moving parts of the kasper clan

It started to hit me yesterday as I spent 3.5 hours in this year’s KDE Google Summer of Code mentor’s meeting (thanks again sebr!!). KDE4 just plain rocks, and it feels good to start getting excited about it again. And I don’t just mean KDE 4.0. Don’t get me wrong, KDE4.0 is a nice little release. It’s not perfect and there are some things that are irritating about it and keep me from using it as my main DE. But like Aaron has been saying over and over and over again, KDE4.0 is not KDE4. KDE4.0 is more of a preview of things to come, and what I see coming just plain kicks butt.

I am finally getting excited about our PIM space again, and that feels really, really good. KMail, KOrganizer, KPilot, and the rest of our PIM suite was what drew me to KDE in the 3.x series. (Well, that and quite honestly I find the intentional dumbing-down and lack of configurability of the other large, free DE irritating to the point of exhaustion.) But lately our PIM apps have suffered from lack of care and have started to look seriously unsexy compared with Thunderbird, Sunbird, and even *gasp* Evolution. But KDE4 gives us a chance to remedy that, in my mind, and looking at this year’s Summer of Code projects, I’m hoping we get some really nice improvements done. There’s a few really sweet ones that I’d love to see get accomplished: the Google Contacts/Calendar integration into Akonadi and thusly KDE PIM, the enhanced KMail view, and (nearest and dearest to my heart) getting KPilot fully functional, and rock solid for KDE4.

And going through the SOC-sorting meeting made me realize all over again how fantastic a community it is that we have in KDE. There’s a lot of respect and comaradarie and friendliness that I just don’t see in some other communities. Not to mention the quality of talented people that we have. PIM might have drawn me to KDE, but it’s the people and our awesome community that we have that has kept me. =:)

Anyway, I just had to say that it feels really, really good to be excited about KDE4 again. In my mind, it’s a really unique opportunity to do something fresh and new and fun and exciting again. It’s a chance to learn from past mistakes and do better. It’s a chance to take the fantastic functionality that we have and rethink how our users can best interact with it. It’s a chance to not be bound to the past and to not have to be stuck with the same old presentation layer we have just because we don’t want to make drastic changes to our applications.

As the pretty graphic says, KDE4 is truly a chance to be free. =:)

Last in our series of “when will that Jason kid shut up?!?” is this short, little ditty wherein I extol the wonders of an ancient Linux file server in my basement with a 250GB drive, my shiny (SHINY!!!) new PS3, my PSP, and the nifty little Open Source project of MediaTomb.

Being out of the “being able to spend mad money on Geek toys” for a while (having a family will do that to ya), I was ill-prepared for this new-fangled UPnP thing. As I was setting up my (DANGED AWESOME!!!) PS3, I breezed by the UPnP settings (I don’t need no steenking directions!) with nary a second glance. However, after reading up on the PS3’s media streaming abilities a bit, I downloaded MediaTomb, installed it and configured it (took an hour, max, maybe), and before you know it, Bob’s your uncle and my PS3 was able to stream all of the movies, photos, and music that I’ve been keeping on my ancient Linux file server in the basement. SWEET MAMA!

To make things even just that little extra bit cooler, Sony’s Remote Play allows my and my wife’s PSPs to connect to the PS3 and stream movies, photos, and music anywhere in the house through the PS3.  Now that just plain rocks! I mean, 4GB memory stick modules can hold a decent amount of stuff, but to be able to have 250GB of movies, photos, and music accessible from the PSP in your pocket is just darned cool!

Now all we hafta do is get UPnP client-ness into VideoLAN so I can finally be free of supporting iTunes on my darling bride’s Powerbook….

One of my favorite memories of all my growing-up years happened in my 7th grade. It centered around a very under-appreciated teacher of mine named Robin Avant who did something simple and inventive and refreshing and stirring with her class. I wish I knew how to contact her today because I can honestly say that she affected me in a deep, deep way and I’d love to thank her for it.

