Soukie's Place
keeping track of random thoughtsArchive for 2008
Lust for Life
This article is not concerned with the movie about Vincent van Gogh nor with Iggy Pop’s album/song. Only indirectly; rather, it is about the importance of discovering and pursuing a meaning in life: about “the will to meaning” as it was called by the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl. People who have this kind of “lust for life” stay focused and happy regardless of the circumstances. Continues »
Silver Screen Fascination with Robots
Some of the famous robots (spanning just over 100 years)
I used to think there was some kind of evolution in sci-fi movies. For example, that robots started with awkward boxes and blobs as seen in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) or Forbidden Planet. One only needs to see Fritz Lang‘s silent-era Metropolis (1927) to learn there is nothing new under the sun not only in terms of robots but of the overall structure and themes of sci-fi films. Continues »
Czech Heroes (Considered) Fictional
Josef Švejk, Jan Welzl, Jára Cimrman. These are three distinct heroes of the Czech past. Two of them are fictional, one has often been incorrectly regarded as such, and one of them was prominent in the poll for the greatest Czech person ever.
Not that Czechs would have a shortage of “regular” national heroes—there are Charles IV, Hus, Comenius, Dvořák, Kafka, Wichterle, Forman or Jágr (not to mention Pilsner Urquell, because beer almost does qualify here)—but the Czech mentality often prefers heroes of a not-so-international stardom and more-of-an-average abilities with non-standard achievements (a “Joe the hero” who is best in something I don’t care about). And if on top of that the hero manages to be fictional or to become famous against his will, he’s on the fast track to the hall of fame. Continues »
Putin-Kasparov:
A Ruthless Game
Considered the strongest chess playerGarry Kasparov dominated the chess scene for 21 years. He holds many tournament records and he is widely known for losing a rematch against Deep Blue in 1997, which is populary misrepresented as the computer surpassing humans in chess. of all times, Garry Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005—after having achieved everything a chess player could—to concentrate on Russian politics. His possibly toughest match yet. Continues »
President Behind the Scenes
Havel’s humanist values defined the social transformation of the post-communist Eastern block
A documentary spanning 15 years, 45 hours of film and 25 hours of video tapes offers an intimate look at the presidency of Václav Havel. It is unparalleled that a head of state would allow to be captured to this extent behind the scenes arriving at key political decisions with his staff. Continues »
Modern Text Adventures:
The Rise of the Community
Commercial interactive fiction practically disappeared by 1989 with the demise of Infocom. In retrospect, it was probably good for the new medium. Let’s see why.
See also the first part describing the beginnings and the commercial era.
Amateur programmers were trying their hands at producing text adventures of their own already during the commercial era. Writing a game from scratch in a general-purpose programming language is a daunting task though, with most of the effort spent on the ‘backbones.’ Soon, specialized authoring systems started to appear, and the online services (and later Internet) allowed enthusiasts to connect with each other. Continues »
Modern Text Adventures:
Beginnings and Commercial Era
Imagine a moment from your favorite adventure movie or drama. Imagine you are the hero. And imagine what happens next is up to you. “Text adventures” (or interactive fiction) are a modern text-based medium that opens up worlds of possibilities not limited by cgi effects or a single story-line but only by your imagination. Let me briefly touch on its fascinating history that includes cave explorations, early virtual computers and the rise of graphic adventures, to finally emerge in its state-of-the-art with the spread of the Internet.
The story starts with Will Crowther, one of the three software developers of arpanet (the forerunner of Internet), who managed to overshadow this achievement by writing Colossal Cave Adventure game (or simply Adventure). Continues »
10/28:
Not Just Czechoslovakia
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the official proclamation of Czechoslovakia (October 28, 1918). This day has been celebrated in various guises: First as the establishing of the independent, democratic republic and its first president, Tomas G. Masaryk. After WWII and the communist takeover, the emphasis was shifted to liberation after 300 years of Habsburg monarchy, and then to the Nationalization DecreesThe decrees were signed on October 24, 1945 and nationalized mines, banks and some industrial enterprises effective on October 27.. Continues »
Recount
I did not follow the events of the 2000 presidential election in Florida the way I have the 2008 race, so I was happy that I could catch up on the subject while on the plane to Seattle with the movie Recount. Three weeks later, I watched it again.
The movie, written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, documents the legal struggle of Al Gore’s team, including the hand recounting of the ballots, all the way to the official result: George W. Bush winning the state by 527 votes, thus securing his first term. Continues »
13:0
You can tell something is wrong if you see a result like this not on the sports page of the newspaper but headlining the front pages as the results of the Czech regional electionsCzech Republic held elections in its 13 regions in October (except Prague which will hold elections in 2010). All regions were won decisively by one party..
So what is the anomaly behind this? Although I have stopped following the politics in my country, I was curious enough to do some reading that showed that apart from the expected factors favoring Social Democrats (who happen to be the winners) such as rising costs and an aggressive campaign to support worries about the economy, there was a lot of non-standard activities on both sides of the political spectrum that one would stereotypically associate with Italy (or, more recently, Russia). Continues »
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