HERE is the first USENET IMDB post!!
Is there a program ?
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Grant Mason Oct 5 1990, 8:28 pm show options
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Followup-To: Actress List
From: g...@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Grant Mason) - Find messages by this author
Date: 5 Oct 90 14:24:36 GMT
Local: Fri, Oct 5 1990 9:24 am
Subject: Is there a program ?
Does anyone out there have a Unix or C program which can 'interrogate' the
actor/actress files?
What I want to be able to do is to type in an actor/actress' name and get out
a list of all the
films which they appeared in. Similarly, typing in a film name would give a
list of all the
actors/actresses who were in that film.
Can anybody help ? I'm not a programmer, so doing this myself is
impossible.....
If you can, please e-mail me directly (see below).
Cheers,
Grant
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Grant Mason | " I used to wake Grant up with a
Centre for Speech Technology Research | crowbar on the back of the head. But
University of Edinburgh | I recently found that this was too
far
80 South Bridge | from his brain and I wasn't getting
EDINBURGH | through to him any more. So now I
wake
--------------------------------------| him with a steel peg driven into his
If I die tomorrow, does my mother | skull with a mallet. "
get a refund ?? |
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JANET : g...@uk.ac.ed.cstr ARPA : grant%ed.c...@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
UUCP : ...!uunet!mcsun!cstr!grant
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Colin Needham Oct 8 1990, 5:31 am show options
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
From: c...@otter.hpl.hp.com (Colin Needham) - Find messages by this author
Date: 7 Oct 90 22:05:30 GMT
Local: Sun, Oct 7 1990 5:05 pm
Subject: Re: Is there a program ?
g...@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Grant Mason) writes:
> Does anyone out there have a Unix or C program which can 'interrogate' the
> actor/actress files? What I want to be able to do is to type in an
> actor/actress' name and get out a list of all the films which they appeared
> in. Similarly, typing in a film name would give a list of all the
> actors/actresses who were in that film.
> Can anybody help ? I'm not a programmer, so doing this myself is impossible.
Well I can't provide you with exactly what you want, but I have a Unix
script which might be of some use. It is included at the end of
this posting as a shell archive. I use it as part of the process of
incorporating changes in the actors list.
Note: I am posting this message rather than mailing to give others the
opportunity of experimenting with the script. I am willing to act as a
coordinator if anyone has any suggestions or working programs.
The script (called 'explist') takes a list file as an argument and produces
what I term a list database on the standard output. The format of a list
database is simply:
|
<br />
<br />To get the kind of functionality you require, run the script over the various
<br />lists and concatenate the databases into one file. The combined database
<br />can then be searched using 'grep', 'awk' or some other text processor. It
<br />shouldn't take too much effort to add a simple user interface to request
<br />a name or title and format the output.
<br />
<br />There is one problem with the script: the actress list has to be edited
<br />before it is processed. The name fields for "Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio"
<br />and "Cassandra Peterson (aka Elivira)" occupy two lines and need to be
<br />shortened (I suggest to "Mary Mastrantonio" and "Cassandra Peterson").
<br />Also each of the following titles are split over two lines and should be
<br />joined on to one:
<br />
<br />"Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eigth Dimension, The"
<br />"Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (TV)"
<br />"End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain, The"
<br />"Dealing: or The Berkley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues"
<br />
<br />The other lists do not split long titles and hence can be processed as
<br />published.
<br />
<br />Hope this helps,
<br />
<br />Col
<br />
<br />------------------------------------------------------------
<br />"Look at it this way, in a hundred years who's gonna care ?"
<br /> -- The Terminator
<br />------------------------------------------------------------
<br />Col Needham | Phone: +44 272 799910 x 24131
<br />HP Labs | c...@hplb.hpl.hp.com
<br />Bristol | c...@hplabs.hpl.hp.com
<br />U.K. | c...@otter.hpl.hp.com
<br />------------------------------------------------------------
<br />
<br />#---------------------------------- cut here ----------------------------------
<br /># This is a shell archive. Remove anything before this line,
<br /># then unpack it by saving it in a file and typing "sh file".
<br />#
<br /># Wrapped by Colin Needham <cn@otter> on Sun Oct 7 22:40:55 1990
<br />#
<br /># This archive contains:
<br /># explist
<br />#
<br /># Error checking via wc(1) will be performed.
<br />
<br />LANG=""; export LANG
<br />PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:$PATH; export PATH
<br />
<br />echo x - explist
<br />cat >explist <<'@EOF'
<br />#!/bin/sh
<br />
<br /># Author: Col Needham
<br />#
<br /># Usage: explist <list>
<br />#
<br /># Purpose: read in a list & produce a list database on the standard output
<br />
<br />expand $1 | awk '/^[A-Z]/ {s1=substr($0,1,24)} /^[A-Z\t ]/ {print s1 "|" substr($0,25,80)}' | sed -e 's/ *|/|/' | grep -v '|$'
<br />@EOF
<br />set `wc -lwc <explist`
<br />if test $1$2$3 != 947264
<br />then
<br /> echo ERROR: wc results of explist are $* should be 9 47 264
<br />fi
<br />
<br />chmod 777 explist
<br />
<br />exit 0
<br />
<br />End
<br />
<br />======================
<br />
<br />
<br />IMDB Bottom 100 List
<br />(Score:5, Funny)
<br />by PhatboySlim (862704) Alter Relationship on Monday October 17, @03:26PM (#13811789)
<br />How did Britney's Spears' Crossroads movie end up on IMDB's Bottom 100 [imdb.com] list? It's like the best movie of all time! Thank God that movies like Gigli, Son of the Mask, and From Justin to Kelly aren't on this list! Oh wait, there they are....
