Anyone who works with subtitles – either for themselves or for others – is most likely familiar with Aegisub, an open-source program designed to make creating subtitles for video extremely easy. Thus many people will be glad to hear that version 2.1.8 of Aegisub has been released. It can be downloaded for Windows, OSX, and Unix over at the Aegisub website.

This release features slew of bug fixes. A major change that users will notice is that audio is now no longer opened when a video is opened – the audio must be opened and loaded into RAM separately. We are told that this is due to an aging playback system that was not coded correctly to begin with, and that using this method will prevent highly-reported problems with audio/video desync when playing video. This will, however, mean that the program will be more taxing on RAM if you need the audio, as many users do. Support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 is also improved, as well as Mac and Unix support. For a full list of changes, see the 2.1.8 changelog.

If you work on subtitles, is Aegisub your preferred program, or do you use something else? Let us know in the comments!

Managed to get in to see this movie in its opening week (the theater wasn’t even crowded!), and it did not disappoint, proving to be one of the best Harry Potter films yet, though not without its faults.

I had read a couple pre-release reviews saying that it would be necessary to re-read the previous book or re-watch the previous movie (The Order of the Phoenix) in order to follow the plot, so having some time on my hands, I re-watched all of the movies. I wouldn’t say this is really necessary prior to watching the film – though if you really have forgotten what has happened, re-watching Order of the Phoenix may be wise – but it did reveal something interesting that I hadn’t really noticed before. The first couple entries in the series were magical when I first saw them. I was younger at the time, however, and re-watching them, I spotted some awkward acting that I hadn’t noticed at first. I found that the third film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, was actually my least favorite. With such lines as “…and when I find him, I’m gonna kill him!” being thrown in, it took some of the magic (sorry) away from the movie. Luckily the fourth and fifth ones made up for what the third lacked, showing that, with the slight exception of the third film, the Harry Potter series has truly grown. They’ve become progressively darker, and, though not necessarily related, they’ve become progressively better. Order of the Phoenix was easily the best of the first five films, leaving me confident going into Half-Blood Prince that it would be even better.

Ron, Hermione, and Harry return in the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series

I mentioned above that the series had grown over the years. So, too, have the actors. While Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), and Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasley) started out the series at ages 9, 10, and 11. These ages were about right for the first film, but once the movies started being released every two years, instead of yearly, the actors quickly (and noticeably) outstripped their magical counterparts. There is an awkward moment that seems to address this in Half-Blood Prince where Dumbledore says to Harry, “You need a shave, my friend.” Too true. This took away some of the enjoyment of the movie for me, as it made many scenes quite odd to watch. I really wish they had been able to keep to the “one a year” schedule for the films, though I suppose it’s better to have a quality film with actors older than they should be than to have a rushed film with appropriately-aged actors.

The actors are noticeably and sometimes awkwardly much older than they once were

Half-Blood Prince sees Harry return to Hogwarts once more, though this time with many reasons to be suspicious of Draco Malfoy. Harry finds a textbook in his Potions class – now taught by formerly-retired Professor Slughorn, whose only motive to teach is that Harry is in his class – labeled as the property of the “Half-Blood Prince.” Though Harry has no idea who that is, he quickly finds that notes made in the book help him greatly, allowing him to further impress Slughorn and learn a few tricks (some of them dark) along the way. Meanwhile, Harry is engaged in private sessions with Dumbledore to bring down Voldemort by exploring his past to find and exploit his weaknesses.

Tom Felton takes on a much more sinister role as Draco Malfoy

While it has been several years since I read the book, I’ve heard from friends (and even from comments in the theater at the end of the movie) that many things were left out. I remember the book well enough to have been able to think “ah, I remember this scene from the book,” though not so well as to know which scenes were not there. To me, that is a good thing – the scenes that were left out were not missed, and the movie did not suffer as a result of their not being included. So if you’re a big Harry Potter fan, I’m sure you’ll find that this part or that part was not included, and you’ll maybe hate the movie for it, but if you’re a fan of movies, you’ll find that the parts that were included make the movie great.

As the actors have grown, so has their acting ability. That puts this film at the top, so far, in terms of performance by the actors. In almost every one of the movies, there was a scene or two where I cringed a bit due to poor acting, but they didn’t miss a beat in Half-Blood Prince. The two years it took to get every scene right clearly paid off. I had been a bit worried that since these three last movies are back-to-back (2009, 2010, and 2011), that they might feel rushed. Half-Blood Prince certainly doesn’t feel rushed, leaving me hopeful for Deathly Hallows parts one and two.

Effects, CG, lighting, set design, and costumes all came together to make every setting unique, making all scenes just as magical as expected of a Harry Potter film.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a great movie, entirely worth seeing in theaters, and easily one of them best movies I’ve seen all year. There are still two more to go (with Deathly Hallows being done in two parts), so we can only hope that they’re even better.

