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Another Perfect Catastrophe
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Los Angeles Area VFX Studios

November 12, 2009 Filed in: Older Content By: PJ

In case you haven’t heard me yapping about my online visual effects tracking and collaboration software, VFX Nexus, well, here I am to do it again.

I’m offering to come meet any studio that wants to take a look at VFX Nexus for use in their collaboration and shot tracking. I’ll also do the initial configuration customized for your studio. Keep in mind it also works great for you independent producer types. More info here.

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Adventures in DRM

November 10, 2009 Filed in: Older Content By: PJ

This post is part praise, part cautionary tale. In short, I was able to get a reasonable response from Apple’s iTunes customer support when some of my iTunes Plus upgrades failed to download properly. However, there is some content that looks like it will not be upgraded–ever?

iTunes, at the beginning, had a controversial form of Digital Rights Management, called FairPlay.  Personally, I thought it was one of the least restrictive and better working forms of DRM, but it wasn’t without its problems, and causes people to this day to remain weary of the iTunes store, despite the fact that they have gone DRM free for their music files. This change happened over a year ago, with the wide adoption of their iTunes Plus format–a format I am very happy with. Great quality music files, no DRM tangling up my enjoyment.

I recently combed through my rather extensive music collection, and I kept running into titles that still had DRM on them (AAC Protected, they are called). I emailed a list of most of these, cross-referenced with the order numbers from iTunes. Having to search and match order numbers to tracks is a mind-numbingly painful experience. Especially when the iTunes store tends to have an occasional fit where it bounces you offline, causing you to have to log in again.

The response was mostly helpful in tone: go do all the things the online documentation already told you to do. Otherwise, our servers report that all downloads happened successfully (They didn’t. I know what I’m doing… and why some tracks within an order downloaded and others didn’t is a bit of a mystery.).  I replied that I tried all these things, and tacked on a few more orders I was able to look up in the meantime.  They reauthorized me for download on most of these tracks.  It took a while, but it was worth the hassle.

Now, the tracks that are still not iTunes Plus-ified… what of them? It looks like it’s not happening. From the email (emphasis mine):

I understand you were unable to find the missing upgrades using the directions I provided. I can certainly appreciate your concern and I am delighted to assist you with this today.

I have posted the missing orders to your account. Due to the length of time since these items were ordered, it was necessary to post the full orders back. The reason the items you listed that were not upgraded was because the versions you purchased are no longer available in the store.

Oh… but they are.

Case in point, Tom Waits, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. Won’t be upgraded. Not sure the exact reason, but I think it’s because it was renamed to the simper (cleaner?) tile, “Orphans.” merely because an album name changed, or perhaps the record label changed hands, or any number of things that are out of my control, but should constitute the ability to download an upgrade to iTunes Plus files. I wanted to play the game, but for now I am stuck with substandard, protected files on a rather extensive investment in music.

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V: WTF IS THE RUSH?

November 4, 2009 Filed in: TV Show Review By: Jeremy

Just watched the first episode of the new V and am pretty disappointed.

In the course of ~42 minutes of TV:

The V arrive.  There’s maybe 3 minutes of wonder.  They fail miserably at addressing the implications for religion (though they make a half-assed try).  (Also, a guy in a wheelchair starts *halfway* up some stairs then manages to get up down and back up…)

They show that there is a resistance.  A surprisingly ineffective and poorly connected one considering how much they know.

The resistance is already somewhat established because the Vs have been here for a while already (the only new aspect I noticed in the setup).

The Vs are indoctrinating people (not as heavy-handed with the Nazi overtones this time).

They do the lizard face-rip reveal (and Alan Tudyk gets impaled in the chest!).

They reveal that there are Vs who are resisting.

What is the point of fast-forwarding through all that great stuff?  To get to where?

I don’t really need to see another season of Cylon-occupied New Caprica…  Especially when I haven’t the slightest reason to give two shits about the characters in it.  They spent as much time on ‘why is the glass shaking?, what’s happening?’ (is it a T-Rex?) as they did developing any single character.

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Twitter Time

October 30, 2009 Filed in: Communication By: PJ

I’m inviting the contributors to Another Perfect Catastrophe to post their twitter link for those interested to follow. I can’t promise that what I tweet will make any sort of coherent sense, but it does get updated more frequently. I do post things of interest from time to time, but it’s up to you to decide which posts those are!

Follow! http://twitter.com/pjfoley

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Day After Disaster.

