Favourites

I am often asked what are my favourite anime or manga and which titles I would recommend. For me it is a question that is very difficult to answer. I've seen or read so many of them, and I like so many, to some level, for one reason or another, that it would probably be easier to make a top 50 than a top 10. If selecting the shows that I prefer--those I would like to introduce to a newcomer or that I would take to a desert island--is already a difficult task, putting them in order of preference is nearly impossible; so I won't. In this alphabetical order selection, I took account of the quality of the title, its historical impact, its popularity and of a certain personal sentimental value. This selection is a choice frozen in the moment; it might very well be different tomorrow.

Anime:

Dennou Coil (TV series)
Escaflowne (TV series & movie)
Evangelion (TV series & movies)
Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV series)
Gundam Seed (TV series)
Kimagure Orange Road (TV series)
Nausicaa (movie)
Robotech series (particularly the Macross and Mospeada segments)
Rurouni Kenshin (TV series & OVAs)
Whisper Of The Heart (movie)

Of course I could also includes all other Miyazaki movies (beside Nausicaa I particularly like Laputa, Totoro, Porco Rosso, Mononoke Princess) and series (particularly Future Boy Conan, Red-haired Ann), Akira (movie), Beck (TV series), Blood+ (TV series), Bubblegum Crisis (OVA series), Cowboy Bebop (TV series), Dot Hack//Sign (TV series), Fantastic Children (TV series), Giant Robo (OVA), Grave of the Fireflies (movie), GTO (TV series), Gunbuster (OVA series), the Gundam OVAs (0080, 0083, 8th MS Team), Hataraki-man (TV series), Initial D (TV series), Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV Series), Kacho Ohji (aka Black Heaven, TV Series), Kare Kano (TV series), Megazone 23 Part II (OVA), Moyashimon (TV series), Nadia: Secret of Blue Water (TV series), Nana (TV series), Night Head Genesis (TV series), Nodame Cantabile (TV series), Noein (TV series), Paradise Kiss (TV series), Patlabor (series & movies), Rahxephon (TV series), Record Of Lodoss Wars (OVA series), Seirei no Moribito (TV series), Tide Line Blue (TV series), Twelve Kingdom (TV series), Wings of Honneamise (movie), Witch Hunter Robin (TV series) and so many more. But it gives you an idea.

Manga:

Blade of the Immortal (L'Habitant de L'infini)
Buddha
Detective Conan
Ghost In The Shell
Nana
Nausicaa
Paradise Kiss
Please Save My Earth
Rose of Versailles (Lady Oscar)
To Terra

I could also includes all the other works of Osamu Tezuka (beside Buddha I particularly like Astroboy, Dororo, Kirihito, L'arbre au soleil) and of Jiro Taniguchi (L'homme qui marche, Au temps de Botchan, etc.), but also Akira, Area 88, Beck, Cat's Eye, City Hunter, Fushigi Yuugi, GTO, Ikkyu, Rouruni Kenshin, What's Michael, Yakitate Ja-pan, etc. Most of those title are available both in English and French, and most of them I would recommend to a beginner (save maybe Ghost In The Shell which is too cyberpunk hardcore and difficult to follow). Strangely, I have much more trouble listing my favourite manga than anime (probably because I've seen more anime than I've read manga).

There you have it. Now, stop asking me which are my favourites!

For my other favourites (blogs, books/comics, interest, movies, music) check my profile.

Sign of Time

I thought my subscription to the Canadian edition of Time magazine was over since I stopped receiving it around Christmas. But I was under the impression that I should have had a few more months in my subscription. This week, two months later, I got a letter from the publisher explaining that the Canadian edition of Time magazine ceased publication at the end of December and that I will be receiving Maclean's magazine for the remaining of my subscription, starting in a couple of months.

In a way I am not surprised at all of this situation. The magazine industry and its distribution are in a really bad shape. Also, newspapers are closing right and left. The industry will have to adapt to new forms of distribution as well as to a new business model that involves the internet. It will takes a little experimenting at first, but I am sure that it will survive one way or another.

