Podcasts
I’m bloody addicted to them! They’ve been available for a number of years now, and I’ve listened to literally months of podcasted content. So what I thought I’d do here is to name some of my favourites, my top tier of podcast that I never miss. (Too subscribe to a podcast, just search for it in the iTunes store) Here goes, hope you enjoy them!!
MacBreak Weekly
A weekly show featuring Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko and guests which discusses the latest news affecting Apple and the Mac. It contains thorough discussions of key topics, contrasting views about Apple as well as a selection of the best software/hardware for Apple’s products each week. It’s such a funny show as well, and one of my absolute favourite podcasts.
The Instance
A World of Warcraft podcast which is delivered with such humour and wit that non-WoW player can also enjoy it. Scott Johnson and Randy DeLuxe ( hehe ) discuss the weeks news in regards to WoW as well as other Blizzard franchises. It’s the best WoW podcast by far, and one which taps into MMO/gaming culture and delivers the goods.
CO-OP
A video podcast from Revision 3 and the fellas who used to work for 1UP.com before ZiffDavis died. It’s the 1UP show reborn and made even more fun! Containing reviews and previews of the biggest games releases for all platforms ranging from iPhone to PS3, Co-op manages to fit reviews within some pretty funny narratives that keep you watching through reviews about games you don’t necessarily care about. Why is this awesome? Because it can introduce to games you wouldn’t normally play. In one case, the above video review of Spider for the iPhone made me go and buy the game, which I am now in love with 
Give it a watch ^_^
Robert Llewellyn’s CarPool
Robert Llewellyn, semi-famous for acting in Red Dwarf, as well as being a TV presenter on shows like Scrapheap Challenge, started his own video podcast where the whole concept was to give an informal interview, while ferrying people from A to B, such that they would drop their guard a little more and just waffle. This show is a treat and features the likes of Stephen Fry, Leo Laporte, Jason Calacanis, Dr Brian Cox (Watch that one for sure) and Wil Harris among many other famous names. What is even more different is that Robert only ever uses hybrid or electric cars, and such many conversations deal with the energy crisis we are facing. This is best shown in episodes featuring people from companies like Tesle and Honda which make electric cars for the consumer. A very interesting little video podcast for your iPhone or iPod.
Nature Podcast
Finally, a 30 minute weekly science podcast from one of the most respected journals in the world, Nature magazine! The podcast talks you through the biggest stories from Nature each week in an approachable way, that while accessible, isn’t dumbed down in anyway. A really great listen for people who have any interest in the world around us.
If you have any other recommendations, leave a comment, or let me know what you think of my recommendations below.
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Tags: apple, carpool, co-op, gaming, leo laporte, Mac, nature, podcast, Review, revision3, science, warcraft, wow
The Hobbit
When I was about 13 I vistied my cousin (then aged 8 ) and saw that she was reading The Hobbit as part of her school reading homework. I had the year before attempted to read The Lord of the Rings during my first year at secondary school but didn’t get much beyond the first chapter, so was intrigued that a 8 year old was told to read the prequel to Tolkeins masterwork. Some years later I bought LOTR and forced myself through The Fellowship of the Ring and began The Two Towers when the book actually started getting good, and Tolkein started spending less time describing every leaf of a bush the characters brush past. I ended up loving LOTR and the movies based on the book as well, so it was when I came across an illustrated edition of The Hobbit I immediately snapped it up to see if I merely entered the series at the wrong point, and how great one of the worlds most loved childrens book is.
Now that I’ve finished it, I have to say I am impressed. Tolkein manages to keep the humour, detail and sense of place he goes overboard on in LOTR, while leaving out the boring parts. The story still has many embelishments such as the songs which Tolkein is very fond of which rarely serve the plot of the story he’s trying to tell. But they do add to the sense of place, and don’t go on nearly as long as they do in LOTR. The plot itself is simple, Bilbo gets forced by Gandalf to join a troupe of Dwarves who are looking to reclaim their treasure long since stolen from their fathers by an old, cruel and wicked dragoon called Smaug who now resides at their fathers former home, the Lovely Mountain. What ensues is a journey from the west, where Hobbiton is, to the east beyond Mirkwood and back again. And along the way Bilbo’s true nature is revealed.
This book is nothing short of a masterpiece. It’s pacing is wonderful, and perfect for a childrens book, the characters are perfectly formed in every way possible, there are scary moments, and dark kind of depressing moments too, which Tolkein manages to keep brief before lightening the mood with some well placed humour. And the humour is at time laugh out loud funny! And this is a book which is how old?!?!
