Splitting This Blog?

I don't blog enough. One reason for that is that this blog isn't about one, specific topic. It is, as its name implies, about random things. If it were to be about one topic, I'm guessing I would write more because I would have a focus. Right now, anything and everything fits into this blog and that leaves things up in the air.

I am tempted, therefore, to split this blog into two. Fortunately, I don't have to kill anyone to do it. (That's a Harry Potter-related Horcrux reference. If you don't get it, pretend I never said it.) The new blog will primarily be about technology and tech-related things. That the field I'm in, that's the stuff that interests me, that's the stuff I have an opinion about, that's the stuff I want to write more about.

I don't think I'm going to do that just yet, though. I can get along for a while with just one blog, except that I'll probably start posting a lot more tech stuff in it. And it's only when the tech stuff starts to overwhelm the rest will I consider moving that to a separate blog. Of course, I have to be blogging quite a lot about tech before that happens! Oh well.

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

So I watched 'Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix' a few of days ago and, I must say, they did a really good job with it. The special effects -- particularly the duelling scenes in the Room of Requirements and the Department of Mysteries -- were fabulous. And the way the members of the Order and the Death Eaters zipped around the place was cool, too.

They also did a good job with the new characters introduced in this movie, particularly Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. All of them rocked. Luna, who plays a pivotal role in this book, is also one of my favourite characters in the whole series and Lynch played her perfectly. Good for Rowling to insist that a first-timer be cast in this role. (Hmmm...having lived in Australia for a year I almost wrote "Good on Rowling..."!)

On the other hand, it wasn't good of Rowling to let the screenwriters do whatever they wanted with the script. I don't like the fact that they left out some, in my opinion, important parts of the book from the movie, though I do certainly understand the need for brevity and simplicity -- especially in a children's movie. As it is, as far as I'm concerned, only the Walsh-Boyens-Jackson trio (of the 'Lord of the Rings' fame) have done justice to a fantasy fiction book-to-film translation. That said, I guess everyone has their pet peeves about what was left from of the book. My top three are:

1. Making Cho be the one who tells on the D.A.

And, while it was nice of them (the film's producers, directors, and screenwrites) to explicitly point out that Cho was given veritaserum by Umbridge so it's not like she had a choice, dammit that wasn't enough. Of course, it was much easier to do it this way. In the book, Harry gets about as pissed off at her as he is in the movie but that's there to show us that he's human (and not the perfect hero) just like the rest of us. When you're reading the book, you have to decide for yourself whether Harry is being unreasonable or not (by remaining pissed off at her). It's bits like that that make reading books so cool. Unfortunately, that level of subtelty is difficult to communicate in a movie (let alone communicate it well). Oh well. Hollywood 1, Cho 0.

2. Skipping the bit in which Harry's tell-all interview is published in the Quibbler.

They go to some length to show that no one believes Harry about Voldermort's return when they first get to school. The same happens in the book. But in that, it's the publishing of that interview that really starts to change everyone else's minds (big, teary hug from Mrs. Weasely aside). And Seamus' apology to Harry in the Great Hall comes after that. Instead, in the movie the changing of everyone else's mind is left up to Seamus' uncalled-for apology (since the article hadn't come out over the holidays and changed his mind) and Fudge's "He's back!" line at the end of the movie.

3. Skipping the bit in Snape's memory in which Harry's mother, Lily, rescues Snape from Harry's father, James', hovering charm.

This was a pretty crucial bit to cut out. And not just because it's another important shades-of-grey point in the book. But...I won't get into the other reason since a lot of people still haven't read the last book and it contains a spoiler. Coming to the shades-of-grey reason, though: in this memory, Harry's father comes across as an egotistical bully, Snape comes across as weak and helpless, and Lily comes across as a good, strong person. While Harry expected that of his mother, he was shocked to see his father (and, of course, Snape) acting that manner. Seeing this (and know it's true since it is a memory) shakes Harry's faith in a lot of things (including himself) and it takes him a while to get over all this. Again (and I'm getting sick of saying this over and over) since that's difficult to show in a movie...snip, snip, snip. *sigh*

Of these three omissions, though, the last one was the easiest to show with just a little bit of good screenwriting. And, having read the last book, it was the most important of the three as well. Who knows, though. Maybe they did shoot it but it wound up (metaphorically) on the cutting room floor because addings its counterpart scenes (Harry getting back his faith) would have made the movie too long. I guess we'll have to wait and see which scenes they add in the DVD.

Overall, though, Goldberg and Yates did a pretty good job with the movie and I know they -- hopefully someone else! -- will find smart ways of working around those omissions. As long as it's not Goldberg who does the screenplay -- I still haven't forgiven him for changing some crucial parts of Carl Sagan's 'Contact' -- we should be okay.

Next time...a spoiler-full review of the last Harry Potter book :)

Broadband Ho!

After using a dial-up Internet connection for about a year, we finally got a broadband (ADSL) connection at home yesterday. And boy is it a relief to browse at those speeds again. At home, that is -- I'm not counting my blazingly fast work and university Internet connections. Anyway, dialup was really, really starting to get on my nerves. Especially when coupled with my horse-and-cart speed laptop. Though, to be fair, my laptop on its own isn't really all that bad. The two together, however, do not make for a happy Ameel. So: one down, one to go. Of course, I'll have to wait for about another year before I can even begin to think of upgrading my laptop. Such is life.

Three other fun tech-related things happened yesterday. First, we got a wireless router at home so, not only are we connecting to the 'net at broadband speeds, we're wireless as well. Second, I got my laptop a USB wireless LAN adaptor (duh!). And third, I got a USB hard drive enclosure for my previous laptop's hard drive. That is, having already stripped my previous laptop of its RAM, I am now going to remove its hard drive (a good, 5,400RPM, 60GB hard drive) which I will then start using as an external hard drive (for current data backups, etc.). That last thing is quite a relief, actually, since my only other data backup is on my iPod. Once again, bless Nadia for having the foresight to get me a 60GB iPod a couple of years ago! Anyway, I now need to find some good backup software to use. I guess I'll start by exploring the one that came with the enclosure and then hit the 'net. At broadband speeds. Hee.

Ooh, and one more thing. Being in Australia, I am finally reaping the benefits of the excellent electronic funds transfer system that they have here. All of the hardware we've recently bought was from an online store (Discount Junction) that saved us quite a bit of time, money, and hassle. Most cool.

