Programming Languages

I was at the open day at Coder Dojo in Malahide this morning with my three kids.

Very interesting presentations on hardware and programming. And demos of cool stuff including a Raspberry Pi and a JavaScript-controlled helicopter!

The organisers asked the kids to name programming languages. The kids duly came up with Scratch and Java. One of the kids asked me if I could name any more. That got me thinking.

So here I am going to name all of the programming languages I can think of in alphabetical order:

Algol, APL, Assembler, AutoIt
B (I think?), BASIC
C, C++, C#, COBOL
D
E
Fortran
G
H
I
Java, JavaScript
K
Lisp, Logo, LotusScript
M
N
O
Perl, PHP, Processing, Prolog, Python
Qt
Rapid-Q, RPG, Ruby
Scheme, Scratch, SNOBOL, SQL
T
U
VB, VB.NET
W
X
Y
Z

That's 31 by my count.

There are lots more than I know of but can't remember, and lots more that I have never heard of.

Best Christmas book: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

I blogged last year about the best Christmas book ever: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

I read it again this year with my (now) 8 and 10 year olds. Again there were tears. Again they were mine.

The difference this year was that my 8 year old, Andrew, read it this time. He did a great job.

At the end he asked me if they all got married and lived happily every after. Obviously I told him that they did. How else could a great book like that end!

Looper

I like time travel movies a lot. I will return to this topic in a future post.

I watched Looper the other day. It is very good. It is a time travel movie where the story is interesting but also not too hard to follow (once you have accepted the premise that it makes sense to send people back in time to have them killed).

The cast is very good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like I've never seen him before. Bruce Willis gets to do his "die hard" thing. Emily Blunt does a good job too.

But most of the credit most go to writer/director (and actor too I see) Rian Johnson. This seems to be only the third movie he has written/directed and he did a fine job.

My rating: 7.5/10

Here is a still from the movie showing Willis and Gordon-Levitt:

Miracle on 34th Street - I'm not so sure

I bought Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 edition) on DVD some years ago but I never got the kids to watch it.

Originally they would have been opposed to the idea of watching a movie in black and white. But of course I have won them over to this idea some time ago with It's a Wonderful Life.

So this year I took it out again and I watched it with the two younger ones (10 and 8).

It has a number of things going for it:

• It's a "Christmas classic"
• It features Ireland's own Maureen O'Hara
• It is #9 apparently on the American Film Institute's "100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time"

The bad news is: I don't think we will be watching it again. At least not until the kids are older.

Without discussing the details, suffice it to say that I just don't think it is suitable.

So if you want to watch a "Christmas classic" with your kids, I would suggest that you try one of these two.

12/12/12 12:12

Did you do anything exciting at twelve minutes past midday today to mark the fact that it was 12/12/12 12:12?

I was at work and didn't realise that anything exciting had happened!

Strange that it was one of those dates that worked on this side of the Atlantic and also on the other side.

Not really as exciting I guess as 10/11/12 13:14 but that one was on different days depending on where you live.

Strange also how often these special date/time combinations occur.

Fourth Best Christmas Song

I blogged about the 3 best Christmas songs last year.

That was easy - IMHO they are head and shoulders above the rest.

But this year I will go out on a limb and name my fourth favourite. It is "Stay Another Day" by East 17.

It was written by band member Tony Mortimer and was the Christmas Number One back in 1994 in Ireland, the UK, Sweden, and Denmark.


 

Homeland - Not so sure anymore!

I blogged about Homeland last month.

In that posting I expressed some reservations about the show.

Since then I have been keeping up with the new episodes and my reservations are getting bigger and bigger.

I think there is far too much in the show that is simply unbelievable. The behaviour of the Carrie character specifically is becoming more and more ridiculous. The idea that the CIA would continue to use her as her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic/unpredictable simply beggars belief.

And the whole piece about the (possible spoiler - select text to make visible) hit and run is ridiculous too.

So I'm still watching it but I predict that I won't be for much longer.

Christmas FM

Last Christmas I blogged about:

The best Christmas songs
The best Christmas movies
The best Christmas book

I can't believe that I failed to blog about one of the other great things about Christmas: Christmas FM!

Christmas FM broadcasts Christmas music for 30 days, closing down again on St Stephen's Day.

You can listen to it in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Wexford. And you can listen to it on the web.

I spotted it on my dial the day before it started broadcasting and I was tuned in at 8:20 in my car on the first morning. It really puts you in the Christmas mood.

And it's run by volunteers and all money raised this year goes to ISPCC Childline.

A month with no posts!

I can't believe it has been just over a month since my last post!

I had 4 assignments to do for college over the last month so it all went by in a bit of a blur!

But I'm back now and can't want to get posting again!

Angry Birds Star Wars

Some mash-ups work, others don't.

The mash-up between Angry Birds and Star Wars (which was released last Thursday) is pure genius. It is, IMHO and based on my first few days of playing it (and from the perspective of a Star Wars fan of course) more fun than the previous versions of the game.

All the fun of Anrgy Birds and all of the sights, sounds, characters, and mythology of Star Wars.

I have finished the Tatooine level and am half way through the Death Star level.

In the early levels, you get to play with Luke, and Obi Wan, and Han. Luke has his lightsabre. Obi Wan has the force. And Han has his blaster. Great fun.

Homeland

I was late coming to the TV show Homeland but, having heard recommendations from lots of people, I am now bang up-to-date.

There are things about the show which I don't really like, or find believable. One example is (select this text to see the possible spoiler): how easily and how completely Carrie appears to have fallen in love with Brody.

But overall it is quite compelling viewing. And it has won lots of awards (Claire Danes and Damian Lewis won the Emmy awards for Outstanding Lead Actress/Actor in a Drama Series).

The bad thing about catching up, of course, is that I can't watch an episode whenever I want - I have have wait for the next episode just like everyone else!

Here is a shot of the two lead protagonists from the most recent show:

Downton Abbey Season 3

I mentioned Downton Abbey in a previous posting.

This evening saw the transmission of the final episode of Season 3. And very good it was too.

I like series that are happy to finish a season by tying up lots of loose ends - as opposed to those which feel the need to finish on a cliffhanger.

Overall I think Season 3 was good. Probably better than Season 2.

I had some reservations as the season progressed about the portrayal of Irish characters - most especially the character of Tom Brandon (played by Allen Leech) and, even though he only appeared in one episode, that of his brother Kieran (played by Ruairi Conaghan). But having seen the final episode I think that my concerns were largely unfounded. Allen Leech himself apparently said that the attitudes of the Crawleys reflected "a realistic portrayal of the era".

