Kit·Blog Notes

Angelina Jolie, that is — a cute kinder in 1995 flick Hackers. Do not rush to see it unless you’re a fan of 1983 War Games and early hacker genre.

Icograda’s week’s Feature tackles “the issues of pitching for business and what is appropriate compensation for work presented.” The question was: What should you be paid for a pitch?
And the answers — Fair market value for the work produced to present: 60%; A percentage of the value of the contract: 17%; An honorarium based on the time involved: 26%.

It seems that nobody answered “nothing, it’s on the house”, just like in real life.

Andrei Michael Herasimchuk’s silence was unveiled (almost one month ago, actually, but I wasn’t paying attention): Spivot. “What is Spivot? Simply put, its an RSS reader at its core. But don’t let that part fool you. It’s also much more. [It works in a way that] can provide some Digg like approach to browsing media content.”

Message from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre today (it’s true):

Earthquake on 04/04/2007 at 11:00 (UTC)
Loyalty Islands
Magnitude: mb 6.2

Loyalty Islands were mildly shaken this morning, the report reads. I wonder if the seismic waves and the tsunami devastated the Friendship archipelagos and reached the Love peninsula already. On the Casual Sex continent the seism was too weak to be felt.

Khoi Vinh posts on Subtraction about Wii’s gap between its form factor and its perception as “something that begs to be taken along when you’re heading over to your friends’ place to waste a weekend afternoon.” Interesting point. Read The Wii as Salesman.

Dame Judi Dench vicious and strong; Cate Blanchett intoxicatingly beautiful; Bill Nighy’s anger painful to watch: Notes on a Scandal [site, IMDB file, trailer] lives through unforgettably perfect acting. Don’t miss it.

Marie and Bruce [IMDB file] could have been venomous and ambivalent just like real life, but no. It’s surreal, too. If you are into indy cinema, theatre and mad about Julianne Moore, see it.

DreamHost hosted sites (including mine) experienced numerous outages these days thanks to a mighty DoS attack against D.H. DNS servers brought by the Easter bunny. The site may also be extremely slow at times, especially when posting comments — my apologies.

«We, the undersigned, request that Adobe revises their pricing for Europe and apply fair pricing for European countries. If this is not possible, we request a valid explanation of why Adobe sells their products 190% of the US price to its European customers.» Sign the petition.

Ikea a couple of weeks ago, now Starbucks opened in Bucharest the first outlet. Knowing we’re on the right track feels reassuringly good.

Not even 24 hours passed since my previous, optimistic post and the Parliament just voted in favor of elected President’s impeachment. Meetings showing support for President Basescu — and against the Parliament — will possibly follow and violent scenarios are not totally far-fetched. Romanian political class proves once again decisively moronic. I feel miserably ashamed.

Wired: «With the 30th anniversary of Star Wars fast approaching (May 25), it’s time to begin celebrating the galaxy far, far away all over again.» Have a look at The Making of Star Wars photo gallery.

The scandal regarding Adobe CS3 Euro rip-off is climbing. Read The Register’s coverage here, as well as the pricing analysis and Adobe’s insolent answers here. Also please sign the petition “Fair pricing for European Software” if you haven’t signed it yet (unless, of course, you enjoy being ripped off).

Lifeless and self-centered, Hamletmachine playing at Odeon deserves its name but not a public — this screech should be performed behind closed doors, for the gratification of its director and actors solely. Godawful. Avoid.

After one hour and a half of relentless Hollywood action and suspense, 88 Minutes leaves you urging for a good movie instead — but hey, it respects its promise as a thriller. With 6.2 on IMDB it’s not exactly to be avoided, especially for Al Pacino many die-hard fans.

Heart-wrenching beautiful but also unexpectedly cruel in a way, Venus (7.2 on IMDB) may be regarded either as a gem or as a dark comedy for the reasonably young and the healthy. O’Toole is brilliant, and Redgrave is… better see it for yourself. Once more, the American movie poster cannot deal with European one’s nudity.

Shot on hand-held lo-rez digital video, Ellie Parker (5.4 on IMDB, trailer) is as indy as a college student’s project. Some manage to see this as very amusing, but I guess they’re Hollywood industry insiders. Avoid unless you’re an indy digerati or Naomi Watt’s fan.