Holy Frijoles!

I like to browse the blogs over at ZDNet, and I ran across this entry by Robin Harris.

He reports that Professor Guarav Khanna at the University of Massachusetts has clustered 8 Sony Playstation 3s (donated by Sony) to create one supercomputer. Researching his black holes and quantum cosmology cost him $5,000 in grant money on a conventional supercomputer, but for way less than that, one can run whatever complex computations they desire with the supercomputer created out of PS3s.

Picture stolen from ZDNet, please don't sue me!

Awesome!

Sometimes you can't catch a break

Sometimes it is just too difficult to get anything of worth accomplished. Like a blog post even. I sit down, fire up LiveWriter, and begin typing. Then comes commotion from the kitchen. So I have to get up, walk across the house, and knock some kids upside the head. While in the kitchen I notice dishes in the sink so I figure I might as well put those in the dishwasher while I'm there. Because, you know, nobody else in the whole danged house can put a dish in the dishwasher.

Then I sit back down and write maybe two or three more words, and the 5/8 brings a basket of clothes from the dryer. I stop again and get up and walk across the house to help fold the clothes. By the time that is finished, the kids are at it again, and I have to take the time to go out back and knock them upside the head again. When I get back inside, I notice yet more dirty glasses in the sink. After loading those in the dishwasher, I sit back town, and type another couple of words.

About 1 1/2 paragraphs into a post is normally when one of the 'rents calls with some task they just can't seem to get accomplished by themselves. Difficult things to be sure, things like changing a light bulb, or moving some 2x4s from one shed to another. So I stop again, and drive on over to the 'rents house and get done whatever dangerous and difficult task they just had to have done 'right darned now.' When I get back I once again notice more dishes in the sink. After cleaning out the sink for what seems like the 23rd time in the last three hours, I can sit back down at the computer and crank out a couple more lines of a post.

Of course, about two more lines grace the electric glow of the monitor before the 5/8 comes back up from the basement with more dry clothes which require folding, and the kids are requiring more head-knocking, and there are still dirty dishes in the sink. All of this going on, and when I ask No. 1 Son to do something I get the response "Sheesh, can't I just get one day for some 'me' time?" All I can do is laugh, because the other thing that goes through my head at those words is a felony.

Movie Thoughts: Transformers

I have to admit, Transformers sounded like it could be a cool movie, but I wasn't so sure it would be. Like Godzilla, and some other gigantic movies before it, the probability was there to just make a complete dud. Way heavy on the special effects, and pretty much nothing else.

While I have never been a huge Transformers fan, in fact, you could say - with a great degree of accuracy - that I didn't really care about the show in the least.

The movie was pretty much what I expected. Heavy on the special effects, light on just about every other aspect of movie making. The plot was typical, two giant races of robots decide earth is a good place to make war on one another. There is, of course, a 'good' race and a 'bad' race. The bad race (decepticons - natch!) want to destroy all humans and re-shape earth to be their new home world, which was destroyed during the first good-guy/bad-guy war. The good guys (autobots - what kind of name is that anyway?) want to save the humans, and co-exist (but in secret - disguised as...autos!) in secret.

At any rate, the movie was good on action scenes, and the special effects were awesome! If you are looking for substance, run, run as fast as you can. But if you are a big fan of awesome CGI and like lots of explosions and the like, it definitely beats Godzilla hands down.

Indy 4

After what seems like nearly a lifetime (actually, more than a lifetime in relation to my kids) that man of adventure is making his return to the silver screen.

According to filmspot.com, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is in production for a 2008 release. According to wikipedia, the film is set in 1957, and instead of going up against the Nazis Dr. Jones faces off against the communists of the "Evil Empire."

They say they are keeping the CGI to a minimum. I don't know who well that will work with Harrison Ford being somewhere around 65 years old, but two of the last three movies were exceptional. And I did like watching the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" back when Lucas was making those.

Of course, this could always be like the "Star Trek franchise where most fans believe in the 'odd numbered film curse'. That is, all of the odd numbered Star Trek films stink. Perhaps, it is reversed with Indiana Jones, and all of the even numbered films will stink. Only time will tell.

Baby you can drive my car

No. 1 Son turned 15 the other day. We haven't had a party for him yet. He says he doesn't really want a party, just wants to go bowling with a couple of friends. I can't pretend to understand that. Bowling? It isn't like we are some die-hard bowling family or anything. Sure, back in the day the 5/8 and I were on a bowling team in Olathe, back when No. 1 Son was just fresh from the cabbage patch. Maybe he has some sort of fond memories of bowling alleys from way back then. Who knows.

About 10 years ago his grandmother won a Dodge Neon from the newspaper over in Lawrence. Some contest she entered. I hadn't known anyone who won a car in real life, so that was kind of exciting. Well, against my objections, she gave No. 1 Son that Dodge Neon for his birthday. It only has about 67K miles on it, and it needs at least a battery. But we have a year to fix it before he can really drive it. I didn't think he needed a car. My plan was always to get another vehicle for myself next year and give him the Insight.

My thinking was that the Insight is a perfect car for a kid. If it isn't driven conservatively, the batteries become drained and you find yourself trying to drive a car on the anemic 3 cylinder engine. Add to that it is so small and cramped, there is absolutely positively no room for any funny business in that little car. Sure, we don't have any drive-ins around anymore, but that doesn't mean that kids won't be kids. And this was supposed to be just one more extra little blanket of protection against hormones. Now he has a roomy car with a full back seat (it is a 4 door)!

On the upside, now I can think about getting a more suitable vehicle sooner, rather than later.

