Microblog: A very long article Wikipedia article on the orientation of toilet paper [Jun 7th, 22:52] [R]

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_Hot_Tin_Roof_(film)

Wikipedia

From Wikipedia:

Wealthy Mississippian Big Daddy Pollitt celebrates his 65th birthday unaware that he's dying of cancer. Big Daddy's son Brick is in a childless marriage with Maggie, a beautiful woman who taunts Brick about his obsession with his deceased best friend. When the truth about Big Daddy's health is learned, Brick and his father resolve the issues that have created the tension between them.

[ Posted on September 16th, 2008 at 22:55 | no comment | ]

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

Some Like it Hot

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Like_it_Hot

Wikipedia

Adapted from Wikipedia:

Two struggling musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness what looks like the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. When the Chicago gangsters, led by ‘Spats’ Columbo spot them, the duo flee for their lives. They manage to leave town by taking jobs as musicians in an all-girl band headed to Florida. The two disguise themselves as women, join the band and board a train. Joe and Jerry both fall for Sugar Kane, the band's sexy vocalist and ukulele player, and fight for her affection while maintaining their disguises. In Florida, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire. An actual millionaire, Osgood Fielding II, falls for Jerry disguised as a girl. One night Osgood asks “Jerry” out to his yacht. Joe convinces “Jerry” to keep Osgood ashore while he goes on the yacht with Sugar. That night Osgood proposes to “Jerry” who, in a state of excitement, accepts, believing he can finagle a large settlement from Osgood immediately following their wedding ceremony. When the mobsters arrive at the same hotel for a conference honoring “Friends of Italian Opera”, Spats and his gang spot Joe and Jerry. Jerry, Joe, Sugar, and Osgood eventually escape to the millionaire's yacht.

[ Posted on September 13th, 2008 at 00:03 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_at_Tiffany%27s

Wikipedia

Adapted from Wikipedia:

Holly Golightly meets Paul Varjak, a new tenant in her building. Paul helps Holly prepare to visit Sing Sing, a weekly routine from which she earns $100 for an hour's conversation with Sally Tomato, an incarcerated mob boss. Holly does not realize that she is passing coded messages for Sally's drug ring. Paul is a writer but hasn't been published since 1956. Holly ran away from home at 14. The next day Paul attends a party at Holly's where he is introduced to José da Silva Pereira, a handsome, rich Brazilian. Holly, always trying improve her lifestyle by marrying rich men, plans to marry José, although she has started a relationshion with Paul. Months later, Paul has moved out of the brownstone but is visiting Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil. They go out for dinner and upon returning are arrested in connection to Sally's dealings with Sally Tomato. Holly spends the night in jail. Paul picks her up in the morning, along with letter from José in which he breaks up with Holly because his position won't allow him to marry someone who has been in jail. Holly still refuses to marry Paul, but finally changes her mind.

[ Posted on September 9th, 2008 at 23:37 | no comment | ]

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Synoptic Comparison of MacGyver Title Sequences

Categories: [ TV ]

Completely useless, therefore absolutely essential: I made a synoptic comparison of the cues that form MacGyver's title sequence in the first five seasons.

One can notice that most episodes of the third season have a shorter title sequence (unless this is made by the Finnish channel rerunning it?). Also, some cues in season five have been re-shot, with an older and sexier-looking Richard Dean Anderson (and an older-looking-only Dana Elcar), instead of being taken from existing episodes.

Surprisingly, the first episode of the fourth season (The Secret of Parker House) contains cues that have not been used before and are not resused later in the season. The Pilot episode also shows the explosion and series title cue on a background taken from the end of the teaser instead of the black background that is used later.

[ Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 00:06 | no comment | ]

Digital TV and Leffakone

Categories: [ TV/Leffakone ]

Today when Leffakone was supposed to record MacGyver, it didn't record anything. The DVB-T card was able to tune to the right frequency, but nothing came out of it. I openend the case, removed the PCI card, unplugged the wakeup timer, blew on the PCI card, put the card back, and it worked. Then I unplugged the card again, plugged the timer back (the WOL port is between two PCI slots, it can't be reached without removing one of the nearby cards), plugged the card back, and it's still working, currently recording Lois & Clarke. I just hope it will continue to work.

It's not the first time I have trouble with the computer, two years ago, the DVB-T card refused to record anything while I was connected to the computer through the modem with a simple serial terminal. Computers work in mysterious ways…

[ Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 00:06 | no comment | ]

Leffakone's Wakeup Timer Updated

Categories: [ TV/Leffakone ]

The timer was working almost correctly, except that the most significant byte of the timer value was mishandled: there was a for 65536 loop statement, but since the PIC 16F84a is an 8 bit microcontroller, the value 65536 was understood as 0, and the MSB of the timer was considered as null. Niko reprogrammed the PIC using two nested for 256 loop statements.

[ Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 00:06 | no comment | ]

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Et Dieu... créa la femme

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://cinepark.blogs.allocine.fr/cinepark-115436-Et_Dieu_cr_a_la_femme.htm

© Voisin Blogueur

Juliette est une jeune femme ingénue totalement insouciante de tout et au sommet de sa beauté. Elle fait d'un simple regard exploser les coeurs et les moeurs de tous les hommes du petit village de pêcheurs des années 1950 où elle a été adoptée, Saint-Tropez. Mais elle ne pense incorrigiblement qu'à s'amuser et à aimer les hommes dans une communauté dure au labeur et traditionnellement très attachée aux bonnes moeurs. (Wikipedia)

Afin d'empêcher d'être renvoyée à l'orphelinat pour mauvaise conduite, Michel Tardieu la demande en mariage contre l'avis des parents de Michel et de ses parents adoptifs. Juliette accepte qu'elle aie toujours été attirée par Antoine, le frère aîné de Michel, mais déçue d'avoir appris par hasard que tout ce qui l'intéresse est de coucher avec elle. Après le mariage, Juliette habite avec la famille Tardieu et essaye de se comporter comme il se doit, mais elle s'ennuie profondément. Elle finit par céder à la tentation et couche avec Antoine. Michel l'apprend par sa mère qui lui enjoint de la répudier. Il refuse, et Juliette et lui restent ensemble.

