David Gessel
Die Falscher
The Counterfeiters tells the story of a Jewish counterfeiter who’s artistic skills protected him when he was arrested by the Nazis, and how he led a band of skilled printers protected under a Machiavellian Schindler-like SS officer as they embarked on the largest counterfeiting operation in history.
The movie was very well done, engaging, fun, with good acting and a very compelling story. The character conflicts seemed a bit rote and the character types played a little too close to standards, but overall a very worthwhile film to see and enjoyable.
2007 Telluride Film Festival
Persepolis
We saw this really amazing film by an Iranian film maker, based on the graphic novel Persepolis. The film was the best we’ve seen so far. I really wonderful relief from some fairly indulgent films. A tribute to Pierre Ressient that was technically rough and really only engaging for the extended family. More of a home movie tribute than a film, though Pierre himself is quite amazing and his nebulous yet defining influence on the film industry is astonishing.
We also saw Werner Herzog’s travelogue of his vacation to Antarctica as a resident artist at McMurdo, Encounters at the End of the World. He’s a brilliant enough that his travelogue is interesting, but primarily just beautiful and occasionally funny.
Persepolis is a brilliant film. The characters are engaging and fun and adorable; more compelling and human than any animated film I’ve seen, and more so than most live action films. The story is tragic and painful and challenging and yet very real and despite being a devastating critique of Muslim rule in Iran, and a painfully honest indictment of the Shah, of British meddling, of the US influence in the Iran/Iraq war, and a sharp social critique of expat life, it was intimately apolitical.
Marjane Satrapi spoke after the film and is as quick-witted and funny as her characters. She was an absolute delight to listen to.
2007 Telluride Film Festival
Cargo 200
I saw Cargo 200 tonight. My first full film (I had to leave the very first one, Shyam Benegal’s Trikal, for a call), and the second was a tribute to Daniel Day Lewis. As Mr. Lewis was being interviewed by someone who’s favorite film ever was The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He said he was miserable the whole time. She said, shocked, “but it doesn’t seem like it in the film.” To which he replied, “well, that is my job isn’t it?”
Cargo 200 is amazing. Intense doesn’t even begin to describe it. A young girl takes an ill-fated ride with a bad boy, and things go down hill from there… Really, really badly downhill. But not knowing how enhances the suspense. It is best not to know. You might wish you didn’t once you do.
The film was introduced with the caveat that it was called fascist and it was rejected from several festivals, including Cannes with the statement that it would never show in France. We’ll have to dig into that label a bit, it’s hard to see how it applies. It is certainly tortuous and violent, but hardly more so than Baise Moi and certainly not endorsing the action presented in the movie.
We also saw a short called “The Pearce Sisters” by Aardman animation. It was apropos to Cargo 200, but a lot funnier. More along the lines of Angry Kid than Wallace and Gromit. Not a Saturday morning sort of animation… But very funny in a black way.
2007 Telluride Film Festival
Greetings from Omaha
Fuel stop on the way to Telluride.
sick kitty
This cat showed up in the yard yesterday. Pregnant. Eeew.. But very friendly, though terrified of Stella, so perhaps the missing flesh was consumed by a dog…
ZoneMinder on FC7
Overview
Zone Minder Config ZoneMinder 1.22.3 on Fedora Core 7
There are useful instructions at this URL
Do a basic install of FC7.
- KDE seems to work better than gnome.
