GregHowley.com

Life Without Google

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:26:00 -0700

I switched from MetaCrawler search to Google search back in the late nineties, and I've never looked back. Google is teh best!!1 Right?

I've felt the same slight bit of apprehension as the rest of you when thinking about just how much of my information Google controls, but I've generally just rationalized things: everybody uses GMail, YouTube, and Picasa, so I'm not really doing anything that everyone else isn't doing. Right?

I thought about things again recently when I was reading SOPA-related articles, including this one in which the MPAA refers to Google as an opponent who controls that platform, the platform being The Internet. Does Google really control the internet? Not really. Not technically. But to a lot of people and from many perspectives, they do.

Even the recent Google privacy policy announcement didn't really bother me. Not that much. Not until I read the following in Google's privacy policy FAQ:

What if I don�t want to use Google under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service?
If you continue to use Google services after March 1, you�ll be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If you�d prefer to close your Google Account, you can follow the instructions in our help center. We remain committed to data liberation, so if you want to take your information elsewhere you can.

First off, I've got to say that it's awesome that Google is giving users the freedom to take their data and leave. By making it easy for users to export data and close an account, Google is going above and beyond what most companies in their place would do, and that - to me - is Google following their famous "don't be evil" rule.

That said, when I read that closing my Google account was the alternative to accepting the new privacy policy, I found it more than a bit intimidating. Close my Google account? Great Odin's raven! I can't!

Leaving Google

Let's look at the steps I'd have to take to close my account if Google ever decided that they were supporting SOPA, advocating casual murder, or something equally heinous. Firstly, I'd have detach my various @greghowley.com email accounts from GMail. That's actually the easy part. I've tried hard throughout the years to use the @greghowley.com email accounts rather than the @gmail.com account, so it would only be a matter of removing the email forwarders and finding a new mail client. Still, there are quite a few places that have the @gmail email address, and google's services require it. I'd have to keep hold of the account for a while, making sure to respond to anyone who emailed me there to let them know to use one of my other email addresses instead.

Next up, my Google Plus account. I really do like Google Plus, and I've got a number of friends there that abhor Facebook with an unholy vehemence. For serious. For the most part, I get better intelligent debate from the Google Plus crowd than I do on any other social network. But if push came to shove, I've still got Twitter and Facebook. It'd be tough, but I could let Google Plus go.

I have a lot of pictures on Google Plus and Picasa, but Google makes it relatively easy to export them, so I could back them up at home or on another of the web's ubiquitous cloud photo services. There's YouTube as well for many of my videos. I'm not sure if they let you download your YouTube videos - I'll need to check on that.

I use the Google cache a lot for bypassing my work firewall when I need to read programming articles on Wordpress, which is blocked as "social networking", but I suppose I could get by without it. There have to be other search engines with cached pages available, right?

There are a lot of other things permanently tied to my google account as well: my blogspot comments and my login to StackOverflow for starters. I can let those go too, but what a pain.

Oh no. Google Reader. How could I stop using Google Reader? Upon checking, I've got 98 subscriptions to rss feeds in Google Reader, and since 10/31/06 I've read 67,679 items. Granted, many of those "reads" may have been just clicks to bring up the text for a second, but I use Google Reader a lot. It's how I keep up with Boing Boing, Joystiq, and The Secret Lair. It's where I get a lot of my news. I guess I could find another rss reader, but I do really like Reader.

Let's see, what else? I don't use GChat that much, and I can retrieve my Google Docs and back those up elsewhere. Chrome is my favorite browser, and I'm pretty sure I can configure it to use another search engine - I'm fairly sure that I won't need an associated Google account there. Ooh, maps. Google maps would be hard to stop using. I could do it though. I know that there are other similar services, and I've heard some good things about the Waze and Skobbler apps.

Anthony and Cleopatra! My phone! Android phones are always signed into Google. The integration is seamless. I'm not sure if I'd be able to continue using an Android phone if I wanted to quit Google entirely. Maybe Cyanogenmod would allow me to better break with Google; I don't know. The whole Android thing is a deal-breaker. I really don't want to go over to iPhone; I'm too invested in the customizability of the Android platform.

So yeah, as it turns out I cannot leave Google. And that reliance on them makes me very uncomfortable. So I'm going to be making an effort to at least detach myself a bit. I'm going to try to stop using Google's search engine. This will deny them a large portion of the personal information they've been getting from me. They'll still have access to my email through gmail, but using another search provider can have other benefits as well.

The Search Bubble

By now, you've likely heard of the search bubble and how your search results can be effectively filtered by customizing them to what the search engine thinks are the most appropriate results for you. If you haven't heard about the phenomenon, do some reading. Watch the TED talk linked from the above search bubble page.

I've decided to try a non-Google search engine. I've changed the engine associated with my browser to DuckDuckGo and installed the DuckDuckGo Android app. The engine works well and doesn't hold onto my searches. Maybe I'm still addicted to Google, but at least this is a small step towards reducing my reliance.

Big Media, SOPA, and the Public domain

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:09:00 -0700

Intellectual Property. In today's world, it's a necessary designation. Without copyright law, people could invest huge amounts of time into a book, a software project, or a film only to have it redistributed for free or sold by those without the legal right to it. The premise makes total sense, and few would deny that copyright law should exist.

But the ideal world is not the real world, and in the real world copyright is broken. I've been saying it for years, but just recently there have been a few developments that have forced me to take a fresh look at things. I'm not arrogant enough to delude myself that more than a half dozen people will ever read this, and so I'll resign myself to the fact that this article is largely to codify my own thoughts. But in the interest of readability I'll try to keep this as concise as possible.

SOPA

I participated in the SOPA blackout last Wednesday more for solidarity than in expectation that anyone would take note of my site's removal. Due to the ad nauseum coverage of the topic in the blogosphere I won't say much about SOPA/PIPA. To me, the bigger story is Chris Dodd flaunting the MPAA's bribery of the Obama administration. Seriously, WTF. We need to get the money out of politics, or this will cease being a democracy and turn into a plutocracy.

