mike | Shared With: Everyone - Nov 27 2007 | 2007, movies, thriller
Saw this last weekend. I REALLY liked it. Tommy Lee Jones delivers a great performance. This is actually a very suspenseful movie - not a "Western".
Like most movies by the Cohen brothers, the characters in the movie is the most interesting aspect - thought the plot is great as well.
This movie reminds me of two earlier films:
Blood Simple (1984) - Also Cohen Brothers
A Simple Plan (1998)All of them center around the concept of finding a large amount of money - and having it destroy the lives of the central characters.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Nov 27 2007 | 2007, social, books, ereader, kindle
Scoble rags on the Kindle. I don't have mine yet - but I think his written complaints are a little off base. Compare the Kindle to "a book" - not to "a computer with web browser".
Just watched the video - I've never seen Scoble so ANGRY! He repeatedly insists that the designer of the Kindle be FIRED. His main beef - the big side page forward and back buttons are too easy to press accidentally.
Some of the UI difficulties are due to the screen technology. The electronic ink displays do not refresh quickly and need to flash to repaint (but they have great reflected light contrast at low power).
Everyone agrees that the book purchasing capability via the device is amazing. But Scoble laments that there is no way to have social features to recommend/gift books to friends, or comment on blogs, etc.
I believe people are very adaptable to even some seemingly awkward design constraints. So only time will tell in the Kindle design problems are product killers - or just a learning curve that's worth climbing for the other benefits.
One point that I think Scoble is totally wrong about - is that the Kindle should have been targeted as a "book recommendation device" - and NOT a book reader. That's just a crazy idea that I'm going to but this device and spend time on it sending recommendations to friends. Maybe Scoble's mind has been fried by too many Twitters.
I'd love to see a rebuttal of Scoble's criticism by the Kindle designer - does he have the balls?
ShareViewed: 13 Times - mike | Shared With: Everyone - Apr 15 2007 | google, maps, australia, travel, photos, 2007
Trying out the new Google Maps Customization feature to make an annotated map of our Australia trip.
ShareViewed: 24 Times - mike | Shared With: Everyone - Mar 10 2007 | microsoft, research, techfest, 2007, video
No mention that Microsoft TechFest 2007 was open to the public. I was on campus a few weeks ago and saw the big banners announcing it - but I assumed it was from MS employees only.
Anyway - they have posted videos on the Microsoft Research site if you want to catch some of went on.
I also saw a FlickR photoset that Scoble was there - so podtech will likely have some coverage.
ShareViewed: 2 Times - mike | Shared With: Everyone - Mar 08 2007 | time, laws, uscode, calendar, excel, DST, 2007
Daylight Saving Time is defined in the US Code. But it has not been updated to reflect the change made in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Historical Daylight Saving Time:
First Sunday in April - Last Sunday of OctoberAs amended by The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (begins 2007):
Second Sunday of March - First Sunday of NovemberThe effect of the law is to give us 238 days of DST. Depending on the year, the old rules gave us either 203 or 210 days of DST. The Energy Policy Act adds either 4 or 5 weeks to DST (theoretically saving energy since we'll be up earlier in the day and go to bed earlier at night).
The following Excel formulas calcuate the start and end dates of Daylight Saving Time, following the new rules:
=DATE(Year,3,MOD(1-WEEKDAY(DATE(Year,3,1)),7)+8)
=DATE(Year,11,MOD(1-WEEKDAY(DATE(Year,11,1)),7)+1)The change may NOT be permanent.
Quoted: ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005, SEC. 110. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966(15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘first Sunday of April’’ and inserting ‘‘second Sunday of March’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘last Sunday of October’’ and inserting ‘‘first Sunday of November’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever is later.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once the Department study is complete.ShareViewed: 3 Times
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