Strengths

The strengths of the movie lie in the directors ability to bring this history to life and use Damon's character as a vehicle for viewing history. Wilson is a stoic man, who does not say much. In fact, based on the interactions with other characters, you sense that Wilson is well respected by peers, enemies and the like, but either the director wants to purvey that he does not see this in himself, or Damon's performance is unconvincing. You be the judge.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are certainly the length. There are several, interesting but irrelevant forays into topics that have no bearing on the plot. For example, Wilson is asked to be a "bonesman" while performing dressed in drag in a play at Yale. This is amusing, but irrelevant. We could have had this part left out and just jumped straight into him being in the "Skull & Bones".

Conclusion

Overall, I would rate this as a 7/10. Anything over 5, I think you should go watch. I believe in a true average being 5/10 and this movie is certainly above the average crap that Hollywood seems to love to churn out.

As an afterthought, I would recommend this movie to people who enjoyed the movies "Kinsey", and/or "A Beautiful Mind". These movies all feature the same sorrowful brilliance of the protagonist.

Review Rig

• Macbook Pro / Intel Core Duo 2 ghz / 2gb Ram
• Parallels Desktop for Mac 3038 Beta
• Windows Vista Ultimate RTM

When I started a contest to run Windows XP on the Mac, I was looking for the optimal way to operate in a world where you cant stand to work in Windows but cant afford to work without it.

I purchased Parallels Desktop for Mac when it first was released and have used it as my primary way to run Windows on my Macbook Pro. There have been a multitude of improvements since the first release, and the new features in the current betas are quite exciting.

Running Windows Vista in Parallels has made me realize how heavily tailored the software is to running Windows XP. There are numerous features that are almost exclusively for that OS. What this means is, it seems the Parallels guys have got to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to optimize Parallels for running Windows Vista.

Installation
Installation is pretty painless. You set up a new Virtual Machine in fully automatic mode, put in all of your information and bam, you're done. Once in Windows Vista, just install Parallels tools and you are good to go!

Issues
The first thing you notice when you boot in to Windows Vista is the sluggish pace. Vista on Parallels is significantly slower than Windows XP on Parallels. There are several explanations for this. One is that the Parallels guys have not had time to build the same optimizations into Parallels to handle Vista. I would imagine that maybe 5% of their user base has tried Vista by now, so it is probably a non-issue. The other reason I am positing is due to the way Parallels currently handles graphics. Vista is heavily reliant on a graphics processor. During normal operation, Im seeing 20 - 40% processor usage. This is most likely due to Parallels emulating (rather than virtualizing) the graphics processor.

Aside from the various issues and stupidity in Vista itself (saving that for another article), the high processor usage is the only issue that prohibits daily use of Windows Vista. A side effect of this is that the Macbook Pro runs significantly hotter than running Windows XP.

Im looking forward to future betas of Parallels Desktop for Mac that handle Windows Vista better.

Why I bought Windows XP 64.
I was shopping online for a new computer for one of our employees and saw that Dell was selling these workstations with Intel Core 2 Duo processors (64 bit chips!) with cheap upgrades ($10 + shipping) to Windows Vista. Well, if you bought Windows XP, you only got an upgrade to 32 bit Windows Vista. At this point, I had a lot of faith in Microsoft Windows Vista, and thought that for sure, within 1 year, no one would be buying and installing the 32 bit Vista... that technology is for the dinosaurs. So, the option I had (for no additional cost) was to buy the 64 bit Windows XP and get the upgrade to 64 bit Windows Vista Business. I didn't think / have time to research potential problems with that decision and thought that I was making a smart choice.

The computer arrived and I booted in to Windows XP 64 and noticed one thing that immediately concerned me... two versions of Internet Explorer. *Gulp*. If they've got two versions of Internet Explorer, then that means that some things don't work correctly on the 64 bit version and you need to use the 32 bit version. This was a sign of problems to come.

Installation and Set up
Well, the next step was to set up office which was pre-installed. Im pretty sure there isn't a 64 bit compiled Office 2003 so there was probably no benefit with running that on a 64 bit system. So, after a few hiccups and some concerns I got the machine up to spec and was ready to send it to our other office. The morning I am going to send it, I had to finish one install before it left. As I am using the computer, I get a BSOD. Uh oh. The computer shouldn't BSOD when it is brand new. Those unfamiliar with BSODs or Blue Screen of Death might want to note that these are usually caused by poorly coded device drivers.

Well, I dismissed that first BSOD to dumb luck, packed the computer up and sent it on its merry way. The next thing to do when it is on site, is to install all the printer drivers... no problem! Well, it wouldn't be a problem on regular windows... but 64 bit, better Windows doesn't have the same support for printers that its weaker smaller brother does. HP attempted to address this by having a unified driver for all of its printers for XP 64. What HP probably didnt do was test it on all their printers. I wasn't able to get it to work on the HP Color Laserjet 2500.