[ Posted on August 18th, 2008 at 18:05 | no comment | ]

Monday, June 30th, 2008

The Fifth Element

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Element

Wikipedia

Every five thousand years, Evil comes back to Earth in an attempt to destroy it. It is usually repelled by the ultimate weapon, stored in Egypt and made of the four basic elements (earth, water, wind and fire) plus the fifth element. In 1914, the ultimate weapon is taken away from Egypt by the Mondoshawans to be put in a safer place, and would be returned on time to face Evil. But on its way back to Earth in 2263, the spaceship is attacked by Mangalore mercenaries, the four elements are stolen and the fifth is destroyed. Thankfully, a single cell is found and the fifth element is reconstructed, taking the shape of a woman called Leeloo. She escapes from the military and meets Korben Dallas, a taxi driver who used to be an elite commando. Dallas takes her to a priest, member of a secret order who has guarded the ultimate weapon over the millenia. Leeloo reveals that the four elements were not in the destroyed ship, but are with an opera singer, on a luxury cruise ship on planet Fhloston Paradise. The army riggs a contest the grand prize of which is a trip to Fhloston Paradisein order to send Dallas there to retrieve the elements. He goes with Leeloo and the priest. They manage to recover the elements, while the ship is destroyed first by Mangalores sent by Zorg, the emissary of Evil, and then by Zorg himself. The heroes manage to get to Egypt just in time to activate the ultimate weapon and save Earth.

[ Posted on June 30th, 2008 at 21:10 | no comment | ]

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Sneakers

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_%28film%29

Wikipedia

In 1969, Martin Brice escaped arrest by chance while hacking with his friend Cosmo various bank accounts and transferring money to various charities. In the present, Martin is hiding from the FBI, has changed his name and is running a security firm that points out the flaws in security systems. He is contacted by two NSA agents to steal a universal cryptographic decoder made by a genius young mathematician. The NSA agents happen not to be working for the NSA after all, but for the organised crime. Cosmo (who didn't die in prison after all) is one of the leaders of the organisation, and he asks Martin to join him and make the world better by causing a major financial crash and making the rich equal to the poor. Martin refuses, and Cosmo changes his former record to make it easier for the FBI to find him, and also frames him in the murder of a Russian diplomat. Martin then tries to contact the NSA and exchange his freedom for the decoder. He and his team go the Cosmo's headquarter, a heavily guarded and protected complex, to retrieve the device. They get caught but manage to escape. They finally get caught by the NSA, but Martin manages to exchange the device and his silence against his and his team's freedom, knowing that the NSA wants the device for spying (illegally) on the US internal communications. But he gives the NSA a non-working device (they don't know it doesn't work) and keeps the core component for himself, using it for transfering money to charities once again.

[ Posted on June 25th, 2008 at 00:01 | no comment | ]

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

The Black Hole

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Hole

Wikipedia

The crew of the spaceship Palomino finds the lost ship Cygnus near a black hole. They suffer damage from the black hole and manage to dock on the Cygnus, hoping to be able to repair their ship. There is only one human on board the Cygnus, one of the head of the lost expedition, but he is helped by a bunch of robots he made himself (most of the robots are actually brainwashed/robotized crew members from the Cygnus). The crew of the Palomino senses that something is wrong and tries to escape, but the captain of the Cygnus decides to take them with him into the black hole, which he wants to explore. The crew of the Palomino manages to escape before the destruction of the Cygnus, only to fall themselves into the black hole, where they find a surrealistic evocation of Heaven and Hell.

[ Posted on June 23rd, 2008 at 01:04 | 1 comment | ]

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacehunter%3A_Adventures_in_the_Forbidden_Zone

Wikipedia

Three beautiful women are the only survivors of the collision between a space cruise liner and an asteroid. They are stranded on the nearest habitable planet, where they are taken prisoner by pirates. Jack Wolff receives a broadcast alert and goes searching for the women, because of the very high reward. On the planet, he meets Nikki, a young girl who helps him in exchange for food, guiding him to the lair of Overdog, a local villain. Soon after, they meet Washington, another bounty hunter and old accointance of Wolff's. After several encounter with mutants and such, they infiltrate Overdog's lair, during local games (where slaves have to survive through a labyrinth full of traps and dangers). Wolff and his team save the women, but Nikki get caught. He finally saves her, kills Overdog and destroys his lair.

[ Posted on June 21st, 2008 at 23:41 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Keeping Mum

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Mum

Wikipedia

Fourty-three years ago, pregnant Rosie Jones killed her husband and his lover, and was sentenced to a secure unit for the criminally insane. Today, Walter Goodfellow the vicar is very busy, and his wife Gloria, desperate for sex, is having an affair with her golf instructor. Soon arrives Grace, the new housekeeper, and things start getting better (the neighbour's dog who used to bark all night long disappears, soon to be followed by the dog's owner… all killed by Grace). In the meanwhile, the vicar is taught by his housekeeper how to be funny again and what are his wife's needs. Later, when the vicar leaves for a conference, his wife plans to leave with her lover (but changes her mind at the last minute thanks to her husband's changed behaviour), while the lover is already dead, killed by the housekeeper who surprised him peeping on the vicar's daughter the night before. The mother and the daughter finally discover the truth about the housekeeper (escaped from her jail), but since she happens to be Gloria's mother, they decide to keep it a secret from the vicar. Grace eventually leaves the house for good.

[ Posted on June 10th, 2008 at 00:17 | no comment | ]

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

The Birds

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Hitchcock ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_%28film%29

Wikipedia

Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner in a pet shop in San Francisco. She decides to follow him to his home in Bodega Bay. There she and other persons get repeatedly attacked by large flocks of birds, for no apparent reason. After spending the night under attack in Mitch's house, they take advantage of a period of calm to escape and drive to San Franciso.

[ Posted on June 7th, 2008 at 00:30 | no comment | ]

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Five Weeks in a Balloon

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055988/

© Imdb.com

Professor Fergusson plans to make aviation history by making his way across Africa by balloon. He plans to claim uncharted territories in West Africa as proof of his inventions worth. But the British Prime Minister convinces him to go to the West in order to claim territories near the Volta river before slave traders claim it themselves. He has about five weeks to complete the journey and plant the Union Jack. Fergusson is accompanied by his aid, Jacques, as well as by Sir Henry Vining, special envoy of the Queen, and Donald O'Shay, an american journalist who will be a neutral witness to the planting of the flag. Makia, a slave freed by O'Shay just before leaving also travels with them, at first secretely. During their journey, they take more passengers: a chimpanzee found in the forest, and later Susan Gale, an american taken as a slave, and Ahmed, the slaver who caught her. The party met them while being the hosts of a sultan, by whom they had to stop and repair they balloon. During a stop in an oasis, Susan, Makia, Fergusson and Sir Henry are taken as slaves by bandits and taken to Timbuktu. Makia is sent to the slave market, and the others are to be killed at sundown, because no infidel is allowd to enter the sacred city. But Ahmed, Jacques and O'Shay rescue them all in the nick of time. They finally arrive at the Volta river and, after loosing the baloon, manage to plant the flag before the slavers.

