WORLDCREATER

The effort to block the theatrical release of the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove in Japan escalated this week. Protestors reportedly demonstrated at the home of the chief executive of the film’s Japanese distribution company.

In an email sent to Cove filmmaker Louie Psihoyos and the film’s marketing partner, Participant Media, a representative connected to the distributor says the home of Takeshi Kato was the site of a vocal demonstration by a group of protestors at around 7:30 a.m. on April 19.

Kato is the CEO of Unplugged, Inc., which has been commissioned to promote and distribute the film from Medallion Media, where the e-mail originated. Both companies are based in Tokyo. (Participant Media is also the parent company of TakePart.com.)

“They were beating the door very hard, and with [a] loudspeaker, they threatened Mr. Kato for about 30 minutes on the street, in front of the apartment,” reads the message from the Medallion representative.

The Kato family was prompted to leave their home, the email reads, and goes on to say that police broke up the protest, which moved to Unplugged’s Tokyo office.

Reached by e-mail at his Tokyo office, Kato said through an interpreter that he could not speak publicly about the matter because of police and legal restrictions. Kato did, however, say that the apparent group behind the protest was a nationalist organization called Shuken Kaifuku Wo Mezasukai (The Society to Seek Restoration of Sovereignty).

That would make Monday's events the second effort by the group this month to halt the distribution of the film, which chronicles the bloody annual hunt of dolphins near the Japanese coastal village of Taiji. Residents of the area and the hunt’s supporters claim the dolphin kill is a traditional right and that the film slanders Japanese people. Opponents to the hunt, including Psihoyos and The Cove’s main subject, Ric O’Barry, depict it as violent and unnecessary.

In the April 19 event, nationalist anti-Cove protesters led by Shuhei Nishimura held a well-publicized demonstration at Unplugged’s office, where Nishimura shouted down representatives from Unplugged. Nishimura is a vocal activist connected to Shuken Kaifuku Wo Mezasukai and has led protests on several issues, including an opposition to domestic violence laws. He has also advocated for Japan to be allowed to continue whaling. 

The Cove has been subject to protest in Japan since last fall—in October, Taiji officials threatened to sue the filmmakers as the film was screened at the Tokyo Film Festival. Starting in late June, about 20 theaters across Japan are slated to show The Cove.

Photo: Jurvetson's Flickr photostream/Creative Commons

For that release, Unplugged has already made concessions due to the sensitive nature of some of the content, agreeing to blur the faces of some of the Taiji fishermen and include a statement recognizing that the validity of the hunt is a matter of debate in Japan.

Carl Clifton, the managing director for The Works International, the international sales agent for The Cove, says the effects of the protest on the future of the film’s distribution are still unknown. The Works is in frequent contact with Unplugged and Medallion Media, he says, but the impact of the protests is yet to be seen—as is their effect on the individual theater owners who’ve agreed to show the film.

“There will be those [theater owners] who will think, ‘Well, hey, this is certainly going to put the film on the map, and raise its profile for when we release it in June,’” reasons Clifton. “Maybe the stronger reaction will be one of concern that they could see a whole lot of trouble on their doorsteps.”

Kato did not address the question, but signed off his message saying, "We are working hard to release this in Japan." 

But pressure has already influenced at least one theater. The U.S. Air Force Yokota Air Base in Japan last week canceled a screening of the film due to "sensitive local political and cultural concerns," a base spokesperson told the Associated Press.

Clifton raised the possibility that anti-Cove interests were helping stir the protesters.

“There are a number of groups that would like to see The Cove not shown in Japan,” Clifton says. He includes the Taiji fishermen’s cooperative and the city’s council among those groups, but points out there is no evidence linking them to the recent demonstrations.

One of the last lines of the email from Medallion on the April 19 events, however, indicates that lawyers representing the town of Taiji are preparing to file a legal injunction—a “provisional disposition”—to halt the release of the film.

Introduction

GNU/Linux下已经可以得到很好的支持HP打印机了，

这得归功于HP "linux映像和打印（HPLIP)"项目，该项目包含开发二进制打印机驱动（HPIJS驱动）和打印机管理工具（检查墨水使用情况，清洗和调校打印头 等）。受益于该项目,基本上HP全线的打印机和一体机都可以很好地在GNU/Linux平台上。

Installation

//只给出在ubuntu9.10下测试成功的案例，其他版本类似，有问题请与我联系。
1.点主菜单>系统－系统管理－打印 打开“打印机配置”窗口；(下图是我已配好的打印机)
  
2.在“打印机配置”窗口：点菜单>服务器－新建－打印机，或直接点新建图标选打印机，打开“新打印机”窗口；
  
3.在“新打印机”窗口的“设备”框里，点菜单>网络打印机－Windows Printer via SAMBA;
4.配置右边的“SMB打印机”:
系统提示的格式为：smb://[workgroup/]server[:port]/printer
即smb://[工作组/]主机名[:端口]/打印机共享名
说明：
   ［ ］表示参数为默认值时可省略不写，工作组的默认值是workgroup，端口的默认值是LPT1；
 这里我们填写 smb://222.25.135.100/HP
 
 
5.如果主机设置了密码则需要身份认证，这里我们没有验证，点[前进] >>>>
6.在下面的列表中选择网络打印机的品牌HP，点[前进]>>>>>，选择打印机型号LaserJet1020,驱动默认即可，依然点[前进]>>>>>
 
 
 
7.到了“描述打印机”窗口，默认即可，[应用]>>>>>>
9.跳出“你想打印一张测试页吗？”，点“是”，如果测试页顺利打印成功，就ok了。
 

Printer maintenance

给admin大人
首先telnet上服务器,打开终端:telnet 222.25.135.100
输入用户名和密码


检查墨水量
$hp-levels
调校打印头
$hp-align
清洗打印头
$hp-clean

Working around bugs

bug:在'nome-cups-add和cups”添加打印机“网络界面有'两个重复的hpijs驱动。

打开终端/控台，执行以下命令：

$ sudo rm /usr/share/cups/model/hplip

powered by roselone

2010.04.21

F-521

今天在ubuntu论坛看到怎样解决困惑我已久Rhythmbox乱码，

下面是解决办法：

首先，需要有软件包mid3iconv。如果你的系统中没有安装它，可以通过如下代码自动安装：sudo apt-get install python-mutagen 　　

然后转到你的MP3目录，执行以全命令进行转换：mid3iconv -e GBK *.mp3 　　

如果需要包含子目录，可以将后缀改成如下格式：打命令的时候文件名字给 "*/*.mp3" 就行了。比如mid3iconv -e GBK */*.mp3 最后，重新导入一次rhythmbox就OK了。

解决Rhythmbox乱码 另：也可以批量进行：find . \( -iname "*.mp3" -o -iname "*.wma" \) -exec mid3iconv -e gbk '{}' \;