The life and times of a fallen hacker
Archive for July 2007
Two independently operating cats without much need of supervision, pleasant weather, stacks of books and magazines to read, opportunity for a sauna when I want, backyard to lounge around in.
Yeah, that fits the description of holiday pretty well.
Saw Metallica yesterday in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on their Sick of the Studio ‘07 tour.
The concert was oddly devoid of any real surprises, the band catered for the fans by providing a greatest hits set. Without any new songs off the forthcoming album, nor any from the 2003 St. Anger.
All in all the song selection was very conservative - surprises confined to what was omitted rather than what was included. No Leaf Clover off S&M was a peculiar choice, as was the title track from … And Justice For All.
This was the first concert ever that had a dedicated shirt, a nice red/black-design with the herald of Helsinki on the front. A shirt which was sold out pretty much immediately at the stands inside.
While the entry into the stadium was far less painful than back in 2004, the lines stretched long. This time I avoided cutting the line, and joined it pretty much where the tail end was, three years back. According to reliable reports, this was about as good as it got, since both before and afterwards the line had been snaking much longer, way much longer.
A bunch of anxious fans had camped out on the path, and the results of a three-day stay showed - garbage was everywhere, rained on and trampled into the ground.
Missed Diablo, the first warm-up act completely. HIM was plagued with less than optimal sound (at least near the stage), and an indifferent audience. Didn’t recognize any songs as being from the forthcoming Venus Doom album, but wasn’t really paying that much attention either.
Creeping Death Four Horsemen Ride the Lightning Unforgiven Disposable Heroes ... And Justice for All Memory Remains No Leaf Clover Orion Fade to Black Master of Puppets Whiplash // Sad But True Nothing Else Matters One Enter Sandman // Am I Evil? Seek & Destroy
A nostalgic selection indeed, without any indication of the style of the next album. But as long as the band keeps playing the likes of Orion and Creeping Death, I certainly will be back for more. And that’s probably what Rolling Stones’ fans are saying about Paint it Black and Satisfaction. Though Metallica is not yet on the same bandwagon as messieurs Jagger and Richards, they have been skirting the edge of being not much more than a classics-jukebox for the last three tours.
The raps between songs seemed pretty much routine, but the thanks given by all band members following the show were on the genuine side (and devoid of any “Heavy Metal Capital”-expressions so loved by the likes of Bruce Dickinson).
The troubled Ayn Rand-movie is definitely Darren Aronofsky’s weirdest hour. And considering his earlier Pi, that’s saying quite a lot.
Didn’t catch this in the big screen, where a single copy spent something like a week of two in Finland, bought a dvd from Virgin in New York to ensure a timely viewing.
I’m not at all familiar with the original, and cannot thus comment on how the novel is captured on screen. As a movie the three-fold story is not that great - rambling, confusing and obscure to the point where pretty much the entire story needs to be tied together in the watcher’s head. Not your typical Hollywood-fare, that’s for sure - and the difficulty of the film wasn’t really rewarded neither in the box office where it bombed nor by the vast majority of critics.
It’s not a bad movie by any means, I just found it boring and even more worrisomely: completely detached emotionally - the characters plain did not work for me. But indeed, it’s not a bad movie at all, the underlying message of hope is understated and the chronologically disparate storylines are crafted with great visuals. Altogether it’s an experience so much on the odd side that it’s worth a shot.
Mission accomplished. Picked up a ticket for tomorrow’s show.
Let the good times roll. And hope for better entry protocol than what was used back in 2004.
Patvinsuo by Hannu Vallas
Noted that this summer’s outdoors photo exhibition at the old bus station was shut down earlier than scheduled.
Indeed, Hannu Vallas, the finnish equivalent of Yann Arthus-Bertrand (whose show I raved about back in 2004 and 2005), had two dozen or so images displayed, a lot of the selection taken from the archipelago.
Walked through the exhibition a couple of weeks back, and was impressed enough to consider buying Vallas’ book, after all, Arthus-Bertrand’s doesn’t have a single image from Finland in his sizable tome.
Watched the not really expected fourth part of the venerable Die Hard saga. The naming of the movie is questionable, while the print showed the “Die Hard 4.0″-name on screen, all the US media seem to be using the old name still. Like the recently sighted Ocean’s Thirteen this movie turned oout to be a really good summer movie - lots of flash, but not utterly devoid of cerebral matter either (unlike the latest Spiderman and Pirates installments).
