Jul 142007
 

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.

Black Echo

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Jul 132007
 

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.

Jul 122007
 

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.

Jul 112007
 

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.

Jul 112007
 

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.)

Jul 112007
 

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.)

Vacation

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Jul 092007
 

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.

Jul 092007
 

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.)

G'bye Sitemeter?

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Jul 092007
 

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.

Wonders2.0

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Jul 092007
 

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.

Live Earth Scoring

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Jul 072007
 

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.

No Metallica ticket yet

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Jul 072007
 

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.

Jul 072007
 

Matt Barton is at it again. Following the successful trilogy of computerized RPG history, he’s moved on to interactive fiction.

The history of Zork in Gamasutra is supplemented with a much wider selection of interviews in Armchair Arcade.

Interesting. Apart from Howard Sherman of Malinche Software, who comes off as a self-important whiner so full of himself he’s about to pop. And whose claims of being the “sole remaining implementor” are hollow anyway, as commercial releases of games such as City of Secrets (freely available now) and 1893 testify.

Jul 072007
 

And man, I hope this resurgence of runnynosiness is not a premonition of the whole flu getting nasty again.

At least the paper mill owners ought to be happy when I keep maiming tissue after tissue.

And despite an earlier promise, no topical photograph shall accompany this entry…

Jul 072007
 

Very much in the interactive fiction vein, with a healthy dose of classic and ultra-violent videogames thrown in for good measure.

  • Telltale Games, who have singlehandedly birthed the episodical adventure game with Bone and Sam & Max recently received a nicely round six million dollars in venture capital.
  • Yet another variant of the Z-Machine, Ziggy uses forums for input and output, and the effect is quite an odd multi-player experience.
  • Rockstar continues its defiant progress: Manhunt 2. The release of the game has now been suspended following bans in both United Kingdom and United States.
  • The H.P. Lovecraft 70-year anniversary games are out. My own effort got sidelined almost in square one.
  • Mr. Grownup Gamer is blogging his way through the entire Zelda-series.
  • Top 10 massively multiplayer games/worlds holds quite a few surprises: WoW at #1 is not one of them, but the 15:1 advantage enjoyed by Habbo Hotel over Second Life definitely is.
  • A games writer for Guardian bravely tries to organize the writing of a multi-author text adventure on a blog.
  • There’s a wiki for everything, and multiples thereof on hype-y subjects. Interactive fiction certainly doesn’t carry hype, but the jointly authored site on the subject provides lots of information.
  • IGN’s games of the summer feature has very optimistic (but also vague) release date for Bioware’s inbound science fiction extravaganza Mass Effect.
Jul 072007
 

As noted in an earlier entry, read Matti Rönkä‘s entire mystery novel output this week.

And the evolution of the author is quite remarkable. While the characters are drawn with good detail from the very beginning onwards, it’s the plot and especially dialogue that improve in later books. The first two books are filled with so many worn one-liners, that it’s not clear whether their use is a conscious mannerism. Apparently not, since the last book Ystävät Kaukana rises above and beyond the suboptimal wordsmithing.

The protagonist of the novels is quite like Harri Nykänen’s Raid – a criminal with a well-developed sense of right and wrong. But Rönkä’s Vikor Kärppä is not a torpedo, but a businessman. A shady businessman, but a part of the establishment nonetheless. As an immigrant from Russia he brings a lot of baggage with him – and as a man with finnish roots, even more. A lot is made of the eastern mob-angle, but that’s only to be expected.

As is a medium-profile mini-series for television. After all, the author is a long term veteran of both yleisradio and MTV3.

Recommended, and persistence pays off even when the two first books are rough around the edges.

Renovations

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Jul 052007
 

Reworked the CSS behind the blog.

Which is not visible as anything but a different color scheme hopefully.

Excised a lot of cruft, and made the stylesheets a lot more understandable (the previous incarnation was cobbled together in a frankensteinian fashion).

Report anomalies, annoyances and such (preferably with visual evidence).

The new stylesheets will be taken into use slowly, don’t hold your breath on them making it to all of the pages any time soon.

Jul 052007
 
Välkelude

Välkelude by Teemu Rintala

PUTTE, the finnish biodiversity program has discovered 1400 new species in the finnish nature. Of whom 180 are new to science altogether.

So, the research is by no means constrained to amazonian highlands or remote islands – even though such hotbeds have more new species on a single square meter than uncovered here.

The depicted creature is välkelude one of the many new insects covered during the study. The program is far from over, and the researchers aim to publish a number of books on less-known groups during the next four years.