Behind the scenes: Matt Smith as Doctor Who

Amplify’d from thepropstop.wordpress.com

Some amazing pictures that Im not sure have been seen before were forwarded to me today.

The first up is the original costume design for Matt Smith by Ray Holman, who promises a few changes to the costume this year.

and lastly a shot from last nights filming at Taffs Well near Cardiff where the TARDIS lands amongst some giant pillars…..

See more at thepropstop.wordpress.com

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Reflections on G-Kenya

[This post is by Reto Meier AKA @retomeier, who wrote the book on Android App development. — Tim Bray]

Recently I visited Kenya for the three-day G-Kenya event. I was there for two reasons:

• To talk about Android and the emerging mobile opportunities for African developers.




• To ask questions and find out more about the reality of mobiles and writing code from the people there.

Of the countries I’ve visited to talk about Android, nowhere have people had such a close connection to their mobile phones as in Africa. While most Kenyans own feature phones, those mobiles are already used as much more than simple phones. Mobile payments are already common, and cheap data plans mean that many people access the Internet exclusively through mobile handsets.

There were two Android announcements while I was in town: a new low-cost Android handset (the Huawei U8220), and Android Market access for Kenyans. I can’t wait to see the kind of apps that come from developers who live in an environment where mobile is so pervasive.

Day 1: Students

G-Kenya was set within the beautiful campus of the Strathmore Business School, so it was fitting that day one was addressed to students.

Of the three groups, the students where the most enthusiastic about Android. This was likely influenced by their confidence that by the time they graduate, modern smartphones in Africa will have become the norm.

I love talking to student developers — without the commercial pressures of finding customers or a monetization model — they're free to innovate on whatever technology platforms they think are interesting.

Day 2: Developers

Modern smartphones are not yet prevalent in Africa, so it wasn’t surprising that many of the developers are currently focusing on feature phones. That said, it was generally acknowledged that it was a question of when rather than if smartphones would come to dominate. The trick will be picking the right time to invest in Android so that they're ready to take advantage.

Plenty of developers believe that time is right now. It was a pleasure to meet the guys behind Ushahidi, creators of an Android app created to report and record incidents during the 2008 election violence. Since their launch they’ve expanded to offer a global platform for crowd-sourced news where timeliness is critical.

I love opportunity the Android Market delivers to developers like the idea of developers like Ushahidi and Little Fluffy Toys (of London Cycle Hire fame). An app the solves a problem for your local community can easily be expanded to offer solutions to similar problems across the world.

Developer focus in Kenya seemed to follow similar lines:

• Create products and services targeted at local communities (such as the developers creating a distributed system to help health-care workers record medical information in the field.)




• Build robust cloud-based services that provide access to users from any mobile platform.




• Expand from feature phones to Android to incorporate features like GPS positioning, maps, and recording video and audio.

Day 3: Entrepreneurs and Marketers

No one was surprised to see a lot of the developers from the previous day return for entrepreneur day, and the apparent lack of Android questions from Day 2 was more than made up for on day 3; the “AppEngine Challenge” on Day 2 fielded a record 30 entries, so it seems everyone was working on their entries rather than asking questions!

I didn’t speak on Day 3, but spent all day fielding questions from eager mobile developers hoping to catch the Android wave as early innovators and first movers. That included a team who were working to provide real-time public transit tracking of Matatu via GPS and Android devices.

Reflections

It’s an exciting time to be a developer in Kenya. I regularly asked developers how long they thought it would take for Android devices to become common place. Many suggested if I came back this time next year I'd see a flood of Android devices. Even the more pessimistic predicted no more than 3 years.

As I traveled back towards Jomo Kenyatta International, listening to the radio offering a free Sony Ericsson X10 Mini to one lucky caller, the future didn’t seem very far away.

Saving just doesn't work!

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Save and all will be well. We have all heard that for all our lives. At least I have. Save money and the magic ferry will reward you. That is what we are essentially saying; If you save, then you will succeed. What happens to me is simple. I manage by some shear luck to save a few dollars and put it in my bank account. It sits there and then I feel good for awhile. But then, something happens, and I need that money. All of sudden, my savings is gone and I have nothing again but a big pile of debt. I know this doesn't just happen to me. All of my friends who are better off then me, at least it appears so, claim to have the same problem. So if everyone is going through the same problem, then why is rich people getting richer and the middle class is getting poorer? And I am not talking about 250K or more. Yea, like that is rich. I am talking about the really rich.

