Year: 2011

Spotted a story on the Register today – they’d (foolishly?) asked for suggestions on what was the best film never made.

And then they got an Inbox Explosion 🙂 Here’s a link to the story with the full list.


Here’s the list – the ones in italic with ****’s are the ones I’ve read. Need to get reading more !

• Ace Trucking Co – John Wagner and Alan Grant
• Against a Dark Background – Iain M Banks (it’s waiting in the Pile)
• Agent To The Stars – John Scalzi
• The Amtrak Wars – Patrick Tilley
• Anvil of Stars – Greg Bear
• The Ballad of Halo Jones – Alan Moore
• The Black Cloud – Sir Fred Hoyle
• The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov
• The Chanur Saga – CJ Cherryh
• Chasm City – Alastair Reynolds ****
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant – Stephen R Donaldson
• The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
• Citizen of the Galaxy – Robert A Heinlein
• Creatures of Light and Darkness – Roger Zelazny
• Daemon – Daniel Suarez
• The Dark Wheel – Robert Holdstock
• Desolation Road – Ian McDonald
• The Difference Engine – William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
• The Dispossessed – Ursula K Le Guin
• The Dosadi Experiment – Frank Herbert
• Earth – David Brin
• The Expendables – Edmund Cooper
• A Fall Of Moondust – Arthur C Clarke
• Feersum Endjinn – Iain M Banks ****
• The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C Clarke
• Glory Road – Robert A Heinlein ****
• Hammer’s Slammers – David Drake
• Have Spacesuit – Will travel – Robert A Heinlein ****
• Hinterlands – William Gibson
• Icerigger – Alan Dean Foster
• Inferno – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• The Integral Trees – Larry Niven
• The Invincible – Stanislaw Lem
• Kiln People – David Brin
• The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham
• The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
• Liege Killer – Christopher Heinz
• Macroscope – Piers Anthony
• Mars – Ben Bova ****
• The Mars Trilogy – Kim Stanley Robinson ****
• Mindstar Rising – Peter F Hamilton
• Mockingbird – Walter Tevis
• Moving Mars – Greg Bear
• Mutineers’ Moon – David Weber ****
• Nimbus – Alexander Jablokov
• The Number of the Beast – Robert A Heinlein ****
• Orbitsville – Bob Shaw
• Only Forward – Michael Marshall Smith
• Otherland – Tad Williams
• Out of the Silent Planet – CS Lewis
• Pandora’s Star – Peter F Hamilton
• Planet of Adventure – Jack Vance
• Pushing Ice – Alastair Reynolds
• Revelation Space Saga – Alastair Reynolds
• Rocheworld – Robert L Forward
• Rogue Trooper – Gerry Finley-Day
• The Saga of the Well World – Jack L Chalker
• Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future – Mike Resnick
• The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
• The Skinner – Neal Asher
• Spinneret – Timothy Zahn ****
• Startide Rising – David Brin
• The Survivors – Tom Godwin
• Tales of Pirx the Pilot – Stanislaw Lem
• Time Enough for Love – Robert A Heinlein ****
• Timescape – Gregory Benford
• Transition – Iain M Banks
• A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! – Harry Harrison
• Ubik – Philip K Dick
• The Uplift War – David Brin
• The Void Trilogy – Peter F Hamilton
• The Voyage of the Space Beagle – AE van Vogt
• Vurt – Jeff Noon
• Who Goes There? – Bob Shaw
• The Wreck of The River of Stars – Michael Flynn

How many have you read ?

Still weighing up my options on the next car.

What isn’t helping at the moment is conflicting reviews. Some people hate the new Lexus, others think it’s ok. I suspect it’s a bit of a marmite car. Either that, or the quality coming out of the factory is not consistent. This is what scares me at the moment – I’ve previously bought used cars, which has good and bad side :

Good side to buying used :
You can thoroughly check out the car. Most Gremlins get bored quickly and surface early. If a car has Gremlins, they will usually start messin’ with your mind quite quick. Buying used means you are test driving the car you would eventually buy. If it has specific quirks, you can walk away. If it’s rough or otherwise coming apart at the seams, walk away.

