I’ve just finished Californication and I loved it. The show is great. The characters are well done and, while Hanks an asshole, you still root for him. This one is highly recommended.

I’m looking forward to season 2 (thankfully it’s coming back, this summer apparently).

For those of my reading public with short attention spans, the following involves a 12km walk, beer, perusing books, buying books followed by 2-3 more kms of walking through another University referred too as UW. This was then capped off with some TV on DVD, some more drinking, some glass smashing and some more drinking. You may now feel free to skip to the comments section.

The rest of you, here we go.

Given the good weather, and Stacy constantly expounding on the coolness, I went for a wander to the University district. The wander itself was fun, a little tiring, but fun. I started out at the hotel, the W downtown, and stopped off at a hat store on Union. I acquired myself a jaunty chapeau. I’ve been looking for a hat for a while and I think I finally found something I like.

After that, I set off. Walking, walking and a little more walking proceeded. I got some good photos, of which I’ll be posting a selection to Flickr at some point. After about three hours I made it to Big Time Brewery in the University district. A tasty sandwich, four or five glasses of water and a pint that didn’t really do it for me later, I set off again.

This time the destination was the University bookstore. How can I resist a place referenced as having a fantastic Sci-Fi section? Words to turn a mans crank.

While I didn’t get any Sci-Fi books I did get a few others. One is for Stacy which I won’t mention until presented. The bookstore had a collection of Edward Tufte books. I picked up a copy of The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within and The Visual Data of Quantitative Information. I got through the first at dinner but, we’ll get to that. I’ve heard that Tufte has some fantastic books on data visualization and am hoping to learn something about presenting information.

After the bookstore I wandered into the University of Washington. I’ve got to say, the University of Washington has a really nice campus. Lots of cool buildings, lots of large trees, lots of goodness all around.

Have I mentioned just how sunny it was during this whole process? Well, consider it mentioned.

So, after the tour through the University my feet were in the process of holding a referendum to cede from the union so I caught a taxi back to the hotel. In the taxi I realized just how far I’d wandered from downtown. When you can crush the head of the buildings in the distance you’ve walked too far.

After Skyping Stacy I watched a couple more episodes of Californication before wandered out to the Rock Bottom Brewery for some dinner. I read through The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within over dinner. While I’m going to hold off giving any conclusions until I can read the ending with less beer in me, the overall idea, and analysis, of just how fucked PowerPoint presentations can be was fascinating. After dinner I got the beer sampler. In typical style after drinking, I piled the glasses together. This proceeded to the pile toppling and one of the glasses shattering. I managed to make my escape before anyone noticed the three whole glasses, one pile of glass shards and two whole glasses in a line on the table.

All in all a good day. I’ve spent the last few hours turning brighter shades of red but it’s a good burn.

Emeralds are pretty jewels. The emerald city isn’t so different.

I’m glad I did.

This is the first novel by one of Stacy’s fellow Clarion West 2007 class mates. Stacy had picked it up when it was first published and mentioned I’d probably like it.

If you’re looking for a good sci-fi book, lots of action, interesting plot lines and can get over the short sentences, I’d say give it a whirl.

Clarion was a great experience for her last year (at least it seems that way to me) and I’m glad she’s helping out this year. Along with pushing her own writing along in the process.

So, go speed-writer go. I’m looking forward to reading the short stories at the end of the six weeks.

Well, I finally convinced her to pick it up again, and post the results on her blog. The first one is available now.

I really liked this story. And no, Basil, I’m not just saying that ‘cuz we’re married. There were certain turns of phrase and plot twists that I thought really worked.

I’m hoping she’ll put a few more of these up as the weeks go by.

Anyway, while her opinion will differ, and I think it’s biased by her views going in, this movie was really well done. The animation is fantastic and it didn’t feel over the top. The hulk has visible and understandable facial emotions which I thought was pretty cool.

I’d recommend this to anyone that wants to see a good action flick.

The one thing I wasn’t able to sort out, does this movie ignore the first one or continue on? Stacy thinks it’s a continuation, I think it’s a ignore the first and start again.

Either way, this movie felt like the hulk.

There are a lot of changes in this edition. We’ll have to give a play to determine which are good and which are bad. Some will be missed out of nostalgia I think. I liked rolling my hit points even though I rolled a lot of 1s. It made the leveling that much more unique.