The problem is the difference between capital gains and cash flow. Most of us hope that if we save money that some day that money will be worth more. At one time that was true, but not today. Since everything we do is based on debt ... and it is, saving is actually losing. The reason is inflation, inflation, inflation. I think that inflation is actually a tool used by the rich. If you look at people who control real estate, businesses, government, etc., get richer when inflation hits. Middle class people or poor people get hit the hardest and their money is wiped out. They have to continue to spend to live and since the price of living goes up, then more money has to be used. Hence, the poor and middle class lose. But all that money goes some where. It all goes to the rich. I think that the government and the educational system has pulled the wool over our eyes. I am sure their are some who are more to blame then others and some who probably have no idea, but the idea that the rich are taking every ones money and they, the government, must redistribute it to help us live, is the biggest wool I can think of.

For example: If the government raises taxes, where does that money go first? It first goes to replenish the coffers of the government. Next, it goes to make sure the supporters of the government officials, aka, big business and the super rich, and then, if any money is left, it is used to create more government agencies that are supposed to help us but in actuality, cost us more money in taxes to keep going.

For example: The educational system teaches children to get good grades, work alone, go to college, get loans, and then try to get the best job they can. So when a child goes to college, like he or she is told, they take out a loan. The bank steps right in to help. Then the money flows to the colleges. Then, after the student graduates, he or she goes to work for more rich people to grow their businesses. Let's see where the money goes: Loans make the bank rich; tuition makes the college boards and investors rich; highly trained workers leave colleges in debt to work for the same people that are making their money from them in the first place.

Savers are just not getting ahead because that is not the new America. The new America is a place where cash flow, not capital gains, makes us rich. Cash flow is cash that comes in month after month. Capital gains are profit that is only realized at the sale of a stock or piece of real estate. The reason the government is in so much trouble is because they do not understand this simple idea. You must spend your money on things that will give you monthly cash flow. Cash flow is the life blood of any household, business, government, or country. Once the cashflow every month is gone, it doesn't matter how much you are worth.

The point is saving does not create cash flow. I get nothing from saving my money. The people who benefit from my savings is the banks. They get to use my money and increase it to loan out. All they pay me is .001 percent. And that is not a joke. We are being fooled to save money so that the super rich can get richer.

In order to play the game, stop saving money, and start buying assets that put money into your pocket every month.

iPad Comic Artwork (Doctor Who and Hulk)

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1_9we6Rwk]

Doctor Who covers - They took 5 - 6 Hours each to do. - The drawings are based on photographs from the BBC show Doctor Who starring Matt Smith as Doctor Who and Karen Gillian as Amy Pond. Read more at www.youtube.com

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Big Finish Convention Podcast - Regenerations 2010 - 28 September 2010

Amplify’d from www.bigfinish.com

Big Finish has been on the road... And we’ve got a special podcast! Just over a week ago the stars of Doctor Who descended on Swansea for the Regenerations convention. We were there, and so was a microphone. So enjoy our convention podcast presented by David Richardson, Richard Dinnick and Jamie Robertson, with a star-studded line up of guests: Sarah Sutton, Colin Baker, Anneke Wills, Terry Molloy, Gary Russell, Keith Temple... Plus a host of convention-goers. Download Podcast Here Read more at www.bigfinish.com

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Dr Who writer Louis Marks has died, Matthew Chambers is back in the TARDIS, plus more news, blog roundup and reviews

Editor: today's Second Life picture come from Hanger 1 on the Beshaly Space Station.

The Doctor Who News Page has the sad news Louis Marks 1928 - 2010, the writer Louis Marks has died at the age of 82, he wrote four stories for Doctor Who, in 1965 he wrote the first story of Season Two, Planet of Giants, the first contemporary story in the series since the first episode. He returned to the series in 1972 to plot the return of the Daleks after a gap of several years in Day of the Daleks a story which saw the introduction of the Ogrons, for the Fourth Doctor he penned two stories, Planet of Evil in 1975 was set on the far distant planet Zeta Minor on the edge of the universe, while The Masque of Mandragora a year later was set in 15th century Italy.

