Let’s get the definition out of the way first, shall we?

patent
noun |ˈpat(ə)nt| |ˈpeɪt-|
1 a government authority to an individual or organization conferring a right or title, esp. the sole right to make, use, or sell some invention

Right then, with that in mind I would now like you to read this article.

So what exactly is it that the patent covers?
In the film it’s a bit of paper that’s found in an unearthed time capsule that contains numbers. These numbers are then analysed and found to be of historical significance.

So, I’m guessing that for this patent to actually be used as grounds for suing then it must cover the writing down of numbers on a bit of paper.
I’m sorry, when did that become grounds for suing? I’m pretty sure there’s at least one or two examples of prior art concerning the use of written numbers on a bit of paper.

I’m sure the people that got the patent granted to them did so on sound knowledge and principles of originality *cough* but come on!
For crying out loud, everyone from mathmaticians to bingo players would have to be sued to uphold the rights of this particular patent holder.

I’m all for the intellectual property of originators to be upheld if proper infringing of those rights has taken place, but I really do hope that this case gets laughed out of court.

This article prompted my thoughts on this film.

It’s one of those occasions where you have to assess what you want to do beforehand.
Do you want to believe the hype and go and see it on that basis.
Do you want to go and see another James Cameron film, where the acting is okay at best, the effects and world realisation are second-to-none and the script is bilge.
Do you want to go and see a saccharine love story, the likes of which you’ve already seen hundreds of times anyway.
Do you want to go and see the most expensive film ever made just so you can, many years from now, say that you saw the film in the cinema.
Do you want to go and see a film that could quite possibly sink a major Hollywood studio.
Do you want to go and see a film that could, quite possibly just blow your mind.

I’m sure there’s also other reasons you may want to go and see it for as well.

I’ve tried to avoid all of the marketing hype surrounding this film.
I caught a very early teaser trailer for it, and I’ve seen nothing else of it. This article was the first one I’d read about the film for years, and I’ll likely not read any more until the film comes out.
I’ll probably go to the pictures and see the film, but not in it’s opening week, as the marketing buzz will be driving hordes of people to go and see it during that time.

I have no expectations of this film but I’ll post back with my views once I’ve seen it.

Judges have overturned a legal ban on science fiction fans naming their son ‘Q’ after their favourite Star Trek character.

John De Lancie as Q in Star Trek : TNG

The parents, from Jamtland, Sweden, appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court after two previous hearings upheld a court order saying the name could cause the boy “mental anguish”.
Appeal judges have now lifted the ban saying there was no proof the boy – now nearly one year old – would suffer because of the name.
Dad Rickard Rehnberg said: “He’s been called Q almost since day one. He listens to the name and can actually say his own name.
“He is a unique child and we thought he should have a unique name.”

Original story : Ananova

I’m looking for submissions to help compile my personal top 100.
I already have a long list of films to sort through, some of which won’t make the cut, but I’ve found it tough to come up with all the sci-fi films I’ve ever seen, so I’m looking for submissions to see if (a) there’s any I don’t already have in my list and (b) if there’s any good suggestions made that I haven’t yet seen so I can try and hunt them down and watch them before the list gets compiled.

I’m not just looking for Hollywood sci-fi either, U.K., European, Russian, Hong Kong … in fact any film that you think is seriously worthy of being in a top 100 I’m willing to accept as a valid submission.

The genesis for this idea came from another top 100 films that I’ve been following all this past week being published by Anthony Quinn of The Independent.

Click the link below to see a list of titles that I’ve already compiled and to see if you can think of any films that I don’t already have.
Please leave any title/s in the comments that you think worthy of inclusion that I’ve overlooked.

