22 April 2008

Movie Thoughts: I Am Legend

image When I saw the first commercial for this Will Smith flick, what went through my mind was "this is a remake of 'The Omega Man'". I was right.

In this version, a doctor finds a cure for cancer. But the cure comes with a cost...the destruction of man. The cure causes a virus to be released which mutates man and beast alike into carnivorous, cannibalistic beings with a great hunger for human flesh.

Smith is the doctor that stays behind in an empty New York City trying to find a cure.

Why the writers or producers or whomever didn't just name the remake "The Omega Man" is beyond me. The "I Am Legend" title comes from the book that inspired this movie, along with The Omega Man (with Charlton Heston in the lead) and "Last Man On Earth" (with Vincent Price in the lead).

Some of the scenes in Legend are taken directly out of Omega Man (I've never seen "Last Man On Earth"). Near the opening in Omega, Heston visits a car dealership and drives of in a new Mustang. In the opening credits of Legend, Smith is racing around the empty streets of New York City in a new Mustang, hunting deer and trying to avoid the lions.

And the endings were almost exactly the same. Although I just realized there is an alternate ending on the DVD for Legend which I haven't watched yet (that'll teach me to ignore the special features). Supposedly the alternate ending more closely mirrors the book.

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic-killer-vampire-like-zombie-creature movies, this is a pretty good one. It isn't scary so much, but maybe that is because I already knew the story. I saw the Omega Man the first time when I was just little kid, watching with my mom. I thought Matthias was creepy as hell. And he was much more intelligent than the protagonist vampire-zombie-creature-thing in Legend.

While I liked Legend, after watching it, I'm ready to watch Omega Man again. Don't get me wrong, I like Will Smith, I think he's a great actor...but he is certainly no Charlton Heston.

09 April 2008

My Top 10 Picks for Windows Software

I have noticed there seem to be quite a few people discussing their top 10 picks for software for their computer. From these lists, I have found quite a bit of very useful, well written and completely bug-free stuff. Most of these items are free, and the few that aren't are almost-but-not-quite free. So here is my Top 10 Software Must-Haves:

  1. Textpad: This isn't free, but it is worth every fracking penny! This is a notepad replacement text editor, but also does color coding for PHP, HTML and others. With displayed line numbers, and tabbed interface and all sorts of other goodies, I don't know that I could live without it. ($16.50)
  2. Windows Live Writer: Honestly, I don't see how anybody that blogs can do without this beautiful little gem. It posts to a list of blog software longer than my arm. Blogspot, Wordpress.com, Wordpress (stand-alone),LiveJournal,LiveSpaces and the list goes on and on and on. There are also some great plugins for it. It is so easy to insert a picture, position the thing, give it a border or a drop shadow just to add that little extra 'oomph' for your readers. (Free)
  3. IZarc: This free program is a great replacement for WinZip and it's rather limited capabilities. This thing opens just about every type of compressed file imaginable. I know, I know, file compression in the ZIP format is natively available in XP and Vista, but there are so many other formats that are not compatible with the Windows File Compression (or WinZip) - such as RAR, TAR, GZIP and a host of others. There is absolutely no reason what-so-ever to NOT have this thing on your machine. It is fast, and small and once you have it, you won't understand how anyone could not have it. (Free)
  4. Paint.NET: When I first heard about this program,I'm thinking to myself. "Ho-hum, it's MS Paint, but written in .NET, so what, MS Paint is probably the absolute worst graphics program...EVER". But I visited the website anyway, and WOW, this thing does so much more than MS Paint could ever DREAM of doing. It uses layers, there are plenty of people making plug-ins and actions. This is a quick and easy light-weight (and FREE) Adobe Photoshop instead-of. There is also GIMP, but my opine is that Paint.NET is easier and much more intuitive than GIMP...but a long shot. For quick lightweight photo manipulation, or graphics creation, I always turn to Pain.NET. OF course, it is no where near as powerful as Photoshop, so is in now way a Photoshop replacement. But I've found about 70% of what I do with pictures, can be done in Paint.NET. (Free)
  5. Firefox: The best browser money can buy - and it doesn't cost any money. I switched to Firefox before Internet Explorer 7 was released, because Firefox has tabbed browsing. You can open a multitude of pages in different tabs, in a single window. Awesome! Great for doing searches, as you can right-click the link and select "open in new tab" and still have the original search results available. There are very few pages any more that actually require MSIE, and for those that do, you can download an add-on for Firefox which adds "View in IE" to the right-click menu of any web page. Simple, elegant, and it works great. (Free)
  6. StumbleUpon: This is actually a browser toolbar instead of a program, but I still dig it. You setup your account at StumbleUpon and install the tool bar. The tool bar gives you a"Stumble!" button. Get bored? Click the stumble button and StumbleUpon serves you up a random web page that falls within the "likes and dislikes" criteria to setup at their site. Plus there is a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button on the toolbar, allowing you specifiy "Yeah, this is cool, I like this kind of stuff" or "Stupid, I hate it, don't show me this kind of junk anymore". (Free)
  7. Windows Live Photo Gallery: Another of Microsoft's Live offerings. It appears to integrate seamlessly with Windows - it has the same look and feel as the native image viewer, so everything is comfortable and familiar. Allows you to index, tag, keyword photos and videos, and upload them to both Windows Spaces and Flickr (Yahoo's very popular online photo album/sharing site). It doesn't natively upload to Google's Picasa, but then again, who want's Google to have all of their photos stored in a database that you can't ever ever ever delete anyway? (Free)
  8. PCTools AntiVirus: I used to be an AVG fan. I really did. But then I started playing with Microsoft's new web-graphic flash knock off called Silverlight. The problem is, that AVG would block access to Silverlight files, so I was forced to investigate other options. I found PCTools, and haven't looked back. Look, everyone needs an anti-virus program running, even with Vista's beefed up security, it's just a darned smart thing. I hate Norton, it is slow, clunky, extremely bloated and seems to start up at inopportune times (read, when I've got Dingo in the sites of my Famas, and just ready to pull the trigger). PCTools, on the other hand, creates a smaller disc space footprint, and a much smaller memory footprint. Enough to make even Al Gore proud. (Free)
  9. Google Desktop Sidebar: If you're not running Vista with its ultra-cool (and even somewhat functional) sidebar, then you should look into the Google Desktop Sidebar. You can put all sorts of widgets in it. Clock, calendar that hooks into your Google Calendar, file shredder, remote desktop connection, as well as many, many others. There is another sidebar supported by Microsoft called "Desktop Sidebar" but frankly, I found that one unstable, and sorely lacking widgets. (Free)
  10. µTorrent: Oh c'mon, there are plenty of reasons to need a bit torrent client that does not include piracy or pr0n. I can't happen to think of any just now, but there are - people assure me of that. In any case, this bit torrent client is small and quick and is anything but a resource hog. You won't even notice it's running. (Free)

So there's my top ten free/nearly free programs for Windows. And just to show I'm not prejudiced against the Mac, here are my top 11 must-haves for Macs:

  1. Windows Vista: An extremely versatile and easy to use OS. Has decent enough security, and there are oodles more programs (read: games) for Windows than any other operating system:
  2. The ten other items listed above...

There you go, 10 for Windows, 11 for Macs.

08 April 2008

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

image Twenty years ago, when the 5/8 and I were just 'a couple' and not yet a married couple, we sat in my parents' living room and watched the Kansas Jayhawks win the NCAA basketball championship. I can still remember the feeling of watching that happen. There was a kind of quiet pride. I didn't feel like hooping and hollaring, but I did remember this kind of peaceful happiness that came over me. Kansas isn't known for much see. We are the very definition of 'fly-over country'. People arrive in, or travel through Kansas because they have to - very few because they want to. So some positive recognition coming out of Kansas is always a good thing.

Last night, I got to feel that feeling again. Luckily I might add. With about 6 minutes left in the game, and Kansas quite a bit behind, I was contemplating turning the TV off and just going to bed. But, then I figured that in basketball, 6 minutes is an eternity. So I watched a little more. With 3 minutes left in the game, and the prognosis not much better, I began saving the work I was doing on the computer while watching the game, and shutting it down. Figuring we gave it a decent try, but just weren't playing to our potential, and we'd once again walk away from the championship game without the win.

