Andy's Blog

Serenity trailer in HD

With the advent of QuickTime 7, Apple has made the Serenity trailer available in High Definition. Here is a direct-download link to a 108Mb zip file (138Mb unzipped). This file is pretty amazing. The resolution of the movie is 1920x816. The display on my 15" PowerBook is only 1280x854 -- so I can't even fit the movie on my display at full size!

Even if I could, my puny 1.25Ghz G4 can't even play the movie at full frame rate. In fact, I only get something like 3-10 FPS. Apple recommends a G5, and I can definitely see why.

Still, just looking at individual frames -- it looks amazing in HD. The special effects, whicih looked great in lo-def, hold up in HD. So, they should really impress when seen on the big screen.

I have watched the Serenity trailer every day since it hit the 'net. Man, am I salivating over this movie.

-Andy.

Damn, I forgot!

Last night, as Mike and I were about to enter the Apple store in Palo Alto, I saw Phil Schiller leaving the store with his purchase. Wow! I was like being in the presence of Apple royalty...

-Andy.

No Tiger For Me (Yet)

Apple appears to have bolloxed my Tiger order, as a result, I didn't get my copy today as I expected to. I received the shipping notice from Apple on Wedesday, with a FedEx tracking number. However, no matter how many times I hit up the FedEx website, no status of my package was produced.

So, I called FedEx today, and they said that this meant that while Apple had submitted the details of the shipment to FedEx, Apple hadn't actually turned over the package to them yet.

Puzzled, I called Apple. The Apple representative assured me that Apple had in fact submitted my package to FedEx, but due the the heavy volume of Tiger shipments, FedEx's system was overloaded. She told me that it was most likely "on the truck", and that I would have it by six o'clock on Friday afternoon.

Well, I checked high and low, and I received no such package.

The Apple person told me that if by some quirk of fate, that I did not receive Tiger on Friday, to call back on Saturday. So, you had better believe that I will be doing that.

It sounded "too good to be true", when I saw that Apple was offering to ship Tiger and have it arrive on the day of release. And I guess that in my case, it was too good to be true.

In other Apple news, I did hit up the Apple store in Palo Alto to see what the launch event was like. I arrived pretty late, after 8:00 PM pacific, but there was still a line outside of the building to get in. The wait was <10 minutes, however. Once inside, Mike and I were handed scratch-off prizes, which could be for free Apple gear, discounts, or free songs from iTunes. Mike got 3 free iTunes downloads, and I got 2 free downloads and a 10% off anything in the store coupon. Of course, there were several caveats to the coupon, the primary ones being that it was one-day-only, and it wasn't good for purchasing Tiger (defeating my plan to buy a copy there, and return the one that I bought online when I got it).

So, since I'm not ready to spend any more money on computers this month, I gave my 10% coupon away, so that someone else could benefit from it.

-Andy.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I went and saw the new "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie with Mike and Pratima this evening. It was crazy-crowded (Silicon Valley is nerd-central, after all). Pratima bought the tickets online (sparing us from one line), but there was still a crazy-long line to get into the theatre. We got there over a half hour before show time, and the line stretched around the building.

Even though the line was terribly long, we still got pretty decent seats. The movie itself was only okay -- it didn't knock my socks off, but it didn't bore me to tears either. I think that I was expecting it to be funnier. There were quite a few funny parts, but I felt like there was more too it than what I saw. I guess I should read the book if I want the full scoop...

-Andy.

Gone Go Kartin'

We had a "team event" at work today (read: excuse to goof off on the corporate dime). The event was a trip up to Redwood City, to ride some go karts and play mini golf and "Malibu Grand Prix". Driving the go kart was actually quite a lot of fun:

(Photo credit: Dung Ngo)

The track is 1/2 mile long, and supposedly the top speed of the kart is 40 mph. The track has so many different curves, however, that it is quite hard to get up a lot of speed. I was told that doing the course in 60 seconds is "quite good". The organizer of the event claimed to have had a 56 second run. During my first 8 laps or so, the best that I could manage was 62.34 seconds. But towards the end of my laps, it started to rain, which definitely messed with the traction.

After it rained pretty hard, then stopped, and then dried off, I got to go out again. I did a ton of laps (I have no idea how many, but I was probably out there for 45 minutes to an hour), and managed to improve my time. I was stuck at 58.50 seconds for quite awhile, and thought that I was going to peak there. But near the end, I managed to get down to 58.25. Shaving any more time than that would really require me to study the track, and get the best lines down.

