Ministry of Intrigue

I have not been posting here much of late, which is partly due to the amount of stuff I’m working on, and partly due to the fact that I’ve been writing and posting stuff in other places around the web, since it is easier. Some of this will get fixed with the next revision of this site, but honestly, it has less to do with those other things I’m working on and a lot more to do with general laziness. Either way, it is high time for an update.

What have I been doing?

Among other things, I’ve been working on the next version of the custom CMS that powers this site. I initially started this process to fix the comment issue I was having, and it quickly turned into a complete rewrite of the Django applications I use to power Andrlik.org. It’s a lot of work, mostly because I started off with way too large of feature list. I would trim some of those features, but at this point the actual code for the new stuff is already written. Ironically, it is the new comment application (among a few other things like actual template design) that are not completed yet.

The new site is being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of all the new features and capabilities available in Django trunk, and it will incorporate pulling detailed activity data from virtually every social network I participate in that provides an API. I have not decided to what extent this information will play a role in the actual layout of this site, the primary purpose of these features is to provide me with an automated backup of all of that data. In addition to pulling data from social networks, I’m adding more discrete media types to the site which should allow me to do more interesting things such as podcasts if it ever strikes my fancy to do so. There is some basic podcast support baked into the blog application for the current site, but it’s inelegant and a pain to use.

In addition to new features for me, I’m incorporating the ability for readers to authenticate using OpenID, Facebook, or Google, the latter two options being new, while improving compatibility of my OpenID solution. I’m doing this because I’m planning to allow comments from authenticated users only, which allows me to utilize different privacy settings for any posts.

So, yeah, that should be cool. At least, whenever I get around to finishing it and deploying the new version to the server. 

I’ve also been busy with work, and doing a lot of traveling, which means by the time I get back to the hotel room I am ready to pass out. When at home, I’ve been reading, spending quality time with my girlfriend, and working on yet another project that I can’t talk about yet.

Splattered Content

While I have not been posting or bookmarking here, I have been posting to various other sites online. Of course, there is always my Twitter feed, where I post random bits of questionable wit, as well as links to stories I find interesting. In addition, as I’ve been reading, I’ve been posting quite a few book reviews to my Goodreads account, which I try to also mirror on my Readernaut profile, when possible. In general, I don’t include rereading books in my activity streams but there has certainly been a lot of that going on as well.

Every time I post a review to either service, I feel like I should expand it out into a real post for this site, but I rarely take the time to, which is a habit I hope to change in the upcoming months. In the meantime, I thought I would include some of my Goodreads reviews for books I’ve recently read that are particularly notable.

Memories of the Future, Part 1 by Wil Wheaton: 4 out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I laughed so much while reading Memories of the Future, more than I have for any other book in recent memory.

The episode recaps are the real stars of the book, and I would often stop to read a particularly hilarious passage out loud to my girlfriend. However, this isn’t just a book of condensed snark; Wheaton’s love of Star Trek TNG comes through on every page. His profound respect for his fellow actors, and his affection for what the show will become gives the recaps a humane quality. As a result, the snarky episode recaps, feel less like a nasty internet posting (the natural habitat of undiluted snark), and more like the playful ribbing of a friend at the dinner table, while reminiscing about that embarrassing event that everyone had to go through back in high school.

It’s a great book, but I do have a tiny niggling complaint. There’s a lot of references in the recaps to later episodes by their title, which I wouldn’t mind if the recaps of those episodes were in the same volume, however a few of them are slated for volume two, and since I don’t have the 1st season of TNG around the house to figure out what Wheaton’s referring to, I felt left out of a joke that probably won’t make sense to me until the second volume comes out (soon, I hope).

There were also a couple episodes where Wheaton didn’t actually recall anything from behind the scenes, so for those entries the “Behind the Scenes Memory” section would be a little weak.

To sum up: I loved this book and can’t wait for volume two. However, I knock off one star for the two small complaints I mention because I am a bit of a prick despite Wil Wheaton’s sage advice: “Don’t be a dick!”

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi: 3 out of 5 stars.

I enjoyed this book, which actually surprised me a bit. Typically with sci-fi I tend to prefer heavier fare, but Scalzi’s light touch with his prose worked for me quite well. It’s central idea is spectacular story-fodder, and I’m interested in seeing what he does with it in the later books of the series.

Unfortunately, there is a little bit of a strange disconnect in the story, which might have a lot to do with the fact that the protagonist seems to excel at everything, and never seems to face a real challenges, so the central conflict of the story feels almost superficial. Also, the alien species are painted in very broad strokes, and it gave me the impression (rightly or wrongly) that the universe was not fully realized by the author beyond the limited conflicts that are depicted. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I like to feel a bit more depth to the world, and I might have been able to ignore it had the protagonist faced more challenges.

