Sitting in a coffee shop this morning catching up on some assignment work, the kids show playing on the plasma in the corner flashed up a question on screen, presumably for the little ones to answer and win prizes.
If you could travel to the future, what would you do and why?
I'm referring them to the Starfleet Temporal Integrity Commission for financially soliciting a breach of the Temporal Prime Directive. I'm just shocked and appalled.
I've been watching Gurren Lagann for two weeks now, and I'm so thorougly absorbed in their universe. One of the great things about limiting yourself to one episode a day ^^.
Plot: An epic 13 episode journey started by a boy and a young man in a subterranean village culminates in a final showdown between the fortresses of two of the generals, and the valiant crew of the Dai-Gurren. Victory is in sight, but can they comprehend what they've unleashed? Can I even comprehend it?!
Narrator: Despite having one of the most powerful weapons in the fleet, and despite being given the biggest pounding yet, Yoko seemingly preferred to stay on the bridge of Dai-Gurren and narrate what was going on to us. Now that I think about it, often she didn't even do that, she just provided facial expressions while other bridge officers told her what was going on. Poor show Yoko ;).
Tactics: Compared to previous episodes where an all-out offensive seems to be the winning ticket, the sheer number of enemy ships causes Simon to pull rank and fight them himself, relegating the defence of Dai-Gurren to the others.
Art: Given the predominant theme of the episode was "blow evil ships up" we had quite a fireworks display. Mostly Gainax showed off their light effects, particularly when Gurren Lagann powered up to take on the millions of avian ships.
Common sense: I know The Generals have their pride to maintain and didn't want to dignify these humans with too much firepower, but why didn't they use two of their fortresses in the first place? They could have crushed these silly little humans ages ago! Pride cometh before the fall.
Technology: Sometimes a low tech solution is better than a more sophisticated one. When a gigantic Gunmen needs to traverse water, what better thing to arm oneself with than a giantic paddle? When communication lines are down, what better thing to use than a projector aimed at a swirling cloud of dust to attract attention?
Friends: Having inspired other humans to the surface with their antics, at a critical moment (of course!) our heros are joined by an armada of friendly ships ready to assist in taking their enemies down. A good thing, given it seemed they had no hope otherwise.
Nostalgia: Seeing Simon use tha late Kamina's passionate rallying cry was one thing, but to see Nia show that spirit was quite another. By the way, Nia is absolutely adorable, and I'm abashedly a fan ^^.
Partnerships: I really didn't think Rossiu/Simon stood a chance piloting Gurren Lagann together after the epicness that was Kamina/Simon, but they've turned out to be quite the formidable duo. Over the two weeks I've been watching this series, they've both come such a long way.
Unanswered questions: The Dai-Gurren crew have a sophisticated armada of Gunmen, but given they were all claimed from fallen enemies at some point, they're a hodgepodge mix of devices with different shapes, sizes, capabilities and epicness. When they meet their new human allies, not only do they have far more ships, but they're all uniform in shape, size, capability and epicness. Did these humans raid a factory?
Cliff hanger: Several episodes ago I commented that the Spiral King looked as though he was standing in either a gigantic ship with columns, or a city. With the destruction of the Teppelin Capital, these giant columns with windows (slabs, if you will) proceed to fall from the sky, revealing a horrified facial expression. A homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Heart tugging: Seeing Simon and Yoko looking onto their memorial for Kamina, with his sword and cape. I hope he's able to keep that promise.
Conclusion: The known world is coming apart at the seams. What will be the implications? I have the feeling we're about to have our minds blown.
From the University of Technology Sydney Open Day this week. The robots were manufactured by Aldebaran in France, and programmed by Benjamin Johnston at the Magic Lab. Wish I could have been there that day to see it!
The infamous Boota episode of Gurren Lagann of which I've seen screenshots from online for years!
