New Anime Series: Unbreakable Machine Doll

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First Episode(s) Review for: Unbreakable Machine Doll
Summary:

A boy and his “doll” (a full size and life like robotic girl complete with wedding day dreams) arrives at a Hogwarts style school that specialises in the robotic battle arts, he burns with the desire to become the most powerful ‘puppeteer’ so that he can reek revenge on someone (we don’t know who yet)

Animation:

This is a standard very well draw anime, of the type they produce when “England” is in some way involved, smokey and full of filtered light

Plot Potential:

I was surprised to find that the hero is rated as completely naff in the school, no naturally talented, no hidden powers, providing they don’t reveal too much too soon this should be good, also as the advanced dolls are sentient, the possible variety of characters is huge

Music:

not bad, not up to the visual side, but not bad

Reminds me of:

Gosick + Angelic Layer

Overall:

A really watchable series, i really hope its ongoing, its based on a 12 volume series so i hope it goes on for at least 26 episodes

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime’s that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!

UKICON 2013

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OK, better late than never, but here is the report form this years UKICON a awesome fun affair which may be the last of its kind, now that IBM are apparently pulling back on the sponsorship of such (a truly insane plan if you want my option), even knowing that everyone was fired up and I got good audience participation which makes it worthwhile.

Now this was my first conference were IBM Connections was the main order of the day, I was luckily enough to be able to present with Gab see Here for her blog entry (for me it was like being allowed to present with GOD!!)

Mine and gabs slide decks are below

 

Now this year I got nominated for an IBM champion (the fact that it was accepted just shows that someone at IBM has a very sick sense of humour), but I suspect the naming of my solo presentation is not going to help that cause much (ah well)

 

everything at the conference was organised perfectly, and for me it was all a swirl of groovy people, cool tech, panicky presentations and vodka, a most excellent time.

As always a great thank you to Warren and Kitty (not to mention the rest of the helpers over the years)

Life and Work update

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Its been ages since I’ve shared what I’ve been up to in here. My bad, how can I justify such a terrible absence of updates?

Well the major news is that I’ve taken the plunge and I am going properly freelance in line with our plans for LDC. Its been good to see my LDC compadres Matt and Julian make a success of it and its exciting to now be on the same road. The stuff I’m doing is varying hugely, from dealing with the security and standards implications of the storage of details for minors, though application clustering on cloud services for the lowest cost, past IBM connections customisation and freaky Java on domino and finishing with cutting edge mobile on the latest frameworks.

And its been great, I’m enjoying the variety and getting to grips with new projects. Plus I’ve been doing some fascinating development work for start-ups which enable me to work on things that are truly objects of grace and beauty.

So it’s going well, and if you have stuff you want doing please give me a kick (all my contact methods are on the top left of this page). Always glad to talk it over.

New Anime Series KILL la KILL

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First Episode(s) Review for: KILL la Kill
Summary:

A teenage girl armed with one half of a giant pair of scissors turns up as a transfer student to a very freaky school run town, on the hunt for her fathers killer, only to find out he has left her a magical school uniform with secret powers even it if is cut a bit on the skimpy side

Animation:

Crude but very dynamic, normally not my style to have it this crude but the number of little touches included, stops it from feeling slap dash

Plot Potential:

Not sure, due to the speed of the action they have managed to get though enough plot for a 12 episode Anime by the third episode, so I’m interested to see where they go with it.

Music:

title and Ending themes are OK, fight scenes are excellent, but nothing that you would put on your MP3 player

Reminds me of:

hard to say, sort of a sailor moon for the caffeine fuelled generation drawn by a pervert in a hurry

Overall:

Very entertaining and fast moving with some ridiculous tongue in cheek fan service fan service

 

 

 

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime’s that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!