Don’t ge me wrong, I enjoyed the book, and will try out the next book in the series, but the disconnection I felt means I can only give it three stars.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest: 4 out of 5 stars

This was my first experience with Priest’s work, and it was a pleasure. I found it to be a brilliantly imagined steampunk novel set during an extended Civil War, and in Seattle, a catastrophic event has brought the Blight upon the city, which causes the dead to walk. The story focuses on a mother seeking to save her son, whom has charged off into the city to find out about his father. Along the way she encounters air pirates, zombie rotters, and the other people who choose to brave the Blight, living beneath the ground and in sealed vaults for protection. However, it’s also a mystery, for the son’s quest will lead them both on a journey to answer the questions raised by the Blight, and to learn once and for all the real history of the experiment that brought the plague.

The book is well written, the action is tight, and it’s just a hell of a lot of fun to read. The only complaint I have is that the last chapter seemed a little flat to me, almost an unnecessary epilogue, that answers none of the questions that still remain, but without actually building any sort of wonderment or cliffhanger. This is the reason that I’m only giving it four stars.

The Child Thief: A Novel by Brom: 4 out of 5 stars

I admit that I approached this book with trepidation. In the past, I have encountered a number of attempts to retell the Peter Pan story, most of them spectacularly bad. Add in the fact that the author only goes by a single name, and alarm bells begin to ring.

I was pleasantly surprised. What I found was a dark, tense and well written piece of fiction that successfully reinvents Peter Pan, while still holding true to the core elements of the original. Brom doesn’t cheat. Peter is an unpredictable and violent figure, who is clearly borderline insane. However, Brom also demonstrates quite clearly that Peter is a pawn of greater forces, and the enemy that he is being pitted against is truly horrifying. With this in mind, you might almost forgive him for stealing the abused children of the world in order to serve as infantry in the battle, but the author rightly refuses to let Peter off that easy. You are confronted with the terror the children feel, and that is what makes this novel work.

And if that wasn’t enough, it comes in a beautiful hardcover edition with artwork from the artist himself. It’s definitely worth a read, so if you hear the same alarm bells I did, cover you ears. This book is worth it.

I’d also add in that you should read all of the Joe Abercrombie books in First Law trilogy, including the one-shot follow-up novel Best Served Cold. However, I recommend you start with the trilogy, and I am including my review of the first book. It is worth noting that the first book of the trilogy is the only one that I awarded less than five stars.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie: 4 out of 5 stars

An outstanding debut novel and start to a trilogy. Abercrombie does a wonderful job of introducing all of the complex characters and manages to make them all fascinating in their own right, although every reader may favor some more than others. In my case, I am particularly captivated by both Logan, the practical barbarian that is haunted with regret, and Glotka, the crippled torturer and inquisitor.

Abercrombie is also very effective at introducing the reader to his world, without much tedious exposition, which is a welcome change from a lot of other epic-fantasy. He also clearly illustrates what is at stake and carefully sets the events in motion that one assumes will drive the course of the story in the next two books.

I do have one complaint, and that is that occasionally Abercrombie starts a chapter without clearly telling you which character’s point of view the narrative is being told through, which can be a bit confusing. Usually, you can tell just from the voice of text, which is quite an accomplishment on the author’s part, but occasionally I would encounter a chapter and it would take me half a page to orient myself, which is the only reason I’m knocking off one star.

I can easily seeing this book joining the likes of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles as one of my favorite epic fantasy series produced recently, and I can’t wait to start on the next book in The First Law series.

Needless, to say I loved the rest of that series.

Get Back To Work

I’m serious, I’m sure we all have shit to do. I’m sure the various things I am working on will keep me busy over the next few months, but I will try to post here more often so that I don’t have to do such a gigantic braindump next time.

I am not naturally a very organized person, which is something I’ve always struggled with. My tendency, from an early age, has always been to try and hold all my responsibilities, appointments and tasks within my head. I was fairly successful at it, which led to my developing an unjustified sense of superiority over those of my peers that were already dependent on their student planners to manage their homework and responsibilities. If I ever wrote anything down, it was just on a scrap a paper or in a margin, more to cement the information in my memory than as a reference to be referred to later. Even in the workplace, I only kept my calendars up to date in order to be able to share busy/free time more effectively. I didn’t actually reference them on a day-to-day basis.

This continued to be a successful strategy for me until about three years ago, when I began taking on more responsibilities and while also working on more personal projects at the same time. It quickly became apparent that I was going to need a better system for keeping track of all my tasks, but of course, at this point I was in my mid-twenties and I had no experience with organizational systems.

Early Experiments - Analog and Digital

With no practical experience, I began playing around with different approaches to structuring my tasks. I tried a variety of techniques, and each time I would begin with great enthusiasm and determination, only to have my discipline fizzle out several weeks into the experiment, where I would find myself once again managing my tasks by my memory alone, with limited to moderate success.

