Saturday, January 24, 2004  

Today is the 20th birthday of the Macintosh. I am probably the only Mac user of the bunch here, but on the other hand every single one of you is using a Mac... in one way or another. Let's face it: Windows is a Mac clone. It started with the general windows-icon-mouse-pulldown menu thing. Then Windows 95 refined the look and brought the Trash Can (sorry, "Recycling Bin"). Hell, even Windows XP copies wholesale from Mac OS X's shiny plastic "Aqua" look (not to mention a focus on the "digital lifestyle"). Yeah, Apple has borrowed some features from Windows over the years and Windows has done a lot of things better than the Mac OS, but it's mostly the other way around.

There's also the other Apple innovations down the years... laser printing for the masses, one of the first digital cameras (the Apple QuickTake), the first PDA (the Apple Newton)... as well as the modern ones. Even when they don't invent something, they herald the start of a trend for people to follow. The iPod is a great example. Hard disk MP3 players were around before the iPod, and the iPod didn't do anything dramatically different. It just did it all better, and now it's the hot gadget to have. The current Wi-Fi craze? Started with the iBook way back in 1999. Even when they decided AGAINST something, it worked. Floppies have been on the way out for years, but Apple was the first to make a stand by not including them in the original iMac in 1998. And you know what? It was only at that point that I realised how little I used them. I remember when I moved to the UK in late 1999 I bought a box of floppies from Electronics Boutique, just in case I needed to bring work from school computers home. Except I realised that emailing it was quicker, safer, and more convenient. I still have that box of floppies today, and that first one is the only one I ever took out of the box. I don't think I've used them since.

We've always been a Mac-only family, and it was my mom's Mac (a Mac SE, to be precise) in her office that got me interested in computers to begin with. How could you not like the original Macs? It was certainly unique to look at; a compact design icon. It smiled when it booted up. And it had MacPaint. MacPaint is just ridiculous fun, especially when you play with FatBits. There was nothing like it at the time. And then came more, like the Comic Strip Maker (how I wish I still had that program and all my old comics), and the true killer app... SimCity. I remember the first time I saw it running in my Uncle Maj's house, and how it effectively chained me to the monitor for months on end. And it was all so easy, simple, and fun. I remember when Haneal got his first computer, and picked a PC. I remember the virii he had, and how when games didn't run he'd have to sometimes fiddle with this weird AUTOEXEC.BAT file and type cryptic-looking codes into a weird text interface (DOS, of course) to get anything done. Of course, I also remember being envious of the fact that his computer could run the one PC-only game I've always desired, Championship Manager, and the hours upon hours of fun we spent playing it on that PC, but in general it just made me happier that I had a Mac. Sound card? Video card? COM port troubles? Mouse driver? AUTOEXEC.BAT? Meant nothing to me. I just plugged stuff in, and it worked like it should.

So, Happy 20th Birthday to the Macintosh. Here's to 20 more years of a computer just working like it should!

Posted at 3:22 AM

---

Monday, January 19, 2004  

I saw Return of the King again today because the rest of my family hadn't seen it, and afterwards I watched The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time in over a year (since the DVD came out, actually). It's good to see it again and see how it all began. I remember thinking that the intro was overly long in Fellowship; the overly-long ending to Return of the King balances it out. And even though all three movies were filmed at the same time, there's just something.. different... about all the characters. Frodo and Sam somehow look younger, and Aragorn looks somehow thinner and less imposing and regal.

Of course there's also the things you've forgotten about in the two year span between the trilogy, aspects of the story forgotten, links and scenes and nods... such a great set of films. I can't wait for the Extended DVD of Return of the King -- I have to watch them all together.

Posted at 5:17 AM

---

Sunday, January 18, 2004  

...I know, it's been ages (again!) and I promise I WILL update with a whole bunch of things I've been meaning to mention, but right now I've got something on my mind that I have to talk about. So I will. It's about 24's third season... and I promise, no spoilers.

You all know how much I love 24. I really, really love that show. Except I fear I might just be... "over" it. Now mind you, though I thought Season 2 wasn't quite as good as Season 1, I never actually thought it was bad or stupid or anything -- it's still VERY good, just not quite up to the mark set by Season 1. Season 3, however, has me a bit mixed.