So, I said I would try and fix it later and would look for a solution online. Well, the next step was installing Quickbooks. I was a little nervous by this time, so did a search and found the following disappointing information about compatibility of Quickbooks in Windows XP 64.

Daily Use
Well, as it happens, the computer has started crashing and showing BSODs multiple times per day. Looks like we are going to have to send it back to Dell and get the 32 bit Windows XP.

Morale of the story is - if you are using Microsoft products, stay away from the cutting edge - it sucks pretty bad.

Background

If you're not lucky enough to have one of these, there are a few more options. The one I used to use, and I think the majority of iPod in Car users use is the FM transmitter. After doing a lot of research a couple of years ago, I ended up picking the Monster iCarPlay Plus Wireless FM Transmitter. It was great when I moved to Houston in a UHaul, but we had to keep changing the station as we went across the country. Then, I used it for a while in my Saab 9-3 before replacing the factory stereo with a Sony stereo with a line-in. Chenging the stereo was messy and I had an ugly cable sticking out. Well, I used that until the engine blew in my '99 Saab at around 105,000 miles.

The Dice install

My current ride is a 2004 Honda Accord EX. The factory radio is a 6-disc in dash changer with XM radio. I dont use XM and the installation stops that from working. I purchased a Digital in-car entertainment (DICE) unit through River Oaks Car Stereo in Houston, TX. The model # for the Dice for my car is "i-Honda-R3". The list price on the DICE website is $159.99. According to River Oaks Car Stereo, there isnt much room to discount it, so they gave it to me for $149.00 + installation. I brought the car in and the installation was botched the first time! The DICE unit was broken. So, they returned it and I came back a week later to complete the installation. They did a great job of hiding the unit. The cable comes out in the center console arm rest and you cant see the iPod at all!

Operation

When you turn on the car, the DICE unit (usually) registers as a CD Changer. The iPod turns on and starts playing the last song. If there is no playlist you have defined, it will begin playing your tunes, shuffling all songs. The volume of course works, and the track change works. Skipping back and forth within a song works too, however, it is not easy to be accurate. Turning off the radio while the car is on switches off the iPod and the song stops and starts without any noticeable content missing.

Issues

Sometimes the Dice unit doesnt register when the car starts up. It's really unfortunate that the only way to get it to register is to turn the car off and then back on again. For my Honda, the CD text doesnt show up. This isn't really an issue and I was aware of it, however, on XM, the text shows up, so this must have been too big a technical hurdle for the DICE people to overcome for my car. Maybe the market isnt big enough for the Honda to make it work perfectly?

Conclusions

Although there are a couple of quirks, the DICE unit is an awesome way to listen to your ipod in your car. Audio clarity is excellent, and hiding the ipod in the center console means I dont have to mess with things when I get in and out of the car. The price is pretty decent considering alternative options are not as good and generally dont allow you to skip tracks.

Interface

Allofmp3.com is your standard website interface. It's not overly fancy with Ajax etc... it just works. You can preview songs without having an account and they have their bestseller lists organized by region. Though the site is based in Russia, they have spent the time to make it seem like it could be an American owned site. It's not as nice as the iTunes Music Store interface, but it does its job.

Selection

Allofmp3.com has a fantastic selection of music. I would venture to guess they have a lot more than iTunes. Approximately 30 albums per day are added to the hundreds of thousands already available for download. Basically, if you want it, chances are they have it. I have a little bit of a quirky taste. I can tell you that they have available: NoFX' new album, old stuff from Death Cab for Cutie, and Regina Spektor whom a friend of mine likes.

Quality of Downloads

Im not sure if this is something related to the few albums I tried, but I was very disappointed with the quality of the tagging. There were no track numbers in the tag, just in the file name and the only consistency were in artist, album and track. The rest were either missing or inconsistent - especially the genre! Sound quality was decent. You have the option to change the format or the encoding rate. This is great choice, but does not matter to most people. The other complaint I have is the download process. I seem to remember in the old days of Allofmp3.com, you could do a batch download in a zip file. Now, you have to select each file individually. It is a pain in the ass so iTunes wins here since you click "Buy Album" and it downloads for you.

Payment

Payment as gotten a little more difficult. Visa recently stopped processing Allofmp3.com's credit card transactions. The way to add funds to your account now is to use a third party service. I used Xrost to process my visa card and add in $10. I then had to go to Alltunes to put in my Xrost info and add the funds to my Allofmp3.com account. I only had to sign up for Xrost and Allofmp3.com. Alltunes seems to be tied in to your Allofmp3.com account.