The illustrations by Alan Lee really help the story telling and are beautiful to look at by themselves. I love the surprise when you read a chapter and get to an illustration, and the scene appears EXACTLY as you imagined it. It really is remarkable how Tolkein was able to create a world so whole, and write a novel with such skill that each person who reads it sees the same images in their head and each have such a good grasp of the characters in the story. This will for sure make it a difficult task for any film maker, but Guillermo del Toro has taking up the challange and, under the guidance of Peter Jackson (script writer and producer) hopes to release the film in the 2011.
Overall, The Hobbit should be compulsory reading for everyone, regardless of age or genre preference. It really is a journey worth taking.
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Tags: Alan Lee, Bilbo Baggins, English, Gandalf, JRR Tolkein, key stage 2, lord of the rings, peter jackson, Review, secondary education, The hobbit, tolkein
In this, Bill Maher really lays into the blindingly obvious failing of the American Christian church. Such a funny stand up show though, kept me laughing when i shoul’ve been trying to get asleep last night ^_^ Let me know what you think 
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Tags: american, Atheist, bill maher, christian, george w bush, right-wing
A Nano Future
Apple today revealed their new iPod line-up in addition to iTunes 9, iPhone OS 3.1 and a iTunes store redesign. The biggest update today was recieved by the iPod nano, which now has a Video Camer in the rear.
This is a major change. Apple have through this addition positioned the iPod nano as a distinct offering compared to their other iPods and iPhones. The new nano now competes directly with the Flip Mino video camera, for all the youtubers out there. Also in the new model is a large 2.2 inch display, Built in microphone to go with the camera, VoiceOver pinched from the Shuffle, an FM radio (allowing it to compete directly with the Zune) and a built-in pedometer.
Now, why do I think this marks a big change and refinement of Apples iPod strategy? Because the changes cater to two distinct markets. First, the video camera, microphone and speaker appeal directly to the under 25s, specifically teenagers who can’t afford an iPhone 3GS and want to make some annoying videos for their friends to share via youtube. In the past, kids have used their phone to take low res photos and force them on the world at large, now video is going to be next big thing sweeping bus stops and schools the country over. I expect soon that a great deal of the content going on youtube on any given day will be from these new nanos.
The other market I mentioned is the active grown-ups. People who go to gyms and go running. The iPod nano already had nike+iPod support to track runs and distance ran, now the nano features a pedometer. The pedometer has been in vogue recently with games from Nintendo such as “Walk With Me”, which simply track and tabulate the amount you walk a day. This little extra now allows the nano to become even more so the gym bunnies best friend. The new FM radio would also help the runners among us to get motivated to keep running just to the end of the latest episode of “Just a Minute”.
We’ll see in the comming moonths how true my predictions become, but for now I think the nano is a very very smart update, and one whose effects we’ll be feeling for a long time to come.
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Tags: 9/9/09, apple, apple event, fitness, ipod, it's only rock and roll, iTunes, let's rock, nano, youtube
Acceptance of Evolution
Around 20% of people in this country don’t accept evolution as being true. Not that bad comparatively, but scary when you think that that equates to about 12.2 million people who refuse to accept scientific fact. Surely this shows the failing of… science education in schools. Hopefully this number will get smaller as younger people grow up, recieveing better education and the aging population dies off. But who knows with the invasion of Christian evangalism and Muslim fanatacism which threatens our secular society. (yes i know we’re a christian country but you can’t hide from the fact that religion plays a small role in policy making etc.)
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Tags: britain, Creationism, Evolution, figures, UK
BlizzCon Opinions
Last weekend I purchased and watched the BlizzCon live interest stream. For those who don’t know Blizzard are a MASSIVE company which makes games for PC and Mac. They have three main series of games, Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo, and every year Blizzard decide to put on a massive convention for fans of their games. It’s friggin insane to think that 26,000 people would pay to go to a convention for just three games!!
Anywho, Blizzard announced their plans for Battle.net (their free online service), a fourth playable class for Diablo 3 (due out 2010/2011 ish) and the third expansion for the incredibly popular World of Warcraft MMORPG.
First off, the Diablo 3 Monk class didn’t seem that great to me. He’s a melee fighter with stupid fast combo attacks. Seems a little dull compared to the Witch Doctor class announced last time. The Witch Doctor looks immense, he can summon plagues and do some crazy shizz to the hundreds and thousands of enemies you’ll be going up agains in this three-quel.
