Glen Ashton's Trick of the Tale

2009-01-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

The best of 2008 and the Time Machine Effect

It is harder than ever for me to consider what the best of 2008 is. That is because electronics and consumer choices keep giving us more options on when and how to purchase and consume. The net effect is that I have a time machine to the past, where I get transported to content of the past months and years.

As I write this I'm listening to Augustana's All the Stars and Boulevards ("you don't know me, you don't even care…" - that would make a good blog title) - one of my most listened to CDs of 2008 - I purchased this 2005 title sometime in 2007 at a discount price, and got around to first listening it in 2008.

Sitting around the house is the Dark Knight DVD, which I purchased on a Boxing Day sale for $9.99 (I could have bought the blue-ray version for $19.99, which can run off the player on my laptop into the TV, but I find our DVD player that upgrades does a good pretence of 1080p). We will watch it sometime in 2009, but the Dark Knight may stay in the batcave for months.
Thus my best of 2008 list is quite tainted - I haven't seen and/or heard everything just yet.

My favorite live show was the musical The Sound of Music - this new production is visually awesome, to the point it would be worth seeing even if it had no music or dialogue. The amazing set designs deliver the full emotional impact of the musical. We will return to see this again in 2009.

The best set design ever not a big screen, but should be, was Mad Men, Seasons I and II. The costumes were pure eye candy, and it is no surprise this series won awards such as "Outstanding Art Direction", "Outstanding Cinematography", and "Excellence in Production Design". This is the series for HD TVs. The show has endless plot twists, character developments and historical references, making it the pinnacle of TV so far.

Dexter Seasons II and III had strong production as well, and clever writing for Season II, and this show is a must-watch, though some scenes are a must-not-watch, for those who don't like to see a bloodbath. Sadly for this show, one mad man can't surpass a whole set of flawed men and women.

In CD's, from what I've listened so far, here's my top 5:

The Verve: Forth - leave the nursery of Coldplay for real grandeur and stellar thought
TV on the Radio: Dear Science - for some the best CD of the year
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges - get the urge to listen to their concert on Austin City Limits
The Hold Steady: Stay Positive - a very worthy successor to their 2006 "Boys and Girls in America"
Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs - will be too narrow for some, but worth the climb up

Others worth listening to: Blitzen Trapper, Beck, Brazilian Girls, Duffy, Lil Wayne, Adele, Goldfrapp, Santogold and a whole stack of "comeback" CDs by the used-2B-greats. I guess that the Verve could be put into the last category, but I think they've accomplished something serious here.

And now for a special award: The Musical Cheeseburger of 2008

Now cheeseburgers are not bad at all. They contain many of the important food groups. Combined with the right condiments and veggies, they can be quite a tasteful treat, albeit not gourmet food. In the movie Iron Man (which might be movie cheeseburger of the year), when Iron dude returns to home the first thing he wants is a cheeseburger - as Nickelback would say, "you look better with something in your mouth" - which brings us to this year's winners of The Musical Cheeseburger of 2008 -

Nickelback: Dark Horse

This cheeseburger, produced and partly co-written by Mutt Lange, has all the right stuff - cheesy lyrics with double entendres and buns, sizzling meaty guitar hooks, too-Mutto dubs, let-us sing-along choruses, and every pop-rock greasy production trick known to fry. Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain) is the cheeseburger king of pop rock, and, having almost everything he has done before, I can tell you he is in top form after his breakup with Shania. You will be hearing this cheeseburger at every fast food music outlet in 2009.

Now this reminds me of Seinfeld's cookie routine on Letterman this year - store-bought cookies come in rows, and when you demolish one row, you are tempted to start mowing down the next. On Nickelback's CD, you keep hitting the taste buds on each track, and soon you've eaten the whole CD. Burp! And then afterwards you start thinking of the cholesterol damage. And you put Dear Science on and everything is good again.

