My software gets a TV appearance

Saw a video at the AMS users' meeting that was rather interesting. This is from ReGenesis, a Canadian Sci-Fi show.



About 1:30 in, you see some graphs on a computer screen. They've messed around with the colours quite a bit, but it's clearly a graph made using the AMS software I wrote for my PhD thesis. The dead giveaway is the British English spelling of 'sulphate'.

Not pissed off or anything; it's an open-source programme. But the gizmo they're fiddling with looks nothing like an AMS...

Dr. McNinja's gone colour

I'm not sure I buy this. One of the things I liked about Dr. McNinja was its pulpy, old-school black and while trace-and-ink style. There is something a little too upmarket about this. Still, Kitty Litter upped its production values recently as well to great effect (shame they didn't increase the update frequency...), so it might well work.

This is sooo bought

I'm at a loss for words, I really am. The title alone (following on from Sonic Firestorm and Inhuman Rampage) is a classic but that cover is something else if you're a Dragonforce fan. It's released on 26th of August (the 20th for the lucky people of Japan).

Another reason to hate Word

Quick tip to anyone who posts anything on Blogspot then imports using Facebook as a note: Don't cut and paste from a Word document. It seems it inserts all sorts of its own voodoo brand of html which can be tolerated by Blogspot but makes Facebook go apeshit.

I had posted an article about OP3 a few hours ago, but took it down. Probably for the best really because I was sleep deprived and not completely sober when I wrote it, so I had probably said something I'd later regret anyway. I'll write a new post when I have a clear head. Next month, maybe...

As good as it gets?

OK, tell me how this could be any better:

1. Dragonforce are playing the Academy this September the 26th
2. This will be the first (proper) gig of the tour promoting their new album
3. The new album will be called 'Ultra Beatdown'
4. They are being supported by none other than Turisas
5. According to Warlord Nygård: "As you can imagine, Olli is sharpening his bow already as his one-man mission is about to reach its climax..." (this will make sense to Turisas fans)
6. I have a kickarse Viking belt buckle to wear (purchased at the Stockport beer festival)
7. Tickets are only £14, which is a steal considering I would gladly pay more than that to see each band play on their own.

Needless to say, I already have my ticket. Eimear, Leo and Andy are coming as well. This has given me something to look forward to while I'm in Borneo, to say the least...

Jesus dear God no

I saw this in France a few months back, but haven't talked about it much. I guess I was just hoping that it didn't exist. But it does.

I used to love Asterix, but Albert Uderzo has now officially jumped the shark. This latest one has aliens in it. Need I say more? I was gutted when it happened in the Dukes of Hazzard, and I'm just as gutted now.

Albert, if by some dint of fortune you happen to be reading this, give up now. Concentrate on restoring the rest. You peaked at Asterix and Son and without exception, it's been an uninterrupted downward trajectory since. Stop making it worse, for the love of mercy.

Finally! Let's Rock!

5 stupid things about Britain:

1. The tabloids
2. Boris Johnson being given any responsibility outside of a quiz show
3. The fact that ASBOs were ever needed
4. We're currently looking to the French to build our nuclear reactors*
   
5. We produced some of the greatest music of the last half-century and yet you have to cross the Atlantic to listen to it on the radio

*You'd understand how shameful that is if you'd ever worked in the industry

#5 has always peeved me off. As well as the heavy metal I really like my classic rock. I mean it has been a near lifelong obsession. When my friends at school were all listening to the Stone Roses, I was pumping things like Black Sabbath, Queen, ZZ Top and the Beatles out of my stereo. But could I get it anywhere on the radio? Hell no.

I got a glimpse of the way things should be when I did a field project in Vancouver in 2001. There's a station there called 'Rock 101'. It kicked arse, even if it was a little U2-obsessed. It also showed me the way things should be. We've traditionally been deprived of this in the UK, despite gifting the world with much of this music. Radio 2 and a few of the others do occasionally play the odd decent track, but it's always hidden in amongst lots of easy listening and jazz. The closest we had was Kerrang!, which is OK if (1) you live in the West Midlands, (2) you don't mind bland Emo and Metalcore and (3) you're OK with the Foo Fighters, Green Day and the Dandy Warhols being grossly overplayed.


But no longer. Now Manchester has 106.1 Rock Radio and I've already decided it is my favourite radio station ever in the whole wide world bar none. The reception out in Disley is a bit shaky but it's good enough. It was officially launched today, their first official song being For Those About to Rock by AC/DC (I mean, seriously, what else?) and I've also so far been listening to The Who, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Judas Priest, Kiss, Alice Cooper... the list goes on. It's also not confined to the platform shoes and denim jacket brigades, with some more recent stuff that I heartily approve of such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kaiser Chiefs, Nickelback and Blur. They even have relevant sponsors such as guitar sting manufacturers and music tutoring.