[ Posted on May 12th, 2008 at 08:16 | no comment | ]

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Delicatessen

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicatessen_%28film%29

Wikipedia

À une époque post-apocalyptique, Louison, un ex-clown, est embauché comme concierge dans un immeuble délabré au pied duquel se trouve une boucherie. Les animaux sont en voie d'extinction, le maïs sert de monnaie, et le boucher vend en secret de la viande humaine. Louison est censé être la prochaine victime, mais Julie, la fille du boucher, tombe amoureuse de lui et tente d'epêcher son père de le tuer. Pour ce faire, elle prend contact avec les troglodytes, un groupe de rebelles végétariens qui vivent dans les égouts. Elle leur demande d'enlever Louison en échange du maïs que son père accumule dans sa réserve. Le boucher tente d'abattre Louison durant l'opération des troglodytes, mais il échoue et se tue par accident.

[ Posted on May 5th, 2008 at 23:05 | no comment | ]

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Spaceballs

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.impawards.com/1987/spaceballs_ver2.html

© Impawards.com

The inhabitants of planet Spaceball have used up all their atmosphere and plan to steal the one from the peaceful planet Druidia. For that purpose, the evil Lord Dark Helmet plans to kidnap princess Vespa of Druidia in order to force her father King Roland to give them the code for opening the shield that protects the planet. Meanwhile on Druidia, the princess escapes her marriage with Prince Valium and just before being kidnapped by the Spaceballs, is rescued by Lone Starr, a space cowboy. Trying to escape the Spaceballs, they get stranded on a desert planet where they meet Yogurt, a wizard who teaches Lone Starr how to control the Schwartz. Soon after, Vespa is kidnapped by the Spaceballs who then extort the code from the King. After rescuing the princes from planet Spaceball, Lone Starr and his friends infiltrate the Spaceball's giant spaceship. There he faces Dark Helmet in a duel of Schwartz, before activating the self destruct just before the Spaceballs managed to steal the air of Druidia. At the end, Lone Star learns from Yogurt that he's actually a Prince and he is then allowed to marry the princess.

[ Posted on April 21st, 2008 at 21:59 | 1 comment | ]

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

Never Say Never Again

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/James Bond ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_Again

Source Wikipedia

James Bond is getting old, and MI6 doesn't need 00 agents any more. After failing a combat test, Bond is sent to a specialized clinic in order to get back in shape. He discovers something fishy there, and almost gets killed. Soon after, two nuclear bombs are stolen from the US Air Force by SPECTRE, and 00 agents are sent back to the field in order to say the world once more. Bond investigates Maximilain Largo, in relation with an Air Force officer, now dead, who is suspected to have been involved in the the theft of the bombs, and whom Bond has met at the clinic. Largo lives on a yacht in the Bahamas, and Bond meets him there once. Largo then leaves to Nice where he owns a casino and where he holds a charity event. Bond meets him a second time, and manages to escape death again. He later gets invited on Largo's boat for lunch, and is made (politely) prisonner, and taken to North Africa, where Largo owns an antique fortress. Bond manages to escape, find out where the bomb is located, fight Largo, disarm the bomb and save the day. At the end, he quits MI6 and moves to Bahamas with Largo's ex-girlfriend.

[ Posted on March 1st, 2008 at 16:51 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Being John Malkovich

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/

© Imdb.com

Craig Schwartz, an unemplyed puppeteer, discovers at his new job place a door leading to John Malkovich's head. With Maxine, his new colleague with whom he just fell in love, he starts a business for people who want to be someone else for 15 minutes. His wife Lottie also tries the door and becomes immediately addicted to being a man. This happened while Maxine was dating Malkovich, and the two women fall in love in a strange fashion, leavin Craig out. But Craig sequestrates his wife at home and forces her to invite Maxine to meet Malkovich more often, while himself being John Malkovich and pretending to be Maxine. Craig soon discovers how not to get expelled out of Malkovich's mind after only 15 minutes, and becomes a permanent resident. Meanwhile, Lottie is adopted by Craig's former boss, who knows about the door, being himself a mind living in someone else's body. Malkovich changes his career from acting to puppeteering, but Maxine, pregnant, drifts away from home. Eventually, Maxine and Lottie meet again, Craig leaves Malkovich's head so that his former boss can continue his quest for immortality through renewed bodies. Craig wants to go back into Malkovich, but it is too late, and his mind goes into Maxine's baby instead, trapped forever.

[ Posted on February 5th, 2008 at 23:59 | no comment | ]

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

La marche de l'empereur

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428803/

© Imdb.com

Le manchot empereur migre tous les automnes vers l'intériieur des terres pour y retrouver sa compagne et pondre un oeuf. La femelle, épuisée, retourne alors pêcher pendant le le mâle couvre l'oeuf, puis elle revient nourrir le petit tandis que le mâle part à son tour se nourrir en mer. Enfin, les petits qui ne sont déjà plus si petits vont à la mer à leur tour pour se nourrir et commencer un nouveau cycle.

[ Posted on January 26th, 2008 at 23:45 | no comment | ]

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Jabberwocky

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky_%28film%29

© Wikipedia

Dennis Cooper is a cooper's apprentice who, after being disowned by his dying father, seeks a new trade in the city. Since the kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster, the king organises a tournament to find a champion who will go and kill the monster. After many misfortunes, Dennis ends up as the knight's squire and goes with hime after the beast. The knight is killed by another knight, sent in secret by the burgers of the city who considerer the monster as a asset to their business, but the second knight is in turn killed by the monster, and the latter is then killed by Cooper and by accident. Cooper gets half of the kingdom and the princess as his wife, although he'd wanted to marry a peasant girl who didn't even like him.

[ Posted on January 21st, 2008 at 23:17 | no comment | ]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Monty Python ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail

© Wikipedia

From Wikipedia:

King Arthur is recruiting his Knights of the Round Table throughout England. He is frustrated at every turn by anarcho-syndicalist peasants, a Black Knight that refuses to give up despite losing both his arms and legs, and guards that are more concerned with the flight patterns of swallows than their lord and master. Finally he meets up with Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure (also called "the Chaste"), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot, and "the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film", and declares them the Knights of the Round Table. They are given a quest by God to find the Holy Grail.

After they split up, Sir Robin encounters a Three-Headed Giant, Galahad runs across the perils of Castle Anthrax, Sir Lancelot massacres a wedding at Swamp Castle, and Arthur and Bedevere encounter the dreaded Knights who say Ni. They each overcome their individual perils and reunite to face a bleak and terrible winter. Surviving the winter by eating Sir Robin's minstrels, they venture further to a pyromaniac enchanter named “Tim”, who takes them to a cave guarded by a killer rabbit.