I know it’s hard to believe, dear reader, but I was a most uncomfortable geek in school at all levels. I didn’t fit in, to say the least. I was geek before geek was cool. =:) I was an avid reader, an Apple ][ hacker, and more socially inept than you’d ever want to admit possible. I grew up reading and passionately loving The Chronicles of Narnia, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe, The Hardy Boys, Choose Your Own Adventures, Robin Hood, The Lord of the Rings series, and anything else I could get my hands on. I survived middle school by hiding myself in the library whenever possible. Well, by the time you hit 7th grade, you’re pretty much expected to be past that stage of life, I guess. And for sure, teachers in school had far more important things to do than to read stories to you, right?

My 7th grade teacher, Ms. Robin Avant, didn’t buy that. And I fondly remember that at the end of our school day, she would have us all quiet down, lay our heads down if we wanted, relax, and she would read to us. And the story that she read to us was Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. And it was magical. In the chaotic world of junior high school filled with constantly watching your back and trying to fit in, here was a space of child-like peace and rest. We could stop trying to be more than we were and just enjoy the simple pleasure of having an incredibly good story read to us. I don’t know what the other students thought of this wild and crazy idea, but to me is was earth-shattering. And the book was so good and so powerful that it immediately consumed me. I read all 5 books in the Dark is Rising series, and then read them over and over again.

For this reason, Susan Cooper and her magical world in the Dark is Rising has always had an extra-special place in my heart and mind. I read through the whole series with my kids, and they absolutely loved them. And then I saw that they were making a movie from the series and I was thrilled. I had hopes of finally seeing all that I had imagined through the years, up on the big screen, as I’d been able to do with the LOTR movies(!).

And that’s where the title of this post comes in. I don’t blame myself for watching The Seeker movie, which claims to have been based on the second book in Susan Cooper’s series called “The Dark is Rising”. I had to see it. But I do wish that I would have read the reviews first. I wish I would have seen the outrage and shock and bitterness from the fans of the books. I think it would have prepared me better. As it was, I found myself getting increasingly angry and frustrated in watching this movie, such as I’ve never experienced before.

To say that The Seeker movie (and no, I won’t link to it *spit*) was stupid, pointless, horrible, wretched, the worst movie I’ve ever seen, a complete waste of time and money and the plastic it takes to create a DVD is a mind-boggling understatement. To say that The Seeker was based on The Dark is Rising is like saying that The Simpsons Movie was based on Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. And the most atrocious part of it all is that there was absolutely no reason for it. Susan Cooper’s books were every bit as magical and compelling as you’d ever ask for in a big-screen movie, just as they were. I don’t know whether to blame John Hodge for the piece of crap screenplay or David Cunningham for the utter abortion that made it to the screen, but whomever was responsible should never be allowed to take part in anything even slightly misconstrued as being creative again. I personally would love to see Susan Cooper come out with a statement publicly condemning the utter trashing of her writing that The Seeker has done. Or better, a lawsuit–by the fans with all proceeds going to Susan Cooper (this is America! you can sue anybody, right?).

But seriously, Susan, please do something.

As for me, I just ordered the boxed set of Susan Cooper’s EXCELLENT Dark is Rising series from Amazon and I’m going to enjoy them again the way that they should be–exactly as they were written. And if you’ve never read the series, I can highly recommend the books. Give them a good read-through and while you’re at it, don’t bother wasting your time with The Seeker.

I’m sorry, but 2 words: Don’t Bother.

You can say what you want about the ornate costumes, the beautiful colors, the amazing sets. Yeah, maybe. But the story? I’m sorry, but if I wanted to be depressed and bored and looking for the fast forward button for 2 hours, I could have watched the housing market reports for a few hours while hitting myself in the head every couple of minutes.

Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to China or the actors/actresses in the film or the director. But as far as enjoying a movie goes, I had a better time watching the ultra-violent Shoot ‘Em Up. At least there the good guys win at the end.

