Archive for September, 2007
Great books coming to the big screen
As you may have guessed I enjoy books and movies very much and so when I hear that a book I loved is getting the film treatment I’m filled with excitement and apprehension as to whether it will live up to the imagery in my head.
Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series were both spot on, Paycheck was very much off the mark.
Here’s a few in the pipeline or already released elsewhere but yet to hit the UK.
Stardust (2007)
One of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, wrote a grown-up fairytale about a star that falls to Earth (a little like 10th Kingdom but with less comedy).
Much of the cast, the directory and writing team are all English although the ‘star’ role goes to the very lovely American Sienna Miller. The film is scheduled for an October 19th release here in the UK and is already out stateside.
Neil also has Beowulf and Coraline coming out in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Northern Lights / The Golden Compass (2007)
The first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series will no doubt be compared to Harry Potter in that it is a series aimed at children, features magic and has a strong female character in the lead. The similarities extend to the first book in the series having a different name in the USA and England but thankfully end there.
Whilst the casting of the film looks good abandoning the religious aspects is worrying – why DO the directors and film companies feel the need to excise or alter important parts of source material that has already proven a commercial success?
Cross your fingers and hope it hasn’t lost too much for the UK release on December 7th.
I Am Legend (2007)
Will Smith is leading the role as the last human being alive on the planet after a condition turns the rest of the population into vampires. He goes hunting by day whilst they sleep and ensures his home is fortified for the nightly onslaught when they wake.
Richard Matheson penned the novella in 1954, any novel still in print 50+ years after it was written signals to me the book must be good.
One worry is that Hollywood will turn this into a massive in-your-face action flick instead of the brooding horror of the book. The trivia at IMDB notes large budgets, sets and military vehicles/extras so this is a very distinct possibility. Hollywood have done this several times with Philip K Dick’s books and just not getting the point that his stories show ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
We will find out here in the UK January 4th and Mr Matheson has The Box and The Incredible Shrinking Man due out in 2008.
The Golden Man / Next (2007)
Philip K Dick’s book is the story of a golden man, the next evolution of humanity, who can see into the near future and his attempt at escaping his pursuers (kind of like the escape scene in Minority Report).
Not technically forthcoming as it hit the UK shores in April but I missed it being that it had a totally different name to the book. Being that the guy who can see into the future is now a Las Vegas magician played by Nicholas Cage I’m not sure I’ll bother.
If there was a point to the book about how we will react to our own evolution it’s lost. Perhaps Hollywood think that’s been covered enough by the X-Men franchise.
Altered Carbon (2009 ?)
Richard K. Morgan writes the story of one Takeshi Kovacks, an ex-military elite soldier in a future where your body is easily replaced providing the metal backup device implanted in the base of your skull is in tact. Kovacks is egotistical, violent and methodical in his new job as a private investigator seeking out why his rich client apparently committed suicide (and was promptly restored from backup but lost some essential hours).
The book is gritty and certainly not aimed at children. Would Hollywood pay the big bucks required to get the imagery right for such a grand undertaking of a film that would be limited to an adult/18 category is unlikely but somebody has the rights and is penning in a 2009 release date.
If the film is a success there are two more books in the series which will demand grander sets and even larger budgets.
Rendezvous with Rama (2009 ?)
Morgan Freeman picked up the rights to Arthur C. Clarke’s fantastic novel about a large cylindrical object that enters our solar system briefly and the subsequent exploration of it’s interior but has seemingly done little since.
There used to be a web site with some renders and notes but that has long since gone and the ‘producers are still working on the adaptation’ and Morgan’s schedule seems to indicate he is rather busy on other projects.
Morgan claims that part of the delay is getting a studio on board that doesn’t want to turn it into an action movie (great news and can be a success as Contact shows) and that they are still working on the script (get David Peoples on the case).
Whilst the film is on a grand scale it would probably be relatively cheap to film as most of it could be green-screened against rendered backgrounds being that everything inside Rama is not man-made anyway.
[)amien
Guernsey Software Developer Forum, September 27th
My good friend Steve ‘Sinbad’ Streeting (founder of the impressive and popular Ogre 3D engine) will be giving a talk on Thursday 27th September at 6pm at the Guernsey Training Agency above the Post Office in Smith Street. The talk will cover cross-platform development, provisionally:
- Benefits of considering cross-platform solutions
- Definition of a ‘platform’
- Typical implementation challenges
- Common techniques and approaches
Steve also assures me he’ll be touching on some cross-platform libraries like the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) and wxWidgets UI library. As always the doors are open to all and the event is totally free so come along, learn something and make some contacts.
On a sad note GSDF founder Filippo Borselli will be leaving the island to go and work with the great people at ThoughtWorks in the UK.
[)amien
In search of the perfect keyboard
I started programming at 12 and have been fortunate to carve out a successful career in something I love to do. People find it strange when I talk with passion about IDEs, fonts, colour schemes, mice and keyboards.
To me it seems perfectly natural when you consider a writer has strong preference and passion for pens and notebooks and photographers spend a small fortune on specific lenses and cameras to get the shot they want.
For years I was happy with my Apple Pro keyboard and then one day found myself messing around with my Amiga A600 and realised my typing was faster and more accurate on the Amiga than on the PC.
Some prefer “ergonomic” split-keyboards, others are impressed by back lighting, LCD screens or even an OLED display in every key. Most reviews skip over the most important aspect – what it is like to type on.
