Porcupine Tree!!! That’s Who!

It’s back… Prog rock assaults album charts, proclaimed a headline on the BBC web site the other week.

Well, actually, it never went away! Despite the neo-prog “revival” of the 80s, the symphonic outbreaks of the 90s and the retro- outfits of the 00s, my CD collection is testament to the fact that prog rock has been with us all along.

However, it is good to see the mighty Porcupine Tree getting a mention in current dispatches. They are a particularly fine example of what music should be about (yes, music, not that processed, image-oriented pap so beloved of the smarm-meisters that pollute the airwaves with X Factor guff).

Alan Turing

Noticed the other day that there’s a good profile of Alan Turing on the BBC’s web site. It always makes me a bit mad to think about how he was treated by the government despite the importance of his contribution to the war effort.

Near The End?

Tom’s Astronomy Blog has a very good piece about how The End Of The World As We Know It is not really upon us, despite what you may have heard recently about 2012 and the Mayan Calendar.

As the post’s author says:

Almost every month there is a new prediction by someone for the end of the world. For the last 5,000 years (since we’ve been keeping track of doomsday predictions), every prediction has been wrong. Odds are pretty good that this prediction will be wrong, too.

My view is that, barring a world-shattering collision with a monster asteroid or other astral body, the Earth will be around for a long, long time. Probably until the Sun runs out of hydrogen and begins to die, during which process its atmosphere will expand as its core collapses and it turns into a red giant that will engulf the Earth. That won’t happen for another 4 or 5 billion years by which time, let’s face it, the human race will be long gone – most likely wiped out by our own actions.

Sandbox

Bucky Katt at his awful best…

Spot The Pigeon

Everyone who has complained about the broadband speed delivered by their ISP should pause for a moment and be thankful that they are not living in South Africa and being supplied broadband access by Telekom.

Why?

Because South African pigeons are apparently faster then digital broadband when it comes to transferring data! According to the The Register, Winston the pigeon delivered 4Gb of data in the time it took the ISP to deliver just 4% of the same data to the same location over a broadband connection.

Mmm, a sort of tortoise and hare story for the technologically advanced 21st century. And not a very flattering one either…

Who Watches The Watchmen?

Quite a few million people and counting I reckon.

And at last, I’m one of them!

I didn’t get a chance to go and see Watchmen in the cinema, so I was rather chuffed when I was given the Watchmen DVD for my birthday recently. It’s a long time since I read the comic book but it was impressive as hell! So, like many others, I was wondering how the movie would stack up in comparison.

Pretty damn well!

I was engrossed from the very start, totally absorbed as the story of The Comedian, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan et al unfolded. I thought the characterisation was excellent, the effects superb and that overall the movie captured the essence of this rather gothic tale very well. A terrific movie and definitely one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

The problem is, I’ve just noticed that there is a director’s cut version of the movie available. It has become imperative that I see that too!

The Road

Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road is quite simply brilliant. It is the moving yet disturbing tale of a father and son’s journey through a ravaged landscape; the remnant of a world riven by some unnamed disaster.

It is hard to describe it without letting slip something that might spoil the narrative, so I’ll settle for saying that it is one of the most compelling stories I have read. The pages turned relentlessly and I was never sure what the next would reveal. I was filled with exactly the fear and edginess that I imagine you would feel in the wake of a cataclysm that left the survivors struggling to survive from hour-to-hour never mind day-to-day.

If you haven’t read this one yet then do so without further delay. Buy a copy, borrow it from the local library or a friend’s bookshelf. However you do it, do yourself a great favour and read it.

You will be moved!

The Battle For Wesnoth

The Battle For Wesnoth is a free turn-based strategy game for multiple platforms (Linux, MacOS and Windows). It is set in a fantasy world in which you undertake quests and do battle alongside elves, dwarves, mermen, etc., and fight teeming hordes of orcs, ghosts, and the undead to namecheck but a few.

It is also great fun and dangerously addictive! If you like games, or are just looking for a fun and challenging way to pass some time you should check it out.

If I get time (ha! what’s that?!) I’ll do a proper write up over on The FS Files – which I badly need to write something new for!

Btw I’m trying out Windows Live Writer for this and the next few posts to this site. If it turns out to be as good as it looks I should really do a write up of it too!

Public Image Ltd

Interesting to note that Mr. John Lydon, Esq., that most excellent icon of punk rock and face of Country Life (British) butter is reforming his impressively inventive rock and roll outfit Public Image Ltd.

In connection with which you will find a most interesting and informative interview with the aforementioned Mr. Lydon in the Guardian Online.

Sorry, But Who Is Stupid?

Mmmm, so staff at stores such as PC World and Currys have been swapping stories about “stupid” gadget shoppers on Facebook.

I reckon they won’t have swapped half as many stories as consumers who have branded staff at PC World and Currys as being stupid. In my experience, staff in these places are a combination of stupid, smug and full of s**t!

My advice to them is check to see if the customer is an IT professional before trying to show off a limited knowledge of the computer your trying to flog. I’ve lost count of the number of times some wannabe knowitall in PC World has tried to bamboozle me with blurb about the latest in laptops, external hard-drives, broadband routers, wireless routers, etc, etc.

That said, as an IT professional, it can be enormous fun letting them blabber on before pulling the rug out from under them. The difficulty lies in not slapping them as well.