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Oct
07

Almost Famous: My Favorite Movie Of All Time Now On Blu-Ray

By | Blog, Culture, TV/Entertainment

Almost FamousAlmost Famous from director Cameron Crowe is my favorite movie of all time. I love everything about it. The acting is supreme. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant as rock critic Lester Bangs, Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond and of course Kate Hudson as Penny Lane. There are no words to explain how much I love Kate Hudson in this movie. She is so gorgeous and her character, so enchanting. The story, of course, revolves around rock and roll and a young budding rock writer. I will admit to being a Cameron Crowe fanboy. Hey, I even liked Vanilla Sky. 

Now Almost Famous is coming out in blu-ray and fortunately its the full directors cut version which is much better than the original theatre version. There are a number of little extra scenes and other scenes that are longer than they were in the regular theatre version and adding all that back really ads to the movie. If you haven’t seen the directors cut, you haven’t really seen the movie yet. Watch it again.

Oct
04

How Big Is Too Big – Android Pushes The Limits With Nexus Prime

By | Blog, Technology

nexus primeSo, very interesting news today from Apple, as they take a half step with the new iPhone 4S instead of a more complete redesign of the hardware. The only thing I wonder about is the screen size. I have gotten used to my Droid X and it’s 4.3 inch screen. I do like the extra room but I will admit it’s about as large a device as I would want to hold as a cell phone. The rumors were that the iPhone would move up to a 4 inch screen; not as large as the Droid X but larger than the current 3.5 inch iPhone screen. This would have been a nice compromise and I was looking forward to it. Now, however, if I want to go back to the iPhone as I have been planning, I will be stepping down a little on screen size.

Now comes word that next week Samsung will announce the next great Android phone for Verizon (my carrier) and it’s the Nexus Prime. It will have a screen that is supposedly 4.5 inches. Like I said, I can’t imagine wanting a screen larger than my Droid X at 4.3, so 4.5 is really pushing the limits I think. At a certain point, it’s just too large for a cell phone isn’t it? At a certain point, you just want to to straight to 7 inches and call it a tablet. but your phone you want to keep smaller and lighter. I don’t see how pushing the cell phone screen larger and larger is helping anything.

I am still disappointed to not get at least a slightly larger screen for the iPhone but I think I will hold to my plan of moving back anyway for many of the reasons I previously outlined. iPhone 4S isn’t everything I hoped for, but it’s still a very good phone.

Sep
25

Pam Am, The Playboy Club And The Death Of Creativity In Television

By | Blog, Culture, TV/Entertainment

Pan Am PosterTwo new television programs getting big pushes this fall are ABC’s Pan Am and NBC’s The Playboy Club. ABC especially is promoting the hell out of Pan Am. Both these shows are period pieces and direct, shameless rip-offs of AMC’s Mad Men.

Mad Men was a breakthrough when it came out. A beautiful period piece set in the world of Advertising in the 50′s and 60′s. The writing is superior and the attention to detail in the show is remarkable. What is sad is once something becomes very popular, people in TV rush to copy it. So it’s no surprise to see these two new shows. Frankly I wonder what took them so long. There is such a void of creativity in television, truly great shows only come around once and awhile and most of what is out there are rip offs. CSI became popular and what did they do, replicate it several times. Same for Law and Order.

I guess it’s been this way for quite awhile though. Television goes through phases. For one period, everything is a cop drama, than a hospital one. Lately, the traditional cop drama has morphed into more of a psychic cop drama like Medium.

I predict both The Playboy Club and Pan Am will be failures. People do see through this pretty well and neither bring anything original or interesting to the party. None of the actual creativity comes from the major networks anyway. Virtually everything that is decent now comes from networks like AMC, FX, and HBO.

For the record, here are the only shows I watch these days that I think are worth watching.

Breaking Bad – I came late to this show but I’m hooked now

The Walking Dead – I have read the comic and it’s awesome. I was very worried they would mess it up, but so far the show is great.

Sons of Anarchy – How can you not love crusty Ron Perman as the head of a rough and tumble motorcycle gang?

The Daily Show – When the actual news is so insane you want to tear your hair out, this is the only thing that may keep you from completely loosing it.

I’m sure there are some shows I have missed but with three kids, I only have time for so much. Add your favorites in the comments below.

 

Sep
21

Why I Want To Leave Netflix

By | Blog, TV/Entertainment

I’ve been a really long subscriber to Netflix and I love them. They innovated the DVD by mail industry and relieved us all the sorry errand of going to Blockbuster. The number of movies they have available is boundless and the web interface for the service is second to none.

