Ready. Set. Shop.

Not content with Amazon.co.uk's Wii-Order Tuesday, Black Friday or even Cyber Monday? Then don't miss the Apple Store's special one-day shopping event. Friday, December 1st. Only on the online Apple Store.

Come back to the online Apple Store on Friday, December 1st for a special one-day only shopping event where you will find dozens of great gift ideas.

Mark your Google Calendar now. Until then, start your research by visiting the online Apple Store Christmas Gift Guide to find Mac and iPod gifts for everyone on your Christmas List, after all who wants a Walkman or, worse, Microsoft's Zune? An iPod Shuffle is on my Wish List.

Cyber Monday

Yesterday's Sunday Times Business section featured an article on Cyber Monday! The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving and the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season.

Similar to Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year when retail stores often offer significant discounts, Cyber Monday has in recent years become a busy day for online retailers, and one in which online stores offer similarly low prices and promotions. It has gained cache since the 2005 holiday season.

Unlike bricks-and-mortar, my online stores are open 24/7:

Disney Shop
Doctor Who Shop
PlayStation Shop
Wii Shop
Xbox 360 Shop

Looking for The Legend of Zelda merchandise? Here's Link!

Black Friday

A belated happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the "official" beginning to the holiday season. Most retailers will open very early and usually provide massive discounts on their products.

Although Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year in terms of customer traffic, it is not typically the day with the highest sales volume. That is usually either Christmas Eve, the last Saturday before Christmas, or December 26th Boxing Day.

Happy bargain hunting and be sure to return on Cyber Monday!

Silver Nemesis

For me Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis' creation is second only to Darth Vader. The new droid-like Cybermen are instantly recognizable. The official BBC website welcomes visitors with a metallic klaxon. I can already hear the Earthshock score composed by the late Malcolm Clarke!



Will David Banks (Cyber Leader) and Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant) once again be entombed in cyber armor? Rumor has it that this tale will hark back to the Patrick Troughton era.

The Snowman is an original story idea featuring a solitary Cyberman (see Marvel comics Doctor Who Issues 58-59 Junk-Yard Demon) whom is discovered, deactivated, in the grounds of a country house estate. I had intended producing an audio drama (Bournemouth University 1994) and am considering whether or not to release it as a podcast in the New Year.

My copy of Madonna's Confessions On A Dancefloor has arrived! As I listened to the new album for the first time, I was editing lines of html code and optimizing the blog template! The review will be published next week.

By the Lords of Kobol!

The notion of Sky's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica was, initially, met with derision. Until I started watching S1 (currently airing in the UK ahead of its US debut) and was delighted to discover that the series owes more to the paranoia of the X-Files (Cylons replacing Colonials) and the Vietnam analogy Space: Above and Beyond than its namesake (not dismissing S1).

The Cylons are no longer a cyber-reptilian race (as described in the 1978 Grandreams annual), but are robotic slaves that rebelled and overthrew their human masters - now the Cylon war machine relentlessly pursues the embattled survivors across the galaxy (as in the original premise). The CGI is superlative for episodic television, and the dogfights ape the cinematography of Apocalypse Now (see also Star Wars: Attack of the Clones).

Not all is perfect in this brave new world. Human actors replacing the colourful Cylon variants of the original is too convenient and unimaginative. And the CGI Cylon Centurions are cumbersome a la the Sandtroopers in Star Wars: A New Hope (Special Edition and DVD release).

As I missed the mini-series* and opening episodes of S1, it remains to be seen if the Cylon Imperious Leader has transferred to the new format (albeit in a radically different guise, for example as a super computer along the lines of Skynet)!

*I may checkout the R1 DVD release and post a review in the future.