No, VCTB hasn’t been hacked, and I’ve not started doing paid posts bigging up products I don’t use. Well, not yet, anyway.

This is a favour for a friend, and also a sort of word-to-the-wise and SEO-boost in one. My buddy James (who, despite claiming to be a doughty Anglo-Saxon warrior, is probably the most amiably geeky death metal fan you’ll ever meet*) is about to move house.

He loves a bit of that television stuff**, and he’s been researching how much it’ll cost him to get kitted out with all the High Definition channels and other bells and whistles. The packages Sky offers are pretty pricey***, so James took a look around at alternatives … and guess what, savvy consumers?

It appears the best way to save big money on Sky HD is to get your HD from elsewhere.

This has been a public service announcement. As you were!

[ * That's the price you pay for my favours, James. Muah-hah-hah! ]

[ ** No television in this house. Looking forward to the annual visit of the scanner people, who always leave disappointed after I've showed them every TV-free nook and cranny of the flat. ]

[ *** SRSLY - that package price would cover all my utilities - including broadband - for a year, and still leave enough to take a few mates out for The Friday Curry. I'm sticking with books and music, I reckon. ]

It’s been a lively week for debate in sf-blogland, and I doubt it’s over yet. Let’s see… Continue reading “Science fiction: quality entertainment?”

I’m a little late with this one, but the point bears making even if the link is a few days stale. Continue reading “Science fiction and cultural focus”

ComBots - Combat Robots, the largest fighting robot show in the world.

If any UK readers were ever disappointed by Robot Wars (for me personally, Craig Charles was a travesty, especially after the Red Dwarf years, but Phillipa Forrester…hell yeah, no complaints), here is the real deal. The weapons are far more hard core, there’s much less nampy-pamby restriction of brutality. Damn those Yanks, they always have to go one better…

For those that don’t know already, I work in a library here in Velcro City… Continue reading “Literacy crisis or sign of the times?”