Public Domain

The other thing I read that just chapped my ass is the news of a supreme court decision that public domain works can be copyrighted anew. I can understand the claim that the matter doesn't touch on the constitution - public domain isn't free speech - but that doesn't mean that this decision is right or that it makes any sense. I'm not a lawyer and don't have that great an understanding of how far-reaching this decision actually is. But if some corporation can come in and copyright Mozart or Mark Twain, I will be pissed.

The public domain is what allows great sites like Project Guterberg and Audiobooks For Free to exist. Jules Verne, HG Wells, Lewis Carroll, and Charles Dickens won't be upset that someone else is depriving their great-great-great-great grandsons of income. Heck - there are probably 314 descendants that would want to split the cash anyway.

Movies use the public domain all the time. Scrooged, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and every remake of Alice in Wonderland, War of the Worlds, or The Three Musketeers you've ever seen relies on the public domain. Ditto Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Peter Pan, and even The Wizard of Oz and its various spin-offs. Without the public domain, I'll guarantee you that classic movie monsters wouldn't have the popularity they do today. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and even the original George Romero film Night of the Living Dead all fall under the public domain, and look at the wealth of vampire and zombie books and movies out there.

Why Have Copyright?

The reason copyright exists is to foster and encourage creative works. As this article on Ars Technica aptly explains, it seems to be doing just the opposite. The article makes so many good points and links to so many excellent sources that I cannot begin to enumerate them here. Look at the patent-squatters and the abandonware. The public domain is dying, and ironically, the only thing helping is the very piracy that big media is trying to squash.

Piracy

I'll spare you the countless articles I could link about the billions of dollars the MPAA says they're losing to movie piracy. Those books are as overcooked as the roast my family made for Christmas this year. It's been many years since I first heard someone point out that the college student who downloaded $12,000 of music from Napster wouldn't have actually spent that money on CDs if Napster wasn't available in 1999. It seems like a no-brainer, but this is the kind of math that the RIAA does to calculate their numbers, and then they double the figures just to be safe.

I've got a ton of respect for authors such as Cory Doctorow and Scott Sigler who make their complete catalogs of fiction available online for free. They feel that obscurity is a bigger problem than piracy. Know what? Despite making their works available freely online, both authors regularly appear on the New York Times bestseller lists.

Lots of people today get their media through illicit filesharing. This is at least in part because the distribution channels are effed up. Digital distribution of video games is well-covered by services such as Steam, GameFly, Direct2Drive, and the new EA Origin service. If you're pirating games, then I've got no sympathy for you. Even movies I understand, even if I don't condone the practice. The theater-going experience isn't what it once was. Home theaters have improved quite a lot, and people can be obnoxious with cell phones during public movie screenings.

Television is a different matter. There once was a time when you'd turn on your TV, sans cable, and watch whatever was on. Boy have things gotten more complex.

Let's say that there's a guy - for purposes of illustration we'll call him Schmeg - and he likes four TV shows: Dexter, Game of Thrones, Fringe, and The Walking Dead. These are on four different networks, and three of them aren't available over-the-air. If Schmeg wants to watch his four shows, he's looking at over $100 per month. Just to watch four TV shows. It makes no sense, and it's hard to imagine anyone on a realistic income making such a lopsided investment. I'm realizing now that I'm actually rehashing an argument I've already posted, and so I'll stop here.

You need to shut up now, Greg

Yeah, I know, I know. This rant has carried on a bit too long and become a bit too far-ranging. I'm probably also preaching to the choir if I predict the few who might actually read this.

Homeland Nearly Gave Me A Coronary

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:38:00 -0700

I'm writing to tell you about one of my favorite TV shows this year. Ready for a surprise? It's not science fiction. I know, right? You didn't think I watched any TV shows that weren't Fringe, The 4400, Farscape, Game of Thrones, Terra Nova, Falling Skies, or The Walking Dead. Okay... I do watch Dexter.

Anyway, this show is called Homeland, and the closest other show I've got to compare it to is 24. The thing is, Homeland doesn't have a resident badass. Instead, it's got a lot of investigation and intrigue, and damn good characters.

The series follows Carrie Mathison, a CIA operations officer who, after conducting an unauthorized operation in Iraq, is put on probation and reassigned to the CIA's counterterrorism center in Langley, Virginia. While she was conducting the operation in Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by Al-Qaeda. Carrie's job is complicated when her boss, Director of the Counterterrorism Center David Estes, calls Carrie and her colleagues in for an emergency briefing. It is then that Carrie learns that Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine Sergeant who had been reported as missing in action since 2003, has been rescued during a Delta Force raid on a compound belonging to terrorist Abu Nazir. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war that her asset in Iraq was talking about. However, the federal government and her superiors at the CIA consider Nicholas Brody a war hero. Realizing it would be next to impossible to convince her boss, David Estes, to place Brody under surveillance, Carrie approaches the only other person she can trust, Saul Berenson. The two must now work together to investigate Brody and prevent another terrorist attack on American soil.

Saul Berenson is played by Mandy Patinkin, and Carrie Mathison is played by Claire Danes. I remember Clare Danes from Terminator 3 and Mandy Patinkin from The Princess Bride, but haven't watched the two of them in action much other than that. I'll tell you - they're amazing. Morena Baccarin is also a major role, which should delight fans of Firefly and the V remake. Plus, it's on Showtime, which means that you get to see her boobs. This did not upset me.

Homeland, like Dexter, has some downright amazing writing. It's also got some fantastic acting. Everyone - even the kids - pull off their roles brilliantly, and you absolutely believe it.

When we watched the twelth and final episode of the first season, my heart was literally racing. I swear - I put my hand on my chest and my heart rate was notably increased. I can't think of any TV show I've ever watched that's done that. I cannot wait for season two, and I may have to purchase the DVD set once it's released.

