Happy Holidays everyone!

Nothing else to say. ;-)

Joseph Barbera 1911 - 2006

I just got the news, that Joseph Barbera had died on 18. December. Now both fathers of the Flintstones, the Jetsons and Scooby-Doo are gone.

Thank you Joseph, for everything.

Good Writing/TV: E-Ring

The TV-show E-Ring is [IMHO, of course] one shining example for good writing. Granted, the better the writing, the higher the probability to get some people on the fences. I'm not talking about the subject, I'm talking about the execution of the job, it is flawless. Why don't we see more fast-paced TV-shows like this?

A quick detour: Fast-paced—in that respect—does not imply 120 cuts per minute (or more), as sometimes shown in CSI:NY. I like all incarnations of the CSI-franchise, but CSI:NY always goes to the bottom of my subjective list, if the editors think they need to do faster cuts to increase the pace of the story. But that is another post … ;-)

Back to E-Ring. It might be easier for the script-writer(s) to compose a convincing story, if they can rely on excellent actors. And E-Ring like, e.g. The 4400, has an excellent choice of actors and actresses. Dennis Hopper as Col. McNulty and Benjamin Bratt as Maj. Tisnewski are to be considered a gift for every writer. The same goes for Aunjanue Ellis and Kelly Rutherford. OK, I have to cut into this list; there has been no actor or actress in E-Ring (regarding the episodes I've seen so far) who seems to be wrong for the part or wouldn't have been my first choice, as well. It would be interesting to hear from the writers, if they would have casted someone else for certain parts, though. I'm not saying that I know all actors and actresses available, but it simply fits.

This is a TV-show which I consider as a good example how things should be done.

Technorati Tags: TV-Shows, E-Ring, Dennis Hopper, Benjamin Bratt, Aunjanue Ellis, Kelly Rutherford

A peaceful Thanksgiving to all

May your turkeys be big ;-)

Gadget abuse?

Don't get me wrong here, I love my gadgets as much as any other guy (I don't think it's a guy-thing any more, by the way), but the article Knock off the gadget abuse now gave me some food for thought.

My new way of writing shuts off some of the distractions, and I think most writers are with me on that one: Being interrupted while writing is a Bad Thing™. So what about other times, e.g. research? Sometimes we are able to work our way through the material without being disturbed, at other times, though …

OK, one has to differentiate: There are people we should be available for, but at all times of day, or night for that matter? As I said, it's a judgement call, isn't it?

Technorati Tags: writing, being disturbed, gadgets

Writing: Doing it the Analog Way

I started a new book a while ago — no computer-stuff this time — and decided to do it in a real old-fashioned way: I'm writing longhand (for all the computer-kids out there: using pen and paper). Hearing that Neil Gaiman does the same thing, more or less, when he was interviewed at Cranky Geeks 30, just helped. ;-)

The whole thing started out with one of the most feared things while writing a book[scary music, please]: THE BEGINNING. I had pondered over several versions, but came to no conclusion how to tackle it. Then the usual happened: Inspiration hit me while sitting on a train; my 12" has been acting up again (does not recognize the battery any more) and the only thing in reach was a legal pad. I grabbed it and wrote four pages in one go, besides one short interruption by the conductor, that is. The experience was wonderful, no distractions, no IMs, no e-mail, nothing. Words or phrases I wasn't sure about got a curly line, to be looked up later. I was able to write down my thoughts without any detours. Don't laugh, try it yourself. It is quite a different thing compared to hacking away at the keyboard.

The process (might be refined in the future, I'll let you know) works like this:

1. I write on a legal pad or my Moleskine.


2. After a while, I read the material again and


3. type it into the computer and


4. do the re-writes as I go.

Seriously, give it a try. Comments via e-mail, please. I'm still fighting with the comment-function.

Technorati Tags: Writing, longhand, writing a book in longhand

Books: 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman

I finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman a couple of days ago. Actually, not the edition the link in the sentence before points to, but a paperback edition containing the authors preferred text, means the book contains material which was edited out of the original prints. Let's call it a directors cut for the sake of simplicity.

As mentioned in the post Some Books are like old Friends, I am a big fan of Neil's collaboration with Terry Pratchett. American Gods was the first book I read written by Neil alone.

So what is my verdict? I ploughed through the book in three days, reading at every occasion that presented itself. It is fantastic. It's some kind of mystery-thriller with a good sense of humor, and that is all I intend to say about it. I don't want to talk (write?) about anything else of the story, because I fear I would spoil a great experience for all people who didn't read the book, yet. I would even recommend to everyone not to look to closeley on the book's website, you might rue it, because you found something, you're not supposed to know yet.

The only author posing a similar problem (regarding his books) I know, is Tom Holt. If you ever tried to describe one of his books in enough detail to interest someone in a book written by him, you know what I mean. If you never read a Tom Holt novel, get one while buying American Gods. We are done her, head for the bookstore!

