November 2006 Archives
"So, um, there are these robots that come and destroy almost all of the humans on the other side of the galaxy. But a few humans get away on a big spaceship and the show is basically about them running away from the robots and...but yeah, no - it's really really good. No, it's really nothing like Star Trek. Um, yeah, really, you should check it out. I even have the DVDs"
That's pretty much how a fan of Battlestar Galactica sounds when trying to convince a friend to watch it. After giving the clumsy spiel myself for a while, I've lately had the pleasure of hearing other people stumble through it.
But BSG really is hands down the best TV sci-fi ever, and I'd be willing to make the case that it's some of the best dramatic writing on TV in any genre. It isn't about spaceships and robots; it's about 9/11, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Really. I'm often amazed that the show doesn't make headlines for the boldness of the subject matter.
But while it's bold, it's also subtle. There is no preaching. There is no editorializing. The writers simply say "here is the world, it's very complex, you figure out what to think about it." It's so refreshing - that mode is almost completely absent from political and cultural discourse in 21st century America. Maybe it's no surprise that you have to go to outer space to find it.
...
Unfortunately, as I write this, I am also wondering if the show has jumped the shark. I recently caught up on a episode 7 of the current season, and it was just plain bad. Laden with possibilities, it landed with a thud. It's the first time I've felt like the writers have lost sight of where they are going. Here's hoping it's a blip and not a trend.
If you haven't watched, it might be time to start now before things start going downhill. (And you do have to watch it from the beginning or you will be very lost).
I'm basically bummed about the A's skipping town, but this video made the news a little more bearable.
Last year, my friend Jesse moved his Midnites for Maniacs film series to the Castro. 10 bucks gets you in to see three films that haven't seen the big screen in two decades.
Jesse gives an energetic and fascinating intro for each film - you can't help but start to love and genuinely appreciate these goofy movies as much as he does (even if you're laughing at them at the same time). Plus, there are trivia games with amazing prizes.
If you live in SF, you owe it to yourself to go check them out. And you have a great chance tomorrow night at 7pm: Breakin', Beat Street, and Cool as Ice!
- If you have never played World of Warcraft, don't bother reading the rest.
- I have been true to my word and not played WoW in nearly a year.
- I am nonetheless quite tempted to buy one of these hats:
UPDATE (11/6): Turns out that 50% CPU utilization was actually the result of a wayward process. For normal kinds of task, utilization tops out around 15-20%, at which the temperature is not really an issue. It definitely is cooler than my PowerBook, at any rate.
Plus, the fans in the MacBooks have an undocumented 'go faster' button that you can use to cool it down (substantially) at the cost of a little bit more noise. I've been using a little app called Fan Control to tweak this.
I imagine if I really push it with a 3d game or something, it will still get hot, but for most normal kinds of work, it doesn't really seem to be an issue for me.
New Mac Day only comes once every couple of years. It has come today. I write from my new MacBook 2.33ghz.
This was my first Mac-Mac migration in the modern age, and I'm still amazed by how simple it was. It literally only took about 5 minutes of my time (plus about 90 minutes unattended to copy stuff from my old PowerBook). I guess I'm not surprised really, but when I think back to how the set up of a new Win2k machine was always a multi-day affair to get everything just right...well, it's just neat.
Actually, it's almost disappointing. Here I am. New machine, same setup. Back to work. There really isn't much else to say. I'll play with parallels or BootCamp later - that's the big difference for me.
Initial observations for now:
- I love double taps. I love the little remote.
- It definitely is zippier. The project that I'm working on took around 50 seconds to compile on my PowerBook - now it takes me 9 seconds. I like.
- It definitely is quieter. I like.
- It definitely is *not* cooler (temperature-wise). I'm just sitting here at about 50% CPU and the bottom of the case is fairly warm. And both cores are reading around 160 degrees F. My G4 never read that hot even at peak. Maybe it's a difference in where the sensors are placed or maybe the Meroms are just designed to run hotter, not sure.
- The keyboard is a little quieter and little 'squishier' than my PB. It's subtle but I'm not sure I like it quite as much. Maybe it just needs to be broken in.
Perhaps most importantly, though, iQuip came up perfectly on my very first login:
