nan | 楠木

It’s no secret that Microsoft has not been very successful in it’s consumer web products. Hotmail is a dinosaur of a product. The MSN portal is tiny compared to Yahoo! sites. Their only strong product is Messenger, and only by the virtue of this could their blog/personal website offering Spaces get any traction (personally I hate Spaces – the only attractiveness it poses whatsoever is the automatic update feature on Messenger).

Now they’ve rebranded everything under Windows Live, or something like that. I was prompted today for an automatic download of Messenger 8.5, which I accepted, and while the installation was doing its thing I saw the promotion for their other Live services. I was interested in Photo Gallery, because my Flickr (paid) account is blocked in China and Google Picasa only offers very basic features. However when I clicked more info, there was only a single page with some text descriptions. No demos, links, whatsoever. I wasn’t going to install some 15MB software that I hadn’t even seen one snapshot or detailed explanation.

And that’s the problem with Windows Live, or whatever it’s called. It’s a typical half-finished product, the site organization is totally messed up (seriously, I had trouble finding how to download Live Writer last time) and the products are not laid out in a clear and understandable format. I’ll give MS credit that some of the products are genuinely of some use (Messenger and Live Writer being two solid programs that I use daily), but MS clearly has no idea how web2.0 works. People bash Yahoo! for not having an integrated web strategy, but just look at MS – compared to MS Yahoo! seems to be the pillar of excellence in web2.0.

People love comparing Apple and MS, and for once I’ll do that comparison too. When Bill Gates did a funny and very likable keynote at CES, I had trouble finding the video. When Steve Jobs does as much as whisper a moan, you’ll find it at Apple.com, right there for you to stream/download and watch. In the age of web2.0, your content need to be flexible, responsive and pervasively available for consumption, in a clear and easy to pick up format. MS just lacks the web savvy to make its products so.

And until then, even real gems from MS will have a hard time getting noticed.

The Oscars have passed and it’s that time to do the catching up again with the nominees. I’ve seen No Country For Old Men, Juno, Atonement, which leaves Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood.

Michael Clayton is written and directed by Tony Gilroy (in his first directorial role, it seems, based on IMDb data – this is the screenwriter of the Bourne trilogy), and boasts a stellar producer / executive producer lineup – Steven Soderbergh, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack… And of course George Clooney.

With that type of lineup, it’s no surprise that the film boasts production excellence. It’s a slick and polished film, and pleasant to watch. The film adopts a nonlinear narrative (a major incident is shown first, then a flashback to tell the story from the beginning), which is somewhat showy but at least effective, and the extra mental work required to piece together the story does make the audience more engaged.

Going back to the basics, the film stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swindon, and the plot is in essence a rather simple story of a lawyer finding his conscience and deciding to expose a serious crime. Clooney is the Clayton of the film’s title, a “laundry guy” at a big law firm who has a talent for cleaning up messy situations. When he’s sent to take care of situation involving a partner’s (Tom Wilkinson) maniac depression breakdown, he stumbles into a conspiracy plot of sorts, with the client (who’s chief counsel is Tilda Swindon) desperate to cover up a crime. Of course there’s also a personal angle to this: Clayton is in a financial crisis, which sets up a nice and predictable conflict later on: money or conscience?

For a legal thriller, the film does not break a lot of new ground. The plot is similar to what you find in many John Grisham novels (and their film adaptations). The performance is indeed high quality, with Tom Wilkinson especially scene stealing, but it’s baffling how Tilda Swindon could win Best Supporting Actress with her role – she has so little screen time and her acting is so by the books that she looks more robot than human.

In the end, this is a mostly by the books thriller, with a scent of the same gritty coldness of the Bourne trilogy (which works well for this film). It’s a classy production, but it’s not especially groundbreaking.

7/10

在公司旁边颇为破败的喜来登酒店的“一”楼（实为二楼，按英制一楼为ground floor，“零”层），有一家名为“泛亚”（Pan Asian）的餐厅，号称涵盖了中日韩三国的饮食。既然如此野心勃勃（或不知天高地厚），那么味道不好吃也自然是不在话下了。

我想以此简单说说印度的“中”餐厅。这个中字，实在是需要加引号的，因为印度的此中餐实非喜马拉雅一山之隔的彼中餐，是印度人民喜闻乐见的中餐而非中华民族司空见惯的中餐。简单说来，除了菜名和菜的原料有所借鉴，口感和味道通常大为不同。一般菜都会做得非常得重，似是酱油用得极多，或者用很多的调料把味道弄得辛辣或酸、咸——印度人的味觉体系里菜是没有清淡这一说的，印度餐本身是以下一道菜来调节上一道菜的口感，而这种对强烈味道的喜好也嫁接到了印度的中餐中。

在德里，但凡知名酒店里的中餐厅，我们大抵都吃过了（有赖一本旅游书的介绍——其实也没有那么多，就几家），没有一例是地道的中餐。鱼就不消说了，印度人是吃不了清蒸的（他们嫌太腥），所以即便是中餐里的清蒸鱼也都是全无鲜味的。青菜也是没有清炒这一说的。至于主食，每家都有点心，但是说真的都像是过了夜的剩菜——还是口感不新鲜。我们至今吃过的觉得最好吃的中餐不过是一家餐馆里的铁板炒菜——而那总是让我联想起清华十食堂的铁板，所以，味道是什么水平也就无需多言了。

I make it a point not to write about films that I’ve only seen partially (I only saw parts of the last 30 minutes of this film), but I’ll always make an exception for a film as extraordinarily bad as this lamely titled I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.

