Counting Beans

It seems like forever since I’ve managed to put up a blog entry of any note when I look here at my blog.  Unfortunately it seems as though of alte time has been in very short supply for me with the conclusion of the AGASA Halo 3 tournament and several weekends of visiting friends.  Thankfully I’ve got a week or two to myself for the foreseeable time so I should be able to plow ahead with blog entries

Also just a quick happy birthday to my mother who is celebrating her birthday today!  Hope you have many more!

Over the last few days I’ve been happily tinkering around with Compiz Fusion in Ubuntu.  Compiz Fusion is a 3D window manager that sits in the background in Ubuntu giving you some fantastic looking effects on your windows and desktop.  One of the most well known effects is that of the wobbly windows where your desktop windows have a wobble effect like jelly when you drag them.

What really got me interested in Compiz Fusion though was the Desktop Cube.  The desktop cube lets you render your 4 separate desktops as a cube so that you can swap between them in 3D in the shape of a cube.  You can also switch between open windows and applications by making use of a 3D cover flow system similar to the way that you can swap between album covers in the latest version of iTunes.  Amazingly enough all these graphical effects come at almost no cost to your system’s memory whereas the same visual effects drag down your system in Vista to a crawl.

There are also a hundred more plugins that can bring additional effects and features to Compiz Fusion.  More info can be found at Compiz Fuision’s main page

The works of David Lynch have always held an attraction for me.  his use if haunting imagery and almost incoherent plots which seem to contain the most magical characters has always entranced me with its ability to convey emotions and atmosphere in a way that no other director can come close to touching.  Watching each of his films leaves you with the impression that you have been part of something almost mystical in nature.  With this in mind it is no surprise that I snapped up the opportunity to purchased Twin Peaks - The Complete Mystery Definitive Gold Boxset upon its local release.  While the South African release of this DVD set misses out on some of the great packaging of its overseas counterparts (such as the postcards from Twin Peaks and the box packaging) all 10 DVDs are included and contain the entire run of Twin Peaks fully remastered with 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks personally overseen by David Lynch himself.

The plot of twin Peask revolves around the discovery of a body wrapped in plastic which washes up.  On further inspection it appears to be the body of Laura Palmer, a well known and liked high school student.  Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) is called in to investigate and what ensues is a mystery that is as far away from your normal detective show as you can imagine.  Like other Lynch works (Blue Velet) we are shown the seedy underbelly of what should be a pristine American country town on the outside.  From drug dealing, student delinquency and spousal abuse we are shown how evil the mind of man can be and that first impressions are never correct. Angelo Badalamenti’s score also serves to create the eerie atmosphere that pervades the woods surrounding Twin Peaks.

Overall this still stands as one of the landmark shows of modern television and forged the way for other popular shows such as X-Files and Lost.  Throw in a raft of excellent extras put together by Charles de Lauzirika who was also responsible for the DVD release of Blade Runner Final Cut and you have an excellent package for fans of the series as well as newcomers to the whole Twin Peaks mythos.  A must have for fans of intellectual television and film.

Big developments on the way.  Watch this space for more info.  So it begins, so it starts.

In today’s increasingly connected age we have a multitude of ways to stay connected from mobile phones to email.  One of the most widespread and easiest ways to stay in contact with friends, family and co workers is via instant messaging.  There are hundreds of options available to stay in contact via IM, from MSN to Google Talk, from Yahoo to AIM with each of these networks offering differing advantages above their competitors.  As with any form of communication, IM has its own pitfalls and rules that you should adhere to when chatting to another person.  So let’s take a look at the etiquette inherent in IM.

Status messages: Its useful when using any form of communication to give the party you’re communicating with an indication of your availability to talk.  IM networks allow you to do this by giving you a status indicator to tell others whether you’re available, busy or currently away from your PC.  Its useful to know if John is at his PC so that you can chat to him quick and its equally useful to see that John might currently be away in which case you can send him an email with any queries you might have.  What’s important to note is that status messages should be used properly.  Its annoying when you send someone a message and they don’t reply.  Are they busy?  Are they away from their PC?  Are they ignoring you?  Make sure that you actually use your status message properly and don’t forget to change it.

Grammar: Another quirky feature of IM is the use of acronyms when speaking.  While it is all well and good to make use of short sentences (this is indeed good practice in IM) the fact is that this should not detract from the use of good grammar and manners.  Just because you are not standing face to face with the person you’re chatting to does not mean that you can just leave a chat with no indication of that.  How must the other person know why you left all of a sudden?  Like any other form of communication its important to remember the social niceties when dealing with those you’re chatting to.  Good manners are the hallmark of a good person after all.

So there you have two very important points when using IM to communicate to those around you.  Here are two further articles which might be of interest to you in this regard:

• ZDNet
• /Message