Halfapenguin.com

Marriage by another name

11:14, 01 Jun 2007

Its being reported by the mail that it is an issue that teachers promote marriage as the best role model for future happyness. Academics are saying that by doing this, it makes non-conformist lifestyles seem lesser by comparison. To put this complaint at the feet of teachers, seems a little bit unfair given the fact that it happens everywhere. When gay and lesbian characters pop up in television, the majority of plots seem based around shock and comedy, rather than the more complex plotlines that feature for straight storylines. There are certain exceptions, such as Willow in Buffy, but most of what we are bombarded with is straight people getting married, according to statistics 1 in 10 people at least are what we would term gay or lesbian, ignoring those who are secretly bisexual, surely that means 1 in 10 characters on television should be Gay or Lesbian? Yes there is both L-Word and the former (but very good) Queer as Folk, but there should not be "special" programs to deal with "special" issues, on mainstream television. Looking at other minorities in similar proportions to the LGBT comunity, there is no need for Jewish or Pakistani specific programing, despite each has differences and complications of interaction, but they can be integrated very easily into conventional programs. I think the time has come for the entertainment industry to stop playing it safe, yes with programs like Big Love, they are pushing the envelope, but bring what you have learned back into the mainstream. Relationships and attraction are part of nearly every show on television, stop with the obvious choices, with Doctor Who and Captain Jack, we have seen that bisexuality can be shown to be something that viewers can take in their stride. Stop making characters like him odities and talking points, and instead make them part of the normal fabric of the world we see on our tv screens. Then our children will stop being infused by our unconcious bigotry and start to open their minds, and the 50th century may seem a little closer.

foleo, what art thou foleo

16:20, 02 Jun 2007

Watching the video about the palm foleo (found via Apple Insider) i feel rather unwowed by what effectively is a big magnifying glass for your smartphone. It does feel a bit like its trying to create a niche, the way i see things, if my smartphone will suffice (either a nokia n80i or a htc tytn), i only take that, if need power of a laptop, i take a laptop, something this size but with laptop flexibility could be very nice, but i doubt it'll be well thought out as a development on the move platform sadly. I think if people are trying to look for something that would revolutionise the tech industry, they should remeber the Psion 5, something of that style, with a touch of modern technology, but keeping the form factor and usability would present a serious threat to any other smartphone/pda on the market.

Ding dong, no more bile, the bigot is dead

19:12, 05 Jun 2007

Okay this may offend some, but if it does, for one time in my life i don't mind. Jerry Falwell was a misguided, evil and hurtful man who made the world a much worse place, i can only hope that whatever is in the next phase of his existance is more merciful than i feel, because if i had my way, ironic therapy would be the watchword. I wish i were a better person and that i could feel compassion for him, and in some ways i feel sorrow for his blindness, but i am still glad that this excuse of a christian cannot hurt any more people.

Keep two legged creatures with pointy sticks out!

17:16, 11 Jun 2007

Just something that was slightly cleverly thought out, particually the saber tooth's opinion Hordes of imigrants

Better than sex

23:45, 11 Jun 2007

Okay yes, i'm weird, freakish, and loopy, and down right happy about that. I don't know if Carl Sagan realised it but the ending for the novel Contact he opened worlds of thought and imagination. The idea of having a message encoded into pi itself, just makes my mind tingle with ideas and possiblities, its been ages since i read the book, but it had a profound impact on me then, and i was just talking about it and just reawakened thoughts in my mind. I'll admit sex is rather mindblowing at times, but the thought-high i'm on at the moment, different scale... Thats my slightly complex thought for now...

Thoughts about Mr Saxon

00:44, 21 Jun 2007

Its been shown in the original series (directly stated in a trial of a timelord) that the Doctor was the Master's intellectual superior, however as Professor Yana, he learned new technologies and abilities. One thing that wasn't made clear is "yana tech" more capable than timelord science, or is it merely different. As evidenced by the doctor understanding the footprint engine, its probable that his abilities still trump the Master's on a level playing field, but the Master may have the ability to hide technologies in ways the Doctor is not able to recognise. The most important thing that i got the impression of was that firstly that the Doctor knew which timelord survived, and much more importantly that he let the Master go. He seemed apologetic towards the Master as if he had betrayed him, this suggests that possibly either before the war, or during, the Master was somehow used by the Doctor as part of one of his schemes. The fear that Yana was the Master, suggests that maybe he had some reason to suspect the Master might be alive. Alternatively its possible that the Doctor unable to kill the Master, used the chamelon arch on the Master by force to give him a chance at a non-evil existance, and did not know where in history he ended up. My conclusion about him letting the Master go is based on the fact that i strongly suspect that nobody can take off in the Doctor's Tardis when the doctor has the remote control in his hand. The Master may be a genius, but the Doctor is (A ) a greater genius (B ) guardian of the most capable powerful ship in the universe, therefore likely to have taken extremely good care to prevent anyone from using said Tardis. It is possible that the Master did outwit the Doctor, but i did get the distinct impression it was the Doctor letting the Master go rather than the other way round. As an aside, the hidden starting element this season, i actually missed, but then again it hadn't happened yet, however i was right that the Doctor triggered it. If the Doctor had never used the chamelon arch, its possible the Master would have never been released, because Martha would never have removed the perception filter, and so Professor Yana would never have noticed it as important. Its possible he would ...