2008-08-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

The Globe and Mail carried a story late this afternoon on "Sick of slow service, customers walk"

....Canadian consumers are abandoning their shopping carts, delaying purchases and leaving stores, public transit stops and restaurants in significant numbers...

The timing was right for me, as I abandoned a Best Buy purchase of cables and CDs due to a long line-up at the cashiers, and walked over to Future Shop. There the store manager noticed a building line-up, opened a new cash, and got my $230 quickly.

The thing is:

a) Best Buy now owns Future Shop
b) It was implementation of Best Buy policies that fixed the long line-up problems that used to plague Future Shop.

However slow service is not the number one problem for our retailers: it is the sick Canadian pricing. The latest CD from The Verve, out today:

$7.99 Amazon.com (US)
$18.99 (2 to 3 weeks delivery) Amazon.ca
$11.99 Best Buy.ca
$13.99 Future Shop.ca

Instead of this, I bought the Brazilian Girls latest "New York City": wonderful, and the track Good Time is the best power pop in a while. I must be one of very last still buying CDs, but my plans for buying an iPhone were screwed by the Canadian pricing.

2008-08-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 Inclusion, Web 3.0 Every{what/where/way}

In Web 2.0, we saw the move to "Internet as platform", and pervasive user collaboration, including social-networking sites, wikis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) , and blogs like this.

There continues to be discussion of what will Web 3.0 be - for example see the limited view of:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/welcome-to-web-30-now-your-other-computer-is-a-data-center/

My opinion is that Web 3.0 is Every{what/where/way}:

Everywhat:
- On a wide variety of electronic devices (PCs, notebooks, PDAs, phones, watches, cameras, TVs, etc.)
- Has everything worth knowing: wiki-maxed

Everywhere:
- On every electronic device of $100 or more
- Available anywhere there are a few people or more

Everyway:
- On a wide variety of electronic devices in various forms
- In a wide variety of formats, with many customable views - networked, filtered, visual

Web 3.0 = Every{www} for everyday

2008-08-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Exclusion -> Inclusion

The business models based on exclusion are in ruin, while the models based on inclusion continue to adjust to best advantage.

For the content business such as Music/Books/Movies/TV/Newspapers, the exclusion model was:
- Isolate/select to a few
- Erect and maintain barriers
- Hype/brand the few

It was no wonder that businesses continued to use the exclusion model, as it was:
- Successful
- Manageable, controllable
- Predictable

However the model results in:
- Formulistic, uneven content
- Slow to react/deliver
- Unconnected/divorced from the consumer

In the era of consumer mega-choice, content businesses need to harness the power of crowd content. This is not straight-forward.

Say, for example, we had a TV show called 2 1/2 Friends. Following the Exclusion model we have:
- Shallow pool of potential writers
- Editors to keep consistency
- Return unsolicited scripts and input unopened, unused, avoiding legal and tainting concerns
- Marketing to heighten viewer interest

For the Inclusive model, we consider:
- How to open it up?
- How to use parts of flawed scripts, ideas, suggestions
- Who gets paid and/or acknowledged
- How to filter to find what's best

We could consider an expanded role of agents as intermediaries, and the use of Web 2.0 crowd software with idea gathering/voting. This might then, for a single 2 1/2 Friends show, have:
- Situations for plot line taken from three ideas/mini-treatments contributed by independent sources
- 40 dialogue lines taken from suggestions, and tweaked
- Character development as voted by the fans

2008-08-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

Start-up Failure

It's painful to see a start-up close up its door knowing the financial, emotional, and time investment of everyone involved. All that's left is a sad little notice from the start-up that ends all the dreams.

It may seem that start-ups could benefit from the consumer advocate approach mentioned in the last post, but any start-up would not have reached the maturity necessary for consumer-oriented best practices to be implemented into a proven business model. Instead, a start-up is left fumbling around to find one or more business models that potentially will work, and the focus of the start-up has to be on discarding misleading and flawed models while locking into one or more promising ones.

