Lavonardo

Annual Ottawa Linux Symposium is upon us again. And this time the proceedings were published on the official page before the actual conference.

Added a few images snapped with the 6680 on assorted entries written during the last two weeks or so.

Heavily cropped and resized, but quality is, at times, surprisingly bearable.

Finally made it to a preview of the most expected movie of 2005.

Movie of the year, thus far. And it’ll have to be an amazing performance from any film to de-throne Sin City.

A movie based on a graphic novel, actually three of them, that’s true to the original to the extent of actually using the same angles and positions.

A very violent movie - the Sin City originals never shied away from violence, but seeing it erupt in full motion, with bone-jarring sound effects is shocking at times.

A very stylish movie. Filmed mainly in front of greenscreen, with the scenery added digitally. Filmed mainly in duotone black/white, with splashes of color for good effect (though there are a lot more of those splashes than the trailer lets on).

A very well-cast movie. The male leads range from “way better than I expected” (Clive Owen) to “amazing” (Mickey Rourke). And the female leads are no worse either - with the exception of Jessica Alba, she’s not fully convicing in her role - Brittany Murphy and Rosario Dawson shine, on the other hand. Supporting cast is full of murderously good performances - with Benicio Del Toro (as Jackie-Boy, the catalyst for the Big Fat Kill) taking the top spot. And Elijah Wood sheds any remaining jollylittlehobbit-influences from his karma with an effective portrayal of Kevin, a class-act twisted psychopath.

But it’s really Mickey Rourke that’s the greatest performance, after a decade or more in utter career doldrums, his return as the armed and dangerous Marv is nothing less than perfect. His merciless romp through the original Sin City story is the high point of the movie, but it doesn’t let up much in the other two stories either.

And yah, it’s a total classic, with some small blemishes. The original ending of The Yellow Bastard would have been a perfect cap to the whole movie, but there’s a needless (yet mercifully short) addition at the very end.

Co-directed by Frank Miller (the comic artist behind the Sin City franchise) and Robert Rodriguez. One scene (transporting Jackie-Boy) is “guest-directed” by Quentin Tarantino (as payment for Rodriguez composing music for Kill Bill, vol. 2), and that indeed oozes Tarantino-esque handling of dialogue all the way.

And how could a movie that gets the lowest possible score in the ChildCare Action Project be any bad.

Part two is in the early stages of production, and the sequel’s release in 2006 sounds definitely optimistic. Let’s just hope they leave the awful Family Values album aside when choosing sources.

Yes, it’s a five star movie. First in a long long time. Go see it. There’s no middle ground to it - you either love it, or you hate it. But at least you’ll have a lot to say about it, no lukewarm feelings expected.

• A decent analysis about what’s eating tinseltown right now.
• Coolest keyboard ever.
• There ought to be a law forbidding self-inflicted typos on tattoos.
• NHL will return this season. For the NBA it took some thirty minutes to come to agreement.
• Fractal image generation with an image creation language.
• Wil Shipley on why OS X is the best environment for making money on software.

Saw Christopher Nolan’s refactoring of the start of the Batman saga.

And it’s a good movie indeed, firmly placing Batman amongst the comic book franchises. Again. After Joel Schumacher did what neither the Joker, nor the Riddler or any of the caped crusader’s myriad enemies accomplished: He killed Batman.

Batman Begins starts, obviously, from the very beginning. Bruce Wayne seeing his parents killed, disappearing for years, and returning to Gotham City as a starting vigilante. A lot of time is devoted to his missing years, and this is pretty much the only place where the film stalls a bit. Otherwise it keeps chugging along at a good pace.

The architectural design is far less gothic than Burton’s vision, and less neon-saturated that Schumacher’s. Batman’s equipment comes from a somewhat believable source (surplus army R&D), and the batmobile resembles no previous incarnation in its utter lack of grace.

The story is decent, concentrating on a very appropriate theme: fear. Both the eponymous hero and one of his biggest enemies in the movie have their foundations buried in use and abuse of fear.

Christian Bale is great in the protagonist’s role, as is Michael Caine as his butler, Alfred. The leading lady, Katie Holmes, flashes a lopsided grin a couple of times, but is pretty much forgettable. The rest of the supporting cast is at least functional, with Gary Oldman (as Gordon, the only clean cop in the city) putting in a very subdued performance that hits the mark head on.

Bring on the inevitable sequels…

Despite profoundly hating Cornwell’s previous book, bought the newest Scarpetta-tale from an early summer sale.

While not exactly good on any criteria, it’s not as total disaster as Blowfly.

Still uses the very confusing and stilted impersonal third person viewpoint in passive present tense. Still introduces a large number of characters into the story, and fails to do much with most. Still leaves a lot of plot strands completely unresolved (the plights of Fielding and Marcus are not followed up at all), but fortunately Trace is a single-volume book and thus the main storyline is tied up though its motive nor actual execution are not explained at all. And the ending is very anticlimactic, as the 460+ pages of the novel are wrapped up on a single page, and the eponymous Trace (evidence) is not expanded upon at all. Very disappointing plot-wise.

