Your mind is the scene of the crime

I went to see Inception at the Vue cinema in Hamilton a week last Friday and it has taken me up until now to depchirer what it is actually about.

Basically the film involves Leonardo Di Caprio as Dom Cob. Terrible name I know, but he is an expert in ‘Deception’ This is where he can go into a persons dream and steal something. This could be a code to a safe or a plan for a new fighter jet engine. Anything basically. With him are a band of merry dream stealers who also have daft names. they include Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) and Lukas Haas (Nash).

In the first scene these three are trying to get access to a safe in a Japanese themed world, while outside the dream they seem to be in North Africa in the middle of a riot. What is revealed is that they are in a dream within a dream and are trying to steal a document from some rich Japanese business man. This man then asks the team to perform the impossible. Inception. This is the ability to plant an idea into a persons mind.

Lost yet? I was after the first twenty minutes, but then what Nolan does is very clever and also very slick.

A dream team is assembled: newbie world-designer Ariadne (Ellen Page), identity forger Eames (Tom Hardy, a dry gift here), pharmacist Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and Cobb’s regular point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Their target is Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy, precise and valuable), the son of an ailing energy tycoon (Pete Postlethwaite) whose business empire Saito wants broken up after his death. Th rest of the film then centers on them trying to achieve this near impossible. Without wasting too much it basically involves four multi layered dreams and also that you concentrate fully for the next hour and a half or you will be lost.

Also as a side note. The story between Cobb and his wife Mal (I know another terrrible name) is excellent and even as almost a side story it still remains the beating heart of the film.

Very very rarely do movies draw me in as this movie did. I can tell now why this screenplay took Chris 8 to 10 years to perfect. There is so much care and attention to detail going on in almost every facet of this film. Chris, with this film in my opinion, has placed himself in the pantheon of some of the best modern architects of film and story in the last 20-30 years. He deserves it. What he has created with Inception is far beyond what most anyone is producing.

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So after backing everything up and a rather painless fresh install of Windows 7 I was all ready to re-install all my kep applications. One of these is of course Football Manager 2007. I have been a fan of this game since its release and feel it balances realism with fun which is lacking from the most recent versions.

So it was to my horror that when I popped the FM 2007 disc into the machine and started up the installer – it failed! A quick search on the Windows 7 compatibility and there is was in black and white. Football Manager 2007 was not compatible with Windows 7 – I was gutted. Years of games had been played and saved and my current Motherwell save where I had taken them to two SPL titles and the quarter finals of the Champions League would forever be consigned to the history books. I was not going to give up that easily.

It seemed the problem lay with the Java installer not working with the Windows 7 GUI. So with this in mind I decided it might be better to try and install the game via the command prompt. So I tried that and hey presto it worked. It did take a bit longer, but it 100% worked.

I now have FM 2007 working on Windows 7 32bit Professional with no problems. Here is a step by step guide on how I got this working.

1. Go to the CMD interface on Windows 7 (Accesories, Command Prompt)
2. Type: D: (“D:” is the drive of your CD- or DVD- where your FM07 disk is located – if this is not D:, use the correct drive letter, such as E:, F:, etc.).
3. Press Enter/Return.
4. The command prompt should now say: D:\>
5. Type the following on one line in the command prompts, including all quotes: “Setup FM2007 PC.exe” -console
6. Press Enter/Return.
7. The installer should now launch, follow the instructions to install the game.

This goes through all the options of the installer and once complete you can then update the database if need be.

Please note I have not tested this on 64bit versions of Windows 7.

I had heard about Un Prophete through watching the BBC news one morning. They were talking about what films had impressed at Cannes in 2009. It looked like the kind of film that I like. Gritty, realistic and emotional. It had been receiving excellent reviews across the world and had been compared to another favourite of mine La Haine. I finally got round to watching it last week and it lives up to the reviews it has been getting. It’s stunning.

It tells the story of Malik a 19 year North African who is sent to prison for six years for beating a policeman. He arrives at an unknown prison with no friends and no family on the outside to help him. Maliks lonely existence in the prison is shattered when Corsican mafia kingpin Cesar Luciani, who is played brilliantly and terrifyingly by Niels Arestrup, who controls the prison tells Malik to kill an Arab prisoner Reyeb or be killed himself. Malik is in an impossible situation.

