tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132904862024-03-13T05:45:13.775-05:00The Missing "O"This is my personal blog, where you can expect to read updates on my life, reviews of books, movies, and music, and other stuff I'd tell you if I met you at a coffee shop.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.comBlogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-5998038108389584012008-01-10T17:04:00.000-05:002008-01-10T17:10:09.071-05:00Wiillow wiip for meGather ye, and hear this sorry tale of the Wii I had and then lost.<br /><br />I've been looking for a Wii for a few weeks now; I already have games, controllers, and a real desire to get into the first gaming system I've paid attention to since the NES. I've been sitting here, money in hand, calling every store I can think of to see when they might have some and who I need to bribe and how. No dice - all I hear is "we get them sporadically, and they sell out within minutes."<br /><br />So imagine my shock when yesterday, a friend of a friend mentioned casually that he had two Wiis (due to a mixup both his wife and he bought one for their kid). He was more than willing to part with the unopened system at MSRP; I was writing the check like I was buying life-saving allergy meds.<br /><br />Then today came and with it, tragic news: his wife, unaware of out transaction, returned the Wii to the store this morning.<br /><br />Life sucks, and then you die, my friends.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-41781457389103771232007-12-05T02:12:00.000-05:002007-12-05T13:09:44.717-05:00Dude's iPhone ringtoneNow that we can <a href="http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts/News/MIR13-2007-11-12-18-30">create custom iPhone rings </a>again, here's my contribution:<br /><br /><a href="http://mrgan.com/blog/Phone's ringing, dude.m4r">Phone's ringing, dude</a><br /><br />Download, drag to iTunes, sync to iPhone. It's a good ringtone, and thorough.<br /><br />P.S. Here's a <a href="http://mrgan.com/blog/Phone's ringing, dude.mp3">flat MP3</a> as well.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-36203768122146862402007-12-01T12:32:00.000-05:002007-12-01T12:44:58.619-05:00Sears' checkout scriptComplaining about the checkout line is a cliched rant, so instead of using a lot of adjectives to describe my experience buying underwear at Sears yesterday, I'll just give you the script. Use it as you see fit. Note that I had seen people in front of me go through this, so I was trying to get through it quickly by giving clear, direct answers without saying something obnoxious like "just ring it up and don't bother me with pointless questions".<br /><br />- Hi, welcome to Sears. How are you doing?<br />- I'm well.<br />- Would you like to put this purchase on a Sears Credit Card?<br />- No, I don't have one.<br />- Do you have one?<br />- No.<br />- Do you know you can save on today's purchase if you get a Sears Credit Card?<br />- No, thank you.<br />- Would you like to get one today? [Note that they intentionally failed to interpreted my answer as as "no, and I don't want one."]<br />- No, thank you.<br />- That'll be $7. Are you familiar with the Heroes at Home program?<br />- No.<br />- Heroes at Home is a Sears program that helps rebuild veterans' homes. [Pause]<br />- Ok.<br />- Would you like to donate to Heroes at Home today?<br />- No.<br />- OK. Thank you for your purchase.<br /><br />If you're going to have a script like this, do a favor to yourself and myself and the guy in front of me who can't speak English so he's confused and frightened about all these questions you're asking: put in a self-checkout line.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-85158140843370146522007-11-05T13:59:00.000-05:002007-11-05T16:36:24.052-05:00On Google AndroidGoogle <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Nov05/0,4670,GoogleMobile,00.html">announced</a> today that they are developing a free software package available to cell phone manufacturers and providers. We don't know much, but based on what we know, I made these comments:<br /><br /><blockquote>I hate to be the "<a href="http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257&tid=107">less space than a Nomad, lame</a>" guy, but this just doesn't sound that interesting [yet].<br /><br />Google has written a software platform for mobile phones. Ok, cool.<br /><br />We have no idea what it is, what it does, hot it looks, how it works, what phones it will work on, and how much Google there will be in a typical phone running Android (versus how much, say, T-Mobile). That's not cool at all.<br /><br />It's a partnership announcement, like what MS keeps having us yawn about. We don't get to see a product for another year, and when we do, we have no idea what it will be like.<br /><br />Best case scenario: it's excellent software, customizable (by the provider) in a tasteful way, guaranteeing a consistent, google-class experience.