After killing the vicious Rabbit of Caerbannog with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, the knights face The Legendary Black Beast of Aaargh, and cross the Bridge of Death that is guarded by “the old man from Scene 24”. Arthur and Bedevere survive to arrive at Castle Aaargh, and face the French Taunter once more. The film ends abruptly when a group of police from the 1970s interrupt the climactic battle scene to arrest Bedevere and King Arthur for the murder of Frank, the “famous historian”.

[ Posted on January 21st, 2008 at 23:04 | 1 comment | ]

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Les tontons flingueurs

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0057591/

© Imdb.com

Fernand Naudin est un ex-truand reconverti dans le négoce de machines agricoles à Montauban. Sa petite vie tranquille va basculer lorsque son ami d'enfance, le Mexicain, un gangster notoire, de retour à Paris, l'appelle à son chevet. Celui-ci, mourant, confie à Fernand, avant de s'éteindre, la gestion de ses « affaires » ainsi que l'éducation de sa petite Patricia, au mécontentement de ses troupes et sous la neutralité bienveillante de maître Folace (Francis Blanche) son notaire, qui ne s'émeut pas trop de la querelle de succession à venir. Fernand Naudin doit affronter les frères Volfoni Raoul et Paul qui ont des visées sur les affaires du Mexicain : un tripot clandestin, une distillerie tout aussi clandestine, une maison close, etc. Fernand tente de faire rentrer les Volfono dans le rang, mais les attentats contre sa vie se multiplient malgré la paix signée entre les Volfoni et lui. On découvre rapidement que c'est le responsable de la distillerie clandestine qui tire les ficelles, et Fernand finit par s'en débarasser, en même temps qu'il marie Patricia et confie la gestion des « affaires » au père du marié, vice-président du Fonds Monétaire International.

[ Posted on January 16th, 2008 at 22:17 | no comment | ]

Friday, December 14th, 2007

Clockstoppers

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157472/

© Imdb.com

A.J., read the end of this post.

Zak Gibbs' father is a physicist who is working on a watch-shaped device, sent to him by Earl Doppler, a former student of his, capable of accelerating the wearer so much that averything else seems immobile. That's called hypertime. Zak takes the watch without knowing what it is, but soon discovers its powers. He then discovers that strange people are searching through his father's papers. He meets Doppler while trying to escape them, and soon learns that since Doppler managed to escape from the bad guys (whose boss is incidentally called Mr Gates), they have kidnapped his father in order to continue the work on a device that prevents people in hypertime to get older at an accelerated rate. With Doppler's help, they enter the secret lab, wreak havoc, free Zak's father and get the bad guys arrested by the F.B.I. who was on its way anyway (the cavalry is always late…)

I watched the movie because it looked like SciFi from the description. And also because it was directed by Jonathan Frakes. But this movie is not something to be proud of, Number One (especially the part where a room full of nitrogen explodes because of a naked flame).

[ Posted on December 14th, 2007 at 23:38 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Topaz

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Hitchcock ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topaz_%28movie%29

Wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia:

When an high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer defects to the West with a story of an agreement between the Russians and Cubans and the existence of a “mole” within the French intelligence service, CIA agent Nordstrom enlists the aid of his friend and French agent André Devereaux, encouraging him to accompany his daughter Michèle on her honeymoon with journalist François Picard as a premise to get him to New York. André accepts, but his wife Nicole is worried for him.

After managing to get hold of some seriously damning papers from the visiting Cuban official Rico Parra, in New York to appear at the United Nations and staying in Harlem to show solidarity with “the masses”, sneakily of course, a concerned Devereaux jets off to Cuba and catches up with his mistress Juanita de Cordoba, who is now secretly involved with a local underground movement whilst also being involved in another way with Parra. Parra finds out and kills Juanita. Devereaux then is recalled to Paris, where he attempts to get to the bottom of this whole leak problem. Michèle wants to reconcile her parents.

Nicole cheats on André after his Cuban affair with the man who proves to be the leader of the spy ring, “Topaz”, Jacques Granville, their old friend from their days together in the French Resistance. François goes on to find out who “Topaz” is by interrogating NATO official Henri Jarré. A short time late Michèle finds the murdered Jarré and François is missing. A short time later François arrives at Michèle and her parents and shows her a drawing of Jarré. Nicole knows him and tells André, that Granville is the head of “Topaz”.

[ Posted on October 23rd, 2007 at 18:07 | no comment | ]

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

Yin shi nan nu (Mange Bois Homme Femme)

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.prathamam.org/index.php?rGAkn6RyrIlNXtDnJLUGFZYYQvH87XUWcKNY1Q8VstQWv0FVOpxvqSdiHtpfIuPx

© Prathamam.com

Un film d'Ang Lee (1994).

Chu est le meilleur cuisinier de Taipei, mais il souffre d'anosmie depuis longtemps, et c'est son collègue et ami Wen qui lui prête son nez. Chu a trois filles, une qui est prof de chimie, l'autre est cadre dans une compagnie aérienne et la troisième travaille dans un fast food. Les trois filles sont célibataires et vivent chez leur père, mais elles rencontrent toutes les trois un homme : pour la première, il s'agit d'un prof de sport, fraîchement arrivé au lycée où elle travaille, la deuxième (qui a un ex copain qu'elle revoit régulièrement), un collègue qui était auparavant en poste à Amsterdam, et la troisième récupère le copain de sa collègue qui n'avait pas l'air d'y tenir tant que ça. Quant au père, veuf depuis 16 ans, il tombe amoureux de la voisine, mère d'une petite fille à qui il prépare chaque jour un repas somptueux qu'elle emmène à l'école (la mère de la voisine avait bien essayé de lui mettre le grappin dessus, mais elle était vraiment trop insupportable).

[ Posted on October 13th, 2007 at 22:03 | no comment | ]

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Monty Python s The Meaning of Life

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Monty Python ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_The_Meaning_of_Life

Wikipedia.org

Too much to summarize. Check the Wikipedia article.

[ Posted on October 11th, 2007 at 18:32 | no comment | ]

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

Gedo Senki

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=109502.html

© Allocine.fr

« Les contes de Terremer » est un film de Goro Miyazaki, le fils de Hayao Miyazaki, d'après un roman d'Ursula K. Le Guin.