Bad side to used :
Mechanical stuff wears out. Get a used turbo car and you should expect major bills to come on that turbo at some point. Same for the rest of the car. The best time to own anything is when it’s shiny & new.
With a new car, the car you get is not the demonstrator, it has come over from the factory. You get the best years out of the car but you’re also at risk if the factory puts in the Gremlins.

Lexus have a stormin’ reputation but that inconsistency of reviews is a bit of a concern. There’s also inconsistency in the performance shown in tests, with figures going from below 10 secs to 60 to 12 seconds. That’s a fairly sizable margin that makes you wonder what the testers were getting up to. A hybrid car will only give maximum performance when there’s juice in the battery, so if they’ve drained the battery before doing their 0 to 60, of course it won’t be particularly brilliant. Similarly, if the battery pack is on a par with a Red Bull F1* car (their KERS hasn’t lasted a race yet), that’s seriously bad news for a hybrid.

*Let’s just say the Infiniti hybrid (Red Bull’s partner) is off the menu. Ok, it never got on the menu cos it’s out of my price league but there you go.

I’m thinking again about the cheaper options – Honda’s CR-Z and the Toyota Prius. Gotta be honest, I’ve not actually sat in a Prius to check it out properly. Maybe the Lexus has been rushed to market a little too quickly.

Another car thing that’s melting my brain at the moment is finance.

There’s a scheme called Personal Contract Purchase, which is something I’ll likely go for. It works by deferring some of the payment to the end, as a Guaranteed Future Value (GFV). The GFV is what the car is expected to be worth after the period of the contract.
Start – car cost £25k.
Take a deposit off that – £5k – leaves £20k remainder
Set a Guaranteed Future Value – £10k
£20k – £10k leaves £10k to come from a loan.
The usual APR is 9.9%, making that £10k over 3 years cost £330 per month (35 payments) for a total of £11,554.

After the 3 years, you have the option to pay the GFV to buy your car, or you can hand it back, or you can say “ta muchly, same again please”. Where my brain is melting is the difference between calculated loan and what they quote – for the Lexus, there’s almost £3000 getting added in somewhere. With the Prius10, the offer quotes £429 per month with £15k of the £26k purchase price being outside the loan. If I work it out, that £429 should be £351.

I must be missing something … Need those finance details spelled out in small words.

Simple rule – if you don’t understand completely what you’re being offered with finance, walk away. That goes for all those things where someone is trying to sell you something you either don’t need (payment protection insurance) or have no real world purpose (warranties).

Depending on what happens on Saturday with the car service, I should have time to make up my mind 🙂 Maybe something better is just around the corner …

Oh – only 2 (maybe 2.5) working days left until an extended break. Definitely feeling the need for it, especially judging by me having trouble getting my MathBoy Brain around that finance stuff …

One for the car people around Bristol …

ATS Horfield

Happily recommending these people based on what I saw today … After the KwikFit experience (they are so fired), this was a very happy contrast.

Kwikfit – order tyres in advance on the website, turn up at the arranged time a couple of days later to get them fitted. Fitting time for Kwikfit was average, what I didn’t expect was them to say they hadn’t got the tyres I’d ordered and I could have the more expensive Continental instead.

They’re a nationwide organisation ! Not having what was ordered days before is total INCOMPETENCE. No excuse. And the customer doesn’t go back.

ATS Horfield were a happy contrast 🙂 Customer (me) happily treated with respect by the guys inside. After the Kwikfit experience, I was unwilling to commit cash/credit card before appearing. With just turning up, you can’t expect them to have just the right stuff there (huge variation in sizes, not much space available). I took what was offered. Alternative was Monday, which doesn’t really fit in with my working pattern and their going home time.

Made me grin what their opinion of Continental was too “about the worst tyre you can buy”. Refreshingly honest seeing as it’s the most expensive in the catalogue. I agree. After Kwikfit shafted me with a pair of Conti’s on the back, the car wasn’t as confident through the corners.

Anyway – tyres done quick, even without making an appointment. Cheaper than expected, although that’s mainly cos I went budget. Bit sad doing that to a performance (ish) car but it means not sinking much money into a car I’m not expecting to have next year.

Oh – they’re accessible too. Bristol is an ok place to live but I try and avoid going into the city centre. The alternative tyre/garage places tend to concentrate in the centre.