Thus start-ups need more of a business advocate instead of a consumer advocate approach. Another term for this is the business angel, a guiding force to mentor the start-up executive team. The business angel often will have to turn the start-up away from the initial unsound business model and towards a model that will be successful. This is usually done instinctively, and thus business angels need to have proven track records. Start-ups that don't take advantage of business angels, or advocates, are doomed to stumble around in a hit-and-miss lottery-ticket approach to staying afloat.

Returning to large companies, and the need for consumer advocates, it is interesting to draw a parallel between the Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and companies that become primarily internally facing - let's reinterpret the criteria from a business perspective:

grandiose sense of importance
preoccupied with unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal technology
believes company is "special" and unique
requires excessive admiration
has a sense of entitlement
is financially exploitative
lacks empathy with consumers
is often envious of other companies or believes companies are envious of them
shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Certainly a few of these factors could be considered positive if isolated, but the whole package would be a poor placed company for long term business success.

2008-07-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Larger companies might consider employing consumer advocates, to represent the consumer point-of-view when making business decisions.

A couple of examples for interactions today:

HP Canada Shopping: I phone just before 8 pm, stay on the phone ("please stay on the line, your call is important to us") until 8:35 pm, at which point I dropped into a message that says "our office is open until 8:30 pm, please call back during regular business hours or leave a message"). A consumer advocate would recommend keeping some staff on to handle the backlog of calls (i.e. calls placed during business hours) in order not to lose business.

Microsoft: a trial version of Microsoft Office is installed on my computer - when I click to go to buy, I get trapped in an endless circle of web pages telling me about policies and options, but never offering a simple BUY button. A consumer advocate would suggest viewing the interaction from the consumer point-of-view, and moving the consumer quickly through the buy process.

When a company becomes focused on internal considerations (e.g. office hours, company policies) it is beneficial to hire consumer advocates to represent the external concerns.

2008-07-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

Electronic hostage taking is interesting as it offers a myriad of storylines for books and/or screenplays. Thus the SF Chronicle story of:

computer network administrator … tampered with the city's new FiberWAN … created a password that granted him exclusive access to the system … may have enabled a third party to access the system by telephone or other electronic device and order the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents … engineered a tracing system to monitor what other administrators were saying and doing

shows the ongoing need for technical oversight of your technical folks. I'll update this blog entry when we find out how this case turned out for the city.

2008-01-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

My fav techie blog is techcrunch, and here they do a good summary of the leading web2.0 apps:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/01/2008-web-20-companies-i-couldnt-live-without/#more-12529

An excellent article from wired on the music business by David Byrne, is:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all

Isn't funny that the avant garde artists like Bryne, Gabriel (http://www.petergabriel.com/), and Radiohead understand the business far better than the executive$

2007-12-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

The best CD/album/download of 07 is As I Am by Alicia Keys - this is the home run of pop - we haven't seen a set of pop hits like this in many years. It also has the best "misinterpreted lyric" of years - Wreckless Love which sounds like "Breakfast Club"

2007-10-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

I was just listening and listening and listening to the perfect guitar solo in Two Tickets To Paradise (1:30-2:27, sadly with not-the-best drum track), so googled it and got this great "brilliant guitar solos in songs that suck" thread:

http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/comments/they_call_it_arbitrary_friday/

2007-07-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

As with many TV critics I was upset at the Emmy nominations for best drama announced today. While Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, and The Sopranos were among the dozen or so shows we watched in the 06-07 season, two of the very best shows did not make the list: Wire (Season 4), and Dexter. For the Wire, let me quote Alex Strachan writing for the CanWest newspaper chain:

"The Wire -- a searing, heart-wrenching look at junior-high students from Baltimore's inner-city housing projects -- that most resembled a sprawling, post-modern morality tale as it might have been conceived by Charles Dickens, if he were alive today and writing for TV."

