BrowserMetrics: 04.2006

The Sentinel

The Sentinel is one of those movies that suck, but doesn't suck too much truly hate. The plot is predictable (the mole was easy to pick out), the acting was over the top (Micheal Douglas?! wha?!), and the suspense was not there. Yet it was an enjoyable hour and a half. I really don't remember much about the movie. It will be another movie in the long list that I am going to be accruing this summer. So, the summer movie season may turn out to be okay after all.

3 of 5 stars.

But wait. I just had to say that it must suck to be this presidential administration. Look at the movies that have come out. V for Vendetta. American Dreamz. Now this flick. Each taking a potshot at the current administration with The Sentinel actively fantisizing the assassination of the president. When you're unpopular, it makes it easy to kick you once you're down.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 8:47:00 PM

0 comments

Driving guitars, yeahh!

Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack,
I've been too long, I'm glad to be back"

Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos.
But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

What's Your Theme Song?

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 12:49:00 PM

0 comments

Being film literate

Here's a list put up by some dude who thinks that to be film literate
you need to have watched these 100+ movies. I have marked the ones that
I have seen with an asterisk. Some of the ones that I haven't seen
surprise me. They are films that have a particular stature that it
seems I already know the plot and their major importance to film history
already. Maybe I should check them out. Also, I know I've seen bits
and pieces of a few more that I don't remember about.

I clock in about 60 or so movies. How about you?

*2001: A Space Odyssey
* The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
* The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
* The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
* The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
Blowup
* Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
* Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
* Carrie
* Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
* Frankenstein
* The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
* Halloween
* A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
* It's a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
The Lady Eve
* Lawrence of Arabia
* M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
* Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
* Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
* Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
* Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
* Rashomon
* Rear Window
* Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
* The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
Schindler's List
The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin' in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
The Third Man
* Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
* Vertigo
* West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz

Labels: lists, movies, polls

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 10:37:00 AM

0 comments

IMDb Movie of the Day

I couldn't pass this up, but Lilya 4-Ever is IMDb's movie of the day.
If you haven't seen it, check it out. And if you've seen it, check it
out again.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 8:44:00 AM

0 comments

American Dreamz sucked

As promised from this post, my thoughts on American Dreamz.

Notice that it's "my thoughts" now rather that a review. I am thinking on changing how I review the movies I watch, because they are not reviews that a Siskel Ebert would write, but just observations I had while exiting the theatre.

American Dreamz stunk. It tried to be satirical about current events, but it tried too hard. You can see the sweat on the forehead of the writer/director, Paul Weitz, as he told the story. He went about satirizing today's issues, but did it in such a way, that it felt extremely heavy handed. You could not miss the point that he was trying to convey, because he was hitting you over the head with it every 5 minutes of the film. It stunk up the screen, oozed into the theatre aisles, and wafted its way to a seventh place opening weekend position.

We know that the current situation in America is fucked up. We know our president is a fuck up. We know that American Idol and reality shows reward the talentless, ruthless, insipid person. Why am I watching a movie about it?

It was so bad that I sympathized with the president. He could not be so dumb in real life (Yet he is!!!). It was bad that he made that dumb ass sympathetic. This current president sucks too much to be made sympathetic. He's just plain pathetic. Weitz should never had made his President Staton a sympathetic character, since the current occupant of the White House does not deserve sympathy.

This only adds ammunition to defenders of Bush that say there is a vast left conspiracy trying to make the president look bad. It's not a conspiracy if it's out in the open.

1 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 11:13:00 PM

0 comments

Free Software for the Mac Community

The fine folks at MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $105,000 in Mac Software. The free software they're giving out is the wonderful text editor, SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys. You must participate in BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com to join in on the fun.

SubEthaEdit is a collaborative text editor. You and you're coding friends can practice pair programming using this text editor. I've always wanted to give it a try, so go over there, help the Mac community get some free software, and participate in BLOGZOT 2.0.

