Just a short update about a weird issue I ran into when I was creating some Facebook ads.
Facebook allows you to advertise to a number of different sources but for whatever reason they take features away from you if you're advertising to other Facebook pages. One of those annoying features is that Facebook takes over the title of your ad if you advertise for a fan page or an event.This can be annoying as the title is the only text in your ad that's presented in a big eye-catching bold font. My revelation was that you can subvert the normal title stealing behaviour by choosing to link to an "External URL" for the event/fan page but ONLY if your URL is not HTTPS.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Friday, August 05, 2011
IRSSI Notification Mod
If anyone still uses IRC these days (and you should because it's cheap, flexible group chat with support for file transfer, private messaging and pretty much everything else) you might appreciate some of the work I've done to increase the utility of IRC in this Smartphone age.
1. I'm running IRSSI off a Linux server I have set up from home. This is pretty par for the course for IRSSI but one of the easiest and most liberating thing you can do with it is run it inside of a program called "screen" and setup SSH on the Linux server. Whenever I'm at a Terminal (in Linux or OSX) or have access to PuTTY (Windows) I can SSH into my home server and open up screen to have full access to the IRC client (among any other programs I have running on the server). You can even extend this functionality to your Smartphone in at least two different ways, one if you have an SSH App (i use iSSH on my iPhone) or if you want to set up IRSSI to run as a proxy you can use any decent IRC app to login to that proxy and go from there. The proxy tends to be faster and easier to type on as every SSH app I've ever used has some terrible lag on the keyboard or has some other annoying twitch. Even iSSH cuts some of the terminal window off if you hold the iPhone portrait style and if you hold it landscape it makes the keyboard see-through and puts it over where you're reading the text.
1. I'm running IRSSI off a Linux server I have set up from home. This is pretty par for the course for IRSSI but one of the easiest and most liberating thing you can do with it is run it inside of a program called "screen" and setup SSH on the Linux server. Whenever I'm at a Terminal (in Linux or OSX) or have access to PuTTY (Windows) I can SSH into my home server and open up screen to have full access to the IRC client (among any other programs I have running on the server). You can even extend this functionality to your Smartphone in at least two different ways, one if you have an SSH App (i use iSSH on my iPhone) or if you want to set up IRSSI to run as a proxy you can use any decent IRC app to login to that proxy and go from there. The proxy tends to be faster and easier to type on as every SSH app I've ever used has some terrible lag on the keyboard or has some other annoying twitch. Even iSSH cuts some of the terminal window off if you hold the iPhone portrait style and if you hold it landscape it makes the keyboard see-through and puts it over where you're reading the text.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Updates and Namedrops
We're getting into Doubleclick for Advertisers at work. I find it endlessly amusing that they refer to it as DFA constantly which reminds me of other things. Doubleclick is a monster but in a good way. AdWords was one thing but this seems to take all the nice conveniences of the Google Display Network and does away with them in favour of supporting everything who doesn't want to completely comply to Google's rules. I think I've got the basics down but I'm still expecting to have to figure some more things out.
I'm also working on CSS again. A new design for this site is on the way as a trial by fire for what I'm learning. I think I've got a lot of the basics down, but now I'm finding the idiosyncracies to be a far bigger issue than the concepts and methods. The CSS community seems to be pretty good at categorizing their hacks so that's been a smoother process then I was expecting. Now I just need to find the time to get the practice in.
Lots of other stuff going on but the only important thing right now is that my recent fling with programming means I'm addicted to IDM again. My good friend Heather directed me towards The Glitch Mob, Of Porcelain, and edIT. I've tangented off of that into some more ambient tracks though Machine Drum, Tim Hecker and some good old Boards of Canada.
I'm also working on CSS again. A new design for this site is on the way as a trial by fire for what I'm learning. I think I've got a lot of the basics down, but now I'm finding the idiosyncracies to be a far bigger issue than the concepts and methods. The CSS community seems to be pretty good at categorizing their hacks so that's been a smoother process then I was expecting. Now I just need to find the time to get the practice in.
Lots of other stuff going on but the only important thing right now is that my recent fling with programming means I'm addicted to IDM again. My good friend Heather directed me towards The Glitch Mob, Of Porcelain, and edIT. I've tangented off of that into some more ambient tracks though Machine Drum, Tim Hecker and some good old Boards of Canada.
Friday, March 18, 2011
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Lots to say, not enough time to say it.
Thought I'd carve out a little time for a book review. Considering that I don't finish a lot of books these days and the lack of writing overall I've been doing I thought I'd do up something quick on the topic.