The fact that we have had three seasons has allowed other characters to come to the fore. I have particularly enjoyed the performances of  Jim Carter as Mr. Carson and Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes.

But the undoubted starts of the show, IMHO, are Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham and Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham. They are just fantastic.

So now we have the Christmas Special to look forward to.

Reading "The Three Investigators"

I mentioned "The Three Investigators" series of books in a previous post.

I have now read books 1-3 (The Secret of Terror Castle, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, and The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy) to my eight-year old son and we are half way through book 4 (The Mystery of the Green Ghost).

He seems to be enjoying them. I am too.

Great to get to spend time with Jupiter, Pete and Bob again after all these years.

When I read them as a kid, I seem to remember finding them scary. The surprising thing is that my son doesn't seem to find them so.

Viera Remote App

I mentioned that I had download a remote app for my "Panasonic Smart Viera 3D LED TV " in a recent posting.

The coolest thing about the app (and a real "oh wow" moment for me) was when I discovered that you can browse the media on your phone and then you can display a video/audio/image file on the TV simply by following the instruction to "press and hold the content then flick up".

So you select a video, say, and then flick it towards the TV where it begins to play as if by magic.

This is pure genius and a fantastic example of how the convergence of technologies is making it easier for disparate systems to interoperate.

Definition of Randomer

I have been watching words and phrases migrate into our usage of the English language for many years.

Typically these words are migrating westwards - from the States to Ireland.

To give a simple example: the phrase "ballpark estimate" is in common usage in business here even though the word "ballpark" has not arrived.

I remember being in a restaurant in the States many years ago when the waiter asked me if I was "done" with my food. The usage of "done" to mean finished in this manner is now commonplace over here.

But I suspect that words and phrases are migrating much more quickly now.

Perhaps it is because of the Internet and social networking. Perhaps it is because of the increased importance/influence of teenagers in culture these days.

And perhaps I am seeing it more because I am seeing it in action with my kids.

And once a word/phrase does arrive in a country it needs to migrate through the age groups and into different social contexts.

One excellent example is the use of the word "randomer" to mean either a stranger ("who was that randomer last night") or some unknown or unspecified person ("some randomer will get the job") or someone of no significance ("he's just some randomer").

I first heard the word relatively recently - I think it was earlier this year. But I heard it being used in a business meeting (by someone in her thirties) last week. That must be some kind of record!

Panasonic TX-L42ET5B Smart Viera 3D LED TV

I was shocked a few weeks ago to see a TV the same as my own (a Phillips flat-screen with a CRT!) in a skip in a recycling centre.

Then about a week later my own TV packed in. The choice was simple: repair or replace.

On consideration, we decided that the broken TV was older than it looked. And it had given us enough service. And we deserved a a TV that didn't have a CRT.

We ended up buying a Panasonic TV-L42ET5B. The "42" shows that it is a 42" screen.

The TV does a couple of things that I wasn't expecting when we went out shopping that day.

Firstly it support 3D (using passive 3D glasses). I always thought that 3D was a gimmick but when we saw it in the shop we really liked it. It can even convert regular TV into 3D on-the-fly (I had no idea that was possible).

Secondly it has built in WiFi. So now we have another way to surf the web - from our TV.

We are extremely happy with the TV. I have come in to the room on many occasions to find everyone wearing 3D glasses. And we spent one rainy Sunday afternoon watching Youtube videos!

We even downloaded the remote control program onto our Android phones. It connects to the TV over WiFi. Genius!

It does one other thing which I did not expect but which is absolutely brilliant: I can stream videos from my laptop in the other room directly onto the TV. This is so handy. Basically your Windows PC becomes a "media server".

Playing James Bond

It's interesting that Skyfall makes such a big deal about Bond's age (as well as M's).

I guess it's a sign of the times.

Here, out of interest, is a list of the ages the various Bond actors were when they played Bond for the first time (I would have selected their third movies in each case but two of them did not get to make three!):

Sean Connery - Dr. No - 32
George Lazenby - On Her Majesty’s Service - 30
Roger Moore - Live and Let Die - 46
Timothy Dalton - The Living Daylights - 41
Pierce Brosnan - Goldeneye - 42
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale - 38

By the time Roger Moore made his third movie ("The Spy who Loved Me") he was 50. Daniel Craig is now 44.

Skyfall - Bond is bigger then ever!

When I was seven I went with my family to see my first James Bond movie. It was "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I really enjoyed it and can still remember the excitement of seeing (what must have been) my first action movie. To illustrate how long ago that was, the tagline was:
"Far up! Far out! Far more! James Bond 007 is back!"

Last weekend I went with my own family to see Skyfall. For my son (who is eight) it was his first Bond movie in a cinema. I enjoyed it and I know he enjoyed it too - I wonder if he will remember it as long!

The movie is currently scoring 8.2 on IMDB, which puts it a little ahead of "Casin Royale" at 7.9 and substantially ahead of Quantum of Solace at 6.7. It is scoring a very impressive 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The answer to the question of why it is beating Daniel Craig's two previous outings is probably two words: Sam Mendes.

The new movie is also a huge box office hit - with £37.2m in its opening week it is now the biggest seven day gross of all time at the UK box office.

The things I probably liked most about it are:
1) It looks like a Bond movie (they have managed to distinguish it from Bourne and Mission Impossible movies)
2) The many references to previous Bond movies to please the aficionado

My rating: 8/10

Here is a nice still from early in the movie:

Hollywood Remakes

I mentioned the remake of "Pelham 123" in a recent post. In fact this movie was remade in 1998 as well as 2009.

I mentioned the awful remake of "Spider-man" in a previous post.

My question is this: why does Hollywood feel it necessary to remake good movies?

Another movie which I associate in my mind with Pelham (perhaps because they were made around the same time) is "Assault on Precinct 13". The original was directed by John Carpenter in 1976 (IMDB rating 7.6). The remake was done in 2005 (IMDB rating 6.5).

What will they remake next?

"The Shawshank Redemption" was made in 1994. Is it due for a remake?!

"The Godfather" is even older, dating from 1972. Surely that could be improved?!

And "12 Angry Men" was made in 1952. And it's in black and white. Surely that needs to me remade?!