I tried carrying a small notebook to keep track of tasks, but I quickly began forgetting to carry it with me, and it produced too much redundant work to organize and structure tasks into a daily schedule. Imagine sorting through pages of notes and tasks, creating new ordered lists of tasks that could be tracked by bookmark or index card and you can begin to imagine my frustration with this process. The goal was to save time, increase productivity and reduce the likelihood of my forgetting to do something essential. This analog process was adding at least an hour or two of collective organizational time a week, and was prone to failure due to the number of moving parts (all those pieces of paper, bound or otherwise), as well as tying up my time trying to bring order to the chaos of those notes every day.

I then tried using a todo.txt file in an attempt to reduce the amount of paper to manage, since the file would be synced between any workstation I happened to use. This worked well when I was at a computer, but helped me not at all once I was out running errands. I attempted to supplement this with a notebook for capturing or reviewing relevant information while I was away from a computer, but I quickly discovered that the redundant step of re-entering the information into my text file once I returned to a workstation quickly sapped my interest in meshing these two approaches together, especially since I too often would forget my notebook. In addition, I still found myself spending a lot of time managing the list manually from day to day in order to track tasks logically, and it began to become necessary to track multiple files, which added additional administration time. I needed to have some business logic built into my system that would handle the majority of tasks automatically.

Why Not the Web?

It was clear that I needed to find a tool, or combination of tools, that would be ubiquitous, preferably accessible via my phone as I never leave the house without it. I naturally started looking at the web as an option, especially since at the time I was running Windows at work, Linux at home and Symbian on my phone. A web-app seemed like a natural choice, which led me to Remember the Milk. RTM is an online to-do list manager that is very flexible and powerful. It certainly helped that it was a very popular app, with a lot of positive buzz associated with it.

Remember the Milk - Task List View

Excited about RTM, I signed up and quickly created a several lists and excitedly began using the service to track all my various tasks. There were a lot of things to like about RTM, such as:

• Accessible anywhere, which allowed for centralized data storage
• Flexible list and tagging system
• Lots of metadata available for describing tasks
• Powerful search capabilities
• Smart lists generated based off of search criteria
• Integration with Twitter and other services

However, over time I discovered that there were some issues with using RTM as my task management tool:

• Mobile web-app for phones was really bare-bones and difficult to use (this has improved over time). The iPhone mobile web-app was much better, but required a Pro subscription, and still felt slow from a data entry perspective since it involved so many screens.
• Ordering of tasks in a list was only possible by means of sorting due dates, priority or name, meaning I spent a lot of time making up sequential dates for tasks that were not time-sensitive in order to get the list sequence I wanted.
• An internet connection was required to work with tasks, as features such as Offline mode via Google Gears always seemed out of sync.

Of course the most critical problem that I had with using a web-app is also the most obvious. I had to remember to log in to the site if I ever wanted to add/view/manage my tasks. There was nothing to prompt me to do this, and in the time that I used it I never found a good desktop solution for this in the form of an application or a widget. Desktop widgets always seemed to be out of sync with what was on the server, and application support didn’t seem to be an option. Now, to be fair, RTM has a ton of reminder options, including Email, IM, Twitter and SMS notifications, so if the task had a due date associated with it, you were guaranteed a reminder, which made sure you remembered a previously set up task, but did not help with ensuring that I continued to manage and stay on top of my tasks within RTM itself.

RTM took some big steps forward on this issue when they released their iPhone app with push notifications, but in some ways the iPhone app’s data entry still felt a bit strange to me. More of an issue, however, was that use of the app required an existing pro subscription with RTM, for which I was paying $25 a year, and I did so happily. Let me be clear here, with a few small shortcomings, RTM is a great service, and for many of you it will fit the bill perfectly, but over the years that I intermittently used RTM, I found it very difficult to fit into my workflow, which is completely a personal preference.

What Now?

Several months ago I realized that I needed to do something different. My approach to using RTM was not working for me, and there would be spans of time, sometimes months long, where I would neglect my task lists there entirely, instead using a mish-mash of paper, memory and my preferred research tool, Evernote. I began hunting around for other options and discovered Things, which is a desktop application for the Mac. Things is also available in an iPhone version capable of wirelessly syncing with the desktop edition while functioning as a standalone application.

There were several issues with Things that prevented me from using it initially. First of all, since my work computer is a Windows machine, I would need a way of updating and managing tasks effectively when I was not at home. My experience working with the iPhone app that RTM provides made me leery of the thought of managing my tasks through my phone when away from my MBP. Secondly, Things is expensive: the desktop application is $49.95, and the iPhone app is $9.99. However, a few weeks passed, and having not found anything else that particularly thrilled me, I downloaded the one month free trial of Things for Mac in order to try it out. I knew that to fully test it out I would need to experiment with the phone application as well, so I decided to just eat the $10 fee and purchase it for my phone. I have not regretted it.

