by GothNinja | Jul 29, 2011 | MEME, Media
Sean Bonner Made a Thing “http://spockisnotimpressed.tumblr.com/” Wil Wheaton suggested it get made “A Thing”, The Internetz Agreed and “A Thing” has been born.
(This is a retouched copy of My contribution to The Thing. Original one was a quick five minute knock up while working, you can see it HERE. )
But Remember, Spock is not Impressed! Unless you grab a copy of the Spock template to use to add Spock to photos which can then be submitted to the blog.
Go Internetz. Go spread The Thing and make this MEME fly.
by GothNinja | Jul 18, 2011 | TV Shows
I have now finished watching “The Cape” and as such I need to revisit and update my review of the show. If you recall the original Review you will no doubt remember that I said “Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. ” Well I need to update that view.
The show was originally designed to be a thirteen part season, unfortunately it was cancelled after just ten of the thirteen episodes were filmed. And as such they never made the extra three. And as such they never finish the story off, and leave many questions unanswered. You never see where they were taking different story lines, and it leaves you as the viewer unsatisfied at the end.
for example:-
They start a Orwell ark with her loosing it slightly, painting everything white, and loosing herself in her mind. They start this just as season ends so never goes anywhere.
The Carnival of Crime are apparently training the Cape so they can use him in some big, dangerous, mysterious way that they hint at but never tell you.
In fact the final episode feels more like a penultimate, episode, or at least a penultimate to a two part season ending.
All in all I feel let down by the show, and would advise people not to bother watching it.
by CodeNinja | Jul 14, 2011 | Hacks, Media
Unless you have been living in a small cave half way up an inhospitable mounting for the last month you would have heard of the News of the World (NotW) Phone Hacking Scandal. It’s especially bad if you live in the UK.
If you are that cave dwelling hermit let me say “How the frak are you reading this post? Did you follow the article on reading blogs on kindles? How have you got internet access? inquiring minds want to know!” *relax* I mean to say, that this scandal is about slime masquerading as reports who accessed a vast (possible 4,000) number of people’s (Celebrity’s, Sports Stars, Politicians, Victims of Crime) answer phone messages. Now there was such an amount of this going on that the paper has closed down after 168years in print.
I have no intention of writing about the incident itself, or any of the fallout, or anything directly in relation to this case. That has been covered in depth all over the Internet & Surviving media. What I would like to address is the term thrown about “Phone Hacking Scandal“. Why must everyone insist on calling it Hacking?
*NOTE: Phone Hacking is referred to as Phreaking
No where in any of the reports is any activity mentioned that even faintly falls into the category of “Hacking” under any definition. Even if you take the original definition of Hacking, as in using some piece of technology or item in a way that was different to the intended use. Or knowing or wanting to learn about the inner working of different things, you still can not fit the term “Hacker” or “Hacking” to what the NotW reporters actually did.
What they did was to access peoples voicemail’s. Yes this is wrong, its an intrusion of privacy, it’s probably illegal as “unauthorised to personal communication” but it is not Hacking. They phoned up the voicemail number, and using the Victims phone number, and the generic default pin number accessed they voice mail system in the way it was intended to, in the way we all access it, they just did it without the Victims permission.
Surely it should be called “illegal phone tapping” or “illegal access to mail” or by whatever legal term it is for the crime they committed. The media like using the term Hacker to scare the public about these faceless super-criminals with secret abilities that let them to do almost anything. I think its time to stop the mass-hysteria and excessive incorrect use of this term.
We do not call someone who sticks a plaster on a small graze a Doctor, We do not call the small child playing with a plastic gun in the street a terrorist, and we should not call someone who phones up a publicised phone number and follows the instructions the recorded message tells them a Hacker.
Come on Media People, Your reputation is tarnished over this NotW incident, don’t make it worse by not doing your homework, and just falling into your old scaremongering ways.
The Three Ninjas saying a few words about the misappropriation of the term “Hacker“. To quote Randal from Clerks II. “I’m taking it back”
by GothNinja | Jul 11, 2011 | TV Shows
The last couple of nights I’ve been watching “The Cape”, I’m about halfway through the series. (Well Technically I am exactly half way through having watched 5 of 10 episodes). And since this show is starting on UK television next week, I thought I’d review what I’ve seen so far to aid people deciding if they want to watch it or not.
For those of you who have not seen any of the trailers, or heard anything about this show I guess I better give you a quick plot outline.
The series follows Vince Faraday, a police officer in the fictional Palm City, who is framed for a series of crimes committed by a mysterious villain named Chess and is left for dead after being caught. He is taken in by Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus who trains him with the special abilities of a superhero. Determined to clear his name and be reunited with his family, Faraday takes on the guise of his son’s favorite comic book hero, the Cape
Basically Good cop in a city of dirty cops, gets disillusioned and tries to make a difference. He’s set up by his best friend, framed as the master villain, and left for dead. Luckily he is rescued by “The Carnival of Crime” a bunch of circus performers who use their skills to rob banks. They teach him their skills, equip him with a almost magical cloak, and help? him clear his name and bring down the real criminal mastermind.