I don’t know what happened to Netflix but they have lost their ever loving minds in the past few weeks. First, without warning, they drop the bomb that they are going to effectively more than double the price for the same service we have always been enjoying. I understand price increases, sure, I also understand highway robbery. Customers universally flipped out and today an email direct from the CEO says he is sorry the communication didn’t go so well. He is not sorry about anything else and he’d do it all again, but they did not communicate well enough. The classic non-apology apology.

Let’s break it down because it’s really quite simple.

Netflix wants to and needs to move to a streaming only service, no more DVD’s. You don’t have to convince me of this and I am 100% behind this move. There is nothing more I would love more than to have a Netflix streaming only service. Mailing DVD’s back and forth in the mail is archaic and slow. BUT there is one big, big problem with all this. The selection of movies available on Netflix streaming is horrible. It doesn’t even come close to what is available on DVD. Now why would I move over to your streaming service for the same money for a massively reduced amount of content? That just doesn’t make sense. There is a fantastic Mashable article that explains this as well as anything I have read. My favorite line from the article “…you’re about to get whipped by the Long Tail. Good luck with that.” If you don’t know, you need to read the book The Long Tail immediately. It is still one of the best primers on the economics of the Internet.

It has actually been two days since I started writing this post and I will give you the update, I officially did cancel my Netflix account just a moment ago. One of the only effective things I can do is vote with my feet and that’s what I have done.

I will be using Amazon.com and iTunes for my replacement. Amazon remarkably has a fantastic library of movies and content available, far, far greater than Netflix streaming. The only difference is you must pay for each item rather than the subscription model. You about break even if you only watch about two movies per month. Heck, even if you watch three, it’s only a little more and you do have the big library available. I say it’s well worth it. Netflix will have to get to at least 75% of their DVD library available on streaming before I will think about coming back to them. By then, someone else may have come up with an alternative subscription model with the content to match. Netflix has made themselves so vulnerable I think they are about to have their lunch eaten.

Sep
11

Surprise! Apple is a Mobile Device Company

By | Blog, Technology

apple cloudIn case you hadn’t noticed, Apple isn’t really a computer company anymore. Remember when they changed their name from Apple Computer to just Apple? Now a recent report says 70% of their revenue is non traditional computer related. We’re taking iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

A poplar buzzword lately is the post-pc era. As usual, Apple is the innovator and leads the way. Isn’t it appropriate for the company the originally launched the personal computer era in the first place to lead us into the next era? There is also an interesting concept of the “Internet of things” which I do believe we are moving toward. Apple geeks bemoan the deemphasis of the stalwart Apple operating system, OSX and the growing importance of iOS that powers the iPad and iPhone. For Apple, however, it will be iOS that will power the Internet of Apple things.

With Steve Jobs retiring, at least as CEO, many have wondered what is legacy will be. This is it, I believe; leading Apple into the post-pc era. With this transition, Apple should see a clear path to success for the next 10 to 20 years. The only question now is has Steve Jobs injected enough of his mojo throughout the company to keep them on track. Apple employees need to get themselves little WWSD bracelets. What Would Steve Do?

Sep
09

Even Prisons Can Be Hacked Now

By | Blog, Technology

HackHere is a somewhat disturbing but not surprising story about hacking vulnerabilities of modern prisons. It turns out some prisons use the same technology that was recently hacked in Iran. The same PLC’s used in Iran’s nuclear centrifuges are also used to control locks of cell doors. These PLC’s were hacked by the Stuxnet worm.

Again, it shouldn’t be all that surprising anymore as anything that is computerized is hackable and anything that is connected to the Internet even more so. Pair that fact with the fact that more and more things are computerized and even more connected and there you go. We are truly living in a connected, technology driven world. What will be hacked next, your car, your toaster? Don’t laugh. I fully expect hollywood to use this latest news to come up with a great prison break movie based on a hacked prison door.

This is one of the primary reasons that I draw my personal line at implantable tech. I’m not at all interested in putting tech into my body with the one exception of anything that can help with my diabetes. Other than that, I am not looking forward to the day when someone tries to hack my brain.

Sep
02

Why I Am Going Back To The iPhone

By | Blog, Technology

iphone5I primarily changed from an iPhone to an Android phone two years ago not because I disliked the iPhone but to get away from AT&T and their terrible network. Now, my contract with Verizon is up and I can choose a new phone. Since the iPhone is not on Verizon as well, I have a real choice. Stick with Android or go back to the iPhone. I have a Droid X Android phone, which is fine enough, but I’m going back to the iPhone for a couple of reasons.

Media Management

The Android platform is terrible at managing and playing media. It always has been and I am shocked to this day Google has not vastly improved this feature. Syncing songs and podcasts with iTunes is no trivial matter and the media player application itself leaves so much to be desired. Third party apps help but there is nothing I can find that comes close to the grace and elegance of the iPod features built into the iPhone. Google Music helps a little, but that service wants to stream all your music and with stricter data caps coming to all wireless carriers, I don’t know how that’s going to play.