I'm struggling to find words. This kicks arse. I've finally got the radio station I've waited my entire 30-year life for. I don't care if you don't understand. I'm sure at least Dave Topping can relate. And probably Ian as well. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some listening time to get in.

Power to the masses! (sorta)

Got handed an intriguing leaflet on campus yesterday. Seems there's a bunch of people not happy with the current direction the university is going. No surprises there. The group call themselves 'Reclaim The Uni' (at least, that's what their Facebook group is called), claim to represent both staff and students and their objectives represent quite a broad spectrum of lefty ideals. The interesting thing is that they seem to be operating independently of the usual student and trade unions.

I'll start by saying I'm not setting out here to deliberately undermine them. Quite the opposite in fact; the only reason universities get away with not paying attention to their students nowadays is because of the rampant apathy. Firebrand, politically active students seem to be a dying breed. But then again, some of the stuff is already sounding a little misguided.

Last week, a bunch of them (they claim 300 plus, the MEN puts it at 200) occupied the Arthur Lewis rooms and came up with a bunch of demands to hand to Alan Gilbert. Sounds a bit romanticised to me, but let's see those demands:

"These demands were democratically decided by students inside the occupied Arthur Lewis Building during the 'Reclaim the Uni' demonstration on Tuesday 22nd April 2008."

The leaflet I saw yesterday definitely used the word 'consensus' somewhere. They could do with being specific there because they'll need to disassociate themselves with the whole mob rule thing.

"The President / Vice-Chancellor (VC) will write a monthly column about the goings for the student newspaper Student Direct, that will also be published on the University of Manchester Student Union (UMSU) website. The President / VC will also be interviewed by Student Direct, using questions sent in by students, once a semester. The current public Q&A session that the President / VC takes part in once a semester will be publicised to staff and students by the University. All staff are welcome to attend."

Not a bad start. That sounds like a good idea and one that Alan Gilbert will probably lap up because he loves to play the part of being on everyone's side. In fact he has already met this challenge head-on (in his own way), albeit in the MEN rather than Student Direct. Presumably because more people read the MEN. It remains to be seen how far that will go, but I heartily approve of any movement in that direction.

"Student and Staff must have representation on all steering panels, including Building Design. Staff and Student must have input into the selection of the new President / VC."

Now we're already getting iffy. Some steering panels warrant input, some don't. The building design one is a daft example; the buildings were designed long before the current crop of students showed up. They also went through a consulting process (at least ours did) but the vast majority of staff that weren't directly affected didn't actually care.

"All 1st year Course Welcoming lectures must include a talk on avenues of student participation in University decision-making processes and explain what the '2015 Vision' and 'Capital Plan' will mean practically – i.e. building plans; department moving plans; axing of course module options."

Like that's going to happen. That's akin to a union making the demand that all new starters must attend a seminar entitled "why management hates you". Although I think the students could probably be kept more abreast of project 2015 in general.

"A minimum cap of 12 hours per week must be introduced for face-to-face contact hours. Courses with more contact time must not use this as a reason to cut hours.
Online and Distance Learning are only to supplement this cap – they are not a substitute for contact time. Core modules must have non-online learning alternative options so as to be accessible to all students."

I can't claim to agree with all of the changes made to teaching recently, but ultimatums like this don't help. Each one should be judged on its merits because every course is different.

"The Personal Tutor system should ensure that all students have a one-to-one contact at University. Students must have good access to health and disability support staff. "

OK, can't fault them on that one.

"An end to staff cut-backs now. And an end to dependence on Temporarily Contracted Staff."

Someone from the support or 'academic related' staff must have been responsible for that one. They've got a lot to gripe about (with good reason for the most part) and morale is pretty low. But it doesn't change the fact that this is a stupid demand; it's not as if there have been any compulsory redundancies and Manchester uni is one of the best in the country for issuing permanent contracts. You have to have at least some temp contracts; that's how you stay flexible.

"Stop investment in and from unethical industries, including the arms trade. Investments must be made transparent and open to Staff/Student discussion. The Freedom of Information Act must be respected."