<br /><br />Worst case scenario: it's good software, customizable to virtual unrecognazibility by the same people who have been delivering crappy phones all these years, guaranteeing pretty much the same kind of confusing, ugly, all-over-the-place, T-Mobile-class mobile phone experience we've had so far. Only it'll be more webby and it'll have ads.<br /><br />The reason I'm leaning more toward the second option is that Google didn't say anything today that prevents or opposes it.</blockquote><br /><br />Later, in a reply to the claim that this is great because we'll get "useful and powerful free services":<br /><br /><blockquote>What in this announcement gave you the idea that useful and powerful phone services will be free of charge to YOU? Your provider will still charge as much as they ever have. Good luck having them pass the software development savings on to you.<br /><br />This is primarily a business partnership announcement, from Google to providers. Customers will be affected by this somewhere in the margins. Hence no demo, no product to show, no cool YouTube video to ooh and aaah over.</blockquote><br /><br />P.S. Oh wait, there <i>is</i> a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYozIZOgDk">YouTube video</a>. And no, it's not cool or ooh or aah.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-545657067993056472007-10-21T20:00:00.000-05:002007-10-21T20:18:34.606-05:00Do iPhoto developers know what saturation is?I use iPhoto for most of my day-to-day photo organizing and tweaking. Its image adjustment features keep getting better - now that it does three-point levels tweaking and shadow/highlight adjustment, it has kicked Photoshop off my "keep running at all times" list.<br /><br />Except when I need to tweak saturation, which in iPhoto people's dictionary obviously means something other than "intensity of hue". Here are some examples. Let's say I have a "weak" photo which could benefit from having its colors kicked up a notch. Here's what happens when I do this in Photoshop (left) and iPhoto '08 (right, and '07 does the same) with the original provided in the middle for comparison. In both apps, I'm pushing the saturation slider about a quarter of the way to the right.<br /><br /><a href="http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=silver1sg6.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2954/silver1sg6.th.png" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a><br />(Click for full size)<br /><br />Photoshop does exactly what I wanted. iPhoto boosts the color some, but what it does more than anything else is <i>darken the photo</i>. I never asked for this. Sure, hue and saturation changes will change the perceived lightness and darkness of an image, but not like this.<br /><br />To illustrate this better, let's push saturation all the way. Again, Photoshop on the left, original in the middle, iPhoto on the right.<br /><br /><a href="http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=girl1lj0.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/484/girl1lj0.th.png" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a><br />(Click for full size)<br /><br />Oversaturated, normal, <i>DARK</i>. What's going on?<br /><br />P.S. Sorry about the ImageShacking.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-90558260970485092762007-10-15T12:11:00.000-05:002007-10-15T12:29:38.763-05:00Apple.com revisitedAbout a year ago I <a href="http://nevenmrgan.blogspot.com/2006/11/different-sections-of-apples-website.html">took a look</a> at Apple.com on this blog, pointing out the areas that underwhelmed in both their marketing and design. Since then, the website has been redesigned to welcome iPhone and Leopard, and also to <a href="http://www.zeldman.com/2007/09/27/something-new-at-apple-store/">follow web standards</a> (what inspired that is anyone's guess - that mythical Apple excellence?)<br /><br />Did they address the complaints I had? Or, rather, did I diagnose the weak spots well? In a phrase, by God, what archery! Here's my original list of needed improvements with notes on what's been fixed: (you can see a (slow) archive of the old website at <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20061101014625/http://www.apple.com/">archive.org</a>)<br /><br /><ul><li>make your Hardware and Software pages <a href="http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/">lickable</a>.<br /><br /><i>The new <a href="http://www.apple.com/mac/">Mac</a> section certainly does that. Pretty pictures, a simple overview of all their products, an invitation to spend, spend, spend. </i></li><br /><li>Compress that scattered footer found on most of your pages; I appreciate the white space, but I cringe at the lack of grid, balance, and composition in it. Also, those default blue links have to go. The <a href="http://www.apple.com/dotmac/">.Mac</a> page is on the right track.<br /><br /><i>The new footer is small and beautiful. Two lines, neatly organized, with a pleasant Newport blue. Ahhh.</i></li><br /><li>Widen the Store page; it's still in 640 x 480 land, while most of your site has expanded way beyond it.