Sans raison apparente, le prince Arren tue le roi son père, s'empare de son épée et s'enfuit à travers le pays. Il rencontre en chemin un magicin, Épervier, qui l'accompagne jusqu'à une grande ville, qui est le royaume des traficants d'esclaves. Arren sauve la vie de Therru, une jeune fille traquée par les trafficants, mais il est lui-même pris un peu plus tard. Épervier le délivre et l'emène se cacher à la ferme de Tenar, une amie de longue date, chez qui habite (comme par hasard) Therru. Cette dernière a peur d'Arren, car elle voit le mal qui l'habite, mais ils finissent par devenir amis après que Therru aide Arren à prendre conscience qu'il a peur de la mort que cette peur est devenue partiellement indépendante du corps d'Arren. Quelques temps plus tard, les traficants d'esclaves arrivent chez Tenar, et prennent cette dernière en otage pour attirer Épervier chez Cob, un autre magicien, de qui il veut se venger. Cob est obsédé par la vie éternelle, et il est persuadé qu'Arren (qu'il a fait prisonnier et soumis à sa volonté) est la clé qui la lui donnera. Finalement, Therru part au chateau de Cob apporter son épée (magique) à Arren, et ensemble ils parviennent à défaire Cob. On apprend aussi que c'est Therru l'immortelle (et qu'elle est aussi un dragon, allez comprendre).

[ Posted on October 7th, 2007 at 23:05 | no comment | ]

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Rope

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Hitchcock ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film)

Wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia:

“Two brilliant aesthetes, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, plan the perfect murder inspired by lectures on the art of murder once made by their erstwhile housemaster, Rupert Cadell. They invite a former classmate, David Kentley, to their apartment for drinks, strangle him, and hide his body in a chest, thus, they believe, demonstrating their superiority. Straight afterwards they throw a party in their apartment. Among the guests are the victims father and aunt, his fiancee and her former boyfriend. Rupert Cadell also attends.

To impress Rupert and to gain his approval, Brandon subtly drops hints throughout the party about the murder of David, and begins a discussion on the art of murder. David, his connection to the guests and his curious absence forms much of the conversation during the evening.

In contrast to Brandon, Phillip gets more and more nervous throughout the party. Rupert quizzes him over Davids absence and some inconsistencies that have been raised: Phillip denied strangling a chicken at the Shaws farm when Rupert knows that he did. Phillip later complains to Brandon that he had a rotten evening (a reference to Ruperts probing, not Davids murder).

At the end of the party Rupert is handed another persons hat by mistake. In it he sees the initials D.K. (as in David Kentley) and becomes rather uneasy. Highly suspicious Rupert returns to the apartment after everyone has departed, claiming he has misplaced his cigarette case. When he arrives back in the apartment, he plants his cigarette case, finds it, but then stays to theorize about the murder of David, encouraged by Brandon who seems eager to have Rupert discover it. When Rupert lifts open the chest to reveal the body still tucked inside and realizes that his two former students have indeed murdered, he is horrified and ashamed of his own rhetoric that had led them to perform the morbid deed. He then takes Brandons gun and fires several shots into the night in order to attract police attention.”

[ Posted on September 22nd, 2007 at 22:06 | no comment | ]

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Harry Potter ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373889/

© Imdb.com

Harry is attacked near home by dementors. He protects himself by magic but he's then asked to defend himself in front of a court of wizards. The point is that the Minister of Magic refused to believe him when he claimed that Voldemort is back, and tries to silence him. He also meets the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation founded by Dumbledore to fight Voldemort over a decade ago, which all his adult friends are members of. Back at Hogwarts, Harry and his friends face their new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dolores Umbridge, a member of the minister who reforms the teaching in order to prevent the students to learn any useful fighting magic and become “Dumbledore's Army” that would, in the Minister's paranoia, take over the Ministry. Therefore, Harry, Ron and Hermione decide to create a secret association for teaching proper defensive magic to the students, without Umbridge knowing. Harry also has weird dreams, induced by Voldemort, where he see Ron's father being attacked inside the Ministry while patrolling by night. At Hogwarts, the situation has become worse than ever, with Umbridge getting appointed Inquisitor, and then Headmaster. When Harry sees his godfather being killed by Voldermort in the Ministry, he decides to go there, along with his best friends. Umbridge tries to stop them, but they manage to get rid of her and fly to London, to the Ministry. There they fight Deatheaters, who are trying to get their hands on a prophecy on ehalf of their master. Harry manages to listen to it before it gets destroyed. It was about him and Voldemort not being able to be alive both at the same time, one having to kill the other. During the fight, Sirius gets killed. Then VOldemort himself comes and attacks Harry, who is saved just in time by Dumbledore. The Minister arrives on the ground just before Voldemort escapes; he now has to acknowledge his return.

[ Posted on July 25th, 2007 at 17:31 | no comment | ]

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Solaris

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307479/

© Imdb.com

Chris Kelvin is a psychiatrist who has been sent to the Solaris space station, located near an mysterious space stellar object called Solaris in order to investigate strange phenomena. When he arrives, the station is empty except for the captain and an engineer, all other crewmembers are dead. He soon discovers that his dreams (about his dead wife) are becoming reality i.e., a creature looking exactly like his wife appears in his cabin overnight. She doesn't know where she is or why she is there, though, but she remembers her husbands memories. The other crewmembers have experienced the same thing. The captain wants to get rid of the creatures, but Kelvin refuses to loose his wife a second time. She tries to commit suicide because she understands she's not real, but she resurrects, as it seems that the creatures cannot die. The captain has however built a device that desintegrate the creatures. The “wife” wants to use it on herself, but Kelvin won't let her leave the cabin, and even stops sleeping in order to keep an eye on her. He however gets eventually sick and she takes advantage of it in order to take her own life for good with the help of the captain. Some time later, they discover that the space station is being attracted towards Solaris and that they must abandon ship. They then discover that the engineer is actually a clone that had killed his human counterpart some time ago. And Kelvin discovers just before take off that he himself is a clone (he probably died when he was sick and dreamt himself alive). He then decides to stay on the station. When it enters Solaris, his mind joins the one of his wife ad they can be together again.

It seems that the director of the movie tried to compete with 2001: A Space Odyssey to make the slowest movie with the smallest amount of action where it is the hardest to understand what happens.

