Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Disney movie extravaganza

In the last week, we have watched three Disney movies: two new releases and one a year or so old. By coincidence, in Slate today, Emily Bazelon decides to rail against the inadequacy of ratings for kids movies. She was reacting to a non-Disney movie, Tales of Despereaux, and pointed to a ratings site -- Kids-In-Mind -- that I have written about before. Her point is that a G-rating doesn't necessarily give parents all the information they need and they need to look beyond to fully pre-screen a movie to see if kids will be OK. All true but I must admit the experience of the past week has led me to wonder if 'protection' is really enough.

I'll explain that in a minute but let me first review this week's offerings. First up was Bedtime Stories that we saw on Christmas Day (part of a family tradition of seeing movies that day). This is basically a fairly standard Adam Sandler comedy that happens to be a Disney-kids flick. By standard I mean, Adam Sandler is a flawed but life-losing character who then meets someone (kids + girl), engages in heartbreaking conflict, develops an understanding of the way the world works, blocks the even more flawed but more life-successful bad guys, and lives happily ever after, content with the simple life. By Disney-kids, add a seemingly magical run of coincidences that are related to kid's bedtime stories and some computer generated animation. All in all, the movie worked. It was as funny as any Adam Sandler comedy but also funny to the kids as well. My son, who is my barometer for kid-funny, cacked himself throughout the movie while my youngest daughter, my barometer for plot coherence, kept up her usual running commentary of understanding. The movie also used foreboding in a good way -- how will those stories play out in the real world. Not something you see everyday. As Sandler's character thought there was magic in the air, it was he who had to deal with the nexus between fiction and reality.

Let's jump a week to New Years Day, today, when I took the kids to see Bolt. Bolt is a dog-star who doesn't realise life isn't a movie and he doesn't have super-powers. So he is delusional but less so the Buzz Lightyear and what is more, when thrust into the real world, he realises it pretty quickly; certainly more so than Buzz but with a similar existential angst. Because we adults had seen delusion before the movie was no Toy Story but the opening sequence, in particular, left my son in hysterics (those bad guys were cleverly goofy) but my youngest daughter with her head buried in my chest so there was a mixed reaction there. But the movie sustained itself even if the 4 year old was a tad scared. Again, the primary issue was the main character dealing with real vs fiction and their role in life.

One night, we watched with our eldest two kids, Bridge to Terabithia. This movie is based on a book about friendship between two kids who are both isolated from others for various reasons but share an imagination and build an imaginary world, Terabithia, to escape in. They have no delusions between reality versus fiction but others want them to be more grounded in reality. That conflict is brought to a head by a shocking event (I'll spare you in case you haven't seen it but if you want to know Emily Bazelon discussed it all here). Suffice it to say, the movie is a downer but on a classic level on a higher plane than other movies. But it is a movie aimed at kids -- maybe between 8 and 14 -- and is useful preparation for life's issues. It also has its entertaining moments. However, you could hardly describe it as light.

So how would one sort out which movie to see? All three movies are rated PG or below and so are deemed safe for kids. According to Kids-In-Mind, each rates 3 or 4 out of ten for violence. As I worry about that characteristic for safety more than others, they are all within acceptable parameters. But Bridge to Terabithia is the one I would agonise over on protection grounds more than the others. Why? Because it actually has hard substantive content. It is the most real and therefore, the most emotionally wrenching. Amazing. We talk so much of getting our kids into real art and literature but when confronted with a piece that gets them there, we hesitate.

This suggests to me that protection should be one criteria but should not hold a veto on our decisions. I am confident that we will face moments where we are grateful our kids saw Terabithia in ways in which I won't care about the others. It is disturbing and so you need time to deal with it but with that time, there is a good investment to be had.

But beyond a meaningful message, this week highlights to me the problem with rating systems and most reviews. Kids-In-Mind is useful input on the protection -- or cost -- side of taking kids to movies. But there is the benefit side too. I hardly know any reviewers (although I guess I and parent bloggers are an exception) where the reviewers attended movies with kids. How can you possibly give a kids movie 2, 3 or 5 stars without having seen it with a kid? We want to know whether it actually held attention, what type of kids it might scare, whether the plot was comprehendable to a child and, most critically, whether kids actually laughed. I can go to all manner of crappy kids movies but if my son sits besides me laughing all the way through, I just don't care. It is worth taking him and worth paying for the extra adult ticket to sit next to him. For a proper screen, we need a child whose eyes and ears to see the movie through.

Twitter

I read about Twitter all of the time as something that is worth doing and getting into. I signed up a few weeks ago and am not quite there on its usefulness -- I think it is scale issue. Anyhow, I managed today to put my twitter feed on this blog (you can see it in the sidebar). If you want to follow me on twitter, click here but I won't promise great insights or much volume.

The Final Scene that Still Leaves Me Scratching My Head

JD from Valley Dreaming is having a blogathon called Endings, which is conveniently located at the end of the year. It deals with film endings and individual the opinions of individual bloggers to them.

When I first saw Formula 51 (which I understand is also known as The 51st State overseas), the Samuel L. Jackson/Robert Carlyle/Emily Mortimer action vehicle, it didn't really appeal to me. I think I went into the movie expecting something different, and when it wasn't what I expected, I temporarily rejected it.

