I Voted Saxon!

Oh, yes, before you go on. SPOILERS and all. I’m not going for a blow by blow account, but don’t get upset if i reveal anything in the two hour episode.

As we saddle in for the final season of Lost, probably one of the best series to hit TV since Babylon 5 for pure mind-fuck and well planned story, I think I shall try and blog the whole lot of this season this year. You know, I’m going to miss this crazy show once it’s finally off the air. It’s good for them though to say ” hey. we’ve got a plan. we don’t need to go on any further.” for example, look at the x files. that show went on for far too long and it suffered when it came to the overall story. I’ll just have to find another new show to obsess over. Until then, I still have Dr. Who, which comes back in March.. (yay!)

Well, let’s see. The alternate timelines is a clever but brilliant idea. It doesn’t seen to negate the original timeline either, the rest of the group are back in the present time and still being their typical selves. So instead of flashbacks and thinking “okay, enough is enough”, we get what would of happened to the group if they DID land at LAX instead. It’s gotten my attention so far. Kate is still Kate, We get a sweet cameo from some of the smaller characters (Froghurt) and apart from a big absence from Walt/Micheal (understandable, Walt can’t play being a kid again) we get the only difference from the original – Shannon decides to stay in Australia. Suits me fine – Couldn’t stand the character anyways… And, oh yes – we get our first appearance from Claire in a hell of a long time. Good to see she’s in it until the end. I would of hated to see that they couldn’t get her back for the show and they write her off with some back handed comment or something…

As for the current time, my thoughts aren’t as clear for the current moment. I’m glad to see I was correct – Jacob’s nemesis WAS Smokey the cloud monster and he’s been using dead people for quite some time. As for the temple? I don’t know. It’s good to see the kids and the rest of the flight still alive and safe, but it seems like a bit of a cop out. You’re trying to tell me that “The Others” as we have known them for the past 5 years didn’t know about this group living in the temple? Or perhaps this is their safe place?? Why didn’t they all run here when things got bad last year?? We’ll see what they have planned, oh, it’s good to see Kimberley Joseph again as the flight attendant. I thought she’d never come back.

So a delightful return for the last year of one of my favourite shows. Once this is over I’m certainly going back and rewatching them on Bluray to see the subtle clues (if any) they they have been planting since the beginning. Who would of thought this show would of been as sci-fi as it is now all those years ago

• Labor gags internet debate
  (tags: politics, tech)
• Stephen Colbert Pulls Out iPad at the Grammys
  (tags: colbert, ipad, tech)

This is how the wonderful people of Fiji saw us off from Port.

It’s strange. I enjoyed the day, but the dodgy driver before and the massive crowd we had on the day made it really impossible to just go walking in town. Not by yourself anyways. And the rest had retired to the boat – My Uncle on his walk, the other two – probably at the bar (where I should of been). This changed my mood totally. Especially the cute little “Aussie Aussie Aussie” chant at the end. I know they probably do this all of the time, but it was good and they were very very talented. I wish I could of left the boat to get closer and watch them, but we were already preparing for departure at that point…

This was one of the more interesting days. We didn’t have plans and took a little site seeing tour with one of the worse vans I have ever been in. In Australia, this thing wouldn’t pass inspection. The guy kind of ripped us off at the end of the day, but It was our fault not asking before how much it was going to cost. Our trip to Vanuatu we made very sure.

It also happened to be one of the busiest days of the year for them. They had their annual carnival on, and the streets were packed. We also discovered later the Rugby finals were also on. Teams from all of the Fiji islands came over to play, where the winning team would get over 2 grand in prize money – quite a lot for some of these people…

It was a very rainy, yucky day but at least cleared up a little by the time we got to the falls. That was gorgeous. We didn’t stay for long, but they had this nice little cafe up the top that would of been great just to sit and relax for an afternoon or something…

The funniest thing I noticed on the drive (which you can kind of hear on the video) was the music. Many different cultures co-exist on these islands, so the music ranged from top 40 pop, your typical reggae music you heard everywhere on the trip and Indian Bollywood music from the latest hit film that hit their shores. At one point the DJ was complaining about how she couldn’t get twitter on her mobile phone as she didn’t have an iphone and her current phone didn’t have a data plan. Somethings are the same the world over….

• This Is What South Australia’s New Adult Video Regulations Look Like
  needs no explanation. really.
  (tags: tech, bullshit)
• iPhone SDK updated: VoIP over 3G now permitted
  It's been a long time coming, but the last hurdle is gone — Apple has lifted the restrictions against 3G VoiP calls from the iPhone Software Development Kit.
  (tags: tech, apple, 3G, VOIP)

Dear Steve

You’re kidding, right? You know the jokes we can make here, right?? Ehh, maybe cause it’s too easy. I’m not too sure.