[ Posted on July 1st, 2007 at 12:58 | no comment | ]

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

Around the World in 80 Days

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.impawards.com/2004/around_the_world_in_eighty_days.html

© IMPAwards.com

Lau Xing just stole from the Bank of England a jade Buddha recently stolen from his village in China. Trying to escape the police, he enters at the service of Phileas Fogg under the made-up name of Passepartout. Fogg is an inventor who is ridiculled by Lord Kelvin, the head of the Royal Academy of Science. He then makes a wager with Lord Kelvin where the stakes are Lord Kelvins position against Fogg's giving up tinkering and inventing. The wager is about going around the world in 80 days (the idea being discretely suggested by Passepartout, who needs to bring the buddha back to China). They soon leave for France, where they meet Monique La Roche, a painter who wants to travel across the world to get inspiration. They are also followed by chinese bandits who try to recover the Buddha (it had been stolen by their leader, who is an accomplice of Lord Kelvin, who wants to colonize a part of China). They are also followed by Inspector Fix, a corrupt policeman, paid by Lord Kelvin to stop them, under the pretense that Fogg is the thief. Because of the bandits, they missede the Orient Express, but manage to catch it later using a hot air balloon. In Turkey they are “invited” by a local prince who then wants to keep Monique as his seventh wife. They manage to escape and go to India (whre they fight some Chinese thugs and Fix), then to China where Passepartout returns the Buddha (and fights some thugs). Fogg discovers that he has been cheated by both his valet and Monique, and decides to go on alone. He arrives in San Francisco, but gets robbed of all his money and clothes. He ends up as a beggar, until Passepartout and Monique find hime again. Together, they cross the desert, meet the Wright brothers, then arrive in New York, where they fight the Chinese thugs and their leader again. They defeat them, but miss their boat to England, and hire a small boat to attempt to cross the ocean. Lacking coal, the boat must resort to using sails, but it won't be fast enough. Fogg then builts a flying machine, inspired by the plans the Wright brothers had shown him. They at last arrive in London, crashing their plane in front of the Royal Academy, but Kelvin attempts to prevent them to enter the hall before noon, which was the time and place where they were supposed to end their trip. They are saved by Queen Victoria, who reminds them that because of their traveling east, they actually are one day earlier than they thought. They finally enter the building and Fogg wins the wager and Kelvin's position as Ministry of Science.

[ Posted on June 9th, 2007 at 01:22 | no comment | ]

Les rivières pourpres II – Les anges de l'apocalypse

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=47703.html

© Allocine.fr

Le mur d'une cellule d'un monastère lorrain se met à saigner lorsqu'un novice y plante un crucifix. Un maçon y est retrouvé emmuré, mur qu'il avait aidé à réparer quelques semaines plus tôt. Le commissaire Niémans mène l'enquêtei aidé du capitaine Reda. Un peu plus tard, un homme ressemblant étrangement à Jesus est retrouvé blessé par balle par la police, et un prêtre à la force surhumaine tente de l'assassiner à l'hôpital où il a été conduit. Puis un douanier et deux joaillers sont assassinés, suivis par l'administrateur d'un supermarché et quatre pêcheurs sont retrouvés noyés. Ces personnes étaient au nombre de douze, portaient les mêmes noms et pratiquaient les mêmes professions que les douze apôtres, et étaient des disciples de Jésus. Ce dernier, dans son délire, parle de l'apocalypse et des septs sceaux qui sont brisés un à un. L'enquête de Niémans le mène à une section de la ligne Maginot, qui a été occupée par les allemands et modifiée par ces derniers pendant la guerre. Avec l'aide d'une spécialiste des religions, Niémans apprend que les mystérieux assassins sont à la recherche du livre écrit des mains de Dieu, qui pourra être lu par celui qui brisera le dernier sceau. Ce livre avait été un trésor du Vatican et volé par Lothaire II puis enfoui dans un tombeau secret. La clé du tombeau, le sceau de Lothaire II, est en possession du douzième « apôtre », un prêtre, qui l'a récemment volé. Niémans tente de récupérer le sceau, mais les prêtres le devancent. Le tombeau avait été découvert par un officier allemand, Heinrich von Garten, pendant la guerre, durant des travaux dans les galeries de la ligne Maginot. Il tente maintenant de prendre possession du livre afin de créer une nouvelle Europe, blanche et chrétienne, en passant par la ligne Maginot. L'entrée originale du tombeau se trouvant dans le monastère, Niémans et Reda y pénètrent et tentent d'arrêter von Garten. Le socle sur lequel repose le livre est piégé, les galeries se remplissent d'eau et seuls Niémans et Reda parviennent à s'échapper. Le livre est détruit par l'eau.

[ Posted on June 9th, 2007 at 00:41 | no comment | ]

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Octopussy

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/James Bond ]

http://dvdtoile.com/Film.php?id=808

© DVDToile.com

The MI6 has just obtained a fake Fabergé egg in East-Germany from the hands of a dying 009, and decide to investigate the murder. They discover that the real egg is going to be auctioned soon at Sotheby's, from an unknown origin. Bond goes to the auction and manages to replace the real egg with the copy and notice the buyer, Kamal Khan, who is usually a seller rather than a buyer. Bond follows him to his palace in India, where he meets him and lures him with the real egg, equiped with a transmitter. The egg gets stolen by Khan's girlfriend Magda and Bond is kidnapped and taken to Khan's palace where he remains a prisoner. Khan presents the egg to the mysterious Octopussy, who lives on an island populated only by women and who makes a living from smuggling jewels. Later, in Khan's palace, Bond manages to witness a dialog between Khan and rogue Red Army General Orlov, about making copies of a lot of Russian historical treasures and about an attack that will taking place in Karl-Marx-Stadt. Bond then escapes and pays a visit to Octopussy, where he discovers that she owns a circus that is currently in Karl-Marx-Stadt. Going there, he learns that the circus is going next to West-Germany on a U.S. military base, and that the jewels are hidden on the circus'train. The wagon hiding the jewels is however secretely switched with another one, identical the the first one, except that it holds an nuclear bomb instead of the jewels. Bond discovers that Orlov's plan is to detonate the bomb in the U.S. base, to make it look like an accident and discredit the U.S. presence on German territory. Once the americans would have left, Europe would be vulnerable enough to be invaded by the Soviet Union. Bond manages to disamorce the bomb and to follow Khan back to India where he is preparing to flight. With the help of Octopussy's troops (who have been betrayed by Khan) he attacks Khan's palace, chases him to his airplane, saves Octpussy who had been made prisoner during the attack and get rid of Kahn.