PS I suspect I may be in Happy Mode. I’m recommending stuff to people … Must be the Mini Eggs.

Wasn't that impressed with Ironclad. Thought it was very slow.

Liked Limitless but thought it was basically fluff.

Suck punch was very very good – in parts.

I enjoyed Source Code a lot but don't plan on seeing it again – probably.

Kick-ass…? Basically kicks ass!

The Crazies have been seeing lots of movies lately 🙂

First up – Ironclad.

Here we have a retelling of what happened after the Magna Carta. This is Men Behaving Badly in medieval times … Lots of blood, gore, things getting chopped off and stones being thrown at castles. It really doesn’t hold back. Well worth seeing if you’re not put off by Lady Of Manor throwing herself at the helpless Templar knight. This is no Hollywood Robin Hood let’s get the people in the castle siege, it’s properly done with :

Trebuchet’s – yey !
Undermining of the keep
Thieving of the King’s munchies
More big knifeplay than on Masterchef

Will be picking up that one when it comes to dvd/bluray.

Limitless wasn’t as good. It’s about a writer who needs to pop the pills in order to get anything done. One day he’s a wreck, unable to get any words on the page and about to lose the girl. One pill later and he’s in bed with the landlord’s missus, finishes the book in 4 days and is about to launch on to a roller coaster ride.

Not a terrible film, it’s actually quite well made. You’re left feeling very uncomfortable about the message though. Do drugs & succeed. Not sure what I think of that, I see drugs as somewhat of a crutch and avoid using them wherever possible. (Except coffee & chocolate & E-numbers) I do recognise that people need the drugs to help them through but taking drugs as a short cut ? No.

Ok film – worth watching. I suspect you’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about that message.

Sucker Punch is a very schizophrenic movie. The action sequences are awesome. The narrative that binds the action sequences together is pants. I’ll end up buying it anyway for the occasional watch because the action sequences are That Good. And I’ll fall asleep through the bits in the asylum.

Tonight’s movie was the movie which I’ll never buy because I just cannot remember that it’s called Source Code (I honestly didn’t have to look that up). Jake Gyllenhall stars as USAF Captain who is being sent back in time to the body of a fella on a train that’s about to blow up.

This one is pretty well made too, with plenty of little touches dropped in that come up again later. I’ll not say much more because pretty much anything said about this one is SPOILERS! And we know what the Doctor and River Song think about those. However … It’s been done before multiple times, although last time I saw something similar … AKAKAKSPOILERDELETEDAKAKAK …

It’s just come to the cinema and it’s the pick of the bunch above.

One last one which I’ve just seen is Kick-Ass. This one came to the cinema last year and I’ve just finished watching it off SkyMovies. The star of the show here is little Chloe Moretz, who does an amazing job as the pintsized HitGirl who tears (literally) her way through the mob people. I may well buy this movie …

So – of all the movies above :
Ironclad – buy it
Limitless – meh
Sucker Punch – buy it for the action sequences, meh at the narrative
Erm…???…ohyeah-Source Code ! – watch it but won’t buy
(think it’s one that’s only good if you don’t know what’s going to happen)
Kick Ass – buy it

We did kill dwagon !

Two of them !

Lots of effort though – lots of wipes last night but we got it right in the end. Fights are much more technical these days.

SleepyIce

Oh i get so jelous! I wish i could come back! Have fun out there and kill a dwagon for me, will you?! 🙂

Ok – so I’m posting as a means of getting a big picture on to the VR site !

(clicky for full 1080p goodness!)

Since getting the 23″ widescreen monitor, I’ve noticed a problem. You can only look at one thing at a time (two if you can go crosseyed at will). The problem’s basically :

I look at the centre – and die cos I missed being low on health.
I keep an eye on positioning – and miss my DoTs* running out
*(DoT = Damage Over Time spell)
I click on a targeted spell – and can’t land it cos my User Interface gets in the way

Don’t get me wrong ! Big screen = awesome. It’s my own tunnel vision that’s making me miss stuff 🙂

What will/is changing in the way I have it set up are :
The health bars in left centre/low are Healbot. They’re there for my priest and will get turned off at some point for the damage dealing mage. Don’t need ’em.
Omen (right centre/low) tends to get ignored as I don’t often get in danger of pulling the mob off the tank (we have good tanks). Plus the standard interface does that as well now.
Head Up Display. Going to try one of these out, see what happens. It’ll put a couple of Big Stripy Bars up so I will have no chance of missing seeing I’m in for an Impending Dirt Nap.

