27 Jul, 2010
Comic-con 2010 Best Ever?
I haven't even begun processing my photos yet.
This is among a handful of fan events where it feels like a real connection between fans and the artists all around. It really feels like all the actors and filmmakers really enjoy attending and are incredibly gracious with their time.
A few highlights for me at Comic-con 2010:
- Well behaved crowd. I have never seen a better behaved group of folks in line for hours and hours at a time. The weather was just perfect this year for all the lines waiting outside. Dang 2 hour wait for Castle, three hours for True Blood, much less 2/3 hours for Hall D festivities.
- Great logistics for everything but exiting Comic-con. I was hoping the over pass from Hilton to Petco would be complete by this year. Filtering the crosswalk at 5th Ave was painful. I managed to find free parking for all 4 days within a 15 minute walk. Next time I will book well in advance and stay downtown without a car to make partying all night easier.
Touching moments:
- Ryan Reynolds reciting the Green Lantern oath in response to a little kid's question of what it was like is an all-time great moment.
- Highlight reel for Glee reminded me of what makes this the best show on TV possibly since STOS. Incredible deft at dealing with serious controversial issues in an entertaining show.
Pure awesomeness:
- Molly Quinn rocking a STOS outfit at the Castle panel, and comment that she is the only adult in the cast. How cute is that.
- Harrison Ford showing up in shackles and security detail. Still not sure if that was a Fugitive reference or Jon Favreau had to drag him to Comic-con. Moving and well deserved standing ovation. Getting all the elements for a movie preview with only a week of shooting including ILM special effects and a score was an awesome tribute to Comic-con by Jon.
- Helen Mirren at the Red panel. In a tribute t-shirt for her favorite comic artist. How cool is that?
- Marvel movie panels. Robert Downey Jr and the Avenger cast showing up with Joss Whedon, OMG what a moment! Thor and Captain America panels were great too.
- Jena Malone Q&A. I had no idea of who she is but her Sucker Punch and EW panel responses were just awesome.
- Anna Paquin's Bill Compton impressions at True Blood panel. Her answer to the which is harder violence or sex on screen (something to the effect that the violence is fake) was hilarious.
- Milla Jovovich's Leeloo impressions for fans at the Resident Evil panel overshadowed even Paul WS Anderson's commentary of the cool things he drew from Resident Evil 5 video game for the new movie.
- Counter protest in costume was just hilarious.
Wishlist:
- Walk by photo line like at CMA Fanfest, so everyone can get a great picture without the seat jockeying.
- Autographs by lottery at panel session like at Castle panel. It really sucks that you have to choose between mutually exclusive options of attending a panel or waiting in line for an autograph.
My vote for what it is worth is to keep Comic-con in San Diego. Aside from Vegas anywhere else would have even more nightmare logistics.
18 Jun, 2010
CMA Music Festival A Real Treat for Country Music Fans
Some thoughts on the recent CMA Music Festival: http://www.cmafest.com/
What a fantastic event for country music fans! I highly recommend this pilgrimmage to anyone the least bit a country music fan.
If you couldn't make it down this year, ABC will be running a special on September 1, "CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock."
I am a pretty casual, latecomer to country music having been introduced to it by coworkers in Austin, TX and the annual precursor to the Austin City Limits Music festival. I still remember riding with coworker from Austin to Dallas on business listening to country radio following the rule that he who drives chooses the radio station.
I can't think of another genre or industry that treats its fans so well. In a time where almost every fandom event is increasingly commercial ($100+ for an autograph or picture, really?), the only other event I can think of is the annual San Diego Comic-con but only a few of the artists/stars there are as acceible as the country music artists at the CMA Music Festival.
I heard a lot of complaints from CMA oldtimers of the autograph tickets system that has people waiting at the Fan Fair hours before open. I think that is just the natural result of their success in drawing in increased crowds. Better use the time before the event opens than force people to wait in lines with no guarantee to get an autograph during the actual event.
As for the concerts, they are outstanding. I might want to see the evening headliners perform more than 25 minute sets, but getting to see all the headliners as opposed to having to choose from multiple venues led to many great discoveries, as did just hanging out at a stage during the day. The photo line is an awesome idea, but with the incredibly quick set changes at CMA, it required choosing between seeing more of the concert or getting better pictures.
I also appreciate being able to bring in non-tripod mounted semi-pro camera equipment unlike many music festivals for some bizarre reason...
Oh God, how I love Blue Bell ice cream and their never ending free ice cream cups! I only wish I could buy their product in Seattle...
As for my favorite artists from this year:
- Taylor Swift is a real trooper. Holy smokes a 14.5 hour meet and greet. That's a lot of chatting, hugging, signing, and picture mugging. Great acoustic set in the middle as well. This showed major love for her fans.
- Martina McBride brought the house down with her LP Field performance. Dang, I only have her greatest hits album, I'll be buying the rest of her catalog after this.