[ Posted on May 31st, 2007 at 00:18 | no comment | ]

Friday, May 18th, 2007

An Inconvenient Truth

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/

© Imdb.com

This documentary features Al Gore (the same ex-next president of the U.S.) lecturing about global warming, interspersed with pictures and clips from different locations and various topics. Gore basically tries to convice americans that global warming is actually hapenning despite the claims of the current government, and shows various scientific proofs (CO2 levels in the atmosphere in the past 650,000 years, temperature levels over the same period…). He also explains the consequences of global warming on the natural disasters such as hurricanes (getting more powerful when passing over warmer sea) and drought (caused by higher evaporation due to higher temperatures), on the desynchronisation of the birth of baby birds and of caterpilars, their usual food, as well as the influence of the melting of ice crusts in Groenland and Antarctica on sea currents (especially the Gulf Stream), which could disappear if the sea gets colder because of more intensive melting of the ice. He also accuses the big corporations to try to hide the scientific results proving the existence of global warming, the same way the tobacco industry tried in the past to deny and hide the existence of a link between smoking and lung cancer. Finally, he gives some hints to the audience about what to do in order to produce less CO2, showing that the technologies are available but the U.S. refuse to use them, putting the country behind most other countries in the world on that matter, including China.

The movie was interesting, well built and easy to understand. I wonder though if Gore has a political agenda, because he's so many times pointing fingers at the current administration and its supporters.

[ Posted on May 18th, 2007 at 16:00 | no comment | ]

Friday, May 4th, 2007

Hauru no ugokushiro (Le château ambulant – Howl's Moving Castle)

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149/

© Imdb.com

Sophie, une jeune femme, a été victime d'un sort jeté par la sorcière des terres perdues : elle est devenue vieille. Elle décide de quitter la ville et de partir à la recherche de la sorcière pour lui demander d'annuler le sort. Le chemin est ardu, et elle finit par trouver refuge dans le château ambulant de Howl, où elle fait connaisance de Calcifer, le démon de feu qui fait fonctionner le château et l'empêche de s'effondrer, et de Michael, l'apprenti de Howl, et de Howl lui-même, qui est sous l'emprise d'un terrible maléfice. Devant le désordre et la crasse du château, elle se proclame femme de ménage et entreprend de nettoyer le château. Au fil du temps qui passe, elle fait davantage connaisance avec les habitants du château. Un jour, la guerre éclate et le roi fait demander à Howl de se battre pour le royaume. Howl est un couard, et Sophie se propose de se faire passer pour sa mère et d'aller expliquer à la reine qu'il ne peut pas se battre parce qu'il a trop peur. Sur le chemin du palais royal, Sophie rencontre la sorcière des terres perdues et lui demande d'annuler le sort. La sorcière prétend ne plus se souvenir comment l'annuler. Tandis que Sophie explique son cas à la reine, la sorcière est victime d'un sort anti-magie protégeant le palais et perd toute sa magie ; elle devient vieille, montrant son age véritable, et passablement gaga. Sophie la prend en pitié et l'emmène habiter avec elle chez Howl. Howl est tombé amoureux de Sophie (il a d'ailleurs remarque que lorsqu'elle dort ou exprime ses sentiments, elle redevient temporairement jeune) et redécore le château par magie pour donner davantage de place à ses nouveaux habitants. Il se confie aussi à Sophie qui apprend qu'il a perdu son âme, volée par Calcifer, lorsqu'il était enfant, en échange d'une grande puissance magique. Lorsque la guerre se rapproche du château et menace de le détruire, Sophie évacue tout le monde, y compris Calcifer, ce qui provoque la destruction du château. La sorcière tente de s'emparer de l'âme de Howl en prenant Calcifer pour la garder pour elle, mais Sophie réussit à rendre son âme à Howl et à libérer Calcifer du contrat qui le liait au sorcier.

Je croyais que Chihiro était passablement délirant, mais ce film là est encore pire. Le seul vrai reproche que je lui ferai c'est le scénario trop touffu et le manque d'explications par endroit, qui fait nettement ressentir qu'il s'agit d'une adaptation d'une œuvre beaucoup plus complexe (un roman de Diana Wynne Jones). Le pire est probablement l'épouvantail qui, d'un baiser de Sophie, se transforme en Prince Charmant et annonce qu'il est justement le Prince du pays voisin et qu'il va rentrer chez lui pour arrêter la guerre. Ça tombe vraiment comme un cheveu sur la soupe.

[ Posted on May 4th, 2007 at 00:31 | 2 comments | ]

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275277/

© Imdb.com

A truck containing an unknown toxic explodes on the motorway, killing numerous people from an unknown disease. Faye, hunting another pery, manages to catch a glimpse from the driver of the truck, who then disapears mysteriously. Later, her and Spike learn that the driver is worth a huge bounty. Spike and Fay investigate separately. Spike discovers that the mysterious disease is actually caused by a bioweapon made of nanomachines hidden in lymphocyts. The bioweapon is secretely manufactured by a pharmaceutical lab which tries to hide the existence of the weapon and its vaccine. Meanwhile, Faye manages to find the lair of the mysterious truck driver, but she's made prisoner by him. Helped by Electra, a security agent from the pharmaceutical laboratory who has learned too much about it employer and has been disavowed. They are thrown in a cell, but manage to escape and take with them numerous doses of vaccine that they are going to spread over the city on Halloween night, which is the time and place chosen by the truck driver to contaminate all the inhabitants. His plan fails, and he is confronted by Spike. He then tells Spike that he was a soldier sent to Titan as a guinea pig to test the bioweapon. He was the only survivor, and he's very angry about the whole world. Spike defeats him, and everything ends well, more or less.

[ Posted on May 1st, 2007 at 11:25 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007

Leffakone is Complete!

Categories: [ TV/Leffakone ]

leffakone_timer_1 Thanks to Niko, my Leffakone project is finally complete. He built the timer I designed already two and a half years ago, that enables Leffakone to boot automatically when it is time to record a TV show.

The device is based on a Microchip 16F84A PIC and is connected to the Wake On LAN connector of the computer, as well as to the parallel port. The WOL connector provides +5V to the device even when the computer is powered down. The parallel port is used for sending the 24-bit timeout value to the timer, one bit at a time (one line is data, another line is a “data available” signal). The timer then ignores all input for three minutes, giving enough time to shutdown the computer (when the computer shuts down, some garbage is sent to the parallel port, which would be considered as input if it were not ignoring it). After that delay, it counts down to zero, and then sends a signal to the WOL connector that boots the computer. It's as simple as that.

leffakone_timer_2 The device has two LEDs, one indicating that power is on, and one status LED. The status LED is:

  • On when the device is in standby, waiting for input.
  • Off when the device has received partial input and waiting for more.
  • Blinking at 0.25 Hz when ignoring all inputs.
  • Blinking at 0.5 Hz when counting down.

When the timer is in the process of receiving input, and the procedure does not complete, the internal watchdog timer makes it reboot after about two seconds, putting the device back to standby mode.

The timer is supposed to accept timeout values in seconds, but the programming contraints in the device are such that the actual time unit is worth about 1.02 seconds.