1984 [Michael Anderson, 1954]
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [Richard Fleischer, 1954]
2001: A Space Odyssey [Stanley Kubrick, 1968]
A.I. – Artificial Intelligence [Steven Spielberg, 2001]
The Abyss [James Cameron, 1989]
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai [W D Richter, 1984]
Akira [Katsuhiro Otomo, 1987]
Alien [Ridley Scott, 1979]
Aliens [James Cameron, 1986]
Alphaville [Jean-Luc Goddard, 1965]
Altered States [Ken Russell, 1980]
The Andromeda Strain [Robert Wise, 1970]
Armageddon [Michael Bay, 1998]
Back to the Future [Robert Zemeckis, 1985]
Barbarella [Roger Vadim, 1967]
Blade Runner [Ridley Scott, 1982]
Brazil [Terry Gilliam, 1985]
The Bride of Frankenstein [James Whale, 1935]
Capricorn One [Peter Hyams, 1978]
The City Of Lost Children [Caro & Jeunet, 1995]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind [Steven Spielberg, 1977]
Colossus: The Forbin Project [Joseph Sargent, 1969]
Contact [Robert Zemeckis, 1996]
Cube [Vincenzo Natali, 1997]
Dark City [Alex Proyas, 1998]
Dark Star [John Carpenter, 1974]
The Day the Earth Stood Still [Robert Wise, 1951]
Donnie Darko [Richard Kelly, 2001]
Dune [David Lynch, 1984]
E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial [Steven Spielberg, 1982]
Earth vs the Flying Saucers [Fred F Sears, 1956]
Enemy Mine [Wolfgang Petersen, 1985]
Equilibrium [Kurt Wimmer, 2002]
Eraserhead [David Lynch, 1977]
Escape From New York [John Carpenter, 1981]
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [Michel Gondry, 2004]
Event Horizon [Paul W S Anderson, 1997]
Fahrenheit 451 [Francois Truffaut, 1966]
Fantastic Voyage [Richard Fleischer, 1966]
The Fifth Element [Luc Besson, 1997]
First Men In the Moon [Nathan Juran, 1964]
Flash Gordon (1980) [Mike Hodges, 1980]
Flatliners [Joel Schumacher, 1990]
The Fly [David Cronenberg, 1986]
The Fly [Kurt Neumann, 1958]
Forbidden Planet [Fred M Wilcox, 1956]
Frankenstein [James Whale, 1931]
Galaxy Quest [Dean Parisot, 1999]
Gattaca [Andrew Niccol, 1997]
Gremlins [Joe Dante, 1984]
The Hidden [Jack Sholder, 1987]
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [Garth Jennings, 2005]
I Am Legend [Francis Lawrence, 2007]
I, Robot [Alex Proyas, 2004]
The Incredible Shrinking Man [Jack Arnold, 1957]
The Incredibles [Brad Bird, 2004]
Independence Day [Roland Emmerich, 1996]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Don Siegel, 1956]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers [Philip Kaufman, 1978]
The Invisible Man [James Whale, 1933]
The Iron Giant [Brad Bird, 1999]
Iron Man [Jon Favreau, 2008]
Journey to the Center of the Earth [Henry Levin, 1959]
Jurassic Park [Steven Spielberg, 1993]
La Jetee [Chris Marker, 1963]
The Last Starfighter [Nick Castle, 1984]
Logan’s Run [Michael Anderson, 1976]
Mad Max [George Miller, 1979]
The Man Who Fell to Earth [Nicolas Roeg, 1976]
Mars Attacks! [Tim Burton, 1996]
The Matrix [L & A Wachowski, 1999]
Men in Black [Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997]
Metropolis [Fritz Lang, 1926]
Nineteen Eighty-Four [Michael Radford, 1984]
The Omega Man [Boris Sagal, 1971]
Open Your Eyes (Abre los Ojos) [Alejandro Amenábar, 1997]
Outland [Peter Hyams, 1981]
Pitch Black [David Twohy, 2000]
Planet of the Apes [Franklin J Schaffner, 1968]
Predator [John McTiernan, 1987]
Quatermass & the Pit [Roy Ward Baker, 1967]
The Quatermass Experiment [Val Guest, 1955]
Re-Animator [Stuart Gordon, 1985]
Repo Man [Alex Cox, 1984]
Robinson Crusoe On Mars [Byron Haskin, 1964]
RoboCop [Paul Verhoeven, 1987]
Rollerball [Norman Jewison, 1975]
A Scanner Darkly [Richard Linklater, 2006]
Scanners [David Cronenberg, 1981]
Seconds [John Frankenheimer, 1966]
Serenity [Joss Whedon, 2005]
Silent Running [Douglas Turnbull, 1971]
Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow [Kerry Conran, 2004]
Slaughterhouse Five [George Roy Hill, 1972]
Solaris [Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972]
Soylent Green [Richard Fleischer, 1973]
Star Trek: First Contact [Jonathan Frakes, 1996]
Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan [Nicholas Meyer, 1982]
Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home [Leonard Nimoy, 1986]
Star Trek VI – Undiscovered Country [Nicholas Meyer, 1991]
Star Wars I-III (1999-2005) [George Lucas, 1999]
Star Wars Trilogy IV-VI (1977-83) [George Lucas, et al, 1977]
Stargate [Roland Emmerich, 1994]
Starman [John Carpenter, 1984]
The Stepford Wives [Bryan Forbes, 1975]
Strange Days [Kathryn Bigelow, 1995]
Sunshine [Danny Boyle, 2007]
Superman [Richard Donner, 1978]
Superman Returns [Bryan Singer, 2006]
The Terminator [James Cameron, 1984]
Terminator 2 – Judgement Day [James Cameron, 1991]
Them! [Gordon Douglas, 1954]
They Live [John Carpenter, 1988]
The Thing [John Carpenter, 1982]
Things to Come [William C Menzies, 1936]
This Island Earth [Joseph Newman, 1955]
THX-1138 [George Lucas, 1970]
Time After Time [Nicholas Meyer, 1979]
The Time Machine [George Pal, 1960]
Total Recall [Paul Verhoeven, 1990]
A Trip to the Moon [George Melies, 1902]
Tron [Steven Lisberger, 1982]
The Truman Show [Peter Weir, 1998]
Twelve Monkeys [Terry Gilliam, 1995]
V for Vendetta [James McTeigue, 2005]
Videodrome [David Cronenberg, 1983]
Village of the Damned [Wolf Rilla, 1960]
The War of the Worlds [Byron Haskin, 1953]
WarGames [John Badham, 1983]
Westworld [Michael Crichton, 1973]
When Worlds Collide [Rudolph Mate, 1951]
X – The Man With X-Ray Eyes [Roger Corman, 1963]
The X-Files [Rob Bowman, 1998]
X-Men [Bryan Singer, 2000]
Young Frankenstein [Mel Brooks, 1974]
Zardoz [John Boorman, 1974]

