Movie Log

List of favorite movies. Comments to follow.

12 Angry Men (1957)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
84 Charing Cross Road (1987)
8MM (1999)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
A Good Year (2006)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A Simple Plan (1998)
A Time to Kill (1996)
Absence of Malice (1981)
Adam’s Rib (1949)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
All the King’s Men (2006)
All the President’s Men (1976)
American Beauty (1999) 
American Gangster (2007)
An Unfinished Life (2005)
Armageddon (1998/I)
August (1996)
Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Batman (1989)
Batman Begins (2005)
Becket (1964)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Big Fish (2003)
Blade Runner (1982)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Boxing Helena (1993)
Brubaker (1980)
Braveheart (1995)
Brazil (1985)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
Bullitt (1968)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Cape Fear (1962)
Cape Fear (1991)
Capote (2005)
Casino (1995)
Catch-22 (1970)
Children of Men (2006)
Chinatown (1974)
Chrystal (2004)
Cinderella Man (2005)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Citizen X (1995)
Clay Pigeons (1998)
Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941)
Constantine (2005)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Cuba (1979)
Daddy and Them (2002)
Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Dead Man (1995)
Desk Set (1957)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Downhill Racer (1969)
Dr. No (1962)
Dune
Entrapment (1999)
Exodus (1960)
Fantastic Four (2005)
Fargo (1996)
Finding Forrester (2000)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Frankenstein (1931)
Freejack (1992)
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Gandhi (1982)
Gangs of New York (2001)
Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947)
Gladiator (2000)
Goldfinger (1964)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Goodfellas (1990)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
Hannibal (2001)
Harper (1966)
Harvey (1950)
Havana (1990/I)
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962)
Highlander (1986)
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Holiday (1938)
Hombre (1967)
Homegrown (1998)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Howards End (1992)
Hud (1963)
Inside Man (2006)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Instinct (1999)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
James Bond 007: From Russia with Love (2005)
Jaws (1975)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Just Cause (1995)
Kundun (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Ladder 49 (2004)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Legal Eagles (1986)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Little Women (1933)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Lonestar (1996)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962)
Long Hot Summer (1958)
Lord Jim (1965)
Love Among the Ruins (1975)
MASH (1970)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Medicine Man (1992)
Meteor (1979)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Mobsters (1991)
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Morning Glory (1933)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Murder in the First (1995)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
My House in Umbria (2003)
Mystic River (2003)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
On Golden Pond (1981)
On The Beach (1959)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Outland (1981)
Out of Africa (1985)
Papillion (1973)
Pat and Mike (1952)
Patton (1970)
Philadelphia (1993)
Picasso
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Platoon (1986)
Primary Colors (1998)
Proof of Life (2000)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Ficiton (1994)
Pushing Tin (1999)
Quiz Show (1994)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Rear Window (1954)
Renaissance (2006)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Return to Paradise (1998)
Rising Sun (1993)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Robin and Marian (1976)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Rooster Cogburn (1975)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Running Scared (2006)
Running with Scissors (2006)
Sahara (2005)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Seabiscuit (2003)
Shadowlands (1993)
Sideways (2004)
Signs (2002)
Sling Blade (1996)
Sneakers (1992) 
Spellbound (1945)
Spy Game (2001)
Strange Days (1995)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)
The African Queen (1951)
The Alamo (2004)
The Apostle (1997)
The Aviator (2004)
The Avengers (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Birds (1963)
The Bourne Idenity (2002)
The Bounty (1984)
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
The Candidate (1972)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
The Clearing (2004)
The Color of Money (1986)
The Corn Is Green (1979)
The Crossing (1990)
The Crying Game (1992)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Departed (2006)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
The Door in the Floor (2004)
The Electric Horseman (1979)
The Elephant Man (1980)
The English Patient (1996)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Getaway (1972)
The Getaway (1994)
The Glass Menagerie (1973)
The Glass Menagerie (1987)
The Godfather (1972)
The Golden Compass (2007)
The Graduate (1967)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Great Gatsby (1974) 
The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Great Train Robbery (1979)
The Green Mile (1999)
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Human Stain (2003)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The Hustler (1961)
The Ice Harvest (2005)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
The Last Castle (2001)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)T
The Lion in Winter (1968)
The Longest Day (1962)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
The Matrix (1999)
The Molly Maguires (1970)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Natural (1984)
The Night of the Generals (1967)
The Others (2001)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Pianist (2002)
The Presidio (1988)
The Prize (1963)
The Rainmaker (1956)
The Real McCoy (1993)
The Reaping (2007)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
The Rievers (1969)
The Road to Wellville (1994)
The Rock (1996)
The Russia House (1990)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
The Sandpiper (1965)
The Sea of Grass (1947)
The Searchers (1956)
The Shining (1980)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
The Sting (1973)
The Sum of Us (1994)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Terminator (1984)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
The Untouchables (1987)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Verdict (1982)
The Village (2004)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The Way We Were (1973)
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)
The Yearling (1946)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Thunderball (1965)
Titus (1999)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Tombstone (1993)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Touch of Evil (1958)
True Romance (1993)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Two Weeks (2006)
Unforgiven (1992)
Untamed Heart (1993)
Up Close & Personal (1996)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Van Helsing (2004)
Waitress (2007)
Walk the Line (2005)
War of the Worlds (2005)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
What’s New, Pussycat (1965)
Windtalkers (2002)
Woman of the Year (1942)
You Only Live Twice (1967)

