兩週一聚

兩周一聚(十二)題目：怕

38 Comments

偶然參加了兩周一聚這個網上聚會﹐認識到天涯海角的一班博友。每兩個星期大家寫同一個題目﹐從多角度去看同一件事﹐大家交流想法激刺思考。今期我自告奮勇出題目。題目一個字﹕ 怕

你怕什麼﹖有人怕狗﹐有人怕黑﹐有人怕鬼。有人畏高﹐有人畏妻﹐有人畏首畏尾。今期的題目請大家暢談心中恐懼﹐越怕就越要講出來。四月十五日你驚我仲驚﹐大家一齊小心小心怕怕囉﹗現在我最怕的是什麼﹖我最怕沒有人參加今期的兩週一聚﹐所以請大家湧躍參加。

參加辨法很簡單﹐在這裏留言報名﹐四月十五日交功課。先把文章放在自己的博上﹐再把連結轉貼過來。另外誠徵下一期兩週一聚的出題者﹐先到先得手快有手慢冇﹐快點留言回覆吧。

報名處﹕
hevangel
加燦
The Man Who Loves Everton
Michelle
Readandeat
Athrunz
Tzigane
周游
Simon Lai
Lomichee
Gwen
Wiwinana
Nankin
Zero
芸
mad dog
Silver
Wanni
Haricot
Cillli mon
Mingmanfred
Bungy-Zoe
Venus
longqt

下期出題者﹕ Tzigane

動漫

Platonic Heart 絕對衝激

2 Comments

Platonic Heart

看《絕對衝激》很自然讓我聯想起《一騎當千》﹐兩套動畫的賣點也是美少女格鬥﹐同樣也是越打越少布。其實要為這套動畫寫評論實在有點難度﹐基本上開首第一句已經把重點說清楚明白﹐其飾篇幅說的只是可有可無的配菜。《絕對衝激》一共五集OVA﹐除了動畫外還有一系烈週邊商品﹐當然包括電腦遊戲了。故事行貨到不能再行貨﹐主角是武功天下無敵的高中女生﹐因機綠巧合參加了美少女格鬥比賽。每個參賽者都像是玩cosplay﹐主角是女學生﹐她的對手有巫女﹐空姐﹐女警﹐護士﹐教師﹐要什麼角色有什麼角色﹐要什麼制服有什麼制服。為什麼要參加比賽的原因並不重要﹐比賽背後的陰謀也可以不用理會﹐最重要是每集也有美少女打格鬥戰。

雖然美其名這套是格鬥動畫﹐但打鬥只是掛羊頭賣狗肉﹐動作招式十分生硬﹐決勝過程甚至牽強得很離譜。每次總是女主角先挨打﹐待給揍到吐血差不多半死﹐就會忽然大發神威一招KO對手。她的復原力出乎意料地極強﹐上個鏡頭才血花四淺﹐下個鏡頭可以完全沒有受過傷。最神奇是明明身前挨打﹐身後的衣服卻無故暴烈。更加神奇是不論衣服如何破損﹐內衣褲總是完整無缺﹐令我想起以前《星矢》的動畫名物鐵壁內衣。女主角的對手可沒有神奇內衣保護﹐那便由她們負責犧牲色相大灑鹽花。除了打鬥賣肉可以外﹐任何可以賣肉的機會也不放過﹐故事加插很多出浴和水著鏡頭﹐簡直是服務大放送。

開頭四集的劇情十分公式化﹐到了結局卻來個一百八十度轉彎。為了解開格鬥比賽的謎團﹐編劇前後連扭四次橋﹐一浪緊接一浪越扯越遠﹐真係完全無可能估到。最讓人驚喜的是最後一戰﹐竟然女主角媽媽代女出征﹐超級腹黑的結尾也有別於一般大團員結局。不過從開始對劇本已沒有任何期望﹐故事能否自圓其說並不影響動畫的可觀性﹐反正只是找個藉口來打鬥爆衫。這套動畫明顯鎖定是特定觀眾群﹐善歡看的人會大呼過癮﹐不喜歡看的人應該連看也不會看。

Daily Scribble

How to display Chinese mp3 tag in iPhone

6 Comments

Pat got a new iPhone, so it is my job to load it up with mp3. When I import my Chinese mp3 into iTune, the mp3 tag of some songs are displayed as funny characters. The iPod song list in iPhone suffers the same problem. It is very inconvenient if you don’t know what singer and song you are listening. The best you can do is trying to guess the song from the album art and track number. My friends who has an iPhone and copy mp3 from me also has the same problem. It seems they simply rename the mp3 tag manually or tolerate the occasion corrupted song name.