I could understand the Emmy voters missing the shows from last season that were very good at spots, but uneven: Rome, Deadwood, The Shield, Rescue Me, Battlestar Galactica, and Friday Night Lights. Yet bypassing one of the best shows ever is beyond me, and missing the innovations of Dexter is stunning as well.

Studio 60 got 5 nominations; for me, it should get the nomination for best show that demonstrates how not to make dramas anymore. One can't expect today’s insta-reality audience to remain focused on a show that drags out five minutes for two characters to have a tedious exchange of semi-illuminating banter. At best, one needs to edit the exchange into 90 second segments, interspersed with other sub-plot segments, and punch up the end of each bit with pseudo conflict; even Coronation Street knows this. The days of slow motion unfolding character development are gone, replaced by the need to hook'em and hold'em with kinetic pacing. By contrast, an interesting show was Criminal Minds which took a no-holds barred approach to using stereotypes - it was startling the number they could cram into a single show. However for the channel surfers, it meant if they flipped on by, the ready-to-follow plot line and characters could snare them.

2007-01-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

Some Pink Floyd Lyrics are hard to figure out, like these:

"did they get you to trade your cheerios for toast, hot coffee for teas" -from wish you here for breakfast

2006-08-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

I gave up playing wargames many years ago when I found that they had to resort to artificial contrivances to attempt to simulate the elements of logistics, intelligence, convergence and sacrifice that dominate military success factors. A decade and a bit ago I tried a computer wargame ("V for Victory: Velikiye Luki"), but with perfect intelligence, I knew where the computer opponent's fixed supply lines were, so with some sacrifices to breakthrough the lines, I converged on these and before the end of the game all enemy units were eliminated. This would be an impossible outcome in the real situation.

In recent years one of the best writers on military related issues has been Martin Van Creveld. He has produced two landmark books, Transformation of War (1991) and Supplying War (1976, new issue 2004), the latter covering the mostly ignored but crucial issue of logistics. For well-thought-out discussion on these writings, see this:

The Van Creveld Factor

Here are two fascinating sets of insights by Van Creveld, with the warning that he can be a "controversialist" as the above referenced discussion notes.

Interview with Van Creveld

As history since Hiroshima shows, the best, perhaps the only, way to curb war is to deter it with such overwhelming force as to turn it from a struggle into suicide. The best way to mitigate it is to use all possible means to bring it to a speedy end. I think both Clausewitz and Sun Tzu would agree on these points.

Then in a masterpiece article covering all the key elements, Van Creveld nails it:

Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did

In international life, an armed force that keeps beating down on a weaker opponent will be seen as committing a series of crimes; therefore it will end up by losing the support of its allies, its own people, and its own troops. Depending on the quality of the forces - whether they are draftees or professionals, the effectiveness of the propaganda machine, the nature of the political process, and so on - things may happen quickly or take a long time to mature. However, the outcome is always the same. He (or she) who does not understand this does not understand anything about war; or, indeed, human nature.

Wargames show the direct military outcome, but they do not show the longer term human one.

2006-08-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

To get lots of hits in google, type:

movie ridiculous implausible

Movies fail us when they become, or remain, unbelievable, yet many movies are littered with implausible actions that appear ridiculous to the viewer. This is bad business: critics will pan the movie, and viewers will not recommend these movies to others, so word-of-mouth marketing will not take place, and even DVD sales will be poor.

One such failure was the "The Island". First I should note that the title is all wrong from a marketing standpoint, and I'm surprised focus group testing did not bring this out (first question to ask: "would you want to see a movie call the Island?"). Second, without giving away the plot, there is an action scene that involves a transport truck with large objects falling of it, vehicles skirting back and forward of it, and many terrific accidents happening just behind it. Of course the truck driver seems blissfully unaware of losing his truck load or anything else happening around him and continues on his way. This is just one of many holes in the plot that one can, well, drive a truck through.

