We See "The Hunger Games"

Saturday I took the family to see The Hunger Games at the local cinema.

I give it a "meh".

It was an admittedly decent book-to-movie adaptation, which was likely made quite difficult by knowing that 99.99% of the people who will see the movie have read the book at least once (and probably more than once), and if you get any little thing wrong, it'll be all over the blogosphere. I especially thought they did a good job of keeping things moving. For instance, there's a long, nausea-inducing section of the book where Katniss and Peeta make relationship talk that was excised, and that helped a lot.

On the downside: the production design was awful. A lot of the architecture and room interiors seem to have been taken from the ST:TOS school of design: lots of bare flat concrete surfaces, etc. Not a lot of pictures are available online yet, but look at this one of Donald Sutherland as the Evil President Snow:

Is that a cheap set or what?

Also, I've been reading misc stuff talking about all of the fashion design that went into this movie, and -- I just don't see it. First off, the decadent Capitol socialites just looked silly: it was like somebody's 'vision' of The Future was "everybody wears odd-colored hair, eyeshade, and eyelashes". I'm sorry, I'm a huge Science Fiction geek, and I've seen futuristic decadent socialites done well. On Fhloston Paradise in The Fifth Element, for example. Or check out this recent vodka commercial. I could go on, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that, fashion-wise, the movie seemed about as inspired as an episode of Space: 1999.

Secondly: as much as the book and the movie made a Big Effing D out of how Katniss was "The Girl On Fire!", the fire SFX were laughably bad; I was reminded of the "Stonehenge" scene in This Is Spinal Tap. I was expecting something more like Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four. What was the director thinking?

I also had "issues" with the control room design:

I'm sorry, but you don't put displays flat on a desktop surface. Or maybe the government of Panem was so irredeemably evil that they wanted their tech people to have permanent aching necks and backs.

Sadly, the one piece of production design that I really liked got less than 5 seconds of screen-time, and that was the "hovercraft". It was awesome. Unsurprisingly I can't seem to find a single decent picture of it.

In summary: "meh". It's not a bad movie, and I'm sure that most fans of the book will enjoy it. But it doesn't achieve "classic" status like, say, Titanic or The Matrix or Alien or even Harry Potter. In twenty years it'll probably be as well-remembered as, say, the first Fletch movie.

New iPad - Week One

So I've had a week with my New iPad (64GB black w/ Verizon 4G LTE). I wish I could say that it's rocked my world, but the truth is, New iPad is more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary". I hope that doesn't sound negative, because it's certainly not meant that way: fitting 4x as many pixels into the screen and not raising the price or diminishing the battery life is a pretty darned amazing feat. It's just that the higher resolution in and of itself is probably not going to significantly raise your pulse rate. Maybe an app or apps will appear that truly take advantage of the resolution, but I haven't seen one yet.

My family's reception to the New iPad was pretty much what I expected: they all think it's pretty but the kids are still in love with their new iPhone 4S's and R wants to wait for the smaller form factor iPad rumored to be released later this year.

I was somewhat surprised that the high resolution display -- the one thing I'd really been waiting for -- didn't just amaze and astonish me. I thought it would have me huddled on the couch, speechless save for uttering the occasional Neo-like "woah!", for at least a week. But no.

Don't get me wrong, I like the high resolution, but the new processor is perhaps the most noticable improvement over my original iPad. The device is simply a lot more responsive, and while I used to suffer occasional "stutters" when streaming video, that's no longer an issue.

The 4G LTE / Wifi hotspot is nice, too: I dropped $50 on some bandwidth this weekend while R was driving the family around. Setup was painless (well, the $50 hurt a bit) and the kids were able to connect easily and surf the web on their iPhones as we drove around town. Data speed varied quite a lot (1.0 Mbps to 10Mbps) as we drove around; just sitting here at home I ran a set of speed tests and got latencies running from 57 to 70ms, downloads of 9.3 to 18.0Mbps, and uploads of 1.0 to 4.0Mbps. All in all, better than my home Wifi. I just wish it weren't so darned expensive. I hate metered plans. It reminds me of when I was a kid, and long distance telephone calls were charged by the minute.

(People have asked me why I don't just get a dedicated mobile Wifi hotspot. YMMV, but when my family travels, we tend to carry waaay to much electronic stuff around: computers, phones, games, etc, and of course each device has at least one cable or charger associated with it. So a combo iPad / Wifi hotspot equates to two or three fewer things to carry around and possibly lose or leave in the hotel room)

I'm also pretty happy about going with the 64GB model -- I can always find more stuff to load onto the device. Perhaps my one major unhappiness with New iPad is that they didn't offer 128GB or 256GB models.

The voice dictation feature (also available on the iPhone 4S and maybe elsewhere) is surprisingly nice. I'm beginning to get into the habit of using it for web searches, and I like it a lot.

I've been seeing numerous articles about "consumer complaints" about the New iPad, and perhaps I'm biased, but most of them are really stretching:

• "It breaks more easily than previous iPads" -- Until someone does a rigorous test and drops 10 or 20 of each model, I consider this complete BS.
  
