Game: July 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Powered By YouTube - Event Videos and Slides Online

By Stephanie Liu, YouTube APIs and Tools Team

All of the videos, slides, and other materials used during our first "Powered by YouTube" developer event are now online and available for mass consumption:

http://sites.google.com/site/poweredbyyoutube

We had ~100 developers come and hang out with us at YouTube HQ. It was a full day, with talks ranging from best practices to the history of scaling up YouTube infrastructure and, of course, cookies, lunch and t-shirts. There were also some good discussions in our Office Hours lounge. If you're interested, the one-sheet Code Labs we had for working with the Data APIs in JSON and PHP are also available online.

Thanks to everyone for coming out, learning about the APIs, and sharing your feedback and questions with us. Special thanks goes to Slide, Qik, Animoto, Gaia Online, and Helio for speaking about their experiences working with our APIs and even walking through some code snippets.

As a bonus, here's a bunch of us (Jochen, Jeff, myself) with Steve Mesa, the top poster in our discussion forum :)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Looks Good To Me - Source Code Review Tools

By Steve McKay and Jason Robbins, Open Source Team

Code reviews are the rule at Google -- peer review reduces bugs, increases code quality, reduces maintenance cost, opens up team communication, and helps get the job done right the first time.

Like many open source developers, Google engineers used to rely on mail and textual diffs when doing code reviews. That made code reviews a drag. Mondrian, a web based code review tool, made the process much more efficient by presenting the diffs and comments right in our browser. Mondrian inspired the open source project Review Board, and led to Rietveld, and now the new code review tools are available on Google Code's Project Hosting.

Reviewing code in your project is simple: browse any source file or diff, double click on a source line to add comments, then publish your comments along with a general comment and score for the revision.

You can see code reviews in action on the code.google.com support project. So why are you still reading this? Learn how to use code reviews and don't forget to let us know what you think.

Tango and Cash: Comedic Shot for Shot Remake

Does Tango and Cash need a shot for shot remake? Probably not.

Was I entertained by this nonetheless? I most certainly was.

Lawyer theatens to sue Sharon Stone for 1 Billion dollars

A New York attorney is threatening to sue Sharon Stone for one billion dollars because she stated that the earthquakes the ravaged China were karma based on that government's treatment of Tibet.

Yes, I said 1 BILLION dollars. Where she could possibly come up with 1 billion dollars is beyond me. Yes, she made 13.6 million dollars for appearing in Basic Instinct 2, which means she would only have to earn that much money in, let's see, around 73 more movies.

And 1 billion dollars for saying that something spiritually related to her religion (she is a Buddhist) had something to do with a natural disaster? Why isn't this lawyer, I don't know, suing Pat Robertson, the estate of Jerry Falwell and the Westboro Baptist Church for their similar and manifold statements to the same effect about American disasters. I mean, you know that they have the money.

Did she say something sort of insensitive? Yes. Was it the worst thing anyone has ever said? No. Was it even the worst thing said publicly that day? I would be willing to wager it wasn't.

I am just trying to think of something anyone could say just once with ample apologies afterward that would be worth 1 billion dollars in a lawsuit, and I simply can't.

And does anyone really think that any court will seriously take this case? A Billion Dollars indeed.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

What 12 Films Would You Choose for a Film Festival?

I got tagged twice (by both Burbanked and Electronic Cerebrectomy), for this meme, and so two people get some credit for me doing this.

Basically, the gist of this is that as a blogger, you are tasked with putting together 12 movies that would comprise a film festival. Here are the rules which I am following for this little exercise:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

#4 involved me tagging people, and you all know that I am not big on the tagging.

So, here is what I came up with for my film festival:

Monday-Tuesday - Animation: In paint and in clay

Allegro Non Troppo: An Italian parody of Fantasia, which I will always remember for the strange yet moving version of Ravel's Bolero as the backdrop to the evolutionary process (the beginning of which is the intro clip I've selected above).

Chicken Run: What do you get when you combine Aardman animation with a story of a group of chickens trying to escape an English farm in the 1950's? Pure magic, and a loving tribute to 1963's The Great Escape.

Wednesday-Thursday - Veracity: Documentary Film

Comic Book Confidential: Even though I don't follow comics, this documentary by Ron Mann released in 1988 is a fascinating look at not just the evolution of comics in both book and strip form, including the disastrous implementation of the original Comics Code Authority. Subjects featured in the documentary include Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Pekar.

The Fog of War: Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, discusses the Eleven Lessons he learned during his life. Filmed with a device dubbed by Errol Morris "The Interrotron" which makes it seem like the subject is talking directly to the audience.

Friday-Saturday - The Western Through Non-American Eyes

El Topo (Midnight Screening): One of the first Midnight Movies, Alejandro Jodorowsky's epic combined elements of Spaghetti Westerns with sheer oddity and religious overtones to create a truly stunning film. It is a very weird Mexican movie.

Once Upon a Time in the West: Sergio Leone's refashioning of the entire Western genre, with the help of then film critics Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, became a movie that influenced generations of filmmakers and has been widely hailed as one of the first postmodern movies ever made.

Sunday-Monday - The Chinese Empire: Beginning to End

The Emperor and the Assassin: The story of a tyrant, the King of Qin, and the forces that ally against him in China c. 230 BC, starring Gong Li amongst others. A historical epic which works well as a companion piece for Hero.