Still, for not having a ton of racing experience, I think that I did pretty A-OK. I also kicked butt at mini golf, until choking at the end by hitting the ball off of the course, which is an 8 stroke penalty... sigh

-Andy.

The "Serenity" trailer

The trailer for Joss Whedon's latest masterpiece, "Serenity", came out today. Holy shit, is it awesome! I have already watched it four times. September suddenly became a long way away! :(

-Andy.

Kung Fu Hustle

I drove up to Berkeley after work today to see "Kung Fu Hustle" with Mike. Totally amazingly awesome flick. The kung fu action doesn't disappoint (of course), but what really sets this movie apart is its sense of humor and whimsy. Highly recommended.

-Andy.

Live in SF: Straylight Run, Gratitude, and Minus The Bear

(Clockwise, from the top left: Gratitude, Straylight Run, and Minus The Bear)

Last Sunday, I went into San Francisco in order to see Straylight Run and Gratitude live at the Great American Music Hall. There were actually 5 acts on the bill. I was a little confused as to when it started, so I missed all of Spitalfield, and part of The Honorary Title.

I didn't have to wait too long for Gratitude to take the stage, and they didn't disappoint. I can still remember when I saw Far back at Peabody's Downunder in the Cleveland Flats so many years ago. Jonah really blew me away with the amount of raw energy that he was able to put into his performance. Well, it is a number of years later, but that doesn't appear to have slowed him down at all. Gratitude is definitely growing on me, especially after seeing that performance.

However, I was a bit surprised to see that Gratitude went on before Minus The Bear. I know that Gratitude is a relative newcomer, but I have never even heard of Minus The Bear before! So, I wasn't really expecting very much, but I was quite surprised by this band. As it turns out, they were pretty darn good, and deserved there place in the roster. In fact, I think that the crowd was the most enthusiastic for this band, of all of the bands that I saw. I liked their set so much, that I bought their CD "Highly Refined Pirates" after the show. I've listened to it twice now, and it is solid. Rock, with a bit of electronics thrown in.

Finally, Straylight Run took the stage, to cap a pretty long evening. The crowd had dwindled by this point, and what was left wasn't even all that enthusiastic. Which I guess sortof makes sense -- Straylight Run is a bid of an odd duck -- too many ballads to be rock, but not poppy enough to be pop. Nevertheless, those who left early missed out, because they played a solid set. Including some new songs -- well one old song, which is sometimes called "Costello" apparently, and two new ones (I think). I hope that this band makes it -- headlining this tour is good for them, but I don't know if they have that special "mainstreamy-ness" that it takes to achieve "critical mass".

I was able to bring my camera into the show, so I managed to take a few pictures and some videos as well. I'll try and post some of that stuff later, but for now, you can enjoy the banner that I made (ala Karen Cheng).

-Andy.

Sin City

I drove up to Emeryville last night after work, and finally managed to see "Sin City". I went with Mike along with his office mate and office mate's girlfriend. On the whole, the movie was quite good -- everything that I hoped it would be. Even though I have never read "Sin City", that doesn't mean that I haven't always wanted to read it. From what I can tell, Robert Rodriguez really captured the look and feel of the comic with this film. But what was most intriguing, were the themes of the movie beyond the epic violence.

All of the hero-types of the movie were rebels -- people who didn't fit in to the masses-controlling structures like church/government/mob/etc. That viewpoint definitely stood out, when I reflected upon the movie. I'm still piecing together what the movie was trying to say about love. It seems like that emotion popped up at odd times, and in odd dynamics. One of the points was that loving someone isn't necessarily about passion, it can just be caring for someone, in whatever way that takes place.

Anyways, if you're down with overly violent movies, then this one certainly comes recommended.

-Andy.

Important safety tip: don't wrap velveeta in tin foil

I learned an important lesson yesterday: never wrap Velveeta in tin foil. Why, do you ask? Because the Velveeta will actually eat through the tin foil! Clearly, it is some form of mutant super cheese. And actually, when it is mixed with shards of melted tin foil, quite gross.

This serves as my PSA for the day.

-Andy.