Technorati Tags: Neil Gaiman, American Gods

It's not only web-design

The post If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers provides an interesting insight into the downside of designing an website. But the scenario can be applied to almost all creative works to be executed, IMHO.
It actually reminds of a writing-project I did once. ;-) On the other hand, my experiences in the last couple of years have been positive, due to competent editors. Nothing beats an editor who understands you and what needs to be done for a book.

Writers-Block is a Myth!

Don't shoot! Hear me out. Granted, the thing called Writers-Block can be a real problem for everyone putting words on a screen or paper for a living. The term describes the fact that the writer is stuck in the flow of the story and does not know how to continue or is simply lacking inspiration. Writing is a craft, an art form, but why haven't we encountered the term Painters-Block then? Or how does a painter / graphic artist deal with a lack of inspiration? I've been told that they start drawing doodles or something completely different; basically they try to get the thing which hinders the flow of creative thoughts out of their system. Interesting, isn't it?

Let's get back to the loathed writers-block. The writer tries to focus on the storyline, wants to further it and zilch, nothing, nada. What happens more than often, in my experience at least, is not that the brain is suddenly devoid of all inspiration, but some other idea is creeping through the mind, blocking the flow of thoughts regarding the story we are working on. Sounds familiar? Thought so. Why don't we borrow from the painters and try to get this idea out of our system by writing it down? Trying to avoid it and focus on something else doesn't work most of the time – been there, tried that. Even if we think that we lost all inspiration, think harder, isn't there something else blocking your flow? Writing this thing down helped me tremendously and I thought I should share the idea.

Technorati Tags: Writers-Block

If these guys are right…

…we'll see a lot more movies and books about kids growing up. Oh wait…r>;-)

Writing: Is the Process the Solution?

It seems like that, if you take a closer look at Howard Michael Gould on "Page Fright", that is. To be honest, this is pretty much the way I'm approaching my own book-projects or articles (the longer ones; blog-posts are handled in a different way, or not, it depends ;-)). Every writer should read the above mentioned post. But (you guessed it, didn't you?), there is something I have to add and spare you the learning-experience in the process.

Especially when starting book-projects, Backups, no BACKUPS, no [louder] BACKUPS. They not only give you some peace of mind, they are an insurance for everybody involved, thus they should be distributed to another location (hint: gmail for example). Let's face it, even the most elaborate work ends up as a couple of kilobytes, or a megabyte max when zipped, so what's keeping you from storing it somewhere else? Right, nothing. What about the format of the backup? Either XML or some other format that transports well between different programs (with the added bonus that you're able to compress it into really small files).

The proof of the pudding was the size of the compressed XML-files of a 400-odd page book compared to the same book in Word-format, the former was about 500 KB, the latter some two to three megabytes. It might be not your cup of tea (or coffee), but, in worst case, XML can be changed in almost any text-editor available on a computer. This is not to suggest, that everyone should start writing in XML, but to take a closer look if the software used for writing is able to export the data in this format (and read it back in without loosing anything, of course). It might save your day, when your writing-software wants to phone home before letting you make an important change and there is no way of connecting to the Internet. Just a thought.

Technorati Tags: writing, backup, XML

Technorati Tags down? [update]

Is it just me or is there a problem at Technorati and the tagging system? I just researched (OK, clicked) the Vampire Chronicles tag and have been told, that there are no tags for the subject. Strange, indeed.

For the un-initiated, searching for a tag displays a list of blog-posts tagged with this, well, tag.

Everything is working OK again, no idea what happened.


Technorati Tags: Technorati, Tags

Some Books are like old Friends

I mean it, seriously. The current project is (almost) finished and I wanted to read a book. The question is, am I able to really enjoy reading a new book, or do I need something familiar, a.k.a. one of my all-time favorites? I don't think I'm ready for option one, yet. Working on a book is just that, work. Appreciating the narrative of a new book requires, IMHO, a different mindset than the one I have right now. Therefore I decided to search my all-time favorites and found just what I needed:

Good Omens

I bought the UK-paperback years ago – the first edition is from 1990 – I went through the book at least three to four times and enjoyed it immensely. The same goes for this time around, I really love this book.

Back to my opening statement, isn't it nice to open a book, feel right at home, paired with the expectation of the things to come? Basically the same as watching one of your favorite movies, you know what to expect, you know how it ends, you're free to enjoy this work of art. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett delivered just that – if you are into British humor, of course.

The book is still available and there will be a new paperback edition hitting the US-shores in December, if I understood it right. So, if you never heard about this book, take a look.

Technorati Tags: Books, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

A Glitch in the Matrix, no Template, Sorry.

There was a little glitch in the template, that prevented not only the viewing of the blog, but seems to disable the Atom-Feed, at least temporarily. Apologies for that.

Still, the new Blogger is awesome. I'm almost done with a bigger project—more work than it seemed when I took the tast, but to whom I'm talking to… Sometimes it's simply hard to judge a writing project.
:-)

I'll be back soon, promised.

