Month: April 2006

According to this article on Gamasutra and this page on the Nintendo domain (revolution.nintendo.com), the official name for the Nintendo Revolution is the Nintendo Wii. It’s pronounced “wee” as in “wee wee” as in “urine”. Here is a screen-grab from the flash animation on their site:

Is this for serious? What were they thinking? Okay, here is an attempt at what they were thinking:

Hmmm, the iPod is pretty popular. Actually, all Apple’s products seems pretty popular recently. We’ve already taken hints from their design and that has payed off with the DS Lite. Maybe we should take hints on their naming schemes. Let’s see… “iPod, iBook, iTunes”… I see a common theme. Maybe if we double the number of “i”s and increase the ratio of “i”s compared to other letters (iPod is the most successful after all), we come up with… “Wii”!.

That’s perfect! It embodies fun! It illicits feelings of enjoying amusements parks; the sounds you make when going down a water slide, and the warm feeling when you are a little child.

(Yeah… like a little child… in the yellow wading pool if you know what I mean ;))

Update: Anyone else notice the similarity to the iiNet logo in using two lower case “i”s to represent people?

Update: Keeping with poor taste, and very, very poor puns: “Wii. Now you’re in the game.” (Too obtuse?)

During my recent absence from this blog, I bought a Vigorboard (also called The Wave, ex-board, and essboard as mentioned in a previous post).

I paid far too much and they are now available from soldsmart.com.au for $49.95. Hopefully the ones from soldsmart have a plain design like the one pictured on the product page (the graphics design on my one is prett naff). Actually, everything about the one on soldsmart looks better (the grips, the wheels, and the carry case).

If you want to try to get them even cheaper, soldsmart have a number of them on eBay Australia. If you want to check them out “in motion” the eBay product page has a link to a promotional video.

I’ll post my thoughts on the Vigorboard over the weekend, but for now I’ll just say that it is easy to pick up and a load of fun.

Langley Park is a long and wide strip of grass between the Swan River and the City of Perth. I’m lucky enough to live in a small apartment overlooking (part of) the park and river.

Over the last few days I’ve seen bleechers, plastic chairs, speakers, and a massive outdoor screen set up in Langley Park. There was clearly a lot of preparation going into organising the ANZAC Day service scheduled for midday yesterday. Unfortunately, rain set in around 10am and the service was cancelled at around 11am.

The crowds of people were clearly disappointed. Veterans were unable to formally show their respect for their fallen comrades and the general public was unable to communicate their appreciation through solidarity. At least that’s how I felt, and I suppose that’s why I’m using this blog as an public outlet.

Like other days of rememberance, ANZAC Day should never be seen as a mechanism to bolster nationalism. The most important aspect is a reflection upon war, the horror of which can only be justified as a means of absolute last resort in defense of the innocent. War and the actions of those involved should never be taken lightly, and we must stand by those that have fallen, those that have served, and those that have been affected. Lest we forget.

After 2 weeks our ADSL is finally reconnected.

You can follow the drama of the last fortnight in the thread I started a number of days ago on Whirlpool (the Australian broadband community website).

I spend last night going through the 400 or so items waiting in Liferea (my RSS reader) and catching up with a few people on Jabber, but I should be getting back into the blogging soon.

ADSL just won’t sync anymore. I called Amcom and they couldn’t find anything wrong on their end, so they lodged a line fault with Telstra. It should be resolved by the end of the day… but I’m skeptical for various reasons.

I’m on a backup dial-up service at the moment… dial-up!

Pirates. Monkeys. Ninjas. Dinosaurs. Transformers. 8-bit pixel graphics. Orange (the colour). Black, white, and red. Hoodies. Buttons (aka Badges). LiveJournal. Amateur photography. “Retro” anything. Something insincere about Jesus being your “homey”. Leederville prescription glasses. Skateboards. Rubber armbands. Fascination with all things Japanese. Astroboy. The Ramones. Sonic Youth. “Directional streetwear”. Body piercings. Tattoos (but not the tribal armbands anymore). iPod (geez). Stencil graffiti art. Pretty much everything on J Allard’s Xbox 360.

Where do I find something different?

I saw V for Vendetta last night and rather enjoyed it. Probably in no small part because it involves sticking it to the man.

I do have a few misgivings and I’d really like to know if the film is actually good in its own right, or if it’s just that V for Vendetta (the story) is strong enough in spite of the film adaptation. Maybe this accounts for the mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and that while triplej didn’t like the film, it’s readers seem to strongly disagree (see the comments at the bottom of their review).

Regardless of whether this was the “ideal adaptation”, the core theme and the amazing imagery were very strikingly portrayed in the film.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended

Note: More thoughts after the jump (includes possible spoilers).

Continue reading “V for Vendetta thoughts”

I was having lunch at a Japanese Restaurant on the corner of Hay Street and Hill Street and I saw Snoop Dogg and entourage piling into two Avis rental vans. It was fairly odd. The vans weren’t even pimped out.

Since living in the city I’ve happened upon a few celebrities. I walked past Dinosaur Jr on the day of their Perth concert. I also witnessed a woman yell and grab Billy Connelly as he walked by. He didn’t seem very impressed.

There was a family with a video camera at the nearby traffic lights and when they noticed it was Snoop they immediate started recording. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I suppose that I could have taken a photo with my mobile phone, but (aside from not being interested in having a photo of Snoop) it just seems… rude.

I was on the Greater Union website today to book movie tickets (which I decided against because they charge a $1 per ticket booking fee!). Anyhow, while looking for ways to get cheaper tickets, I found that I could offset the $1 booking fee with a $1 discount by joining their Cinebuzz club.

The whole “customer loyalty club” thing is usually a way for a business to track your viewing habits and get a hold of your e-mail and street address. Cinebuzz looks no different, but it’s good to see that they had a (very) brief FAQ:

Why do you want my postal address details?
You only need to complete your address details if you want to become a member of the Cinebuzz Club and receive your free Cinebuzz Membership card.

I love the fact that this question was obviously common enough for them to make a remark, but the thing I love more is that the “answer” to the question isn’t really an answer at all. It’s the sort of response a politician would give to an uncomfortable question!

Here’s my suggested correction:

Why do you want my postal address details?
We want to know where you live.

An informative video about “Trusted” Computing. I’d previously felt that this is something that would be naturally rejected by consumers, but it looks more and more like an issue that will require active resistance.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1H7omJW4TI
Original authors: http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
More information: http://www.againsttcpa.com/