Someone should make this for me: Rum Butternut Ice Cream.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Information R/evolution
Michael Wesch created this video that explains the switch from paper-based information to digital information.
Like the Vision of Students video I posted the other day, I love the presentation style a wandering camera putting printed words in context. I don't know if there's a name for this kind of thing but I like and am not really sure how these are created.
If you can't do video check out Clay Shirky's Ontology is Overrated
Like the Vision of Students video I posted the other day, I love the presentation style a wandering camera putting printed words in context. I don't know if there's a name for this kind of thing but I like and am not really sure how these are created.
If you can't do video check out Clay Shirky's Ontology is Overrated
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Mona Lisa Revealed
"Mona Lisa Revealed: A Virtual Restoration tells the story of the development and uses of a remarkable high definition camera, and how its inventor, French photographer/engineer Pascal Cotte, applied his new technology to reveal and recover the original color and appearance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa whose iconic image has fascinated Cotte since he was a child."
Average American Rant
John Rogers of Kung Fu Monkey has a fun rant in Farm Fetish. He points to a CNN piece where Brooke Anderson said: "This is a year when smaller, more independent films are being recognized in a big way, films with controversial theme, political themes, gay or transgender themes, but outside of Hollywood are the Oscars and the films that are honoring. Are they relevant to middle America? Well, I took a trip to Kansas to find out."
As Rogers writes: "For chrissake, only 17% of Americans live in rural settings anymore. Only 2 million of those people work on farms or ranches (USDA figures). Hell, only ten percent of the average farm family's income even comes from farming anymore (did you know that? I didn't. Funky). The median age of the United States is 37. I am more than willing to point out that the agriculture industry is a crucial, nay vital part of the American economic infrastructure generating a sizable amount of the GDP. But why in the name of John Deere's Blood-Soaked Wood-Chipper Gears, every time I hear a news report on what "real Americans" think do I wind up watching some farmer in their fifties and sixties bitch as they survey the blasted plains landscape behind them, and not only that, somehow their cultural observations are assumed to have more relevance than anyone else's?"
But it he gets really gets rolling when he says: "Four million people in the US play World of Warcraft. And yet, do I ever hear:
ANDERSON: We stopped by the gates of Ogrimmar in Durotar, on the east coast of Kalimdor, where one local told us Hollywood just can't relate to the level-grinding life.
UNIDENTIFIED ORC: They've never been back here, questing Razormane or Drygulch Ravine, y'know ... or farming for Peacebloom and Silverleaf. They're out of touch.
No. No I do not."
As Rogers writes: "For chrissake, only 17% of Americans live in rural settings anymore. Only 2 million of those people work on farms or ranches (USDA figures). Hell, only ten percent of the average farm family's income even comes from farming anymore (did you know that? I didn't. Funky). The median age of the United States is 37. I am more than willing to point out that the agriculture industry is a crucial, nay vital part of the American economic infrastructure generating a sizable amount of the GDP. But why in the name of John Deere's Blood-Soaked Wood-Chipper Gears, every time I hear a news report on what "real Americans" think do I wind up watching some farmer in their fifties and sixties bitch as they survey the blasted plains landscape behind them, and not only that, somehow their cultural observations are assumed to have more relevance than anyone else's?"
But it he gets really gets rolling when he says: "Four million people in the US play World of Warcraft. And yet, do I ever hear:
ANDERSON: We stopped by the gates of Ogrimmar in Durotar, on the east coast of Kalimdor, where one local told us Hollywood just can't relate to the level-grinding life.
UNIDENTIFIED ORC: They've never been back here, questing Razormane or Drygulch Ravine, y'know ... or farming for Peacebloom and Silverleaf. They're out of touch.
No. No I do not."
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Movie Review: The Holiday
Pleasant little chick flick. Cameron Diaz is a stressed out Hollywood trailer producer. Kate Winslet is trying to get over the sleezy guy at work who is now engaged to someone else and still hitting on her. She lives in a quaint old cottage in the English countryside and Diaz lives in an LA mansion. They meet online and swap homes for a 2 week vacation. Diaz falls for Jude Law and that ends up being a very fun romance. Winslet meets an old Hollywood screenwriter played by Eli Wallach and an young composer played by Jack Black. That story is not the traditional romance and while interesting, I found it much less compelling. It was fun fluff, well at least one of them was.