Yes I’m watching it, and yes, I’m enjoying it tremendously.

This post will contain some spoiler material that those that haven’t viewed the episodes yet may not want to know about.

To answer a couple of points that a poster (Paul) made on my forum (in this Torchwood thread), the concrete cell didn’t even register with me as being remotely like the interior of that concrete house made by Rachel Whitehead, but then, I have major problems with that particular story element, namely, it dried too fast, it should’ve ripped Jack apart when it broke up on impact, it really shouldn’t have broken up on impact (it should have buried itself more than breaking up) and Jack should have been cooked alive as the concrete dried.

Now knowing that Anthony Gormley, who did the Angel of the North, did something similar to the container that the 456 are in adds nothing to the story line to me.
I actually thought it more reminiscent of ambassador Kosh in Babylon 5 and the encounter suit. When he was out of the suit he had to remain in a sealed off portion of B5 with his own atmosphere.

I thought that the blowing up of the Torchwood Hub was a budgetary decision.
This has much larger ramifications in the mythos of Torchwood though, what happened to the people and creatures contained within it? What about all the alien tech that has seemingly gone up in smoke?
It’s all a bit too clean at the moment. These things need to be addressed if the show lives on after the end of this week.

On that note, if this is the future format of this show, then please, can we have two per year?
This is proper event TV and having just one week a year isn’t going to help with maintaining audiences – even though the BBC shouldn’t really be about the audience figures.

A document by the National Policing Improvement Agency gives guidance to police officers accross the UK.

“The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital
images in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place. Officers should not
prevent people taking photographs unless they are in an area where photography is
prevented by other legislation.”
“If officers reasonably suspect that photographs are being taken as part of hostile terrorist
reconnaissance, a search under section 43 of the TerrorismAct 2000 or an arrest should be
considered.”
“Film and memory cards may be seized as part of the search, but officers do not have a legal power to delete images or destroy film. Although images may be viewed as part of a search, to preserve evidence when cameras or other devices are seized, officers should not normally attempt to examine them.”
“Cameras and other devices should be left in the state they were found and forwarded to appropriately trained staff for forensic examination. The person being searched should never be asked or allowed to turn the device
on or off because of the danger of evidence being lost or damaged.”

Further more The Metropolitan Police have issued a tactical review of procedures of section 44 of the Terrorism act.

On the weekend of the 1st-3rd of May a friend of mine paid me a visit with his camera with the sole purpose of creating another in his series of …by Camera books.

There’s a Flash preview of Nick’s images available here and the contact-sheet style image below is a preview of mine. As soon as Colin has his images ready then we’ll ship them all off to Nick who’ll put the book together, fire off a preview to myself and Colin where we can make any changes (if any are needed) and then we’ll go to print.

Point of note, Images 1 and 21 have been removed from the finished listing.