DAM Productions has Arrangements, Matthew Chambers is back in the TARDIS as the Doctor, joined by Hannah Wollaston as Sam. Arrangements sees London, the Near Future, the Doctor and Sam encounter a Republic, run by The Leader. The know of each other. Question is, who is the hunter and who is the hunted.

The Happiness Patrol has released Episode Forty-One: Beware The Ghost of Freddy Fender!, this week we talk about The Blackpool Doctor Who Museum, news from Matt Smith, Who in Orlando and the pain of getting a tattoo.

The Doctor Who Podcast has The DWP Quiz - Number 3, fresh from his decisive victory in the last quiz, Tom acts as quizmaster for this episode and pits his devilish questions for Trevor and James. Who will win, who will lose?

Nothing Tra La La? (Simon Guerrier) has posted The fictional facts of June, "a chum has asked how I came up with June, the one-off companion in Doctor Who and the Slitheen Excursion. Figured it might be of interest to a wider audience."

The Confessions of Who has The Invasion!, even though 'The Invasion' is an incomplete story, with episodes 1 and 4 missing. It is, to date, the only incomplete story to be released in audio CD, video and DVD format (I think!). The surviving episodes were all found hidden behind a cupboard somewhere in the BBC (wonderful organisation, crap organising!). The story was sold abroad, so the optimistic Who fan can hope that perhaps one day these missing episodes will be recovered from a foriegn TV station clearing out theri archives... perhaps.

The Oodcast has a Guide to… the Daleks, surely the greatest of all the Doctor’s foes.  Best-known horrors in the universe.   The first villainous creature from Who to get itself snapped by Lord Snowdon for a postage stamp, get its own movie deal, get voted as better than both Godzilla and Gollum in the same poll and to have a small, wheeled library stool named after it.  Also, of course, the first Doctor Who characters to find a regular position both on a condiments tray and in a plumber’s van.

Rich's ComixBlog has Outrage - 15, Eric Raymond presses the Doctor for an answer. The Doctor learns that Raymond isn't Human after all, but in fact the leader of an advance invasion force of Zygons who hold a grudge against their old enemy.

WHOGold has Mummies And Morestrans, Planet Of Evil was screened from Friday 4th to Wednesday 9th July 1997, with fan favourite Pyramids Of Mars  following from Thursday 10th July to Tuesday 14th, all at 7.20pm. Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) introduced the opening episode of each story. Continuity is presented by Susanna Boccaccio and Glen Allen.

Who Fix has Back on Saturdays, what could possibly go wrong? (from Androzani 2).

Doc Oho's Big Finish audios reviews has Scherzo written by Rob Shearman and directed by Gary Russell, there were two friends, and together they travelled the cosmos. They thwarted tyrants and defeated monsters, they righted wrongs wherever they went. They explored the distant future and the distant past, new worlds and galaxies, places beyond imagining. But every good story has to come to an end... With no times or places left to explore, all the two friends have now are each other

The Daily Drew has "Boom Town", this is the first of six consecutive "Doctor Who" (2005) episodes to be written by Russell T Davies. It's a remarkable run, demonstrating an incredible breadth of styles, tones, and approaches, reveling in the flexibility of this series. By the time these six consecutive episode have run their course, the show will be in a very different place, but it will also be thoroughly entrenched as a modern television institution.

Shadowlocked reviews Pyramids Of Mars, the revered classic and one of the jewels in season 13’s crown. Because in theory, this story throws up so many questions and posers that it could even give Mr Logic a thumping headache. Why does Horus leave Sutekh with a handy potential get-out clause? Why not send Marcus Scarman’s cadaver back home where he wouldn’t cause as much fuss as Ibrahim Namin? Why does Sutekh have a hand underneath his bum?

Blogtor Who has Review: Revisitations DVD box set [Part 3], not only does Talons share a place in the Revisitations box set with The Caves of Androzani  it also shares a number of traits AND writer. Robert Holmes packs memorable duos, poison, sympathetic villains, a facially disfigured lead and the word "jackanapes" into both 'classic' stories. Even back in the Eighties, recycling was an important issue...

Doctor Who: Return to Earth (Wii) Screen Shots

Three new screenshots from the upcoming game....

To be released 29th October pre-order from amazon here.