But then, some of the changes make sense. In fact, I specifically said fuck, that just makes sense at least once. Which greatly confused Stacy to which I had to explain that 3.x D&D has the knowledges as specific skills where D&D 4 bundles the knowledge with the other skills.

I’ve also got a copy of Keep on the Shadowfell which I’ve been reading through and am hoping to run once I can gather a few of our group together.

It’s also surprising as it’s really fucking good. I picked it on a lark but I was really, really impressed with this movie. Its got a good combination of buddy buddy film, comedy and seriousness to make it work.

I’d recommend this movie and you wouldn’t even have to be on a plane to watch it.

All in all, if you’re suck on a plane for a few hours and have seen the other movies you might watch this one. Or take a nap. Really, it’s a toss up.

If you’ve been hesitant to see a new movie in a while due to general suck-age I’d recommend this one. Especially if you like Jack Black.

Sca-doosh.

I’m talking to you, go.

Fine, you don’t want to pay for it, go read it for free (legally even). Just go read it.

This was one of those books that at 1am I’d say, fuck, just one more chapter. At 2am I’d crawl into bed as my eyes were drooping too much. This is by far one of the best books I’ve read so far this year (and one that stepped up my sleep deprivation a notch).

On recommendation, from the excellent bibliography in the back of the book, I’m thinking of heading down to the used book store to try to pick up a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

So, in conclusion, kudos Cory. Another excellent creation.

Didn’t I just tell you to go read it? Go, damn it.

Let me know what you think.

If you’re curious about this XSS and Sql Injection stuff take a look at the OWASP Top Ten they’re both in there.

For your reading pleasure.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Destruction of our Rights

It’s troubling to be presented with news of secret agreements which are designed to destroy the rights of Canadians in favour of corporations. Reading about the ACTA agreement and the governments stance behind it is frightening. (Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers)

I thought this was a free country. I thought this was a country that would defend its citizens. I thought we were innocent until proven guilty?

Has the Canadian government learned nothing from the debacle that is the DCMA in the United States? The destruction of private rights by corporations is shocking. The ability to wield the DCMA to stifle security research and hamper consumers from using their legally purchased products has happened time and again.

Is the assumption now that all music on my laptop or iPod is stolen? Do I have to submit to searches of my home to ‘prove’ I own the music I am listening too? Are we now going to re-appropriate our over-worked law enforcement offices from catching real criminals to looking through the contents of everyones iPods?

The amount of mis-use to stifle innovation and harass honest citizens is astounding. The invasion into my privacy is shocking.

The idea that the government is backing these types of legislations is a clear indication of the failure of the government to honestly care about it’s citizens.

Through the cost efficient access to the Internet that has been afforded by broadband in the last few years the large media companies are affraid for their bottom lines. There are a few artists who understand and embrace the new media. Look to the Radiohead In Rainbows release or the recent Nine Inch Nails Ghosts and The Slip releases. There are ways for media companies to work in concert with the Internet to grow their business. Instituting a police state on consumers is not the answer.

Please reconsider the governments stance on the ACTA. Please move the discussions and developments of these agreements which have a wide reaching impact on all Canadians into the open. Cloak and Dagger agreements hurt the consumer in the end.

To that end, I picked up a copy of The Algorithm Design Manual which I’d heard a few people mention as being a good book. I have to say, I agree with them.

This book works really well. The first half is a discussion of different types of algorithms and contains war stories which discuss actual instances where the author needed to call upon the previous topics. The last half the book is a reference manual of algorithms. These can come in quite handy when you’re looking for information on a specific topic.

I found it quite easy to sit down and read through the first half the book. Although, I admit, dynamic programming and backtracking still trips me up. The author has a writting style that works. As a bonus the book comes with a CD containing the information in the book. Much easier to search and carry around with you. A great addition by whoever thought it up.

All in all, if you do programming work this is a good book to read.

Well, wrong is where I went.

I had a lot of trouble getting into this one. I only really finished it because I had a flight to Seattle and back that needed filling (along with some time flying to Pasadena). I struggled through but even at the end I just thought, that’s the end? I didn’t get engaged with any of the characters and felt no desire to stay up until 2am at any point to read just one more chapter.

So, now the problem I’m trying to solve is, do I go back and re-read Neuromancer? Is it going to get crushed under the weight of how I remember it? I think it was grade 9 English (or was it 10?) that I first read Neuromancer. That’s a long time ago now.

So, instead I’m moving on to Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I’ve read a bunch of Doctorow books lately and have loved them all so I’m looking forward to this one.