Movie Review: A Good Year
Russell Crowe is a high powered trader in London who inherits his uncle's small vineyard estate in France. HIs outlook on life inevitably changes. Nothing fantastic but pleasant enough.
The Vela Incident
Damn Interesting has this article on The Vela Incident which I've never heard of:
"On 22 September 1979, sometime around 3:00am local time, a US Atomic Energy Detection System satellite recorded a pattern of intense flashes in a remote portion of the Indian Ocean. Examination of the data gathered by satellite Vela 6911 strongly suggested that the cause of these disturbances was a nuclear device. Unfortunately, US intelligence agencies were uncertain who was responsible for the detonation, and the US government was conspicuously reluctant to acknowledge it at all."
"On 22 September 1979, sometime around 3:00am local time, a US Atomic Energy Detection System satellite recorded a pattern of intense flashes in a remote portion of the Indian Ocean. Examination of the data gathered by satellite Vela 6911 strongly suggested that the cause of these disturbances was a nuclear device. Unfortunately, US intelligence agencies were uncertain who was responsible for the detonation, and the US government was conspicuously reluctant to acknowledge it at all."
TiVo Update
I woke up this morning to find I had received the 9.1 update on my TiVo. This should fix some sound drop out problems I had experienced but I haven't had the problem in over a month anyway.
It adds boolean logic to wishlist searches which I had been looking forward to. However I don't think it can do what I want. I want a wishlist to find all new tv show pilots, so I use the keyword "pilot". The problem is this finds lots of movies about aviators. So I wanted to do keyword:pilot and not category:movie but I think you can only apply the not operator to keywords (or title keywords). If I click a thumbs button on the category I just get an error sound. Unfortunately movies aren't labeled as such so entering "movie" as a keyword doesn't work.
I also noticed Guru Guides for the first time, I don't think it was new with this update. It's a clever idea of letting you subscribe to a wishlist by created by a guru. One was for the AFI Top 100 Movies but I've seen all of those. I looked at ones by TV Guide and Salon and I wasn't impressed with their selections.
It adds boolean logic to wishlist searches which I had been looking forward to. However I don't think it can do what I want. I want a wishlist to find all new tv show pilots, so I use the keyword "pilot". The problem is this finds lots of movies about aviators. So I wanted to do keyword:pilot and not category:movie but I think you can only apply the not operator to keywords (or title keywords). If I click a thumbs button on the category I just get an error sound. Unfortunately movies aren't labeled as such so entering "movie" as a keyword doesn't work.
I also noticed Guru Guides for the first time, I don't think it was new with this update. It's a clever idea of letting you subscribe to a wishlist by created by a guru. One was for the AFI Top 100 Movies but I've seen all of those. I looked at ones by TV Guide and Salon and I wasn't impressed with their selections.
US Is Only Nation to Give Life Sentences to Children
The New York Times reports Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance.
"In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter. Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14."
Interesting article. 185-1.
"In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter. Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14."
Interesting article. 185-1.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Comcast Disrupts P2P
Salon explains the story that Comcast is managing their network traffic but systematically shutting down peer-to-peer connections; pointing out that this is network neutrality issue.
"This is a difficult story to explain, but it's quite important. For years, consumer advocates have been demanding that Congress and/or the Federal Communications Commission impose 'network neutrality' regulations that would force broadband providers (like Comcast) to treat all data on a network equally. Lawmakers have so far failed to do so.
Broadband providers, meanwhile, insist that they do treat all traffic equally, but they reserve the right to use certain technologies to 'manage' data on their network. The Comcast plan suggests that broadband providers mean something very broad by 'traffic management' -- including, it appears, purposefully stepping into your network sessions to shut them down."
"This is a difficult story to explain, but it's quite important. For years, consumer advocates have been demanding that Congress and/or the Federal Communications Commission impose 'network neutrality' regulations that would force broadband providers (like Comcast) to treat all data on a network equally. Lawmakers have so far failed to do so.
Broadband providers, meanwhile, insist that they do treat all traffic equally, but they reserve the right to use certain technologies to 'manage' data on their network. The Comcast plan suggests that broadband providers mean something very broad by 'traffic management' -- including, it appears, purposefully stepping into your network sessions to shut them down."
Bill Moyers on Blackwater
Bill Moyers Journal this week is on Blackwater and I found it absolutely fascinating. He interviews Jeremy Scahill author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
A Democrat Shows Leadership!
The new FISA bill currently includes a provision granting amnesty to telecom companies who might have broken the law and provided private customer information to the government illegally as part of the warrantless wiretapping that was done.