Price

You are charged based on the size of your download. So, what this means is that an album can end up costing around $2.00. That's a pretty unbeatable price. For me, thats the difference between buying and pirating. I will sooner buy 5 albums costing $2 each, than 1 album costing $10. Assuming that royalties are being paid by Allofmp3.com, I think this is win-win. I am a good consumer and the record companies get their end.

Conclusions

Allofmp3.com has a large catalog of DRM-free music that can be tailored to your desires for bitrate and format. The price point is killer and it is a great example of what an online music service should be.

Good

Inexpensive, High customizability, huge selection, DRM-free

Bad

Shaky legal ground, now it is hard to add money, downloading full albums is cumbersome

What you have to do is run a piece of software in the background called "PeerGuardian 2". The way it works is by blocking IP addresses. Your list is updated based on a master list, and you can choose if you want to block corporations, educational institutions, governments, etc.

In non-technical terms, internet addresses, just like physical addresses can be traced to their owners. By blocking addresses that are more likely to be tracking copyright infringement or sending bad data, it enables you to sneak under the radar and continue to download.

As always, be careful where you get your torrents from and use a reputable source like piratebay or tvrss. While I am on the subject, I'll give a plug for µTorrent too! It's a great windows based bittorrent client. If you are on a mac, Bitrocket is increasing in quality at a really fast pace. The built in search is awesome.

Worried about getting busted for music? allofmp3 is still up and running, and according to them is legal! I dont know about that, but $2 an album is the price music should be!

The BreathRX system has stopped my breath smelling. I can finally get close to women without making them cringe, and I dont make small children cry anymore.

- Chip Chipney, Boise, ID

I can also give my testimony that the stuff works. The really great part is the tongue scraper. I've used tongue scrapers to get the nasty, yellow, smelly plaque-teria (word is my creation) off my tongue. I have used none better than the simple one that comes with BreathRX. Check it out at your local pharmacy - you should be able to pick up a basic kid for $10.

]]> http://pintmaster.com/20060829/get-rid-of-your-stank-ass-breath/feed/ 5 http://pintmaster.com/20060813/megamovie-marathon-sick-weekend-of-reviews/ http://pintmaster.com/20060813/megamovie-marathon-sick-weekend-of-reviews/#comments Sun, 13 Aug 2006 23:12:35 +0000 Colin http://www.pintmaster.com/wordpress/index.php/20060813/megamovie-marathon-sick-weekend-of-reviews/ Since I am sick this weekend, I have been watching quite a few movies. I figure that I should try and do something productive with it so Im going to share my opinions of the movies:

The Benchwarmers

The benchwarmers is one of those lame underdog movies. It's basically about a bunch of losers whose goal as adults is to beat a bunch of kids baseball teams. It has the usual SNL guys - Rob Schneider, David Spade as well as Jon Heder of "Napoleon Dynamite" fame. However, this movie is terrible. It is cheesy, predictable and fails to maintain attention through the movie. It has a few funny parts, but basically it is disappointing. Maybe it works if you are a bunch of teenagers at a slumber party. Anyone else, leave it on the shelf

3/10

Basic Instinct 2

This is the raunchy sequel to the leg-uncrossing Basic Instinct. Sharon Stone is older and raunchier. It is set in London, probably to try and make it more interesting. I can half pay attention to the movie when they start talking dirty or have a graphic sex scene. The car that she crashes at the beginning is pretty interesting. Overall, the movie was more interesting than Benchwarmers, but I would still refrain from giving it good marks.

5/10

Ultraviolet

Decent special effects, poor story and really fails to set the mood to give the viewer the full feeling of the dystopian future. The idea is that there are people infected with a virus who are stronger, heal faster etc... than humans, but they also die faster. The humans are trying to eradicate these infected people from the general population. Violet is one of the infected and wants to prevent the humans from killing all of the infected. It's another comic book made into movie. It isnt interesting enough in the transfer and I would be pretty bored seeing it again.

4/10

Inside Man

Fantastic Spike Lee movie about a bank robbery in New York city. It has the usual Spike Lee racial undertones.  It has a really interesting cast - Denzel Washington, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster. The cast makes for a really interesting dynamic. The story reminds of "The Usual Suspects" and flashes back and forth between times as the hostages in the bank robbery are being interviewed. Unlike "The Usual Suspects", the viewer is more omnipotent, and only the Detective (Washington) has the epiphany moment when he realizes 'whodunnit'. It's certainly one that slipped under my radar, and is more interesting than a lot of crud that hollywood has pumped out. Nice one spike!

