XBMC

I had recently been contracted to modify the interface of an XBMC installation.  For those who do not know what XBMC is, it is the open source media center that is based on the original Xbox online management software.  The original application allowed online users of the Xbox 360 to access on-line content in a pay per view context.  A community of hobbyist coders have reversed engineered the application and made it open source so anyone can slap together a media PC of choice parts (depending on their budget), hook up their rig to their entertainment center, and watch anything from DVDs, to Bluerays, to on-line media streams, to selections from their library of internet downloaded movies on their large screen LCD/Plasma TV.  They even coded routines to interpret PC remote controllers requests and configured much of their interface to accommodate the tactile nature of a push button remote control.

On top of playing a variety of formats on a PC through its built in player XBMC can also run scripts written in PYTHON to access and filter out links to media on your favorite streaming site and present the site's inventory of media on a stylized menu.  More scripts can also be added to associate backdrops, cover images of music albums and DVDs, and IMDB info of your presented media.

XBMC can also be skinned to your liking and the software provides the user with a system of XML files that can easily be edited to sport the graphics and layout of your choosing.  The system claims to even allow users to add functionality to XBMC; however, the reality is the displays that the user can add are either additional dialogues or overlays which support the main pages of the application.  The ability to add standalone new pages are somewhat limited and in practice stand out as jury rigged pages.  The skinning library is limited to image displays, lists, windows, and buttons but each component has a large inventory of customizable properties.  The interactive components can also be scripted to trigger a robust selection of predefined functions to control or display relevant information and content as well as flag states or conditions during the run time of the application.

XBMC has a community of contributors scripting everything from skin packages, plugins and scripts that target popular media source sites, to 3rd party application launchers for those who want to integrate some gaming into their media center.  XBMC is open source - anyone can download an install package for free or download the sources for modification.  All information can be found on http://xbmc.org/ .

I'd rather be blogging...

I decided to finally look into developing iphone apps.  It was the reason why I bought my Mac Book.  It's been a week and I don't think I have been this frustrated with a learning curve.  I think what is getting to me are the droves of Mac fan boys who claim anybody and their mom can learn how to make phone apps.  If that were true then why is every second tutorial I find not compiling.  Even more frustrating are the constant go to one of the many interface steps and type this code directives that's horribly out of date.  I find many of the tutorials them selves do not explain the mind set of performing the said steps and give me the impression that half these fan boys turned coder merely copy patterns of whole applications and don't have a true understanding of what really is going on.

Just the other day I was on the train and an intern I had just met who was really into iphone app development tried to show me how easy it was to throw together an app.  In 10 minutes he had his iphone simulator pop up on his Mac and pop a view of a bunch of thrown together components which really did not do anything useful.  I turned the question around to him and asked him if he could make a simple form to change the screen display to which he sat and looked around for an example he could base the app on.

I had recently learned Adobe's Flex platform in a stretch of 2 months and after working a total 6 months on the platform I know I can throw together a simple online web app with forms and views and have it store information onto a database in under an hour.  Now that to me would classify as intuitive since other than a a pattern of code I use to code database pulls and the local repository of variables everything is pretty much from the top of my head.

Now maybe I'm getting a little ahead of my self.  Maybe I'm just not of Steve Job's mind set of what easy should be.  But I am pretty sure my mom will never program her own iphone app in my lifetime.

The almost real sonic screwdriver.

I was looking around this morning for an electronics project with a little bit of cool and a little bit of mischief.  My recently draining endeavor/project has left me at least industrious and creative and on top of learning how to program iphone apps I all of the sudden wanted to make a real sonic screw driver.  I had an idea to take a Doctor Who sonic screwdriver toy and outfit it with some additional circuitry that would be obviously suited to a sonic device.

I came across some circuits to jam cellphones and another to turn remote controlled television sets.  The circuits seem relatively easy to put together onto a small board that I could fit into the cramped spaces in my toy other than the fact that I would have to hand wind a couple of inductors (coils) and somehow have to fit a 9 volt DC source (battery) into it as well.

