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Pressed for time that I haven't had a chance to post my review of Constantine. Needless to say I give it 2 of 5 stars. The review should be forthcoming.

Labels: movies, review

I don't write too much about work, because I have a suspicion that if the employer ever found out I posted stuff about the job on the web then they will let me go. Better leave things unsaid. But if you read my profile, you'll know that I am a software engineer. Coding. I would love to get around and start writing code for the Mac. Look what programming for apple can do. Lots of cool apps. Anyway, when I have some free time, I think I might want to implement some stuff for the. We'll see how it goes.

Labels: get me out of here, software development, wishing for a pony

Pete's (of APCB) day job is to review movies. I read his take before watching the movie. It is one that I agree upon. The movie is good for the time frame that it is released, solid for a romantic comedy, and well crafted by everyone involved. Naturally, seeing it the day before Valentine's day meant lots of couples. Seeing it as a Sunday matinee meant lots of Jewish couples. Seeing it the first weekend meant a crowded theatre. I imagine that it business will be good for Will Smith this weekend.

Romatic comedies always make me squirm. You may know this about me if you read the previous post, but I like movies to end with the boy not getting the girl. Yet all romantic comedies end with the boy and girl living happily ever after. Hitch is no different, but after watching In Good Company yesterday, Hitch is like a breath of fresh air. It made me happy and I am a sucker for movies that make me feel good. (Man I must like a lot of different films!)

As a movie, Hitch follows the normal conventions as other romantic comedies. Boy and girl meet cute. Boy established a rapport with the girl. That rapport is messed up usually by a Three's Company like misunderstanding. Boy tries to re-establish the rapport, but is rebuffed. Then the third reel unrolls and the boy wins the girl back in the end. And they lived. Happily. Ever. After. Will Smith is charming in this film. Eva Mendes could've been hotter. I was especially attracted to the Allegra Cole girl. Anyone know who she is? Short haired blondes do it for me every time. The movie was enjoyable. It would be a wonderful date movie. Now if only I had a date doctor myself to fix me up...

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

I must admit that I love movies without a trite Hollywood ending where the hero dies or, especially, does not get the girl. Sorry if I spoiled this movie if you hadn't seen it already, but that was what I had thought about coming out of the theatre. It must be the loner/cynic in me that gets off in seeing others lose. It is not that I find joy in the character losing the girl, but that I sympathise with the character's loss. In a sense, I know that I too am that guy.

In Good Company isn't really about anything I had just explained. Yes, Topher Grace does not get what's-her-name? in the end. The star was really Dennis Quaid. He's on a roll of sorts in the last few years after his public cuckolding by Meg Ryan. He has acted in a few notable films and garnered some respectables reviews. Good for him. Topher Grace acted very well. He epitomizes youth not truly knowing what they are doing, but just saying a lot of hip jargon to conceal their inexperience.

I am giving this movie a middle of the road rating, less for how it played and more for the contrived story. The lesson learned is one that has been told often. Your elders have wisdom beyond your years. I could've gotten that from reading a blog. So, the movie was well acted, liked the somewhat somber ending, but hated the preaching.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

The end of Amazing Race 6 was incredible. I know I said that I wasn't excited, but damn if it didn't turn out that way. I was jumping up and down as the end drew near hoping that Kris and John could pull it off. Sadly, no. They trusted the American Airlines guy who gave them bad advice arriving in Chicago, the final city, 15 minutes later than Freddy and Kendra. I love that this show makes me agitated when watching it. My prediction came true and Freddy and Kendra won the million dollars. Congrats to them. I am especially enamoured of Kris who was a total trooper and proved that she can keep up with the big boys. Kris and John was a total team and there was no weak link in it. Kris never seemed to not be up in doing a roadblock. She was fearless. I would say that if I had a girlfriend I would like her to be just like Kris. Amazing.

See you in three weeks when Amazing Race 7 starts up.

Labels: Amazing Race, boobtube

Okay, I haven't been posting about the Amazing Race lately, because it just hasn't excitetd me this time around. I think that it is because I don't like any of the final contestants left. Plus, their bickering has put a damper on the contest that it is hard to be excited about it. That said, tonight is the season finale. I'll be watching, and like the rest of those interested, I'll be rooting for Kris and Jon. It will probably be Freddy and Kendra who win it though.