In other news: Nadia and I are going to watch Die Hard 4.0 (a.k.a. Live Free or Die Hard) tonight. I'll have more on that over the next few days. We're also going to the Cure concert on Sunday. Yes, life is good these days :)

[Aside: Hmmm...I still haven't posted my Harry Potter blog entry. I started it a week ago and have been saving it as a draft since then. I shall work on that next, I think.]

Transformers: Prime and Fox

If you expected great drama and a serious plot line from 'Transformers (2007)' then you must have been sorely disappointed. Though, of course, you would have been an idiot to have gone into the movie with that in mind. Dude, Michael Bay of the highly enjoyable 'Pearl Harbour', 'Armageddon', 'The Rock', and 'Bad Boys' fame produced and directed it...what did you expect? It was -- and was supposed to be -- a fun, big budget, special effects extravaganza. And boy did it deliver on those fronts.

On the other hand, if you watched the movie specifically for the special effects, Optimus Prime's voice, and Megan Fox (or Shia LaBeouf, whatever), then you must have been pretty happy with it. As was Jeremy Slater who says in his 'Big! Fucking! Robots!' review:
Bay knows he's making a movie about action figures, and this is how action figures behave: you set them up, then you make them fight. We don't need to know why the Police Car Robot is evil; he just fucking is. That's enough for me, and I'm guessing it will be enough for most audiences.

That's an awesome review, by the way. Make sure you read it.

Other people have had fun with the movie, too. Phil Plait (bless him) from the Bad Astronomy blog took the the time to talk about the differences between Hollywood physics and real physics in his review of the movie ("Still, there were a few things I want to point out, because they're fun to think about."). Fortunately, he's enough of a fan of movies to conclude:
Surprisingly, that's about it. There were lots of other little things, but nothing I remember worth noting. Despite my science review, I really do recommend seeing this movie since it was a lot of fun and the special effects were truly awesome. It's a dumb movie, don't get me wrong, but there is room in the world for dumb movies sometimes.

Nadia, of course, loved it as well. While General Motor's marketing team must have had...well, let's just say a very happy week.
Imagine you're a huge automobile manufacturing company. (Imagine harder! You're a complex of buildings, factories, offices and... Oh, never mind. Bad metaphor.)

OK, specifically: Imagine you're a marketing exec at GM. Now imagine the ginormous year-end bonus you're going to get as a result of your collaboration with Paramount Pictures and toy-maker Hasbro on this summer's Transformers movie. Are you imagining swimming in cash? Good job.

[Source: 'GM, Transformers' product placement marketing match' from CNET's Crave blog]

My conclusion, on the other hand, can be summed up into one word: damn!

Near-Term Goals for This Here Blog

There is a lot that I want to blog about.

For example, I have recently watched the following movies:

Read the following interesting articles:

Read or re-read the following awesome books:

  • Frank Herbert's first Dune trilogy: "Dune", "Dune Messiah", and "Children of Dune"

  • JK Rowling's "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows"


Started listening to some really good netcasts on TWiT, including:

Discovered a couple of really good musicians:

Bought tickets to a couple of great concerts:

  • The Cure: 12 August, 2007 at the Rod Laver Arena

  • The Police: 26 January, 2008 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground


All of which are blog-worthy items. I have also recently started extensively using the moste excellent Google Reader which is something that I really want to blog about.

Finally, aside from everything already listed above, I am now formally declaring the following topics as future postings of mine for this here blog:

  • Facebook (and social networking in general)

  • Living in Australia

  • Why blog?

  • The problem with this blog


All of which I will about write soon. I hope.

Huh?

Why have I just written all of this? Well, all this is thanks to first item on Web Worker Daily's '10 Ways to be Productive with Your Blog' which is: "Post goals". Tthat's step one done with. Let's see how the others go :)

Oh, and I have also recently added a new page to my website called '(Much) More About Me', the title of which is rather self explanatory.

8 Facts

This is going around the blogsphere these days and I, too, have been tagged. So here goes.

First, the rules:

  • Each player lists 8 facts about himself/herself.

  • The rules of the game appear before the facts do.

  • The player ends by tagging 8 people, which means (a) listing their names in your blog, (b) going to their blogs to tell them that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog for details, and (c) going back and commenting on their lists.


There are various versions of the "rules" going around and most bloggers (myself included) have changed the rules' wording to better reflect their writing style. I guess that's only fair. There biggest difference among various postings of this, however, is in the third rule. In one variation you're supposed to tag 4 people while in another you're supposed to tag 8. More on that later.

Next, the facts:

  1. I was given four other first names (Ameer, Sameer, Adeem, and Aleem...I think) before they finally settled on 'Ameel', about a month after I was born.

  2. I was named Ameel because my grandmother really liked the name Emile (after Emile Zola, one of her favourite authors) but they couldn't exactly give a Pakistani boy a French name so they found a similar-sounding Turkish substitute. Ameel, in Turkish, means "full of hope".

  3. I am a drummer and I own a drumkit (1 snare, 3 toms, 1 kick, 1 pair of hi-hats, 2 crashes, 2 rides, 1 tambourine), a set of conga drums, a pair of bongo drums, a darbouka, a dhol, a dholki, a couple of tambourines, a couple of shakers, and a whole bunch of drum sticks and brushes. I also have access to a dumbelek that belongs to Nadia. When we moved to Australia, I brought with me only one pair of drumsticks and one pair of shakers. I haven't played the drums -- of any kind -- in over a year.

  4. If I had enough money, I would quit my day job to work as a record producer and session drummer/percussionist.

  5. I have been using computers for 23 years now (starting with an Apple IIc). I wrote my first computer programme 17 years ago (in BASIC) and made my first web page 11 years ago (using notepad, in pure HTML).

  6. I am obsessed with (convertible laptop/slate) tablet PCs these days and would love to own one. I would specifically love to own the Lenovo X61t though I would settle for the Fujitsu Lifebook T4220 as well. Of course, I won't be able to afford either one for at least another year and a half.

  7. I find all kinds of wordplay to be a lot of pun.

  8. When (not if!) I can afford to do so, I intend to build a home cinema (or, more likely, model my TV room) in the style of USS Enterprise's main bridge. I already have it all planned out. (Yes, I know. Yes, I am.)


