Benad's Blog

Storing data in a version control system is not exactly the same as relational databases or file systems. With both SQL DBs and most file systems, at least you have some standard and documented interface to fully export your data, even though there may be subtleties specific to an implementation that may be difficult to export (or import in anything else for that matter).

But with version control, the conceptual distance between each version controls differ so much that attempting to transfer all data from one to another would invariably cause a loss of valuable data. It's still possible to transfer most of the data, but the less flexible the interface is to the revision and meta data, the more difficult it is. As an example, transferring data between Subversion and Mercurial, two conceptually simple systems, are still different to have a few edge cases where there is information loss going from Subversion to Mercurial. Oh, and don't get me started on how much those commercial systems are purposely too complex to lock you in the product after an expensive training of both users and admins.

In effect, storing your source code in a commercial and closed-source version control system means that you don't really own your code anymore, and you'll be at their mercy forever. It's like storing all your files in a Netapp server and forgetting to pay the license and "Oops!", you can't have access to your files anymore. Of course, their sales people are really persuasive (with kickbacks, I guess), but if you buy in a commercial system that has no complete export option, you deserve what you get (and you're a sucker). Now, when you work with a company on old source code and you need to install some horrible software client made that's 10 years old and barely work on your modern Win7 64-bit to check out code which end up installing junk all over your computer and takes hours to check out the files, you finally know what it means to be stuck with yet another shitty commercial version control system.

Again, the "Reading List" feature on Safari and iOS from Apple was directly inspired be the Instapaper ( http://www.instapaper.com/ ) service. Integrated in a large list of browsers, software and apps ( http://www.instapaper.com/extras ) when you want to read an article later you simply send it to Instapaper. What it offers more than bookmarks, beyond its near ubiquity in a large quantity of apps, is that once marks you'll be able to read the articles on Instapaper's site or own apps in a newspaper-like format, with no pictures or annoying ads. Additionally, it can send articles to read directly to your Kindle, perfect for reading long articles without wearing your eyes.

It also comes with a slew of additional features, such as "Liking" an article to share it with your friends and even sending the link to Twitter or Facebook, an RSS feed (thus having something like a folder of bookmarks in your browser), an email address where you can post long text, and a few export options.

Of course, it's free, with a "Pro" account that will let you search in the text of your articles and support sending and more options of sending articles to your Kindle. The iPhone and iPad apps are also not free but have a great user interface and are a joy to use.

I'll already state the obvious: The pacing of the first part was too slow, and the second part too fast. I can understand the studio's reluctance at releasing a single 220-minutes movie, but in effect by splitting it the director ended up stretching the first part and condensing the second one. I didn't mind the pacing of the first part too much though. Apart from a few scenes that lingered on, the first part was the first time in the series where it took time building up character development rather than rushing through things. I can understand that the books were getting longer and longer, so with an average running time of 140 minutes the scripts felt shorter and shorter, yet it felt nice to have a few lengthy scenes where the main characters just talked. Actually, that really gave us a chance to see the main actors be good at acting rather than just doing stuff.

Being directed by the same director as movies 5 and 6, David Yates, it satisfyingly kept the same ambiance and art direction. During certain scenes, especially some battle scenes in the second part, it was just plain too dark to see much, even if it was just CGI. Once brightness was adjusted, the CGI was pretty good and effective.

The story itself had some important plot points that I assume were from the book and were, well, making me uncomfortable. The whole wedding thing simply didn't work for me, a few deaths were either languishing on unimportant characters or barely mentioned for important ones, and there's a surrealist scene (in all white to contrast the darkness of the whole series, I guess) that made less sense to me than 2001: A Space Odyssey. And as the whole thing falls into a war reminiscent of Britain's role in WWII, I was still bothered that this was a school with children. Well, it had to end with a bang, and a bang it is. But this is clearly not a book or movie for children anymore.

What I'm essentially trying to say is that if you've ended up watching the rest of the series, you won't be let down with this last movie, but it isn't an Earth-shattering masterpiece either.