The Last Emperor: The tale of Puyi, the last Qing Dynasty Emperor of China (born 1906) Starring John Lone, Joan Chen and Peter O'Toole, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and winner of 9 Academy Awards, it is a lush modern historical epic.

Tuesday-Wednesday - The Dystopic Future (1970's version)

Soylent Green: I read the book that was the partial basis for this film (Make Room, Make Room) many years ago, and somehow despite the fact that the movie went in directions that the original novel didn't, but those elements may have been what took this one over the top. The movie takes place in 2022 in a world that is ravaged by global warming, a lack of resources and overpopulation. Charlton Heston is a New York City Detective investigating the death of a high-ranking executive of the Soylent Corporation.

Rollerball: The year is 2018, and the world is controlled by a small number of large corporations. War has been abolished and there is but one sport: Rollerball... a game designed to entertain the masses with bloodshed while giving the audience the clear message that success can only be won through group effort. Can an individual succeed in a game meant to destroy men?

Thursday-Friday - The Unconventional Musical

Phantom of the Paradise: A campy rock opera written and directed by Brian DePalma, featuring elements of Faust and Phantom of the Opera. Starring Paul Williams, Gerrit Graham, William Finlay and Jessica Harper.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Jacques Demy directed this French musical featuring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. Every piece of dialogue is sung, giving the film an odd quality because it is just dialogue and not poetic lyrics being sung. It is a little surreal.

So what do you think of my pairings?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Life On Mars has a Huge Recasting

Well, it has come to my attention that there have been some massive changes going on behind the scenes on the American remake of Life on Mars, one of which is bringing a major Hollywood actor to television.

You see, hardass, hard-drinking detective Gene Hunt (who was the protagonist's partner on LoM) was originally played by Philip Glenister who looked like this:

And in the original L.A. centered pilot, David E. Kelley had in Glenister's place, Colm Meaney.

Which was the perfect casting for that role. I mean, he was the only cast member from that pilot that I honestly said fit with the vibe of the original series. That happens so rarely, but that wasn't to be.

So for the new pilot that takes place in New York (which I will admit feels more in keeping with the original concept of the show emotional for me), Gene Hunt will be played by none other than Harvey Keitel.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Harvey Keitel and all, but Colm Meaney is just so Gene Hunt. He is. To me, it is like if someone made a movie with Michael Clarke Duncan, then made a pilot for the TV series with Ving Rhames, but then recast that part with Samuel L. Jackson. They are all awesome, but they just different things to a role.

Sigh. I wonder who is going to join him and Michael Imperioli in the revamped pilot.

Google Calendar Now CalDAV-Enabled: Bring on the Feedback

By Neal Gafter, Software Engineer

The Calendar team was the first to launch its Google Data API back in 2006, and in that proud tradition, we're excited to offer an additional way for developers to read from, and write to Google Calendar: the CalDAV protocol. (CalDAV — an extension of WebDAV — is an evolving, open standard for calendar synchronization.)

So far we've focused on Apple's iCal 3.0 as a first working example of 2-way Google Calendar sync over CalDAV.* But we're calling all current and prospective CalDAV developers to help us firm up the implementation, and make it play nice with other popular CalDAV-friendly clients.

For information on how Google Calendar data maps to the CalDAV protocol, please check out our CalDAV developer's guide. And of course, don't hesitate to hurl feedback in the general direction of our Google Group.

* Disclaimer: during this developer-focused release, and in light of known issues, we strongly suggest that you restrict Google Calendar <> iCal 3.0 synchronization to test accounts only.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Classic indignities

From The New Yorker, "if adults were subject to the same indignities as children."

PARTY
Zoe: Dad, I’m throwing a party tonight, so you’ll have to stay in your room. Don’t worry, though—one of my friends brought over his father for you to play with. His name is Comptroller Brooks and he’s roughly your age, so I’m sure you’ll have lots in common. I’ll come check on you in a couple of hours. (Leaves.)
Comptroller Brooks: Hello.
Mr. Higgins: Hello.
Comptroller Brooks: So . . . um . . . do you follow city politics?
Mr. Higgins: Not really.
Comptroller Brooks: Oh.
(Long pause.)
(Zoe returns.)
Zoe: I forgot to tell you—I told my friends you two would perform for them after dinner. I’ll come get you when it’s time. (Leaves.)
Comptroller Brooks: Oh, God, what are we going to do?
Mr. Higgins: I know a dance . . . but it’s pretty humiliating.
Comptroller Brooks: Just teach it to me.

And there are more in the article. Well, so. They'll recover ... probably.

That said, near as I can tell, every 4 year old children's birthday party I attend is just like this. Stuck in a room with other adults whose only association with me is based on the age of our children!

Sunday Night Video: Rush Hour Meets Star Wars

Yeah, by now you all know I like mashups, and I enjoy sharing them. So here we have some Rush Hour vs. Return of the Jedi action.

Um... I'll do better next week... I promise.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Tagged

I am a ~~sucker~~ enthusiast for Leap products. We have accumulated a ton of them over the years from the LeapPad to the Leapster and various products in between. All of them have been quite good but when I think about it more carefully never quite as good as I had anticipated. Despite this I persist largely because the products seem so cool.

With this in mind, I purchased the Tag Reading System for my daughter's 4th birthday. This is an evolution of the LeapPad but doesn't require the pad but does require the expenditure on books. It is basically a pen and then you can buy books that the pen can read. Strictly speaking the books are just books but they give away downloads to the Tag pen that make it all work, play games and other things. They also allow the parent to monitor progress.

