~gabriel » Culture

Pioneer One

gabriel — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:49:25 +0000

I came across a link to Pioneer One last week and I downloaded it over the weekend. I finally got around to watching it this evening and I have to say that for a $6000 budget it's not that bad, in fact I'm sure hoping that it continues, I'm pretty curious about the plot. Anyway I won't bother repeating stuff you can just read on the site itself, but the idea of micro funded entertainment is really neat. I'll be following this closely.

A Couple Things

gabriel — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:42:33 +0000

I'm still plugging away at the Aubrey-Maturin series and I'm still enjoying it, about halfway through HMS Surprise. I mentioned it to a friend recently about the series and I agreed with her that it's probably a bit of an acquired taste but if you're in to sailing and/or military or historical fiction you should check it out.

Also, you should check out PBS Video if you haven't recently. Although some of the content is geofenced (and there are ways around that if you're creative) there's a lot of good stuff there for the watching. Lately I've been enjoying American Experience in particular, oh how I wish we had PBS in Canada.

Diaspora

gabriel — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:21:51 +0000

I just pledged $25 to the Diaspora project on Kickstarter. I won't repeat all the details here, but it's in many ways an answer to my complaints about Facebook. I'm still a bit leery of some aspects of social networking regardless of the tools but the idea that I manage my own data directly is incredibly appealing. I urge you to check it out and if you feel strongly about it go ahead and sponsor the project. Anyway, off to Montreal... have a great weekend!

G20 Summit Plans

gabriel — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:44:36 +0000

You are probably aware that the G20 Summit is on its way to Toronto in the not-too-distant future. From what I'm hearing it sounds like the Toronto Police, OPP, RCMP, CSIS and their friends are going to be out in full effect for the duration to enforce a DMZ they're putting around the Convention Centre and Intercontinental Hotel. It's a bit of a double bummer because my office is inside one of the planned security cordons and it sounding like I have to get added to a list and get ID'd in order to go to work during the duration. I was thinking about taking the week off and going on vacation but it doesn't sound like that's an option as by coincidence I'll be the only one in town who does my job during that week.

I don't understand why the Powers That Be decide to hold a meeting in the middle of Canada's largest city when they want to make sure that nobody can get close enough to interfere with their plans, but I digress...

All this nonsense has got me thinking about what I'm going to do that week when I'm not in the office. Frankly I think most of the G8/G20 protesting is somewhat pointless and more akin to pissing into the wind than to meaningful political statement, however I'm not that impressed by the heavy handed tactics that the police have tended to use at the behest of their masters. So I've started thinking I might make a somewhat concerted effort to go out and attempt a photographic "study" of the whole thing.

I've been getting more serious about photography lately (just bought a new lens for my D80, but more about that in a future post) and it might be an interesting exercise, not to mention my definite feeling is that documenting things is probably the best way to avoid problems. I'm just not sure how keen I am on getting even indirectly involved. I need to think it over a bit more before I make up my mind...

Master & Commander

gabriel — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:52:50 +0000

I've started reading Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I've long been a fan of Napoleonic War era historical fiction but for some reason I've never quite gotten around to the Aubrey-Maturin series. Though it's premature to give a real review, I can appreciate why the books were so well received critically. I've got Post Captain and HMS Sapphire on my bookshelf and I'm looking forward to some serious reading!

US Piracy List, A Canadian Reponse

gabriel — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:02:19 +0000

There's a good summary over on Ars Technica of some of the problems involved with the continued American insistence of categorizing Canada as a country that doesn't enforce intellectual properly law. I'm personally content with the middle ground that we seem to be standing here. Although ideally I'd prefer to see a more open regime here, the reality is that so long as we live next to the United States we're not very likely to have completely reasonable laws. Anyway, the article I linked is pretty brief and has some interesting facts regarding piracy and IP violations in Canada.

Keynes: The End of Laissez-Faire

gabriel — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:25:41 +0000

I just came across this essay in an article on Salon.com. It's a very interesting essay by John Maynard Keynes called The End of Laissez-Faire and in my view it is a must read. Anybody who is not familiar with Keynesian Economics and how it fundamentally differs from the current Austrian School as championed by the likes of Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan would do well to read Keynes if only to see that there are other options. I find Keynes' writing style awkward and a bit hard to read, but his theories are undoubtedly interesting and his intellect is impressive.

When I was in school, I'm sure I never imagined I'd be reading economics papers for my own amusement. I'm getting old.

JPMorgan to buy Bear Stearns

gabriel — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:21:35 +0000

The BBC is reporting that JPMorgan is not only bailing Bear Stearns out using money from the New York Federal Reserve, but before the markets even open on Monday, they're poised to buy Bear Stearns for $2/share. On Thursday Bear Stearns closed at $57/share. This is, by any measure, a complete collapse of one of Wall Street's biggest banks/investment firms. I wonder if this is an isolated situation or a harbinger of things to come.

I just finished reading The Party's Over. I must say I'm not feeling overly optimistic about either the short or long term tonight...

There Will Be Blood?

gabriel — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:06:58 +0000

I just got home from the late show of There Will Be Blood and I must say I don't think I enjoyed the movie. In fact it's the first movie I've seen since The Passion of The Christ that I didn't really feel good about sitting through. Don't worry, it's not as bad as The Thirteenth Floor or anything, but it really didn't make me feel good. Daniel Day-Lewis' character Plainview is simply too dark for my tastes, he's a genuine psychopath (probably in the clinical sense) and the acting is a bit too convincing for my taste.

That being said, the acting was excellent and the film, at least as a piece of art in the abstract sense, was quite impressive. I haven't read Oil!, though from what I gather Paul Thomas Anderson only borrowed loosely from Upton Sinclair's book so even if I had it might not have prepared me for the tone of the film. I'm a definite fan of Anderson and while I enjoyed his lighter fare (e.g.: Boogie Nights or Magnolia) much more than this film it has done nothing to lower my view of him as a screenwriter or director. I don't think I'd give it a recommendation but I certainly wouldn't discourage anybody from seeing it either. A+ in cinema, C for entertainment.

U2 Manager McGuinness Makes Total Ass of Himself

gabriel — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:16:50 +0000

I guess it's somewhat comforting to know that Bono isn't the only figure from U2 who has decided to devote his life to being a caricature of a twit. While I have some sympathy with the fact that there is a legitimate case that part of the digital music scene involves theft, every time some fool like Paul McGuinness shoots off his mouth and completely glosses over the real and very difficult issues surrounding digital rights and other technological "paradigm shifts" the issue is buried in yet another layer of total shite. For some reason hearing U2's manager demand that U2 is somehow being "hurt" by iPods and ISPs makes me want to gag.

Apparently the problem could be solved if we all just dropped our iPods and bought Zunes. I think the most galling of his ill-conceived rant is that he equates all of the various components of the digital music spectrum from ISPs, users, MP3 player manufacturers and Silicon Valley hippies as equally evil. I have all the time in the world to talk to small off-label artists who actually feel the pain in their wallets, but for the most part they are amongst the savviest and are benefiting the most from this shift in power and consumption trends.

Anyway, here's a link to a CBC article. Here's a link to Steve Jobs' somewhat more considered view on the topic for good measure.