Blef. Anyway, if you love Martial Arts movies as much as I do and can’t wait to see the next Jet Li movie, don’t bother renting Curse of the Golden Flower. It’s like taking Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but without any of the really good fight scenes, and the absolute worst Jerry Springer episode ever imagined, plus the daytime soap that was deemed too drawn out and boring to have made it to television, and throw it all together into a 2-hour long fun-fest. Yeah, like that.

I can’t imagine what I’d be looking for in a movie that would make me ever want to watch it again, but if you’re looking for a really cool Martial Arts movie, this ain’t it.

Also, Chow Yun-fat: please don’t kick my butt.

A couple of good reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

I wanted to be swept away, but even with half of China as extras, I was mostly unimpressed.

Curse of the Golden Flower has no emotional center. There’s nobody to root for here (even the wildly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat seems remote and surly), and the characters’ scheming seems more like an elaborate pageant than a viable drama.

Not even Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li, two of the world’s most impressive actors, can inject any dazzle into this dud.

I was going to update my previous post about the amazing movie, Copying Beethoven, with this, but I am sufficiently taken to generate a new post. Kerry Candaele commented on my last post with a link to his forthcoming movie called Following The Ninth, so I visited his site and I am very, very impressed. The short, 7-minute preview of his work in progress fully echoes my thoughts and feelings about Beethoven and his amazing Ninth Symphony. Even better, it shows the impact that the Ninth is still having in our generation today. One of my favorite quotes from the clip:

“This piece enters your bloodstream and then changes who you are. The entire blueprint of everything… of society, of how things should be, of how things are… all the way from subatomic particles to galactic clusters… it’s all here.”
George Mathew: Conductor, Beethoven’s Ninth For South Asia
Carnegie Hall 1/23/2006

Kerry, I sincerely wish you the best of good fortune in your endeavor and I hope your film gets the attention that it deserves!

I just watched one of the most amazing movies that I have ever seen: the excellent Copying Beethoven.

I have always been deeply fascinated with the genius that is Ludwig van Beethoven. I grew up listening to my mom playing his pieces on our piano, and have enjoyed the complexity and overwhelming emotion found both in the observation and participation of his immense talent. In particular, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has something that resonates in my soul like nothing else ever has.

The second movement (Molto vivace - Presto) has such passion and raw power and ferocity and strength and beauty and peace!!! It is everything that life should have in it, and I am amazed at Beethoven’s ability to make it all fit together and make sense in one place. Every time I hear it, it just overwhelms me with emotion. Watching Ed Harris’s spectacular portrayal of Beethoven as he was conducting the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, I was just absolutely overjoyed beyond words to hear the second movement kick in and finally get some visual confirmation of the pure joy and power and energy that I’ve always felt deep in my soul when listening to it. I was smiling and laughing and air-violining… just such power… amazing. And seeing the expression on Beethoven’s face as he was pouring his very soul into the playing of his music… pure, intense joy.

And then the fourth movement… which is what most people (who are even aware of such things) think of when the Ninth Symphony is mentioned… WOW. I’ve always preferred the second movement over the fourth movement, and quite honestly, I never really grasped what Beethoven was doing with it. Of course, it helps not that the fourth movement played such a prominent role in the deeply disturbing Clockwork Orange. But what I didn’t realize was what ground-breaking stuff Beethoven was doing at the time! A chorale and two tenors in a Symphony–it was unheard of until Beethoven dared to do it. And then to have them do absolutely nothing but stand on-stage for the entirety of the performance preceding their parts in the fourth movement–it must have seemed absolute insanity! But. But… when the chorale joins in in the fourth movement… the incredible power and beauty of it absolutely brought me to tears. It was as if the countless multitudes of angels of heaven had joined in at that very moment and the eye and ear could scarcely take it in. And the effect that it had on those in the crowd on screen was exactly what I felt: pure emotion and power and beauty.

The funny thing is that just a few hours earlier today, I sat through another Ed Harris movie (okay, it was a Nicolas Cage movie), National Treasure: Book of Secrets. As far as movies go, it was a pretty good ride. Laughs and suspense and danger and all the right ingredients. A nice, clean family movie, and I applaud it for being that. And Ed Harris did a very nice job in it.

