eWeek best and worst of 2003

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eWeek’s Steve Gilmore just posted his round up of the Best and Worst of Messaging & Collaboration in ’03. Apple or Mac-dependent software got no less than three mentions in the “best of” category:

iSight/iChatAV — Apple finally does IP videoconferencing right. Cleverly embedded inside the Mac’s new Panther OS X operating system and its iChat instant messaging client, iChatAV leverages your AOL Buddy list for point-to-point videoconferences around the world. The secret sauce: sophisticated noise-canceling algorithms that erase distracting echoes and eliminate the need for headphones.

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Hydra — An OS X open-source project that allows networked sharing of document creation and editing. Another Mac technology that leverages the powerful Rendezvous system service, Hydra was used to great effect at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology conference to generate real-time transcripts of conference sessions.

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NetNewsWire — My RSS weapon of choice on my platform of choice, the Mac. Once you try it, you’ll fall in love with it. And I’ll stay married to it as long as author Brent Simmons continues to add information router features — persistent storage, embedded browser rendering, enclosures, a plug-in API for services from Technorati, search engines and rich media renderers.

The “worst of” list, while fairly solid, didn’t catch my eye quite as much until I got down to item number seven…

Microsoft firing of contract blogger — This poor soul made the mistake of posting a picture that suggested something other than an official Microsoft policy position. Someone should have fired his boss for putting the lie to the warm and cuddly notion that the “new” Microsoft is listening — watching — Big Brother style — is more like it.

I had to laugh. I’m never, ever, ever going to live this down!

Forget about all this selling your soul to the devil crap — he’s so incompetent, he couldn’t even get a wish to be “famous” right, and I ended up with “infamous” instead. Can I get a refund on this deal?

(via Scoble)

Trouble in Georgetown

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I had some errands to run this morning on my way in to work — hitting the bank, picking up a new bus pass and the like — so I ended up taking a different bus into Georgetown than usual.

As I got off the bus and started walking down the street, I heard a little commotion in one of the alleyways to my left. Looking over, I saw a young lady frantically running down the alleyway, coat open, trying to keep her footing in the fresh snow. Since Georgetown is a more industrial area, and there are occasional reports of problems in the area, this was more than enough to get my attention.

Suddenly, her pursuer rounded the corner of the building. He stepped into the alley, saw the lady, took aim…

…and a snowball went flying through the air, arcing up and then back down to explode across the windshield of a car that the lady had just ducked behind.

Laughing, she popped back up, scooped some snow off the hood of the car and hastily packed it together, sending it back towards her friend, then ducked around the front of the building, as he started running across the street to find another fresh patch of snow.

For a city that doesn’t get snow very often, a good old-fashioned snowball fight isn’t a bad way to start the day at all.

Happy New Years Eve Day, everyone. Have fun tonight with whatever festivities you may find — fireworks, friends, dancing, champagne, snowballs, or whatever you might have in store.

And save a New Year’s kiss for me (well…except for the guys, in which a hearty handshake will do just fine)!

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

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Oh.

Look out!

My.

Giant robots marching through the streets!

God.

They're destroying everything!

Have you seen the trailer for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow yet? If not, run over, do not walk, do not pass Go, do not collect \$200, and watch it now.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

1930’s pulp sci-fi on a modern budget on the big screen, complete with giant marauding robots shooting death rays from their eyes, an intrepid reporter (Gwynneth Paltrow), a bold flying ace (Jude Law), and a courageous Naval officer (Angelina Jolie — with an eyepatch, even), battling the futuristic forces of evil and the mad scientist behind it all, Dr. Totenkopf…

Escape is impossible!

I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a trailer this jaw-droppingly cool. Ever. I’ve just watched it six times in a row.

Those zeppelins are no match for them!

This can’t hit the theaters soon enough!

Truth in advertising

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'We're not sure why we bother with the words.'

I found this wonderful ad for the Filipino edition of FHM (For Him Magazine) in a roundup of ten ads America won’t see, via this /. thread.

While there are some interesting ads mentioned (from a Gucci ad deemed ‘too racy’ for the US with our bizarre cultural mores regarding sexuality and the human body to the absolutely astounding Honda Accord ‘Cog’ ad), the self-deprecating humor and honesty in FHM’s ad made it by far my favorite of the bunch.

One of the great benefits of living a TV-free lifestyle (and one of the reasons I went to a TV-free lifestyle) is that I don’t need to sit through the neverending stream of stupid, pandering, insipid ads that eat up a quarter of every show on television. However, every so often, some ads are rather entertaining to see, and it’s nice to be able to take a peek at them from time to time.

While I hate, hate, hate the appearance of what’s so euphemistically called “pre-show entertainment” in the movie theaters lately (the ten minutes of advertising that runs after the advertising slides, but before the fifteen minutes of trailers before you finally get to see the movie you paid for), I saw a great ad for HP photo printers that used a ‘flipbook’ form of animation. The spot opened with a 20-something guy standing in front of a staircase, and you watch him jump up and down a couple times. The scene then cuts to a pair of hands holding a flipbook titled “I defy gravity” made of photos taken of the guy at the peak of multiple jumps, creating an illusion of him flying over the ground, up and down staircases, and over parked cars. Once the flipbook finishes, you get a couple more shots of him jumping up and down, and then it’s over. Quick, simple, amusing, and sticks with you — nicely done.

But I still wish I didn’t have to sit through it before watching a movie.

Peter Pan…soon!

