_     _             
                        _ __ | |__ | | ___   __ _ 
                       | '_ \| '_ \| |/ _ \ / _` |
                       | |_) | | | | | (_) | (_| |
                       | .__/|_| |_|_|\___/ \__, |
                       |_|    ...2017-10-08 |___/ 

Small adventures!
I wrote my thoughts of the new Blade Runner movie the other day, and didn't
realize that the computer I wrote it on had no access to the outside world, I
couldn't connect my phone to it either.. But it did have a QR code generator
installed, so I did the only rational thing, tried to convert the review to a QR
code, but it didn't work out, because there was too much data.. I then piped it
through gzip and then base64, and the data was small enough to fit into the QR
code. Nice! So, I displayed it on the screen and tried to scan it with my phone,
but it didn't work.. I didn't realize that the mouse-cursor was covering part
of the image, and it was a rather large image too.. Today I spent a bit of time
post-processing the image in gimp, resizing, correcting perspective and stuff,
then, finally, I spent some time around the mouse-cursor, which covered some of
the blocks.. I was able to guess, from visual inspection, some of the blocks
that were white and black,and left the rest of them blue.. Then I was able to
run the resulting image through an online scanner, and, wohoo! Got my data back!
I've included the image with this post, in case anyone wants to try it out..

 It's decoded with bash:
 echo -e "...data here... " | base64 -d | gunzip 
 # Here it is:

Thoughts on Blade Runner 2049
Watched this movie on the 5th of October 2017, I won't spoil it, but I assume
I'm in the clear with regards to the first movie. This will be a bit ranty, as
is tradition. Anyway, let's begin with the title. It's awesome! I'm against 
overwriting original titles, so when talk of a new Blade Runner began, I feared
another "history erasing" release, I feared that the new movie would be named 
"Blade Runner", just as the original, and then I'd refuse to watch it on that
ground alone. However, I do realize this is not entirely due to goodwill on
the part of the film makers, it is likely mostly due to the fact that the
movie is a sequel to "Blade Runner", and that is my next point of positive
surprise, a sequel! Not a prequel, or a remake, or a reboot, but a proper
honest to the world fucking sequel! Thank you for that! I'm pleased by that
fact alone, and we've not even started talking about the movie itself, but
I'm already in a good mood, so let me just say once again how refreshing it
is with a sequel. It is generally the hallmark of a good story to provide ample
room for continuation, it is what makes a universe good to begin with, being
broad enough that it can hold more than just that one story. Prequels are
cheating, plain and simple, and often demonstrates little more than lack of
imagination on the part of the writers. Reboots and remakes are just offensive,
disrespectful to the originals, and they should never be done, I don't care if
the original is in black and white and no speech, if that's the original then
that's the original, story has been told, now tell me what happens next.
But, "Blade Runner 2049" is a sequel, and it is worthy, it pays respect to
the first movie, which was of such high quality that some material from it was
able to be included seamlessly into this one. The visuals are maybe a slight
bit on the contrasty side, I don't care much for overdoing colored light just
for the sake of colored light, but this is the future, and it feels true to the
universe, it's toxic and beautiful! Expansions have been made on the universe
in a proper way. The world is now powered by solar, because we had to! The new
part of the city is dark and dense, it's impossible not to think Kowloon, but
much, much bigger! It's not an unrealistic scenario, maybe not in 2049, but if
we don't wipe ourselves out, and does not get population growth under control,
it might be how the world will look someday, unlikely, but not impossible!
The visuals are just satisfying, really satisfying, nothing else to say, I do
not regret watching it in a large cinema, even if that means dealing with other
people being there as well. The audio side was ugly, in just the right way, it
very much respected the soundscape that lingered after the first movie. 
It was just perfect. Heavy synth use, so fitting. The acting was good, there's
not much to say there. Harrison Ford was there, he was good, so was the rest of
the actors. I don't have any particular like or dislike for the lead, but he
was fine too. Harrison kind of almost had to be there, again, did well.
Now, I personally think that Mackenzie Davis and Jared Leto were the ones to
bring special expression to the film, they are just who they are, and I do not
mean that in a bad way, just that they were casted perfectly for their roles,
and resulted in just the kind of slightly-off characters I'd expect to be in 
their respective roles in an apocalyptic future. The acting again, from all
sides was good. The action was good too, it was not TOO heavy, but there needed
in my opinion not any more at all. Replicants fighting is like.. Well, it works
well when they kill humans, because, there's such an enormous difference in 
power distribution that it's just slaughter, and that's always fun. But when
machines start punching at each other, it gets dull rather quickly for me, and
there could have been a more clear mechanic for deciding when/why they die.
I know they're not strictly machines, but pretty close. This is getting long.
Go watch the movie, it's good.