The movie takes a while to get going - the first ten minutes aren’t really quality entertainment, but once the director gets comfortable, the viewers are in on a rollicking ride. A ride that remains credible for the most part of the show, barring a few stretches straight out of True Lies, this could pretty much have been an extended episode of 24.
Bruce Willis plays the aging John McClane to a hilt - spewing one-liners with precision, whilst getting shot, hit, skewered by flying glass and all around walking wounded. Justin Long, as the hacker sidekick is far less annooying than expected, and the hacker culture altogether is rather drawn without major snapping of disbelief (albeit drawn with a really big brush). Kevin Smith’s über-geek Warlock is saddled with too many cliches for comfort, but like Willis and Timothy Olyphant (yeah, the Deadwood guy) he fits his part like a glove.
Lots of screentime is given to product placement - Nokia phones and communicators are frequently seen, and Gears of War makes it on screen twice.
Those wondering where the hacker guy is familiar: he’s the Mac in Apple’s television ads. And those wondering what’s the song playing when McClane enters Farrell’s apartment: no clue (Flyleaf sounds about right when looking at the choices on the soundtrack).
As a conclusion: easily the best in the series since the original adventure at Nakatomi Plaza, and a very good summer movie on its own. Wouldn’t bet on part 5 ever appearing, but if the quality remains on this level - further episodes certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Continuing the annual tradition of reading stacks and stacks of mystery/thriller novels in the summer, finished Michael Connelly’s debut novel, Black Echo.
The book was recommended by a very reliable source, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Especially considering that this was the author’s first book, the twisting and turning plot was well-realized, and unsurprisingly the novel took home the Edgar Award.
Wasn’t aware of the book’s chronology, and was perplexed by repeated references to older cases of the protagonist, Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, but that turned out to be a narrative trick only, not homework to be completed before approaching this book.
Next up, James Lee Burke - following a second recommendation from the same guy who was behind the purchase of this book. Both authors seem to have extensively long bibliographies (as well as multiple awards) behind them, so this could indeed be the beginning of a beautiful literary friendship.
Wow. Wasn’t aware that wikipedia is this well-spread.
There’s no less than 253 variants of the encyclopedia available.
Of course, the vast majority of them remains in the category of “not really wide”, meaning that there’s just tens or hundreds of articles available. But that’s definitely a start.
The Klingon edition has 62 articles, whereas the one in Esperanto has a very respectable 86k entries. But the most mysterious item is the -1 images used in the Kanuri wikipedia.
The thus far failing perpetual energy machine has a blog devoted to following the progress.
Sweet. This means that tidbits no longer need to be sought out amongst the regular news.
If the regularly scheduled hesari supplements are any kind of indication, I’ve moved beyond the limits of a young urban go-getter to the staid life of gently sipped single malts and roaring fireplaces.
Indeed. Just noted that the weekly nyt-supplement has gone downhill so bad, that there really isn’t much to interest any more. Apart from the comic strip by Jukka Tilsa, that is. The movie reviews are decent, but the music reviews oftentimes turn out nothing more than the praises of the author’s wide and far-reaching tastes. The lead articles have turned out to be badly imitating City (but are missing its arrogance and occasional bite) or just plain boring (like this week’s expose on a completely unknown race car driver).
The monthly supplement, on the other hand, believes in long and researched articles as opposed to an elusive soundbite, and that pays off. Not all the content is interesting, obviously, but at least one or two long articles make it every month. And the time spent on them (and the food pages) far outstrips that on nyt. Even if the latter would have a thought-provoking column on the last page for a change.
Vanity Fair has a lengthy history of America’s favorite family, done as a mega-interview of tens of folks involved with the show.
(Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a daily lovefest on a single subject until the premiere [like the World Cup 2006 last year]. I think and sincrely hope. But the mini-trailers of the movie are undeniably funny.)
After the disaster that was Ocean’s Twelve a couple of years back, I didn’t have such high hopes for the newest installment. But was disappointed, in the best pessimistic kind of way - the third part of the franchise turned out to be a great movie.
You see, this time the ensemble had an actual script to build up from, and not just some ad-hoc scenes crafted on Clooney’s villa in Lake Como. That’s right - this time there’s a properly planned and executed heist, not a plotless tale camouflaged behind cameoing stars.
