Playing: with Google Sketchup

Sketchup is an easy to use 3D modelling tool now owned by Google. I first tried it out a couple of years back and then, not having any reason to use it, put it away in a dark virtual cupboard.

I needed to create a model today though so I reached deep into the back of the cupboard and was able to whip this up in a couple of hours (in between meetings and reacquainting myself with elements of how it works).

There is also a nifty third party plugin with the imaginative name of Sketchup Web Exporter that enables you to display your models in a web browser - you can actually click and drag on this object to rotate it.

Watching: The Hollowmen (Episode 3)

Happy to say that The Hollowmen has continued to improve since the first episode - last nights one about the minutiae of dealing with Indonesia and the language of diplomacy was great.

If you haven't seen this show yet and have any interest in the way this country is run (and you should) it's a must. It still cuts close enough to the bone to make the viewing experience somewhat of a laugh then cringe then sigh that it's probably true situation. The humour is fast paced and very dry and highly highly pointed.

If this show had gone to air during the Howard government, Liberal ministers left, right and centre would have been going ballistic about ABC anti-government bias, so it's nice to see the Rudd response of - no response at all. (Because they know it's just a tv show).

Preferring: this Batman/Baman

Nice work by Alexander Butera

Thinking: about warmer climes

Scraping the ice from the car windscreen this frosty Canberra morning had me rather nostalgic for the beautiful weather on the Europe trip just past (and considering other options)

LOLing: Inappropriate Sesame St censorship

Apparently I've been going a little OTT with the YouTube posts but I have to give a special mention to this one - it has changed the way I will see childhood favourite Sesame St forever. (And it's only 1.31)

Finishing: GTA IV

I haven't been rushing through GTA IV, preferring to enjoy the whole experience and spend just as much time completing missions as driving around the big beautiful city, trying out side missions, attempting big insane stunt jumps, watching a little cabaret or standup comedy (Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams) and developing friendships.

The need to get on with other things in my life though (and an interest in the twists and turns of the developing game story) finally led me to the last story mission last night. (Ok, several nights ago but it's a tricky bastard - particularly when you have no money left to buy weapons and ammo).

After a hectic car chase, epic abandonned casino battle, motor bike chase, spectacular jump to helicopter and helicopter/boat chase, I ended up beneath the Statue of Happiness for a final showdown. Got to love the escalated difficulty of those final GTA missions - though I'm not sure whether it's just me and my extensive GTA training but most of the leadup missions seemed easier than I would have hoped.

The story itself unfolds in its own time, the 30 - 50 hours of gameplay required allow a much more realistic approach to story telling than a 2 hour movie, where everything needs to be dealt with there and then. We touched on issues of love and loss, revenge, moving on and working out exactly where your principles sit. I had to make some interesting moral life and death decisions about people I had come to know, which I think shaped the rest of the events to a degree - these decisions have given the game some good replayability as I'm curious to see what else might have happened.

The overall feeling at the end was much more downbeat than triumphant - I'm not sure if there was any kind of character arc as such, Niko Bellic seemed the same guy at the end as at the beginning. Of course, this is a more complex thing to assess given that Niko is effectively me in many ways.Perhaps the question is - have I changed at all? Probably not hugely but I think the game has actually made me want to be more social, so perhaps it has. I have no more desire to run around shooting people or driving like a maniac than I did before although there are times when I see pigeons that I have a strange compulsion to see them explode in a big puff of feathers.

I still haven't played the multiplayer games yet - something in me wants to wrap up the single player elements first. Still need to finish the assorted races, car stealing missions, pigeon shooting and I'm not sure what else. I think this is partially about a concern that the other gamers out there have something of a head start on me in the multiplayer arena, with knowledge of the maps and strategies and whatnot.

Already my thoughts have been idly wandering to where and when the next GTA might be set. Poor developers, probably could do with a break I'm sure.

Watching: Life according to Google

This short film by the Benetton named Nuru Rimington Mkali takes a simple idea and executes it very nicely, with some very effective editing. It is a look at the images that come up when you Google "life"

LOLing: TV dinner

The latest Simon Tofied cat cartoon is up online now and it's a beauty

Ooohing: the new Radiohead video clip

Shot entirely with lasers - video cameras are so 5 minutes ago.

Wondering: about the person who writes the Fantales wrappers

Click on image for larger version

For those who came in late - Fantales are a reasonably popular chocolate covered caramel in Australia which have wrappers providing various movie trivia.

I picked up a bag a few weeks back and noticed a couple of things - they don't seem to have been updated since around 2002 and the writer of the trivia appears to have an interesting take on language. Even if it is about Adam Sandler, tossing words like "loony" and "retard" seems a little wrong.

If you find the picture a little hard to read, this is the part I found a little surprising:

He played a clown in Shakes the Clown (91), a dimwit in Billy Madison (95), a loony in Happy Gilmore (96), a dork in The Wedding Singer (97) and a retard in The Waterboy (98)... all big hits.

