Satya's blog - 2010/06/

In response to a post on Boing Boing by Craig Engler, general manager and senior vice president of Syfy digital:

I don't care about any of your 7 things. I rarely watch live TV. I prefer to get the DVDs and Netflix, because I can then watch on my own time, seek when I need to, and not see things I don't want to (like advertisements). I don't much care about the one-year delay between airing of a show and DVD release.

Another thing that live TV does: inconsistent show times. I can't be guaranteed to always have Foo on X channel at Y time every Monday. And even if it is, it's probably a re-run. And even if it's not, there's all the other reasons mentioned previously (seeking, pausing).

Now I agree, this is just one man's opinion and makes no difference to big TV's business model (which it can stuff up it's business end). But it's my blog and I'll say what I want to say.

Unseen Academicals is apparently Terry Pratchett's latest work. I must have set my expectations too high. It was luke-warm. Perhaps not as bad as FaustEric. It just seemed like he had crammed every character in there, stopping just short of including the witches. It read like a fanfic. A good fanfic, but still. And people seemed just slightly out of character. Vetinari talked too much. The Arch-chancellor wasn't out of it (didn't appear to be out of it, I should say, he's never actually out of it) as much as usual. Ponder was assertive. Rincewind didn't run away. Mister Vimes was *nice*. Okay, I'm nit-picking, but the bit about Vetinari certainly grated. I suppose he's getting old, maybe?

All the minor characters, one-offs, mentioning the bank and post office, all felt like name-dropping.

They never explained how the opening scene tied in with everything.

What's with the cover? Is that a basketball? I don't see any pentagons. And they're *handling the ball*. I know that Ankh-Morpork street football is closer to rugby but that looks like a post-Vetinari football they're trying to catch. But it isn't a (soccer) football! Rugby meets soccer, maybe?

I did like the confusion caused by the offsides rule, and the other little touches. The underlying fabric of a Discworld novel is there, and it kept me up till late at night, but it lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. Just slightly off-balance.