But since its release in 2002, I've grown to like the movie, probably based on my Samuel L. Jackson fandom. It has some good quotes, some good action sequences, and the plot, while a little daffy, gets the job done.

If you haven't seen the movie, Jackson plays Elmo McElroy, a pharmacologist who due to some bad judgment, ended up working for a crime syndicate. After many years of doing so, he decides he wants to be free and decides to take his newest creation, POS 51, a drug which looks to be the hot new thing when it reaches the streets, to an outside buyer in Liverpool. What happens from there you'll just have to check out, but I will say, Mr. Jackson wears a kilt throughout the

Now, I am not going to spoil the plot ending, as the scene that has me scratching my head is almost a throw away. It involves McElroy, now sporting an Afro and what I would describe as a full Scottish bedecking (Tweed suit top and a kilt) in front of a manor house and playing golf, sinking a putt and generally bewildering his companion.

It is at this point that we go off the rail and into something just surreal, for you see, all of a sudden, McElroy strips naked and walks bare ass back towards the manor house. Out of the blue. There is no build up to that moment (at least that I can remember).

If there was some reasoning in the movie for that moment, I could get behind it (no pun intended), but it just seems so random, that it messes up the rest of the movie for me now.

Maybe Samuel L. Jackson had a clause in his contract that at some point he would get to have a butt double for a movie and he exercised that clause (because if that was his real ass at 52ish, I have to get on his regiment, because I wish my ass looked that good now).

I mean, I can think of no narrative reason for that scene at all and as a final moment in the movie, well, I could have done without it.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Most popular posts of 2008

Following on from a tradition started last year, here are the most popular posts (by direct hits) on this blog from 2008 (well, from those actually written in 2008):
  1. Anakin Skywalker Lego Cake
  2. Parenting Superpowers
  3. Data Driven Parenting
  4. 2 Year Old Birthday Parties
  5. The Whole Grain Food Dilemma
The most popular posts regardless of year written also include:

I Have a New Friend

After Christmas, I was browsing Kijiji, and someone had a listing for someone looking for a friend... and I bit:



She is going to be a year old soon, and she needed a good home and as someone who loved a Golden Retriever for a very long time, it seemed like a good fit, and she seems to be adjusting well to the new regime as it were.

She was also the reason why I didn't blog yesterday, as I was teaching her a few more basic commands (she is getting the hang of lay down, stay and off to prevent jumping up).

So it may be a little slower around here at Culture Kills for another week or so as we get used to each other.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Sunday Night Video: Metal Knight Rider

Last night me and Semaj were discussing many things musically related on his Ustream channel, and we somehow went from Ennio Morricone to 1970's synths to the awesomeness of 1970's tv cop show theme music (including Australian variants) and how Mike Post wrecked television music in the 1980's with his cheesy compositions. In the midst of that conversation, I discovered the following video:



The Knight Rider Theme + Metal Guitar Licks = Damn Fine Work.

You should check out the cover artist's other work... but I warn you, The Duke of Hazzard wasn't his finest hour.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Is it a bad sign...

...when you feel the need to start drinking at 12 o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday? Part of me thinks it is, but I am not sure about the etiquette of such things.

Surprisingly, my typing doesn't seem to be affected as of yet. Perhaps that will changed as more alcohol enters my system.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Week 33: Pageant of the Transmundane

Well, it was Christmas this week, and generally, with so many people seeing their loved ones and the snow and the alcohol/turkey based lethargy, well, it is likely that at least a few of you had some transmundane moments, so I don't think I need to lead with a real world example this time out.

This week, we have yet another excellent entry from a demented mind, one which readers of this feature should rapidly becoming familiar with.

Mr. Canacorn is really on a tear in the world of transmundanity, and I think it is a safe bet that at some point in the future, he is going to pull in a Transmundanity Triple Crown for one of his blogs, as once again, Awesomeness for Awesome's Sake has won the prize this week.

As a fitting close for the Christmas season, Mr. Canacorn found a warped vision of A Charlie Brown Christmas featuring porn star Belladonna and Michael Rosenbaum, an actor whose main claim to fame is playing young Lex Luthor on Smallville. It is so friggin' funny and grindhouse it hurts.

And since the winning entry this time out is related to Charlie Brown and Christmas, I thought this frame from ironically enough, The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror IV" was the most fitting image for the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award. I almost went with another image from the most recent Treehouse of Horror episode, but I



Congrats Mr. Canacorn. And may I suggest the names Callahan, Martin (come on, that would be a great in-joke), McCall (from the Equalizer), Tuco or Napoleon (from both history and Assault on Precinct 13, not Dynamite) for your upcoming new arrival.



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.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Parentocomic: Dinner Time


I have done some of these before. Here is a new one.

2008 Year in Review



Before looking back on this past year, we'd like to thank the developer community for your involvement and enthusiasm in 2008. Without you none of our accomplishments would've been possible and coming to work would not have been nearly as rewarding or exciting.



In 2008 the developer team at Google made it significantly easier for developers to build increasingly sophisticated web apps. Looking back, some of the most notable events from the last year include the App Engine launch, GWT 1.5 launch, Chrome launch, AJAX Language API launch, AJAX Libraries API launch and the broad adoption of OpenSocial.