I should say that I don't really have a problem with movies that are transported from a different language/culture/context. If this didn't happen then we would have no "Magnificent Seven" and no "Fistful of Dollars". No issue there.

My problem is the ones that are simply remade because people think they can do a better job, or perhaps because they think they can make easy money with a proven formula.

Mistaken by Neil Jordan

I finished the book "Mistaken" by Neil Jordan the other day.

I really enjoyed it.

It's the story of a Northside boy called Kevin Thunder growing up in 1960s Dublin who discovers that there is a Southside boy called Gerald who bears him an uncanny resemblance (more-so in smell than looks apparently).

The story deals with how their paths cross repeatedly over their live and the impact this has on their own lives and the lives around them.

It's not a happy book (I don't think there are any humorous passages) but it is a compelling read. I guess it's a book that looks at actions and their consequences. And it also tackles the theme of loss, as Jordan himself says in this interview.

Some people have criticised the level of detail Jordan uses in relation to Dublin but I enjoyed recognising the various locations and liked that aspect of the novel.

I recommend it.

Supernatural "jumps the shark"

I mentioned in a previous post that I like the TV show "Supernatural".

In season 4 there is an episode entitled "Jump the Shark". But that was a good episode and season 4 was a good one. So the producers did not need to worry about using the phrase.

I am now watching season 7 and I'm afraid the show has lost some of its lustre. I fear that it has really jumped the shark.

The phrase was first coined in relation to an episode of the show Happy Days where Fonzie literally jumped a shark on water-skis. It is used to refer to the point in a TV show where the quality or audience is declining and the producers look for a gimmick to restore things.

In season 7 I haven't spotted a gimmick per se, but I do see that the show is losing its focus, and the Leviathans are not providing the same sense of menace as previous enemies did.

I know that they have started to broadcast season 8 so maybe that will show some improvement.

But I guess the whole significance of the "jump the shark" phrase is that TV shows tend not to recover once things start to decline.

Working for the Bank

Two of my sisters work for banks. I have a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law who work for a bank.

I once applied for a job in a bank. I got an interview which seemed to go well. Then the bank, which had been planning to hire lots of new people apparently, changed its mind and ended up hiring very few. I did not get the job.

The irony is that I am now working for the banks. We all are. I am working to ensure that the banks do not go under. I am working to ensure that bankers do not lose their jobs. I am not working directly for the banks to be sure, but I am earning money so that I can pay increased taxes that can be used to cover the losses which the banks made.

I don't think that is very fair.

The second irony is that we now say casually in conversation that we own the banks. That may be technically a fact, but there is very little evidence of it. We can't force them to loan money to companies and individuals who need money. We can't even force them not to pay themselves bonuses.

The harsh reality is that the banks own us.

Avengers Assemble on the small screen

I posted a review of Avengers Assemble back in May when I saw it in 3D on the big screen.

I have now re-watched it in 2D on the small screen. And it's still great!

Well done to Joss Whedon and to the cast for a great ensemble performance (no pun intended).

In May it was at position 31 in the IMDB Top 250. It has since drifted out to position 100. Now there are two comic book movies ahead of it: The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. If it slips a few more places then Batman Begins will pass it as well.

When you're watching it, stick with it until the credits are over. There is a small reward for sitting through them all.

Just how many copies were sold?

If you go into a second-hand book store, or if you go to a place where you can swap books (the picture below was taken at my local golf range where you can take a book as long as you bring one in exchange) then my experience is that you will see many more copies of one book than any other.

Mr Brown must be a very, very wealthy man.

Maybe this differs in other countries and in other languages?

This picture shows the six copies that were available when I was there yesterday:

The Taking of Pelham 123 - Tony Scott

In 1974 they made "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" starring Walter Matthau. I haven't seen the movie in many years but I remember it being good (7.7 on IMBD).

In 2009 they re-made it as "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" with Denzel Washington in the Matthau role and Tony Scott at the helm.

I bought the DVD recently as (a) it has lots of extras (including two commentaries) and (b) I had never seen the movie and it was the second last movie Scott directed before his untimely death.

It's a very disappointing movie, I'm afraid. It scores 6.4 on IMDB and 55 on metacritic.

The saddest thing is that the parts they seems to want to change or "update" are among the parts that worked least well.

One example is that Garber is now just an "ordinary guy" rather than a transit authority cop. In one of the extras, Denzel takes the credit/blame for this idea. It doesn't work at all well for the last part of the movie.

Another is the idea that some young guy is having a video chat with his girlfriend during the hostage situation. That part is beyond bad.

It's a shame really. And the documentaries and commentaries give some idea of the amount of thought and effort that the cast and crew (and even the MTA) put into making the movie and it just hasn't translated onto the screen.

My rating: 6/10.

Here is a still of John Travolta initiating the hijacking:

Great Programming Tool - AutoIt

Imagine the scenario: you need to develop a tool quickly to solve some problem. You need to decide what programming language/tool to use. You consider Java, VB.NET, Qt, Perl, Python, Adobe AIR, and a variety of BASICs (QuickBASIC, FreeBASIC, Just BASIC, XBASIC, and Rapid-Q).

If your target platform is Windows, then I would suggest that you should add AutoIt to that list.

AutoIt (pronounced "aw-toe-it") was originally developed to help automate installs on Windows. But it evolved over time to include some really clever features which allow it to do a lot more than that.

I used it recently to create a performance test script which automates Word and Excel operations in order to produce timings that help to predict the actual response times which users will experience (the company was moving its data centre to a remote location where bandwidth and latency would be potential issues).

Some of the great things about AutoIt include:

• You can simulate keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks
• It can generate EXE files which do not require any runtime environment (contrast that with Java and .NET!)
• You can download it packaged with a nice editor called SciTE
• You can even use it to create GUI applications

And do you remember (and sometimes miss!) the "Macro Recorder" which used to be an Accessory within Windows way-back-when? Well AutoIt has a tool called "Au3Recorder" which can create a script based on keystrokes and mouse movements.

