Blog for March 2006

Texas does everything better ... Even Traffic Accidents.

If you are having one of those days, or you just need a laugh, this is well worth checking out. It is a phone message from a witness of a traffic accident involving a man and 4 old ladies. The recipient of the phone message forwarded it on to the local radio station and due to the popularity of it, they have placed it on their web site. Have a listen.

May the Force be With your ... Wiki?

Ever since I was 5 years old, the first time I saw Darth Vader come through the smoke on the Rebel cruiser after boarding it, I've been a Star Wars fan. Not a dress up like Boba Fett / C3P0 / Darth Vader and hang out at conventions / movie premiers / around Skywalker Ranch kind of fan. But a fan of the story. A fan in the small under funded, under resourced group in the fight against the unlimited resource, unlimited reach, ultimate rule empire. A fan of the thought that somewhere else, things are just as bad as here. But maybe, just maybe, with a little dedication, sacrifice and effort, things can change.

Well if you have been around the Internet for any length of time, you are aware of Wiki's. The most famous wiki is wikipedia which is a massive online encyclopedia, updated and corrected by users and available to anyone with internet access in almost a every language on the globe now.

Of course, if you search Wikipedia for Star Wars, you get a great page of information. It covers everything from George Lucas all the way down to TV episodes that I have never heard of. As you scroll through screens of Star Wars information, you begin to realize that there is a ton of stuff to know. On Wikipedia's entry however, the real gem is at the very bottom. Way, way down there. There is actually a Star Wars wiki that contains 28,000+ articles on the Star Wars universe. So for all you Star Wars fans, enjoy Wookieepedia.

And for my wife, "Honey, see. I'm relatively normal!

Hybrid Vehicles Becoming More Diverse

It started with the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Though these are still the most prevelant hybrid vehicles on the market today, the more progressive car companies are starting to get rolling with their hybrid lines. Canadian Driver Magazine is conducting a long term test on the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius Hybrid looking at how hybrid vehicles perform in the Canadian driving environment.

Hybrid Long-term Test: 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid and 2006 Toyota Prius, runs down the differences and similarities of the two cars paying attention to the price as well as general explanations of how the two hybrid engines function to make these vehicles fuel efficient. Honda it seems has taken a hint from Toyota over the last year or two and changing the hybrid engine in its new Civic so that it can run on battery alone. Honda’s previous incarnation of the engine only had the electic engine running as added power to the fuel efficient gasoline engine which did nothing for fuel efficiency at lower city speeds.

It won’t be long now until we see a more diverse hybrid market which will start to push pricing down. The more people who can afford this technology, the better it will be for our environment. An oil dependent society like ours needs to find a way to thrust aside that petroleum crutch, and do that fast. Hybrid technology is only the start though. Once we have that sorted out, we are going to have to keep making those forward steps and hopefully see the day when the only oil we see is cooking oil.

Google ... not just for searches anymore

Google keeps churning out neat little tools, areas, stats and applications ... oh ... and their search engine is nothing to sneeze at either. If you are a code jockey, like yours truely, or just interested in the state of web code (not sure who you might be if you are not a programmer...), then you may find this area at Google worth the read. It has all sorts of nice details about how the code that powers the web is going.

New getAway system launched

We are proud to announce the launch of the getAway system for destinationwinnipeg.ca/getaway_index.php. The getAway system was built with visitors coming to Winnipeg in mind. However, even if you are a Winnipeg resident, this system may provide the ideal getAway from your normal routine, so don't hesitate to check it out.

We have been working with Lori and the crew over at Destination Winnpeg for the last eight weeks in order to build a system that allows DW and their partners to list special getAway packages. Packages are available year round and the system allows a visitor to query any date range they might be looking for and returns all relevant results. Visitors can also chose a category of interest and view all available packages in that manner.

As with any web application, we are now into the refinement phase. So if you find anything that doesn't work as you expected, please leave us a note here in on this entry. Also, if you like the way the system works, let us know. Enjoy!

V For Vendetta

V for Vendetta is based on a comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd. The movie is adapted by the Wachowski brothers, of Matrix fame, and directed by James McTeigue. I haven’t had the chance to read the graphic novel yet; I wanted to go into the movie without the expectations of the original format. I’ve found, in past experiences, if I watch the film and then read the book, I’ll enjoy both for their own merits. If I read the book first, then the movie will a visual list of missing elements.

First of all, the movie takes a paranoid look at a "Greater" Britain that’s come under religious, fascist control. It wasn’t slow, it wasn’t subtle... it was driven pushed through in a climate of fear under a promise of peace and security. An entire country acted on baser instincts and traded their freedoms over loud, brash leadership.

Sound familiar?

It’s not an accident. The film makers are not subtle about the message, and it detracts from the film a bit. Some sequences which are probably inspired by the comic book, and work there as stylistic and time-frozen panels, hit the audience over the head. This has turned several people off a movie they themselves admittedly would have otherwise enjoyed.

Hugo Weaving is spectacular as V. He wears that Guy Fawkes masks throughout, but his mannerisms and his distinctive voice carries the character. He’s clever, smart, funny; the kind of guy you can’t help but want to be friends with... except for his perchance to blow up buildings and murder government officials. He wants to free the oppressed. "People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."

