One of my side projects is researching the relationships and work experience between film Directors, Editors, and their Assistants. Unfortunately, IMDb (and IMDb Pro) doesn’t have any reporting or data extraction functions to make this easy - everything is a time consuming and manual process.

After much digging on Google I discovered an accurate search phrase and found a few resources. IMDb doesn’t have its own API although developers have found a way around this using HTTP requests. Thanks to Martyr2 at Yahoo Answers.

http://www.trynt.com/trynt-movie-imdb-api/ - TRYNT web service which can be consumed by languages like PHP and .NET.

http://www.imdb.com/interfaces - imdb does provide interfaces for several platforms. These are often in the form of easily parsable text files. Not the ideal solution, but it can work.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/imdbphp/ - IMDB PHP project over at sourceforge could also be a solution.

No experience with any of them yet but it’s a start.

Back in May I attended an event where the speaking guest was Louis Zamperini. A native of Torrance, California, he was an Olympic runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and was greeted by Adolph Hitler when he placed. It wasn’t long after World War Two would be in full swing and Zamperini volunteered and became a B-24 bombardier.

In 1943 his aircraft crashed and he spent the remainder of the war as a Japanese POW. Barely surviving treatment by the infamous “The Bird,” he would later meet Billy Graham, forgive the Japanese, and spend his life inspiring others to live Christianly.

Back to the event… Louis spoke to the crowd and handful of young ROTC about his experiences in the War. Albeit, a bit hard of hearing at the age of 90, his mind is sharp and he can still tell a good story. His book, Devil at My Heels, has gotten the attention of Laura Hillenbrand (of Seabiscuit fame) with rumors of seeing the silver screen.

Check out the gallery for stills of Zamperini working the crowd.

I snapped this photo at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. It’s the Air Force One used during his Presidency, and yes, it’s indoors.

What’s striking about the image is the “vanishing” tail fin of the aircraft. Reflecting the nearby glass window structure, the tail appears almost invisible.

Ever since Microsoft led the charge with Windows 95 the traditional way of software versioning using decimal numbers (i.e.: Windows 3.0, 3.1, etc.) went out the window. Microsoft felt the consumer needed an easier way to know what they were running and they supposed Windows 4.0 was too difficult to remember. It turns out this was simply marketing mumbo-jumbo because Windows 95 still carried a decimal version number of 4.00.950 and undoubtedly you’d be asked to provide this when communicating with your tech support department.

Although Microsoft abandoned the use of a model year with Windows XP it still rears it’s head in some versions of XP. Consider this screen capture of Windows XP Tablet Edition and remember that the model year was intended to avoid consumer confusion.

That’s right: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Version 2002 Service Pack 2.

• So which is it? Version 2002 or 2005?
• Why didn’t the Version 2005 code supercede that from Version 2002?
• What is Service Pack 2 for? Version 2002 or 2005?
• Why isn’t it called Service Pack August 6, 2004?

I’m more confused than ever thanks to someone at Microsoft deciding how product names should be presented to consumers and clearly missing the point.

You may be wondering about the decimal equivalent of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Version 2002 Service Pack 2. Surely it’s a wicked amalgamation of decimal points and numbers. No, it’s quite simple:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

I’m thankful Microsoft dropped the model year for Windows Vista because, clearly, it wasn’t working.

Airbus A380 made a visit to LAX and although I didn’t catch the landing I was in the area during the celebration. The plane was clearly visible from Imperial Highway, directly south of the airport, near the Flying Chef building. I couldn’t park my car and get out but I was poised at a stop light and got a good glimpse of the A380.

Alone, as it was, it didn’t appear too large from wingtip to wingtip. Where you can tell this is a super-jumbo is the thick, double-decker, fuselage. This is a tall and wide plane, make no mistake.

If nothing else, this passenger aircraft marks a historic event in aviation by Airbus. Hopefully LAX’s $50M runway expansion and upgrade will be worth it.