Sick of being sick

After suffering a near-burn out and painful back problems now I have to endure a bronchitis. I am realy tired of being sick. It is already hard to be working two jobs at the same time, but when I am sick all I do after coming back from work is eat and going to sleep. I cannot blog half of what I would like to say. Luckily I have one or two days off, so I manage once a week to answer some emails, put some order in my to-do list and write one or two articles--but I also still need to rest so I read a little, watch TV and sleep some more. This is rather frustrating. Hopefully, I'll feel better soon and be able to do more.

Last call to adopt black cats

This is the last call for those interested in adopting two back cats (a year-old mother and her five-month male offspring). Since I couldn't find any place for them in a no-kill shelter, I will bring them to a standard shelter (SPCA or Berger Blanc) in a couple of weeks if I still haven't found a foster home for them. Unfortunately, due to over-crowding, those shelters often have recourse to euthanasia if the pets cannot be adopted quickly. But I have no choice, I cannot keep them forever (I already have two cats). Why do people dislike black cats? They are as cute as any other cats.

Backlog

Sorry for not blogging lately. I finally got back my physical and mental strength after being repeatedly sick, but my bad luck struck again and I found myself on my back. I have no idea what caused it (shoveling? slipping on icy sidewalks? Bad sitting position?) but I had a terrible back pain that would not go away and I couldn't sit in front of the computer for more than a few minutes at a time (just enough to check emails and news).

The last week was particularly painful since I was working fulltime in a library, replacing someone on sick leave. Fortunately, I had to stand most of the day, so i was less bothered by the pain. I guess the exercice did me good (as well as a regular intake of pain-killer -- I felt like Dr House!) and I am now feeling a little better.

We found a loving home for our little refugee kitten Mitsy (he's so cute I had no doubt that someone would adopt him). I was hoping to place sweetpea in a pet shop, but it didn't work out. Therefore we are still looking for caring people to adopt our two refugee black cats.

Cute cats for adoption

The backstreet behind my appartment is always abounding with stray cats. This winter, when the temperature started to dip beyond minus fifteen, I decided to rescue the most vulnerable of them. So I took inside a young mother (“Betsy”, one year-old, shorthaired black) and her two kittens (both males, 3 month-old, one (Sweetpea) shorthaired black with a little white on the belly and one (Mitsy) longhaired grey tabby/main coon) with the intent of finding them a new home. I cannot keep them for long since I already have two cats (also rescued from the backstreet) which is plenty for my appartment.

Therefore, I am looking for either:

1. a Montreal-area no-kill shelter that would accept to take in all the cats or at least help me find the right place or person(s) to adopt them
2. a pet shop that would accept to take them all, making sure that they are vaccinated and neutered before selling them
3. individual(s) that would want to adopt one (or more) of the cats and give those little fur-balls of joy the affection they deserve (I would request that the adopter agrees to have the cat(s) checked up, vaccinated and neutered--an expense of about $100-$150 per cat)

If anyone can suggest shelters, pet shops or talk to their co-workers and friends to see if they are interested in adopting the cats, I would be grateful. Thanx!

(text available in french upon request)

Sweetpea, Betsy and Mitsy


Mitsy


More pictures (and maybe a movie) to come

Bonne Année !

Je vous souhaite à tous une bonne année et le meilleurs pour 2009. On en aura bien besoin.

I wish you all a happy new year and the best for 2009. We will certainly need it.

Take care.

Cute cat animation

Lame Duck?

Bush may be lame but he still can duck!


And now there's people brandishing shoes in the streets of Bagdad!
Is this the beginning of a new cult? “The shoe! The shoe!”
They want the shoe-thrower, Muntadhar “Brian” al-Zeidi, to be freed.
You really couldn't have a more Pythonesque moment than that!

Images © Associated Press and Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty Images.