Album reviews

I have been buying a fair amount of music lately. I would like to do in-depth reviews of everything, but I have realized that the only way that I will get through everything is by doing quick reviews. So here it goes:

• Keane - "Hopes And Fears": A light, pleasant, Coldplayesque CD. Kevin's fine ear for music gives this band a high rating. It took me awhile to get into Keane, and I haven't had this album in heavy rotation, but it is still a solid purchase.
• The Mars Volta - "Frances The Mute": this band is into experimental, progressive, barely listenable music. I tend to only like music that is, well, music. So as a result, this album isn't going over too well with me. When The Mars Volta veer out of unlistenable territory and into actual music it is quite brilliant. If it I had a lot of free time on my hands, I could probably cut this down to an EP and make something
  enjoyable. As it stands, I wouldn't recommend this album.
• Woven Hand - "Consider The Birds": Incredible, just as Chris said. Highly recommended. David Eugene Edwards has crafted another magnificent album from start to finish. Haunting, moving, eliciting strong emotions. Musically, this album occupies just the right place between being too spartan and too overwhelming. Highly recommended.
• Gratitude: I had high hopes for this album. I like the main creative force, Jonah Matranga in his solo onelinedrawing effort, and ravenously love his previous band, Far. Unfortunately, this album seems overly bland and generic. The first time that I listened to this album, my disappointment was almost palpable. But I have listened to it more since then, and I think it might be steadily growing on me. So maybe there is some hope. But it certainly isn't Far part two. Not recommended.
• Autolux - "Future Perfect": I'm a big fan of the band Failure, which unfortunately, broke up a few years ago. Thankfully, the two master minds behind that band, Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards, continue to produce music. Ken is doing On and Year Of The Rabbit, while Greg's latest band is called Autolux. And now you know why I bought this album. On the whole, I would say that this album is decent. When the music is good it is great. In particular, the last three tracks on the album: "Asleep At The Trigger", "Plantlife", "Capital Kind Of Strain" are quite strong. The middle parts of this album tend to drag, however. Thus, I wouldn't classify this as a must-buy. If you like Failure, though, you may want to give this album a look.
• Pretty Girls Make Graves - "The New Romance": totally stupendous album. Go out and buy it immediately. This album reminds me of what rock music should be like. Solid guitars, impeccable drumming, great vocals and lyrics combined with a beat that you can really groove to.

Coming up next: The Shins - "Chutes Too Narrow", The Beta Band - "The Three E.P.'s", and Queens of the Stone Age - "Lullabies To Paralyze".

-Andy.

Calendar

Doings that are a transpirin' (and that I need to remember):

• April 19th: Umbrellas - "Umbrellas"
• April 29th: Apple releases MacOS X 10.4 "Tiger"
• May 3rd: Fall Out Boy - "From Under The Cork Tree"
• May 15th: Bay To Breakers in SF
• May 19th: Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
• May 25th: Sleater-Kinney - "The Woods"
• May 30th: Memorial Day (where will I be?!?!)
• June 4th: Sleater-Kinney @ The Warfield in SF
• June 6th: Coldplay - "X&Y"
• June 6th - 10th: Apple WWDC (wish I could go!). Chris &Tanya in town.
• June 23rd - 28th(ish): In New York for Steve's wedding
• June 27th - 30th: JavaOne conference in SF
• July 1st: Woven Hand playing live at Schuba's in Chicago

Whew!

-Andy.

Straylight Run & Gratitude

I just bought my ticket to see Straylight Run & Gratitude in SF on Sunday. Rawk.

-Andy.

I ordered Tiger today

I was gladdened this morning to read that Apple has finally announced the release date for MacOS X 10.4, code-named "Tiger". I was planning on just going to the Apple store on release day in order to get my copy, but I saw that Apple.com is offering free shipping, with the OS arriving on release day. Since all I wanted was to have it as soon as possible, ordering online seemed like a decent way to go. Plus, I can get a corporate discount via EDS (which is odd, considering EDS despises anything that isn't Windows), so I ordered it for $107.10. Not a huge savings, but every little bit helps. Especially since I owed the government $120 on for my 2004 taxes.

Now all I have to do is wait for April 29th. It's going to be tough.

-Andy.

My coworker buys a Porsche

The big hubbub at work today was that my coworker, Dung Ngo, bought a new car over the weekend:

Yes, that isn't just "any" car. It is a 1997 Porsche 993 Carrera. Dung is something of a Porsche aficionado, and spent 6 months searching for this car online. He was quite particular about the car that he wanted -- 1997 or older (to get the air cooled engine), low mileage, and in good condition. Well, he finally found one that met his criteria last week, so on Friday, he flew down to Texas in order to buy it. He then proceeded to drive 2000 miles in 2 days, driving back to the Bay Area.