Labels: commerce, Macs

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 6:23:00 PM

0 comments

Wes Anderson's American Express

This weekend caught American Dreamz (1 of 5 stars, thoughts on film coming) at the AMC movie house furthest from my house but within 2 miles of another one. That is another story.

Before the movie began, though they played this commercial for American Express cards featuring Wes Anderson of Rushmore fame. Watch it. Like me, you'll wonder when the Wilson brothers will show up.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 11:39:00 AM

3 comments

Ono big time

One of the big name bloggers links to Jay's Strange Blog's tale of coffee nerdness. Interesting. If he had a statcounter, I wonder what his traffic would say today.

Updated: Now you can check out the video of the whole affair.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 11:15:00 PM

3 comments

Oksana Akinshina

Oksana Akinshina was the star of Lilya 4-ever. Here's a screen capture from her minor cameo in The Bourne Supremacy.

Update: The seed makes her number 2.5 on the hotties list.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:35:00 PM

0 comments

He's got to go

George W Bush. Worst. President. Ever. And we are a poorer nation for it.

Labels: wankers

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 10:12:00 PM

2 comments

Tascha Yar. Naked!

Welcome to Eltingville is Evan Dorkin's pilot about geeks. And it is funny for those in the know.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 8:17:00 PM

0 comments

Screenshot

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 8:14:00 AM

3 comments

CS 774 Dev Log

Worked continued on my project.

Complete:
Scene List window
Location List window
Character List window
View menus wired in

To do:
Script writing functionality
Storyboard functionality

Lessons learned:
I wish some people (*cough) were at 10.3 so that I could use some of the data array controllers to handle the location character and scene stuff.

Refactoring ideas:
None.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 1:14:00 AM

1 comments

Thank You For Smoking

I just wrote that title as "Thank You For Not Smoking," but caught myself before the major faux pas.

Well, to pass Easter Sunday off and to load up on even more food while doing nothing, I caught Thank You For Smoking at a pricey matinee. I got the student discount, but damn the prices went up.

The movie was a riot. It is all the things that you think the big tobacco does to promote their stuff. The guy is that dude who "can pick up any girl at any time." Slimy. A lobbyist. I laughed plenty all the way through. They came up with ways to spin things that were outrageous but funny. It is cynical.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 11:35:00 PM

1 comments

CS 774 Dev Log

Working on a project for CS 774 HCI.

Complete:
Toolbars
Open window

To Do:
Scene List
Location List
Character List
Wire in the menu items
Draw the scene in the scriptview

Lessons Learned:
NSToolbar -- creation (I also need some icons)
NSWindowController -- opening a new NSWindow

Refactor Ideas:
The document should be pulling data from a different source so that both the storyboard window can access the script elements.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 4:11:00 AM

2 comments

Pretty sweet

Vista versus OS X.

OS X will have a Liger on the way. This version of OS X will have built-in magic hardware.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 1:25:00 AM

0 comments

Drunk on Vista

Cringely hears from a friend who heard from Microsoft engineers that IntelMacs will run Windows Vista so fast that there will be no need for OS X. Here's the scoop:

The story came to me, as many do, from a reader. He's the night auditor at a hotel, and one evening around 2AM, found across from his Front Desk seven somewhat intoxicated Microsoft engineers who wanted to order morning wakeup calls. They started talking and my reader asked if Intel Macs would ever run Windows? That's all it took to start a 20-minute presentation (obviously prepared and long-practiced) on that exact subject, how Intel Macs will run Windows Vista very well, thank you. Not only that, but the Microsoft engineers were convinced Vista would be so superior that nobody would need OS X again.

Notice that these dudes were drunk. There is no way Apple would abandon OS X. They will make it sleeker, faster, more secure, easier to program and better UI design before Windows Vista arrives in 2007.

