Normally this is not one of those blog things, where I post every crap I stumble upon.
I suppose this is a good thing, my database thanks me ;-)
But now I found something, which I have to post here because it just is too good not to do!
Since the Nintendo Wii (a gaming console with a revolutionary controller) has been released, there are people who take this controller and build cool things with it. One of these guys is Johnny Lee. In the following two videos he is demonstrating what you can do ...
Here he builds an input device Minority Report style. As he states himself, it is fun but too exhausting for long productive work.
And this is a whiteboard through which you can control your computer with an infrared pen. Really cool, I have to say!
Tags: hack · johnny lee · multitouch · wii · wiimote
Hello, dear friends. Nice to have you back for the third part of my best-tv-shows-ever review!
Todays show is just about the limit and, to be honest, nothing for weak nerves and stomaches! I am talking about Dexter!
The show is named after its main charakter, Dexter Morgan, a charismatic Forensic of the Miami Police Department. Dexters area of expertise is the analysis of blood spatter patterns. He can reconstruct the course of events of a crime by looking at the blood left behind at a crime scene.
His brilliance in this job isn't just based on his precise working mind, no, Dexter has a secret ... He is living a double life, on the day he is a cop, in the night a serial killer.
All this sounds really crazy, but the show is made very clever and believable. Dexter was raised as the adoptive son of a cop. Soon it was clear, that Dexter wasn't like a normal boy. He doesn't have any kind of emotions and the urge to kill is rising in him. His dad realizes there is nothing he can do to "cure" his son. But instead of getting professional help, he tries to parent Dexter on his own. He teaches his son how to pretend to be normal, how to kill without being punished and whom to kill.
Dexters victims are always criminals (or people who Dexter thinks are criminals) who did not get their punishment by the law. For example a rapist who came free due to procedural errors would be on the top of Dexters list. How Dexter works off this list is shown in extreme graphic detail.
The special thing about this show is, that Dexter becomes the "good guy" for the viewer. You really hope that he succeeds in murdering those scumbags and that his colleagues and family (his little sister works at the police department, too) don't catch him. But on the otherside you know it is wrong what he does and that you should detest him. It's an interesting moral dilemma.
Visually it once again is a great show. Miami as a setting is already known from some other shows but still has a great flair to it and can fascinate the viewer. You also have to say, that the creators of Dexter really know how to show realistic looking wounds of every sort (especially the disgusting ones) ;)
Through season 1 you get to know Dexter and how he became what he is today. After about half of the season Dexters past begins to haunt him which culmulates in a fulminant season final. The individual episodes have their own stories, but there also is "the big story" which connects all the episodes. The Lost-Addiction-Factor is definitely there.
Since the end of September 2007 episode two of Dexter is aired in the USA. In Germany we have to wait till at least 2008 for the first season. As stated on Serienjunkies.de RTL2 has picked up Dexter. We will have two see how cut it is, I can't imagine the show to come out uncensored on free-TV in Germany ...
Tags: dexter · review · series · tv
Welcome to the second part of my series reviews and recommendations!
My topic for today, dear children, is the tv series Farscape. My first encounter with it was some years ago, when I accidentially switched to it on free-tv. Sadly, this was a mistake ;)
Someone who never saw an episode of Farscape and watches one in the middle of the series will wonder what this is all about. Strange people and even more strange aliens who seem to be different characters at the same time? What's happening here? Where should our new viewer know from, what is going on, if noone is telling him?
In short: I could not really relate to the show and even disliked it somehow.
Some time later, after I heard some voices which really liked it, I decided to give it another chance and to watch the whole series from season one, episode one on.
Said, done, thrilled!
The show is full of creativity. The charakters develop very mich through the episodes, they and the story are sometimes that crazy - you have to wonder about the mental fitness of the people who wrote it. Don't misunderstand me, I mean that in the best of all meanings.