The main limitations of AutoIt seem to be:

• MS Windows only (this really is the main limitation)
• No proper built-in debugger (although you can get debuggers for it)
• No built-in support for creating or consuming a web service
• You can't write multi-threaded code
• No Try...catch blocks

As against that, there are some really cool and easy to use functions:

• Ping - Pings a host and returns the roundtrip-time
• TrayTip - Displays a balloon tip from the AutoIt Icon
• ClipGet - Retrieves text from the clipboard
• CDTray - Opens or closes the CD tray
• PixelChecksum - Generates a checksum for a region of pixels
• GUICtrlCreateAvi - Creates an AVI video control for the GUI.
• DriveMapAdd - Maps a network drive
• FileCopy - Copies one or more files
• FileRecycleEmpty - Empties the recycle bin
• MouseWheel - Moves the mouse wheel up or down
• ProgressOn - Creates a customizable progress bar window
• Shutdown - Shuts down the system
• SplashTextOn - Creates a customizable text popup window
• TCPSend - Sends data on a connected TCP socket
• UDPSend - Sends data on an opened UDP socket

Some of those might sound pretty exotic but the fact is that I used TrayTip, PixelChecksum, FileCopy, and SplashTextOn in the program I mentioned earlier.

Sudden Books by Oliver Strange

Until recently, I had only ever read 2 books set in the "wild west".

The second was "Incident at Twenty-Mile" by all-time favourite writer, Trevanian. I didn't read the book because it was a western - I read it because I was reading all of Trevanian's books.

The first was a book called "Sudden Outlawed" by Oliver Strange. This was one of my father's books and was probably the only book he owned which I read. The book was originally published in 1935 and I guess I read it when I was in my teens (late 70s).

I remember enjoying the book at the time. The hero of the stories is Jim Green but he earns the nickname "Sudden" because of how fast he is on the draw. The first book deals with how he comes to find himself on the wrong side of the law, through no real fault of his own. The remaining books follow him as he travels from town to town righting wrongs while looking for the two men who crossed the man who was like a father to him.

The writing and the dialogue is a joy. Here is the passage where Jim hears about the wrongs done by these two men:

The other was silent awhile, fighting for breath, and then, "Peterson stole my li'l gal an' broke my heart," he said slowly. "An' when yu was East, gettin' some larnin', that houn' Webb stripped me." His voice was harsh, pregnant with passion; hatred gave him a last spasm of strength. "Yo're the fastest fella with a gun I ever see, an' I've knowed some o' the best ; I'm leavin' them two skunks to yu.”

I remembered the series recently and I discovered the following from the web:

1. The books are out of print
2. Oliver Strange was an English man who apparently never travelled to America
3. Sudden Outlawed was not the first book Strange wrote, but is the first in story order
4. After Strange's death,  another author named Frederick H. Christian added 5 more stories to Strange's 10
5. The books are available to read on the web. I assume this is because the copyright has expired (Strange passed away in 1952) but I don't claim to be a copyright expert! 

Having re-read the first book, I kept going and am now reading book 6: "Sudden TakesThe Trail".

The only warning I would issue is that the books are far from politically correct. I assume that the overt racism which many of the characters display is supposed to represent life in the wild west as opposed to any beliefs held by the author.

So if you are interested in stories of outlaws, law-men, gamblers, saloon-keepers, cattleman, rustlers, and prospectors then follow the link above.

The IT Crowd - US Style

I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered that they tried to make a US version of "The IT Crowd".

Why?!

The original series is perfect. It even features Chris O'Dowd who seems to have made his break-through in the US with Bridesmaids.

There are moments of pure genius (such as S04E06 about the "damp squid" and all of S02E01 "The Work Outing").

This article claims that the US remake had 4 writers. This must be the easiest money they ever made as, based on the clip below, the script seems to be virtually the same as the original.

Two good decisions they did make:

• They got Richard Ayoade to reprise his role as Moss
• They canned the series after making the first episode

Here is the first part of the pilot show:

Life before the Internet

It's difficult to say exactly when the Internet (which has its origins in the 1960s) began to impact people's lives. But a good yardstick would be the the release of the Mosaic web browser in 1993.

So there are many people alive today who did not experience life before the Internet. This posting is for them.

I am going to give a couple of simple examples of things which we take fore-granted now which were impossible before the Internet.

Example #1: Before the Internet, if you were a fan of particular music artists, you could find out relatively little about them. You could buy their albums. You could perhaps buy (or borrow) books about them. You could perhaps join their "fan clubs". You might, in return, receive some photographs and perhaps a couple of newsletters each year.

Today, if you are a fan of say The Script, you can visit their website, like them on Facebook,  follow them on Twitter or Google+, and watch their videos on YouTube, and more. You have real-time access to them!

Example #2: Before the Internet, if you were discussing something with your friends, and nobody knew the answer, or there was a dispute, then the issue went unresolved. Many pub conversations ended in stalemate with disagreement over whether or not the person who appeared in movie X was the same person who was in movie Y (or whatever).

Today, it seems that the sum of all human knowledge is only a click away. Certainly questions about who appeared in what movie, or what logo a company uses, or what the largest lake in Italy is, or who invented the Post-it and when, are easily answered. This was inconceivable 20 years ago!

I think, because it has been so gradual, it is difficult to full understand the impact the Internet has had in so many areas. It really has connected people and, in so doing, made the world a smaller place.

Nokia Slide Continues

In October of last year I blogged about Nokia, and how the company had lost its way. At that point they had just released phones using the Microsoft Windows operating system and the share price stood at just over $7.

Last week Nokia released a new Lumia model with Windows Phone 8 and the share price dropped during the launch. That's right - during the launch!

Apparently the Wall Street share price dropped 10% during the announcement and dropped almost 16% before the day was over.

I can only wonder what the people are the helm are thinking, but it seems that few people outside the company have any faith in their strategy. I guess they're just waiting and hoping that Microsoft will step in and buy the company.

A shame really.

The share price stands at $2.63 as I write.

Taken - Liam Neeson

The most anticipated movie event of 2012 for me was not Avengers Assemble, or Prometheus, or The Dark Knight Rises.

The most anticipated event is the release of Taken 2. It will be out on the 5th of October here in Ireland. I can't wait.

I should have suspected that I would like Taken when it was released. Liam Neeson was the star. Luc Besson was one of the writers and one of the producers. But I didn't. The movie came as a complete (and delightful) surprise.

Neeson is superb as the father out to rescue his daughter - a single-minded and unstoppable force of retribution.

Great script. Great fights. Great action sequences.

Here is what Neeson's character says to the kidnapper on the phone early in the movie: "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

My rating: 8.5/10

Music - a gift from heaven

Five of my last six postings have been related to music. Time to move on to something else.

But I can't leave the topic without observing just how marvellous music itself is.