Finally, the tagging: 

Er, I can't think of anyone I can tag. Maybe I'll just add this bit later.

Downgrading

It's hard to go back to using something older and obviously less-better than what you've gotten used to using. Okay, that was a convoluted sentence. Let me start again. It's hard to go back to using Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 when you've been using Windows XP and Office 2002 & 2003 for over four years now. That's what's happening to me at my "summer" (it's winter in Australia) internship here in Melbourne. The multinational company I'm working for is quite awesome, as is its global IT setup, but its basic software installation is still seven years old. And the fact that I'm having to spend all day using an older version of Microsoft Word (which is what I spend most of my day on) is rather frustrating.

It's not all that bad, actually. Most of the functionality I need is there and the hardware that I'm using (a Pentium-IV HT processor with 1 gig of RAM) barely even notices that it's running software (the good part about using brand new hardware with older software). I'm also using a higher resolution display so I get more screen real estate than I normally do, which is quite cool. No, all that is just fine and dandy. Actually, it's quite awesome. It's just the little things that get to me.

Styles, for example. Style functionality was a major change between Word 2000 and 2002. In 2000, you went to Format > Styles in the menu bar and got a pop-up options window that let you manipulate the styles used in the document. 2002 onwards, Format > Styles, or just clicking the styles icon in the menu bar, opens up a panel on the right side of the text editing window. This allows you to manipulate styles while still being able to work on the text itself. This change was awesome and it revolutionized the way in which I used styles. I no longer have that coolness to work with.

Copy-pasting behaviour also changed between the versions, with the newer one letting you be more accurate with your selection (instead of quickly moving your selection to include the paragraph mark after the last word and then being a pain about letting you deselect just that). Windows 2002 also made it easier to work with hyperlinks and with document versioning (accepting/rejecting all changes in the document, switching views that do or don't show markup, etc.).

While these minor things don't really make my life all that much harder (since I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and those are mostly the same between the two versions) it does frustrate me a little every now and again. Particularly the styles thing.

All my complaining aside, I don't really blame the company for sticking with the Windows 2000-based system that they have in place right now. It's hard (and expensive) to upgrade on a global scale, especially when you're as big as they are and you want to guarantee an excellent level of technical support (which they do and are very good at). What's fun though is that, over the next year or so, the whole organization is moving to a Windows Vista setup. Office 2007's new, tabbed menu system might confuse the heck out of some people (even though it's not all that different despite appearing to be drastically better that the current one), but for the people like me who are suffering under Office 2000, it should bring about a much appreciated jump in productivity. And if not an increase it productivity, at least a decrease in overall levels of frustration :)

Dakota Fanning

Dakota Fanning is one of my favourite actors. Unlike most other child stars that are considered to be "good actors", she's the only one I know who can act like and adult when she needs to and, importantly, can also act like a kid when she needs to. Actors like Haley Joel Osment, who plays great adult roles, and Macaulay Culikin, who played decent kid roles, don't seem to be able to pull that off. The coolest part in all this, of course, is that she's only 13 years old. That means we should expect many more years of awesome acting from her. I, for one, am really looking forward to that.

Speaking of Dakota, I should talk about two more things. First that Denzel Washington continues to reinforce how great an actor he is with every role that he plays. I watched "Man on Fire" (2004) yesterday -- which is what prompted this particular posting -- and, despite the occasionally distracting ("edgy"?) directing by Tony Scott, quite enjoyed the movie. I particularly loved the innovative way in which they displayed subtitles throughout the film.

Second, I really liked Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds". It was refreshing to see him play a panicked, not-so-smart, insignificant individual set against the backdrop of a much larger story. His character does grow to find redemption reasonably neatly at the end of the movie but, overally, the film was a little too one-dimensional for me. Yes, the special effects were awesome, but both story arcs were just too simple for a modern action/sci-fi thriller. Part of the reason for that was the fact that Wells' book itself was rather simple when compared to modern stories. Particularly modern science fiction stories. And Wells' book was one of the first book in that genre so naturally it wasn't as developed. They did update the story quite a bit (and quite nicely too) but, in my opinion at least, they stuck too close to the original storyline (which, had they been overly true to, would have resulted in a pretty crappy movie).

The converting of books into movies is a whole other topic that I don't want to get into right now. So I won't. The topic of simple story lines versus more complex ones, specifically in science fiction, is another topic that I'll get into later. I particularly want to compare the original Star Trek TV series with the newer ones. That should be a fun post to write. Anyway, I just wanted to say those two things. And I have. Thus endeth this post.

Watching Movies/TV, Listening to Music

Since I've started talking about the different layers that make up a scene in a movie or television show (i.e. by talking about scripts), let me go ahead and tell y'all how I watch movies in the first place. No, not the obvious open-eyes-stare-at-screen type how I watch movies, but more like what my movie-watching philosophy is. Of course, calling it a 'philosophy' gives it a little too much credit, but it sounds much cooler that way so I'm going to stick with it. (Also, when I say just 'movies', I do actually mean both movies and TV. It's just that it's much easier to stick to the one word, which is exactly what I'll do for the remainder of this post.)

Levels & Layers

Simply put, I watch movies at multiple levels and often (usually when I really like a movie) I watch it at least twice. When I say 'multiple levels' I mean that, because I know a little about how movies are made, I can see and appreciate the inputs of various contributors to the overall product. Let me give you an example from the first part of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'. And from that let's take the scene in which Gandalf and Frodo are riding on Gandalf's cart towards Bag End (i.e. Bilbo's house). The scene seems to be reasonably straightforward but there's a lot going on in there. For example:

  • The two actors are actually sitting five feet away from each other on a specially designed cart that, when viewed from the side, uses perspective to make Frodo look much smaller than Gandalf. As it moves along, the bench they're sitting on adjusts to ensure that there is no break in scene continuity.

  • The actual jump that Frodo makes into Gandal's arms was made by Elijah Wood's stunt double, Kiran Shah.

  • This is an important scene for Gandalf because, first, it's the first time we're seeing him on screen and he has to look believable and, second, because Ian McKellen worked really hard to get Gandal's voice, humour, mischievous nature, concern for Bilbo, and hidden power all just right for this scene.

