Flow, the software I’ve been working on for the last 18 months, has shipped!

There are videos of it in action and a trial version to download, if you follow the link. After all the hard work it’s gratifying to see it available to the world!

Almost. I saw Transformers 1, and there’s no way I’m falling for that again.

This review of the new giant robot cgi-fest is brilliant:

So LaBoeuf, who’s actually a fine actor, is the stand-in for the male viewers’ greatest fears about themselves. No matter how great a loser they might be, they can’t be as losery a loser as Sam Witwicky. And yet, Sam has awesome giant robots stomping around telling him he’s the most important awesome person ever. And he has the hottest girlfriend in the universe, Megan Fox, for whom banality is a huge aphrodisiac. The more pathetic Sam gets, the more Fox’s lips pout and her nipples point, like little Irish setters.

Michael Bay Finally Made An Art Movie

At the Dragon Boat Festival this weekend there were three or four crocodiles like this fellow on display in cages. Each croc seemed oblivious to the attention of the passing crowds, content to lie in the shady grass in one corner or another of his cage. While I was snapping pictures I saw a man walk up to one of the cages to see what the fuss was about. He read the sign posted on the side, which said something along the lines of “Man-eating nile crocodile” and then peered in. The crocodile was lying against the wall nearest him, and he couldn’t really see it from the angle he was looking down into the cage. His eyes went wide when realization dawned that he was looking at an empty crocodile cage… uh oh!

Then he found the little fellow hiding in the shade and looked relieved.

The humble sign is not a new piece of technology, dating back to sometime just after the invention of writing in Mesopotamia, circa 3500 B.C. The sign is a clever concept: take an idea you want to communicate, write it down, and situate it prominently. When people see it, they’ll read the words and know what you wanted to tell them. Sounds good in theory, but do signs actually work?

After 5500 years of wondering, I’m glad we can finally put the question to rest.

Crossing the theatre parking lot on our way to see Star Trek, we passed a van with a license plate reading “REDSHIRT”. I think I know what those people were there to see.

So, what did I think? I don’t mind “re-imaginings”, I’m a big BSG fan after all, and, with a new cast portraying the original Star Trek characters, this movie leans in that direction. However, I don’t think they quite pulled it off. It didn’t really feel like Star Trek, and didn’t manage to redefine Star Trek into anything new and compelling either. It was generic space-ships-and-explosions sci-fi.

Still, it could have been a disaster, and it wasn’t. I’m sure sequels are in the works, and I’m cautiously optimistic.

I’ve blogged about Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis before (back when I was young and naive and just learning about Glenn Gould), but it’s music that I keep coming back to. I really, really like it, but don’t fully understand why. It seems to have been calculated to stimulate my very own brain in just the right way to make me both calm and creative.

I lately found this on Youtube. Branka Parlić playing Metamorphosis One:

You can find parts two through five on le ‘tube as well (or on Parlić’s own website under “videos”).

I’m a fan of the CBC program “The Age of Persuasion”, ad guru Terry O’Reilly’s weekly half-hour tour through the world of modern advertising. Originally I tuned in just to see what “The Enemy” was up to, and I’ve become hooked. I still think advertising is an evil, but O’Reilly might succeed in convincing me that it’s a necessary one.

Last week, using the atheist bus campaign as a jumping off-point, the show examined the relationship between advertising and religion. It’s a good listen, and is up as a podcast on the show’s website. Check it out.

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Mmmm, fresh homemade bread.

I believe I have made my feelings on chainmail underwear and other ludicrous video-game garb clear. Suffice to say, I’m not a fan. So I was quite pleased to find this a little while ago while researching a Secret Project(tm) that I may or may not be cooking up in my spare time lately.

It’s the box art from The Bard’s Tale, a computer RPG from 1985, and here are some adventurers that nobody wants to see in their skivvies. These blokes look like they can get the quest and the drinking done, and both without any nonsense. I’d trust them to liberate the town of Skara Brae from the clutches of the evil wizard Mangar long before I’d turn to a barbie doll in a titanium bathing suit. Gaming needs more heroes who don’t wear high heels. My only complaint is there don’t seem to be any women in sensible shoes among the lads here. Oh well, can’t have everything.

Bonus content: here’s an old magazine ad from the era when the graphics were mostly schematic and they actually had to tell you about their game.

(First, here’s your soundtrack.)

As I’ve probably mentioned once or twice before, I ride the bus to work every day. I ride the bus to the grocery store. I ride the bus downtown to the market for shortbread cookies because I don’t have a presidential motorcade and 50 secret service agents.

This was all well and fine until December, when the Ottawa bus drivers went on strike, and stayed on strike until February. Lucky for me I could car pool to the office and walk to the grocery store, and so I survived, but the whole experience left me with a few unpleasant conclusions. For starters, I think that all the talk of boosting public transit in this country and all the talk of “green alternatives” to cars might be just that: talk. When we get right down to it, nobody really takes transit all that seriously. Sure, there are people who depend on transit. I can’t really count myself among them - I could probably afford a car if I wanted one, or at least a taxi now and then. Those people who can’t afford that are going to ride the bus regardless of whether anyone takes transit seriously, and those are the people most hurt when the busses disappear for two months. A related lesson: nobody takes people who take transit seriously, either. Both sides in the labour dispute seemed quite indifferent to the people whose lives were turned upside down. “Well, anybody who matters can just drive his car,” you could almost hear them say.

Cities like Ottawa often say that they want to boost transit ridership. “It’s good for the environment. It’ll cut down rush-hour gridlock”, etc. I wish they’d put their money where their mouth is. The experience of the strike has made me realize what’s really preventing widespread adoption of transit-as-primary-means-of-travel by those who can afford other options: people don’t see transit as reliable enough. Even when the strike isn’t on, riding the bus can be a little unpredictable. I leave the house within the same 5 minute period most mornings, but depending on my luck, I can get to work as early as 8:55 or as late as 9:40. If I had the kind of job where one has to show up at a fixed time every day, taking transit would be massively inconvenient. Because the bus can be so unpredictable, people who have alternatives are unwilling to rely on it. The people who can’t afford cars are going to ride the bus no matter what, and because they put up with the unpredictability and show up on the side of the road every morning, they get taken for granted. And because “anyone who matters” isn’t taking the bus, there’s little incentive to improve the reliability. After all, if the bus is late, who are we inconveniencing? Poor people and students. And they hardly pay property tax, so who cares about them, right? But oh, we wish more people would leave their cars at home and ride the bus. Wouldn’t life be grand if we all took public transit?

Keep dreaming.

Forget price - the bus is already cheaper than owning a car - I really think predictability is the key to a successful transit system. People who can afford cars aren’t going to start riding the bus if they can’t rely on it. And as long as they’re not riding, transit won’t be taken seriously. And as long as it isn’t taken seriously, it isn’t going to improve.