- Tim McGraw was also his usual outstanding self both at his autograph signing at Fan Fair and at LP Field
- The Band Perry that I never heard of was super charming all around at the Opry In The Know Show. I haven't seen such an upbeat, chipper performance in years. I only wish theuy had full albums. http://www.thebandperry.com/
- Jordyn Shellhart also at the Opry In The Know Show shows great promise as a super cute, poised 16yr old singer-songwriter. Not as polished as a Taylor Swift, but you have to love a 16yr old singing about watching CNN and social responsibility in her song "My Generation." http://www.jordynshellhart.com/
I also have to give a shout out to the Music City Hostel as a great place to stay and hangout in Nashville. People there are incredibly nice and it is a great place to hang with fellow travellers from around the world.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/music-city-hostel-nashville
5 Jun, 2010
Seattle International Film Festival - Personal Movie Rankings
All the other folks lists inspired me to make an attempt. Boy is it hard, I spent a few hours on this so far and still question each rank. Hats off to everyone else publishing lists.
I like movies that take me away to another place or time, make me feel for the characters, or teach me about something I didn't know.
Simply brilliant, definitely would see more than once
Ranking Title
1 Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik (USA, 2010) 95 min
2 City of Life and Death
3 Prince of Tears, directed by Yonfan (Hong Kong, 2009) 122 min
4 The Hedgehog, directed by Mona Achache (France, 2009) 98 min
5 Mao's Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford (Australia, 2009) 117 min
6 Tucker & Dale vs Evil
7 Hipsters, directed by Valery Todorovsky (Russia, 2009) 125 min
Time very well spent - wouldn't mind seeing again later
8 Au Revoir Taipei
9 Secret #3
10 Castaway on the Moon
11 Cargo
12 Disco and Automic War
13 The Concert, directed by Radu Mihaileanu (France, 2009) 119 min
14 Skeletons, directed by Nick Whitfield (United Kingdom, 2009) 95 min
15 Me Too, directed by Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro (Spain, 2009)
16 Crossing Hennessy, directed by Ivy Ho (Hong Kong, 2010) 105 min
17 When We Leave, directed by Feo Aladag (Germany, 2009) 119 min
18 Cell 211
19 Little Big Soldier
20 Cairo Time, directed by Ruba Nadda (Canada, 2009) 88 min
21 Stolen, directed by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw (Australia, 2009) 75 min
22 Southern District, directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia (Bolivia, 2009) 109 min
23 Vortex
24 Katalin Varga
25 The Reverse
26 Trotsky
27 Henry of Navarre
28 The Dancer and the Thief
29 The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, directed by Leanne Pooley (New Zealand, 2009) 84 min
30 Run If You Can, directed by Dietrich Brüggemann (USA, 2010) 100 min
31 Hugh Hefner
32 Blessed, directed by Ana Kokkinos (Australia, 2009) 115 min
33 Secret #2
34 Last Train Home, directed by Lixin Fan (China, 2009) 87 min
Happy I went but pretty much like watching most mainstream movies
35 Cherry, directed by Jeffrey Fine (USA, 2010) 100 min
36 I am Love
37 Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker (United Kingdom, 2010) 98 min
38 Farsan
39 Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington (USA, 2010) 96 min
40 Turistas, directed by Alicia Scherson (Chile, 2009) 104 min
41 Ondine, directed by Neil Jordan (USA, 2009) 111 min
42 The Tillman Story, directed by Amir Bar-Lev (USA, 2010) 94 min
43 Soul Kitchen, directed by Fatih Akin (Germany, 2009) 99 min
44 Farewell
45 Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenábar (Spain, 2009) 126 min
46 Centurion
47 Tsar
48 Reykjavik-Rotterdam
49 Loose Cannons
50 Leaves of Grass
51 Bus Palladium, directed by Christopher Thompson (France, 2010) 100 min
52 Marwencol, directed by Jeff Malmberg (USA, 2010) 82 min
53 Cane Toads: The Conquest
54 Eleanor's Secret
55 The Actresses
56 Twisted Root
57 Son of Babylon, directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji (Iraq, 2010) 91 min
58 Dear Lemon Limon
59 American Faust
60 Mt St Elias
61 Every Day, directed by Richard Levine (USA, 2010) 93 min
62 Skateland, directed by Anthony Burns (USA, 2010) 98 min
63 Letters to Father Jacob
64 Gerrymandering
65 Splice
66 An Ordinary Execution, directed by Marc Dugain (France, 2010) 105 min
67 Kanikosen
68 Patagonia, directed by Marc Evans (United Kingdom, 2010) 90 min
69 For the Good of Others
70 Miss Nobody, directed by Tom Cox (USA, 2010) 90 min
71 The Extra Man
72 Adult Animation
73 Northwest Connections
74 Cyrus
75 Turn It Loose
76 The River
77 Blood Relation, directed by Noa Ben-Hagai (Israel, 2009) 75 min
78 Excited
79 The French Kissers
80 3Some
81 I Miss You, directed by Fabián Hofman (Mexico, 2010) 100 min
82 Down Terrace
Wish I had seen it on TV where I can stop the pain and fast forward
83 Meet Monica Velour, directed by Keith Bearden (USA, 2010) 97 min
84 Father of My Children, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (France, 2009) 110 min
85 The Dry Land, directed by Ryan Piers Williams (USA, 2010) 92 min
86 Hidden Diary
87 Life During Wartime, directed by Todd Solondz (USA, 2009) 96 min
88 Going South
89 The String
90 Like You Know It All
91 My Year Without Sex
92 Countdown to Zero, directed by Lucy Walker (USA, 2010) 92 min
93 Woman Without Piano
94 Father's Acre
95 Secret #1
96 The Owls
97 Imani, directed by Caroline Kamya (Uganda, 2009) 82 min
98 sex & drugs & rock & roll
99 Huacho
100 Devil's Town
101 Some Days Are Better Than Others, directed by Matt McCormick (USA, 2010) 93 min
102 The Freebie, directed by Katie Aselton (USA, 2010) 78 min
Really wish I had my life back
103 Angel at Sea, directed by Frédéric Dumont (Belgium, 2009) 86 min
104 Stigmata, directed by Adán Aliaga (Spain, 2009) 100 min
105 Amer, directed by Hélène Cattet (Belgium, 2009) 90 min
106 The Wild Hunt
22 May, 2010
Seattle International Film Festival 2010 - More Brief Reviews
Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik (USA, 2010) 95 min - Really great film showcasing life in rural America. Unusual suspenseful drama with deep empathy for the lead character, a daughter taking care of an ill mother and two siblings threatened with homelessness.