Movie: National Treasure

I watched National Treasure for the fifth or sixth time yesterday (DVD). I know it's an older movie, I'm still trying to get through my backlog. ;-)

IMHO: It is a story well told. Not flawless, but really gripping. I wouldn't watch a movie that often if it's not well written, even the comical sidekick works (something I'm not always too fond of). Kudos to the actors / actresses / actorpersons(?) as well, the story wouldn't work without a good cast. The well written dialogs and the impecable timing of the cast executing them carries the story over a couple of, let's say, hard to believe plot points, that would not work otherwise.

For example: Nicolas Cage's and Diane Kruger's characters should sport a visible download-socket. Why? Because they seem to have the contents of Wikipedia and Enceclopedia Britannica available for their perusal at any given moment. Granted, there a people in this world with a lot of knowledge at their disposal, but still… On the other hand, seeing the cast spending lots of time in a library might be believable, but is boring to watch. It would slow down the story to a grinding halt. The camera-work and the production design adds to the believability (is this a real word?) of the film, I'll try to catch a re-run in a movie-theater—if possible—just to see the sequence when the treasure is found in its full glory.

I really like the movie and would recommend it to everyone with a fable for fast-paced action which tells a story as well.

Technorati Tags: National Treasure, Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, good writing, Movie

Books: Finished reading Blood Canticle by Anne Rice

I finished reading Blood Canticle by Anne Rice, the latest incarnation of the Vampire Chronicles I got hold of. As mentioned in this post, I really liked the book. Now I'm done reading and I have to say: I really like this book.

IMHO, it maintains a subtle balance between the style of the first couple of books in the Vampire Chronicles series and the more contemplative tone of the later ones. I'm not saying that I didn't like the narrative used in the later books, but I'm still not done with Blackwood Farm, yet. BTW: It seems to me, that having at least an idea what is going on in another series called Lives of the Mayfair Witches by the same author helps to enjoy Blood Canticle even more.

I recommend this book to all readers of the older books, new readers should start from the begining, means start reading the other books first. Interview with the Vampire is still an all-time favorite of mine, the same goes for the other books in the series.

Technorati Tags: Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice, Books

RSS looks weird

Yes, the RSS-feed looks a bit weird at the moment. I switched to the blogger beta and the blog was transfererred. All posts seem to have the same publishing date in RSS. New posts should not be affected.

Just in case you need to know. :-)

Layout changed, Content stays

Longtime readers might notice that the layout has changed, the content is still the same. I'm still fighting with the new system to add an e-mail address that is not that easy to harvest for spammers.
Cross your fingers, please. ;-)

A Faster Way to Train the Spellchecker in OS X

Every author has to love the built-in spellchecker in OS X. Sure, most of the applications in use by authors come with their own spellchecker, isn't it fun to add new words to all of them? That's what I thought. I don't know about you, but I prefer the systemwide solution any time. ;-)

It is just a question of right-clicking to add new words to OS X's spellchecker, but what about transferring lists from one Mac to the other, or bulk-insertions? Let's try the Macintosh-Way™: There has to be a dialog somewhere. Sorry folks, not this time (I could not find a GUI-way of doing this). OK, we have to follow the path of the Geek.

If we never added a word to the custom dictionary in the past, we have to do so now. Type a word, e.g. the name of one of the characters in the new book that's always garnished with this wiggly red line, distracting our attention. Right-click and add to the dictionary. Now comes the geeky part, go to the Library folder in your home-directory and into the folder named Spelling contained in there. You should find a file named en (if you should work in more than one language, then there might be other files as well). Open the file with a suitable text-editor, e.g. TextWrangler or BBedit and you'll see that the added word is in the file followed by a delimiter (looks like a question-mark turned upside-down). Now you're able to add new words to your hearts content (don't forget to copy the delimiter) or paste the words from another machine into this file.

Check your spelling while doing so! ;-)

To cut a long story short, this seems to be the easiest way to add new words to your custom dictionary, used be all well-groomed Cocoa apps.

Technorati Tags: OS X, OS X Spellchecker

Do you want syrup with this book? (On-Demand printing woes)

Lee Goldberg writes about the Espresso Book Machine in his post The End of Book Warehouses?. There are some valid considerations to use such a system, but I buy most of my new books because I had a chance to leaf through the pages first.

Call me old-fashioned, but discovering new authors/books is a hands-on experience [at least for me], so if a book-merchant – utilising said machine – is willing to produce all the books I might be interested in for me to have a look first, I'm fine with the system.

I have to agree, though, that the method allows to purchase books faster that are on my shopping-list anyway. But the latter would pose a problem for the likes of Amazon, printing a book in a matter of minutes beats overnight delivery all the time. ;-)


Technorati Tags: Books

Books: Blood Canticle by Anne Rice

I recently got hold of the book Blood Canticle by Anne Rice.

I'm into the first 80-odd pages of the book and have to say: GREAT! Great story-telling, great scenes, in short: I love this book. It is so different to Blackwood Farm. The main difference – at first glance – is the fact that Lestat does the talking again, means he has written the book.