The Movies of 2012: Tripletake

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:59:00 -0700

I've taken a look at the upcoming movies of 2012 not once, but twice now. But somehow, there are still movies I've overlooked. I've discovered a few more that look intriguing, so I figured I'd share here.

As an aside, I'm now realizing that I need to read The Hunger Games before March 23rd or else my wife is likely to go to the movies without me. They'll almost certainly screw up the film version, and I prefer not to have the surprises in what's likely a great book spoiled for me by an inferior film.

The first movie I want to talk about is Chronicle. It's a "found footage" movie, like The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, but rather than stalker witches or urban monsters, this one's about three teenaged friends getting super powers. One gets telekinesis, one gets flight, and one becomes invulnerable. Sounds potentially good. There's a trailer here for the movie, due out February 3rd.

Sometimes the premise of a movie is so over-the-top ridiculous that you've got to love it. Take for example, moon Nazis. That's the premise of Iron Sky, in which groups of Nazis secretly fled to the moon at the end of World War 2. In 2018, having built up their fleet, they return in force.

Nazis always make good villains, and if this is done well the movie could be some good ridiculous fun in April. Iron Sky Trailer

Lockout is a film that could be hit or miss. There's a lot of cliche here, and potential for cheese. Government agent convicted of a crime he didn't commit blah blah blah rescue the president's daughter from a prison in outer space. I'll read the reviews before I buy my tickets on April 20th. Lock-Out Trailer

I'm interested in Looper, primarily because it's a time travel movie that seems like it might have more brains than TimeCop. (ohh, TimeCop, you're such a terrible movie)

The synopsis doesn't include much info, but from what I gather the main character works for a mob, and his job is to kill people who come from the future. Probably to prevent changes to the timeline. But one time, he goes to kill a time traveler and recognises an older version of himself. And he hesitates, and lets himself live.

There are a lot of places this could go. It could be interesting, or might stink. All depends on the writing. I'm hopeful. See Looper on September 28th. Looper Trailer

I heard about Gravity quite a while ago, when there were two movies vying for the same name. The one in which I'd been more interested has been renamed G, which is a horrible name. It's painfully difficult to search for any title that's only a single letter. There's no word about the movie G, in which gravity begins to go away, but the movie that won the name Gravity is slated for November 21st.

In Gravity, two astronauts are stranded on a space station after a meteor impact and fight to survive. The premise is so generic that the movie will completely be made or wrecked based on the writing and acting. Gravity Trailer

Lastly, a movie that I can't find much info on. It sounds interesting though. Cloud Atlas will star Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant. I'm hoping that the awesomeness of Tom Hanks and Hugo Weaving can make up for the fact that Hugh Grant is in there. It's directed by the Wachowskis, and apparently interweaves six stories and has a sci-fi futuristic edge, jumping from the 1850s to the dystopian future. Characters apparently switch roles and even gender. I'm so confused about this one that I don't know what to say. But it's supposed to come out in 2012, so hopefully we get more info soon.

Too Many Books

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:24:00 -0700

I have a problem. Too many books and not enough time. This is a problem I've had for many years, as I can look back at a post that I made on this blog in 2008 wherein I go over the many books on my to-read shelf. The sad thing is that eight of the novels that were on my to-read shelf back in 2008 are still there. I've got somewhere in the vicinity of 25 books on my to-read shelf, and I'm thinking that it's time to get rid of the ones that I'll likely never get around to reading.

Collecting Dust

The books that remain from back in 2008 are Aasimov's Foundation Trilogy, The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, Roald Dahl Omnibus, Alien Earth by Greg Burke, The Elder Gods by David Eddings, Medalon by Jennifer Fallon, Robert Jordan's full-length novelization of his short story New Spring, and Wonder Woman: Mythos. Foundation has been near the top of the stack for a while, but there always seems to be something else I'd rather read. The rest of them in this stack are books that I'd still like to get to at some point.

Unshelved

A few of the books I just need to give up and admit that I'll never get around to. I bought Neal Pollack's Alternadad back when my daughter was less than a year old and being a dad was still a novelty. In retrospect, buying that book was something of an impulse decision - it's not the kind of book I generally enjoy. I started reading Dean Koontz's The Face at least twice, and couldn't get into it. I'll probably get rid of that one too. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a book I picked up primarily because of the game by the same name - I figured that if the book was good enough to have a game based on it, it might just be worth reading. I'm not sure I'll ever find out one way or another, because I have too many books. Finally, that Frankie Manning Bio. This one I'll keep, but I'm not sure I'll ever read it. Frankie was an amazing person, but biographies are hard for me. I'd like to think that I'll read it some day.

Backburnered

I've already mentioned more than once on this blog how I quit reading George R R Martin's A Dance with Dragons about halfway in due to abject boredom. I've also reshelved a collection of stories by Lester Del Rey after reading about 60% of them. They were good stories, but I'm going to have to come back to them later. I did the same thing with the four-story collection Mean Streets. I read the first story (A Dresden Files tale) and I might come back and read the three others at a future date. Maybe.

Biblia Prima

Yes, I just totally made up that pseudo-Latin phrase - an indulgence at which I'll make no attempts at an excuse.

The foremost of the books that I'd like to get to after I finish reading Feed is Stephen King's new novel 11/22/63. I know very little about it - I know that it's about someone travelling back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination - but I know that Stephen King is a good author, I know that my father-in-law read it and recommends it, and I know that it's Goodreads's Best Science Fiction book of 2011, beating out Ready, Player One by a narrow margin.

Side Jobs is a Dresden Files story. Actually, a group of short stories. And I eat those up. This book is the greasy batch of french fries that I'm saving for myself after I read a few of the celery sticks on my to-read shelf. I plan to read through it very quickly and enjoy it quite a lot.

A friend recommended Cordelia's Honor, so although I know close to nothing about the book, I got a copy and I plan to read it. If I like it as much as some people seem to suspect I might, I'm led to believe that there are a number of other books in the series. This won't help my overweight to-read shelf much, and so I've put this one aside for now.

