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Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
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11:40 am - First impression: HTC Aria
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As I mentioned in the preceding post, I've replaced my aging iPhone 3G with an HTC Aria. It's very nice. I didn't have to struggle with the earlier versions of the Android OS, so starting with the Aria on version 2.1 of Android has given me a quite favorable impression. It's fast and very responsive, the layout and user interface are sensible and easy to understand, and the phone is a pleasure to use.
I know that raging Fandroids will rebuke me for getting the Aria because it is very small and has only a 600 MHz processor, and because it's on the AT&T network which means that side-loaded apps are locked out. You guys are missing the point. I like a phone that doesn't weigh a ton, and the battery life is terrific. I don't need or want a $400 overpowered nerd slab the size of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. My entire life and social identity (not to mention ego) are not tied up in the size and raw processing power of my bloody telephone.
(I have a PC for that, thank you very much!)
Besides which, the apps issue is irrelevant to 99% of the people out there. For most people the apps on the Android Marketplace will suffice--there's tens of thousands of them. People who are not tech savvy should not be downloading beta apps from random strangers on the web and manually installing them on their phones. It's a recipe for disaster. In any case, I've got side-loading covered for myself. I snagged a copy of the 3.0.5372 update to HTC sync while it was briefly available, so I can side-load apps into my Aria from my PC should I choose to. (Swype, I'm looking at you.)
I decided to ditch the iPhone platform after installing iOS 4 on my iPhone 3G. That OS update turned what had been a quite useful phone into a stuttering semi-brick. 80% of the time the phone would perform fine, but then the phone would abruptly freeze and not respond to input for as long as a minute at a time, the browser would crash in the middle of a page load, and so on. Good one, Apple. You think this makes me want to drop a few hundred dollars on an iPhone 4, especially when AT&T gave me an Aria for free? No thank you. Like I tell any friend who suddenly comes down with a bad case of the stupids: it's been fun, so call me back when you get your shit together.
So long iPhone. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm afraid you're going to start getting your ass kicked. Android is a mature OS and it's building up momentum like an avalanche.
current mood:  busy
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11:10 am - Fun with Craigslist people
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I recently got a new HTC Aria to replace my aging iPhone 3G. (More about that in a separate post to come.) I cleaned up the iPhone and took some photos and listed it on Craigslist to sell it. So far about half of the email replies I've gotten have been something like the following:
"can you txt me about ur phone? 816-555-1212"
No I cannot text you about my phone. I don't have text messaging enabled on my handset, because I can't see the point in paying $1,310 per megabyte of data, especially when that data is embedded in a control channel that the base station and the phone use anyway as part of their routine operation. In other words, it costs a mobile operator nothing when you use a text message. Text messaging is a hideous rip-off.
Besides which, I spent a lot of time composing a very complete and descriptive listing for my phone, including photos, a complete inventory of everything that is for sale with the phone (I even kept the box!), and my preference for completing the sale locally and in person. What can I possibly tell you in a 160-character text message?
People.
current mood: busy
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| Thursday, June 24th, 2010
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2:41 am - You made the damn thing, you fix it.
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While I'm handy enough to repair electronics, I make an exception for things that are still in warranty. I make the manufacturer fix those. That's why Microsoft is shipping us a return label for our Xbox 360. We finally got the dreaded red ring of death's lesser-known but equally-fatal cousin, the E74 error.
I'm glad we had the sense to buy it new and not secondhand.
current mood:  annoyed
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| Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
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4:55 pm - I am nerd, hear me roar!
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Over the past few months my LCD monitor, an Acer AL1916 that I bought three years ago, has been increasingly slow to switch on. I'd press the power button and then wait 5 seconds for it to actually light up, later it took 30 seconds, then 1 minute, then eventually it took as long as 15 minutes. This is a common failure mode for LCD monitors, and it can almost always be traced to the capacitor plague of the mid 2000s. (For those who don't know, an upstart manufacturer of capacitors undercut the market and flooded makers of electronic devices with millions of shoddy capacitors which would work at first, but turned out to have unacceptably short lifespans. The effect on the electronics and computer industries was profound, as manufacturers found themselves waist-deep in warranty returns.)
I disassembled the monitor and found six swollen capacitors on the power board. The swelling indicates that they have failed. I ordered new ones from Jameco Electronics, at a total cost of about $2.00. (Shipping was another $7.00) They came today, and I de-soldered the old ones and installed the new ones. After reassembly, the monitor fired up instantly and looks as good as new.
Nova 1, Capacitor Plague 0.