Well, my expectations were not necessarily high. But my daughter loves it; although I have to admit that it is more of a renewed interest in books than anything else. So there is precious little progress for me to actually monitor. Anyhow, given the choice between this and yet another cheap Hannah Montana toy, I am happy with my continued subsidisation of Leap's R&D costs.

Week 11: Pageant of the Transmundane

Hello from Oakland. I've just been mauled by a group of Raiders fans, and I ran away from some face painted baseball fans across a park... and boy am I tired.

This week's winning entry comes from the recent annals of He Shot Cyrus (if you find a better stylized picture of Luther, buy it)

And once again, Muppets win the day. I should really go back and see how dominant Muppet-based entertainment is in this award... because they do win a disproportionate amount of Homer Simpson Transmundanity Awards.

In this case, it was Bert and Ernie really thuggin' it up to Ante Up by M.O.P. (which is very bouncy, and then I looked up the lyrics, and wow, armed robbery is an accessory to this award... nice).

And since I've pretty much mined the whole Simpsons/Muppet connection to the bare granite, well, I thought Homer Simpson being in the presence of a lot of rappers would be more in keeping with this week's Transmundanity Award. And it is especially fitting as the episode this image is drawn from has to do with Bart's fake kidnapping, a theme which was explored in the song.

Congrats Elgringo on winning your first award from Culture Kills. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Express Checkout: Long, Screech'n Horror

Rumor has it that Justin Long has for some strange reason decided to drop out of Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It!. Well, this one is a no brainer, isn't it? Seriously, if you just broke up with someone (correction, if they unceremoniously dumped you), would you want them to direct you? I mean, if given a choice, would most people who have just had their heartbroken work under the direction of someone who knows them intimately and can perhaps twist the knife a little bit to get a reaction they need for the movie or if there is a difference of opinion about how a scene should be played? Really, No Shit Sherlock, was any additional explanation necessary in this case?

Dustin Diamond is working on a tell-all book about Saved by the Bell, both on and off the stage with a ghost writer. I guess those sex tape revenues just didn't roll in as expected... and frankly, at this point, what kind of credibility could he possibly have, as he has admitted he has misrepresented his situation on a few occasions.

Hairspray is getting a cinematic sequel? So those nightmares of having to see John Travolta in more latex have come true, because no one needs to see that.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Mean Girls, Clueless and Pretty in Pink to become games

When I first heard that Paramount was licensing Mean Girls, Clueless and Pretty in Pink for video game development, well, I probably had the same reaction you are having reading it here: WHAT?!?

Now from the news releases I've read, these games are being developed in an attempt to bring more female gamers into the fold. However, part of me doesn't see these games being geared to little girls or even tweens, which a majority of the games developed for girls essentially are, because the three movies that were chosen for this enterprise were movies that were formative movies in many an adult's life.

Now I can sort of come up with ideas that would possibly make either a Clueless or Mean Girls game workable conceptually, but for the life of me I can't possibly fathom how one would adapt Pretty in Pink into a game. None. And you know I've seen a lot of games in my lifetime, especially movie tie-ins.

I mean, for Clueless/Mean Girls, they could both play out like Otome games, or play like a couple of Sims clones which would also make sense for the target market as sales of The Sims skews heavily in the direction of females anyway, and that would probably work out well. Or they could be built around a series of mini-games. For Clueless for example, off the top of my head, I could see a driving test mini game, dressing Tai to fit in with the clique game, a Tai-Elton/Ms. Geist-Mr. Hall matchmaking game and so many more. And with Mean Girls, I could see games involving fattening up Regina George, trying to collect pages of the Burn Book(and perhaps another one where you initially try to become popular by getting people to like you), a small fight sequence after the contents of the Burn Book are made public and so on.

But Pretty in Pink? Wow, I am truly drawing a blank on how that could possibly work, though an article about these games at Catwalk Queen does have a possible vision for that particular title I hadn't considered. And that would qualify as a casual game in my mind.

Of course, considering that both The Warriors and The Godfather were Paramount properties, these three new games in development will have a lot to live up to.

Google Developer Days: Opening Registration in Europe

By Elizabeth Yin, Google Developer Programs

Today, we're opening registration for Google Developer Days in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

For those of you in other parts of Europe and India, you might be interested in these other upcoming Google Developer Days. We haven't opened registration for them yet, but we wanted to give you a heads up they're coming:

Bangalore, India (Oct 11)
Milan, Italy (Oct 21)
Prague, Czech (Oct 24)
Moscow, Russia (Oct 28)

(Please note Google Developer Day Czech Republic is now on October 24th.)

We'll be there to discuss our APIs and developer tools, diving into topics around App Engine, OpenSocial, Android, and much more. There will also be ample time for mingling with fellow developers and Google engineers. We hope you can join us for these events.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sleepless in Seattle: The Thriller

Samuraifrog is the reason I sought this out, because he did make the point that Meg Ryan is a stalker, but because everything works out in the end, it isn't supposed to be creepy... but when I saw it again recently, it was so obvious.

Introducing Content Licenses on Google Code

By DeWitt Clinton, Google Developer Programs

The Google Code team is pleased to announce the availability of content licenses for projects hosted on code.google.com. Projects owners may now select from either the Creative Commons Attribution license or the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license to indicate the terms under which their non-source code materials may be distributed.