I found the book by accident, I wasn't actually looking for another book by Anne Rice since I was not able to finish Blackwood Farm, yet.

I'll keep you posted…

Technorati Tags: Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice, Books

The Top-Ten Geeks on TV

How are Geeks portrait on TV, how believable are they? What is missing in this list are Geeks in Sci-Fi Shows, it is just not that easy to judge someone reversing polarity on a warp-engine.

Here are, without further ado, counting down from 10 to 1, the Top-Ten of the TV-Geeks. [IMHO, of course ;-)]

• 10. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) (The X Files)


• 9. Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) (Stargate: Atlantis)


• 8. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) (Lost)


• 7. Dr. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) (Stargate SG-1)


• 6. Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)


• 5. Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)


• 4. Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) (Numb3rs)


• 3. Detective Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)


• 2. Marco Pacella (Richard Kahan) (The 4400)


• 1. Dr. Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine) (Crossing Jordan)

And as honorable mention for coolness: Dr. Al Robbins (Robert David Hall) (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation).

Technorati Tags: TV, Geeks on TV, Top-Ten Lists

OS X: Supplied Scripts

From the stating the not so obvious department: There is a plethora of scripts on every Mac, waiting to be used. Thing is, they are there, but you'll have to know where to look. The key to activate them is the AppleScript Utility app in /Applications/AppleScript/. Start the application and activate Show Script Menu in menu bar, this gives you a new menu-item (looks like a scroll) with all kinds of menus in it. Happy exploring.

I never thought of that feature as unknown, until a friend asked me about the menu.
;-)

Technorati Tags Start

Technorati Tags:
OS X, AppleScript

Technorati Tags End

Laughter

The post Can the canned laughter by Kevin Levine is a very interesting read. You should read it in its full glory. My favorite part is quoted here:

Can the canned laughter:

…
One final note: On CHEERS and FRASIER we used recorded laughs from our own shows. Not so with other series. A lot of the laughs you hear were recorded fifty years ago. Many of the people you hear laughing are now dead.

Talk about leaving a legacy. Grandma may now be a distant memory but she’s still with us, every week, laughing at Jim Belushi.

(Via By Ken Levine).

Kind of scary, isn't it? OTOH, who would notice?

Technorati Tags: Sitcom, TV

Who is to blame for a bad Story?

I just finished reading the post Q: Who's Fault Is It When The Story Of The Movie Is Bad? at The Artful Writer. I have to say, that I agree with the final statement, but, seen from a writers point of view, some of the people involved with the development of a story are in the same responsibility as the editor at a plain vanilla book-project. It's their decision if a story or a subject, for that matter, sells. I know, doing something creative (like writing) and sell in the same sentence, but, let's face it, writers have to eat, too. ;-)


My point is, no book or film (besides the well-known exceptions) is created by one person alone, be it the input of friends or co-workers or the guiding comments of the editor (or whoever has to make the decisions while writing a script), there will be influences from the outside nudging, or even steering, the development of a story. If everything goes well and the whole project is a success, everyone is happy. If not, one or the other will utter 'told you so! So, yes, Failure is an orphan.

Technorati Tags: Writing

Books: The Map is Missing!

My girlfriend started reading the latest book by Jilly Cooper titled Wicked!. Jilly Cooper is one of her favorite authors and she waited for four years to get her hands on the book.

She told me, that really likes the book, but that one important feature (present in all other Jilly Cooper books) is missing: The map that shows the location of the houses the acting persons live in.

I have no idea if the publisher just dropped it, or if the author herself decided not to use it this time, but readers tend to notice the little things. Something, we as writers, should keep in mind; needless to say, that the same holds true for the publishers, as well.

Technorati Tags: Books, Fiction, Jilly Cooper

HDTV: Did they blew it already?

According to Bud Meyers' article The End of the Early Adopter or A Declaration of Independence, they did.

A thought-provoking opinion piece, which should be placed – for everyday viewing – over the desks of every single executive working in the entertainment industry (the name says it all, doesn't it?).

Technorati Tags: HDTV

Hackman Double spotted at Soccer-Match

I don't know much about Soccer, but I saw a guy – the coach of Portugal's national team, apparently – who is a spitting image of Gene Hackman.

His name is Luiz Felipe Scolari. They could be brothers, seriously. The other thing I noticed, is the fact that both of them have a Steven Hill-like on-screen presence. ;-)

[IMHO: There are not to many actors sporting a presence like Steven Hill in, e.g. Law & Order or Gene Hackman in most of his acts.]

My favorite quote from Luiz Felipe Scolari during a press-conference is (asked why he turned down the job as coach for the british national soccer team): I want to work somewhere, where I can wear shorts all the time and need the sea in close range. The only other team I'd be interested in would be the one of the Maledives.

Technorati Tags: Actor, Gene Hackman, Luiz Felipe Scolari

John August: I want a cheap, slutty DVD player

John August is obviously looking for a DVD-Player:

I want a cheap, slutty DVD player:

I don’t want a princess. I want a whore.

