Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

A few days ago I went to see “Frost / Nixon“.   A movie with the one of the USA presidents in the title?  Just a few days since the whole world has watched the most hyped up inauguration of the USA president in history?  And just a few days since I’ve watched another political movie about yet another predisent of the USA - “W.“?  Yes, of course.  Plus there was a surprisingly high rating over at IMDB.

And it happens to be a really good movie.  I’m a total loser when it comes to history, so I can’t really say how accurate the film is, but from the movies point of view it was excellent.  I really liked the simplicity of the overall setup - it felt like everything happened in the single room, even though it is not true.  It also felt like there were only two people in the film, even though that wasn’t true either.  It felt like there was nothing else, even though that again wasn’t true.  It’s just that type of a movie which has a lot of tiny details which are unnoticable on their own, but which build up the film to be what it is.

Another thing which I thought was done really well, was the drama.  A big man with the weight of his mistakes and, seemingly, the whole country pointing fingers at him - yet resistent to accept his guilt, finding ways to see everything from other perspective, however feeling the burden deep inside.  And then another man, much smaller one, but with his head high due to all the publicity and success around him.  And like they say in the film, there is this moment in the ring where a challenger receives the first punch from the title holder and suddenly, in split second, understands the seriousness of the situation.  This was built up and shown very well.

As noted above - tonnes of work went into making of this film and the result is great.  Because of all the acting, camera work, light, make-up, sound work, etc, etc, etc this film is one of those fresh breezes even though it has an “oldish” touch to it.

9 out of 10.  Recommended, even if you are not into politics.

The software is checked very carefully in a bottom-up fashion. First, each new line of code is checked, then sections of code or modules with special functions are verified. The scope is increased step by step until the new changes are incorporated into a complete system and checked. This complete output is considered the final product, newly released. But completely independently there is an independent verification group, that takes an adversary attitude to the software development group, and tests and verifies the software as if it were a customer of the delivered product. There is additional verification in using the new programs in simulators, etc. A discovery of an error during verification testing is considered very serious, and its origin studied very carefully to avoid such mistakes in the future. Such unexpected errors have been found only about six times in all the programming and program changing (for new or altered payloads) that has been done. The principle that is followed is that all the verification is not an aspect of program safety, it is merely a test of that safety, in a non-catastrophic verification. Flight safety is to be judged solely on how well the programs do in the verification tests. A failure here generates considerable concern.

The above was written by R. P. Feynman, in Feynman’s Appendix to the Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, 1986. More than 20 years ago. Much recommended reading.

Found via Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering.

Some weeks ago, as part of their 10th anniversary celebration, Google presented Google Circa 2001 (yes, I know, I am doing very old news right now - Slashdot, CyberNet News).  Google Circa 2001 is basically the way Google was in 2001, including the web index of those times.  What’s the big deal?  Well, for those of us who were on the web from back then, it provides for a way to see how things were different.

For example, back in 2001 I was better known as “Leonid Mamtchenkov“, not “Leonid Mamchenkov”.  That was due to another spelling in my Russian passport.  Also, my web site looked pretty different from what it is now.  But it was already a blog, even if in the simplest form.  Surprisingly even, I found a few posts that were not migrated to the current archives, or got lost somehow after a few CMS and back-end script changes.  I’ll restore them for historical purposes later on.

Oh, sweet memories …

How well are you familiar with YouTube celebrities - Numa Numa, the Star Wars kid, leave Britney alone, Coke and Mentos, etc?  If you missed any, of if you want to refresh your memory, here are they all on one page.  The first clip is a music video “Pork and Beans” by Weezer band.  After that, each and every one of them in a separate, original video.  Loads of fun!

I am not a big fan of Tom Cruise.  In fact, I passively try to avoid his movies. He is not a very good actor and there is something negative about the guy.  When I saw the trailer for the “The Last Samurai” in the movies back a few years ago, I didn’t like it, and missed the movie on purpose.  I though it would be some historical non-sense about an American getting into Japan, learning centuries of samurai traditions and skills in a couple of month and then showing them how real people fight.  Or something along those lines.

Today I rented the film because I was really bored, because there weren’t much else to rent, and because I thought the time has come to finally watch it.  Once again it seems I missed watching a really good movie on a big screen.  Boomer!

There are quite a few things that would have made the experience so much better for if I went to see it in the cinema.  First of all, the battle scenes and all the small fights.  Secondly, some really amazing scenery and photography.  The film was shot mostly in New Zealand, which has been proven many times to be one of the most beautiful countries.  At least, on the big screen.  Thirdly, this film has an excellent soundtrack and it would have been a bigger pleasure listening to it in something other than a pair of cheap headphones.

I also really liked the story in the film.  Not that it shows something that I haven’t seen or heard of before, but it rather reminds of quite a few subjects which are very good to be reminded of.  The film has its way around such topics as honor, discipline, loyalty and friendship.  These should be talked about more often in the movies for the sake of making the world a better place. (Yes, the whole world, including yours truly.)

Being a complete moron in history, cultures, and traditions, I can’t judge the historical truth of the film.  However, Wikipedia, as usual, has an excellent article which describes how the story is relevant to the things that took place in real life.

Overall: 9 out of 10.