- Remove unnecessary SW to speed install (desktop stuff)
- Add Server and Development to get the right tools
- Add https://www.systutorials.com/additional-repositories-for-fedora-linux/ as an RPM source
- (via this link)
- Make sure the necessary holes are in the firewall at 80
Add necessary bits
yum install mysql-server mysql-devel php-mysql pcre-devel \
perl-DateManip perl-libwww-perl perl-Device-SerialPort \
perl-MIME-Lite perl-Archive-Zip
updating perl (some will be installed already)
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Bundle::CPAN
reload CPAN
install Archive::Tar
install Archive::Zip
install MIME::Lite
install MIME::Tools
install DateTime
install Date::Manip
install Bundle::libnet
install Device::SerialPort
install Astro::SunTime
install X10
quit
FFMPEG install
Note that getting the FFMPEG libraries installed so they work is a nightmare. I followed these instructions and they seemed to work:
First add the x264 libraries and devel from livna via software manager
If the database hangs try
rm /var/lib/rpm/__db*
rpm --rebuilddb
yum clean all
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg/
./configure --enable-shared --enable-pp \
--enable-libx264 --cpu=pentium3 --enable-gpl
make
make install
nano /etc/ld.so.conf
add the line “/usr/local/lib”
ldconfig
System demons
chkconfig --add mysqld
chkconfig --level 345 mysqld on
chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
service mysqld start
service httpd start
add to /etc/sysctl.conf to increase shared memory limit
kernel.shmall = 134217728
kernel.shmmax = 134217728
Zoneminder Install
Check the latest version of zoneminder at https://web.archive.org/web/20110310142847/http://www.zoneminder.com:80/downloads.html
wget https://zoneminder.com/downloads/
tar xvfz ZoneMinder-1.22.3.tar.gz
cd ZoneMinder-1.22.3
patch it
https://web.archive.org/web/20110501001851/http://www.zoneminder.com:80/wiki/index.php/1.22.3_Patches
The configure command I used is:
./configure --with-webdir=/var/www/html/zm \
--with-cgidir=/var/www/cgi-bin ZM_DB_HOST=localhost\
ZM_DB_NAME=zm ZM_DB_USER=zmuser ZM_DB_PASS=zmpass \
CFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=pentium3" CXXFLAGS="-g -O3 \
-march=pentium3" --with-ffmpeg=/usr/bin \
--with-webuser=apache --with-webgroup=apache
putting a reasonable user name for “zmuser” and password for “zmpass”
make
make install
If make barfs with
/usr/local/src/ZoneMinder-1.22.3/src/zm_mpeg.cpp:284: undefined reference to `av_free(void*)'
try
”in src/zm_mpeg.h starting on line 26, add the lines with the + (removing the + of course) The other lines are just for reference and should be already in the file.” from this reference (lost to the void, alas).
nano src/zm_mpeg.h
#define ZM_MPEG_H
+extern "C" {
+#define __STDC_CONSTANT_MACROS
#include <ffmpeg/avformat.h>
+}
#if FFMPEG_VERSION_INT == 0x000408
Install scripts
install scripts/zm /etc/init.d/
chkconfig --add zm
Create and configure the ZoneMinder database
mysql mysql < db/zm_create.sql
mysql mysql
at the mysql prompt:
grant select,insert,update,delete on zm.* to \
'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';
quit
mysqladmin reload
GO!
service zm start
you should get a nice green [OK].
http://127.0.0.1/zm
Black Screen? Go Faster?
No php?
If you have issues make sure you have installed apache php and perl modules.
IJG SIMD jpeg should double performance.
http://cetus.sakura.ne.jp/softlab/jpeg-x86simd/jpegsimd.html#source
* requires nasm which wasn’t installed. Use package manager.
wget http://cetus.sakura.ne.jp/softlab/jpeg-x86simd/sources/jpegsrc-6b-x86simd-1.02.tar.gz
tar xvfz jpegsrc-6b-x86simd-1.02.tar.gz
cd jpeg-6bx
./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
nano Makefile
* Change the CFLAGS from O2 to O3 and add
-funroll-loops -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer
make
make test
make install
identify the libraries to the system
ldconfig
I also copied the installed files from /usr/local/bin to /usr/bin:
cp /usr/local/bin/cjpeg /usr/bin/cjpeg
cp /usr/local/bin/cjpeg /usr/bin/cjpeg
cp /usr/local/bin/cjpeg /usr/bin/cjpeg
cp /usr/local/bin/cjpeg /usr/bin/cjpeg
cp /usr/local/bin/cjpeg /usr/bin/cjpeg
/etc/init.d/zm restart
NetPBM resizes the JPEGS and faster is better: compile and install
cd /usr/src
svn checkout https://netpbm.sourceforge.net/ netpbm
cd netpbm
/usr/src/netpbm/configure
Answer the questions (GNU and then defaults – I didn’t have TIFF or VGA libs, so “none”)
vi Makefile.config
I added -march=pentium3 to the CFLAGS at the end of the file
make
make package
/usr/src/netpbm/installnetpbm
accept defaults
cabozola install
* package add Ant (it needs ant, but it wasn’t installed by default)
cd /usr/src
wget https://web.archive.org/web/20220526174548/http://www.charliemouse.com/code/cambozola/cambozola-latest.tar.gz
tar xvfz cambozola-latest.tar.gz
cp /usr/src/cambozola-0.68/dist/cambozola.jar /var/www/html/zm
chmod 775 /var/www/html/zm/cambozola.jar
Gatorland video
Back in January of 2007, Carolyn and I visited the premiere 1/2 day attraction in Florida, the amazing Gatorland, home of the gator jump. Unfortunately, in January, the water is a bit cold for Gators and they don’t jump as enthusiastically as they apparently do in warmer months.
{vidavee id=”1842″ w=”320″ }
1U Fill-in Panel
Home-made 1U fill in panel – all salvaged fasteners.
Magnet tape holds it to the rack, so it is easy to move. Clear so you can see inside. A few more U to make…
