Went to see it last night. It opened at the Jax Jr last midnight, so Friday night was the first showing for ordinary people, as opposed to true fans who stayed up to see it at midnight. Place was full. There was a line at the ticket window an hour before showtime.
It's long (2.5 hours). It's loud, Dolby 7.1. The villain's voice was amped up and reached every corner of the theater. Lots of explosions, car chases, fist fights and fireworks. Poor Batman, a lot of very bad things happen to him during the movie. Lot of bad things happen to Gotham too. The movie is a duel to the death between Batman and Bane, a big beefy weight lifter type villain who carries automatic weapons and does little other than straight forward violence against every body and every thing. No subtle plots or clever humor in Bane, he is into bashing, pure and simple. He is so dangerous that it looks like he is winning, right up to the very end, despite the strong comic book tradition of "the good guys win in the end"
The movie picks up where the last one (the one with Heath Ledger as the Joker) left off. Harvey Dent has been made into a hero, Batman is blamed for Harvey's crimes. We have a very nice Catwoman, an attractive New York cop named Blake, some adorable orphans. Michael Caine is back as Alfred.
It was OK, but unless you are a true fan, like my children, you could wait for it to come out on DVD. The awful things that happen to Batman and Gotham are depressing downers.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Obama writes Wall St Journal Op-Ed
And, having found this extra bully pulpit, what does Obama have to say? Does he reveal the secret to end Great Depression 2.0? Pay the nation's bills? Heal the sick? Reboot the housing market? Prevent California from sliding into the sea? Save the Euro? Fend off the Rapture? Prevent cellulite?
No. He goes on and on about Cybersecurity and the need to pass another Cybersecurity act. That's worthy, I suppose, but pretty far down on my list of priorities. Where is it on yours?
No. He goes on and on about Cybersecurity and the need to pass another Cybersecurity act. That's worthy, I suppose, but pretty far down on my list of priorities. Where is it on yours?
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Adult Fiction Ebooks outsell hardcovers
Reuters had this piece. But what does Reuters (the Brits) mean by "adult fiction" Over here adult fiction means porn. But it outsells hardcovers? Do they have hardcover porn in the UK? Or does Reuters mean fiction aimed at grownups as opposed to children and "young adults"? And what about paperbacks? Seldom do I pay hardback prices when I can wait a while and get it for paperback prices. And even paperback prices are outrageous.
Microsoft Office 2013, fatter than ever
According to Slashdot, the new release of Microsoft Office won't run on Windows XP, and will require 1 Gbyte of RAM and 3 Gbytes of hard drive space. Oink Oink.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Knives
The knives were getting dull, so I pulled out the oilstone (a two sided, two grit silicon carbide stone, none of this Arkansas or waterstone stuff for me) and a bottle of 3 in 1 oil and set to it. Started with an 8 inch stainless chef's knife from J.A. Henkel which I got maybe ten years ago. It was so dull it wouldn't cut a tomato. Set to work with the coarse side of the stone until I could see bright metal going right out to the edge on both sides. Then followed up with the fine side of the stone to flatten the scratches left by the coarse grit. When done, it would slice a piece of newspaper, a mark of decently sharp, but not as sharp as a razor. I don't do the "shave the hair off your arm test"
Moved on to old reliable, an 8 inch carbon steel chef's knife I bought new at a restaurant supply house in Duluth Minnesota nearly 50 years ago for $3.25. Over the years the dishwasher destroyed the wooden handle and I bought the special brass rivets and made a new handle from poplar. The carbon steel will take an edge and hold it better than stainless and old reliable was still sharp enough to slice paper. I touched him up with the fine side of t he stone on general principles.
Then we get to my pair of Gerber knives that I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago. They look like Gerber knives, they are marked as Gerber knives, but some times I wonder if they are not counterfeit. Both steel blades are flawed. On the ground edge you can see little pits and fissures in the steel. They don't hold an edge long, and the edge rusts. Stainless ain't supposed to do that.
Then I tried to put an edge on a little Japanese stainless paring knife that must have come from my mother. It had never been more than butter knife sharp. Look at the edge and I could see a long flat strip of metal rather than a knife edge. So much work on the coarse side and it's a little better, but it is never gonna be my favorite knife.
Finished up doing my Swiss Army pocket knife and a little folding knife, both of which are mostly used to open junk mail. When sharp, they slice the envelope open in one smooth swish.
So there we are, seven sharp knives laid out on the kitchen table. Time for Happy Hour.