All the other not so immediately useful stuff tends to be hidden off out of the way. That’s not quite what I raid with though. We were on the way back from a wipe at this point, so I had my no3 bar active ready to make the raid a bit more intelligent. All my damage doing Stuff is on the no1 bar 🙂

Oh yeah – look at those damage per second numbers. When I started in Warcraft, we were lucky to do that as a Raid. Progress !

Oh yeah – I'm serious with the "if a garage appears untrustworthy then it's Do Not Touch" – we've learned this over the years with :

Rover garages
Vauxhall garages

The various Vauxhall garages around Lincolnshire made a habit of not doing work they billed for and Rover garages would leave cars in dangerous conditions.

Headed up to Mall today with the intention of having a bit of fun with the Honda people. Came away somewhat peeved.

Firstly, let’s remember back a few weeks when I had a second look at the CR-Z. They had none in the showroom, so I got offered a chance to sit in a customer car that was waiting delivery. I balked at that.

Let’s think about that – the garage may have allowed a complete stranger random type person sit in a car that was waiting to be picked up. What would you think if your nearly new car went in for its first service and the garage let someone have a look in it ? You would probably recoil in horror and swear never to go near that garage again.

That was a few weeks ago though. How about tonight …

They passed the first test by allowing someone to have a look around without being too obvious about rubbing the hands together and going “Potential Customerrrrrr” in that goblin voice familiar to all the Warcraft players. You would expect at least one “can we help ?” from the staff though. I guess that depends on who’s on duty at the time.

Still, lack of effort in grooming a potential customer is justifiably reflected in lack of interest by that customer.

Let’s hit the “that’s just plain rude” : Part of my expected fun was asking when they were looking to get in the “sporty” version of the “sports” couple. No knowledge admitted to by the salesperson about any improved versions being on the way. (There is allegedly a faster CR-Z coming as Honda have admitted to the current one not having the performance to match the looks)

What I didn’t expect was that while trying to converse with the salesperson, that the salesperson would only be half listening while one of his colleagues was passing on a message.
1 – If a potential customer is there, full attention should be with the person possibly paying your commission
2 – Unless it’s “GTFO THE BUILDING’S ON FIRE!” any message can wait
3 – Customer is King.

I found that distraction to be highly insulting and indicative of a group that don’t really want my business.

Oh well. Makes the decision on what car to aim for a little easier 🙂

Oh ! Almost forgot. Impressions of the CR-Zzzzzz from sitting inside …

Seats. Ok and fully reflecting the sporty aim for the car. Bucket sporty seats although I couldn’t easily find the adjustment to lean back the seat a bit to a position suitable for a normal person not a short armed long legged mutant.
Dash and interior. Fine for a modern car, as they are continuing the fashion of surrounding the driver with Stuff. Lots of mysterious controls with OOO SHINY!!!!
I suspect this car would work well for short doses but would rapidly become tiring on a longer drive.

Exterior & design. Whereas the Lexus had a CT200h on show with a few golf club bags in the back, the CR-Z is somewhat cramped. With seats, it’s advertised as a 2+2 which translates to 2+2. The boot has a restricted entry with a high sill, whereas the Lexus boot has minimal sill height.
Again, fine for stuff like shopping but anything more serious (like lugging a heavy cricket bag around) will be a major pain.

I guess you can sum it up as Epic Fail on the side of the Honda people, although that should probably just read “Honda Person”. A key part of car ownership is being able to trust the people who you’re doing business with. Lack of trust makes you go elsewhere. Trouble is, if a finance deal is involved (or guaranteed servicing) then you can’t go elsewhere. As soon as you buy, you’re committed. So it pays (literally) to be careful who you do business with.

And I’ll not be taking my business to Honda :
Product isn’t up to standard.
Garage is untrustworthy
Staff aren’t interested in selling cars
The competition blows them away in all respects

It may be shiny enough to con the petrol heads but not this petrol head.