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By Mitchel Crane

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Tim Burton, is one of the greatest films ever made for both the art film and mainstream movie industries. The book-based film managed to bring across the reality of different kinds of anxiety in children. According to psychologists, child anxiety is characterized by overwhelming fear, worry and apprehension. In the film, some of the children who entered Willy Wonka’s confectionery factory exhibited some forms of anxiety. As the story goes, Willy Wonka announced that five golden tickets would be placed inside chocolates made and sold by his company. Whoever found the tickets would be allowed a rare chance to enter and see how the factory works. One of the lucky ticket holders, Violet Beauregard, the competitive and athletic girl, exhibited performance anxiety. Psychological experts say that this type of anxiety is described to be an overwhelming fear of not being on the top or not being first place. Violet Beauregard, which was seen in the movie, was a goal-getter. Trained by her mom, she managed to amass multitudes of trophies which helped her to go for more. Also, there are number of movie montage that showed the idea of performance anxiety which was seen in Violet. It is also noteworthy to include that her mother helped ignite the performance anxiety in Violet as she always push her to her limit.

Just like in the movie, many children in real life tend to be overtly conscious of their performance and self-worth. While many children love being in the limelight or being acknowledged as the best in what they do, some actually do get exhausted due to the chronic pressure of having to always “perform.” Performance anxiety can also be caused by the high and unrealistic realistic standards set by parents like what Mrs. Beauregard did in the movie. These pressures can escalate to a point where it has a negative impact on a child’s development, engendering a feeling of tension and anxiety.

Another character exhibiting signs of child anxiety was Veruca Salt, the rich girl who always got what she wanted from her doting father. One time, she asked for a horse from a father, and he willingly gave in to would always give into the whims of his daughter. Social anxiety, or the overwhelming care on one’s personal status was exhibited in the part where she asked for one of the squirrels working as a nut sorter for Willy Wonka. Although she did not have any use for a trained squirrel, she demanded the purchase of one from her father believing that their social status and wealth entitles them to anything that she desires.

This type of anxiety is present in children everywhere. Social groups or cliques in school are formed because its members believe that they are privileged and deserve to be set apart from the rest of the population.

Movies can act as a mirror of what happens in real life. In this sense, the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sheds some light on a part of a child’s life that can threaten their development, educating viewers on the adverse effect of anxiety on children. Whether or not they take these lessons to heart is entirely up to them.

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Magicians: Amateur vs Professional

By Mitchel Crane

 An amateur magician is anyone who has a minimum amount of talent, skill and knowledge when it comes to performing magic tricks. He or she may be anyone who knows one magic trick or at least three magic tricks.

But basically, a more technical definition of an amateur magician is anyone who does not in any way practice magic as their trade, even if he or she knows four, five, six or more than a number of magic tricks. This is regardless of how good, better or excellent he or she may be in performing flourishes, sleight of hand or optical illusions.

However, there are those amateur magicians who try their very best to expand their current knowledge as well as repertoire and still practice magic as their primary source of income. People who do this are usually called hedge magicians. This is in order to differentiate them from authentic professional magicians who make practicing and performing magic as a trade and make an actual living doing so.

Meanwhile a professional magician is anyone who has a little bit more knowledge and talent compared to an amateur magician. These professional magicians know sufficient magic that makes it enough for them to use it as their primary source of trade and income, as well as not using magic to assist them in a trade other than magic.

So technically, even if a barber performs his job using magic and no matter how many tricks he or she knows and is capable of, that barber is still not considered as a professional magician because his primary trade is cutting hairs and not necessarily being a magician.

Another way to differentiate a professional magician from an amateur is by the way he or she does flourishes.

According to the Online Encylopedia of Magic, a flourish is any sleight that is performed for the purpose of entertaining an audience and does not in any way contain any moves that are hidden. Most sleights that are performed are done so in order to deceive a captive audience and to do something that can not be detected. Meanwhile, a flourish is any trick that is done to draw the audience’s attention away from where an actual sleight is simultaneously being performed.

There are some magicians who consider the performance of a flourish as simply a finger exercise and not really actual pieces of performance. But those magicians who do put in and include flourishes in their act are considered by some of their fellow magicians as a seriously skilled performer.

If a performance consists of a card trick wherein the cards are spread out on the table and when a performer does a pressure card fan, the image that that performer projects is one of professionalism and experience. But a performer of magic who simply holds the cards and then spreads them slightly, may then be considered more as an amateur. Although this may or may not be true or this may not be considered as a hard fact, this is the perception and the impression that a performing magician usually gives to an audience.

Flourishes are done not just as a form of show-off to the audience, a flourish is also done for the purpose of presenting just how a performer is truly dedicated to the magic act. It also shows the degree of professionalism one has for the performance.