As humans evolved, we developed five senses. All of our senses help us to interact with our environment and have important functions, such as finding food and avoiding danger. Our sense of hearing, of course, has evolved to play a key role in communication.

But beyond being able to hear someone who is speaking to us, or to hear an oncoming car, hearing allows us to enjoy music.

What a marvellous gift!

I can't imagine, from the perspective of evolution or natural selection, why listening to music gives us so much pleasure. Why do we like notes at certain frequencies? Why do we like certain sequences of notes? Why are some chords pleasant to the ear while others are dissonant. How can sequences of chords provoke an emotional response? Why can a "melody" be defined as "a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying"? Why have we created so many musical instruments? How can so many different songs be composed with so few notes and chords? How can music move us to clap our hands, or tap our feet, or to get up and dance?

I don't know the answers to these questions and perhaps the answers are not important.

Just as sound is connected to the ear, so music seems to be connected to the soul.

What I do know is that the existence of music is a fabulous mystery and the world would be a much poorer place without it.

Prince in Malahide

Back in 1984 I saw a feature on a TV programme about an up-and-coming artist called Prince. I was blown away by his vocals and his performance. The programme mentioned that he would be starring in a movie called "Purple Rain" which was coming out in July.

I went to see the movie and again I was blown away. He may not have been a great actor but the music and the performances were amazing. I subsequently bought the album and it is still one of my favourite albums to this day.

My wife bought me tickets to see him in Croke Park in June 2008. But controversially he pulled out of that gig with just a couple of weeks to go.

And then he announced that he would play Malahide Castle in July 2011. So basically he was going to be performing on my doorstep! How could I refuse!

The gig was absolutely fantastic. The setting was great. The sound was great. The light-show was great. He played all the hits (When Doves Cry and Alphabet Street were a bit short for my linking but you can't have everything). The crowd loved it. The man is an absolute legend.

And he apologised for not turning up last time. And he complimented Sinéad O'Connor's version of Nothing Compares 2 U, which I love.

And Malahide is a great venue for a gig, it turns out. We promised ourselves that we would go to future gigs here. But unfortunately there weren't any this year.

Unfortunately I had an ancient phone at the time of the gig but here is a still from a video I recorded:

Best Piano Songs

The piano is my favourite instrument (I wish I could play it) and I love songs that feature a strong piano track.

Here are some of my all-time favourites:
Again by Janet Jackson
I Can't Make You Love Me by George Michael
Unfaithful by Rihanna
Turning Tables by Adele
Mandy by Barry Manilow

I will finish up with the only one I have every tried to learn to play on the piano - "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx:

Best story told through song

My last posting was on the best "story" songs.

Writing it reminded me of the best story I every heard told through song.

In the early 80s, I visited a friend in London and he brought me to see a West End show called "Song and Dance". The show was broken into two parts. The first part featured Marti Webb singing a series of songs which told the story of the romances of an English girl who goes to America. The second part featured a series of dance pieces.

I loved the first part and subsequently bought the album. I can't remember much about the second part to be honest.

The music is beautiful (thanks for Andrew Lloyd Webber), the lyrics are very clever (thanks to Don Black) and the songs are very moving (thanks to both). And Marti Webb has a fabulous voice.

I looked at various versions of the songs on Youtube this evening. I am including a link to Marti Webb singing "Tell Me on a Sunday" below.

But I also found a version of Denise Van Outen signing the same song and I have to say that it is very good. You can see it here.

Best "story" songs

Here are my all-time favourite "story" songs.

My #1 by a long way is Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg. What a beautiful song.


If Dan has written nothing else in his life, he could rest easy having written this gem. But of course it is just one of a set of wonderful songs.

My #2 is  Hazard by Richard Marx. Superb song.



Other songs worthy of honourable mention are:
Stan by Eminem
Camouflage by Stan Ridgway

Twelve Angry Men - Best B&W Movie

I would find it quite difficult to name my favourite movie. But I have no problem at all naming my favourite black and white movie. It is Sidnet Lumet's 12 Angry Men, made in 1957.

It is a beautiful made movie, great script, great acting, great direction, great story.

Henry Fonda is brilliant as the man who stands up to the other 11. IMDB says that Fonda regarded it as one of the 3 best movies he ever made.

The way the story evolves is a joy. People's motivations, prejudices, failings, weaknesses, etc. are revealed one by one. The movie has the feeling of a play - the majority of the action takes place in the jury room. There is an elegant simplicity about it.

As I write it is at position 6 on the IMDB Top 250 list.

My rating: 9/10

Here is a still which shows most of the cast:

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

I was driving in the car with my seven year old yesterday when "Right Down the Line" by Gerry Rafferty came on the radio. For once "Spin 1038" was not playing (songs released in the 1970s do not feature on that station!)

My son told me that he really liked the song so I played it and then Baker Street for him when we got home (on Grooveshark).

Having heard the two of them, he proclaimed Rafferty to be a genius - compared him to Michael Jackson no less.

I was delighted with his musical taste.

Back in 1978 (when I was sixteen) I bought my first "single" and it was Baker Street. What a fantastic song. Rafferty was a brilliant singer, songwriter, producer, musician.

I had heard that he passed away last year but on reading  up on his yesterday I was saddened to hear that struggles with alcohol seem to have been a problem during his life and presumably a contributing factor to his untimely death.

Still his songs are a fantastic legacy, and Baker Street is his crowning glory. Apparently it was still making him £80,000 per annum over 30 years after its initial release. Wherever he is now, he can be very proud.

Here is part one of a documentary made about him by BBC Scotland after his death:

Postings with spoilers

In a recent posting, I included a spoiler in relation to a movie.

I guess there are a number of ways to handle a spoiler.

One might be to put it into a collapsible section. Another might be to put an image over it (using CSS) and hide the image when the mouse is put over it.

Most techniques require CSS or JavaScript though.

For simplicity, I just:

1. Used Paint.NET to find out the background colour of my current template
2. Added a div around the spoiler itself as follows:

<div style="color: #1c1c1c;">Spoiler!</div>

The only drawback of this approach is that if I change my template, my hidden text will be visible.

A better alternative, and the one I went for in the end, would be to use CSS to control both the colour of the font and the colour of the background:

<div style="color: #1c1c1c; background-color: #1c1c1c;">Spoiler!</div>

Now my spoiler is immune to changes in the template.

You could also use the CSS "hover" modifier to make text visible automatically as the mouse is moved over it. But I think having to select the text means that it will not appear unless you intend it to.