Slippery

Apparently the guy managing the city's blue collars made the mistake of putting the people who used to take care of the ice rinks in charge of cleaning the sidewalks. Now they are extremely slippery. I know that City Hall talked about cutting cost by stopping cleaning sidewalks, but there's a limit! If I hurt my back once more by slipping I think I'll sue them!

On top of that the landlord didn't repair the front-door stairs and they keep getting dangerously icy and slippery. I am spending a fortune in salt just to increase the chances of NOT breaking my neck each time I'm going out.

Image © Acreage Living.

ANN will stream two anime TV series

Anime News Networks has announced on 2008-12-10 that it will stream two more anime, Girl's High and Ramen Fighter Miki. Starting December 15, both series will be available as free, ad-supported VOD streams, with one new episode being posted every Monday for 12 weeks. The series were licensed from North American anime publisher Media Blasters, and as such will only be available to viewers in North America (US & Canada). Justin Sevakis, ANN director of New Media, has stated that “There's more coming”.

ANN is already streaming the OVA Kite Liberator.

(Source: ANN).

ANN launches its streaming anime service

Anime News Networks has launched its streaming anime service on Tuesday 2008/12/09 with Kite: Liberator. The OVA, released on DVD by Media Blasters, is streamed (in six parts) in both subbed and dubbed versions, but only for North American viewers (US & Canada).

Give it a look!

(Source: ANN).

Boxee etc

I have previously mentioned that we now can easily hack the Apple TV with atvusb-creator which install both XMBC and Boxee. Now that Boxee has been updated and that I have finally received an invite for the testing, I would like to talk a little more about it.

Boxee is a social media center based on the popular XBMC. It allows you to play videos, music and pictures from your own computer or from the internet (streaming content from websites like Hulu, CBS, BBC, Comedy Central, Last.fm and flickr). Its “social” aspect means that you can share with your “friends” whatever media you're listening to or watching and send them your recommandations. So, basically, it is exactly the same type of media entertainment center than XBMC, but with a fancier interface and the social twist.


I like the general look of Boxee, particularly the way you can browse through your media library, but I prefer the XMBC video player which is simpler and seems to provide a better picture. Like XMBC, it is controled through the ATV remote which is too simple to offer a comfortable experience (but apparently you can pair it with a different remote). I particularly like the fact that Boxee offer much more streaming websites and a much easier interface to browse them, but unfortunately many of those websites (like Hulu) have geofilters and can be watched only from the USA. All in all, I prefer XMBC. I don't feel I have any use for Boxee, but I'll continue to play with it once in a while (after all atvusb-creator install both Boxee and XMBC) and it might grow on me. In any cases, I recommand you to try it.

Apple recently updated the AppleTV operating system to version 2.3, which forced me to use the Terminal application for the first time (to send to the ATV commands in Unix source code) in order to prevent my ATV to auto-update until a newer version of atvusb-creator was created. Then I had to send the code to force the ATV to update its OS, before finally installing the new version of atvusb-creator compatible with the new OS. Complicated for someone who's not used to deal with those command codes. But I survived and the ATV is now working again (with XMBC).

I also discovered that atvusb-creator now also install SofwareMenu, an application that facilitate the installation and update of plugins like ATVfiles (a file browser), CouchSurfer (a web browser) and nitoTV (a video player, which would allow to play video without the need of XMBC). Unfortunately, most of those plugins are still not compatible with the ATV OS 2.3 and their installation made the ATV crashed, so I had to use Terminal again to remove them (not without difficulty, but I finally succeeded thanks to the help from atvusb-creator's developpers). Once this problem is fixed, those plugins will be quite useful for sure, but for now I'll be more prudent and avoid install new stuff.