…but I’m officially sick of trying a disc in three different players before finally getting it to work on my MacBook.

I suspect my ideal DVD player is a no-name made in Guangzhou which can play drink coasters. If anyone can point me towards it, thanks in advance.

(Via johnaugust.com).

IMHO: Smart move, the DVD-Drives in the computers my brother is using die periodically thanks to the copy-protection schemes on commercially available DVDs. Swapping the slot-in drive in a laptop is a PITA (excuse me). The other thing is: DVDs written in a computer – given that the writing machine isn't brand-new – tend to be a little bit off track, tricking the internal DVD-drive to get off track, too. I can't prove this theory, but I got the feeling that the loss of a couple of DVD-drives had something to do with that. Still IMHO, mind you. ;-)

…and Amanda's Answer

To be found here.

[This could unfold into a full-blown Soap-Opera, couldn't it? Let's sit back and watch/read. ;-)]

BTW: I will not take either side, because I don't know the persons in question personally, and thus won't be able to judge the validity of the statements. (Just to make sure.)

Rocketboom: The other Side of the Coin

There is an official Response to Amanda Congdon's announcement on Rocketboom's main page.

What do they say? There are always two sides.

[Who are they, by the way?]

Amanda Congdon is leaving Rocketboom.

I'm sad to hear this, but I'm looking forward to see her again somewhere in the Net.

Amanda Congdon is leaving Rocketboom.:

Amanda Congdon is leaving Rocketboom.

(Via Scripting News).

[Getting rid of old habits is harder than it seems, apparently. ;-) I'm not complaining, the man, let me rephrase THE MAN brought me to blogging in the first place, soߪ
I will really miss reading Scripting News if Dave should stop blogging for good.]

upmarket hamburgers

I just found this while testing a new feed-reader:

upmarket hamburgers:

Finely chop a couple of shallots and a clove or two of garlic. Put them into a saucepan with a lot of red wine, and some salt, some pepper-- a teaspoon of brown sugar helps too. Boil until the reduction is syrupy, about 3/4ths of a cup. Cool a bit.



mix with a pound and a half of good lean minced beef. Form into patties. Grill to desired doneness.



toast some focaccia. Brush the cut side with a little extra-virgin olive oil mixed with fresh-chopped rosemary. Top the burgers with mature cheddar and a rasher of smoked bacon.

(Via Nibblous).

The site is great, but now I'll have to get something to eat instead of working; does this mean, the site is not safe for work?

[The feed of Nibblous obviously went straight into the new reader. :-) ]

I'm back

I was busy and neglected this blog, sorry.
New posts will show up within the next couple of days, I probably found an editor (for blogs) to my liking. More coming up soon, promised.

TV: Philips and the Reactions

I stumbled over the post Philips' Stupid Move and I have to say, that Lance Ulanoff has a point here.
Just a hint: Read carefully ;-)

Moving Books in the Store

This is from the Things you learn about eventually, while reading other writers blogs department. The post Confessions of a book mover made me aware of something I did not know. Really, I had no idea.
Bang, there goes my believe in another myth. I thought the placement is about being new and/or good. All-right, I suspected it. Somewhere deep inside.
;-)
Don't pity me, read the post!

What Logic?

Kevin Levine's post It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a logic problem about the original (?) Superman series got me into a reminiscing state. I'm too young to have watched them when they first aired, but I really loved them when I was old enough to watch the re-runs.
Sure, from a logical point of view some of the super-hero's powers would fail for environmental reasons, but this is supposed to be fiction, right? BTW: one thing that Kevin missed was the fact that, using tele-vision (was that the term?), would require the hero to look through parts of the earth's core, e.g. when watching something in India from the office in Metropolis.
Anyway, let's see what comes up when the new movie comes out. To put it bluntly, I prefer the old King Kong from 1933 over every other incarnation it went through, though.
[Is it just me or do the last two words look funny when just separated by a comma and a blank?]

Good Writing: Who Is Cletis Tout?

I stumbled over Who Is Cletis Tout?[imdb] yesterday, while watching TV. I've never heard about this movie before, but I think that it is worthy to be bought on DVD and to be part of my permanent collection.
I really like the setup, especially Tim Allen Critical Jim, a hitman/movie-buff. My favorite quote is The new movies start with a good first act, but then the story lacks and everybody goes 'let's blow something up' to cover up the faulty story-line. I won't go into more detail, because it would spoil the story for you. Chris Ver Wiel did an excellent job as writer/director, in my (humble) opinion.
If movies like Lock, Stock and two smoking Barrels, Pulp Fiction, or Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang are examples of your taste, have a look, really.

Stories that stand the test of time

Fun Joel wrote an article called Good vs. Great?. Spot on! IMHO, Big Fish and Pulp Fiction already stood their test of time, though. But that's just me.
;-)

OS X: Logging Mail.app's Activities on a Port

Another one for the command-line geeks. If you want to log what Mail.app is doing on a specific port, launch it from a terminal like so:

/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail -LogActivityOnPort 25

Mail.app will start as usual, but all activities regarding port 25 (smtp) will be logged into the terminal window. Another port of interest would be 110 (pop).

