Analog-Theater 2.0

I think that each and every single one of us has heard the terms “Dog eat Dog” and “Rat Race”.  Many of us even remember “Greed is Good” and the famous “Me too Generation”.  What I never realized is how true to life they where.  It was a sad day today when I was made aware that I just don’t have what it takes to become a major player on the corporate stage.  I have that one major drawback, that singular failing, a conscience.

As everyone, including my dog, is no doubt aware some banks have been paying bonuses and then taking government money.  No problem, everyone likes money, and now that our friends in Washington, DC are dealing in imaginary number, there is enough for everyone.  Sadly that included the senior executives where I work.  Of course they all took theirs a few days after cutting 10% of the staff.  Now, before anyone chooses to insult them, it’s ok.  The million or so they paid out to themselves was justified, and they made sure they could not take anymore this year.  Oh, and anything they make over the first hundred thousand a year will be cut by 6%.  We found this out following the surprise second layoff.

But, before anyone out there worries, my job is safe and that second layoff was simply to secure our companies profitability.   They would never try to cash out and leave us in the red.  Honestly, since they could not sell the company a few months ago, every single one of them is fully committed to the success of the business and would never jeopardize our position as a market leader in whatever it is we do.  If that includes paying out bonuses more then equal to the full pay of every single person let go so far, that is justified because of all the hard work and big decisions they have to make.

As a human, I could never make some of those decisions simply because I see every person as a person and not a statistic.  I also understand the basic principles of business and balancing an account.  Seeing that we have a business to run, taking money for performance that does not warrant it and then laying off vital support staff (The only developer who understood the half finished system, the one person in IS who actually returned calls…the ops lab should not be providing internal support!) just doesn’t add up.  Not when the money was there to pay for them.  Layoffs are a necessary evil, staff needs to reflect the needs of the business, but it is not a first option for cost savings you idiots!

So, hello everybody.  Just some musing on Windows 7.  I’ve installed it again.  I know that as a technology professional or whatever I am, that I am supposed to be on this bandwagon.  But, the thing is that I just can not make myself really like Windows 7.  I like certain aspects of it,  and I really don’t like others.  I like that it is a lot faster, and I like that a lot of the professional features from Server are making their way into the mainstream desktop.  The fact is though that they are dumbing things down, and I doubt your average user is going to set up a desktop back up to a remote server.  I have, and it backs up all nice and neat to the /storage share on my linux machine.  It doesn’t know that the server is running Linux and I’m not about to tell it.

The Good:

• Well, here I can honestly say that the start menu is nice.
•   Has the nice search feature I love from KDE, also includes the preview feature on the task bar that I’ve come to like from KDE.
•   It really is faster then Vista.
• UAC while still annoying, is not as quick to pop up and ask if you really wanted to open Word

The Bad:

• Home groups, or more accurately “Work Groups for Dummies”
• Control Panel no longer has Classic View and now presents you with 58 (I counted and scrolled) possible icons to choose from.
• The Task Bar.  Love it or Hate it.

Enough of that rant and onto my new one.

I know some of you enjoy all natural food, and others don’t care.  But one thing that bugs me is why do foods that have few ingredients, which do not include a load of chemical additives, and which have not been overly processed, cost more?

Honestly.  I would expect that say an ice cream which has only 5 ingredients to cost less.  Think about it.  Fewer ingredients equals fewer items to ship, thus saving on transport costs.  Fewer ingredients to mix would cut down on production time.  Simplicity should equal savings.  And wouldn’t natural ingredients cost less then chemicals?

But them maybe I am confused.

I was doing some reading up on some of my favorite shows.  Burn Notice has been renewed for a third season with 16 episodes starting in June.  Jeffrey Donovon said in an interview that he doesn’t know what will happen in season three, but he’s sure it will be good.

Fringe, even though there are two more episodes of the season, has also been renewed.  Fox ordered 22 episodes.

So far I haven’t seen any news on Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles.  There are still 6 episodes left of this season and it has a decent fan base, so there is hope.

