25 May 2004, mid-afternoon
I found Runaway Jury, another John Grisham book turned movie, to be quite good. The film is all about how important US trails are bought through the Jury selection process. The film is pretty original I would say, well except for the fact Dustin Hoffman plays your typical southern, bumbling-but-bright lawyer, with the heart of gold, ala Adicus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (which is a book I highly recommend). The film is entertaining, and I recommend you watch it.
The Official Site for Runaway Jury
[3] Movies
25 May 2004, mid-afternoon
Alright, I have to admit the above line was never said in the movie I watched last night, Torque. The film is a motorcycle flick, belonging to the same genre of film as the Fast and the Furious—I’m not sure what that genre is. Most of the movie borders on ridiculous. There is a Goth, evil biker chick, in the movie that is sexy-delicious. If you have absolutely nothing better to watch, I guess this would be something to see.
The Official Homepage for Torque
Movies
23 May 2004, early evening
I woke up in the early afternoon today. Coming downstairs to eat lunch, I find Ahilan just about ready to watch Ocean’s 11. I’ve seen the film a million times before. I sat and watched the beginning with him while eating my lunch, and couldn’t pull myself away once the film got rolling.
For those of you who don’t know, Ocean’s 11 is a really well done heist movie. The film has a wicked cast, slick plot, and just about anything else you would want in a movie. My only gripe with the film is the love story that seems a bit tacked on, but even that is done fairly well. I can’t imagine anyone who’s reading this who hasn’t seen the movie, but just incase you haven’t, go watch it. The film is damn good.
The Official Site for Ocean’s 11.
[6] Movies
22 May 2004, evening time
Friday was a dull day, till about six in the evening, when Carvill and Mezan arrived at my house. Shortly after Rishi showed up and the three of us made our way to Midland and Finch to get some Korean BBQ. Gary was coming in from Waterloo so I expected an entertaining evening. Korean BBQ is excellent. Gary arrived at the restaurant a half hour or so after we did, with his roommate Janet, girlfriend Michelle, and friend Kerrianne.
After eating a lot of food, we all headed back to my place to loiter. Janet had a wager on last nights basketball game, so we all chatted while watching the game. She lost her bet. Prasanna showed up at some point in time, chatted with my parents about arranged marriages and India, and then left to go home. We spent a good amount of time at my place chatting, but eventually we decided that a change of scenery would be nice.
I suggested Barcode, a new bar that replaced what used to be a very infamous Just Deserts, at Kennedy and Sheppard. We walked in to the bar to find they were playing Jungle—not on a CD mind you—there was a DJ spinning the stuff. How perfect is that? The place can’t make a good dessert, but they definitely know how to make a Strawberry Daiquiri. We were all impressed with the Daiquiri Michelle ordered, it was made with fresh strawberries. I’ll definitely have to check out Barcode again. Any lounge you can call for a rewind in is ok with me.
I took plenty of pictures, with three sets of cameras. At some point in time I’ll need to grab them all.
[5] Life
21 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
I haven’t been receiving mail recently from a mailing list I’m on. In the past there have been issues with the list, so I didn’t think much of it. Shima mentioned a few days earlier she had forwarded me an email, which I also didin’t get. I didn’t think much of it at the time, and quickly forgot she had mentioned forwarding me anything. Tonight, for some reason, I thought I should send myself an email. I did so, and waited for it to arrive. It did not.
1and1 is pretty useless when it comes to any sort of support. I’m not paying for my space, or my email addresses, so who am I to bitch? I thought, if there was a problem, I should try and figure out as much as I can myself first. I logged onto their webmail client, and discovered a whole lot of mail that I had not seen. Apparently, Apple’s email application, Mail, suddenly stopped downloading email. Or was the fault on 1and1’s side? I had hoped for the later case, because I had a lot of faith in Mail. I opened up Entourage, Microsoft’s email client for the Mac, and tried to download my email with it. All my email messages arrived, one after another. So, for some strange reason, Mail has suddenly stopped downloading my email.
Has this happened to anyone else? Can anyone recommend any other nice Mac email clients? I may go back to Entourage if I can’t solve this problem.
