Movie: Separate Lies

Polyamory is a strange concept to most people, and the thought of having more than one love at the same time is probably weird, though I have never worked out why. And more importantly, why people should care that others are in a polyamorous relationship - maybe it's jealousy.

Polyamory is not the theme of the movie - the movie is primarily a murder mystery. But it is the unique triad that develops that is the real focus of the story - the married couple, and the wife's lover - all of them recognising each other's presence and role in their respective lives. The movie never really takes the ultimate step (from the view of the polygamy supporters), but it's probably the most acceptable position in the overall scheme of things.

As for the mystery itself - it's not really one. It is rather obvious, what makes the movie good is how the story is unfolded and the superbly brilliant acting. It's worth watching for that fact alone.

Movie: Natural Born Killers

Yes, it's an old movie. But it's one of the major Quentin Tarantino creation that I had not seen before this past weekend. A lot can be said about the theme and it's subsequent influence, including its possible influence in the Columbine Massacre. Yes, it's gory, and it is one of the few movies where the bad guys win, and in some perverted way you support the script writer's vision that the bad guys go free.

Murder for the thrill of it? First person shooters already practice it virtually. Embedded television as tanks and planes blow up real people into bits is already reality. So the thrill in killing - it seems real ... the question is how different is the movie to all this current reality?

Weird Food

Fancy eating camel humps? How about pig testicles or sea slugs? See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/programmes_food_for_thought/html/1.stm for a visual delight :p

Signs, Walking and Public Transport

I was at the V&A to watch the F1 at Sports Cafe yesterday (I am a regular, they not only know my name - they reserve a table without even asking :P) and I noticed that V&A has set up walking routes in the V&A area. There are 4 different routes, well demarcated with explanations at interesting points, and the routes themselves have different themes. Thinking about it, Cape Town (the city itself) is quite a walking friendly city - there are a number of signs, most of which point the right way, and major areas like St George's Mall and Parliament Gardens have a lot of historical anecdotes etc - you can almost make a guided tour out of it! The V&A has gone even further with their noticeboards in a number of languages - English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu (I guess it's Zulu and Xhosa), and a number of international languages like German and Japanese. Now, if this was extended to the rest of Cape Town - it would really make it unique.

Anyway, on my way back, I saw the first white guy driving a (minibus) taxi in cape Town yesterday. I don't know - it just seemed very weird ... it just seemed so unusual. The main thing I really wanted to talk about was the standard of driving by taxi drivers - forever criticised and demonised. I have had lots of good experiences in taxis, and since I don't drive - I am not really in a position to comment. When I do cycle, they are often the most respectful - and I think they are often criticised wrongly.

Anyway, one of the problems raised is how they often stop in the middle of nowhere - but thinking about it, and after some experiences in Jammie Shuttles, I don't think it's entirely their fault. It's often lazy customers who want to be dropped off or picked up at certain points that force this habit - and often people get very angry if they don't get their way. But I suppose, if every taxi driver stuck to their guns and only picked and dropped off people at designated points, then the situation would improve.

Kanye West

So Tim calls me on Wednesday night, and offers me a few (.. more than just a few) Golden Circle tickets to see Kanye West on Friday night. So after a SMS and email frenzy, I secured a number of tickets (although some people were left disappointed), and we were off to see the concert.

To be honest, I am not a great fan of hip hop - I like a few acts, but I am more of a rock fan than a hip hop fan. Admittedly, Kanye West is not the average hip hop star - more known as a producer than a singer, and even his show featured very little bling and had a very low stage presence.

Even before we got to the show, there was drama, but I think it's only fair for Sara to speak about it (if at all). The opening act was Lungelo, and although he was impressive, I cannot really say that he,, and his group, were impressive, I am not sure they were better than acts like Tumi and the Volume or Skwatta Kamp. It was a very energetic stage show though.

