Das Blög of Don Kuntz

Upstream Color

2013-05-07T15:24:00Z

I received my copy of Upstream Color yesterday. Upstream is the long awaited (at least by me) follow up to Shane Carruth's Primer (currently my favorite film). Amazon shipped the preorder early, removing the last day of waiting (I've been waiting to see it since I first heard about it, and was really disappointed when I didn't get a ticket to it's premier in Chicago). Some other things got shipped, too, but they're tangential to the story.

And that's how Upstream Color feels. Similar to Carruth's previous film, there are lots of plot strands that don't really come together until the end (and even at the end, you're not sure if the plot strands came together at all). That's not to say it was a bad film, overall I enjoyed it, but the entire time I was watching it I had this 'what am I watching' feeling. Nowhere near as bad as it was for Somebody Up There Likes Me, but enough for it to be noteworthy¹.

Upstream starts rather bizarrely. It continues on rather bizarrely, too, but it starts with some mind controlling substance, and some life ruining. That's not spoiler-y, that's just the setup.

What follows is one of the most intriguing stories I've experienced in a while. Of the movies I've seen most recently (Oblivion, Iron Man 3, all of Star Wars (again)), most tend to be rather straight forward: this is the good guy; this is the bad guy; one of them wants to do this; the other wants to hinder them in some way. There are occasionally twists, but they typically have a simple, easy to follow plot.

I understand why big pictures are like that, and that I'm not a good representation of movie gowers, but I really like odd, quirky, intriguing, and occasionally confusing films. I like it when I have to think both during and after watching the movie. It's exactly why I really like Primer.

I'm having trouble coming up with something else I've seen to compare Upstream to, with the exception of Primer, probably because they're both Carruth's films. Similarly to Primer, things are obviously meant to be confusing. I only understand a seemingly significant (at least, based on the description) portion of the film because I read descriptions of it beforehand. While having the tiny amount of background is nice, I think that, like Primer, you need to come to Upstream cold, without any previous explanations (just a “this is good, watch it”, should suffice).

It's very artsy. There are a lot of macro focuses²; lots of shots focused on one object (that may, or may not, have meaning). The passage of time is interestingly displayed through some of those shots. Several times something previously focused on has changed in some manner, like the addition of a ring on someone's hand, or the growth of a flower. I quite like that, the sort of hidden in plain sight style.

Overall, I would highly recommend seeing Upstream Color. It's an interesting film with an intriguing (and confusing) story. Similarly, I would recommend watching Primer as well, if you haven't seen it yet.

I would have liked to include Primer (and even Moon, the two are (oddly to the outsider) linked together in my mind) as having given me the same feeling the first time I watched it, but I first saw Primer (and Moon) five years ago and can't recall if I felt that way.
There's probably a more technical term for it, but I don't videography.

Longer Thoughts

2013-05-02T15:13:00Z

There's been a shift recently from the short, jittery thoughts provided by social networks to longer thoughts. While Medium didn't kick off this trend, it's helped bring the idea of writing longer pieces back to more people than individual blogs have. And it's good.

I recently wrote about Blogging Software, and how the key feature for me is ease of writing posts. I think that the internet's move back to longer writing by individuals is helping make ease of writing more people's key feature. Sure, WordPress gives users a whole lot of customizability on look and feel, but it's made writing new content harder.

The rise of alternatives like Medium or a host of self-hosted services like Anchor, Statamic, Kirby, and the like (hell, I'm even occasionally working on something similar called Small) shows that people are ready for tools that make writing new content easy, and specifically longer thoughts.

People may not be writing long essays, but they're writing medium to long length pieces. I happen to believe that this is a good thing. Social networks, like Twitter and Facebook aren't a good forum for providing longer thoughts, Google Plus isn't all that good for it either, but people sometimes use it that way (but that's besides the point). There's nothing wrong with social networks, they're a nice way to keep in touch with people, share interesting links, or post a small snippet of your day, but they're not cohesive to longer, more formed thoughts.