Moved on to old reliable, an 8 inch carbon steel chef's knife I bought new at a restaurant supply house in Duluth Minnesota nearly 50 years ago for $3.25. Over the years the dishwasher destroyed the wooden handle and I bought the special brass rivets and made a new handle from poplar. The carbon steel will take an edge and hold it better than stainless and old reliable was still sharp enough to slice paper. I touched him up with the fine side of t he stone on general principles.
Then we get to my pair of Gerber knives that I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago. They look like Gerber knives, they are marked as Gerber knives, but some times I wonder if they are not counterfeit. Both steel blades are flawed. On the ground edge you can see little pits and fissures in the steel. They don't hold an edge long, and the edge rusts. Stainless ain't supposed to do that.
Then I tried to put an edge on a little Japanese stainless paring knife that must have come from my mother. It had never been more than butter knife sharp. Look at the edge and I could see a long flat strip of metal rather than a knife edge. So much work on the coarse side and it's a little better, but it is never gonna be my favorite knife.
Finished up doing my Swiss Army pocket knife and a little folding knife, both of which are mostly used to open junk mail. When sharp, they slice the envelope open in one smooth swish.
So there we are, seven sharp knives laid out on the kitchen table. Time for Happy Hour.
Bob Beckel, my favorite punching bag
Old Bob was sounding off on Fox New's "Five" last night, displaying his deep ignorance. Bob was defending Obama's claim that government support was behind every successful enterpreneur. So he says "Bill Gates claimed the space program made the first micro computer possible."
Not true Bob. What made the microcomputer, the Altairs, the Ithaca Intersysterms, the Cromemcos, the Commodore PETs, the Apple IIs and the Radio Shack TRS-80s possible was the microprocessor, a single 40 pin dual inline package that does the thinking that makes a computer compute.
The first micro processor was designed by Intel, for a Japanese customer making desktop calculating machines. The Japanese company, BubCom, wanted to make an exceptionally powerful product that could do square roots. The Intel designers were inspired by the PDP-8, the first minicomputer, which had an elegantly simple design and astonishing power. Intel designed a CPU chip for BubCom which became the Intel 4004. To make the CPU become a desktop calculator Intel wrote a program, stored in a ROM chip to make the CPU recognize the keys in the keyboard, do the arithmetic and drive the display. The 4004 was nearly as powerful as the much bigger contemporary PDP-8 minicomputer.
The PDP-8 motherboard, designed before microprocessors existed, used ordinary TTL logic gates to do it's thinking. That mother board was some 17 inches square, contained some 200 odd chips. The entire PDP-8 machine cost $7000 in 1969, weighed 50 pounds, and mounted in a 19 inch relay rack. Took up a foot of rack space. The Intel 4004 chip was nearly as powerful, cost $20 (then) and didn't weigh an ounce. This microprocessor chip made the microcomputers possible.
No government funds, projects, spinoffs, regulators, tax men involved. It was a straight commercial deal brought to us by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, no government involvement what so ever.
Not true Bob. What made the microcomputer, the Altairs, the Ithaca Intersysterms, the Cromemcos, the Commodore PETs, the Apple IIs and the Radio Shack TRS-80s possible was the microprocessor, a single 40 pin dual inline package that does the thinking that makes a computer compute.
The first micro processor was designed by Intel, for a Japanese customer making desktop calculating machines. The Japanese company, BubCom, wanted to make an exceptionally powerful product that could do square roots. The Intel designers were inspired by the PDP-8, the first minicomputer, which had an elegantly simple design and astonishing power. Intel designed a CPU chip for BubCom which became the Intel 4004. To make the CPU become a desktop calculator Intel wrote a program, stored in a ROM chip to make the CPU recognize the keys in the keyboard, do the arithmetic and drive the display. The 4004 was nearly as powerful as the much bigger contemporary PDP-8 minicomputer.
The PDP-8 motherboard, designed before microprocessors existed, used ordinary TTL logic gates to do it's thinking. That mother board was some 17 inches square, contained some 200 odd chips. The entire PDP-8 machine cost $7000 in 1969, weighed 50 pounds, and mounted in a 19 inch relay rack. Took up a foot of rack space. The Intel 4004 chip was nearly as powerful, cost $20 (then) and didn't weigh an ounce. This microprocessor chip made the microcomputers possible.
No government funds, projects, spinoffs, regulators, tax men involved. It was a straight commercial deal brought to us by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, no government involvement what so ever.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Beat the heat
The morning radio was predicting 100 degree temps in southern NH and 90 degrees up here. Well, we dodged that bullet. The good ole Cannon Cloud was right out there bring us a gentle cooling rain. Temp was 71 all morning. Good old Ken King's crew kept right on mowing the grass in the rain. Sun finally burned off the cloud and it's up to 80, but that beats 90 any day. Plus we have some breeze.
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