Torrentz.com Ubiquity command
May 24th
After wanting to brush up on my JavaScript skills for a few weeks now I finally got round to writing a command for Ubiquity.
Ubiquity is a Firefox command project from Mozilla Labs that allows users to create mashups on the fly, giving them easy access to a number of great web applications there are on the internet. One of my favourite commands is the “define” that whilst I’m reading an article allows me to highlight the word and easily discover that words meaning without leaving that page/tab. I would urge Firefox users to check it out; it is one of the main reasons I haven’t moved over to using Opera as my main web browser.
My basic command allows a user to access results from the meta torrent search engine Torrentz.com. Within ubiquity you can easily see the top 5 results for your search based on the total number of peers (number of people uploading + number of people downloading) currently active for that torrent. It also shows some basic information like the age, size and the tags associated with a particular result. It gets this information by screen-scraping the Torrentz.com search page and displaying it nicely within the preview panel.
Below you can find a screen cast I created that would have been edited if I could find a usable piece of software to do it in Ubuntu! Also, there is a link to use if you have Ubiquity installed and wish to make use of the command.
Torrentz.com Ubiquity screencast from Tom Andrews on Vimeo.
Click here to check out the project page.
If you wish to view the source code, with the understanding that this is version 1 (and while it works is not very elegant), click here.
Finally, if you have any comments about features or bugs please add them below and I will endeavour to respond promptly.
The book was better
May 10th
State of Play
This phrase has been an alien concept to me for my entire life. I could never understand friend’s frustrations when they finally saw their favourite book become a film or TV series. Given that I can count the number of sizable fiction books I’ve read cover to cover on a single hand – seeing one become a film has never been likely. Today however was different.
This evening I saw State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren. This film is based upon 2003 TV series by the same name and focuses on the investigation of a news story by the journalist Cal McCaffrey which started after two murders are linked. This leads us into a thrilling and intriguing discovery of what happened effectively how deep does the rabbit hole go. Well, in the TV show you get this but not the film.
The TV show is 6 hours of pure bliss of near perfect television. Exquisite, smart and funny writing and some great performances most notably from James McAvoy as Dan Foster (a part that was removed for the film!), Kelly MacDonald as Della Smith and the ever imposing Bill Nighy as Cameron Foster. This show kept me gripped even when I had much more important things to do. I couldn’t stop watching it.
The film however was “sexed” up, it was Hollywood-ised. They killed off characters just to add to the body count even though it didn’t progress the story. They made Della Smith, a junior reporter in the TV show, the head of the web division when again it added nothing to the story. If anything it added a plot hole – why would a senior web journalist need to understand how to investigate a story? Also they added the Hollywood action and obligitory violent ending where the “bad guy” dies and everything is right with the world again. These “additions” did little to improve the story and although I agree they needed to add and remove certain elements to attract a more mainstream audience I don’t feel they made the correct choices.
Overall, I would still give this film a moderate 7 out of 10 but would advise people who loved the TV show to not expect anything too spectacular. The story still has its original themes that are as poignant as ever and there is still some intrigue to keep you following the plot for the length of the film.
No matter what I’ve said, it wasn’t bad it’s just that…. the TV show was better.
New Hosting
Apr 3rd
I finally moved this off my annoyingly unstable home connection! I guess bethere never expected their users to use 500GB a month data transfer because the ADSL 2+ routers they give you can’t seem to cope.
I intend, as I am now paying for the hosting, to keep this blog updated more often, especially once I get my 3rd year project done and dusted.