I can appreciate that you only have a small amount of space to cover the many accomplishments of the various shiny stars and so brevity is important but even back in 2002, what were they thinking?

Couchmedia - covering the big stories.

(I thought about contacting the manufacturers for a comment but was worried that they might just call me a poo-head and hang up).

Preparing: my radio show

It's been a little while since I've put together a new show for my Monday afternoon slot on 2XX - I've been dipping into repeats (actually, lets call that best-ofs) for a while now but this is a sampling of some of the tunes and artists that have impressed me over the last few months.

Something's Changed Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights 2:57
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 4:12
Night Of The Lotus Eaters Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 4:53
O Freedom Billy Bragg Mr. Love & Justice 4:05
More Than On Point (House of Pain vs. Boston) DJ Topcat Best of Bootie 2007 4:09
Sing Sing Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle So Frenchy So Chic: 2008 3:26
Dans le tempo Constance Amiot So Frenchy So Chic: 2008 2:47
east of the river nile (remix) DJ Spooky Creation Rebel 5:06
The Pulse Holy Fuck LP 5:57
Backward Mum Smokes Melbourne Water 2 3:17
Foux Du Fafa Flight Of The Conchords Flight Of The Conchords 2:46
Robots Flight Of The Conchords Flight Of The Conchords 3:43
Carey Joni Mitchell Hits 3:03
From St Kilda To Kings Cross Paul Kelly A to Z - F 3:29
Consoler Of The Lonely The Raconteurs Consolers Of The Lonely 3:26
Words And Dreams Fred Smith Bagarap Empires 2:57
The Walrus The Fuelers Hot Dang 3:54
So Entertaining Gus & Frank Confession of a Roooftop Killer 3:46
So Nice So Smart Kimya Dawson Juno 2:48
Modern Guilt Beck Modern Guilt 3:15
15 Stepz (ft. Codany Holiday) AmpLive Rainydayz Remixes 3:04
Got No Money theredsunband Peapod 2:44

Oooohing: Mirror's Edge - the first person jumper

Mirror's Edge looks like an interesting game - dealing very effectively with what until now has been the blight of the first person perspective game genre - moving effectively around the space.



This is the official blurb from EA.

In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly utopian paradise, a crime has been committed and now you are being hunted. You are a Runner called Faith - and this innovative first-person action-adventure is your story.

Mirror's Edge™ delivers you straight into the shoes of this unique heroine as she traverses the vertigo-inducing cityscape, engaging in intense combat and fast paced chases. With a never before seen sense of movement and perspective, you will be drawn into Faith's world. A world that is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous. Live or die? Soar or plummet? One thing is certain, in this city, you will learn how to run.

Watching: The Hollowmen

I caught The Hollowmen last night - the new show from the people at Working Dog who have previously brought us The Late Show, The Panel, Frontline, The Castle and Thank God You're Here.

I'm a believer that you need to give any new show a few episodes to find its feed - the first episode has a lot of work to do in introducing characters and scenarios and setting "the vibe" and the following shows then build on this to develop something which is either great, average or mundane. It takes time to flesh out characters and they are a core part of what makes a show work.

Working on this principle, I'm happy to give the show a bit longer to get going - I liked what I saw last night but I don't remember actually laughing at anything. It seemed partially as though in their focus on covering important social/political issues (the government response to childhood obesity), they didn't quite have time to bring the funny.

I could see where it was meant to be funny - Santo Cilauro's role as the team pollster allowed him to rephrase focus group comments into bureaucratese but even this seemed a little forced and repeating the gag a few times didn't make it work any better. There also seemed to be a heavy focus on finding laughs in the nuances of language used in the halls of power but I got the feeling that this would be a lot funnier to insiders than most people (myself included.)

The show is played very cynically, very subtly and very drily and I suspect it was far more accurate than we'd like it to be. At the same time, this could be one of the reasons that I found it almost a little disheartening - which may be why it wasn't as funny as I'd have liked. Shows like The Games and Yes Prime Minister have both managed to skewer similar territory very effectively, with equal levels of cynicism and yet drag a lot more humour out of the experience.

As I've mentioned, the characters are a key element in any show and need to be given time to develop - as yet, they all seem a little grey and samey. Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro seem to have dragged large chunks of their Frontline characters into the show - Santo still has that timid, dorky but likable thing going on and Rob is still a bit hopeless - though much less self important now. (Not that this is a huge problem, I liked both of these characters but am already a little tired of Sitch's new shtick of never having a pen).



Lachy Hulme as the head of the Central Policy Unit seems the most likable, everyman kind of character - trying to actually come up with good policy in the face of organisational disfunction and Merrick Watts (of Merrick and Rosso fame) puts in a good show as a wily advisor in the department. As yet, the rest of the characters are really yet to emerge - but as I say, all in time.

I was a little surprised that it's such a hugely male dominated environment - figuring the upper levels of the Public Circus would be a little more PC and have a few more senior women but then again, these guys would have done their research and maybe it's how it is.