I have not really given up on the affair.  I probably need to dig deep on this project though I impulsively clicked on someone's 60lbs stash of electronics with out inquiring first about the $50 delivery bill.  Luckily, I just got out bid (yay Ebay).  I also came across this little gem this morning when looking into prop replicas:



Now that is a work of craftsmanship -  a fully metal exact scale working replica of the 10th Doctor's screwdriver.  I really need to make more machining friends.

Strictly Ballroom

An old friend of mine had got me to watch this film in the theaters back in the late 90's.  I had no idea who Baz Luhrman was and years later when his hit musical "Moulin Rouge" struck a chord with wannabe star crossed lovers everywhere the connection still did not hit me.  Strictly Ballroom, however, is part of a trilogy of films referred to as Luhrman's "Red Curtain" series which features lovers overcoming obstacles together infront of a backdrop of nostalgic 80's tunes, over the top stage acting, and, of course, a red curtain.  But despite the kitsch melodrama that a good part of the film is, the film is quite enjoyable with a good fairytale-like story of love, triumph, following your heart, and redemption.

Strictly Ballroom is set in New Zealand and focuses on the life of Scott Hastings, son of long time ballroom dancing champions Doug and Shirley Hastings.  Scott's mom runs a local ballroom dancing school with a family friend, Les.  His father has for unknown reasons resided to being the studio maintenance man though is seen throughout the film bumbling through some of his own moves on the floor when no one is around.  Scott himself has become also involved in the family legacy and has shown talent and made a name for himself in the ballroom dancing community.  Though original and determined to come up with his own steps Scott is look down upon by the Ballroom Dancing Federation President, Barry Fife, as an undisciplined upstart who has no place dancing his moves in this established community.

On the eve of what could be his debut year as a champion, his long time partner, Liz Holt, dumps him for a Federation favorite Ken Riley - a full time jacuzzi sales man and chronic drunk.  Their last performance together at a regular season competition had Scott break out of routine and pull her into an array of crowd pleasing moves that pleased everyone but the Federation judges.  Liz as most of Scott's family is tired of Scott's rebelliousness against the Federation and is doubtful that Scott despite his talent will ever be a champion.

At this point we are introduced to Fran.  She is a beginner ballroom dancer studying at her leisure at Shirley's studio.  She floors Scott with her proposal to dance with him learning his steps since it is unheard of in the dance community for a beginner to even suggest such a thing to a professional such as himself.  Scott is unconvinced at Fran's suggestions and just as he was about to dismiss the whole idea Fran blurts out in Spanish, "a life lived in fear is a life half lived" which somewhat grabs the attention of his fearless spirit and shakes him into reconsidering his situation.  Scott being with out partner decides that if he can't get a professional to dance his way then why not just dance with a beginner.  Scott has Fran work through the basics and works out his new routines with her as his family drag him through more disappointing try outs with professional dancers who are also looking for a partner.

In a month's worth of work Scott decides that Fran has to his surprise learned enough to carry out his new routine in competition.  He plans to reveal to his family his new partner at the night of the next regular season competition but before he can he and Fran are told that Scott has a chance to court another champion dancer, Tina Sparkle, whose current partner was announcing his retirement that night.  It was a plan concocted by Les and Barry Fife who both want to see Scott grounded with a proper partner dancing Federation approved steps.

So after the ensuing confusion Scott realizes that dancing with a champion is not what he wants and that he truly wants to dance his moves with a partner who believes in them as much as he does win or lose.  He also realizes that he has somewhat grown fond of Fran who has been slowly changing her physical appearance to reveal the true natural beauty she is.  Scott and Fran dance a tango offstage and realize to the horror of everyone that they are more than just dancing partners.  Fran gets chased off by Shirley who wants to push the thought of Scott dancing with the studio ugly duckling out of everyone's mind but Scott runs off to find Fran.

Fran runs back home where her family is in the middle of a fiesta and just as Scott reveals to her that he intends to dance with her at the championship competition he is abruptly introduced to her strict father.  Scott tries to explain they are dancing partners and nothing more but her father is reluctant to believe his boyish looks.  Scott then insists he is a professional dancer and tries to impress her father and family with his rendition of "Paso Double", traditional Spanish dance.  The crowd has a laugh at his and Fran's performance and angers Scott.  Fran's father then corrects him by performing the true "Paso Double" with the very intensity that Scott feels he needs in his dance.

