This is the archive for January 2006. Recent posts can be found at the main blog page.

My fonts are better than yours

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 ★ 22:50 ★ Categories Gnome, Programming ★ Permanent url

Most websites use stylesheets that specify which font-family should be used for rendering the page. While this is fine in most cases, it gets really annoying if you need to read a text in a font that’s typeset in a font you don’t like. Comic Sans comes to mind, but I’m not seeing that one anymore: I simply purged the file from my system. Remember, only you can stop bunny-punching!

Most browsers offer a way to specify the default fall-back fonts. I’ve configured my browser of choice (Epiphany is much better than Firefox in my opinion) to use Minion Web Pro, a beautiful, legible and, above all, really well-hinted serif font. It’s great for on-screen reading.

Most browsers also offer a way that lets you always use your own fonts (ignore stylesheet hints). It’s not so nice for everyday use, but I use it quite a lot when reading longer online texts. As expected, the checkbox in Epiphany is hidden in the preferences dialog. That’s annoying if you want to flip the switch quickly.

Luckily, Epiphany provides a really nice extension system (install epiphany-extensions to use the extensions). Reinout van Schouwen started by transforming some sample code and produced a basic Python extension that adds an item to the View menu. He also blogged about it. I’ve improved the extension by making it a checkbox that tracks the config setting and sets it to the correct value at startup. It totally rocks:

Always use own fonts

I’ve put up a bzr branch over here in the geek section. You can also just download the two files over there and save them into ~/.gnome2/epiphany/extensions/. Create the directory if it’s not there, but don’t put the files into a subdirectory. The next time you start Epiphany it will appear in the Extension dialog. Enable and enjoy!

Le temps qui reste

Sunday, January 22, 2006 ★ 02:41 ★ Category Films ★ Permanent url

Romain (Melvil Poupaud) is a young homosexual fashion photographer in Paris. When his doctor diagnoses him with cancer, Romain is told he only has a couple of months to live. Shocked, Romain ponders who to tell, how to tell and what to do… Le temps qui reste (English title: Time to Leave) is French cineast François Ozon’s latest film. It shows the last few months of Romain’s life, doing things he never did before, changing his opinion on several subjects and changing the world around him.

I should notice some people might be a bit shocked by the gay sex that happens in the film. Not really explicit, but still, in some countries (like the US) people are relatively unused to explicit sex. Sex scenes are always a bit more explicit in French cinema (just like in Dutch cinema) than they are in American films, and I don’t think that’s bad at all. While, for example, American cineasts try their best to show just the female body (carefully positioning the camera to hide the male body from view), French films usually look more natural to me, showing both naked men and women. The result is that your attention is not drawn just to the female body, but to the picture as a whole. At least to me this makes me feel a lot less like a voyeur, a feeling I do get when watching sex scenes in American films. Okay, enough about sex scenes… why should I care? I don’t like American films anyway most of the time.

Le temps qui reste

Romain shaves off his hair during the film. A shame… he looked so much better before!

Another recommendation: Swimming Pool (Ozon, 2003). Although totally different, this one is also worth seeing.

You lose either way

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 ★ 00:01 ★ Category Films ★ Permanent url

Stine has always been a quiet girl. When she was young, she lied about herself and her family on numerous occasions. When she fell off her bike, she told her teacher she had been beaten by her parents. When she wanted attention, she told her friends that her mother suffered from cancer.

Troels Lyby as Henrik

Troels Lyby as Henrik

In Anklaget (English title: Accused), Stine is 14 years old. She spends her days alone in her room, no friends around. One day, she accuses her father of incest. Even though she is a known pathological liar, her accusations are taken very serious and her father is arrested.

Danish film director Jacob Thuesen makes you realise that the father is judged by his neighborhood, friends and colleagues, no matter the outcome of his trial. Will the father find justice? Will he find peace? Will he end up in jail? Definitely visit this film if you get the chance!

Happy birthday to me!

Sunday, January 15, 2006 ★ 15:30 ★ Category Misc ★ Permanent url

Today is the best day of the year!

Me celebrating my birthday

Me celebrating my birthday