If you follow techy type news then you’ll have undoubtedly heard of the latest offering from Apple. Its amazing how they keep managing to churn out beautifully designed products which are true to both form and function. Everything about them just works perfectly together on both the hardware and software sides which seamlessly merge to form something which “just works”. A perfect example of this would be their new “Cinema Display” screens which are so understated yet perfect in just about every way possible. Apple’s main stumbling block from what I can see is their price and user apathy. If their products were a little cheaper and marketed a little heavier then I’m sure they could take a sizable bite out of our friends in Redmond. We’re beginning to see this with iTunes and the iPod which are rulers in their class by a long shot. Now all they need to do is extend this fame to the rest of their products which are just as deserving of praise!
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Today I started work for the summer. All went well and I’m especially pleased not to have to be doing any formal logic/grammar/etc for a long while! After I got home I mowed the lawn (which was looking more like a meadow before hand) and then had tea. After that I had a play with setting up a dual screen system on my Linux box. It was actually surprisingly easy and only simple modifications were needed to the “Screen” section of my xorg.conf file as below:
Option “TwinView” “true”
Option “TwinViewOrientation” “RightOf”
Option “MetaModes” “1024×768,1024×768″
N.B. This will only work for newer Nvidia graphics cards (using the official drivers), different options will be needed for other makes.
I also picked up my new sunglasses at lunchtime, even though they were only cheap (as far as prescription ones go anyway) I’m pretty pleased with them. Apparently I look like ‘Agent Smith‘ in them, I’m not convinced though, my glasses aren’t nearly as cool as his!
Remember - “There is no spoon”, not if your a psychotic computer program anyway.
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Today marked the release of my sisters first choral album. OK, so it isn’t exclusively hers but she’s is the choir! What really sets this little number apart from your general church type music is the title which is just sensationally good - “In Tune with Heaven”. Whoever thought that one up must have graduated from the school of cheese!
Its been produced by “Lammas Records” and can be ordered off their website. Go buy it now! If you’re not convinced you can listen to the first track here (Blest Pair of Sirens by Hubert Parry - 9.8mb). There are 17 tracks in all on the CD and overall its not bad.
My sister is on the top row of girls right in the middle, I was going to include a bigger picture but I think she might kill me if I did!
Btw… I’m back in Norwich now for the summer. The server move seemed to go OK, please drop me a note if you notice anything astray!
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2 down, 1 to go - Another year of University draws to a close and yet I barely feel like I’ve started yet, it seems that as you get older time moves faster! Today I registered for the modules which I’ll take next year. I’m actually technically changing from doing a pure ‘Computer Science’ degree to ‘Software Engineering’, mainly because SE is more interesting and involves less formal maths than CS. If you’re interested the modules I’ve chosen are as follows:
- Advanced Software Engineering (Double)
- Advanced Software Applications and Methods
- Project Management
- Software Engineering Project (Double)
Luckily with these modules there’s a much higher coursework content than in the last two years which to my mind is infinitely preferable!
For those in the know today marks the final stable release of ‘Slackware 10‘, get ISO bit-torrents here. I’ll probably be installing it either tomorrow or over the weekend time permitting. It a shame it doesn’t come with the newer 2.6 kernel as default but it is included as a test package for those with the inclination. I’ve been running it since the beginning of the year and have found it to be and excellent upgrade, its just as stable and even faster than 2.4 so it hopefully won’t be long until it goes mainstream. Take a look here for an interesting potted history of Slackware.
Whilst browsing the news wires the other day I stumbled across this picture which I thought was just too good an opportunity to miss. It depicts Senator Hillary Clinton with actress Natalie Portman (of Star Wars fame) at some Democrat fund raising thing - what struck me was the expressions on their faces - just what is going on in their minds? It’s scary! It then struck me that it was the perfect picture for a little caption competition - if you can think of one please post it as a comment below! No prizes unfortunatly, just the satisfaction of knowing you’re comic genius!
Hillary: “I hope Bill’s not around”
Natalie: “I hope Bill’s not around”
That’s all for now, I’m off home for the summer on Saturday so the web site may experience a short period of down-time around then but I plan to transfer the whole thing over to the Norwich server as a back-up while that happens.
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“JU-ON: a curse born of a grudge held by someone who dies in the grip of powerful anger. It gathers in the places frequented by that person in life, working its spell on those who come into contact with it and thus creating itself anew.”
If you’ve ever had a nightmare where you were trying to run away from something but couldn’t because your whole body seemed to be frozen then you’ll know where I’m coming from on this one. Having just watched the Japanese film ‘Ju-On - The Grudge’ you’re left with an odd sense of calm after the hour-and-a-half of unnerving images which you can’t help but pay attention to.
This ones got everything - scary kids, demonic cats, heavy breathing, things crawling around in the loft, psychotic school-girls, deranged social service workers, traumatized policemen and enough dead bodies to impress Arnold Schwarzenegger! Unfortunately its almost too much and the story has been somewhat sacrificed in the race to squeeze everything in.
The story episodically follows the interconnected tales Rika, Katsuya, Hitomi, Toyama, Izumi and Kayako and as if they weren’t enough there’s about half-a-dozen other supporting actors to contend with. Character development is short-and-sweet but it does the job as you are slowly led deeper and deeper into the manic world in which they find themselves.
You’d probably put this in the ‘haunted-house’ class of horror films but it doesn’t follow the traditional formula and is surprisingly refreshing. Tension is built by the fear of what is caught in the corner of the eye and the sounds coming from around the corner. Its when whats hiding in the corner comes out that the fun really begins! This is truly a creepy and memorable film which doesn’t overdo the gore or special effects and provides a nice balance of scary bits with story exposition.
‘Ju-On - The Grudge’ is really a remake of a former low-budget TV movie (’Ju-On’) made by the same director. Having not seen the original I can’t comment on which is better, but word has it that the former is by far the better. Once I’ve got my hands on it I’ll let you know! For a more in-depth review take a look here - 7/10.
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