I liked the way the show just dived right into the action, assuming that viewers would be cluey enough to work things out as it went along and was able to really dig into a social issue - again, I have to draw conclusions to Frontline in the way that this was done. (Which is great, as I loved Frontline).

I just hope it can be as funny as Frontline, because after a point, cutting as it might be, it could well turn out more depressing than entertaining.

If you like politics and social issues, smart tv, Frontline, The Games, Yes Minister or even The West Wing, give it a go.

You can watch full episodes online at The Hollowmen website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/watch (But the video player only seems to work in Internet Explorer - hmmm).

Awwwing: the techno kittens

Looking forward to: The Hollowmen

The Hollowmen is the latest show by the Working Dog folks, the people behind The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel and Thank God You're Here. On this form alone it would seem like a must watch for at least the first two shows (which in my mind is how long it takes to get a sense of show's potential).

The fact that it's based around politics in Canberra and takes what looks like a Frontline type approach to the whole exercise - broad general humour mashed up with smart social comment - for me makes it an absolute must.

It's set in the Central Policy Unit of the federal government -

a special think tank personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him in the most important job of all - getting reelected.

It's all about the world of public servants and political advisors - the unelected "power behind the power".

They've been very careful to keep the details scant - the most you can get is from the website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/home, which does offer some promise.

It's a little interesting that is taken so long to come to screen - given that the idea first came up when Santo Cilauro was making a documentary in 1996 about Paul Keating's last election campaign. Harder to get it made while little Johnny was running the show?



(Not entirely sure if there is some subtle point being made by using music from a New Zealand band on the promo - perhaps the sound designer is a kiwi)

Watching: Vexille

It's been a while since I've seen a new anime (and particular in a cinema)but now that I've seen Vexille, I'll be making more of an effort.



While it's still full of robots, nanotechnology and well more robots, Vexille tells a fairly straightforward story for anime which would be at home in a Hollywood sci-fi action blockbuster. Actually, scratch that, this leaves the aforementioned blockbusters in its dust, even though it's easy to see the influence that these films have had on Vexille.

The CGI has enough artistic style added to it to avoid any kinds of uncanny valley issues and in the process creates a sometimes impossibly beautiful world that truly demonstrates the eye-candy power that this form of animation has to offer.

To talk about the story in anything but the scantest detail would be to give away what is a pretty cool plot which in the tradition of great sci-fi has plenty to say about where we might be going and what happens in the wrong people (i.e big business) are making the decisions. Vexille works well because it is able to bring these elements to the screen but at the same time offer enough character insight to make them sympathetic.

Suffice to say, if you're not averse to robots, action and awesome special effects, Vexille is well worth a look. I may even go back for another go. Within the first two or three minutes of the film I had this big nerdy "that's-so-awesome" grin creep across my face which didn't leave for hours afterwards.

Grrrrr'ing: YouTube forced to hand over all user data

Global media behemoth Viacom has forced Google (owners of YouTube) to hand over information about every video that every user has ever watched, according to this story on Wired.com

Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.

This story has 7331 Diggs (user recommendations) on Digg and more than 960 comments - suggesting that the Internetz has a thing or two to say about this.

The battle between big business and freedom just kicked up a notch.

On the other hand, it could be worse - as one Digger comments "at least it isn't PornTube" :)

Flashing: my ePeen

Epeen is as rude as it sounds and doubly geeky.

Urban Dictionary describes it as:

short for electronic penis, this is used for losers on the internet to try and boost their self esteem by using a facticious item such as the epeen, usually refered to in size.
my epeen is bigger than yours
did you see the size of his epeen?

To put it another way, it's the nerd equivalent of talking about how awesome you are based on your latest bit of hardware - in the same way that car people talk about dropping in a 351 hemi with added donk (or whatever it is that they say).

Anyways, all of this aside, I am a little pleased with myself about my latest tech purchase, a 16GB USB drive from Zazz.com.au at the bargain price of $59.95

(Though it amazes me to think that 10 years ago I spent something like $2700 on an iMac which had a 4GB hard drive.)

Zazz is one of those sites that offers one product at a bargain price for one day and so far it's been pretty good. Well worth adding to your rss feed.

Following up: on the Dmitri phone message

Ahh bless the Internetizens and their enthusiasm for responding to (and pisstaking) pretty well anything that appears online.

I mentioned the two Dmitri ("Canada's greatest lover and seducer") phone messages the other day and I'm happy to see that someone has posted a response to this video/audio up on Funny or die.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Setting: a new world record

Ok, so perhaps there may have been 7,999,999 other people involved but keep an eye out for the next Guiness Book of World Records, I'm sure I'll be mentioned personally.

This was all to do with the launch of the latest version of Firefox - Firefox 3. I'm still mostly using Flock to be honest but there is one feature of Firefox that I've particularly been enjoying - what they call "the awesome bar". (How can you go wrong with a name like that?)

It means that you can now just type a word in the address bar and Firefox will display a list of all of your previous pages with that in the name somewhere. Nifty.

I haven't done tests as such but it does seem to run faster as well, which is always nice.