Apps

It’s all about the apps these days and which Android has made vast strides in the apps that are available, I have found a few that I am interested in that are iPhone only. Also, it appears to be that iPhone development is still getting more love than Android development. A company may have support for both platforms but they will almost always update the iPhone app first. The big double edged sword as well is Apple’s approval process for apps. Since Apple goes through everything with a fine tooth comb, iPhone apps are generally of higher quality, both in their look and feel as well as stability.

Accountability

Here is another double edged sword. Apple controls everything in their ecosystem from the hardware to the software, so they can provide a more seamless experience. Android, by definition, is fragmented. Different hardware all with different specs. Even the operating system is different as hardware vendors put their different skins and extras features on top of Android. No two Android phones work exactly the same. My Droid X, after upgrading to the latest Android OS had a nasty bug where it would randomly reboot itself in the middle of playing music or a podcast. Now who is responsible for this bug and who do I complain to? Google, Motorola, Verizon? With the iPhone, the buck always stops with Apple and they are very agressive about fixing bugs, especially one as serious as mine. I waited months for the bug to be fixed on my phone. With an iPhone, a bug that serious would have been fixed in days.

Carrier Control

With iPhones, the wireless carriers have very little if anything to say about what goes on the phone and how things operate. On Android phones, carriers put all kinds of bloatware and apps that you never asked for on the phone. Carriers also decide which operating system updates you will get and when. I am sick of carriers telling me what I can and cannot do with my phone. All iPhones come clean, with only the software Apple wants and virtually all iPhones get software upgrades at the same time and when Apple releases them. Part of this goes back to Apple’s control over the ecosystem as they can better ensure updates will work on all iphones. Every time Google updates Android, carriers have to update their special interfaces and that takes time.

Things I will Miss

Is there anything I will miss about my Android phone? Probably the biggest thing is the Google integration. Especially Gmail on the phone, which is great. Also, Android has the best sharing features I have seen anywhere. If you are sitting on a webpage or in Google Reader, the universal sharing interface that lets you use just about any installed app to share that content is second to none.

The timing couldn’t be better. My contract is up and the iPhone 5 is just around the corner. I’m coming home.

Jul
26

McDonalds Reduces Fries In Happy Meals

By | Blog, Digital Dads, Food/Eating, Health

Happy MealThank you McDonalds. As a parent, it’s very difficult to avoid a little McDonalds now and then. We  have reduced our visits quite a bit, but sometimes there’s no avoiding it. McDonalds announced today that they will be cutting the french fry portion of their Happy Meal in half and adding apples. Thankfully they will not add a dipping sauce for the apples like so many other so. That sauce is basically a highly sugary carmel sauce. McDonalds also says they will reduce saturated fats, sugar and calories across the entire menu in time as well.

Consumer groups have been hammering McDonalds for years now to change their manu in these ways. A recent study came out last week noting that more sates than ever now count their population as obese. I’m not sure if American attitudes on health and fitness are strong enough to impact McDonalds as more people choose better options but I believe companies like McDonalds have a moral responsibility to act when studies like these come out. There is no doubt they are contributing to the obesity of America which has all kinds of negative impacts in other areas. Feed us, McDonalds but please don’t kill us. As a parent I applaud these recent changes as my 3yr old will eat little else but chicken nuggets and Mac&Cheese.

Jul
03

Hacked!

By | Blog, Technology

HackedMy wife Lisa always said it would come to this, although she always though they would come to the house and kill us. This site was hacked by some pro Muslim, anti-American group. Thankfully my sister Joanne alerted me and I was able to fix things, mostly. The hack wasn’t hard to turn back but in the process there was some damage to the data. I lost many of the links to the thumbnail images for the posts and they absolutely killed my Google ranking. I don’t know why the hell they go after me for. I rarely talk politics. I do have the Jewish name though and a way to easy to hack password. After some research I found they hit many websites, most likely with a robot program just probing for easy passwords. You know when they always tell you to use a strong password? Well, listen because I didn’t and I got burned. Guess what? My passwords are much much harder now.

It’s the first time I’ve ever been hacked. I can’t say it’s not unlike having your car broken into. Someone or something was inside my website mucking around. Get out and stay out, bastards.

Apr
26

My Trucker Fantasy

By | Blog, Life

TruckFor the longest time I have had a fantasy about being a trucker. Exploring the country in a strangely solitary yet connected community of brethren truckers. I’m sure its not as romantic in real life as I imagine but I love the idea of it. Maybe it’s from my interest in sub-cultures or my love of travel in general that fules this. There is something very appealing about the open road and a destination and a mission. There is a good documentary film called Big Rig on trucking I would recommend. It’s a pretty honest look at the life and it’s not all pretty.

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