<br /><br /><i>Yes sir! </i></li><br /><li>Lose the menu pinstripe. I know, I know. They grow up so fast.<br /><br /><i>We'll do one better - we'll make it match Leopard.</i></li><br /><li>RSS is <a href="http://www.feedicons.com/">orange</a> - that's been decided. Drop the <a href="http://www.apple.com/rss/">blue</a> and ride with it. This applies to Safari and the rest of the desktop as well.<br /><br /><i>This probably isn't happening. The "Tiger blue" is Apple's current "this is new" marker.</i></li><br /><li>Spice up the <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/plaza/week/20061105.html">Retail</a> pages; they're not <i>bad</i>, but they just don't make me want to visit and shop as much as pretty much everything else on the website does.<br /><br /><i>There have been some improvements here, but individual stores' pages still serve as reference material, not drool inducers. Oh well.</i></li><br /></ul>The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-90897027259295758872007-10-11T13:35:00.000-05:002007-10-11T14:15:49.445-05:00Google invents email, it seemsGoodness gracious. If you're going to write a technology article for a fairly large publication, it's good to be familiar with some basic 21st century technology. This is from <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2175651/nav/tap1/">Michael Agger's piece</a> on privacy issues some Google users are concerned about:<br /><br /><blockquote>A few months ago, a friend told me that he had stopped using Gmail. This seemed crazy. Gmail is free, it looks good, and you never have to delete anything. He thought it was a bad idea to entrust your personal communication to one company: "You don't know what they do with your e-mail. Even if you delete it, it still exists on their servers." Another friend, a lawyer, told me how Gmail exists in a murky privacy area. Because the Google servers "read" your e-mail to place the ads that appear next to it, a note sent via Gmail may not be a protected communication in the same way that a letter sent through the postal service is.</blockquote><br />That's absolutely true. Firing off an email through Google's email servers is not the same as mailing a letter. But it's <i>exactly like</i> sending an email using any other company's email server - AOL, Yahoo!, your ISP, or the hosting you bought for your domain. Your message makes its way through somebody else's computer and a copy of it also finds a permanent home there (unless your email provider doesn't do regular backups, in which case you're probably using your nephew's gaming computer as your email server). <br /><br />Yes, Gmail also "reads" your email to provide targeted ads. They, and every other provider, also "read" it in order to send it to the recipient. None of this is done by humans and all of it encompasses ALL the information you emailed. Of course, your local ISP may not run that extra content scan to decide which ads to show you. But again, how is this automated, brainless extra step a privacy problem? <br /><br />Email servers don't "read" "just" the recipient's address. If "to read" means "to parse", they "read" all of it; if it means "to understand and possibly misuse", they don't "read" it at all. We humans tend to see any attempt at targeted parsing as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_%28fictional%29">Skynet</a>-like AI that <i>understands</i>.<br /><br />For instance, many email clients (programs or websites you use, not email providers) will warn you if you're sending a message without a subject line. Is this problematic? Should the application be going through my communication instead of just sending it? Here's a more interesting example: there are plug-ins for email programs that will flag you if your message contains the word "attachment" (or something similar) but you haven't attached anything to the email. This solves a common problem - typing "I'm attaching a picture of my dog" and sending the email without attaching the file. Is this invasive?<br /><br />Of course, one can (and will) argue that this is different. These are limited features, and we don't have to use them. And there are certainly ways that Google could misuse the contents of your email; I'm not arguing that privacy isn't a problem on the Internet. But one thing it's definitely not is a <i>Google problem</i>. Every ISP transmits, stores, and "reads" your email. They all have similar access to it, should they wish to misuse it.<br /><br />P.S. Worrying about Gmail's targeted ads is like saying that the USPS is threatening your privacy because they offer <a href="http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/senditwithintheus/mediamail.htm">Media Mail</a> rates, which apply to packages containing books, music, computer media, and such. That's the sort of vague idea that Google (or rather, Google's computer programs) have about the contents of your email.