It is still too early for me to decide on Dollhouse and it appears that the studio hasn’t decided either.

There is little hope of Knight Rider getting a second season and this week is the series finalle of Battlestar Galactica.  Lost still has one more season left to go before it comes to an end.  With these shows going by the way side, there is room for some new shows to watch.  Who knows what they will be.

I saw that Jared was mentioning the Gravitational something or other at home, and wanted to say a few words.  I have been a long time contributor to various @home projects.  I did 8 or 10,000 Seti@home work units and have done over 4000 folding at home work units.

One of the reasons that I am using 7 computers to do little more then fold protein for Folding@home is that I strongly believe it may yield a very real, very practice result.   One day, one of the many machines I have folding could find the protein misfold that results in a cellular mutation that leads to cancer, or worse.

So, join which ever team you want, but please do consider donating your unused computer time.

I was also going to talk tonight about why food that is not processed, has fewer ingredients, and should be simpler to make costs more.  But I will save that for tomorrow.

 I also thought I would include this:

“The Folding@home computing cluster currently operates at above 5 petaFLOPS at all times, with a large majority of the performance coming from GPU and PlayStation 3 clients.^[2] In comparison to this, the fastest standalone supercomputer (non-distributive computing) in the world (as of November 2008, U.S. DOE’s Roadrunner) peaks at approximately 1.46 petaFLOPS.^[19]“

Wow!

It not my own personal detector, but I stumbled across this program called Einstein@Home.

Einstein@Home is program designed to search data collected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO, a joint MIT/Caltech experiment launched in 1992) and GEO 600 (a German detector founded in 1995) for gravitational waves (a fluctuation in the curvature of spacetime). The project was officially launched on 19 February 2005 as part of American Physical Society’s contribution to the World Year of Physics 2005. It uses the power of a volunteer-driven distributed computing system, the same platform that SETI@home used, The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC).

The Einstein@Home project searches for continuous wave sources of gravitational radiation via an “all-sky search”. These sources may include gravitational radiation from pulsars. Einstein@Home may result in the first confirmed direct detection of a gravitational wave. A successful detection of gravitational waves would constitute a significant milestone in physics, as it would be the first detection of a previously unknown astronomical object by means of gravitational radiation alone.

As of March 2009, over 220,000 volunteers in 209 countries have participated in the project, making it the third most popular BOINC project(after Seti@home and World Community Grid, according to BOINC Stats.

You can download the program yourself at http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu.  There is an Analog-Theater team there that you can join, which I just founded.

For those less interested in physics, we also have an Analog-Theater team on Folding@home, which is also a distributed computing system that is studying the human genome.

I started watching Dollhouse when it came out to see if it was any good.  Now I’m watching it to see if it gets any better.  I think that the writers of this show lack any subtlety.  I have my prediction for how the first season will end.  Echo will have a composite event like Alpha, but instead of killing everyone like he did, she will kill him.  Victor will figure out what love is and confess his feelings for Sierra.  The three of them, with the help of Boyd and Ballard, will escape or destroy the Dollhouse.  Echo will also give Laurence Dominic a beat down.  Ballard and his neighbor Millie will finally eat together.  And Topher will stand there saying “it’s impossible, it isn’t supposed to happen”.  It is written and when the season is over, you will see that I am correct.

In other news, Marvel announced a bunch of changes to their upcoming release dates.

The First Avenger: Captain America will now be released on July 22, 2011

Spider-Man 4 will now be released on May 6, 2011

The Avengers has been postponed from July 15, 2011 to May 4, 2012.

Thor has also been pushed back from July 16, 2010 to June 17, 2011.

Iron Man 2 is still on schedule and there have been some developments.  Scarlett Johansson has signed on to play the Black Widow.  And Mickey Rourke has finally signed on to play the villain Whiplash.

