross enough to cover any repairs and refueling.

     The pilot was just a young whelp of an ensign, freshly recruited, and he stuttered out his call for full thrust. Tammy in engineering flickered into view in a corner of the viewscreen as the Revenge leapt forward. "Full thrust? William? You sure you can handle what I can put out?" Tammy chuckled throatily as the young pilot blushed crimson. Tammy locked eyes with Jaimie and arched an eyebrow. "Seriously Cap'n. How do you find them so young and innocent? You know I love it!"

     Jaimie threw her head back in a full-throated guffaw. "Down girl! I promised his Ma we wouldn't hurt him. Get us into grapple in the next minute and I promise you an extra week of shore leave. Hell, I'll go with you. Haven won't know what hit them, but we'll have a full squad of new marines when we launch. That's a Captain's Promise there lassie!"

     Tammy tugged a raven forelock in a mock salute. "Aye, aye Cap'n! It's a date!" her screen faded out as William swallowed ineffectually and continued to guide the Revenge into Electro-Grapple range. Jaimie returned her attention to the tactical display as the icon representing the Revenge leapt forward. The destroyer wasn't likely to escape but it was doubtful that was the Cantrellan goal anyway. One-Eye and the First Marines would take the brunt of the fighting that was about to break out. It looked like all his evasion was for naught and the Cantrellans would be burning through the hatch within a minute. The Revenge wouldn't even be in range for the Electro-Grapple for another three at best. It was probably a good ten minutes before she could bring additional forces into the melee.

     A clang rang in Assault Pod One as the Cantrellans clamped firm. One-Eye threw up his hands in disgust and powered down the piloting board. "Sergeant Riker! Looks like we earn our booty today. Prepare for hostiles!" One-Eye unclasped his crash webbing and leapt up from his seat. Fast as he was, he marveled at the speed of the Marines who were already lined up and warily scanning the hatch. A thin acetylene blade of fire jetted through the hole, hissing as the unseen welder began to carve an impromptu entrance.

---

(Tune in next week to see if Captain Arcolier can rescue One-Eye and the first Marines before the Cantrellans overwhelm Assault Pod One.)

(See the next installment!)

Ok so I admit, posts are still spotty.  I've been in media sponge mode - the 360 stuff and a bunch of books and podcasts. My podcast backlog had gotten immense and it's taken a lot of intense listening and pruning to bring it back into manageable. On other notes I got a metric ton of books for my birthday and I've been reading through a few. On TV I've been watching Babylon 5 on DVD's from Netflix (into season 2 now) and watching the new series of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi channel.

Books: I finished The Physics of Superheroes which I enjoyed. It's basic physics stuff - I mean if you know what do to with F = MA then most of it isn't educational exactly, but it's a fun read. I like it, but if you're looking to learn much physics . . . well you might. But if you've had much of a brush with physics you'll know most of it.

I'm about halfway through The Elegant Universe right now. Now this one is educational, unless you're pretty current on your string theory and your quantum mechanics. It stays away from math so it's accessible to basically everyone and it just fascinating stuff. Greene goes through the basic background of relativity (both special and general) and quantum theory and basically crash courses the high points of 20th century physics. And after a few chapters we plunge right into the depths of string theory - and how it emerges from trying to reconcile quantum theory with relativity. Accessibly written and fascinating stuff. Highly recommended.

Tomorrow I'll post some fiction. I've been working on my just-for-fun web serial and my new plan is to post an installment every Tuesday. Tune in tomorrow to meet my gang of silly space pirates! 

So as many of you know, I acquired an Xbox 360 last Friday (tax returns don't ya' know?). I thought it might be appropriate to  jot down some of my impressions and thoughts. So, here's my 4 day review of the 360.

It's a nice piece of hardware. The dashboard and new Live services are particularly slick. I did something a bit odd, but I might recommend people try this out. I knew I was going to attempt to find one so earlier in the week I bought several games through Gamefly. Kameo, PGR3, and Dead or Alive 4 to be specific. So I didn't buy any games with the console. When I brought it home I had just the console. I hooked it up and logged into Live. I was able to download demos, a new trailer for Pixars Cars (in high definition, no less!), and buy a couple of Live Arcade games, all from the box. All told I had the console for about six hours before I even put a disc inside it. That's just plain cool.

The new mandatory Live support is very nice. You can always see your friends list, you can create a chat session with a friend that survives switching games, downloading stuff from the Arcade and so forth. The best feature of an Xbox 360 is custom soundtracks though. In any game you can punch the guide button, the game pauses and the dashboard comes up. There's some buttons there for friends and the like, but there's also media controls. You can pick out music and the game's music is mercifully shut off. I chortled with glee when I started the Burnout Revenge demo and the hated, awful EA Trax bullet came up telling me what crap it was going to start playing. I hit the Guide button and fired up some Beastie Boys instead. I win! Take that EA and your stupid music seletions!

But it gets better. There's some connection to Media Center or a Windows XP machine. I haven't gotten it to work on XP yet, but I did find some Mac software that emulates the features. It's called Connect360 and it's awesome. I installed it on my Mac and now my 360 can see all my iTunes playlists, and it can display iPhoto albums as a slideshow. So on my Mac I created a Playlist called "Racing Tunes" and I can select that from any 360 game and stream the audio from my Mac. Connect360 can't share the tracks from my iPod, but that's a minor grump. In theory I should be able to connect my iPod directly, but my iPod cables are firewire and I need to buy a USB cable.

I thought the launch lineup was sort of weak, but a bunch of stuff has come out for it recently, and the Live support seems to be everything I had hoped Xbox 1 would be. Of course, they were also impossible to find until recently, but apparently the supply lines have opened up. All in all I'm happy with the purchase and I expect to get a lot of enjoyment from it over the next few years.

I might write more about specific games in a future post - let me know if people have any interest. I also have rented Full Auto and intend to pick up Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter tomorrow.

technorati tags: Xbox_360, games

Hazard: The battery charger’s circuit board can overheat and cause its plastic cover to melt which poses a fire and burn hazard to consumers.

Power Brick Recall

If you own one of those external batteries for the PSP (the Pelican Power Brick) they are being recalled, apparently they can catch fire. The crummy thing is that there is no replacement battery, so you get to send it back and get other accessories, like a carrying case or the like.

 

technorati tags: PSP, battery