Life of Andrew

Movie Review : The Avengers

Andrew — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:48:19 +0000

When I first heard about Marvel’s crazy idea for a multi-film franchise I thought it was one of the silliest ideas I had ever heard. But somehow, without really trying to, I have managed to see all of the prequel films that build up to this film’s main event, so I guess full credit (and box office returns) must go to the producers – the whole thing has been managed rather well.

For those keeping score at home, here is what I thought of the prequels:

Iron Man – excellent.
Iron Man 2 – disappointing.
The Incredible Hulk – not terrible but forgettable, I preferred the Ang Lee version.
Thor – extremely loud and silly, but watchable.
Captain America – even more silly, but took the premise and ran with it to entertaining ends.

Astonishingly, none of these films were aggressively stupid in the way that even the best superhero franchises tend to become after a while. So I had high hopes for The Avengers.

Hopes that turned out to be completely justified! The Avengers tells the story of all these guys finally meeting and eventually (spoiler alert) teaming up. As an adaption it is a great success, I am not sure the plot follows any particular existing story but it adheres much more strongly to conventional comic book structure than the typical film plot. All the explanation of who these characters are and where the came from has been neatly dealt with in previous films so The Avengers can get straight down to business.

The script is clever and Iron Man’s quips are as witty as ever. The story is simple, but appropriate for the material. Personally, I could have stood to see more Hulk (the new guy playing him nails it, but there isn’t enough time to flesh out the changes he is going through), and less Captain America however these are minor quibbles. Almost every detail is perfect.

Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing.

The Seven Realities of Social Networking

Andrew — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:36:17 +0000

Every few months the same complaints about social networking sites appear in the press. Lack of privacy and control over who sees what is a common point of point of editorial hand-wringing. While these concerns are valid, directing them at social networking sites is misplaced, and shows a lack of understanding of the relationship these sites have with the public.

This post is an attempt to state clearly the realities of the situation. I am using Facebook as an example, not because Facebook is particularly bad, it is merely the most popular. Google Plus, MySpace, and even services like LinkedIn all share the same properties.

Reality 1: You Do Not Have a Facebook Page

No really, you don’t.

Facebook has a page on you. You occasionally log on and add more information to Facebook’s page about you, but neither the page nor the data is yours. You gave the data to Facebook when you posted it.

This is not a necessarily a bad deal. In return for maintaining Facebook’s page about yourself, you get a platform to broadcast your doings and to see Facebook’s pages about your friends and family. I don’t know about you but I enjoy both these activities and participate willingly.

Reality 2: You Are Not a Customer of Facebook

No you aren’t.

Facebook’s customers are the advertisers that buy advertising on the site, and the marketers that pay to access to the fantastic demographic data we have all provided. They are paying Facebook for this service, you are not paying anyone for anything.

I know you enjoy using the site as it is, but don’t get upset when Facebook decides to improve things for itself or its customers. The customer is always right, and you are not a customer. You are the product. Facebook gets paid providing access to you.

Reality 3: Facebook Owes You Nothing

They certainly do not.

You may have been a loyal Facebook user, diligently posting photos of your cat and that batch of cupcakes you made last month, but that doesn’t mean anything to Facebook.

You have, in fact, cost Facebook money. Server farms don’t grow on trees.

Each time you view a page or update your status, Facebook wears the cost in electricity and CPU time. But don’t worry, Facebook is willing to bear the burden to provide a better product to its customers.

Reality 4: Your Privacy is Not Facebook’s Problem

If you have uploaded something to Facebook then it is public. That is the whole point of Facebook. Sure there are privacy settings, but they just mean that Facebook makes a small effort not to show things you have marked private to random people. Nothing stops other people from re-posting the photo of you at the Christmas party, or even just printing it out and sticking to your car. If you had wanted it to be private then you wouldn’t have put it on the Internet.

Likewise, if one of your friends tagged you in a photo that you don’t want to be associated with (a common source of privacy issues), that is not really Facebook’s problem either. You have a problem with your friend.

Reality 5: Nothing is Really Removed From Facebook

You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. Removing stuff from Facebook does not guarantee that it will not be accessible. Your data will still exists in uncounted backups, caches, redundant servers and log files. That is not even taking into account the memories of the hundreds of people who might have seen it before you “deleted” it.

If you didn’t want it seen, you shouldn’t have uploaded it.

Reality 6: Facebook Is Not Picky About Who It Deals With

Despite what I have written here, Facebook does at least pay lip service to the illusion of privacy but the same can not be said of the many developers that piggyback on its service to provide apps and games. When Facebook tells you that installing a particular App gives the developer access to your profile, they mean it. You have even less of a relationship with these developers than you do with Facebook. Your trust is a commodity to them, spend it wisely.