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-54474904642573274162007-10-02T13:31:00.000-05:002007-10-11T18:57:27.514-05:00Name your price - no, really, any priceBy now you may have already heard that Radiohead decided to sell their new album, <i>In Rainbows</i>, in a pretty novel way: you can pre-order a downloadable version from <a href="http://www.inrainbows.com">their website</a>. Cost? Whatever. The price field is a simple text box where you're free to enter any amount between 0 and... well, $100,000, if you feel like it. (There's also a special "discbox" which includes vinyl and other goodies; a collector's item through and through.)<br /><br />Quite shocking, isn't it? Today, the BBC ran this <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7024130.stm">rather ironic comment</a> from the band's spokesperson:<br /><br /><blockquote>Most people are deciding on a normal retail price with very few trying to buy it for a penny.</blockquote><br /><br />Why do I call it ironic? Because if most people agree on the price, the choice of naming your own price becomes less important.<br /><br />This sales experiment may turn out to be an example of the sort of illusion of choice that similar honor systems have long embodied. When given the option to pay nothing (or next to nothing) or "whatever they feel it's worth", people tend to estimate the worth of the item pretty close to its retail price. Paying $3 for the album would seem wrong somehow, even if you did it in the privacy and secrecy of your computer room. And you wouldn't want those nice Radiohead people to look at the orders and go, "hey, who's the tosser in Ohio who paid so little? Screw this - next album's going straight to Walmart." That's a caricature, of course, but the point is that most of us probably aren't "deciding" this too close to the conscious part of our brain. The social pressures at work do what they do.<br /><br />Still, this does give the option of paying only $1 to the person who can't afford to pay more, or who expects to like only one or two songs on the album. This option wasn't available before... unless they downloaded the album illegally from a file-sharing network. That, of course, would have been against the band's wishes, but I'm betting that Radiohead wouldn't be thrilled if it turned out that <i>most</i> people were paying $1 either.<br /><br />I'm not saying it's six of one, a half dozen of the other whether you pay $1 or download <i>In Rainbows</i> from, say, Soulseek. But it's pretty darn close, especially if everyone else did it. The reason they don't is that they see how five and a half is rather close to a half a dozen.<br /><br />I'm, of course, assuming that the quote is correct and that most people indeed paid the retail price. For my part, I threw in $10 before hearing what others were paying.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-52841796067575819422007-10-02T12:13:00.000-05:002007-10-02T12:14:33.572-05:00This is from AppleInsider's <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/02/road_to_mac_os_x_leopard_an_extensive_look_at_preview_3_0.html">look at Preview 4.0</a>, coming in Leopard:<br /><br /><blockquote>As is commonly the case with Apple products, as it gets closer to perfection it becomes easier to criticize for not fulfilling every imaginable desire.</blockquote><br /><br />Tru dat.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-52809473189373357172007-10-01T11:39:00.000-05:002007-10-01T11:47:03.589-05:00Let it rainProblem: finding waterproof shoes for Portland's increasingly rainy weather.<br />Complication: I do a lot of walking, and dressy shoes or boots hurt my feet after a while.<br />Target: waterproof, durable shoes with the comfort and agility of sneakers.<br />Bonus: a reasonable price and simple styling. Also, a shoelace-free lacing system comes in handy (footy?) in the rain.<br /><br />Solution:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lafuma.com/index.php?id=catalog_list&L=6&cPath=2_26_28&products_id=218&typo_prod=1:int"><img src="http://www.lafuma.com/fileadmin/templates/lafuma/catalogue_images_ete/LFG1534_2599_N.jpg" alt="lafuma ACTIVE TRAIL MESH GTX XCR" /></a>The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-29591448920858247222007-10-01T00:37:00.000-05:002007-10-01T00:40:25.415-05:00Dear BentonChrista has been training a dictation app tonight (I won't name it.) She's been patiently talking to it for quite a while and finally used it to dictate this email to me:<br /><br /><blockquote> dear Benton,<br /><br />I'm trying this patient software for the first time. And when sending the result in without any corrections it's when you very funny and the. I hope that you will be paintings they also will then surely a master this "occasion" they. I had a failing barely notice to say.