Finally, I read this article recently about the show the Bachelor.  Apparently Jason (the Bachelor) dumped Melissa (the winner of the show) shortly after the final episode and hooked up with Molly (the runner up).  I’m shocked!  If you can’t find true love in a Reality TV show where you are forced to get rid of 24 of the 25 potential soulmates one after another over the course of 3 months.  Everyone knows that during three months you can determine which of the 25 women you will be able to spend the rest of your life with.  And the track record for the Bachelor is proof of that.  Out of the 13 bachelors that they’ve had (including Jason), none of them have married the woman they choose.  I am especially impressed by Brad from season 11, he eliminated all 25 women.  So Melissa, if you are looking for true love, don’t look for it on a reality show.  And odds are that Jason and Molly won’t last.  And if anyone wants to read the article, chick here

So, it seems that everyone and their sister’s second cousin is releasing a Netbook.  So, what is a “Netbook”?  A Netbook or sub-notebook is more or less any laptop/notebook computer that is less then 12in and weights less then 2 lbs.   I also would like to add that they tend to only be powerful enough to really get you online, listen to some music, and maybe work on a word document…Not at the same time.

Most of the current crop are powered by an Intel Atom processor running at 1.6 Ghz (although a few offer the option to overclock the processor to about 1.8), have between 512MB and 1GB of RAM, an 80 to 160GB hard drive, and 8.9 to 10in screen, networking is handled by 802.11G wireless and 10/100 ethernet port.  The graphics on these machines are handled by an Intel graphic chip. Right now the bulk of these are running Windows XP or a custom Linux distrobution made for that specific machine.  Vista is not recommended.  Battery life is about an hour and a half, and you can expect to pay from $299 to $500 depending on the machine and options.

For most of us this means that you get a fair amount of storage space, a very underpowered processor paired with a poor excuse for a graphics chipset, decent memory for what it is, outdated wireless and wired technology, and poor battery life.  However, if you just want a little machine that streams audio, has enough space to store a few movies to watch on the road (hopefully near an outlet), and to check you email, without having to risk someone snatching your MacBook Pro it is perfect.

I’ve personally used the 7in EEEPC, 8.9in Aspire One, and my current love is my MSI Wind.  The first two came with custom Linux distrobutions, and the Wind with XP.  I booted that once.  Right now it is happy running Xubuntu, although I will be moving it back to OpenSuSE shortly.  I have just never gotten the OpenSuSE install of XFCE (a full featured desktop that is perfect for these lower powered machines) to work right.

Now, while I’ve not spoke glowingly about these, I do want to point out that in the very near future a lot is going to change.  Nvidia will be dropping the Ion chipset and graphics combination shortly.  The combination of Intel Atom and Nvidia Ion chipset w/graphics actually provides a serious boost to perfomance over Intel Atom + Intel Chipset/graphics.

AMD also has plans to ship something, I’m not sure what anymore, but something.  Also, Via (shudder now) has a decent processor out for once.  What that translates into is small, light, and realistically powerful machines.

I have to say, that after reading what Mr. Jared has posted I have some hope for the future of the movie industry.  But not much.  Please, please, let some of these movies die!  No more Pirates!, no more Shia, and was I the only one who thought Tom Hanks does not belong in this role when watching that him play professor whats his name?

Oh well, what can you do.

Before I start the main topic of this post, I would like to say “Wow, Robert posted four times.”  Though, I bet he probably won’t post for another couple months again.

Now, on to the Watchmen.  I just went to see it today and I was not impressed.  I know that the graphic novel was, well, graphic.  While some people might enjoy the gratuitous gore and nudity, it wasn’t really my thing.  I don’t see why Dr. Manhattan couldn’t have worn his superhero underwear all the time instead of running around nude.  Some of the flash back scenes were a bit boring, too.  They probably could have cut the movie down to two and a half hours without losing anything.  On the flip side, the story was good and I liked Jackie Earle Haley’s portayal of Rorschach.  He did a good job with the entire paranoid pycho superhero.  Overall, I give the movie 5 bananas.

Hopefully the following movies will be better.