Unshelved

My latest reading (well, beside the daily newspaper and Time magazine) was pretty funny. It's a daily web comic strip created by Gene Ambaum (writer) and Bill Barnes (co-writer & artist) that I discovered by chance a few years ago. It has been published daily since 2002 and has been compiled, so far, in six volumes (and a seventh should be released in spring 2009). In 2006, I ordered from the publisher, Overdue Media (www.unshelved.com), the first three compilations: Vol. 1: Unshelved (2003); Vol. 2: What Would Dewey Do? (2004); Vol. 3: Library Mascot Cage Match (2005). I liked it a lot.

Written by a real-life librarian (but Gene Ambaum is not his real name) and illustrated by his friend, Bill Barnes, Unshelved tells the story of the people surrounding the Mallville Public Library. The main character is named Dewey! (for more details see the story primer or the Wikipedia entry). The art is rather simple, but the story is hilarious, educating and profess a great love for books. Despite the humorous situations that develop between the characters, it gives a good idea of the inner workings of a library. It could be a librarian training manual... Unshelved seems pretty popular: over 26,000 email subscribers. It's also published on its own website, as well as on the American Library Association website and CogNotes newspapers. The creators must be quite busy because (beside having day jobs) they tour lots of bookfairs, conferences and conventions!

Last month I found out that three more compilations had been published since I first discovered the series. Here they are:

“What happens in the library stays in the library. But oh, what happens in the library! Dewey has a book club, and you do not talk about Book Club. Colleen has a blog, but she doesn't know everyone can read it. Someone gave vegan Tamara a membership to the ham-of-the-month-club. And Merv reserved every copy of the new Harry Potter for purposes nefarious. This fourth Unshelved collection also features dozens of full-page full-color comic-format book talks, plus a very special storytime zombie nursery rhyme.” (From Amazon.com)

This volume includes the usual strips, plus some Library conference tips, but the most interesting feature is the dozens of full-color “Unshelved Book Club” book talks where the library staff introduce on each page a new book. A kind of weekly book review, in color and often hilarious!

Unshelved Vol. 4: Book Club, by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes. Overdue Media, 2006. 10.9 x 8.3 in, 120 pgs., $17.95 US / $22.42 CDN. ISBN-13: 978-0974035338.

“The fifth year of strips includes the famous "Pimp My Bookcart" sequence and a year's worth of full-color full-page "Unshelved Book Clubs" featuring the greatest books every written. Plus, never-before published strips and more!” (From Amazon.com)

Unshelved Vol. 5: Read Responsibly, by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes. Overdue Media, 2007. 10.9 x 8.2 in, 144 pgs., $17.95 US / $22.42 CDN. ISBN-13: 978-0974035345.

“No one gets asked questions more frequently than a librarian, and no librarian answers them with more attitude than Dewey! The latest Unshelved collection features a year's worth of daily comics and Conference Tips, plus the full-color Unshelved Book Club. Also features the Great Plastic Coffee Cup Lid Challenge between Unshelved and Sheldon, refereed by comics journalist Gary Tyrrell.” (From Amazon.com)

Unshelved Vol. 6: Frequently Asked Questions, by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes. Overdue Media, 2008. 10.9 x 8.2 in, 136 pgs., $17.95 US / $22.42 CDN. ISBN-13: 978-0974035352.

Unshelved © 2002-2008 Overdue Media LLC, all rights reserved.

If you are a fan, you can sign up for “Unshelved Readers,” the Facebook group.

Salon du livre de Montréal

La 31e édition du Salon du Livre de Montréal s'est terminée en début de semaine. Comme à toute les années je suis allé y faire mon tour, histoire de jeter un coup d'oeil sur les nouveautés, y trouver quelques idées de cadeaux pour Noël et renouer contact les gens du milieu de l'édition.