Next, the StarCraft 2 stuff. Blizzard gave people at the convention their first taste of the single player campaign, which is pretty cool, they also announced the full voice cast for the game series. I say series as StarCraft 2 will not be just one game, but 3, with the single player campaign split across the three playable factions, human Taren, cool-blue aliens the Protoss, and the swarming insectoid Zerg. Included in the cast for the three games is Tricia Helfer, better know as the blonde Six from BattleStar Gallactica who will be voicing Queen of Blades Sarah Kerrigan. I cannot wait to experience the story before trying my hand at the new multiplayer options.
Coming out early next year with the launch of StarCraft 2 is Blizzard’s new Battle.net 2.0 service. This allows players of new Blizzard games to talk accross the games to make it easier to drag your friend out of the StarCraft 2 campaign and pull them into a 10-man raid in World of Warcraft. The service also include a ranking system designed to let like-skilled players battle each other in multiplayer in discrete leader boards. Also available via this service is the ability to download additional maps and content for free or a fee, much akin to Apple’s iPhone app store. This will prove to be a game with a very very very lengthy lifespan.
Finally, Blizzard announced Cataclysm, the third WoW expansion pack due out next year. The world of Azeroth has been changed forever due to the Dragon Deathwing breaking through into the world. The result is all of Azeroth you have experience thus far will be a memory. The new Azeroth will have redesign zones, places which were once barrens are now lush, and those which were once controlled by the Alliance have been taken over by the Horde etc. This results in a new levelling flow for characters playing through 1-60. New quests as well will further freshen the game up for experience players. Two new races have been announced, the shape shifting Worgen for the Alliance, and the diminutive Goblins for the Horde. Both look like amazing additions to their factions and will be sure to see a lot of play come launch.
For existing high level characters, we will soon be getting flying in Azeroth, a new secondary profession which will allow for further lore telling, and character customisation once toons reach the new level 85 level cap. There will be some new zones for players to level from 78-85 and a mountain of new instances to experience.
Often glossed over is the addition of underwater mounts, as the game recieves it’s first underwater zone near the Maelstrom. There will also be a MOUNTAIN of changes and simplifications made to the game as we know it, ranging from a redesigned talent tree to a lot of gear attributes like spellpower and block being removed.
This is a total reset of the whole of World of Warcraft and will ensure the game will be played for another 3-4 years while Blizzard work on their next-gen MMO which is confirmed as to be a totally new universe from any Blizzard have previously visited.
I’m very excited about all of this news and cannot wait to get my RTS-on when StarCraft 2 comes out early next year, giving me a few months to play it before Blizzard gets me hooked again on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Wooo!!! ^_^
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Tags: Battle.net, blizzard, blizzcon, Cataclysm, convention, diablo 3, diabloe, Games, starcraft, Starcraft 2, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow, WoW Cataclysm
Candy Mountain!
CANDY MOUNTAIN CHARLIIEEEEEE
CANDY MOUNTAIN!!!
A lesson for us all *looks at you sternly*
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Tags: candy mountain, Chaaarrrllliiieeee, Charlie, charlie candy mountain, shun the non believer, shuuuuuuun
Wicked
I managed to see Wicked again last weekend thanks to the grace of a friend. For those who don’t know what this musical is about, it’s basically ‘the untold story of the witches of Oz’. So it has Glinda, the bubble riding puritan, and the green skinned Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, as the leads in this Broadway production ported to the West End.
It’s been here for a good few years now, which is why I’m shocked that so few of my friends have heard, let alone see this show! I won’t run through a synopsis here but I will say it’s about maturing and being who you are, while other people claw at you. So needless to say it has a strong gay tone to it, which is why I say it’s compulsory viewing for ALL gay people. Having seen two performances I can say that whenever you go, you will not be disappointed. The understudies are excellent! So should you visit the Victoria Apollo you need not get that churning in your stomach that you’ve wasted money on a second string cast. They’re all really superb!
The musical score is one of the best to come from Broadway in the past 6 or so years. The songs are rousing, memorable, informative in regards to the story and characters, and just damn awesome!! The stand out songs are of course ‘Defying Gravity’ and ‘Popular’ but every song is incredibly well done!
Just go see this musical while it’s London, before it gets gimped on a national tour which I’ve been hearing rumblings about!
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Tags: britain, broadway, england, London, tony awards, tour, UK, west end, wicked
And the beat goes on
Not only did I survive the exam onslaught the University of Manchester decided to require us poor Biology undergraduates to revel in (read: freak out about and faint under a pile of textbooks and research articles), but I somehow managed to average at least 60% and get a 2.1 (that’s an upper second class honors degree to the oldies). Happy times ^_^
I figure it must have been my research project which raised my average overall to the respectable level it’s at today since I have yet to be shown to perform well in University level exams. The only exam paper I’m expecting an above 60% mark in is the essay paper (also called the honours, or synoptic paper) and that’s only because my old friend Charles Darwin came up. The point of these past few sentences is to give some context to the rest of the blog post.