  • A lot of work went into Gandalf's costume. It comes from drawing by John Howe (created for the cover illustration of the one the book editions) and both he and Alan Lee worked extensively with the producers to get the look and feel of Middle Earth just right.

  • The firework effects were added later and, in the scene, the children are reacting to just audio (if that). One of the children in the scene is actually Peter Jackson's.

  • The location of the scene is a park in New Zealand and all of the construction that was done to make it look like Hobbiton was completely undone after filming was completed.

  • Howard Shore's musical score is currently on the hobbit theme. This theme will be played (sometimes intermingled with other themes) every time there's talk about hobbits and the Shire. Bits of the fellowship theme are thrown in throughout the first half of the movie, but that theme won't be fully developed (i.e. played) till the famous crossing-the-mountain-ridge scene later on in the movie.


Now it's true that I know a lot of this stuff because (a) there is a lot of production information available about the LoTR movies in the DVD extras as well as online, (b) I'm a Peter Jackson fan and so I keep up with his work, and (c) I'm a huge LoTR fan. But that's part of the point: it is because I know about all this stuff and have read about it that I know a lot about what's going behind the scenes. And it's that which helps me watch the movie at multiple levels.

The fun thing is that, even if I don't know a lot about the movie I'm watching, I can still see how it was made. For example, regardless of which movie I'm watching, I will consciously notice continuity mistakes, the score and what it is trying to convey, the lighting, the cinematography, the camera angles, the number of cameras being used, the cuts between takes and scenes, the work being put in by the actors, the effects added on by the visual effects people, the audio being added on by the folio people, and so on. This is in much the same way that an editor would look at a book and see spelling and grammar mistakes, different font faces, writing and editing styles and choices, printing and layout choices, etc. (Aside: Being a web developer and designer, I do the same when viewing web pages.)

Layers in Music

Being a musician, meanwhile, helps me do the same thing when listening to music. For example, I can usually tell what bit was recorded live and what was added on later, what the song structure is all about, what the time signature is, when the key changes are, how the song is arranged spatially, what is being done with the backing vocals (when, who, how many, higher/lower, how spatially arranged, etc.), which instruments are playing in which audio frequency areas, what melodies and counter melodies are being used, what exactly each instrument is contributing to the song (which individual melody they're playing, etc.), and exactly which drum component the drummer is striking at any given time.

The Benefit

All of this, for both movies and songs, does a couple of things for me. First, it helps me get a lot more from the movie I'm watching or the song I'm listening to. I end up appreciating them not just for what they are, but also for how they came to be that way. Second, it makes me doubly dislike badly done songs/movies and makes me really like those that have been well done. That doesn't seem like a big thing but, believe me, it is. Take Shakira's song 'Hips Don't Lie' for example. The song is really good and it's great to dance to but, dammit, its production could have been better. Or take 'Rock the Party' by the Bombay Rockers in which the chorus sound like "frack the part, frack the party" instead of "rock the party, rock the party".

On the other hand, it is thanks to this that I can appreciate just how awesome the band Dire Straits was because its production is just incredible. (Unfortunately, Knopfler's obsession with getting everything exactly right led to a high turnover of band members). You also start to appreciate different individual music producers -- like Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Butch Vig, Mark Knopfler, Rick Rubin, Mike Campbell, and Peter Gabriel, to name some of my favourites -- and what they bring to bands and their sounds. To get an idea of the same thing happening in a different context, ask Nadia how she likes Dan Brown's 'The DaVinci Code' and why she has never been able to get past the first page because the writing is so darned crappy!

To make my life a little happier, by the way, I have had to develop both the ability to separate content from production and the ability to enjoy something even if it's not all that well done. So I can still enjoy listening to 'Hips Don't Lie' and I can still enjoy reading 'The DaVinci Code' (without cringing all that much) and I can still have a great time watching 'Terminator 3' even though there are minor acting issues and storyline inconsistencies.

Let's Watch That Again

Last thing: I mentioned at the start of this posting that I like to watch good movies more than once. One of the advantages of doing this is that I can peel off additional layers with each new viewing. And when a movie is really good, you get something new from it almost every single time you watch it. It is especially useful to watch good comedies more than once because you don't always get all the jokes the first time round (presumably because you're laughing so hard the first time round). Another advantage of multiple viewings is that, at the first viewing, you can leave your technical eye at the door and simply enjoy the story and get caught up in the action and excitement (especially if you're watching it in the cinema). Once you've done that, you can think "that was cool, how did they do that?" and then watch it again.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I watch movies, TV shows, and plays; view websites; read books; and listen to music. Yes, life is rich and life is fun.

Reading Scripts

I not only love to watch movies and TV shows, I love to read their scripts as well. And since there are lots of them available on the Internet, I've read quite a few. I used to read just film scripts but, over the last year or so, I've also started reading TV scripts and transcripts. In fact, I'm going through a TV script-reading phase these days: I finished reading all seven seasons of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' a couple of months ago and now I'm on season three of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (ST: TNG, or just TNG).


I really do enjoy reading this stuff. It gives you a whole new perspective on things. For one, you get to tap right into the writers' minds since (ignoring transcripts for the time being) you're reading their actual words. Because of this, you get to skip the layer of interpretation, presentation, and representation added on by the director, cinematographer, and actors respectively. You also don't get the soundtrack so there's no emotional augmentation from the music either.


Less Than a Book, More Than a Play


Reading a script is not like reading a book, by the way. Books are books -- they describe thoughts, feeling, and emotions in the text as well as through dialogue. With scripts, actors get cues from the scriptwriter, direction from the director, and they also bring their own abilities (and interpretation) to the delivery. Still, some pacing and acting cues help describe how things should pan out, like in this snippet from a TNG episode:




Worf, Korris and Konmel walk along.


KONMEL



The opponent that killed Kunivas
should have been an enemy -- then
his death would have been even
more glorious.

WORF
(stunned by the revelation)

If the opponent was not an
enemy... who was it?

For a beat, neither Korris nor Konmel answer.



WORF
(continuing)

Tell me -- what really happened?


Korris gives Worf a long steady gaze.



That's not like a book and not like a stage play script either. In the latter, a lot more is left open to interpretation -- aside from the fact that that's written for a wholly different medium, of course. The closest that books come to being written like movie scripts are when Michael Crichton writes them. His books come across like screenplays and the action almost plays out as if you're watching it on a screen. Most cool, that.


