Once in a while I need to write a couple of lines in Python. When that happens I histerically run around the web looking for some quick introduction or tutorial on the language. There are plenty of those, of course. But just to have something handy, I’ll put a link here to Dive Into Python. What is so different about this tutorial is that it is very practical. There are many examples of code and very little explanations and theoretical crap that everyone knows already or can guess from the code. Simply use table of contents and jump to the needed part, where example awaits for you. Great!
Month: October 2004
On signs
There is a long history of mismatches of signs and their descriptions. Today I came across yet another one – here. Supposedly it deals with emergency situations. The discriptions can be anything you want though. Check it out. Few minutes laugh guaranteed. Unless, of course, you are the one who designed these signs.
Picture of the day
Today I played a bit with candle light, on-camera flash, different shutter speeds and improvising with a handmade tripod which supports a camera and fits into a pocket (a couple of lens caps). The results are not that great, but I’ve learnt something today.
The album is here. There is one image only though and you have already seen that one.
On a another note, I’ve finally decided to push myself into desposing of working copies. Until now I have been saving every frame that came out of my camera. I realised many times that I don’t need to do that, but I am such a packing rat that I couldn’t through them all out. From now on, I will be backing up only the stuff that I put on the web. Period.
The Chronicles of Riddick
Finally, “The Chronicles of Riddick” ran through our cinemas and we got a chance to see it. Excellent movie that is. It has nothing to do with the first part (“Pitch Black“), except that few minor references were made to it, and, of course, that Vin Diesel was playing Riddick in both.
This time it was a wierd mixture of Star Wars with Lord of The Rings. Lots of knight-type armor and weapons mixed with cross-universe travelling and star fights. Excellent work on scenery and decorations there too.
A couple of things I wish they could have done different were camera work and lights. It seems that the budget was limited for the special effects, because every time there was a serious battle of fight camera started shaking and moving around while there was a lot of this annoying stroboscopic blinking light. It looked kind of great for the first 3 seconds, but the 20 minutes later my eyes were about to fall out. And I really wanted to see some more details of what is happening and how instead of these blurry moves around with pieces of everything flying around. That part sucked.
Still, the movie provided for some descent entertainment, withough a bunch of boring scenes (there were a couple, but they were kind of mandatory and short). I would add some more blood, but than it wouldn’t have passed the PG-13 rating that it was given. Overall, this film is a very good reason to visit a cinema. I’ll give it a solid 8 out of 10.
What a good citizen has to do to save water
I am a good citizen. I am proud of myself. And of Olga. She is a good citizen too. Here is the story.
Our neighboors are out of the country. Since they have a small garden next to their appartment, they’ve set the sprinklers and a timing machine so that their plants would survive. Well, yesterday something went wrong with their timers. Sprinklers startet distributing water around, but… never stopped. We worried a little bit but than let it go, thinking that it will either stop or someone else will switch it off.
Today, when we woke up it was still on. So, I went on the roof to check if I could find the tap to close. There were many, but none that would do the job. We decided than to go and comlain to the athorities. Building management was all out of the office apart from the secretary that didn’t understand a word we were saying… and obvioiusly didn’t want to neigher understand us or do anything about the problem. I than called to Limassol waterboard, who said that until it is either a national catastrophy or a broken pipe they have nothing to do with it.
I wanted to call the police, but decided to set it as a last measure. Meanwhile I went on someone else’s private property, investigated all the plants and the pipe system, found the tap and closed it. Tada – the world is saved now!
If I haven’t done anything, like I could, the water would be running for some time longer, killing the plants, increasing the bill for the neighboors, and decreasing Limassol’s water reserves. I could live with all of these, but I didn’t want to. The moral of the story is: care about others and the world will be a better place.
Now I am off to watch a movie about some people destroying other people’s planets. :)