Things for Mac works wonderfully for me, providing a number of tools for me to organize my tasks such as Projects, Areas (basically ad hoc lists) and Tags. Along with these “metadata-powered” organizational solutions, any list can reordered by simple drag-and-drop, independent of any other task properties, which is a huge plus for me and one of my few gripes about RTM. Things is clearly inspired by GTD and so there are also a number of familiar conventions that will be immediately recognized by the productivity crowd such as the Inbox (for collecting unprocessed tasks), Today’s Tasks, Next Actions, Scheduled Tasks (which do not appear on any list or reminder until a given date) and of course the Someday folder for storing ideas that I may or may not choose to follow up on. However, it does not require me to use any of those features unless I want to, and this is the most essential feature for me. Things does an exceptional job of getting out of my way and allowing me to manage my tasks how I want, while providing support for more advanced organizational approaches if I need them. This kind of flexibility is crucial to me, because I do not want to spend unnecessary time tweaking my productivity system when I should be doing something productive.

Things for Mac: note that this post is overdue.

The iPhone app functions great as a standalone application, and I could easily have gotten by with just using it to manage everything. It has not slowed me down when at work or on the road and data entry, as well as task management is effective and pleasant to do when working with the phone application. The only thing that the iPhone app does not support that the desktop app does is the creation of recurring tasks, which if you have the desktop app is really a moot point since the two applications will sync with each other any time your phone and computer are on the same wireless network. However, be aware that if recurring tasks are important to you, you will need the desktop app for now, although I have read that the developers are working on incorporating that feature into the iPhone app.

Things for iPhone displays the number of tasks assigned to the current day on the application’s home screen badge.

Things for iPhone - List Selection Screen

Things for iPhone - Today View

When my month long trial for the desktop edition ended, I happily paid the $50 to purchase a license, and I have continued to use both apps for about two and a half months now. When I am seated at my MBP, I prefer to work with the desktop app, as the mouse/keyboard interface allows for quick and sophisticated entry, but the iPhone app continues to be a very effective management tool while I am at work or on the road. I have finally found the tools that enable me to build an organizational system that works for me.

Simply put: Things makes task management easy. If you have been struggling to find an effective task management solution, and you either have an iPhone or a Mac, than you owe it to yourself to give Things a shot.

Get Things here.

Let The Right One In is a novel from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, and also now a film from Swedish director Tomas Alfredsson. I’ve consumed both now, and while they each should be judged on their own merits I’m going to attempt to review both the novel and the movie in one post. I’ll be pulling some of this from my review of the book on my GoodReads account.

The Novel

I was extremely impressed with this book. It’s a dark and disturbing tale that is beautifully written. The characters are complex, and the novel manages to capture the essence of human loneliness more effectively than any other book I’ve read in the last few years. Lindqvist grants none of his characters an easy path, and takes the time to depict each of their hopes and pains. Nor does he flinch at showing their evils, whether it’s careless alcoholism, the savage cruelty of children, or the darkness of Eli, as well as Eli’s servant.

Even Oskar, the innocent young protagonist, who has suffered so much abuse from his cruel classmates, has withdrawn from the world, and has turned dark from the years of bullying. Over that time he has nursed a hatred so pure and violent in intent that it could only come from a child. He practices stabbing trees with his knife and daydreams about killing his young tormentors. Good does come into his life though, in the form of a new friend. Eli, a pale waif of a child moves into his complex and slowly begins to befriend him, but Eli only comes out at night, and has been 12 years old for a very long time.

I’m hesitant to even mention the word vampire here, because of all the literary baggage it comes with, especially in a post Anne Rice, post Laurell K. Hamilton world, where Twilight and True Blood are what people immediately think of when the v-word comes into the conversation. So let me make something clear, this is not a vampire novel, or at least it is not just that. It’s a deeply moving story of human loneliness and the darkness that grows from the desperation of any outcast, and therefore a very human story, although many may find the humanity depicted in this novel disturbing. It’s beautifully written though, and your heart aches for the people of this tale, even some of the ones that are unquestionably evil.

The only complaint I have about the book is that it seems like the cast of characters is almost too well defined, and in some cases more for completeness rather than serving the story. For example, there is a decent amount of time spent learning about Tommy and his family, when he really has very little impact on the rest of the story and only actually interacts with the central characters briefly on a handful of occasions. It’s well-written, and great character stuff, but seems like an unnecessary detour from the core of the tale.

The Movie

The film version of Let The Right One In is as beautiful as the novel, and while it is somewhat more circumspect in scope, being more focused on Oskar and Eli rather than the wide cast of characters in from the book, it still manages to successfully communicate the emotional core of the story.

The two young actors playing Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson), each give stellar performances of difficult material far beyond their years. Hedebrant portrays Oskar’s hatred and desperation with a wide-eyed innocence that is absolutely pitch-perfect. Leandersson’s Eli is also well done, maintaining the appropriate level of awkward childishness and quiet severity that draws Oskar to her. At times though, Eli seems almost too human, and I’m not sure if it’s Leandersson’s portrayal, or Alfredsson’s direction. One important thing in the book is that Eli is never completely human, but instead always has a sense of otherness about about her, which does not hold completely true in the film. It still works though, after all this is no more a “vampire movie” than the novel is a “vampire book”, and this is ultimately a very human story, even Eli’s part of it.