October 5, 2009 Filed in: TV Show Review By: Jeremy

History Channel had a special on last night (I’m sure it will repeat occasionally) called Day After Disaster.  It detailed what is known of disaster preparations for the explosion of a nuclear device in a major city, with a 10 kiloton device in Washington D.C. as the example.  Sensationalist video excerpt link.

In part it was something of propaganda piece, made with the apparent cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security to show they are a different department since the Katrina days.  It mentioned (but glossed over) how very little is being done at our ports and borders to prevent this eventuality from occurring.

Yet it had some really interesting points:

  • A Russian nuclear worker was caught with about a pound and a half of highly enriched uranium he’d smuggled out of work, his apparent goal was to sell it for enough money to be able to buy some new appliances for his family.
  • The worry doesn’t seem to be a completed bomb out of a Soviet (or even Pakistani) arsenal, but rather that terrorists get enough fissile material to make a bomb using basic physics knowledge.
  • It is likely that if terrorists manage to acquire enough material to make an effective device it may be from several sources–making forensically tracing it difficult. Our response is likely to be not only disproportionate, but inaccurate.
  • Under Reagan (and then Sec Def Dick Cheney) Continuity of Government plans were altered/created to entirely bypass the constitution and put power in the hands of the senior available bureaucrat.  I wonder if this planning is why Haig thought he was in charge, instead of the Constitutional order of Succession which is designed to keep power in elected hands (or at the least in people publicly vetted by the Senate).  Yet another reason Cheney should by tried for treason.

All in all Day after Disaster is a worthwhile show, though the VFX get tiresome after the 8th repeat or so (and the cut in video-distortion effect is horribly overused).  I’m not sure if the show served to make smart people think or to make stupid people scared… I’d guess both.  But I did come away from it immensely relieved that competent people were once again nominally in charge of our government.

The show was based on a document called DHS-National Planning Scenarios.  I found a copy online, it’s entirely worth perusal (in the correct sense of that word).  Maybe even more-so than the nuking of DC, scenario 3 is about pandemic flu and scenario 9 is for a major Earthquake.  I highly recommend downloading it (right-click link and save-as).

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You Know, Maybe I Do Want to be an “American Idiot.”

September 21, 2009 Filed in: Music Review By: Brent

Earlier this year, the Berkeley Repertory Theater announced the production of a Green Day musical – a take on their magnum opus “American Idiot”, and the collective world shrugged. When the band themselves confirmed participation, brows raised a little, and when it turned out that the director and producer of Broadway’s 2007 Best Musical “Spring Awakening” were at the helm, interest was officially lodged.

A week ago we took the plunge on a fantastic Berkeley weekend that could hardly be ruined by a low-Rent bit of musical theater, and what do you know… it was a solid experience. We planned to hit the Thai Buddhist Temple, a wonderful place to enjoy mango sticky rice and yellow curry on a Sunday morning (our advice, arrive before 10am and find parking – it’s residential, after all), and looked forward to the excellent Cheese Board Collective for vegetarian pizza and corn cherry scones (nothing to say but yum). To ruin the weekend, Green Day would have to sorely disappoint.

Thankfully, Billie Joe fans, they did not. The Berkeley Rep is a nice venue, and they featured some Green Day-themed adult beverages (Cara preferred the “Jesus of Suburbia”, a mixed drink that features Midori). Unlike many off-Broadway locations, the Rep allows beverages in the theater, so expect a decent concessions bill. Fans of the band will be frustrated by the lack of theme merchandise (the only Green Day items for sale were their studio CDs), but a giant board for Green Day fans to sign before or after the show (but not during, there is no intermission) provides a few moments of shared intimacy.

Having seen Spring Awakening twice (once on Broadway, with Glee’s Lea Michele in the female lead), and enjoyed Green Day’s tour in Las Vegas, my expectations for American Idiot were very high. Granted, I couldn’t honestly be called a Green Day “fan” – I owned a few of their CDs a decade or so ago, and while I love the theatrical Jesus of Suburbia, I considered “21 Guns” one of the sins committed in the  debacled “Transformers 2″. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say “American Idiot” is far more “Rent” than “Spring Awakening”, and it contains far less emotion than either of those award-winning shows. The drama is moderate at best, there are literally no real tear-jerker moments, and the characters are nearly all slacker bums who frankly aren’t particularly interesting. Do you want to watch a production about a couple losers who opt for drinking and drugs while trying to get their band off the ground,  looking for and losing love in the process? Unless you’re a Green Day fanatic, the answer is probably no.

