Argh! I now officially hate Veronica, a tv network here in the Netherlands.
Veronica used to be a government sponsored network. Not unlike the BBC in the UK, except we have several of those, sharing the three public tv channels. They've always focused on a young crowd and eventually they decided that the public networks were keeping them back. To make a long story short: after a short-lived alliance with the RTL networks, they sided with the RTL's rival the SBS network and got their own tv channel. This was heaven on earth!
Well, maybe not exactly heaven on earth, but it was pretty nice all the same. Where before there really wasn't much on tv that I liked, now I had a monday night filled with science fiction series, daily Buffy reruns, good movies on a regular basis, new Angel episodes, etc. etc. Tv couldn't get much better for me.
But of course it wouldn't last... Sigh...
The SBS group had always been synonymous with audience disrespect. They'd stick 20 minutes of lame "news" shows (think reports on some tree that might collapse on someone's house) right in the middle of the last 40 minutes of a movie. Their pograms would never start at the time they announced. One day they'd start 10 minutes earlier and the other day that'd start 20 minutes late. If you wanted to make sure you didn't miss anything, you were forced to watch a good chunk of the cheap crappy shows that invariably were programmed right before the good shows.
SBS sucks and Veronica has been tainted. Badly. Shows get moved between timeslots on different days without the slightest warning. Series suddenly get programmed or pulled, more often than not right in the middle of seasons. Crappy shows get programmed in the slot between two episodes of some other show. The list goes on.
Up to today I could, with much effort, forgive them on account of the number of good shows they are broadcasting. But then they decided to stop broadcasting Angel until January, even though they're right in the bleeping middle of the last bleeping season. The exact same bleeping stunt they pulled with Buffy. And then they wonder why their ratings are so low. The bleepers. Argh!
Note: This post has been edited for expletives. Time to grow up... (Or at least give that impression ;-))
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Goodbye Adventurers!
Years ago I somehow found some free comic on the web. Even though I don't remember how I got there and I don't even remember what comic it was, it was some kind of internet milestone for me. I'd discovered the wonderful world of webcomics. (Alliteration, booyah!)
For those of you who haven't reached that milestone yet: there is a sort of internet subculture of people who create comics and post them on the web for anyone to see (sometimes after monetary compensation, but usually for free), much like the subculture of people who write blogs.
Since that fateful day, I've been building a steadily growing list of links to various webcomics that I check out daily. One of the comics that have been in my bookmarks for almost as long as I've known of webcomics is Adventurers!; a comic about the heroes of a console style CRPG, a la Final Fantasy.
A long time ago, probably years by now, Mark Shallow, Adventurers!' creator, announced that sometime in the semi-near future the comic would end and he would move on to another webcomic, Antihero for Hire. This is of course never a welcome thing to hear about one of your favorite comics, but it sure beats the comic slowly sliding into repetitive jokes and general unfunnyness like so many other comics whose creator has lost his interest.
Unfortunately, Adventurers! nevertheless did lose its funny. You see, it just won't end. You know its gonna end and they're definitely near the end in that it could end at pretty much any time, but it just... won't... happen...
First we had the heroes preparing to face the enemy for months. Then we had the showdown with the big boss Eternion, which also lasted months. And now we have the heroes fighting the recurring semi-capable villain Khrima of the comic for over SIX MONTHS!
It's gone on more than long enough. I just don't care anymore. Today, I removed the link to Adventurers! from my bookmarks. Perhaps I'll go through the archives someday when its finally really ended, but for now it's "Goodbye Adventurers!".
For those of you who haven't reached that milestone yet: there is a sort of internet subculture of people who create comics and post them on the web for anyone to see (sometimes after monetary compensation, but usually for free), much like the subculture of people who write blogs.
Since that fateful day, I've been building a steadily growing list of links to various webcomics that I check out daily. One of the comics that have been in my bookmarks for almost as long as I've known of webcomics is Adventurers!; a comic about the heroes of a console style CRPG, a la Final Fantasy.
