Friday, April 27, 2007

Movie reviews

I've had a recent uptick in the number of new movies I've been watching. I'll do quick reviews in bulk:

TMNT - This is everything I'd hoped it would be. I feel like I've found something that was missing in my life. This is how the Turtles are supposed to be. Not cartoons, and definitely not rubber suits. If the turtles weren't ingrained into your mind as a child, you can probably pass.

300 - Good Action, Lots of controversy. I thought Xerxes represented Christ/Christianity.

Epic Movie - This was just a mistake. Not good, not even by stupid parody movie standards. Six full seconds of entertainment.

Eragon - Good, cute dragons. Star Wars rip off. I know it's all meta myth but this is ridiculous. I could see someone redubbing the audio from either movie into the other and the result still being perfectly watchable, perhaps even better.

Children of Men - Very Good. A bit slow in the beginning, but worth it for the character development.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Arrogant and Rude

I try to be outgoing in social situations because other people would benefit immensely from my understanding and insight, other people want to hear what I have to say!

No, I didn't say it, but my personality test said I should. But what does that even mean? If the test is based on self reporting of what I think of myself and what I think others think about me, then isn't it still me saying that about myself? Or is the test actually smart enough to filter out people who just think their opinions are awesome from people who are actually insightful?
On the one hand it seems to have reached this conclusion because I don't tend to jump on other people's so-called flaws, but maybe it just doesn't expect a narcissist to showcase their awesomeness by being forgiving. How can I take seriously an analysis that offers no explanation whatsoever of why I am "somewhat shy and reserved at times"?

Friday, April 13, 2007

The network is the computer

Matt Posted This criticism of YouOS that I think misses some key points of why YouOS and it's Open Source competition eyeOS are important and useful. Matt complains about adding two layers of abstraction between the application and the user, but he misses another that make all the difference. Web based operating systems also add the network layer between the system and the end user.

That is the key appeal of Web apps in general, they are accessible from any browser. Networked OS's are as old as UNIX, but networked Gui's usually depend on software that is not universally installed. EyeOS/YouOS is not competing with Windows as a platform, it's competing with with Windows plus Windows Terminal Services plus having a compatible client plus praying it works plus vendor lock in. In that context Web based applications are a clear winner in most cases, and have been for a while.

Another thing I think Matt misses is that these OS's are not tied to JavaScript for anything other than basic window operations. Application back ends run on the server, can be written in any language, and can run at native speeds. If an app needs more graphical power, the front end can use Flash or Java and still tie into the API's for file access. There will be a network bottleneck, but that's inevitable for any remote access solution. Matt is right that JavaScript wasn't made for systems programming, but the only part of Web OS's that is strictly tied to JavaScript is lightweight user interface programming, which is exactly what JavaScript was designed for.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Vista is Shit

Windows Vista is the worst version of Windows I have ever used. I've had it for about a week now and that's about enough.
This is the most powerful computer I've ever owned, and it is crawling. Even after I cleared out the bloatware it came with, it stalls for seconds at a time. Video playback stutters whenever the mouse cursor goes over the video.
There have been some improvements, but most of those are basic things that should have been fixed years ago.

I tried it, I gave it a fair hearing. Now I'm shopping for a flavor of Linux to install.