[7] Life | Apple Computers
20 May 2004, late at night
Steph has decided that driving up to Waterloo on a Wednesday is a good way to break the monotony that is a week of doing nothing—I’d have to agree with her. I drove up to Waterloo last night with Steph to go to the Bomber and to see Shima.
Steph and I arrived in Waterloo a bit after 7:00. This gave us time to go to the best (and only) Persian restaurant in the city, Shandiz. The menu on the wall at Shandiz had changed, but the food was still the same. I had a Chicken Kebab, and ordered the eggplant dish I always get for everyone to share. The food was great. I have become quite fond of Persian food. Though, when I say Persian food, I suppose I mean the eggplant dish and kebabs. Gary and Shima came to dinner with us as well, and when we were all done, I left for Shima’s place with the two of them.
Gary and I had to convince Shima to come to the bomber with us, but I’m glad she ended up coming. The bomber is one of those places you need to be drunk to enjoy. Suffice it to say, none of us were really enjoying the bomber last night. The music was good for a period of time mind you. They played a really good set of old school hip-hop.
The highlight of the evening would be Steph and her leather bodice. Now, Steph isn’t much of a Goth, but she does enjoys a good sale. So, seeing a real leather bodice on sale, she snatched it up. The bodice looks very Victorian, and looks like it fits about as well as something made during the Victorian era. Every so often Steph would come over after dancing, or standing around for that matter, her face flush, complaining how she couldn’t breathe. We’d laugh and make jokes. She’d reply, “no, I’m serious, I can’t breathe.” Steph has the best outfits.
[3] Life
20 May 2004, early evening
Google has posted a list of Software Principles on thier site. I don’t know if other software companies will start applying these principles when they develop software, but it would definetly be nice. In effect, this is an attack directed at those companies that create spywarem, and adware, programs. There is more discussion of this topic at Slashdot.
Technology | Interesting Links
20 May 2004, mid-afternoon
Google recently started a company blog. They recently posted an interesting message about their new offices all over the world. One such office is in bangalore. They had this to say about it:
Interestingly, when we announced our engineering center in Bangalore, we found ourselves knee-deep in the debate about “outsourcing”—the practice of cutting a company’s American operations in favor of cheaper labor elsewhere. India in particular has been a subject of a lot of press coverage on this topic lately, which we find to be pretty unfair. It’s not their fault they have a lot of brilliant computer scientists who don’t care to relocate to the States.
I was happy to see a US company make a statement such as this. Blaming India and Indians for problems in the US tech sector is foolish. I think the blame india watch does a much better job of discussing this then I possibly can.
I was disappointed to see that the next time I checked Google’s blog, the paragraph about Bangalore had been edited out. Instead, the only mention of Bangalore comes at the end of the blog entry. Its quite possible they felt the article was too long, or the paragraph about Bangalore didn’t fit with the rest of the post. However, I suspect they were in fact worried about the “outsourcing” debate they would find themselves in had they left the post alone.
Regardless of their intentions, Google has probably drawn much more attention to this post then would have been garnered had it been left alone. You can read more about this situation at: Slashdot, MetaFilter, Hello TypePad, Dive into Mark, and CNET News.com.
[1] Weblogs
19 May 2004, mid-afternoon
I watched Attack of the Clones again recently with Mezan. I remember when it came out I told everyone I thought it was better then Spiderman. I think I would still have to stand by that. I might have a bias towards a film that features plenty of juicy Bounty Hunter action. Also, it does reveal a lot more about how shit went down before the next three Star Wars films. I only wish George Lucas would hand over his script to someone talented, who would then rewrite the crap he spits out. Also, I wish he would sit his ass down somewhere on his ranch, and let someone talented direct the movies as well. I don’t know when it happened, but at some time during the past 20 years or so, he became a giant hack.
If you haven’t seen Star Wars II then this exchange sums it up nicely (taken from an edited script of the movie):
NATALIE PORTMAN
Don’t look at me like that.
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
Why not?