<br />Soon,<br />Chris tough</blockquote><br /><br />I know, right?The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-24592444043936423072007-09-30T20:57:00.000-05:002007-09-30T21:38:51.931-05:00It's the little thingsIf you've ever shopped for a snack in a grocery store - and I'm sure you have - I'm willing to bet you've missed an unsung treasure. I'm talking about those random, individually wrapped, two-ounce pieces of cheese you can find in the deli fridge. They're usually in a basket of some sort; miniature wedges and blocks looking like culinary rejects, but far from it.<br /><br />Think of them as samples, only better than anything the nice old lady on aisle 5 will hand you on the end of a toothpick. I see these morsels of curd at my local store which is a notch above the Safeways of the world; I'm sure you have something similar in your neck of the concrete. Here are my reasons for worshipping at the temple of miniature cheese:<br /><br /><ol><li>It's cheap. You probably won't find a chunk priced at more than $2.50, and I've seen them as low as 40c. It's getting impossible to find <i>any</i> food this cheap at the store, and the price-to-deliciousness ratio is off the charts here.</li><br /><li>They'll feed you more than you think. Sure, one or two ounces doesn't seem like a lot, but eat slowly and let it fill your mouth like good wine, especially because...</li><br /><li>These are typically not your orange cheddar, baby swiss, and monterey jack. Instead, because they end up on the side of the cheesemonger's block more often (because of their price and non-blocky nature), the varieties you'll find in the basket normally include French gruyere, goat milk gouda, fontina, leyden with cumin, and other flavor-packed beauties, at least some of which will be new to you, I'm sure.</li></ol><br /><br />Delicious handheld cheese for $1.50. Grab a piece of fruit (say, anything but a citrus) and you're eating like a Frenchman. That's a <i>good</i> thing.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-4325801358097352442007-09-28T18:21:00.000-05:002007-09-28T18:32:47.763-05:00Negative NancySome brief observations on two recent works of art:<br /><br /><ul><li>The Beastie Boys' <i>The Mix-Up</i> lives up to its name: something got misplaced somewhere alright. Weak, uninteresting, and sadly funkless, it makes <i>The In Sound From Way Out</i>, their mid-1990s effort in the same vein, seem like an underrated jazz jewel in comparison.</li><br /><li>I never liked Wes Anderson. I feel slightly better when I remember that I at least didn't have to pay to watch the 13-minute prequel to his new movie. It's called <i>Hotel Chevalier</i> and it's available on iTunes free or charge. It's also lame as hell; its mock gravitas and fake mockery (I don't even know what he's shooting for, to be honest) fill me with all sorts of questions, like why is this man directing movies instead of shooting classy nudes for <i>Vogue</i>?</li><br /><li>All albums by Regina Spektor are interesting the first one-third of the time you hear them. Then they get quite viscerally annoying. She can write a good hook; too bad she proceeds to drive it into your earhole over and over.</li></ul>The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-25365317293609114032007-09-28T14:01:00.000-05:002007-09-28T14:12:45.469-05:00Turn that iPhone upside downphoneI take a lot of walks and I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'm also forgetful so I often find myself half a mile from my house, ready to enjoy some <a href="http://www.kera.org/think/">KERA Think</a> or <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=ctax&v1=Top%2fFeatures%2fMagazine%2fColumns%2fThe%20Ethicist&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate-7&sort=newest&ac=Ethics">The Ethicist</a>, but without any headphones to stick in my ears.<br /><br />Back in the days of iPods, that would have been it. But iPhone has a speaker, right? Believe it or not, I've listened to entire podcasts by holding up the iPhone to my ear.<br /><br />Now, podcasts aren't phone calls, so they won't come out of the smaller, ear speaker. The sound will come out the bottom, bigger speaker, so for optimal performance, <i>flip your iPhone upside down</i>. Really - the sound will be very loud and more "direct".<br /><br />It's still a little goofy, but it beats listening to cars.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-67156660603454320472007-09-27T18:48:00.000-05:002007-09-27T19:05:38.522-05:00The iWFMS and moreToday's iPhone update added two and a half big features, in my opinion.<br /><br />The double-click preference is huge. I went for a walk after updating my iPhone and I used it constantly.<br /><br />The double-spacebar trick is simple and cute.<br /><br />The iTunes WiFI Music Store Store on iPhone (say 3x fast) is pretty neat - it loads quickly, searching is very simple (but informative) and it does what it should, and no more. I have one question, though. The following happened when I docked my iPhone after purchasing a track on it<br /><br />1. The purchased song was copied to the computer<br />2. iPhone synced its usual dataset (bookmarks, contacts, etc).<br />3. The same song got copied <i>back</i> to the iPhone<br /><br />Why the copy-back? Did the track change in some way? Was more info about it downloaded by iTunes after it was copied from the iPhone?