05.05.2008
After watching the movie There Will Be Blood last night on DVD, I was left with some immediate impressions. Daniel Day Lewis was fantastic as Daniel Plainview, the plain speaking oil man with the singular vision. His performance was magnificent and deserving of the Oscar victory. Having said that, I found the movie overly ponderous, extremely methodical, and slow overall.
The movie is worth watching for Lewis’ performance alone, but be prepared by stocking up on patience.
05.04.2008
While browsing my iTunes library, I pulled up and started playing Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut album from 2004. Harmonies are perfect, production is sufficient but not overbearing, and it’s musically interesting. Not a bad song on the album.
Solid.
05.02.2008
I’m not sure that there are many unexplored boundaries left within the social networking space on the internet. Most apps which appear to be p2p for people are getting into the mature part of the business cycle and old hat even for the old folks like me. One of the more intersting areas that hasn’t been fully explored is mobile social networking.
I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw with a new service called Brightkite. I like the fact that it doesn’t actively track it’s users but still allows enough detail for somebody to be found if they want to be. An interesting concept to be sure. One small hiccup that was easily solved: Verizon hasn’t approved them for their network, so poor souls like me too lazy to do some searching will only eventually find out that sending SMS to the provided photo e-mail link works just as well as the SMS address. Lesson learned (yet again), check the support forums before complaining about lack of functionality.
I could see Brightkite being very useful as more people start to use it. If you want an invite (it’s still in private beta), contact me with an e-mail address and I’ll send you one.
04.24.2008
Back in January, Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL for about $1 billion. This move made sense from Sun’s point-of-view as it provided a solid database product that could be re-marketed toward large enterprise environments. Given Sun’s shift from hardware and proprietary software to a desire to implement open source solutions, the MySQL acquisition was another step in furthering that objective.
I’m left to wonder how strong Sun’s commitment to open source software really is after reading TechDirt’s take on What Sun Should Be Doing With MySQL. Of particular concern to me is Sun’s moving specific new features to closed source development in an effort to push customers into paid support and versions.
Sun’s MySQL actions have some potential consequences. First, Sun risks alienating loyal MySQL users and forcing them to look at other products. One might argue that losing a customer that never paid for the software in the first place isn’t so bad, but many of the people that use MySQL in an unpaid installation also influence larger database decisions either through being loud and vocal or as part of career responsibilities. The exodus from MySQL might also affect other companies that produce software that rely on MySQL such as CMS and personal publishing software companies. And forcing those companies that currently rely on MySQL to seek alternative database solutions might be problematic in terms of software stability, new bugs, and overall product pricing.
While these problems may never manifest themselves, techno-slobs like myself may be in for higher hosting fees (due to software licensing) or new basic database instabilities.
04.23.2008
According to Slashdot, Sony is buying Gracenote for $260 million. Gracenote is the commercialized version of CDDB, a previously open project that was a database of CD song titles. Gracenote currently supplies CD info to a variety of media players including iTunes.
Given Sony’s apparent desire to render everything into completely proprietary formats, I’d suspect that this might provide the stimulus for a competing database effort.
04.22.2008
I have a tremendous amount of respect for those companies that produce TV programming that is different and continually pushes the envelope. Programs such as Deadwood, Southpark, and Millenium in one way or another have pushed the boundaries of acceptability further and in creative ways.
I will be honest in saying that I’m not a regular viewer of the new Battlestar Galactica. It’s not a bad show, it just never generated a great deal of interest for me. I will, however, give them props for the end credit logos. Those are the mini displays at the end of a show that credit the series producers. Wired discussed Battlestar’s end credit logos; brutal affairs that would make the “Itchy and Scrathy” show proud. Wired’s story also includes a link to a Youtube video with the first couple of seasons end credit logos.
Maybe I’ll make a more serious effort to watch BSG. Any show with those end credit logos can’t be all bad.