March 13, 2009: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is starring in Race to Witch Mountain, a remake of the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain.

March 20, 2009: Nicholas Cage stars in Knowing, a movie about a man who gets a sheet of paper that records all the disasters that are going to happen.

April 3, 2009: Benicio Del Toro is the Wolfman in the remake of the Wolfman.  Also starring Anthony Hostkins, Hugo Weaving, and Emily Blunt.

Dragonball returns to torture the world on April 10th, 2009.  This will be the live action version of the painful anime.  You have been warned.

May 1st, 2009: X-men Origins: Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in a prequel to the X-men movies.

May 15th, 2009: Angels and Demons, based on the novel by Dan Brown, starring Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Pierfrancesco Favino, and August Fredrik.

The future begins on May 22, 2009 with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins starring Christian Bale as John Connor, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, and Sam Worthington in the newest installment of the Terminator franchise.  No Arnold in this one.

June 26th, 2009: Transformers 2, starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas, Rainn Wilson, Jennifer Alden.

The world is going to end (again) on July 10, 2009 in the movie 2012. Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Thomas McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Chin Han, Morgan Lily, and Beatrice Rosen.

On July 17, 2009 Harry Potter returns to the big screen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint reprising their respective roles.

August 9, 2009: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, starring: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Said Taghmaoui, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Arnold Vosloo, Christopher Eccleston.

On November 20, 2009 we get to see Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in action as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes.

March 5th, 2010: Tim Burton’s vision of Alice in Wonderland hits the big screen starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Sheen, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman.  This might be interesting.

A remake of Clash of the Titans directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Lawrence Kasdan is due for release on March 26, 2010. Ray Harryhausen is involved, and Sam Worthington is in talks to star.

April 30, 2010: Iron Man 2.  With Thor making a cameo.

June 4, 2010: Thor

May 6, 2011: Captain America: The First Avenger which will be set entirely in World War 2.

July 15, 2011: Avengers with Robert Downy, Jr., Edward Norton, Samuel L. Jackson, and whoever plays Captain America and Thor.

Sometime in 2011: Spiderman 4: Tobey Maguire and Director Sam Raimi have agreed to do another film, but they do not have a script yet.

Also sometime in 2011: Grayskull: Masters of the Universe, produced by Joel Silver and written by Justin Marks.

Battle Angel Alita in 2011 directed by James Cameron.

Superman: Unleashed in 2011, Brandon Routh is still set to return as Superman.

Also in 2011, Director Scott Derrickson is planning to film Paradise Lost in 3D. Discussing his interpretation of the story, he sees Satan as an anti-hero and not the villain, and that it shall be a “litmus test” for the audience when they stop sympathising with the character. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are producing.

In 2012 Johnny Depp will be back as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Geoffrey Rush has expressed interest in returning as Barbossa, but has not signed on yet and Director Gore Verbinski will not sign on without a complete script.

Ok, so I just spent a considerable amount of time typing up a thing about media players and asking what folks are using these days.  Now it is gone.  I clicked publish, but no luck.

Well, it wasn’t really that special.  I just wanted to know what everyone was using.  Right now I have:

VLC: The video lan project.  It more or less plays everything under the sun from DVD’s to mp3’s.  Works on all operating systems with any kind of real and measurable market share, down to 0.0%.

Winamp:  The great great grandparent of all media players.  No longer the big player, but it still works and has good output quality.

JetAudio:  I installed this to use with my A2 by Cowon.  Nice media player.  If anyone is really feeling generous for no reason, I want the S9.  I’ll even write a spell and grammer checked review for you.

I know Windows Media Player is on here, I just refuse to launch it.  Kind of in the same way that I will not install iTunes for fear of it trying to own my computer.  I don’t mind it on my Mac, but when I want a media player to stream music from di.fm, that is all I want.  I want it to go away and not show up everytime I put a disk in the machine or launch a song.

I was also going to talk about Microsoft’s XPS format tonight, but I don’t have enough time or rolaids.