Cast out
With another couple of million viewers, I made it all the way to the end of Outcasts on BBC1 last night. It kept me watching so it couldn’t have been that bad, but I can’t recall a drama production that was so riddled with anomalies and unanswered questions. We don’t know who was in the space-ship that was coming in to land as the series ended. (Captain Jack Harkness?)We still don’t know whether Stella and Lily forged a renewed mother-daughter bond. We still don’t know how mankind managed to achieve capability of interstellar flight and full-scale genetically engineered human cloning all within a period of twenty years from now, as the rule of law fell apart all around it. We still don’t know where the ACs shopped for clothes, or whether any of them other than Rudi the leader could actually speak. We still don’t know what the **** the evil Julius was constantly smiling about.
And yet . . . call me perverse, but I still find myself hoping that there will be a second series, if only to annoy the dick-head, smart-arse TV columnist in this morning’s on-line Guardian who managed to post a trite, sarcastic review of the final episode five minutes before it ended. By the way, if any of the idiots who have so far commented on his blog switch their attention to mine, I will send Jack and his XPs to hunt them down and kill them.
Quintin Jardine's blog 
You are the only person I know who has a Kindle, and I’m definitely toying. It won’t stop me buying the books, but it will stop me buying the hardback and then lugging it to and from work. I’ll happily read for 6-7 hours a day, and the Kindle screen seems eye-friendly enough for me to carry on doing that, and it has to be a damn sight easier carrying it to and from work and on the train and so on. But please tell me – is it worth it? Does it do the job? (And bearing in mind I’m wi-fi less, does it download simply by plugging the Kindle into the PC and pressing the appropriate button?)
Sorry for intruding, but I’d be really interested to have your thoughts on this.
It does the job, and the screen is definitely eye-friendly. A pleasant reading experience. However, if you’re a wifi free zone, you’d pretty much have to buy the more expensive 3G version. That does what it says on the tin; books download very quickly, (you buy ’em, Amazon sends ’em) you don’t have to add a SIM card or have a 3G package with O2 etc, as you do with an iPad, plus you can transfer your own documents to it pretty easily, for a very small charge. I’m talking pennies here. With such an expensive piece of kit, you have to be a little careful, but no more than with your Blackberry or iPhone.