But then that guy on the Memphis team missed his two free-throws, and something, it seemed, began to happen for the 'hawks. They seemed to sense that this gave them a fighting chance. The score now was very close, one possession could win or at least tie the game. And it did, ridiculously, with something like 2 seconds left in the game Kansas scores the tying field goal, and the game heads to overtime.

The overtime period was quite an exceptional display of what the 'hawks are capable of. They came out and played better during that period, than (I believe anyway) any other time in the game. Meanwhile, Memphis seemed to have lost their steam. It was truly a great game. And I send out a giant, heartfelt congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks. Let's hope there are many, many more of these to come our way.

04 April 2008

General Electric sUxX0r!!!!!

General Electric is a humongous company. If it exists, they probably either 1) make it, 2) make a part that goes in it or 3) consult on the production of it. They do everything from light bulbs, to airplane engines, to wind turbines, to nuclear reactors, to movies (Universal is owned by GE) to television shows (NBC is owned by GE).

I used to work for them. I know what they are like. They are all about 'The Process'. The Process is what is all fired important. It is, in fact, THE most important thing at GE. Even in the customer service arena, the customer takes a back seat to The Process. A CSR can have 1000 customers angry with their performance, but as long as the CSR followed the process, they don't have to worry about a poor review, or losing their job. Meanwhile, a different CSR can have 1000 customers happy as snails, and ready to throw away all of their appliances today, and spend their hard-earned Benjies on brand spanking new GE appliances, but if that CSR didn't follow The Process, they are in danger of losing their job and will undoubtedly receive a poor review. In GE, The Process is everything...always.

About eight years ago we purchased a new washing machine. It was a GE brand. It world great for us for about six years, then started to show signs of wear and tear. We have three kids. We do laundry probably five days out of seven every week. The machine was used and abused for six straight years. Then about two years ago we had to have the service guy out to fix it for the first time. Over the past two years, the service guy has been out to fix our old GE washer maybe eight or ten times. Finally, we decided that it was time to get a new machine.

We had such a great experience with the previous GE machine, we naturally gravitated to a new GE machine. What we ended up with was basically an updated model of the one we had. We had it about a month before it started making some gawd awful noise. We called GE since it was still under warranty, and they came out and fixed it. Some kind of stabilizing arm had broken. That should have been the first clue that this machine was made with quality that was almost-but-not-quite exactly unlike the quality of our old machine.

We had the machine a mere month before it broke down and we had to call invoke our warranty to have it repaired. I seems that some dohickey responsible for the stabilazanitator that connects to the thingamabob broke. Ummmmmkaaay...sure. They fixed it it all up and everything went humming along splendidly for the next five months. Then one night, after putting a load in the wash, and settling down to see what questions weren't going to be answered on LOST that week, a noise came rumbling up from the basement. It was an ominous noise. Not unlike (I would imagine) two buffalo fighting. I don't mean just butting heads fighting - the way animals do in Wild Kingdom - I mean real honest to goodness, John Wayne style knock-down drag out fighting. It seems the entire house was shaking.

Long story short, the washer quit...again. So now we've had this thing six months, and it has broken down twice. Call up GE again, they say they'll send someone out on Monday. Monday comes and goes, no one show sup. call them back. They say someone will come out on Thursday. This time someone actually shows up (surprise!). Bad news is, he has to order parts. Worse news is, one of the parts is back-ordered. Back ordered. The machine is six months old. I would expect a part for...say...a ten year old machine to be back ordered. But six months? Either this part that broke is so freaking rare that they don't feel the need to keep any in stock...anywhere, or the parts breaks so fracking much they can't keep them in stock. I'm leaning towards believing the latter.

noge Fast forward a month - that is a month, mind you, where we were spending $60+ dollars a week at the darned laundromat - and they repairman finally comes back to the house. All ready to make the machine purr like a kitten again (not to mention actually wash clothes). And...OOPS...there is yet ANOTHER part the guy needs. And guess what? They don't have THAT part in stock either, and need to order it from GE. The guy says he'll be back next Friday to fix it (I think he is assuming the part is not on back order - a pretty big assumption if you ask me).

So, we get to look forward to yet another fun Saturday afternoon at the laundromat.

I seriously cannot see myself buying another GE product, period. These people have really ticked me off but good.