I’m sure it was entirely unintentional, but one could almost make the argument that the film is supposed to be a bit blunt. Like V himself, the film is not subtle because the time for that is over. People need loud actions to shake them out of their apathy.

Natalie Portman does a great job after the stiff acting of all the Star Wars prequels. And, personally, I don’t care what everyone else says, she looks hot with that haircut ;)

I’ll hopefully get a chance to borrow and read the graphic novel. I have yet to read an Alan Moore story I didn’t think was brilliant. I’m just glad I enjoyed this action adventure flick as well.

Burning Chrome

I am currently reading a short anthology of short stories called "Burning Chrome" by Canadian author William Gibson. My first experience with William Gibson, like that of many others, was a book titled "Neuromancer" which described a future world dystopia of technology run rampant. His writing style is very visual, which brings images, smells, tastes, and sensations right to the surface of your imagination.

The short stories in "Burning Chrome" and Gibson's other books are the colourful setting of what we call the cyberpunk genre of writing. The Keanu Reeves movie "Johnny Mnemonic" was loosely based on the short story of the same name. A number of the other stories in the book influenced the look of that movie. The coffin motels described with such detail you can almost feel the claustrophobic confines. The future vision that Gibson wrote two decades ago has ironically begun to manifest today. The line between human and machine has begun to blur. Implanted microchips, RFID technology, hacker society, alternative fuel sources, and the destruction of the environment. Sometimes I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I see our world moving inexorably toward that science fiction come true.

Movies like Bladerunner, The Matrix, and Johnny Mnemonic and the Shadowrun RPG were prime influences for me to seek out William Gibson as an author. If I had known about authors like Gibson while I was still in school, I probably would have become a more erudite reader. Needless to say, if you like the cyberpunk genre, you should definitely look up Mr. Gibson.

Another Nice Little Web App from Google

Aside tom the fact that this little app uses a combination of flash and ajax, it is just darn neat. The best part about it is the history markers that it puts into the timeline as you adjust it. Very, very cool.

Here's a look at Apple stock in google finance.

Microsoft vows to release Internet Explorer versions more often

Microsoft announces that they will release Internet Explorer updates and new versions much more frequently than in the past. As often as every 9-12 months for new versions. This can only be good news if you sit on web development side of fence and from an end user standpoint, things are going to get a lot better for a lot of people.

<a href="\" _cke_saved_href="\"http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183701121&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News\"" title="\"read" bill="" gates="" keynote="" overview="" for="" spring="" 2006\"="">Read the full article over at Information Week</a>.</p><p></p>

Some National Press Coverage

For the last 16 months we have been under an CTRNET.ca. Last Thursday, March 16th, 2006, the CBC, the Toronto Star, local TV news and others on hand for the press conference, the project was unveiled in detail. After an hour and half, all questions had been answered and many gigs of digital photos had been taken of the entire CTRNET board.

Since the press conference, we have had many national news agencies cover the project. <a title="\"see" the="" related="" links="" in="" sidebar="" for="" national="" news="" articles.\"="" href="\" _cke_saved_href="\"http://www.visuallizard.com/projects/details/3\"">Please visit the CTRNET.ca case study for links to these articles.</a></acronym></acronym></p> <p>Look for further work on this project in the coming months as we move into Phase 2 of development for the site and its systems.</p><p></p>

Nightwatch

I got a call from a friend to go check out this movie. I hadn't heard very much about it, hadn’t checked out it's trailer, didn't really know the plot, and wasn't aware it was completely in Russian until I was buying a ticket. So, needless to say, I didn’t have high expectations for this film.

Actually, I didn't have any expectations for this movie. It wasn't anti-hype, it was the total absence of hype, positive or negative. Nullhype. Hype times zero. It's the way most directors wish everyone went into a theatre... where they can actually show you a film without you already knowing who's acting in it, without knowing the plot in advance, without having seen all the best sequences in the trailer, without reading the rumours and gossips on the internet.

So I saw it. And I liked it. I liked it a lot.

The film, if you are not aware, is a Russian film, with Russian actors, and takes place in Moscow (which, by the way, is a Russian city). This gave the entire film a gritty, high contrast feel, a not-from-your-world urbanity. The editing, the shot angles, and the special effects just rolled into all that.

The standard issue self-sacrificing good versus self-indulgent evil was downplayed; subtle but well done. Our main characters had terrible apartments, standard issue clothes and vehicles, and seemed generally putting up with a lot. But it was something they needed to do. The antagonists, however, were beautiful, drove really nice cars, and enjoyed themselves. It wasn't evil for evil's sake. It was enjoying what you were. It was a different point of view.

Finally, this film wins major, major props from me for the subtitles. Not just slapping the english translation on the screen... the subtitles react to the film! They fade in and out, they slide around when nervous, they jump at you when people are screaming... they are almost a character in themselves. Wow.

I was later informed that this movie was based on a series of novels, and there are plans to make the rest of the books. Excellent. Now, I have expectations. Now, I am hyped. And it is good.

Jet Set Satellite remix

Jet Set Satellite has recently released their new album Vegas. Two singles are getting heavy rotation on the airwaves and the band is currently on an Eastern Canadian tour. Doug is working on a remix of a current single to give it a dance floor vibe. More information is coming in regards to this project.