Le vendredi 21 Novembre, j'ai fait un premier survol du salon à l'occasion de la Journée des Professionnels. J'aurais bien aimé ramasser quelques catalogues mais la plupart des éditeurs n'en avaient pas ou plus (c'était pourtant juste la troisième journée du salon et ils auraient dû penser à s'en garder pour les professionnels du milieu de l'édition). Ils y avaient également quelques ateliers et tables rondes (Le feuilletage Numérique et la Recherche en Ligne, Communication-Jeunesse: Des Livres qui ont du Genre, Édition Numérique et Monde du Livre: Entrevoir l'avenir, Les Revues Culturelles à l'Heure du Numérique) aux quelles j'aurais bien assisté si j'avais reçu mon carton d'invitation à temps. Mais bon, j'ai tout de même recueillis de la documentation et quelques catalogues, observé les nouveautés manga, salué quelques amis, découvert une nouvelle collection intéressante et économique, Librio, un magazine manga, Canal BD Manga Mag, ainsi qu'une nouvelle librairie spécialisée en BD, PlaneteBD. Cela valait donc tout de même la peine.

Je suis repassé au salon le lendemain pour deux raisons.

D'abord, pour passer quelques heures au kiosque des Éditions Alire (dont le site internet n'est malheureusement toujours pas équipé pour les commandes en ligne!) et rencontrer quelques-uns des merveilleux auteurs de science-fiction et fantasy Québécoise et Canadienne-Française: Francine Pelletier, Daniel Sernine (qui a d'ailleurs fait l'object d'un récent article dans La Presse), Jean-Louis Trudel, etc. J'ai également pu rencontrer et discuter avec les trois auteurs derrière le blog Fractale Framboise: Éric Gauthier, Christian Sauvé et Laurine Spehner. Vous trouverez quelques photos de mon samedi chez Alire sur ma Gallerie MobileMe.

Ensuite, pour assister à une table ronde organisée par la Librairie Monet, sur “Le livre électronique: L'avenir du livre?” Je dois avouer que la discussion était plutôt rhétorique mais elle a tout de même soulevé le point important que l'édition électronique fait partie de l'évolution inéluctable du livre et qu'elle préoccupe de plus en plus les éditeurs. La preuve en est les nombreux ateliers du salon (et même un récent article du Devoir) consacré à ce sujet. Personnellement, je ne crois pas que le livre imprimé disparaisse de si tôt, mais j'ai la conviction que l'internet et l'édition électronique sont des outils essentiels à la diffusion du livre et des revues culturelles et littéraires. Protoculture Addicts est d'ailleurs disponible en format électronique (eBook en format PDF) depuis de nombreuse années—sur le site de Drive Thru RPG—et nous étudions en ce moment de nouveaux formats possible pour une diffusion plus large. Le kiosque de la Librairie Monet faisait également la démontration de la technologie e-Ink et de plusieurs lecteurs électroniques: le iRex Illiad, Les Echos e-paper, et le (laid mais pourtant si cool) Amazon Kindle—absent de la démontration mais pourtant incontournable, je dois noter le Sony Reader Digital Book et le polyvalent Apple iPod Touch. Vous pouvez visionner la table ronde en son entier (une cinquantaine de minutes) sur ma page Blip.TV:

Emru Townsend dies at 39

Emru Townsend died of leukemia on November 11. He was only 39 years-old.

We have already talked about his diagnosis, his quest for a bone marrow donor and his successful transplant. Unfortunately, his cancer was too aggressive and the leukemia didn't go into remission despite the successful transplant. Many have already written his eulogy and obituary (ANN, The Gazette, PC World), so there's no need for me to write about that. However, I still wanted to say a few words about him.

I didn't know him very well, but I wish we'd stayed more in contact. We worked on a few projects together in the late 80s and early 90s, but recently we were only meeting by chance in conventions and festivals. He started collaborating with Protoculture Addicts with issue #2 (providing ideas, news blurbs and working as proofreader) and we started together the first anime club of the University of Montreal. After a while Emru drifted away to work on his many projects (he always had new ideas and projects) and I took care of the anime club alone. He contributed only a few articles in the magazine (mostly one on Project A-ko in #4 and one on Akira in #7), but his work was excellent and he pitched in many ideas and always provided encouragement.