Why would I also want to pay for all new apps? Look at the pro apps make makes: Final Cut Pro, Aperture. Have these been ported to Windows yet? Does windows offer the same functionality as OS X? Can windows offer the same types of programming styles that OS X? Tiger was marketed as Longhorn before Longhorn has arrived. Look at the iLife suite. Besides iTunes, are there ports of GarageBand, iMovie, iPhoto even iWeb coming soon? So if, Apple abandons OS X to be these great (and free at time of purchase) apps must be replaced or you the consumer is taking a step back in functionality.

Cringely has lately been believing that Apple is going to be the next greatest Windows OEM vendor. Why sell shit? OS X will not be dead in a long while. Plus, do you know how many developers that would just piss off?

Labels: Apple, Macs

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 1:16:00 AM

0 comments

Science only teaches us how, not why.

Looking for Scully related blogs and ran into this fun meme to try.

Facts:
New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.
Mao Tse Tung's funeral takes place in Beijing

Births:
Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Ticha Penicheiro, Portuguese basketball player

Deaths:
Jimi Hendrix, American musician

I am not including the day just to get your minds working and your fingers typing.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 5:16:00 PM

0 comments

Geeked

Completely geeked out today. I stopped by the comics store and they had signs all around with deep discounts on comics: 20% on new issues, 50% off of trade paperbacks, 40% off on back issues.

I spent $40.00. I haven't done that ever.

Picked up the continuing cycle of New Xment trade paperback. This one's Grant Morrison's term in a Xbook. He was the writer of acclaimed Batman, Doom Patrol and other DC/Vertigo comics. His is more than a comic book of super heroes. It's another interesting read.

Finally, Marvel has decided on getting stories told.

Labels: comics, geeked

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 5:12:00 PM

0 comments

The Netflix business model...

...has apparently expanded to that of the camera lense business.

They should do this for comic books.

Labels: comics, comraderie

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 2:17:00 PM

0 comments

That same old feeling

Because I like to catalogue these...

I dreamt about S again last night or more like this morning in that half
awake twilight you're in before you wake up. And like the other dreams
of her, it takes place at Ruby's.

I am back at work there. I can't tell if I am the age I worked there or
if I am the age that I am now. It feels like now. I recall that I had
just come back.

I am walking through the kitchen. S bursts through the doors behind me
in an exaggerated manner. I smile at her. She smiles back. She looks
the same: beautiful face, as tall as I am, brunette hair to her
shoulders, brown eyes, slightly slimmer in the backside. She wears her
hair with the bangs pinned back. We do the cheek-to-cheek air kiss.
"Long time no see." We both realize we're back working at Ruby's. The
dinner crowd arrives.

Later, I see her again more exasperated. Her hair is disheveled. I
walk her into the kitchen, arm on the small of her back. She doesn't
like that. "We are not going into the supply room and hump." I am
taken aback. What she said has stopped me in my tracks, and the icy
look she gives me as she continues on saddens me.

"I have tables?" "What's my section?" "Damn, I got cocktails." For
the rest of the night I stay on the other side avoiding her.

Then I woke up.

Also, making a cameo appearance is SL. Tall blonde. Great boobs. Hot.
Hot. Hot. Like S, we do the cheek-to-cheek air kiss.

Labels: dreams, that girl

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:11:00 AM

6 comments

Hot Dog Tour LA

Hot Dog Spot blogs about the best hot dogs stand around LA. Are there any in Maryland?

Labels: just asking, mmm

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 1:55:00 PM

3 comments

Lost in translation?

There's something titallating about this.

And not from a political junky point of view.

Courtesy of MaxSpeak.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 1:15:00 AM

3 comments

Say "vwat" if you want to unpimp your Mac

Yesterday, the Apple world was atwitter (not to mention WallStreet) with the release of BootCamp, the dual boot utility that will let you load Windows XP onto an Intel Mac. As you know, I am an Apple enthusiast. This is good news. Maybe I will have an audience for my software.