Fran's grandmother steps in at the end of Fran's father's performance and decides that Scott has the heart but lacks the rhythm.  She attempts to teach him by telling him to listen to what his heart tells him with out fear and slowly Scott realizes what he needs to project the intensity he wants.  Scott and Fran's father finish the evening with their intense rendition of "Paso Double" and find respect for one another in the process.  Fran's father decides afterward to help Scott and Fran prepare for the championships.

The night before the championships Barry Fife surprises Scott at the studio and finally explains to him why everyone has been so hard on his rebelliousness.  Apparently Scott is exactly like his father Doug who had been once the favorite in the dancing community.  But because of his blind ambition to dance his moves over the Federation approved ones he had been side tracked and disgraced.  Everyone fears that if Scott fails just like his father had done so before that the loss would not only be Scott's but his poor father's as well.  Scott in disbelieve runs to his father's locker in the basement and finds memorabilia confirming Barry's story.  Torn at such a revelation he quickly decides to partner with his old partner, Liz (who had also been recently dumped by Ken for the available Tina Sparkle), and dance the competition as a Federation champion contender for his father's sake.

The movie whirls into the next day at the competition with Scott and Liz in their opening waltz.  During the break Scott sees the dejected Fran and tries to explain to her why he had decided so hastily to dance with Liz.  She is off course angry and upset and runs off with Scott in pursuit.  Scott bumps into his father Doug who stops him from catching up with Fran and insists he listens to what he says.  It appears Barry had somewhat lied to him and the only reason why he never became a champion was because Barry had convinced Shirley to leave Doug's hopeless crusade to dance his own moves and to partner with Les.  At this point Scott is about to enter the competition itself with Shirley and Liz struggling to put him onto the floor and Doug holding onto him to listen to his every word at which Doug blurts out "we lived our lives in fear".

Scott runs out to continue his pursuit of Fran.  Meanwhile Les figures out what Barry had intended to do all this time - shame Scott as he had shamed his father out of dancing so the Federation approved moves that he had dedicated his whole life to would never be challenged.  Just as Barry confirms his somewhat evil plan to Les, Scott and Fran finally make their grand entrance onto the floor.  They perform a "Paso Double" inspired dance with an intensity and precision that can not be looked over.  Barry eventually cuts the music before they can complete their performance and calls Scott and Fran to leave the floor.  But just Scott and Fran take their last bow Doug starts to clap out a rhythm and gets the crowd to follow suit.  Scott and Fran complete their performance to the rhythm of the crowd.  Their inspiring performance pull the audience onto the dance floor as we get a glimpse of Scott and Fran kissing.

Like I said really kitsch but enjoyable and you might even find yourself dancing in your living room during the finale.

Millennium

I never liked horror growing up.  I either found myself fueling my fear of the darkness or just found the film itself an insult to my intelligence as story attempts to basically serve me the equivalent of inhuman children stomping on ants for 2 hours.  Luckily as I got into my young adulthood the genre of psychological thrillers had started to take its place as modern horror.  Yes, granted, there are some totally still bent on having sexed up, beautiful teenagers hunted down by senseless masked maniacs, and they are still not fun to me.  But then there were series like Millennium which pit our hero against pure intellectual evil.  I am a true believer in the fine line between genius and insanity and am glad, though at times pop-occult, the series tries to make every villain formidably intelligent to the protagonist, Frank Black (Lance Henriksen).