Is a wholely long form internet good? Probably not, part of the appeal of the Internet is that you can use it to easily find distraction or inconsequential things. Is a wholely short form internet good? Again, probably not, because the internet is the perfect platform for sharing ideas. A mix of long and short form content is a good thing, which is why the shift towards more (not exclusively, just, more) longer form pieces is good.

Blogging Software

2013-04-30T20:20:00Z

Blogging software is an interesting topic to me, and while I've only used a small number of the hordes of options on this site, I've tried out a whole lot to see if I like what they have to offer. I've even attempted making my own, in varying amounts of success (see the DKCMS and fjord for examples, though, to be fair, fjord is a fork of something else). While I don't know if I have much to add on the topic, I at least have some thoughts on what makes it more likely for me to use or not.

The main thing I look for in blogging software is the ease of writing blog posts. The less overhead required in writing a post, and the easier it is for me to start writing a post are really important to me. Using fjord, and other static site generators, too (specifically jekyll and mynt), removes pretty much all of the overhead to writing posts, specifically, there's no required network connection, and writing posts is as easy as opening a text editor and using markdown.

When I started using WordPress, it was really easy to write posts, sure, the network connection was required, and the post writing went through the WordPress editor, but there wasn't a whole lot of extra clicking required to get to the writing. You logged in, you clicked on the text area, you started writing. Nowadays, WordPress has a ridiculous amount of overhead to writing posts, you need to find the new post button in the sidebar, and it might be hidden because you've condensed the sidebar, and while there have always been a large number of extras in the new post area, there are even more, and it's just a lot of unnecessary things. That's not to say that WordPress is a bad piece of software (I think there are a couple things wrong with it, but that doesn't make it bad), it's just not for me, or, it's not for blogs that I write.

One of the newer pieces of software that I've looked at is Anchor, a system built for close to exactly what I want, writing posts quickly and easily. It also has nice art direction features to let you make really nice and pretty posts, but the thing I like most is the ease in writing posts.

I really like the shift towards database-less systems. While I haven't played with it, Statamic looks like a really nice system. Basically, it's like most static-site generators, but it uses PHP. It lets users write posts in markdown, and uses yaml frontmatter, just like every static-site generator I've used. Plus, it looks pretty. There's an interview with Mark Boulton on his switch to statamic, if you're even mildly interested, I suggest you check it out.

It seems like most people out there have also had issues with the extra overhead to writing posts in their old software. I don't think that the recent push of hacker-y static-site generators, less hacker-y flat-file content management systems, and software that lets you focus on the writing without extra doodads all over the place is surprising at all.

I'm also quite liking the move away from comments on personal blogs. Some people may think they're required to make a blog a blog, but I think that while comments can provide a nice forum for discussion on a topic, for the most part, they don't. I'd rather someone bring the topic to a more neutral forum. I think that personal blogs are inherently biased toward the author, and can't attract anywhere near as much discussion as a more neutral forum (specifically, you know, forum/bbs sites, maybe?). Plus I think they detract from the main idea, which is whatever the author happened to write.

I like where blogging software is moving, and I hope the make it easy to write trend continues, because it's a good trend.

How I Listen to Music

2013-04-27T09:47:00Z

I don't listen to music like most of my peers. Most people my age have a near-endless stream of shuffled music played in any order they feel like, and while I occasionally do that, a good portion of the time is spent listening to albums all the way through, in the order they're delivered.

While I don't know for sure, it seems to be something that my parents generation would do more than mine, mostly because they had records, and shuffling around on a record is a pain. I don't listen to albums in “album order” for some nostalgic reason going back to the pain of records, but because they were placed in that order for a reason.

I also purchase whole albums, not just the hit singles or other individual tracks. Again, this is not due to the pain of records nostalgia, but because I would rather listen to an entire album than just one song. Plus, most of the time, I find songs that aren't the radio hits or singles to be the best ones on an album. I think this is most apparent with the recent release by The Shins, Port of Morrow. Overall, I rather like the album, but I'm not a big fan of the two radio hits, Simple Song and It's Only Life. I'm okay with It's Only Life, but I really can't stand Simple Song.

