Cropping Images in Emacs

I woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking about cropping images in Emacs, as one does. I started wondering how Emacs processed mouse events, and that turns out to be very easy: You just use `read-event’ inside a `track-mouse’ form, and you get all the events and coordinates, offset from the window or the image under point, which is just perfect for my use case here.

 

So after work today, I started typing, and there it is.

Now, cropping an image in Emacs is one thing, but the other is… what do you do with the result? I mean, just displaying the cropped image is nice, but pretty useless. I mean, you can save it, I guess, and that would make sense from an `image-mode’ context. But more generally useful would be from a document composition mode, so I just stuck it into the package for editing WordPress posts.

Behold!

Cropping Images in Emacs

I think it may make sense to factor this out into its own little package so that it can be used elsewhere, but I don’t really have the time at the moment, so I guess it’ll have to wait…

The code is up on Microsoft Github as usual.

August 1943: Hi Diddle Diddle


















This is a B movie, I guess? Cheap and cheerful. It’s got a convoluted and silly plot that putters away in a very pleasing manner. Much intrigue and running around.

It’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s really funny. It’s just an almost-perfect bundle of silliness, and everything works out like it’s supposed to.

The newlyweds even get some private time at the end due to a helpful maid.

Hi Diddle Diddle. Andrew L. Stone. 1943.

Popular movies in August 1943 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
75587.5Heaven Can Wait
28947.5Watch on the Rhine
4707.3Holy Matrimony
2796.9Hi Diddle Diddle
39656.9The Seventh Victim
6926.8The Man in Grey
9586.7The Fallen Sparrow
8706.6Destroyer
7386.6A Lady Takes a Chance
46516.5Phantom of the Opera

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

July 1943: This is the Army































Oh Em Gee! Colour! It’s a movie in colour! Is colour even possible?! My eyes!

An Irving Berlin eleganza extravaganza. It’s about a bunch of guys drafted into the army and then they put on a show. As one does. It’s great! It’s got lines like

Angry sarge: “Did you sleep well?”

Private: “Sure. This bed has the softest mattress I’ve ever slept on the floor next to.”

that almost kinda make sense, which I like very much.

This DVD version, though, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s got so many artefacts (especially when there’s a lot of action) that it’s obvious that it’s been sourced from a torrent site with a very bandwidth-restricted codec. Which is a shame, because it looks like it was originally quite pretty.

At least the audio quality is pretty swell.

For major bits of the movie they give up on the pretence that it’s a real film and just show one musical stage performance after another. But they’re pretty impressive. A huge number of people performing, and the Berlin’s music’s pretty nice. (The movie started off as a Broadway musical where the profits were donated to the Army Emergency Relief fund, and they raised the equivalent of $135M in today’s money.)

Ronald Reagan is unexpectedly perfect for his part.

But… is it a good movie? It’s barely a movie at all. But I found it quite entertaining.

This is the Army. Michael Curtiz. 1943.

Popular movies in July 1943 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
14057.3Stormy Weather
65447.0For Whom the Bell Tolls
6346.8Victory Through Air Power

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

June 1943: Hitler’s Madman























Douglas Sirk! I love his 50s melodramas, but I haven’t seen any of his earlier stuff, so I’m excited to watch this movie.

Virtually all of the war movies I’ve seen so far in this series (that are set in foreign countries) are set in the Czechoslovakia. I guess it makes sense… it was an early invadee of the Germans. But why not, say, Poland? Is it a way to avoid the complications of the Jewish Question?

Just like the Fritz Lang/Bertolt Brecht movie, this is staunchly anti-Nazi, but it’s a completely different approach. That movie had cartoon evil Nazis (which is great and very Brecht), while this one has more melodramatic evil Nazis (which is also great). The scene where the Nazi commander picks out Czech girls to be sent to the front (as “entertainment” for the German soldiers) is absolutely horrifying.

Both movies are about the same event, sort of: Killing Reinhard Heydrich, the Gestapo chief in Czechoslovakia. But plot-wise, they have nothing else in common, really.

Like the Lang movie, it’s not completely successful as a movie. But it’s a very successful anti-Nazi piece. And you’d have to be a Nazi not to be moved by the final scene.

Hitler’s Madman. Douglas Sirk. 1943.

Popular movies in June 1943 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
103228.2The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
11637.2Hit the Ice
17947.0Bataan
9017.0The Constant Nymph
4886.7Hitler’s Madman
2986.7Coney Island
11796.6Stage Door Canteen
6766.5Best Foot Forward
7086.4Jitterbugs
2606.4Crime Doctor

This blog post is part of the Decade series.