Since FBO have re-sent my DVD's, I've been watching Cowboy Bebop - Session 4. It's going to be a sad day when I reach the end of Session 6. Bebop has been the most enjoyable of all the anime series I've watched.

The other series I've been trying out to replace my Cowboy Bebop addiction haven't really done it for me (Rurouni Kenshin, for example. Samurai X was OK, but the slapstick in Rurouni Kenshin really annoyed me).

Someone suggested I try FLCL, but I want to do a little more research first. My copy of Rurouni Kenshin Vol 1 is destined for eBay, and I'm not in a hurry to order another one on spec.

Any other suggestions?

SMS Alerts on your Bank Account

One of the guys in the Borland Korea office mentioned in conversation that most Credit Card companies in Korea offer to send you SMS messages whenever your card is used. Apparently they pitch this as a security measure, but it is not much used for its original purpose. It's wildy popular, apparently, among husbands who get their mobile numbers assigned to their wife's Credit Card, thereby letting them monitor their wife's spending.

I told my wife about this (who, by the way, was out shopping while I was at work being told this), who quickly declared that it would never take off in Australia, and added, with a challenging look, "certainly not in our household".

Funnily enough, my bank back here in Oz has just sent me an email saying they are about to start trialling it for all their accounts, including Credit Cards. They aren't pitching it as a security measure, more as a way to find out when that important payment gets deposited into your account. Hmmm, wonder if I'm brave enough to tell her :-)

Korean Protests

We actually got caught up in this protest in Seoul last week. We came out of Kyobo (Korea's largest bookstore) and walked straight into a horde of protesting Koreans. The photo makes them look angry, and indeed the people I spoke to in Korea were mostly irate at the opposition's behaviour, however from what I saw at this protest they were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Bands were playing, vendors were selling food and it seemed like hundreds of people were trying to give us candles in cups (it was bloody cold, so we were very tempted to take them just to warm our hands). Apparently the protest went on for 3 or 4 days, so maybe all protests should be this much fun.

Korean Delphi event

We took a bit of a holiday in Seoul at the end of my trip, so I'm just getting back into it.

Before the holiday, however, we had a half day Delphi 8 for .NET event, with just shy of 700 Delphi developers showing up! I'm going to write something up for BDN with some photos.

Anyway, the Borland Korea staff worked like crazy on the event, and I swanned in to do the opening keynote bit and a C#Builder plug (as well as inflict my grasp of Korean on the audience. Needless to say, they were very polite).

As is usually the way, the one who did the least work got the glory, and I ended up in Korea's largest IT newspaper the next day, which earned me many brownie points with my Korean Mother-in-law :-) However, it has raised the bar, as she expects me on TV next time I'm in Korea, another newspaper clipping just won't cut it.

Hmmm, do you think I might be losing my hair?

Snow!

I'm in Seoul, Korea at the moment, and a few days before I got here they had their biggest dump of snow in 100 years. Needless to say, there is still snow to be found lying about, which is a novel experience for a boy from Sydney (where today, BTW, it was 39 Celcius/102 Farenheit). I've been caught a couple of times smiling like an idiot at a pile of snow by folk from the Borland Korea office. I've restrained myself so far, but I may just sneak out of the hotel tonight and find a quiet spot to throw a snowball or two.