For those of you unfamiliar with the history, around the mid 90s there was a wave of teen slasher films with Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer being two of the more notable examples. The concept was simple: have some young (and hot) girls (and boys) getting stalked by some deeply sinister characters who likes to kill with cold metal weapons (a fisherman perpetually dressed in a black raincoat who kills with a steel hook, in the Last Summer franchise). The same concept has existed at least since the seventies (since Halloween), but in the nineties there was a revival of sorts, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, the original I Know What You Did Last Summer (I’m tired of typing this shit already) was a mediocre film – one which I did see in full. It did get some things right, such as the cast – the incredibly persuasive Jennifer Love Hewitt (her eyes can kill), Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. – which I have to admit is very good for a teen movie. But on the whole it was a lackluster effort. But somehow it spawned a sequel.

And ten years later, it spawned another. Indeed, the one and only thing that I’ll Always Know proves is that if there’s anything in the real world that is analogical to the horror movie characters which are incapable of dying, then it has to be the abundance of stupid ideas for films. First off, what’s with the title? Can anyone be expected to take this film seriously? Just read the three titles:

• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
• I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer

The first title sounds a bit scary – come on, give it a bit of credit, having a stalker who knows your dark secrets is somewhat scary, no? The second title is half scary and half mockery. There’s that “not again” sentiment lurking somewhere. The third title is downright hilarious. Who cares if you know? And you’ll always know? So?

And then there’s the stupid scenes. I only saw like 20 minutes, but there were already tons of stupidity thrown at me. The fisherman can never die: a cop unloads rounds of shotgun at the fella and he doesn’t even wince – hell, even the biggest badass of ‘em all, the terminator Arnie himself can be stopped with a shotgun. And then there’s this scene where the two girls and one guy were fleeing together, and the next thing one of the girls is alone, and of course gets whacked. How did that happen?

I think I’ll stop here. I must be breaking a record somewhere actually, for actually writing a review on this crap. Suffice to say, I’m in a bad mood and this is no more than an excuse to vent out some of my foulness. Anyway, stay away from this film – if stupidity were contagious then you’d be infected by watching this.

0/10

I’m having a mild cold, but it’s making me depressed. Besides there’s been a lot of issues at work.

Anyhow, I decided to change my blog theme again – the former greenish thing was fancy but got tiring very soon. Back to minimalism.

This week I’ve been stuck here in Delhi trying to work some magic on Action Segmentation®, but luckily last weekend I was on the beach in Goa.

No time to write much of anything regarding the trip, which was as laid back as possible (think lying on the beach all day long…), but here’s a slide-show at least.

Juno is the surprise hit of 2007, and is already the highest grossing indie film since My Big Fat Greek Wedding of 2003. The box office success is more or less an indicator of its quality, and I was pleasantly entertained, though there certainly could be areas of improvement.

Ellen Page stars as the 16 year old girl of the title name, who finds herself pregnant after having sex with her boyfriend “Bleeker”, a shy boy “whose only vice is Tic-Tacs”. The pregnancy shakes up her life, especially after she decides to give birth to the child and give it up for adoption and she comes into the family life of the adopting couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman).

As a comedy, the humor comes from both the bizarreness of the events and the wittiness of the dialog. Juno’s dialog is especially entertaining (sharp and witty, with the edginess of adolescence), though some 16 year olds have claimed that it’s overworked and not authentic.

The whole film is well-paced and doesn’t skip a beat, and it’s a fun ride all the way through. That said, the film does sidestep some issues which it certainly should discuss, and the whole young pregnancy issue is portrayed in a light and trivial manner, which is somewhat misleading – then again, the film never tries to be a serious discussion, but it would score more points if it did throw in some more sharp observations besides just the sharp wit.

8/10

Engadget links to an interesting article (cover story) of this issue’s Business Week, which is essentially a behind-the-scenes look into Lenovo’s new high-end ultraportable, the Thinkpad X300.

The article itself is a good read, and features one of the most funny lines I’ve seen in a while, with Lenovo SVP Peter Hortensius screaming “it fits! it fits!” after putting the X300 through the ultimate test: does it fit into a Manila Envelope*?