There was a long wait till the next act, which made many in the crowd quite impatient. As for the main show it self - I can say that there were a lot more screaming fans than at a rock concert, but Kanye West himself did not have a stage presence. What his show did have was some sort of a story, not a great one, but he did manage to string together his experiences as a producer with his own stuff in some type of logical order.

The really interesting feature of the show was the String Band composed of a harp, two cellos, a violin and 3 violas (i think ... maybe it was 4 violins). Sara claims that the cellists were a bit off tune - can't really say - I couldn't really notice the difference. The backing vocals were quite good (and some might say better than the main vocals) but what really stole the show was the DJ - he was brilliant.

Overall, I don't think I would have really paid to watch Kanye West - but I did enjoy the show. So thanks Tim for the tickets!

Weekend starts on Thursday ...

So, I have just returned from the 6^th Information Security South Africa conference (my 3^rd) in Sandton. To be honest, this was a very disappointing conference - the quality of many of the papers in the conference, was poor, and as I blogged earlier, the reviewing was very poor, and I wasn't the only one complaining. Furthermore,half the conference was taken up by industry presentations, which had very little value - and some of the industry attendees I spoke to weren't impressed either. So like SATNAC last year, this was yet another South African conference that left a "well, that was a waste of time" feeling.

Anyway, Thursday night was the conference Gala dinner, an occasion usually featuring good food and entertainment - and although we were not expecting a big name band like Mean Mr Mustard at SATNAC, we were expecting something interesting. We were instead treated to, what can be best described as "Medical Pop Idols", a show featuring songs and dances organised by medical students, friends of the program chair's daughter. Unfortunately, most of the show was rather uninspiring, and Reinhard's Mobile TV proved itself once again (although there wasn't much to watch on TV either)!

Anyway, after coffee, we decided to get out and see what the surrounding area has to offer, in the light of one of the resident attendees proclaiming that, in Gauteng, the weekend starts on Thursday. But, since we did not have a map, we decided not to stray too far ... We discovered, very quickly, two things:

• Jo'burg seems to have very few street lights


• There are some really high speed bumps in Jo'burg

Furthermore, other than petrol stations, only News Cafe, Teasers and a Fontana Chicken Roastery, there was nothing else open. Phoning friends who stayed (or used to stay) in Jo'burg didn't help either - and so we decided, that while the weekend might start on Thursday, but no in Sandton/Rivonia/Morningside.

Red Lights and Car Shopping

Over the weekend, I was visiting my family in Gabarone, before heading off to ISSA 2006 (where I am currently, bored out of my mind with the corporate crap). One of the interesting things about Botswana, is the price of second hand cars, which are on average 30 - 70% cheaper than South Africa. After all where, will you get a 1998 Lexus with relatively low mileage for about R50 000? The reason off course is simple - most of the cars are imported from the Far East, like Japan and Singapore, who have a high replacement rate and have very high taxes for second hand cars. And even with a huge number of importers, the variance on car prices is quite low, although the selection is quite limited.

Unfortunately, I will not be getting any of those cars, but I should have wheels soon ... finally. And on the note of driving - I noticed a rather strange phenomenon with regards to traffic lights in Gabarone. The change to the red light, it seems, stands for stop in the next 5 seconds, and not immediately - and cars just stream past the red light. And it seems that most drivers in Gabarone know this, as drivers hardly set off at the change to the green light!

Biased News?

In the last week, much has been said about SABC's supposed biased news coverage. I am not defending the SABC, but honestly, when has news coverage ever been unbiased? Even in the day of the Internet, the persons who have the biggest influence in how people learn of events around the world are the news editors. They have the power to decide which story is "newsworthy" and how much exposure the story should get. Coupled with the reporter's own views on the subject, limited time and space, news is hardly unbiased.

The best example of how varied the same story can be, is to read/listen/view the same subject delivered by different news organisations, and even then it's difficult to draw the correct picture. So the SABC is not alone, but maybe they have just taken it a bit too far ...