<br /><br />I can't say I care too much. The whole process was speedy, elegant, and enjoyable.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-6144087138873015642007-09-26T00:53:00.000-05:002007-09-26T01:01:56.830-05:00Salt to tasteI'm one of those people who say that they never measure ingredients when they cook. Of course, when pressed, I'd say it's not ALL ingredients that I eyeball; in baking especially, that method doesn't work. But measuring black pepper, flour for roux, or olive oil? No way.<br /><br />Except when I follow recipes closely, busting out the measuring cups and spoons, two things happen. If the recipe is good, it turns out really good. And, more importantly, as I measure out the pinches and smidgens, I think about how much I would have used had I been estimating. The measured amount is almost always much different. <br /><br />The conclusion? My culinary instincts aren't all that great.<br /><br />I wonder if there's a bigger lesson to be learned here - something about how, when you think you've got something all figured out and you don't need to double-check or refer to the manual, maybe you ought to do it anyway every now and then and calibrate your instincts.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-64885946489032351092007-09-24T12:46:00.000-05:002007-09-26T01:02:44.597-05:00You like?Here's the thing: <i>A History of Violence</i> really wasn't all that. It had some interesting scenes but overall it felt like the comic book it was. This is why I went to see <i>Eastern Promises</i> cautiously optimistic.<br /><br />And hey, it was pretty damn good. It's not a very deep "analysis" of the Russian crime web, and it's not terribly insightful. But it has a solid story, it's economic with its characters and sets, and it lets Viggo shine. It's surprising how "small" the whole thing feels, actually. MY memory of it places all the happenings in two or three rainy days, a few brief encounters, and a mild dose of Godfatherish paternizing by calmly threatening father-figures. No biggie. Fun.<br /><br />P.S. I still don't get the title "Eastern Promises". I'll feel really stupid when someone explains it to me, I know.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-86984268211182224962007-08-31T10:13:00.000-05:002007-08-31T10:50:54.315-05:00You crazy diamondChrist, have you seen a British action film lately? Or horror, or sci-fi, or that mix of those three that's been engulfing the latter two lately? It really makes you sigh as you realize you're bound for one of those anti-Hollywood rants in which ideas are few, cliches are many, and star power and cash are the evil high fructose corn syrup of the movie industry.<br /><br />Look, it's not a pretty rant, and it's as tedious as some of the movies it attacks. But seeing Danny Boyle's <i>Sunshine</i> will surely make you revisit it. <i>Sunshine</i> isn't perfect, it's not a classic, it's fairly formulaic, and it probably won't do too well in theaters - but compare it to the more American alternatives. It will stand out as fresh, ambitious, energetic, and convincing.<br /><br />The story: as our Sun shuts down and condemns the Earth to a hell frozen over, a manned space mission is approaching our beloved star with the intent of dropping a purely theoretical "Big Bang bomb" on it to restart its fiery core. The ship is a tiny tail trailing behind a giant solar shield whose exposed surface is rendered in an epic way, making it seem like for a moment, the cinema screen is burning brighter than it actually can.<br /><br />This is the second "Icarus" mission, and as they lose communication with Earth, our crew run into the remains of the first, unsuccessful mission. The decision to go slightly off course and check it out is a risky one, and things go predictably haywire.<br /><br />This sub-genre of people trapped in a ship on their way to some grand purpose is nothing new, and Boyle doesn't mess with its hallmarks: the crew interacts in a <i>Lord Of The Flies</i> fashion soon enough, the universe turns out to be a harsh mistress full of surprises, and there's plenty of techno-talk throughout.<br /><br />But it works, mate. The characters are real, thanks in large to the only vaguely familiar cast. When he's faced with a cliche - say, an onboard computer that disobeys orders - Boyle builds up mounds of suspense around it so your poor reptilian brain, too busy with rollercoaster emotions, doesn't mind it. And this is far from popcorn entertainment - think <i>2001</i> without the obliqueness or <i>Dark Star</i> without the goofiness. It's spiritual and artsy, but it has one heck of a Sun God to be spiritual and artsy about.<br /><br />In the end, the missteps come courtesy of Hollywood writing. There's an element late in the movie that's not quite lousy, but <i>Sunshine</i> would've done just fine without it. It feels a little too much like suspense filler, and Doyle does a very good job of directing it, but it's still... oh well, you'll either notice or you won't. In either case, that little distraction shouldn't ruin the movie.