threemonkeys | Recent Entries

Just a note in passing, the final episode of Better off Ted has been shown. The last couple of episodes were held back after the show was canceled and have only now been screened. I really liked that show - there aren't enough quirky comedies out there. Now this is the time when you would expect a rant about stupid studio execs. But I can't work up the energy. They have a job to do and that doesn't match my personal needs. At least they gave this show a decent shot at proving itself in the rating battleground.

So I'm going to console myself with erotic images...

Why yes, I am watching Top Gear. What did you think...?

Just so you all know, the FFANZ delegates to Aussiecon 4 will be Stephen Litten and Jan Butterworth.

At this late stage, they won't have much involvement in the formal activities of Aussiecon, but they will be doing their best to meet as many fans as they can while they are there, so please make them welcome.

I had a button come off my trousers today. As I was reattaching it, I got to thinking about robust old technologies. The sort of thing that is so simple, so easy to use, so fit for purpose that no better solution can drive it out of use even though it has been around for ages. I'm thinking of things like the paper clip, the buckle, scissors or the pencil.

But I was wondering about the button. Is it that robust and fit for purpose. The use of buttons on shirts seems to continue, so perhaps it is. On the other hand, the damn things keep coming off and they aren't all that easy to use compared to a zipper. It was compounded today when I noticed that the button in question wasn't very well made. The insides of the holes were quite rough. Over time they had abraded the thread. Luckily I had a replacement.

I'd be interested to know what y'all consider the best piece of old robust technology there is out there.

I haven't been right into Wellington central for ages. So it was a big surprise today that after I had managed to get past all the other road works that there was a big hole where Manners Mall was. I knew it was going to happen but the enormity of all hit me today. I have so much anger right now.

Interesting timing with the local body elections not that far away. The problem is that I can't even vote against the bastards that thought this up.

Ah memories. Way back in my student days I lived in a flat with an engineer, an economist and an english student who worked part-time as a newspaper subeditor. It was a fun flat, probably the best of the ones I lived in over the years.

From time to time, the sub come home with a copy of the paper and ask about some technical aspect of an editing decision that had been made. The team of subbies weren't sure what was correct. The mistake count wasn't huge, but enough dumb mistakes were made to be disconcerting. The paper my flatmate worked for wasn't well regarded and shut down while she worked there. I'm pretty sure there wasn't any correlation between the editing mistakes and the shutdown.

This memory was bought to you today by the Stuff web site, this story about a company improving internet speeds and this disclaimer An earlier version of this story mentioned the device would improve speeds "more than 50 times" instead of "up to 50 per cent". Manawatu Standard apologises for the error.

I love this result, despite the really obvious nature of it: Research from Rice University’s Department of Psychology finds that if you like what you’re watching, you’re less likely to notice the difference in video quality of the TV show, Internet video or mobile movie clip. You could phrase this as, quality of content is more important than quality of presentation.

There is a temptation here to narrow this down and say that, for example in a movie, the quality of the characterisation and plot are more important than flashy special effects. That is true for many of us, but some people like flashy special effects more than the other stuff (yes really). What I think it really says is that the ongoing quest of hardware manufacturers to give higher definition and 3D is much less important than they would like us to think. But that could just be my personal wish for all the 3D hype to go away.

FFANZ Race voting is open - Help get a Kiwi to Aussiecon 4. It does seem to be last minute, but I'm told there are reasons for the delays.

( Voting form details below the cut )

I went to see Inception today. It got some good recommendations from folk I know but wasn't over hyped. But I left it a couple of weeks and then went to the morning screening mid-week. The hope - that there wouldn't be anybody else in the cinema to destroy viewing pleasure. Seeing a movie on the big screen with all the sound effects gear is certainly the best way to appreciate that film. But, as they say, people are a problem.

Even at a 10.45am screening on a Tuesday, there were a few people in there with me. They were rustling their chip packets, munching their popcorn, talking and checking their text messages - just what I was trying to avoid. It wasn't that bad really - they quietened down pretty quickly once the film started. There was just the smell of the popcorn "butter" left to waft around the place.

It may have been a mistake trying to save money and go there on $10 Tuesday. Perhaps going on the cheap day means putting up with more people. Interestingly, the ticket register wasn't offering the $10 Tuesday tickets for some reason today. So I (and presumably the others) got a different $10 deal - the one they give to police officers. It appears that members of the constabulary get into the movies at a discount. Perhaps the proprietors of the chain like the idea of attracting off duty police in case there is ever any trouble.

Off course it could just be some normal workplace deal. Most places I have worked at got some sort of discounts for their staff for shopping at particular businesses. On that theme, I was also interested to note that Automobile Association members get a $10 deal on Wednesdays. I'm a member of the AA. Perhaps, next time I plan to see a film I should go on Wednesdays. I wonder what sort of audience that will be.