Looking at it now, it basically looks like a glorified ebook replacement. A large version of the Ipod Touch. No Flash (despite its hate its still sadly used), no USB ports, Iphone OS so really only one app open at the same time. I honestly thought maybe the software would be a hybrid between the normal OS and the Iphone one. Kind of a shame. I know you say netbooks are cheap and gimmicky, but the fact is the average netbook IS, and yet can do a lot more than this Ipad.

My biggest gripe is there’s no tethering, as far as I can tell. So here’s another dataplan you have to add on top of your net at home, and your mobile plan. I never go over my 1GB limit on my telephone plan. I’d like the option to bluetooth to my iphone and use that.

Still, looks pretty. The ibook will be interesting overseas. No surprises it’s not getting a release here. And an app version of Iwork – smart move. I’ve never been too sold on the gaming aspect of Apple – For me portable gaming still needs buttons of some kind, like a PSP or a Nintendo machine. That’s the old school gamer in me.

By the time I get around to purchasing a machine, I still think it’s going to be a macbook of some sort. Just have to be a 13″ version, the smallest one they have. They’re not TOO heavy to lug around, are they???

Oh, Tablet Tablet Tablet. If you’ve spent more than five minutes on the net this week you would of heard the rumours and gossip over the “Apple Tablet” that’s being announced tomorrow. Typical Apple, there’s been no official announcement as yet, but there’s book publishers talking about it on TV (and really, that guy doesn’t deserve the backlash he’s getting. it’s not like he hasn’t said something the rest of the world already knows anyways..) so it’s pretty much a given at this point. Apple fanbois are all excited – these official announcements are like Christmas to them. I shall be wary at this point. Will it “change the history of tech forever like the iphone” like some are hyping?? I’m not too sure. Here’s my two cents anyways..

The Apple ebook reader.

Withe the early slip by the McGraw Hill guy yesterday, this much is certain. Should the Amazon people be worried? I say yes. Although it may not have the battery power and life of the kindle, this thing will be in colour, have more options than the kindle software and be able to display graphics with ease. Amazon have pretty much failed when it comes to international support of the Kindle. Only recently have they finally made an international version, and the content available outside of the US is pitiful. Apple will surely want to give this to everywhere there is an imac or iphone available. This means the “ebook store” will most definitely stock way more overseas and get way more sales. I know it’s a tricky legal battle uphill to please all publishers across the globe, but they did it with the music industry AND the TV networks, this will be a piece of cake for them at this point.

Also, with the better colour options and graphics, this could very well work for not only newspapers, but for magazines as well. Imagine that – having a decent price to pay for your magazines instead of the 20 plus dollars so you can get the NME imported from the UK… Also with comics – the big two have been experimenting with online comics for a little while – not everyone has access to a decent comic book store (when I was into it, i used to order online from a store in Sydney, 1000ks away…) comic scenes on bittorrent are getting away with murder, it would be good to get access to some of the archives, that some may want to read but not fork over the big bucks on ebay just so they can read the origins of their favourite superhero…

A Macbook Replacement ??

I’m going to go a little off centre here – what about the portable computer market? Apple have always said they weren’t into that whole thing. Still, I would love a smaller Macbook so I can take it away with me. Sure, 13 inch laptop isn’t exactly HUGE, but when you’re going away the smaller the better. If they offer options to say, plug in USB hard discs, or DVD drives, could it be a basic simple to use computer when going away on holidays?? I eventually need a smaller machine for my next holiday, and the ol’ eeepc just doesn’t cut it in the long run. It’s the perfect size but the processor power struggles with Win XP, and ubuntu is still sadly a joke in many ways. Sure, it won’t be able to run imovie or make a DVD, but that’s not what I want it for. I’d like it to have wifi (and the option to tether with my iphone), an option for external HDDs (mainly so I can drag my videos off of my handycam when it gets full, and for the odd film I can’t fit on it ) and some simple, straight forward web browsing, email, itunes access etc. Iphone OS of some sort is going to run on this, so the apps can probably be made for stuff like this, and it would be very handy to pull out the slim tablet and start to type something out in a word file using the on screen keyboard… I don’t need all the power of a macbook to do these things. That’s why I have an imac for.

I suppose we shall see tomorrow. I like a good tech announcement, but please forgive me if I don’t wet myself and giggle at some of the “over-enthusiastic” people around the internets at the moment. I do like my tech toys, but still own PCs, Xbox 360 and whatnot. I love all tech.

• YouTube – LOST: Flight 815 Crash in Real Time
  (tags: tv, lost, 24)

• Airdate: Hope for Haiti Now :TV Tonight
  Airdate: Hope for Haiti Now – Huge multi-network telethon for Saturday night.
  (tags: news)

• ABC News to go 24/7 in 2010
  24 hours ABC news? Australia's first free to air 24 hour news channel.
  (tags: tv, news)
• Creators.RockBand.com
  this is brilliant – indie bands can get their songs on rock band downloadable content
• Giz Guest Post: The Question Of Piracy | Gizmodo Australia
  totally agree. the people who are making cash out of piracy are the real criminals here.
  (tags: tech)