Quickly after starting working with us, he requested to be made partner. I answered that I would like him to work with us at least a year before considering that. He couldn't wait, so he left and started his own magazine, FPS. I always felt that he never forgave me for that. Later, he heavily criticized the quality of our Anime Guide book, blaming me personally (and my french-canadian origins) for the book's flaws (despite the fact that I only wrote the presentation and supervised the project, hiring instead the best Italian translator and the best English editor that we could afford). It was probably a philosophical difference: I guess Emru was a perfectionist while I am rather a pragmatist (after having worked six years to get that book published I wanted the information—the data—available to anime fans and scholars as soon as possible even if I knew that its form and presentation were quite imperfect). However, despite those differences, I never felt animosity between us and I always admired the quality of his work and dedication.

He was a great guy and he will be sorely missed by all animation fans. I want to express my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

You can visit Emru's Blog, Facebook group and web hub to learn more about his work.

Chessplay

Life is like a game of chess. To ensure success you have to plan ahead as far and as many eventual outcomes as possible. Only you are not playing against an adversary, but against adversity.

SADness

I feel a little SADness. Not that I am really sad (although someone I knew did die last week), but I feel affected by the Seasonal Affective Disorder. Like if I was not depressed enough, now the lack of sunlight is prolonging the misery. It seems that I am trying to compensate by seeking exposure to the tube... I am really watching too much teevee and I should cut back on the series addiction—but it does improve my mood. I feel like I'm sucking up the drama of those characters' very existence to replenish my emotional energy and bring back to life my dried up soul. I still feel tired, physically and mentally weak, but my Qi is slowly coming back.

After constantly beeing on the verge of burn-out for the last few years, I really had to take a month or so of vacation. To recharge my batteries. I fell in a strange torpor, and the world was flashing by me like if it was on fastforward. It was quite strange. It was like if I was waiting for something to happen. Now that I start feeling better (but I still need to really shape up, go out to exercice and see some people) I really have to speed up things and get back on track. The work is pilling up and I am getting way behind schedule. But everything is slowly getting back together now.

I am getting behind even on my blog. I promised myself that I would “review” every book I read and every movie I watch and I did not. Although not everything is worth sharing my opinion, I want to try making short comments (even if only one hundred words) about most of my reading and viewing. Just to keep the mind and the writing skill sharp. So I'll try to slowly catch up.

Winter is really close-by. At the end of October we got our first snow flurries and last night we got snow on the ground for the first time. I like winter. Everything seems to slow down and it all becomes so quiet and beautiful.

To my American friends and readers I would like to wish a nice Thanksgiving. For my part, I am grateful to live in such a great and uneventful country (Canada). I am grateful to my beautiful wife. I am grateful to have always worked in something interesting. Be thankful for what you have, 'cause you never know what could happen. Good night and good luck.

Melody

A few weeks ago my wife bought a cd containing the instrumental version of The Bee Gees' song “Melody Fair” and it reminded her of this movie—which she first saw in Japan a long time ago. She felt like seeing it again, so I tried to locate the movie. It is never easy to find a movie that is more than thirty year-old, but fortunately such research are now made easier with the internet. The movie got only a lukewarm reception when it was released in English-speaking countries, which explains why it was never released on Dvd in North America—but it is still possible to find it on vhs (used copies available on amazon.com). However, there was a dvd release in Japan since the movie was a huge success there (the 2004 release is now sold out, but used copies are still available on amazon.co.jp). The Japanese title was “chiisana koi no merodi” or Small Love Melody.

Set in the early seventies working class London, this slice-of-life and romantic fantasy tells the story of Daniel, a shy young junior high school boy. After befriending Ornshaw, he becomes part of the school's group of little troublemakers. Soon he also meets Melody and both fall in “love” (as any eleven years-old kid could). They tell their parents that they want to get married—now! For them, it only means “to be together”. In face of the adults incomprehension, they elope and organize a mock wedding with the help of their friends. When the adults come to interrupt the “ceremony” they meet an unexpected resistance and all ends in chaos.