Plot: Trudging ever closer to The Capital again, the more monotonous parts of their journey provide a setting for some character development, before they come under siege from above with some serious avian firepower.
Soundtrack: I don’t know what the music was, but it sounded terribly Mission Impossible-esque. While I thoroughly approved and thought it fitting, The Bird is The Word would have made for an even better musical score, given their avian enemy today. Picture it: Yoko firing her gigantic gun at The Enemy with an epic pose, hair flying behind her, with Bird Bird Bird, B-Bird’s the Word, or during the final gigantic explosion. Just saying.
Boota: The best way for a little pet to motivate people is to launch himself into the air and land in an opportune place. I suppose such a position would offer the most cushioning were something bad to happen. Cushions are soft ^_^.
Expectations: With Simon blushing and Nia looking expectantly at him on deck, we think she’s going to profess liking him, but instead offers a more practical suggestion for the use of their time. They’re supposed to be together, come on guys!
Technology: Not only can Gunmen be commandeered on the surface after being defeated, they can be skewered in mid-flight and integrated! That’s so… phisticated.
Strength: What I’m really liking about Gurren Lagann is each character is strong in their own way, and that they save and help each other rather than always just having one strong character and a damsel or doofus in distress. Today it was Simon’s turn to rescue Yoko instead of the other way round, and seeing her cradled in Lagann’s arms was just adorable. Simon is growing up :).
Physics: Despite looking and acting almost magical, these Gunmen devices do possess some technological devices to help them achieve said effect. Case in point, the Dai-Gunten fortress hovers due to two large orbs, one of which is destroyed and the other caught by Dai-Gurren like a gigantic basket ball. There’s a Futurama Harlem Globetrotters reference in there somewhere.
Tactics: In the last episode I’d talked about how the generals had attempted to shoot them, blow them up, squish them and trick them. Clearly none of those had worked, so the last general with a settle to score decided to do something different and… blow them up. You’d think those with a sophisticated air force and hovering fortress could have been more creative than that ;).
Fanservice: Before each episode, Gainax show summaries of what happened in the previous episode, something which presumably would be irritating if you were watching them all in an afternoon, but are really helpful for a silly guy like me who likes watching one a day! That said, for their summary of the fighting scene in episode #12, they decided to illustrate it with… a close-up of Yoko’s flapping swimsuit skirt. There were so many great shots they could have used, like the one where she’s standing there firing from the deck of Dai-Gurren with her colleagues looking on! Oh well, Gainax just trolling us again :P
Costume: Their enemy of the day’s colourful, towering imposing plumage was rather fetching. I’d love a outfit designed like that for an anime convention cosplay costume. I’d look fabulous!
Honour: Despite presumably being a scoundrel and the enemy of Humans, Viral bows to Simon’s call that taking Yoko’s hostage was playing dirty. He may have a personal vendetta against [who he thought was] Kamina, and he’s potentially putting his own neck in a noose with the generals, but he has honour. Perhaps.
Stereotypes: It’s a favourite in anime that a cute, nice character everyone likes tries their hand (or both hands, in fact) at cooking, and people feel bad telling him/her just how… awful their food is! I think that happens when I cook for people. In any case, Rossiu takes one for the team, and subsequently spends time in the infirmary… speaking of honour!
Metaphors: The Spiral King offers us a glance at his own glowing drill device, suggesting its an integral part of something much larger, rather than just Simon’s symbol of hope.
Pronunciation: On a recent phone call, I was called out for pronouncing Simon as… Simon! In the anime he’s Schee-mon, and that’s how you’re supposed to say it! Point taken.
Cliffhanger: Who are humans? Spiral King, you evil cliff hanging devil you!
Conclusion: Just wow.
"Looks like another Apple employee left an iPhone prototype in a bar. [..] Once might be an accident, but two unreleased iPhones lost in bars starts to look like a strategy" ~ Slashdot
Makes sense, Apple are unable to generate hype or buzz any other way.