We also worked hard to make it simple to integrate and extend Google applications through the launch of the You Tube API, Visualization API, Maps for Flash API, Finance API and Custom Search API.

We were also really happy to participate in the Open Handset Alliance where we saw the announcement of the Android Developer Challenge winners, the Android 1.0 SDK launch, and the first app downloads in the Android Market.

Our favorite part of 2008, however, was interacting with you at Google I/O and at Developer Days. These events allowed us to meet inspirational developers in 15 countries around the world who are building fantastic applications.

In 2009, we look forward to building products to make the web better and that let you, the developer community, build better apps on the web. We are already excited about seeing you at events next year.


Happy Holidays from the Google Developer Team.

Red Dwarf: Maybe it is time for a Reboot?

Last week, I just happened to be going through my stacks of video tapes, and I happened to rediscover my collection of earlier Red Dwarf seasons, and it made me think that perhaps the series needed an American reboot. And with a suggestion from Alan of Burbanked that I remake him a movie or television show for his blog birthday, it seems I do indeed have something to write about this week.

That's right. Mr. "I Hate Remakes" is proposing that a beloved television series of my youth be remade.



If you are unfamiliar with this series, the starting premise is as follows: Dave Lister, an ultra-slobby technician on the mining ship Red Dwarf, refused to give up a cat he picked up while on leave, and as punishment, he was ordered into stasis for the remaining 18 months of the mission. Unfortunately, during his time in stasis, a massive radiation leak killed every member of the crew and when Holly, the ship's computer, finally let Lister out of stasis, he discovered that he had been in stasis for 3 million years while the background radiation returned to a safe level. And since the leak, the ship has been moving away from Earth as well. Aside from Holly, who has gone a little barmy, Lister is also joined by the hologram of his weaselly former bunk mate Arnold Rimmer and a humanoid creature that evolved from his cat that has a penchant for fine suits and the mannerisms of James Brown. Together, they encounter strange phenomenon and face down the dual-edged blade of boredom and loneliness.

True, American networks tried in 1992 to bring the show across the pond with a couple of pilots which featured Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigeman as Rimmer and Jane Leeves as Holly, along with Terry Farrell as the Cat in one of the pilots. I think that was the wrong time to do it, and ultimately, the fact that it didn't get picked up helped both Deep Space Nine and Frasier.

I think in the wake of the success of The Office and Life on Mars in their American incarnations, along with the remake of Battlestar Galactica, I think the time may indeed be right for an American version of this show to get off the ground.

I liked the humor of the original, but what really grabbed me were the concepts that were explored in individual episodes. There were a lot of interesting ideas featured on the series many of which received much fuller exploration in the Red Dwarf novels. So, if RD is redone for American audiences, I would hope that like Ugly Betty, it is an hour-long comedic show so the ideas behind individual episodes could get a more thorough working over.

And with advances in digital and practical effects over the past 20 years, the stories that Red Dwarf explored could be presented a little more realistically and some of the logistical problems with the series (like Hologram Rimmer interacting with objects) become far more workable.

As long as the people involved are respectful of the work Rob Grant and Doug Naylor did in getting a Slam poet(Craig Charles/Lister), a voiceover actor(Chris Barrie/Rimmer), a professional dancer(Danny John-Jules/The Cat), a standup comedian(Norman Lovett/Holly) and a professional singer(Clare Grogan of Altered Image as the original Kristine Kochanski) to work exceedingly well together, I'd be more than happy to see Red Dwarf return to the airwaves on American television (meaning it didn't turn into what McG wanted to do to Spaced).

I think an American Red Dwarf is due. I mean, just in October, Io9 was lamenting that there was a dearth of Scifi Sitcoms as of late, and as a concept, Red Dwarf could turn into one of those series that brings the rest of the American viewing public to the width and breadth of what Science fiction has to offer.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Turbulent activities

You know I have always wondered how I might react when flying with kids and the plane hit serious turbulence. Well today on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Sydney I got a chance to find out.

It appears we hit an unexpected storm. Why it was unexpected I do not know. But we were buffeted during the morning tea service. The plane appeared to be blasted and went into what I swear was a downward dive. It was more than enough to send everyone back to seats except people on the bathroom who were told (and I am not making this up) to stay put and hang on. I guess the theory was if they had to go they might as well have convenience.

Anyhow the kids started to look concerned and I wondered what to do to take their minds off it all. Then I remembered a scene from Madagascar 2 last week. When the plane was crashing in that movie the lemurs put their hand in the air and said "it is more fun if you do it like this." So I did the same and the kids joined in.

Suffice it to say there were more dips to come and each one the kids treated like a roller coaster. It was both surreal and amusing at the same time. It also got us some strange looks from the other passengers. I guess though it was a distraction to them.

Now as I am writing this you have probably guessed we survived the experience although I did wonder what it would be like to update my Facebook status while all this was happening. Then again turning on my phone during a crisis is probably not a good idea. The flight staff seemed pretty freaked out when we saw them again so I guess they were pretty occupied during it all.