On Thursday Sen Chris Dodd (D-CT) who happens to be running for president said he'd put a hold on the bill. That's right, rather than just issue press releases and then capitulate to Republicans he was going to do something.
Daily Kos explains what a hold is. "So what it comes down to is that the "hold" is simply a matter of "professional courtesy." I want a bill held, so I notify my party leader of my intention to object to any unanimous consent request to bring the bill to the floor. Implied in that is the hint that I will make everyone sorry they brought it up if they don't just give me what I want, and they know by now that any Senator can do that, so they might as well just go ahead and hold it, for the sake of everyone's sanity."
People are happy that "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on Thursday condemned Intelligence Committee Democrats for brokering a deal with the White House" but it strikes me as just more talk.
Apparently Dodd has raised $150,000 in small contributions in just 24 hours, more than in the last month. Today Dodd's campaign said he'd filibuster the bill if the hold wasn't honored by Democratic leadership. I wish it was him saying it and not his campaign but at least someone realized that he was doing something good and doing more of it would also be good. Now Joe Biden (D-MD) has said he'd join Dodd's Filibuster. So the question is what will other Dem's do?
I really think the Democrats in the Senate need to watch the original series Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon and learn the lesson of Eminiar VII. In a more practical approach Eschaton uses ActBlue to allow you to easily reward good behavior by a candidate with money. Chris Bowers in Open Left notes Dodd "has put together an impressive list of accomplishments and issue positions during the past year" and asks Why Not Dodd?
On Thursday Sen Chris Dodd (D-CT) who happens to be running for president said he'd put a hold on the bill. That's right, rather than just issue press releases and then capitulate to Republicans he was going to do something.
Daily Kos explains what a hold is. "So what it comes down to is that the "hold" is simply a matter of "professional courtesy." I want a bill held, so I notify my party leader of my intention to object to any unanimous consent request to bring the bill to the floor. Implied in that is the hint that I will make everyone sorry they brought it up if they don't just give me what I want, and they know by now that any Senator can do that, so they might as well just go ahead and hold it, for the sake of everyone's sanity."
People are happy that "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on Thursday condemned Intelligence Committee Democrats for brokering a deal with the White House" but it strikes me as just more talk.
Apparently Dodd has raised $150,000 in small contributions in just 24 hours, more than in the last month. Today Dodd's campaign said he'd filibuster the bill if the hold wasn't honored by Democratic leadership. I wish it was him saying it and not his campaign but at least someone realized that he was doing something good and doing more of it would also be good. Now Joe Biden (D-MD) has said he'd join Dodd's Filibuster. So the question is what will other Dem's do?
I really think the Democrats in the Senate need to watch the original series Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon and learn the lesson of Eminiar VII. In a more practical approach Eschaton uses ActBlue to allow you to easily reward good behavior by a candidate with money. Chris Bowers in Open Left notes Dodd "has put together an impressive list of accomplishments and issue positions during the past year" and asks Why Not Dodd?
The Onion on the Election
The Onion nails the election:
Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters
I will say that I was happy with HDNet World Report episode (#533) showing a New Hampshire Town Hall, with Democrat John Edwards. He spoke about issues and actually said stuff.
Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters
I will say that I was happy with HDNet World Report episode (#533) showing a New Hampshire Town Hall, with Democrat John Edwards. He spoke about issues and actually said stuff.
Democrats Fall For It Again
What digby said. The Democrats yet again let the Republicans find a distraction on the SCHIP bill in Pete Stark's (D-CA) comments.
"Everyone knows exactly why the Republicans sent out "statement after statement" about this obscure congressman's words yesterday --- distraction. Does anyone point that out? No. In fact, the damned Democrats go right along with this nonsense and "hold meetings" and leak to the press about how they agree with the Republicans agreeing that Stark caused the distraction, and basically showing themselves to be a bunch of pathetic fumblers falling for this nonsense over and over again."
"Everyone knows exactly why the Republicans sent out "statement after statement" about this obscure congressman's words yesterday --- distraction. Does anyone point that out? No. In fact, the damned Democrats go right along with this nonsense and "hold meetings" and leak to the press about how they agree with the Republicans agreeing that Stark caused the distraction, and basically showing themselves to be a bunch of pathetic fumblers falling for this nonsense over and over again."
Brownback is Out
Sen. Brownback drops out of 2008 campaign. At least the country isn't completely crazy.