Dung is so totally my hero. And the car is totally awesome. I posted all of the pictures that I took in this gallery.

-Andy.

Mission Peak - Group

The group from today's hike to the top of Mission Peak:

From L-R: Elizabeth, Mike, Will, Mariko, and me.

The hike was pretty good. With all of the rain that we have gotten this year, everything was green (in a few months, the land will be arid). Also, we hiked up a different way -- up the side, which is much different from the western-facing trail that I normally take. I think I liked it better -- there were more trees then on the western trail. Shade is good.

Mission Peak - East Bay

A shot of the east bay:

Fooling around with macro mode

Stan was fooling around with my camera today, trying to show me how to better utilize the macro mode. He took this picture of the remote to my DVD player, that I kindof liked:

Ubuntu "The Hoary Hedgehog": First Impressions

Yesterday, Ubuntu Linux 5.04 "The Hoary Hedgehog" was released to the world. I have been reading about Ubuntu for awhile, but have deferred from playing with it until now. Quickly, Ubuntu is a new(ish) Linux distribution out of South Africa, which is actually trying to do some "design" in their distribution. Instead of throwing in all available Open Source applications, Ubuntu is aiming for "the best" application of each type. So for example, instead of coming out of the box with 3 different applications for playing audio, there is only one. This is what I would expect as a Macintosh or Windows user -- not only is it much less confusing, but it also means that there is someone behind the scenes, who I am trusting to steer me in the right direction. In my mind, this is how a desktop OS should work (hence, why I am a confirmed Machintosh user).

Ubuntu makes "Live CDs" available for multiple platforms, PowerPC included. So, I downloaded the ISO yesterday, and gave it a try today:

I have to admit, it is pretty amazing how well this works, especially on not-terribly-open Apple hardware. I just put in the CD, booted off of it, and ka-blam, I had GNOME staring me in the face. Sound works, but Airport Extreme does not. This was too be expected -- the Open Source dudes have been having a really hard time getting the necessary support to write drivers for wireless hardware. Interestingly enough, it might not just be because wireless companies are dicks.

I decided to go out on a limb, and see if I could get my Sony DSC-P100 camera to work in Linux. Much to my amazement, I plugged the USB cable in, and not only did Ubuntu automatically mount the memory stick as a USB filesystem, but it popped up a dialog and asked me if I wanted to import the pictures from the camera onto disk! Wow! So, I went ahead and got the photo that I wanted, edited it in the Gimp (version 2.2, which looks pretty slick btw), and am posting it to my blog -- all using free software. It has pretty amazing how far Linux has come in such a short time.

I think I will be giving Ubuntu a shot on my new Tivo box. If that goes well (and I don't see why it wouldn't), then I will install it on my desktop at work.

-Andy.

Top of the lift

A mountain view, from the top of one of the ski lifts at Sierra-at-Tahoe:

I posted all of the pictures that I took last weekend in this gallery.

-Andy.

So, like, I went skiing last weekend

As Rushabh and Mark have already stated (twice), there was a big massive ski/snowboard trip at Lake Tahoe this weekend. This was my first time going to Tahoe, and my first time doing the skiing thing. Well, my folks claim that I was on ski's when I was like 5, that time we took a family trip to the Poconos. And I think that I went cross-country skiing once, when I lived in Illinois. Anyways, I declare that none of those other times count, and that this is the first time that I have done real skiing in my adult life.

The skiing itself went okay. My first day, I batted down Rushabh's assertion that I was ready to head down the bunny hill right away, and held out for the beginner's lesson. That proved to be a wise choice, because the bunny hill was actually kindof steep. The instructor of the lesson was something of "an acquired taste". There was 9 people in the class when it started, and 3 when it finished. I stuck it out, however, and I think I learned quite a few things that helped me out on the slopes. I stuck to the green slopes my first two days of skiing, and I think that at this point, i am ready to take the intermediate lesson, before trying to conquer a steeper slope.

One thing about the trip that Mark only alluded to was the incredible array of people that were all housed under one roof. The first night that I was in residence, there were 14 people (myself included). For the next two nights, we had 19. That is a lot of people, all of different ages and interests. It led to a situation where there was a group of people who wanted to stay up late and have a good time, and another group that was tired and wanted to sleep early. So, I was pretty sleep deprived until the last night, when I found a quieter spot, and managed to get like 6 hours of sleep.

But, I learned an important lesson: when I travel in a group situation, I need to always make sure that I have earplugs with me. :)

-Andy.