8/10

]]> http://pintmaster.com/20060813/megamovie-marathon-sick-weekend-of-reviews/feed/ 0 http://pintmaster.com/20060717/crome-in-houston-what-the-hell-is-the-deal-with-the-bitchy-bartenders/ http://pintmaster.com/20060717/crome-in-houston-what-the-hell-is-the-deal-with-the-bitchy-bartenders/#comments Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:33:51 +0000 Colin http://www.pintmaster.com/wordpress/index.php/20060717/crome-in-houston-what-the-hell-is-the-deal-with-the-bitchy-bartenders/ So, I went to Crome on Sunday evening. It's a nice place and they charge $10 cover to get in (surprising for a sunday!). When you get there it is pretty packed. A lot of people migrate from La Strada around 5 - 6 o'clock. The bar was cool - very nice with white "VIP" couches outside - reminded me a lot of Pangia in Marbella. Now here is the part where I bitch and moan . There was a bar at the far side of the outside where there were these two 30-something women (they could have been 20-something with too much sun, cigs and alcohol I suppose) working the bar. I went up there and asked them for a club soda since I am no longer drinking. They poured it and said "$3". I said "you're not gonna make me pay for that are you?". They just said "leave us a nice tip" and I said "keep being nice to me and I will". So, I grabbed me drink without paying and walked away.

Fair enough, I had to talk my way out of paying with these bitches. So I walked inside and hung out for a bit and then my drink was empty. So, I figured... I want to give these bitches a tip & I went back out. I said, "could I get another club soda please". She poured the drink, rang it up and looked at me deadpan and said "$3". I said "that's not very nice" and she said "$3". I said "you guys are horrible" and handed over $5. She rang me up and said "do you want to stay here?". I said "what?". She said "if you want to stay here, you had better not call us horrible". I said nothing and walked away.

So I guess I cant be that pissed - I didnt get kicked out. Frankly I would have been surprised to be kicked out for calling the horrible bartenders "horrible" for charging me for soda water.

The blonde (short w/ bad face) and brunette (taller w/ bad face) behind the counter have such a small circle of influence that pretty much extends to the four corners of Crome and in reality, they probably dont even have all of that. It's just sad when people try and abuse what little power they have.

All in all, it is a nice place. They just need to fix their policy on non-alcoholic drinks. I have never been charged for Soda Water more than one glass, and I dont expect to be - especially by somewhere that charges cover on a sunday! Crome - if you want to be seen with other people posing as rich and trendy, it's the place to be.

]]> http://pintmaster.com/20060717/crome-in-houston-what-the-hell-is-the-deal-with-the-bitchy-bartenders/feed/ 1 http://pintmaster.com/20060525/why-apple-needs-a-dock-port-replicator-for-the-macbook-pro/ http://pintmaster.com/20060525/why-apple-needs-a-dock-port-replicator-for-the-macbook-pro/#comments Fri, 26 May 2006 02:30:51 +0000 Colin http://www.pintmaster.com/wordpress/index.php/20060525/why-apple-needs-a-dock-port-replicator-for-the-macbook-pro/ We live in the era of the Desktop replacement notebook PC. It replaces the desktop computer, but not the desk. Like many people, when sitting at my desk, I prefer using an external monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in to my MacBook Pro. I travel with my MacBook pro between work and home and find it frustrating to have to plug in 6 things when I get to work every day - Monitor, Ethernet, USB hub, Headphones, Power cord, external harddrive. My Thinkpad toting colleagues just drop their notebooks into the dock when they get in and hey-presto everything is up and running again.

I want to recommend the Macbook as the laptop that we should replace the thinkpads with when they come up for renewal. The macbook is certainly a compelling buy. For about 1600 bucks, you get a great business computer that can run windows. Users can even keep their personal lives separate and dual boot the computer.

As I said, I want to recommend the Macbook, but it needs to be easy for the business user. Thats where the dock comes in. Just drop it in, and everything is connected. In order for apple to move beyond the die-hard mac fan + home user market into the big bucks, they need to make the notebook more appealing to the business user.

Im not the only one that shares this sentiment

On my ThinkPad I have a small port replicator that I just click the laptop onto and all my connections are made. With the MacBook I have an array of fiddly connectors to plug-in spread over 2 sides of the book. I have to connect Power, Audio and USB to the left hand side. Then Plug in DVI-D video, Ethernet and Firewire on the right hand side.

Well if that's not fiddily enough I have to open the lid of the book to press the power button as there is no way to turn on the book without opening it. The ThinkPad has a power button on the replicator. I have no need to use the built-in screen as my desktop display is plenty big enough and the internal screen is so poor. So I close the lid and of course the computer goes to sleep. So I then have to wake it up to use it, only problem is I can't wake it with a 3rd party Bluetooth keyboard and mouse so have to connect a USB mouse just so I can wake it up.

If Apple are going to make headway into corporate use they need to acknowledge that a laptop is taken to and from work every day and it is not practical to plug and unplug six or seven cables twice a day

Apple. Please dont let down your business users. Our companies pay for laptops. We need you to make it a more compelling sell. Right now, I love my MacBook - but it is too hot for a laptop and too cumbersome for a desktop.

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