And the plot actually works well, and the guys of Danny Ocean’s team (Julia Roberts has fortunately been excised from the troupe) have to actually use their skills instead of lounging through Europe. But the team is not equally used - Don Cheadle gets criminally little screen time, and way too much is given out to a peculiar factory liberation subplot in Mexico.
The pacing varies, as does the level of exposition - every plot device is not spelled out explicitly. The planning coasts along for ages, causing the actual operation to feel rushed at the end. Dialogue is also much improved from the previous part - while there’s little to approach the quality of the first installment, this time the repartee is not cringe-inducing.
Al Pacino, as the guest villain of the episode overdoes his act a couple of times, but Ellen Barkin gets the top mark as his overbearing lieutenant.
Best summer movie thus far - and the latecomers have a fight in their hands to outdo this. And the latest Pixar film, Ratatouille has done extremely well reviews-wise.
Fourteen? And the first ten chapters as prequels? If the quality remains on this level, I wouldn’t mind…
(And sure, I seriously, overrated the Twelve back in the day. Must have been the christmassy feeling instilled by copious amounts of mulled wine. Downgrade to two stars, please.)
Ignition at 1500, today - following the tying of a few loose ends left from less-than-employed last week. Into the sunshine cracking the few remaining clouds of the morning’s rain. (Kodak-moment, definitely, but utterly forgot to capture the scene.)
Four weeks of idling ahead, with minimal plans.
Just the way things ought to be.
Indeed, the somewhat delayed Akvaariokalat is finally out. No link to the book, the publisher’s web page is stuck somewhere in 2006, and thus missing all pertinent information.
The book clocks in around 700 species, with a very good hit ratio, only a couple of conspicuous omissions exist (mudskippers for one). The content is very catfish-heavy, with cichlids (especially middle american species) treated quite lightly.
The layout is pleasant, photographs well-selected and the textual bits actually contain useful information - clearly worth the fifty euros asking price.
Heavily recommended, and if it weren’t for the Aquarien Atlas, this new book would be very close to the top of its class.
(Yeah, resurrecting the long-dormant fishblog ought to happen soon, with a much more precise review of the book amongst its first entries.)
Sami in pinseri brought forward an unpleasant turn of events. The evidence seems beyond reasonable doubt to convict sitemeter of fraternizing with cookie-mongers and other low-lifes.
The paradigm of no free lunches is proven once more. Now what does that make of Google Analytics remains to be seen.
Anyway, the blog doesn’t pull in enough visitors to warrant much ado about the statistics, and good old awstats gives a pretty good idea of the hot search terms and such.
The “new” seven wonders of the world were announced yesterday. The selection, apart from Brazil’s statue of Christ the Redeemer-statue, is not surprising at all.
In fact the selection is nothing short of mindnumbingly boring.
If these are supposed to be the new wonders, then I take serious exception on things such as the great wall and colosseum. The first has no redeeming features above its length, and the latter has a less-than-shiny reputation, and is in ruins anyway.
And hey, even Sid Meier’s Civilization got the modern wonders right with internet leading the way amongst the recent arrivals.
Anyway, the selection is nothing but a well-executed marketing stunt - the new wonders are bound to pull in myriads of tourists, even with a tiny cut to the initiative organized by Bernard Weber. And the profits from tens of millions of votes cast over SMS are not exactly tiny pickings either.
18 more days to the Simpsons movie.
It’s not one of the prettiest days of the summer, been hanging at the HQ, with television tuned to Live Earth in the background.
Thus far the catch has been meager: Wolfmother was interesting, as was Genesis (from a dinosaur-collection point of view), but for the most part the selection hasn’t been exciting (caught 15 seconds of Linkin Park only on the Tokyo highlights reel).
There’s more to come, obviously, probably starting with Spinal Tap any time soon, but those’ll have to be caught up on youtube, since the utter lack of scheduling doesn’t inspire confidence in programming the DVR.
I’ve raved about Charles Stross‘ books for a couple of years now.
Not only is he a prolific author, but manages find time to to publish interesting and lengthy articles on his blog as well. Such as the ones on viability of space colonization and future (especially the latter is very much worth the read).
Eight days to go before the gig in Helsinki, and haven’t yet been able to score a ticket.
Huuto.net ought to be of assistance… Though the premium over the original price will probably be calculated in tens of euros.