• "It gets hot" -- Well, yeah, quad-core GPUs will do that. As long as it's within tolerances and doesn't cause thermal shutdowns and / or damage the device, I don't see the problem. And, frankly, every serious iPad user I know has a case wrapped around theirs, which acts as an insulator and also protects the device when you drop it. Not "if" -- "when".
  
• "It takes longer to charge" -- Debatable, and even if it's true, you can still get 10+ hours of battery life on a full charge, which is pretty freaking amazing.
  
• "My Wifi doesn't work right" -- The only legitimate complaint I've heard so far. Personally I've had no problem with it, but if people have Wifi issues, they need to exchange their devices and Apple needs to address the issue.
  
• "I use up too much data streaming movies through 4G" -- Well, *duh*!
  
• "It's heavier than previous iPads" -- Yes, by 0.1lbs. Give me a break.
  

I could go on, but I won't. With the exception of the possible Wifi issue, these all remind me of a whining spoiled child: "... but I wanted a white pony, daddy! This one is tan!" A real "consumer complaint" is "the device won't turn on" or "I've got a bunch of dead pixels" or "the touchscreen doesn't work".

My final verdict: it's a definite win. I mean, they added all this new stuff and kept the price the same. That's pretty frikkin' awesome. Realistically, though: it was a pretty easy "buy" decision for me as an original iPad owner. But if I'd had an iPad 2 ... unless I saw New iPad in person and just fell head-over-heels in love with the display, I'd probably wait for "iPad 4".

Any regrets? Just one: I wish I'd gone for white instead of black. I'll live.

(So what will I do with my original iPad? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that I might hook it up to my synthesizer rig and use it as a dedicated music device).

Life Is Good

There seem to be a number of prime-time "adult fantasies" airing of late:

Touch ("A father who's a cop; a boy who can predict the future. Together they FIGHT CRIME!");

Grimm ("A cop who kills supernatural creatures; A werewolf who's gone vegetarian. Together they FIGHT CRIME!");

A Gifted Man ("He's a talented surgeon; she's his dead ex-wife. Together they ... " Umm, I'm not real sure, I've never watched it);

Once Upon A Time ("An evil queen; a fairytale princess. Together ..." They confuse the hell out of me. I've watched the show several times and I think there's giant plot-arc that pulls the series together but I'll be damned if I know what it is).

As I said above: I've watched Once Upon A Time and I have no clue what's going on. And I used to like Grimm but I'm getting a little tired of it: every week it's basically a variation on the same plot. Apparently some of the people who worked on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel work on Grimm; I sure wish the show had more of an "ensemble" cast (ala Buffy) so every episode didn't revolve around the same two guys.

All that said, I'd like to mention an "adult fantasy" that has great writing, an intelligent premise, and solid, deep characters who hit on every level. That show is NBC's Awake. Wait, I'm afraid the show will get lost in this sea of text I've cranked out. Sooo ... I strongly recommend NBC's

Awake

(Thursdays at 10pm EST / 9pm CST).

Seriously, it's a great show, one that really pulls you in: Jason Isaacs (aka "Lucius Malfoy") plays a cop who survives a terrible auto accident, only to find himself living in two parallel post-accident worlds, one where only his wife is alive, the other where only his son survived.

Only two episodes have aired so far, but the plot is beginning to unfold and I don't know what's going on, but it looks like it's going to be fun finding out.

(WARNING: television shows that I like have this tendency to go off the air, so catch Awake while you can)

Drinkin' The Kool-Aid

So today I pre-ordered a "new iPad": this time I'm going 64GB so I'll be able to fit my entire music collection plus apps plus books plus even some videos.

I also went with Verizon 4G LTE capability. This is kind've an experiment, since I've been totally happy with WIFI-only on my first-gen iPad. But given that the "new iPad" -- they have got to do something about that name -- will act as a mobile hotspot, I figure the family can use it when we go on road-trips, etc (lack of Internet has been a problem in the past).

Choosing between AT&T and Verizon was a tough call. In the end I went with Verizon because their coverage seemed better, and reportedly they don't charge extra to use the iPad as a hotspot. And also AT&T already gets waaaay too much of my money -- I want to try the competition.

I only bought one device this time. We'll see how well that goes. FWIW, yesterday R and I got the kids iPhones, so I think their thirst for new gadgetry is satisfied (for now, anyway). R says she doesn't want a new iPad -- in fact, she doesn't use hers much anymore since I got her a Kindle Fire. The Fire has its share of "issues", most notably the battery life is abysmal, but R likes the smaller form factor for reading e-books, which is a lot of what she did with her iPad. So we'll see how that goes. She may see the "new iPad" and change her mind. Or -- what I expect -- she'll hold out until Apple releases the rumored "small form-factor iPad" sometime later this year. I wonder what they'll call that one? "iPad Mini"? "iPad Nano"? "Li'l iPad"? "newer iPad"?

Maybe this is just me, but after Apple's Official Announcement, it seemed like people were ... well, not sad, not unhappy, but ... not happy and elated and stuff. I think this is because many of us had been watching the rumor websites for months before the event, and so -- just like kids who found their parents' stash of Christmas presents -- when Apple finally made the big announcement, it was mostly stuff we already expected. It's our own damn fault, of course, but still ... they could have at least come up with a spiffy name.