Movie: The Island

Btw the camera work and FX of the movie were enjoyable, so it makes a nice diversion, much like the ridiculous, implausible, and well-made "National Treasure" does too.

Trying for the most ridiculous is:

Alone in the Dark

Theatre goers who saw this silly thing must have been alone in the dark.

The movie "Head in the Clouds" has two of the most beautiful actresses of our time, and a historical plot to boot:

Movie: Head in the Clouds

Here is Stuart Townsend having a tough day on the set:

Stuart with co-stars

Sadly this melodrama contains some ridiculous and implausible actions near the end (which I will not reveal since they are plot spoilers) that, imo, ruin the movie. This movie had a chance to do very well if they had gotten the ending right. C'est dommage.

2006-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some comments on The Singularity (the future or end of humanity), the Great Silence (what, no noisy aliens?) and SETI, and technology growth curves. A bit of background material if you haven't seen this all before:

The $40 trillion article:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

Back before the article:
http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html

(Vinge's "A Fire upon the Deep" proves he is a worthy successor to the Asimov style - a fun summer read if you are looking for a little beach material and love techno SciFi - btw if one believes in the Singularity it certainly makes the 2100+ future portrayed by Star Trek type SciFi as silly).

Back to the Future: The May 2006 Singularity Summit:
http://sss.stanford.edu/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3029

Great Silent Thoughts on why SETI is failing:
http://www.faughnan.com/setifail.html
http://www.setileague.org/askdr/ftl.htm
http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=1211169

So why can't we spot those aliens with radio telescopes? Once a species achieves the Singularity and transcends biological forms, it becomes child play to produce damping technology so they are not broadcasting 24-7 "we are here" - come get us to anybody -who might be superior and nasty about it, from the dark side of the Singularity (of course post-Singularity there may be no child play since no children and no 24-7 since time may not be relevant any more). So we are not going to find aliens with radio telescopes.

As we approach the Singularity, it will be clear that some nationalities, races, groups etc. would reach and benefit from the Singularity first. The ones who are excluded may attempt to knock SkyNet or whatever the machines-can-learn-and-think-way-faster than-biologically-based-humans technology base is called, off the map. For the lead groups this becomes the key - getting over the Singularity hurdle and into a stable, safe spot before getting shot in the back from those falling behind. As well, just like the Soviet Union took extraordinary espionage efforts to obtain atomic bomb knowledge in the late 1940s, those falling behind will attempt to get Singularity knowledge any way they can. So counter-terrorism and counter-espionage becomes critical, and far more important than traditional military and territorial based efforts.

One should not assume that North America will reach the Singularity first. As one of many example scenarios, suppose that Japan might hit it first with a combination of top research, funding, skilled design, and total commitment. Then what does the United States do - accept it and give up super power status to Japan, or decide it poses a threat? Sadly, human nature has been to use various versions of war to resolve power shifts.

So how fast will it be to reaching the Singularity? In 1967 as I child I went to Expo 67, and one of things I remember from it was the video phone display - a phone with a TV screen and camera that would allow you to see and talk to the caller live, and for the caller to see you (this produced lots of jokes about needing makeup and proper attire to answer a mere phone call). For years afterward I waited for this technology to be mass implemented, but nothing happened, and the only real progress was touchtone phones (whoopee sheet) - it appeared we were not that fast in implementation. However now I use a cell phone smaller than a Star Trek communicator, and that provides the screen, the camera, and lots more in a wireless go-anywhere package. This is one of Kurzweil's points - we overestimate what can be achieved in the short term (implementation is a bitch) but underestimate the long term (linear thinking).

One theory I hold to is that pressure produces. For example in World War II, there were huge advances in technology over the course of a few years, driven by a life-and-death struggle, including the atomic bomb, radar, and jets. When we get close to the Singularity, the pressure will be enormous to produce or perish. One could be deciding the fate of one's children, whether they would be in a second class backwater nation or in the lead of advancements.

