GrandCentral activated!

Bombing Tragedy in India

On a more serious note...

Most of you should be familiar by this time with the recent train bombings in India. (Those of you who are not, just hit Google News and search for "India Train Bombing" and you'll get the scoop.) I appreciate the thoughts of those who have called and e-mailed.

It is a bit of a scary time for us, as all calls to the region are exceeding network capacity - probably everyone calling their families at the same time. As of this time, we have not been able to contact anyone via phone, so we are hoping for the best, and also hoping our attempts at e-mail comms will be received.

If anyone with open comms channels to the area can assist, I'd appreciate any help.

Dry tortugas?!

For some reason, this phrase has been stuck in my head for the past 3 days. I know I've heard it somewhere before, since it sounds familiar. It just cracks me up to say it. It has to be real - nothing that sounds that weird can be fake.

I'll Google it after I get some sleep.

Analog clocks

There was a discussion on WKDD this morning about people not being able to read analog clocks. Verily, this is a statement on the sadness of bad educational guidelines. How are children getting out of first and second grade that cannot look at a clock and tell the time? Have we become this dependent on digital clocks that we have become stupid?

Your comments are most welcome!!!

I have always said that in the future, those who understand how information flows through cyberspace will be those with the true power. Of course, I mean this as a 50-60 year from now timeframe. However, as coders get lazier and used to higher-level languages and frameworks (.NET anyone?), they will soon lose sight of the mystical black magic stuff like Ring 0 (OS kernel-mode) and driver development. It scares the hell out of me that the first steps are already here.

Posting some back-logged drafts

Sorry for the delay. I had, you know, work. And stuff.

Verdict: Blu-Ray

Ryan and I stopped into Best Buy before the movie to check out the new Samsung Blu-Ray player advertised in the paper. (And to walk off the chimichangas.) Anyway, we were greeted by a display on a modest 30-inch LCD hooked up via HDMI (digital), and were impressed with it.

BUT!... We were SHOCKED to see that pausing an image listed as 1080p (progressive scan for you non-HD otakus), was HORRIBLY PIXELATED. More interestingly, this pixelation looked like classic interlacing artifacts.

So two possibilities: the demo disc was created by a brain-damaged lab rat, or the player cannot frame buffer a frame to pause. This would seem to indicate that slow-mo would look like liquid crap on a crap-colored plate. (Eew. Grossed myself out there.)

And, I'm done.

Raptor X - the coolest hard drive

So you all know my plans for the Nikhil Super-Box, coming in late 2006. I had planned on using a Western Digital Raptor hard drive. This drive is lauded by enthusiasts for its insane speed and reliability. Well, WD has done two cool things. First, added a 150GB version to the 36 and 74 they had, and then this, the Raptor X:

Yes, that's right. IT HAS A WINDOW. And, you can see the heads moving. All my past comments on case windows aside, this alone would make me consider getting a clear side panel case. How geek-chic is it to actually see your hard drive getting your data? STIFFY!!!

Excuse me.

Superman - he's up, up, and sorta coasting...

So the deal is done. I just got back from the 10:15 showing at Tinsel Town, and it was quite interesting. My companion for the screening was Ryan (yes Rob, he's still alive, and he says Hi!). Luckily, we guessed right and few kids were there.

First, tons of previews and commercials (why am I paying $8.50 a ticket with all the subsidies from those, again???) instead of the old slide shows with muzak. The weird thing was that the volume was CRAZY low. To the point where I called the front desk and asked if there was a problem, but no, that's just the "new thing."

Anyway, after Ryan commented about a Spider Man 3 trailer, and I said it was way too early for that, they showed... (wait for it...) yup, the SM3 trailer. Lots with the black organic uniform and Venom (is that Brock - I dunno, I don't read comics). Looked VERY BADASS. Was awesome to see the suit start to melt onto Peter. I wonder how they'll play it, as the original comics (thanks Google!) say that he got the uniform on another planet. Hmm...

ANYWAY... Back to SR:

The movie was interesting... Exact same start/end titles and musical scores. That was cool, and tied it back to S1 and S2. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was RIGHT THE HELL ON. 'Nuff said. The plot was OK, but there was too much romance to it. The Lois with a kid thing was a bit iffy. I have to say the actress who played Lois (who was in Blue Crush, that chick-surfer movie I want to see) did a good job. Also commendable was Supes himself. He did a great job of differentiating Clark from SM acting-wise. While the ending was a bit deus-ex-machina, it was still a good movie.

To my shock, this was neither horrible nor mind-blowing. I'd give it a 7-8/10.

One more day...

One more day to go until Superman time! They could really polarize this film to the ends of the quality spectrum. It's either gonna rock, or be terrible. I can't see it finding a middle ground.

I am satisfied with Bryan Singer directing it. He did, after all, kick some azz on X-Men 1 and 2.