Millennium was the other series that Chris Carter was running in parallel to his more famous series, the X-Files.  At the time, even though the X-Files can be quite shocking and creepy, Millennium was marketed as a horror equivalent to the X-Files.  The show was about a man named, Frank Black.  He was an ex-FBI investigator who had become quite successful at profiling and tracking the worst serial killers.  At the beginning of the series he becomes burnt out and ultimately frightened into continuing his line of work when a serial killer starts targeting his wife and child.  Frank moves back to his childhood home on the west coast in Seattle where he decides to join a group of consultants who monitor occult events and use their knowledge base to avert the signs of the impending millennial apocalypse.  Frank had been approached by the group not only because of his successful career but also his unique mystical gift to see things from the perspective of a psychotic killer from observing the scene of a crime or a victim's body.  These "psychotic" episodes are presented in the show as quick flashes of surreal footage but is quite effective at explaining what Frank Black's visions are like.

The show portrays Frank as a regular average older man who because of his late in life marriage to his wife, Katherine, feels he is blessed with his 5 year old daughter, Jordan, who he values above everything else in his life.  His wife Katherine, though not fully understanding of his work and his gifts tries to let Frank continue his work as a profiler though as the series progresses she is eventually forced to decide between protecting Jordan and herself from the darkness Frank draws to himself or standing by the man she loves.  Frank is often accompanied on his investigations by several characters who are either members of his local police precinct (where he work previously before working for the FBI) or are members of the mysterious Millennium Group itself.  His contact to the group throughout the series is Peter Watts who is well played by Terry O'Quinn (later to be famed by his riveting portrayal of John Locke on Lost).

The show spanned 3 seasons leading up to Y2K itself but sadly had to be properly ended in an X-Files episode.  As I was brushing up on Millennium facts, however, I fell upon an article that said somehting about a possible Millennium movie to be done with out Chris Carter at the helm.  Interested and hoping it will not be as fail as the latest X-Files flick I will have to settle till then on the complete 3 season series I have on DVD.

Doctor Who Season 5 (Season 31) ends with a "Bang".

I just watched the last Doctor Who episode of Season 5 (31 for those who know of the previous reincarnations of the Doctor before 2004) and was relieved that it was not totally screwed up even after the whole universe of Doctor Who had collapsed and never existed.  Despite how entertaining I found the last 2 episodes to be with relatively good performances from the season 5 cast I felt there were more questions left unanswered which hopefully will not turn into plot holes for the on coming seasons.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Season 5 had started with the fiery introduction of the 11th Doctor whose regeneration from David Tennant's 10th Doctor sends the Tardis spinning out of control and crashing into the life of his newest companion, 7-years-old Amelia Pond.  But before they head off together for a new season of adventures, the Doctor is forced to take the Tardis on a short trip to avert an impending explosion of his crippled time capsule.  The Doctor returns to Amelia 12 years later (in true Timelord fashion) where Amelia has grown into Amy Pond -  a young fiery spirited woman disturbed by her previously brief encounter with the Doctor in her childhood.  Up to this point not only has she been living with a vague, unconfirmed memory of the Doctor, but she has been inadvertently harboring a multidimensional shaped shifting escape convict from an alien world, labeled by its captors as "Prisoner 0".  Amy despite her confusion and disbelief, helps the Doctor avert another earthbound apocalypse perpetrated by the alien convicts warden's efforts to flush out their elusive quarry.  With the alien prisoner returned to its captors the Doctor leaves Amy once again for another short trip in his newly regenerated Tardis and returns to her on the eve of her wedding day 2 years later to whisk her away on the promise of more outlandish adventures.

The first episode sets the underlying story that is the core of season 5's finale.  "Prisoner 0" had escaped its prison through a crack in time and space that had opened into Amy's childhood bedroom.  Similar cracks are seen though out the season often appearing near the Tardis's landing sites.  In episode 9 the Doctor reaches into one of the cracks and pulls out a shattered piece of the Tardis's door indicating an impending future of the Tardis's destruction.  We also hear of an artifact known as the Pandoric first of which is mentioned by "Prisoner 0" in its haunting prophecy: "The Pandoric will open - silence will fall."

Episode 12, The Pandoric Opens, explains what leads to the Tardis's explosion in a whirlwind of events throughout time which brings the Doctor, Amy, and River Song to Roman occupied Britain.  Here an elaborate trap set by every race the Doctor has crossed puts the Doctor out of reach to prevent the Tardis from its destruction with River trapped inside.  Amy is killed (temporarily) by an Auton (a plastic android) retaining her dead boyfriend's (Rory's) memories (killed 2 episodes previously).