Brain Power

I mentioned that I have been playing the game "Unblock Me Free" on my Smartphone.

Well I have solved over 500 puzzles at the "Beginner" level. And recently I have been doing them without my kids' help!

But what I cannot understand is this: after solving 500 puzzles, why do I not feel any smarter?!

Maybe if I was smarter, I would be able to move on from the Beginner level!

Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" (1974)

I bought The Conversation on DVD some time ago.

I finally got around to watching it the other day, prompted by Tony Scott's death and the connection between this movie and his Enemy of the State.

The connection between the two is Gene Hackman's character. But apart from that they couldn't be much more different!

Coppola made The Conversation between The Godfather parts 1 and 2.

In the commentary, he says that he wanted to explore the use of repetition in movies. And it is certainly used to good effect (although Groundhog Day, Memento, and Source Code subsequently took that to new levels!)

IMDB indicates that both Coppola and Hackman regard the movie as their personal favourite.

Now while I can admire the movie, I have to admit that I don't really like it. It's too dark for my liking. It basically seems to be a study in how secrecy can ruin a life (and perhaps a person's mental health too).

Rating: 7.5/10

Question/Spoiler (please select the text below to make it visible):

One thing I can't understand about the story is why "The Director" went to the hotel even though he had heard the recording of the conversation?! Perhaps if I listen to the commentary right the way though, Coppola will answer this question.

Tony Scott - RIP

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Tony Scott.

I have enjoyed many of his movies over the years.

I kept a special eye on him because his brother Ridley is my favourite director.

His best movie, according to IMDB, was True Romance. It's a very good movie indeed.

I also enjoyed The Last Boy Scout very much.

But my favourite Tony Scott movie is Enemy of the State. It's a classic. I have been wanting to buy it on DVD for many years but I have been awaiting an edition with extras, ideally a commentary by the man himself.

But I have never found one and I guess I won't now. Which is a shame.

Here is what is arguably his greatest achievement in movie-making:  the 10:48 clip from True Romance featuring the confrontation between two great actors - Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken:

Voices don't change

I had occasion to return to a workplace recently where I used to work during the 80's.

I made a discovery.

People's appearance can change quite substantially over time. But adult voices remain exactly the same. So if you haven't seen someone in a long time, I think you are more likely to recognise the voice than the face.

Now obviously people's accents CAN change as they move from place to place. And so can their intonation. But my observation is that the voices generally remain the same.

Underworld: Awakening

There are two types of Underwold movie: those that feature Kate Beckinsale, and those that do not.

Underworld: Awakening falls into the former category and is much the better for it.

It also benefits from (IMHO):

• The presence of Stephen Rea (great Irish actor)
• The absence of Scott Speedman

This latter absence is strange: we're left wondering why they had to construct a storyline to allow for the fact that the character of Michael Corvin is missing most of the time.

The story is very simple, and I guess that gives you more time to appreciate the action, the effects, and the cinematography.

There are some great action sequences, and Ms Beckinsale has never looked better.

My rating: 7/10

James Randi - Debunker Extraordinaire

I mentioned James Randi and his one million dollar challenge in my last posting.

Mr Randi has been debunking fakes, frauds and charlatans for many years. His targets are the people who do not claim to be magicians/illusionists, but instead claim to have paranormal powers.

Some of the people are quite harmless - misguided entertainers. Some are quite dangerous - people who claim to be able to communicate with the dead, or to heal people.

There are lots of interesting YouTube videos about Mr Randi. Here are some examples of the people/powers which he has debunked:

Uri Geller (spoon bender) and Peter Popoff ("faith healer")
James Hydrick who claimed to be able to move objects with his mind
"Magnet Man" who claimed that metal objects would stick to him

Sylvia Browne who agreed in 2001 to submit to a test by Mr Randi (and we're all still waiting!)

Dowsing
Graphology
Psychic Crime Solving
Crystal Power
Thought Transference
Psychic Artist
Aura Reading

And here is a video of Mr Randi on astrology that I am including because it features two of my favourite celebrities: Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie:

Nothing that can't be explained

I can't scare my kids

I can't scare them with talk of ghosts, ghouls, vampires or werewolves. None of the scary things I see on the TV show Supernatural.

And why?

Because of I told them about James Randi.

Mr Randi had been offering one million dollars to anyone who can do something inexplicable (paranormal) under controlled conditions

He has been offering this bounty since 1964 (it has been one million since 1996). No takers yet.

So now my kids know that there's nothing that can't be explained.

No mind-reading. No telekinesis. No teleporting.

No magic. Only illusions.

I am happy that we live in a world that is full of wonder, but devoid of silly fears and superstitions.

Check out the James Randi Educational Foundation for more information.

The Ninth Configuration - Featurette

Following on from my last posting, I found the following very interesting featurette on The Ninth Configuration featuring Mark Kermode and the man himself, William Peter Blatty.

The Ninth Configuration - William Peter Blatty

In 1980 William Peter Blatty produced and directed "The Ninth Configuration", having written the novel and screenplay.

I guess at that time he was best known for having written the novel and screenplay for "The Exorcist". IMDB tells us that Blatty regarded The Ninth Configuration as a sequel to The Exorcist.

He only went on to direct one more movie, "The Exorcist III" in 1990.

I saw The Ninth Configuration on video shortly after it was released. It's a great movie and I never forgot it.

The movie has everything: comedy, tragedy, mystery, action, and really great dialogue. And it's thought-provoking too. Great performances by Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, and Ed Flanders.

I watched it again today, after all these years. I wasn't disappointed.

My rating: 8/10.

Here's a still from the movie showing Keach as Col. Kane and Blatty in an uncredited role as Dr. Fromme:

Star Wars: Clone Wars

Between 2003 and 2005, George Lucas was executive producer and writer on an animated TV series called "Star Wars: Clone Wars". The series was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.

Since 2008, the same George Lucas has been executive producer and writer on a CGI TV series called "Star Wars: The Clone Wars".

It occurs to be to wonder if he had forgotten about the first series when he was involved in naming the second one! Or maybe he was just tired...

Here is a still from the first series showing my favourite character from all of the Star Wars universe:

Olympics - Katie Taylor

Ireland did really well at London 2012 - equalling our best ever result from Melbourne in 1956:

Gold - 1 - Katie Taylor (Boxing)
Silver - 1 - John Joe Nevin (Boxing)
Bronze - 3 - Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan (Boxing), Cian O'Connor (Showjumping)

Our medal winners, and all our competitors, did the country proud.