NATALIE PORTMAN
Because it could get you arrested
anywhere else, you fucking creep.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t include my favourite line in the film:
As they fight, SAMUEL L. MOTHERFUCKING JACKSON comes in
and puts a lightsaber to TEMUERA’S neck. He glares at
CHRISTOPHER LEE.
SAMUEL L. MOTHERFUCKING JACKSON
Normally, both of you would be dead
as fucking fried chicken by now, but
since I’m in a transitional period,
I don’t want to kill either one of
your asses.
[5] Movies
18 May 2004, early morning
After watching In America, Mezan showed up at my house. We went for dinner, and then rented Jackie Brown. Steph showed up and the three of us watched the film. I’ve now seen every single Quentin Tarintino film. I would say this was probably the weakest of them all, but that really isn’t a knock to the movie. The film is quite entertaining and funny. The plot is pretty solid, the dialogue is good, and the acting is great. The film is probably worth your time watching, though it is damn long, running in at around 2 1/2 hours.
Read reviews of Jackie Brown at Rotten Tomatoes
[1] Movies
18 May 2004, early morning
I watched In America today with Steph. It is a very beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. In America follows the lives of a poor Irish family who have moved to New York to make a new life for themselves after the death of their youngest son. The story is very moving, and the acting is really superb. Do yourself a favour and watch the movie.
The In America Official Website
Movies
17 May 2004, early evening
Patrick is in Seattle, interviewing with Microsoft. Send him some good vibes.
[2] Life
17 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
I’ve spent 40 minutes listening to an interview with Ben and Mena Trott of SixApart and Moveable Type fame. The interview was done a week before the chaos that followed the release of Moveable Type 3.0. The interview is well done, and gives you some of the history of the product, and its current direction. I’m actually surprised at how emotional the interview gets at times. Also surprising is how much the interview foreshadows events that would happen a week later. If you’re as bored, as I’ve been recently, you should give it a listen. The two come off as quite pleasant and passionate about their product. [via Mena’s Corner]
[1] Weblogs
15 May 2004, late at night
Sifting through the junk on my computer, in the middle of a very long text file I find:
Turning, he sees Mezan, still standing at the end of the hall. “What’s he planning? He knows I can’t break the vow I made, after attacking him with my orange suppressing stance, never to attack him again,” Ram thinks.
[2] Life
15 May 2004, late evening
Prasanna and I watched Read or Die yesterday. Read or Die is an anime television series in Japan, Prasanna and I watched the 3 episode miniseries that started it off. The plot was truly bizarre. The lead character is Yumiko Readman, a girl who has the power to control paper. She is part of an elite military organization of librarians. Her first mission is to recover some rare books that were stolen from the Library of Congress by a clone of some ancient samurai. Seriously. Prasanna and I enjoyed the show, probably because it was so bizarre. The animation is pretty good to boot.
The Anime News Network entry for R.O.D.
Movies
15 May 2004, early evening
I’ve taken to looking at my referrer logs to see who is viewing my site. Basically, a referrer log will keep track of the URLs that are sending people to your site. For example, someone was so enamored with Rishi’s comment as Willy Wonka on my post about the price of Moveable Type that they linked to it (see the noted column). When someone clicked on that link, the address of the site the link was on was saved in my referrer logs. I’ve found lots of interesting sites by looking at these logs.
I recently posted in my del.icio.us links a link to my favourite picture by Fredrik (of smudo.org fame), and this was picked up by someone who runs a site called coolspot.
I wrote a script to import Moveable Type export files into Textpattern. The script runs as a web page, and has a link back to my homepage. I get the occasional referrer from my script to the page about my script. It is interesting to see who has used my script to start their new Textpattern site. Of course, it is also a bit depressing, since, more often then not, the script doesn’t work.
[3] Weblogs
15 May 2004, mid-afternoon
SixApart speak in great detail on their new pricing scheme. I suppose in response to the bitching, they have clarified a lot of things. Most importantly, they have cleared up their definition of a weblog. Most of the bitching came from people saying, “I run 18 weblogs to make my Moveable Type site.” SixApart have confirmed that this scenario constitutes one weblog in their eyes. I imagine a lot of the angry sentiment thrown their way will vanish now. Frankly, I wonder why they bother doing what they do. People are very quick to treat the company like shit. They received the same sort of mindless backlash when TypeKey was announced. Mind you, it would help if these announcements were more clear and concise.
