Something About Bananas

I used to be a huge Harry Potter fan but stopped reading after the fifth book so on seeing "The Half Blood Prince", the sixth in the series I was pretty excited as it was the first Potter film that I wouldn't know what was going to happen in the story beforehand. So bare in mind that this review is from the point of view of who someone had not read the book prior to seeing the film.

First of all I have to say I went in to this film with very high hopes as other reviewers had said it was the best Potter film yet. Being a fan of the books I had always felt the films a let down as they just left out so much due to time constraints. Even though I hadn't read the book of this one I still got that feeling. It felt so quick and choppy even though it was 153 minutes long. I could sense the missing chapters that I had never read.

I did enjoy "The Order of the Phoenix" in 2007 however. That would have been the best out of the films, and the books too out of the first five.
Personally I felt this film was not as good as that film and probably not as good as some of the older ones too that to be honest I can't quiet remember.

This one had a lot more romance as the gang get older and start getting emotional...and a bit physical too. We see Hermione falling for Ron as she gets jealous over his new girlfriend Lavender and Harry getting a sneaky kiss from Ginny, Ron's sister. To be honest there is quite a lot of emphasis on these romantic relationships in the film which really takes the darkness away. There is also a lot of humour in this one. The audience where in stitches during some scenes such as Ron eating Romilda Vanes love potion chocolates which made him loopy in love with a girl he never met.



However, the main plot is probably the dullest of all the Potter's so far. The Dark Forces are strengthening and showing more presence in both the magical and Muggle world.

Harry finds a potions book with hidden secrets previously owned by the Half Blood Prince which make him excel in potions class.

Dumbledore also recruits him for a task. Professor Slughorn was a Professor in Hogwarts many years ago and has been asked to return as Potions Master. Dumbledore wants to find out a very important secret or more specifically a memory of Slughorn and recruits Harry to get close to him and find out more about it.

Draco Malfoy also has a more prominent role this time as he has an important task to carry out himself just like Harry. But not by Dumbledore. Can you guess who by?



That's pretty much all I can say without giving any spoilers
I have to say I was a bit disappointed but especially as this film isn't as dark as the previous one even though the Dark Forces are getting stronger but it does get more exciting and indeed darker in the last hour and is well worth a watch if you've been following the series.

I give Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince a 7 out of 10. Harshest review I've seen yet though so maybe it's just me. Here is the trailer.
Click "HD" for higher quality.

Finally Nickelback steer away from their soppy single releases like "I'd Come For You" and "If Today Was Your Last Day" (which where clearly just to attract more female fans)and have released the music video of their new single "Burn it to to the Ground" which is a much heavier rock song from their latest album "Dark Horse".

The track was also featured in the recent hit film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Here is the full music video below.

Tech Conclave is a news style technology show founded and created by John Raul Joven II from the Philippines, but features news correspondents from around the globe. It's known as the Global Geek News Patrol.

John Raul is the News Anchor and also does all of the editing and production for the show but individual tech news stories are presented by geeks from all over the world, mainly the US and the UK.

The show is very well produced and has the production value as any of the mainstream news shows (Sky News, Fox News) but is aimed at tech related news particularly. Each episode is hosted on YouTube in 720p HD format and is about 10 minutes long (due to YouTube's time restraints) and covers between 5 and 10 of the latest technology news stories. A new episode is released weekly but due to the large amount of work in production it can sometimes be a larger gap between episodes.

More minor tech news can be read throughout the episodes scrolling along the bottom.
The great thing about Tech Conclave is that any body can be a correspondent. They just have to contact Tech Conclave to get a story.

I think the show is produced very well and is very informative and entertaining and deserves more of an audience than it has now. I very much reccommend you subscribe to Tech Conclave on YouTube and register on their website. You could even help out and be a correspondent, donate or even just favourite the videos on YouTube and remember the show's catchphrase, "It's good to be a geek"

Here is the latest episode of Tech Conclave in HD so let it buffer (or un-click the HD button) covering Firefox 3.5, Steve Jobs liver transplant, The new HTC Hero and much more.