Datacom group chief executive Michael Browne died of a heart attack this weekend. Shit - I used to work for this guy. I worked for Datacom for nearly 5 years and he was my boss^2 for most of that time. I even directly reported to him for a while. For a driven high-powered executive type he was a nice bloke. He had a nice family too - I feel sorry for them right now.

Thing is, he was very supportive of his staff and happy to help people progress their career. He encouraged me to take on more management type work. High power high pressure type work - the sort of thing he did. In the end, I shied away from that type of stress. Can't help feeling that it was the right way to go.

Time again to take a trip through the latest TV offerings that caught my eye. Some didn't keep it caught for very long. There seems to be a "fish out of water" or "strangers in a strange land" theme going on at the moment in some of the new shows. I guess the success of Lost, Eureka and Burn Notice has had an impact. You can see TV executives saying - "lets do a show like..." when you look at the new offerings. But then, there aren't that many ideas out there really, so it all comes down to execution, and that is where the good news lies.

Persons Unknown finds a bunch of strangers all thrown together in a small town that they can't escape from. They have been kidnapped and put there but they don't know why. Somewhere between Lost and The Prisoner. I've struggled with this one. The setup has been done well, but the character interactions just didn't do it for me.

Haven has an FBI agent taking a job in a small town sheriff's office to track down her long lost mother. All sorts of mysterious supernatural "troubles" happen in this small town which may or may not be related to the agent. It is rapidly becoming a very formula story but the lead characters are very strong, so it is holding my interest for the meantime.

This Is Not My Life begins with a character waking in a small, slightly futuristic, community with no knowledge of his surroundings or the family he finds himself with. We find that he has been placed there. The mystery for the ongoing series is finding out who he is and how to get out of this town. Early days yet, but worth watching for a while yet. Extra points for being locally made.

The Glades is the cop version of Burn Notice. Big city cop moves to sleepy Florida community. Turns out it isn't so sleepy and so he uses his over the top super observation skills to solve the crimes of the area. It works for the same reason that Burn Notice works - the strength and general air of niceness of the cast.

The mention of over the top super observation skills reminds me that Sherlock has started. It is a modern day setting for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The setup and characters are absolutely superbly done. I was a bit concerned that the mystery plot of the pilot was pretty feeble. Yes, the heart of the Holmes story is the personality of the eccentric genius and his relationship with Watson, but in order to bring that out, the mystery each time has to be a strong and deep one, otherwise there is not enough to show just what a tortured genius he is. The dual strength of both story and character is what has made Sherlock Holmes such an enduring character in fiction. Here's hoping that this show can deliver - it has made a good start.

A few other quick mentions:
Rubicon seems all about the mystery, code breaking and secrets generally. I'm looking forward to giving it an extended look.

Identity is about a police unit that specialises in identity theft crime. I found myself going to sleep every time I tried to watch this.

The Pillars of the Earth. Medieval miniseries. Oh dear, just how melodramatic can you get. I was strong and gave it a full 15 minutes. Was that too harsh?

The Great Outdoors. Tries to do The Smoking Room in the setting of a hiking/rambling club. Despite a good cast, it just fails.

Any other debut series I should be giving a look?

A few days ago, I complained about the overuse of the periodic table as a way of presenting all kinds of things. I asked for another metaphor.

My request seems to have been answered. Somebody has come up with using the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram as a model for mapping two variable characteristics. In particular he has mapped the fame of astronomers against their publishing productivity.

Its a nice graph and the H-R diagram could be used for other things. Now I'm wondering what other diagrams could be subverted to other purposes.

TCM are having a bit of a Chandler thing going on at the moment. I watched Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep yet again. It is a classic piece of cinema based on a classic book with the added spark of the on-screen magic of Bogart and Bacall together.

But the next movie on, made the following year, was lady in the Lake starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe. Despite coming from the same era and being based on another classic Chandler novel, I have never seen this film before. It is the first time I've even seen it advertised anywhere. You want to know why? Because it is almost impossible to watch that's why. The whole thing is shot in a first person perspective - all the action takes place as seen out of Marlowe's eyes. You only get to see Marlowe in the mirror or in some straight to camera overview dialogue. It is very clumsy, very stilted and does not work at all. Hardly surprising that this technique doesn't get rolled out very often - last time I saw it was a M*A*S*H episode when they were getting desperate for ideas.

Its interesting, first person is pretty common in novels - the novel The Lady in the Lake is told in first person. So why does first person film not work and is consequently about as common as second person novels?

The last few days have been lost in a flurry of reading for the Hugos. My votes are now in. Even if I'm not voting, I like to look at award nominations to see what is hot in the genre at the moment. It shouldn't be any surprise that there were some works that just didn't work for me at all this time - I gave up on trying to read some of them. That is to be expected because tastes vary so much. But the positive side which makes the exercise worthwhile is that you get exposure to new authors. Some of which you really connect with and will want to read more of their work. The Campbell award provided a couple of real gems this year. But I won't tell you which ones - given the nature of the awards, you may well pick completely different ones.

