Everyone Has One

Maybe I’m getting crotchety but I do not seem to like the endings of
long serialized series. First Battlestar Galactica and now Lost. I
really liked the end of 24 but it’s not in the same category because
each season stands more or less on its own so did not have the long sweep of
these other shows.

Spoiler Warning.

First off, I did not mind that they didn’t answer all the questions
(e.g. why did the numbers on the compass win lotteries and appear in
so many places?) or plot inconsistencies (e.g. why didn’t Jack turn
into a smoke monster like the Man in Black despite “Mother’s” warning
of going into the bright light?). My main disappointment is that I
have two problems with the flash sideways from the point of view of
the story telling.

First, in the flash sideways, Desmond seemed to be the only one who
knew what was going on (and then Hurley but only after learning from
Desmond) and was instrumental with everyone having their awakenings
and getting together in the church. However, Sun and Jin didn’t need his
help and found their way from the hospital to the church. So did
Sawyer and Juliet.

Christian said that the characters created that place so they can be
together at the end. And it was clearly a timeless place because they
all died at very different times (Shannon and Boone very early, Hurley and Ben
presumably very much later). So why were some (Ana Lucia, Daniel, Ben)
“not ready” when they could allow any amount of time to elapse before
making their way to the church?

We know Desmond is special so I didn’t need to know “why” he was
enlightening people and bringing them together but the way they told
the story, he seemed to be central to the plan until we got near the
end and then he was unnecessary for many of the characters. Either
they could all meet by coincidence and become “aware” or there needed
to be an agent but why both?

My other, bigger disappointment also related to Desmond and the flash
sideways and that is the connection between the sideways world and the
island world. Again Desmond seems to have an awareness of both worlds
and knows he is playing an important role. The story cuts between both
worlds and both are drawing to their own conclusions at the same time
and the inference is that there is a connection between them. I figured
that something from the sideways world would be necessary to help
“good” triumph over “evil” in the island world. But there was no real
connection despite red herrings like Jack’s neck wound that he got in
the island world and also appeared in the sideways world. I was very
disappointed that there was no connection that affected the plot.

I did like many of the little character moments like when Hurley meets
(and then tranquilizes) Charlie in the sideways world. But plotwise the
finale did not work for me.

So much hype for so little. The promise: a new niche with an new, exciting user interface. To me the reality is that the iPad competes with other tablets and netbooks. There are a few new UI features (mainly multitouch) but for the most part it behaves just like a big ipod touch.

Before I start I should say that I have not held or used the iPad. Like almost everyone else this is a totally uninformed opinion. At least I waited until the announcement. Also, these comments aren’t meant to predict the success of the iPad. I am only writing about its appeal to me.

Why I prefer a netbook: it’s mainly the form factor. I’ve had a netbook for 2 years and I usually place it on a flat surface (table or lap) and then adjust the angle of the screen so I can see it. With a tablet you have to hold it in your hand (or put it in a dock; more on that later) and that is not comfortable for long.

Like a netbook the ipad is supposed to be for “light” computing: email and web browsing. The only plus for the iPad is its nice screen. Otherwise, I prefer a keyboard (for typing my email messages and filling in forms on websites) and a mouse (for precise positioning) over my fingers on the touch-sensitive screen.

If you use the external keyboard then the iPad becomes a netbook in weight but is less convenient to carry. And there is still no mouse so you have to reach up to the screen to interact.

The iPad may do well if Apple comes up with some additional media deals. The iBook store isn’t compelling to me. I have a kindle 2 and think that for me it is probably better than the iPad because it is smaller and easier to hold. For books it is fine. The iPad would be better for magazines, textbooks, etc. where the color screen and better navigation would come into play but no media deals in those areas were announced. I also use the kindle app on the iPhone and that works well when I am traveling light. I see no need for the bigger iPad.

Back to the form factor: it is 4×3 and not 16×9 so widescreen videos do not take up all of the screen. I don’t watch many movies on my netbook but think that it would be at least as good an experience, again remembering that it is easier to get a hands-free placement where you can see the screen.

Tablets have been successful in vertical markets like hospitals and factory floors. The iPad can do well there. And with new features and media deals for new content it might be well as a consumer device. But not for now.

I just bought a new Hewlett Packard Windows 7 PC. The machine is fine but it comes with no recovery discs. First they stopped giving you manuals, then the Windows CD/DVDs, and now the recovery discs.

The machine comes with a partition containing the initial, recoverable state of the machine which is fine if you can run Windows but what if everything is so messed up that you can’t run the recovery program? They do offer a way of burning exactly one set of recovery discs (3 discs to the set) which I am sure most people will not do and you might be able to buy them from their website but they say they only have a limited number.

It is also a good idea to have a repair disc to help resolve problems. Again, not included with the PC. You can download the ISO for one and burn your own CD with it from this page at neosmart.

I am not sure if this is to save a few dollars or to help the computer support business but it is definitely not to help the consumer. If this trend continues, what else will they stop providing? the power cable? keyboards and mice? If they don’t provide any peripherals then they don’t have to give us that poster-sized sheet that shows how to plug everything in.