When a flourish is done, it makes it easier to know the difference between a magic trick performed by an expert magician and your friendly neighborhood Jim who is doing a card trick.

A skilled performer comes off as a natural and will ultimately receive more credit for his or her performance as well as recognition, not to mention that good old respect for the skills he or she has.

When a spectator is looking at a magic trick where the occasional flourish is done, that performer is also seen as more than a magician but a person who is passionate at what he or she is doing. It is therefore so much easier to hire a magician who has more skills and experience than one who needs to practice his or her craft more.

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Microsoft and Silverlight Provide Video Streaming to iPhones

By Roberto Garabell

 The case since the introduction of the iPhone has unfortunately been that Microsoft compatible browser plug-ins have been incompatible with the iPhone making the work of web development considerably more challenging. This means that many developers who rely on Flash, Flex, or Silverlight have been able to create web applications for every operating system other than Mobile Safari. However, recently, Microsoft worked with Apple to develop some changes to Silverlight so that it can be used to stream videos on iPhones. This does not indicate a sudden change of heart by Apple. Browser plug-ins for the iPhone are still restricted but Microsoft has adapted its server to enable Silverlight encoded video to be shown on an iPhone using the well known HTML5 video tag.

The Back Story

It has always been the case that Apple products strictly follow some rules of exclusivity allowing the company to decide what will and will not be compatible with their devices. Some have seen this as one of the major limitations of Apple and subsequently iPods and iPhones while others argue that this gives Apple its only opportunity to fairly compete with Microsoft when it comes to personal computing and web devices. Whatever your stance, the fact remains that this lack of cross compatibility has forced some developers to create RIA and mobile web spaces specifically for iPhones and iPods while the rest of the developers create applications that are compatible across the spectrum of mobile devices, with the exception of iPods and iPhones. While iTunes and the AppStore are highly successful endeavours drawing a wide range of development talent, the battle for audience has prevented many developers from making the switch, especially since this often requires further investment in development resources. Moreover, this issue has been the topic of lengthy discussion as the world of developers has waited with baited breath for the first fully compatible development tools.

While there are still no platforms that will work with all devices, Microsoft has recently spent time working with Apple in order to enable Silverlight video streaming on iPhones. At their 2009 Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft demonstrated this new capability which is the result of server changes rather than plug-in changes. Microsoft’s IIS7 server software has been modified so that it is now capable of sending Quick Time compatible streams to an iPhone while still embedded with an HTML5 video tag.

Much like Flash, Silverlight is a .NET authoring runtime for mobile web applications but offers cross-device, cross-browser, and cross-platform solutions that works identically on Apple and Microsoft operating systems. iPhone users had, until now, a number of problems receiving their content, especially with regards to media content like broadcasting. Microsoft therefore wanted to find an acceptable method to provide users with content.

How It Works

One of the most beneficial features of Silverlight is that it is able to share the same content on multiple platforms without the need to create a version that is specific to different platforms. This has also been a long-standing benefit of using Adobe Flash or Adobe Air but developers lacked the tools for cross-compatibility with iPhone and iPod operating systems. In fact, Silverlight is Microsoft’s answer to Adobe development tools but we still have not reached compatibility with Apple.

Originally developed to provide streaming video, Silverlight has evolved into a tool that can run full web applications. The first step in iPhone compatibility however has been Microsoft adapting to streaming video. Essentially, Silverlight can run MPEG-2 files so Microsoft decided to create a server-side solution to stream videos on the iPhone. Microsoft’s IIS Media Services have been enabled to respond to information from an iPhone and transcode immediately to H.264 format. As a result, content providers who are already using IIS Media Services can share content with iPhones without separate encoding for videos or the need to maintain separate content delivery systems. In other words, Silverlight will use the HTML5 video tag to communicate a Quick Time request through the IIS server which then transcodes the message into MPEG-2 format. Users will then have a wider range of applications and videos that can play on their iPhone. For example, Netflix will now be iPhone compatible.

The Advantages

The main impetus for Microsoft to adapt for iPhone users is simple: money. Silverlight, if all things go to plan, will become the only development tool that is truly cross compatible giving developers a huge motivational force for using this product. More users will get more content, yes, but Microsoft will also position themselves as the market leader for mobile web and RIA development tools. As it stands, Adobe Flash and Flex are typically regarded as the favourites for developers but by opening the doors to iPhones and the greater audience that comes with it, developers will have little reason to use alternate tools.

On the other hand, the expansion of the notion of cross compatibility could completely transform the tools that we use. As mobile web has become more and more popular over the past couple of years, there have been more and more uses for these online applications. The value of using one system across devices ensures that no matter what site you visit, no matter what application you use, your mobile device will function smoothly and efficiently.

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