But Ed Harris’s performance in Copying Beethoven is something extremely special. It was obvious that he gave his whole heart and soul to the part. I don’t think I would have known that the actor playing Beethoven was Ed Harris, quite honestly–and in my book, that’s exactly how it should be. Tremendously done, Mr. Harris. I have complete respect for your abilities after seeing this movie.

In the special features section of the DVD, Agnieszka Holland said something to the effect that seeing people who have never listened to classical music crying from seeing and hearing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony made all the work worthwhile. Well, ma’am, I have loved classical music all my life and your film brought joy, tears, and some of the biggest smiles to my face that you could imagine. I’d say you did a darned good job.

As far as notoriety and high visibility go, I rather doubt that you’ll
be seeing a lot of raving reviews of Copying Beethoven. As a matter of fact, I kind of doubt you’ll find it mentioned much. Its style and
pace and camera work and subject matter and such are very much not the taste of today’s
huddled masses. It lacks too many of the normally-prescribed Hollywood
ingredients to make it palatable for our darling MTV generation.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t see it. =;)

At least there’s always Monty Python when you’re having a rough day:

Son: Ah…ah know. But I want the girl that I marry to have… a
certain…*special*…something…
King: Cut that out!! Cut that out….

You’re marryin’ Princess Lucky, so you’d better get used to the idea!

GUARDS!!!
Make sure the prince doesn’t leave this room until I come and get ‘im.

Guard 1: Not to leave the room, even if you come and get ‘im.
Guard 2: *Hic*
King: Nono…. *Until* I come and get him.
Guard 1: Until you come and get him, we’re not to enter the room.
King: Nono, no… You *stay* in the room, and make sure *he*
doesn’t leave.
Guard 1: And you’ll come and get him.
Guard 2: *Hic*
King: Right.
Guard 1: We don’t need to do anything, apart from just stop him, entering the
room.
King: Nono. *Leaving* the room.
Guard 1: Leaving the room, yes.
King: All right?
Guard 1: ‘Right.
King: Right.
Guard 1: Oh! If if if uhhhh…. if if uhhhhh…. If if if we……
King: Yes, what is it?
Guard 1: Oh. I-if……. Oh….
King: Look, it’s quite simple.
Guard 1: Uh…..
King: You just stay here, and make sure ‘e doesn’t leave the room.
All right?
Guard 2: *hic*
Guard 1: Oh, I remember! Uhhhh, can he leave the room with us?
King: No…nono, no. You just keep him in ‘ere, and make sure…
Guard 1: Oh yes, we’ll keep him in here, obviously, but if he *had*
to leave, and we *were* with him…
King: nononono just KEEP HIM IN HERE
Guard 1: …Until you or anyone else…
King: No, not anyone else, just me…
Guard 1: …Just you…
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Get back.
Guard 1: Get back.
King: All right?
Guard 1: Right, we’ll stay here until you get back.
Guard 2: *hic*
King: And, uh… make sure ‘e doesn’t leave.
Guard 1: What?
King: Make sure ‘e doesn’t leave!
Guard 1: The prince??????
King: Yes, MAKE SURE ‘E DOESN’T LEAVE…
Guard 2: *hic*
Guard 1: Oh, yes, of course!! I thought you meant him! You know, it seemed a bit daft me having to guard
him when ‘e’s a guard…
King: Is that clear?
Guard 1: Oh, quite clear, no problems!
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Right.
Where are *you* going?
Guard 1: We’re coming with you!
King: Nono, I want you to *stay* here and MAKE SURE ‘E DOESN’T LEAVE!
Guard 1: Oh, I see, right!
Son: but father…
King: Shut your noise, you! And get that suit on.

AND NO SINGING!
Guard 2: *hic*
King: Oh, go and get a glass of water. (leaves)

I SO want to see this movie!

I just got done watching this movie with my family and I can honestly say that this is one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen.

The cast is perfect. Will Ferrell is absolutely incredible. Dustin Hoffman is excellent. Maggie Gyllenhaal is superb!