The "game" element is particularly well made. The main game is some kind of laser tag in zero-G, which should be hard to describe, yet the author masterfully makes it easy to understand. A lot of emphasis is placed around the competitive nature of the various teams's matches. Most character development centers around this competition as Ender, being so gifted and smart, rise up the ranks too quickly. Ender's brother and sister are gifted too, but they were not selected for that school and stayed on Earth (Ender's school is in space for the zero-G).

Which brings my main gripe about the book: While Ender's and his siblings' "genius" is an important plot point, it still feels like a cheat that they don't really talk or act like kids. I've seen that trick used in comic strips (maybe for comedic purposes), but for a story that you may want to target for teenage readers, it feels like a cheap way for the author to not have to go through the trouble of presenting kids like kids and not adults. That writing "cheat" becomes more obvious and annoying in that subplot of the two siblings trolling Internet forums and manipulating Earth's politics.

The ending is quite good, so it's worth going through the cringe-inducing moments of kids acting like mature adults. But then, within the last few pages, the epilogue wraps up some of the subplots in a jarring change of tone. I heard in an interview with the author that the sequel ( Speaker of the dead ) was a separate story but that by trying to adapt Ender's Game from a short story to a novel he added some subplots to tie in one plot line to the other. You can really feel that the tone and writing style is much more elevated compared to the rest of the book's "for teenagers" style, and with philosophical elements that are far more compelling. If the epilogue is of any indication of the next book, I might actually prefer it than Ender's Game.

As with tasks, lots of cellphones come with some rudimentary note app. Again, with iCloud on the iPhone it all gets backed up and synchronized. But that brings up another important point about notes: You cannot use some note-taking software if it doesn't have some online synchronization capability, otherwise the notes will be not backed up and will be restricted to whatever device they were taken on. With "cloud" synchronization, at least your notes can follow you.

So, what are the options? A simple possibility is to write a text document in Dropbox ( http://www.dropbox.com/ ) which can be directly edited on any computer, and on the iPhone you can use PlainText or Nebulous to edit the file too.

You can use OneNote from Microsoft Office 2010 on Windows and use the various apps on phones, but I found their synchronization process to be abysmally slow.

Another option is the free service Wunderlist ( http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/ ), completely free on their web site and using an app for all possible platforms. Doesn't have much features, but incredibly simple to use, including note sharing. Also, unlike using a plain text file in Dropbox, you can search for text across your notes.

Finally, for power users that want to take voice notes, pictures, file attachments and so on, Evernote ( http://www.evernote.com/ ) is for you. I even migrated my bookmarks to it. Has apps for all platforms, and a few browser plugins to let you "clip" parts of a web page as a note. I also found their desktop application to be incredibly powerful and versatile, and note searching is fast and searches even within attached documents and pictures. There's a free version that only limits the amount of data you can upload per month to a reasonable amount (60MB) but the paid version at about $45 a year gives you 1GB upload per month (once uploaded it's there forever).

So, here you have it. Simple plain text notes using Dropbox and PlainText or using Wunderlist, and power-user notes with Evernote.
Correction: Everywhere I said Wunderlist, I meant Simplenote ( http://simplenoteapp.com/ ). Of course Wunderlist is a simple and free list-making service.

We now have several ways in today's phones to set up recurring reminders. Many phones come with built-in software to do recurring alarms and task lists. On the iPhone and using a free iCloud account those tasks will even synchronize across the various Apple products, their web site, and Outlook in Windows. Yet those various interfaces tend to be clumsy enough to enter a new "to do" item, enough to not want to bother. With Siri on the iPhone 4S it's easier, but then you need to buy an iPhone 4S. And what if you don't want to use a cellphone, or if you have one but is a dumb, basic cell phone?

For me, I've been using the service aptly called "Remember The Milk", at http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ . The user interface may seem messy at first, filled with features and gizmos, but at its basis using a simple one line of text you can enter a new task with a due date or time, location, tags, recurrence, priority and duration. For example, the following sets a new task for tomorrow at 10AM with priority 3 (low) with for the list "fun": "Play game !3 ^tomorrow 10am #fun". Using that syntax, tasks can be entered through their web site, their mobile web site, by email, by instant message and using their apps for iPhone, Android and so on. For reminders of tasks due for a day or a specific time, they can be sent by email, SMS, instant message or through their apps.

