What's that about the eggs?
In an unintentional, but happy set of circumstances I ended up watching a couple of Natalie Portman (OMG SO HOTT!) movies over the past couple of days: Closer and V For Vendetta.
I thought both were excellent films, and that Ms Portman, often criticised for not being the most emotional actress around, was fantastic (an opinion no doubt helped by her aforementioned hottitude).
I have one question about each film however:
In V for Vendetta, what’s the point with the two guys cooking her the same egg breakfast? Is it to symbolise that she’s a prisoner in both of their houses? Or that both men, though different people, aim to do the same thing, albeit via different methodologies? Or were they in cahoots?
In Closer, (SPOILER ALERT), we learn at the end that her name is Jane Jones, the name she said was her real name to Clive Owen’s character in the strip club, though he wouldn’t believe her. So, what’s the point of that? Am I dense? Should I stop watching films completely?
Smallest possible expenditure of intelligence
Intellectual Bargain Shopping, by Jeffrey Veen
To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence. - Friedrich Nietzsche
Still, to this day, I am presented with the tired old argument that “users are stupid” - that the hubris of developers and designers somehow trumps investment in usable products. I love how this quote turns the tables. Users aren’t stupid, they’re efficient. They’re spending the least amount of effort (i.e. intelligence) as they possible can on each step of the goal they’re trying to achieve. If you make them spend more, they’ll go somewhere else - it’s like intellectual bargain shopping.
Borat!
Apple - Trailers - Borat - Trailer
In this hilariously offensive movie, Borat travels from his primitive home in Kazakhstan to the U.S. to make a documentary. On his cross-country road-trip, Borat meets real people in real situations.
Cinematic gold awaits us.
Handy RubyOnRails Tips
19 Rails Tricks Most Rails Coders Don’t Know
When looking at my own Rails code and that of the community as a whole, I often see places where certain Rails techniques could have been used, but weren’t. As much for my own memory as yours, I thought I’d list down some Rails tricks and tips that can make your application or code more efficient:
Finally!
Skype for Mac with video coming up - but don’t use the buggy version - Skype for Mac
Video support for Skype for Mac will be one of our major acts this year. You can tell that by just taking a look at our various blog posts and the comments here, especially in the Mac blog. Whatever we post, we have people asking “WHERE IS VIDEO FOR SKYPE FOR MAC? GIMME SKYPE FOR MAC WITH VIDEO.” It’s great to see this much interest and we’ll surely meet it by bringing you a fine video version with the superb quality you’ve grown to expect from Skype.