Scripts are sometimes doubly enjoyable when you've actually seen the episode/movie that you're reading the script of because you can have it playing in the back of your head while you read. This lets you see exactly what the actors, cinematographers, visual effects people, soundtrack people, producer, and director added on to the scene. Since I am a movie/TV buff, this is something that I really enjoy doing/seeing. Much in the same way that I enjoy browsing the web at a deeper level than most users because, since I used make websites for a living, I know how people have made the sites I'm seeing. And while bad sites irritate me more than they would irritate others, visiting good sites actually makes me happy! Yes, I'm a little weird.


Fun With Changes


Anyway, coming back to scripts: they're even more enjoyable when the script actually differs from what was in the filmed version of the movie/episode. I can, at this point, go off on a tangent and start talking about script versions -- i.e. drafts, originals, revisions, shooting scripts, and transcripts -- and how scripts evolve but, don't worry, I'm not going to get into that right now. Maybe in a later post. But still, it's fun when you read unfinished scripts that say things like (from another ST:TNG episode):


 




73 INT. EXECUTIVE OFFICE - DAY (TO BE WRITTEN)




Beata, Trent, the away team. Basically, Beata tells
Riker he's pretty smart for a man. She's given his
words a great deal of thought, sees his point, has
(with the help of her parliament) reached a decision.



...(stuff deleted)...


Beata urges them to be on their way. She strikes the
meditation crystal, giving in to its soothing warmth
as Riker belays the previous order to "kidnap" the
Ramsey group, and our away team DEMATERIALIZES.


In the filmed version, they've obviously added dialogue to that scene but it is interesting to note that someone else (the actors or the director, maybe) actually came up with the words that were said at that time.


Different Endings


It's also fun when the ending is different from what was in the movie, something that often happens in earlier drafts. For example, in an early 'Alien: Resurrection' draft, Ripley actually fights (and eventually crushes to death) the new, hybrid alien on the surface of the planet Earth while in the movie he gets killed before they enter Earth's atmosphere (the cool blow-out from the cargo hold, for those that have seen the movie). Sometimes scriptwriters write multiple endings, letting the directors or producers choose the one they like the most. And sometimes it doesn't end there either: the director and producer go ahead and shoot those multiple endings, delaying the final decision till the editing stage. (Some DVD extras show you these alternative endings too).


Tightening The Narrative


What's more subtly cool, though, is when you read a script and realize that the director and/or editor has deviated from the script in order to tighten the narrative up a bit. For example, in another ST:TNG episode, the second-last scene in the filmed version is much more appropriate than the one in the script. In this episode (1-08, 'Justice'), we're on an alien planet in which Wesley has unknowingly committed a 'crime' (tripped and broken some glass in a greenhouse). Unfortunately, all crimes on this planet have the same, single punishment: death. At the same time, the planet is "overseen" by a highly advanced being that can do pretty much anything. The locals call it "God". Anyway, everything boils down to Picard having to choose between saving the life of a crewmember and sticking with a strict interpretation of the Prime Directive (according to which he can't interfere with local laws and so Wes must die).


In the script, the second-last scene ends with Picard saying the line "I realize now that there can be no justice...no justice so long as laws are absolute. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions." just before they beam back up, taking Wesley with them and leaving the locals pissed off. In the actual episode, however, Picard actually gives the order to beam up before he makes that speech...but nothing happens. "God" is blocking their transporter. It is then that Picard makes the speech, soon after which the transporter kicks in and they start to get beamed up. As they phase out, Riker says something along the lines of "I guess God agrees with you"�. The difference between the two may be subtle -- and I know I haven't explained it all that well (you have to have seen the episode itself to appreciate this properly) -- but, trust me, it makes a big difference to the episode. In the original script, they've technically gone against the Prime Directive and have angered the planet's inhabitants with their flagrant disregard for their local laws. In the filmed version, however, they have successfully appealed to God, something that the inhabitants have seen and have understood. In a show like Star Trek, this makes a huge difference.


Read Scripts and Transcripts!


Anyway, I hope this encourages at least some of you to go out and read some scripts. They really are a lot of fun. Assuming, of course, you like that kind of thing. I haven't talked much about transcripts in this post. Instead of saving them for a later post (because there's not much to say about them), let me just say that I like reading those too. While they don't necessarily give you a deeper understanding of the production process, they do give you a deeper understanding of the story, various story arcs, writing styles, acting styles, and all of that other stuff. Their quality does depend on the person writing the transcript, though. So you do get spelling errors and there are different styles of describing the action seen on the screen in words but, for the most part, the transcripts I've read have been pretty darned good. I guess that's partly because they're written by fans of the show who really do care about the quality of what gets written down.


Damn that was a long posting. I'll stop rather abruptly now.

New Rule

"At least one posting per week." That's my new rule for this blog. If I don't force myself to start writing regularly at first, I'll never get into the habit. It'll be like starting a new exercise routine.

The problem, of course, is that I actually need something (relatively intelligent) to write about. I don't want to write crap, y'know. I do, on the other hand, want to write about movies and music and stuff like that but I haven't watched a movie (even an old one shown on free-to-air TV) in; well, at least a couple of months. And though I've heard some new songs, there's not much I can write about them. Except maybe that (hmmm) Justin Timberlake appears to be a real musician after all. His music has never been all that bad, but I actually like his new stuff. Strange. Oh, also: I like JoJo's new single 'Too Little, Too Late'� (okay, so it's not all that new, really), Nelly Furtado's latest 'Say It Right', and Missy Higgins' 'Steer' off her new album. Yes, the radio station that wakes me up in the morning mostly plays pop. On the rock side of life, though, RHCP's first three singles off of their new album are quite awesome.


And that's really all I have to say about that. Fortunately, I've made a list of other things that I can write about and do, in fact, want to write about on this blog. Eventually. One at a time.

Firefox Add-ons

Firefox Add-ons are awesome.

For blog postings specifically, I love the fact that I have the British English dictionary add-on installed. It spell-checks everything that I type into text boxes (such as the one I'm typing into now).

