Movie Cliche #2: More Advanced Than...

"This rock/metal/chewing gum is MORE ADVANCED THAN anything we've seen before."

The oldest cliche in the science fiction book.

Do these materials just get infinitely harder? There is ALWAYS another advanced material.

Movie Quote of the Day: Red Dwarf

I love it when someone says "What's this?" and no matter how complicated, Kryten guesses with the prefix "Best guess, it's some kind of..." and is ALWAYS right!

Movie Quote of the Day: Beverly Hills Cop II

"It's all... politics here now, Axel." - Rosewood in Beverly Hills Cop II.

Wargames DVD Front of Box Photo

I noticed a while ago that the Wargames DVD I have, has a picture of Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, reflected in a monitor screen.

There's one problem. It's not them. It's clearly doubles that they had to find at the last minute.

See: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3891961088/tt0086567

The on-set photographer for Wargames is the brother of a friend of mine - I could ask him, but it's far too trivial.

My 2006 Backup System

Devised in 2006.

Basically, a bunch of folders. Each folder is prefixed My (for data, email, music generated by me) or by Others (data created by anyone else).

Folders starting 'My' are a priority to backup, and basically irreplaceable.

Folders starting 'Others' can be re-downloaded (if still on the Web/FTP/Torrent), and music and movies can be re-downloaded or re-purchased.

Typically, My takes up a small fragment of Others. It's good to separate them for this reason, in case an emergency backup needs doing. My first, Others later.

MyBooks
MyChatLogs
MyCubaseProjects (Cubase music files / songs)
MyDocuments
MyMail
MyPictures
MyMusic
MySpreadsheets

OthersBooks
OthersDocuments
OthersDownloads (typically software install files and drivers)
OthersGames
OthersModTrackers (.MOD music files)
OthersMiscSingles (random songs)
OthersMovies (DVD rips, etc)
OthersMP3Albums (music albums)
OthersPictures
OthersPrograms (installed software)
OthersRippedCDS (CD album rips and FLAC albums)
OthersScripts
OthersTorrents (.torrent files, not downloaded files)

A Bluffer's Guide to Irony

First off, a Bluffer's Guide is a trademark which I'm breaching - scew 'em.

Secondly, I have devised an explanation of irony which I think is universal.

"Irony - Where a character lacks certain information that could help them, that everyone else (the audience) knows."

It's all about information, people! When someone says "It was ironic that King Lear had funny dreams because they came true", you could say instead "King Lear didn't know his dreams were going to land him in hot water, but everyone else in the audience did, to their horror."

Remember, we know, and they don't.

Brief fading moment of glory

Not related to film in any way, except as an anecdote.

When I was 15 in 1993, the school gave a quiz for us to answer, with around 50 questions.

Me and a friend, having nothing better to do, diligently worked on it. A lot of the answers came from visiting relatives (it could have been at Christmas time).

The 'boo hiss bad guy' in this story later went to Cambridge and along with a fellow very-clever-guy competed with us (though they didn't know we were working on it).

Guess who won? Not the bad guy, but US! Me and my friend.

I'm proud of adding to my mythology, that I was absent when they announced I'd won the quiz! It was like being a Bond villain.

We collected 25 UK Pounds, halved it, and I bought a ZX Spectrum +3 with my money!

And since then I haven't been able to shut up about it.