The cinematography of the film is perfect and captures the bleak and lonely winter the story takes place in very well. I can’t speak to how well it captured Sweden in the mid-eighties, but the environment and colors reflect the isolation of Oskar, as well as Eli, whom he first meets out in the frozen playground of his apartment complex as he sits alone in the cold.

Alfredsson has made excellent editorial decisions in bringing this story to screen and has cut some elements of the plot which would have been distracting from the core relationships of the characters. His tight focus and clear understanding of the story he wanted to tell has created something truly great in cinema. It is no wonder the film has won such international acclaim. It’s a splendid piece of art, and after viewing, it is hard not to be profoundly affected by it.

Unfortunately, the DVD distributer of the film used a different set of English subtitles than what was seen in theaters. Supposedly, the original English subtitles are far superior, and outcry has been so loud that the distributer will start pressing the future versions of the DVD with the theatrical subtitles as an additional option, but only as they replace stock, so it could take a while before you see those pressings showing up in stores. Honestly, I saw it on disc, and I still thought it was great, but purists may want to hold off purchasing until theatrical subtitles are available as well. Even if you want to wait on purchasing, you should still consider renting it, because it is excellent, and trust me, you want to see this before an American studio remakes it and mutilates it in the process.

Conclusion

Let The Right One In is profound exploration into human loneliness and savagery, without falling into the trap of becoming a meditation on the nature of evil, which would have been pretentious as well as missing the point. Although it is significant that in both the book and the movie, the characters that are closest to being actually evil are the children that Oskar goes to school with, while Oskar’s salvation and hope comes in the form of a monster that wants to be his friend. It sounds simple and ridiculous simplifying it like that for the purposes of this review, because it plays far out more subtly in the book and movie. Neither make simple choices, and every moment of the story is filled with complex emotions.

Both the book and the movie are well worth your time, and I don’t feel I have to caution you as to the order you approach them in. I discovered the book through watching the movie first, and I don’t feel like it spoiled either for me. They are both excellent, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Final Verdict: The Ministry of Intrigue approves both this book and movie.

Google Voice is Google’s upgrade to the GrandCentral service they acquired almost two years ago. I’ve had a GrandCentral account for almost as long as the service existed, but I never found a reason to use it, mostly because the feature set was just short of being useful enough for me to want to manage an additional phone service. However, Google has added a number of features that make it an extremely compelling service. In particular:

• Ability to place domestic and international calls with Google Voice number
• SMS support and routing
• Voicemail transcription (Also, downloadable as MP3)
• Call conferencing
• Call Recording (Incoming calls only, downloadable as MP3)

Wait, you smell that? Smells like screenshots:

Google Voice Inbox showing SMS functions and voice mail transcription.

Google sends a notification email for new voicemail with the transcription.

Google Voice forwards SMS messages received to my cell phone as well as voicemail notifications.

These features, along with the previously existing call-routing and contact management features (which are awesome) make the service something I could easily see myself becoming dependent on in the near future. I’m already scheming to start routing more of my telephone communication (especially anyone who is not a friend or family member) through my GV account.

Now, Google Voice has already received a ton of press online detailing all the new features, and rather than repeat everything that has already been said, let me just say this: I do not understand how this is not already a paid service. Slap an SLA on this service and I would not even think twice about paying $50 a year for it. The only possible reason I can think of for not doing this is to stay cheaper than Skype, which charges for having a phone number and voice mail. Skype’s international rates are still slightly cheaper than Google’s, but it’s free offerings offer nothing like the basic feature-set provided by Google Voice.

I have only two one complaints about Google Voice. First, the inbox defaults to showing all messages and does not have a way for me to use the unread-only view as my default, which gets annoying because it is an extra mouse-click every time I go to look at my messages. The only way to prevent a message from showing up again is to delete it, which I don’t want to do. (Fixed: Google pushed out an update on 2009-04-02 which defaults the inbox view to unread-only, or at least it remembers my preference). Secondly, While the mobile web app is fast and great, I want a native app for managing my account on my phone. It seems like Android integration is the obvious path for Google, but I would hope they would also follow their previous practice and release an iPhone application (or integrate it into their existing app) as well.

On the whole, I think this is an excellent service and a home-run for Google. It’s the first time I’ve been this excited about a Google product since Google Reader and Gmail. In fact, I’ve written this post partly in the hopes that it will help me stop telling my friends about Google Voice every time we talk to each other, as I am sure they are ready for me to shut up about it. I was even tempted to do a screencast to show off how you work with the application, but video adds a lot of difficulty to the process of hiding other people’s phone numbers, and I respect my friends’ privacy.

Currently the service is only available to users with existing GrandCentral accounts, but Google has stated they plan on opening to the service to new users soon, presumably with “soon” being a value somewhere between a few weeks and just before our sun explodes.