If you are a little engaged in the show and watch every episode, you will get a masterpiece with a stunning story, great images, thrilling action and a lot of fun and feelings.
The story: The astronaut John Crichton is testing a new propulsion system with his shuttle (the farscape project) in earth orbit. He accidentially opens a wormhole and flies through. Barely escaped death and far far away from earth he stumbles into the living spaceship Moya. The moya was a convict transport but the convicts took over command and are on the run from the Peacekeepers, a human-like race.
In an unintended collision with his ship, John Crichton kills the brother of a peacekeeper commander, who is now out for revenge and is hunting Crichton and the Moya through space.
Moyas crew consists of some aliens:
Pilot, like the name already hints, is the pilot of Moya. His race has a symbiotic relationship with the living ships. His nerves are connected with those of Moya, so he can steer and manage it quite effectively.
Pilot is a good natured beeing, but it also has its dark sides.
Aeryn Sun, former fighter for the Peacekeepers, is struggling to lose her education and propaganda formed view on the things. Through the seasons she and Crichton develop a romance, which is a central part of the story.
The blue-skinned Chiana is a real scoundrel. The steals, lies and uses her female attributes wherever she thinks it will get her what she wants.
Most noticeable on the first glance is her beastly, cat-like movement. This emphasizes her being an alien, even if she looks like a strange coloured human.
Rygel the 16th, former ruler over 600 billion liveforms unfortunately stood between his relatives and the power. On Moya he still behaves like a royal, arrogant and spoiled. But he also has some more pratical abilities, such as (dishonest) negotiations and trade.
The figure is, like pilot, a mechanical puppet. Many of the aliens in the show are such puppets and look really great.
Ka D'Argo is the warrior on board, which is already obvious when you see him. He is huge, has tatoos all over and a large sword/laserweapon combination.
Imprisoned for a crime he did not do, he is now on the search for his son. He becomes Johns best friend, who is also on a search ... the search for the way home.
In the first two seasons the priest Zhaan also plays a main role. She is the heart and soul of the crew and heals the psychic and physical wounds of the others.
Some of the main points of the story are the getaway from the Peacekeepers, the search for earth, wormholes and the such. Over time it gets kind of complicated and is only comprehensible if you saw the episodes before.
For example implants Scorpius, a Peacekeeper leader who wants to get the secret of wormholes from Crichton, a clone of himself in Crichtons head. From now on there are two Scorpius': The real one and the one in Crichtons head. First you think Crichton is getting crazy but over time it kind of resolves what this is all about. For a frequent viewer this is great, of someone tuning in for the first time it is asked too much.
This strange and abstruse side is what makes Farscape special. Especially the the most nutty episodes are the best. In "Revenging Angel" for example you get a closer look in the world of feelings and thoughts of the main character. Very characteristically this episode is a mix between animated (drawn) sequences and real film. You don't see the character of a show ride a comic-missile every day :-)
The creative part of the show is big, it is very well done in all aspects. At the beginning everything is still a little clumsy and cheap looking, but you can observe the progress the team makes from episode to episode. The aliens for example are really looking great and ... well ... alien! Not like in Star Trek, where every beeing seems to be a human with rash. They are fantastic looking puppets, and that is a good thing!
Especially great was in my oppinion the intro. In the third season it is a graphical firework. Amazing! A real piece of art.
Sadly the show fell victim to its own concept. There were not many new viewers (see my experience when I first saw it) and the frequent viewers got fewer. If you miss some episodes and don't know what it is all about now ... that is kind of frustrating.
Farscape did not survive longer than the fourth season and was cancelled after that. The result was a massive outcry on the internet and in letters to SciFi Network. The producers reacted and made a TV movie with two parts: The Peacekeeper Wars.
Although it was not another season, it at least brought the show to a good end.
If you have the possibility to watch Farscape from the first episode to the last, you should absolutely do that! If you ignore some of the minor bumps at the beginning you will get one of the most exciting, emotional and funniest shows on TV ever. To get it will however be expensive, the price for the DVDs on the german Amazon is outrageous at the moment.