Reality 7: Facebook is Not (Especially) Evil

Facebook is just a simple company trying to make its way in the universe. By all means, use and enjoy Facebook without concern (perhaps even “like” this page). But Facebook is not your friend, and they have their own interests to look after. And besides, they take nothing that you don’t give them.

Your relationship with social networking sites will be better if you remember that.

The Scale of the Universe

Andrew — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:58:21 +0000

The Scale of the Universe 2

This is very cool – an interactive demonstration of the scale of the universe, from the smallest unit of quantum length to the total estimated size of the whole shebang.

I’ve just about got my head around how big the universe is, but at the other end I had no idea that the Planck Length was so small. Now my brain hurts.

No related posts.

Social Media Integration

Andrew — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:55:47 +0000

I have decided to try out social media integration on my blog for a while, because I am curious to see which posts people enjoy the most. My previous attempts failed, so now I am keeping it simple. From now on you will see both a Facebook “like” button and a Google+ “+1″ at the foot of each of my musings.

The Google button is a lot less intrusive than the Facebook solution, hitting +1 is just a small nod of approval. I think the only place it shows up is if you specifically look at your likes on Google+ itself and I am not even sure if other people get to see the things you have +1′d. The total number of +1s is all anyone sees.

Clicking the Facebook “like” button actually posts an item to your Facebook timeline. This is great for me, since your friends see that you like this link and may visit themselves, but you might not like your “friends” knowing what you like. It depends on how much you value your privacy.

Incidentally, unless I am your friend on Facebook I don’t get any special information about who clicked that button. On the G+ side, I don’t know if you +1′d me even if I am following you.

So if you like a post, click away. If you don’t like a post, leave a comment. If you don’t care, watch some cats playing on YouTube. Everybody wins.

John Banks Election Scandal

Andrew — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:00:35 +0000

John Banks was given a very important job when government was formed after the November election, a position named Minister with Special Responsibility for Keeping His Month Shut for the Next 36 Months and Not Embarrassing the Government.

Would all of you who picked 26 weeks in the nationwide pool please raise your hands to claim your prizes. Judges will be around shortly to check your tickets.

The fact the loveable scamp Kim Dotcom is involved is just icing on the cake. He should probably be lying low at the moment, preparing for his upcoming and no-doubt amusing trial, not poking his head into national affairs. But Dotcom doesn’t seem the type to fade into the background.

If your ticket reads 18 weeks since arrest before hitting the headlines again please raise your hands, etc, etc.

Now there is nothing wrong with donating money to a politician you support, but Donation lives just down the block from Bribery so the law is fairly strict about candidates revealing who gave them what to keep everyone honest. Money flows like water and a few buckets can do just as well as a single inconvenient barrel.

But anonymous donations are OK, right? You can’t influence someone if they don’t know if the money came from you. Perhaps in theory, but information flows even more quickly than water, particularly if you allegedly ring someone up to tell them.

I am genuinely not accusing Banks of accepting money in exchange for anything. He just appears to have fallen foul of the accounting rules meant to prevent that suspicion if the first place. If he did deliberately try to hide donations then losing his seat should be the least of his problems.

However, the law does not appear to be quite clear cut (well worth a read) and it will be interesting to see if Banks campaign has indeed acted illegally. And if the law was broken, what will be done about it. And if the law was not broken, should it be changed?

Those amongst us hoping the National Government will fall are dreaming, a (currently hypothetical) bi-election will not bring down the government even if Labor wins – which it won’t. On the other hand, even if Banks successful defends himself the government loses a trickle of credibility. And trickles soon add up.

Election Time

Hunua Falls

Andrew — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:14:28 +0000

For some reason I have always imagined Hunua as being a great distance from Auckland, so it was with some surprise that I glanced at a map last week and learned that it is just down the motorway. A voyage of discovery ensured.

The Hunua Falls themselves are very nice, and only 100m away from the car park, but the park itself is quite large and the tracks are well maintained.

We ended up doing a 3 hour loop (Massey/Cossey) that climbed up through native bush to one of the four reservoirs in the Hunua Ranges that supply most of Auckland’s water. The track itself is nothing too special, with only one or two good lookouts, but it is pleasant enough. Being a water supply dam, Cossey’s Reservoir is only viewable from a distance which is probably just as well. I don’t want to know what I am drinking.

Ambury Regional Park

Andrew — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:19:15 +0000

In my quest to reach new parts of Auckland, I traveled the short distance to the jewel in the glittering crown of Mangere Bridge – Ambury Regional Park.

