Hiatus

With 3 projects due over the next 5 weeks, I'm going to be swamped. As it's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything, it'll probably be that plus some before I can post anything else. Just the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

Coming soon: December 2007.

My buddy, Tim Adams

My buddy Tim was a great admirer of Thomas Edison. Fittingly, Tim was an engineer at a company I worked for about 7 or 8 years ago - the only engineer. That means he was high level tech support for all manner of issues us mere repair technicians had. He was also the Research and Development department. As I was a young engineer-to-be at the time, he gladly welcomed me in so that I could learn what real design development of electronics was about. He was a patient and kind mentor, never condescending, always willing to admit whether he was unsure about something or not - trust me, these are rare traits in the engineeing field.

My last real project with him before seeking somewhat greener fields was one of the neatest proposals that we knew would get rejected but just had to put on the table, if nothing else so we could skip away in geek-filled glee at the thought of building a scaled down prototype. The idea was to improve upon drive through voice quality and harness the power of the sun in so doing. To our surprise, the idea was met quite well and soon we were designing, testing, and building our nifty little idea for the big demo.

Long story short, while initially the test customer raved about it, over time issues cropped up that bumped the price point above what the market demand was really there, so it was scrapped. Tim didn't whine, complain, or shed a tear. "Such is life," he would say, shrugging it off, getting back to the Next Big Thing.

Since departing for the greener pastures (which really weren't all that much greener), I've been fortunate enough to stop back by a couple of times and see Tim - one of his first questions was always "Worked on any neat projects, lately?"

My buddy Tim passed away a few weeks ago - another former co-worker who's in school with me let me know. At the too young age of 43, he was diagnosed with cancer of the long doctor's face variety, meaning he didn't have long. I don't know how he spent his last days, but having watched my father go through it 10 years ago, I could imagine it to be either anguish or drugged euphoria.

And my world just seems a little bit sadder now that he's gone.

My take: Windtalkers

I'm just going to cut right to it - this is one of the worst WWII movies I've ever seen. Nicholas Cage is a hack as any sort of "action" star, much less a decorated and troubled soldier - however it's not like he's given anything to really work with here. John Woo needs to stick to slick cityscapes - the historical battlefield is no place for him.

The background story is actually worth telling. During the Pacific campaign, the Marines enlisted Navajo Indians for the specific purpose of sending coded messages back and forth to coordinate attacks.

That's where the interestingness ends. Woo tries to add some conflict by way of the mission being to protect the code, not specifically the man - but we all know how that ends up before anything really occurs. The telegraphing and foreshadowing in this movie are about as light handed as King Kong. The scenes between battles are snooze-worthy, supposedly serving as bonding between code-talker and protector, but they turn out more like an entry in to the over-actors hall of fame.

Speaking of the battle sequences, they have more in common with a video game than real combat. Cage rages around the battlefield, thrusting his Tommy Gun and spraying bullets towards any enemy at any range and sending them down. He uses one hand, fires from the hip, and just about everywhere else except his shoulder. It just looks hokey. Don't get me started on just how many bullets he has for his handgun - I think he only ran empty when it was necessary to move a plot point along.

This is just an absolute dud that I contemplated turning off several times and still wonder why I didn't. 2/10

Doing the Snoopy dance!

Washington, DC gun ban found unconstitutional. From Foxnews.com:

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the District of Columbia's longstanding handgun ban, issuing a decision that will allow the city's citizens to have working firearms in their homes.

In the ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected city officials' arguments that the Second Amendment right to bear arms only applied to state militias.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued intermittent enrollment in the militia."

For those in for a little light reading, here's the actual decision, including the dissenting opinion.

For those that are unaware, DC has some of the most restrictive gun laws on the books. Since taking effect some 30 years ago, the violent crime rate went up by 134%.

Broken record time: the only ones that obey the gun laws are the law abiding citizens. Criminals could care less.

Cat intelligence

I love my wife dearly, but anybody that's ever seen her interact with our two beasts knows the above chart to be 100% true.

Winblows safety

Recently a co-worker came to me with his son's laptop. What laid before me was a complete mess - a brand new laptop, barely three months old, loaded top to bottom with enough viruses to send Bono on a world tour. Spyware, adware, trojans, worms... are part of the vernacular of anybody that uses a PC (at least, a PC running anything Microsoft).

