I've moved!

Hello folks - I wanted to let you all know that I've moved my blog over to www.jamesjacob.net

I bit the bullet and purchased my own domain and migrated over to Wordpress. As the orignal people who opted to follow my humble blog, I wanted to ensure I didn't lose you in the migration.

Please update your following preferences.

James

New compare the meerkat advert

Many of you, like me will have found the original series of the 'Compare the meerkat' TV spoof ads (for Comparethemarket.com)...

Well the good news is that our little friend now has a buddy - Sergei the IT specialist.

A great and really funny ad

Simples!

Star Trek Stills

A few more stills from the new movie - released in the UK today.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Posters

Must be poster release day today! 4 new releases for Revenge of the Fallen Transformers sequel.

With so many good films coming out over the next few months, my Orange Wednesday discount is going to be getting a serious hammering...

G.I. Joe - New Posters Released

A real treat for you here, 4 new posters from the GI Joe movie.

Who was your favourite?

Caprica Pilot Episode Review

I watched the pilot episode for Caprica on the plane to and from Switzerland last weekend and wanted to jot down a review to share what I thought of the 2 hour show. I've been a big fan of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica show - just look at my tag cloud if you don't believe me... And I have to say, while I was expecting the raw 'guns and space battles' from BSG - this spin off really isn't half bad...

Caprica is set 58 Years Before The Fall of the 12 Colonies, is the prequel to the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. This is the story of how humanity came to create Artificial Intelligence and set itself on a path to near annihilation. Caprica has long been billed as a change of pace from its gritty, militant predecessor, and as I mentioned above, the series certainly has an entirely different look and feel - immediately obvious in the opening minutes where there are a couple of topless 20 something girls dancing about (I'm not sure if the old lady sitting next to me on the plane noticed this or not!). Overall though, Caprica isn’t a million miles away from BSG where it matters most: the way in which character interrelationships are portrayed. Make no mistake, this is a grand (space) opera. And that’s exactly what the opening episode drives home.

First things first, though. With all the fuzzy continuity of BSG, it’s better if you just try not to think about how this all fits in with BSG. For better or worse, in order for Caprica to work as a series, it needs to be taken on face value, as its own entity, with only minor and minimal connections to the events of The Fall and subsequent Exodus of humanity. What is worth noting, however, is how Caprica attempts to explain how and why the Cylons became so rooted in their belief of a One God, as opposed to the Colonial Polytheism. This comes by way of the Pilot Episode’s most pivotal character: a teenage girl, named Zoe.

Zoe is your typical rebellious , except for one very important thing: she’s a fantastically gifted computer programmer – a prodigy who has managed to artificially replicate the human identity (but considering she is 17 at a push, makes me think the only other person who could show the same level of wow, would be Dougie Houser M.D.). What’s most intriguing is the question: If you replicate a personality, do you also replicate the spirit, the soul of the individual? This, along with theological tensions in the episode lead to the best, most sophisticated elements of the series. At its heart, Caprica wants to be an exploration of the human equation and based on the pilot the series is off to an excellent start.

Two families, the Greystones and the Adams are thrown together following an attack and brings to life the question, just because we can do something, does this mean we should do something?

What was really interesting for me were a few distinct elements [SPOILER WARNING]:

1. The colonies don't exist in the way we thought of them in BSG. A few of them are mentioned by name but they are not united under a single banner and there is a great deal of discrimination between the rich and poorer colonies.

2. Yes - we do get to meet a young William Adama. But no, he doesn't have a model of Galactica hanging from his bedroom ceiling - presumably because it hasn't been built yet.

3. Cylons... We'll I'll leave it to you to watch the pilot as I don't want to spoil anything As for the sci-fi elements of the series, there’s not a whole lot of new ground here. The holographic programming which pervades many of the episode’s scenes is like a strange mixture of The Matrix and Star Trek’s Holodeck. The idea (and dangers) of creating “life” is certainly not a new topic of exploration. Nor is the discussion of whether or not Zoe’s avatar is a real life – again, Trek has a long history of exploring what it means for unusual entities to have life.

