found_drama

So I watched [tag]2010[/tag] tonight since my local Blockbuster doesn’t seem to have [tag]2001[/tag]. This is a drag for several reasons. But for several other reasons, I’ll live with it. 2010 is good enough in it’s own right.

Potential spoilers below:

First and foremost, it stands well enough on its own. You get enough of ’01’s narrative at the outset to absorb the story and “go from there”. While this detaches you from having a well-informed reaction to certain later scenes, you’ll be able to make sense of the story.

That said, having well-informed reactions to those scenes is something that is arguably kind of important. But let’s not blame that on [tag]Peter Hyams[/tag].

Unfortunately, it suffers from some sad [tag]sci-fi[/tag] sequel cliches. The protracted intro sequence re-capping almost the entire preceding film with bullet points. (Anyone who has seen Aliens know this trick.) They try to make it work in context - - and it almost flies except that the routine accomplished nothing when you consider that the dialogue that follows it does the same re-cap (but more artfully). And then there’s the whole “letters home” convention that wears thin quite quickly.

What the film has in grateful spades though: Russians. [tag]Soviet[/tag] Russians. Nothing illustrates wisdom and safety’s necessity over politics quite like the Americans and Russians that we all know and love from the 1980s. Their paranoia, their callous reliance on top-down mandates. Ah! So refreshing when compared against our circa ’80s American cavalier good-sense. How silly we made each other look by way of contrasting comparisons.

Or maybe I’m just still in love with the short utilitarian haircuts on the women?

currently playing: Texture “Fallen Future”

From ’round the web (in this case: MacSlash): Bare Bones’ [tag]Yojimbo[/tag] personal information organizer.

What’s this doing that [tag]StickyBrain[/tag] or [tag]Voodoo Pad[/tag] isn’t?

Granted, I can’t speak much for StickyBrain. Never used it. Don’t see the point in that kind of system. (Maybe I would if I’d used it?) I’ll stick to Voodoo Pad, which I think is the best little app since they invented vi and grep.

This isn’t to diminish Yojimbo. [tag]Gruber[/tag] seems to like it. Not to say “just because” - - just that I value his opinion and having not tried it (see above). That said: I may give the demo a whirl for the hell of it - - but given that you can encrypt with Voodoo Pad … well, VP’s wiki style is more my style.

currently playing: Fluke “Bermuda”

Slashdot post asks (in a nutshell): Whose responsibility is it for training, anyway? Yours? Or your company’s?

To run the risk of sounding like some cliche: It depends now, don’t it?

If the technology is something proven - - and by “proven” I mean it’s something the company already knows that it wants you to know - - then I say that it’s their responsibility. Their are certainly some caveats to this. If you were expected to know it coming into the job, tough shit. Proprietary technologies and obscure technologies? Fuck it! It’s on the corporate account. Extensions of knowledge you already have? There’s a fun grey area. Minor additions to your knowledge you should be able to pick up on the job (they can make an hour or two for you to read an article) or on your own time. Major new techniques? They should spring for it.

If the technology is just something you think is neat or fun? Well, that’s all you, baby. The whole world may be talking about Ruby On Rails but what’s that got to do with you? Of course, if they asked YOU to experiment with that Ajax shit and you’ve got positively no interest in it, then maybe they should make it worth your while. (At least slip the man a couple $20s for the lit.)

Of course none of the above hypotheticals really addresses the question posed in their piece. W/r/t/ having been left (legacy-wise) with a system that’s (probably) mission-critical and suddenly unsupported. So in that case… That manager better have the budget left to train or they’re all screwed.
currently playing: Skylab2000 “Auburn”

Except for a couple dreams and lame quicky link-out posts, it’s been pretty quiet around here lately.  Yes, it’s true.  All sorts of hectic-ness have kept the posts to a minimum.  W/o giving away too much, this has been both good and bad.  Now to make up for it:  a series of short posts…

Relief is realizing that despite having run over what appeared to be a mattress on my drive home, I am (in fact) still alive.  The sad (??) irony is that I probably would have avoided the drama all together had I been riding the ass of the truck in front of me.  Then maybe the mattress (if it was a mattress) would have flown over my car.  As it were, however, I watched in horror as it flipped up off of the white truck (I think it was white, I’m sure it was a truck) up into the air and did a little dance before coming down on the pavement right in front of me.  Given that this was maybe a quarter mile from the Richmond exit and cars were doing their damnedest to get in front of each other to be first down the off-ramp, I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room here.  And by “didn’t have a lot” I mean that I couldn’t go left nor right to avoid this debris.  So I braced myself for the impact that would surely cause my premature demise and allowed the ensuing crunch to assure me that I would at least escape with my life.  Quite full of panic, I rode out the remainder of that quarter mile with my foot on the brake and my poor little Neon in 4th.  I didn’t bother with the hazards as their switch is kind of inconveniently placed and anyone that could see me had certainly seen the incident as well.  That said, it’s worth noting that no one followed me to the Richmond Park & Ride to ask if I was alright.  The truck (I’ll add) sped off without me having a chance to jot down the license plate.  Not that I’m accusing him of “speeding off” (though I’ll admit, I rather enjoyed that choice of words) - - it’s probable that he went to that Mobil station right there and left it at that, not even knowing of my peril and plight.  Regardless, I pulled into the Richmond Park & Ride to give it the once over.  I guess there was no major damage; I couldn’t see any, at least - - and the car still ran.  Even started right up again.
I suppose it was all just as well, I needed to top off my washer fluid anyway.