Blog

I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a fortnight ago because I knew enough to wait for the wife for the third Bourne movie.

I haven’t read all the Potters (though the boy has, several times), and I can never remember which of the previous movies I’ve seen. This one was fine, but I’m not invested in them. Metacritic weighs in with a combined 71: makes sense to me.

One side note: despite a comment from my friend Sean to the theater owners during the early part of the film, the entire movie was shown out of focus. I might not have noticed before, but I’m starting to pay attention — and it’s really distracting once you do. Ignorance is bliss!

Earlier this month, after an East Coast vacation, but before the rest of the family returned, I hunkered down for the entire 3+ hours of The Right Stuff.

Long ago, I read Chuck Yeager’s autobiography (title: “Yeager), so I enjoyed the almost-parallel tale of Yeager’s pursuit of the speed & altitude records. But the Mercury space program is the focus of The Right Stuff, with an emphasis on the very human teamwork and rivalries that bound the first group of astronauts.

The movie did win Best Picture, among other Academy Awards. Three hours is still a long time. I wanted to see it, and enjoyed it…but I was ready to go bed at the end!

Not having read the book, I lack insight into the differences.

The music, though, is fun and appropriate throughout. Clair de lune by Claude Debussy is played as a tune of reflection and celebration near the end. I was instantly returned to the end of Ocean’s Eleven, with the Bellagio’s fountains soaring. Yes, I have the reference backwards, chronologically…but that’s the order in which I saw the films. You can listen/see the music for yourself in many, many versions on YouTube, including this one.

Thanks to a recommendation from my friends at CNET Networks, I found out about BikeParking.com. Great selection of bicycle racks for offices, garages and other commercial spaces. No online ordering, and the price sheet is on a PDF, but clear pictures, descriptions, and suggestions for different situations. I’m grateful that Minor Ventures is making an attractive workspace even more friendly by adding some secure bike storage. If you have the opportunity to add bike storage to a commercial space (or a large private space), check BikeParking.com. I don’t know how far afield, geographically, they work… but a great choice in bike-friendly San Francisco.

Maybe I’m too old, but watching Napoleon Dynamite, I could only be grateful it was short. Metacritic score of 64 is far above my personal rating.

I’ve read Robert Heinlein many times before, but never one of his most famous novels, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”

Published in 1966, the first-person story walks us through the revolt of a colony on the moon against the earth. The colony was founded as a prison, like Australia’s origins. Right away, the dialect hits you as different, and then we have a computer “waking up” and first supporting and then helping orchestrate revolution… to the point of bombing Earth from above.

Very human point of view, but definitively different point of view throughout. The computer gets named, and loved, and missed. The protagonist, Manny, is abstracted, and addressed by the ever-more-human computer as “Man.” Hardly accidental, and Manny is an amputee, with an array of specialized left arms to carry out different tasks. Both are “heroes” of the story, but their souls are not so different.

Now I’m back in a non-fiction book, but fun read.

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman was a hoot. The accompanying blog shows the spirit of the humor. If you’ve seen Hodgman on The Daily Show, then the voice and wry straight-man tone are even more fun. This is short, which is fine, since it’s a bit repetitive after a while.

(Oldest item in the email inbox) Way back on June 6th, I noted JobVent Takes Dirt Dishing To a Broader Audience and earlier this week, TechCrunch returned to the genre with New Forum Site To Gossip About Work. I’m not that interested in this class of sites except for the name JobVent. My one early foray into starting my own site back in the late 1990s with a friend was dubbed iVenting, now nicely squatted on by DomainSpade, per DomainTools. Unfortunately, archive.org never caught our short-lived live efforts in 1998 or 1999. Oh well. Our efforts were not focused on jobs or the workplace…just complaining. No surprise, a half-assed effort went nowhere. Lesson: part-time effort isn’t enough.

* * *

Gallery of standards-compliant website designs. I liked this one, although nothing particularly relevant to current needs. Breeze is attractive. And their service might even be useful in the future.

* * *

Back on July 3rd, CNET News.com reported that AT&T offers DSL subscribers free Wi-Fi, but the story didn’t include the critical link to the details. I’m a customer, although my DSL started back in 1998, with PacBell. Through the transition to SBC and then on to AT&T, I’ve stayed under the radar because (a) I didn’t want the Yahoo stuff forced on me (I use it directly, where appropriate) and (b) I got a static IP address way back when. If I start asking questions about new services, I suspect my account will be ‘reviewed’ and that might not be progress. However, I would like more speed and it burned me to pay for Wi-Fi in an airport the other day (T-Mobile). We’ll see.

* * *

Anil Dash pointed out that “Bottled Water Is Still A Scam,” in reaction to the Fast Company story in the July issue. San Francisco’s water supply may be fragile, but it is tasty. Good reminder.

* * *

Steve Yelvington alerted me to another crowdsourcing effort, aimed at astronomy. Reminded me of PhishTank.

If you design a system that accepts the fact that some people will make mistakes, and others may be vandals, but you allow the larger number to define the outcome, then you accommodate the realities of human nature.

* * *

Marc Andreessen delivers the truth in The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 5: The Moby Dick theory of big companies. Nice literary/business mashup, in an enjoyable essay. I’ve been Ahab at least once.

* * *

I haven’t played Tilt SCREAM Pong on my MacBook yet, but I certainly need to download it and try. Via Tim Bray, who also points to a visual definition of The Elephant in the Room. Nice!

Last night, I caught up to the rest of the family and saw Ratatouille. Pixar fun, with a nice short to lead off the film per usual. Metacritic score of 96 is stratospheric. I enjoyed it, but wouldn’t put it up on that pedestal. A G movie that works for children but never talks down to adults. For foodies (not me), even more enjoyable.

I had a lot of fun seeing Live Free or Die Hard two weeks ago. Metacritic score of 69 is a touch low. Aside from the poor riff on True Lies (the jet scene), suspending disbelief and just going with the flow is fun. Not sure why Bruce Willis defines sardonic humor, but it’s a nice touch for an “action hero.” As much as The Sixth Sense was brilliant, the Die Hard franchise feels like Willis’s home.

Jarhead is a book I wouldn’t have picked up without seeing the movie. Subtitled “A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles,” Anthony Swofford’s memoir makes me wonder again that my father was in the Marine Corps reserves. Just doesn’t feel like my father’s kind of organization, but then I didn’t know my father as a young man. I never considered how much the military (especially the Marines?) still live up to the reputation of sex, drinking and general hell-raising…even (especially) at overseas postings. Tough to be an ambassador when you’re under 21, loaded, and horny. Hmmm.

The book isn’t political. It’s personal…which makes the observations stronger. All of America is aware (now) that the restraint of Gulf War 1 was smart, not weak, however disorienting and disappointing it was for Swofford and his mates at the time. The lack of combat is maddening, though, to both author and reader.
Side note: reading Swofford on their crappy gas masks (fortunately never required), it’s disappointing to see that the military couldn’t improve much in the 70-odd years since World War I.

Now that I’ve read the book, it’s even more surprising this was made into a movie. But I’m glad it raised my awareness enough to pick Jarhead off the library shelves.