All that said, the high-rez screen is the one thing I've been waiting for, and they delivered on that, and so I'm fairly happy. On the other hand: I was hoping for a 128GB version. And it ticked me off that I had to choose between AT&T and Verizon at purchase time. I confess that I am not knowledgable in the area of wireless communications, but -- they couldn't make it one-size-fits-all?

I'll have more in the next week or so after the device arrives and I've had a chance to play with it.

But I really do question their choice (or, non-choice) of name. Calling it "new iPad" begs comparisons with "New Coke". iPad 3 or iPad HD were both fine choices, it beats the hell out of me why they didn't go that way.

A Moment

I had a really nice "father-son moment" last night with my son Aidan, who is turning into quite the talented guitarist.

The musical landscape is a lot different today than it was when I was a kid. For one thing, there's simply a LOT more music out there: one of the promises that the Internet made good on is the widespread distribution of music by any band or musician, no matter how small. When I was a kid circa 1973, the music you were exposed to was largely determined by the local radio stations and your friends. Nowadays that sounds like a bad, restrictive thing, but it made things simpler, and despite the hate that the recording industry gets nowadays, they actually did a reasonably good job of promoting bands that were actually good: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rush, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Yes, Jethro Tull ... I could go on, but if you were a teen in the 70s, you know what I mean.

(Oh, there were some losers in there, too: I grew up in the midwest and heard waaaaay too much REO Speedwagon and Lynyrd Skynyrd and ... well, maybe it's just a matter of my personal taste)(just reminiscing, one of the first concerts I went to was a big outdoor thing sponsored by a local radio station, the "KSHE Kite-Fly", and the headliner was the Charlie Daniels Band. And opening for them was Rush. Which is hilarious to me today).

But I digress ... when Aidan started playing guitar, I went out and bought him a nice collection of Led Zeppelin and Rush CDs: IMNSHO, these are two of the seminal "classic rock" bands that every teenaged guitar player needs to hear. And my son did indeed listen to them -- but it was only last night that he actually listened them.

My wife and daughter had gone to bed, but somehow I got to talking with Aidan about Rush's _2112_, and he pulled out the CD and we dropped it into the disc player and listened to the Overture and The Temples of Syrinx and he had his guitar and did a pretty decent job of picking up the chords and playing along.

We are the priests
Of the temple of Syrinx.
Our great computers
Fill the hallowed halls.
We are the priests
Of the temple of Syrinx.
All the gifts of life
Are held within our walls.

(I don't think there is a 15yo boy in the entire world who can hear that and not fall in love with it>

And then we pulled out Led Zeppelin IV and listened to Black Dog and Rock and Roll and When The Levee Breaks and it was great fun for all. Well, okay, my daughter was trying to sleep and she was pissed, and I feel a bit badly about that. But it was a truly wonderful moment for me as a father, and I'm pretty sure my son felt the same way.

These events seem to happen so rarely in my life. But that makes me appreciate them and love them all the more.

Interesting Times

The news has been very "interesting" of late.

I've been a Computer Geek for the vast majority of my life (learned to program when I was 13yo, started using the Internet in 1980, yadda) and as you might surmise, I'm one of those crazy liberal anti-censorship "the internet wants to be free!" kind of people. So I've been watching with interest as the "War For The Internet" heats up, with the (apparently successful) "blackout" protest of SOPA / PIPA:

SOPA / PIPA stalled

Which (I can only hope) may have backfired into the MPAA's face:

Online Petition Targets SOPA Comments from MPAA Chief Chris Dodd on Fox News

(And I'd urge you to join the fun by signing the petition yourself. I like the idea of us "free Internetters" going on the offensive versus simply responding to threats as they appear.)

That said, it looks like the government is fighting back:

MegaUpload raided, founder arrested; Anonymous launches mass DDoS against entertainment companies and US law enforcement

And it's got some people running scared:

Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action

But on the bright side, there's been some good news in the Civil Rights arena:

Supreme Court rules warrant needed for GPS tracking

And there's this not-overly-reported tidbit:

DOJ urges judge to side with plaintiff in Baltimore police taping case

"The right to record police officers while performing duties in a public place as well as the right to be protected from the warrantless seizure and destruction of those recordings, are not only required by the Constitution," Justice Department attorneys wrote in a "statement of interest" filed Jan. 10 in the case. "They are consistent with our fundamental notions of liberty, promote the accountability of our governmental officers, and instill public confidence in the police officers who serve us daily."

Hell yes!

And finally:

US Senator Rand Paul refused a TSA pat-down

I would dearly love to see the TSA get their wrist slapped. Hard.

Alas, SOPA and PIPA are just two of a number of pieces of legislation that threaten the freedom of the 'net. ACTA is yet another, and you could do worse than sign the petition against it. And H.R. 1981, the deceptively-named "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011" is yet another.

But I'm happy to see Things Happening. And some of them are even Good Things. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the future, it might be bright.