Tuesday, August 31, 2004

HRF: His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday (1940)


Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video
The Front Page, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's classic 1928 newspaper play, has had three official film versions and contributed structural DNA to half the movies ever made about professional camaraderie and fierce love-hate friendships. Lewis Milestone's 1931 movie is well respected (Billy Wilder's 1974 version isn't), but this is one case where the remake towers brilliantined head and blocked shoulders above the original.
Howard Hawks had the inspired notion of making Hildy Johnson--the ace newsman whom demonic editor Walter Burns is trying to keep from quitting and getting married--a she instead of a he. What's more, she's not only Walter's star reporter but also his ex-wife. When Hildy (Rosalind Russell) comes to tell Walter (Cary Grant) she's leaving the newspaper business, he bamboozles her into carrying out one last assignment--a death-row interview with a little nebbish (John Qualen) convicted of killing a policeman. It sounds like a snap, but before you can say screwball comedy, the press room of the Criminal Courts Building has become ground zero for all the lunacy a jailbreak, a shooting, an impromptu suicide, a corrupt city administration, and the most Machiavellian "hero" in the American cinema can supply.

His Girl Friday is one of the, oh, five greatest dialogue comedies ever made; Hawks had his cast play it at breakneck speed, and audiences hyperventilate trying to finish with one laugh so they can do justice to the four that have accumulated in the meantime. Russell, not Hawks's first choice to play Hildy, is triumphant in the part, holding her own as "one of the guys" and creating an enduring feminist icon. Grant is a force of nature, giving a performance of such concentrated frenzy and diamond brilliance that you owe it to yourself to devote at least one viewing of the movie to watching him alone. But then you have to go back (lucky you) and watch it again for the sake of the press-room gang--Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards, Regis Toomey, Frank Jenks, and others--the kind of ensemble work that gets character actors onto Parnassus. --Richard T. Jameson --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

jDev: .JNLP with IExplorer mime type error

sun post

Re: Invalid Argument Error
Author: bghuber
In Reply To: Re: Invalid Argument Error Apr 6, 2004 6:30 PM

Reply 7 of 8


Thanks for the useful info on this problem - but using a JSP to launch a JNLP creates another problem on IE.

Since IE guesses at mime types instead of using the server-sent type, IE prompts for a handler for type "JSP_AUTO_FILE" when using a jsp to launch a JNLP script. Even when deselecting "Always ask for this type of file" IE6 continues to ask every time the jsp link is clicked. Presumably it is using the file extension instead of the server-sent mime type of

response.setContentType ("application/x-java-jnlp-file");

in my JSP (which works perfectly on mozilla). Has anyone found a workaround for this?

More info on IE mime-type "guessing"-

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?sd=msdn&scid=kb;en-us;293336


Re: Invalid Argument Error
Author: markabrown
In Reply To: Re: Invalid Argument Error Aug 4, 2004 1:20 PM

Reply 8 of 8


Thanks to the above post, I found a workaround for IE. In your JSP code for dynamically building the JNLP tag, add the following code:


// this line is necessary to force MS Internet Explorer to recognize the MIME type
String fileName = request.getServletPath();
fileName = fileName.substring(fileName.lastIndexOf("/") + 1);
fileName = fileName.substring(0, fileName.indexOf(".")) + ".jnlp";
response.addHeader("Content-Disposition", "Inline; fileName=" + fileName);


The key is in the way IE determines the MIME type. Since the Content-Type is set to application/x-java-jnlp, IE thinks it should have primarily binary content. Since the file actually has text/xml content IE sees a discrepancy and decides to look it up in the registry by file extension (ie. JSP). This doesn't match a JSP type so IE complains that it doesn't know what to do with it. By adding the above code, you've overridden the filename in the browser cache so when it gets to the step above of getting the file extension, it uses .jnlp instead of .jsp. It finds the registry entry for .jnlp and launches webstart.

Hope this helps,
Mark Brown

Monday, August 09, 2004

DDOHH: Working Maths

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint it goes like this:

What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%



and


K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can then conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and knowledge will get you close, and, Attitude will get you there, Bullshit and Ass kissing will put you over the top.