I didn't enjoy the first book in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series nearly as much as I've enjoyed his Dresden Files novels, and so I didn't rush on to Academ's Fury, but I do plan to read it. The Dresden Files novels got far better as the series progressed, and I hope that the Codex Alera series does likewise.

I picked up Alan Dean Foster's Cachalot many years ago when I lived in the Colt Building in Hartford. Someone had left it out in the communal hallway, on top of what I think were mailboxes. The books were free for anyone who was interested, so I'd grabbed a few. It seems like an interesting science fiction tale, and I hope to read it once my to-read shelf has slimmed down a bit.

Lastly, the sequel to the book I'm currently reading: Deadline. It's a zombie story about news media. My current impression puts it somewhere between World War Z and V for Vendetta. I'd say that's a good place to be. Checking Mira Grant's website, the NewsFlesh series' numbering system seems to be bizarre (2, 3, 4, 4, 6) but the three chapters I've read so far of the first book are very good, and I may eventually read all of them. If I can figure the order in which they belong.

The Future

There are a lot of other books I want to read - books that I'm barely restraining myself from purchasing. Yes, I do have a problem. I really want to read Cory Doctorow's story Makers. I want to pick up that Patrick Rothfuss story Wise Man's Fear that everyone's talking about. I understand that book two in that series wasn't nearly as good as the first. I want to pick up Room by Emma Donohgue and Embassytown by China Mi�ville. I read about both recently on other blogs and they sound great. I also found out about Lev Grossman's book Magicians because it might be turned into a TV show, and then following that line of research I found out about Paranormals by Christopher Andrews. While reading about Feed, I found out about Dead of Night: A Zombie Novel by Jonathan Maberry. I want to read them all. At some point, I'd also like to go through The Hunger Games, which Linda has on her iPad. I understand that those books are also hard to put down.

Biggest Disappointments of 2011

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:50:00 -0700

Having written recently about my 2011 favorites, I figure that it's now time to pick out those other ones. I've decided to compose a list of disappointments rather than a list of worsts, as disappointments really hinge on expectations.

Most Disappointing Movie: Battle: Los Angeles

My biggest movie disappointment was nearly the Conan the Barbarian remake, but I'd really been looking forward to Battle: Los Angeles as a spiritual successor and an update to the 1996 movie Independance Day. Instead, I got a "glorify the troops" movie full of hard-ass soldiers who are so unrealistically dedicated that they return from a horrific ordeal and decide not to even eat before going back out for more punishment. Ditto for the movie Skyline, which also disappointed me but for different reasons - Skyline approached the alien invasion thing from a horror movie angle.

Most Disappointing Video Game: Dragon Age 2

Odd that I can even comment here, since I never purchased the game. But I downloaded the demo as soon as it was available. It's as if they took everything that I loved about Dragon Age: Origins and removed it. So sad.

Most Disappointing Book: A Dance with Dragons

The first three books in George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series were so good. But the fourth stunk. And I'd been hoping against hope that the fifth would pull it all out. No such luck. After three hundred plus pages of boring, I closed the book and haven't gone back. And then on Monday, a major plot point (which for all I know may be the only significant plot point in the book) was spoiled for me. Ugh.

Most Disappointing TV Show: Fringe

Of everything on the list, Fringe was probably the least disappointing. But this season definately hasn't been as good as last season. The reboot idea had potential, but as of yet it isn't paying off. I'm hoping that the series picks up when it resumes on January 13th.

Also Disappointing: Pixeljunk Monsters Facebook game

In case you weren't aware, I'm an avid fan of Pixeljunk Monsters. I played the crap out of the PSN game and its expansion, getting 100% of the game's trophies, and then bought the PSP version which I also played the crap out of. I was very excited for the browser game, and even when I learned that it was to be a Facebook game, my excitement only diminished a bit. But having now played the game, I won't be going back to it.

All that said, there were a few things in 2011 in which I'd expected to be disappointed where I found myself happily mistaken. Rise of The Planet of The Apes was far better than I'd expected, as was the movie Limitless. And the robot boxing movie Real Steel turned out to be a lot of fun despite the stupid premise.

Holidays

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:46:00 -0700

My vacation this year was a long and much-needed one. We spent the bulk of it visiting relatives in Pennsylvania, where I managed to finish reading Inheritance, which I very much enjoyed. We got Lia some very cool gifts this year, including the Wii version of Reader Rabbit First Grade (which she promptly blew through in two sittings) a Leappad Explorer (which mysteriously stopped working after 2 days) and a new board game: Forbidden Island. The game says it's for ages 10 and up, but Linda and I played the game with Lia on Sunday night and she did just fine. My own favorite gifts were a Flash tee shirt, a very nice bottle of bourbon, and a couple books I've been wanting to read.

The rest of the vacation was all about prep for our upcoming newborn daughter. We totally redid Lia's room and got her a new bed, which is a raised semi-bunk. Lower than a typical bunk bed, but raised enough to fit a mattress beneath it. I also spent yesterday hanging out with my mom while we both painted the room. There was a minor mishap where a can of paint was spilled outside, but we were very lucky that the paint landed (just barely) outside the car, and cleanup involved only cat litter and a snow shovel.

In less than a month now, we'll be a family of four. Lots to do!

Movie List, The Last One

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:11:00 -0700

As I've written these movie lists, I've become increasingly aware that my daughter, at age four, isn't really interested in movies. She'd much rather read, play iPad games, or play with her Thomas the Train set. The few times I've suggested watching a movie, she's turned me down. So while she's seen The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and all three Toy Story movies, she refused the Winnie the Pooh and Sleeping Beauty movies I've suggested. With Christmas here, I've gotten her to check out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas, but movies just aren't her favorite. I guess I'm not really upset that she'd rather read.

I won't be heartbroken if she misses a lot of these, as long as she watches The Star Wars movies, The Back to the Future movies, and E.T. when she gets older. We have another daughter on the way, and maybe in four more years we can revisit these lists.