Fixes, Layouts and Sitemapping

17:01, 23 Jun 2007

As of now, a few changes have been implemented, A small bug in the month view was fixed, however in a slight change of plan, i have now changed the month view to display all the entries for that month, in the same way that a day view does, this fixes the bug since the links in the summary view are correct. The summaries of the entries have now been extended. And in an attempt to increase traffic, i've implemented a basic sitemap for google indexing. I'm hoping to do slightly more interesting changes over the weekend. *Slight pre-interesting fix* RSS feeds have been fixed for another time by making sure they don't show articles that have yet to be published (this also applies to the sitemap)

2 Things definatly wrong with the iPhone logic

00:21, 24 Jun 2007

The youtube app, is to be honest, a waste of a slot on the iphone, given the limited number of icons. I can see certain advantages like being able to show off funny videos to friends, particually when few other mobile devices support youtube. However as an earthshattering app to showcase iphone, it feels very much a disappointment. Also looking at the demo video, and i know this is true for pretty much any phone on the market, but the shown off ringtones were terrible....you would think there would be some good songs they could set as ringtones. It seems an odd area to cut corners on when this is being sold partially as a music phone...

Go Hillary...

00:55, 24 Jun 2007

...and go straight to the heart, and the balls. This is a video i came across today, which while several months old, is a very well thought out and very nasty towards republican and corporate claims. She's talking to a group called the Apollo Alliance (named for the said program), but she's going after the claims of economy being damaged, and jobs lost by showing ways that the ecomy and jobs can be worked on at the same time as helping climate change. Definatlty in favour of removing tax breaks for oil companies, and "encouraging" them to contribute to alternatives. Not so in favour of clean coal technology, but its better than coal tech that pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, however there are better solutions that should be focused on. I have to say at the moment, Hilary is a stronger candidate, although i'm going to keep my eyes, ears, and thinking cap on the candidacy and occasionaly give my opinion.

Okay i was particually wrong about Saxon

10:57, 24 Jun 2007

The Doctor didn't let him go, The Doctor wasn't responsible for the Master's humanisation, The Doctor didn't implement appropriate security measures on the Tardis, The Master, while being generally geniuslike has not shown any greater level of knowledge than the Doctor so far. I have to say i thought the scene of the Capitol did look beautiful, first scene of galifrey in a generation. Speaking of the toclafane, the Master said that it would break the Doctor's heart to know who they were, which gives me a few ideas, but nothing very solid. I think they are related to utopia, either this is the way that the utopia project intended to survive, or this is the previous universe's utopia project, where they came from was definatly somewhere in turmoil, like perhaps the end of the universe...

Reborn Gallifrey

12:06, 24 Jun 2007

There has been this sense all this season that Galifrey is very important, all the way from the Racnoss, to now, i wonder if this is all significant to the end of the season, after all badwolf, and torchwood were somewhat subtle, saxon was about as subtle as a brick shaped, city sized meteor hitting london at near-luminal speeds. I doubt the capitol is about to be rebuilt, but i think next season, we may see the begnings of a new galifrey. Under burnt orange sky, phoenix like, the new capitol will rise from the ashes of the old.

The drumbeat in the phones

11:19, 24 Jun 2007

Looking at the Master, i can't help but think he's in 2 minds, there is the genuine Master, and the evil Mastermind, there is an underlying sense of he is being forced down the route he is taking, and can't turn back, that said he doesn't object being evil and all. It seems a shame, the Master, despite the name always seems to be working to someone elses masterplan, unless of course he's exploiting the Toclafane for his goal of domination. Whatever the drums are, i don't think they are to do with the Toclafane, unless they really are the gallifreyian bogeymen. I'm also confused entirely who Mrs Saxon is, she clearly knows at least most of the Master's plans and seems willing to go along, its possible she's under some kind of mind control. On the one hand she seems very ruthless, and the other hand very childlike. One final thing that i'm thinking is Professor Yana was a good, idealistic man, and the Doctor claimed that everything John Smith was capable of, so was he. Maybe burried under the layers of repression and evil that same good man might still exist in part.

Vengeful Time God

12:28, 24 Jun 2007

Side note, from utopia, given the doctor regenerated after the war, and after holding the power from rose, he had to regenerate again. Maybe he was speaking from experience about being a vengeful god, (The master referred to him as a godlike during the war) however Rose had enough control to kill the daleks and resurect Jack, so if thats the case why could he not destroy the daleks and save Galifrey?