Now as I stated I am half way through the series and I am enjoying it immensely, it has both the necessary action mixed with the correct amount of comedy to make it a very enjoyable series. For example, The cape foils a stickup in a store, the owner thanks him and asks is he some kind of super hero, to which the Cape replies “I’m The Cape!” the store owner looks at him and replies “you can work on the name“.
Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. Unless maybe you are a worshipper of the Dark Knight, where you may see this as a poorly done rip off. You disagree? Lets compare :-. (more…)
by GothNinja | Jun 24, 2011 | Films, Geek
Before I review the Green Lantern film, I should point out my history with the Character. I personally think this is an important fact that should be supplied before people review comic inspired movies. Since Your prior experience will affect your personal views on the film. So for fairness, I shall start off with the following statement:
I never read any of the comic’s, Graphic Novels, or anything like that. My whole understanding of the character is from the two animated films “Green Lantern: First Flight” and “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights“. So I started the film with just the basic understanding of the origin of the Green Lantern.
The film starts with an ancient evil escaping from his prison, and heading out for revenge (As ancient evil’s tend to do). Which invariably leads to the death of some Green Lanterns, the destruction of several planets, and a short fight with the “Apparently” Greatest living Lantern, injuring him beyond repair and forcing him to crash on earth to find a successor to the ring. Enter “Hal Jordan” a cocky, young, risk taking, unreliable test pilot. As you can guess, the ring picks Hal since it can sense something in him that he doesn not realise is there.
I shall stop here and say that Ryan Reynolds plays the part well, But then does he ever fail at a role?
So Hal gets given a ring and the instructions that he should hold it to the lantern and say the oath. You know the oath “In brightest day, in blackest night,: No evil shall escape my sight: Let those who worship evil’s might,: Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!” Only the alien dies before he can tell Hal the actual oath, which leads to several attempts like the “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America“, “To infinity and beyond?“, “By the power of Grayskull!” Eventually I think the ring gets bored and plants the correct oath into his mind.
So our Hero ends up being transported through space to the home of the Lanterns, where he finds out what’s going on, starts his training which he fails miserably, is told he is a waste, and an insult to the memory of his rings previous owner. Disheartened but believing he is not worthy, Hal returns to earth. Unfortunately a scientist who examined the body of the x-lantern has become infected with the ancient evil, and things start to go wrong on earth. “how wrong?” oh, the ancient evil decided he would eat earth to gain more power before going to get his revenge.
“Don’t worry right? The Green Lantern Core, the Universes defenders will help us?” No. sorry, they are gathering their forces to defend their base and have one last fight, it’s not all bad they said they would be upset at the loss of earth, but its not like its a decent planet or anything. If only earth had a defender!
Yes, you guessed it, Hal man’s up. He finally realises that even hero’s know fear and its OK. so he single-handedly takes on the ancient evil. WOO HOO.
So all in all this is your typical movie, Guy is a unreliable person whose going nowhere in his life, something happens, he learns an important life lesson and saves the day. Only all that with super powers, aliens, and space 🙂
There is a nice setup to a second film in the series, with a end clip of a lantern switching from Green to Yellow. Yes I know if you are a comic book fan you spotted a lot of “other” possibilities like the Sapphire core logo, sapphire herself, and other things, I did not since I have never read the series, although in looking things up after watching this movie, I am tempted.
So I enjoyed this film, it had action, excitement, good effects, and an actual plot. The acting was good, it had Ryan Reynolds, just the right underline of comedy and slight throwaway geeky references. I know you can enjoy this film if you are not already a fan of the franchise, and I would think if you were a fan it sticks close enough to the cannon that you will not be disappointed. Hey you can also go see it with a newbie (Such as myself) and help point out the Easter eggs.
Let me end by saying this movie has inspired me to consider reading a few of the graphic novels.
by GothNinja | Jun 14, 2011 | Geek, Events, Wales, Media
Sunday 5th June 2011, I arrived at the campus of NEWI*1 GlynDwr University for Wales Comic Con. This was my first visit to this event since I missed out last year due to Vampiric Eye Disease causing me to be unable to leave the house during the daylight hours.
Upon arriving at the campus I immediately encountered a slight Problem. In an attempt to prevent others for making the same mistake, I tweeted “Note to self: when going to a con, check location before leaving house. #walescomiccon.” Yes, I knew it was on the Campus, but there were dozens of buildings/complexes that could be housing it. Luckily as I was pulling my car into a car-park, I spotted a couple of StormTroopers*2 standing guard at the door to the sports centre. And when a marine walked out of the building followed by an Alien with a dog collar, I KNEW where it was. (more…)