If you have used Google Voice and would like to leave me a comment about what you think, feel free to click the call widget below to leave a voicemail message with my Google Voice account. I’ll keep it active for at least a few weeks. Also, when you leave your message, please indicate if you would like your message included in this post. I don’t promise that I will include your message, but I do promise that if you leave me a voicemail I will not post the audio or your name without your permission. I reserve the write to quote you anonymously in text, however, because I like to write and that’s just the way I roll.

I went to go see Watchmen opening night, and I thought it would be worth my while to jot down some of my thoughts, now that I have had a couple to days to think about the film.

First, a disclaimer, the comics have been out for 20 years, and as such I am unclear of what would be considered a spoiler and I don’t really care. There will be spoilers in this review. If you have not seen/read Watchmen yet, either stop reading this review now or deal with any spoilers you encounter.

Let me start by saying this about Watchmen: in my opinion, it is as faithful a movie adaptation of the comic as we could reasonably expect. It has its flaws, but ultimately Zack Snyder has done a good job bringing the comic to life on the screen. He has captured the look, feel and pace of the comic, and coming in at nearly three hours in duration, Snyder has managed to squeeze in almost every essential scene into the movie, although geek purists may still complain about a few issues. The primary reason for that is that the aforementioned “geek purists” use their ability to identify inconsistencies with the source material and their associated rage as a method of demonstrating dominance in the geek pecking order. In short, that sort of behavior is mostly a pissing match.

So let’s talk about the movie.

In general, I thought the casting for the movie was excellent. Perhaps Adrian Veidt could have been a bit more charismatic, and Malin Akerman’s rendition of Laurie Jupiter was tolerable, but could have been better. However, Billy Crudrup’s Dr. Manhattan, Jeffery Dean Morgan’s Comedian, and Jackie Earl Haley’s Rorschach were all outstanding casting choices, as was Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl II. The movie would have failed had it cast the lead roles incorrectly, but it succeeded here. I think they probably could have done a better job casting with Nixon, but honestly I don’t care much about him in the movie. He’s a background character in the comic, and only takes a slightly larger role in the movie to help explain to the audience what’s going on politically in this alternate version of 1985.

As you would expect in a Snyder film, the action receives special attention. It’s brutal in the comic, and Snyder definitely brings that to the big screen. There are moments where I think Snyder goes further than the comic, but I have a hard time faulting him for it particularly when he has a modern movie-going audience that’s already seen some gritty comic book movies. I’ve read some reviews where people complain about the violence, particularly in relation to the kidnapping case Rorschach investigates. Complaints seem centered around the sadism of how the little girl was killed, although that’s in the comic too, so the issue is with the established story and not the movie. Admittedly, there is a change here in the movie that some comics fans have an issue with and that is Rorschach’s method of dispatching the kidnapper. The original story had Rorschach handcuffing the criminal to the stove with only a small saw for his wrist and setting the house on fire. I can see one obvious reason why this has been changed: because by now, this has been done in movies and television so many times already that it doesn’t have the same level of impact it once did. In fact, it’s almost passé, so I didn’t have an issue with the change.

Some fans will be disappointed that there is no time devoted in the film for “Tales of the Black Freighter”, the comic within the comic. This has been split out into a separate animated short. In this interview, Snyder says he shot all the in and out scenes at the newsstand in order to incorporate it in the movie, but that we may have to wait for a DVD before we see it integrated into the film. From the interview:

Alan C: We know that the “Black Freighter” is being produced as some sort of add on to the film for home release. What I want to know is will the “Black Freighter” parts cut back and forth to the newsstand and the comic as it does in the book? Will the DVD release have an option to include the “Black Freighter” scenes in context with the film (as they happen in the book) or will it just be a standalone extra?

Zack Snyder: It is my intent right now, and of course all this could change, to create a version of the “Black Freighter” that thread throughout the movie. As I write this, I have already shot the ins and outs of the News Vendor and Bernard… So we’ll try them in the film and then certainly we’ll at least see them on the DVD, but if it works awesome, then it works awesome, and it could end up in the film. I just want to make the best movie I can.

I’ve heard some fans complaining that not enough time was dedicated to Rorschach’s story, and in particular a sense of disappointment that the film wasn’t as character driven as the comic was. This is a valid complaint, but in order to do such a thing without cutting any of the other essential scenes would have required a minimum of another hour of screen time in order to do them properly. The cuts that would have been required in order to pull that off would have had every fan up in arms. Honestly, the only way to do that would have been to film Watchmen as a high budget miniseries, with an episode for each chapter, and even then I’m not sure that would work.