When We Leave, directed by Feo Aladag (Germany, 2009) 119 min - Great film showcasing honor and marriage in a Muslim family. Personalizes what many of us already know from the press.
Skateland, directed by Anthony Burns (USA, 2010) 98 min - Entertaining coming of age film, as an aimless young man has to decide what to do with his life when the Skateland where he has worked since high school closes.
Ondine, directed by Neil Jordan (USA, 2009) 111 min - Very enjoyable romance drama blurring fantasy and real-life. An engaging look at the life of a divorced fisherman.
Countdown to Zero, directed by Lucy Walker (USA, 2010) 92 min - Message documentary against nuclear weapons. Probably twice as long as it needed to be as it just became mindnumbing.
Mao's Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford (Australia, 2009) 117 min - A very entergaing drama based on a true life story of a Chinese ballet dancer's experience in the US. Very much reminded me of the Bruce Lee movie.
Every Day, directed by Richard Levine (USA, 2010) 93 min - A great look at middle-aged life and marriage of a man at a crossroads with his job and relationships as his aging father inlaw moves in. Kind of like American Beauty. Dang hard to get used to Carla Cugino as a temptress after the Spy Kids movie, but I guess Sin City set this up.
The Dry Land, directed by Ryan Piers Williams (USA, 2010) 92 min - I would have loved to enjoy this movie about the plight of current veterans coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, but I always felt on the outside and not quite engaged.
Son of Babylon, directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji (Iraq, 2010) 91 min - A long but engaging drama as a Kurdish mother with grandson searches for a son imprisoned years ago in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.
Southern District, directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia (Bolivia, 2009) 109 min - Interesting look at class and family life in Bolivia. A divorced mother with the three kids and two servants. Disturbing and engaging.
Life During Wartime, directed by Todd Solondz (USA, 2009) 96 min - Bizarre look at one family's life in a series of vignettes. Supposedly dark humor but just not that entertaining for me.
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, directed by Leanne Pooley (New Zealand, 2009) 84 min - The life and time of a pair of yodeling lesbian twins from New Zealand. Thoroughly entertaining and interesting.
14 May, 2010
Seattle International Film Festival 2010 - Brief Reviews
A brief look at this week's press screenings:
Soul Kitchen, directed by Fatih Akin (Germany, 2009) 99 min. - Entertaining, somewhat lighthearted drama/romance of a struggling restaurant owner. Sounds like No Reservations, but very different with some unbelievable deux ex machinas.
Father of My Children, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (France, 2009) 110 min. - Boring, seemingly pointless movie around a family coping with financial difficulty of their movie studio and loss.
The Freebie, directed by Katie Aselton (USA, 2010) 78 min. - Somewhat disturbing movie about a couple planning a night of infidelity. Really just grating and irritating without any empathy or sympathy for the main characters.
The Concert, directed by Radu Mihaileanu (France, 2009) 119 min. - Entertaining movie about redemption of a group of musicians disbanded with the fall of Communism brought together in a somewhat comical way.
Bus Palladium, directed by Christopher Thompson (France, 2010) 100 min. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - Fun rock and roll, relationship (band of brothers and romance) movie. I would find it brilliant were it not for Almost Famous.
Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington (USA, 2010) 96 min. - Very thoughtful and engaging look at one group of soldiers' 15 month deployment in Afghanistan. Even more poignant if you know what has happend since. See the book War.
Skeletons, directed by Nick Whitfield (United Kingdom, 2009) 95 min. - Dark and whimsical fantasy film. Slow build up but worth it when things kind of tie together in the end. The quirky performances are both engaging and endearing.