Why is it good for Apple? They are a hardware vendor. More people buy Macs the more they profit. Apple is hoping for spill over affect. Come for the XP stay for the OS X. Also, games. Want Apple games? Here's XP. Suckas!

Anyhow, I really can spout off on this but it's best to let the Apple pundits take care of the brilliance of this move.

DaringFireball's take is always insightful.

Daniel Jalkut has the old post about whom Apple is gunning for.

Michael Tsai

The OmniGroup

Update:
Here's some more good info on whether to buy Apple stock. It seems that Apple is going to go big this summer. Continuing on the XP as the "New Classic" here and here.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Mac

Labels: Apple, ha ha, Macross

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:48:00 PM

3 comments

X-men

Comic books not the movie. Do you read them? I did up until 10 years ago. I loved the X-men. But I lost interest once work drinking got in the way.

I picked up an issue last month. I am hooked again. Can someone help me catch up? I especially like Joss Whedon's version, Astonishing X-men. It reads good.

Labels: comics, nerd

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:48:00 PM

2 comments

I need to hurry up

Is it the Mac's Moment? According to the wall street journal it could be. Let me highlight the one passage that is really intriguing:

Already, there are signs Apple is gaining some ground: Some software developers are warming up to using Macs for programming.

For years, many software developers sniffed at Macs. About five years ago, though, Apple introduced a sweeping upgrade of its operating system called Mac OS X, derived from Unix, a high-performance, reliable operating system long used in scientific and other demanding computing environments.

There it is. Programmers will slowly be flocking to the Mac platform. I need to hurry up and create some killer app. I need to be the big fish in the small pond once the floods come in and inundate our happy little pond.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 8:53:00 PM

1 comments

!MaxWidth

This rant on TUAW is a funny read. It is something I have wondered about for a while, especially about the switchers to OS X.

Men and women, boys and girls, please: Mac OS X more or less offers only one way to manually maximize windows across your entire display for a reason - because they don't have to be that large.

To maximize the window, in OS X is a weird concept. It is basically done with the green button (the one on the right in the cluster of buttons on the top right). But it doesn't work quite the same way as the maximize window concept under Windows. I don't use it, because I don't like the fact it doesn't always take up the screen realestate like I am used to on Windows. So since it doesn't act correctly, I avoid it.

Anyway, the aesthetics of a Mac obviate the need for maximizing the document window. The Mac is program based. Try command-tab. You'll see only programs. You select the program that you want running on top and control-tab through its open documents. That's why the menu bar shows only one application at a time. Use expose to access all document windows.

Windows is window based. Alt-tab goes through all open windows. Imagine myriad windows open and you'll quickly realize the Mac and it's application based tabbing is more superior. I think Vista will be like the Mac.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 4:01:00 AM

0 comments

Open Thread

Here's a chance for you to talk about anything you like. Especially, for those lurkers out there. I really want to know who comes here.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 3:56:00 AM

9 comments

"It's definitely sucking."

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 12:03:00 AM

3 comments

Inside Man

Inside Man. Spike Lee's most mainstream movie.

I liked it.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:47:00 PM

2 comments

V for Vendetta

As promised.

V for Vendetta is an adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel of the same name. I have read the book. The themes are the same, but something has changed. The graphic novel is a rant against the Thatcher England. Think, fascism in the UK, and the Clash singing, "Clampdown." That was the milleau that the comic was written in.

The movie is also a product of its times. Although, it was still set in London, it really is an indictment of the Bush adminisitration. Everything this corrupt White House spouts is reflected in the fascistic government of the film. The party line espoused by the media. The corrupt church. Torture of people. Demonizing gays. That's all the Bush admin is about.

This movie was subversive. One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 9:38:00 PM

0 comments

TeeVeepeedia

TeeVee has just converted to a wiki style website. Go there for all the television goodness.

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 10:52:00 AM

0 comments

Geeks rejoice!

Happy 30th Apple!

Posted by: SoNSo1 | 10:14:00 AM

0 comments

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