Other Extensions (which is an Add-on sub-type) that I can't live without are:

  • Google Toolbar, which just makes life so much easier

  • FlashGot, for letting me choose which program I want to use for downloading something

  • DownThemAll!, for letting me download multiple links/elements in a web page

  • PDF Download, for letting me choose between displaying or downloading PDF files when I click on a .pdf link

  • Web Developer, for letting get into the nitty gritty of websites

  • ColorZilla, for letting me identify any colour that I see in the browser window

  • MeasureIt, for letting me measure (in pixels) anything that I see in the browser window

  • Tabbrowser Preferences, for letting me control my Firefox tabs better


Oh, and the Long Titles extension, which lets me read long lines of alternate text (for images), is also useful for websites like xkcd.

Actually, you know what? Firefox itself is awesome :)

Tablet PC Links

In an attempt to confirm my status as Officially Obsessed with Tablet PCs, here are some tablet PC links.

If you want news, views, reviews (in text, audio, and video), or just generally want to know about tablet PCs, then these are the sites to go to:

If, however, you are thinking of buying a tablet PC, here are a few specific links:

And if you are a student, here are some specific links for you:

There are many other sources of information out there, of course, but those are some of the most useful ones.

Updates and New Entries

I think I'll stop posting stuff about tablet PCs now (unless something new and really exciting comes up, of course). I do, however, want to end this series of posts by saying that Lenovo has just announced the launch of the X61 Tablet which is an upgrade to its X60t (the usual abbreviation for the X60 Tablet). This version, due to be launched in June, includes Intel's new Centrino Duo chip (codenamed Santa Rosa) which increases power and battery life (especially if you use Turbo RAM) and includes the draft 802.11n wireless standard. Most cool. Fujitsu, meanwhile, has announced the launch of the T4225 which is its upgrade to the T4215, also with the new Santa Rosa chipset. And finally, Toshiba has announced the launch date (everybody loves end-June, it seems) for the wireless dock-enabled version of the R400. Fun things are happening in the tablet PC space, I tell you.

Oh, and Dell has announced its entry into the tablet PC space (specifically, the convertible tablet space) but there aren't too many details about that available on the 'net at this time. And I should mention that both HP and BenQ's latest offerings (media-ready convertible tablet PCs) are quite good too. I wonder when Sony will make its entry. I guess we'll just wait and see.

Obsessed with Tablet PCs

Okay, so I'm obsessed with tablet PCs these days. I've been looking around at laptops since my old one died anyway (and am somehow, magically, hoping to acquire another one) but now that I've started looking at convertible tablets (during study breaks while preparing for my final exams) I find that I am quite obsessed with them. And truly, they are worthy of such an obsession.

Anyway, since I've done some more exploring -- during which I found out a lot more about my three favourite laptops -- I've shortened my wish list a little bit.

The Toshiba: Not Enough Horsepower

Basically, the Toshiba Portege R400 is out of the running. Why? Well, because this laptop is designed for the "mobile professional". That is, in order to gain mobility, what it gains in battery life (5 hours with the additional battery) it sacrifices in power. My biggest problem with it is its 4,800 RMP hard drive speed which, for me, is far too slow. The processor and all are still pretty good -- especially since the system was specifically designed from the ground up to run Windows Vista -- but the slower hard drive messes it all up for me. Why? Because it makes it harder to do the high-end multimedia stuff -- like sound, image, and video editing -- that I would want to do on my laptop. It only other real negative is the fact that it has no built-in modem.

On the other hand, its styling (think Apple), material and coating (think high quality grand piano) and display (probably the best among all laptops) really are quite awesome and its edge display (which is a first for laptops) is really cool too. Oh, and its as-yet-unreleased wireless dock is supposed to be incredibly convenient. That, however, is for an updated version of the R400 due to go on sale end-June.

The Fujitsu: Quite Awesome

Next we have the Fujitsu LifeBook T4215 which is really quite awesome. Everything about it is cool and it has a very good "inking" experience (i.e. when you write text on it using the stylus). The advantages it has over other tablet PCs -- and in my case over the Lenovo -- include (1) the fact that it has a built-in optical drive (i.e. CD/DVD reader/burner) but is actually lighter than the Lenovo, (2) it has a touch pad instead of a track stick, (3) its speakers are better placed (in front instead of underneath), (4) parts its keyboard are nicer (the bottom-left key is the control key and not the function key), (5) the screen can turn both ways when you go into slate mode, and (6) you can replace the optical drive with an extra battery. Two other things may or may not be advantages. First, its stylus clips in to a pen-shaped slot next to the screen. Some people find this irritating but others say its helped them not lose their pens because you can easily tell when you've forgotten to put it back. Second, its fingerprint reader is on the bottom-left side of the screen. That might be irritating to some right-handers when logging on but its coolness lies in the fact that you can use it to scroll within documents.

On the other hand, some say that the Fujitsu's weight distribution when it's in slate mode is not ideal. But that's just nitpicking because the inclusion of the optical drive and the touch pad, and maybe the placement of the control key, are the things that really matter to me. (I can balance the slate regardless of weight distribution, I rarely use the speakers anyway, and, really, I can live with turning the screen in only one direction). So, like I said at the start of the paragraph: this is quite an awesome PC.

The Lenovo: Also Quite Awesome


Finally we have the Lenovo ThinkPad X60. And what a machine that is! I've spent the last couple of days watching the video reviews of these laptops on GottaBeMobile.com and, from what I've seen, the X60 is really fabulous. It has a full-size keyboard (which includes all the extra navigation keys like Home, End, Page Up and Page Down in their horizontal grid configuration; and, even though the placement of the control key is irritating, you can get used to its positioning), excellent hardware (with lots of hardware options), and a great display (also with many different options). It also has a whole range of extras, the coolest of which are its (1) UltraDock: a mobile docking station that lets you adds lots of things to it, including an optical drive, an additional battery, and more ports, (2) its US version has a built-in WiFi (wireless broadband) card, (3) inclusion of the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard, and (3) nifty battery management software.

Other good things about it are the fact that you can upgrade the on-board battery from the standard 4-cell battery to an 8-cell one (the Fujitsu comes with a 6-cell standard) and you can add an extended battery to it too (which is wedge-shaped and clips on to the bottom of the unit) to get up to 10 hours of battery life. It also has a FireWire port that the Fujitsu doesn't have (which makes it easier to connect to multimedia devices like digital cameras) even though it doesn't have the Fujitsu's smart card and memory card readers.