Labels: Amazing Race, boobtube

Trixie Update is a collection of data as someone's child is growing up. Lots and lots of data. In myriad of charts. Metrics, man, is crazy sometimes.

One of the first things that I had tried bidding on on ebay was a full set of Bill and Ted comics issues 1-12. Last minute sniping pushed it from my $15.00 bid to $25.00 which I thought was too rich for my blood. I should've doubled down. Imagine my gall that I missed out on the complete set, and that they have become hard to find as a complete set. Imagine, also, someone actually wanting a full set of this comic. Why would anyone want to own one issue let alone 12 issues of the lame early 90s comic adaption of a pre-matrix Keanu flick? Well, it was one of the earlier works of Evan Dorkin of Milk and Cheese fame. I had bought issue 12 when in college just because Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey was one stupid funny flick. Little did I know that the writer and artist would end up being my favorite comic author.

Anyway, Evan Dorkin is releasing the Bill and Ted comic in a bound paperback. I must make my way to the local comic shop. As Milk and Chees would've said, "Onward to mayhem!"

Labels: comics

Hoped for: Patriots 14 :: Eagles 24
Actual: Patriots 21 :: Eagles 17

Can't stand for the New England area to be champions in both baseball and football within several months of each other. The whiniest of all sports fans are least deserving. It would be great to have McNabb win one once. Plus, TO getting a ring would be awesome. Can you imagine the mouth going off!

Labels: football, sports, wagers

I won't bore you with the full title to this movie. It was truly a sequence of unfortunate events that lead me to watch this. Actually, it was just one, deciding that it would be a good movie to watch. How I wished it were so! Boring and forgettable. I had watched it at least 2 weeks ago, and I normally post my review immediately, but this movie I completely forgot about until I was posting the previous review. Watch it at your own peril. (Or just wait for it on TBS in a year.)

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

This was not the worst movie that I have seen this year. This was not the best movie I have seen this year. This was the most predictable movie I have seen this year.

Right from the start, as soon as your main character begins to have "flashbacks", you know the end of the story. I sat there impatiently waiting for the story to unravel in its predictable course. I was not disappointed. The trailers showed a lot of what was to happen, but you would've already figured it out.

Dakota Fanning I can't stand. She has got to be a robot or something less human. She channeled Wednesday Adams. She had me laughing aloud. I did not like her from the start, but once she went into Wednesday mode I could'nt help but think that she magically turned in a campy performance, a tour de force of unseriousness. She was the only actor in the film to acknowledge that the movie was a crock. I walked out stunned, because I think I have to change my attitude towards her. Dakota Fanning I only dispise a little bit.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Kevin Drum provided a running commentary of Bush's State of the Union speech. While not as comprehensive as the other times he had blogged a speech, he watched more than I did. I only watched half of it. Right at the point I decided that the speech was incredulous, I see that Kevin had the same reaction:

9:36 — "Taking on gang life"? Laura's going to head that up?

It's the new and improved "just say no" 2005 edition. While attempting to eliminate this problem is worthwhile, I can't even imagine it being done under the guidance of the first lady.

I guess if I had made it a new year's resolution that I should clue you into how well I have kept up in my quest to read at least 3 books a month. I read 2.5 books last month.

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Finally finished a book that has been sitting on my nightstand for over a year. The first part was boring and a chore to get through as compared with the later half. I guess that's why it took me so long to get involved in it. The second half, while he's on the life raft was extremely interesting. It had me devouring page after page. But then, the coda. What a shock. It ruined the book for me. I just spent a few days breezing through the book enjoying it, and to throw that change up to explain it all just was dismaying. C+

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. I read this while it snowed outside. For twelve hours, I was loving it, and still had not finished it. What a tome! What a story! The best Potter book so far, and it makes me contemplate pre-ordering the next one. A-

The Emerging Democratic Majority by Ruy Texeiria and John Judis. Disappointing and depressing. Disappointing because it is a tough read. Depressing because I think their premise is way off base. Look at this past presidential elections. I am only partway through so this is a preliminary grade. B-

Labels: review

Speaking of smalltalk programming. I am using BBEdit's younger, punky brother TextWrangler. I miss color coding. It seems you should be able to write a language module that gives me all the yummy goodness of syntax highlighting. I hoped that someone already has done one, but since I didn't find an easy installation of smalltalk on Mac OS X, then I figured that there isn't a big Mac smalltalk development community. Admittedly, I haven't looked hard enough, but being lazy enough I hope to find something on these internets.