The Hedgehog, directed by Mona Achache (France, 2009) 98 min. - Very engaging drama about the residents of a luxury apartment complex and their janitor. Coming of age for both a young girl and middle-age woman.
Prince of Tears, directed by Yonfan (Hong Kong, 2009) 122 min. - Beautiful and fascinating movie covering the the early part of the Nationalist relocation to Taiwan and their anti-communist fervor. A movie that really makes you think what the heck happend, I think deliberately but many of us SIFFers ended up debating.
Amer, directed by Hélène Cattet (Belgium, 2009) 90 min. - Just plain weird and disturbing... Hyper reality, terrifying look at the life of a woman. Not sure of whether it was intended to be horror or not. Lots of folks walked out...
22 Apr, 2010
Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con 2010
UPDATE: Pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/8502118@N08/sets/72157623912634590/
Overall I would rate it a decent neighborhood convention, if you went on Saturday; otherwise, I think it was a major disappointment.
The only reason to attend Friday would be if you wanted to avoid the crowds and chat with one of the celebrity guests that you knew would be there. There was very limited content on Sunday and most celebrity guests in the autograph area skipped out (I did see Melinda Clarke on Sunday though she was only scheduled Saturday on the website as the only notable exception).
More established local conventions (I don't know if there is one in the LA area, but I am thinking of the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle as an example) are much better organized from a programming perspective. This one had really had very limited panel content and very disappointing media programming especially given proximity to Hollywood. Of the panels, the only ones I really enjoyed were the Avi Arad/Stan Lee, Stan Lee, William Shatner and Ilya Salkind panels. OK I won out in the Stan Lee autograph raffle which was cool.
For a comic convention, someone made a good point that both DC and Marvel were absent presumably to attend the C2E2 convention in Chicago. For folks travelling like myself, C2E2 was definitely the conference to attend this weekend had I known about it.
Also I understand that guest schedules are always subject to cancellations, buit I have never seen so much churn for any convention. Virtually none of the folks in the ads that made me consider making the trip actually showed up other than Stan Lee and William Shatner. There were no announcements (other than names silently disappearing from the website) of the changes in lineup except for Irvin Kershner, leaving a bait and switch slimy feeling for the organizers. No Eliza Dushku, Kelly Hu, Juliet Landau, Lance Reddick... If Elizabeth Rohm showed up, I missed her. The only last minute additions of note were Shannon Doherty and Holly Marie Combs of Charmed.
In summary this was my first and probably last Wizard World organized convention.
See you all at San Diego Comic-Con which is just a mindblowing awesome experience every year.
27 Mar, 2010
Hong Kong Photos
My new Photosynth: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=6a749f0d-5264-4b49-b874-c9196aed28f3&
Flickr collection (more to come): http://www.flickr.com/photos/8502118@N08/collections/72157623567007131/
27 Mar, 2010
Hong Kong Travel Tips
Travel tips:
- MTR subway incredibly good with clear signage in English. Bus ride in from airport also easy and comfortable, 33HKD vs. around 90HKD for Airport Express subway (discounted to around 70HKD at travel agencies).
- Get an Octopus card for public transport, 7-11 and many restaurants (may even get a discount). I was told I had to pay cash for an Octopus card at the airport, but another tourist paid by credit card. He did get it loaded with an additional 50HKD for a total of 200HKD, so maybe that was the difference. http://www.octopus.com.hk/home/en/index.html You can get the deposit and any remaining amount back (less 7 HKD if redeemed after less than 3 months) at the Airport Express ticket counter at the airport.
- Taxis seem relatively cheap and honest. One even told me that he didn't know where the destination for a major fare was and sent me to the next cab. You don't know how nice this was if you haven't been to the Middle East lately...
- Chunking Mansions an experience… After a day or two you get used to the weird layout and alleys. For around $10USD for a dorm bed, seems safe and a bargain. I stayed at Germany Hostel which seems to be advertised as the Paris Hostel as well.
- Indian food seems very good, but not significantly cheaper than in the US.
- Public buildings including museums and theaters have free government WiFi. Lots of establishments like cafes and shopping malls also have free WiFi though some required a local phone number to register or have terms and conditions in only Chinese.
Restaurants:
- Temple Night Market food good but not really cheap. If you get spicy crabs get 2 for around 210HKD as opposed to 150HKD for one (no sides so that is a bargain even if you share) and maybe something else as filler. Prices differ from place to place, i.e. spicy crab (menu says market rate) quoted at 150 to 180 HKD within 2 blocks.
- Mon Kok market which open during the day seems to have lots more food choices than Temple Street Night Market.
- Maxim's and Maxim's Food^2 at the HK International airport were both quite good.
- Maxim's MX chain very tasty and cheap. Accepts Octopus and credit cards. Around $8USD for one person shabu shabu that can feed 2. http://www.maxims.com.hk/en/index.asp?t=12686176259708184 Menu did seem to change day by day, so I was disappointed that the items I wanted weren't always offered.