FOI is a no-brainer. It's the law and there's nothing the uni can do about that. The ethical investment demand has no chance of being met however. Besides the fact that the demand is very ambiguous (who decides what is and isn't ethical?), the university likes its unethical money too much. Animal rights activists besieging the Stopford building was a common sight when I was an undergrad. It didn't achieve anything then and given the size of the new life sciences faculty, it sure as hell won't now. And like it or loathe it, the arms trade is a very profitable engineering sector in the UK. The north campus union building is named after the man who invented the bouncing bomb, for Pete's sake.

"The resources of recently closed libraries must be re-instated. In future, new library buildings should be built before the old ones are closed."

Sounds a bit Scargill-esque that one. I don't think the libraries should be cut back if they're actually needed, but someone needs to make their case before they make demands like that.

"Increase in use of University-based talent, such as in-sourcing from the Architecture Department. This increases Student participation in University decision making."

Nice idea, but could be a recipe for disaster if anyone tries to enforce it.

"The University will join students and staff in our fight for a free education. The President / VC will be open in their support for a free education."

Fat chance. Alan Gilbert was brought in to pragmatically work within the system that the government and research councils handed down and he's not about to jeopardise project 2015 by rocking that particular boat. He may pay lip service to it, but I doubt there will be any real pressure.

To sum up, there's a real mixed bag of stuff in there, some nice ideas and some plain daft ones. But still, anything that gets the staff and students more involved in the running of the uni has to be a good thing and I think Alan Gilbert probably intends on meeting them at least partway with this. The big caveat, of course, is whether they can maintain the enthusiasm. It's all very well the university putting things in place so that voices are heard but if no-one actually gives a fig, it won't amount to anything. I guess we'll see on that one.

Harry Potter and the Cash Cow Milking Parlour

Ever since Jaws, the profits of the big studios have been lead by the blockbusters. If a film becomes a runaway success, that can make the fortunes of executives and shareholders alike. As a result, studios put a lot of time and effort into chasing that elusive Next Big Thing. When they get it, they want to exploit it for all it's worth, which means merchandise, computer game tie-ins, special edition DVDs and all sorts. After that comes the sequels.

But what if there is no room for a sequel? What with the current fashion being to keep films as close to the books as possible, you have a pre-set limit on the number of films you can make if the author states they are not making any more or, even worse, if they're dead.

The answer, of course, was provided by Quentin Tarantino with his Kill Bill films. While by no means the first to piggyback production for a series of films, this was the first time it was pitched at the popcorn-munchers without the cushion of having a successful initial instalment (e.g. The Matrix, Back to the Future) or a pre-existing fanbase (Lord of the Rings), yet it still worked. You produce two films instead of one and if anyone goes to see the first, it's a given they'll see the second. If you get a decent audience, that means nearly double the profits. New Line are doing it with The Hobbit (now that they and Peter Jackson are friends again), so it should come as no surprise that Warner Brothers are following suit with the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

The Hobbit I can maybe give them a pass on because done well, there is easily enough material in there to fill out between four and six hours and Peter Jackson has already proven himself more than capable. The Deathly Hallows on the other hand... Daniel Radcliffe said in an interview that chopping the minor subplots out of the books was unpopular with the fans and in the case of the seventh book, they were integral to the story. I don't agree there. Personally I thought that there was a lot of dead weight in that book, which while knitted into the story reasonably well, are not really a vital part of it. Especially seeing as they dropped a lot of the buildup to them in some of the previous films.

Okay, so they will be able to avoid a lot of the horrible pacing problems that the needlessly convoluted plot of the forth book caused and I'm probably going to see them anyway, whatever happens. My big worry is where do you draw the line between the two halves? The best bits of the book are contained within the first and the last quarters, with the bit in the middle having Harry and Hermione wander completely aimlessly around the country, only stopping to reveal a bit of the piecemeal backstory here and there. I remain to be convinced that it wouldn't be better just having it as one big, epic, finale that they charged a little extra for and gave you a toilet break in the middle. But I guess we'll see.

As an aside, they've just greenlit another attempt at resurrecting the Carry On franchise. Even if they managed to pull off something funny (as opposed to Carry on Columbus), I don't see how they can ever capture the spirit of the original, what with Sid James, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey (basically all the classic actors except Barbara Windsor) all being dead. Still, they could conceivably pull of a Russell T. Davies and propel it into an entirely new phase, but what with the way the film industry works nowadays, even if it does prove successful, keeping hold of a core cast for any length of time without people demanding silly wages will be extremely difficult. Again, I guess we'll see.

Is this for real?

Got this in an email from NERC today. Try reading it out loud. Either someone didn't think it through or they're having a laugh.

NERC is currently reviewing its Peer Review College. A key part of this is gathering the views of those with some knowledge about the College and related assessment processes.