I finished "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last night. You've probably heard of it. It's a murder mystery with a lot going on for it. Written by the late Stieg Larsson it's already an international bestseller, seen one set of movies made about the trilogy and has another trilogy coming up by David Fincher. The protagonists, such as they are, are Mikael Blomkvist, a finance reporter, and Lizbeth Salander a PI/hacker of considerable talent. While there's certainly a lot to roll your eyes about, possibly because the novel was written in swedish, possibly because it tries pretty hard to impress the reader with descriptions of the "bleeding edge" tech from 2004, the story is well crafted and Lizbeth especially I found to be an extremely endearing character.
Thought I'd carve out a little time for a book review. Considering that I don't finish a lot of books these days and the lack of writing overall I've been doing I thought I'd do up something quick on the topic.
I finished "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last night. You've probably heard of it. It's a murder mystery with a lot going on for it. Written by the late Stieg Larsson it's already an international bestseller, seen one set of movies made about the trilogy and has another trilogy coming up by David Fincher. The protagonists, such as they are, are Mikael Blomkvist, a finance reporter, and Lizbeth Salander a PI/hacker of considerable talent. While there's certainly a lot to roll your eyes about, possibly because the novel was written in swedish, possibly because it tries pretty hard to impress the reader with descriptions of the "bleeding edge" tech from 2004, the story is well crafted and Lizbeth especially I found to be an extremely endearing character.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
El Topo
Alejandro Jodorowski is name that will come up if you spend enough time watching acclaimed cinema. Unfortunately he tends not to be quite as acclaimed as his contemporaries. This is probably due to his movies being phenomenally messed up. I was introduced to Jodorowski several years ago when some of his more famous movies got DVD releases after nearly 30 years of floating around art houses and midnight showings. These movies, El Topo and The Holy Mountain, have a fascinating history that's tightly tied to the popularity of The Beatles of all people. All that background is available on Wikipedia if you want to take the time to read it but this article is about my experience watching El Topo.
El Topo is a parable wrapped in a western taken with a heavy dose of psychedelics. The movie follows El Topo, "The Mole", who is played by Jodorowski himself. El Topo is a magnificent gunman who considers himself godlike. The movie starts with El Topo taking his son, who remains completely naked aside from a hat for the portion of the movie he is in, out into the desert to bury his first toy and his mother's mirror in a symbolic act of manhood. They find a massacred village and ride out to find the bandits who did it and get vengeance on behalf of the dead. The bandits act crazy to the point where their antics are a mix between goofy and perverted including a scene where three bandits challenge El Topo to a duel that starts when a small red balloon fully deflates and another where the bandits are torturing a group of monks by riding them around like horses and other demeaning/sexual acts. El Topo arrives and kills the bandits after which a woman who was with the monks forces El Topo to abandon his son with the monks so they can run off and be lovers in the desert.
The woman, Mara, eventually demands that he prove he is the best gun-slinger by killing 4 master gunmen. El Topo is challenged by the masters and by the fidelity of his lover but eventually defeats them all only to be stricken with remorse by what he's done before he is betrayed by his lover and left for dead.
The second part of the movie occurs many years later when El Topo returns to life or out of a coma. He is worshiped as an idol by a community of "freaks" who have been imprisoned in a mountain. El Topo realizes that his life has been lived selfishly so he endeavors to make amends by digging a tunnel to get the freaks out of their prison. To do this he must earn money by begging at a local town where the townsfolk live a dual life of religious fanaticism in public and incredible depravity in private. During this period El Topo is accompanied by a dwarf woman who becomes his close companion and eventually lover.
Meanwhile a mysterious monk appears in town and is revealed to be the son El Topo abandoned many years before. When they are reunited his son is furious and vows to kill El Topo but upon seeing the tunnel El Topo is digging, agrees to wait until after the tunnel is completed before killing him. El Topo's new found sense of charity softens his son's anger towards him but eventually he decides that he cannot wait any longer. El Topo is possessed by a holy power and finishes the tunnel almost immediately. The freaks, seeing their new freedom, make a run for the town where the townsfolk are waiting with guns. The freaks are all shot down El Topo must watch helpless. He is thrown into a rage and kills all the townsfolk before covering himself in oil and immolating himself like a Tibetan monk. El Topo's son, the dwarf girl and the son she bore him while he was killing the townsfolk ride off into the desert.
El Topo is hardly subtle but that doesn't mean it's easy. The story of downfall due to hubris and rebirth/redemption is easy to pick up on but almost everything that makes up the elements of that story are insane. The first gunman, for example, is aided by two men, one with no legs who rides on the shoulders of another with no arms. This is not special effects. It's actually an amputee stacked on the back of another amputee. The freaks who have been imprisoned are all dwarfs and people with various bone or muscle disorders. This movie should also have a warning on it that says 'many, many animals were killed in the production of this movie'. There's a scene involving one of the gun masters that involves probably 20 rabbits and several crows being killed, some on screen. Later the massive pile of dead rabbits and crows are set on fire resulting in a huge bon-fire. All the things you think couldn't be done in cinema because of concerns about offending certain parties are done in this film and done excessively.