Alright, stop your eyes rolling - this won't be Linux snobbery heaped upon you. Though I do admit, as I type this on my Linux fueled laptop that isn't running a single bit of anti-virus software right now, the world might be a better place if more switched over to open source OS's, the reality is it requires a good bit of know-how plus the willingness to immerse yourself in to the world of Linux and open source software.

Nevertheless, even I have two Windows machines (well technically three - the laptop can boot in to either Linux or Windows XcrementP). The idea of wasting my time (more like a weekend) ridding any PC of bugs and viruses as opposed to grilling some form of mammal flesh doesn't set well with me. However, I don't want to deal with an anti-virus program that is almost as virulent as the viruses it claims to try to keep out. Most of these squawk and yell if they're not the first things installed after the operating system; others will give you a pop up box every ten seconds warning that you are potentially, maybe at risk for a virus.

So, whaddayagonnado? Well for starters, pick out a Linux distribution that's to your liking... oh, that's a whole other post. Here are my recommendations for non-invasive software that get the job done without harassing you and your system's resources:

• AVG free edition - this is the best anti-virus program I've found that operates just under the surface, waiting to pounce when something doesn't look right. To show you how much faith I give this (free!) program, I use it on all my work PCs - for that matter, our entire building does. If you leave your PC connected to the internet 24/7 like I do, you can even set a schedule so that it automatically updates at a time when you're not using the computer and run a system test - anything it finds, it "quarantines" until you tell it what to do. It also comes with an email filter that, like everything else, is non-invasive. It just does it's job. And it's free.
• Adaware - this little programs checks for adware, programs that usually aren't malicious in nature but are irritating and can bog your system down. Adware and spyware are generally the same; both are programs that sit on your PC monitoring what your internet habits are, then targeting ads towards you specifically.
  
• Spybot Search and Destroy - consider this the twin yang to Adaware's yin; what one doesn't uncover and find, the other will.
  

All the above programs have been running on my home and work PCs for quite some time, and I haven't had a problem in years. That's not to say they're a catch-all and you can just click about willy-nilly on the internet without worrying about ever getting infected - use some common sense (sorry, can't cover that here - none in stock).

The other reason, besides their non-invasiveness, that I like each of these programs is b/c they're free, unlike Norton and McAfee. Feel free to disagree, agree, or provide other options.

My take: Flags of Our Fathers

Way back when this trailer first hit, I admitted my skepticism. As a director, Clint Eastwood has been hit and miss with me, mostly b/c of his desire to keep things as "real" as possible, meaning not everything ends all rosy. He likes to examine flawed characters, bad guys with a good streak and other such dichotomies. This is what makes him a great director, but only so-so with me - I'm just there for the storytelling, and while the ending doesn't always have to be good, I do expect some manner of redeeming value when I leave the theater or the couch.

Flags of Our Fathers, I readily admit, is a hit. Big time. This is the movie (based on the book by James Bradley) about the six soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima, and the trials and tribulations that followed them throughout the rest of that miserable island campaign to the war bond tour the survivors embarked on following their rise to immortal fame - a fame that was largely blown out of proportion.

The one thing I do ding the director for is his usage of flashbacks to tell the story. All the fighting takes place in all it's brutal glory during these flashbacks mostly from the standpoint of the three survivors. However, they can be disconcerting at first unless you already know a fair amount of World War II history. This is only a minor inconvenience though - as the movie progresses, it becomes easier to put names with faces and the movie does a relatively good job of character development, even of those who don't make it off the island.

What this movie does right is just about everything else. Ryan Phillipe and Adam Beach are phenomenal as two of the survivors and flag raisers who are on decidedly different paths. Beach plays Ira Hayes, a Marine and Native American who has a hard time on the bond tour being peppy and encouraging others to buy bonds to support the troops. Hayes retreats in to the demons of the drink, something the real Ira Hayes never shook. Phillipe, in a role that might make Hollywood sit up and pay attention, plays Doc Bradley, the only Navy man in the group of flag raising Marines. Most of the battle sequences are seen through his eyes as he scampers around the battlefield treating wounded and carrying friends (and other flag raisers) off the field.