A long time ago, probably years by now, Mark Shallow, Adventurers!' creator, announced that sometime in the semi-near future the comic would end and he would move on to another webcomic, Antihero for Hire. This is of course never a welcome thing to hear about one of your favorite comics, but it sure beats the comic slowly sliding into repetitive jokes and general unfunnyness like so many other comics whose creator has lost his interest.
Unfortunately, Adventurers! nevertheless did lose its funny. You see, it just won't end. You know its gonna end and they're definitely near the end in that it could end at pretty much any time, but it just... won't... happen...
First we had the heroes preparing to face the enemy for months. Then we had the showdown with the big boss Eternion, which also lasted months. And now we have the heroes fighting the recurring semi-capable villain Khrima of the comic for over SIX MONTHS!
It's gone on more than long enough. I just don't care anymore. Today, I removed the link to Adventurers! from my bookmarks. Perhaps I'll go through the archives someday when its finally really ended, but for now it's "Goodbye Adventurers!".
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Pimpin' Firefox
I decided I might as well start spreading the Firefox love, so I added a button to the bottom of the navbar.
If you don't know what Firefox is, or why you might want it: Firefox is the next generation browser of the mozilla project. If you're still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to surf the web, then you definitely need to check it out. It's just as easy to use, has many cool features that you'll never want to do without anymore after you've used them, is generally more secure than MSIE and, unlike Microsoft's browser, is constantly being improved.
Even you people who use the mozilla suite should check it out. The regular mozilla browser is great, but Firefox is even better. Trust me, I made the switch myself and I'm never going back. At least not until Firefox takes the place of the regular mozilla browser.
If you don't know what Firefox is, or why you might want it: Firefox is the next generation browser of the mozilla project. If you're still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to surf the web, then you definitely need to check it out. It's just as easy to use, has many cool features that you'll never want to do without anymore after you've used them, is generally more secure than MSIE and, unlike Microsoft's browser, is constantly being improved.
Even you people who use the mozilla suite should check it out. The regular mozilla browser is great, but Firefox is even better. Trust me, I made the switch myself and I'm never going back. At least not until Firefox takes the place of the regular mozilla browser.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
A beginning...
And here it is; my first post at my first blog. Not very interesting, given the number of blogs already on the web. Still, should this blog ever actually attract any readers, and should they ever go back to this very first post, I suppose that they would expect something about the intended nature of this blog in this post.
Well, it all boils down to the fact that I happen to spend way to much time behind a computer and that I like to ramble about everything and nothing. Might as well use the damn overgrown calculator to share my ramblings with whomever might be interested in them. Must be healthier than talking to myself and it'll spare my friends. If they're not interested, it's easier for them to ignore this blog than try and shut me up when I'm talking to them. And who knows; I may even improve my writing. That couldn't hurt.
But what will I generally ramble about? Glad you asked, my imaginary audience! The answer is: basically anything that'll strike my fancy. Given that I'm a nerdy computer science student, chances are that this'll involve a hefty dose of D&D, metal, older computer games and raves about some cool new piece of software I've just discovered. Or maybe it won't. I really don't know. Only time will tell...
Well, it all boils down to the fact that I happen to spend way to much time behind a computer and that I like to ramble about everything and nothing. Might as well use the damn overgrown calculator to share my ramblings with whomever might be interested in them. Must be healthier than talking to myself and it'll spare my friends. If they're not interested, it's easier for them to ignore this blog than try and shut me up when I'm talking to them. And who knows; I may even improve my writing. That couldn't hurt.
But what will I generally ramble about? Glad you asked, my imaginary audience! The answer is: basically anything that'll strike my fancy. Given that I'm a nerdy computer science student, chances are that this'll involve a hefty dose of D&D, metal, older computer games and raves about some cool new piece of software I've just discovered. Or maybe it won't. I really don't know. Only time will tell...
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