While this may seem like a minor change, it reflects the continued evolution of our mission to support best practices in open source software development. As the open web increasingly relies on protocols and formats that reach beyond source code, we encourage authors to apply an explicit copyright license to the data, documentation, and related media that complements their work.

Please join us in the project hosting discussion group if you have any questions.

My Favorite Celebrity Anecdote at the Moment

A few weeks ago, I read an entry at Derober discussing 6 Crazy Hollywood Stories You Probably Haven't Heard, and one in particular really stuck with me. The following story comes from an upcoming book called You’ll Never Bounce in This Town Again:

I was working valet at the mansion. We used to park the nicer cars in the roundabout just for show. At 2 AM Jack comes out with a tall blond girl. She couldn't have been a day over 25 and they start going at it on top of a 1952 Jaguar Roadster. It wasn’t the kissy-kissy stuff either. They were both drunk. I'm watching this when the owner of the Jag walks up to me. It was James Caan. I thought he was going to kill me for allowing this to happen. Caan was a nice guy but he had a temper. I said, "Mr. Caan, Shall I go fetch your car." James Caan looked at me and said, "Son, you don't take meat away from a lion when it's eating. I'll be in the kitchen."

To me, this anecdote has so many little angles that make it appealing to me. I love James Caan and the fact that when confronted with Nicholson having sloppy drunken sex on his vintage automobile, he made a quip and just let it slide. Part of me wonders if there was an awkward meeting after that between the two actors where Nicholson felt compelled to give his peer an apology and 200 dollars for the love stains, or if they both just tried to ignore that the whole thing happened. Or perhaps an intriguing third option, involving Caan having carte blanche to do the same on Nicholson's car some day.

It also makes me wonder how that scenario would have played out if the principals were different. I mean, would Caan have acted the same way if it was Randy Quaid making out on the hood of his Jag, or what if someone like Russell Crowe was the one who found out that Nicholson was making out out the hood of his car. Or what if it was Cher and Madonna in this anecdote. The possibilities are endless really.

And I have a new phrase to trot out during those times when you are considering stopping someone from doing something: You don't take the meat away from a lion when it's eating.

I think it has some style.

The threat of punishment

I have written before about the use of a laid out path of escalating punishments (especially ironic ones) to elicit quick attention. The idea is to dole out easy punishments with a threat of increasingly costly ones if behaviour isn't correct.

Today I can report a 'success' with this strategy with my 7 year old son. This time he left his coat at school. He does this because it is cold in the mornings and not in the afternoons. He then forgot to find his coat the next day. So the punishment path was simple, if he didn't bring his coat back today, he would be forced to wear one of his sister's hand-me-downs. This would be one of the ones she had been given but had considered too 'girly' to wear. We selected the coat and he tried it on for size.

Anyhow, he saw the path ahead and made a pre-pitch against it. He argued to me that it would be unfair on the other kids at school. Why? Because they would tease him and then they would get in trouble!

Quite an argument and very selfless. Anyhow, I said that was their problem and the threat stayed. And what do you know, the coat returned home today. Ta da!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Top Gun Sequel: We're All in the Danger Zone now

There are some rumors regarding a possible sequel to Top Gun being made with the involvement of Tom Cruise.

Now, outside of the Mission: Impossible movies, Tom Cruise hasn't really made sequels in his career, and for the most part, that was a smart idea (yes, I can't believe I am using "Tom Cruise" and "smart" in the same sentence either). And, with reboots of other 1970's-80's movies, I can see why someone might want to strike while the iron was hot with another one.

Well, at least it isn't a remake. There is that.

However, it seems that the idea being put forward is one which sort of distances itself from the homoerotic undertones of the original movie and moves it into a different, equally uncomfortable place involving overtones of sexual harassment and abuse of position. You see, Maverick is going to be the teacher this time around, and he is going to school a female pilot in the fine art of firing a missile up their tail. And since the previous movie took place 22 years ago, well, imagine how young that female pilot will likely be. I mean, she'll likely be younger than Cruise's real life slave... err, wife.

Yeah, let's just say I am not holding my breath that this will be a good movie, especially since Tom Cruise is about as likable as herpes now. Perhaps if Michael Ironside is in it and blows up someone's head with his mind or kills a lot of bugs or Xenu or something, it will be worth it.

However, I will make a deal with Tom Cruise. I will see this sequel at an actual movie theater on a regular priced night, and I will hold off on criticizing him or Scientology for a period of six months if he appears on a show like Inside the Actor's Studio and not only acknowledges that he was in Legend, but discusses it at some length. I don't think that will happen mind you, so I think I will be safe from this movie until TBS buys the rights to it.

Monday, July 21, 2008

No kidding

[HT: Tim Harford] So it doesn't take much. From BBC News:

A Norfolk headteacher has said there have been no exclusions from his school since he started rewarding pupils with chocolate for good behaviour.
Dr Andrew Sheppard began the scheme in 2005, since when exclusion days at Redcastle Furze Primary in Thetford have dropped from 65 a year to zero....
But Dr Sheppard said: "It has improved behaviour, they are polite and... they have a sense of responsibility."
In September 2005, Dr Sheppard pledged to give all 240 pupils a bar of chocolate if they made it to the half term break without any exclusions.
The scheme proved so successful it was extended term by term. Since then discos, picnics and Easter eggs have been handed out.

