Pied Triller

I took these pictures last month, but I had no idea what this bird was until now. It's a pied triller (Lalage nigra), according to David Gardener (thanks for the identification help).

A Tribute To Robots On TV

There should be more robots in television. I remember a whole bunch of them on TV when I was growing up, and how they captured my imagination back then.

Therefore, here is a list of all my ten favourites in no particular order. Some of them are rather obscure now. Click on their names to see a picture.

1. Lt. Cmdr. Data
   Data was a robot Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was an android, which means he had a human-like appearance. He is supposed to have a "positronic" brain, which is a homage to Asimov's robot stories. Data didn't have much in common with literary positronic robots, but the shout-out to Asimov was enough to impress me and thus I found the whole show that much more endearing.


2. Optimus Prime
   Optimus Prime was more than just a giant animated toy. He was an inspiring leader to a generation of kids who watched The Transformers with rapt attention each week, and wept when he died in the animated movie. There are a whole bunch of memorable characters from The Transformers show, but Optimus is one everyone loves.


3. Vicki
   Vicki was a robot girl on Small Wonder, a very bad 80's sitcom about a family with a robot daughter. Despite the fact that it was awful, I watched it anyway because I'll watching anything with either robots or dragons in it. I can still remember the theme song to this show, and it's one of those songs that get stuck in your head and make you want to scream.


4. Cameron
   Terminators are probably the most badass robots ever invented. If you ask me, a Terminator TV series is long overdue. I was thrilled to know there would be a series about Sarah and John Connor and their war against Skynet. It's too bad Arnold is too old and too busy being a governor to do any more terminating, but Summer Glau makes up for it. Cameron is a small-framed terminator who is surprisingly tough. She is sent back in time to protect a whiny, emo, John Connor and unlike uncle Derek, she doesn't mind his whining. Sometimes I hear the Small Wonder theme play in my head whenever I see Cameron. It's an evil, infectious theme.


5. R2D2
   Despite being a movie character, R2 makes the list because he had his own animated TV show together with his buddy C3P0 in Star Wars: Droids. It was an entertaining little cartoon, and I watched every week as the droids go from misadventure to misadventure. In the cartoon, R2 would pull out a variety of gadgets we never saw in the movies (rocket thrusters were not included though).


6. W1K1
   Jason of Star Command was a short-lived live action TV show which felt a lot like a rip-off of Star Wars. The protagonist looked a lot like Han Solo, and he had a little pocket robot named W1K1. I watched the show just to see W1K1. I remember nothing else about it, although the internet tells me James Doohan was in it too. Come to think of it, W1K1 is a pretty cool name for a robot. Nowadays we can pretend that it's an allusion to Wikipedia.


7. Roboz
   There was a show with a boat called Riptide back in the 80's, and on that boat was an orange robot named Roboz. Again, this is another TV programme I watched just because a robot was in it, and I also remember nothing else about it. Roboz didn't do much though. I wonder why I found him so fascinating as a kid.


8. KITT
   KITT was an AI installed in a black Trans-Am in Knight Rider. KITT was both a robot and a cool 80's car, which made him doubly awesome. He was sarcastic, loaded with weaponry, and just looked badass. There were several attempts to reboot the series, the latest of which has a new KITT which is an ugly Mustang that manages to look less futuristic than the one from the 80's. Nice going, TV producers.


9. Bender
   I haven't seen too many episodes of Futurama, but from the few I have seen, Bender has always been incredibly funny. There is just something so wrong yet so right about a dysfunctional, sarcastic robot. When I get the chance, I should catch up on my Futurama, if only to watch this guy.


10. K-9
    There have been numerous robots on Doctor Who, most of them villains. However, K-9 is a lovable robot dog companion for the Doctor which predates the Aibo by a few decades. I'm pretty sure I've seen him in the hazy memories I have of the old Doctor Who show, since I was thrilled to see him again when he made an appearance in the new series with David Tennant.

There are other popular TV show robots out there like the Cylons and the robot from Lost In Space, but sadly I have never seen those shows.

This has probably been the dorkiest post I've ever made.

Bird Sightings This Week

This week I have attempted to record more birds on video, so that I can compile them into web shorts and put them up here. In between the video shots, I took a few stills too. I've been mainly using my still camera (DSC-H2) for this, but I've also got a video camera on loan for a bird film I am making. We'll see how that project goes. In the meantime, enjoy these shots.

Olive-backed sunbirds are small and jumpy. They are hard to photograph unless they're perched high up on some antennae or treetop and chirping their lungs out.