I found this in one of my one-liner-docs. As I wrote in the "Unix/Linux Survival Guide" (link on the right), always keep a text file with one-liners you stumble over handy. I forgot to take note where I found this hint, though. Whoever wrote about this somewhere in the Internet, thanks a million.

OS X: Mac without GUI

While rummaging in the (developer-)documentation of my Mac, I found an interesting technique to get rid of the GUI without resorting to single user mode. If the sheer thought of a Mac without mouse-control scares you, take a deep breath and read on, if you think that this is a cool idea – the box is running BSD anyway – don't forget to breathe.
:-)

The following implies, that your Mac is asking you for a username and a password after booting or after you logged out of your account. When the Username and Password window appears, type

>console

as username and press Enter. The bigger than sign is needed. The system switches to command-line mode, mind, not single user mode, but command-line mode. Means everything is running except the window-system. If you should read this on one computer and already tried it on another, how to get the windows back will be the subject of a post next week.
:-)
Just kidding, if you are done with the *NIX command-line stuff, just type

exit

and the system will revert to the usual behavior. (No surprise if you know your way around a *NIX based system.)

Knowing how to switch off the GUI will come handy, if e.g. your "Finder" starts acting up on you and you have a clear idea what needs to be done to rectify the problem.

Learning about Film without going to school?

The article A Film School Education Without Film School should stir up some controversy in the business. I'm not sure about my take on this, actually. Means, I'll make up my mind and comment later.
:-)

TV: Doing the obvious is left to Apple

The article Apple TV: wait and sue is an excellent rundown why the TV-networks have no-one else to blame but themselves. Nothing to add, really.
Oh wait, maybe one thing: We are told ad nauseam that we are living in a globalized economy, why can't we buy everything in every iTMS worldwide again?

Blogs: Footnotes

There is an article over at Darwinian Web called Nativetext: Delivering RSS feeds to the rest of the world which refers to an idea outlined at Nativetext, translating RSS-Feeds.
I like the idea, but, being a part-time translator myself, I have to admit, that I'm somewhat skeptical. Doing a quality translation not only takes time, but a good understanding about the cultural differences to create a meaningful result. The need of understanding the differences may vary in regard to books, but the more successful blogs usually use all kinds of puns and wordplays that don't translate that easy. Means, a five word punch-line might require a two paragraph explanation for readers not familiar with the underlying assumption and might bore another set of readers into switching websites, because they are familiar with the underpinnings that make the pun work. When doing translations myself, I take the easy, some might call it cheesy, way out: footnotes.
No flames please, I'm aware that the use of footnotes divides the writing community into two factions, fighting over the feasibility of the use of them. I might be influenced by books like Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, granted, but they work for me. Here comes the problem, there is no blogging software with a decent way to create footnotes, I could not find one, at least. On the other hand, how could footnotes be incorporated into RSS? RSS is supposed to be kind of a streamlined way of distributing information, and this implies no footnotes, just the facts.
Time will tell if there is a way to overcome this dilemma. If you should know about any approaches to incorporate footnotes in blogs in a feasible way, the e-mail is at the bottom of the blog, thanks in advance.

Where are the Comedies?

We watched a couple of older movies this weekend and stumbled over a question: Why this lack of comedies requiring the viewer to think?
Don't get me wrong here, I really loved "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang[imdb.com]" last year and… Bingo, there is my problem. If I go (way) back in time, there was "Life of Brian(1979)[imdb.com]", "Young Frankenstein(1974)[imdb.com]", "The Blues Brothers(1980)[imdb.com]", "Airplane!(1980)[imdb.com]", you get my idea, don't you? (Provided you are old enough to have seen these movies, of course.)
Sure there are movies using humor like "State and Main(2000)", but again, five years ago. To be frank, I don't enjoy "humor" as in "American Pie" that much, I've seen it, I laughed, but that was basically it. Watched it once, wondered if I would watch it again and came to the conclusion "not really."
I wasn't aware about missing the kind of humor in the aforementioned movies until I watched "Love at Stake(1988)[imdb.com]" last weekend. Granted, not a real masterpiece, but it used a kind of humor that made my girlfriend say, "We should watch this again some time."
We tried to figure out why theses movies still are that much fun to watch. They are politically incorrect, the don't slap the humor in your face as in "let's explain why this joke is funny, shall we?" They expect the viewer to think along, draw conclusions based on miss-pronounced words and sometimes even stereotypes (without trying to explain them!). In short, they force you to think while watching and the complete lack of political correctness seems to help, a lot. Fast forward to now. Where are the "politically incorrect" movies, it's like no-one dares to make them anymore. Where are the producers (I really don't think that the writers are to blame here) bold enough to produce movies where not every joke is explained until nobody is laughing any more? It seems that being politically correct implies to explain a lot – to make sure everybody "gets it".
Is trying to be that politically correct in every aspect spoiling the fun out of watching movies? I'm not sure, but my gut-feeling tells me, it might be the case. Trying not to explain every funny situation, could be a start. The viewers are not stupid, they want to be entertained while using their brains.
My 2 cents.