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I’ve been looking forward to the new film version of Peter Pan ever since I stumbled across the trailer in mid-November. Kalyx just got to see it, and her writeup just makes me want to see it more…

This was the best adaptation that I have seen. Peter Pan has always rubbed me the wrong way. I saw the musical as a child and the Disney film, and found the music annoying, and just nothing overly interesting about the story except for Hook and the Crocodile. Well, the version in theaters currently is so not the Disney classic. There are no songs and the story adds so much depth to the characters. This is a darker and more complex Peter Pan.

[…]

The elements of the Disney classic, which is the version of the story I am most familiar with are all there. But this version puts the pieces together making sense of the myth. It doesn’t shy away from the erotic nature of the Peter Pan story and certainly does not avoid the real issues of childhood stirring within. We understand Peter’s attraction to Wendy is not that of a boy, but the stirrings of adolescence and the jealousy of Tinker Bell, makes sense in this context. We also see Wendy’s eventual welcoming of adulthood after her own recognition of Peter’s shortcoming, essentially that he is a boy that can never grow up.

[…]

…this film feels a deep grief for Peter, for the never ending cycles of games and adventures that will always leave no real mark or impression, as he is incapable of growth. This is a fairy tale that welcomes adulthood while grieving the loss of play. And this film does not shy away from allow Peter Pan to be tragic figure.

This is truly a lovely telling of the classic tale.

I’m so looking forward to this, and thankfully, I don’t have to wait much longer — Prairie and I have plans to see it New Years day.

Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning…

Don't feed the trolls

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The ‘net has given rise to many varied technical, pseudo-technical, and not-technical-at-all-and-often-very-silly terms over the years that it’s been around. Aside from ‘spam’, quite possibly one of the more frequently used terms is ‘troll’.

These days, troll is more often used to describe someone who is just more or less randomly spewing offensive garbage in chatrooms or messageboards in a blatant attempt to tick people off. This type of post is described in the Jargon File’s entry for ‘troll’ as sense two:

  1. n. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand – they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, “Oh, ignore him, he’s just a troll.”

However, prior to this usage, troll was primarily a verb:

  1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase “trolling for newbies” which in turn comes from mainstream “trolling”, a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don’t fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.

I’ve always preferred this usage of the term, though this style of troll has become far less common as of late. My best guess for this is that quite simply, it’s far easier just to blatantly spout off some offensive drivel without taking the time and effort to craft it in a creative enough way that more experienced readers will merely read it, recognize it for what it is, and move on, leaving the more clueless to vent their anger in the ensuing thread.

Today, I stumbled across a somewhat rare item, in a posting that actually lies somewhere between the two definitions. It leans a little more heavily towards the second definition, but the author did take the time to craft a misleading first paragraph before moving on to the actual content. I’d dock them points for a few reasons (it’s a bit too blatantly attempting to aggravate; doesn’t have the subtle wink-between-the-lines that a true definition one troll should; and its posting in a general-purpose forum — the Seattle LiveJournal community — means that there’s no specific topic for the author to work within, giving them more reign to just pick a topic intended to offend), but I do have to give them a few points for at least making some attempt to be a little creative.

As the original LiveJournal post will very likely be deleted before too much longer, here’s what triggered all this.

My lovely wife and I have a new baby girl! We just brought her home today. She was born on Christmas eve at exactly 9:24PM. She is 6 pounds and 2 ounces, and she is so perfectly beautiful!! I was hoping she would have been born on Christmas day, so she would have the same birthday as the baby Jesus, but no matter, I’m just so happy!!

Anyway.. my question is.. Does anyone know where in Seattle I can take her to be circumcized? They wouldn’t do it at the hospital… the doctors just gave me a funny look. So if anyone knows of a place in or around Seattle that specializes in female circumcision, I would appreciate the info. It doesn’t have to be a certified doctor or anything.. as long as he knows what he’s doing.

Thank you all! Merry Merry Christmas!! :)

Seen any other worthy definition one trolls around lately?

M&M's go goth

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M&M’s, the colorful button-shaped candies, are about to go off color for the first time in 60 years, but it remains to be seen whether their fans love or hate the change.

The chocolate-filled sugar-coated candies, made by a division of U.S. confectioner Mars Inc., will be available in only black and white for the next few months instead of the standard six colors as part of a promotional campaign.

If anyone might (for some odd reason) be casting about for last-minute late Christmas present ideas for me, a bag (or multiple bags) of these would be great. I’ll eat the white ones, and save up jars of the black ‘goth-y’ M&M’s for amusement and future munch value.

(via Prairie)

LotR:TRotK EE DVD – 4h50m+?

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I think I just wanted to make the most cryptic post title possible. ;)

Apparently, Peter Jackson recently revealed that the DVD Extended Edition of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King “will be longer than 4 hours and 50 min” long!

Wow.

Let’s see. About 3:28 for the extended TFotR, about 3:43 for the extended TTT, and possibly over 4:50 for the extended TRotK. We’re rapidly approaching a solid twelve hours for the full saga when all is said and done.

Sweet. I’m all for it. Bring it on!

(via Jarret House North)

2003 Pictures of the Year

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©2003 Alan Berner

The Seattle Times’ Pacific Northwest magazine has released their 2003 Pictures of the Year special issue, and all the shots have been posted on their website.

While some of the photos merely state the subject and what is happening, several include the thoughts of the photographers regarding the subject matter, how the photo was taken, and other such things. One of the things I enjoyed reading was how often these professional photographers deemed their shots “total luck” — it makes me feel better about my ratio of good shots to pure dreck. ;)

(via Spiel)