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Archive for February, 2006
Casino Royale cast complete
After some lengthy casting and selection, the role of Vesper Lynd for the upcoming James Bond movie has been filled. Eva Green is the actress that has been awarded the coveted role.
Gautrain
6 years ago
by manfred
in Life in South Africa
After a lot of deliberation and to-ing and fro-ing, South Africa’s first Rapid Rail Link, the Gautrain, is out of the starting blocks. Final approval may still take some weeks, but indications are that the first earthworks will begin in March.
Approximately 80km of rail connects the greater PretoriaTshwane area with Sandton/Rosebank/Hillbrow and the JohannesburgOliver Thambo International Airport. Plans are for 20 trains to provide daily 18 hour operation. Thankfully the trains are rail-bound, so no taxi gymnastics as we’re currently used to on our roads.
Check out the Gautrain site to make sure you’re property isn’t in the way of the proposed route – could lead to a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy situation 
Email speaker notification
Initial tests indicate that the speaker notification I received whenever Outlook received an Email marked as Important is no longer happening!
If it’s true, I should have crashed my drive a while back! Bit of a drastic solution, but what the hey…
The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller
Frank Miller has achieved cult status for his work on a number of graphic novels and comic book titles. Foremost amongst these is his excellent Sin City series, Ronin and, of course, The Dark Knight Returns. The Dark Knight Strikes Again was eagerly awaited by many as a follow-up to the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. This work redefined Batman and breathed new life into the franchise. So how does the new volume measure up?
I haven’t had the time to indulge in comic book reading. Poor quality of many titles is another reason that this hobby has fallen by the wayside. However, a Frank Miller graphic novel cannot be left alone! I dove in with high hopes…
As in The Dark Knight Returns, the story kicks off with Bruce Wayne donning cape and cowl after having been in retirement for about three years. Lex Luthor is terrorizing the world, ultimately leading to the total destruction of Metropolis and parts of Gotham. This part of the story inspired by the events of September 11. Luthor is in cahoots with Brainiac. Together, they have total control over all, including the superhero community. Batman is the good guy, trying to make everyone else see the state of the world as it really is: lack of proper governance, corrupt politicians and heroes more interested in marketing themselves than saving the day.
Miller makes liberal use of the DC universe of superheroes to fill the pages of his novel: The Atom, Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, The Green Arrow, and others all make an appearance. Many I’ve never encountered in any of the titles I used to read. And, although the title of the book makes no mention of Superman’s involvement, the guy with the red cape takes centre stage. That’s annoying! Batman’s hand in saving the day is diminished by the super-ness of the solution: how else can Brainiac be defeated but by the super powers of Superman and The Green Lantern. Less of a detective novel than a slugfest. The complexity of panels and scenes often makes for a confusing array of pictures and layout. Lynn Varley’s artwork is good, but often garish.
Anyone new to the genre would be well advised to read The Dark Knight Returns. I would consider The Dark Knight Strikes Again an entertaining read, but not a definitive work.
Get yourself some vintage Miller: Sin City, Batman: Year One and of course The Dark Knight Returns. This one is recommended, but with some caution. 
System operational
HP was true to its word with its Care Pack’s next business day onsite promise. It took the technician exactly 3 minutes to extricate the crashed Seagate 80GB drive and replace it with a Hitachi. A brief drive test, then…
…two hours formatting, installing the operating system and getting domain access sorted out. Another few hours to re-install all the applications I remember using. No doubt there’ll be one critical application I’ve forgotten to install – it’s importance will be evident when a deadline looms!
Disk crash
After less than a month and a half of use, the 80GB disk on my nx8220 has crashed.
Without warning, XP blue-screened this morning and that was that. Thankfully I’m paranoid about backing everything up, but the pain of having to reinstall all the applications is too horrible to contemplate! 25 minutes on the phone to HP to log a call. Next business day means next business day: no hope of getting the new drive today. A techie should be onsite tomorrow. I’ll be spending the next few days installing and reconfiguring all my applications. 
Angelus duel
After an exhausting EX Tour, the Angelus is mine! If you think the sensation of speed with the Class 6 cars is amazing, the special class cars are something else! This is what the PSP was made for. There’s no chance of beating the Angelus if upgrades to Type Z cars haven’t been unlocked in the EX Tour. So, complete the EX Tour first, then finish the duel with the fastest car available. Three more races left to complete in the Pro Tour, then on to the apparently impossible Max Tours.
Lost?
6 years ago
by manfred
in Life in South Africa
Not even the latest GPS will help you out if you’re trying to find an address on Harrow Road, Johannesburg. Today, it’s been officially renamed to Joe Slovo Drive. A move, apparently, to have the names of streets, townships and public places changed to reflect the democratic changes the country has undergone since 1994. My opinion: a waste of money. More on the renaming here.
More Opera
I’m not a big fan of the Opera desktop browser. Even though it’s free of charge now, there’s little incentive to leave Firefox behind. For mobile devices, however, Opera is really impressive. They seem to have the ability to cram everything one needs into the smallest amount of screen space and still make it look good. If you need a browser on your mobile phone, give Opera Mini a whirl. It’s free and works really well.
I downloaded the 100kb file yesterday to my Z800 and am quite happy with it.
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