There are a lot of eighties movies in my lists. Maybe that's because when I think of movies I loved as a kid, I think of movies that I watched as a kid, and I want to share the things I love with the people I love. But you have to admit that a lot of these movies are just damned good.

So here is my final list. It's fairly long, and I try here to cover all the movies I might like her to see in her pre-teen and high school years. There are a ton of good movies that I'd recommend for late high school or post-high school, such as Alien and The Shawshank Redemption, but I feel no need to cover those here, 'cause those ain't for kids.

Indiana Jones - Classics. Of course, I'm mainly talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, but if she likes those I may consider Temple of Doom or Crystal Skull.
Forrest Gump - A great movie and a bit of a history lesson.
Super 8 - My favorite movie of 2011.
The Karate Kid - Completely an eighties movie, which is probably a big part of why it's in this list. But it's such pop culture that I feel it to be a necessity.
The Time Machine - A classic book made into a classic movie. When I was a kid, the Morlocks terrified me.
Tremors - Hokey campy horror. Beware the graboids!
Apollo 13 - A tale of disaster averted. Consider it historic fiction.
True Lies - One of the best action/comedy movies ever, and tied with T2 for Arnold's best film.
Clue - The script and performance is top-notch. I can imagine this one being as good in a theater setting as it was on the big screen. Who'd have thought that a movie based on a board game could be this good?
The Abyss - One of my favorite movies of all time.
Toy Soldiers - Seriously underrated. Stars Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, and Lou Gosset Jr.
Better Off Dead - One of the best comedies of the eighties.
One Crazy Summer - A companion to Better Off Dead. They're practically the same movie.
Real Genius - I'll put this one right next to Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer.
The Poseidon Adventure - One of the best disaster movies ever.
Jurassic Park - The special effects look a bit dated, but the movie is still fantastic.
Signs - My favorite M.Night movie - such a fantastic mix of suspense and comedy.
Stand By Me - Although it may have more impact for those who grew up in the time period depicted, it's still a phenomenal movie.
The Fugitive - Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. I must have seen this one a dozen times.
Airplane - Classic stupid comedy.
The Breakfast Club - Is there a more iconic eighties movie?
UHF - Weird Al's movie. I remember loving it as a kid.
Vertigo - Classic Hitchcock. Still holds up very well.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - It's easy to forget how good Robert Redford and Paul Newman were in this movie until you watch it again.
Harry Potter - There have been other Harry Potter movies in my previous lists, but the later ones are not for younger kids. As always, the books are far better and should take precedence over the movies.
Twister - Linda and I have always enjoyed disaster movies, and this is a good one.
Grease - Purely for the pop culture value.

Best of 2011

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:54:00 -0700

The end of the year is here, and although I seem to have let it slide the past few years what with moving across the country and everything, this year I'm going to take a good hard look at all my favorite stuff from this year. Yay stuff!

Best Movie: Super 8

I've spoken to some people who really didn't like the movie, but Linda and I both agree: Super 8 was our favorite movie of the year, hands-down. It had action, it had drama, it had comedy, and it had horror. It was a coming-of-age adventure in the style of E.T. and Stand By Me, and we absolutely loved it.

Personally, I think a lot of what I liked about the film was the fact that it took place in 1979, and it captured the era so very well, without being in-your-face like That 70s Show. I was five years old the majority of that year, and so I'm significantly younger than many of the kids depicted in the film, but the nostalgia still struck a chord with me.

The kids in the movie are all newcomers to film, and they're all exceptional actors. More than that, they have chemistry and character. You can easily buy them being a close-knit group of neighborhood kids. I could go on praising the movie for another few pages, but if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil anything. Just go watch the movie.

Best Video Game: Batman Arkham City

It's hard for me to explain why I chose Arkham City over Skyrim, especially since I've already put more hours into Skyrim than Arkham City. Both games are fantastic, and both are deserving. But being a time-eater isn't the key criterion in choosing the game of the year. What I love about Skyrim is mostly the same stuff that I'd loved about Oblivion. But what I love about Batman: Arkham City is something else.

In much the same way that Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker was the best thing about The Dark Knight (which was a movie that had a hell of a lot of best things) Mark Hamill's performance as The Joker adds significantly to Arkham City. Yes, that's right - Luke Skywalker voices The Joker. And he's really good, too. But as good as he is, he wouldn't be able to do much without good writing. And he's got some fantastic lines, the best of which come at the game's culmination. I don't think it spoils anything if I say that Arkham City's ending is my second-favorite ending to a video game of all time. (My favorite is the ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2)

But as good as the story is, a game is nothing without good gameplay. The gameplay in Arkham City is excellent. It comes down to hand-to-hand combat, which is the best one-on-many combat in any game I've ever seen, stealth gameplay, which is handled as well as the stealth in Thief or Tenchu, and open world navigation, which Arkham City handles more than competently.

I've finished the main story in Arkham City, but I know that I'll be going back to it from time to time, grabbing all the Catwoman trophies, running through the combat and predator challenges, and playing the New Game Plus mode.

My runner-up for best game of the year is Atom Zombie Smasher, which you may never have heard of. You can get a copy for next-to-nothing nowadays, and if you're interested in learning more about the game, you can read my more detailed write-up here.

Best Book: Changes, by Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files is a fantastic series - I've read all thirteen books that are currently out - but as good as they've all been, when I reached book twelve, Changes, it absolutely blew me away.

The Dresden Files started slowly, almost episodically. Wizard detective solves mystery. Very simple. They're very easy reads, and the books actually get better as the series progresses. Butcher establishes his world and his characters, and while the setting and the overarching story progresses, there are no real drastic changes.

And then comes Changes.

I can't even speak about how epic the story is, because without having read the eleven books that lead up to it, you just won't get it. But a decade from now when I look back at the twenty-something books that comprise The Dresden Files series, the one I'll point to as amazing is Changes.

My runner-up book is Ready, Player One by Ernest Cline, which would easily have been my book of the year if not for Jim Butcher's amazing work.

