SteelSkin.net – The Ramblings of Chris Nutt

I went into Avatar with low expectations. I expected the story to be unoriginal and 3D to be annoying. The funny thing I wasn’t wrong. However it turns out if you take off the shelf ideas and mix them together, like a good DJ set, it doesn’t matter. 3D is annoying or rather would be annoying for most films, but for blockbuster Sci-Fi or animated tales it has it’s place. I can happily see myself going to see maybe a film a year in 3D (Tron Legacy in 2010).

Avatar is essentially a gaia anime story combined with Dances with Wolves. It’s what you would get if you got the Macross team (Macross Zero) or Bones (Eureka 7) to develop a Ghibli film (Laputa) for the western market. This is no bad thing as I loved all of the above and frankly if it opens peoples minds enough, maybe a western friendly anime series might *just* get their interest.

3D is not the saviour of Cinema. It is as it was every other time, a gimmick. The 2009/10 version is a more polished gimmick, but it is still what it was before; interesting for a few key niches, but at best unnecessary at worst distracting for anything else. My only worry is that Hollywood will strip mine the 3D Sci-Fi/animated tale blockbusters until even the hint of space or a pixar-like film will have people running for the hills. This could do major damage to genres I enjoy.

As for 3D at home, anyone who invests in that is an idiot of emperors’ new clothes level.

OK, I generally don’t talk work here, but there is so little content on the web for MS CMS 2001 (or MCMS or Microsoft Content Management Server 2001/2002) that I felt I should post this migration tip for those that want to move to another system (it is 8 to 9 years old).

In Site Manager export all you content as a .ROP file. At first this seems like a useless binary file. In reality it is just a .CAB archive. You should select all your resources, channels, folders and templates when you export. The cab will then have your templates in plain text (.AEM), your files loose in the archive and a huge .XML of all of your content. Yay everything packaged up and ready to go.

Good luck with the rest!

Have been reading www.howtocreate.co.uk/acid. Interesting to note that IE 6 was the first browser to ever complete ACID 1 and that IE8 the first IE to pass ACID 2.

What is more interesting are these simple facts:

• Once the majority of current browsers pass the current ACID test a new one is created to challenge the existing browers (eg break)
• IE typically requires 2 versions to get there: IE3toIE4=beatNetscape, IE5toIE6=Acid1, IE7toIE8=ACID2.
• Safari is similar, but iterates more with around 3 versions
• Firefox is higher still around 4 versions (inc mozilla suite)
• Opera itterates to an insane degree. Opera 4 was ACID1 compliant, 9 was ACID2.

However not all is equal, IE used to iterate on a Safari/Firefox timetable, however MS stopped work when it was under investigation. So IE6to7 took AGES.

My predictions:

• IE9 will have some support for CSS3 and HTML. Odd numbered IE’s are typically ‘application’ releases that add support in a rough manner. Even are usually polish releases that make sure it hangs together tightly. IE10 will be the ACID3 release.
• Safari will benefit heavily from Apple’s trail blazing of CSS3 and the contribution from other webkit browsers (Chrome, thousands of mobile browsers)
• Firefox would continue at its own pace, but pressure from Safari and Chrome will keep it honest and in time.
• Opera will iterate like hell, will support ACID3 within a year or Saf/FF, whilst adding features no one will know they will want until they are in the other browsers