This week’s episode is a bit of a mixed bag, with the first half having a good amount of action (i.e. being fairly enjoyable), and the second half being mainly boring plot development and backstory. It’s an “okay” episode, but is probably necessary for this show to be considered to have anything even resembling a plot.

The action I mentioned involves Dan, Price, and Iceman in a heated battle. In a scene a few moments later, a certain someone is saved by “Mr. Perfect,” a masked hero.

Then, Navi the giant gets asked whether a certain legend is true, and since the team is going to the moon, Navi gets convinced to come along to find out whether the legend is true. Party size: +1.

Then, close to the end of the episode, an exciting new opportunity is revealed to team Basquash! – watch the episode to see what it is!

Overall this was a decent episode, but like I said, it was a bit unbalanced. The next few episodes should be good, though, as we are now in the home stretch for the end of this season.

Fumi, having been spotted by Yasuko, decides to build up the courage to talk to her about having signed up for the Basketball Club by accident. Fumi not only gets to explain herself, but is asked on a date by Yasuko immediately afterward.

The rest of the episode reveals, as I said, some more about the various relationships going on in this already complex series. While it’s a bit too convoluted to put into words, it all makes sense once you’ve seen the episode. Overall a good episode – this series is still going pretty well for a summer show.

This week’s episode picks up right where the first episode left off, even offering a bit of a recap for those of you who may have missed the first episode.

A policeman is helping people evacuate the building as Mirai heads in

That means that, after the earthquake hit in the first episode, Yuuki was still inside. His sister, Mirai, then must go inside (a dangerous place, after the earthquake) to look for him. This of course leads her to all sorts of difficult situations that she must overcome if she wants to save her brother. Luckily, she finds help along the way in the form of a woman she met at a kiosk in episode one.

Mirai gets helped out by a woman she met in the first episode

That’s about as much as I can say without spoiling the episode. I can, however, say that I have yet to be really impressed with this show. It’s “okay,” and I’ll definitely keep watching it, but so far it hasn’t shown anything that makes me think it’ll be some great anime that everyone will be talking about for years. What do you think so far?

 

Bigfoots are not allowed to roam the streets of Skybloom Kingdom

Following the action from episode 14, this week’s episode, titled “Run and Cannon,” focuses on the team trying to get to the moon. They arrive at Flora’s Skybloom Kingdom in order to get shot from the Moon Cannon directly to Mooneyes, or something. The rules of Skybloom Kingdom, however, are strict, and Bigfoots and other vehicles aren’t allowed to be used. Naturally, Dan ignores these rules, and of course ends up causing numerous problems for everyone.

Skybloom Kingdom is full of various warnings

The episode was fun and fairly exciting, though the setup for next week’s episode seems kind of lame and filler-ish. Expect to enjoy episode 15 if/when you watch it, but don’t get your hopes up for episode 16. I’d love to be proven wrong by the next episode, though. We’ll see, next time on Basquash!

 

While we wait for next week’s episode, what did you guys think of episode 15? Has Basquash! been getting better or worse lately?

I’ve talked about special/limited editions of videogames before, but when I saw this one, it really jumped out at me. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be released with a “Prestige Edition.” Ars Technica reports that it will cost $149.99 USD when it launches on November 10, 2009. The game has a slightly less prestigious edition, however, dubbed the “Hardened Edition,” which will only cost $80 USD, a more reasonable price.

So how do these different versions break down? Well, you can buy just the standard game (which is just the game), then there’s the Hardened Edition I mentioned, which comes in a steel game case with an art book (just like Gears of War 2), and a download code for the original Call of Duty (coming to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network). Then, for the real fans of the Call of Duty series, there’s the Prestige Edition (pictured above and below). It comes with everything that the Hardened Edition has, plus fully-functional night vision goggles. So you will have vision at night. When you are not playing the game.

Now, this is admittedly cooler than the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, which came with the Master Chief helmet, but I get the feeling that I just wouldn’t have much of a use for night vision goggles once the novelty wore off. I think that the Hardened Edition is as much as I’m willing to spend on this kind of game, but I have to admit that night vision goggles seem pretty cool, and I hope that one of my friends gets the Prestige Edition so I can play around with the goggles. How about you? Which edition do you think you’d buy?

An artist's rendition of the Venus Express in orbit of Venus

A European space probe has been taking pictures of Venus, and upon analysis of these images, scientists believe that the hot, dry, barren planet might once have had moving continents and an ocean of water.