Yes, it’s readable, but not even close to a compulsive page-turner as the first six or so of her novels were. The main characters - working on two separate plots remain distant as ever, and the supporting cast fails to convince (mainly due to their susceptible stupidity). The CSI-bits are pretty much the only decent part of the story, and they are spread out way too thin.

It’s far too thick a book, and most of the add-on pages feel like such. Needless exposition that does not add details to the storylines, meandering about the validity of frontier justice, a plot that does not really move, angst piled on almost every character, and indeed, characters that fail to convince and engage. A small plus sign for Cornwell for not continuing the Blowfly-saga at all, or even referring to the still at large antagonist at all.

In a word: avoid.

Aponogeton cf. AW, the magazine put together by the Aqua-Web community is of very high quality. Heavily recommended.

The site does not seem to have a dedicated page for the magazine yet, so here are links to the issues published thus far: june/05 and may/05.

Beats the perplexingly sucky Akvaariomaailma by a mile, and gives Akvaristi a good run for its money.

Spielberg’s new movie was pretty much what I expected: an old science fiction story used as background for unifying a splintered family.

It’s not a bad movie, by any means, but not very good either.

The aliens’ machinery is portrayed in chillingly ruthless fashion, but the aliens themselves look like 3rd rate rejects from the Men in Black franchise. And that’s not a good thing.

Tom Cruise is decent as the estranged father, but Dakota Fanning as his multi-challenged daughter steals the show. Tim Robbins isn’t bad either, and clearly relishes his role as the more than slightly bonkers farmer. Miranda Otto is criminally under-used, and the guy portraying Cruise’s son seems oddly familiar, but can’t recall from where. And the protagonist himself is not convincing at all, and that’s a big minus - though the script itself doesn’t give that much room to maneuver from a reckless blue collar worker to a reliable father figure.

The story has been updated from its victorian origin - the armed forces are frequently seen, and references to terrorists abound in the first half (like the use of grey dust as remnant from the initial alien attack / ground zero on 9/11). The ending is as abrupt as it is in the novel, I much preferred Alan Moore’s version of the proceedings in the second volume of the League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen.

Some of the visual elements have been done with good care: the red algae fields (that seem to grow really fast), the river on which the dead float, the flaming train on the crossing, and of course the tripods themselves.

A further hefty demerit for the movie is the use of an omniscient narrator. And using that voice only in the very beginning and end of the tale. Maximally annoying, and additional use of the voice would have eliminated some of the occasionally quite heavy-handed plot movements by minor characters.

It’s hard to speculate what really went wrong with the movie - somehow neither the compressed time scale (whatever it takes to go from New York to Boston) nor the extremely limited viewpoint (what the Ferrier family sees) add to the proceedings. Thus, it would have taken a major rewrite (and then some) to get a higher score.

Second novel in the Rebus-sequence, which is surprisingly long, and I’m obviously just getting started.

Not as personal a story like the first novel (Noughts and Crosses), but then again, few tales are.

A tale that contrasts the twin sides of rapidly growing Edinburgh - a dilapidated area that squatters have taken over and that owned by the old boys’ network of high-placed businessmen. Some of the topics seem a bit too well glued-on: occultism for one was an aspect that could easily been left by the wayside.

Story suffers a little from being translated, as the key clue of the story is very much language-dependent. Other than that, the translation is effortless, and no misunderstandings or logical errors leap at the reader.

A pleasant read, and one that’ll definitely keep me seeking out later Rebus stories.

Noted that I’ve seen no ladybugs (or ladybirds as the correct name seems to be) the whole summer.

And the lack seems to be profound - queries to friends and family have same results, the red/black small beetles are nowhere to be seen.

Outside: +28, and probably shooting up to +30 even before noon.

Inside: +31, and hopefully not going up any more. Top floor of the house, one that gets direct sunlight for the whole day, this means that heat will build up.

Can’t do anything about the former, but definitely will buy an electric fan to offset the effects of the latter.

Since summer’s the prime season for devouring novels about crimes and solving them, decided to briefly review the books fitting that description as I read them.

First up is Reijo Mäki’s second-newest (I think) novel: Huhtikuun Tytöt.

And the very first Vares-novel that I have read. Surprisingly have missed pretty much the whole series. The first exposure was the last summer’s eponymous movie.

And the book is not that different from the movie. A rapidly flowing narrative, sprinkled with mostly decent one-liners, repetitive drinking, and rather well-defined characters (only some of which are explicitly humorous). The story itself, however, is not perfect - it mixes up several plots, and the resolution of the main line is done in quite haphazard way. Not being familiar with the author’s other books it’s hard to say whether this is specific for this book, or a more common occurrence.

Perfect summer reading - the plot moves along well, without getting stuck on needless details. Was worth it, and will seek out other Vares-novels. And the book shows that the quality of the movie - both plot- and characters-wise - was no fluke, and the sixteen-some Vares-novels published thus far would allow for quite a few sequels.

Noted that by far the best coverage of the chaotic post-explosion was done by wikipedia. Not so much reporting (that’s for the traditional media), rather than collecting all the pertinent information into a single page.

Visited relatives in Nivala over the weekend.