Best TV Show: A Game of Thrones

...and how could it not be? I think that it was everyone's favorite show, and for the same reasons that Lord of the Rings did well in the movie theaters a few years back. When you take a really good book and translate it to film well with good actors and a good director, it kicks ass. When you take creative license and modify the original, you end up with movies like Eragon. Not much else to say here.

My runner-up TV show is Fringe. While I'd like it to be first, the latest season hasn't been nearly as amazing as the ending of last season. Here's hoping it picks up.

Best Board Game: Betrayal at the House on the Hill

I first tried Betrayal at Hartford's monthly board game night earlier this year, and I fell in love. It's a board game that features a different plot and entirely different rules each time you play. I've played upwards of a dozen stories now, and I think I've only repeated one once. There are fifty scenarios in the book and more available online, but the crux is that your group is exploring a haunted house. You all see odd things, but at some point, one of you is revealed to be a betrayer. Once this happens, the game truly begins. From then on, it's a many-on-one situation as one player is revealed to be a vampire or a mad scientist who unleashes a horde of zombies. Just about every horror trope you can think of exists in the game, and then some. each scenario has rules specific to that scenario, and that really keeps the game fresh. If you've never played, you're missing out.

The runner-up game is Castle Panic, which I discovered at PAX East 2011 and now play with Lia.

Best Gadget: Droid X

I don't know what I did before I had an Android phone. I use it for absolutely everything now. In thinking about how human beings truly are merging with technology, I wrote up a big article on The Secret Lair entitled Technology, Convergence, and Human Evolution. In re-reading now, I probably could have gone a bit more into depth on some parts and explained the whole thing a bit more clearly, but when writing for the internet, I tend never to re-read what I've written before I publish. That's probably not good.

I've written tons about my phone and about Android Apps. I'm not sure how much more there is to say.

So that's my 2011 "Best Of". I'd be interested to hear your comments about your favorite movies, games, gadgets, and other stuff.

The Movies of 2012: Doubletake

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:42:00 -0700

Now that 2011 has blown its load in terms of good movies and games, I got it in my head this morning that I should take a look at the movies coming out next year. Then I realized that I did that back in July. But I took a second look anyway, and realized that there's a lot more to talk about other than The Avengers, The Hobbit, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Ghostbusters, The Hunger Games, and Total Recall.

Fairy Tales

In my last article, I mentioned my interest in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hnuter, despite not having read the book. Little did I know that new takes on fairy tales would become a trend.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters - Action horror comedy? Sounds like something I might like. The description makes it sound a bit gorier than I'd like, but the grown-up siblings acting as witch-hunters is a great premise.
Snow White and the Huntsman - Snow White in plate armor with a sword? Weird. The Seven Dwarves as her henchmen? Ohhhkay. Nothing about the plot anywhere. Who knows?
Jack the Giant Killer - Kind of an obvious one for a fairy tale action movie, isn't it? Hugely cliche, and I'll bet we all know exactly what the movie will be like.

Unnecessary Sequels

Scary Movie 5 - A fifth one? Come on. I saw the first one back in 2000 on a date, but come on. For real, guys.
Underworld: Awakening - Absolutely unnecessary. I will admit to watching the first two movies in this series. But we do not need another one. I don't even know how many movies are in this series.
The Expendables 2 - The first one was fun mainly because of the huge cast of aging eighties action heroes. Now they've got Jean-Claude Van Damme and effing Chuck Norris. Also more substantial roles for Bruce Willis and Arnie. Still, I'm not sure if the movie will hold up now that the novelty is gone.
Wrath of the Titans - What's worse than an unneccessary sequel? An unneccessary sequel to an unneccessary remake.
Men in Black 3 - I thought they let this franchise die. Both Wil Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are better than this.
The Bourne Legacy - I've seen a bunch of these, but I stopped following the plot after the first movie.
Resident Evil: Retribution - Ugh. Another one.
Paranormal Activity 4 - I saw the first movie. It was surprising and pretty good. But I didn't need more after that. When I saw the upcoming 4th installment, I was surprised because I didn't know there'd been a third.
Taken 2 - Wait a minute. Am I reading this right? A sequel to the 2008 Liam Neeson movie? How is this possible? After the former badass special agent's daughter is kidnapped and he goes through hell and rescues her, she's kidnapped again? WTF? The chick is princess Peach!

Unnecessary Remakes

The Three Stooges - Hard to replace the originals.
Red Dawn - I'd actually been interested in this one before I realized that much of what I liked about the first one was how very eighties it was. Wolveriiiines!
Dredd - Because what everyone really wanted was more Judge Dredd on the big screen.
Dorothy of Oz - Okay, so it's a computer animated cartoon and a new story, possibly based on the continued adventures penned by Frank Baum. That buys it a tiny bit of lattutude. That said, who thinks the movie will be good? Show of hands?
Frankenweenie - A remake of the 1984 movie. Can you believe it?
21 Jump Street - Wow. Just... wow.

Hopeful

Despite the above-mentioned melange of cinematic detritus, I yet hold some hope for the films of 2012. There are of course the ten movies from my first article, and there are also these.

Riddick - An as-of-yet-untitled sequel in the Chronicles of Riddick series. Vin Diesel's pattern seems to be one movie, then one video game, then another movie. After Pitch Black, we had The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick (the movie), and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. There was also a direct-to-DVD cartoon called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury which I never saw. I have to say, I do like the series. When I first saw Pitch Black, my opinion of the Riddick character was of an antisocial badass role-model for juvenile delinquents. But after hearing that Vin Diesel was in actuality a Dungeons and Dragons player, my view of Riddick shifted. I liked the first movie, and I loved Butcher Bay. Dark Athena was crap, but I'm still hopeful for the next movie and I'm glad that the franchise hasn't died.
John Carter - All I know about the movie is that it's based on a popular book. I've seen the trailer more than once an I know it's full of spectacle. Maybe I should read the book(s).
World War Z - I love love loved the book, and it seems less than likely that the movie will do the book justice. Still, I'm hoping.
Rise of the Guardians - Here's my long-shot. A mismatched band of super-heroes: Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, and Jack Frost, have to stop the nefarious plot of The Boogeyman. Obviously a kids' movie, but it sounds just ridiculous enough to be fun.