Damn it feels good to be a nerd sometimes.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Monday, April 26th, 2010
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6:17 pm - How to Train Your Dragon (no spoilers)
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This mini-review contains no spoilers.
How to Train Your Dragon is a thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable movie. Do yourself a favor and see it, preferably while it is still on the big screen in 3-D. It is Dreamworks' first animated film to rival the depth and quality of a first-tier Pixar production, and that's not praise I sling around lightly.
Today Kim and I took it in at the local IMAX 3-D movie house, and we chose well, going at 11:00 am on a Monday morning. Aside from a mother and son seated 75 feet away from us, the auditorium was completely empty. We had the two very best seats in the cinema, and not one distraction.
current mood:  cheerful
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6:09 pm - Scorn Apple all you want. . .
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Scorn Apple all you want, but they've always done the right thing for me. The most recent example is my MacBook, purchased new in January 2008. It recently developed a nasty crack in the top case near where my right hand rests. This is a well-known issue, and many MacBooks have developed similar cracks. (This Google image search for "MacBook top case crack" illustrates exactly what I describe.)
Today I took my MacBook to the Genius counter in the Apple Store in Kansas City at 2:30. The technician recognized the problem with only a look. Since I live an hour's drive away, he arranged for a tech to repair it immediately while I went to a nearby cafe for tea. At 3:45 my phone rang: the repair was complete. Apple replaced the entire top case of the MacBook, which includes the keyboard and trackpad, for free, even though my laptop has been out of warranty for over a year.
That is the kind of service and support I am paying for when I buy Apple, and that is why I am so annoyed by the rabid anti-Apple fanbase who reflexively crow "Apple sucks lol" any time anyone even mentions Apple.
This MacBook replaced a Titanium PowerBook (remember those?) which served me well for six years (2002-2008). When my MacBook wears out in another 4-5 years, I'll get another Apple laptop.
current mood: cheerful
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| Thursday, April 15th, 2010
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10:02 pm
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This is why I adore Norway: The Prime Minister of Norway is stranded in the United States because the volcanic eruption in Iceland has forced the airlines to cancel thousands of flights, including his:
"The prime minister of Norway was among those stranded by the closure of European airspace.
Jens Stoltenberg, who was in New York for President Barack Obama's nuclear summit, is running the Norwegian government from the United States via his new iPad, his press secretary Sindre Fossum Beyer said."
He's running a national government from an iPad. It makes those "I can reboot my server from my phone" nerds look like total amateurs, in a way. Screw rocket cars, news like this proves to me that we live in the future.
Source article on cnn.com
current mood: cheerful
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| Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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4:03 pm - Hairdo? Hairdone.
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| Friday, January 29th, 2010
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6:05 pm - Sauce for the goose
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Apparently trying terrorists in civilian criminal courts works just fine.
From the article:
(CNN) -- A Kansas jury deliberated just 37 minutes before convicting an anti-abortion activist of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an abortion provider.
The jury found Scott Roeder, 51, guilty of gunning down Dr. George Tiller, who operated a clinic in Wichita where late-term abortions were performed. Roeder, 51, faces life in prison when he is sentenced on March 9.
Tiller's family said the jury reached a "just" verdict.
current mood: busy
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| Friday, January 1st, 2010
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1:34 am - Once more before 2009 ends
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Kim and I saw Avatar again today, which makes three times we've seen it, which is more often than we have seen any other film in the cinema. Today we saw it in ordinary (non-IMAX) 3D.
IMAX 3D is vastly superior. The two experiences are simply not comparable. See this film in IMAX 3D. It's fecking worth it.
Oh, happy new year to everyone. It's 2010. We still have no flying cars, but ubiquitous wireless and wired internet access, flat-panel monitors and televisions, and thumbdrives make up for that.
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| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
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6:15 am - As long as I'm reviewing movies. . .
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Kim and I saw Sherlock Holmes today. I wouldn't recommend it. By the midpoint, I had become bored and I was rather pointedly analyzing the structure of the plot so that I could deduce just how long it would take to tie together the remaining plot threads, assemble the characters in one central location, have a completely predictable showdown in a fanciful setting, roll the credits, and go do something more interesting.
So I guess you could say I didn't much care for the film.
current mood:  sleepy
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| Friday, December 18th, 2009
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9:29 pm - The year in film- Nova style
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One of the things that I like to do is to keep the ticket stubs from every movie I attend. I do the same for railway tickets, sporting events, airline boarding passes, and so on. At the end of the year I review the year's collection and then file them away in an envelope. Since 2009 is nearly over, I've taken out my pile of stubs and sorted the movie tickets in chronological order. Let's take a look back:
February 15th, Coraline: We (Kim and I go to the cinema together) saw this in 3-D. Time has not been kind to my memory of this film. At the time I remember that I had been quite taken by the imaginative story, the fanciful setting, and the stunning storybook visuals, but sadly I'm not a fan of fantasy storytelling in any genre. It was good, perhaps great, but it just wasn't for me.
March 6th, 12:01 AM, Watchmen: We saw this in an IMAX cinema, and for the midnight release. The auditorium was packed to the rafters with comic nerds, and true to the stereotype many of them reeked. As usual, my initial impression of the film was quite positive. I don't have a strong personal affection for the comic that the film mirrors, so I'm mercifully free of the urge to compare the two. I enjoyed seeing the comic writ large onto the IMAX screen, but it was a simple pleasure.
March 15th, Watchmen: We went back for a second viewing on the IMAX screen, this time on a Sunday at midday. It was worth seeing twice, as it made a lot more sense on the second go around, but by the end, I knew that I had seen enough and that it was time to move on.
May 3rd, Wolverine: A month and a half away from the cinema, and we had to come back to this. Yuck.
May 10th, Star Trek: I left the cinema confident that I had just seen the best film of 2009. Absolutely marvelous from beginning to end, it left me wanting for nothing. In retrospect, I still think it's a marvelous film and I've re-watched it several times at home. I don't often watch films at home, so that's saying something.
May 24th, Terminator Salvation: Terrible, terrible, terrible. Incoherent and stupid.
June 6th, Up: If you didn't cry, you're not human. How good are Pixar at what they do? I've been known to use the phrase "typical Pixar," as shorthand for "absolutely sublime story-telling, pitch-perfect mood, gorgeous visuals and cinematography, and clearly the result of not one but hundreds of labors of love." So taken that way, Up was typical Pixar-- a film to cherish, study, view again and again, and finally store in a fireproof vault so that we can prove to the people of the year 3009 that their distant ancestors were not total savages.
I found myself in a bit of a conundrum after Up. In any other year, it would be the best film of the year, but I had just seen Star Trek a month earlier. Unable to decide between the two, I made space in my mind for both of them to occupy the top spot and moved on.
June 27th, Transformers 2: Michael Bay shoved his balls in our face and we hated it.
July 15th, 12:01 AM Harry Potter and the Something Something: This was another opening-night midnight screening. We're quite fond of these, Kim and I. It's a lot of fun to sit in a theater packed with people who are devoted fans of the material. They might talk during the film, but it's to talk about the film, and that's okay because it's generally the same sort of things that Kim and I might whisper to each other anyway. (Talking to your BFF about what someone said to you at the mall yesterday, however, is not okay and should be a capital crime.) In other regards, true fans can be counted on to actually pay attention to the god-damned movie and not play with their mobile phones or screw around, and true fans are excellent at policing each other. At a midnight showing of one of the Matrix movies, some moron answered his phone, and then began to have a conversation. Not five seconds had passed before hundreds of enraged nerds were screaming--most violently--at the offender to hang up his fucking phone. Awesome.
But I digress. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan. The films are fun to see, but that aside I have no great affection for the setting, story, characters, and so forth. I remember that it was enjoyable enough, but that's about it.
August 8th, G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: This is probably the most misunderstood film of the year. It's not a serious action movie, but that seems to be what everyone wanted it to be, and they formed their opinions accordingly. (By that metric, it's terrible.) But just look at it: it's preposterous, ridiculous even. It has plot holes the size of a truck. It has ice that sinks in water, but you know what? I can forgive all of that, because it did all of this shamelessly and with obvious enthusiasm. It is a stupid movie, but it's a fun stupid movie. The sheer single-mindedness of the film carried itself with aplomb and I clicked off the little angry movie-goer in my brain and agreed willingly to go along for the ride.
--until the 3rd act, I mean. I am completely unable to forgive the writers for undermining The Baroness the way they did. In acts 1 and 2 she was a pitch-perfect villain, and then they yanked the rug out from under her. That's just unacceptable. It's the cinematic equivalent of that record-scratching sound followed by an uncomfortable silence. You almost had me, guys, you almost made your silly action fantasy buddy-comedy kids-of-all-ages movie work, and then you spayed The Baroness. Boo.