The ending of the film undergoes a slight change, but I have to say, I think it was a better choice within the context of the movie. To establish the original ending would have probably required another 30 minutes or more of build up in the course of the film and honestly, I think this works a bit better than what’s in the comic for the final strike of Veidt’s plan. I’ve always had a problem with the comic’s ending because I feel like it comes out of left field. Moore does his work establishing the design and backstory for the alien beast, but then says that Veidt cloned its brain from human psychics, without ever previously establishing that psychic phenomenon exist in the context of the story. That always felt a little sloppy to me, and especially in deference to making a movie that is not six hours long, the shift in focus to Dr. Manhattan is much better choice for the film.

I’ve heard some people complaining about the way the soundtrack of the movie was handled, it didn’t always fit what was happening on the screen. A lot of the music seemed to be selected by the lyrics that were quoted in the comic, but when the music was put up against the backdrop of the screen it didn’t work. I’ll agree that it was an awkward soundtrack for the film, it probably would have been better to ignore those quotations and just score it based off of the movie itself.

I’ve also read a lot of people complaining about how uncomfortable they were watching the love scene in Nite Owl’s ship. My girlfriend and I both left the movie with the impression it was deliberately shot to be uncomfortably awkward and we found it a little bit funny. It’s an important moment for the two characters, but in the context of the story its also a ridiculous one. I mean, in the comic and the movie, we see that it takes wearing his costume again for Dreiberg to be able to get it up, his self-confidence is so tied into his vigilantism. That being said, that probably could have been expressed with a slightly shorter scene, but in the end I think it works.

I only have one primary complaint about the movie, and it is related to the end, but not the plot change. My issue is with Dr. Manhattan’s departure. In the movie, he explains to Laurie that he is going to another galaxy, and his line “Nothing ever ends” is delivered by Laurie, quoting him. Here’s my issue with this: One of my favorite parts of the original story is that after Veidt has won the complicity of all those involved, and achieved all his goals, he has a moment of self-doubt in his final conversation with Dr. Manhattan (who reveals he is leaving for another galaxy). Veidt asks, “I did the right thing didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.” And Dr. Manhattan replies, “‘In the end’? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” Veidt calls out for an explanation, but Dr. Manhattan is already gone. It’s significant, and the way it’s shifted around in the film neuters the line and the moment. In my ideal version of the movie, Adrian Veidt would have had this moment with Dr. Manhattan and the movie would have ended as Veidt sits alone in his dark room trying to understand what Dr. Manhattan’s cryptic answer meant.

All that being said, I think Watchmen was an excellent adaptation of the comic, though not without its flaws. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and am really looking forward to getting my hands on the DVD when it comes out so that I can see the super-nerdy extended cut with everything Snyder had to remove from the film to get it down to just under three hours. I’m particularly excited at the possibility to see a version of the movie with the Black Freighter comic integrated into it. If you haven’t seen the movie yet (in which case why did you read a review filled with spoilers), I recommend you go see it, especially if you are a fan of the comic. If you haven’t read the comic, you may have to watch it more than once to understand everything that is going on, but you should really read the comic anyway.

Final Verdict: The Ministry of Intrigue approves this movie.

A few weeks ago I was having drinks with my good friend Greg, and the topic of social bookmarking came up. I was discussing some of my ideal features in a service, before we got back to the more serious business of catching up. A few days later, Greg sent me a link to Diigo, as it seemed to match a lot of what we were discussing at the time. I took a look at Diigo and was pretty impressed with what I saw, and I decided to give it a go. I’ve been using it full-time for about a week now, and feel comfortable giving you all a review of what I have found.

Diigo has a very attractive and subdued appearance, that is packed with features without being overwhelming.

To begin with, Diigo is an extremely powerful social bookmarking site. Obviously, Diigo does all the things you would expect of this type of service: you can save bookmarks, assign tags to them, and search the site for bookmarks that are also tagged with those terms or find people who have saved the same bookmark. Diigo also allows you to construct “Lists” of links. Lists are another way of structuring your data that you can use in conjunction with tags. Each List can be made up of any group of links that you can sort in whatever order you desire via a drag and drop interface. This is really nice to see a service that still understands that tags are not the end-all be-all of organizing content.

Diigo also allows you to import bookmarks from variety of sources, including Delicious, Magnolia, Simpy, Blinklist, Furl, Connotea, RawSugar and of course, your own browser. The import function worked well for me importing from Magnolia, although Diigo replaced the spaces in my multi-word tags with underscores. Diigo does allow multi-word tags if you encase them in quotation marks, so this was a quick fix, if a little annoying. When will people see the light and do away with space-seperated tags? Just let me use a comma-separated list. Diigo also exports all your bookmarks quite effectively in a variety of formats including RSS, CSV, Delicious format, as well as in formats for both Internet Explorer and Netscape bookmarks.

However, Diigo doesn’t just want to be a bookmarking service, they aim to be a flexible research tool, and allow you to highlight and annotate web pages to provide more directed commentary on what you are bookmarking. These notes can be private for your reference only, or publicly visible to any user. This immediately brings up comparisons to Clipmarks, except that this is very different. Whereas Clipmarks just takes your highlighted content and loads it into their service, Diigo also leaves those annotations in place in the form of highlights and sticky notes that are visible only to Diigo users. This allows you to not only share those annotations on Diigo itself, but also to visit the originating site and see those comments in context of the surrounding content.