Cycling to Cape Point

Sometime last week, Hans-Peter, Reinhardt and I thought it would be a good idea to cycle all the way to Cape Point and back, so we decided on Sunday, with great weather prospects for the weekend. On Saturday night, Reinhardt chickened out, citing strong winds and a 50Km ride each way. HP and I decided to go anyway - and Reinhardt was (slightly) wrong on both counts.

The first half of the ride was quite good, at a very decent speed, without really needing to stop - though we did stop at St James and Glaincairn. Since HP had not come this way before, we even decided to stop at Boulders for a while. The ride upto the nature reserve was not too hard either, although we did stop a lot more. There was a slight breeze, but it was quite pleasant actually.

It all changed once we got inside the nature reserve - the wind speed really picked up, and made cycling uphill really really difficult. In fact, towards the very end, we ended up just walking up the last bit to the parking lot on top of Cape Point. We had lunch up at the restaurant, which was a bit over priced, but food wasn't too bad. After quite a long stop over (about 90 minutes), we cycled down to Cape of Good Hope, which was really living up to it's other name of Cape of Storms now.

Cycling back towards the entrance was interesting. Parts of the way, we did get some help with the wind on our backs, while other places, the crosswinds together with steepish hills and tired legs made it a lot tougher. There was an accident towards the entrance of the reserve (I think the driver of one of the vehicles was injured), and we were basically the only ones to get through (which drew lots of comments from the drivers who were blocked). Ironically, the wind died down once we were out of the reserve, and it was quite calm for our trip back.

We ended up only cycling to Simonstown and then catching a train. Firstly, it was already 17h30, and getting dark. Secondly we were too tired, and cycling another 30Km would have been quite difficult. So overall, we did about 90Km (hence a lot more than Reinhardt's prediction), in just under 6 hours of cycling. But the whole trip, with all the stops was about 9 hours - a whole day. It's by far the longest distance and time I have cycled in one go. It was a great day actually ... but I think we would have been able to cycle back if we didn't have to contend with the winds inside the reserve.

Sport on TV

As a concept, sport is pretty simple: a competition to determine who (or which group of people) are best at a certain task, usually associated with keeping fit (well my definition anyway). When it becomes complicated, is when people are willing to pay to watch other play sport, because then sport is no longer just a competition, but it is also entertainment. Big name sports draw money to the game, because there are a lot of people who want to watch those games, because the games are a social event, entertainment event etc.

In the past few months, there has been a quite storm developing in Cricket - players are starting to complain that they are playing too much - that they will not be able to perform on their best of their abilities all the time, because it will be mentally and physically challenging. Off course administrators see it differently, as they see whinging millionaires who want to work less for more and them missing out on the goldmine that is presented by the cricket watching billion plus viewers.

What neither side is looking at however is the spectators themselves - the very people that pay to watch the game. Right now there are two international series - West Indies vs India and England vs Sri Lanka, and because of the time differences, it is possible to watch televised cricket for about 18 hours a day! During the official cricket season, it is possible to watch televised cricket for the full 24 hours. The question becomes - who is watching?

It's not cricket only after all. There is football from the World Cup, there is motor racing, there is rugby, and a few other major televised sports. But people have to work, go to school, go socialise outside watching sports. Viewer number will drop, not because people are not interested, but because there is too much for too little time. Very soon, it will be the highlights shows that will draw the crowds and not the events themselves.

So, is there too much cricket right now? Personally yes - because it is coming to the point that, at most times, I don't bother other than just looking at the overall results and reading the match (or day) reports. I do not need to be entertained for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year ... then it will no longer be entertainment.

Railroads

As a kid, I really really liked trains and railroads. While I did not ever own proper model train kits, I had numerous smaller ones, which I regularly connected up to cover large parts of the house. In fact, the large family homes for both my parents in India, has access to large roofs and they all had train lines on them ... and so did the gardens, and ... you get the idea.