But, of course, there were detractors:

"We had people saying how terrible it was that we were bribing children and it was unsustainable," he said.
"We had complaints saying we were contributing to childhood obesity and rotting teeth.
"But the children really liked it and it really works."
Dr Sheppard said he hoped other schools would follow his lead.
Earlier this year in an internet poll of 2,581 parents, 27% said teachers were giving their children sweets and three-quarters thought it was a bad idea.
At the time the School Food Trust said it would be better to use healthy food as a reward.

Yes, and exactly what quantity of healthy food would achieve this outcome? None, I'd say, unless of course you banned all food at school and they only got some if they were well behaved.

Word Cloud

Thanks to Wordle, a word cloud of this blog.

New feeds for Project hosting on Google Code

By Andy Chu, Google Code Team

We get a lot of feedback on Google Code and one of the biggest requests have been for feeds (as you can see in issue 8, issue 131, or issue 190). Therefore, I'm happy to announce that we now have Atom feed available for you to track issues, downloads, Subversion changes, and Wiki updates.

As an example, you can take a look at feeds for Google Web Toolkit:

Issues feed at http://code.google.com/feeds/p/google-web-toolkit/issueupdates/basic
Downloads feed at http://code.google.com/feeds/p/google-web-toolkit/downloads/basic
Subversion changes feed at http://code.google.com/feeds/p/google-web-toolkit/svnchanges/basic
Wiki changes feed at http://code.google.com/feeds/p/google-web-toolkit/svnchanges/basic?path=/wiki/

For the SVN changes feed you can add '?path=/path/' to the end of the url to filter the changes by path -- for example, '?path=/trunk/' or '?path=/wiki/'. Simply substitute 'google-web-toolkit' for your project to see your feeds.

As always, if you have any feedback please do not hesitate to let us know.

Wardrobe Malfunction Fines Dismissed

You all remember that hideous, culture shattering incident at the 2004 Super Bowl, that according to the wackjobs at the Parents Television Council and Focus on the Family destroyed the innocence of an entire generation of kids? The incident that got the FCC all up in arms and became part of the impetus for increasing fines tenfold? The incident that made the entire continent of Europe laugh at North America for being such moralistic prudes.

You know, that thing where Justin Timberlake pulled a piece of fabric from Janet Jackson's leather-breastpiece and exposed her breast and some fancy, filigreed piece of metal?

Well, a federal appeals court has just thrown out the half-million dollar fine against CBS and 20 of the stations it owned. Thankfully nothing really bad happened because of it, because despite the fear of potential FCC censure and fines, everyone in the television industry kept doing the same things they always did.

Wait a minute... that's not what happened at all. If I remember correctly, the networks and affiliates got so scared of what might happen to them, that on the following Memorial Day, many ABC affiliates refused to show Saving Private Ryan uncut, despite the fact that they had done so the previous year(as well as showing Schindler's List uncut.

I also vaguely remember something about the FCC levying fines against an almost 5 year old episode of NYPD Blue that must have offended a lot of people in the Central and Mountain time zones all of a sudden. Either that or Middle America really is 5 years behind them times in everything, because there is no other explanation. I mean, it isn't like some band of kooks would get together and use a website to quickly flood the FCC with a disproportionate number of complaints to try to punish networks after the fact for their perceived slights. Nah... that's too far fetched, and really, who would be so pathetic to do something like that. I mean, you'd have to be a real loser to wait 5 years to be offended by show you likely didn't watch anyway... and to be offended with a large group of people by something that was 5 years old at approximately in the same short window... what are the odds... really, what are the odds.

But surely every script and joke written for network TV remained largely the same in the post-Janet Jackson 9/16 of a second(that's how long the court said it was) breast exposure world. Because the networks would never worry about the kind and loving hand of the FCC smacking them upside the head with a fine because of an off-color joke or reference, however fleeting it was.... *snicker*... I'm sorry, I can't keep a straight face writing that. We all know that most of the envelope pushing writing and such has moved on to the cable networks, as the Emmy nominations show.

So basically, despite this court decision, and hopefully many more positive results for the networks against the FCC, the chilling effect that the Janet Jackson nipple had on the entire network broadcast system will be with us for a long time. I don't know when it will finally abate, but I hope it will be soon.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Sunday Night Videos: GTA IV meets the Naked Gun

You know I love mashups, but this is something a little different. It isn't exactly machinima either.

That's gold, Jerry, GOLD! (Worst Seinfeld non sequitur EVER!)

We have party organisation down

Today we held our 20th children's birthday party. Suffice it to say, while it was certainly far from profitable, it was a very stress free affair. 30 odd children for Child No.3's 4th birthday (whole class + extras), play-centre location, food all provided and cleaned-up, no structured activities -- just running around for 2 hours, Hannah Montana ice cream cake, a few lollies to take home and we were all done and relaxed. Very low outcome on the party stressometer.

To be sure, there was little special about all this but Child No.3 did feel special which was the point. Sadly, in a few years she will start to have party preferences like her siblings and it will get complicated again. At least then we can negotiate the numbers down.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Week 10: Pageant of the Transmundane

Hello from the Land of Dreams... wait, this is Newark, which really no one dreams about, or rather has pleasant dreams about, because let's face it, I am sure someone has had a nightmare about trying to escape from Newark.

AHEM. After that rigmarole, perhaps I should just get on with the show.

This week's winning entry comes from the Nintendo-based blog, The Tanooki. A particular writer for the blog named Pete discovered a Flickr photostream consisting of old school video games redone in Lego.

And since this week's winning entry was game related, well, it is fitting that I have a game-related sighting for this Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award. Thus, a Grand Theft Auto mod become a beautiful display of appreciation for bringing this gem to my attention.