So what does Green Day’s musical have to offer? Some inspired dance numbers (nowhere near as well choreographed as Spring Awakening, in my opinion), a very cool multimedia set design, and a whole lot of Green Day music. If you enjoyed Spring Awakening on Broadway, you may be happy to see John Gallagher, Jr. (Moritz in the original cast) at center stage as Johnny, the Jesus (of Suburbia) of the original recording. Gallagher’s more grungy than whiny as the drug-addled alpha friend, but he ably handles the Green Day standards he’s expected to rock out, somewhat recalling Awakening’s “The Bitch of Living” and “I Don’t Do Sadness”. To be honest, his nasally delivery in Awakening reminded me of Billie Joe Armstrong, so it’s probably a perfect match of styles.

As enjoyable as the musical was, there were definitely down moments. The “St. Jimmy” drug addiction character pops up a little too often for my tastes, and the inclusion of new track 21 Guns lent nothing but a ridiculous hand-dance that is immediately mock-able, while adding little to the stronger American Idiot tracks. Additionally (spoiler alert), the lack of any true game-changing emotional moments left me wondering if this was truly a “must-see”. After enduring Rent’s HIV and love stories and Awakening’s tragic endings, I felt a little… nothing… when no corresponding emotional highs and lows came across here. Granted, both of those shows were over the top and a bit melodramatic… but during a night at the theater, melodrama is often welcomed.

There were some great moments. Angelica loved the opening numbers (they jump right into the popular title track and the sprawling Jesus of Suburbia), and a raucous bus-dancing sequence provided the best match of song and theme for my money.  Green Day fans will love this show, and everyone else will be entertained – much moreso than sitting through a droll retelling of Shakespearean tragedy or “Grey Gardens” style drama. And… if you’re inspired to appreciate the Berkeley punks more than ever before, make it a Green Day theme night and have late dinner at bassist Mike Dirnt’s co-owned “Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe“, where sweet potato fires and pie can be had.

One final note: good seats may be tough to get, with the large number of Berkeley Rep subscribers… but the theater is small enough that there are no bad seats. You can buy your tickets here. If you’re a Green Day fan and you can’t make it to the show, talk to me in the comments and I might provide you with a free program from the show!

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Another Perfect Speculation: Apple Tablet

September 7, 2009 Filed in: Futurist Predictions By: PJ

By now, many of the savvy followers of the techosphere have likely heard many a rumor of an Apple Tablet computer, an iPad, or MegaTouch or whatever shiny, touchable flavor of the week the rumor mill has spit out. So, adding fuel to the fire is the Another Perfect Catastrophe analysis of things that have not yet happened. The following is a mix of supreme objectivity through extreme observation as well as an unproven record of being a member of the home computer revolution since they could sell 8 bits and 2k of RAM for $99.

Part I: Why would Apple make a tablet?

Apple has had it’s share of mega hits and absurd flops. Nowadays it is possibly the smartest judge at what will work in the marketplace. One compelling way they seem to do this is to create products that people don’t even know they need until they see it. You don’t need an iPhone, but you’ll work a double-shift to get one. And if yours should go kaput somehow, you’ll do everything you can to return to the promised land of internet in your pocket. There’s no app for that. Just your hard-earned lucre.

Then, what would make the general public want an AppleTab? At the APC headquarters, we have a way to divine such information. We have a seldom-used system of remote imaging. It’s a complicated thing involving many hours of retro-gaming, incense, and chai tea. Only after entering a level 57-Robotron Strobe Flash trance can we project our consciousness around the Infinite Loop and view the thoughts of other mortals. Jobs just barely qualifies for this mortal status, so our results may be a bit murky.

Part II: What will it do?

The Maclet will function as a free standing computing device. It will be more-or-less general purpose. The iPhone-like touch and gesture system will be in full effect. Web surfing, email, chat–possibly with built in iSight. I think a new, tightly integrated version of Remote will be essential, allowing me to dazzle guests with imaginatively themed playlists streaming over my AppleTV and boring slideshows on demand as I cue them up for display on that same AppleTV. And, most importantly, Facebook is always on. Of course, any number of iPhone apps that make sense to port to the larger format with its new-found utility shall be there, ready to purchase from a glowing 256×256 App Store icon.

Part III: Do I really want that?

But that last sentence contains the big question, doesn’t it? What is the new usefulness found in the NewtonPro? Do I need a larger iPhone to keep on my lap? Will it be WiFi only, making it an unusable as a digital Thomas Guide in my car? Will I surf for the identity of the flavor-of-the-moment reality TV stars that I don’t recognize as they are being mocked Joel McHale (yes, probably)? Is that enough to make it a successful product? As I channel Jobs now, I see he’s thinking “no way, José.” That seems a bit cutesy for him to be saying, but that’s what I’m reading.