If you're sensitive to things like this or naked 7 year olds or old ladies slutting all over their black adonis slave to get him shot for "trying to rape them" or sex scenes involving dwarfs or any number of other insane things then this most certainly isn't the movie for you. But El Topo is utterly unique in the world of cinema. This kind of movie will probably never be made again and while it might be easy to say that this uniqueness is all this movie has, it's not quite true. There's considerable skill to the way Jodorowski constructs his story and the magnitude of what is happening in this movie, and how it's presented, allows even the excessive overacting by all parties to fit in. El Topo is crazy. El Topo shouldn't exist. But I'm kind of glad it does.
El Topo is a parable wrapped in a western taken with a heavy dose of psychedelics. The movie follows El Topo, "The Mole", who is played by Jodorowski himself. El Topo is a magnificent gunman who considers himself godlike. The movie starts with El Topo taking his son, who remains completely naked aside from a hat for the portion of the movie he is in, out into the desert to bury his first toy and his mother's mirror in a symbolic act of manhood. They find a massacred village and ride out to find the bandits who did it and get vengeance on behalf of the dead. The bandits act crazy to the point where their antics are a mix between goofy and perverted including a scene where three bandits challenge El Topo to a duel that starts when a small red balloon fully deflates and another where the bandits are torturing a group of monks by riding them around like horses and other demeaning/sexual acts. El Topo arrives and kills the bandits after which a woman who was with the monks forces El Topo to abandon his son with the monks so they can run off and be lovers in the desert.
The woman, Mara, eventually demands that he prove he is the best gun-slinger by killing 4 master gunmen. El Topo is challenged by the masters and by the fidelity of his lover but eventually defeats them all only to be stricken with remorse by what he's done before he is betrayed by his lover and left for dead.
The second part of the movie occurs many years later when El Topo returns to life or out of a coma. He is worshiped as an idol by a community of "freaks" who have been imprisoned in a mountain. El Topo realizes that his life has been lived selfishly so he endeavors to make amends by digging a tunnel to get the freaks out of their prison. To do this he must earn money by begging at a local town where the townsfolk live a dual life of religious fanaticism in public and incredible depravity in private. During this period El Topo is accompanied by a dwarf woman who becomes his close companion and eventually lover.
Meanwhile a mysterious monk appears in town and is revealed to be the son El Topo abandoned many years before. When they are reunited his son is furious and vows to kill El Topo but upon seeing the tunnel El Topo is digging, agrees to wait until after the tunnel is completed before killing him. El Topo's new found sense of charity softens his son's anger towards him but eventually he decides that he cannot wait any longer. El Topo is possessed by a holy power and finishes the tunnel almost immediately. The freaks, seeing their new freedom, make a run for the town where the townsfolk are waiting with guns. The freaks are all shot down El Topo must watch helpless. He is thrown into a rage and kills all the townsfolk before covering himself in oil and immolating himself like a Tibetan monk. El Topo's son, the dwarf girl and the son she bore him while he was killing the townsfolk ride off into the desert.
El Topo is hardly subtle but that doesn't mean it's easy. The story of downfall due to hubris and rebirth/redemption is easy to pick up on but almost everything that makes up the elements of that story are insane. The first gunman, for example, is aided by two men, one with no legs who rides on the shoulders of another with no arms. This is not special effects. It's actually an amputee stacked on the back of another amputee. The freaks who have been imprisoned are all dwarfs and people with various bone or muscle disorders. This movie should also have a warning on it that says 'many, many animals were killed in the production of this movie'. There's a scene involving one of the gun masters that involves probably 20 rabbits and several crows being killed, some on screen. Later the massive pile of dead rabbits and crows are set on fire resulting in a huge bon-fire. All the things you think couldn't be done in cinema because of concerns about offending certain parties are done in this film and done excessively.
If you're sensitive to things like this or naked 7 year olds or old ladies slutting all over their black adonis slave to get him shot for "trying to rape them" or sex scenes involving dwarfs or any number of other insane things then this most certainly isn't the movie for you. But El Topo is utterly unique in the world of cinema. This kind of movie will probably never be made again and while it might be easy to say that this uniqueness is all this movie has, it's not quite true. There's considerable skill to the way Jodorowski constructs his story and the magnitude of what is happening in this movie, and how it's presented, allows even the excessive overacting by all parties to fit in. El Topo is crazy. El Topo shouldn't exist. But I'm kind of glad it does.
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