31.7.08

Unix is Great

I am trying to improve my Unix skills at the moment. I came across this on a help forum for grep:

Ericcarlson: I need to get a string from a file and can't figure out how to grep it. This file is from a subversion commit. Its always of the form.....

From23: awk is going to be better than grep and I can find a simple command for
you later when I get home (if no one else can punch one out). If you
are impatient or just want to learn... `man awk`


But my real reason for posting this. Did you go to FIT and do you want
to be a Vegas showgirl? Sorry if these questions seem weird but I think
I either know you or you share a name with someone I know.



The strange thing is he is serious!

Watchmen

The must see movie of next season has got to be Watchmen. I read the graphic novel a few months ago and it really is as good as everyone says it is! The trailer:



It really looks like the stick to the story in the book. I wonder how they cover the end of chapter summaries where lots of information presented in text form to get the reader informed on what is going on? Oh, and I bet they will have the comic within a comic also. Plus... very good marketing scheme with getting people to make their own Veidt adverts, you can see them here. I particularly like the watergunfilms series:


30.7.08

Food Party!

Food Party (with your host: Thu Tran!) is the coolest foodie related bit I've seen in a while. The videos are awesome! The acting is not, but that is part of the charm.

I've been inspired to document my food related adventures in Germany, which I have been wanting to do for some time. Coming soon... Purple Broccoli, Zucchini Blossoms, Orange Tomatos and Chestnut Jam.

Two is a Trend

The must see movie of the season is Fitzcarraldo! (IMDB: (1982) The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who
intends to build an opera house in the middle of the Peruvian jungle.)

From Spiegel:

German actor Klaus Kinski was known for his passionate performances
that bordered on the manic. In countless films such as "Fitzcarraldo"
and "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" -- many directed by Werner Herzog -- he
often portrayed men on the very edge of madness.

The article is about Kinski's widow fighting against the release of his medical records from a Berlin clinic now he is dead.

From Pitchfork:

I've rented lots of good movies lately. One was Fitzcarraldo. You know the German director Werner Herzog? At ATP they showed the documentary of Fitzcarraldo.
Crazy. [Herzog] goes deep into the jungle and tries to lift a ship up
over a hill. You kind of have to see it to really believe it. That and
the documentary, [Burden of Dreams] about the making of Fitzcarraldo.


That is from an interview with Brendan Canning, part of the T.O. based collective Broken Social Scene, and out with a new "BSC presents: album.

Two mentions in two days of a 1982 German movie from a German and T.O. source, coincidence? I think not.

And is it just me or does Brendan Canning look like a junior Andrew Clark?




28.7.08

Cuil Online

I just found out about the new post-Google programmer search engine Cuil (pronounced "cool"). I gave it a spin by searching for my favourite mouse: Mus musculus, and somehow the results were pretty impressive. On the right had side is a stack of headers titles "Explore by Category" with very appropriate titles such as: Model Organisms, Geneic Journals and Bioinformatics Databases. The Fauna of Ireland and Mammals of he United States are on topic but somehow not quite relevant when situated beside a listing of bioinformatic databases. I'm gonna Cuil a fair shot against Google the next copule of weeks.