On the other hand, the Fujitsu has two useful features that the Lenovo doesn't have: rubber covers for its external ports (which make it look nicer when closes) and non-slip grips on the back so it's easier to hold in slate mode. Other than that, though, they're about the same (a lot more on that in a bit).

Australian Prices

In my previous posting I quoted US prices according to which the Toshiba was the most expensive of the three systems. In Australia (where I am these days), the T4215 costs about $3,000; the R400 costs about $3,050; and the X60 costs about $3,900. That makes the Lenovo the most expensive. The Fujitsu, on the other hand, is the cheapest in both countries.

By the way, these prices are for the basic, standard-configuration systems. Fortunately, those are quite good. But when you add in some of the extra stuff (like a 7,200 RPM hard drive, 2GB RAM, a good carrying case, an optical drive, etc.) these prices cross the 5k mark pretty quickly (an near 6k for a darned good system).

Pros and Cons Recap

Now here's the problem: with the Toshiba out of the picture, I'd have to choose between the Fujitsu and Lenovo. Unfortunately, for systems that are so different in so many ways (both major and minor), they really are about the same. Actually, let me list the major differences one more time to make things a little clearer before I move on:

Fujitsu: Pros: has a track pad and an optical drive; is slightly more powerful than the Lenovo; costs considerably less. Cons: doesn't have a full keyboard (though I like its control key placement) or a FireWire port (though that's not at all essential since most digital cameras can also use the USB ports).

Lenovo: Pros: has a full keyboard, a FireWire port, lots of accessories, and a higher screen resolution option; it also includes the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard. Cons: is a little less powerful; doesn't have a built-in optical drive or a track pad; is more expensive (especially when you have to spend even more on an optical drive).

So, Fujitsu or Lenovo?

So what does that mean? Which should I choose? Well, it depends on what I want to do with my laptop now and in the near future and also how/when/where I use my laptop. Listing that down will help me figure out which pros and cons are important to me and which aren't. That should help me eliminate one of the two options.
Now I use my laptop as my primary computer. I use it to work, play games, watch movies, listen to music, browse the Internet, make websites, create/edit graphics, and create/edit audio. Basically, I do everything short of video editing...but that is something I want to do (to a limited degree, of course) on this laptop. And how do/where/when do I use it? Well, I like sitting on a chair and working on a table (i.e. not on the floor/bed/sofa or with stuff in my lap; unless I'm reading a book), I almost always use an external mouse, I usually have lots of windows open, and I takes lots of detailed notes in class. I also like to keep my laptop with me all the time.

When you put the pros and cons in the context of how I use my laptop, how I intend to use my laptop, and my current situation (I'm a student living on a budget), here's what happens:

  • The track pad/stick doesn't matter all that much

  • The higher resolution display makes a difference (+2 for Lenovo)

  • The full keyboard makes a difference (+2 for Lenovo)

  • Battery life doesn't really matter all that much (just over 3 hours is all I really need in one sitting) but the Fujitsu's 6-cell battery is cool when compared to Lenovo's 4-cell standard (+1 for Fujitsu)

  • The on-board optical drive is convenient but not essential, though having to buy an extra optical drive costs money and carrying it around may be a pain (-1 Lenovo)

  • Standard configuration cost is an issue and the Lenovo is a little more expensive to start with (-1 for Lenovo) even though I know that is because it has a better screen and keyboard

  • Processing power is not much of an issue if I'm going to customize the system, but it does matter in the standard configuration (+1 for Fujitsu)


And when you put that all together, funnily enough, you break even again. So what now? Well, you factor in two more things: time and money.

Basically, it boils down to this: if I can only afford the standard system and I have to buy it at today's prices, the Fujitsu wins hands down. It's cheaper, it has a built-in optical drive, and its screen and keyboard are good enough (they're comparable to the ones I'm using now). It's also more powerful, and buying this will give me the biggest bang for the buck. On the other hand, if I can afford to customize the system I'm buying, the Lenovo would win hands down. Its keyboard and screen are better (which is good since I expect to use my laptop for 3-4 years and this is important to me), it has FireWire support (which is nice), it includes the draft 802.11n wireless networking standard (making it slightly future proof), and its battery and lack of optical drive don't matter all that much since I will be getting the 8-cell battery and maybe the UltraDock (or, at the very least, an external optical drive).

Of Course...

Of course, at the end of the day, none of this really matters. The whole discussion, comparison, and conclusion are all just talk because I actually can't afford to buy either of these tablet PCs. In fact, I won't be able to buy one till this time next year; i.e. once I've graduated and have found myself a high-paying job. Even then, I'd be leasing the system because I could never afford the lump sum especially since my first priority would be to pay off my loans anyway. Unless, of course, I got a really, really cool job and they gave me a big starting bonus (like big consulting companies do)...but I don't think that's going to happen (mainly because I don't think I'm going to be applying to big consulting companies).

Still, it's good to dream, isn't it? :)

I Want a Tablet PC

My post-warranty laptop died a few months ago (motherboard problem...long story) and I am now stuck using my mother's ancient Compaq. This is a problem. See, I'm a techie and techies don't have/want/use crappy laptops. Actually, wait...let me clarify: this laptop is not really "crappy", it's just old. It's large, heavy, has an old keyboard, no built-in wireless adapter (it's pre-Centrino), a slow (4,800 RMP!) 30GB hard drive, a non-functional optical drive, an old model touchpad (i.e. less responsive), hard-to-press function keys (the ones that adjust volume, etc.), a dying battery, and an incredibly heavy power adapter. On the other hand, it has a great display and good quality JBL speakers. Oh, and it works. Unlike my old laptop. Anyway, so it's old which, in laptop terms (particularly to a techie) means that it's crappy. Actually, even if I wasn't a techie, having to move to anything older is, well, a bit of a pain.

So, while taking a break after today's final exam and before studying for tomorrow's, I am looking up laptops (or notebooks, as they are also called...though mine have never been small and light enough to warrant my calling them anything different!). I am also making a wish-list short-list of the ones I want to buy, the result of which is this blog post.

