Sweet. Dr. Katz, the funniest show of the 90s, is out on DVD. Slate) has a pretty good article about it.

Cach finished quietly with a long, static shot of a school and absolutely no resolution - effectively taking the “who” out of whodunnit. I just sat there, watching the credits roll, dumbfounded that it left me with nothing to go on. Who was secretly filming Georges and leaving the ominous voyeuristic video tapes and violent drawings? Was it Madjid? His son? Were the nightmares actually vivid memories? I had no idea.

So I watched it again.

Nope, still no idea who did it, but that’s not really the point at all. This is a film about global paranoia and responsibility. It’s difficult to embed mocking, angry social commentary in a psychological thriller without being obnoxious (as in Crash), but there it is. There’s no soundtrack to help, no directorial underlines telling the viewer when to pay attention. And there’s honestly no resolution at all. It’s relentlessly, deliberately ambiguous.

Do pay attention to the lower left corner of the screen during the long static shot leading to the credits. Something important happens. Trouble is, it raises more questions than it answers. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since, which is worth much more than a tidy ending. You will leave the film unsatisfied, and better for it.

Sometimes while reading a book, I set it down and for one reason or another never pick it up again. When that happens, it’s just an accidentally unfinished book. There are other cases where I deliberately don’t finish - a deliberately unfinished book. This is rarely due to not liking the book, but instead because I’ve gotten everything I’m going to get from it before it decides the story is over. The latest of these is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell which is a darn good read. Trouble is, it’s 800 pages long and after 400 or so, I’ve had enough. The beauty is, I’ve learned to be okay with not finishing a book. One less thing to feel guilty about

The attendees at RailsConf are the super geeks. They are the brilliant early adopters, and they have highly-tuned bullshit detectors. In some ways they determine where all things technical are heading. It’s interesting to note, then, that nearly all of them use Apple hardware. Powerbooks and MacBooks completely dominated the conference. Also, there were Nintendo DS Lites everywhere.

Photos by chiology

Apparently, Bryan H. was having a bit of fun with the conference name tag of none other than DHH when he heard someone clearing his throat. Turning around, there was David, holding an empty lanyard, waiting patiently for his identity to be returned to him. I wasn’t there, but the look on Bryan’s face must’ve been priceless.

Opening Keynote with Dave Thomas

Originally uploaded by JackBaty.

Dave hit on a number of issues keeping Rails from being everywhere. Of course the biggie was deployment. Amen to that.

I’m at at RailsConf) in Chicago until Sunday. This is what I would describe (affectionately) as geek heaven. Most of the #caboose folks are here, Rails Core is somewhere around, and so on. Not an empty lap or AC outlet in the place.

I’ve been crazy for Angelina Jolie for as long as I can remember. When she was married to Billy Bob, I couldn’t imagine a more interesting place to want to have dinner than their house. (Not so much now with Brad, though.) What I liked, other than the obvious, is that she looked to be pretty much a no-bullshit type of gal. At first I was just a teeny bit worried when she seemed to have found a “cause.” I generally can’t stand celebrities with causes. Somehow I think this one is different. Anderson Cooper just got an unsolicited two-hour interview with her - for free. Now he’s a believer too.

I’m not sure what I expected before I met her, but to say I was impressed would be an understatement. She is smart, funny, self-deprecating, and intensely passionate about her children and her work on behalf of refugees.

CNN.com - Anderson Cooper 360 Blog

So I get back to my laptop at the office, and here’s the IM window waiting for me…

Funny. Or isn’t it?

The team at Fusionary) has been hard at work for nearly 12 hours now. I’m not competing, just ordering Pizza and making sure the server) stays running and nothing catches fire. Everyone’s getting a little silly. 36 hours without sleep tends to do that. These guys have gotten an amazing amount of code coded and designs designed so far. 12 more hours to go.