Similarly, Of Monsters and Men has a great album (My Head is an Animal), and I actually enjoy the songs that got radio play, but none of the slower songs in the latter half of the album got any radio play that I heard, and my favorite song (Yellow Light, because it's just so melancholic. Also, listen to it while reading Wikipedia's Timeline of the Far Future, you can't go wrong) comes from that half. Also, my favorite of their faster songs, Dirty Paws didn't get anywhere near as much air time as their two singles.

I have a feeling that the air play thing is due to how people listen to music now, in the disjointed, whatever-order-you-want method. I think if people listened to entire albums all the way through, they'd probably find that some of the less played songs are streets ahead of their more “popular” siblings.

2013-04-25T15:18:00Z

So… There are now some small advertisements on the site. Well, provided you don't block advertisements. I don't really have a feeling either way (if you want to block them, that's your prerogative).

There isn't much else to say. They're probably going to stay, because they're fairly unobtrusive, and they're not bad. If they get bad, I'll get rid of them. As for their positioning, that might change. The one and only position is in the footer, next to the text (if you have ads disabled, you shouldn't notice any extra empty space in the footer).

As for my thoughts on advertisements, if they're small, unobtrusive, and don't distract from the main content, they're fine. Giant flashing banners are not fine, lots of animation is not fine, but a small-ish, static image and some text is perfectly fine (at least by me).

Building Branch II: Now It's Small

2013-04-15T22:57:00Z

So… It's been a while since I wrote about Building Branch. There are a couple reasons for that, mostly I stopped working on Branch during finals, and didn't pick it up during winter break, and mostly forgot about it until I had another, similar idea (which I'll get to) a couple days ago.

As for that second, similar idea. When I was refreshing the look of the site last week, I was really inspired by Medium, because it's very clean and it puts the writing first. In general, I like the idea of Medium, I just don't like the data lock-up. This got me started on the idea of Small. My main goal for Small is to create a thought sharing platform for individuals or small groups akin to Medium.

Initially, I just wanted to start writing code, so I put together a small (pun?) Flask application that didn't really do anything other than tell you information from the URL supplied to it as a stub. After actually thinking about Small for more than twenty seconds, I realized that it has similar design goals to what Branch was originally going to be, a nice, simple blogging engine that can be easily installed by non-developers.

Currently, Small is still 99% Branch, just with some minor tweaks. I'm working on getting it closer to the new goals (which haven't been placed anywhere other than one of my notebooks, but, stay tuned, most of that information is coming up, either in this post, or in a follow up).

Small's main goal isn't to be a blogging engine for everyone, but to create what I consider to be a near-perfect blogging engine (with the less-than perfect part being PHP, but that's because I think it's cool to share stuff like this with people). As with the current, and previous two, iterations of this site, maximizing emphasis on content with little else (a comparatively small header and footer) is the main design goal, along with a nice and easy to use online post editor.

There isn't much other information that I want to put out there right now, but there might be more in the future (especially as it nears completion).

The Lonely Astronaut

2013-04-11T22:04:00Z

Preface: I was looking for a writing prompt, and stumbled across one that intrigued me. The prompt is:

I suppose the first question that comes to mind is “is this astronaut really lonely?”, which is shortly followed by “in what sense are they an astronaut?”.

I don't have an answer to the first question (yet), but to the second, it's possible that person is an astronaut in the sense that they're detached from the world (either in the Sagan-esque-politics-don't-matter-to-astronauts sense, or the observer-of-their-own-world sense).

This leads into a discussion on what is an astronaut, and one could certainly define an astronaut as the latest in a line of exploring professions. I think there's a nobility to the idea of the astronaut, as a group of individuals who do brave, bold, new things. But because they're doing new things, things that humanity has only dreamed of in the past, they're detached from the world in a way. They've experienced things that only a handful of other people have.

Additionally, the space suit, being their only habitable environment at times, closes them off from the world around them. It creates a barrier, the known, habitable, safe world inside the suit, and the unknown and potentially dangerous outside world.