US Nuclear MIssile Mistake
In early september I wrote about 5 nuclear missiles that were flown from a US base in North Dakota to one in Louisiana with no explanation. I noted some speculation that they were taken to a base being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations.
Today the Military Explains Nuclear Weapon Mistake. "A six-week Air Force investigation found fault with several officers, who have been relieved of duty, [Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations] said. He said the 5th Bomb Group commander at Minot was relieved of command, among others. Newton did not name them. Newton said the 5th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-52 has been "decertified from its wartime mission.""
"The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning but were supposed to be disarmed."
So it probably wasn't planned but I'm not sure that makes it much better.
Today the Military Explains Nuclear Weapon Mistake. "A six-week Air Force investigation found fault with several officers, who have been relieved of duty, [Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations] said. He said the 5th Bomb Group commander at Minot was relieved of command, among others. Newton did not name them. Newton said the 5th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-52 has been "decertified from its wartime mission.""
"The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning but were supposed to be disarmed."
So it probably wasn't planned but I'm not sure that makes it much better.
Dungeons & Dragons Still?
A 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is coming out next year. Apparently people still play the game using books and paper and dice. So the new edition will include computers.
Actually it seems like a reasonable idea. They built an online system so that people can play when not together around the kitchen table. The system provides the equivalent of tile maps, miniatures, dice rolling, and VOIP chat. The notion is to open up game playing to more people, or more precisely to people that now are too busy or too far apart to play. I can't imagine their customer base is growing, so if someone moves away from a group that could end the game for those people. Over the years that has to have happened a lot.
Personally I could see the nostalgia factor, but I see no reason to play D&D vs something like World of Warcraft.
Actually it seems like a reasonable idea. They built an online system so that people can play when not together around the kitchen table. The system provides the equivalent of tile maps, miniatures, dice rolling, and VOIP chat. The notion is to open up game playing to more people, or more precisely to people that now are too busy or too far apart to play. I can't imagine their customer base is growing, so if someone moves away from a group that could end the game for those people. Over the years that has to have happened a lot.
Personally I could see the nostalgia factor, but I see no reason to play D&D vs something like World of Warcraft.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Mac Security
I saw this article in MacWorld, I will keep my Mac safe from other users and liked it. Bruce Schneier said it was good so I blogged it.
Daily Show Archive Online
Wow. Viacom has put up an archive of all Daily Show episodes. Here's an article discussing this move in the context of their law suit against you tube.
A Day With Film Critics
After last night's film critics panel I did go back for both sessions to today (I took the T). Here's much more detail on the morning session than I'm willing to write.
They showed the Hotel Chevalier which made the second time I've seen it. It's a short that augments The Darjeeling Limited and is available for free from iTunes. For me, it convinced me I didn't want to see Darjeeling. I disliked it just as much the second time as I did the first. A couple of critics didn't like it but most did. It was also a starting point for a discussion about film and a theater projection versus digital and downloading and watching on a computer or an iPod (or even watching DVDs at home).
Film critics love films so many were quick to point out that "it's an entirely different experience" but as I find is usual for such a conversation they didn't say what those differences were. In Hotel Chevalier's case I didn't really find a difference. I was surprised that none of the critics had seen it on a computer but were still talking about how inferior an experience that was (it was shown at the start of press and festival screenings of Darjeeling). I saw it both ways and didn't like either. In the discussion of the general topic I think they missed the point that a big screen can be better, but it's perhaps the last 10 or 20% and most of the film probably does come across in different forms. Someone mentioned how they knew someone who had seen Lawrence of Arabia on TV many times before seeing it on a big screen and didn't see a difference. I agree that's kind of absurd, but the point is Lawrence was made to be seen on a wide screen and uses these large wide peripheral vistas deliberately. I'm very much in favor of letter boxing but many films work fine on TVs (e.g., The Holiday which I'll review shortly), particularly new large screen TVs. Still seeing a comedy with many people is a different aspect of the theater experience. It also took too long for someone to say that with DVD the difference is often the choice between seeing a film in inferior circumstances versus not seeing it at all. Seems like an easy choice to me.
They also spoke with a fair amount of derision about the democratization of filmmaking as more and more people can create films and post them online. They view most of the stuff as a waste; one asked who wants to see someone else's home movies? Personally I think it means more people will be knowledgeable of film language and how difficult it is to make a good movie. Sure there will be more crap, but it's probably a bell curve and there will be more good stuff too. There are lots of films made in film schools, do the bad ones make the good ones worse? You don't want to see just anyone's home movies, but I've seen clips of the ones Spielberg made as a kid. It took a while for one to point out that with more to see perhaps the role of critics becomes more important.