And this is why after all those years I still use Remember The Milk: wherever I am, I can easily add tasks and get reminders in any form I want. If entering new tasks was not easy or flexible enough I'd be too lazy or distracted to do so, but with RTM a simple email or using their iPhone app with a quick line of text is sufficient. Also, in years of use, the RTM service missed sending me reminders only once.

The RTM service is free, but synchronization and "push notification" through their cellphone apps require a $25 yearly fee. It's well worth it if you use an iPhone or Android.

After having done a short animation piece for the Animatrix, Koike spent the next 7 years or so on this movie. It reuses similar themes and style of racing, speed, and visuals with those bold dark lines. Yet, surprisingly, Redline's 100 minutes of animation shows a consistent level of visual artistry that doesn't cut corners. Each frame is beautifully hand-drawn in a style that defies the usual tropes we now expect from Japanese anime. The drawings show a level of detail normally reserved only for animation key frames or comic books. The backgrounds do not feel like out-of-place artworks and integrate elegantly in the overall style.

While the story is not quite deep, almost all characters, including the minor ones, are developed well enough to support an entire "Redline" TV series. The races themselves are some of the finest races I've seen seen in a movie, at the same level as Vanishing Point, the Blues Brothers and Death Proof. The first race before the opening titles will keep you at the edge of your seat with its impeccable pacing, editing, music and visuals.

Much had been said already about how this movie seem completely out of place compared to the entire Japanese animation industry. On its own, outside of that context, it still remains an impressive masterpiece of its young director, and an incredibly fun, over-the-top action movie.

The fifth movie grows the Harry Potter universe more with this "order of the Phoenix", and intermingles that story line with one about a school curriculum reformation. The latter was quite enjoyable on its own, yet seems somewhat disconnected from the former which ties in with the overall series' story arc. Some annoying aspects that started to be introduced are Harry having "visions" because he is somehow connected to Voldemort, and the use of teleportation. Both work well as plot devices on paper, but seem glaringly cheap when displayed on screen. Also, Yates loves his blacks, making almost-dark scenes difficult to follow. I even had to turn up the brightness from the BD player since even the TV couldn't cope with the darkness. This made some sets, like the whole end confrontation (in the dark with shelves of glass balls and the battle that follows) not only confusing, but feel like it was just a clever way to save money on the sets. In the end, it is an enjoyable movie, but not much more.

With the sixth movie you can tell that Yates is more comfortable with it's directing style and with adapting the book's story. The story feels far less "all over the place", and is maybe the first story of the series that focuses almost entirely on the main story arc of the series. Thus this story cannot be enjoyed much unless you had at least partially watched or read the previous books. One annoyance, though, is that the disparity between the age of the characters in the script and the actors becomes too distracting, or maybe that's just me. Otherwise, this movie has some of the best acting, art direction and story line of the movies. Overall, this movie is one of the best of the series, after the thrid movie, and makes it nearly impossible to not want to watch the last book.

Why then? Should I had just pirated the whole season? Or protest even harder, since "they" shut down megaupload, by not watching 30 Rock at all?

Here's the thing: while a bit too expensive for my taste, iTunes is the easiest way to watch TV shows. No need to install some software to pipe some RSS feed into some BitTorrent or Usenet downloader, no need to re-encode the video file for my iPad, no need to track manually which episodes I've seen or when within an episode I've stopped watching, and so on. Oh, and it's not like in Canada I have many legal choices. Apart from the price element (seasons are as expensive as their DVD equivalent), iTunes ends up being the best competitor to piracy by making it as convenient and easy to use as possible, a bit like Steam is for games, Netflix for movies and Rdio (or iTunes) is for music.

So I'm essentially sending a message by encouraging digital distribution that respect its users rather than stifling them with draconian DRM and exorbitant prices. It's not like I'm unwilling to pay, but I'm not going to encourage companies that stifle innovation from competition through political bribes. At least Apple, Amazon and Google are trying their best to move media distribution to the future, and by the amount of money they're making out of it, it seems to work.