DoxaLearns(2012)

Not Yet

RiverView(30.12.12)

Philp K. Dick

Watched TOTAL RECALL, the film. It felt hurried, like one is in a hotel and check-out

time is approaching. Nice place, but one is no longer altogether there. Made me feel

anxious. And, as is currently the case in watching films these days, I stopped the

film in the middle to read about it. Should films come with programs? Re-assure me,

give me some boundaries.

It is a current commonplace about movies that no one really makes them anymore.

We are treated to a steady outporing of trivial plot- blockbusters with enormous budgets,

meant to bring in the bucks while they numb the mind. It's called marketing.

What impressed me about that movie - and all the reviewers agree on this - is the city

environment: steady downpour, drugged out 20s individuals, dirt, noise and levels of

machines. The magnetized car chase scene is unlike anything that's ever been created

in a movie, STAR WARS is in the infancy movie-making humanity on this one. And that

is the sense in which this movie is a work of science-fiction. There is a whole imlicit

projection of our current cities into the the future in the decor, a history of the yet- to- come.

They call the film dystopian, implying it is too critical, takes a dim view of things. It isn't.

Those magnetic cars are pure fantasy, I love'em.

Age matters; Philp Dick himself wrote about that. I used to spend my make-up allowance on

Dick's books and those of his confrères writing Science-Fiction at a time when - we

were living in interesting times - one could see both great peril and great promise in the

future. Dick let us into his hallucinations and confusions, drew out their premises and

conclusions, took drugs to ease the pain and feed the fear. It's called literature, and I am

grateful to him.

I remember when the Montreal Metro first opened in the 60s. I went to Montreal on my

own (who dates a girl with no make-up!?) to ride that metro, learn to navigate the place,

and appreciate the works of art. It was a Sunday afternoon, everything was new and spotless.

I was alone in my car for long stetches, and a number of the stations were empty. No mp3, no

phone, not even a camera. Just me and those whistles and rail sounds, anxious but

determined I was in the right place.

Philip Dick, I just found out, eventually had five wives, used to get married when his

girlfriends were well pregnant. Tut. But then guys in those days were nobody's aunt.

　

Central Station

HH2012

FROMSCRATCH

Developer Moment

The SqlDataAdapter, serves as a bridge between a DataSet and SQL Server for retrieving and saving data. The SqlDataAdapter provides this bridge by mapping Fill, which changes the data in the DataSet to match the data in the data source, and Update, which changes the data in the data source to match the data in the DataSet, using the appropriate Transact-SQL statements against the data source. The update is performed on a by-row basis. For every inserted, modified, and deleted row, the Update method determines the type of change that has been performed on it (Insert, Update, or Delete). Depending on the type of change, the Insert, Update, or Delete command template executes to propagate the modified row to the data source. When the SqlDataAdapter fills a DataSet, it creates the necessary tables and columns for the returned data if they do not already exist. However, primary key information is not included in the implicitly created schema unless the MissingSchemaAction property is set to AddWithKey. You may also have the SqlDataAdapter create the schema of the DataSet, including primary key information, before filling it with data using FillSchema. For more information, see Adding Existing Constraints to a DataSet (ADO.NET).
SqlDataAdapter is used in conjunction with SqlConnection and SqlCommand to increase performance when connecting to a SQL Server database.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308507/en-us

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http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~thicks/Tutorials/Visual-Studio-Windows-App-Form-MSSQL-Connection-ComboBox/Visual-Studio-Windows-App-Form-MSSQL-Connection-ComboBox.html

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                              source: NASA images

Dark Knight

 
Through an inexplicable play of circumstance, I ended up watching the latest

Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises enirely on my own. Let's just say a large

cake with moult Marta Stewart Buttercream icing was also involved. What a

night, as the song goes. I might also add, for those unacquainted with this icing : whipped

saltless butter with a sack of fluffy sugar and a dash of vanilla, that at first bite, makes one think

it probably impossible to eat more than a tiny forktip of. Nay, there is a solution: one

transfers to a bowl, immerses the cake in cruhsed pinneapple with added orange juice and

red grapes. Eat with a spoon, lie down.

For the film: Dark Knight isn't a film, its an experience; like opera isn't theater, or a rock

concert isn't a club. I ended up playing with the sound control, taking the action sequences

down quite a few notches, to my chagrin. The score was wonderful, percussive, playful.

They're building new kinds of cinemas for films like this: so they should.

As for the storyline, I ended up stopping the whole thing in the middle, and going to

Wikipedia the bone up on the plot and various characters. Not really Wagnerian, but I hadn't

seen the previous films, and my grasp of the Marvel Comic universe was spotty. Thus the

film, under certain lights, brilliant: "Call me", ventures Cat Woman's latest, as she leaves him

for dead. Or CW herself, fighting off an urge to cry, as she turns aound to inflict serious

damage, in heeled booties to die for.

I watched the film in three instalments, working on my programming tutorials in between,

over the whole afternoon. Later in the evening, having taken the film back to the video store,

I had a pang of conscience. Wasn't that business about Bruce Wayne investing in Fusion

power, whose only possible downside is misdirection toward conventional weapons an

irresponsible plot line. Heck, one would need to detonate a bomb just to start one of those

reactors. (They're meant to operate in million(s) degree Celsius as compared to a fusion

reactor in the 300 C range). But I won't live to see that as the forces of history take the

unthinkable to the next level. Pity...

　

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