I won't go in to more details, mostly b/c I've actually found people who still have no idea what happened on that island. They know the photo, and maybe a made up or embellished story about it. I recommend not only seeing this movie, but also picking up the book as well. Definitely one of the best Eastwood has ever done. 10/10

Many mini-views

Mrs. Misawa and I enjoyed a lovely weekend in the mountains this past weekend through yesterday, doing what we do best - napping watching movies. A couple of them I plan on posting full fledged reviews for, but we honestly watched so many, most of which were a bit older, that I'll just be posting some quick takes here.

• Ice Age 2: The Meltdown - I liked this one better than the first. Following Manny, the lone woolly-mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) and his band of friends as they make for high ground so as not to get flooded as the Ice Age comes to an end. 7/10
• The Breakup - I'm a Vince Vaughan fan - I love his rapid fire, deadpan delivery and way of sneaking in jokes in a seemingly normal and serious conversation. The arguing scenes between him and Jennifer Anniston go from slightly zany and funny to serious and uncomfortable quickly - a bit too uncomfortable for my taste at times. 6/10
• The Sentinel - Starring Jack Bauer... er, I mean Kiefer Sutherland and Michael "still wanna be an action star" Douglas. This dud has potential at times, but in the end was rather blah. It follows Douglas as a distinguished (read: old) Secret Service agent who is having an affair with the President's wife, Kim Basinger. Sutherland growls in all his Bauer-ish ways as the investigator charged with finding out who wants to kill the President - and all signs point toward the guy playing hide the Shelaleigh with the First Lady. By the end, you really don't care about most of the characters - even the President himself is not such a bad guy. A lackluster 5/10
• Firewall - Harrison Ford is an IT master for a bank. His family is taken hostage and he must assist the criminals with their heist in order to free them. This was better than expected, but I didn't have high expectations for it anyway. 6/10
• Taking Lives - a decent thriller starring Angelina Jolie as a FBI profiler tracking a serial killer. Lots of holes to punch in this one, but a good amount of fright plus some twists keep it interesting. 6/10
• Click - I'll admit it - I'm an Adam Sandler fan. It dates back to my (first) college days and fraternity parties fueled more by Mt. Dew than alcohol. In this, Sandler gets a "universal" remote that literally controls his universe, allowing him to fast forward through fights with his very-easy-on-the-eyes wife Kate Beckinsdale, as well as other tedious and unwanted things. Cookie cutter, but fun - the scene between Sandler and boss David Hasselhoff is priceless. 7/10
  

No tricks

David Price's recent post featuring the super-cool awesome ad for Bing Bang Boing reminded me of this, possibly the coolest commercial ever. Big props for doing it without the use of any camera tricks.

Honored guests

This past week, the Rev. Gordon Cloud of Heavenly Heartburn fame found his way up to the great state of Atlanta for a church conference. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him and his dad over a cup of coffee Tuesday evening, where we covered a multitude of topics including baseball, religion, fishing, and eating - though we couldn't recall the name of the restaraunt at the time (Roy's in Steinhatchee, FL). The fact that his father is a Steelers fan shows that this is practically divine intervention.

So chalk another one up to the Tim's blog. At this point, he should probably consider opening a dating service through his blog.

Oh how this disgusts me

But of course, the media can't get enough of this story:

Police say the so-called "Barbie Bandits," who robbed a Cobb County bank while hiding behind smiles and sunglasses, have been unmasked.

Cobb County police announced the arrest of two young women Thursday night, along with a new twist: The girls, who were initially thought to be as young as 16, are actually 19 and allegedly were working in cahoots with the bank teller.

Because it was an inside job, Ashley Miller and Heather Johnson, both of Fulton County, were charged with theft but not bank robbery — the only bit of silver lining for the women.

The disgusting part in all of this? Moral decline? Making crime seem "trendy?" Sure, that and...

You know, in 3 months, when these two little flat-bellies have finished their probation, community service at Al's soup kitchen, or whatever the judge slaps on the back of their hands, FHM, Maxim, probably even Playboy are going to be calling them up, offering them thousands if not millions to flaunt their bodies. We* have turned them in to celebrities for committing a crime! (*I say "we" here, though it should probably be "they," the media. However, the media is only feeding us what we ask for - we're a celebrity culture)

It's just creating another Anna Nicole - telling women that they're more valued for what's between their shoulders and legs than what's in their heart and head.