The question is now, what next?! I’ve always LOVED biology and science in general, and even being bludgeoned with several cell biology and molecular biology of cancer textbooks over the past three years hasn’t shaken my infatuation; I STILL love biology. The next logical step I suppose would be to do a post-grad in one of my favourite fields, such as molecular and cell biology. But I feel I need to now step back and look at the bigger picture.
Doing a MSc or MRes in a relevant field will make it less difficult to secure funding for a PhD. The PhD I eventually go for will mark my field of expertise for the rest of my life, and since I’ll need to write about 20,000 words on it, it has to be something I really enjoy. So that’s the first challenge to the academic career, finding a PhD in a subject you love which is also going to be a hot bed for research in the next 20 years. Then comes the small challenge of finding a supervisor who you get on with enough, and is not a total C-U-Next-Tuesday who will steal your ideas for his own published work. Oh and the PhD needs to allow you to become well versed in as many modern techniques as possible, as these will be crucial for any post-doc work.
Once all that has been sorted, the next challenge is to secure funding from a charity such as the BBSRC. These are typically for 3 years, and with a stipend varying from £12k all the way up to about £20k. Once the funding has been secured, and years later the PhD completed, next comes the fun (read: not fun) prospect of finding a post-doctoral fellowship or something similar. These are typically 2-3 years long and require specific techniques. Typical salary is about £22k-£26k. Post-doc positions may require relocation to different cities or countries in the bid to continue to hone your techniques, build experience, and find somewhere you love to work. All while trying to publish as many high profile papers as possible in your tenure. As far as I know, eventually, if your work is important, you’ll apply for/be offered a lectureship or similar fellowship for a longer period of time within a University allowing you to both teach and carry on with your research with a greater degree of control. Also, you’ll be able to start acting as a supervisor for your own PhD and undergraduate students which can contribute to your own reputation. Eventually a senior lecturer position may be offered which will have a salary of about £50k, but to get to that point you’ll need to have about 15 years of work behind you.
So this is my dilemma. Do I thrust myself back into the crazy world of academia, or look for another career path, perhaps in the private sector, or doing something totally different. Either way, teaching will always be a back-up option as the need for good science teachers has never been more apparent. And I happen to believe I’d make an excellent teacher.
So that’s what’s going on in my mind at the moment. Any advice, questions etc feel free to leave them below or catch me on MSN/iChat
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Tags: Academia, Biology, Cell Biology, Charles Darwin, doctorate, Exams, fellowships, Funding, graduate, Manchester, PhD, post-doc, post-doctorate, post-grad, University
Scary Times
Five exams finished, three left, and then my BSc Biology degree at the University of Manchester is over. Really scary realisation that I have just spent 3 years all for the sake of two numbers (2.1 or 2.2) and a BSc after my name (in theory). I wonder if in a years time i’ll say it was all worth it. Until then i have plenty of debt to preoccupy my mind.
Today was the first day of E3 and Microsoft’s MASSIVE press conference in which they announced Project Natal. Looks cool, but I don’t think i’m going to get excited until we start seeing some ‘full’ games which use the camera and motion sensing.
Project Natal, as a whole, is likely to do worse than it really should do simply because Microsoft appear to misunderstand the key idea behind the Wii. Afterall, the Wii was not the first type of interaction via spacial awareness in computer games. The PlayStation 2 EyeToy had this functionality down, but didn’t do as well as Sony wanted. The reason the Wii and not the EyeToy resulted in a paradigm shift and general evolution in the games industry is because the Wii packed in with the console the ‘peripheral’, where as the EyeToy was ‘just’ a peripheral. Microsoft not holding this feature back for it’s next console will result in it being just a peripheral. Uptake will be slow and will not gain the penetrance needed to allow game developers to make games for the ‘Natal’ which make financial sense. 10 million ‘Natal’ unit will not be sold in the year or two after it launches, unlike the initial uptake of the 360 or Wii. This means that developers will have a niche market which will be equipped for Natal interaction or control instead of all the people who own a given console.
While the technology is extremely cool and kinda scary (with added voice and facial recognition) Microsoft will not be able to ‘Do a Nintendo’ this generation as a result of an ill thought-out life cycle and too much enthusiasm for their products.
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Tags: 2009, E3, EyeToy, Microsoft, Nintendo, Paradigm shift, Press conference, Project Natal, sony, Wii
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