Alas the kids were quite sick by the end of it and had their paper bags at the ready during the landing and afterwards. There is only so much you can do in this situation but pretending it is a roller coaster will at least take the edge off.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

My Birthday: Guess I am Not Having a Party

I turn 32 today, and since it is also technically Sunday, I guess I need a Sunday Night Video... and given my love of the comedic work of Patton Oswalt, I thought that this was very fitting. (And alas, I can no longer embed the Tim Bisley/Spaced birthday video)



Just 8 more birthdays until I can have another party, so I can save some paper and cake. Woot! (because no one said anything about the copious consumption of alcoholic beverages, did they?)

Friday, December 19, 2008

Week 32: Pageant of the Transmundane

I read a story about a man who stole a minifridge full of urine samples from a probation office to avoid a drug charge. That is pretty transmundane. Did I find something equally weird for the penultimate Pageant of the Transmundane of 2008? You'll soon see.

This week's winning entry comes from a blog called Hello Kitty Hell, which describes one man's personal battle with Hello Kitty. I have an female friend that is really into Hello Kitty so I can only begin to fathom his pain.

Anyway, someone sent the proprietor of the site a link to something simply horrifying. It is something that will likely scar generations of children: a Hello Kitty Maternity Ward.

And because this week's winner has to do with Hello Kitty, I thought I would bring back this old favorite for this week's Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award, which ironically enough, is also from Hello Kitty Hell.



Congrats to the long-suffering Hello Kitty Husband... your suffering is not in vain.



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.

Friday Favorite: Remembering The Snowman

Since it is the Christmas season, I thought I would fondly look back at an entry I wrote in December 2006 where I fondly looked back on a Christmas special I saw as a child.

--
When I was a child, there was always the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman to entertain and delight me with holiday entertainment on television. However, it wasn't until my early teens that I saw a short animated film that brought something new to the genre to me.

That movie was The Snowman. Nominated for an Oscar in 1983, the movie tells the story of a boy and the snowman he created on Christmas Eve that comes to life at midnight and the explorations they share both in rural/suburban England of the boy and the world of the snowmen and the far north and after I had seen it, I was never the same person. Based on the children's book by Raymond Briggs, and introduced by him in some editions of the film(in others it is David Bowie).

If you've seen it, you know what I am talking about, and if you haven't, well, let's just say that for a Christmas presentation, it ends on a rather dark note, which is rare for an animated film for this season. It breaks my heart just thinking about it. But it is because of this quality that I am recommending it today.

It tells its story without words, and a single hauntingly memorable song, and that's all it needs. It is a fuzzy world given mirth and emotion by action, perspective and expression alone, and its unique look also makes it easy on the eyes.

If you've never seen this movie, and you notice it is on cable or television, you should give it a look. It will touch your heart without giving you a cavity.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Help Me Help Myself

Please someone, for the love of all that is holy, stop me from joining Twitter.

I've held off joining for so long, and while I was tempted in the past, I was able to resist those urges. However, my resolve seems to be wearing down, and I fear that I may succumb and join the site, which I foresee having dire consequences on my normal blogging output which, let's face it, hasn't been stellar for quite a while.

You have to remember that I held off buying a PS2 for the longest time... and then when the dam burst, I ended up going totally mental. I don't want that to happen again, but I know that if I join Twitter it very well could. It might not, but it could, so I have to think in worst case scenario terms here.

So I need to hear some Twitter horror stories... what I really need is a support group or something, but some really obsessive, fail whalin' stories should probably get me to not join this weekend at least.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Scrubs Christmas

I saw this last year, and I thought it was funny, and since it is the Christmas season once more, I thought I would share it with y'all.



You know I love the mashups, and in this case, this custom-made work of humor featuring the entire cast of Scrubs with A Charlie Brown Christmas as its visual component sets a high standard for other works of this type. And with Scrubs coming back with new episodes in the new year, it seems even more timely.

Not your Grandma's auction

From The Daily Telegraph: [HT: MR]

THE family fracas over who gets the best seat in the house this Christmas have finally been put an end, thanks to an enterprising nanna and a heavily contested online auction.

After years of petty arguments over who gets the prime position in front of the television, West Yorkshire grandmother Bev Stewart was so sick of the Boxing Day sibling squabbles and infighting among her 25 family members, that she auctioned the front-row seat on eBay.

She claimed on the ebay advert that the prime position in her Stockbridge home was “a very comfy and popular item” before opening the auction to all members of her fractious family.

Nanna Stewart gained a little solace from the usual musical chairs arguments last year because she “had a heavily pregnant daughter and daughter-in-law who both gave birth in January, so they got the seat most of the time.”

However, this year the coveted couch has been up for grabs – and much of the family has been bickering over who will take centre stage.

Making the already valuable piece of lounge room real estate even more attractive for the big auction, Nanna Stewart said she would even throw in a few cushions to the winner bidder.

Nanna Stewart’s daughter-in-law Alexis won the auction with her £13.50, outbidding the 17 other family rivals. Alexis is likely to share the coveted couch with her 11-month-old son Mark for the whole day the Boxing Day.

Nanna Stewart said: "There is always arguing over who gets it, it's the perfect seat. It is straight in front of the TV and has got the coffee table at the side for you to rest your drink on and the TV remote, so everybody wants to sit there.”