<br />
<br />Guess I should be on the lookout for "Legend Of Zorro" to be appearing here soon as well...
<br />--
<br />Be sure to remember the Programmers Prayer [jokesaround.com]
<br />
<br />================
<br />
<br />
<br />Good and bad on IMDB
<br />(Score:5, Informative)
<br />by Belseth (835595) Alter Relationship on Monday October 17, @06:17PM (#13812976)
<br />I use IMDB but I'm not a big fan. I have over 300 films under my belt and yet I have maybe a dozen listings. They demand verification of credits so I gave up on them years ago. They had two glaring errors in my listing so I contacted them both times and both times they refused to correct the mistakes until I threatened legal action. I nearly lost a job because a Producer believed the credits on IMDB were accurate and questioned my resume. I was forced to verify some of my biggest credits before he'd accept the bulk of my resume. Most put too much faith in IMDB which makes it dangerous to the working people in the industry. A friend has an academy award and to this day they refuse to acknowledge it in his bio. It's a handy but over used service given how wildly inaccurate the information can be in the listings and they aren't inclined to correct errors.
<br />==============
<br />
<br />
<br />bittorrent as a business???
<br />(Score:5, Insightful)
<br />by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17, @04:49PM (#13812432)
<br />I may be a good way to share files, but I'm afraid the investors are throwing their money away. It's like trying to make money off of FTP.
<br />==========
<br />
<br /> How can this company be worth 8.75 million
<br />
<br />When Fortune magazine runs a story on the CEO.
<br />
<br />The name BitTorrent is alone worth that. This is a name millions and millions of people know - it would take more than $8.75 million dollars to achieve that through advertising
<br />==========
<br />sorry- just skimmed this- contentious! maybe dorky dank drunk
<br />
<br />enough with the aspergers
<br />(Score:5, Insightful)
<br />by circletimessquare (444983) Alter Relationship <circletimessquare&gmail,com> on Monday October 17, @05:06PM (#13812560)
<br />there's always been smart people who can do complex topological analysis in their head but can't balance their checkbook
<br />
<br />likewise, there have always been people whose minds always flit from one subject to the next every second- in other words, attention deficit disorder
<br />
<br />but now we have these buzzwords, asperpgers and ADD and others, and people think its some miraculous discovery, and its all they talk about and they act like it explains all sorts of behavior
<br />
<br />but it's just a fad, and meanwhile, the conditions have always been there, always will be there, and those who have these conditions are no more special or less special than the rest of us
<br />
<br />cohen is a smart guy, and he can concentrate on a complex math problem, and he likes to do it, that's all, that's it
<br />
<br />i'm just so sick of everyone jumping on the buzzword bandwagon, it doesn't mean anything
<br />
<br />there once was a time in the 1800s when everyone thought phrenology was the end-all explanation of character and intelligence
<br />
<br />it's long forgotten, like the racist pseudoscience it was
<br />
<br />meanwhile, in a hundred years, when our language and our attention isn't controlled by the marketing department of large pharmaceutical companies, our hypochondriacal way of looking at our mental differences will have moved onto the next stupid fad
<br />--
<br />
<br />He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. - William Blake
<br />============
<br />
<br />I wish him luck
<br />(Score:5, Insightful)
<br />by SimplyBen (898147) Alter Relationship on Monday October 17, @05:39PM (#13812793)
<br />As a founder of a funded startup myself I hope he suceeds, but statistically he won't. Maybe i'm alone here, but i'm having a hardtime envisioning the business model of such a company (and doubt his ability to lead it to profitability). Sure bittorrent is a neat technology: but its just that a technology, and an open one too. It appears to be a long shot, and thats why funding came from venture capitalists. From most slashdotters POV i'm sure that sounds awesome until you realize what accepting venture capital is typically about: 90%+ stock takeovers with rider clauses allowing the investment firm first dibs on any money withdrawn from the company. I hope he hires someone to run the company that can translate whatever products he comes up with into something that can actually be sold.
<br />
<br /><<hmm 'poor guy' ! twerp! >>
<br />
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<em>posted by USSSlavebation @ <a href="http://wtchoax.blogspot.com/2005/10/4-imdb-15th-year.html" title="permanent link">10/18/2005 10:13:00 am</a></em>
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<span style="line-height:16px" class="comment-icon blogger-comment-icon"><img src="https://resources.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" alt="Blogger" style="display:inline;" /></span> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817511184666570565" rel="nofollow">Grant - Three From Leith</a> said...
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<dd class="comment-body">
<p>Wow... that was me when I worked at the Centre For Speech Technology Research at Edinburgh Uni between 1990 - 1991. I did (with help from a C book) write a crappy program that did a little more and sent it back to Col, I think it eventually got rehashed properly by a competent C programmer.<BR/><BR/>Little did I know what it would become, as I only had access to the net again in 1999, by which time the IMDB was huge.<BR/><BR/>Sadly I don't even get a mention in the current history credits. Wonder if I'd be due any intellectual property rights payments for kicking off the whole idea ?! ;-)</p>
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<dd class="comment-timestamp"><a href="#c115583086772482099" title="comment permalink">17/8/06 12:07</a>
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