New PC

I am taking today as a vacation, as it is my birthday. I am finishing the setup work on my birthday present; a brand new PC. I shall post to my geek blog with a more detailed write-up on the spec. This is just a first post from the new hardware and a chance to try Windows Live Writer, a tool that my wife suggested. It is too early for me to give an appraisal of the tool, but early indications are positive.

In keeping with the topic of my blog, I should comment that I cannot imagine a British company including the following phrase that appeared on the Certificate of Ownership which came with my new PC: This piece of high-end technology now separates YOU from the rest of humanity. (The uppercase and bold are on the original document)

How to Make an Extra $70,000 a year

One should give careful thought to creating incentive schemes; you want to ensure that desirable behaviour is encouraged. It would seem that in Alabama, not thought at all had been given to a law that allows those in charge of county jails to keep any money that they do not spend from the allotted budget to feed prisoners. The result was that the Sherif enriched himself and the prisoners went hungry.

From the NYT via The Consumerist

Netflix

Back in April we joined Netflix. This is a company to whom you pay a monthly subscription and via their website maintain a list of DVDs. They mail you the first available title from the list. When you have watched it you return it in the postage paid envelope and they send you the next one. There are plans that allow you to have more than one disc at a time and you can maintain multiple lists.

Their catalogue of titles is substantial. It is not just recent blockbusters and a smattering of other films. There are many foreign language films; I have watched German, Spanish, and Japanese movies. There are many music videos and a significant number of TV shows. I have been using the service to watch the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and have seen the short-lived Firefly.

The service works well, a tribute to the company and to the oft maligned US Postal Service. If I post a disc on my way to work, I get an email early the next day acknowledging receipt and then have the next disc the day after unless one of the three days is a holiday. I posted one disc on the 23rd December, received acknowledgment of receipt on Christmas Eve, and had the disc on Boxing Day.

I have just started to use their Watch Instantly service. This is included in the fixed subscription and allows you to have movies streamed to your PC or compatible TV attached device. (DVD, DVR, or specialist Netflix box) This seems to work well; you watch in a web browser. You have to download Microsoft’s Silverlight, but you can avoid the dreaded IE and use Firefox. The list of movies and shows available to view in this manner is a small percentage of the total, but that still equates to hundreds of titles.

Recaps and Trailers

I understand starting a TV show with a recap of events in previous episodes, especially if the events occurred weeks or months ago. I understand showing clips from the next episode at the end of the show. I even see the point of showing clips from the episode at the end of the previous program; an attempt to keep the audience watching.

I do not understand the Battlestar Galactica approach. It opens with a recap of the general situation; man created Cylons, Cylons rebelled, Cylons evolved human looking clones, they have a plan, and then clips form previous stories that are relevant to the current episode. Then there are the first couple of scenes, before the credits. These credits then include teaser clips from the current episode. This seems bizarre; you are already watching the episode and I cannot imagine the excitement of the clips changing your decision to continue to watch.

Original and New Cylon

Evolved Cylon

Movie Resolutions

 

Inspired by Ilegirl’s post, here are the films from IDMB’s top hundred that I have not seen:
The Shawshank Redemption 
Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 
Shichinin no samurai 
Cidade de Deus
C’era una volta il West 
Fight Club
Sunset Blvd
Memento
It’s a Wonderful Life
Taxi Driver
Lawrence of Arabia
American History X
Paths of Glory
Slumdog Millionaire (But I have read the book)
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Chinatown
Saving Private Ryan
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (WTF This was only released last week)
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Das Boot
City Lights
The Wrestler
Raging Bull
Metropolis
Der Untergang
Modern Times
Singing in the Rain
Nuovo cinema Paradiso
The Great Escape
Full Metal Jacket
Touch of Evil
Open Upon a Time in America
Hotel Rwanda
Sjunde inseglet, Det 
The Great Dictator

So, I have seen over sixty percent of the list. I shall make an effort to improve that figure by the time that 2010 arrives. I shall certainly watch:

The Shawshank Redemption
Its a Wonderful Life
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Raging Bull
Hotel Rwanda

However, the quality of the IMDB list is compromised by the presence of The Dark Knight in the top ten. This was a deeply flawed movie, with no right to be in the list of top five films of all time. It does not make my top five movies of 2008, and I barely saw a dozen 2008 films. The Dark Knight is deeply inferior compared to There Will be Blood, No Country For Old Men, E l Orfanato, or Wall-E.

There were Oscars for the first two and Pixar’s Silent Running inspired masterpiece will see awards this year. So I feel I should wave a flag for the genuinely scary El Orfanato.