<br /><br />Remember Aronofsky's <i>Fountain</i>, the staggeringly pretentious, three-era epic about love and immortality which played out like a stretched-out student film? How disappointing was that? <i>Sunshine</i> is more fun, more thrilling, and, heck, it's "deeper".The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-14084518293987815752007-08-22T16:36:00.000-05:002007-08-22T16:46:28.703-05:00Tips for installing RAM in an aluminum iMacI upgraded the RAM on my brand-new, 24" iMac today; I got the chip from <a href="http://crucial.com">Crucial</a>, who are a great deal compared to Apple's prices (though prices of upgrades on the new iMacs dropped significantly compared to previous models - they're almost competitive!)<br /><br />The user manual will tell you to carefully place the iMac screen side down on a towel, then unscrew the door on the bottom of the screen, pull out the tab, click the chip in, replace the tab, and screw the door back in. Here's what I wish they had also said:<br /><br />- The 24" iMac is big, so there's a lot of inertia when you're swinging it around. Think about how carefully you were going to do this, then be twice as careful.<br />- The RAM door is somewhat blocked by the stand.<br />- The bottom of the stand has graphic instructions for installing RAM. Useful.<br />- The screw they chose is a little odd. Don't use a very pointy, sharp screwdriver. Get a fairly dull one, otherwise it will just spin in place.<br />- The manual says that the chip will "click" in place. This has never been my experience with any slot, really - it's more like, it goes in 80% of the way, then you have to push it a little further, but it never "clicks".<br /><br />All in all, it took about a minute once I found the right screwdriver to use. Whatever you do, don't strip the screw head - I'm an expert with stripped screws, and I would NOT want to be rescuing this particular one. It is, after all, attached to an important part of an expensive and beautiful computer.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-55972103700260319052007-08-07T15:56:00.000-05:002008-12-11T07:07:52.662-05:00New toyI just ordered myself one of these beauties:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6ZHwnMx51mw/RrjcddtzJ0I/AAAAAAAAADI/HB3tR-qhqHE/s1600-h/index_hero20070807.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6ZHwnMx51mw/RrjcddtzJ0I/AAAAAAAAADI/HB3tR-qhqHE/s320/index_hero20070807.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096065377120757570" /></a><br />New 24" <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac/">iMac</a>.<br /><br />I'm upgrading from a three-year old PowerBook. After I sell it, my total cost for moving to a gorgeous new computer (and an all-in-one printer/scanner/whatever) will be around $400. Love it.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-456874014322278552007-07-28T10:49:00.000-05:002007-07-28T10:56:51.873-05:00Can he swing from a web?Here's the good news: <i>The Simpsons Movie</i> feels just like a very long episode. A good one. To those who may note that it doesn't have that "classic" ring to it (like the Monorail episode or the Worst. Episode. Ever) I suggest that no Simpsons episode seemed destined for fame and quoting, and no gag was ripe for endless recreation until some time had passed and the audiences had decided for themselves what to idolize. So, be patient.<br /><br />But ok, one thing in the movie is surely a great new meme: the spider pig. Show me the person who didn't think that was the funniest bit in the (pretty bland) trailers. The writers knew they'd struck gold, and it shows, especially during the credits. Sit through them.<br /><br />By the way, the whole experience of the movie was almost ruined for me by the awful, awful trailers for assuredly horrible comedies that will be defecated upon us later this year. <i>Daddy Day Care</i>. <i>Alvin and the Chipmunks</i>. The horror! The horror!The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-72653300899776672382007-07-14T18:53:00.000-05:002007-07-14T19:04:31.779-05:00It's the little thingsI never thought I'd find myself praising the Macy's website (of all things!) for their software design, but let's give credit where credit is due. Have a look at their <a href="http://www1.macys.com/store/locator/index.ognc?action=locatorSearch&City=ENTER+CITY&State=NOSELECTION&ZipCode=97202">store locator</a>.<br /><br />Notice anything interesting about the way they display their store hours? By default, you're shown <i>today's</i> hours (and tomorrow's). If you'd like their <i>weekly</i> hours, they're a click away.<br /><br />I'm sure that over 90% of people who look for their stores want to know about today's hours. Whoever put together Macy's website thought of that, and I salute them for this unique (in my experience, anyway) feature. Kudos.<br /><br />P.S. It's a really nice website overall. Beautiful typography in the main menu.