We enjoyed Iron Man

LOVED Wall-E, but I agree that it may not have the staying power of some Pixar

haven't seen the Incredible Hulk

Su (mrs. SkidMarks) enjoyed Indy 4 a lot more than I did

We will see Kung Fu Panda, but will probably wait for the dvd
(We want to see Igor, though)

I enjoyed The Dark Knight more that Su did: we both liked it, but the Joker grabbed my imagination as a truly scary character. She will obviously post her own opinions at some time in the future, but I think Su agrees with you.

Hancock was o.k. but forgetable

The Forbidden Kingdom stars Jet Li and Jacky Chan. Together. Fighting. I will forgive it all its plot holes and dodgey dialogue for its wire-work and those two.

X-Files 2 was good, but not what I expected.

The Mummy 3 was the least enjoyable of the 3 Mummy films, had it's moments, but felt to me more like Indy 4: it probably seemed like a better idea on paper. (However it had Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. etc. except there was less great wire-work)

Now bring on Hellboy, The Watchmen, Igor, You don't Mess With the Zohan, Tropic Thunder and Get Smart

Kung Fu Panda was awesome. The opening is really cool. Rips off Samurai Jack apparently. :)

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Very interesting. As you suspected I agree with Mrs Skidmarks quite a lot. I too am going to see 'Get Smart' in a masochistic frenzy. 'Incredible Hulk' was good but quite squeam-inducing and apparently only watched by three people and a gnu called Ethelbert.

'Kung Fu Panda' was quite good and enjoyable although not up to Pixar standards. I suppose 'Quantum of Solace' should be added to the list as well even if it is in October.

Have we had a thread about what we're reading right now before? Let's get some book action going on!

Egon.

I quite liked the Incredible Hulk, especially the early parts - specifically, the parts without either a) Liv Tyler, who always annoys me in films and b) the Hulk (or at least the Hulk fully visible - I thought the first sequence with him, when he's hidden in the shadows, was great). It got sillier as it went on, though I thought Tim Roth was always good in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Indy 4, although simply because I was laughing at how ridiculous it was by the ending (the earlier parts were ridiculous too, but at that point I was still vaguely convinced it was going to be quasi-serious).

The Dark Knight is the best film I've seen yet in the cinema this year, though I didn't think it was as good as a lot of people seemed to say. It took far, far too long to get moving...but once it did (about 1/1.5 hours in) it became brilliant. Batman needed some more actual thought-provoking speech, though, or at least some appearance of fighting inner demons, instead of just hitting stuff in response to being challenged about ethics.

I liked X-Files 2 - bearing in mind I'm a pretty big fan of the series and the first film - because it was great seeing the characters back. The plot wasn't quite so good overall though...I think I would have prefered a proper scary, monster-based story rather than the slightly creepy, uncertain style of this one. Hopefully this is the springboard to another couple of films, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last time we'll see new stuff from them.

And bring on Quantum of Solace! Get Smart looks terrible from the trailers though - Johnny English but without the funny cast or jokes. Also got to say that Wall-E is possibly the only Pixar film I've actually been tempted to see this decade (with the possible exception of The Incredibles)...

I think DK was really Heath Ledger's film... Although I may be Harlequin, as I fell very deeply in love with the joker*!

I'm told Get Smart is actually quite good- which I'm pretty sure is illegal, as all movies made from old tv shows are legally required to be rubbish.



*Okay, I admit it, It's probably just part of my obsession with Heath Ledger. Egad that lad could act!

<hides meekly in corner>

<holds up sign>

<my son just brought in a copy of 'The Dam Busters' with Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd>

<does that count?>

<[[ I thought they were going to make a new version of 'The Dam Busters' but have heard nothing about it lately. Has it fallen from favour [hopefully] as I don't think that CAD etc. can replace the real thing. If you have heard the RAF Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane flight pass over you then I think that computer generated examples would lose their magic. But that's just my opinion and I am not of the generation X, Y [why indeed?], Z, or even a rerun of A,B,C, etc. [gratuitous square brackets inserted here] ]]>

I quite enjoyed Get Smart, I didn't want to - I wanted to see Kung Fu Panda, but got over-ruled!

I could see The Dam Buster remake easily degenerating into another Pearl Harbour!

I remember seeing some TV coverage of the filming of the dam passage. Don't know if it was done at the original dams, or at some other place. But they got one of the original pilots to comment on it.

You know, the very first bus trip we took in primary school was to the Edertalsperre. Pretty impressive when you are an eight year old - but not as much as the first live stags we were able to observe from close up in a small animal park in the woods above the lake.

