(EDIT: For the uninitiated, Ubunchu is a free-licensed manga series thematically centered around Ubuntu Linux, and this is a review of the fourth chapter of said series cum my musings on the viability of free licenses when applied to artwork. I apologize if I have previously confused anyone by leaving out this introduction )

(EDIT: I can’t believe I forgot the link to the manga again!! You can find every translated chapter of the free-licensed Ubuntu-oriented manga here)

With every chapter so far thematically alluding to one Ubuntu / free software related idea or another, Ubunchu is starting to feel somewhat like a documentary. Reminds me of one of those “Manga guide to Databases” things. And that’s not a bad thing by the way

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So this is actually a (late) response to Dustin’s post “The Treacherous Sunset (Durarara!! 4)“, born after I decided that a monster comment I had be writing to it would be better off made into a post in itself. I’ll try to make this post readable on it’s own, but I recommend that you check out Dustin’s post and what his commenters had to say before proceeding.

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For most people this song probably needs no introduction This is a piece I have fond memories of. I watched the entirety of the first Darker than Black late at night, and the silky, swaying tune of Tsukiakari, accompanied by the soothing image of a quiet, star-gazing Yin amongst the white flowers, invariably proved to be an apt and comfortable curtain-fall.

I don’t know if it’s the lyrics, the tune, the accompanying visuals, or the fact that it is always late at night when the song played, but I’ve come to really associate this song with moonlight. Every now and then in the apartment room I currently sleep in, a bright moon would cast it’s rays straight through the window onto my bed, and invariably as I sink into the covers bathed in that glow this song would start playing in the back of my head.

Moonlight is a strange thing. Even knowing full well that it is nothing but unremarkable sunlight reflected back at us by an inanimate celestial body, I can’t help feeling it draw a shower of mysticism over me. Of course, being highly sleepy at the time helps

Anyway, enough random banter! Without further ado, I give you Tsukiakari (that’s “Moonlight” by the way), the ending theme to the first season of Darker than Black. As usual, hit f8 to play the song, and hit the jump for a pic, romaji lyrics, and translations. Enjoy

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Katanagatari 01 isn’t completely brilliant, but it definitely has me intrigued. In fact I was already half convinced that I want to watch this 5 minutes into the first episode. The obvious thematic elements – swords, martial arts, romance in the medieval orient – already evoked thrilling recollections of the Kenshin OVA I watched so long ago (which definitely deserves a good post one fine day). And while the episode itself didn’t really go anywhere (yet), it already has a good number of colourful, potentially promising groundwork laid out. This could be quite a fun ride!

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I seem to have been drifting towards a more prose-heavy posting style lately, but here’s a show that reminds us that some things are just better enjoyed moment-to-moment.

The unholy Gattai of Gainax and Kindergarten kids has given birth to something that has been dubbed “an awesome show for awesome people!” as well as “the funniest of the new season”. And if you aren’t already watching this, here are two more reasons to open pandora’s box and offer your soul to Hiiragi.

Oh shoot, and I just gave away the first reason.

Candidate for most epic ED this season

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It’s been a long time since the last update, and admittedly I haven’t been working on PlasMate as much as I’d like to in the past month (with school kicking in and all). Anyway, just a quick post to highlight some of the stuff we’ve been up to.

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So I sampled a teaser snippet of To Aru “Radio” no Railgun over at Keiri’s place. (for the uninitiated, that’s To Aru Kagaku no Railgun’s web radio show co-hosted by the Seiyuu’s of Saten and Uiharu) Being completely suckered by it, I trotted down to Hibiki Radio hoping to give the real thing a spin… only to find that I couldn’t play it on Linux.

So what else is new

Anyway before I continue my story I should probably state up front here that I didn’t manage to find a “complete”, “elegant” solution, so if you’re a perfectionist you should probably be looking elsewhere. If you’re just desperate to play that damn .asx radio stream though (as I was), read on.

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Pink was definitely a good call, Mio!

So am I the only one around who thinks that KyoAni did the right thing when they didn’t (really) animate the concert?

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I haven’t written a proper tech article since before I (re-)started this blog, so I thought it was high time. Besides, I’ve been wanting to write this post ever since I read some articles on Google’s Chrome OS, around the time right after my old blog vaporized. So there’s a couple of buzzwords to hopefully sucker you into clicking the ‘more’ button and actually reading the article – It’s about Google’s upcoming Chrome OS and it’s implications for the web, the desktop and the browser, as well as why desktop evolution can take an alternative path, exemplified by KDE’s budding Project Silk movement.

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“Because the world isn’t as cruel as you take it to be”

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