Where's Wil?

So I'm pretty sure that, as of today, I'm the leanest and meanest I've ever been in my adult life. I hit 196lbs having spent the past two months working out at the gym like crazy. I'm a bit more toned here and there so I'm putting on muscle and taking off fat - which is obviously pretty neat. The fatblogging community seems to have died, but I am finding incentive enough in my upcoming nuptials - I want to look damn good in those photographs!

I have discovered cool new way to pass the time - TV episodes on the iPhone! I have been watching episodes of MASH and The Wire while I run on the running machine - seeing as MASH comes in at 25 minutes, that's quite a nice length to be running for. Then for weights work while I'm moving around, I've been checking out a couple of new albums - Linkin Park Underground 7.0 (with a cool selection of recent live tracks by the band) and I've also been listening to Alan Alda's awesome new audiobook, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself - grabbed from Emusic, DRM-free. Top stuff.

Man... it's been a long time since I did anything that remotely resembled programming - and boy, does it show. I did my A-Level Computing project in Visual Basic, using relational databases to create a point of sale and stock control system with an easy to use interface.

I was immensely proud of it at the time - every single field was error checked and input locked, and the whole thing ran on one multi-purpose algorithm that simply got fed a bunch of different variables to execute different procedures. It was wicked elegant, and I'l wager there wasn't a bug in it.

I had a go at doing a recipe book and shopping list planner in Filemaker Pro today. Man, I can remember relational database design no problem - what I can't do is get my head around Filemaker itself. It just doesn't seem as easy to use as VB or Access was - maybe I'm just being stupid, but I can't quite get to grips with the interface.

So if anyone is a Filemaker whizz out there, I'd sure appreciate some help!

I have to say that, despite being a bloke who enjoys balls-to-the-wall action flicks, most of my favourite movies are what I would term 'indie introspection' flicks, characterised by sharp dialogue, black humour and a large dose of 'hmmmm' factor. The leading light in these movies has to be Wes Anderson, and his movies Rushmore and The Darjeeling Ltd are absolutely up there, along with Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and American Beauty by Sam Mendes.

Well I'm happy to report that I can add another top-class movie to that list, in Juno - the latest flick starring Superbad's Michael Cera. This is a fantastic film about a 16 year old girl, played in a terrifically tennagey manner by Ellen Page, who gets pregnant - and her journey to work out the best way to live her life and how to make out the relationships in her life. It's fantastically melancholy with some fantastic scripting.

I also love the music selection, which is pretentious but inspired. I'd thoroughly recommend grabbing the soundtrack, which includes a great closing track sung by Cera and Page which is really quite beautiful in the context of the film.

The trailer is embedded below - enjoy, and definitely head down to your local picture house to check it out.

Thanks to commenters for the suggestions on online backup services. I did an episode of Unwired about it this week, looking at Mozy, Jungle Disk and .Mac. I have to say that I like all three, for different reasons. Video is below if you're interested in my take!

So, looks like Sony won the Hi-Def war. Awesome - now I can finally invest in a few discs without worrying that I'm heading down the wrong path. I've been very impressed with the PS3 as a Blu-ray player - all I need now is for a few titles (Bourne, Matrix) to make the HD crossover.

Talking about Sony, how about this for service - I called yesterday to report my PS3 as broken, with a disc drive that doesn't read discs. The lovely lady on the end of the phone informed me that a guy would be here today with a replacement, and to just hand back my old one. None of this 28-day Microsoft malarkey - next day on your doorstep switchover service. I am seriously impressed by that.

Are things finally starting to swing Sony's way again?

Having exhausted The West Wing, I've been looking around for new series' to start. Having had lots of recommendations for The Wire, the HBO series, I thought I'd give it a go. I have to say, it's exceptional. The first season is mind-blowingly good, the second season is not quite as good but awesome nonetheless, but the third season has picked right back up again. I love the fact it doesn't just stick to stereotypes - it really plays around with characters and preconceptions. Stringer Bell, in particular, is an amazingly well painted dude. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

So after losing my Xbox 360 for a few weeks last year to the infamous Red Ring of Death, today the PS3 has given up the ghost too.

After playing Devil May Cry 3 for a couple of hours - having first suffered through the 30 minute install - the console froze and had to be restarted. Upon restart, it seemed to have lost all ability to read discs. Playstation games, standard DVDs - none of them are recognised by the machine.

A quick poke around the official UK PS3 forums reveals a 13-page thread of people who have had their PS3 Blu-ray drives die. This is aggravating. What happened to good old quality control?

I'm looking into the best way to back up my Mac on online. Obviously I back up locally - I also need to get a big disk for Time Machining - but I also like the idea of sticking crucial stuff in a dedicated online account. I've heard good things about Jungle Disk, and obviously I have the option of .Mac. Does anyone have any suggestions for good services that will keep my data safe, secure and, ideally, encrypted? Not that I'm paranoid or anything. But just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. o_O

Bit of a bizarre one this. In order to really drive the point home that their latest phone is all about 'touch', Samsung hired a couple of masseuses to do backrub duty at their press event yesterday. Who am I to turn down a free elbow to the spine?

Kudos to my friend's brother's band, LemonJelly, for the mellow tune underneath.

Actually, that's a complete lie. My friends will tell you I'm massive on politics. But regardless, this just blew me away:



I mean, holy smokes. Read the text that goes with it, written by Will.i.am, over at the HuffPo here.

Cripes.

-Wil

Readers who would be regular were I to post here more often: stand by for something kinda cool. I promise to make the wait worthwhile!