Monthly Archive for May, 2005

I Love Crazy Frog

Published on May 31, 2005 in Music. 7 Comments Tags: , .

There, I said it. I’m sorry.

For non-UK-ians, Crazy Frog is something of a phenomenon here. Apparently he’s called Albert Motard in Belgium, so perhaps you know him as someone else. He just beat Coldplay to No. 1 in the singles chart with a decidedly dodgy cover of the old Beverly Hills Cop theme tune, Axel F. I have no idea who bought the single, and I’ve never actually heard the ringtone that started it all – other than in the pervasive television adverts – nobody seems to actually have it on their mobile phone.

Okay, I’m not much of a Coldplay fan, but it’s not that. I think that what I object to more is the hordes of fans declaring them the One Great British Band, and the Last Bastion of Hope, and How Dare That Bloody Frog Beat Them To Number One, and so on. Love or hate it, it sold more copies – therefore deserves to be No. 1. Whilst I happily admit that I used to be probably the worst music snob I have ever met, I think I’ve mellowed with age – at least a bit. Half Man Half Biscuit’s Irk The Purists rings true these days.

Maybe I just admire the way it has the power to turn normally sane and rational people into angry raving lunatics within a few short seconds. Go on, give it a listen. Stream the video (WMV), or check it on iTunes.

[Edit: How very curious…]

Our Friends In The North

Published on May 31, 2005 in Ego. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

Liverpool FC celebrate winning the 2005 European Cup

I’ve been in Merseyside for the past week. I took some time off work, travelled to The Arkles pub in Anfield, Liverpool to watch THAT MATCH (managing to get on Sky News in the process), and spent the following few days catching up with friends old and new in the town where I grew up. Lots and lots to write about, and no time in which to do it. I’m back at the office in eight hours or so, so will try to catch up later in the week.

Communication

Published on May 17, 2005 in Tech. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Meanwhile, back in the office, a BBC headline caused something of a double-take: Messaging spreads office gossip.

Yes, IM can be handy for spreading office gossip, but so can email, newsgroups, web forums (fora?), memos, post-it notes, text messages, blogs, telephones, faxes and (gasp) talking out loud to one another.

Logging IM conversations as we do emails is the proposed solution. Where do we stop? Will we ever get to the point where we’re required to log even verbal conversations?

Hitch Hiking

Published on May 15, 2005 in Writing. 2 Comments Tags: , .

I finally went to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. I’d read a few positive reviews, but many more critical ones before seeing it – most notably MJ Simpson’s scathing review on the now sadly closed Planet Magrathea.

I really wanted to like this film. I’ve been a fan since reading the books as a child in the 1980s, and I’ve been waiting since then to see this film. But although I’m glad I finally saw it, I really don’t think it worked. I’m not sure how easily anyone unfamiliar with the radio series or books would have followed the story – it moved along at a frenetic pace and almost felt rushed – although I suppose in the current movie climate a sub-two-hour film is relatively short.

Yes, there were some amusing parts, particularly a few lines from Simon Jones‘ cameo appearance. But the majority of the dialogue had been savagely reworded – the best dialogue jokes from the book were present in part, but often bafflingly lacked either the necessary setup lines, or indeed the punchlines.

Much as I wanted MJ Simpson to be wrong, I’m afraid he was more or less entirely correct. It was slightly better than he’d led me to expect, but not much. I was expecting it to be the worst film I’d ever seen, but in fact it was only the worst film I’ve seen since The Passion Of The Christ, which was commendably worse. Still, Hitchhiker’s was a very bad film. I can add nothing to his comprehensive review, (which contains spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie) here.

I’m glad I saw it. I’m nothing if not a completist, and at least now I can add the movie to the not inconsiderable list of incarnations in which I’ve experienced (or, in the case of the final radio installments, will shortly experience) Hitchhiker’s – the radio series (Primary Phase, Secondary Phase, Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase and Quintessential Phase), the books (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, Life, The Universe and Everything, So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless), the radio scripts (Volume One and Volume Two), the TV series…

I think I’m now only missing the towel.

Eschew Obfuscation!

Published on May 10, 2005 in Code and Tech. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

Sometimes Perl gets a bit of a bad rap for being a language in which it is trivially simple to write utterly unmaintainable code.

Today Slashdot even reviewed a book, Perl Medic, aimed at helping people to demystify the inner workings of their colleagues’ incomprehensible apparent line noise, posing as a supposedly high-level language.

I personally think Perl’s a great tool for getting the simple things done simply, and getting even the most complex of tasks done without too much in the way of hassle. Whatever you want to do, there is almost certainly a module freely available on CPAN to help you in doing so.

And yes, I generally make sure that my code uses both the strict and warnings pragmas, and try to use sane variable and sub naming schemes in anything more than a couple of lines long.

But it’s still always a bonus to be able to use such a behemoth of mind-bleedingly insane code as the gorgeous Mail::RFC822::Address module, as I did today. Yes, there are perhaps more reasonable ways to verify the integrity of a supplied email address, but I’m afraid I just rather like the idea of passing my input through this.