August 16th, District 9: Seemingly lost in the summer blockbuster movie shuffle, this quiet and unassuming near-future alien thriller directed by Neill Blomkamp didn't get a lot of attention. I made sure to see it, though, and was rewarded richly for it. District 9 blew me away with its utter believability, sold convincingly by the artful blend of traditional cinematography and you-are-there documentary footage, security camera tapes, and so on. Utterly fantastic, and it can stand proudly in the ranks of the best films of the year.
September 6th, Inglourious Basterds: It's a Quentin Tarantino movie. I like Tarantino movies, and I liked this one too. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say.
December 18th, Avatar: Yet another midnight release, this time in 3-D on an IMAX screen. My verdict? Every other film released this year can just fuck off. Avatar wins. Period. Don't take my word for it. Go see it. Lay out the extra for IMAX if you have it in your town. It's worth it. Seriously, just go see it. Do it now.
In summary: 2009 might have been the best year for film since 1982. Do you remember 1982? Let me remind you of just some of the unforgettable films that came out that year: Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, E.T., First Blood, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan, and Tron among many others. It was an astonishingly good year for fans of sci-fi and fantasy. After a slow start in 2009, I found myself living through another 1982: Watchmen, Star Trek, Up, District 9, and Avatar, all in the same year? Are you kidding me?
What a year.
current mood:  thoughtful
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11:20 am - My end of the decade predictions.
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I predict that there will be many, many Na'Vi weeaboos very, very soon. I predict that some member of furry fandom will declare that his/her inner animal totem is Na'Vi. I predict that people who are too fat to jump from their bed to the bedroom floor without risking serious injury will paint themselves blue and walk around the next sci-fi con mostly naked.
I predict erotic Na'Vi fan art, including slash.
I hate the world sometimes.
current mood: sleepy
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3:57 am - I'm just sayin'.
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| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
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10:58 pm - Get divorced right now
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I'd like to address a point which I've heard a few times lately, because it pains me to hear people say something completely stupid with such earnestness:
"It's not that I'm against gays marrying, really. I just don't think government should be in the marriage business at all. Leave it to the churches."
If you say this and you are married, you're a fucking moron and a hypocrite. Go get divorced--a court-ordered divorce, I mean--right now. Do not hesitate. Go. Do it. I'll wait for you before I continue.
Are you divorced now? I mean, in the eyes of the government? Good. Now you still live together with the one you love, and you are still married in the eyes of the church that you attend, right? Now tell the one you love to sit on the sofa and wait for the phone to ring while you go out and drive your car into a fucking concrete bridge pylon at 90 miles per hour. The one you love, your spouse, will of course rush to the hospital, where he or she will be told to fuck right off because legally speaking, you are strangers.
I hope you don't die of your injuries, because that would be tragic, but let's say for the sake of the exercise that you do. Your surviving spouse (religiously speaking) is not entitled to one cent of Social Security survivor's benefits. Neither are your children. Any joint assets you owned will pass to your spouse and children only if you made a will. Do you have one? If you don't, then your parents will inherit all of your property, and if it turns out they don't like the arrangement that you and your spouse had, they can throw your spouse and your children onto the street, because it's not their home anymore.
They will have no standing to sue for the right to the inheritance--their home--because guess what, the government isn't in the marriage business anymore.
This is just two of the two thousand particular benefits that married couples enjoy. If you enjoy these benefits and smugly insist that they're yours and yours alone, and that "calling yourselves married" should suffice for gay people, then fuck you. You are a hypocrite and a monster, and history will judge you every bit as harshly as it has judged racists.
You ignorant fucks.
current mood:  angry
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3:19 am - Vote for Dinner
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What the fuck, Maine?
Let's go over this one more time: the United States is a constitutional republic, not an unlimited democracy. It was set up that way because the founders of the country understood the tyranny of the majority. This sort of shit is why you're not supposed to vote on other peoples' civil fucking rights, you assholes.
Democracy means two wolves and one sheep get together and vote on dinner. In Maine tonight, the wolves voted for lamb chops. Is anyone surprised?
If we'd voted on civil rights for black people, the Civil Rights act of 1968 would not have happened until the mid-1980's, at the very minimum, perhaps longer. If we'd voted on the right of mixed-race couples to marry, we'd not have achieved 51% of the vote until the early 1990's, which is when polls showed for the first time that the majority finally could wrap their heads around inter-racial marriage.
No joke.