* All rights reserved, Apple 2008

我觉得啥都不用说了。。。

转自新浪。

新闻出版总署禁售恐怖灵异类音像制品

本报北京2月13日电 (记者 张贺) 为保护未成年人的身心健康，新闻出版总署日前发出《关于查处“恐怖灵异类”音像制品的通知》。

　　所谓“恐怖灵异类”音像制品，是指以冤魂厉鬼、异性怪魔等异类非人为形象塑造，以奇异的超验幻想、离奇的梦魇谵妄为虚构手段，以恐怖骇人、惊悚阴森、离奇悬疑的超现实情节为故事题材，以追求惊惧恐怖的感官刺激为目的的音像制品。

　　通知指出，近期“恐怖灵异类”音像制品出现回潮趋势，各省级新闻出版局要依据有关规定，对所辖音像出版单位2006年和2007年已经出版的音像制品，进行一次认真清查，凡是含有禁载内容的，一律下架、封存、回收，并依据有关规定作出相应处理。对于2008年音像年度出版选题计划中含有“恐怖灵异类”内容的，要立即停止制作，撤销选题，删除相关内容。

我觉得自己是火星人，怎么也看不懂人民日报这个通知。。。

【虚构】

繁忙的工作，时间总是过得飞快。然而忙碌是一种虚妄的充实，自欺欺人，因为不过是跳进了湍急的逆流，无论挣扎多久都至多是在原处——只是挣扎本身占据了全部精力，才不会意识到这其中的虚无。

这样的念头，倪冬脑海里偶尔会闪过。通常是在某个凌晨，莫名其妙地醒来之后。他并没有失眠的问题，通常白天以不好的坐姿坐了一天之后，身体都会疲惫地像用久了的橡胶，倒到床上就可以睡着。然而睡眠的质量并不如何好，否则不致早上醒来的第一反应就是倦怠。

于是为了应付工作，只好喝咖啡。后果就是身体像气球般膨胀。他于是自嘲，男人，尤其是成功男人，肚子大小是与年龄成正比的，他不过是选择了一条快速通道，应该高兴才是。

看一眼日历，已经是12月中旬了。马上要进入淡季，年底洋老板们都忙于返乡度圣诞，是鲜有新生意的，而正在的进行的活儿也会放慢脚步。倪冬手上的项目，也做得差不多了，最后的汇报已经通过，只剩一下收尾工作，顺带开始商洽进一步合作的事宜。

早上十点多才走进办公室，公司里也难得一副清闲的样子，几个女人在茶室里边吃零食边聊天，话题无非是逛街、化妆和减肥。倪冬在自己的办公室里呆了一会儿，处理了些邮件。而后惯性地下楼去星巴克，走进去才意识到其实今天自己不需要咖啡。然而还是点了杯黑咖啡，抄了本杂志信手翻弄着。

兜里的黑莓响起，倪冬抄出来一看，主题是一封圣诞邮件。内容大抵是祝节日快乐，署名“琳”。他看了发信人的地址，思索了一下才想起来是M公司的林琳——自上次在vix之后，倒并没有联系过。

他惯性地回了一封邮件，同祝祝福，并问对方是否在北京，若在的话可以一起吃饭。

放下黑莓，他侧头目视着窗外。街道上布置的十分洋气，写字楼的门口摆着一颗颇为可观的圣诞树，四下挂着彩灯。街对面的商店也贴出了各式的促销海报，字眼无非是“浪漫圣诞”之类。路上的行人却大多面色匆匆，与商户刻意经营的气氛多少有些背离，唯有些年轻的女郎两三结伴的，会对那些促销有所关注。

每到圣诞节，他耳边总会不断重复着一首歌，陈奕迅的《圣诞结》：

“写了卡片能寄给谁
心碎的像街上的纸屑

电话不接不要被人发现我整夜都关在房间
狂欢的笑声听来像哀悼的音乐
眼眶的泪温热冻结望著电视里的无聊节目
瘫在沙发上变成没知觉的植物”

倪冬叹了口气，而后猛然意识到自己叹了口气。圣诞这样的节日，他本就觉得是舶来品——现下反倒反客为主了——故而历来有些反感，更何况，每每遇到节日，他便会意识到自己的虚无。放假了，没有工作，可以做什么呢？于是，为了遮掩，只好认真地制定旅游计划，与朋友、同事去热闹，唯恐安排得晚了发现没有同伴——其实他并不如何喜欢旅游，然而他更不喜欢输给别人。于是每到一处便会照很多照片，之后很公开地放在facebook / MSN之类的在白领玩意上——那些玩意做得很狡猾，你有了新东西别人立刻会注意到——仿佛是在说，“瞧，我有钱，我精力旺盛，了不起吧。”

每次叹气，就是他意识到了自己的这种浅薄。然而这浅薄又是他的氧气，他奋斗的目标。他依稀觉得，他曾经不是这样，只是究竟他以前是怎样？

——有时候他会自恋地看自己读书时代写下的东西，而后一边自我欣赏一边自我嘲笑。偶尔，会读到一些他早忘却了的文字，竟会有些惊恐，因为触及到了他之后刻意掩埋的记忆；而这些时候，他会痛苦地意识到自己的脆弱——那感觉很像吃日本料理，满以为芥末调配得恰到好处，蘸一口却发现自己无法承受，眼泪几近夺眶欲出。

打住，他告诉自己。已经是奔三的人了，怎么像个少年一般婆婆妈妈。

只是——他现下这般想到——人的确是年龄与胆量成反比的，成熟以后并不是更能接受生活的蹂躏，而只是懂得了躲避。

咖啡没有喝完，就收到了回信：“呵，我正好在北京。那就晚上一起吃饭吧。”

【待续】