In the end, Caprica hooked me enough to deserve a closer look once the series finally ramps up and gets going. However if you’re looking for something to fill the void left by BSG, you’ll likely be disappointed. In fact, I’m not precisely sure exactly what audience this particular series is aiming for. Also, considering Ronald D. Moore’s haphazard way of crafting the BSG story, viewers here need to be especially wary of any long-term continuity – which is a distinct liability at the beginning of a series.

On the whole, I'd give this a well earned 8/10...

New Domestic Trailer for G.I. Joe Movie

This was only released in the last day or so but it's going to be a cracker. Lots of CGI no doubt but like Transformers, this had me thinking back to my childhood instantly!

My favourite character was Snake Eyes, the black costumed ninja who doesn't talk - now played by Ray Park.

Thats right - Ray Park, as in Darth Maul from Star Wars from The Phantom Menace.

Enjoy!

G.I. JOE trailer in HD

Star trek TV Spot 10

Hot off the press

Star Trek TV Spot 11

Brand new TV Spot!

How to set up Twitterfeed

Last week I wrote a post on a clever way to upload your blog posts directly to Twitter without having to do it manually. I originally set the system up using RSS feeds - which I outlined here...

I have however, found and even better and much more straightforward way of doing this - by using Twitterfeed.

Twitterfeed in essence scans your blog at regular intervals (hourly or daily) and then uploads a Tweet + tiny url of the post embedded within - leaving you to go off and do something else.

It's a very easy system to set up (put it this way, I managed to do it while having one eye on The Two Towers on the tube) and before you know it, you'll be tweeting remotely like the best of them!

There are two things to watch out for however:

1. The Twitterfeed home page, found here, is very temperamental and occasional doesn't work

2. It will make life so much easier if you have your Open ID to hand before you start the process (I had to go away and then set one up halfway through the Twitterfeed set up)

So there you have it - Twitterfeed, a really effective way of merging your blogging and twitter worlds.

Any questions, give me a shout - you can follow me on Twitter through the link on the left

Iron Man 2 Sneak Peak image

Even though Iron Man 2 is still a long way off, this is one of those films that is going to continue to gather momentum until the day it is release.

I loved Iron man, thought it was absolutely brilliant. I liked the way that Robert Downey Jr managed to bring just the right amount of cheekiness to Tony Stark and while I am a bit of a comic book fan, the wife really enjoyed the movie as well! (though I did have to go and see Mamma Mia to make up for it).

This is the first decent image that I have certainly come across showing anything at all from the sequel Iron Man 2.

Is that a whole row of Mark 3 suits behind Tony Stark??

Worlds fastest camera takes 6.1 million photos per second

World's fastest camera takes 6.1 million photos per second

Now that's impressive! I wonder if the builders can find more uses for this?

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Store 100 DVDs on just one disc!

Store 100 DVD’s on just one disc!

Brilliant news for storage of backups - might be able to use this to save Time Capsule backups to once the disk is full!

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New - Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Trailer 2

A real treat for you here, the second official trailer for the new Transformers movie out later this summer.

There have been a few bootleg copies of this flying around the 'tinternt' but I am happy to say I have tracked down a HD version.

To say this looks increadible is just an understatement. Between Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, X Men Origins: Wolverine and Angels & Demons, it looks like I'll be heading off to the local cinema a fair bit this summer!

Here's to the robots in disguise

Star Trek What gives you the right TV Spot - in HD!

The last TV spot for sharing today...

SERIOUS spoliers here though!

Star Trek Space Jump TV spot - in HD!

Another TV spot - this one showing the Space Jump sequence. Looks great - especially the close ups of the new look Enterprise...

Star Trek Ice Planet TV Spot - in HD!

Less than a week to go now until the new Star Trek film is released (on the 9th May here in Blighty). A whole new range of TV spots have been released.

Here's the latest - called Ice Planet, in HD just for you