March 2005

There were 65 posts published in March 2005 (this is page 5 of 7).

David, are you listening?

Talking to Matt recently got me thinking about friends from way back. In kindergarten (I hate spelling that word and probably botched it) I was good friends with a guy named David Stallman. Or perhaps David Stahlman, I can’t be sure.

By the end of the big K, we were the only two boys left in the class. All the others had moved away. We were in first grade together as well, but after that his Dad’s job got him moved to Saudi Arabia. This was about two years before Gulf War I, and I always wonder what happened to David and his family – if they stuck around or not.

So I got to thinking about how to find the guy. Google turned up nothing concrete. For all I know I have the last name completely wrong, he might go by Dave Stallman or Dave Stahlman or something entirely else now, who knows?

So I figured my best bet was putting out the word here.

Anyway, David, if you ever Google your own name and run across this entry, drop me a line!

Flight of the Phoenix

Product Image: Flight of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition) (2004)
Flight of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition) (2004)
My rating: 4 out of 5

I finally got around to watching the 2004 version of Flight of the Phoenix tonight. I watched the original version a couple months back, and the comparisons are interesting.

The new matches the old in just about all of the major plot points. The nomads are handled a little differently, but really only to add in a couple of action scenes that the original did just fine without.

My sole major criticism is really about the addition of a female cast member. Miranda Otto’s character seems to be present only to give a half-realized romantic interest for Dennis Quaid. The original FOTP was not a romance. Modern movies try to toss in a random romantic element far too often.

Good solid entertainment, with some capable human drama. I would have given the movie three stars. However, the random desert Chinese motorcycle gang seen in the trailer does not appear in the film. That editing choice alone deserves an extra star.

Oooh

Interesting blogging ideas up at StructuredBlogging.org

They’ve got a new WordPress 1.5 plugin for standardizing the structure of reviews of items (DVDs, books, etc) in XML. Theoretically a search engine could then identify item reviews on every blog that uses the system and aggregate together the collective public wisdom of a product.

I’m gonna go play with it, try to get a sample review up.

oh, and apparently there’s templates for blogging an event, too. CIL anybody?

TV’s at each seat

Michael McGrorty, a Councilor of the ALA, has a blog!
http://librarydust.typepad.com

This is probably common news, but I’m still exploring the library blogosphere.

He has a wonderful post on prevailing attitudes in libraries today, as well as how change is viewed. When discussing how libraries had reacted to, instead of shaping, the Internet:

I was sitting not long ago with some folks at a table in the midst of an ALA meeting when the topic of the Internet came up. I suggested an analogy: that the library’s response was as if movie theater owners had reacted to the emergence of television by ignoring the competition, then putting TV sets at each seat rather than by selling their films to the television networks. In return I got a table-full of strange looks.

I’m happy someone at the ALA understands these things and knows what is going on. Very well written, too.

Ineffective Blogging

Despite my recent praise for the Sci-Fi Channel, sometimes they still just don’t get it.

This morning on their ‘Sci-Fi Wire’ service of SF-related headlines and news stories, I found this entry. I’m a Harry Potter fan, so clicked into the story anxious to see the new cover.

But there’s no link anywhere. The cover is out there in the ether, but Sci-Fi won’t tell me where.

And don’t get me started on their movie of the week, “Mansquito”…

Not a good sign

via Warren Ellis‘ mailing list:

(from a Toronto Star interview with Enterprise star Jolene Blalock)

“I mean, we started out with 13 million viewers on
the pilot, and we somehow managed to drive 11
million of them away.”

There is an awkward silence when the subject of the
final episode is broached.

“I don’t know where to begin with that one,” she finally
stammers. “The final episode is … appalling.”

Maybe the rumors I’ve heard about the ending (which I won’t spoil here) are true…

AllOfMP3

Anybody know anything about AllOfMP3.com? It’s a Russian site that sells supposedly legal downloadable songs. No DRM of any kind, and available in very many formats.

You pick your compression, and then get charged about $.02 per MB of song.

Interesting concept, I’m just wondering if the purchases are considered legal in the U.S.