Robots That Lie and Superheroes

I'm loving deceitful robots. I think I discovered it via StumbleUpon, but I was very impressed. Chess playing is nothing, poker playing robots is much more exciting. Naturally they'll look like Yul Brynner and be especially bad-ass (not a term I'm very happy with but it does work).

Yul Bryner not happy with the flop

We would have to amend Asimov's laws to include not killing human players or dealers if you're not entirely happy with your hand, but endless fun nonetheless.

Stompy stompy robots* stopped me from posting last night as well. Returning home from NoozeHoundette's birthday meal at her favourite Chinese buffet, I flopped in front of the telly, flipped to BBC3 and caught the end of an old episode of Dr Who, followed by Dr Who confidential. Included in the episode was footage of Cybermen (*Cyborgs are not robots per se but the lazy metaphor will suffice for my excuse) in training, much as they are in this clip because I can't find the actual episode...

So there I am, prostrate on the floor, fit to burst, bloated with Special Fried Rice and Carlsberg Export - prevented from updating my blog by Cybermen.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Vegging through Anchorman and Family Guy double-bill had nothing to with it.

Scanning through Popurls, an item on Newsvine about ageing superheroes caught my eye.  The article wasn't much and there were only two comments, so I posted the thought that had entered my head when I read the item, that being Hollis Mason and Sally Jupiter. I wrote her proper name and had to get the spelling. Sat in front of a PC, Google was quicker than getting up and checking the book. Big mistake. Too many links to new footage and unreleased scenes. A quick spelling check was derailed into a twenty minute video refresher with the Mason death scene the main highlight.

I know Alan Moore disowned it; I know that end change was unnecessary as were the dropped things like the sugar lumps and such; I know the soundtrack was almost comedic, I still think it was awesome though.

The only other comic book aficionado I have spoken to on the subject also thought the film excellent. I have a bet with myself it will go on to be one of the best selling DVD releases of the year.

Finally, although my track listing will be updating to the right of this article (E, W & F - Spread Your Love) I can barely hear it. I got caught out by a much louder track that boomed through the speakers about forty minutes a go and have turned it right down to 'almost audible'.

I down-loaded a normalizer last week. I was originally looking for a normalizer plug-in for Winamp (I used to have one pre-AOL) but ended up downloading a free normalizer program. Reading the side of the tin, it turns out that the program runs across your music collection resetting the volume (Mobb Deep just threatened another rampage through the house) on each and every file. I ran it, accepting the defaults but opting for analyse only. The default appears to be set quite high, judging from the scale, but I get one after the other 'red  files'. Red files being those where there are break-through levels of sound. I imagine all of the highs and shrieks and wails getting cut from track after track. My bottle goes and I stop it. Does anyone have a de facto version of what a variety of styles of music are like after the process? It said it's all reversible and doesn't harm the track, but moving files shouldn't lose all your bookmarks either should it?

The bumf says if it's too quiet I can do it again. 15,000 files to listen to individually to see if they're too quiet.

Welcome to the disappointment.