Congrats Pete and the staff of the Tanooki for such a memorable find.

Is happiness the point?

[HT: Will Wilkinson] This has come up before, but there is a debate about whether children actually make parents happy. The 'scientific' evidence says no but the 'anecdotal' evidence says yes. Newsweek have a piece on this issue and can't resolve the debate. My best guess is that happiness isn't the point but once again it all too philosophical for a weekend so I'll leave it at that.

FYI, redshirting

Since it is not something we have ever contemplated, I don't have much to say about holding kids back a year. Although, in principle, I guess it depends on the child. For instance, Ken Robinson has remarked that it is extraordinary why all kids in a class are of the same age. "Why do we think they are best matched on learning according to their date of manufacture?" That said, school isn't just about the learning but about the society too.

A little while back I reported on a study that suggested that red-shirting did little to improve educational and employment outcomes. In today's WSJ blog a discussion of a new study by David Deming and Susan Dynarski that argues that the practice is leading to little good.

Kids who start school a year late have one year less schooling before they reach the age at which they’re allowed to drop out, decreasing their average educational attainment and widening the gap in learning between rich and poor. (Low-income teenagers are more likely to drop out.) And those who do stay in school enter the labor force a year later — decreasing their average lifetime earnings as well as their contribution to Social Security.

That is a bit of a worry. Economist Mom who does have experience with this offers her thoughts.

[Update: In Slate, Emily Bazelon summarises the research.]

Thursday, July 17, 2008

No discussion needed

[HT: Greg Mankiw]

Ricky Gervais gave me something to think about

The Comedy Network recently showed the finale of Extras, and there was a scene that really resonated with me, and so I sought it out to share it with the rest of you. It seems like I've been writing this post forever, even though it has only been about 6 days. Then again, in the blogging world, 6 days is a lifetime.

If you have been watching Extras and you haven't seen the final Christmas special, this video and the description that follows it will have a few spoilers about how things turn out on the series as this is near the end of that episode. Keep that in mind.

Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) was a former extra who finally had a big swig from the fountain of fame, but because of his own hubris, it seems his career as an actor is in trouble, and in a bid to remain famous, he agrees to appear on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, and while there, he finally has a catharsis about the nature of fame, celebrity and simple human decency, and he shares his thoughts with his fellow quasi-celebrities and the viewing audience of Britain.

Like I said, this soliloquy really resonated for me because really I am on both sides of what Gervais/Millman is saying. On the one hand, I am guilty by association, because I am, though not a huge presence in the world of celebrity reporting, I contribute to the overall sea of voices lionizing/demonizing celebrities. No, I haven't lain in a gutter taking pictures up the skirt of an up-and-coming young actress, but I have gotten perverse pleasure out of slamming enough of them. Did it make a positive contribution to anyone? I don't think so. I pick on celebrities because it is easy, and a lot of the time, it is harder to take the high road than to take the high road. Occasionally I can get my stuff together enough that I can make a principled stand against talking about certain people, but I often find myself beset by the temptation to take one last shot.

Yes, some people truly deserve it though, and in those cases, I don't feel so bad for doing it, but I would say there are more than a few times when I've felt a little ashamed of myself for attacking someone when they are going through some stuff in their lives that they aren't advertising to the world through their publicists and in the future, I will be a little more mindful of that. However, if you appear on a reality show to deal with a problem, well, pretty much you are fair game now.

And by the same token, I also understand the desire to be famous in my own small way. I relish traffic, especially when it suddenly bursts... and when I got that link from the IMDB and the five figure hits(and numerous comments) from that, I was on top of the world. The dark side of that are those days when it seems like you are sitting on a desert island somewhere and you have no hope of someone coming to visit you. I've gotten better about that over the past couple of years, but I still remember some of those really bad days. But I've also come to realize that really, no amount of sustained traffic would ever be enough, because once I reached another plateau, I'd always want more in an unhealthy and obsessive way.

And the challenge for me is avoiding doing the toxic things which would get me a lot of readers and hits quickly, but are ultimately bad for me and this blog in the long run, which would be the equivalent of appearing on Celebrity Big Brother for an actor. Things in this category include starting a war of words with a more prominent individual than myself based on personal attacks (rather than a mere disagreement with their ideas or work) or deliberately writing posts of a controversial nature (like if I suddenly wrote posts with titles like "Star Wars and Its Fanboys Suck!" or "Wanna See Miley Cyrus Naked!?" or "I Beat Off Andy Dick (with a Stick)", or making a public spectacle of myself, but really none of that is good attention, and the benefits I would achieve wouldn't last, and in some cases, I would be far worse off than I was when I began, because acting like that burns a lot of bridges. Yes, you can rebuild them, but that takes a lot more work, and I am a lazy, lazy man.

It is a strange thing when a work of fiction makes you reevaluate every aspect of a large part of your life.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Launch at Melbourne Writer's Festival

If you are in Melbourne, you might be interested in attending the official Parentonomics launch. It will take place at the Melbourne Writers' Festival on Sunday 31st August from 12-1pm. It is a free event. Click here for details and location.

A Movie a Year: A look back

Both Lee from Quit your Day Job and Samuraifrog did this meme they picked up from the Onion's AV Club. Basically the gist is that you select a movie from every year that you've been alive that you would call a favorite.