So at first I think business and life will be as usual for a considerable length of time, say 20 or 30 years. Computer technology will continue to advance at a great pace, medical knowledge will grow, and new technologies will be introduced.

Then at some point, the key enabling technology will arrive full throttle - say, for example, the nanobots that Kurzweil discusses. This would then make the Singularity quite feasible in the short term, and now the pressure is on. We could then expect rapid advances and a quick realization of the Singularity, and attempts by some to stop others from reaching it. These attempts may involve the same enabling technology - for example unleashing a hoard of nanobots to obliterate a certain group, or to stupefy them (assuming reality TV fails in this venture).

So in the medium term, I suggest not making business and life decisions based on the possibility of the Singularity. However when you see the enabling technology come about, it will be time to dump all the traditional investments and plans, and perhaps even head for the bunkers for a couple of years. Hopefully we don't all destroy ourselves trying to reach the Singularity, and the Singularity means a Single survivor (rewriting Phillip K. Dick's Second Variety {movie the Screamers} to have nanobots instead of bots in an apocalyptic mindscape instead of a desolate landscape).

Of course nobody knows what "life" will be post-Singularity, though we see some fiction (Canada's award winning Mindscan among others) tackling it, in part to raise the issues for thoughtful consideration before the final mad rush to the Singularity. However regardless of the fiction, it is hard at this point to imagine life in the server banks.

2006-06-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

The 2005 movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with Vince Vaughn. Although it suffers from hero-gun-syndrome (like in the old Westerns where the hero could shoot villains with a revolver from 300ft while riding a horse, but the whole hapless collection of bad guys could only hit objects near the hero, or, if they were lucky, graze or wing the hero), it is a cute movie with some nice snippets of dialogue, and there seems to be some chemistry between Mr. and Mrs. Pitt.

For a wickedly popular sequel, the producers need to throw a bunch a money to Jennifer Aniston to play a character hunting down the Smiths with the support of Vince's character. The backstory would have the Jennifer character having some previous romantic history with the Brad character.

2006-06-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

My father, Harry Edward Ashton, passed away this last week, and on this blog I wanted to note that our family was very proud of Dad's professional accomplishments. These included the ASTM William T. Pearce Award in 1983, an ASTM Award of Merit in 1978, and the ASTM W. T. Cavanaugh Memorial Award in 1994. Dad's many technical papers, writing as HE Ashton, are still referenced on the Internet to this day.

Thanks to all who have sent us condolences and given us support - very much appreciated and a great help to us.

2006-06-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Dixie Chicks sales slump of their latest CD has been blamed on reaction to anti-Bush comments. However expect to also see a slump in Canada, which is hardly pro-Bush country. The reason is because the CD is annoyingly bland, and the few bright spots, such as the title track Take the Wrong Way, and another track, Not Ready to Make Nice Music, have a heard-it-all-before feel.

Sarah Dunant is said to have edited two books of essays. Since there are few writers of her skill, it would be best to leave this editing work to others. If the film business ever goes with 3D films en masse, as James Cameron has suggested, the Birth of Venus would be pure wonder in that format. Okay, we are never going to get that, but instead just a whole bunch of 3D Zombies and a whole slew of 3D remakes, but one can still dream in Florence colour.

2006-05-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

Goldfrapp's SuperNature is the best dance CD in a long time. See the metacritic site for a whole bunch of reviews:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/goldfrapp/supernature

Love this quote from the playlouder review: "It rips Georgio Moroder out of the underlit disco floor environment and drops him through the ceiling of a French cyborg bordello".

Some reviews reference Marc Bolan in track Ride a White Horse (which could become a chart topper), but there is some Bolan backing as well in Ooh La La. The only problem with listening to this CD so much is it could be all back on the radio over the next year or two.

