Zooomr 2008: RSN

Kristopher Tate and Thomas Hawk are getting ready to do the Happy Happy Update dance again very soon: The Zooomr blog is reporting that Zooomr 2008 will launch on 3.3.08 (which is Monday, if my calculations are correct).

Let’s just hope it goes better than last time. I wish Kristopher all the best with the launch. I wonder if they’re doing a live stream…

If only I could remember my password, I could log in and check out the new features come launch day! Curses! There doesn’t appear to be an "email me my password" link of Zooomr either. Buttocks.

Being Human: Are You Listening BBC?

Dear Auntie Beeb: commission this as a series NOW!

Being Human is currently airing on BBC3 as a one off drama (and is available for the next four days on iPlayer here) and if the idea of a cleverly written, Brit made, supernatural drama series appeals to you then I urge you to check it out and make sure the BBC know you’ve enjoyed it (either by commenting here, or over on another review I found online).

The premise is neat: Mitchell is a vampire, George is a werewolf. Tired of living the unsettled life so typical of their kind, they decide to buy a house together and try to make a go of settling down. Mitchell suggests he’ll go on the wagon (ie, not drink blood), and George is adamant that he’ll lock himself away every full moon to avoid causing any trouble.

Things take an interesting turn when the couple find their new home comes with a little bit more than just fixtures and fittings, George bumps into an old girlfriend at the hospital that he and Mitchell work in (who thought he was dead), and Mitchell’s vampire buddies put in an appearance (who disapprove of his friendship with George).

The characterisation is a joy, and there’s so much potential with the characters that this pilot introduces. The performances are spot on, particularly George (Russell Tovey) who is totally convincing throughout, whether he’s being brilliantly menacing the night before the full moon, or bursting with excitement at the prospect of getting their own house. It’s also nice to see an old fashioned Werewolf transformation too…none of that CGI nonsense here, thankyouverymuch.

So if you’ve not seen it, go an have a look. It’s probably repeated on BBC3 again anyway, but as mentioned (and linked) above, you’ve got four iPlayer days left.

I just hope my prayers get answered, and the BBC finally realise that UK audiences would lap something like this up. We’ve not had a home-grown vampire series since Ultraviolet.

O2 iPhone Unlocking

I spent most of yesterday trying to unlock a UK O2 iPhone so it could be used with any sim. Just for the record: it wasn’t my iPhone; admittedly I am looking for a new mobile, and I did briefly consider the iPhone, but I’m not getting one.

I thought I’d post a few tips here for anyone that needs to do the same thing. Leave a comment if you find this post useful.

The device I was unlocking had bootloader 4.6, and had been flashed with the latest 1.1.3 firmware. I’d been told it was a 1.1.1 out of the box (OTB) but I have my doubts about that - from what I’ve read you can only have bootloader 4.6 if your iPhone started life on 1.1.2.

At first I downgraded the firmware to 1.1.1, then I needed to "JailBreak" it. With that done, I could install custom applications, one of which is AnySim. This is supposed to unlock your iPhone, but I kept having it crash out on me with a "main script execution failed" error.

Eventually, I installed BBInfo, which is a handy little tool that runs on your iPhone, and tells you which bootloader is installed, and which Baseband is on there.

It turns out I was using the latest baseband (which is why the AnySim unlock failed). So I flashed back to 1.1.3, then used ZiPhone, and ZiPhone GUI (here) to unlock very, very easily. Literally plug in the phone, and click a button. All good.

Or so I thought. It turns out that YouTube stops working if you take that approach. It also turns out the the Google Maps Location functionality gets broken too. I tried installing various YouTube fixes through Installer, but nothing working. I flashed back to 1.1.3 again, tried various other angles of attack, but had no success.

So I decided to take a different approach, using the instructions here. I downgraded to 1.1.1 again, made sure I’d implemented a JailBreak on it, and checked through the Installer’s other applications in Unlocking Tools. It turns out there’s an unlock for OTB 1.1.2/1.1.3 iPhones, but you have to run it from 1.1.1.

The process then becomes: flash to 1.1.1, run the 1.1.2/1.1.3 OTB Unlock, then flash 1.1.2 using iTunes, then JailBreak 1.1.2, then do an over-the-air upgrade to 1.1.3 using Installer.

Conjunctivitis, Cloverfield, and Comfortable Shoes

By way of an update, in reverse chronological order, here’s what’s going on:

I have conjunctivitis in my left eye, which has caused it to swell up, and will only open half way. This is annoying. I’ve got drops that have to live in the fridge, so at the moment they’re sat next to someone’s home-made salad, or whatever gubbins is in that Tupperware in work’s fridge. Hope my drops don’t get eaten…anything goes in this place…

I saw Cloverfield at the weekend, and very much enjoyed it. It’s basically Godzilla, or King Kong, shot through a digital camera by a bunch of attractive-looking youths. There are parallels with Romero’s Diary of the Dead (which should get a theatrical release soon) but Cloverfield isn’t as determined to get its message across. If it even has a message. It’s more of a clever piece of viral marketing, with an end product that actually delivers for a change. I’m a sucker for half decent giant monster movies, and this certainly fits that category.

Oh, and it gave me motion sickness for the first time in my life. Seriously, I thought I was going to throw up or leave the cinema. That’s never happened before. Unless you count the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake…but that was for different reasons.

It’s also very pleasing to see all the speculation on various Internet blogs and forums, regarding things that didn’t happen in the film. The origins of the creature, what the meaning of various clues are, and what path a potential sequel could take are all being debated on a number of sites. This makes me happy: anything that fires up people’s imaginations after they’ve left the cinema is a good thing, if you ask me. And you didn’t, but you’re reading my blog, so that’s close enough.

I took a week off from training last week. I walked to work on Monday and Tuesday, and managed to hurt my heel/ankle, pansy that I am. On Wednesday it was particularly excruciating, and so on Thursday I decided a visit to the local quack doctor was in order.

He basically told me that a) the problem would be very persistent, b) the problem would be extremely painful, and c) I’d not be able to run the race in May.