"Astro" is the name of the satellite TV subscription service in Malaysia. It's so common that "everyone" has it, that is everyone who wants to fork out about 80 bucks a month for old, repetitive shows. Clearly this white-throated kingfisher doesn't think much of the service either, as it looks like he's pooped on the Astro dish.

Look, a team of vigilant superhero birds! On the top of the branch is the famous and heroic dollarbird (dum da da dum!) and the smaller guy at the bottom is his sidekick, coppersmith barbet!

Brahminy kites are a common sight on campus. This one is carrying a twig, probably to build a nest with.

This is a common sparrow, and he looks angry. Maybe he hates being photographed.

Roland Emmerich To Direct Asimov's Foundation

Roland Emmerich, the creative genius who brought us critically-panned travesties such as "Godzilla" and "The Day After Tomorrow", is set to direct a film treatment of Isaac Asimov's Foundation.

Was it because Steven Spielberg was unavailable? Why does Hollywood do this to us? Why?

Hollywood Is About To Remake The Karate Kid

First off, I am not categorically opposed to the idea of remakes. Some old premises and ideas that weren't done very well in the past can be reinterpreted and modernised. The new Battlestar Galactica TV series is an example. What was originally a cheesy rip-off of Star Wars has now be re-imagined into a slick new show. However, some things should just be left alone. Among those things is The Karate Kid.

I don't just say this because it's a childhood favourite of mine. It's because there really is nothing more you can add to that movie that wasn't said in the original. There is no need to reinterpret or modernise any of the themes; the movie was about fathers and sons, friendship and honour.

Now, not only is the film being remade, but it seems the producers want to mangle it in the most horrific ways imaginable. According to Slashfilm, Jaden Smith will be the lead actor, Jackie Chan will play Mr. Miyagi, and it'll be set in the "exotic locale" of Beijing. These production choices are highly questionable; Jaden Smith is too young, and I can't picture Jackie Chan as Mr. Miyagi. Actually, I can't imagine anyone else besides Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi. It seems disrespectful to the late Mr. Morita to recast him at all, let alone recast him horribly.

What are the characters doing in Beijing, anyway? It's as if they cast a random Asian man who does martial arts, and a random location in Asia so that it looks "exotic". The director for this train wreck of an idea is Harald Zwart, the guy who helmed The Pink Panther 2 (which is a sequel to another bad remake).

I know it's not right to judge a movie before it's even made, but I have this sinking feeling in my gut that it's going to be the worst remake ever conceived. If Hollywood's history of remakes is any indicator of future production quality, then this film is doomed to be awful.

Lunar Photography Attempt III

Tonight, there is a full moon and the skies are clear; a perfect opportunity to attempt lunar photography. The above picture was taken at around 11pm. Using aperture priority, F value was set to f/3.7, shutter speed was set to 1/1000, spot metering was used and the sensitivity was at ISO 200. As usual, I used my tele lens attachment with a focal length of 432*1.7 mm.

My previous attempts at lunar photography can be found here and here.

Chasing Kites

It was a windy day today. I went chasing kites; the kind that has wings, feathers and fly on their own. A couple of brahminy kites were gliding on the winds, circling above VC Rock and making close passes over the treetops.

The brahminy kite is quite a beautiful bird, silhouetting the sky with its chestnut wings spread out and its sharp eyes looking down. They are a common sight in this part of the world, and they are both hunters and scavengers.

Reading List

There's a long list of books I want to read (or re-read), and it's one of my resolutions this year to read more. The stack of books in the above picture is what I'd like to go through eventually. At topmost priority are my tech books, and the Terry Pratchett books that Megan was nice enough to send to me (thanks again!).

New Doctor Announced

Matt Smith is the new Doctor in Doctor Who. We don't get a lot of UK television here, so I haven't seen him before. However he is the first doctor that's actually younger than me. This is so wrong. It is warping my brain. I tell myself that even though he resembles a guy born in 1982, he is over 900 years old. That makes me feel less old.

Tumblr

Here is where I got myself one of those tumblelogs, which are less organised blogs you throw random junk on. The idea was pioneered by Anarchaia, and every other tumblelog is a rip-off of that site. So now I have one too. You'll also find an RSS feed to it among the little blog boxes on the right. Sometimes fun links get posted to irc (ag has consistently done this over the years, well done) and I wouldn't want my readers to miss out on that. All twelve of you. Okay my tracker says 11616 but I'm sure that's a rounding error. Also because the internet needs more random junk.