Brilliant. I will have to try this at home. That said, eBay seems like overkill. Surely, a quick auction while the TV remained off would do. Also, one wonders whether this price might be enough for Nanna to consider reconfiguring her lounge room to earn more revenue.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I can't believe they made this a Collector's Edition

I was at a video store, picking up a gift for someone when I noticed a particular package behind the counter, one which I thought was worth noting on this blog.



Yes, there is an I Am Legend Ultimate Collector's Set. I could maybe see something like this coming out in a few more years, like maybe in 2017 for a 10th anniversary set... but it has been, what, a year and change since the movie came out? Who was clamoring for this much content about the movie so soon?

Maybe I missed something... perhaps the movie has a huge cult following that I was unaware of. After all, while I do consider myself a pop culture guru on some levels (thus, the whole pop culture blogging thing), I don't always have my finger on the pulse of everything that is going on.

But the thing that sort of makes me doubt this is I haven't even seen even the smallest undercurrent in the blogging village about the movie having that huge of a following. I know it made a quarter billion dollars at the box office, but man, does anyone really really want one of those things?

And there are reports that a prequel to I Am Legend is in the works for 2011, so perhaps I could understand this set coming out for Christmas 2010, but now? Really?

I would just love to see the sales figures for this set by early January, because I have a feeling that it won't sell particularly well.

App Engine's System Status Dashboard



We recently announced a System Status Dashboard for Google App Engine. As developers depend on App Engine for important applications, we wanted to provide more visibility into App Engine's availability and performance.

Application development today is pretty different than it was just a few years ago. Most web apps now make use of hosted third-party services for features like search, maps, video, or translation (e.g., our AJAX APIs). These services mean developers don't have to invest in massive computing resources to build these features themselves, and can instead focus on what is exciting and new about their apps.

Building in dependencies to third-party services or moving to a new hosting infrastructure is not something developers take lightly. This new App Engine dashboard provides some of the same monitoring data that we use internally, so you can make informed decisions about your hosting infrastructure.

Learn more (about this and other recent announcements) in the App Engine blog and please let us know what you think.

Monday, December 15, 2008

A few thoughts on 24

In preparation for the upcoming season premiere of 24, Starpulse has put together a list entitled 24 Badass Moments of 24, which only features one moment from the disastrous sixth season. I have forgotten some of those moments, but in perusing the list, it reminded me of just how violent a show 24 actually is. I mean, R-movie violent... granted it is spread out over a longer period of time (roughly 108 hours), so it doesn't seem so gruesome.

But I have to say that while I was initially dubious of the prospects of the 24 movie and the reduction of the regular season to just 22 episodes, but now I am ok with it, especially since the movie was sort of badass in and of itself, and helped introduce the principle characters for the upcoming season, and revealed a situation which I think is interesting.

Arguably, the best seasons of 24 have been the ones that ended up being plots where the acts of terrorism, both attempted and perpetrated, were part of a larger goal rather than the means of causing America grievous harm in terms of deaths, injuries and property damage. I am talking about those seasons when, despite the agents involved, the problem truly had American origins and backing, like Season 2's nuclear threat, carried out by Muslim extremists, turning out to be in fact a plot by a number of American oil companies to force the United States into a war with an unnamed Middle Eastern country. From both the movie and the previews, it looks as if this year's season will again be drawing water from that well.

So now I am really looking forward to seeing what surprises the 24 writers have in store for the viewers this year... especially given an extra year to prepare.

*getting ready for the inevitable and crushing disappointment*

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sunday Night Video: Front Fell Off

I don't know the name of the sketch comedy troupe that made this sketch, but it does have a classic Monty Python feel to it.



It almost feels like something John Cleese and Terry Jones or Eric Idle would work on together.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Holiday cross-over

Lemony Snicket's, The Latke who couldn't stop streaming: A Christmas Story is one of the best cross-over holiday books ever. Actually, it is the best. Lemony Snicket's writing is 'read-out-load' friendly even the big words. I learnt a new one "arrondissement" but you will have to read the book to find out what it means.

The story is about a latke (which here means potato pancake) who, thanks to having been boiled in oil (symbolic or otherwise), runs around the neighbourhood screaming at Christmas decorations looking for the source of its existential angst. Children really get into the story but it also hits upon every single inadequacy that is part of the whole Hanukah thing. It was hilarious but also a great story at the same time. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Why Madagascar?

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a great movie but you really need to have seen the original. For starters, less than 60 seconds of the movie takes place in Madagascar although admittedly, it is a crucial plot piece. But the character development all took place in Madagascar and this movie is just gravy.

As everyone knows, this franchise's appeal rests with the minor characters -- mainly penguins and lemurs, although the moneys do feature. The major characters are there to keep a main plot-line going so we can enjoy the antics of the minor ones. And they do not disappoint in this movie. The penguins are as efficient as ever while the lemurs carry with them the untamed masses. No one is looking at their watch during this movie.

So I would rate it highly this holidays on the "volunteer to take your kids' friends to the movies so that they have to reciprocate by taking them to something less adult friendly." Get there first now.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Week 31: Pageant of the Transmundane

It has been a week of political scandal and profanity, and one which I thought was capped off quite well in terms of Transmundanity by a surprise appearance by Hall and Oates on the Daily Show. Let's see what I came up for the web equivalent of that real world oddity.