This is when the film really cranks up a notch and we get the horrifying scenes where Malik practices concealing a razor blade in his mouth and of course the actual murder which is almost too realistic too watch. I was gripping the sofa with sheer dread.

This makes him a lieutenant in the prisons Corsican gang, initially entrusted only with menial duties and disparaged as an Arab outsider.

Haunted by visions of a ghostly Reyeb, and determined to get on, the illiterate Malik not only learns to read, but teaches himself Corsican, surreptitiously learning the ins and outs of Luciani’s business. Another inmate, Ryad (Adel Bencherif), becomes Malik’s friend, later his ally on the outside.
When Luciani arranges periods of leave for Malik, entrusting him with various criminal missions, Malik takes the opportunity to do some business of his own, setting up a drugs trade with Ryad’s aid.

Life gets increasingly dangerous for Malik, both inside and outside prison walls, but he seems partly through Reyeb’s benign, unearthly influence – to lead a charmed life. Powers of prophecy are attributed to him after surviving a bizarre car crash an incident presaged in an enigmatic fantasy sequence.

As the film progresses we start to see Malik grow from a boy into a man and he also has the skill of playing both the Arab and Corsican sides. In one of the penultimate scenes which is shot beautifully on the Parisian streets we see him finally put the final piece of the jigsaw in place to become his own man. When released he has no ties with the prison and his charmed life inside the prison walls is extended out.

What stands out throughout this masterpiece is Jacques Audiard dream like direction that moves along effortlessly so that you don’t even notice the two and a half hour running time. The mix of realism and dream like sequences works a charm and brings the film away from the usual prison drama.

Some have said this is as good as the Godfather and I would agree. Its epic in its scale, the acting is some of the best I have ever seen and the direction is also on another planet from your usual Hollywood dirge.

Just go see this film!

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Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine. Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No-one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until… well, let’s just say your hour has come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.
G-Man

Built by Valve in 1998, Half Life was one of these games that just stunned you. It was a totally immersive experience that made ‘you’ the lead character of a movie. There was no cut scenes, your character Gordon Freeman never speaks. It is essentially you playing that lead role.

The Games

Half-Life—the debut title by Valve Software—took the PC gaming world by storm upon its release on November 19, 1998. Winning over 50 Game of the Year awards and selling more than eight million copies, Half-Life still reigns as the best-selling FPS of all time. An alternate version of the game called “Half-Life: Decay” was released for Playstation 2 on November 15, 2001 as well, offering different player characters and an all-new storyline.

Built off of a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, Half-Life boasts much-improved graphics, artful ingame scripted sequences and one of the most immersive storylines of any game to date! Gameplay includes a mix of intense action-oriented combat and various puzzles, all combined in a continuous and immense world.

The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people he cares about are counting on him.

The game is set two decades after the Black Mesa incident and the world has certainly changed since then. Under the employ of the ambiguous and so-called G-man, Gordon Freeman is deposited on Earth for reasons unknown, and, joining forces with the resistance science team ultimately sets forth on an adventure that pits him against the totalitarian alien menace of the Combine, in an effort to save the remnants of Earths dwindling population.

The Cast

After finishing Half Life we then had to wait over five years for the sequel and what a sequel it was. Half Life 2 broke all boundaries in the world of gaming. The graphics were out of this world, the atmosphere created in the game was tense and the classic opening scene where you walk out into a totalitarian 1984 style world and are then catapulted full tilt into a game of cat and mouse with a alien race is just exhilarating.

Facing up to the Combine in Half Life 2

As the game develops you unravel the mystery of the Combine and their reason for them being on earth. Each level takes you deeper into the apocalyptic world and you go from driving along desolate highways to heavily fortified ports until you reach the end of the game where you end up in guerrilla warfare in City 17 where the game is based.

Episodes

After the release of Half Life 2, Valve the developers of the game announced that future installments of the series would be episodic in nature. Two were released and continued the excellent story of Gordon Freemans adventures.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is the first in a trilogy of episodes that serve as the sequel for the 2004 first-person shooter video game Half-Life 2. It was developed by Valve Corporation and released on June 1, 2006. Originally called Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the game was later renamed to Episode One after Valve became confident in using an episodic structure for the game. Similar to Half-Life 2, Episode One also uses the Source game engine. The game debuted new lighting and animation technologies, as well as AI ’sidekick’ enhancements.