The style of the film is just impeccable. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie so artfully directed, shot, and editted in a very long time. Amazingly good use of technology, overlays, and good old-fashioned camera work.

Wonderful!!

And the bitter-sweet emotional roller coaster was almost too much to bear.  I loved every minute of it!

I realize that I’m coming across as more of a gushing, emotional school girl than a cool, sophisticated movie reviewer, but my head is still swimming with the emotions, suspense, angst, and adrenaline that a good movie imbues upon its fortunate viewers.

Mostly, all I can say is “WOW.”  Stranger Than Fiction was a delicious adventure.  I would be very surprised if it does not earn more than a few awards at this year’s… award thingeys…

Most excellent cinematography.

This is film at its finest.

Warning: a brain dump followeth:

Blockbuster has sweetened their deal by allowing in-store trade-ins of online-rented movies. This, to me, blows NetFlix out of the water, since NetFlix does not yet have a brick-and-mortar presence anywhere (?). And, because we signed up with Blockbuster a while ago, we still get to keep our 2 free movie-or-game rental coupons per month too. Pretty cool! As a result, we’ve been watching tons of movies as of late, including the Indiana Jones trilogy (forgot how good they were!!).

I’ve been a busy little beaver over the last few weeks, OSS-code-wise, anyway. Adriaan and I have whipped kpilot into shape proper-like, it seems. I’ve spent a decent chunk of time twice now and merged our codeyard.net svn repository into kde’s svn (it’s in kdepim-3.5.5+ branch now, but will be merged into branches/KDE/3.5/kdepim before 3.5.6 is release, iirc) using this spiffy little shell fu that I created for the purpose of merging code from one svn repository into another. Also, Sune from the debian packaging team has been a tremendous help in motivating us to get the critical data loss bugs fixed and backported (that’s my pain) into kde’s svn. It’s been really refreshing and fun hacking on kpilot again. I’m reaching a point, though, where we either need to architect kpilot to be more like opensync or I bite the bullet and start helping kdepim use opensync working towards kde4. That’s assuming my current time-to-spend-on-OSS holds up, which is a big assumption. Ohh–also, bbroeksema has helped bring cmake into kpilot, and I must say that I REALLY like it. Adriaan and I have pitched in and we now have a fully-functional build system (bye bye AAP) that I can fully grok. I’ve even written a custom configure script that helps bridge the gap. Sweet! Oh, and if you’re a kpilot user who cares about malconduit (syncing with Avantgo) or docconduit (creating palm docs), your help is required. Since none of the current kpilot maintainers/developers use these conduits, and there’s a decent amount of bit-rot in them, they are going to be disabled for the next release of kpilot/kde, unless you step up and help us with them. Help, please?

Thanksgiving was really, really fun. I need to put up some of our latest pics, but we had a wonderful time just staying home with our little family. I cannot tell you how stress-free our holidays are, not having to pack up and hobble off to a not-short list of relatives’ homes every holiday. Although it was a completely unintentional side-effect of moving cross-country, I really think that this is how it should be. For the first time ever, we have been able to establish our own traditions and have some really neat bonding time as a family that you just miss out on rushing to various relatives’ houses. Plus, my wifey is a really great cook and I get to cut turkey, so it’s enjoyable all around. =:)

Work goeth on. It’s looking to be a stressful year ahead of me with my current employer, and I’m not so sure how I feel about it at this point, other than to hang on for the ride and see what God provides

My darling bride allowed me to play The Matrix - Path of Neo for a few days (and I really appreciate it hon! =:)). I can honestly say that it’s a dissapointing game. First, the graphics are very poor and at least on my “last-year’s-model” Xbox, the characters and artwork are choppy, blocky, and bad. Second, the combat system is horrible. For the most part, you get through the game pressing “Y” repeatedly. Call me an old-school fogey, but coming from a Street Fighter and Killer Instinct background where you have learnable, predictable, more-than-one-button-mashing combos, the fights in this game are really sad. And the camera system is absolutely atrocious. I’ve noticed that there are several games that follow this model–where you are allowed to change your camera perspective, but you don’t have complete control since as soon as you start to move, the game takes over your camera again. Yuck! Make me puke on my jammies! Learn from Splinter Cell, folks, please.

