Month: December 2001

Skinematic Spotlight: The Lord of the Rings

Just to show you that there’s almost everything and anything on the Worldwide Web, here’s a site from Vail Reese called skinema.com… The Dermatology in the Cinema web site. This week Reese shines his light on LotR in quite a bit of detail. Let’s just say he finds a lot to write about. He will even cut on some extremely hot women, does this doctor have no scruples?

Blogger offline

Apparently Blogger got hacked early this morning and so the server has been offline ever since. For better or worse, Evan Williams is Des Moines today and so has been unable to successfully fix things as quickly as he might. Crackers, as he mentioned, have not respect for vacation time. This has hampered (actually prevented) me from updating today. Hope to see you with fresh content tomorrow.

In the meantime, feel free to peruse the new Xmas 01 photo gallery with about 20 shots taken during yesterday’s visits with friends.

Update (9:45 PST): Looks like Blogger is back.

Fixing this laptop

A kind stranger was considerate enough to respond to my previous lament about the instability of my Sony VAIO laptop with a few suggestions, the most basic being to look for updated BIOS or other drivers. Which of course I found straight out once I went to Sony’s support site. Why I, as a registered user, wasn’t informed of the availability of an update is beyond me. So now we’ll see what happens. If the problems continue I go to the next suggestion. Thanks for the kindness of the Internet stranger.

A new look at USS Clueless

Our inestimable captain at USS Clueless has cut over to Joel Spolsky’s CityDesk after reaching the limits of the bascially late, lamented GreyMatter software. Nice clean design, although I wish Steven could find a way to allow for variable width of the content column. He does have nice astronomical graphics and of course, the great writing continues.

Micro-advertising experiment, day ten

Monday was the best day yet for the ad, getting ten clickthroughs out of 206 views for a 4.85% CTR and a total of 48 from 3,387 views for a 1.42% cumulative CTR. This is a fun experiment, definitely lots of entertainment for the $10 entry fee.

Lord of the Rings: Finally

I saw Lord of the Rings today but I’m going to hold off on the review until I see it at least one more time. Unquestionably this is a movie worth seeing, with action, plot, scenic views, and even romance (more than in the book). That last comment is a big part of what’s holding me back from writing more tonight; I’ve almost finished re-reading the book and I think the differences from book to movie are bothering me more than they ought to (poor Tom Bombadill) since they only had three hours to fit everything in. For another weblogger’s opinion in the meantime, check out Jeff’s review.

Micro-advertising experiment, day nine

Sunday was not so bad for the ad, getting three clickthroughs out of 196 views for a 1.53% CTR and a total of 38 from 3,181 views for a 1.19% cumulative CTR. Other good things yesterday: Giants and Jets won (no romp but at the end of the season a W is a W) and there was the cool weirdness of Vanilla Sky.

Idiots to the left of us

I wasn’t going to blog Stephanie Salter’s SF Chronicle column titled W.W.J.D.? She means us to understand the title as What Would Jesus Do. Others have delivered responses as well but I, as is my wont lately, wrote her an email and here is the short and simple:

Ms. Salter,

You have got to be kidding with this column. It was a joke right? Turning the other cheek would be your answer to four downed airliners and a force of thousands that would be only too glad to add a lot more to that total?

I am surely against violence for violence’s sake but self-defense is quite a different story. And Stephanie, aren’t you glad that there were and are men and women willing to take up arms so that you can write such nonsense?

Bill Lazar

Tonight’s movie: Vanilla Sky

Talk about your out there, loopy movies and Vanilla Sky has to be added to the list. Think of What Dreams May Come and you might be in the ballpark, though this is more grounded in reality. Cool. Surreal. Confusing. Absolutely not your expected Cameron Crowe/Tom Cruise material. One might wonder why Cruise falls so hard and so quickly for Cruz instead of Diaz but there you are. The way Tom looks at Penelope you’d think he was really falling in love with her or something. Kurt Russell has a dream role and Jason Lee is a little too much of the smart ass for his role but if you get past the confusion you’ll see Crowe has done an above average job directing. Of course I haven’t seen Alejandro Amenábar’s Spanish original Obre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) in which Cruz played the same role.

Micro-advertising experiment, day eight

Saturday was not so good for the ad, only three visitors yesterday (out of 267 views, 1.12% CTR!) for a total of 35 from 2,985 views for a 1.17% CTR. Less Woohoo, good thing I really liked the dinner and movie last night. Other good things yesterday: 49ers romped and Patriots beat the Dolphins (which is good for the Jets).

Last night’s movie: The Godfather

Holiday season often brings wonderful presents. I was fortunate this year to get a really nice one from a buddy, the Godfather DVD collection. To top it off, he also grilled steak and ribs for me last night before we watched The Godfather, the 1972 film that began the saga. Simply brilliant, the film has amazing acting, script, cinematography, and direction; this was recognized with three Academy Awards (Brando refused his for Best Actor) and seven aditional nominations.

Francis Ford Coppola collaborated with author Mario Puzo on the screenplay. There are many constructs throughout that provide a great foundation for the acting. The parallel actions during the opening wedding scene (the old man singing a dirty song in Italian as Caan take the bridesmaid upstair for a quick one as Duvall reads telegrams telling the Don his politicans are fucking him by not showing at his daughter’s wedding as Johnny Fontaine walks in and the women all want to fuck him), the parallels between Diane Keaton and Simonetta Stefanelli (Pacino’s two wives), and the parallel staging of the main assasinations (on Brando and by Pacino), to name just three.