The game’s events take place immediately after those in Half-Life 2, in and around war-torn City 17. Episode One follows scientist Gordon Freeman and his companion Alyx Vance as they fight in humanity’s continuing struggle against the transhuman  race known as the Combine. When the story begins, Gordon wakes up outside the enemy’s base of operations, the Citadel, after being left unconscious from the concluding events of Half-Life 2. During the course of the game, Gordon travels with Alyx as they attempt to evacuate the city. As the game comes to an end, Gordon and Alyx are caught in a major accident, and both of their fates are revealed in the sequel, Episode Two.

Continuing with Valve’s policy of orienting each episode around a particular theme or set of technologies, Episode Two aims to focus on expansive environments, travel and less linear play. Following the closing events of Episode One, it sees Gordon Freeman and the series’ other major players moving away from City 17 to the surrounding countryside.

Episode Two’s retail version was released on October 10, 2007 in North America and Russia for Windows and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 after repeated delays. The version for the PlayStation 3 was to be released “around two or three weeks later,” as it was produced separately at the Electronic Arts UK studio, according to Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi. This version was further delayed. For the rest of the world, the release date was October 18. The Steam version was released on October 10, 2007 worldwide.

The Future

Valve have always said that a third episode of Half Life will be released but we have now eagerly been waiting for nearly three years and there has only been a handful of screenshots to whet the appetite.

Some rumours circling are that it will actually be a full length game like Half Life 1 and 2, others says its waiting on technology to catch up with the game, but personally I feel they have been concentrating on Steam too much and have taken their eye off the ball. I suppose time will tell.

I can’t wait though and hope to be playing before I grow old and get grey hairs………oh wait a minute…

I watched this film before it won all it’s gongs at the high brow ceremony. It’ s an edge of the seat white knuckle ride from start to finish. Every scene had a real element of tension and gripped you from the outset, but, and there is a but. Its flawed in many ways.

There’s enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I’m gonna die, I want to die comfortable.
Staff Sergeant William James

Its inaccurate on many levels. Such as the way the bomb disposal team go out on patrol, or the way leadership is handled and questioned and also the fact that the bomb disposal team seem to have to engage in a number of conflicts outwith their training. Now you may say, well its just a movie, but that’s not the point. If you are going to make something and claim its realistic then you really should back it up.

Hurt Lockers - Jermey Renner

As for the movie, well  its an intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat.

The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.
Opening Quote by Chris Hedges

Its beautifully shot and the acting in the film is excellent and no doubt I will watch it again, but I just feel the issues with realism will never make this film a classic that some people are portraying it as.

I never really understood why we went to war with Iraq other than it was posturing and a relentless pursuit and being in control of Oil. I mean the actual ‘War’ was over within a couple of months. What we have now is a battle against extremist terrorists who are using Iraq as their base to fight the Western World. This is a direct result of our actions in Iraq. That’s what I thought anyway.

Generation Kill explained everything to me in perfect clarity within the first hour. This war meant nothing. There was no war and the soldiers on the ground knew about as much as the people they were shooting. While the BBC was reporting on our ‘Shock and Awe’ tactics in Baghdad. A group of around 360 Recon Marine were driving Hum Vees across the border from Kuwait to clear a path for all the ground forces to move into Baghdad. Along the way they blew up villages, killed kids, shot Syrian extremists and shot a few goats. This was their war. Granted they did fight the Iraqi army, but essentially this was never a War it was a hostile takeover and it worked, but like all takeovers not everyone is going to be happy. That is why there is now major security issues in Iraq.

A lost generation?

Generation Kill is based on the book by Evan Wright. He spend time embedded in with the Marines as they moved into Iraq and wrote a a number of articles for Rolling Stone Magazine.

Once more into the great good night. Cry ‘havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war.
Sgt. Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert

These marines have grown up on a diet of video games and porn mags. They are amazingly fit, trained to the point of exhaustion and look at each other as brothers. Some come from broken homes, some come from University, some are mad, some are funny and some are wondering why the hell they are in Iraq in the first place. One thing they are all is 100% dedicated to the task. No matter what. When the orders come in from ‘Godfather’ they follow them without even a hint of an argument. They are their to kill and that’s what they do best.