Now, I've always preferred hamburger to steak, so let's just say at times my choices may not exactly be prime rib. And since the AV club version had alternates, well, I decided to include a couple of runners-up for each year.

I am prepared for the wholesale mocking I am about to receive for some of these choices.

1976: Network. I just watched this last week, and it still holds up remarkably well in a creepy, creepy way. Runners-Up: Assault on Precinct 13/All the President's Men

1977: A Bridge Too Far. I've expressed a great affection for this movie in the past, and I still feel it got gypped in terms of Oscar nominations. Runners-Up: The Spy Who Loved Me/Star Wars

1978: Dawn of the Dead. A movie that inspired so many, and when I saw it as a kid, I was traumatized, but man, it has some staying power. Runners-Up: Animal House/Halloween

1979: The Warriors. This one was a toss-up, with the tie breaker being mainly based on the fact that if given a choice most days, I would watch the one I chose. Runners-Up: Alien/China Syndrome

1980: Caddyshack. I'm all about the 'shack... Bill Murray, Ted Knight, Rodney Dangerfield... all I have to say. Runners-Up:The Empire Strikes Back/The Shining

1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Do I really need to explain this choice? Honestly, I don't think I have to. Runners-Up: Escape from New York/Thief

1982: The Thing. Another one of my favorite movies. To me, this is the alien-related movie of 1982, even though the other one made me cry... it just hasn't held up the same way for me. Runners-Up: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid/The World According to Garp

1983: WarGames. I watch this movie every time it is on. It is silly, but I like it. Runners-Up: Trading Places/Monty Python's Meaning of Life

1984: Beverly Hills Cop. A great action/comedy, and a movie that balances those two aspects well. Runners-Up: Ghostbusters/Revenge of the Nerds

1985: Silverado. Until I tried putting together this list, I never realized how many movies I loved were made in 1985. I am sort of surprised that Silverado ended up at the top of this year for me, but through the "what would you rather watch?" game, it prevailed. Runners-Up: Remo Williams/Better Off Dead

1986: Night of the Creeps. I'm not going to defend it at length. It is just good, writhing fun, what can I say? Runners-Up: Tampopo/Ruthless People

1987: Raising Arizona. A Coen Brothers comedic farce over a balls-to-the-wall, tricked out action satire? This was the closest year for two movies to take #1 for me... the margin was hair thin. Runners-Up: Robocop/Princess Bride

1988: Die Hard. John McClane kicks serious ass while getting chewed up by the rigors of an action movie. Talk about a legend. Runners-Up: Comic Book Confidential/Bloodsport

1989: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. After seeing this again recently, the elements of the plot hold together really well, especially for a time travel movie, and the two leads are still likable. Runners-Up: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade/Uncle Buck

1990: Quick Change. I think this is one of the most underrated movies ever made. Snake Plissken had an easier time escaping from New York than these three hapless bank robbers. Runners-Up: GoodFellas/Robocop II

1991: Silence of the Lambs. Even though Anthony Hopkins does ham it up a bit, I've always felt that this movie was a great atmospheric thriller. Runners-Up: Terminator II/Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

1992: Wayne's World. It is a goofy movie that realizes it is such and plays to those strengths with a wink. Runners-Up: My Cousin Vinnie/Manufacturing Consent

1993: Gettysburg. An epic battle deserves an epic movie. It was perhaps Jeff Daniels' finest role to date. Runners-Up: The Sandlot/Last Action Hero

1994: Pulp Fiction. I went with the easy choice... Sam Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames. I can't deny their combined star power in this movie. Runners-Up: The Paper/True Lies

1995: Babe. It makes me weep more every time I see it. Runners-Up: Goldeneye/Die Hard with a Vengeance

1996: The Long Kiss Goodnight. I wrote about this movie as one of my first Remembering columns, and I still think it is one of the hippest and most quotable little action movies to come out in the past couple of decades. Runners-Up: Matilda/The People Vs. Larry Flynt

1997: L.A. Confidential. A taut cop procedural with corruption, Hollywood vice and an all-star cast. What is not to like? Runners-Up: Starship Troopers/The Fifth Element

1998: The Big Lebowski. Was there any doubt that this would be my choice for 1998? Runners-Up: Ronin/Babe:Pig in the City

1999: Fight Club. I still laugh every time I see this movie when I picture Janeane Garofalo playing Marla Singer. A great big swig of Fincher style. Runners-Up: Galaxy Quest/Payback

2000: O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Good Actors. Check. Good writing. Check. An Allusion to another work of myth/fiction that I love. Double Check. Runners-Up: The Whole Nine Yards/Snatch

2001: Ocean's Eleven. I like a good con, or a good scheme, and what plays out in this Steven Soderburgh remake is exactly what I am talking about. Runners-Up: Series 7: The Contenders/Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back

2002: An Evening with Kevin Smith. While not a theatrical release, I still count it as a documentary, and it was one of the most entertaining and informative things I saw that year. Runners-Up: The Bourne Identity/XXX

2003: Kill Bill Vol. 1. I like Spaghetti Westerns, I like Kung Fu/Samurai movies, and I love revenge... so this one is a given. Runners-Up: The Corporation/Old School

2004: Kill Bill Vol. 2. See above. Runners-Up: Shaun of the Dead/Anchorman

2005: Sin City. Stylish, ultra-violent and just really good at what it does, this movie has stuck with me since I saw it. Runners-Up: Kung Fu Hustle/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2006: Casino Royale. I have been a James Bond fan since I was a kid (I was a Moore man), and this movie made me forget about the gimmicks and the half-hearted humor of those earlier films and see the character anew. To erase a 40 year legacy in one film and rebuild it just as quickly is something truly noteworthy. Runners-Up: Lucky Number Slevin/Cocaine Cowboys

2007: Hot Fuzz. A spoof and true homage to the entire police procedural/cop action movie ever made. I love what Pegg and Wright do, and I look forward to the last part of their Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. Runners-Up: Shoot Em Up/No Country for Old Men

Now, I haven't seen enough movies from 2008 to actually make a choice at this moment, which I think is the best option at the moment.