Weblogs
14 May 2004, evening time
A common subject of discussion at Slashdot is free software. It is common to describe software that is free in two ways: software can be free like beer, and software can be free like speech. In the former case, we are speaking of free in a monetary sense. In the later case, we are talking of your liberty to do what you please with a program.
The fuss over Moveable Type was that it was free in the free like beer sense. Moveable Type didn’t cost anything, and was really nice, so people naturally would choose to use it. But it was never free software. SixApart were never granting users rights to do what they will with SixApart’s software. SixApart are well within their rights to do what they please with Moveable Type. This problem wouldn’t have existed if Moveable Type was free as in speech. Mark Pilgrim dicusses this in more detail with lots of good links.
I use Textpattern, which is also free as in beer, but not as in speech. Dean has commited to keep the software free for personal use. That’s usually free enough for me. However, this whole episode illustrates the problem with software that is not free.
Weblogs
13 May 2004, evening time
Moveable Type 3.0 Debuts with a Bang
When SixApart announced that they would be billing people for Moveable Type 3.0, to say people started freaking out would be an understatement. There are currently 438 529 603 695 818 trackbacks at Mena’s post on the new pricing scheme. There are 127 comments on the thread about this situation at Metafilter.
Mind you, there is still a free version of the program. People like to bitch I suppose.
I am a fan of Moveable Type. I run my photoblog with the software. I run Shima’s blog with Moveable Type. That said, I don’t feel like SixApart owe me anything. People have been mooching off their work for ages now. If they want to start charging from this day on, it’s their prerogative. The older versions of their software remain free, so what’s the problem?
[8] Weblogs
13 May 2004, early evening
Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z is probably as close as Tupac Sharkur ever came to making a Public Enemy album. The album has the hard and heavy beats, scratches, and heavy samples you’d expect from a Public Enemy album, only on top of all beats is Tupac’s voice. The lyrics are quite political to boot. I’ve been listening to the album a lot recently, and I have to say you should definitely check it out if you’re a fan of rap music.
Music
13 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
Matchstick Men was an interesting film. The movie was quite nice, albeit a bit sad I thought. The film is about the relationship Nicholas Cage’s character develops with his estranged daughter, played by Alison Lohman. Cage plays a conman with some serious issues. Cage and Lohman do excellent jobs acting in the movie, which makes the film quite enjoyable to watch. I recomend you go see it.
The official Matchstick Men website.
[6] Movies
12 May 2004, late afternoon
Thanks for everyone who gave my feedback on my resume. I have now applied to a job. I’ve taken the resume post down, since I don’t like leaving information like that on the internet for long. Mostly because I am paranoid.
Life
12 May 2004, terribly early in the morning
My Blogger blog will be a blog about Blogger. I like Blogger enough to want to keep my Blogger account all blogged up with blog entries. So, I will post to my Blogger blog blog entries about Blogger, Blogging with Blogger, and other Blogger related things. Also, I will try to say the word blog and Blogger as many times as I can in this blog entry. My first real post to my Blogger blog is about the Google blog.
[2] Weblogs
11 May 2004, late at night
I got my first peice of Spam at my Gmail account. More then that, I’m such an idiot because I clicked the stupid link in the spam. Thankfully, it seems to me that the address that the link points to is dead.
Read the rest of this post. (371 words)
Technology | Life
10 May 2004, the wee hours
Blogger has relaunched, and at first glance it looks pretty hot. For starters, there are proper comments at last. This was probably the biggest hole in blogger up till now. There are some really nice new templates, individual archives, and probably more than enough features for your average blogger who isn’t in the mood to install Moveable Type.
Ahilan has a blog at blogger now. Krishna has a blog at blogger as well. I also have a blogger blog, but I’ve had one for ages. I like this template more then my old design however.
A lot more info can be found at the stopdesign homepage.
[3] Weblogs