Pinch and a punch too, while we're here!
So HP are doing another run of TouchPad hardware. Was this all an elaborate marketing stunt?
In macroeconomic terms, dumping refers to when a company floods a new market with products at unprofitable prices in order to establish a presence. Foreign companies flush with cash are able to sustain this long enough to drive local businesses bankrupt, and are then able to own the market and set the prices. Most free market economists consider dumping to be the only valid reason for protectionism, unless they're Libertarian.
While it's tempting to think HP have done this with the TouchPad, it fails on three counts. No wait, four counts, I'm not Discovery News!
Despite the firesale of devices, TouchPads still only count for a tiny fraction of the tablet market. Granted people who own Palm devices give the brand exposure, but there simply isn’t enough of them for it to be considered a "flooding".
While it would be a masterful stroke of genius to let people think a product is dying only to have it brought back with artificially increased marketshare, we’ve seen no evidence that HP’s marketing departments are savvy enough to have created the concept and pulled it off.
There’s also no evidence to suggest HP’s revolving door executives are creative or forward thinking enough to have instigated such a plan. Mr Apotheker was the former CEO of SAP, so we know where he stands on consumer devices.
I’ve read reports the reason why they’re manufacturing more devices is due to their hardware suppliers having quotas or obligations to fill, or they have excess inventory. I’m not entirely sure that makes sense either, but it seems more likely than HP suddenly learning how to do marketing.
While I'm all for looking deeper into the meaning behind corporate decisions and doublespeak, in this case I really am willing to believe HP retired Palm hardware due to a lack of sales. I've lamented this many times here given my belief webOS was the best mobile OS ever developed.
As far as blatant beach episodes go, Gurren Lagann’s was surprisingly tame, and had a plot!
Plot: Hey, I just said it had one. Dai-Gurren and her (his?) fine crew have reached the coast, with no option other than to traverse it. Of course, once in the water this allows whatshername and whosits (what I call Adiane and Viral now) to launch an attack in their home territory. Well, Adiane’s territory specifically. No wait, whatshername.
Hilarity: What Gainax lacked in their restrained RBE (below), they more than made up for with abject absurdity! Dai-Gurren’s retrofitting, complete with a gigantic paddle and the giant feet converted to flippers had me giggling a little too loudly to be considered healthy!
The Required Beach Episode™: In short(s), the Required Beach Episode is nearly always included purely so the animators can dress their characters in various states of undress. Surprisingly, Gainax’s Gurren Lagann beach episode was surprisingly tame. Not a single top "accidently" came off!
Relativity: Upon seeing the swimsuits of the Black Siblings, Yoko exclaimed their attire was "ridiculous". This coming from a fighter who wears a bikini top and hot pants all the time. I suppose for her they’re just clothes, in which case it’s relativity? I have no idea.
Explanations: So the reason they have to frolic in the water is entirely due to the fact Dai-Gurren’s appearance of seaworthiness is merely a façade, and that a retrofitting will take time. I’ve seen far more tenuous reasons ;).
Blush: So it seems Yoko’s hostility and general frostiness lately have largely been due to jealousy and an understandable sense of insecurity, both of which only became more acute as everyone lavished their attention on Nia this episode. Her accident with the food though showed she had a really cute side too… I’m unashamed, this is my kind of "fanservice". ^^
Art: Gainax’s strong suit seems to be their skies and landscapes. The water in this episode looked fairly flat. Oh well.
Tactics: Having tried blowing them up, crushing them, shooting at them and tricking them, the enemies this time attempt to push Dai-Gurren’s pressure limits underwater with some pretty evil looking hook things, from the comfort of their rather swish bridge. Clearly taking back the Gunmen isn’t the priority any more!
Production: I’m not a media student, but splitting the screen up into frames to focus on all the chacracters faces, then having Yoko’s hair drift over it before she whooped arse was just brilliant!