In Episode 13, The Big Bang, we see that the universe is not gone yet but is still in the process of fading out and with Earth as the epicenter of the Tardis's explosion (I guess the Tardis is big enough to blow the whole of reality with it) the earth moves on to young Amelia's time (about 2000 years later) as the last instance of reality and Amelia has grown up so far in a world with no stars (since the rest of time and space never existed).  Young Amelia is lead through a bunch of bizarre notes to a museum display of the Pandoric which had been dug up with odd statues of alien beings.  Upon touching the Pandoric itself the ancient box opens to reveal Amy revived from her supposed death in episode 12.

Confused yet?  In any case, I guess with the Timelords really destroyed in season 4.5 by the Doctor himself who's to argue with him about playing with the existence of time and space.  And so after the opening credits scene which I thought was the only tacky "improvement" brought by the new production staff of Doctor Who (Steve Moffat, if you are reading this, please bring back the Season 1-4 Time Vortex), we go back 2000 years before.  Rory (Amy's now Auton boyfriend) is lamenting her death at his plastic hands.  The Doctor appears to him from the relative future (donning a ridiculous fez) giving him instructions to point the sonic screw driver (which he hands to him) at the Pandoric to release his current self.  The Doctor somehow has taken possession of a Vortex Manipulator that River Song used to track the Doctor down in Ancient Britain (I still can't figure out when she let go of it in the fist place in episode 12).  The future Doctor pops back into the relative future leaving Rory to rescue him from the Pandoric.

Rory opens the Pandoric to find the Doctor unaware of the events that lead Rory to release him and figures that it was just part of the brilliant plan he will come up with later to save the universe.  He finds the Vortex Manipulator on the floor near the Pandoric (once again no idea how it gets there but I vaguely remember him maybe pulling it off River in episode 12 for no apparent reason) and figures the only way to save Amy is to put her in the Pandoric and bring her dead self to meet her self in the future so that the Pandoric might heal her fatal wounds from the living genetic imprint of herself 2000 years from now.  The Doctor and Rory place her inside to meet her 2000 years later via the Vortex Manipulator but Rory decides that it's unsafe for Amy to be left alone for 2000 years.  Now that he is himself in a plastic body he remains with the Pandoric as Amy's guardian for 2000 years.

The Doctor jets to the future via the Vortex Manipulator to meet with Amy as Amelia who had just touched the Pandoric sets into motion the revival sequence to save Amy.  And just when you think things are bordering on ridiculous we get a bizarre plot device explanation of what the Pandoric is.  It turns out that it is the ultimate vault with technology powerful enough to keep someone (or something) in stasis till the end of time.  It apparently as well can preserve the memory of a universe in a state of collapse from being erased from existence.  So after the Doctor reunites with a revived Amy, Amelia, Rory (who managed to survive 2000 years) and River (who had been trapped in a time loop as a last ditch effort of the Tardis to save River until the Doctor could retrieve her via Vortex Manipulator) and a Dalek (who manages to use the light of the Pandoric to restore itself from being erased from history) the Doctor figures the only way to fix things would be to send the Pandoric into the sun which so happens to be in this alternate reality the slowly exploding Tardis.  But of course to do so with out some risk would just be too easy for a Doctor Who episode.  Since he would be the one piloting the Pandoric (strapped to the Vortex Manipulator)  he would risk being erased from time itself so that time and space would get a "reboot" of its older self (and hopefully revert back).

The Doctor takes the heroic leap and finds himself afterwards rewinding back on his time line unseen almost by everyone but Amy.  The Doctor tries to get Amy to remember him as a last ditch effort to save him from being erased several times and finally manages to relay the 7 year old Amelia Pond the story of how he had started his life's journey by stealing the Tardis.  But because Amelia is heavily asleep the Doctor realizes this is all he can do before walking from existence.