Special mention must be given to Annalise Murphy who came fourth in a sailing event (extremely unlucky not to get a medal), Robert Heffernan who came 4th in the 50K walk and 9th in the 20K walk, and Natalya Coyle who came ninth in the modern pentathlon.

But the star, of course, was Katie. She was an inspiration. The best in the world. So much as expected of her, and she did not disappoint. A credit to herself, her family, her team, her club, and her country.

Well done Katie!

Olympics - London 2012

Every 4 years the Olympic games roll around once more.

And between each event I seem to forget how enjoyable they are.

I forget the joy and excitement of seeing people operate at the peak of physical performance. Whether running, jumping, throwing, swimming, boxing, sailing, or whatever.

I forget the joy that people experience when they win a gold, and the desolation they feel when they do not.

I forget the pride that the competitors obviously feel in representing their countries.

I forget the amazing variety of sports on display.

I forget the purity of seeing people compete against each other to prove who has the most talent, or who has worked the hardest, or who simply wants it most.

And every 4 years I re-learn all of these things.

In a world that is very complex, there is something very pure and simple and inspiring about the Olympics.

Banking and Crime

I want to correct something I said in my last posting.

I said: "The failures of the banks were not directly against individual citizens, but against the whole country".

I want to correct that.

The banks DID fail individuals who owned shares: ordinary people who bought shares in AIB, BoI, and Anglo.
 
And they DID fail individual customers. They did so by giving them mortgages in cases where (a) the property was ridiculously overvalued and (b) they gave them a loan which was too big when compared with their salaries (and therefore ability to repay).

There was a time when a bank would only give a couple a mortgage amount of 2.5 times their combined salary, and they would be expected to pay at least 10% of the cost of the house themselves. These rules were dropped by the banks with reckless abandon.

I choose to think of this as a crime against those people. Not a crime in the sense of something punishable by law unfortunately. But a crime in the sense which the dictionary defines as "a grave offence especially against morality".

I subscribe to the belief that people in this situation should be able to hand the keys back to the bank and walk away from the loan. They should be able to say: "We both gambled, we both lost". But no, this does not happen, of course. Not for ordinary people. Not in Ireland. They are expected to repay the loan. Even when the house is no longer worth the loan amount. Even when the economy has collapsed and one or both of the people may have lost their jobs. Even when the banks made a major contribution to that collapse.

Spectacular fall from grace

There was a time in Ireland, not so long ago, when the pillars of any local community were the priest, the garda (policeman), the General Practitioner (GP), and the bank manager.

It's strange to think that two of these four have suffered a spectacular fall from grace in the last number of years.

Catholic priests lost all credibility not so much because of their paedophile crimes (as these were committed by a minority) but because the institution of the church protected these criminals. In so doing they failed to protect the most defenceless members of the community, children.

The failures of the banks were not directly against individual citizens, but against the whole country. Bankers study for the "bank exams". As part of this they learn about some of the key principles of banking. One of these principles, in relation to lending, is prudence. Irish bankers traded in the principle of prudence for the practice of recklessness. In so doing they jeopardised not just the money of their depositors, but the stability of the whole Irish economy.

I am happy to report that the local garda and the local GP still have the respect of the community. But two out of four ain't great.

To be honest

I am always nervous when someone prefaces something they say to me with "to be honest..."

I think its a phrase that some people use as a preface to a lie.

I do have a friend who says it all the time, rather than just when he's getting ready to tell you something untrue, and I believe him when he uses it. Maybe he leaves it out when he's lying!

But with most people it's a red flag for me.

So you can imagine how I react when people say "to be completely honest..." or "to be perfectly honest..."! I prepare myself for a real whopper!

For some people it's like a poker player's "tell".

As Billy Joel (who at one time was my favourite singer/songwriter) wrote:

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

Android Game - Unblock Me Free

I downloaded "Unblock Me Free" for my Samsung Galaxy S2 about a week ago.

I had run out of "Angry Birds" and I needed something new to let me exercise my brain while waiting for the train or similar.

In that time I have solved 300 puzzles at the "Beginner" level. So I think it's fair to say that I'm addicted!

My claim that "I" solved them would not really stand up to intense scrutiny.

That's because I have had to turn to my daugher (10) or son (7) to solve the 3 or 4 that completely stumped me!

No problem for them!

The idea of the game is to slide the brown blocks (they will only move lengthways) in order to allow the red block to slide out the little exit on the right hand side of the screen. In the screen shown below, for example, there are only 2 blocks that can be moved as the first move.

Anyway, the game is good fun and some puzzles are quite challenging so it provides good mental exercise. And there is a little fanfare each time you solve a puzzle (to reinforce the sense of accomplishment)

And maybe some day, if I practice enough, I'll be able to solve all of them myself!

Robotics+AI=Robot Vacuum Cleaner

I recently wrote about robots and artificial intelligence.

I cannot leave those two subjects without mentioning what may well be the pinnacle of achievement of those two endeavours: the robot vacuum cleaner!

Imagine a device which can:

• Vacuum your house, and can remember where it has been and where it has not.
• Navigate around obstacles, and which is smart enough not to fall down steps.
• Return to its base when it has finished or when it needs to recharge.

You don't need to imagine such a device, you can go out and buy one.

The newest ones can even return to their base to empty themselves!

Pure genius.

I don't have one myself, but I know someone who has and she loves it.

So if I sounded in previous postings as if I were disappointed with the progress in robotics and AI then I now stand corrected!!


Here is a picture of a recent self-emptying model parked at its base station:

So if you're ever wondering what to get me for my birthday...

The Three Investigators

When I was a kid, my favourite series of stories was The Three Investigators.

I can't remember how I got the first book (The Secret of Terror Castle) but I loved it and I went on to get many more from the series.

It's hard to remember, from this vantage point, what exactly I found so special about the books.

The three boys (Jupiter, Pete, and Bob) lived in the (imaginary) town of "Rocky Beach" in California. This was close to LA and Hollywood. So this would have made it exotic for me.

And Jupiter lived in a salvage yard, and had a secret "headquarters" hidden by piles of junk, with cleverly disguised entrances with strange code names. I know I loved this.

And the stories were scary. Another big plus. And they were clever and well written.

And my 3 sisters had no interest in them. Again this would be a big plus for me.

The characters were created by Robert Arthur, who wrote 10 of the original 43 books, between 1964 and 1969.