- Kyber-Pass Club for Indian food (E Block of Chunking Mansions) has very good curry. Lamb Vindaloo was like extra, extra hot in the US. Not so cheap $8-9 USD.
- Tao Heung pretty tasty dim sum. On weekdays 1/3 off between 7:30a and 11:30a. I think they take both Octopus and credit cards. http://www.taoheung.com.hk/eng/restaurants/tao_heung/intro.jsp
- Lei Garden at IFC has pretty good food, but service when I went was horrid given their Michelin 1 star. There was a large party in my area, but half the restaurant was empty so they could have gone from zone to waiter to table assignments. Also dishes all appetizer size, probably need 3 and rice to make a meal clocking in $80+ assuming you didn't order the shark fin which could be that and much more by itself depending on which you order.
- XTC ice cream. Nothing really special and pretty expensive 33HKD for two scoops. OK a bit cheaper than US prices. http://www.xtc.com.hk/
- Marketplace by Jasons, great supermarket with better prices than a 7-11. Lots of specials and in store sushi. http://www.marketplacebyjasons.com/
25 Mar, 2010
Cruise Tips - Things I Wish I Knew Before My First
What I learned from my first cruise aboard the Costa Classica in Southeast Asia.
Overall cruising is an extremely affordable way to travel. For under $100/day/person (well under if travelling in pairs or with kids), you get transportation across countries,accommodations, food, and entertainment and activities.
Service is just awesome like a 5 star hotel (bed gets made and towels replaced 3 times a day, they fold clothes left lyingaround, after a few days the waiters and cabin staff all address you by name)
- Excursions suck
- Almost always can be done cheaper and better with a few people and a hired taxi
- Might be worthwhile if there is something they go to outside of the port city and you are time constrained, i.e. I enjoyed seeing Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam which is 1+ hours outside of town despite only being 40km but came at the price of not experiencing local food
- Beware of travel times, i.e. anything with 2+ hour travel times better be worthwhile as that is a very long and possibly uncomfortable (not all air conditioning work well) roadtrip which leaves very little time to actually see anything other than a nondescript roadside whizzing by
- Main benefit of excursion is a set plan and guaranteed availability of English speaking guide. You also know that the ship will not leave without you.
- Main minuses of excursions is there is a lot of waiting for your fellow tourists, you don't really get to sample local culture and food, inflexible itinerary. Also very expensive by local standards.
- Local ports generally have transportation options
- Some ports have cruise company arranged shuttles for the equivalent of the taxi price, but at least you know the ship won't leave before the last scheduled return trip.
- Some ports near city center or local mass transport, i.e. you can walk to town from Manila, Kota Kinabalu. Singapore Harbor Center has subway station.
- Prepared meats tend to suck
- I think this may have to do with only electric and steam cooking on the ships, but it doesn't explain the really horrible prime rib presentation. Stir frys, braised meats tend to do better than roasts.
- Brewed coffee sucks
- Inconsistently horrible
- Instant option at least consistently mediocre, first time I have seen coffee proud to be Robusta beans
- Drinks expensive, i.e. $4 for can of coke… Free booze only at cocktail parties and formal dinners.
- Cruise food at least on Costa is catering to European dietary preferences which apparently does not include local Asian fare. Why else would they have sandwiches in a boxed lunch for a tour in Vietnam.
- Communications spotty and very expensive. Satellite calls at $8/min, dialup Internet at $0.75/min. Costa did some deal with a cell provider, so if you get one of their SIMs ahead of time, you only get a per call surcharge.
- Nightly entertainment very entertaining
- Instant fashion show - stylish dresses with just fabrics and pins
- Flamenco
- Magic show
- Song and dance numbers
- Activities are fun
- Dance lessons
- Language lessons
- Trivia competition
- Arts and crafts
- Lectures
- Games (table tennis and foosball on our ships)
- Lots of card tables
- Library
- TV sucks and spotty
- At least we got an English language news station but missed the Olympics and Oscars.
- Leftover food gets dehydrated and incinerated producing steam used for cooking
- Potable water partially from water loaded at ports and desalination process
- Engines all electric
- Mixture of oil and diesel used for electric generators
- Kitchen consists of electric stoves and ovens, and steam appliances
- Separate preparation rooms for cold, hot, and butcher
- Roughly 1 crew for every 2 passengers
- Machine shop, electrical, tailor, laundry, and textile workshops on board
23 Feb, 2010
Ruby Koans on Windows
Bobby Johnson presented this at the February 2010 Alt.Net Seattle meeting. I missed the first part of the meeting so I had to replicate this by Googling...
Ruby Koans seems like a great way for learning the Ruby language.
Step by step
- Install Ruby for Windows
- Install RubyGems
- http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126&release_id=42796
- "ruby setup.rb"
- Install rake
- "gem install rake"
- Download Ruby Koans
- run rake where you unzipped the koans... start fixing the failed tests!
16 Feb, 2010
.Net Developers Association MVP Meeting
Fun meeting with 5 half hour presentations:
Interesting that only Brian Henderson who is their treasurer was the only Alt.Net attendee that I ran across.