[Extension]

Tech Coclave do not currently have the equiptment to create the show in an efficient way. The computer used to edit and render the show is not made for HD video rendering and editing and they desperately require a more powerful system. Here is there fundraising widget so if can, chip in.

Julia Nunes the amazing Ukulele artist from YouTube has just posted her cover of Don't Trust Me by 3OH!3 and puts a Uke twist on it along with some beats from a water bottle.

I am an Irish citizen and like most Irish people, I watch a lot of British TV (either that or rubbish RTE). The basic cable package over here consists of all the major UK stations such as BBC 1 and 2, Channel 4 and ITV (UTV over here). Being an Internet geek I rarely turn on the TV any more and prefer to watch television shows on the Internet. Some of my favourite shows are on the Channel 4 network such as Shameless, The Inbetweeners and Skins. I regularly use the application 4OD to watch full episodes of my favourite TV shows completely free and legally.

However, some of the networks that have online players for TV streaming have a strict UK only policy such as The BBC with their BBC iPlayer. Channel 4 where the kind ones who allowed us Irish citizens from the Republic to watch their content as well, just as we do on TV.



Recently Channel 4 have decided to shut down the application for 4OD and opt for a web based version of the service which is accessed through an Internet browser with Adobe Flash Player, just like YouTube for example. Their is one problem with this. The web version is only available to residents of the UK so 4OD is not available in the Republic of Ireland any more. Their reason for this is that some of the content on 4OD only has rights to be shown in the UK and they do not have the systems that can filter out that content from Irish viewers. Their remedy is to block all of the content from any IP Address that is from outside of the UK. This means no more 4OD for Ireland. I find this unfair as I have supported Channel 4 and E4 just like any British citizen and pay to watch it on my TV so why can't I catch up on missed episodes on 4OD just like I used to?



So I wrote this post to let Irish people know that when Channel 4 do shut down the 4OD application, They will not be able to watch 4OD on the new web version. I understand that it is a British television network but it's the fact that they allowed us to watch before when it was application based and now they are taking it away.

A lot of their profit would be from their Irish market so I feel we have as much right to the 4OD service as the British. I think this is just going to encourage Irish people to use services such as TV Shack to stream TV shows for free and bit torrents to download them. This way Channel 4 and other networks won't be earning any ad revenue at all from the potential 4 million Irish residents. It will be Party Poker and Adult Friend Finder that make the cash now. What do you think? Are you annoyed that 4OD is being taken away from you? Are you annoyed that you can't use other players such as the BBC iPlayer or do you think that Irish people shouldn't be expecting free TV off British networks at all. Leave a comment and let me know. Hopefully they'll sort it out before Skins Series 4.

[Update]

The Head of Online Products, Channel 4, Richard Davidson-Houston has commented on this post with the following information;

"Hello.

I'm sorry service has been suspended. I'd be annoyed if I lived in Eire.

We really are planning to do the work necessary to block only the specific programmes for which there's a rights problem.

I don't know when yet but I hope to soon."

So there is still hope.


[Latest Update]

I have received word from Mr. Richard Davidson-Houston, Head of online product management at Channel 4 that 4OD is back in Ireland. I am in college at the moment so haven't checked but I'll take his word for it. After all he was very polite and used the greatest medium ever to report the news to me....Twitter.

So leave a comment confirming that 4OD is working for you now if you live in Ireland.

Thank you Richard Davidson-Houston.

Brink is a short film created by fans of the hit E4 television program "Skins". A few months back the creators of Skins (Company Pictures) held a competition for Skins fans. The prize was they got to create a short film for E4.com. They recruited Skins fans to be Production Designers, Directors and everything else needed to create a film.

The result was a 13 minute long film a bout a boy named Dean who sufferers with OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder. He carries out an odd and obscure daily routine. He believes that the world will end he fails to do so. Then a girl Rachel comes along who has an a strange "she knows what's going on" sense about her. She invites him to a party.....but if he goes will the world end?

Watch the entire film below. I thought it was very strange and obscure but also very original and unique. I think the idea could work very well in a feature length film or even a television series like Skins. As this film was created entirely by young talent who had never worked professionally in film before I'll be easy on the rating.
I give Brink a 7 out of 10.

You can find more information at E4.com