Gentlemen, we just seized an airfield. That was pretty fucking ninja.
Sgt. Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert

The platoon that Wright follows is led by Brad Colbert nicknamed The Iceman for his unnerving ability to handle a crisis. He has a group of four other men in his Hum-Vee. Ray Person the driver who never sleeps and is on a cocktail of caffeine, energy drinks and ‘dip’ tobacco. There is Harold Trombley a young marine who is also the best machine gunner in the platoon as shown with his ability to kill anything put in front of him. There is Walt Hasser who mans the Hum-Vees turret and is the ’spotter’ of the group. Finally Evan Wright joins them and they always lead the platoon into any mission as ‘Iceman’ is looked upon as the best in the business.

Its a fantastic seven part series and probably the best depiction of modern warfare I have ever seen.

Generation Kill on IMDb

But a new twist to this problem has just hit the headlines with the news that a religious charity, The New Life Refuge have had 33 members of its group arrested on suspicion of child trafficking. They are claiming that they took the children from an orphanage in Haiti and were planning on taking them to the Dominican Republic so they could get essential medical care. Laura Silsby the charity’s spokesperson claims this is all a big misunderstanding.

“They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and their families, and are so, so in need of God’s love and compassion and a very nurturing setting.” Laura Silsby, The New Life Refuge

This is all well and good, but further investigation from officials in Haiti have found out these children are not actually with any Orphanage in the country and some have family members alive and living in Haiti.

Unicef spokesperson Kent Page had this to say:

“You can’t just go and take a child out of a country – no matter what country you are in,”

Kent is absolutely correct. What ‘A New Life Refuge’ are essentially doing is taking advantage of a country in a state of crisis and thinking they can bend the rules to suit them. There may be no malice in their efforts, but it does highlight the serious security concerns within the country. How many children will end up missing or kidnapped once this crisis is over, or will it just continue to happen?

Photo by Angela Catlin

Just received the most recent copy of .net magazine through the door and after reading it I felt very happy with myself. Why you ask?

Well many of the articles in the magazine were commenting on design processes and tools that I use on a regular basis on current projects. These included JQuery and Wordpress. This comforts me as it means I am keeping up to date with current web trends and thus keeping my clients happy by delivering up to date websites.

This issue talks about Wordpress as a content management system to develop websites. This is something I have now been doing for  the last year and I have to say its been an absolute pleasure. This system is intuitive, simple and allows full control over the design of your site. This has allowed me to develop sites for clients that when finished allows them to be in full control of future page updates with no knowledge of HTML needed.

This site is built using Wordpress and it is certainly going to feature heavily in all future projects I work on.

This was a recent ‘in house’ project where we re-designed the training arm of the companies website. The old site was rather cluttered and we wanted to develop something that was clean and fresh. We also wanted the user to be able to find information on the site quickly and easily.

The resulting site was developed over a three month period and contains JQuery, PHP, Wordpress, HTML and CSS to create the final website.

We hope that the new site will draw in customers and with the use of intuitive forms and navigation will book a course!

Website can be visited here

I usually don’t listen to NME. I find the magazine to be flawed in the way it promotes new bands. It goes more on the basis of image than actual musical ability. See The Twang, The Vines and throw into the mix The Thrills. All bands hailed by NME as the next big thing, all failed miserably.

But maybe this time they have got something right with The Drums. The band hail from New York and only formed about a year ago. They set up residence at a local club and word spread about this 50’s infused pop who mix beach boys influences with bands like The Smiths and The Wake. Since then they have released an EP called Summertime! with a pop classic in the form of  ”Lets go Surfing”.

They certainly have talent and going by front man Jonathan Peirce they understand the process in creating classic pop music.

“There’s an instant gratification in straightforward music. That’s why we love the 1950s. It was the beginning of basic pop music. They did it from scratch and pulled these amazing, timeless melodies out of thin air. It’s a combination that may not seem logical, but when you hear it you’ll know you need it, you’ve gotta have it and it’s what you’ve always been looking for”

I am certainly looking forward to future releases.

Find at more on their website