Any help, please, would be much appreciated.

Labels: software development

Well started my assignments for the OOP class. It's a simple introductory to smalltalk programming. I have to create a derived class from another provided by the professor. When I "compiled" the file, and passed it to the smalltalk interpreter, I encountered a problem! Smalltalk did not like me using my instantiated object:

" My Main! "
| sa |

sa := SavingsAccount new initialize: 50.
sa postInterest: 0.05 .
sa inspect
!

>./gst ~/Documents/grad_school/ooProgramming722/dev/savingsAccount.st
"Scavenging... 15% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"
"Scavenging... 0% reclaimed, done"

Not so good, hunh? I am sure you smalltalk gurus already see my problem. Besides running smalltalk as a program and not installing it wherever make install puts it. Hint for all you non-programmers: interpreted languages are read from start to finish at the time the program is run.

See it yet? My SavingsAccount is derived from another class Account. (Am I using the correct smalltalk terminology?) I am passing only the savingsAccount file to the interpreter, and I am missing it's parent. How will smalltalk know what the parent class looks like? Smalltalk was able to interpret the object in this file by just creating instances of a generic object to take place of the SavingsAccount's super class. I guess it doesn't like garbage collecting in this scenario. I must read the oop.h file to understand why but for now passing the parent class on the CLI does the trick.

Labels: school, software development

This is just for references, if anyone ever searches for compiling smalltalk on OS X in google. I was compiling the latest stable release, 2.1.9.

When compiling GNU smalltalk on Mac OS X, and you run into errors with poll.h, my suggestion is to comment the block of code which #includes sys/poll.h. You'll find that the compilation will go more smoothly with the definitions in poll.h (the fake out section) rather than the definitions in sys/poll.h. In fact if you read, sys/poll.h it recommends you not #including it. Perhaps this is a bug and should be submitted to the maintainer of GNU smalltalk.

Labels: Macs, software development, step-by-step

CS 622
Assignment 1

2.1
Each of these layer models is a real world example of the three layer network model.

In the first example model, the physical connection is the telephone line. The lowest layer on both the receiving and sending ends is the telephone. The telephone acts as the network access layer. It allows the receiving and sending ends access to the telephone line, and it also establishes the communication link between the two ends. The second layer up acts as the transport layer on both the sending and receiving sides. This layer in the transmitter is the host which acts as the mediator between the guest who wants to order the pizza and the telephone. The host provides access to the telephone. On the receiving end is the order clerk whois the itermediary at the pizza parlor. The clerk answers the phone and takes the order. At the top layers resides the application layer. In this example the sender's "application" is the guest who provides the data, pizza order and the receiver's "application" is the pizza cook who assembles the pizza pie.

In the second example model, the physical connection is the road. The network acces layer is exemplified by the delivery van. It allows the pizza being delivered a reliable means to the use the road. The transport layer is where the order clerk finalizes the pizza order and gives it to the person who will deliver the pizza in the delivery van. On the receiving end, the host pays for the pizza, which the guest as the application layer on the receiving end will eat. On the transmitting side, the cook acts as the application layer and prepares the pizza, which will be handed off to the clerk to package for delivery.

2.4
The two blue armies don't have a reliable way to communicate their attack plan, because they are unsure if their messengers get through to each commander. If their messaging protocol relied on the acknowledgement of a message, then either the message or the acknowledgement could be lost. They could add to the protocol an acknowledgement to the acknowledgement, but then each message sent still is not garaunteed to reach its destination. The armies could introduce redundancy into their protocol. They could send two or more messengers to send or acknowledge a message, and only rely on reception of one message or acknowledgement to attack, but this is a waste of resources and could still lead to a lost messenger. The two armies could introduce a timeout to there protocol scheme by waiting a certain time for the acknowledgements before proceeding or terminating the attack.

Labels: computing, school