We went to see this last Friday (in 3D). Unlike Toy Story 3, which uses it 3D as a form of diorama, Shrek does have things popping out of the screen.

Shrek is a dissatisfied with domestic life and wishes he could just have one day to himself and live out his ogre fantasies. Rumplestiltskin (who holds a grudge against Shrek), offers Shrek his “day of liberty” in exchange for one of Shrek’s past days. Shrek, unwisely, agrees and discovers too late that Rumplestiltskin took Shrek’s day of birth – consequently, Shrek had never been born and all the events of the previous 3 movies never happened. However, since he had never been born, when his day comes to an end, so will he. Shrek is on a very tight quest to somehow undo Rumplestiltskin’s magic.

I found it a little slow to get going, but it does pick up and we do get to see the characters in an alternate timeline. Compared to Toy Story 3, this is more of a movie for the masses, whereas Toy Story 3 is a “literate” movie.

For my money, I enjoyed Shrek Forever After more than Toy Story 3. I laughed more.

I give it a 3-1/2 to 4 out of 5. Unlike Toy Story 3, I would go see Shrek again. I considered giving it a 4, but it’s just a little too tired to warrant that (and Rumplestiltskin just wasn’t engaging enough). However, for a entertaining piece of Summer fluff, definitely worth seeing.

[rr: this was pre-recorded since I am on holiday]

This was my favourite computer magazine. I liked it better than Byte (although, Circuit Cellarwas always a good read) or Dr. Dobbs Journal (originally called Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia :  Running Light without Overbyte – later dropping Tiny BASIC when it became a general purpose computer magazine). It had two very strong columnists: P.J. Plauger (who wrote the column Programming on Purpose) and Stan Kelly-Bootle (who wrote the column Bit by Bit). P.J. Plauger also wrote columns for the C User’s Journal (later called C/C++ User’s Journal). All these magazine are now defunct.

Computer Language stood out for me because of (1) its excellent quality and (2) its awesome cover artwork.

Below is a sample or Stan Kelly Bootle’s writing (his style is most probably only fully enjoyed by a native English language speaker):

Every programmer hits a productivity block once in a while. The algorasmic joy of getting something to work can suddenly vanish.

A feeling known to the Greeks as abulia (the complete absence of will, shall, and maybe) sets in. (The abalone spends its entire life cycle in an abulic state, but that is an etymological coincidence.)

In some professions, abulia is immediately noticeable and punishable. We at least can hide it from our superiors (if such there be) by looking busy, feigning introspection, adding spurious comments to our code, flipping the manual, or typing some benign, long-running, screen-scrolling, hex dumping command.

Bosses vaguely believe the act of coding demands certain mysterious preludes. They may have heard the old proverb, “The sooner you start coding, the longer it takes to complete the program.” It is your duty to reinforce this myth until your listness returns. (“Listness” is the rare antonym of “listlessness”; compare with “couth,” “gusting,” and “gruntled.”)

- Stan Kelly-Bootle, Computer Language, August 1990, Are we having fun yet?

This is my favourite cover (click to enlarge):

Below is an assortment of covers (click to enlarge):

[rr : this post was pre-recorded since I am currently on holiday.]