Too good to last: Grooveshark no longer free

I named Grooveshark as one of my favourite websites in a previous post.

I waxed about a site where you can play "song that takes your fancy in real time".

It was too good to last.

I tried to use the site this evening and I got the following message:

So it's back to Jango for me!

The great thing about Jango is that you tell it what (whom) you like and then it picks similar stuff for you. So you can hear stuff that you didn't even know about.

Sandimation

My last post (well, the animation part specifically) reminded me of the following:



There are differences of course:

• The fact that this one is done in real time
• The use of sand!

It's quite amazing.

To see Kseniya Simonova's website, click here.

What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

A link to this video was sent to me by my friend, Tony.

I love the message, and I love the medium.

Congrats to Dr. Mike Evans (for the former) and Liisa Sorsa (for the latter). And to the rest of the team too.

Now I need to get off this chair and...

Movie/TV Mashups: Wagon Train to the Stars

My last posting referred to the concept of combining the idea of a Terminator with the idea of the Borg.

In Robert Altman's "The Player" there is a scene where people pitch movie ideas to Tim Robbins. To help him to understand the concept, they summarise it by saying that it is a combination of other movies ("Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman" is one example). You can see the scene here.

I love this idea. It's so cheesy.

But not totally unrealistic.

The idea for "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" must have come from somewhere! (I can hear the pitch now: "What if we had a movie that combined both...")

And famously Gene Roddenberry pitched "Star Trek" to studio execs as "Wagon Train to the Stars"!

It is interesting that the memory of this fact seems to have outlived the memory of that TV show.

Here is an image I put together which shows how "Wagon Train to the Stars" might have looked:

T3: Rise of the Machines

I re-watched T3 the other day.

I re-watched it for 2 reasons, I guess:
1) As a precursor to re-watching T4
2) Because I read a review that said that it wasn't as bad a people made out and everyone should give it a second chance.

I'm afraid my first impression was right.

The main places where the movie went wrong (IMHO) were:
1) Thinking that a female Terminator (the T-X or "Terminatrix") was a good idea and a fitting sequel to the T-1000 in T2. There was no comparison between the menace created by Robert Patrick and that achieved by Kristanna Loken.
2) The attempt to inject humour at inappropriate places and in inappropriate ways.

When trying to raise the bar for T3 they should have tried something more ambitious. Such as a number of shape-shifting Terminators that could act separately or in unison. Some kind of Terminator meets the Borg. Here's my artist's impression of how that might look:

Scary, huh?!

Addictive game: Harbor Master

Surprisingly (well I think it's surprising anyway) I have never been a huge fan of computer games.

But a few days ago my daughter Ellen introduced me to an iPad game called "Harbor Master".

It is absolutely compelling. I don't know how many games I have played so far (but it's a lot!)

Like many great games, it is easy to learn but hard to master.

And it makes great use of the touch screen interface.

Give it a try. You won't be sorry (except perhaps about the amount of time you're spending playing it!)

Here's a link and a screenshot:

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I have been a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes for many years. I read the books as a teenager and in recent years I listened to all of the audiobooks on my iPod while travelling to/from work. I highly recommend the audiobooks read by John Telfer. His version of "A Study in Scarlet" is available here.

I was a little leery about Guy Richie intention to make a Sherlock Holmes moves with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. How misplaced my misgivings were. I loved the movie. My only regret is that I did not go to see it in the cinema.

So I was very much looking forward to seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows as I headed to the cinema the other night.

I would like to extend my congratulations to Guy, Robert, Jude, Jared, Noomi, Rachel, Stephen, Kieran, and Michele for a job well done.

A movie that will be enjoyed by both fans of action movies and fans of the world’s greatest detective and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The high point for action fans will probably be the race through the woods to catch the train.

The high point for Holmes fans will probably be the chess game and the infamous close encounter with the Reichenbach Falls.

Opinions seem to vary on whether or not it is as good as the preceding movie. For what it’s worth, IMDB currently rates the new one at 7.7  and its predecessor at 7.5 .

The low point for me was the characterisation of Mycroft. I am a huge fan of Stephen Fry and I was delighted to hear that he had been cast as Mycroft. But I do not think that role did justice to Sherlock’s smarter elder brother. And the part where he wanders around the house naked is just plain silly.