We watched the "director's cut" of Kingdom of Heaven without having seen the 2/3 film released in theatres. Love Ridley Scott's work on this. There was no problem whatsoever with the pacing. Of course, cavalry charges have not enough lance work and too much sword waving, and infantry seem to ditch their spears (used as pikes) before fighting, but all directors have always loved sword play.

The spreadsheets that run much of the film business made a big mistake, both artistically and financially, releasing the chopped version in theatres. The full film is an epic, and the story arcs need time to unwind with emotional connection. One wonders if the spreadsheets had tried the full version in test runs, or whether they just stuck with a time target for the theatre release. If you hire Ridley Scott to do a film, don't just pick up 2/3 of his work.

2006-05-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

We are proud parents as our eldest had her first win in a debating tournament - we can't argue with success!

2006-04-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Microsoft's latest flawed updates I'm having computer troubles along with many others

Read about it here:
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/3951/53/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165 http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186500318

Do a google on search terms: verclsid hang

One "work around" is to bring up task manager and kill any verclsid.exe process - I found this fix by trial and error and now have seen others mention it.

Speaking of computers, there's a free conference this Saturday:

http://barcamp.org/BarCampOttawa

If I was speaking at this, and I'm not, I think I would lead a session called:

Lean and Mean Project Teams

I believe that project teams need to be lean, composed mostly of A types. However a team of A types can be quite mean, since they tend to drive over others to reach objectives. So both the lean and mean aspects need to be managed. Perhaps there would be interest in this...

2006-04-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

A new Robin Williams comedy will be opening soon called "RV" about a father who takes his dysfunctional family on a RV trip to find themselves. I had developed a screenplay treatment several years ago about much of the same idea (it would be fun to shoot given the camping locations one can use), with a bunch of twists. I'm certain many others have had the similar basic idea as it seems a natural.

It reminds me of the time I had a story line involving terrorists seizing an office building, dreamt up while being penned up in a cubicle farm for work, and based partly on the real Stockholm incident (see the Stockholm Syndrome). Then several years later Die Hard appears.

It was interesting to see where the writers took Die Hard, and I look forward to seeing if RV works. Certainly I now have a sequel plot!

2006-04-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

TV Shows:

Sopranos - so good, its not a "TV show" - great acting, photography, scripts, music, sets, costumes, etc. A show that deters organized crime by showing what a terrible job choice it is. Sadly after this and Band of Brothers and Six Feet Under, HBO has sunk to Deadwood (well made, but we are being fed beans compared to steak), and Rome (very uneven, and frustrating since could have seized the day).

Grey's Anatomy - great cast, sparkling writing that takes chances.

Conviction - broken out of the Law & Order cookie cutter, another great cast (except Stephanie March who's beauty is not enough to hold a scene). Clearly attempting to combine a Grey's Anatomy approach with Law & Order (young doctors = young lawyers), it is working.

Desperate Housewives - fast becoming just another trite sitcom, but no laugh track yet thank goodness, it still manages flashes of cleverness in between the lingerie shots during ratings periods.

House - "He couldn't keep his tick in his pants" they have him saying. Can't take this show too seriously but can take watching it all the time.

2006-04-06T03:17:00.000-07:00

The Movie Live Once, Die Twice (also called Platinum Rush) has one of the worst big finishing scenes ever. I don't know if they purposely did this for laughs or revenge, or they just didn't notice how completely silly it all is - dialogue, camera shots, plausibility, location, character reactions etc.. Watch the last ten minutes of this "thriller" for a good laugh (no need to watch anything before). Also do not pay anything to see this.

2006-03-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

Best Pop/Rock Album of the Year from 65+

Before 1965 - Elvis, Buddy, Ella, Miles, Frank etc. (not all pop/rock of course)

Some years have more than one, and some years have nobody!