Travelling by train, including my very first trip on a Pendolino train on the return leg.

A lot of home-grown pork, red wine and speculation on how long the heat wave will last, wood-heated sauna, abundance of bugs (horsefly [probably not the exact species name] bites are still painful). All in all an execllent chill-out session, one that’s been an annual standard for years, and hopefully will continue to be so.

On the trip back the train travelled in two halves. Yours truly, according to Murphy’s Law, in the latter, of course. The halving was due to some coupling difficulties. But the train caught up in an admirable fashion. 30+ minutes delayed in Ylivieska, about 10 in Helsinki. Probably the speed was very reason why the info-monitors were silent. And badly unused even when they were working.

Saw Fantomas at Tavastia.

Probably the weirdest concert I’ve ever been to. Mike Patton (ex-Faith No More/Mr. Bungle/many others) does not really use his vocal cords for singing, rather than making noises. Noises, whose range and expressivity causes admiration for the versaility, but worry about the longevity. From shrill screaming to guttural rumbles in seconds, via imitation of mechanically troubled engine - that’s Mr. Patton’s range for you.

Did not really rcognize any “songs”. Apart from the chorus of Iron Maiden’s Run to the Hills sung with an extreme operatic pathos.

Tavastia was sold out, and the atmosphere was quietly worshipful. Even with the minimal interaction with audience, the band utterly captivated the attention of 700+ people.

The stage layout would have required a better picture than what the phone provides at an extreme range. Among other things, the image does no justice to the humongous drum kit, nor shows the two dolls tied to mike stands (and used as excuses for further noise-production).

Dave Lombardo was absent (touring with Slayer), but apparently very adequately replaced by Terry Bozzio.

Definitely worth seeing, but an hour was probably the maximum duration for the show. For both the audience and the band. So, when America, Fuck Yeah was put on the platter to mark the end of the gig, pretty much everybody was relieved. And sure, I’d go see them again. Given enough time to recuperate from this concert.

Saw Iron Maiden on their Early Days / Eddie Rips Up Europe / Whatever tour. Playing nothing but material from their four first albums, it was not your average Maiden-gig.

Some of the songs were very familiar and expected (Run to the Hills, Number of the Beast), some not played at all on previous few tours (Where Eagles Dare, Drifter). Hallowed be thy name was my personal highlight, though Phantom of the Opera was excellent as well. Was expecting Charlotte, Flight of the Icarus and Prisoner, but nope. And no Women in Uniform either.

Didn’t draft a set list, but one can be approximated from the relevant thread in imperiumi.net.

Audience participation was on a very high level, the place (at some 14k tickets) was sold out two consecutive nights. Next year (following a new studio album) they expect to play in a “bigger place”, which probably refers to the olympic stadium currently unavailable due to renovation work for the Athletics World Championships in august.

Extra bonuses for Dickinson for rubbing London’s successful 2012 olympic bid over the french. Chirac got a personal trouncing for disrespecting finnish and british food. To loud applause.

Played for ~100 minutes, the gig was very much on the enjoyable side, but something was missing. Perhaps I’ve just seen the same songs too many times, seen Janick Gers steal too much stage space with his antics, but I’m sure I’ll join the next tour as well.

Mastodon, the warm-up band was OK - didn’t expect anything special, and sure didn’t get any. Somewhere between hard rock and metal, with some stoner-aspects for extra spice. Covered a Melvins’ song which was a surprise.

T-shirts and other loot was very highly priced. 35 euros for a normal shirt is robbery. And charging 15 for a single wristband is ever worse.

The European Parliament was almost unanimous in rejecting the long-disputed software patents directive. With 648 against, and only 14 for, this proposal won’ see daylight again anytime soon.

Three cheers. And the finnish MEPs who promised to vote against seemingly did, across the party divisions. Multiple cheers to that, too. What on earth is the world coming to, when you can actually rely on politicians…

Perhaps Nancy Reagan was indeed right, a perfectly timed “NO!” is a powerful weapon.

Had completely missed this, a newish on-line magazine.

Interesting content, though certainly a lot on the “just scratching the surface here”, but it’d be unfair to expect anything more since the content is pretty much on par with equivalent paper magazines, but price isn’t - this baby’s free. More aggressive linking to things covered would be beneficial though. Especially on subjects that bring in zillions of hits in google - pre-sorting wheat from chaff would be much appreciated (and some articles are very well-linked anyhow).

Tossed frisbee in daytime heat, with expectedly long breaks in the action. No forehead catches this time, and seem to be making progress with a decent forehead throw, though the finger placement under the disk does not feel completely natural.

And it’s not just the days that are warm, but nights as well. It was still +22 around 1:30.

Regular daily updates will cease here, since the vacation seems to have gotten off to a good start.

Restaurant Nerone on Pursimiehenkatu has been closed (in finnish, search for “nerone”) by the Helsinki environmental board due to multiple hygiene violations.

Never brought home any unexpected illnesses, and had many a good pizza there in the late nineties. Seems that the place had gone rapidly downhill during the last couple of years. And it’s been a long while since my last visit, so it’s really not fair to guesstimate how bad things had evolved.