But Java /can/ do that!

2010-03-14T09:05:25+00:00

I recently attended a talk at FOSDEM by Miguel de Icaza, a fellow enemy of “Free” software.

He, like most .NET users, is desperately seeking features to differentiate his second-rate platform from the wonderfulnessness of Java.

He showed .NET expressions, a wonderful feature whereby the actual nature of a predicate can be retrieved at runtime and optimal, say, SQL can be built to match it.

He, however, claimed that Java lacks this feature. This is not the case.

ExpressionTest shows various uses of this in Java; basically:

Expression.toSQL(new Predicate() { @Override public boolean matches(FooDTO t) { t.a == 7; } });

will return:

(a = 7)

Obviously this remains slightly more verbose while the Java lambda proposals are finalised, but the feature is hardly missing!

Similarily,
return (t.a == 7 || t.a == 8 || t.a == 9) && "pony".equals(t.b);

becomes:

(a = 7 AND b = 'pony') OR (a = 8 AND b = 'pony') OR (a = 9 AND b = 'pony')

And, etc.

The implementation, if the devil compels you to look.

Films

2010-03-07T05:33:06+00:00

I should really document films that I watch more often. I always forget what I’ve seen recently, and my thoughts on them. I’ve watched three films this last week.

The Wild Blue Yonder by Werner Herzog

tldr: Inventive and Well Made

An alternative Scifi film which recontextualizes documentary footage through music, editing and voice overs. I’ve seen several Herzog films before, and I’ve been highly impressed every time. The technique used is incredibly clever, manipulating your viewing potential. Its a purely cinematic approach, and an interesting way of telling a story. The long drawn out takes, and shots of seemingly little come together to form a cohesive whole. The narrative itself describes the journey of a group of humans to an alien’s human planet to find a cure for a disease that an alien has accidentally brought to earth. Sounds pretty standard fare, but the weird twist to the narrative is that its told from the point of view of the Alien. He feels left out and ignored by the decisions makers in Earth, and constantly observes how they’ve made foolish choices and he could have easily explained why they were foolish. Bleak ending, well shot, and the only actor (Brad Dourif) performs well.

Canadian Bacon by Michael Moore

tldr: Tongue in Cheek Comedy

Critically panned upon release, Canadian Bacon is a fictional film written and Directed by Michael Moore about a war between America and Canada that’s initiated by a President in order to improve approval ratings. The film relies considerably upon stereotypes of Americans and Canadians for its comedy, therefore anyone who is a fan of Due South or Professional Wrestling will heartily approve. Its typically tongue in cheek Michael Moore, and reasonably enjoyable. After watching this film I noted that it had all the advantages of his documentaries, but I didn’t feel I was missing out on the facts or critical analysis that his documentaries lack. I actually laughed quite hard a few times, not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but the scene in which Dan Aykroyd cameos as a Policeman who forces a group of Americans to rewrite their anti-canadian graffiti in french to appease the Bloc Québécois. I’d also forgotten how good a happy fat man John Candy is.

The Girlfriend Experience by

tldr: well shot and edited, poorly written, acted and conceived

Watching this film was a motivation for writing this blog post. Primarily to tell people not to watch it. Its well shot, has some nice editing touches, clever changes of focus, good lighting but totally lacks any emotional connection. The lead character is a high class prostitute, played by porn star Sasha Grey, who is considering going away for a weekend with a client, and the stress that this plays on her relationship with her boyfriend. I’m totally confused as to why this dilemma is introduced after 55 minutes of playing for time in a 1 hour 20 minute film. I don’t understand what the effect on a relationship of one of the partner’s working in the sex industry is, why not use this time to help me, the viewer, to understand?

Instead we get scene after scene of poorly conceived dialogue, that fails to lay insight on any of the issues that it touches, which include Obama’s Presidential Election and the . One of the key scenes of the film involves an argument between the main couple, an argument where Chris Santos overacts and. as if to emphasize this point, Sasha Grey provides no emotion at all. It would be easy to write her off as being a pornstar and out of her depth in this acting role, but frankly she doesn’t give a consistently terrible performance, at some stages shows genuine concern – there’s a nice scene involving her crying and clasping at her jacket in the cold in order to keep her warm – the kind of warmth that neither her boyfriend or clients could provide? I’m inclined to think that the script (assuming it wasn’t totally improvised) was the main problem here, since there’s plenty of scenes without Sasha Grey that fall totally flat, and sloppy dialogue abounds.

There’s a ridiculously unbelievable website owner – even I, as a PhD student, am aware that you don’t tell prospective employees that your work sounds like a slavery ring. Furthermore, its publicly known that the performers and producers within the sex industry regular involve in intercourse, so why is it that she feels so emotionally scarred during scenes in which she describes being propositioned by the website owner. Please don’t watch this film.

Planet Compsoc

But Java /can/ do that!

Films