Cliche: After being outcast for much of the episode, we all knew Yoko would be instrumental in saving the day and winning everyone back, but it was still awesome to see her do so. Of course, Nia also has the unshakable belief Simon will save them; and the room in which she confesses it to Yoko proves to be another one of the more hilariously framed scenes!
Character development: After seeing Yoko portrayed as a more stubborn and cold person of late, we finally see her more caring side, while obviously still being a fiercely independent and strong person. The final scene at dusk where she and Nia bond while she cuts her hair was really sweet. I hope to see more of this :).
Conclusion: An episode I feared would be shallow turned out to be a great watch, with some real progress in the story and the characters. I approved!
7 Formerly Popular Sites that Are Dying: Indications are that Slashdot, Blogger, Digg and other sites are on their way out.
As too is Discovery's arithmetic: they listed eight bullet points. I guess it's to be expected, they're on the spurious "Twitter killed blogs" bandwagon.
UPDATE: According to the site, the "content" is "provided" by FoxNews.com. That makes even more sense.
I knew Apple had derived WebKit from KHTML, but having been away from KDE for so long I had no idea Konqueror had the ability to switch its rendering engine to it.
Now you can test your projects with WebKit browsers without subjecting yourself to Chrome/Chromium for Linux, and without any additional software. Pretty sweet :)
After several depressing, mopey episodes, we finally have an epic one again worthy of being watched several times! Gurren Lagann is back!
Plot: Eager to take on the barbarians on the surface after two aborted attempts by his colleagues to do so, the tortoise looking Guame goes out to reclaim Dai-Gurren with the most amount of fan service and evil smurking he can muster. Of course, he fails!
Parody: Not content making subtle (and not so subtle!) jabs at anime stereotypes, Gainax parioed the song of the siren with a town comprised entirely of attractive (though eerily similar) young women in white robes. I’ve seen that screenshot above floating around the net for years!
Backfiring: By locking up Simon and the entire team in a room lined with rock to await their fate, little does Guame realise he was facilitating Simon’s rediscovery of his talent and motivation in life, as well as restoring his honour amongst everyone who had started to doubt him.
Relationships: Was dissapointed in Yoko again this time, she was so ready to dismiss Simon again when things were tough. Fortunately Nia was a kind soul who took an interest in what he was doing, even when it was just digging and making sculptures of his lost friend.
Technology: After being pictured amongst the litter on the deck of Dai-Gurren (a mighty fine land ship Gunmen that lacks garbage chutes, much like Australian apartments) Lagann miraculously comes back to life and is able to come to Simon’s aid. The key Simon has around his neck has incredible transmission strength!
Explanations: So my initial assessment of Nia’s resting place as a status chamber was far more sinister. She and Simon understand now.
Legacy: Kamina is alive once again, through Simon. The epic moves, the passion and drive. Now all we need is for Simon’s confidence to translate into some lovable goofiness, and we’ll be all set. I’m confident he can do it :).
Flashbacks: When Simon sees Lagann after tunelling through rock. When he shoots into the air as its pilot and sees the rocky world below, with the epic sky; it was all the stuff episode one was again. A cliché english major at universitiy would claim it was a rebirth of Simon’s spirit, though I would never say anything as cheesy as that.
Unanswered questions: How is a creature like that supposed to operate a firearm?
Heart tugging: When he broke through the rock into the air with Lagann the first time, it was with his bro, now it’s with this really sweet girl whom he saved, and who was saved by. It was wonderful to watch :)
Conclusion: A real touch and go episode there at times, but I feel as though I’m watching Gurren Lagann again, and not a sad drama series; perhaps having those sad episodes just made me appreciate the epic ones even more. In any event, I’m excited to see what’s ahead, how’s Simon’s character develops, and what mindf*cks I can expect. I’ve been told there are several!
Aside: This post was supposed to be auto-posted on Tuesday, but for some reason it only just went through. Sorry about that!