That detachment from the world could lead them into an observational role. Which goes back to my second question: in what sense are they an astronaut? They might be someone just attempting to insulate themselves from the world. If that's the case, maybe they're lonely, but it's a self-induced loneliness, due to their insulation.

Nexus 7 - Two Months In

2013-04-07T01:22:00Z

The screen on my Nexus 7 cracked. Well, snapped seems like a more accurate description. I'm really dissappointed, because I didn't even get the satisfaction of breaking it, it happened because Asus is kinda the worst.

Basically, while it was in my backpack, with the back braced by several books and a couple pads of paper, the screen developed a crack. The crack itself is odd to me, because it seems like the only way it could develop the way it did is as if someone took it and tried bending it backwards. There aren't any peripheral cracks that indicate something hit it.

I'm mostly really hacked off right now. Mostly because it seems like a fairly common issue, due to poor manufacturing. A fair number of Nexus' come off the line with a screen raising issue, and apparently if you catch it (not that it's advertised as something you should look for anywhere) before something bad happens, Google/Asus will give you a new one. If the screen cracks, it's the consumer's responsibility, which I think is wrong.

Bluntly, Asus' lines are releasing subpar devices (no suprise), but they're not telling anyone that they should be on the lookout, and if something happens because they released the subpar device without letting you know, it costs more to have them fix it than to get a new one. That's right, it costs $30 more (plus shipping in both directions) to get it fixed than to purchase the same device.

I want a new one. But at the same time, I don't want a device made by Asus, ever again. My only reservation when getting a Nexus 7 was that it was made by Asus. I have never heard a good thing about Asus, but I've heard, and now experienced, lots of bad things about Asus.

Additionally, the next model is due to be announced at Google IO in a month, with a release date in June/July, which makes me want to wait (but I really liked having a tablet, for the two months it lasted). My only hope for the new medium Nexus device is that it's not made by Asus. There's been some rumors that LG will be tackling it, which would make me really happy (I have had only good experiences with LG). I really hope that rumor is true.

One Month with the Nexus 7

2013-03-31T16:41:00Z

I got a Nexus 7 for my birthday last month, and I feel that I've just gotten to a point where I have a stack of applications that I like, and kind of want to share my thoughts on both the device and the applications.

Shortly before getting the Nexus, I'd been lamenting that I missed Android. I think that Android is pretty sweet, starting at the level of customizability it has, followed by some of the other nice built in features, like the notification bar (which is now in iOS, but not at good), and in the case of the Nexus 7 (and probably most other tablets) the quick settings access. And Google Now (I'm waiting for that to come to the iOS Google app, because it's the best). Basically, I like Android, a lot more than iOS, but I got an iPhone because it was the best physical device available (for what I wanted, as in, a relatively small phone, with nice features, like the retina display).

The Device

As for the Nexus 7 physically, I like the size and the weight. Having used iPads in the past, they just feel too big for 'everyday use'. They seem like fine laptop replacements, but less so for casual activities like reading, perusing the internet, and playing media. The seven inches is a nice size. Not too big to be unwieldy for reading in bed, not too small to be useless in class.

I like the material used on the back. It has a good grip to it which means it can be held in a number of seemingly precarious positions while still being relatively safe. The comparatively large border around the screen might seem off putting to some, but it's quite nice, it gives your thumbs a nice place to rest while not being used on the screen.

The Applications

First, I think that Android's killer feature right now is Google Now. If you haven't heard of it before, you should check out the Google Now website and watch the intro video. Having all of that information put together is really nice, and it learns things too. Interestingly, if you search for a location on any device logged into the same Google account, Google Now will pull directions (and commute times) for you automatically (which is sometimes annoying, but still cool). Basically, fun times are had.

As for the other applications, I'm already fairly heavily tied into Google services, so some of my defaults shouldn't be surprising.