David Shannon who was one of the pilots in the Mohne dam raid died in Adelaide last year.

While the idea of war is abhorrent just reading what armed forces personnel on both sides had to go through one can only admire the values they held to to do their jobs given the conditions. It seems that on both sides surviving the higher ranks was as much a priority as actual fighting.

And those ex-servicemen and women from both sides with whom I have spoken have said that the only thing they value was their end of hostilities advices.

An aside: my dad was a vet, both of Trobruk and Alemain and New Guinea, as well as BVSc, and at a Vet meeting in Sydney in the 1950s he met and became friends with a German vet who had been a ME109 pilot shooting at Trobruk and Alemain at the time the Ninth Division was fighting for it life. This bloke had the same feeling: August 1945 thank goodness it's over and I am still alive. He, too, still had nightmares fromm what he had endured as well.


Digression finished but it all came out coz I'm trying to get dad's life on paper and the National Library wants all the records he just happened to have back. Like original photos of the camouflage at Trobruk and the maps of the minefields etc at Trobruk and El Alemain. It's all in my PC which won't start up.

Does anyone know of a ritual blessing on may give a recalcitrant PC which does not involve hitting it with large, heavy pointed objects?

I've found that the scattering of breadcrumbs over the keyboard has a very definite effect, but alas not the one you're looking for. Can you get your PC exorcised?

Afraid I can not help.

Some of the stories I have read about the things people have done in wartime have made me go cold. Not because they are bad things, but because when faced with some of the things that they did, I can just not see myself doing half as well and getting out alive.

I will admit that I have a weakness for flight simulators and IL2 (which is one of the best WW2 ones around) sometimes leaves me numb at the idea that people could survive more than a few missions.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Martin I will echo that sentiment, I don't know that I would cope as well, though hopefully thats not something I will have to face!

Can't understand the flight simulator addiction though - I end up getting a distinct feeling of travel sickness.

Bunyip, this is absolutely no help, but maybe some consolation: Resistentialism is the belief that inanimate object are capable of directing a hostile attitude to you.

Try chanting "All Hail The Kitten" and burning some incense. It usually works.

There is a standard process to follow - which is basically from cheapest to expensive.
0. Check the mains lead is plugged in.
1. Check the mains socket is switched on.
2. Check the mains lead is plugged into the PC.
3. Check the fuse in the plug, or try a lead you know works.
4. Check you haven't left a memory stick or SD card plugged in and it is trying to boot from that.
5. Check if the monitor is plugged and and turned on.
6. Check if the monitor interface cable is plugged in and in the correct socket
7. Check if the power light or any other light comes on.
8. Listen for any beeps during POST and then check your documentation.
9. Borrow another monitor.
10. Remover the hard drive and see if a friend will allow you to install it as a slave drive.
11. Got to a computer repair centre.

-----------------------------------------
Joint winner Colouring Competition 2007
and outright winner of the 3 time winner of the Ffestival Dodo Feeding competition.
Fforde Ffiesta Ffotos are here - [www.flickr.com]

Steeljam,

I get to stage 8 but no beeps.

stage 10 seems impractical - the PC is so old its OS is in cuniform and the later PCs don't seem to be able to read that far back.

Stage 11 - the local computer shops want to charge me between $50 and $100 to copy the hard drive - all 4 gigs of it. I think my daughter's MP3 player has greater capacity than that.

ES have spilled breadcrumbs, crisps and sundry other comestibles on keyboard but it still doesn't work, but it is not so slim as it was.

BK - this keyboard has been annointed with chocolate ranging from Haigh Bilbys (a local objection to rabbits at Easter) through the entire Cadbury range, some Belgian chocolates, Whittakers' varieties and give many forms of 13% alcohol medication and it doesn't want to cooperate.

I am going to threaten it with lo-cal drinks, prepared diet foods, and no access to the fforum. I can get nasty when riled.

10 should work. Give it a try at least.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

The other option is to try a Live Linux Distro, that should at least give you a system that you can poke around on. You can often find them on the computer mags if you can't download one.

Aren't we assuming that the computer works at all? Does it start at all, Bunyip? Does it stall sometime during the bootup before the Windows screens start appearing?

Well, installing it as the slave drive in another PC only requires the hard disc drive to be working, nothing more.

You will need to move a jumper on the back. Other than that, everything should be fine....

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Martin, its been a while since I switched to SATA drives, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't you only need to move the jumper if installing the drive as slave on the same port? If, for example you use an empty port (or use the one normally used by the optical drive) don't you leave the jumper as master?