Parts of this park are a farm which is not very interesting for adults, but there is an excellent foreshore walk that takes in some nice bird sanctuary areas with a lot of wading birds.

Being flat and next to mudflats, Ambury Park is not the most scenic of places (and part of the park consists of the old sewerage settling ponds, now covered in suspiciously lush grass) but it does make for a relaxing walk in the sun passed paddocks of sheep and through small stands of native bush. I am glad I went.
(click to enlarge)

Public Access 5 – Art at the Silo 6 Park

Andrew — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:55:55 +0000

The silos in the Wynyard Quarter have been an enigma to me ever since the park was opened to the public. They stand tall but inaccessible, guarding their secrets…

…until now, because some artists have used the space for a funky collaborative project – Public Access 5. Like all collaborative projects, much of it is rubbish but there are some great things to see. The best works involved video projectors wrapping the strange shapes of the silo internals with writhing images.

It is not a big exhibition so you can easily take it in on your lunch break. If nothing else it is a chance to finally see the interior of the mysterious silos. Now I just wish you could climb to the top.

Public Access 5 runs until Friday the 13th of April, 1012.

No related posts.

Film Review : Attack the Block

Andrew — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:19:23 +0000

Somewhere in South London, a gang of inner-city youph are out mugging passers-by when a meteor crashes into a nearby car. When they go to nick whatever is in the busted open vehicle they discover the meteor was inhabited by a strange dog-like creature. So they kill it.

Unfortunately for them, the creature had friends on the way…

Attack the Block is an entertaining take on the alien invasion genre, with the young protagonists fighting off large beasts with flick knives and baseball bats on a large council estate. Unlike most films, the gang is not glamorised and is shown to be pretty pathetic as they flee the creatures on BMXs and scooters, falling back on the few resources available to them. Each character is well rendered, and a lot of the humor comes from interplay between the cast in an impenetrable argot.

The creatures themselves are fantastically conceived – big and scary in a way that transcends the low budget. The way they slink through the smokey corridors (are the lights flickering? why yes they are) is fascinating and Attack the Block doesn’t make the mistake of letting the audience get a clear look.

Some of the best parts of the film are when the gang members’ tough-guy affectations slip and you see hints of their normal existence when they are not out on the streets. But Attack the Block never lapses into social commentary, keeping the focus on the matter at hand – avoiding the tougher gangs, the police, and aliens in more or less in that order.

Suspenseful, fast paced, and funny. Highly recommended.

Guava Jelly

Andrew — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:27:43 +0000

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. Lemons are out of season but my guava tree is laden with fruit and it is easier to pick it off the tree than to deal with the purple mess when the fruit drops to the ground. Hence, guava jelly:
Ingredients:
Guavas, lots in various stages of ripeness.
Sugar, more than you think. No, even more than that.
Pectin, don’t worry I won’t tell
A Lemon
You will also need a jelly bag or similar device.

Method
Wash the guavas and remove any stems and leaves. Put the fruit in a large pot with a little water, cover and boil gently until the fruit is all soft and split – about 20 minutes or so. Add more water if required. Make sure all the fruit has opened, you can help things along by mushing it gently with a potato masher, but don’t get too vigourous.

Let the mixture cool then pour it carefully into the jelly bag sitting in a large bowl. It is possible to use a pillow case, or even a folded tea towel for this if you don’t have a jelly bag – they do the same job. The guavas will turn anything they touch purple but the colour washes out. I wouldn’t use my best pillow cases though.

Tie up the jelly bag and hang it over the bowl in an out-of-the-way place for 12 hours. Gravity will force the juice out, leaving the pulp behind. You will feel a strong urge to squeeze the bag – resist temptation! If you force the pulp trough the bag the jelly will become gritty.

Transfer the juice to a pot and bring to the boil. Let the juice boil down a little depending on how strong you want the jelly to taste. Jellies need both sugar and pectin to set properly. Technically the fruit contains enough pectin to set the jelly if you add enough sugar but this has never worked for me. Using store bought pectin ensures a good result and allows you to use less sugar. Even with the extra pectin you still need a lot of sugar – about 3 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of juice should do the trick, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Pectin also needs an acid to work, so add the juice from the lemon.

Boil the mixture vigourously for a few minutes then boil gently to let the juice reduce for 20-30 minutes. After a while you should see the mixture start to congeal around the edges, this is a sign that the jelly is nearly ready. Use a spoon to skim off the worst of any froth that appears on top of the mixture. Let it boil some more, then pour into pre-heated jars. Hopefully the jelly will set in the follow hours. If not, boil it up some more.

Serve with dark meat or strong cheese.

Onion, Pear and Feta Pizza