Brando, Pacino, Duvall, and James Caan brought the characters to life. Especially Pacino, who renders an awesome transformation from sweet, untouched returning war hero through tragedy and harsh reality into a cold, ruthless Don. We noticed, in accord with Pacino’s character arc, that if you accept the rules of the Mafia world, the Corleone family thoughout the film only responds to the wrongs done them by others. And there are so many famous scenes, no wonder men are constantly quoting or referring to the film.

The Supreme Court as TV drama: Yeah right

Hey, I’m a big James Garner fan and Joe Mantegna is pretty good in my book as well. But I have to wonder what the heck CBS and producer Donald Bellisario (JAG, Quantum Leap, Magnum PI, Battlestar Gallactica) were thinking when they gave the greenlight to First Monday. This show, coming Jan. 15, will attempt to dramatize the US Supreme Court. Think about that last sentence for a minute.

What does the Supreme Court actually do in the process of rendering decisions that, as the publicity remarks, effect every American? Remember that before this there has been a trial and at least one appeal; also, the appellant must cite a constitutional error worthy of the Supreme Court’s consideration. The court is asked to hear thousands of appeals each year but only hears around 100.

If a case makes it past this stiff hurdle, both parties to the dispute (defendant and prosecutor or plaintiff and defendant) and often many interested third parties (via amicus curiae briefs) file lots of paperwork. A sitting is scheduled for the parties to appear before the court between the first Monday in October and the end of April on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. (with a break for lunch) during a two week period each month. When the great day arrives, each side is allotted no more than 30 minutes to make a presentation. So you can see one reason why so few cases actually get heard–there are only 168 potential slots a year!

The rules of procedure during the actual hearing are quite precise and intense and completely focused on allowing the justices (never refer to them as judges) to get information they want without wasting a moment of time. Generally the justices will not allow an attorney to make a prepared presentation but will interrupt at any time with questions and the attorney best stop speaking immediately when a justice so much as clears his throat.

After the hearing, the justices have a preliminary discussion and then one justice is assigned to prepare an opinion, most of which is actually done by one of the justice’s clerks, which lays out the thinking and precedents underlying the decision. The draft is circulated and other justices, particularly if they disagree with the preliminary decision, may prepare their own opinions. In the end, the justices vote on the question at hand and this becomes the official holding. Justices may sign one of the opinions or publish their own and only if five or more justices sign an opinion does the opinion become official precedent.

So, having laid this all out, from where do Bellisario and CBS execs expect the dramatic tension to come? Fistfights in the courtroom between Greenpeace and oil industry lawyers or between liberal and conservative court clerks? This is all about a process that is largely on paper, a brief Q&A, and some occasionally heated discussion. I wonder how much they will try to do with dramatic music, facial expressions, and hand gestures to overcome the inherent passiveness of the material.

Amusingly, this is not the only show that will completely fail to succeed on this topic. ABC is readying “The Court” starring Sally Field and Kellie Martin for a late March debut. ER/West Wing/Third Watch producer John Wells is behind this one.

Micro-advertising experiment, day seven

Good day for the ad! I had seven more visitors through the ad yesterday (out of 353 views, 1.98% CTR!) for a total of 32 from 2718 views for a 1.18% CTR. More Woohoo!!

Hating Internet Explorer

It’s my own fault. I really ought to change to another browser. There are a couple of reasons why I don’t, such as the fact that the Blogger tools don’t play well in Opera and the CSS controlling my page layout is different. But IE is pushing me to the limits of possibly even switching from Windows 2000 to Linux. The stupid software is crashing my machine on a daily basis with a Blue Screen of Death. I would include a screenshot but of course that isn’t possible unless I grab my digital camera quickly next time. The specific error message is

wait operation, attach process, or yield was attempted from a DPC routine

Then the machine goes into some odd process/terminal loop. The only solution is to pull the power, which on this laptop means power cord and battery. Of course the Microsoft help sites have no help for this problem. And just try and get any answer out of them without paying for support incident! Ugggh!!!!

Reason to love the web, part {next}: Spider-man

Downloading cool movie trailers in seconds, like the one for next Spring’s Spider-Man. More video and other neat stuff at the official movie site. You wouldn’t expect Tobey Maguire to be that much of an action hero but looking at the trailer and other clips he shows that a good actor can do almost any role, though I bet at age 26 he’s tired of playing high school students; he must be betting that this picture will have long legs and turn into a franchise. Kirsten Dunst, totally hot with hair dyed red, has no trouble convincing us she’s the adorable love interest. Willem Dafoe will be as slimey as he wants to be as the billionaire gone insane and twisted into super baddie Green Goblin. The movie is written by David Koepp, will it be as good as his Jurassic Park or as bad as his Stir of Echoes? Will director Sam Raimi live up to A Simple Plan or down to the Tom Selleck snorer For Love of the Game? This opens the day before my birthday and seems like a treat to look for.

Micro-advertising experiment, day six

Going by the official stats, I had four more visitors through the ad yesterday for a total of 25 out of 2307 views for a 1.08% CTR. Having used MetaFilter’s Ad Management screens for a week now, I am ready to admit they have some shortcomings. Most explicitly is that after 20 minutes one must login again so I can’t just keep a browser pointed at the page and hit Refresh every now and again; Matt says he could change this but hasn’t yet. Further, the design of the screens is less than optimal. I would also like more summary information on the main page and that some other format than Flash be used to visualize the daily results chart. Hmm, this is an odd write up, I think, since most of you can’t see these screens. So I captured the graphic just to display for you:

MetaFilter TextAd results as of 12/20