This week's winner comes from a blog which seems to be, based on my keen deductive sense, a collection of the sort of things that people forward each other through email. After all, the site I found it on was called Dee's Inbox.

The entry that caught my attention this week was simply entitled Why I was Fired, which has an odd little picture that is vaguely alcohol related... but it is definitely safe for work however, that much I can assure you.

And since this week's Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award has to do with alcohol, well, Homer celebrating beer seemed to be a fitting tribute to this accomplishment.



Congratulations Dee... this 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.

A fable?

From Tim Harford responding to the question of how to explain the credit crunch to a 5 year old:

Once upon a time, there was a blameless girl called Consumerella, who didn’t have enough money to buy all the lovely things she wanted. She went to her Fairy Godmother, who called a man called Rumpelstiltskin who lived on Wall Street and claimed to be able to spin straw into gold. Rumpelstiltskin sent the Fairy Godmother the recipe for this magic spell. It was written in tiny, tiny writing, so she did not read it but hoped the Sorcerers’ Exchange Commission had checked it.

The Fairy Godmother carried away armfuls of glistening straw-derivative at a bargain price. Emboldened by the deal, she lent Consumerella – who had a big party to go to – 125 per cent of the money she needed. Consumerella bought a bling-bedizened gown, a palace and a Mercedes – and spent the rest on champagne. The first payment was due at midnight.

At midnight, Consumerella missed the first payment on her loan. (The result of overindulgence, although some blamed the pronouncements of the Toastmaster, a man called Peston.) Consumerella’s credit rating turned into a pumpkin and Rumpelstiltskin’s spell was broken. He and the Fairy Godmother discovered that their vaults were not full of gold, but ordinary straw.

All seemed lost until Santa Claus and his helpers, men with implausible fairy-tale names such as Darling and Bernanke, began handing out presents. It was only in January that Consumerella’s credit card statement arrived and she discovered that Santa Claus had paid for the gifts by taking out a loan in her name. They all lived miserably ever after. The End.

I think he has glossed it over!

Friday Favorites: Do Video Game-based Movies have to be Terrible?

Since I've been disclosing my little problem when it comes to being a gaming shopoholic, I thought I would finish up the week with another gaming-related article from August of 2006. The title says it all really.

But because this was written in 2006, there are aspects which now contain factual errors, but I thought in general it was a solid entry all around.

--
With so much bad press coming gaming's way due to congressional attention, Jack Thompson and parent's groups, I began thinking about other problems facing the public perception of video games, and one factor that came to mind was how bad video game-based movies are and why they are as a subgenre lacking, and I came to a few conclusions. See, I think that these kinds of movies encounter a few basic problems:

1) The people who make decisions on what properties to develop make choices based on popularity and not screen potential.. Just because a game is popular doesn't mean it is going to make for a compelling film, as the makers of Super Mario Brothers and Double Dragon can attest to. Of course, many early game-based films can be forgiven for some of their faults because the source material was rather lacking.

2) The producers don't spend the money or the time on the story. In the cases where the story of the game really had potential to dazzle and entertain an audience like Wing Commander, the people responsible for the project tend to really put the story elements on the back burner, and that again leads to a bad movie.

3) The Final Fantasy effect. If the game movie being developed is from source material that is really intricate or complex, well, naturally the filmmakers won't be able to include 1/10th of the storyline and what you end up with is something that is a little superficial and shallow or in short, a pale imitation of the original.

4) Making the assumption that your core audience is gamers. From what I've read, the people who love the games behind these movies are generally hostile to the end product of the Hollywood system. There are movies that did become somewhat successful based on the general movie-going public like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil which both actually reached profitability. Success should be planned on by making a movie that people who have never played the game would want to see. Simple as that.

Now of course, if I ran Hollywood, I would probably give producers and other people developing these movies these simple rules.

1) Choose games that are plot-driven, but not extremely long.
2) Ban Uwe Boll from getting near another game-based movie.
3) Cast your movies well.
4) Spend the money on getting a good script before going further.
5) Make sure people outside of the gaming demographic would want to see it too.

I mean, those do sound like some simple rules to follow, do they not.

Of course, I have a few ideas for what would probably be good movies in the right hands.

Red Dead Revolver: You knew I had to have something from Rockstar on my list, but this probably wasn't the title you were thinking I would pick, but it does have a lot of things going for it. The basis of the game is a story of revenge in the Old West, and because each level was almost like a set piece, with a little clean-up, you'd have the a solid narrative arc. And since there are so many interesting side characters in the game, like Annie Stokes and Jack Swift, it also has some interesting character dynamics. And if the filmmakers also secured the rights to the excellent Ennio Morricone soundtrack, I think this could turn a few heads.

God of War
: This is the game-based movie Vin Diesel should be doing rather than Hitman, because there are very few other actors I could see taking on the role of Kratos. You have a story based around an anti-hero who wants to forget and be forgiven for all the lives he has taken, so he takes on one last quest at the behest of the Gods. It is a bloody, brutal quest, but one which has some meat to it.

And digging way way back into the archives:

I remember playing this game back in the early 1990's called The President in Missing where you are an analyst for the CIA investigating the disappearance of the President of the United States along other European heads of state by digging through source materials and recordings to try to solve the mystery... and as you dug deeper there were some really fascinating twists and turns that would be pure cinema gold.

