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I went to see the movie "Zodiac" yesterday. This is directed by David Fincher, who also directed "Seven", one of my all time favourite movies.

Being a computer geek interested in cryptography, I knew the story of the Zodiac killer quiet well, because of the unsolved "340" cypher the killer sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The movie's absorbing, to say the least, and the conclusions drawn are rather convincing, if circumstantial. I won't give anything away here, just in case you don't know the story.

The main reason for this post is to comment on two of the actors featured in the film: Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal, both of whom I'd suggest were perfectly cast for their roles.

Downey plays Paul Avery, the crime writer for the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the murders. He's a typical drug taking, booze swilling journo. No prizes for guessing how Downey fits this role.

Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith, the political cartoonist at the Chronicle (incidently, the movie is based on Graysmith's book). Gyllenhaal's character becomes completely obsessed with the case, and this reminded me significantly of Gyllenhall's other outstanding role in "October Sky", where he played another real life character, Homer Hickem.

The drive and obsession in both Graysmith and Hickem are wonderfully reproduced by Gyllenhaal, which is what I think makes both films such a success.

Anyway, I'd recommend "Zodiac". Just don't forget that David Fincher is good at the scary bits...

It's been a hellish three days in Sydney with torrential rain and gale force winds. There have even been some deaths due to the nasty weather.

Fortunately for me, the rain has been coming from the South. This is because I have a leak in my apartment if the rain comes from the North. This leak is extremely inconvenient as it manifests itself by flooding the bottom of my wardrobe. The body corporate has attempted to get builders to rectify the problem before, but apparently, the problem has returned.

When the major building fixes occur (hopefully beginning soon) the leak is on the list of repairs that will be done to the apartments. Apparently, my problem is minor compared to some of the water penetration problems that other apartments have...

During the storms, getting out for shopping has been a bit of a nightmare, so last night, having run out of food to hand, I braved the rain and when to a little Italian restaurant in Manly called "Il Gondoliere". I'd been there once before (probably 15 or more years ago), and vaguely remembered the food being good. Well, I wasn't disappointed last night.

Pretty damn good spaghetti bolognese, and plenty of it for a reasonable price. It won't take me 15 years to return again.