Author: Paweł Gościcki

Ruby/Rails programmer.

V for Vendetta poster

Only after it had ended I have realized that there is actually no Keanu Reeves in the newest Wachowski brothers movie. I was hundred per cent sure that he acts in it! At first I thought that V is him and his voice is just distorted (and that he will finally remove his mask). After one hour had passed I have begun to think that he might be just another hero or a villain that will appear in the second half of the movie. None of that has happened. I mean, just look at the poster below. Doesn’t he she look very much alike Neo from The Matrix (especially while looking from a distance)?

V for Vendetta poster crop

What’s important, though, is that Keanu Reeves acts in another new Sci-Fi movie called A Scanner Darkly directed by Richard Linklater. Can’t wait to see this one!

WP Movie Ratings v1.0 released!

Finally, just as promised, WP Movie Ratings – a wordpress plugin which lets you rate movies with just 1 click (using Firefox bookmarklet) has been released. It took me about three months to have everything polished (hReview implementation, code comments, documentation, pictures) and made ready for public consumption. Version 1.0 is available for download. Installation instructions, screenshots, faq and other important information is located on a separate page dedicated to this project.

The code is open source and has been released under the GNU GPL license.

Powerful quote from a powerful movie

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale, thinks he’s gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. “But, Danny, these are sovereign nations.” Sovereign nations. What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? “But, Danny, they’re codified by the U.N. charter!” Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods! Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.

The above quote comes from Syriana. It’s one of the many very controversial (yet true, at least to some degree) quotes from this terrific movie. Definitely a must see for anyone interested in the Peak Oil.

Subspace – the new meaning of life

It has all started at the Netvision conference. I was attending a lecture about advergaming (using games for advertising). The host gave a side example of an online game (almost a MMOG to be exact) called Tankmania. It’s not really an advergame, as there are no ads in the game. It was rather an example of how popular an online flash-based game can be. As soon as I had the chance I had logged into Tankmania to check it out. The next minute I was hooked. Two weeks have passed and I was playing it almost daily. The problems started appearing when the game stopped working. I could not connect for two straight days. I was desperate.

At the end of the second day I decided that it was time to try some other MMOG. Back in the day (in 1996 and 1997) I used to play Subspace. Very intensively, I might add. I could play for 12-13 hours straight. I stopped playing it when all of the official servers went offline. Back then I have thought that the game has been discontinued, but now I was on a mission to find out what has actually happened to Subspace. 10 minutes reading the Wikipedia entry and my hopes were up as the article was very clear that the game is still alive and doing quite good! And what’s more, it is still being actively developed and is completely free to play! The very next minute I was downloading the Continuum client. Upon firing up the game old memories started coming back to me. I was almost crying. Subspace, my only true love…

Subspace in all its glory

I knew my life has found a new meaning.

BTW: You can usually find me playing SSCU Trench Wars under the very meaningful nickname: XML over HTTP.

EDIT: If you want to know more about Subspace, you can watch this great introductory movie.

Street maps for Europe on Google Maps

Google Maps has recently enabled both map and hybrid view for most of the Europe countries. This means that now they show names of the cities, streets and important institutions. And that, my friends, is great news!

Below, for example, is my alter matter. It’s not as colorful as it should be only because this aerial photo was taken during winter time (this past winter, I presume). It’s named properly in Polish (Politechnika Gdańska) and all the streets are there too:

Politechnika Gdańska on Google Maps

(via Digg)

Crazy Frog – Popcorn Video

Crazy Frog - Popcorn video

Continuing the tradition of hosting the Crazy Frog videos, below is the WMV file of the “Popcorn video”. The quality is not so great as the original video, but it’s still good enough to be watchable. On top of that, Crazy Frog has his penis in its place, which means that it must be some uncensored European version:

As a bonus, there’s also a 23 seconds long popcorn video teaser (released a few months ago), featuring Crazy DJ Frog. Although called teaser, I did not find anything in common with those two videos. Here it goes:

Enjoy!

Tic-tac shock

Now some people know that I am a tic-tac addict, so one could make the assumption that I know how each tic-tac looks inside. Wrong! As of lately I had simply no idea. It all happened a little while ago. I’ve just bought a pack of extra strong tic-tacs, came home and emptied out some of them onto my hand. And there it was… this one very awkward tic-tac. Unlike all the others it was… brown! Without thinking I threw it into the thrash can. As I was eating the other ones it got me thinking though. How come this one was different from the rest? What if others are brown too? Scary thought,… but I just had to be sure. I broke three others in half. What a shock it was to find out that every one of them was brown inside! My world view has been shattered.

The shocking truth, pictured:

Tic-tac shock

Now you may not believe me and say that this picture is fake and all tic-tacs are actually white inside – that is your right. I advise you, however, to break your own tic-tac in half and see for yourself ;)

Less is more

John Borrell, my boss and owner of Wine Express, a small wine selling company in Kartuzy, Poland:

The visit to TerraMater reminded me of what Wine Express is all about. We are not the biggest wine company in Poland and we don’t even have the widest selection of wines. But I think we are the company that is closest to the people who grow the grapes and make the wines that we sell in Poland.

In the past year alone we have personally visited more than a dozen wineries in New Zealand, Italy, France, Argentina and Chile, and in doing so got to know a lot about both the wines and the people who make them. We have also introduced scores of our clients to these winemakers and producers.

Small is the new big. Indeed.