Useful utility: Wget

Wget is a handy, free, open source, multi-platform utility for fetching files from HTTP, HTTPS and FTP servers.

It supports wildcards and recursion into subfolders. It also supports the sending of username and password information where required.

It operates as a command-line utility and there are lots of optional parameters (which can be confusing to be quite honest).

In the past I have used it to invoke a function on a remote web server on a scheduled basis (if the function can be initiated using a HTTP GET or POST).

It's clever and powerful and it just works.

All the information (and links to download) are available here.

Here are some examples of usage:

# Download the title page of example.com to a file
# named "index.html".
wget http://www.example.com/

# Download the entire contents of example.com
wget -r -l 0 http://www.example.com/

Peaking too soon

In my blog yesterday, I discussed M.Night Shyamalan’s cinematic output.

But, thinking about it since then, I have concluded that the posting may really be about the challenges of achieving too much too early and then having to follow that success.

In music there is a cliché about the “difficult second album”.

I think of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, written by Harper Lee in 1960. She won a Pulitzer Prize for that novel (which I very much enjoyed) and then wrote nothing else with the exception of a few short essays. Now I am not really in a position to speculate about the reasons for this, but it is conceivable that she found it difficult to follow her initial success.

I am also reminded of an interview where George Michael said (as I recall) that he had to come to terms with the fact that he might never write anything again which is as good as the Saxophone break in Careless Whisper which he wrote when he was only 17 years old. That must be a difficult mental adjustment to make.

It must be so much easier to accept having a career where you “learn your craft” and increased experience yields better results.

Devil - M.Night Shyamalan

I watched the movie “Devil” the other day.

After “Lady in the Water” I gave myself a directive never to watch another M.Night Shyamalan movie.

And I stuck to that. I skipped “The Happening” and “The Last Airbender” completely.
 
But then “Devil” came along. Shyamalan wrote the story but he didn’t write the screenplay and he didn’t direct. Give it a go, I thought.

The bad news is that I didn’t like it. To be more specific, the first 70 or so minutes of the movie is fine but the ending is so bad that it ruins the rest of the movie.

But I’m no critic so that’s just my own humble opinion.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 51% rating (43 like while 42 dislike).

IMDB gives it a 6.4 rating. And, despite my own assessment, most of the comments I read there were positive.

In relation to Shyamalan, I should elaborate a little. I LOVE “The Sixth Sense”. I own “Signs” on DVD. I went to the cinema to see “The Village”. So I was definitely a fan.

But the arc of his work has been unfortunate. Here is a list of his movies sorted by the rating on IMDB (I have removed the 2 movies where the release date predated TSS):
(8.20) - The Sixth Sense (1999)
(7.30) - Unbreakable (2000)
(6.80) - Signs (2002)
(6.50) - The Village (2004)
(6.40) - Devil (2010)
(5.80) - Stuart Little (1999)
(5.70) - Lady in the Water (2006)
(5.10) - The Happening (2008)
(4.50) - The Last Airbender (2010)

The inverse relationship between date and rating is hard to miss. The only consolation that can be taken from this list, I guess, is that Devil is a step in the right direction (actually it's almost exactly half way between his best and worst ratings).

So will I give “The Night Chronicles 2” a chance when it arrives? I’m afraid the answer is no unless there’s a huge amount of positive reaction to the movie.

Cosmac ELF

In August 1976 Popular Electronics published an article showing how to build and program a very simple single-board “computer” called the “Cosmac ELF”. The designer was Joseph Weisbecker. The article can be seen here and a very nice picture of the device can be seen here.

I put the word computer in quotes above as nobody today would recognise this device with switches for input and LEDs for output as a computer!
But I thought the device was simple and elegant, and I was extremely impressed by the small component count.

Weisbecker published three subsequent articles in the magazine extending the capabilities of the device (all available at the link displayed above). The fourth (in July 1977) added a small amount of circuitry which enabled the computer to display simple graphics on a TV. The example of the cover of the magazine showed a simple image of the Starship Enterprise (which was, of course, the perfect selection for me and people like me).