Fast forward to Amy's wedding to Rory.  And, of course, since the cracks through time never happened Amy's missing parents (she had been mysteriously orphaned and living with her aunt in episode 1) were back in her life.  Rory was also saved from being shot by a lizard person and suck out of existence by time/space crack so he was as well reverted from being made into plastic android.  All is well except for the fact that the Doctor had been erased from time itself.  Then miraculously River Song appears (uh with out Vortex Manipulator?) and gives Amy the empty journal which would have been filled with the adventures she would have with the Doctor had he existed (how is this all possible?).  The journal triggers her memory of the Doctor which was strong enough to bring him and the Tardis back into existence.

So all is well again but of course (to keep you ready for the next season) there are way more questions unanswered as the whole of what seems to be a successful season gets tossed into a overly priced DVD collection that I will regrettably have to own in the next few weeks.  First of all the one big question which the Doctor has unanswered himself what or who had this all happened in the first place.  Something had purposely blew the Tardis up for a reason and the Doctor intends to find out who.  The whole question of who River Song is is still unanswered (even to the Doctor) but she hints that will be regrettably answered soon in his own personal timeline.  Then there's the other loose ends like the "new" series of Daleks he had inadvertently revived in episode 3 and made a brief show in the finale where apparently River Song had mercilessly dispatched the last of them.  If the cracks in time never happened and everything has apparently re-winded to the beginning of the season then hypothetically the events leading to their revival never happened?

On a side note I do like that we get another season with the same cast.  The 13 episodes just seem to be too short for any real character development with season 1 (27) with Christopher Eccelston being almost an exception.  I like Matt Smith and Karen Gillian.  But I really like Arthur Darvill (Rory) and am glad they took a different route on his character development in comparison to the other "sort of" boyfriend in the Doctor Who universe, Mickey Smith.  I really like that Rory is a stand-up guy and is somewhat successful at the end of this series at not only getting the girl but earning the respect of the Doctor and hopefully becoming part of the next season's Tardis crew.  In the Doctor's words on Rory, "The Boy who waited 2000 years - good on you."

You can catch the whole Doctor Who Season 5 on the Sci-Fi Network (or its local equivalent), on BBC-1, and sadly for the rest of us on most popular TV show torrent repositories.

Half-Life 2

So after a lot of egging on from a gaming friend and after watching all 28 episodes of Freeman's Mind and after Steam released the title on the Mac platform I finally got around to playing Half-Life 2.  Half-Life (the original) was as well downloaded but I'm still on the extended introductory tram ride through the Mesa Research Facility.

In any case Half-Life 2 is a standalone first person shooter which in my books (and a whole lot of hardcore gamers) is a definite "must have" in the repertoire.  The game is still a technological advancement in the gaming experience offering a smooth 3D rendered experience in various indoor and outdoor environments, a great alien infestation/survival story, and a realistically rendered cast of "intelligent" computer controlled characters.

The game play can be set to a low difficulty which means the enemy characters are not impossibly hard to kill but you still have to deal with the puzzle like challenges presented through out the progress of the game.  Even more so, it's not a time dependent game leaving you to explore the beautiful environments the game has to offer and at times (almost surprisingly) rewarding your exploring nature with secret caches of am-munitions and health reviving items.  Certain levels of the game have you commandeer vehicles which thankfully is not too difficult but I find detracts from exploring every corner of the large outdoor environments of the game.

As for the story, the game is a mash of typical alien infestation movies and big brother like scenarios; though nothing original it is still well thought out and at times pokes fun at the genres.  I do not understand, however, why everyone thinks Gordon Freeman (the playable character) is such a god send when all he has done (with reference to the first game) is literally climb out of a hole and live to tell about it.  It is still quite amusing to be heralded by the non-playable characters and have the array of weapons at hand to show for it (where does Gordon keep all those guns on him?).

Half-Life 2 is fun.  I like that the game play and progress is not dependent on trigger skills and armchair reflexes.  The game is (to me) more focused on being an interactive fiction that you can pick up every now and then and blow away some aliens.  The game as well is highly re-playable and I often find myself re-playing a scenario in game when I figure a way to get through a situation with less liberal use of my ammo.  You can get Half-Life 2 on Steam for about 10$ USD.