Movie thoughts: Hollywoodland

There is a game we used to play. Well, it isn't a game really, it's more of a...I don't know what to call it. It went like this, we would sit around and offer suggestions for which actor would be best for playing the role of characters in movies. Movies about books, or re-makes of old TV shows, or comics or whatever.

Anyway, the one character I have had the most difficulty with is Mike Hammer. Stacy Keatch was excellent as Hammer on the television shows he did, but he is way too old now.

Mike is your quintessential hard-boiled private eye straight from the pulp dime novels and film noir genre that brought us the likes of Phillip Marlow and Sam Spade. Marlow and Spade were earlier of course, and were translated into films near the height of the film noir genre, both benefiting from the abilities of Humphrey Bogart.

But Mike Hammer never got a good shot at the silver screen. The best Hammer flick I have witnessed to date is "Kiss Me, Deadly" starring Ralph Meeker and a very young, and not to shabby lookin' Cloris Leachman.

Anyway, what I was getting at in the beginning of this whole thing is that I have found a person who could do a justice to the role of Mike Hammer. This actor is one that I would never have thought of on my own in a million years. In fact, I couldn't say that I ever really thought him much of an actor anyway. That guy, is Ben Affleck. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Ben Affleck, you mean that guy from Gigli? That guy from Sum of All Fears? That guy who was almost married to J-Lo? WTF????"

I know, I know, I couldn't believe it either. Not only has ne not really 'looked' the part, he's, I mean come on, he's Ben Affleck for crying out loud. However, I did sit down last night at watched "Hollywoodland". Quick synopsis of the film, George Reeves was a somewhat struggling actor. Had a fairly minor part in Gone With the Wind, and a Saturday morning kiddie show as Sir Galahad. He needed the money, so he auditioned for, and was awarded, the part of Superman on the old TV series.

After several years on the show he is hopelessly typecast as Superman, when the show is canceled, he still cannot find work. Eventually, he ends up on his bed with a bullet hole in his head. The question is, was it suicide as ruled by the police, or murder? Reeves mother hires Louis Simo (played by Adrian Brody), a fairly down on his luck PI to investigate.

Affleck plays Reeves, and did it with so much more talent than anything I have seen him in previous to this. The movie is not a pow-pow bang-bang shoot 'em up action film, but neither is it boring. It moves along slowly and methodically, and uses flashbacks to portray periods on Reeve's life. The flashback sequences are well done and only serve to move the story forward.

I am thoroughly surprised this movie was not nominated for an Oscar. Brody, Affleck and especially Diane Lane (who played Reeve's "sugar momma") deserve more recognition than they received. Well worth a watch.

Holy COW!!!

Man, I thought I really needed a Microsoft Surface device, but then I ran across this little puppy. This is what I really, absolutely, positively NEED!




I found it over at Popular Mechanics.

Donations are being accepted!

Is it real or memorex?

I was surfing this evening when I came across this video:

glumbert - Genius 3-year-old finger painter

At first I was completely floored and super impressed with this kid. But then I started thinking, is this for real? And I started looking at the video again, but with more cynicism (I know, I know, those of you who know me can't believe I looked at it without cynicism the first time - hard to believe).

Personally? It think it is fake. You never really see the kid painting the actual picture. You see close ups of a hand painting, you see far away shots of the kid putting his fingers in the bowls, but you never actually have a shot where you see the kid applying paint to the actual painting. There are two shots where it looks kind of convincing. One is where the kid is getting paint on his fingers, and then putting them on some paper, but all you can see of the paper is the corner. No one can see what is on the rest of it. The other shot is at the end where it looks like he is putting the finishing touches on the painting, but then he picks the painting up and it is dry.

At the end, watch the end, when he picks up the painting, notice anything missing? Yeah, me too, his shirt is way too clean, and not one drop of paint can be seen on the table. RRRRIIIIIGGGHHHHTTT

14 years in the making

A little over 14 years ago, the 5/8 and I sat in line for several hours attempting to obtain tickets to the Garth Brooks concert. We were at the Jones Store Ticketmaster outlet. Several things about that ordeal ticked me off. One, is that this outlet didn't start selling tickets until almost 20 minutes after the official start time. Second, the bloke in front of my bought up the last two tickets.

Well, we get another chance to see him in concert. Garth is coming to Kansas City, and the radio station in Kansas City is billing it as 'one city show'. That is, he is not doing a whole tour, just playing Kansas City.

This time around, we had better luck. And we didn't stand in line, and we didn't have to deal with smelly, rude people while not standing in line. This time we went online to the Ticketmaster website and got tickets to see Garth Brooks show in Kansas City next month. The radio on Friday reported that Garth had said he would make tickets available as long as people were buying them. I thought this was a kind of bogus line. I mean, seriously, the Sprint center only holds so many people.

But as we were frantically trying to obtain the tickets - three of us; myself, the 5/8 and No. 1 Son all hitting the Ticketmaster website over and over trying to obtain the tickets, we got a message the original 14 Nov show was sold out, but another show date, 12 Nov, became available. We were able to snag tickets to that one. The last I looked at the Ticketmaster site, there were 9 dates for Garth in the Sprint Arena in Kansas City. I guess he was true to his word.

Along with this, I was impressed with the price at $27/ticket, they were extremely affordable. We paid $60-something a ticket to see Shania Twain about three years ago. And that $27 is for all seats, they all carry the same price. Which is way cool. And Ticketmaster stated the online and phone sales were limited to folks in Kansas, Missouri, SE Nebraska and SW Iowa, based on the credit card billing address. Which was also way cool. This would keep the ticket bots from buying up all the tickets like that Hannah Montana fiasco.