BOOK REVIEW – BATMAN: THE COURT OF OWLS AND BATMAN: THE CITY OF OWLS

September 30, 2018 KillerRoboticsBatman, Book, Book review, Comic BookLeave a comment

The Court of Owls written by Scott Snyder and The City of Owls written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, formed part of the New 52 line and was originally published from 2011 to 2012.

The main story focuses on mysterious secret society, The Court of Owls, operating in Gotham city who attempt to assassinate various high-profile individuals, including Bruce Wayne, using a group of highly trained assassins called the Talons.

The story does a great job of building a sense of history, covering several members of past generations of the Wayne Family and even a story focused on Alfred’s father, who served as a butler to Thomas and Martha Wayne when Bruce was a small child.

Gotham City is also fleshed out more than any other Batman story, making it feel like an important character in the story, not just a location therein.

Without spoiling anything, the story progresses at an amazing pace, building tension and mystery at just the right amount, making it a very difficult book to put down.

This story arc was the start of the New 52 Batman reboot and is a classic Batman story with great art work that pulls the reader in. It is a great place to start for people new to the Batman comic books series and is a must read for any fan of the Batman comic.

REVIEW – ADATA SD600 EXTERNAL SSD (256GB)

September 22, 2018 KillerRoboticsHardware, Portable Storage, Review, SSDLeave a comment

I recently found myself in the market for a high-capacity high-speed external storage solution and after shopping around I decided to pick up the ADATA SD600 External Solid State Drive as it provided 256GB of storage at a very reasonable price of just under $75 (USD).

The SD600 is a USB 3.1 compatible device, advertising read speeds of up to 440MB/s, very fast compared to more traditional external USB hard drives.

The SD600 utilizes 3D NAND technology, thus offering better performance compared to Solid State Drives that does not.

Below is a performance comparison, using Crystal Disk Mark, of the ADATA SD600, a Samsung EVO 850 500GB internal SSD running on SATA III and a SanDisk Ultra Flair 16GB USB 3.0 Thumb Drive:

ADATA

ADATA SD600 Results

Samsung evo 850 Crystal Disk

Samsung EVO 850 Results (SATA III)

USB3 Crystal Disk

SanDisk Ultra Flair 16GB USB 3.0 Thumb Drive Results

As can be seen the ADATA SD600 performs much better than the USB 3.0 thumb drive, but does not quite match the results of the Samsung drive running on SATA III. However, for an external storage solution these results are great.

From a size perspective the SD600 is much smaller than a traditional 2.5-inch external Hard Drive and the image below shows the size compared to two USB thumb drives.

ADATA Size

The SD600, however slightly larger than the thumb drives, is really compact and is definitely small enough to be comfortably carried around in your pocket. It is also very durably built and offers a very convenient solution for portable storage. Thus far, after over a months’ worth of usage the SD600 has given me no problems and serves its purpose exceptionally well. So, if you are in the market for an external storage solution the SD600 offers a great solution at a very reasonable price.

BOOK REVIEW – BATMAN HUSH

September 15, 2018 KillerRoboticsBatman, Book, Book review, Comic Book, Graphic NovelLeave a comment

hush

Batman Hush is a mainline Batman story arc that was originally published in the Batman Comic between 2002 to 2003, which has subsequently been published in this graphic novel. Hush is a great self-contained story which can easily be picked up by anyone looking for a starting point in the almost endless selection of Batman comics.

Batman Hush is one of the best usages of the Batman Villains’ gallery, featuring a large cast including, the Riddler, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and the Joker to name a few. The graphic novel tells a great story written by Jeph Loeb, full of twists and a few surprises along the way, it really is one of the classic must read story in the Batman comic series.

The story is beautifully bought to life by the artwork, which is some of my favorite in the long running Batman comic series. The art is the combined work of Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair, being responsible for pencil, ink and color respectively.

I can really recommend this graphic novel if you want to get started in the Batman comic series as it is a great jumping-off point and if you are already reading the series and have not read Hush, then you are really missing out.

BOOK REVIEW – LITTLE NIGHTMARES VOLUME 1 GRAPHIC NOVEL

September 8, 2018 KillerRoboticsBook, Book review, Comic Book, Graphic Novel, Little NightmaresLeave a comment

Needless to say, this graphic novel is based on the game Little Nightmares and contains the first 2 comic books in the series. The series was initially announced to consist of 4 comic books, however at the time of this post book 3 and 4 unfortunately appear to have been cancelled.

Anyone who has played Little Nightmares will know that the world of the game is a dark and mysterious place, with a lot of unanswered questions. This graphic novel builds on this world and provides some additional bits of information about the greater world that was not directly shown in the game.

I really like the ascetics and feel of Little Nightmares and part of its appeal is this sense of unknown, and the graphic novel does not spoil this, providing just enough information to get the reader more curious. For example, the comic books explain how the kids end up on The Maw, the fictional ship on which the game and its DLC takes place, but gives no additional details about the mysteries surrounding the Maw itself.

The graphic novel is beautifully illustrated with amazing artwork, in line with the graphic style of the game.

It is however important to mention that this graphic novel will not make sense to someone who has not played the game. It is very much a companion piece to the game and builds on the world that was established therein. But if you played Little Nightmares and loved the world it built then this will be a great read.

WIND POWER BEAST MODEL KIT

September 1, 2018 KillerRoboticsModel, Strandbeest, Theo JansenLeave a comment

I picked up this model kit from AMAZON when I was in the United States recently. It is an inexpensive kit, priced under $10.

I have always been interested in the works of Dutch Artist Theo Jansen, especially his StrandBeest moving sculptures, and this model is a great way of gaining understanding of how the mechanics of the legs function.

The model is easy to assemble, taking me under 40 minutes to complete, requiring no tools or glue and once assembled the model functions surprisingly well. The one complaint I do have about the kit is that the provided instructions are not always easy to follow, this is in part due to the very poor English translation.

Even given this fact, I would still recommend this kit, not only because of the learnings it provides in walking mechanics, but also as it looks really cool when completed and to top that off it is really inexpensive as well.

Killer Robotics

Adventures in Robotics, Development and Electronics.

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Month: September 2018