It is a cute movie that reminds me a lot of Francois Truffaut's L'argent de Poche (“Small Change”, 1976)—maybe Truffaut inspired himself from Melody or maybe it's because both movies are told from the children point of view. And of course, it is impossible to watch this movie without thinking of Oliver, as both Daniel's and Ornshaw's actors played major parts in this famous 1968 movie. However, what I find the most interesting about Melody is that it is expressing well the era's sentiment of rebellion against the establishment. It is obvious in the fact that, through the entire movie, O'Leary is trying to perfect his bomb-making (no doubt that it refers to the Provisional IRA campaign of violence that started in 1969) and in the final scene where the children literaly attack the adults (and bomb a car)!

Melody. UK, 1971, 103 min.; Dir.: Waris Hussein; Scr.: Alan Parker; Phot.: Peter Suschitzky; Ed.: John Victor-Smith; Art Dir.: Roy Stannard; Cost.: Diane Jones; Music: Richard Hewson, The Bee Gees; Prod.: David Hemmings, David Puttnam; Cast: Mark Lester (Daniel), Tracy Hyde (Melody), Jack Wild (Ornshaw), Colin Barrie (Chambers), Billy Franks (Burgess), Ashley Knight (Stacey), Craig Marriott (Dadds), William Vanderpuye (O'Leary), Peter Walton (Fensham), Camille Davis (Murielle), Dawn Hope (Maureen), Kay Skinner (Peggy), Lesley Roach (Rhoda), James Cossins (Headmaster). Rated G.


Wikipedia notice
A Melody Fan Page

Apple TV hack

Since the time I have purchased the Apple TV, I have refrained from hacking it. Not that I didn't feel it was necessary — in the contrary, the ATV in itself is rather disappointing, although recent updates made it more interesting by adding the possibility to purchase or rent movies, as well as TV series in HD, access to iTunes radio stations or a “stand-by” option in the menu (you cannot turn ATV off but you can put it to sleep) — but simply because I didn't have much time to consider or perform the complexe hacking procedures.

The first hack that was made available was hardware and required to open the ATV to remove the hard drive. I used to like opening my computers to play with their guts, but lately the innards of electronic devices have become so compact and complicated that I don't want to take that risk anymore — without mentioning that I would rather not void the ATV warranty. After a while someone came up with the clever concept of the “patchstick”, a USB drive that contains the necessary code to enable SSH on the ATV and install plugins & scripts giving the ATV extra functionality. But putting the patchstick together was still a complicated procedure and using it entailed some risks so I decided to wait until I could learn more about it or until someone would come up with a simpler procedure. Later, a pre-installed USB drive was offered on the market, but the company selling it was sued and the product withdrawn. Finally, someone came up with atvusb-creator, an easy-to-use patchstick (well “easy” is all relative since I had a hell lots of trouble getting the app to work on my iMac—since then they released a new version of the app that works better—and I had to try several USB drives before finding one that would work properly on the ATV (a Lexar USB2 SDHC card reader with a cheap Taiwanese Adata 1 Gb card), but after several hours of work I finally succeeded to hack the ATV and can now access it via FTP). It is mostly designed to install Boxee (a media center also working as a social network, but it is still in alpha testing, on invitation only, and I didn't manage to get an invite yet), but it also installs XBMC !

Once the ATV is SSH enabled you can install all sort of scripts or plugins (see AwkwardTV for details), but XBMC is really all I need. It is very similar to the XBMC that I am running on my old Xbox, except that it looks nicer and performs better. With XBMC the ATV can access files on my network drive and it plays about any type of video files (I don't have problems anymore with the Matroska file format or Hi-Def video). That's really cool.



Now, the next step will be to purchase an HDTV... Before Christmas. But that's another story.