We all think we want an easy to stash and toss around “living room web thing” and a chopping board that shows us cooking tutorials and recipes, but is it something we want to pay a lot of money for when it comes down to it? Would you use it enough, neck uncomfortably pitched down 90 degrees at your lap, typing furiously at fake keys while splitting attention from the TV? It’s intriguing, but for something that is going to change the world, it better do something more exciting than that. It must do something so awesome you could never live without it after seeing it. But what would that be?

Part IV: Part II, Revised

There are some things going on behind our collective scenes that we have to piece together better than that Sherlock inverse-websurfing application ever did. The first part of the equation is that Apple is building a giant, $1 billion data center in North Carolina. From datacenterknowledge.com we get this little tidbit:

The size of the project raises interesting questions about Apple’s ambitions for its online operations. The $1 billion price tag is nearly twice the $500 to $600 million that Microsoft and Google typically invest in the enormous data centers that power their cloud computing platforms.

Well technonauts, we might be reaching now, but beware-this could reach into the crazy-enough-it-just-might-work category. The second part of the equation does not involve the company mentioned, only the technologies employed. Take a look at what OnLive is up to:

Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) and incubated within the Rearden media and technology incubator, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling in March 2009.

OnLive, together with its Mova subsidiary, lies directly at the nexus of several key trends, all of which are reshaping the way we think about and use digital media:

  • The shift to cloud computing, displacing the limitations, cost and complexity of local computing;
  • An explosion of consumer broadband connectivity, bringing fast bandwidth to the home;
  • Unprecedented innovation, creativity and expansion within the video game market.

Pioneering the delivery of rich interactive media to the home, OnLive will change the way that entertainment applications are created, delivered and consumed.

Did I see the guy responsible for QuickTime mentioned up there? Well, we’re not going to get all conspiracy theory here; let’s stick to our crazy speculation as it is. OnLive is essentially promising a really high performance version of Remote Desktop / VNC that brings big computing power to an otherwise normal computer or dedicated playback box. It sounds really cool. I hope I get included on the beta test.

Now, we’ve seen some computing power being amassed. We’ve seen some technology that uses large amounts of computing power to bring killer experiences to areas that have bandwidth to receive it. But we have a few things to dismiss: the datacenter Apple is building is supposedly not close to any huge bandwidth backbone. I dismiss this! If Apple wants to get bigger pipes, I’m sure they can get them. Secondly is that this datacenter is said to be likely for the use of creatingmore iPhone App Store delivery capability. I say probably not. Their current deals with Akamai and Limelight seem to be working. I don’t remember clicking on an app or song and not being able to get it–except when on my iPhone and AT&T can’t seem to get me the bandwidth required. I think this datacenter is going to be doing some serious consumer end crunching.

More pieces of this puzzle. Moblie Me and iWork.com. Apple has been cranking and cranking on these services. Eventually, they are likely to kick some butt and be worth the price. Maybe if we mix it up like I’m about to explain, we’ll have the killer app for those services.

Putting it all together, at last:

The SnowBoard will be a 64GB of storage large iTouch with wireless N. It will work as a secondary input device for your primary computer, replacing the keyboard and allowing you to do awesome multi-touch manipulation of your screen data. Being a screen-touchpad-keyboard, it will be able to morph its interface to make the most of whatever app you are using. It will be charging via USB while used in this capacity, which will also be synching items to it for use in its remote mode. Photos, music, email, contacts, and documents will be seamlessly shared.

To take full advantage of the power in this tablet, Mobile Me is required. The Mobile Me service as we know it will be upgraded to allow a lot more data. Perhaps 500G to begin with. In a manner similar to Time Machine, the entire contents of your system are mirrored over to the data center in North Carolina. The apps you own can be executed at the datacenter, and the results will be piped to the tablet a la OnLive.

Tear the MacSlate away from its home computer, and the experience won’t really change, it will just have one less screen.  An example to accentuate how different of an experience this will be from the iPhone: we all realize that the iPhone has Photos, but it doesn’t have iPhoto. Now it will. And likely Photoshop as well. Keep in mind that Apple has been working on multi-touch for OS X for a while now. Making their apps all multitouch friendly makes sense for something ported to a tablet.

Oh, and it can stream movies from iTunes. No biggie. And you won’t see it September 9th.

Part V: Taming this down to reality

Ok, maybe the datacenter part won’t work–yet. That would, after all, eventually cannibalize the entire Mac sales of Apple. Perhaps it will just use a really slick, ultra-high performance version of Remote Desktop and use Mobile Me’s Back To My Mac feature to take the computing power of your existing computer to do all the heavy lifting. Yes, iPhoto on the tablet via Remote Desktop, squirted over the internets or within your home network–still very cool. I can finally watch mindless television and properly tag my photos at my leisure on the sofa without the oh-so-awkward laptop harshing my groove.