The Gmail app for email, Chrome for web browsing (sometimes Firefox Aurora), Google Calendar for calendaring, Google Music for musicing (with most purchasing happening with Amazon), and Google Keep for notes and lists and the like. See, Google stuff.
Feedly for RSS readings, because Feedly also has a web interface/plugin with Chrome and Firefox. As an added bonus, Feedly's reimplementing the Google Reader API, so I won't need to worry about when Reader fully shuts down. For the most part, my feeds are infrequently updated sites.
Google Currents for news. It's just a nice way to put a bunch of 'real news' sources in one container. I could alternatively use a web browser, but that's more work.
Instapaper for saved articles and offline news reading. I think it's worth the money. And I can save anything from another application, or the internet.
Reddit is Fun for Reddit browsing. Hacker News 2 for HN browsing.
The generic social network applications: Google+, Twitter (which I use infrequently), Facebook, and Linked In (because apparently people use that…).
Play Books, Kindle, Play Magazines, and Dark Horse Comics for reading materials. Most of my books are Play Books, and I can get Wired downloaded to Play Magazines (because for some reason, even after changing my address on their application to Carthage, it still sends it to my house). I don't comics frequenly, and when I get non-trades, they're generally Dark Horse (because the publish Star Wars (for now), Firefly, and Doctor Solar).
VLC for videos, because, just like with the desktop player, it doesn't care what codec your file is using, it will play it.
On the games front, most of them come from a Humble Bundle of some sort. Solar 2 and Swords and Sworcery are the two big ones. I got S&S a couple days ago, and I like pretty much everything about it. If you're looking for a cool indie game, I suggest S&S (and it's available on most platforms, and the soundtrack is excellent).

Closing Thoughts

Mostly, if you're looking for a tablet for doing more casual things (as in, the most professional-esque you get is maybe modifying some text or spreadsheet documents or using a web app of sorts), I would definitely suggest the Nexus 7. If you want more professional you might want to look at the Nexus 10, but I don't know all that much about it…

Who are Your Users?

2013-03-14T14:36:00Z

I've been working on an interesting project called StoryTeller, and a while ago some of the other people who've worked on it presented it at a conference, and they got a variety of feedback. One of the recurring themes with the naysayers seemed to be along the lines of is that developers are all curmudgeons and don't like change, and this product probably isn't for them.

Granted, the conference was several months ago, and I wasn't there, so this is like seventeenth-hand information now, but I've been thinking about how new types of software can't know its user base until after it's released.

Basically, we the developers of StoryTeller can't really know who will use it until after it's been “finished” (or given its first stable release, or had more people use it. Mostly the having more people look at it is the important part). We can make assumptions, we can create something that we would like to use as developers and see who joins the party later, but we can't know who will be using it when the dust settles (the dust in this case being lots of people trying it out for lots of different tasks).

StoryTeller's different from most software. For the most part people release software that's an advancement from a previous piece of software, but still very similar to that previous piece of software. Think of each new release of Microsoft Word, they're all basically the same, but with some minor advancements, and most of them aren't visible to the end user (except for the 2003 to 2007 release which changed from traditional toolbars to the ribbon interface).

The same is true with most new pieces of software (even if they're not technically related), too. Google Chrome, while not based on Firefox or Internet Explorer (or a host of other browsers that came before it, with the kinda/sorta exception of Safari (it mostly used the same rendering engine)), is essentially the same thing, but with a slightly different user interface. Sure, to most developers, it was completely different, and provided a stream of updates that helped push the web forward, but to 99% of internet users, it was just a slightly different looking web browser, the only change was the search bar was integrated with the navigation bar.

While StoryTeller's similar to other version control systems, it gives you the ability to see how a program's code has changed over time, it's also radically different. So different that I don't even know if developers will be its core audience when it's released. What's to say that teachers don't find it incredibly useful to have their students write drafts in some text editor with a StoryTeller plugin (what's to keep someone from writing an MS Word plugin?), and developers for the most part ignore it? We, the creators of StoryTeller can't say, we can only hope.

What I'm getting at is that once a product is released, there really isn't any telling who will the core audience will be until much later on. Just a thought. Also, I now kinda want to know what other products (be they physical or virtual) have had a completely different core audience than expected by their creators…