I have maintained my fascination with trains, although less with engines and carriages but more with the actual dynamics of making things work. It was the same when I was a kid - designing the route was more cooler than the actual train. Trains was also what hooked me into Transport Tycoon - and they were mostly all what I built (well I had planes to take passengers and mail, trains to take everything else). And the best part of transport tycoon was the complex scheduling mechanisms possible with signaling - although, getting it right was always a mission.

I got hold of Railroad Tycoon II (Platinum Edition) a while back from Dave Nunez's massive collection, but I only started playing it a few weeks back ... and I have been hooked. Initially, I found the game quite slow (until I worked out that you can change the speed ... duh) and quite uninteresting. But the latest scenarios have been eye catching - building railroads through the Alps, or the Orient Express, or across India.

Still there are parts of the game that are very unappealing. Firstly, routing is automatic, so I can't get to play with the signaling. Then there is some of the economic aspects - as an investor you cannot buy stocks of other railroads, nor invest more into your own railroad! And there are no tunnels!

I hear that Sid Meier is developing a new Railroad Tycoon - one with tunnels! Until then I will carry on with what I have ... currently building train lines across Australia ... but it's the last scenario that I am really looking forward to - building Cape to Cairo - a feat, as far as I know was never achieved. There is also a Railroad Tycoon 3 ... but since 4 is aparently so close round the corner .. might as well get that.

ISSA 2006

Well, I suppose I should be happy that I got a paper accepted at this year's conference; but to be honest, the standard of reviewing leaves a lot to be desired. I suppose part of it is bad gripes for not having a paper accepted as a full paper (it was accepted as a poster, and we subsequently withdrew it) - but I still think I got a raw deal out of it.

ISSA has only two reviewers, and the second reviewer for my paper started off praising the paper with comments like "a good paper clearly describes a significant problem, provides interesting solution" and "clearly presents advances beyond the related prior work". The reviewer then criticises my ordering of chapters and suggests a more traditional security paper layout where the security analysis is done before the design. I had it the other way round, since my new design was the subject of the paper, and I felt that a security analysis before the design was pointless ... but anyway. And then, the reviewer comments: "Do not accept the paper in the present format. To present as a paper authors should improve the manuscript", and rejects the paper! So it seems, that the entire paper was rejected because the reviewer did not like my layout :/

But overall, the review process was rather short and abrupt - only two reviewers, contributing about a page of review in total. This is clearly not to the standard that is seen at more prestigious conferences - I have had over 6 pages of review in most of the papers I have submitted to ACM or IFIP-Sec. And the reviewers' knowledge of the subject under review is also a bit suspect at times. And this seems to be the problem with most SA conferences - the review process is too shallow and I think that, ultimately, quality really suffers.

Bike Ride

So after a long time, I finally got back on my bike this weekend. With the good weather, and a long 1Km downhill after a relatively hard slow uphill, it was very enjoyable. The fact remains though, at this stage I am quite slow - managing only an average of 16Km/h over 24 kms on Sunday (though it was better than 15.3 Km/h over same distance on Saturday). If I remotely want to consider doing the Argus next year, I need to do atleast 20Km/h - and that will take some doing.

But regardless - the aim is to get fitter, and ejoy the downhill. Doing 47Km/h at the bottom of the hill by Wynberg Park was fun! And sunrise from Kirstenbosch was spectacular.

Awesome F1 Laps

This weekend is the British F1 race - fond memories from last year, when I actually watched the race from the famous Copse Corner! Saw this link on a F1 forum on Schumi's qualifying lap from 10 years back at Monaco ... it's amazing!

Goth Metal revisited

So a while back, I posted about a band called Barathrum. Anyway, I had some time recently, and decided to have a listen to album at the Look and Listen store ...

The music itself was quite good - sounded a bit like Metallica to be honest. But as for the songs themselves ... lets just say that they make Barry White sound smooth and angelic. Personally, I really had to restrain myself from bursting into laughter ... maybe their live act is interesting, but on CD, it just didn't work for me.