I never build/owned/used one of these devices. My first computer was an Apple ][ which was light-years more advanced having a full keyboard, using a TV as an output device, and having the ability to save/load programs on cassettes.

But I never forgot the elegant Cosmac ELF.

I was impressed again when I discovered that a gentleman by the name of Maciej Szyc published (back in September 2006) an emulator for this device and that this emulator (a) looks great and (b) was developed entirely in JavaScript! So you can try it out without having to download anything to your machine!

There are lots of other people who have put time and effort into paying tribute to the Cosmac ELF. If you want to know more then an excellent place to start is here.

I doubt if using an emulator is the same as using the actual device. And I doubt if using the device is the same as building and then using the device. But it is fun nevertheless!

Sporting Heroes

Now that I am a blogger (well, after all, this is my third post!) I can’t let the opportunity pass to comment on the fantastic sporting events of last week.

On Saturday morning, Ireland had a historic victory over Australia in the Rugby World Cup. At half time the scores were 6-6 and we thought we were still in with a shot. But we completely dominated the second half and scored an additional 9 points while Australia scored nothing. Full time score: Ireland 15 Australia 6. What a fantastic victory. There was no doubt that the better team won on the day. And Tommy Bowe came oh so close to a phenomenal try right at the end which would have provided a fitting finish. As Brian O’Driscoll said after the game: “It was the performance we knew we had in us.”

Then on Sunday came the All Ireland Senior Football Final. Dublin hadn’t won for 16 years while Kerry had been taken the Sam Maguire in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2009. Dublin played well in the first half and finished it one point in front. Kerry were stronger in the second half and with 7 minutes remaining were in the lead with 1-10 to 0-9. I couldn’t see them doing it at that stage but they scored a goal and 2 points to Kerry’s single point to put the two sides level And in the 3rd minute of injury time, goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton scored a point from a free to leave the final score at Dublin 1-12 to Kerry’s 1-11! It is difficult to imagine a more exciting conclusion to a match and to a championship!

What a fantastic weekend for the sporting underdog!!

Best book ever: Shiumi by Trevanian

The best book I ever read was Shibumi by Trevanian. Great characters, great story, great action sequences, great philosophy. By the time I finished the book, I had a favourite author. I went on to read all of his other books and to enjoy exploring his website www.trevanian.com.

I was saddened of course when the author (Rodney William Whitaker) passed away in late 2005.

But two good things have happened recently.

The first is that Trevanian's daughter (Alexandra Whitaker) allowed another author to write a new book based on Shibumi. This book is Satori by Don Winslow. I bought the book as soon as I became aware of its existence. It was a complete joy to see Nicholai Hel back in action again! In the "Author's Note" at the end of the book, Winslow has some very nice things to say about Shibumi, Trevanian, and his approach to writing the book. He has made a few mistakes with the characterisation, IMHO, but it was as good as could be expected now that the genius who created Hel is no longer with us.

The second is that Alexandra tells us on the Trevanian website that she is going to complete his unfinished work: Street of the Four Winds. I'm not sure how long this process will take, but as a Trevanian fan is is fantastic to know that at some point in the future I will be holding a new Trevanian novel in my hands. His legacy lives on.

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first ever blog posting.

Not sure how often I'm going to blog, or what I will blog about. But I'm sure this will work itself out over time.

Why am I blogging:
1) I find the short messages in Twitter too confining
2) I don't really "get" Facebook
3) I would like to have somewhere to record things I come across. A sort of public diary, if you will.

Will there be some techie stuff in the blog? I think that's inevitable. I do make my living working in IT after all.

Will there be stuff about movies and music? I certainly think so.

Will there be stuff about my family? I imagine there will.

So, in summary, a miscellany of topics that take my interest.

So let the games (well, the blog at least) begin!