They expressed a fair amount of frustration with being a professional film critic in this day and age. As newspapers come under more and more financial pressures, it's hard for film critics to make a living. That is a real problem as the industry undergoes a paradigm shift. Music videos didn't actually kill the radio stars, it merely changed them. Several said they had done music reviews for a long time in addition to film reviews. One spoke of interest in video game reviews as interactive film while another had no interest what-so-ever.
I enjoyed the day. They sometimes did go on too long too often but I can very much relate to that. It was most interesting when they (often) disagreed and when they wandered off-topic, for example when they spoke about bad remakes. While they often spoke about having a dialog with their readers I didn't understand that as they publish their views and that's the end of it (aside from a few letters to the editor or the critic). This was a conversation between them and that was fun to watch.
I found myself at times very much wanting to add my opinions to the discussion. It was fun to listen but I enjoy speaking too. While I didn't know many of the films they referenced I figure I've seen about 4,000 movies and I've read a number of books on film. I know enough to have an informed opinion if not a critical one. Then again, I could be the kind of blogger they hate.
They showed the Hotel Chevalier which made the second time I've seen it. It's a short that augments The Darjeeling Limited and is available for free from iTunes. For me, it convinced me I didn't want to see Darjeeling. I disliked it just as much the second time as I did the first. A couple of critics didn't like it but most did. It was also a starting point for a discussion about film and a theater projection versus digital and downloading and watching on a computer or an iPod (or even watching DVDs at home).
Film critics love films so many were quick to point out that "it's an entirely different experience" but as I find is usual for such a conversation they didn't say what those differences were. In Hotel Chevalier's case I didn't really find a difference. I was surprised that none of the critics had seen it on a computer but were still talking about how inferior an experience that was (it was shown at the start of press and festival screenings of Darjeeling). I saw it both ways and didn't like either. In the discussion of the general topic I think they missed the point that a big screen can be better, but it's perhaps the last 10 or 20% and most of the film probably does come across in different forms. Someone mentioned how they knew someone who had seen Lawrence of Arabia on TV many times before seeing it on a big screen and didn't see a difference. I agree that's kind of absurd, but the point is Lawrence was made to be seen on a wide screen and uses these large wide peripheral vistas deliberately. I'm very much in favor of letter boxing but many films work fine on TVs (e.g., The Holiday which I'll review shortly), particularly new large screen TVs. Still seeing a comedy with many people is a different aspect of the theater experience. It also took too long for someone to say that with DVD the difference is often the choice between seeing a film in inferior circumstances versus not seeing it at all. Seems like an easy choice to me.
They also spoke with a fair amount of derision about the democratization of filmmaking as more and more people can create films and post them online. They view most of the stuff as a waste; one asked who wants to see someone else's home movies? Personally I think it means more people will be knowledgeable of film language and how difficult it is to make a good movie. Sure there will be more crap, but it's probably a bell curve and there will be more good stuff too. There are lots of films made in film schools, do the bad ones make the good ones worse? You don't want to see just anyone's home movies, but I've seen clips of the ones Spielberg made as a kid. It took a while for one to point out that with more to see perhaps the role of critics becomes more important.
They expressed a fair amount of frustration with being a professional film critic in this day and age. As newspapers come under more and more financial pressures, it's hard for film critics to make a living. That is a real problem as the industry undergoes a paradigm shift. Music videos didn't actually kill the radio stars, it merely changed them. Several said they had done music reviews for a long time in addition to film reviews. One spoke of interest in video game reviews as interactive film while another had no interest what-so-ever.
I enjoyed the day. They sometimes did go on too long too often but I can very much relate to that. It was most interesting when they (often) disagreed and when they wandered off-topic, for example when they spoke about bad remakes. While they often spoke about having a dialog with their readers I didn't understand that as they publish their views and that's the end of it (aside from a few letters to the editor or the critic). This was a conversation between them and that was fun to watch.
I found myself at times very much wanting to add my opinions to the discussion. It was fun to listen but I enjoy speaking too. While I didn't know many of the films they referenced I figure I've seen about 4,000 movies and I've read a number of books on film. I know enough to have an informed opinion if not a critical one. Then again, I could be the kind of blogger they hate.
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