This information comes from infrared images taken in 2006 and 2007 from the Venus Express probe. Using these images, of the planet’s southern hemisphere, German astronomers have produced a map revealing that the planet’s highland plateaus were, a very long time ago, ancient continents surrounded by water. All images of Venus’ surface tend to be done using infrared cameras, as Venus’ thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid is difficult to see through, and surface probes can’t last long on the surface, where temperatures hit 477 C (891 F).

The launch of the Venus Express in 2005

The infrared images showed evidence of differing temperatures on the surface of the planet, indicating that the chemical composition of the planet differs, and even allowed scientists to infer what these compositions were. The highland plateaus seem to be made of a granite-like substance. Granite on Earth is formed when basalt rocks are driven beneath the surface by plate tectonics, mix with water, and then re-emerge with volcanic activity. This of course suggests that similar activity occurred on Venus, and in order to have that happen, liquid water must have existed on the planet.

While current temperatures on Venus would mean that all water would evaporate, theories about the history of our solar system’s sun suggest that it might have been much less bright long ago, meaning that temperatures on Venus may once have been low enough to allow for liquid water. As the sun began to emit more energy, conditions on Venus changed as well, causing all the ocean’s carbon dioxide to go into the atmosphere, rather than be dissolved in the planet’s oceans. This would cause a greenhouse effect, further increasing temperatures on the planet. Furthermore, Venus lacks a very robust magnetic field, meaning it would have been exposed to the solar wind, which would even further change its climate.

While information from the Venus Express would seem to support the above theory, scientists warn that these results are merely preliminary and that they can only say conclusively that the plateau rock looks different from rock elsewhere on the planet. However, the scientists now have somewhere they would like to try to land a probe on Venus, for further investigation of this theory.

Continuing with Summer 2009 Anime Season shows, here’s one I’ve heard some great things about and am definitely looking forward to watching, and perhaps blogging.

The series is set in Tokyo in the aftermath of an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake knocks down the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, and other notable landmarks. The main characters in the series are Mirai and Yuki, who were visiting a robot exhibition in Odaiba at the beginning of the summer vacation when the earthquake struck. It follows their struggle to reach their mother’s house in Setagaya while being assisted by a female motorcycle courier named Mari. Newscaster Christel Takigawa makes an appearance as herself, reporting on the earthquake and assuming the role of a “navigator” during the series. The motivation for this series is the 70% chance that an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or higher will strike Tokyo within the next 30 years. This show is being placed into Eden of the East’s former timeslot, meaning it has some fairly big shoes to fill.

The first episode starts with the opening animation and music, “Kimi no Uta (キミノウタ)” by abingdon boys school. While not my favorite song that the band has put out, it’s fairly decent. What really grabbed me, however, was the imagery in the opening sequence. Some examples below:

 

The animation for the show itself is nothing special, though it does look nice enough to be worth watching in HD.

The first episode largely introduces the characters: Mirai and her younger brother, Yuki, and their parents. It also sets up the setting, with Mirai and Yuki being alone in Odaiba, while their parents are far away.

 

The ED, “M/elody” by Shion Tsuji, was fairly enjoyable, and also featured some nice imagery.

 

All in all, this is shaping up to be a great show. While I don’t really like blogging about series I really enjoy watching (it takes some of the enjoyment away from watching), I probably will keep blogging about this one.

This week’s episode of Aoi Hana picks up right where last week’s left off, with Fumi and Akira having resumed their friendship.

The animation in this series is somewhat different than what most shows give, and thus it maintains an interesting feel to the whole show. It’s by no means Shinkai quality or anything, but just somewhat unique.

Aoi Hana features somewhat unique, interesting animation.

Anyway, this episode is full of flashbacks, giving us a bit of background on the past friendship between Fumi and Akira, adding some depth to their current feelings toward each other.

The episode has several flashbacks to Fumi and Akira's childhood.

As school is just starting, Fumi must choose a club to join. She meets a friendly girl who invites her to join her club. Fumi thinks she is joining the literature club, but the girl ends up being an upperclassman named Yasuko, who is in the Basketball Club. Thus, Fumi joins the Basketball Club, as she is quite taken with this Yasuko girl.

Fumi has the hots for this basketball-playing upperclassman, Yasuko.

Fumi and Akira also sleep together. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Fumi likes girls.

Akira and Fumi share a bed at night.

Meanwhile, Akira joins her school’s Drama Club along with her friend, Ikumi.

Akira and Ikumi join the school drama club.

Fumi and her friends from school visit Akira’s prestigious school, and while getting the tour, Fumi becomes quite jealous that her school is not so grand. She then encounters Ikumi, crying, and seems quite taken with her as well. This will no doubt set up some sort of love triangle (or perhaps a more complex shape) in future episodes, as we now know that Fumi likes Chizu, Yasuko, and Ikumi.