On the plus side, they didn’t load the machine with crapware. Just a time-limited version of Norton and some links to partner websites.

I like the fact that the FCC is checking up on these big companies. I don’t expect us, the consumers, to benefit much which is presumably the point. However, this peak behind the scenes should push the companies in the right direction so that they avoid PR problems.

I do note with interest that only Google (“do no evil”) refused to make its whole response public. Secretive Apple and Uncaring AT&T managed to give truthful answers that they were willing to share with the public. Google should be taking full advantage of this to push their “innovative” Google Voice technology but I think they lose a bit by not being open about the process.

I suffer from smart phone purchase paralysis. That is, I want to buy a smart phone but because all the phones require a 2 year plan commitment I don’t want to make the wrong decision because I will have to live with it (and pay for it) for so long.

First the iPhone v.1 came out but it was slow, didn’t have basic features like cut-and-paste, and they wouldn’t let outside developers create apps. It wasn’t hard to decide to wait.

Then a year later iPhone v.2 came out and it was faster but still didn’t have cut-and-paste. They did allow third party developers but wouldn’t let them talk to each other and the app store with its byzantine rules restricts a full range of interesting apps from being made available. However, there are now thousands of apps to choose from. Tempting but I’m still not convinced.

Then the Android G1 came out and it has a keyboard (good!) and better multitasking than the iPhone and a truly open app store. However, the phone has received poor reviews, especially for battery life. So although I think the Android OS might be a winner the first phone out doesn’t make the grade.

Next up was the announcement (but no release date) of the Palm Pre which again looks to have better multitasking than the iPhone, a keyboard, and some other innovative UI features. However, what comes out first will be a version one phone and if past performance is any indication it may not be ready enough. On the other hand, Palm has been making Treos so it is not their first phone (like the iPhone was for Apple) so maybe it will be further along.

So, at this stage I know what I want: a phone with the openness of the Android platform, the multitasking features of the Pre, a real keyboard, and the variety of apps that the iPhone has. And while I’m wishing for the impossible, how about the Verizon network since it’s the best.

Thus any decision I make with require a compromise of some features. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if I wasn’t locked into the decision for 2 years so I come back to my original opinion which is against the mobile carriers. The exclusive deals they have for smart phones is a big barrier. If they provided more leeway they would have another customers. As it is, I hope to see something in June that will me make take the leap–and then pray that something “better” doesn’t come out a month later.

If you are reading this you are probably one of the 20 million (and counting) people that have watched the video of Susan Boyle singing on Britain’s Got Talent. She’s got a nice voice but is not the kind of singer I would normally listen to. I much more enjoyed seeing the reactions of the other people to her than the actual performance.

To me the story is the fact that so many people have seen this performance. Like me most do not live in Britain and only became aware of this through our global communication network. And very quickly. See Cringely’s article for a good analysis.

It used to be only big events that drew such large audiences, whether planned (e.g. World Cup Soccer/Football or the Oscars) or unplanned (e.g. political assassinations, natural disasters) and on TV. Now the internet is taking over and it is unscheduled and a lot quicker. I have no doubt that in time more people will have seen that Susan Boyle YouTube clip than those aforementioned events.

And the global audience is only going to get bigger as people connect with mobile phones as well as computers and quicker as applications like Twitter speed communication.

I waited until I heard Ron Moore’s commentary on the finale before writing because I wanted to hear if he had an explanation of some of the things that I didn’t think were properly resolved in the finale. Unfortunately that was not the case.

First, this review is full of spoilers. If you haven’t seen the finale and plan to, don’t read it.

Second, I want to say that I give the overall Battlestar Galactica series at least two up arrows as it was truly one of the best TV shows ever made. However, I was disappointed in the finale. There were two reasons for my disappointment: two big plot threads that weren’t properly resolved and the whole tone of the finale.

For a couple of seasons there have been two big issues that much of the plot has revolved around: 1) what is special about Hera and why is she the key to the salvation of both the human race and the cylons; and 2) what “is” Starbuck/Kara since she apparently died in her raptor.

Starting with Starbuck: the “resurrected” Starbuck seems human. She plays a key role in the finale by “finding” “earth” after realizing that “the” song (All Along the Watchtower) when translated into numbers are the coordinates of Earth and she jumps BSG there in its dramatic last jump. And then she disappears because her work is done. So she wasn’t human. She also doesn’t seem to be an angel like “Head” Baltar and Caprica as she has no awareness of what she is, she kills people (very unangel-like behaviour), and in every other way seems human. In Moore’s commentary he said that he didn’t want to define her and just leave it open. That would be more acceptable to me if they didn’t make such a big deal during the show (e.g. Baltar raving about the necrotic tissue found on her dogtags) raising the question time after time.