I did enjoy it at first. It started a little slowly, but the general plot strands were rather cool, and experience with the series tells me to wait and see how they play out. And it improved. There were some really cool moments in the first third of the season, and I enjoyed those episodes. But now we come to the point I'm at, just shy of the half-way mark, where things have slowed down. Every season of 24 seems to have this slow patch, but where the first two kept me going, this one hasn't done so. Mid-way through Season 1, after they resolved the "first" plot of the series and switched gears to set up the final plot, I had similar feelings. But considering the first 13 hours kicked ass and I felt I was watching something special, I knew I had to push on... and I was rewarded. In Season 2, the brakes come on at the two-thirds mark. But with only a few episodes to go, I knew I had to watch on to see the conclusion, and again it was enjoyable. Here... I don't know. It's way too early for it to go slow. They haven't quite set the scene properly. And even the re-introduction of some old characters left me a bit cold. I might be over-analysing things, so the best way to illustrate how I may be "over" 24 is simply the fact that I didn't watch the episode for four days. Normally, I'm itching to watch it the instant I can. I'll try to grab the file the second it's available -- even forcing Rajé to get it for me. Now... I had it early (I downloaded it in ELEVEN MINUTES), but I didn't care enough to watch it.

In the end though, I have to say that the episode WAS better than the last and did rekindle something inside of me, but the show needs to really kick into gear soon or this season will be a total waste.

There's a greater problem here though, and that's that 24 might have broken too much ground for its own good. There will simply never be a twist like the first season's twist. It just can't happen. Aside from the fact that the there's too much history with the characters to allow them to swing one way or another, there's also the fact that it's already been done before. It's like how Star Wars has ruined a lot of other twists. I mean, nobody (in any movie, TV show or book) can EVER do the whole "NO, I AM YOUR FATHER" thing without people thinking of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. It just can't happen. It'll feel cheap. Same thing with 24. And then there's the fact that the characters are too entrenched now. In the first season, nobody was safe. In the second, there was still some uncertainty (and a couple of deaths). But now you feel that if the characters are there, they'll be there until the show's end. Like Jack Bauer. We didn't know if he'd live or die (or live until the last minute and then dramatically die) in Season 1. Every fight he waded into was life-or-death. Season 2 got a bit silly in that department, yeah but it's all gone in Season 3. He's Jack. Seeing him do remarkable things was a novelty in the first season. It was wearing thin in the second. In the third... well... you're wondering how much he can take. Kiefer Sutherland knows this, and has made no secret of the fact that he wants to kill Jack off. But he must also know that Jack is what makes the show work. There's nobody who can replace him. So unless Jack dying is the big twist that ends Season 3 -- and the whole run of 24 -- there's no way he can go.

I hope I'm wrong, and I hope 24 can regain the sheer brilliance that it's known for, but I fear for it at this point. Still, if any show can pull this off... it's 24. The clock is ticking.

Posted at 6:26 AM

---

Friday, January 02, 2004  

It's 2004, so a proper Happy New Year to all. My New Year's Eve wasn't bad. Most of it was work, followed by a frantic race home in time for midnight to the vague tune of 24 (bleep-BLOOP, bleep-BLOOP, bleep-BLOOP). I did actually make it back by 11:48, saw two of my sisters and my grandfather home, wished them all a happy new year, and then sat down to play lots of Pac-Man VS and Mario Kart. Nothing special, but it was fun, and judging by reports from my friends of a bad night all around it seemed the right choice. Honestly, it seems as if 90% of people out there only go out on New Year's Eve because they feel obligated to. There's probably only something like ten people in Hong Kong who honestly think New Year's is going to be a blast and hype everyone else up... so all we have to do is find these ten people, stop them, and we'll end the curse of the overrated holiday forever. Forever!

Pac-Man VS is a lot of fun. It's a multiplayer take on Pac-Man for GameCube for four players (you also have to connect a Game Boy Advance to the GameCube). One player takes the GBA and plays Pac-Man apparently as normal. Eat the dots, avoid the ghosts and rack up a high score -- standard stuff. The twist is that the other three players control the ghosts, and the ghosts can't see the whole maze. The ghosts use the TV and each have only a small section of the maze available, and thus have to work together to hunt Pac-Man down (the player controlling Pac-Man can see the entire maze on the Game Boy screen). Whoever catches Pac-Man becomes Pac-Man in the next round. Simple, and fun.

I'm suffering from a serious bout of 24 Withdrawal Syndrome, but it will end soon. 24 begins again on Tuesday January 6th. Ooh. Ahh.

Posted at 9:44 PM

---