Of MacBooks and Dignity

So, the world is a buzz with talk of the new MacBook Air, and I find I don't really care. I'm not saying I don't find it incredible, but for the money, the trade off is too much. Having never really been a fan of Apple's proprietary nature, I dislike the lack of a user replaceable battery. I use my own optical drives too much to bid them farewell, and the price tag is far to high to be logical given the somewhat limited nature of the machine... (No, this isn't all we'll be discussing today...)

For what I would use it for, the ASUS EEE PC makes far more sense and far more capability in terms of features and cost. Sure, it isn't as thin, but thinness isn't the be all and end of all of the size factor.

So, if the price became more sensible, if they included the super drive, if they add more than 1 USB port, included 3G or at least Ethernet... then maybe, maybe I'd consider ditching this 15.4" behemoth I'm using now. Until then, I'll let the rich little AppleTards enjoy their (unnecessary) feeling of superiority.

Pandora

I came across Pandora some time back, and recalled the articles I'd read about the Music Genome Project, but I'd not had time full check them out. I now wish I had because I feel I've been missing out.

The concept is pretty ingenious: You enter a song or an artist you like and they build a 'station' of streaming music based on everything that makes that song a song, not just Genre and Artist, but Tone, Composition, Vocal style, and a plethora of other criteria.

It's been interesting hearing some of the work they compare to artists such as The Mars Volta and Radiohead, and it's opened me up to some artists I probably never would have heard of, while also playing stuff I already know and enjoy.

The only problem that I have with the site is that the player they use seems to be extremely resource intensive. I was playing music and found that my system seemed less responsive. As a test, I tried streaming on a different machine and found the same problem there. It's not a huge deal, but you wouldn't want to be trying to do anything else that requires your system to be stable.

Death Sentence

I finally got around to watching this movie. It was the epitome of stupid. I'm not saying that the movie wasn't watchable, there were just so many things that were completely unbelievable, there were times that I couldn't help just laugh out loud, and of course, I'm sure that wasn't the intention of the film writer.

The concept of the movie is that a VP of an insurance company has a happy family, 2 sons he loves, a good wife, nice house and cars. While taking his oldest son home from a hockey game in the city, they have to stop for gas and while the father pumps gas the son goes in to get himself a slushie. While in the store, some gang members bust in and in the process, he's killed as an initiation for some kid to join the game.

When the DA tells the dad they are going to make a deal for the kid to get 5-10 years, rather than the life the father wants, he claims it was too dark to see and lets the guy walk. Then, he goes after the kid himself, which leads to a stand off between the gang members and himself. The result is that his wife is killed, he's shot and his other son nearly dies.

Fresh from the hospital, he runs off and procures several guns and goes after the crew. Surprise of all surprises, he manages to wipe them all out.

What's frustrating is that this yupi manages to wield these weapons with such skill, while the punk kids who seem to use them on a regular basis can never seem to hit him.

The battle is fun to watch, certainly, and there's some pretty brutal violence and gore, which is always fun, but the fact that this one guy tracks these punks down and then takes them down on their home turf. Earlier in the film, they come after him, and in the ensuing brawl, they aren't able to kill him, as a matter of fact, when the first one closes in on him from the get go, his spidey senses seem to go off and he's able knock the gun from his hand, though he had no way of knowing what was coming.

Something else that is frustrating is the fact that the police seem completely incapable of doing their jobs. There's also far too much of an attempt to have 'touching moments' which are just not necessary and only serve to slow the story down more.

Most of the acting isn't terrible, but some of the characters are more than over the top, including the father of the punk gang's leader (Dan Goodman), who is supposed to be some kind of crime boss, his role is so ludicrous that you can't imagine how his kid hasn't killed him years ago, let alone any of the other people he's probably ever talked to. The only acting that really drives me crazy is the 'detective' (Aisha Taylor) who seems incapable of acting herself out of a paper bag. What's strange is that I've seen some of her other work and never found it that offensive, but this just made me want to throw things.

Overall, I just don't think it's worth seeing. Certainly, your mileage may vary, but I'm kinda wishing that I had my 2 hours back.

Cloverfield

Tomorrow I will see Cloverfield. I've been excited about this, but trying not to get my hopes up, but a fried of mine saw an advanced screening the other night, and called to tell me that it's pretty darn good, which means that my excitement level is now through the roof. I hate getting my hopes up, it just makes my disappointment so much more robust.

Here's to hoping, I suppose.

Neil Gaiman Short Story

I love when an author is so prolific that they're willing to publish some of their works on the interwebs. Neil Gaiman is one of those author's. I've enjoyed a great deal of his stuff in the past, so when I get a chance to devour more of his work, I'll jump at it.

So, when I stumbled upon "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" I was glad for another opportunity to enjoy his work. To be honest, it's not his most brilliant piece ever, but it's still quite enjoyable. It's worth checking out, especially since it is free.


Rubber band Mini-Gun

Alright, this thing is just neat. Read about it at engadget.



And that's it for me....

we'll see you here next time... maybe.