DotNetNuke
Seems to have quite an ecosystem though I can't remember running across anyone using it outside some sessions at the annual Alt.Net conference. Looks somewhat similar to Drupal for the .Net world.
Some general advice, which extends to most of these systems:
- use extension points (modules and providers) as opposed to checking out the core source and going from there
- develop your modules on the minimum version supporting your required feature set such that it is applicable to the broadest audience possible
Start with a template:
- http://www.engagesoftware.com/ (didn't feel like registering just to see what theirs looks like)
- http://www.bitethebullet.co.uk/ (some spiffy looking free modules)
Azure
Most of the content was really basic and a bit dated... See PDC and websites for more interesting stuff...
.Net Coding Standards
I think most agile organizations subscribe to the importance of both formal coding standards and tools assist/enforcement of those standards. I have to admit to deriving the standard at Azaleos from the original Java coding standard from Sun (written by one of my developers) and tossing in some Microsoft'isms to please my developers that came from Microsoft.
- Presentation deck available at: http://www.slideshare.net/dotnetdave
- Book: http://www.cafepress.com/geekmusicart.165478704
WPF
Turned out to a presentation for making the case for WPF with customers that ask for something else. Really an implicit sales pitch for M-V-VM development too pitching separation of concerns between developers and designers. I think many of us know this isn't as easy as it sounds with the VM in particular having in depth knowledge of both sides... Still a really good presentation showing that usability is really a discipline and understanding user goals as something very different than taking requirements from customers in most engagements.
Claudio is holding a weekly Virtual Brownbag series: http://claudiolassala.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E2A4B22308B39CD2!2015.entry?sa=912088688
What a great idea! He also plugs Alt.Net
16 Feb, 2010
The Buzz at Agile Open Northwest 2010
Wiki (AKA Session Notes - really bad usability): http://agileopennorthwest.org/wiki/index.php?title=Agile_Open_Northwest_2010_Session_Notes
Had a great time at my first Agile Open Northwest (yes I seem to have attended everything else in this area) attending a diverse group of sessions from web testing to building a more welcome environment for women in technology.
Cucumber/BDD
In the hallways, Glenn Block suggested I check out Cucumber http://cukes.info/ I took a look at the website and looked at the brief Rails example in the RSpec book. Some of the examples are necessarily contrived such that acceptance tests are way too low level unit tests which many of us might argue should not be unit tests. Seems like a very simple and usable tool to facilitate BDD. It's hard for me to get excited to use for my own project, but next time I am project managing I think I will definitely give it a go.
Web Testing
From the testing and automation sessions, all the buzz seemed to be around Selenium http://seleniumhq.org/ There must be a lot of web people at the conference. Selenium looks like a good integration testing tool. There was also mention of folks combining or using WatiN http://watin.sourceforge.net/ and Watir http://watir.com/ which are also browser automation testing tools. People really seemed most concerned with layout breaking issues, as opposed to javascript correctness. Some non-UI AJAX testing frameworks mentioned were Screw.Unit http://github.com/nkallen/screw-unit#readme and JsUnit http://www.jsunit.net/ I also heard HTMLUnit mentioned http://htmlunit.sourceforge.net/
Working with Legacy
I attended at least one full session, with a team talking about moving from WebForms with business login in the client and in stored procedures to a more progressive AJAX and Web Services implementation. They seemed to have divided their development team into frontened, backend, database teams which goes against the vertical slice or more importantly usable feature set alignment most favored by agaile teams. I appreciate some of the issues in terms of expertise and individual scalability issues (what happens if you only have 2 database architects and 10 projects that need them), but I still question the methodology. Second issue was parallel teams maintaining and breaking new ground. Moving targets are always dangerous with divergent code and semantics. At some point you need to bite the bullet and interlock. Incremental development a parallel interface without real users or users that have to use 2 different interfaces is also highly problematic. I described Eric Evans approach of moving forward and fixing/reengineering only what you need with facades as being a pragmatic approach. Someone terms this strangling the old system which I think is an interesting way to think and describe the approach.
Usability
Didn't really get much out of the discussions around this than reiterating the tradeoffs and conscious decisions for big bang (strong cohesiveness design) and incremental user interface design. At some level we also decide to reeengineer in the backend world when we think the legacy (especially platform) has too much baggage. Usability and interaction seems to just bring this more to the foreground. I still hold information architecture and interaction design (not the graphics) is the key difference between good and great. Dang Dick Berry from the early days of User Engineering at IBM's Ease of Use team really poisoned me for life. Many make the point that not everyone can be an Apple, I really don't understand this from a group of folks that should be seeking to do better.
I have an old slide deck from Dick Berry on my website that I think still holds up well today: http://www.woan.org/Presentations.html
Women in Technology
Aside from a brief mention of role models and parents, this session focused on what we can do in the workplace as individuals today.
