SE: Lain DVD

Got hld of the SE:Lain DVD via eBay. Now just need to set aside the time to watch it :-(

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BBC NEWS | Robot to attend Japan-Czech state dinner

BBC NEWS reports that Honda's Asimo robot to attend a Japan-Czech state dinner. The dinner coincides with the 35th anniversary celebrations of the 1968 revolution - the Prague Spring. It is of course doubly appropriate as the word Robot was coined by a Czech playwright - Karel Capek, who invented the word "robot" in his 1921 play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). The BBC reports that Asimo can converse in Czech and Japanese.

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RPGs Revisited

Played an RPG for the first time in about 10 years today - as my daughters been asking what those shelves of booklets are in the study. Although we played GURPS in a medieval setting it got me to thinking about Traveller and all the stuff I used to write for it - like The Long Way Home. Looking around the web Traveller still seems pretty active and GURPS Traveller are even looking for writers. Maybe it's time to get the typewriter back out or at least rebuild my Traveller microsite (as a blog?) from all of my old Traveller stuff now scattered across the web.....

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Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei is Yoshitoshi Abe's latest anime. YA did the character designs for Serial Experiments: Lain. Speaking of which I found the SE:Lain Ultimate Fan Guide at the Orcs Nest gaming shop while in London today. I finally get to learn what happens and what the whole story's about - sort of.

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the cloud

the cloud | UK WiFi | Wireless Internet Access. One of the new players in WiFi hotspots in the UK. Operates mid-tier between the venue and the network operator. With its connections to Leisure Link it is particularly concentrating on pubs and entertainment sites. One to watch?

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Ring Tone sales overtake Singles

According to a report from the MDA quoted by the BBC sales of ring tones are set to overtake those of singles this year. MDA forecasts ring tone sales of £70m in UK, up from £40m in 2002. CD Singles sales were £97m in 2002, but have dropped by 37% so far this year. MDA also reports that SMS has levelled off at around 55m texts a day, ie about one for every UK citizen every day.

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Cyber Business Centre -- TrendWatch

Cyber Business Centre -- TrendWatch - Not a bad site. Reasonably up to date information abut what's going on across the cyber spectrum.

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Pattern Recognition

Got to the end of Pattern Recognition. Started well but thought it ended a bit simply and in a bit of a rush. Could have done with at least one twist to the plot. Was almost like the end of Star Wars 3 with everybody gathered happily together. Oh well, All Tomorrow's Parties is looking pretty good.

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Cosmos 1 Solar Sailship

Cosmos 1 is a prototype solar sail whip which uses 14m long sails and the solar wind to propel itself through near solar space. It's due for launch in October. One of its neatest features though is that it is being launched on a SLBM from a Russian nuclear submarine - eat your heart out Sky-One. Cosmos-1 is part funded by The Planetary Society, co-founded by space visionary Carl Sagan.

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Blue Origin and the X-Prize

Jeff Bezos of Amazon is financing Blue Origin, a space tourism venture - and most minimal web site. Blue Origin could be a contender for the X-Prize - which will be awarded to the first private manned spacecraft to launch twice in 2 weeks. Neal Stephenson of Snowcrash fame is also a Bezos friend and confidant.

Another Dot Com Billionaire backed X-prize venture is SpaceShipOne, above, from Scaled Composites - backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Spaceship one made its firt glide from its White Knight mothership on 7 Aug 03.

Scaled have been using a Beechcraft Starship , above, as a chase plane.

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Hot Snowdonia

Just back from a week in Snowdonia in North Wales with the family. Very hot - must un-Snowdon like. Did three of the 3000' peaks, camped up at 2000' with Joanna, swam in cold lakes and rivers. Great time.

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Girl Fridays

Since this blog is meant to be about cyberstuff I suppose my Girl Friday's ought to be virtual, so:

	Yuna Yuna is the summoner from Final Fantasy X. Yuna is a japanese name. It's pronounced with a long U and short A. It's a girl's name, it means "night" and also is the name of a flower, a hibiscus (hibiscus is a tropical flower) that can be found in places like Okinawa. she is a Summoner and daughter of a Great Summoner . Summoners are people who decide to bring peace to the Spira people , by defeating Sin and they learn how to invoke sacred Beasts called Aeons. Yuna has a large number of web shrines. OK so she got in twice!
	Major Motoko Kusanagi The lead character in Ghost in the Shell. An andriod with a "ghost" brain.
	Rachel Leeds Max Steel's partner and N-Tek agent in the Max Steel TV CGI animated series.
	Kyoko Date (aka DK-96) The first idoru - a virtual Japanese pop star created by HoriPro Inc.
	Aki Ross Lead character from The Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within CGI film.
	Yuna Lead character from Final Fantasy X. Picked up on her from the superb Final Fantasy X/Skater Boy Amine Music Video by Cass Morgan. Superb.

There's even a Miss Digital World competition now.

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