You don't vote on civil rights for a minority because, by fucking definition, there are fewer of them. That's what the goddamned word means! That's why we are supposed to have a constitution that guarantees the rights of all citizens. Full stop. Equal rights for all. Is everyone equal? No? Then there's a fucking problem right there, now isn't there? End of goddamned debate. No voting, no talking heads, no spin, no Fox fucking News, no on-message points. One question: is everyone being granted equal protection under the law? No? Then what the fuck, man, let's fix this shit!
If your answer to the question "not everyone is being afforded equal protection under the law, is that okay?" Is anything other than "no." Then eat shit. Fuck you, and don't even talk to me, because clearly you are broken beyond repair.
current mood: angry
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| Saturday, July 25th, 2009
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1:17 pm - Saturday in Norway pt. 1
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As I type this, Kim is napping in the spare bedroom / computer room, Per is sending text messages on his mobile, and Marianne is absorbed in her laptop. It is 7:25 p.m. and we are all relaxing after a delicious meal of chicken curry in rice. (Kim skipped dinner to have a nap. She got less sleep on the flight from Philadelphia to here.) I'm typing this on a borrowed Norwegian full-sized keyboard, but my netbook thinks that it is American English, so very few of the keys line up properly. As a result, I'm typing this by touch. If I look at the keys, I'll get it all wrong. Coding the HTML parts of this post is particularly challenging. . .
Today Marianne, Kim, and I visited the TusenFryd amusement park. Per remained behind at home, not being such an enthusiast of amusement parks as the rest of us. TusenFryd is the largest amusement park in Norway, which admittedly is not saying a lot. Norway, for all of its awesomeness--and it is awesome--has a population of only a 4.8 million people. The park features several steel roller coasters, a wooden one, a SkyCoaster (more about this below), and several other rides and attractions. It was a cool day and occasionally a few raindrops fell from the sky, so the crowd was thin and the lines were short, and we were able to park only a short distance from the entrance.
After taking a quick spin on the wooden coaster to warm up, Kim wanted to ride the Skycoaster. She's fond of them, and had even looked this one up on line beforehand to learn all about it. A skycoaster is, briefly, a gigantic swing for people. A person is strapped into a heavyweight body harness similar to that worn by a hang-glider pilot, is hooked to the end of a long steel cable, and then hauled high into the air. Once at the apex, the passenger pulls a ripcord and swings free, in a great arc like a pendulum. For a split second the passenger experiences a distinct falling sensation, then the cable pulls taut and she swings back and forth six or seven times, until she's lost enough momentum to safely stop.
Kim's done this before at the Worlds of Fun park in Kansas City, but she enjoyed it enough that she now seeks out SkyCoasters wherever we go. In this first photo, she's bought her ticket to ride:
( Click here for pictures and the rest of this journal entry. )
current mood: cheerful
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3:26 am - First day in Oslo-- quick report
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Our flight to Oslo arrived at about 11:00 a.m., and I was pleased to find that my phone promptly found the mobile phone network upon being switched on. Kim was not so fortunate, despite T-Mobile's assurances. (iPhone 1, Sidekick 0.) I'm glad it did, because I promptly received a text message from Marianne with a change to the plan: instead of meeting them at the Oslo central train station, she and Perchristian would meet us at the airport with a car. Sweet!
Norwegian immigration was a breeze. An immigration agent wordlessly glanced at my passport and sent me on my way, and once we'd retrieved our bags we passed through customs without so much as a word to anyone or any paperwork of any kind. Compared to the frightening and stressful experience of entering the United States, it was astonishingly civilized.
Upon arriving in Marianne & Per's apartment, they treated us to home-made pizza. (Delicious crust!) Still essentially sleepless from our overnight flight from Philadelphia, we took an easy afternoon of sightseeing and getting acquainted with our host city. The four of us walked through a few neighborhoods to the center of Oslo and the harbor. (Photos to follow) After a few hours of this we took a tram back to the apartment for a few more hours of card games. They cooked a quick dinner for us, and again it was delicious (salmon, veggies in rice, and some baguettes that Per and I had run around the corner to purchase).
The weather is Summery for Norway, which is to say partly cloudy and cool. It's about like late March or early April would be in Missouri. Hoodies are best worn tied around the waist, ready for a sudden burst of rain or a cloudy moment.
Today we are off to a local amusement park. More to follow, including photos.
current mood: cheerful
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| Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
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9:38 pm - Our trip so far . . .
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9:28 pm - Stealthy post
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We're in a 757 in Phladelphia, rolling toward the runway. Soon we will be airborne for Oslo. Yay! I'd better post this and log off now. No electronic devices and all that.
current mood: cheerful
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