After praying to the Google God, asking it to help me solve the problem, I got an answer. The cause of the problem is that the mp3 use big5 or GB code in the mp3 tag, which is incompatible with the Unicode used in iTune and iPhone. The solution is pretty straight forward, all I need to do is to translate the characters inside the mp3 tag to Unicode using Convertz 8.02. The interface of the program looks a bit dated (or should I say it is ugly?), but it get the job done. I have to pre-process the mp3 files before I import them to iTune. The two steps process is a bit inconvenient, but better than no knowing what song is playing. Why don’t iTune have a built-in mp3 tag code convention feature?

Daily Scribble

The two extreme of children

1 Comment

I read two news article about children today. One talks about children in Canada, the other talks about children in India. One talks about the problem of having too much, the other talks about the problem of having next to nothing. The article on Globe and Mail is about Why are children starving in a booming India?. The article on National Post is about The Perfect Child. It is quite unsettling to read the extreme contrast to the fate of children in two places.

The problem for Canadian parent is how to raise a perfect children. The dilemma is having the life of the child too well planned so he cannot learn from trail and error or his own mistake. On the other side of the world, the Indian children are struggling to stay alive. Children malnutrition in India is twice worse than in Africa and five times worse than in China. The problem of teaching children to read and write in China seems like a piece of cake.

The news presents a typical poor Indian family with malnourished child. The dad in the family makes merely US$5 a month, but he spent half of what he earn in cigarette instead of buying food for the children. The family income cannot support a big family but they are having six children. Babies are not breastfeed once he is born, the mother ask the astrologer to pick an auspicious day to start breastfeeding, sometimes the baby is not fed for days or even weeks. Foreign aids agency wants to provide vitamin pills to the poor children, but the Hindu fundamentalist protest the capsule is made of gelatin, a product made of cows.

I feel sorry for the children in India, but their misfortune cannot blame anyone but their own stupid culture. If a culture don’t treasure their next generation, this culture has no future. If a culture treasure cows more than the life of their children, this culture should simply go extinct. It can go extinct naturally with its population die slowly and painfully. Alteratively we can help the culture extinct sooner and better by liberating its people. We should help them move on to a more enlightened culture, even we have to force the liberation. People with a stupid culture has no rights to cling on their culture.

Product Reviews

iPhone

9 Comments

iPhone

iPhone has become the new de facto standard of cell phone. Almost everyone I know who bought a new cell phone since iPhone 3G released got an iPhone. I estimate over half of my friends is already a iPhone user. I am pretty late to the iPhone bandwagon. Actually, I am not really part of the iPhone crowd, the new iPhone belongs to Pat. Her old cell phone dropped in water and totaled. Given the popularity of iPhone, it is quite obvious which phone I should buy her as replacement.

I spent the night setting up her new iPhone. I am never a fans of Apple, but I must praise its elegance. The iPhone is well integrated with iTune, the user interface is intuitive and easy to use. The only hassle I had is calling up Fido customer service to disable the data service in the cell phone plan. It took me awhile to get the customer service agent do exactly what I asked. Pat is using a very cheap $17 monthly plan that does not come with any data package. Data is charged per kbyte, so monthly bill would be quite expensive if Pat turned on iPhone’s 3G data features by accident. It is safer to disable all data services from the carrier side. Pat can still go online with her iPhone using Wi-Fi, just like go online with a laptop.

The iPhone is as powerful as a mini-computer. Probably more powerful than the first laptop I own many years ago. The phone is also a very good deal, the 16GB version only costs $199 after rebate. The cost of the iPhone is heavy subsidized by carrier. The carrier’s plan to turn a profit is using the lucrative data plan come with the contract, which costs $30 a month plus surcharge if the bandwidth usage is over the limit. It is more economical to stay away from the 3G data plan, use iPhone as a phone, a mp3 player and only use its online features at coffee shop with free Wi-Fi. I wonder why people pay extra for the data plan. How often do you need to go online while on move? I don’t think I can surf the web and driving at the same time. If you want to check up something quick, there are Wi-Fi coffee shop every where.