Movie: Proof

Initially, I did not really want to watch this movie, because I thought it would be yet another movie like "The Beautiful Mind". I am glad, that due to scheduling conflicts, I did go watch it. The acting was superb, and although the story was good. And unlike, the beautiful mind, which was a biopic, this dealt with a much shorter timeline, and was less complex.

But the question it poses has been bugging me since I watched it - there is a notion, that the best work academically is done by the young - the under 25's - and once a person goes past that age, it's all downhill. Yes, I am still 20 months away from that age, but that's not a very soothing feeling. Maybe 40 or 30 is not the age to be afraid of ...

Movie: X Men 3

Superhero movies are not that different to action movies, except for the facts that

1. They have cool characters that do things that you wish you could


2. Have some resemblance of a plot


3. A bad guy that wants to rule the world

Off course X-Men 3 fulfils all these criteria, and unlike most superhero plots, there are a lot more people who have super powers, which makes things a lot more interesting. But to be honest, the movie seemed to lack something, it was loud, with massive CG effects, but personally, it just did not click.

It's a lot of fun, but not a classic.

Car Auction

ABSA was holding a no reserve, repossesion auction in Milnerton, and sensing the opportunity for a bargain, I decided to attend. The variety was quite interesting in itself, from cars that were damaged beyond repair to cars that were almost brand new. I did go to the inspection on Wednesday, which was useful in identifying the cars that I could possibly bid for, but the ultimate test drive was not possible.

The auction itself was an interesting experience, and I noticed that some buyers ended up spending more than the car's reported trade value. But there were a lot of deals to be had, and quite a few cars were sold below half the reported trade value. Ultimately, I realised that my budget was a bit too small for the purpose of buying a car at an auction esp. as I was bidding against car dealers, but for more expensive cars, and an adequate budget, auctions could be a great place to pick up bargains.

African Film Festival at the Centre for African Studies

This week is aparently Africa Week, and in celebration, the Centre for African Studies is having 3 days of short films this week, mostly short documentaries (about 30 minutes in length). Today's lineup was all South African with "Little Miss Tiny", "My Son the Bride" and "The Spirit of the Uhadi".

The first film was about beauty pagents for kids, very wierd, and more in the style of something from Special Assignment/Carte Blanche etc. The second story was part tragic, part uplifting and quite humorous focussing on gay relationships in townships. However, I think both of these were quite amateurish in nature, and needed a lot more polish.

The last film was a documentary on Thandiswa Mazwai's quest to learn more about traditional Xhosa music and culture. For this, she went back to rural Transkei to learn from Madosini, one of the most well known artists in this genre. I had never heardof Madosini, but then she puts it best herself - she is more well known outside South Africa than inside, and a quick Google search reveals quite a bit of that ...

Heavy Metal, Shock Rock, Goth Metal etc

Two weeks ago, I came across an album by a Finnish band called Barathrum while looking for Seether's new album at the Cavendish Look and Listen. The album was called Okkult, and what really drew attention was their song titles like "Virgin Blood Spiller", "Bride of Lucifer" and "Whores of Hades". According to Wikipedia, they are a great band, but I can't find any of their songs online, and paying R180 is a bit steep for a music CD.

But the search for the Okkult album led me to another Finnish heavy metal group, Nightwish, and I was truly blown away. I don't think that they are not strictly heavy metal, as they feature a lot of opera, but the songs are just great.

The Finns seem to have a great number of these bands. There is off course The Rasmus, who were great at the Coca Colab Massive Mix, but they are pretty tame and ordinary when compared to the winners of this year's Eurovision contest - Lordi. I watched one of their videos online, and thought it was quite good. I would like to hear some more of them actually.

The past two weeks has also revealed some other shock rock/heavy metal bands, most notably the American band GWAR. Wikipedia has quite a good review of them, and their names really stand out.

So my appeal - anyone have albums from these bands? I have some Rasmus and Nightwish, but not much else ....