Halffull.org

Hello everybody. I haven’t said anything for some time, but I plan on changing that. I have so much to be upset about - but that’s not all. I have decided to focus every other post on something positive. I am quite sure venom will pour from my fingertips fairly soon, but tonight, let’s think happy thoughts.

Not too many of you know me, so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jay. I am a college student finishing my degree in video production. Because of my interests in A) Intellectual Discussion and B) my passion for film as an art form, I will try to post regular film critiques and reviews. I expect and encourage all possible responses as long as they remain civil. I guess this will be my attempt to balance and offset the vile treachery that will clog up this website from yours truly sooner than later.

Now, on to my first agenda… I need your votes!

This past weekend myself and a handful of colleagues participated in Apple’s Insomnia Film Contest. For those not familiar with the contest, each team has 24 (and only 24) hours to shoot, edit, score, compress, and upload their 3 minute film to the Apple website before the deadline. In order to ensure the films are shot in one day, certain requirements need to be met in the film that are posted at the beginning of the contest.

Our film was completed with 2 hours to spare. It was an intense, grueling day, but was ultimately rewarding as we watched our final edit. Please take the time to create an Apple login account (if you don’t already have one) and vote for our film entitled “Selective Focus”. I know I would appreciate it immensely. Just go to the Apple Insomnia page and search for our film by title.

The video is on Youtube to help build hype, but it isn’t working as well as our street team!

So stay tuned for some illogical rants and discussions about film.

Thanks and take care.

WB

Over the years, a few pieces of software have really impressed me. They’re not just refined, they go a step beyond their competitors to produce a more elegant experience. Here is my short list.

Vim - if I were stuck on a desert island with only one program, it’d be Vim. At least I could write the rest of the applications I’d need in a good editor.

Zsh - Bash’s big brother. Better completion, more customizable, great builtins, just as fast.

Ruby - An elegant, expressive programming language, suitable for almost any purpose. They hype is justified. And please, look at it separately from Rails.

Linux kernel - If you ask me, this Unix clone has surpassed its master. A free, stable, modular kernel with a huge support base, what more could you ask for?

Gentoo Linux - A remarkable way to package an OS. Gentoo gives you the flexibility and power to turn the Linux kernel into a full, beautiful environment without the worries of many other distributions.

Amarok - I keep discovering more thoughtful features of this music player. It can move audio files to your collection with any naming format you choose. It has great dynamic playlisting, podcasting, and net radio support. I couldn’t begin to list everything, but it still doesn’t feel bloated.

Firefox - No other browser to this day has given developers such a good platform for improving the client-side web experience. Since the web might actually move us towards the “thin client” dreams of old, this is increasingly important. Specific addons I couldn’t live without - Adblock, Noscript, Firebug. And then there’s Greasemonkey, a platform on a platform for a platform. You could call it web³.

All free software.