There was some discussion regarding families and the career arc of those raising kids, and how companies can gain a competitive advantage reaching out to those seeking part-time work which is incredibly ironic at an agile development conference which no one seemed to want to directly challenge. As someone who has managed part-time and off-site employees, those individuals must either be in the upper eschelon of their craft or the teams must have incredidible cohesiveness (open source is a very good example of where this really works well with inherent passion and goals alignment) for this to work and be worthwhile for all. I was successful with a distributed team at IBM only after the team had been together for a few years, and the members of the team knew each other so well they could argue each others viewpoints before even asking. There are some just incredible individuals that are worth having on a team remotely and disconnected, each of their interactions are golden and orders of magnitude above average. That doesn't generalize or a program make though.
We seemed to skirt around the real issue that after the Internet boom where we saw female and minority college enrollment in the sciences spike, current enrollment reflects very much current minority and female representation in our field. I think we can and do better marketing our field to the masses. Of course I think what we do and the value we have in society is incredible so I can be a bit biased. I think of all the times I visited rural schools in Texas with IEEE and the kids just didn't think that the field was open to them, or in the suburbs where law and medicine still seem predominant. Actually I keep think we should market science, technology, and entrepreneurism together in opening up a world of possibilities...
OK fudge, the last 5 years in startup world became a blackhole for me in terms of engaging. I think I definitely need to reengage mentoring young people in college and earlier as to the potential of our field.
Mind Mapping
A really interesting session led by Derek Hoshiko presented hand-drawn mind mapping for note taking. Very though provoking though I wonder about the metrics. I think many of the arguments in terms of retention also apply to note taking, as in if you actually review your notes just after taking them and after some time has passed, you can improve information retention exponentially. When I took notes on paper, I actually followed many of the mind mapping concepts. Now when I take notes digitally, I go back and revise and hyperlink which seems to have a similar affect on retention. Anyway certainly worthy of some investigation and experimentation.
User Stories
After attending a session that spent most of its time discussing the definition of user, I attended a more pragmatic session on splitting epic stories into stories closer to the INVEST model http://xp123.com/xplor/xp0308/ Seemed like folks were willing to back off the I in INVEST a bit in acknowledging sequencing and Minimum Featureset (MFS) goals as well. Pointer to Tasty Cupcakes site as well http://blog.tastycupcakes.com/ Interesting suggestion in splitting stories based on testable units too. I really need to give this more thought... Of course part of going Kanban was to avoid some of these issues explicitly though they still appear in the form of iterative and incremental development.
12 Feb, 2010
Travel Notes and Tips for Jordan Egypt Tour
General Travel Notes for Egypt and Jordan
First, I really hate tipping (known as baksheesh) in Jordan and Egypt, especially in Egypt. Having someone else handle this for you is worth signing onto a guided tour by itself. Unsolicited help (like a baggage handler grabbing your luggage off the curb while you are paying the cab driver and then asking for tip while effectively holding your property hostage) is also incredibly annoying.
Also I hate all the stores and restaurants that have no price tags which you know that everything is negotiable and locals pay a fraction of what is asked of foreigners.
And finally I hate how taxis work, in that you have to remember to negotiate a price ahead of time, and you better have exact change.
When comparing guided tour prices, pay careful attention to what is optional. The trip I booked had a series of "options" that really should have been built in.
Some general notes:
- No one seems to have change, so get a whole bunch of small denomination currency at a bank or when you exchange. You will need it for tipping, especially to go to the bathroom.
- In Egypt (not Jordan) kids will follow you asking for money and candy.
- Insect repellent and sun screen. Worth bringing from home, expensive and unknown brands along the road. Probably worth some research as my super duper REI DEET mosquito repellent didn't work nearly as well as I would have hoped.
- Might want to bring your own shampoo on the trip… Quality of soap and shampoo in hotels highly variable. Your favorite brands might not be available.
- Bic disposable razor blades bought in Jordan (triple blade model) seemed super dull, cut myself all over…
- Underwear strange cut and way undersized by western standard, I bought by waste size and they were way too small.
- Bring toilet seat covers and toilet paper from the states… Your idea of clean is probably not theirs.
- Taxis very cheap
- Don't accept a ride from anything not clearly marked as a taxi. I mistakenly took a private car and was ganged up by two men (the driver picked up another man along the way to the destination) that doubled the agreed upon fare. Actually this was true of taxis too…
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Meters mean nothing, negotiate price for destination before getting in, you will get outrageous tourist pricing if you ask how much at the end of a trip (had this happen in Jordan and Egypt)
- Internet cafes tend not to have WiFi forcing you to use their computers which tend to be old with IE6
- You will have to learn how to get to US sites when redirected to local versions of google, facebook, etc...
- Beware of restaurants and stores with no stated prices, you will almost always get charged double locals
- Credit card exchange rates much better than banks and money exchanges but can be negated by foreign transaction charges (Capital One cards do not have any transaction charges). Only very upscale establishments seem to accept credit cards
City Notes
Amman
- Kids very friendly. They seem to want to practice their English on you ("Hello, how are you doing?"). Unlike in Egypt they do not as money or candy from you.
- There is free internet in some cafes and restaurants (they tend to advertise the fact in front).