Dave Winer about RSS

We all know what these little orange icons on the different blog-sites mean. I hope, at least.
Here are some words from the inventor what happens money-wise in this area, the piece is called How much has been invested in RSS? on his blog. A very interesting read.

TV: Good Writing

I had a chance – due to re-runs – to watch Crossing Jordan[imdb.com] in the different stages the series went through. The story-lines are an example for exceptionally good screen-writing, in my opinion, of course.
Is it just me, or were the dialogs toned down a bit in the later seasons? Anyway, really fun to watch. Too bad there are no season-boxes on DVD, yet (?).
Kudos to the cast as well. Every member is well-casted, they just work. I wonder if there is a Nigel-fanclub somewhere in the world. (He is part of my dream-team of investigators, but that is another story to be told …)
;-)

regex in Perl

While looking over code I created some time ago, I stumbled over a Perl-script to plot some vital data of a machine. I used Tobias Oetiker's excellent RRDtool to store the data and create the graphs.

BTW: The "Round Robin Database" is something you should definitely investigate if you need to store any kind of numerical value, graph the stored values, and especially if you don't want to make sure that only the current values are stored in the database. Believe you me!

The Perl-script contains a construct I'd like to share with you. The COMMENT modifier in RRDtool 1.2 and later does not like un-escaped ':' in the string to be printed. Here is the Perl code to do so:

$graphtime = localtime(time());
$graphtime =~ s/\:/\\\:/g;

That's regex in Perl, I really like it. Just don't forget to use Time::Local if you want to deploy this code.
;-)

Interesting "Astronomy Picture of the Day"

There was one sentence that came to my mind while watching this Astronomy Picture of the Day:
You guys watched Aliens, right?
:-)

Caffeine-Addicts unite: We are not alone!

There is a website called CoffeeGeek with every information one needs to make a really good cup of coffee. Sometimes they are going to extremes, but hey, so do I!

Movies: Even more of the same?

The last year sported a healthy dose of part twos or remakes and not so much new, original material in regard of the movies shown in theaters. The year we just entered looks pretty much the same. At first I thought I might get picky or that I was just cranky, but most of my friends agreed with me. John August, he wrote the screenplay for "Big Fish", by the way, has a good article on the subject called What’s with all the remakes?.
The fact that I got a clearer picture now, does not change my resolve that I will watch many of the new releases this year on video or DVD instead of going to the cinema. There is not too much in the pipeline that convinces me to shell out the money at the ticket-booth.

PodCasts: Three I can't do without

My list of PodCasts I listen to on a regular basis is much longer, but here are my favorites:

1. NIGHT PASSAGE JAZZ PODCAST
   A great PodCast from Rome, Italy featuring all types of fantastic jazz music. I really like Renato's taste.


2. Daily Sourcecode
   The PodFather[wikipedia] himself. Nothing to add.


3. From our own correspondent (BBC)
   A very interesting and very personal look of the BBC's correspondents on the regions of the world they are in.

Web: I knew 'slashdotted', 'boingboinged' next?

One of my favorite sites, Boing Boing, seems to have raised its power to the likes of slashdot. A website its pointing to loads really sloooooooooooooow. The bad thing about Boing Boing is, so much to see, so little time. The site in question is Pictures of Pennies. OK, that's not the homepage of the site, but this is where Boing Boing points to.
Your site might have been boingboinged has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
Come to think of it, it could be the cache-policy of my ISP as well, but I don't think so.

TWM: "Brothers Grimm", "Big Fish", and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

TWM (This weekends movies), in order of appearance:

1. Brothers Grimm[imdb].
   Based on what I've been told by others about this film: Did we watch the same movie? I really liked it. I have to think really hard to find a Terry Gilliam movie I didn't like, though. Nope, couldn't find one. The story progresses just in the right pace to enjoy the scenery of the movie, never boring and always amazing to watch the sets. It just works. The story goes, that the parts of Heath Ledger and Matt Damon were planned the other way round, but I think the way it ended up is one of the reasons this movie is so much fun to watch. Interestingly a comment on imdb links this film somewhat to the next and I kind of see the point here.


2. Big Fish[imdb]
   Awesome. If you haven't seen this movie, try to watch it ASAP, you won't regret it. This is how movies should be done. A fascinating story, wonderful sets and great acting. Seriously, read the rest of this post and try to see this movie. Tim Burton did it again. I liked the story so much, that I'm inclined to get the book, just to see if John August had a hard time adapting it to the screen.


3. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[imdb]
   My girlfriend didn't catch it in the theater and I don't mind watching it over and over again. Just a question: What about part two?