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-84402286160572680282007-07-13T11:39:00.000-05:002007-07-13T11:55:47.693-05:00Cloverfield, Slusho, 1-18-08If you're not familiar with this "whoa, bro", soon-to-be-endlessly-satirized, untitled movie from J.J. Abrams of <i>Lost</i> fame, go devote three minutes to the <a href="http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/">teasy, teasy trailer</a>.<br /><br />Intrigued? There's a quick summary of what we know and don't know at <a href="http://www.montyfood.com/2007/07/1-18-08-aka-cloverfield-aka-slusho.html">MontyFood</a>.<br /><br />(The following is adapted from my comments on that page)<br /><br />The number one fan-tease from J.J. Abrams is still <i>Lost</i>, and while the show has managed to stay intriguing and original (for the most part) some fans are still cautious about just how awesome and unpredictable the finale will be. Can it ever live up to the hype? If not, can it at least be great?<br /><br />That remains to be seen. With <i>Cloverslush</i> (tm) J.J. has about ninety minutes to take us from comfort to discomfort to intrigue to mind-blowing. I wonder if the resolution of the movie (just what exactly is throwing the Statue of Liberty around?) will be shocking.<br /><br />Most people I've talked to so far are fairly confident that it's either an alien invasion or a mega-monster. Those seem obvious enough, and I guess this is where we get to see what J.J.'s sensibility really is regarding these things: will it, indeed, be a giant monster, one completely unique in some way? Or will it be something completely unpredictable (a magical-realistic materialization of New Yorkers' fears and anxieties or some such thing)?<br /><br />Or will it turn out that the trailer has little to do with the actual premise of the movie (the events in the trailer could be tangential, imagined, or otherwise irrelevant)?<br /><br />Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks constitutes a good payoff on such titillating hype.The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-19223865874514060692007-07-05T12:14:00.000-05:002007-07-05T12:32:46.872-05:00Fourth of JulyMy sole commentary on the nature of this holiday - since it's almost impossible to experience any holiday today without analyzing what it <i>means</i> - will be to say that I did not, in fact, celebrate 18th-century United States' independence from Great Britain by blowing shit up in the middle of a nearby intersection.<br /><br />Instead I worked until about noon - Christa had something to wrap up at her graphic design job in the morning - and we looked for a swimming hole to get lost in for the rest of the beautifully toasty day. We settled on <a href="http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_151.php">Dabney</a>, a small picnic spot thirty miles east of Portland. It was crowded like any other outdoor spot on the Fourth, but we found parking and some towel-space easily. <br /><br />I love rivers, though it's a very academic type of appreciation; once I step in the cold, cold water, my tingling toes and shivering thighs interfere somewhat with my eyes feasting on the gorgeous landscape.<br /><br />It was an excellent outing overall, despite my kvetching. We managed to get out of a parking ticket (or worse, a towing) on the way back. Now that we finally have my car fully registered and titled in Oregon - thank you, DMV - we were able to enjoy the simple pleasure of cruising around, listening to whatever the iPod shuffles next.<br /><br />We picked up a tuna steak for dinner; grilled rare, with a bit of pineapple glazing, served with garlic mashed potatoes, and zucchini and mushrooms steamed with wine. Then, the 1986 cheeseball <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/">Labyrinth</a></i> and some MST3K.<br /><br />Happy independence!The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13290486.post-78421882231786039752007-07-04T10:17:00.000-05:002007-07-04T10:31:56.920-05:00Hot rat<i>The Incredibles</i> was pretty darn incredible, <I>Finding Nemo</I> was my favorite, and say what you will, but I loved <I>Cars</I>. Brad Bird's <I>Ratatouille</I>, however, is Pixar's best movie by far.<br /><br />I'm dropping Bird's name because it needs to be known as well as that of, say, Howard Hawks. The man has made the three best American animated features in the last two decades, and it's not fair that he should be ignored just because he directs pixels a lot of the time. <br /><br />And oh how grandly those pixels are directed here. From the icky sewer to the shiny restaurant, every part of this country-to-city, family-to-independence, nobody-to-star story is fantastically imagined and rendered. <br /><br />But you'll hear all this from every critic in the world. This is essentially a film impossible not to love. Bon apetit.<br /><br />(Hey, I blogged this from my iPhone.)The Casserolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07488048385474982201noreply@blogger.com1