So how many Firefly fans out there? What? Most of you. I thought so. (Yeah I know there are dissenting voices).

How many Warehouse 13 fans out there? Oh! One or Two. I figured that too.

Anyway, you Firefly fans should check out the guest stars in the cast list of the latest episode (s02e02). It is an episode full of pop culture references. I feel a strong need to watch The Middleman right now.

A while back, I was looking at various ranking lists to see New Zealand's place in the world. Another list came out today looking at "end-of-life" caring. I.e. how good a place to die is. "New Zealand was named third in the overall rankings, trailing the United Kingdom and Australia and sitting just ahead of Ireland and Belgium.".

This may seem a bit morbid, especially given that a close family friend died on Monday and a young family member has terminal cancer. But the thing is, my aunt was a palliative care nurse - she worked in a hospice most of her nursing career. She really helped establish hospice care in South Canterbury. When she in turn was dying in that same hospice, she and I spent a lot of time talking about care and the best way to help the dying and those impacted by it. This article and the ranking reminded me just how much devotion and work she put into end-of-life care. It is good to be reminded of these things.

Got to meet the new neighbours today - the ones I share a driveway with. They have been there for about 4 weeks - neatly coinciding with the time period where I haven't been well enough any weekend to venture out and say hello. They certainly seem to be working long hours during the week and thus are very quiet. Anyway, they seem nice. But I feel confident that we will get on just fine. When the door was opened and I could see into their foyer, what did I see in the corner but a life size cardboard cutout of Freema Agyeman/Martha Jones. A short conversation confirmed that, yes they are fans of the show. Now who can complain about neighbours like that?

There have been a few periodic table representations recently - I particularly liked the table of desserts.

But y'know I think it has probably reached an end point with this one - a periodic table of swearing. It is pretty lame and don't expect to learn anything new, but if you are of a very delicate nature, you may want to give it a miss.

Can we have a new science inspired meme now please!

I seem to have been thinking about Winamp in that last day or so. It started with wondering if there was a Winamp version for Linux. Unlikely given the name, but it could have happened. Turns out, it was tried but not completed.

But why was I looking when Linux has a bunch of music players of its own that will run under Ubuntu? Because none of them are as good as Winamp - that's why. I auditioned quite a few and read even more reviews. Sure, there are some that are satisfactory for basic use, but Winamp is a very mature product and it shows in the feature list but also in the ease of use. It is that combination that is the key. The simple things that you do regularly, like just finding a song and playing it, are right there and easy to find but all those extra cool tools are there if you want them.

This eulogising is prompted by an example of how not to build a complex application. I'm referring again to the MySky decoder interface. I complained about it when I first got the decoder box about how much harder it was to use than the previous decoder. Well, they have "improved" it by adding features. Nothing wrong with the features, but they have been thrown in in such a way as the make common important functions harder to get to. They really need to learn a lesson from Winamp.

Got a reminder that the Hugo voting deadline is not that far away. It gave me a prod that I need to get stuck into reading the ballot items from the voters pack. I spent a good chunk of the day working my way through some categories. But the take home message for the day was that while it is great to have these electronic copies for ballot evaluation, I really still don't like reading longer works on a computer screen. Its an odd thing, I can easily spend a long time with a screen in front of me, but something about interaction with the machine interferes with my ability to immerse myself in a book or comic. Interestingly, it's related to fiction - no problem with fanzine articles.

I did have a play with a Kobo eReader a couple of weeks ago. It does have a nice form factor - similar in size and weight to a paperback book. It also seems admirably open in terms of format and channel - or so I'm told. It still has rather a lot of software defects, but it does seem a big step in the right direction. Perhaps only one more generation and such things may be something I'd actually use.

For the third weekend in a row I have been knocked over by a bug of some sort. They always seem to start on friday night. I would have thought (I certainly hoped) that stopping work would have stopped the illness cycle. A cycle which has, albeit somewhat less regularly, been going on for some considerable time now.

Nevertheless, I have been feeling pretty good today. Better than the usual slow recovery. But I thought it wouldn't be a good move to rush out into the garden to try to catch up on all the stuff I planned to do last week.

So what to do instead? Play around with the computer instead. This post is now coming from Firefox running under Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. It is just a trial installation in a dual boot arrangement. All pretty painless really until it got to the point of configuring the wireless network connectivity. That took more than twice the time that all the rest of the install took combined. Reminds me of the early days of wireless.

Why install Ubuntu? Why Not?