Movie List, Age 10

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:53:00 -0700

The age 10 list is a bit better than the age 9 list, but still short. It's also the second-to-last list I plan to publish here, as we're nearly into the fully "grown up" stuff. Dividing these lists into age groups is already an iffy proposition, as nothing can replace parental judgement, especially given that each kid will be a little different in terms of what they enjoy and can handle. But slapping ages on the lists allows me to segment the movies I want to show Lia into lists short enough to publish individually.

The Goonies - Probably my #1 kids' adventure movie, ahead of even Explorers and Super 8. One-Eyed Willie? Chester Copperpot? The Fratellis? This movie is a classic. The movie has a good amount of swearing, and there's an apparent suicide at the beginning of the movie. Also, Mouth fools the maid with talk of illegal drugs and sexual torture devices, and there's a nude statuette that has its junk snapped off. Parental guidance strongly recommended.
Contact - One of my favorites. There's a terrorist attack that kills people, and Ellie has to deal with the death of her father, but she's a very strong female character and a great role-model. I wish the movie's ending had been more like the book's ending, but perhaps that was a bit too heady for the silver screen.
Farscape - Another TV series. Farscape mixes sci-fi adventure with comedy in a fantastic way, and is one of the only TV series I've ever seen that had a really good conclusion.
Dragonslayer - As old as it is, Dragonslayer still has the best movie dragon ever.
Ghostbusters - Yes, I know the sequel kind of stunk. I hope that Bill Murray opts in on the third movie, and I hope that it's good, because the original was phenomenal and hilarious.
X-Men - Still the best of the live-action movies.
North by Northwest - Old? Yes. But damn is it good.
King Kong - Peter Jackson's remake isn't my favorite movie, but it has a lot going for it.
Wargames - Wargames is so delightfully eighties. I'm not sure how a kid who grew up with smartphones will view the technology in this movie, but if nothing else it's an object lesson on how tech has changed over the last thirty years.
Tron - Dated? Certainly. But it's a really fun movie.
Spirited Away - Strong female protagonist, and one of my favorite anime movies. Not that I have very many favorite anime movies.
Jumanji / Zathura - Kids' adventure movies. Fun.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Continuing the Harry Potter series. To reiterate, I'd encourage Lia to read the book before seeing the movie, but given how much she reads I don't see that as much of an issue.
The Right Stuff - A history lesson and a good story. I'd like to see this one again myself.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - An underappreciated classic. Bob Hoskins is pretty damn good. Also, Christopher Lloyd.
Adventures in Babysitting - Linda loves this one. Not sure I've ever seen it.
D.A.R.Y.L. - When I think of showing my kids movies from my own youth, for some reason I always think of this one, although I barely remember it.

My favorite Android Apps

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:38:00 -0700

Even though I've had a smartphone for more than a year now, I still find myself astonished daily at the technology available in my phone. It's such a small device, and compared to anything I had as a kid, it's like the superhero of electronics - there's nothing it can't do.

I'm constantly trying to push what I'm able to do with my phone, whether it's streaming music off my home network into a set of small speakers in the kitchen, or using the phone as a remote control when I'm watching a movie. But some apps are more useful than others, and I'd like to share my favorites.

EStrongs File Explorer - There aren't many apps on my phone I use as much as EStrongs File Explorer. I use it as least as much as I use Windows Explorer when I'm on a PC. Any time I need to do anything with a file on my phone, whether I'm moving files, listening to music, or viewing a PDF, I get to the file using EStrongs. Best of all, the app is free.
Llama - After trying out Tasker, my appetite was whetted for automatic system management, but Tasker killed my battery faster than I kill a box of Keebler fudge sticks. Then, @snowchel recommended Llama. What a great app. Instead of using battery-slaying GPS to determine your location, it uses the far less accurate method of looking at the cell towers in the area. Luckily, my home and work locations are far enough apart that it's good enough for my purposes. Now, my phone automatically turns off the ringer and the media volume when I'm at work and turns it back up when I leave. I've also got it set to ring very quietly between 11PM and 7AM, to turn off bluetooth when I turn off my headset, and to automatically turn on the wifi when I visit my mom's house where the cell reception is lousy. I paid for Llama, but it seems like it may have gone free recently.
OurGroceries - This app works in conjunction with the OurGroceries website, and it's all Linda and I use anymore when putting together a grocery list. Typically, she'll add groceries on her laptop and I'll check the list on my phone once I get to the store. I can reorder the items on the list so that the ones at the beginning of the store are at the top, and then cross items off as I pick them off the shelves. I can also easily move items to a different grocery list if I need to buy them at Whole Foods instead of Stop & Shop. Ourgrocieries is free.
ADW.Launcher - Unlike so many other apps, ADW.Launcher is a bit of a mini-operating system. It sits on top of Gingerbread and changes the look and feel of everything. It lets me change the number of homescreens, icons per row and column, and use scrolling widgets. I can also change the look and functionality of my dock, and hide those stupid Need for Speed and Madden apps that came with my phone and won't uninstall. ADW.Launcher does a lot of things - far more than I can name here. I bought the non-market version, since it apparently does more than the version you can get from the market. This unfortunately means that I don't get automatic updates.
TeslaLED - This is just a flashlight. Seems kind of dumb until you find yourself needing one quickly. I use mine all the time. Like this morning when my bedroom was dark, Linda was sleeping, and I wasn't sure which socks were black and which were brown. It's a free app, so give it a try.
ezPDF Reader - I bought the $2.99 pro version since I have a lot of PDF files on my phone, and after trying a number of free PDF readers, I found that they all were extremely slow. ezPDF is the most responsive PDF reader I've used, and apparently it has a number of features that I haven't even been using. The app is also updated all the time, which may be why I haven't heard of many of these features.
Google Authenticator - I use two factor authentication on my gmail account, and I recently had my wife set up her account the same way. The basic premise is that in order to sign into GMail on any new PC, you need a code provided by your phone. If you don't have a smartphone, you can set up two factor authentication over text message. This way, nobody can hack into your account unless they have your phone. Given the increasing importance of one's email account and all the personal info it may contain, you can never be too cautious. More info here, on Google's blog.
Google+ - Sure, it's Google's latest take on social networking. But the Android version has something even better in it: you can set it to automatically upload any pictures you take on your phone. I find that feature very useful.
Mixology - I drink mixed drinks. I'm just not a beer guy. And I like finding new things to drink. So for me, it's very convenient to plug the liquors I own into mixology and see what recipes emerge. I've made a number that include ice cream.
vizBattery widget - Android's stock battery indicator can be less than accurate. Am I am 90% or 60%? The teeny battery icon looks almost the same for each. With this widget, you get a battery icon on a homescreen that includes a numeric percentage. And should you want, it quick-links to your battery usage info. Handy dandy.
WordFeud - I've written quite a long analysis of why I prefer WordFeud to Words with Friends, so I won't rehash details here. But I'm a big fan of asynchronous-play games like this on mobile devices, and I now play WordFeud with lots of family and friends to the point that I wish I hadn't chosen the username "KingBossHell". Heck, I play the game with my mom.
EasyTether - My most recent purchase. Although I don't use it nearly as often as the other titles on this list, it was a serious lifesaver during the Connectipocalypse, when we lost our internet connection for two weeks. The phone was our only connection to the internet, and I purchased the app for ten bucks so as to access http sites such as gmail. It was totally worth it.