A small side note: In season 9 and 10 the two actors of Farscapes main Characters Crichton and Sun took over two roles on Stargate: SG1. The writers of SG1 really know how to enthuse a Farscape fan, if you see the small hints and glances the two give two each other. More clearly it gets in the episode named "200" in which you can find a cool Farscape parody with switched roles.
Tags: farscape · review · scifi · series · stargate · tv
AS already written here I want to present some of my favourite TV series.
The attentive reader has of cause already noticed, that I did not give a precise date of when I will do that :-D But now the time has come ...
I want to start with a series which interestingly fits very well to my last vacation (as soon as I picked and retouched some photos I will upload them):
Rome is one of the most expensive series of our times (the most expensive?). Like the name already hints the main subject of it is Rome, more precisely Rome during the rise of Julius Caesar. In the second season he is not a part of the plot, but mainly I am writing about the first season.
The story is seen with focus on two roman soldiers, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. Those two also appear in the original documents of this time and tie together a story of might, war, friendship and betrayal. Also more famous persons like Julius Caesar and Brutus make their appearance and you learn how they think and what motivates them.
The special thing about Rome is (for me, at least) how believable this time and the values of its inhabitants are presented. This manifests in some quite bloody scenes and rude language, but you always think it is appropriate for this time. Things that are disgusting nowadays for us were back then normal and ok for everybody. This shift in moral values creates a dense atmosphere, it feels like the ancient Rome and you feel with the characters (although it is common knowledge how it all ends).
The design of the series is well done, part of which is a result of the enormous production costs. They made really good sets and filmed in Italy, which is noteworthy for an american production.
The only thing I did not really like was the intro (compared to other series, more in the next texts). It is a good work of art, cuts of a walk through the city with mystic elements, but personally it was not what I would associate with the series. After some episodes I got accustomed to it, until then there still is fast forward ;)
Tags: review · rome · series · tv
For quite a while now, I want to write a text about TV-series. In the meantime good old Labschi beat me to it (link is in german).
A good opportunity for me to finally let the world know what I think about this topic.
I tried this once again, but then noticed that the text would be insanely large. Because of this, I decided to split the topic in several smaller parts. I plan to present one of my favourite TV shows every second or so day. About some I will write more, about some less, some are more famous than others but all of them are in my oppinion worth to be watched ;)
Series took over the lead from movies in the last years regarding the enthusiasm you can develop over it. One of the reasons for this is, that todays series are produced with high technically and narrative quality. The main reason however is, that the "One-story-over-several-episodes" concept, made popular by Lost and 24 but already used for example by Babylon 5, prevails more and more.
Through this concept the tension keeps on a high level and the viewer keeps excited for the characters. No or only few episodes are meaningless and boring. The better part of the shows I will present here in the next days are built on this concept and deliver not only for this reason great entertainment.
A last note: The website epguides.com provides extensive background information on every series you can think of.
Published on 13.09.2007 at 20:23 (0 Comments)
VI is a text editor for UNIX/Linux consoles.
When you get accustomed to using this program, you can work with it really fast and effective. Almost all functions are available through keybord shortcuts, for example type :42 to jump to line 42 or type /Searchterm to search for "Searchterm" in the file.
But one thing always annoyed me:
If you paste several lines from the clipboard to vi, the application indents every line a little more than the previous. The result is an ugly stair-pattern.
To avoid this, simply type
:set paste
Now you can paste your text and leave the paste mode afterwards with
:set nopaste
Tags: clipboard · copy · linux · paste · tip · vi
I began to build an admin interface for my website.
At the moment the only thing working is writing texts (this is the first real test for this), but now I can easily make words bold, italic or underlined.
Ok, that was possible before, too. But now it is more comfortable (say: rich-text-editor).