Podcasting Mechanics

Podcasting is an automatic mechanism by which multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type. 

A podcast is generally analogous to a recorded television or radio series.

The content provider begins by making a file (for example, an MP3 audio file) available on the Internet. This is usually done by posting the file on a publicly-available webserver; however, BitTorrent trackers also have been used, and it is not technically necessary that the file be publicly accessible. The only requirement is that the file be accessible through some known URI (a general-purpose Internet address). This file is often referred to as one episode of a podcast.

The content provider then acknowledges the existence of that file by referencing it in another file known as the feed. The feed is a machine-readable list of the URLs by which episodes of the show may be accessed. This list is usually published in RSS format (although Atom can also be used), which provides other information, such as publish dates, titles, and accompanying text descriptions of the series and each of its episodes. The feed may contain entries for all episodes in the series, but is typically limited to a short list of the most recent episodes, as is the case with many news feeds. Standard podcasts consist of a feed from one author. More recently multiple authors have been able to contribute episodes to a single podcast feed using concepts such as public podcasting and social podcasting.

The content provider posts the feed to a known location on a webserver. (Unlike the episode file itself, the feed is published to a webserver, usually not by other means.) The location at which the feed is posted is expected to be permanent. This location is known as the feed URI (or, perhaps more often, feed URL). The content provider makes this feed URI known to the intended audience.

A consumer enters this feed URI into a software program called a podcatcher, a type of aggregator. The former term is specific to podcasting while the latter is general to all programs which collect data from feeds. A podcatcher retrieves data from the feed URI and may process it further. (Early podcatchers are named in the History of podcasting page, but constantly updating a comprehensive list of software is beyond the scope of these encyclopedia entries.)

A podcatcher is usually an always-on program which starts when the computer is started and runs in the background. It manages a set of feed URIs added by the user and downloads each at a specified interval, such as every two hours. If the feed data has substantively changed from when it was previously checked (or if the feed was just added to the podcatcher’s list), the program determines the location of the most recent item and automatically downloads it to the user’s computer. Interestingly, it is estimated that perhaps only 20% of podcasts are actually consumed on portable media players; 80% are consumed on the PC onto which they are downloaded. Some podcatchers, such as iTunes, also automatically make the newly downloaded episodes available to a user’s portable media player. (This is only the typical behavior of a podcatcher; some podcatchers behave—or can be set to behave—differently.)

Graphics in XML: XSL-FO vs DTP

Authoring in a markup based solution means giving up the idea of formatting as you write. Previously, formatting was by eye; with markup it will be by rule. Once a stylesheet is created, formatting by rule is faster and more consistent, but it does have
limitations.

Separate one dimensional components (linear text) form two dimensional components (graphics, charts, photos, complex tables). Automatic formatting engines (like an XSL-FO engine) process a string of elements (one dimensional) and flow them onto a page (two dimensional). Graphics are simply items in that sting of elements with a two dimensional size that must be published onto the a two-dimensional page space.

To achieve the benefits of automated formatting for XML-based content, graphics and their overlays must be treated as separate two dimensional objects, created outside of the main XML authoring system, and imported into it as graphics. Single sourcing screen shots and overlays to produce graphics that are imported into an XML based publishing system is a separate problem, and one that is not constrained by the XML system. All the XML publishing system knows is that it’s importing a graphic. How you create a graphic is up to you!

Moving to XML means fighting the monolithic thinking encouraged by DTP systems. An XML system can easily integrate elements from diverse sources. Don’t look for an XML solution with the capabilities of a DTP tool. Look for in an XML system that has the ability to integrate material from many sources. The system should provide solutions for individual problems and integrate those solutions into a working whole.

The solution to a graphic overlay problem may not be found in XML but the tool that solves the problem may use XML. With XML, find the best stand-alone solution a problem and to integrate the result into a publishing process.