Music-wise, I’ve been really taken by Skillet’s new CD (Comatose), Orbital’s Blue Album, Everything But The Girl, Aaron Shust (Anything Worth Saying is excellent!!), and most recently (don’t laugh) Dean Martin’s Baby It’s Cold Outside duet that played a really cute scene in Will Farrell’s Elf movie.

We’ve had our good friends The Wallers come up and visit us recently, and our family had a wonderful time with them. Sarah was gracious enough to stay with us for almost 2 weeks and we had an absolute ball. I was able to be “one of the girls” a little bit, which I really, really miss from our Bible Quiz days. *sniffle* I also was reminded of how cool my son is, and how much he is like me, with all of his Lego Star Wars 2 kung fu. =:)

And my beautiful daughter, A (name withheld to protect the innocent), is really into her NeoPets thing. What impresses me the most, though, is that she’s walking herself through some basic HTML tutorials and writing some content for her NeoPets pages. Cool!! The hacker spirit lives on in my children, vahoo!! =:) She is an amazingly talented, artistic hacker, though, and I need to start working with her on web designs so she can get exposed to that early on as a modern art form.

Laptop wise, I’ve bounced from Kubuntu Dapper to SUSE 10.1 to Fedora Core 6 to Kubuntu Edgy and back to Fedora Core 6 again for my powerbook. I’m settling on FC6 for the time being. Unfortunately, NONE of these distros work acceptably with my powerbook and NetworkManager. My goal was to be able to use NetworkManager solely as I do on my x86 SUSE 10.1 laptop at work, which is why I kept bouncing between distros. But since none of them do, and I really like what the Fedora boys have done with Core 6, and my powerbook runs pretty darned stable with it, I’ll keep using it. Oh–one thing I still need to figure out is how to get the keyboard backlighting working with FC6. I had it working with SUSE 10.1-ppc, iirc, and it does not work out of the box with FC6.

Lastly, I’ve been using vortexhost.com as my web hosting solution for the last 2 years. They have been really, really stable and been a good home for a good price (250 megs for $55/year). However, my little family has outgrown 250 megs and now I need to figure out what to do in the next 2 weeks. I’ve been looking around at some of the bigger-space-for-slightly-more-money players and some of the hosts I’m looking at are:

I’ve researched them at webhostingjury.com and webhostingtalk.com, and from what it looks like, hostgator would be the best in terms of decent price, decent disk space, good customer service, and good reputation. However, I’m really hesitant to fork over $83.40 for 1 year of web hosting. Yeah, I know, it’s only $30 more than I was spending before, but still… $83.40 is a decent chunk of change for a personal/family web site. So I’ve been looking at Google’s accounts for domains stuff and I might poke into it a little more, but still, I need to so something because we’re out of space right now and my contract with vortexhost.com is up in 2 weeks.

One thing I’d like to look at as part of this adventure is using Google as a spam filter. I use spamassassin with some custom training fu right now, but it still lets spam through every once in a while. And I really want to be able to provide my kiddos with some web space so they can have some room to play and learn. So, all in all, I still don’t know what I’m going to do. One side of my brain is saying that I could host our domain on a PC at the house, but I’ve already been down that road and it’s just painful (especially considering that my always-on box at home is a PII-200 laptop with zero disk space) and I’d like to not have to deal with that headache again. And I want something rock-solid and reliable for our e-mail solution, which is why GMail would be nice. The downside to GMail, though, and this is probably the ONLY reason I’m not going to use them yet is that they don’t support IMAP. *sigh* Any helpful suggestions, solutions, watch-out-fors, etc., would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, well, I think that touches every category I have defined, so with that (and the fact that it’s midnight, *grrr*), I guess I’ll hit the “publish” button and call it a night. G’night, Gracie…