After work on Friday I started planning a photographicing trip to the local reservoir to capture the sunset.
I got the time of the sunset and decided to set off an hour early as I hadn’t actually been to this location before. During the drive to get there I realised that I had got the time the sun sets on the horizon, not when it’s likely to vanish behind the tops of the trees. Consequently I missed the sun passing the treeline by about 60 seconds. (8+(
The location was still worth taking images of though so I did just that.
Arrived back later than expected – and a lot more tired too which resulted in me oversleeping on Saturday morning by about 40 minutes.
I managed to make it in to work only 15 minutes late.

Saturday night was a very late one. I went to a mates house where I totally geeked out on a potoshoot. I think I got back home around 3am.

Yesterday me and Geekette and my Brother-in-Law and his girlfriend and Honey all went out to a local coastal spot. What was planned as a half-hour trip ended up taking the best part of 3 hours.
It was a little hazy to start with but that cleared up a little bit and I think I got so good photos from it.

I think I’ll have a bit of a rest from photography this week (though I do plan on taking a fun photo comp entry and another pic for a group on Flickr I started over the weekend) because at the end of next week I have a full day of photographicing planned with a couple of mates that starts at arounud 4am and finishes at about 10 or 11pm.

All my images from the weekend will eventually make it up on my Flickr photostream, as well as my Facebook profile.

This article came to me by way of a friend’s posting on Facebook, and the rest of this post is basically what I commented on that posting, but not everyone I know reading this uses Facebook.

I’m really not sure about this at all. I’ve never felt that I was missing anything while I was taking a picture of it.
Instead of feeling disconnected from the subject I feel that the technology I’m using is actually bringing me closer to whatever happens to be my subject of focus at that time.

Why can you not enjoy the music at a concert if you’re taking pictures? It’s different sensory stimulus. When I’m at the top of a cliff taking a photo I can still very much feel the sense of awe and wonder at the view that’s laid before me.

No, I certainly don’t feel that technology has hindered my appreciation of anything.

It’s that time of year again, where I post up my list of films that I’ve seen throughout the whole of the past 12 months.
For those not familiar with the concept, basically I keep track of all the films I watch (I’ve been doing this since 2006) on a monthly basis over the course of the year, just so I can post the list up on my blog at the end of December.

Last year there were calls for some form of ratings, so this year I’ve given each film a score out of 5. Now this score is based entirely on my enjoyment of the film at the time of watching.
It’s entirely possible that my mood at the time could give an otherwise great film a mediocre score, but I have tried to be fair with the marks.

Highlights of this year were Across the Universe, Waitress and Á Travers la Forêt, the latter of which was the most enjoyable film I saw all year.
Lowlights include Max Payne and The Golden Compass.
I was really quite enjoying The Golden Compass, but they seemingly forgot to film the ending of it, or at least forgot to include the ending with the rest of the film. I’d feel very cheated if I went to pay for this film at the cinema.
Best title of the year goes to Chan-woo Park’s I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK.

Just glossing over the list now, it appears that I never saw any films for the months of February, March and April. *shrug*

Next year I really would like to see more films at the pictures, I’d also like to see more science fiction/science fiction related films than I did this year.

Follow the link below to get to the film listings for 2008.
Happy New Year to all my readers.

January
Hot Fuzz  4
Big Nothing  3
Superman : Doomsday  3
Blades of Glory  4

May
Forgetting Sarah Marshall  3
Good Luck Chuck  3
Fortress 2  2

June
Run Fat Boy Run  3

July
Wanted  3
The Crow : Wicked Prayer  2
Employee of the Month  3
Hancock  4
Ghost World  4
300  3.5
I now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry  3
Heartbreak Kid  3
Rounders  4
Strangers with Candy  2
The Last Seduction  3
Buffy the Vampire Slayer  2
Mary Reilly  2
Beowulf  4
As Good as it Gets  4
Superbad  3
Undercover Brother  3
Hitman  3
Á Travers la Forêt  4.5
The Dark Knight  4

August
Dracula II : Ascension  3
The X Files : I want to Believe  3.5
28 Weeks Later  3
I am Omega  2
Waitress  4
Across the Universe  4
Billy Madison  3
Sorority Boys  2
Ocean’s 13  4
Sweeny Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street  3
Cars  4
Groundhog Day  3
The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  3
Pan’s Labyrinth 4

September
Enchanted  3
Blade Runner : Workprint  3
Tropic Thunder  3
School for Scoundrels  2

October
Battlefield Earth  2
Iron Man  4
Jumper  3
Day of the Dead 2 – Contagium  2

November
Pride and Glory  3
Black Snake Moan  4
I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK  4
Max Payne  2

December
Quantum of Solace  3
The Golden Compass  2
Eastern Promises  3