Just in case the publicity net missed any of you locally, the Phoenix SF society is planning a mini-con on Saturday (i.e. the 3rd). It should be fun. Well, I hope so anyway because I intend to turn up. Only for an hour or two though - I realise that I'm not in any sort of con-ready fitness state. Given how low the bar is on that particular test, I have a lot of work to do to get myself ready for the con season in late August - early September.

( Full mini-con announcement text - click here )

Every morning at about 4am, a car departs from my neighbours across the road. You understand that I don't witness this happening every time, but I have been awake or awakened often enough to know that it has been a regular thing for a few years now. I have enough of a view to know that it is the family's #1 son departing the house for points unknown. To be honest, I thought he had got a job which had a very early start time.

I now think I know where he is going. You see, yesterday I found out that my neighbour's eldest son holds the record for the fastest swim across Cook Strait. That is a 26K swim across effectively open seas. I have to suspect that he did a bit of practice for that.

The things you find out. Turns out his younger brother is a national age group underwater hockey rep. And I always thought the family was into tennis (in my defence, they did build a tennis court - not a swimming pool).

Alan Plater died on Friday. He will be best remembered by me for the superb Biederbecke Trilogy - some of the greatest television ever made.

I plan to spend the rest of today watching Get Lost, the precursor to said trilogy, a copy of which has mysteriously fallen into my possession.

I don't believe it. I went to the mall this morning and noticed a chap with a comb over. Not quite the full Bobby Charlton, but close. I was certainly surprised because I really thought that this abomination was dead. My surprise turned to full astonishment when within minutes I spotted another one.

Despite now being on the alert, I didn't spot any more. Good thing too. Two in one morning is more than enough.

I would also draw your attention to the following note from the Wikipedia entry on the comb over. A variation of the combover (whereby baldness is concealed by long hair combed in three separate directions) has a U.S. Patent 4,022,227 by Donald J. Smith and his father, Frank J. Smith, of Orlando, Florida, who were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in Engineering for their effort.

Please don't tell me that it is coming back into fashion.

There are lots of global indices measuring all sorts of stuff. Local media has been smugly reporting the Global Peace Index and I see a number of people have been noting it on their blogs. These are the top 5 countries according to that index.

Global Peace Index
1 New Zealand
2 Iceland
3 Japan
4 Austria
5 Norway

But it did get me wondering about our place in the world, so a bit of wikipedia mining turned up a bunch of other indices. Not even close to a full set, just a few that caught my eye.

( behind cut because it is longish )

Oh me, oh my. Chocolate marshmallow ice creams are on their way. And not a rocky road where they just drop the individual marshmallows in either, but a proper coating.

I may just have to give them a try. Just for the sake of pure research of course.

Damn, I think I may have punctured a pretension. I have been telling myself that I have seen all of Doctor Who more or less in sequence and in the correct era. Which means that I have seen all the lost episodes. However it was a long time ago and my memories are very fragmentary, so I cannot relate many details.

Realistically I know that it wasn't likely that I had seen every episode. I know I must have missed episodes from time to time. My parents weren't exactly sympathetic to my contention that watching it was the most important thing in the universe.

Nevertheless, I have been telling myself that I hadn't missed much. I have been acquiring old shows sporadically and up until today I had recognised them all. Seeing them, prompted old memories to surface. But not today. I have been watching The Chase - a second season story. That's Hartnell's Doctor for you young'uns. But I don't recognise any of it. No memory triggers at all.

Sigh. Deep down, I probably knew that there were whole stories I'd missed, but I cannot fool myself any longer. Punctured.

I have always struggled with hearing what people are saying in noisy environments. I have had my hearing tested a number of times, and it is always come out as being pretty good - especially at the higher end of the register. So it is probably a wetware problem which is slowly getting worse as my hearing does naturally deteriorate with age.

I also have very fond memories of Get Smart on TV back in my childhood. I got lent season 3 recently and it still holds up fairly well. It has comedic flaws and outdated social attitudes, but Don Adams and Barbara Feldon were a superb double act.

You will have spotted the connection by now - "The Cone of Silence". Even in fiction, it never worked. But look at this - a real life personal cone of silence.

Also this made for two model, almost like the real thing:

Something that has always bugged me. Not injustice or bigotry level bugged but ignorance and stupidity level bugging. For example, I draw your attention to this Non Sequitur cartoon. Just why is it that so many (USA) Americans think that if you go through the centre of the Earth you will end up in China. Perhaps not all Americans - just all the ones who use the "through the Earth" metaphor in the media. Both North American and China are in the northern hemisphere. Just how do they think that works?!

Most of you reading here are from the southern hemisphere anyway. You are probably used to this level of ignorance from the rest of the world. Those of you from the north are SF fans and therefore probably know what shape the planet is. I'm just curious where this piece of bugging came from and why it won't go away.

This got me through the afternoon - A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages

Hilarious IT geek humour. With the added benefit of being a gauge of your geek depth by seeing how many of the jokes you understand.