Sharing Thoughts

Rusko - Woo Boost (Alternate Version)

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:35:25 +0200

Rusko - Woo Boost (Alternate Version)

Test::Unit cheat sheet

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:59:00 +0100

Free to download and any usage you like.

Great song from the game Disgaea

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:50:00 +0100

Aus dem Leben eines Level 20 Zauberers.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:04:00 +0100

Aus dem Leben eines Level 20 Zauberers.

Movie tip: The Signal

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:38:00 +0100

A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.

Genre: Horror/Thriller/Comedy/Sci-Fi
IMDB Rating: 6.2
My Rating: 8

This movie was way better than I expected, especially for a B-movie! It’s basically a 28-Days-Later-style Horror with a sprinkle of Tarantino and Black Comedy and served with a big plate of Paranoia. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s helpful to know this beforehand:

It’s brutal, but not exploitive (similar to 28 Days Later)
People are not just dumb zombies, but actually thinking “rationally” and their thought-process is “interesting” to say the least
The movie is separated into three parts, each by a different director with a different style (watch out for the hilarious second part)
I wouldn’t say it qualifies as Sci-Fi apart from the strange signal
There’s no background explanation of the signal, you just have to accept it. This might be unsatisfactory for some people, I didn’t care too much, that’s not what the movie was about.
This is a love/hate movie - I read a lot of reviews on IMDB, and some people just don’t get it or don’t care, but I thought it was intelligent and immersive.

One of the reviews that I thought was on point is as follows (contains minor spoilers):

A signal is being transmitted to every TV, cell phone, and radio. This transmission has a powerful effect on anyone who watches it or listens to it. It strips away self-control, plays on your paranoia, and makes even the most brutal of murders appear rational. Three people—a wife, a husband and a lover—all deal with this feral disorder in three, very different ways. This film brilliantly and brutally tells each of their stories. After the various transmissions of The Signal, chaos, murder, and mayhem ensue.

Usually, when you are about to watch a low-budget horror movie, your excited anticipation at watching a new horror flick is very often marred by a bit of dread. Almost invariably, the viewer is going to have to overlook bad acting, stilted dialogue, and clichéd plot twists. Unfortunately, these pitfalls have come to be synonymous with moderately-financed movies. Having said this, now and again, a movie comes along which changes your mind about low-budget film-making. The Signal is one such movie, the acting is superb, the writing is innovative and compelling, and the dialogue delivers many a quotable line:

“Do you have ‘the Crazy?’” Transmission 1 – Crazy in Love, directed by David Bruckner. This part of the film tells us the story of Mya, the wife, and her story becomes, by far, the darkest part of the tale. This section is shot in such a way that it has a voyeuristic quality to it. The viewer does not feel as if they are watching a film, but rather, that they are observing Mya, as the initial effects of The Signal are startlingly revealed.

“You’re not my husband, you’re a homicidal maniac.” Transmission 2 – Jealousy Monster, directed by Jacob Gentry. This is the most surreal part of the film, as we see the world through Lewis’s eyes. Of course, he is the jealous husband and is most obviously affected by The Signal. Gentry’s transcendent use of nonlinear storytelling, along with his dark humour, gives us a gruesome glimpse into the mind of a maniac. And, even though Lewis has a habit of killing people by battering them to death with a fire extinguisher, you do, kinda, feel for the guy.

“You are aware that you are having a conversation with a decapitated head.” Transmission 3 – Escape from Terminus, directed by Dan Bush. And, finally, there is Dan’s story, aka the Lover. In the final transmission, the line between good and evil becomes the most blurred that it has been since the start of the film. This epilogue hammers the message home, that no one is safe from The Signal. Viewers find themselves asking, “Who is the bad guy, who is the husband, who is the lover, who is dead, and who is alive? To all these questions, there is no definitive answer. The optimists among us will interpret the ending as a “love conquers all, kind-of,” deal. And, cynics will view it as just the beginning of the last, great apocalypse, one in which man’s inherent fears and paranoias, with a little help from some malevolent technology, will destroy all humankind. Transmission 3 is a very suitable, ambiguous ending to a first-rate horror film.

Each transmission has a very different style, and some viewers may think this adds up to a disjointed narrative. However, I wholeheartedly disagree with this conclusion. As each story is told from a different perspective, it makes sense that the filmmakers should employ different techniques to portray their characters’ personalities and varying descents into madness.

The Signal is the most original, thought-provoking horror movie of the past decade. This film is wickedly witty and pleasingly perverse. Its writers and directors are very adept at their craft, and this film is a shining example of its genre, regardless of budget. In short, The Signal is a sublime example of film-making and is worthy of major distribution.

Great response to Google CEO about privacy

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:16:00 +0100

Great response to Google CEO about privacy:

Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) said:

I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.

Read Bruce Schneier’s response here

Watch people play through videogames

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:21:00 +0100

Watch people play through videogames:

Very interesting playthroughs of various videogames. The videos are usually always commented so it’s similar to watching someone play the game in your room while talking about secrets and funny insides or just trash talking away.

Another epic XKCD chart.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:14:00 +0100

Another epic XKCD chart.

Update your github gem dependencies for gemcutter

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:58:00 +0100

Still requiring some gems from Github in your environment file? Try this ruby script to automatically update them to Gemcutter. The script checks if the library exists on gemcutter before changing anything.

Usage:
ruby gemcutter_update.rb [DIRECTORY] [ENVIRONMENT]

Example:
gemcutter_update my_app test

War Promises English version of a german documentary called...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:54:00 +0100

War Promises

English version of a german documentary called Kriegsversprechen (war promises). Note to non-german speakers: the title looks and sounds like the word “Kriegsverbrechen” which translates to war crimes.

Official info from the youtube video:

Millions of people believe that evidence proves that Western intelligence services organised the hideous attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Even the mainstream media have stopped defending the official version and now prefer to ignore the issue altogether.

Distrust in Western governments grows as the wars of aggression waged by the USA and NATO continue to be justified with these false flag operations. Ever harsher domestic laws are being passed to crush all outrage and resistance in Western populations; at the end of the day they aim to unleash the German military on German civilians, instead of allowing morality and ethics to flow into day-by-day policymaking.

That morality and ethics long ago stopped playing a part in political decision-making is shown by the use of internationally outlawed weapons in all the wars NATO has started. At best, one has heard of depleted uranium after seeing the film Deadly Dust by award-winning Frieder Wagner. But even that film is systemically blocked out and banished, although, or perhaps because, it shows the horrific consequences of the use of these uranium weapons.

Among those aghast at the actions of NATO and the complicity of Germany in such internationally illegal wars of aggression is Christoph Hörstel, for many years foreign correspondent and editorial head of the German public broadcasting network ARD. Of like mind is Giullietto Chiesa, a Member of the European Parliament, who slams the ignorance and disinterest of most of his fellow Members.

What they dont know is explained in the film War promises by insiders and whistleblowers. Annie Machon was a spy with the British MI5 and reports on false flag operations, as do Andreas von Bülow and Jürgen Elsässer, who possess enormous insider knowledge from their membership of the parliamentary committee supervising the secret services, and want to bring it to the public.

Eight years after 9/11 millions of people have linked up through the Internet to jointly rebel against this criminal system. What was still dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory until just a few month ago is now regarded as proven, raising the question how we, the people, handle this situation, in which those who govern us have on their minds anything but our wellbeing.