I hope that this will motivate me to write more texts in the future ;)
Published on 13.09.2007 at 10:03 (0 Comments)
I uploaded a new photo"series".
The series consists of four images I took during our barbecue at the "Süßenmühle" ...
It was a really nice evening, we got lucky with the weather and everyone was in a good mood. I don't have to tell you about the food, because barbecue is always delicious. Oh, wait, one thing: We picked up some meat at the Greth in Überlingen, which had a great marinade. If you ever want get something there for a barbecue, you should try "Bali" and "Cafe de Paris". Yummie!
Back to the photographs: They are mostly time-exposures of the lake or the fire. I got some with people on them, too, but I don't want to put them here for everyone to see. If you are interested in those reprint-friendly 10x15 cm pictures, just contact me!
For all those who are afraid to take the long way through the "Images" section of the homepage, just click this direct link.
Tags: bbq · homepage · photographing
A new section of my homepage is opening its doors!Under the menuitem "Miscellaneous" you can now find an overview of my fuel consumption. Here is a direct link to the fuel statistics.
For the majority of you visitors this won't be of interest, therefor it is good that I planned and built this for myself to have some control over my driving behaviour and the health of my car.
But maybe there are some of you who will find this interesting too, especially the fuel price could be nice to watch for more people than me. Have fun!
Tags: car · consumption · fuel · homepage · statistics
Since yesterday I'm fooling around with Last.FM.
Last.FM is one of those Web2.0 thingies, where the social component between the users is used to make the content more interesting. The content in this case is music.
For me this means that I type in some of my favourite songs and be presented other music which I might like to hear. The system doesn't use esoteric stuff to know what I want to hear but it compares my favourite songs to those of other Last.FM users. So if someone has a similar taste of music, it will look into his or her favourites and propose them to me.
Because Last.FM is quite popular, they have a whole lot of data to look into ...
The cool part about this is, that you can hear those recommendations streamed as a webradio. You get to know new music and are entertained at the same time. Also you can rate the music which is playing at the moment, refining your favourites and with them the future recommendations you will get.
Best of all, there is a Last.FM Plugin for my Dreambox! Nice!
If you want to hear what Last.FM recommends me, use the flash player below:
Tags: dreambox · last.fm · music
There have been two additions to the family ... nope, it wasn't me ;)
My father just skyped me, that this morning the time has come ...
All the best and tough nerves to my sister Anneke including Michel, who made me double-uncle today with their two girls!
I don't know the names and stuff yet, until I get more information we will have to call them (thanks to Anna) the Jacobs Sisters!
Update Michel left a message on my mobile's mailbox, so I know some additional details:
Welcome to the world, Helene Luise and Clara Charlotte!
Tags: anneke · clara · helene · michel · offspring
Most people who have met me know, that I do not like carnival. At least not the one we have here in Germany ... I love those crazy parades in Rio ;) But which man does not. Anyhow, it will come as a surprise for you to read here, that I really participated in the whole thing this year ... ok ok, I don't want to lie, but I did my best to have fun and succeeded.
Due to Anna I also had a decent costume, on the image you can see how I looked like at Saturday. On Sunday there was the big march in Überlingen, where I helped to take photos. Allegedly some of mine are selling real good. That's delighting :)
On Monday evening was "Hemdglonker", where you dress up in old nightdresses and everybody in town is in white clothing ... quite entertaining.
Altogether we had some nice days, maybe I don't think of those processions as boring sometimes. Until then, I'm looking forward to next year!
Tags: carnival · celebration
Now it happened, the Winter catched up with us!
The database shreddered my highly philosophical text, therefore I just give you a little image of how it looks like outside, at the moment (tendency: more snow ;))! I really have to write a backend for this page, to make it more comfortable to write texts and so on ... Maybe then I will keep it more up to date. Anyway, have a nice winter!
Published on 24.01.2007 at 08:11 (0 Comments)