Now you will notice that while I have professed a deep love for the Grand Theft Auto series, I have not chosen it as an ideal candidate for adaptation, despite its star power and great narrative. And that is because of problem three I mentioned above. As with adapting a Final Fantasy or other long role-playing game, Grand Theft Auto would lose a lot of its loveable character if shoehorned into a two hour movie. However, if say HBO or Showtime decided to make a gritty animated series out of the games, that would probably work out quite well.

So in conclusion, I think the day will come when a video game-based movie will be critically acclaimed and reflect well on the source material. In the meantime however, I am sort of afraid to see what movies like Pacman, Crazy Taxi and Postal are going to do to viewing audiences all over the world when they escape... err, are released.

Happy holidays from Google Code!

Matt Hansen

At Google Code, we are getting into the holiday spirit early. To thank open source developers for their support, I'm happy to announce that we are giving every project on Google Code a whole lot more quota!

We're increasing the maximum file sizes from 20MB to 40MB, Subversion quotas from 100MB to 1GB, and download quotas from 100MB to 2GB.
Happy holidays!

P.S. If you need more space, let us know!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Google Web Toolkit out in the wild



Since Google Web Toolkit (GWT) launched, there have been many rich, robust Ajax applications which developers have told us they wouldn't have been able to build without GWT. We're thrilled to hear that GWT has increased productivity for developers and helped them to improve performance of their AJAX apps. On that note, we'd like to introduce you to 4 developers across a diverse range of web apps -- all of which were built with GWT. Whether you're new to GWT or not, these developers share some great insight into how they used GWT, what they like and would like to see from GWT, and finally their own learnings from building with GWT.

These developer videos, as well as descriptions of other GWT-built apps, are available here: Who's Using GWT. And if you're interested in the latest on GWT, check out the Official Google Web Toolkit Blog.

*Viewing tip: While we've embedded the videos here, we highly recommend watching them directly on YouTube and choosing the "watch in HD" option.

GoGrid is a cloud computing infrastructure service provider which enables you to deploy and scale load-balanced cloud server networks via a multi-server control panel. GoGrid was recently named Best In Show at LinuxWorld 2008. "We wanted to build a thick client inside the browser... GWT is very powerful and has increased our productivity greatly... We're able to build a very complex, rich, UI application quickly and easily." - Justin Kitagawa, GoGrid



Lombardi Blueprint is a business process mapping and diagramming tool. "We don't have to worry about all the browser quirks that you fight with when you're writing in pure javascript. We just write in the language that we like to use and they take care of all the difficult bits for us." - Alex Moffat, Lombardi Blueprint



scenechronize is a production management web application for film, television and commercials. "We chose to use GWT because it allowed us to write in Java which opened up a wide range of tools available for Java-based apps.... Because GWT supports multiple browsers, we're able to write our app so it looks and works the same across 4 major browser types." - Rob Powers, Scenechronize



Whirled is a social virtual world website which includes multi-player games. "We used GWT to build the social networking website part of Whirled, and it's done a lot of the heavy lifting for us... Whirled is now about 60K lines of code just for the client. Being able to enforce the same kind of engineering discipline that we do everywhere else has been a huge help." - Michael Bayne, Whirled

Educational value

A group of students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have done a game theory project looking at the Parent's Dilemma in punishing children. Their analysis is available here. It is very insightful and interesting. I expect that got a high grade. What is good about it is that it does not presume that all parents are alike and demonstrates that some parents will have to favour different strategies depending on how much they hate (or I guess like me, enjoy) implementing punishments.

Strange blogging phenomenon

Something very strange happened to me today in the world of blogging.

Over the past few months, I've noticed that I've been having a harder and harder time sitting down and writing blog entries from start to finish, especially longer posts. It was like I lost my writing stamina. There are a lot of derelict posts sitting in draft form just waiting for a little more attention and polishing from me, though most will likely never get it.

Even when I look through my archives for posts for the Friday Favorites segment, I notice that most of them seem much shorter than I had remembered as well.

Anyway, with that interview request I had from the CBC last week, I wanted to make sure that the Pop Culture Supreme Court had enough verdicts for the taping, so I made a deal with Lee from Quit Your Day Job. He was in a bind as he is in the process of finalizing a deal to buy a house, so he needed some people to do some guest posting, and I wanted a simple verdict from a few alternate justices, so we traded services as it were, though knowing Lee, he likely would have done it without the offer, so it was totally kosher. He held up his end of the bargain, so today, I did my part... and that's when the strange thing happened.

Somehow I managed to crack out a 1400 word entry for him in about an hour and a half today.

To put that in perspective, that is about the same number of words I've written for my own blog since last Monday (the Friday Favorite post and the explanation of the Transmundanity Awards are excluded from that word count because those are previously written work). Yes, it was a slow couple of weeks, but almost matching 10 entries with one is pretty freaky.

I looked back and tried to find an entry of comparable length here, and the closest I found somewhat recently was my Top 10 South Park episodes entry... and I remember I worked on that over two days, so I am having trouble accepting the fact that it was suddenly so much easier today than it has been in a long time.

