sangsara.net

  • Bad tagline (The Eye)

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    Bad tagline (The Eye), originally uploaded by sangsara.

    This isn’t the way to promote a movie, just sayin’.

    Far as I know, the American poster doesn’t use this tagline. Given the supporting evidence (see earlier DVD posts), it must have been a local job.

  • Po-lice on my street

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    po-lice on my street, originally uploaded by sangsara.

    Shit be going down here in my hood right now. Some boy done gone and ran from the 5-0, and now they be bringin’ a massive manhunt down on his ass. Several of these trucks here are parked all up and down the street, and there’s a cop standing on every corner looking for the man. Let y’all know if I hear any gunfire.

    Edit: Alright, in all seriousness, this here is the subject of their manhunt. Leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror cell.

  • Lack of proofreading II

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    Lack of proofreading II, originally uploaded by sangsara.

    This is the back cover of the DVD boxset for The Unit: Season 2.

    See also: DVD for “The Fountain”.

  • Productive in a different way

    When I was a university student, this blog would get attention every time I had readings or essays to do. It didn’t happen again after I got a job, which surprised me, but having a boss and very tight deadlines probably had something to do with it. These days I’m back to being a student in spirit, because the whole day is open to having plans shifted about, and time for work inevitably becomes time for lying in bed, and the lunch hour becomes 2 curry puffs for now and maybe something more later.

    I just spent an hour getting very frustrated with Google Blogger for being so godforsakenly ugly, and for downsizing photos that are sent in from my mobile. Using it for my Haiku Log is out of the question now. I think tumblr/the tumblelog format is fantastically suited for my purposes, despite not being able to post photo caption line-breaks from my mobile.
    When I started Haiku Log two and a half years ago, it was all text. Then a year later, I thought that photos would liven things up, but that proved to be too much trouble. I was using Pixelpost as a CMS, and it was a bitch to login and write with, despite looking fantastic. So in an entire year I posted maybe eight entries, down from about 300 in 2005. I think tumblr is going to make Version 3 much easier to do, with text and photo posts being rolled up all together.

  • Little by little

    Got rid of the Tekka template and switched to a modified version of “Stretch Denim”. Also added an embedded Qik player to the sidebar, which will hopefully get used soon. I’ll just shoot random videos while I’m out, and maybe someone will see something interesting ‘live’.

    Am getting really lazy about changing websites. I’ve been planning to move haikulog.com over to a new CMS that I can update from my phone. It’ll help me to update a lot more often, taking photos, writing captions, and posting on the go. Sounds like it’d be a lot of fun. Just as soon as I figure it out. Was thinking of using Tumblr, but it doesn’t let you add multi-line captions to mobile photo uploads. Bummer.

  • Blogger template needed

    Have finally updated my Blogger service to New-and-Hosted-at-Google Blogger. So these pages are being served by blogspot.com, although they still appear to come from my domain.

    It also mandates the use of modern web code, in order to use their sidebar widgets and other CSS-y things I can’t understand, so I’ve had to get rid of my old template. Am still looking for one that doesn’t suck.

    The best I could do in the meantime was this simple 2-column layout that was, ironically, one of the first Blogger templates ever. Entitled Tekka, it was designed by Blogger/Twitter founder Evan Williams long before the much-lauded second batch of designs by Douglas Bowman and Dan Rubin. Oh how dated those are looking now, only a couple of years on. It just goes to show how you can’t go too far wrong with cleanliness and simplicity.

  • Mobile Phone Apps: Qik

    Free Image Hosting at allyoucanupload.com

    Qik (pronounced Quick) is a video serving website like YouTube, but with client software that installs on your cellphone and allows you to stream ‘live’ video from anywhere. At the moment, Symbian S60 phones (like the ones made by Nokia) are supported, and data is sent even over WiFi or your 3G data network.

    I just got in on the alpha test program tonight (you can sign up at qik.com), and so far it’s been working great. There’s a delay of about 5-10 seconds, but that’s really ok. The video appears ready for playback on Qik’s website almost immediately, in a Flash player much like the ones used by YouTube, GameTrailers, and so on. Once the recording stops, the streaming video is replaced by a recorded copy stored on Qik’s servers, which can then be replayed at any time.

    I’ve also found competing products by ComVu and Flixwagon (also in alpha). ComVu’s PocketCaster software has been selected for use by Reuters, and appears to add even more features like GPS location mapping. It appears to have been in beta testing for awhile but hasn’t made much of a splash. Charges will probably come into effect after the product is finished. ComVu and Flixwagon both allow you to tag and name your videos straight from the phone, something Qik requires you to do on the website.

    Qik’s lack of features (which common-folk users will correctly interpret as simplicity), and catchier name will probably lead to it being the standard for live mobile-to-web videocasting. It’s happened before with products like the Flip Video camcorder and Nintendo DS. Either way, mobile data plans are becoming cheaper and more popular than ever, and I predict we’ll be seeing a lot more street journalism beyond cellphone camera snaps and lifecasting like iJustine in 2008.

  • Whoops! – The Fountain (DVD)

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    Whoops! – The Fountain (DVD), originally uploaded by sangsara.

    “A great quote about the movie here!” – John Doe, The Critic

    It’s hard to believe nobody noticed the boilerplate movie quote on the back of this DVD box before it was sent out for printing.

    Also see the misspelt title at the bottom for “The Constant Gardner”. Ah, these crazy Asia-Pacific offices.