Strange, but true...

"Excellence in Education ad has 21 grammatical errors" (on Ananova).

The grammatical errors do not appear to have been introduced after submission of the ad (at least, nothing like that is implied by the article), leaving only one inescapable conclusion...

Among other quirky Ananova news, I was happy to see that Lithuania has apparently scrapped a ruling ordering women to undergo gynecological examinations to qualify for a driver's license. (Ye gods, what could those crafty Lithuanians have been thinking of?)

In other news: All received r/g traffic is done (but the day is far from over). I slept well last night (which is unusual, given I had a telecon scheduled for the morning), and the telecon itself turned out to be not so bad, though you'll allow me the observation that there is nothing in the world so simple - food, in this case - that a bilateral team of engineers can't complicate thoroughly beyond anyone's ken (including their own, from time to time). On a related note, I just received a call asking me to cover the ground systems telecon tomorrow here at the MCC. Whoo. Pee.

Cheers...

M

I just finished watching M, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. The film was one of the early talkies, released in 1931 in Germany, and it's considered one of the seminal films of all time.

The film is short on action and long on dialog. Lang uses "still-life" shots to convey messages, as when early in the film, the camera fixes on an empty lunch plate that belongs to a little girl who is abducted by Hans Beckert, played by Lorre.

NOTE: Spoilers follow.

Basically, the plot centers around how the Berlin underworld (very organized, with ne'er-do-wells arrayed in 'unions', where each member has an id number) mobilizes to catch an elusive serial child murderer. The mobilization comes as the result of both a 'natural' abhorrence of victimizing children in the manner, as well as a desire to have the cops tone down their relentless dragnet for the killer, which is interfering with business.

In one sequence Lang intersperses scenes from two meetings: one, of the police; the other, of criminal leaders. Each meeting is shown considering various ways to attack the problem.

The solutions proposed by "law enforcement" seem to come out of today's headlines: closer inspection of citizen ids and movements, a call for expanded powers to search premises, etc. When one participant suggests to the homicide inspector on the case that the public's help be enlisted, the inspector cynically answers that such help is rarely useful. When his response is questioned, another particpant comes to the inspector's defense.

Ultimately, the cops decide on using old-fashioned legwork, applied to a list of every former mental case who had been deemed sane and released into the world to live in the city.

The bad guys simply decide to enlist the beggar's "union" to keep watch on every square meter of the city, looking for men who befriend small children.

Ultimately, Beckert's habit of whistling some phrases from Peer Gynt tickles the memory of a blind beggar, who in turn sets a young man to trail the whistling Beckert, who has already begun to escort his next victim to a local candy store. Interestingly enough, the police have also found Beckert - or at least his lodgings - as he was apparently on the list of mental patients that the cops had collected in the aftermath of their meeting. Cigarette butts, some splintered wood, and shavings from a red pencil convince the cops that Beckert is their man.

Toward the end, after some adventures, the baddies get hold of Beckert before the latter can return to his room, where the cops are waiting. An abandoned brewery is the venue of a kangaroo court that is convened to "try" and execute the scummy Beckert. Beckert, in turn, pleads for his life, saying he couldn't help himself. His "lawyer" does a fairly good job of arguing the "it's-not-right-to-kill-a-sick-man" side, and things go back and forth for a while (including an emotional "can't-risk-having-him-escape-or-be-set-free" exchange). Eventually, the cops arrive in the nick of time and take custody of Beckert, and we hear no more of him.

I think the problem with many subsequent films that covered the same territory was the fact that they had to say more than was said in M, which was very spare, but very to-the-point. I'll leave the symbolism, etc. to the critics.

This film was definitely worth watching.

Cheers...

The bilingual typing blues...

Да, микрософтники все-таки хитрые ребята. Делали, делают, и наверника будут делать все возможное, чтобы уничтожить всех соперников (включая Linux). Тем не менее...

Составлять двуязычные документы - то есть, текст с кириллицей и с латинскими буквами - мне никак не удается в Linuxе. Либо не те буквы печатаются на экране, либо кириллица не узнается, например, Ramblerом. Читал все HOW-TO, но все советы кажутся бесполезными.

А в виндах, подходящие шрифты уже установлены при загрузке ОС. Осталось только установить раскладку клавиатуры и... поехал! Никаких проблем. Голову не надо ломать.

Но все-таки хотелось бы приобрести способность так же писать в Linuxе. Как-то... неприлично.

Cheers...

P.S. No spelling or grammar checking programs were harmed in the compilation of this post. Apologies in advance for errors. Corrections welcome. (5/15 update: 1 typo, 2 declension errors, 4 spelling errors, and 1 whopper (without fries) noted and corrected. 5/18 update: add 1 declension error.)

Hurrying up and waiting...

Given the opportunity in the future to upgrade a Linux system, I must make sure to start before 9:45 pm. There are still about 250 MB left in the process (of 1526 MB total, says the update screen).

* * *Tomorrow's telecon starts at 7:30 am and is scheduled for two hours. The agenda looks deceptively simple; it may go two hours, it may end after 20 minutes. The subject, "ground systems," doesn't ring any bells (as does, say, "acoustics," which causes chills to run up and down my spine... but not due to the subject matter :^). I got up at 5:30 am today for a 7 am telecon and made it with about 5 minutes to spare. Consequently, if I don't waste any time tomorrow morning, I ought to be able to get up at 6 am and make it to JSC by 7:30. (Just thinking - if you can call it that - on phosphor.)

* * *With any luck, I'll be able to get out a little early tomorrow, to go see Dr. Ngyuen and have him check my blood pressure.

* * *Drew faxed over some documents related to his enrollment with the Phoenix University Online. Something about having his employer (moi) reimburse him for his educational expenses. I don't really mind, if it gets him an education. I'll review them tomorrow morning.

* * *Client M left a strange message on my cell about... well, that's what the strangeness is about. I've sent an e-mail. Another client, T, called about a job, but I got back to them too late to snag it. I think I should give some serious thought to perhaps training Shannon or someone in a simple routine to check my voice mail on a regular basis.

* * *As I write this, there are a mere 25 MB left in the upgrade, but I'm not bucking for some kind of LJ masochism record.

* * *I'm outa here, until tomorrow.

Cheers...