[ Posted on March 20th, 2007 at 23:31 | no comment | ]

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Everything Has an End

Categories: [ TV ]

For years I've been especially following three TV series: Murder, She Wrote, MacGyver, and Lois & Clarke: The New Adventures of Superman. All three of them came to an end within a couple of weeks. The last episode of Murder, She Wrote aired on February 28th, the last Lois & Clarke on March 3rd and MacGyver March 17th. I feel empty, like I'd have lost several friends at once, especially since I had been watching Murder, She Wrote assiduously for over three years.

Thankfully, the wonderful world of television has brought relief to my pain through the remarkable concept of rerun: Jessica Fletcher still shows up regularly in my set from season eight, as do Lois, Clark and MacGyver, since the two shows are broadcast again from the start! This allows me incidentally to see the first six or seven episodes of Lois & Clarke which I missed last time, and to re-record the episodes of MacGyver which are incomplete in my collection.

[ Posted on March 18th, 2007 at 01:20 | no comment | ]

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

The World is not Enough

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/James Bond ]

http://eu.movieposter.com/poster/A70-8302/World_Is_Not_Enough.html

© MoviePoster.com

Bond recovered a large sum of money belonging to Sir Robert King, a personal friend of “M”. When getting close to his money at MI6 headquarters, King gets killed by an explosion; the bank notes have been covered with an explosive triggered by King's lapel pin, which had been replaced by a fake. While investigating about King, Bond notices that the money he retrieved is exactly the sum that had been paid as a ransom to free King's daughter Elektra some time ago. M had helped King to retrieve his daughter, but had refused to pay the ransom, rather using the daughter as a bait. The kidnapper was Renard the Anarchist, who took a bullet in the brain when MI6 was trying to kill him, after Elektra managed to escape. The bullet is moving towards the center of the brain, making him progressively loose his sense of touch and smell and insensitive to pain. M sends Bond to protect Elektra. He meets her at a pipeline construction site inherited from her father in Azerbaidjan but she refuses his help, not trusting MI6 anymore. Bond later saves her life from an attack; he also tears a piece of cloth bearing a russian marking from one attacker. He then meets Valentin Zukowski, an acquaintance of his in his casino in Baku. Zukowski recognizes the marking as that of an antiterrorist unit of the Russian ministry of energy. He tells Bond that Elektra's pipeline has several competitors who may be willing to get rid of her. Later, while snooping around Elektra Bond notices that her chief of security is somehow related to the former attackers. He follows him and takes his place at some meeting with who were waiting for him. They trust him and take him to a facility in Kazakhstan where nuclear weapon are being disabled and destroyed. He meets there Dr. Christmas Jones, the nuclear scientist in charge of the process and pretends to be a Russian scientist. Bond notices that Renard is also working at the facility and is trying to steal plutonium. Renard manages to escape with a nuclear head, blowing up everything, and Bond and Jones barely escape themselves. Bond then suspects that Eletktra and Renard are actually working together because of something they both said in different occasions, but Elektra convices him otherwise. Elektra then lures M to Baku and kidnapps her, while Bond is sent with Jones to investigate a possible terrorist attack in the pipeline. Instead of defusing the bomb (which appears not to be nuclear), he lets it explode in order to make Elektra believe that he is dead. They then go meet Zukowsky again on the Caspian Sea, because Bond made a connection between him and Elektra. Zukowsky admits providing her with material with the help of a nephew of his who is the captain of a russian submarine. He also tells Bond that they are currently in Istanbul, and takes them there. They then discover that Renard has taken over the submarine and plans to put the plutonium into its nuclear reactor in order to provoke a meltdown that would look as an accident. This would destroy all the pipeline of King's competitors. Bond and Jones get then caught by Renard because of Zukowsky's assistant being an accomplice of him. Jones is taken to the submarine while Bond is left with Elektra who tries to torture him, but he is saved by Zukowsky who died just after. Bond kills Elektra and manages to enter the submarine. There is then an big fight between Bond and Renard; Bond wins and saves the world.

[ Posted on March 15th, 2007 at 01:27 | no comment | ]

Friday, February 16th, 2007

The Bourne Identity

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/

© Imdb.com

A fishing boat saves a man from the sea. The man has two bullets in his back, a small device under his skin which shows a Swiss bank name and account number and no clue about who he is. After reaching the shore, the man spends the night in a public park where he's awoken in the middle of the night by two policemen. Without even thinking about it, he fights them barehanded and flees. The next morning, he goes to the bank in Zürich and finds in his safe a collection of passports, loads of money in various currencies and a gun. He learns that his name is (probably) Jason Bourne. He leaves the gun and goes to the US embassy, just in time to escape the Swiss police. There he is about the be arrested again but manages to escape, with the help of Marie, a girl who had trouble at the embassy. They go to Paris, where Bourne has an appartment. There, they get attacked by an unknown man crashing through the window, but the man dies before Bourne is able to interrogate him. Before the attack, Bourne manages to find a trace of his past: he has spent time in a hotel under another identity, and he is supposed to be dead. Marie manages to get a list of the phone numbers he called when he resided at the hotel, which gives him a clue about what he did in the past: getting interested in a boat owned by a former African dictator, buying diving equipments… During the night, the ex-dictator is assassinated, and Bourne understands that he had been sent by the CIA to kill him (because the man threatened to expose the CIA actions in Africa if they didn't help him to get back to power) but failed. Bourne and Marie then go the morgue to see the body, but it has been taken away already. They then flee together barely escaping the French police. Marie manages to reach a former boyfriend who lives in the countryside, where they find shelter for one night. The next morning, Bourne notices that someone is watching them and will probably try to kill them. He finds and neutralizes the killer, from whom he learns nothing except the name “Threadstone”. He sends Marie to hide with her friend, then uses the mobile phone of the killer, to contacts whoever had ordered him killed and gives him an appointment in Paris. Bourne doesn't show at the appointment, but uses the event to follow the man (his former boss) to a CIA hideout where he almost got killed again. He however learns that he has been specifically trained to be the perfect invisible killer (the Threadstone project), and his memory comes back to him: he was supposed to kill the ex-dictator and put the blame to one of the man's collaborators, but didn't complete his mission because children were present on the scene. Bourne's boss is then eliminated in a CIA attempt to conceal the failure of the Threadstone project. At the end, Bourne finds Marie again somewhere on the Mediterranean coast.

Loads of car chases, fight scenes, stereotypical camera movements, and a disappointing plot. But I really liked the Richard Chamberlain version TV movie when I was a kid.

[ Posted on February 16th, 2007 at 01:19 | no comment | ]