Hera is key to the plot because everyone wants her. Cavil even starts to dissect her to see what makes her tick. The whole climactic battle at the end is to get her back and she is key to the “opera” dream coming true. The shows explains this by saying that she was mitochondiral Eve, the mother of us all. However, that makes no sense. In the commentary Moore explains that in an alternate ending they didn’t use, it was “calculated” that with the number of humans remaining that they would only be viable for 3 generations and that the only reason we didn’t die out is because Hera’s combined human/cylon heritage got us past that hurdle. That would have been a satisfactory explanation for me but doesn’t fit with the ending that they did use.

There were 38,000 remaining humans and they were going to split up and inhabit different locales on Earth. So Hera would only be living in one of many habitations. So maybe all the others didn’t survive, you say. Unfortunately that doesn’t work because we are also told that the colony survivors can mate with the indigenous “humans” that are already on the planet. We don’t know how many there are but presumably they are viable.

Furthermore, in the commentary Moore says that Tyrol/Chief goes off to Scotland and becomes the ancestor of all the Scots. Since he went by himself then he must have mated with the locals and clearly Hera had nothing to do with the viability of that community.

Still Hera could be mitochondrial Eve which would mean that her descendants mixed with people from the other groups so that her DNA does exist in all of us. However, she wasn’t necessary for the survival of the species and her “special” qualities (the cylon DNA) were not necessary.

Then there is the overly optimistic tone of the ending (or should I say “never” ending because it went too long). BSG was great because of its dark tone and unpredictable plot where things always seemed to end up worse than you expect. After the peace falls apart because Tyrol breaks the final 5 mind meld to kill Tory (a great “dark” moment) and they go from peace to the destrucion of Cavil’s coalition (and Cavil’s “fun” suicide) that was a great reversal and I wish the show had ended at that moment.

To me, the whole good “earth” (versus the first “bad” Earth they found previously) ending was unsatisfying. Sure Roslin dies but we’ve expected that since the beginning (and Moore even wimped out on the Moses symbology of having her see but not reach “earth”). Tyrol is satisfyingly broken after the revelation of how his wife Cally was murdered but the rest of the characters are way too upbeat for me. Saul and Ellen Tigh riding off into the sunset seemed particularly against character. And they missed the best joke possibility with them. Ellen clearly would be the last one to give up technology and her creature comforts. And both of them were big drinkers. So her last words should have been something like, “So do you know how to build a ’still?”. But no, she happily strolled off to live in the wilderness.

Maybe Hilo and Athena deserved their happy family time but I don’t see it for Baltar and Caprica. It could have been “dark” that Baltar and Caprica don’t “pay” for their sins but it doesn’t seem to have been shot that way.

I could go on but this is way too long already. I do have to say that some of Ron Moore’s last words on the commentary were great and fitting: “Don’t turn your back on your toasters”.

My old iPod mini died a few months ago (the USB connection killed the driver on my computer requiring a reboot and the ipod would just die a few times a day) so I bought the latest (4th.) generation iPod nano.

I bought the 8Gbyte version for $150. That is twice the storage at a lower price than the mini (I bought the mini in Canada for $250CDN and the nano in the US so it’s not an exact comparison). The 8Gbyte nano is the smaller of two capacities but I still have 3.3Gbytes of free space so it is fine for my needs. I don’t watch videos on it (which take up more space than music and audio programs).

Usability: the nano is smaller than the mini but I haven’t really noticed circumstances where that is much of an advantage as I usually keep it in a pocket. The click wheel doesn’t seem as responsive but it is still very usable. The on/off switch is a little harder to toggle but again it is not a big deal.

I don’t need a colour screen as I never use cover flow or play games and I thought it would be a negative because of increased battery drain. However, the battery is much better (after 4 months) and I rarely have to recharge it because just plugging it in to sync gets enough juice to replenish most of the charge.

The ear buds stay in my ears a little better than the ones that came with the mini but the sound quality still is pretty poor so I only use them when I want to carry the smallest earphones possible (I have 3 different sets that I use regularly for different reasons).

Most of the other features (and use of iTunes) remains the same. I don’t buy music, use Genius or many of the other features so I may not be typical user. I primarily listen to podcasts and sometimes music (I have one smart playlist) and this iPod works fine for that.

Okay, this is really silly but it’s also really funny and captures all the main plot points of the movie Kill Bill. Kill Bill in One Minute has the main character (the Bride) moving across a football field meeting (and mainly killing) all the characters in the movie. I give it 2 thumbs up.

I was recently on a long trip and my Tivo filled up. As expected I missed recording several shows towards the end of my trip. Not a problem, I thought, because with hulu and the networks own websites I figured I could watch any shows that I missed. I would put up with their commercials to be able to fill in those missed episodes. I was correct except for CBS shows.

CBS.com only shows clips for some shows and for the one I wanted (The Unit) it only showed one full episode (the last). Since it took me awhile to get around to it, they had already shown a new episode past the one that I wanted to see so that the episode I wanted was no longer available.

Fox, ABC, and NBC all provide their latest episodes. I had to wait until the next Battlestar Galactica was shown on the SciFi channel before the previous episode was available but that was no problem. Only CBS doesn’t seem to get it and so I watched everyone else’s commercials but their’s.