Before someone starts to blame me not to criticize, but to simply hype things here. I usually don't comment on movies I didn't like for a simple reason: maybe they weren't made for me. Means, either I didn't get it or my mindset is just not compatible with the film and/or the story. This stance might change occasionally, but not today.

Telling convincing Stories

I happened to catch the movie "The Woman in the Window" [imdb] yesterday. I think it is brilliant. It is a thriller, it is shot extremely well (sadly it was the colored version, though), and it gripped me right from the beginning. Colored version? I hear you say. The movie was shot in 1944/45. It was colored in 1996, as far as I know. Not that the company did not an excellent job in painting over the grayscale, but some movies should be left as they are shot and not altered later on. (Do not get me started about the color-version of "Casablanca"!)
The Woman in the Window does not need splashy special-effects or too much blood. OK, someone dies, but this murder is not the fifteen minute blood-fest we are so used to from current films; the murder happens and that's it. This movie is about what happens after it.
If you should have the chance to catch it somewhere, take a look. I don't want to tell anything else about the story, it would spoil the fun.

When should a DVD be released?

After reading the article Fixing broken windows (and the comments, of course), a couple of thoughts popped into my mind.
If the DVD would be on sale in the theater, then I could make a decision right away. I would ask if I'd be harassed by either one of the ridiculous You paid to see the movie, you must be a pirate commercials or by some person nagging me about my cell, if so – and I'm still interested to see the movie – I'd buy the DVD. If I happen to be in a bad mood, then I could do the same thing I do with DRMed CDs, ignore the movie and do something else.
Let's face it, going to the movies with my girlfriend and/or a couple of friends is not the same experience it used to be. Especially if I'm not in the country the movie is shown first. If the film should not be available in theaters in the country I'm in at the moment, and won't be so within a week or two, then I prefer to watch it on DVD in the week it came out instead of getting the plot spoiled via TV or any other medium. Secondly, an evening in the cinema usually costs the same amount I'd have to shell out for the DVD anyway, and I'm talking the first couple of weeks the DVD is available.
I understand that theaters have to make money, but do the have to bombard me with commercials for a solid twenty to thirty minutes? I don't think so. I skipped some movies in the theater for that very reason.
BTW: I'm BFC (before first coffee) right now, I might add some more thoughts later.

Scriptwriting: The Sequence of Buttons

While watching "When Worlds Collide (1951)" [imdb] something odd struck me: why do all controls in the space-ship have to be pressed in another sequence than they are built into the console? Every time, if I'm not mistaken.
It could be for the dramatic effect, some idea of the director (Rudolph Maté), or something completely different, but still …
My theory is: it is done this way to demonstrate that not every ordinary person would be able to press the right buttons in the right sequence. This very behavior sticks with the genre and always puts a smile on my face. The sheer thought, that an engineer would create a console with the controls out of a meaningful sequence on it, seems to be a bit far-fetched, don't you think?
On a related note, the story is in production again. Script by Stephen Sommers [imdb]. I hope the spirit of the original will stay. I really like the movie, you know.

grep with color?

I just found this on Robert's Blog, grep understands the --color flag. So, no Robert, you are not the last to know, and, yes, pretty much live-changing. Best of all, it works on Linux and OS X, that's all I need at the moment.
One has just to use:
grep --color <search_pattern> <files_to_search>
<shameless_plug>BTW: I had the honor to do the German translation of his book.</shameless_plug>

The BBC should be taken as an example

…not only for being a credible news-source (some say the only one), but for demonstrating how to give something back to the people who paid them. (The people in the U.K. have to pay a fee for getting the program. Or should I write programme in that case?)
A disclaimer first: if you are not in the U.K., you are not allowed to play (I know it rhymes, so what).
The BBC, or the Beeb, how they are called sometimes, opened up their archive of news footage a while ago. If you are in the U.K., you are allowed to download the material in the Open News Archive under the Creative Archive Licence and use it according to the set terms. A real case of putting your tax-money to work.
Keep up the good work, ladies and gentlemen.
BTW: Check out my favorite station BBC Radio 4, they even have PodCasts. News can be interesting and fun to hear.

Mac: 12" inches its way back to trusty, but isn't there yet.

For those who want to know: I was able to start the 12" again, no coffee-grinder sound-effect so far. Actually, the bugger acts as if nothing has ever happened. Not that I would store anything important on it before swapping the hard-disk, but it seems to be willing to work again.
Kudos to Apple for coming up with Target-Mode, means press down t after the startup-sound and make a Mac behave like a firewire hard-disk. It made the recovery of all the data not included in the last backup a breeze.
I'm trying to figure out what happened for the time being. What seemed to have helped was storing the 12" in a pretty chilly room in the apartment. I'm not sure if the unexpected resurrection is related to that, though.

A Happy New Year

to all readers. Sorry for not writing so long, but the incident with my 12" (described here, actually one post below) took a lot of time to resolve. The usual holiday-turmoil didn't help to speed things up either.
Again, I wish you a healthy, successful 2006. May the backup be with you, just in case.
;-)