1965 - Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan - he really should have stopped touring and just wrote songs
1966 - Revolver - The Beatles - they stopped touring and wrote songs, a great move
Pet Sounds - Beach Boys - not having Good Vibrations on this was a bad move
1967 - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles - Ringo sings!
1968 -White Album - Beatles - they now defined the 60s
1969 - Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones - you can't always have what you want
1970 -Greatest Hits - Sly & the Family Stone - acknowledged in the 06 Grammy's
1971 - Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin - stairway to superstardom
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye - I could listen to him sing forever
1972 - Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan - before they became too polished
1973 - Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd - engineered by Alan Parsons
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John - I have an outline for a musical based on this classic
1974 - Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot - down on his luck and up at his peak
1975 - Born To Run-Bruce Springsteen - "cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin - they loved playing live too much to become a studio band
1976 - Hotel California - The Eagles - the perfectionists hit perfect
Eagles Greatest Hits - The Eagles - know anybody who doesn't like this?
1977 - Rumours - Fleetwood Mac - not having Silver Springs on this album was criminal
Seconds Out - Genesis - the pinnacle and end of progressive rock
1978 -
1979 - London Calling - The Clash - life beyond Disco and progressive rock
1980 - Back In Black - AC/DC - leather roars up the road
1981 - Bella Donna - Stevie Nicks - leather meets lace at the Bella California
1982 - Thriller - Michael Jackson - a team and money effort
1983 - Synchronicity - The Police - a creative tension clicks
1984 - Purple Rain - Prince - the best musician of this generation
1985 - Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits - money for nothin' and riffs for free
1986 - Graceland - Paul Simon - like a window in your heart
1987 - The Joshua Tree - U2 - the 80's perfectionists
Appetite For Destruction - Guns N' Roses - first taste of self-destruction
1988 - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy - best named band
1989 - The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses - the best album to give somebody who thinks they have it all but doesn't have this
1990 -
1991 - Nevermind - Nirvana - grunge connects and disconnects big time
Achtung Baby - U2 - reinventing themselves
1992 - Automatic For The People - R.E.M - before they liked drum machines
1993 - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLachlan - put headphones on, lights off, and float in ecstasy
1994 - A Night in San Francisco - Van Morrison - the master at work
1995 - The Bends - Radiohead - fake plastic trees and real uncompromised music
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins - still just Billy Corgan in a cage
1996 - Odelay - Beck - derivative and yet so original
1997 - Ok Computer - Radiohead - this what you get when you mess with us: sonic wonderland
1998 -
1999 - Supernatural - Santana - maybe too smooth, but that guitar!
2000 - Stankonia - Outkast - it pops and it rocks and it hip hops
2001 - Is This It? - The Strokes - yes, worth the hype
2002 - The Rising - Bruce Springsteen - over time more people will find this
2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast - hey, yeah!
2004 - American Idiot - Green Day - off the barren punk streets and on a long boulevard of musical dreams
2005 - Kicking Television - Wilco - the best mixed live album ever- a pure treasure

All of these artists also had other high quality releases that in many cases were close to album of the year.

Other artists had albums that were close and an overall high quality body of work, including Simon and Garfunkel (Bookends, Bridge over Troubled Water), Allman Brothers (At Fillmore East, Brothers and Sisters), CSNY (Deja vu), Neil Young (After the Goldrush, Harvest), Who (Who's Next), Stevie Wonder (Innervisions), David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust), Eric Clapton (461 Ocean Blvd.), Aerosmith (Toys in the Attic), Bee Gees (Main Course, Saturday Night Fever), The Smiths (The Queen is Dead), Def Leppard (Hysteria), Bonnie Raitt (Nick of Time, Luck of the Draw), Eminem (The Marshall Mathers LP).

Not the best albums, but some old stuff you might not have heard of:
Slade Alive - Slade - totally raw and astounding
Scheherazade & Other Stories - Renaissance - heavenly
Tales of Topographical Oceans - Yes - Considered one of the 50th worst albums of all time, this double album set contains many musical nuggets surrounded by intricate unfathomable filler - I've always wondered if somebody could extract those nuggets and make something of this.