Quite frankly I am stunned, and I don't get it. How come it seems so hard to stay on task and actually finish entries here, but when asked to do one for someone else, it just seemed to materialize in a matter of minutes. That's just messed up.

Has anyone else found it was easier to guest post than to write something for your own blog, or is this something that is unique to me?

YouTube <3's Developers



There's been a small flurry of announcements lately about things the YouTube APIs team has done to make life easier for our developers, and we wanted to make sure you heard about them!

Backwards compatibility guidelines
Since we just launched V2 of the API, we also published some guidelines and best practices to help ensure that breaking changes aren't introduced into your app with new versions. Read more in our "Mandate For Change" post.

Test your apps against new builds
A week before new builds are pushed to production, they'll go up on stage.gdata.youtube.com. Subscribe to our announcement forum to get notified about new builds, and do regression testing by pointing your app at stage.gdata.youtube.com. Read more in our "All the World's a Stage" post.

Interactive query generator
We released a helpful tool to play with API requests in the browser so you can get a feel for the mechanics. Because we show you the raw request and responses, it's also an easy way to do some quick testing and debugging. Read the full announcement in our "Try Before You Buy" post.

YouTube App Gallery
To help get you get some exposure and to help new developers get some inspiration, we launched the gallery. Browse, comment, and rate projects as well as submit your own. Read the full announcement here.

We hope this helps both new and old YouTube developers alike. Let us know how it's going in the discussion forum.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Dikembe Mutombo Arm

Nothing I really need to add to this... just watch it



Podcast on Parentonomics

I did an interview on BNet Australia about Parentonomics. You can download the podcast here or alternatively can listen to it online here.

The first step is admitting you have a problem

I had put off purchasing a Playstation 2 for the longest time because I know that I sometimes have problems with impulse control and going crazy when it comes to buying games. And then I played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in Spring 2005, after that, well, I had to own it, and at that time, it was a PS2 exclusive.

So I bought a PS2 in May 2005. I thought that I had gotten to a point in my life where I could have a game system and not go overboard.

Skip ahead to this morning, and I am looking at something like this:



Which looks bad in the context I have presented it, but it is even worse than it seems. You see, that isn't a pile of all the games that I own for the PS2... that is just the games that I have acquired and have yet to play...

...because I have 100 more than what is in the picture... and there are more on their way to me because of Goozex (which may be one of the few saving graces in all this as I got quite a few of those games for virtually nothing rather than paying 2 to 25 dollars for 30 games).

I have a sickness. I mean, how did I allow this to happen? Back in January, I had a backlog of 12 games. That is a pile of over 90 games. I know I have them, and yet, I can't stop buying more. When I see a decent used game at the store, I feel compelled to buy it because if I miss it, I may never be able to get another copy of it at such a reasonable price again, because on average, I am paying about 7 dollars a title... which roughly translates to about 700 dollars spent on games this year on my part, which given the price of new next-gen games, doesn't seem like much, but for me, that is quite a bit of money.

And it wasn't like I was acquiring that pile of games in a vacuum. Conservatively, I probably played 30 games I had purchased within this past year which means that through trading and a bit of time spent at video stores and places like EB, I picked up 120 games in just over 11 months. To put that in perspective, I don't think I currently have 120 games for the Nintendo, the Super Nintendo, Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn combined. And if I add my Atari games into the mix, I still think I have more PS2 games now than my entire collection of other console games.

I wish I could say that I didn't have a history of this kind of consumer behavior. When I was younger, I have had phases where I bought lots of books (boxes and boxes of paperback science fiction/fantasy novels, new and used and then lots of reference books/textbooks etc), and lots of CDs, and I would always use that same rationale... if I didn't buy whatever that thing I was looking at when I saw it, I would never see it again, and if I wanted it, I would have to pay someone far more for it than if I just bought it now.

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to finding a solution, and in writing about this, I think I may have just taken that important step in the right direction... I've got to be strong and try to fight my urges to continue buying games that I have no hope of playing for quite some time. Because the console is slowly losing shelf space at retailers, my struggle may be aided by that fact, because I can't covet what I don't see after all. So perhaps my Pile of Shame will finally shrink over the next few months.


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Breakfast blues

Breakfast is a time-sensitive experience in our house as we try to get out by an early time. I missed the breakfast shift this morning but received the following email indicating that incentives had gone array:
The children were mucking about this morning during breakfast, singing to each other and chatting. I eventually told them that the only sound I want to hear is that of spoon against bowl and chewing. So you know what your daughter did? Started banging her spoon against her bowl and making exaggerated smacking noises with her mouth!
Emphasis, I believe, on the 'your.'

Increased code search coverage, now with Git and Mercurial support

Ali Pasha

At Google Code search, we've seen distributed version control systems get more popular. Linux has been using one for several years and several large open source projects have migrated to using one in the last few years. In recognition of that, we are now announcing that we crawl Git and Mercurial repositories.

For Git, we now crawl repositories hosted by several public git hosting sites including GitHub and repo.or.cz. In addition to that, we also crawl Android, Chromium and Linux code.
For Mercurial repositories, we now crawl most popular open source repositories including Mozilla, JDK, and NetBeans.
Finally, we have also extended coverage to support Codeplex: System.ServiceModel package:codeplex.com

Feel free to provide feedback to let us know how we're doing.