- Relatively easy to walk from downtown to Roman theater and Citadel.
- Shopping malls (City Mall, Mecca Mall) in the suburbs very modern and reasonably priced (by Western and relative standards) in case you are looking for a western style department store or US brands.
Petra
- Simply stunning, should spend a whole day there.
- Prices for food and drinks reasonable except at the top of the climb to the monastery where it can be 4X of what is below.
- Monastery climb challenging but just go at your own pace, three lookout points past the monastery, just keep heading up.
Wadi Rum
- Completely touristy as Bedouins all resettled in towns by government
- 4 wheeling in desert quite fun
- Camel rides for tourists, nothing interesting to see and guides walking alongside
Aqaba
- Modern city
- Locals only at the fast food joints, people at Popeyes super friendly to tourists (gave me two bonus pieces and wrapped my leftovers for takeaway without even asking)
- Glass bottom boat tours from beach seem to have standard prices/itinerary
Dahab
- Cheapest of tourist cities, hotel laundry about quarter that of Luxor
- Might as well go to Ali Baba for dinner as prices pretty similar at all beach front tourist restaurants
Sinai
- I think sunrise might be better at Mt Sinai than sunset, pace yourself, I almost died on a 2.5 hour pace whereas I think I would have been fine at 3 hrs
- St Catherine's Cathedral - only the Christian church is open to tourists along with the Burning Bush
Cairo
- Money exchange at banks on the street, open late and on normal holidays (Friday and Saturday)
- Street food seems relatively safe and cheap
- Egyptian Museum has so much stuff, highlights in a couple hours. Everything so poorly organized and labeled
Luxor
- Both McDonald's and local fast food chains (Snack Time) had free wireless
- No cameras in Valley of Kings (used to restrict only flash photography, but they have now banned all cameras)
- Temple of Hatshepsut is really cool and allows cameras
- Temple of Karnak is a must see and allows cameras, definitely worth guided tour to place site in context
Aswan
- McDonald's has free WIFI with power outlets by indoor and outdoor tables, WIFI was down when I was there
- Late night market, lots of cool food options, markets with price tags available if you look
- Water taxis seem pretty cheap, if you let them solicit you
Alexandria
- Again got ripped off by taxi by not negotiating price for the destination upfront, and taxi driver accepted my fare saying he knew destination when he really didn't. Find English speaker that can actually pronounce your intended destination before getting in
- Soldiers/police don't seem to understand English as a rule
- Catacombs and other sites close at 4p
- Alexandria Library (Bibliotech) pretty cool and open late. Has free and fee museums. Unrestricted free wireless and you can use their computers with registration
- Fun to walk downtown streets, busy shops and stores, night farmers market by train station
12 Feb, 2010
SCOTTEVEST Travel Clothing
Before leaving for the Middle East in January, I purchased a SCOTTEVEST Evolution Travel Jacket and a pair of Ultimate Cargo Pants.
The jacket is perfect both for travelling and every day wear in Seattle. The interior pockets with the flat look felt really secure for holding travel documents and money, kind of like a money belt. The microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth in an eyeglass pocket was a nice surprise. The detachable sleeves turning it into a vest came in handy in warmer weather. The hood and water repellency of the whole jacket comes in handy as well. The jacket is remarkably warm in above freezing temperatures and make for a nice layer for colder temperatures.
The Ultimate Cargo Pants are great for travel. They not only have lots of pockets, but they have pockets inside of pockets with zippers. These feel very secure. The pants legs also zip off to turn the pants into cargo shorts. I also liked the inside drawstring which provides for a secure fit without a belt. The fabric is pretty light weight and loose. I did manage to tear the pants when I fell off a donkey on a rough street in Egypt.
I liked the clothing so much on the trip I ordered another couple pairs of the pants, and a bunch of shirts when I returned...
I should also mention they rotate the items on their specials page pretty regularly, so if you wait long enough you may find your favorite item %20 off.
Also they seem to run web ads that land you on a 10% off page, so you might search around for a discount code.
12 Feb, 2010
Jawbone ICON Bluetooth Headset
After three generations of evolutionary design refinement (Jawbone, Jawbone 2, Jawbone Prime), Jawbone recently released the Jawbone ICON. They radically departed from their pretty but hard to use interface for the first time with a discrete on/off slide switch and an explicit single button. They also got rid of volume adjustment from the headset as far as I can tell. Also they priced this model below the previous Prime model which is a first for them as far as I know.
That much said, performance is still just awesome. The visual battery indicator on the iPhone or by voice by pressing the talk button is quite nice. microUSB charging interface will probably let me leave another cable home when travelling.
Still having some difficulty using the multipoint with my Windows 7 x64 laptop and iPhone. I can't figure out how to wake it up from Windows when using it with Skype without disconnecting and reconnecting the device in the Bluetooth manager.
MyTalk allowing you to change some functionalty and the voice prompt voice is pretty cool.
Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a new headset, but if you have a Jawbone 2/Prime it is not a nobrainer to upgrade.
Product page: http://jawbone.com/productsPageIcon.aspx
