nan | 楠木

Blizzard also released some artwork and gameplay footage along with the cinematic trailer.

So, Starcraft 2 is in the works… Check out the cinematic trailer released recently.

Caused the site to be down for about half a day.

I just finished a book titled The Accidental Investment Banker, by Jonathan A. Knee. It’s another book on the I-banking industry.

One such book on the industry I’ve read before is Monkey Business, which supposedly is a good portrayal of life as junior associates, and mainly describes the mundane tasks that the associates are responsible for. The Accidental Investment Banker is much more concerned with the bigger picture at a more senior level, and spends quite some length discussing the evolution and trends of the industry, especially the industry’s development throughout the boom of the late 90s and its subsequent bust in 2001.

The book is also very direct and open. Real names are used without disguise, and quite some big names are mentioned as the book goes through analyzing the political struggles at Goldman Sachs (the rise of John Thornton, and his subsequent purge by Hank Paulson, the current US Treasury Secretary) and Morgan Stanley (John Mack’s power struggle with Phil Purcell after the MS merger with Dean Witter). The writer benefits from the fact that he was quite close to the men with power at both these two institutes, as he first worked at GS and later at MS. Indeed as a relative insider he seems to have much more depth in his analysis and discussion.

The writer does seem to justify his actions and choices and consciously / unconsciously satisfies his ego. There’s at least some hint of hypocrisy as the writer portrays himself as a banker of conscience (who respects traditional values) in an era where anything goes and ethics are increasingly disregarded. Still, the book is a good read for anyone who wants to understand more of the industry in focus.

This past week I’ve been having some wicked fun in Hong Kong. Last October I was here, but then Molly had classes and exams etc., so we were quite restrained. This time around, I was keen to set the record straight.

Of course, that meant spending quite some money. We acted like two typical tourists, going to the typical tourist destinations (riding the Peak Tram, going to Stanley Market, Ocean Park etc.) and spending a lot of time in shopping malls, with the latter slightly out of our intended plans.

Most of today, for example, was spent at Ocean Park, indulging ourselves in the free rides and seeing more fish in one day than I’d probably ever seen in my whole life. Molly is a big fan of the thrill-seeking rides, so that meant I had to beef up myself and pretend that I liked them as well.

Right now, though, we’re back at good old CUHK, since she’s got one last assignment to conquer. I decided I’d offer some advisory services, but I’ll try to stay firm and offer only advice, no hands-on work.

Live and Let Die is Roger Moore’s first attempt at being the most famous secret agent in the world, and it’s not a bad try.

The new Bond makes a delightful entrance, in the most typical Bond scene: in bed with a girl. Moore immediately establishes his presence as the playboy-ish spy, with a scent of sarcasm. From that scene onwards he continues to explore and build his character.

Plotwise, the film is modestly interesting. There is no Blofeld, which is perhaps a relief since that fellow was pretty much at the center of everything for the last few films, at least regarding the villians. In his place is a little Caribbean dictator, who practices voodoo acts in his spare time. Bond’s main duty is to find out what the man is up to. Along the way he runs into a mysterious and attractive fortune teller, played by Jane Seymour (and she does look great in her role). Suffice to say, Bond soon changes his mission objectives to include conquering the girl.

There’s quite a few chases, and some other scenes which were enjoyable to watch, for example 007 getting himself out of a crocodile swamp. I did have an issue with one prolonged boat chase sequence, which must have lasted 15 minutes – it certainly didn’t serve any good purpose and it was way too long. The film decidely takes the approach of being more comical in this action sequence too, with the installation of a laughable southern sheriff who’s handy with one-liners.

All in all, for me this film wasn’t that bad. It was actually quite good considering it was Moore’s first try. Let’s see what happens in the next few flicks.

6/10

Diamonds Are Forever is Connery’s last official appearance as 007 (though there seems to be a later Bond film he starred in that was not produced by Eon). While he’s still very enjoyable to watch, the film itself feels very dry, and perhaps not even as good as the prior On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

The film opens with Bond eager for revenge against Blofeld, his arch-enemy. He seems to get it, but the audience should know better by now: Blofeld’s greatest strength is not in successfully pulling off world catastrophes, but simply always getting off the hook. Anyway, Bond is sent afterwards to investigate a case of diamond smuggling, and soon catches on that a bigger scheme is at play.

Perhaps it’s because I watched the film in 3 sessions, instead of one, but I found the plot to be dreary. The film busily moves from one location to the next, but there’s not much excitement. Even a temptatious Las Vegas seems to have ran out of gas, and looks just like a rural backwater. The Bond girl is not the most interesting, in quite a while. Charles Gray, in his second appearance in a Bond film (the first being the short-lived Henderson in You Only Live Twice), now plays Blofeld, and his interaction Connery is pretty much the only highlight of the film.

The film is quite funny at times, especially a sequence where Bond invades the set of a moon-landing training for astronauts. And the two sinister killers, Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, steal the show every time they make an scene.

At the end of the day, though, I felt this was one Connery Bond film that could be skipped. Not the best effort by far.

5/10

Let’s create some hype for the new album!

Pandora, the popular Internet radio, sent me the following email today, finally starting to crack down on listeners outside the US. While it has been the site’s stated policy, I was glad that I could still listen to it before. It’s a shame now I can’t.

Dear Pandora listener,

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S.

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

We show your IP address is ‘*.*.*.*“, which indicates you are listening from China. If you believe you are seeing this by mistake, we offer our sincere apologies and ask that you please reply to this email.

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music – we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener’s country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will be posting updates on our blog regarding our ongoing effort to launch in other countries, so please stay in touch. We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.

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Warning: certain spoilers included.

Spider-Man 3 is the latest installment in the popular film franchise based on the Marvel comic. Like its two predecessors, the new film emphasizes both compelling storytelling and intense action. By staying true to this formula, the film bounds well with the two earlier works into forming a complete trilogy.

In Spider-Man 3, we get to see both some new villians and some old faces. The film carries on the unfinished plot lines, such as Parker’s (troubled) relationship with Mary Jane, and his far more volatile relationship with Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn, AKA the Green Goblin. Additionally, a few new arch-enemies are introduced, such as the Sandman, whose history with Spiderman actually goes way back.

The film transits smoothly from extended periods of drama to bursts of action. The developments along several subplots are interesting enough to keep things going, but after more than an hour into the film I started to feel tired, taking a glance at my watch. The film felt long, as the plot kept driving forward. Villians get defeated, then reappear later. Parker and Harry go from foes to friends to foes to friends. The story was moving along too fast, taking too many turns. It ends up being a long and complex, and though it ties up nearly every loose end imaginable, it was also a tedious process.

That aside, the core message of the film is not really anything new to the series: people choose who they are, and they always have that choice; therefore they should be responsible for their actions. This is more or less the central message of the prior works too, as far as I can remember.

Putting all those “complaints” aside, the film is still very enjoyable to watch. It’s quite obvious the makers tried very hard to top the action sequences of the earlier films. It’s not exactly an adrenaline rush anymore to see Spiderman swinging around the urban jungle (you still get to see a lot of that though). Putting him up against a giant Sandman is not bad. Having him fight his “clone” Venom isn’t a bad idea either. The action does get pretty intense, though perhaps a bit repetitive.

Anyway, whatever I say, the film is still very polished and a proud final installment (perhaps) to the franchise. And everyone will see it anyway. So enjoy!

8/10