Posted by Chunk in Featured, General | 1 comment

Secure Browsing on the Internet

Over the past week there’s been a multitude of reports of the Chinese Government hacking Google, amongst other companies such as Yahoo, and other businesses too numerable to mention. In all honesty, I doubt the validity of some, or even the the cause of others, as I’m on of those people who are particularly paranoid of the Facebook/Google/Twitter machine, that seems to relish the idea of mining every byte of available data for the sake of advertising, and even possibly more nefarious means, as the CEO of google himself seems to have no concept or appreciation of how important anonymity is.

Posted by Chunk in Featured, Film, On Current Release | 0 comments

The great 3D fad

As my little review shows, I loved Avatar; I’m grateful in many ways that it was my first 3D experience (my dad’s had been the Robert Zemeckis motion capture Christmas Carol, I think), and on the whole, I think it’s the future of cinema as a whole once the technology has been perfected for the user end – let’s face it, those glasses serve as something of a barrier for the action, and in many ways took me out of it – then there’s the fact that Avatar was so expensive, and most of it, save the beauty shots, weren’t even in 3D…But it’s prompted quite the reaction from Hollywood, as Avatar rakes in close to 1.4 billion USD after five weeks of release.

Posted by Chunk in General | 0 comments

Moving, Flu and having a case of the dumb

Rule number…Well, let’s face it, it’s probably top ten, but not number 1 – is that moving is always stressful; Always. I’m currently typing from a wireless keyboard (that I hate), with my monitor positioned on the bedside cabinet at my folks house while my new flat gets made ready for me by the landlord. It’s not especially a hassle, but to say that I’m looking forward to being able to live the lifestyle of a chronic insomniac from a desk and chair is going to be most welcome, come next saturday. Still. Most of it is out the way now, and I don’t really have to venture out in the cold after this week aside from needing to go pick up my new specs perscription, and obviously, move in. Nice…Considering UK has been the equivalent of a deep freeze, and I have an impending flu to deal with. I’m told by mother that I’m dealing with it like a man, which in her language means I’m being a complete pussy – I contest this claim, and merely assert that I am using said flu time to take stock and do a little writing.

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New Year’s Resolutions

2009 in many ways was quite a scary year in the UK all in all; the Digital Britain bill is basically a precursor to the home secretary being allowed to pass any new laws for surveillance on the internet arbitrarily and without consultation of parliament, with the added bonus of protecting the corporations as opposed to the consumer. Google offered a definition of privacy that simply stated that if a person chose to use Google’s services, they should be free to mine any and all data stored on their servers by you for advertising purposes. This of course, means that the fact that data can be stored on Google servers for anywhere between 18 months to 5 years, leaves Google in the rather precarious position of being of interest to governments that have something of an overzealous attitude to monitoring the internet…And its people.

Posted by Chunk in Featured, Film, General, On Current Release, TV | 0 comments

The Obligatory 2009 round up: Avatar

Being honest, Christmas wasn’t as big of an entertainment disappointment as some people would have you believe, especially if you happen to be British; We had Eddie Izzard performing really quite well in the BBC remake of the day of the triffids, David Tennant bowed out not so gracefully in what surely has to be the longest goodbye in recent TV history, not to mention Doctor Who history – but was seen again on a good number of BBC stations, reading kids bedtime stories, and the not so light hearted Hamlet. We’ll get to all of that shortly, but I think the big thing, at least for me was the viewing of the awesome, utterly brilliant Avatar.

Posted by Chunk in DVD Review, Featured, Film | 2 comments

Star Trek (2009) DVD Review

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been arguing the finer points of Star Wars, and even been mocked for my love of Star Trek; I should clarify that when I say I like Star Trek, I mean I love Star Trek; first episode I ever watched was The city on the edge of forever, and that was it – I was hooked. It’s the single episode that turned me onto the idea that I might just have a good imagination; as I grew, so did my appetite – I feverishly read as much science fiction and fantasy novels as I possibly could, all the comics I could lay my grubby little hands on, until finally I reach this point in my life…A 32 year old man child with a massive desire to work in media instead of any kind of random, everyday job that a normal man might be happy with. My desire for more, my hunger to use my imagination in a creative way came from Star Trek.

It was in that spirit that I paid to see every Star Trek film from the day I was old enough to do so, watch every series no matter how dire it got, dutifully lapping up every tale Brannon Braga, Ron Moore and Jeri Taylor could come up with.

It was this same love, this same yearning for a decent story that kept me in the theatre during the abject failure that was Star Trek: Nemesis, because I loved Star Trek; I loved the universe in which it resided, even more so than Star Wars or even Flash Gordon or Superman, and I kept hoping for the spark of Brilliance that I had seen so many years ago with Gene Roddenberry, and continued through Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation; the thing is, it never happened. The franchise faltered and got old as it was tirelessly squeezed for every penny it was worth, until even I was finally forced to ask if it was worth prolonging the life of the show – was it better to be left with all the fond memories I have thanks to Star Trek?

Paramount, or more pointedly Viacom, I assumed weren’t all that interested in breathing new life into the franchise, in doing something drastic to a 40 year old drama science fiction show – regardless of how much cash flow it generated. I am happy…No, overjoyed to report that I have never been more wrong in my life, and will gladly do so.

Posted by Chunk in TV | 2 comments

The End of Time gets an airdate

The BBC gave us an airdate for The End of Time part one and two yesterday; unsurprisingly part one gets an airing on christmas day, and then David Tennant turns into the elephant man 11th doctor over The End of Time part two. I’m more than interested to see what kind of re-negging RTD comes up with to explain the master not being. you know. dead and stuff.