Is this enough to make people buy? I think YES. It’s about time we kill the keyboard and mouse and get started with context-aware morphing interfaces taking us closer to that overused Minority Report analogy. People can truly access their data and applications anywhere they have WiFi to the internet (I don’t want to hash out built-in always on cellular or anything with this. I don’t know what evidence there is for that yet.)

There is, perhaps, one consequence that we should anticipate:  In much the same way the iPhone is robbing AT&T of all its bandwidth, could all this application streaming from a datacenter will do the same to the whole internet? Maybe Apple will be the company to push us all over to Internet 2 and really kick ISPs into high gear. That would be cool. Hey… unlikely, but as long as we’re dreaming.

And, now I’m placing relevant links after the story just to see if it suits us and the readers. Direct quotes are linked within the article.

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Depeche Mode At The Hollywood Bowl 8.17.09

August 21, 2009 Filed in: Music Review By: PJ

“Tour of the Universe,” 2009. The show was once again excellent. These guys know what they are doing. The weather was perfect, the sound quality was amazing.

It filled to capacity just before the show.

The setlist might have gone a little like this (corrections are welcomed):

In Chains
Wrong
Hole To Feed
Walking In My Shoes
It’s No Good
A Question Of Time
Precious
Fly On The Windscreen
Little Soul*
A Question Of Lust *
Miles Away/The Truth Is
Policy of Truth
In Your Room
I Feel You
Enjoy The Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

For the Encore:
Shake The Disease*
Stripped
Behind the Wheel
And the obligatory Encore number 2:
Personal Jesus
Waiting For The Night (Bare Version)

*one of those crazy Martin Gore solo things.

What struck me in particular about this concert was the visuals. Firstly, it was the best editing of a video feed I have ever seen at a live event. I had to check for the cameras and double-check the action on the stage to be sure I wasn’t watching something prerecorded. It looked very polished and spot on. A live music video going on in conjunction with the concert.

The pre-recorded visuals were also great. I’m not sure if it was all-new for this tour, but it seemed to be. The back of the stage had a giant HD quality screen with a large LED orb sticking out of the upper middle of it. The orb at times had video mapped on it as part of the larger screen, and sometimes it operated separately. This created some fairly interesting visual gags that added to the impact of the visuals being shown. For “Enjoy the Silence,” for instance, the 3 band members were dressed in space suits. For each verse and chorus set, one of them would switch places with the other two so that one was dead center, space-helmeted head ballooning up as it was mapped over the orb.

Another thing about the visuals. I imagine that many of them were created, directed, or inspired by their long-time image guy, Anton Corbijn. In turn, it would appear he was inspired by the concept of the “long portrait.” Here’s a random example on YouTube if you haven’t experienced this mini-phenomenon. For the opening song, In Chains, I at first thought I saw two still images of faces, large and on both sides of the giant screen. After a few moments, I realized they were live video. And, in perfect sync with the music, the two faces (an old man and a young boy) slowly morphed into each other. Again this concept came through in Enjoy The Silence as each band member stood still, seeming to transmit their image into the camera rather than just being observed by it. Very powerful.

While their albums of the last 2 decades have been technically brilliant, the Depeche Mode songs gain much through their live performances. There is something they are able to evoke in their live performances that make the lyrics and nuance of their songs absolutely profound. This is something I have detected more so with DM than many other technically superior bands. While their latest album hasn’t been so well received by some of my peers, I believe it in no way lessens their tour.

This is a show that music fans should strive to see.

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Bad movies…

August 10, 2009 Filed in: Older Content By: Jeremy

(At least this one isn’t PJ’s fault…), I saw Rise of Cobra.  Some really good effects, the scene where they’re chasing an H2 through Paris was damn good.  Otherwise, crap.  Most everything predictable, dialog written in crayon (they actually said “knowing is half the battle” twice).

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Remote Blogging About Nothing

July 22, 2009 Filed in: Older Content By: PJ

I’m still caught up in the technical aspects of getting this blog going so we’ll have maximal cromulence once it’s primetime. Last few days I figured out how to redirect the old RSS feeds to the new one. It’s easier than I could have anticipated ( “There’s a plugin for that!” could be Wordpress’s slogan ). Now I’ve set up blogging via iPhone. And therefore I’m attaching a picture of my cat just to make sure it all clicks.

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