Inside an actor's brain | Fiona Shaw performs in a scanner
As part of a new exhibition on human identity, actor Fiona Shaw agreed to have her brain scanned while performing parts of TS Eliot's poem The Waste Land. Stuart Jeffries joined her at University College London
I'm lucky enough to be able to play with those three applications on my Mac. Pages and OpenOffice are both native application for Mac while Microsoft Word is a Windows application that I have to run under Parallels Desktop. It's been two years since the first time I used them and I think it's the time to say that cross platform compatibility is my biggest issue. It doesn't matter what application you use to create the document, if you want your receivers to get the same feels, looks, and even effects you have to make sure that they use the same application. Or, the other way around.
The hardest part of all is to make sure that numbering format, indentation, and graph and data format is all same within those three applications. Somehow, there will always be formatting loss if you export them i.e. Pages and OpenOffice) to doc format (I'm afraid that most of my clients and customers are using Word, so let's assume that doc is a standard format on this matter).
Personally I prefer Pages for its user friendly interface and easy usage that let you focus on the work to complete. But there is no use of a complete work when at the end you realize that your client can't get the report as you want it to be. Again, that's the main problem. And you absolutely can't tell your clients that they use a "different" application. That won't work.
In an effort to overcome this problem, I always (at least for the last one year) use minimum formatting option. A plain text with standard format is always welcome in every application in every platform. That means standard fonts, standard numbering (though it still has big issue on Word and OpenOffice), justified alignment, and manual heading. For graph and data insertion, I always use picture instead of graph or data itself. In this case, those abundant features are useless. And it's not just in Pages. The abundant features lie within OpenOffice is also useless.
Having this applied for almost a year, I'm beginning to think what use of those other highly-sophisticated-features lies within each application. How many of you really use other than simple standard feature to complete your work? Why can't they focus on compatibility and inter-operability to mitigate this effect?
I believe that this is going to be a major issue for the following years, especially when online collaboration replaces the way we work. Compatibility is my highest consideration point. Google, which I consider as competitor in office productivity application with their Google Docs, has an advantages on this matter. However, Indonesia won't be ready for full online collaboration. Offline is still an option for Indonesia user. So I think Google should also consider this compatibility point, especially during conversion to another format.
"'This is Little Richard, King of the Blues', he announced to audiences in Southern black night clubs adding with a sly smile, 'and the Queen, too!'" (162)
"A strutting, singing drag queen since his early teens, Little Richard was a product of a black gay world and a tradition of black drag performance that formed an integral part of the culture of rhythm and blues." (163)Hamilton, Marybeth. 1998. "Sexual Politics and African-American Music; Or, Placing Little Richard in History." History Workshop Journal, no. 46: 160-176.
Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend
Birds are singing, the sun is shining and I am joyful first thing in the morning without caffeine. Why you ask? Because it is Word of the Year time (or WOTY as we refer to it around the office). Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year. This announcement is usually applauded by some and derided by others and the ongoing conversation it sparks is always a lot of fun, so I encourage you to let us know what you think in the comments.
Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: unfriend.
No where nearly as iconic as these:
2001: 9/11
1993: DVD
1952: Gen X
1944: DNA
1936: male chauvinism (???)
1911: phone number
WARNER BROS. DISTRIBUTORS LTD
135 Wardour Street (Registered Office)
London WIV 4AP
Telephone: 01-437 5600
Fax: 01-437 9544
Telex: 22653
Registered in England No. 259661
Dear Dott. Moccia,
You will undoubtedly understand my disappointment that my film "Full Metal Jacket" has been classified so as to prevent it being viewed by young people under the age of 18. Obviously I do not regard young Italians as being substantially different in nature, character or temperament to young people in other parts of the world and it was my earnest desire that my film be an experience capable of being shared by the widest audience possible.
This is important to me because I sincerely hope that "Full Metal Jacket" will be regarded as making an important and relevant contribution to the ways in which people view their own nature.
My intention was not to relish violence for it's own sake but to emphasize the reality of both the training process undergone by the recruits and the war situation in which they found themselves. A crucial aspect of this process is the use of language to dehumanise the young men. This had to be presented in a totally truthful way otherwise I would have compromised the reality of the story.
I make no apology for taking such an approach. It is what attracted me to the project from the beginning: it's sense of uncompromising truth. "Full Metal Jacket" offers no easy moral or political answers.
I think you should know that Sweden has classified the film, 15, New Zealand has a 13 age restriction, Finland has given it a 16 age restriction, as has Germany. These ratings were applied without any cuts.
I believe that all the people should be given the opportunity to see things the way they are.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed)
Stanley Kubrick
cc: Dott.ssa Rosa Alba de Gaetano Leardi
Mr Bernard Weinreich, Warner Bros Italia
via Letters of Note | Archivio Kubrick | L'ascensore per il secondo piano
ABC Island 1.2.2: Find hidden treasures of ABC on piratess island in addicting word game. http://bit.ly/44rUZ5