The edition I bought was by Armada Books and seem to have been published in the 70's.

Anyway, I kept the books all these years and I have just finished reading the first book to my own son, who is now 7. He seemed to enjoy it and I have now started the second book. It's quite possible that I am getting a bigger kick out of reading them than he is!

Here is a link to an official website, created by Robert Arthur's daughter, Elizabeth.

Here is the cover of the first book as it appears on my copy:

Opening Ceremony - London 2012

I watched the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics on TV yesterday.

Very impressive. Congrats to Danny Boyle and all those involved.

The high points for me were when the Olympic symbol was formed high overhead. And the lighting of the Olympic "cauldron". Amazing.

I enjoyed the comic moments too. James Bond and the Queen. Rowan Atkinson on keyboards.

Some parts of it were very strange too though. The whole bit about the NHS. And what does Tim Berners-Lee have to do with sport?!

The part where all of the teams file on one after another was boring as usual. They have to find a way to make that more interesting. Strangely one of the BBC commentary team said that it was his favourite part. Perhaps because they don't have to think of anything to say - they just name the team, the person carrying the flag, when they first competed, and how many medals they have won!

Anyway, a good start and hopefully this will be a great Olympics.

Here is a picture of the cauldron when all of the parts had moved into place:

TED - Adding 10 years to your life

I mentioned TEDx in a previous posting but I have never mentioned TED directly.

TED stands for "Technology, Entertainment, Design" and the site is full of videos of talks which are generally intriguing and sometimes inspiring. There is also a nice app for Android (and iPhone too, I imagine) which allows you to watch the videos from anywhere.

The talk I am referring to in this posting was given by Jane McGonigal.

In the talk she says that games can improve the quality of life. Further, she says that you can introduce the principles of games into your ordinary life to recover from illness or injury, or to introduce improvements which will actually extend your lifespan!

I encourage you to watch the video.

Then try to use Jane's instructions to improve your "resilience" in the following areas (through "power-ups"):

• Physical - never sit still for more than an hour
• Mental - tackle tiny tasks to exercise your willpower "muscle"
• Emotional - have 3 "positive" emotions for each negative one (look at baby animals!)
• Social - friends, family, community, gratitude

Here is a link to Jane's website and here is a still of Jane from her talk:

Supernatural TV Show

I don't like horror movies. Never have.

The scariest movies I have ever seen were probably (in creation date order):
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Omega Man (1971)
The Hitcher (1986)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Hannibal (2001)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Silent Hill (2006)

Some of those movies were actually very good.

But real horror movie fans will be laughing at my tame selection.

Surprising then (to me at least) that my favourite TV show at the moment is Supernatural.

I was late coming to the show (a friend put me on to it a few months ago) but because I am now addicted to it I have been catching up fast. I am now half way through season 6. That's the great thing about coming to a show which already has 7 completed seasons and an 8th on the way: you can go straight from one episode to the next, and straight from one season to the next.

I don't know which is my favourite episode, but I know which one is the funniest. It was entitled "Yellow Fever" and came in season 4. In the episode Dean catches "ghost sickness" and becomes increasingly scared as the episode progresses. The episode provides Jensen Ackles with a great opportunity to showcase his comic acting (and the show has little enough of that!)

Here is a shot from the episode where Dean and Sam are hunting the ghost and Dean is getting more than a little nervous:

Stephen Covey - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Last week, on the 16th of July to be precise, Stephen Covey passed away at the age of 79.

He was the author of a number of books, the most famous being The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.




To remind us all, here is a list of those 7 habits:

• Be Practive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win/Win
• Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the Saw

A fantastic book and a fantastic legacy.

Posting #100

Blogger tells me that this is my 100th posting.

My first posting was on the 21st September last year. 100 postings in 306 days. That's about 1 every 3 days.

When I started blogging, I wasn't sure what I would blog about. I wasn't even sure if I would enjoy blogging and if I would stick at it.

But I do enjoy it, and I have no intention of stopping.

To be honest, I think I'm a little addicted to blogging. I'm always planning new blog postings. I have a list of topics for future postings. The list has 32 items in it (31 now that I have created this posting!).

When I don't post anything for a while (I didn't post anything while I was on my 2 week holiday), I invariably write extra postings when I resume (this is my 7th posting in the last 3 days!)

If you're thinking of starting a blog, I would encourage you to give it a try. Perhaps, like me, you'll find you're addicted. And surely this is one of the most harmless of addictions!

Android games looking for too many permissions

I was considering installing a game called "SAMURAI vs ZOMBIES DEFENSE" when I looked at the list of permissions it required. These are:

• Storage
• System tools (including "automatically start at boot" and "retrieve running applications")
• Your location
• Phone calls ("read phone status and ID")
• Network communication
• Hardware controls
• Your accounts ("discover known accounts")

Now maybe I'm paranoid, but I decide that this was too much and I didn't proceed with the install.

The real red flags for me were "your location", "phone calls" and "your accounts". Why would a game need these?

I then installed "aSpotCat" so I could easily check into the decisions I had made previously (it allows you to view installed apps by permission).

Under "Services that cost you money" and specifically "send SMS messages" I found "Tetris trial". I deleted it.

Under "Your accounts" and "discover known accounts" I found "Fruit Ninja Free". I deleted that too.

Under "Your location" and "fine (GPS) location" I found "Get the Rope Free". Also deleted.

Again, I don't know if I am being paranoid, but I don't think these games should be seeking these permissions.

Street Performers World Championships

We attended an event with the very grand title of the "Street Performers World Championships" in Dublin over the weekend.

It's a fun free event that takes place in Merrion Square (and apparently in Cork too) every year and we try to attend most years.

This year (as with previous years we have been there) the weather was extremely kind.

Mario (Queen of the Circus) is a favourite of ours and we went to see him first. He did not disappoint. He has a new show which tells how he used to be a Prince before he became the Queen. The introduction of music from the world's greater singer/songwriter suits me just fine!

We also watched Lisa Lottie, Jonathan Burns, Reuben Dot Dot Dot, and Hakuna Matata. The pick of that bunch was Reuben Dot Dot Dot. Only found out afterwards that Reuben and Lisa are husband and wife.

The winner this year was "Cirque no problem". We didn't see them unfortunately but that fact that they won means that they can come back next year if they wish to do so.

Here's a picture I took of Mario at the start of his performance (unfortunately the picture does not capture either the sunshine or the size of the crowd):