An example showing a highlighted annotation with a private sticky note attached.

This annotation feature is particularly powerful when used in conjunction with Diigo’s social features. Diigo allows you to create groups which can be public, private or semi-private, allowing you to collaborate on research through the use of links and annotation. Diigo also allows you to attach notes and comments that are visible only to the group, which is an extremely useful feature when sharing the link both publicly, as well as in a group context.

In addition to collaboration, Diigo’s social side is excellent for content discovery. The service can provide recommended bookmarks from other members based off of the links you have saved in the past, as well as recommending other users whose bookmarking habits seem to match yours. Diigo takes the “social” in social bookmarking very seriously, and provides very effective tools for finding friends on the service, as well as finding new people who have interests similar to your own. Friending another user doesn’t mean just making them a contact, it enables you to generate buddy lists, allowing you to organize sharing of bookmarks with friends, as well as providing a messaging system. Whereas in many other bookmarking services the sharing and social features seem to occur more as a byproduct of the sharing process, Diigo puts those social networking features front and center. However, Diigo’s interface is very content focused as well, making it clear that this isn’t a social network as much as it is a social tool.

Saving content to Diigo is done primarily one of two ways: you can either install the toolbar application, which is available for Firefox, Flock and Internet Explorer, or you can use Diigolet, which is a bookmarklet they provide that should work with almost every major browser.

Examples of bookmarking. The first with the Diigo toolbar in Firefox, and the second using Diigolet in Opera.

The Diigolet is a surprisingly powerful bookmarklet, revealing sticky notes and annotations, as well as providing all the basic functionality a user needs. However, even with my hatred of adding additional rows to my browser window, the Diigo toolbar has won me over and become my tool of choice to interact with the service. Both tools will provide tag suggestions and assist with group functions, as well as the ability to send the link via email, however the toolbar goes even further. When using the toolbar, you also have the option of cross-posting your links to other bookmarking services, or even Twitter if you require. You can save simultaneously to Diigo, Delicious, Magnolia and Simpy, as well as to your own browser’s local bookmarks. Bookmarking to other services seems to work well, and saving to local bookmarks is a particularly awesome experience when using one of the latest betas of Firefox, which will attempt to auto-complete based on both history and bookmarks. It even correctly applies tags in the Firefox Places storage system, which is great but makes me wonder why the toolbar bothers to also build a hierarchal folder system inside Firefox as well, as the tags do that job already.

Another powerful feature that the toolbar adds is the Diigo sidebar:

The Diigo sidebar displaying my recent bookmarks.

As you can see in the above image, the Diigo sidebar allows me to search and browse both my bookmarks and the bookmarks my friends have posted. In addition it allows me to get current information about the page I am viewing via the “This URL” tab. I can access public bookmarks and annotations, and lists of Diigo users who like the site. Diigo also can provide quick metrics about a site that I am visiting via the main toolbar. Using the “About This URL” menu option will provide a overall popularity score for the site, including a breakdown of the number of links to the site from Diigo, as well as from Google, Delicious, Yahoo myweb, Bloglines, Technorati, and Digg. Diigo also provides a calculation of the site’s Google PageRank, which is a really awesome bonus feature that I just discovered today.

Diigo supports OpenID logins, which makes me smile. It would be nice if Diigo allowed you to sign up using just your OpenID, however you need to create a standard account and then associate an OpenID with it. This isn’t a big deal, but it would be a nice enhancement to see in the future.

My only real complaint about Diigo is the lack of an API for developers. I did send them an email regarding this, and was pleasantly surprised to receive email directly from the founders. They indicated that an API is in the works, and were receptive to some of my suggestions in that regard. As I have browsed through the user forums, this seems to be a common practice for the people behind Diigo to actively engage with their users for ideas, and respond constructively to critiques. Diigo does provide RSS for bookmarks, as well as blog widgets, but those weren’t sufficient for my needs. I’ve been able to work around the lack of API by using the toolbar for cross-posting to Magnolia and continuing to use that service for loading bookmarks into my site. However, I am eager for Diigo’s API because this workaround doesn’t allow me to take full advantage of the annotation features when loading the bookmarks into my link blog.

However, when it comes down to it I feel Diigo is really head and shoulders above the majority of competing social bookmarking services in terms of features, and the site itself is certainly more responsive than my beloved Magnolia, which is a wonderful service in itself, but runs slow as molasses. Based on this glowing review, it may come to surprise you I approached Diigo skeptically, even prepared to be antagonistic, but the service managed to win me over. I was unprepared for the seamless integration of Diigo’s social features, as well as the flexibility of the service, which strikes out like a fist of features into the collective nuts of their competition. If the forthcoming API meets the rest of the site’s high standards, you can expect me to be a happy Diigo user for quite some time to come.