I was impressed by Jared Harris’ portrayal of Moriarty. It would be very easy to disappoint when playing the "Napoleon of crime" but Harris certainly does not.

Not sure if the prelude to the final physical encounter between Holmes and Moriarty was supposed to be a tribute to the prelude to the fight between Nameless and Sky in Hero but it certainly reminded me of it.

Some say that it is one of those movies that is even better on second viewing so I am looking forward to owning it on DVD some day.

File Editors

Developers spend much of their time in an IDE such as Eclipse or Visual Studio. But every now and then you need to view/edit something outside of this environment. So this posting covers some of my favourite free editors for various circumstances.

I’m not saying that I have conducted a comprehensive review of available software: just highlighting what I have found useful myself.

I will cover graphics editors in a future posting.

Text Editors
Once upon a time, I relied on the “Programmer’s File Editor” (PFE)  I can’t remember exactly why I moved away from it (although the fact that the web page was “Last updated February 1 1999” might give an indication).

I switched to jEdit for a while but I found the load times to be excessive (when you just want to view/edit a file quickly). It is cross-platform and has lots of features.

Now I use the “Crimson Editor”.

It is simple, fast and powerful and gets the job done. Here are a list of features.

Hex Editors
Every now and then you need to see (and possible change) the contents of a file in hex.

Once upon a time, I relied on XVI32.

Again I can’t quite remember the reason for the changeover, but now I use HxD.

Again it’s simple to use and it gets the job done.

XML Editors
Some day I must perform an evaluation of available XML Editors.

Some day my needs may be such that I will be able to justify the purchase of Altiva’s XMLSpy.

In the meantime I use Microsoft XML Notepad 2007.

I note, however, that Wikipedia says that it "has been criticized for crashing frequently". So buyer beware (or perhaps it is more appropriate to say that "you get what you pay for"!).

The Yakuza (Pollack, Mitchum, Takakura, Edelman, Jordan)

The other night I decided to watch 10 minutes of a movie before heading to bed. I scanned through my collection and put on The Yakuza to re-watch the start. Two hours later I had finished the movie and was on the web reading information about the writers, director, cast, etc.

I have been interested in Japanese culture for many years. The Yakuza explores some of the differences between western and Japanese culture. Specifically it focuses on the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and the idea of honour, obligation, and “giri” (which the Tanaka Ken character describes as “the burden hardest to bear.”)

The closing 12 minutes of the movie illustrate this in a very emphatic and graphic way.

The movie stars Robert Mitchum, who gives an excellent performance.

The lead Japanese roles were taken by Ken Takakura, Keiko Kishi and James Shigeta (although the latter was born in Hawaii).

Interestingly Ken Takakura also starred in Black Rain, another east meets west movie, this time directed by my all-time favourite director, Ridley Scott.

Although The Yakuza was made in 1974 and many of the cast and crew have passed away (Richard Jordan in 1993, Herb Edelman in 1996, and Mitchum and Brian Keith in 1997, Leonard Schrader in 2006, and Sydney Pollack in 2008) I note that the Japanese cast named above are not only still with us but still making movies.

Although the movie shows its age in some respects, I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Japan and who is not put off by a little violence in movies.

Best Christmas Movies

This posting is a little tardy I realise, but here are the two best Christmas movies IMHO.

1) It's a Wonderful Life

This is a wonderful heart-warming life-affirming movie directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Steward and the gorgeous Donna Reed. At 8.7 it is the highest rated movie in IMDB for all three (although it ties with “Rear Window” for Stewart).

The movie is not without its flaws, but for me these are easily forgiven in the face of its brilliance.

We watched this movie as a family for the first time last Christmas and everyone was very excited about watching it again this year. We did so just before Christmas and it did not disappoint.

Everyone should watch this movie once a year!



2) Scrooged

I've always liked Bill Murray and this, along with Groundhog day, are my favourite of his movies.

Like the Dickens original, it deals with a man who rediscovers what is truly important thanks to the intervention of 3 ghosts.

It has moving moments, comedy, and an uplifting ending which make it perfect Christmas fare.