So, let the mocking begin. And feel free to try this little exercise yourself.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Remembering Cocaine Cowboys

I saw Cocaine Cowboys about a year ago on The Documentary Channel, and it made quite an impression on me, and recently I had another chance to see it, and I thought it was worth discussing.

The documentary, directed by Billy Corben, discusses the Cocaine trade in Miami in the late 1970's and first half of the 1980's through a series of interviews, focusing primarily on the exploits of Jon Roberts, a former Mafia associate and Mickey Munday, a drug smuggler/pilot, who together trafficked and wholesaled billions of dollars worth of Columbian cocaine into South Florida. Soon, new players are introduced, like Rivi Ayala, a former Chicago car thief who became a hitman for one of the most powerful people in the Medellin cartel's American operations, Griselda Blanco, who was known as the Godmother, a woman who escalated the level of violence of the drug trade in South Florida and started a war on the streets of Miami. Ultimately, it was level of violence which ultimately led to a massive crackdown on the drug trade in the region.

The strange thing for me is after watching this documentary, Scarface or Grand Theft Auto: Vice City doesn't seem as outlandish or extravagant compared with the reality of how violent the drug trade was in those days, or how profligate the spending of its kingpins were. I am sort of surprised that an enterprising DVD wholesaler hasn't put the two movies together in one package truth be told.

But one of the fascinating aspects that was revealed throughout the documentary was the fact that there was so much drug money floating around the city (in the billions) it became instrumental in helping develop the formerly sleepy resort community into a thriving modern metropolis, as all the money that trickled down into the economy from the purchase of luxury items and cars and the billions of dollars socked away in the areas banks, as well as the development of property as a laundering technique all had their effect on building the infrastructure of the city and helping the region become a center of trade and industry beyond the drug and tourist trade.

Now the narrative is the reason to watch this documentary to be sure, but the presentation is excellent as well. It is tightly edited, and features a score by Jan Hammer of Miami Vice fame. It is documentary of both style and substance.

I learned recently that at the end of this month, Corben is releasing a sequel to Cocaine Cowboys entitled Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin' with the Godmother, which deals with the crack cocaine business in Oakland in the early 1990's, and since there are elements which are related to the first movie, I am very interested in seeing it as well.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Take your Rails application offline with the Gears on Rails project

By Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

Using iTunes?

Michael Marcus and Rui Ma, two recent graduates from a masters program at NYU, join us to discuss Gears on Rails, their open source framework that makes it easier than ever to take a Rails code-base offline.

We start out discussing the genesis of the project and what it is trying to do. The sweet spot is building a Rails application that can handle local interactions without having to drop down to Gears JavaScript APIs themselves.

First you install the Gears on Rails plugin via:

ruby script /plugin install http://gearsonrails.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/acts_as_local

Then you can create a Rails controller and tell it that it is local via acts_as_local :except=>['hello'].

Now you can create an action in the controller by creating a method that uses an API that looks Rails-like:

def create_local
 '
   post = Post.build(params("post"));
   Post.create_local(post);
   window.location.reload( false );
 '
end

In that string, the framework is actually building on Jester, a "JavaScript client for REST APIs that uses Rails conventions". Rui explained how they built out the local versions of the calls.

This means that your architecture revolves around REST calls, and when you are offline they all occur on local data that can sync up later. The synchronization is done for you automatically.

Thanks to Michael and Rui for taking the time to discuss their project with us, and thank you for reading.

Listen to the audio interview directly (or subscribe via iTunes).

5 Signs you Own Too Many Games

A few weeks back, Lee from Quit your Day Job posted an entry called the Top five signs that your DVD Collecting is Getting Out of Hand, and during the course of discussing his list, well, I discussed my video game collection, and in doing so, a post concept was born... err, ripped off rather.

1. If you calculate in the time it will take to finish all those games, you realize that do at least one of the following: a) complete the in class hours for a 4 year bachelor's degree b) complete the writing of novel of 350-550 pages long based on an average writing speed of at least 150 words per hour c) watch 500 of the greatest movies ever made and still have time to watch the entire run of multiple tv series. Despite this, you still nonetheless want to see them through.

2. You own more games than you do movies(in any format). Yes, I own far more games for the various systems I have than I do movies on DVD and VHS cassette.

3. You have not only bought multiple copies of a game including buying additional copies as part of a set or getting a collector's/special edition of a game, but you have at least one instance of unintentionally buying a game that you already own.

4. You now find that you can identify many of the voice actors by name in any game you play now, but you have actually gotten interested in a game because a particular voice actor or actress was in it. I've bought games because Jennifer Hale and Jim Ward were in them.

5. You own more games for a system than the places you buy games from do. I own more PS2 games than Blockbuster, Walmart (I am as surprised as anyone) and 7 other places that sell such titles.

Yes, I am guilty of them all... is there anything you think I missed?