IBM Model M
I have fond memories of typing away on the IBM XT, AT and 5150 terminals and I found myself at eBay eyeing up an original unused IBM Model M keyboard similar to the ones those machines used.
Whilst the keyboard uses a membrane each key has its own spring that buckles as the key is pressed. This gives a satisfying tactile click that saw typing speed further accelerate than on the Amiga. Each key comprises of two plastic parts, the main body and the outer shell or key-cap. This means you can easily re-arrange the keys or put on specialist caps.
The Model M is a joy to type on but isn’t without fault. I can live without the Windows keys but the keyboard sports a huge surround taking up masses of desk space, is incredibly heavy and sounds like a machine gun when you get going with it.
Matias Tactile Pro
Apple produced a legendary keyboard too, the Apple Extended Keyboard but this has some immediate drawbacks in that it uses the Apple Desktop Bus, so would need an adapter, and is also tricky to get hold of.
I settled on the Matias Tactile Pro which uses the same Alps switches for each key but comes in a more friendly USB version. Designed for the Mac it has some extra keys and helpfully each key shows the various extra symbols available with the Alt key.
The Tactile Pro is great to type on however it is even louder than the IBM Model M and only available in the US key-map which means it is a couple of keys short. The enclosure mimics that of the Apple Pro keyboard but uses an inferior plastic that feels cheap and does nothing to dampen the volume but does helpfully feature a two port passive USB hub.
Note: The Matias Tactile Pro is an OEM version of the Strong Man SMK-Power989X. Matias now have the Tactile Pro 2.
Das Keyboard II
I’d heard some good things about the Das Keyboard II which unlike it’s predecessor is also mechanical but uses individual switches from one of the original keyboard manufacturers, Cherry.
The Das II is USB and is a little quieter than the other two keyboards but is still loud enough to annoy nearby co-workers and yet nicer to type on than the other two. One of the selling points of the Das II is that each key is totally blank resulting in one black keyboard but I could take or leave it.
Where the Das does fall down is the large echo-inducing enclosure and the cheap-feeling plastic used for both the keys and the surround.
Note: The Das Keyboard is effectively a custom OEM version of the Cherry G80 series.
Apple ultra-thin wired
I only picked up this keyboard a few days ago so my experience with it is not as extensive as the others which all got a fair work-in. Impressions so far are very good despite it being a scissor-switch like most laptops and not mechanical like the others.
The surround is an absolute minimum which is fantastic and it looks great. Noise levels are sufficiently quiet and the feeling very enjoyable despite the low-profile and gaps between the keys. The addition of a built-in USB hub is useful but MacBook Pro style light-sensitive back lighting would have been great.
Where next?
I’m sticking with the Apple at home for at least a couple of weeks and will continue to use the Das at work for now. The Model M and the Matias are currently gathering dust in the cupboard.
I have already modified my Das II by removing it from the enclosure and placing it on a soft sponge material. It is immediately much quieter with less echo and a soft wrist rest which solves some of the issues. Replacing the keys with a softer rubberised plastic would be great but injection moulding is rather expensive.
Check out the GeekHack keyboard forum for like minded chat.
[)amien
Confusing co-workers, family and friends for fun
Everybody enjoys a good laugh and there are some fun simple things that can confuse your co-workers, family or friends for a few minutes.
Here’s a few tricks that may… or may not cause some amusement. Just make sure you step in before they need to call their IT support guy!
Simulated operating system crash
An operating system crash sends a shiver up the most confident of spines.
Windows Blue Screen of Death
Install the SysInternals teams BlueScreen Screen Saver complete with genuine looking reboot sequence.
Mac OS X Kernel Panic
Try out Doomlaser’s Kernel Panic Screensaver although be prepared for genuine confusion at their first exposure to an operating system crash ;-)
Confused keyboard
If they are a hunt-and-peck typist confuse them by swapping a few keys around on their keyboard (make sure it lets you pull the tops off, some of them don’t and leaving them with a broken keyboard isn’t fun at all).
An alternative if the keyboard doesn’t allow you to remove the key tops or if they’re a touch-typist is to change the keyboard map to one similar but not the same. Favourites include US for Brits and and British for Americans if you want something very subtle that may take a few hours to be noticed (when they hit some symbols, pound signs etc.) or German for something a bit quicker (W and Z reversed).
Head to the Windows Control Panel or Mac System Preferences to activate.
Permanent hourglass (Windows)
A simple trick that just involves heading into Control Panel > Mouse Properties then choosing the Pointers tab and double clicking on Normal Select. From there choose hourglas.ani
Google goes abroad
Google remembers which language you you last used so simply head to something like http://www.google.com/ru (Russian), http://www.google.com/cy (Welsh) or http://www.google.com/fr (French) then close the Window and walk away.
Any further visits will show in that language, even searches made from the built-in boxes of Internet Explorer and Firefox. To set back head to http://www.google.com/en (English) or whatever language you normally use.
Swap short cuts (Windows)
Choose properties on either the desktop, start-menu or quick launch icon they use to launch their favourite applications and change the target to a different but perhaps similar application. i.e. iTunes and Windows Media, Word and WordPad, Excel and PowerPoint. They’ll probably think they hit the wrong icon or that something has messed up the file associations.
Change the display gamma
Head into Control Panel > Display (Windows) or System Preferences > Display (Mac) and adjust the gamma or colour profile for their display. No amount of fiddling with the displays brightness or contrast settings will get it quite back to how it was.
Jeff Atwood has futher suggestions for people who don’t lock their machines. Remember kids, Windows Key + L is your friend.
[)amien