Now, choosing the right laptop is very difficult (it depends on what you want to do with it and how much you can afford). Fortunately, I already know what type of laptop I want to buy -- a convertible notebook/tablet -- so this makes my life a little easier. A convertible laptop, by the way, is a laptop that can switch between being a regular notebook and a tablet PC. You do this by twisting its display around and laying that flat on the keyboard, and then using a digitizer pen to write/draw on the screen itself. (Check out the sexy Toshiba Portege R400 for a demonstration. Click "Product Tour" in the Additional Information menu to access the Flash demo.)

Why?

I want this type of laptop for a number of reasons. First, they're really small and light (they get listed in the ultraportables category) and, thanks to my constant travelling -- 30-40 minutes (one way) walking and then taking a tram between home and university every single day -- I really could do with something this small and light. I was already a little tired of lugging my old laptop around and this "new" one one just makes things worse. The downside to getting a convertible, of course, is that they're rather small, with screens measuring only 12.1 inches diagonally. (That means the screen is about the size of an A4 page, by the way.) But that's okay. I am more than ready to sacrifice loss in screen size over loss in weight!

Second, I have come realize that I don't want a laptop to be my primary computer. Very few laptops laptop are able to run all the high-end games and multimedia applications (graphics, video, and audio) that I want to run. And the ones that do run them either run just one of the two (high-end MacBook Pros will run the multimedia applications but not the games, for example) or are not really "laptops" but "portable desktops" (like the high-end Alienware or Voodoo series that are designed for serious gaming enthusiasts). As a result, I am no longer looking for a laptop that is a jack of all trades machine (i.e. used for work, travel, and fun).
My overall game plan, by the way, is to first buy a laptop that I can use for work, travel, and most high-end applications and games, and then buy a desktop that I can use at home for games and multimedia. Later, I will get an Apple desktop for my music studio and a regular desktop (running Linux) which I will use as my very own file, print, web, proxy, database, security, gateway server. Hey, one can dream, right? :)

Anyway: Third, convertibles are really cool. They're incredibly useful, particularly since I am a student again and taking lecture notes on my laptop would make my life significantly easier. I take very detailed notes but I can't take them on my laptop for all my courses because some of them have too many diagrams involved (try learning macroeconomics without using diagrams!). I could, of course, draw all the diagrams in Microsoft Word (which is what I use for taking notes) but there's just never enough time to do that. As it is, Word isn't the best for drawing diagrams and pictures (I prefer Visio). Also, convertibles are incredibly cool in themselves: I mean, being able to flip your screen over and write on it with a pen is just...whoa!

The Wish List

Anyway, coming back to the point of this post: my next laptop will be a convertible tablet PC. So let it be written, so let it be done. In fact, I have already short listed my favourites in this category (in order or preference, with most of the bells and whistles included in the price):

  1. Lenovo's ThinkPad X60 (IBM/US version) which costs about US$2,500 and is really quite awesome except that it has only a TrackPoint mouse (i.e. the button mouse in the middle of the keyboard) which is something I am not used to using.

  2. Fujitsu's LifeBook T4215 (US version) which costs about US$2,700 and is a really good overall system.

  3. Toshiba's Portege R400 (Australian Version) which costs about US$2,900 and is (maybe) not as good technically, but is stylistically cooler than the others.


There are a few others too -- like Gateway's E155C and HP's upcoming Pavilion tx100 -- but they're not all that great (or quite what I want). If you're interested in finding more about convertible tablets, by the way, check out PC Magazine's listing of Tablet PCs (sort by Editor's rating to make your life easier) and Laptop Magazine's article "Tablet PCs on the Move". And if you're really interested in tablet PCs, check out GottaBeMobile.com which has full "InkShows" (video shows) on the ThinkPad X60, LifeBook T4215, and the Portege R400 (each has move than one video, by the way; most cool).

Of course, each of my top three can be further upgraded (more RAM, faster processor, faster, larger hard drive, optical drive, better dock, etc.) so, in the end, it's probably not all about specs. However, most of this talk is moot since I can't afford to buy any of these for, well, quite a while yet anyway. But, I will buy one eventually! I just hope it's sooner rather than later and, just in case, I want to be prepared :)

Terminator 3

How cool is the Terminator trilogy? The first movie was groundbreaking enough and the second is one of my favourite movies of all time. And then, just when you thought it was all over...they came up with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Now I know that a lot of people had a lot of problems with this instalment (most of which I don't agree with, by the way) and yes, it did have its problems. But if that's all you get fixated on, then you've missed half the movie!

Ignoring all that, how cool was the fundamental story behind T3? At one level it has that whole feeling of futility in the complete undoing of the first two movies. On the other hand, it has the whole inevitability-of-it-all thing going for it -- something that Nick Stahl manages to pull of really well in the last scene, I think. And the fact that they managed to do it (the whole reversal, back-to-where-you-started thing) in just one movie made the whole thing even cooler. I wonder what they're going to do with T4?

I also really like Nick Stahl, though he was better in Carnivale, and I am an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan. I don't like Claire Danes too much (as Nadia pointed out, she does too many roles in which she cries all the time) but I thought she did a pretty good constantly-freaked-out job in this role. I really missed Linda Hamilton in this one, though. She made the first two movies, didn't she?

Ninety Degrees of Randomness

I didn't think I wanted to start a blog. And then, when I signed up for a Yahoo! 360-degrees account (I'm a long time Yahoo! user), I found that I already had one (as part of the whole 360-degree package). Now this was a dilemma. I don't usually sign up for things I don't use so I went ahead and made a token entry:
So here I am, typing my first blog entry. Do I really expect to maintain this blog and/or use it regularly? No, that is most unlikely. In fact, I probably won't even visit this site very often. I just don't have time for writing blogs and maintaining pages such as these, unfortunately. Such is life.

Still...I might just. Who knows? :)

That, I thought, was that.

And then, while flicking through channels on TV, I watched a bit of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Now, I really like the Terminator series (yes, even part three) but, since Nadia hasn't seen it, I can't talk to her about how cool I think it is. And that's when it occurred to me: when I don't have someone (such as my sister, Maliha) to talk to about the many, many different kinds of movies that I love, I can blog about it instead! (Yes, the word "blog" can be used as a verb). Talking out loud (on the Internet, at least) even though no one might be listening sure beats talking to no one instead. And so I started blogging every now and then on my Yahoo! page.

However, since Nadia I have gone through all this effort to make our own website, it makes so much more sense for us to host our own blogs here (she had a temporary blog elsewhere too). And so here we are.