Out Of Touch Telecoms

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:30:00 -0700

Telecoms like Comcast, Time-Warner, Verizon, and Cox are part of the 1%. They're rolling in the dough, and they've succeeded in collecting fees for infrastructure they never put in place, which still drives me nuts. I believe that internet service should be a public utility, since it's already a monopoly.

But I'm writing today because I've been thinking about television delivery. Cable providers are offering on-demand and DVRs because they realize that people today don't want to watch live television and be beholden to the broadcast network's time schedule. People want to be able to answer a phone call or go to the bathroom without missing their favorite singer on American Idol or another of Walter Bishop's antics. But when you talk about television providers, you're really talking about two groups: the telecom and the network.

Telecom providers, such as Comcast, make their money from subscription fees. So whether you're watching live, watching on-demand, recording the programming on a DVR, or streaming from Hulu Plus, you're paying their cable or internet subscription fee and they're getting their money. Heck - they're getting paid even if you download and watch a torrent, although they seem to vehemently oppose those distribution methods.

The network (NBC, Fox, Showtime) makes their money through advertising revenue. They place commercials. This means that if you DVR the show and skip the commercials, they're essentially not getting paid. The telecoms and networks work together closely, and so you've likely heard rumors of technology that would make it impossible to skip commercials, like when you watch a show on Hulu. I've been hearing about that for years too. Thankfully, it doesn't really seem feasable at present. Product placement seems a good approach, and it can be done unobtrusively, but when it's done as tactlessly as in a show like Chuck, it grates.

I have a suggestion. It's radical, but I really do think it's a good idea.

The networks should make their shows available via BitTorrent.

There are a few main reasons why people choose to get TV shows via torrent rather than over cable. The biggest two are convenience and cost. Why paid a hundred dollars per month for a thousand channels you never watch when streaming alternatives like Netflix and Hulu exist? Netflix provides shows commercial-free, and Hulu has far fewer commercials than broadcast TV. If Fox were to upload episode torrents of Terra Nova with commercials, I believe that they'd get a lot of downloaders. Of course some people would download those, edit out the commercials, and re-upload, but files like that are already available, so in the end that part of it would remain unchanged. the only difference would be a net increase in people watching Fox's commercials.

A network's primary concern with such a move would likely be the tacit condonation of such transmission methods. Their apparent current stance is that BitTorrent users are all criminals. But I'll bet that the telecoms wouldn't be too keen on such a move either, even though they're still the ones getting the money for the internet connections that deliver the content.

Google Reader

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:26:00 -0600

Google Reader has recently made a lot of changes, some of which I like and some that really bug me. One of the changes that falls under 'bug me' is the fact that they've removed all sharing options. Since my site's news section, labeled "They said" as part of my big redesign, was filled with the output of a Google Reader rss feed, I was a bit put out when I suddenly was unable to populate that rss feed.

So I've created a new news section for my site. The upside is that if you now want to follow the type of items I'd once have included in Google Reader, you still can - despite the fact that Google Reader sharing has gone kaput. If you're interested, the new url is http://greghowley.com/rss/news.php

Connectipocalypse (now with photos)

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:53:00 -0600

So I'm back to work today, although five days later, 432,000 homes in Connecticut are still without power. The picture you see here is one that I took of the street where I parked my car yesterday. If I'd walked a block or so from my home, I could have taken far more dramatic pictures of power lines down or larger branches, but this one does let you see a couple of downed branches in the foreground and a yellow car at the far end of the street making a U-turn since the street (in the background) is blocked by a downed branch and a power line.

We still have houseguests, since power is still out in so many places. You can click this map to see Connecticut Light and Power's map of current outages. The northern central part of the state appears to be in the roughest shape currently, and West Hartford is right in that area.

The last picture I'm going to try to fit in this post is the snowman that I built with Lia before those dad-gummed whipper snappers from next door murdered it. It doesn't look that big, but that stuff was some seriously heavy snow. I'm sure that the center ball was over 100 pounds - possibly 150ish pounds. And I could never have lifted the bottom part. That was easily over 200 pounds.

We're lucky to have had power all along, but I still have no internet connection at home. I did figure out how to tether my phone to my home PC so that I could play Starcraft 2, which for some reason requires an internet connection in order to play the single-player campaign.