June « 2010 « News and Views

June 23, 2010

The Civil War

Filed under: Opinion — Daryl @ 1:47 pm

I just finally watched the Ken Burns documentary, “The Civil War”. I think I was out of the country the first time it ran. I remember hearing rave reviews, but I didn’t see how 12 or so hours on a war could hold one’s attention.

Boy, was I wrong. It is probably the best documentary I’ve ever seen. It really adds perspective to the nation. To think — it happened less than 100 years before I was born. That’s not very long ago.

A comment made almost at the very end sticks in my mind: Before the war they would say, “The United States are..” After the war they said “The United States is…”. We went from a loose confederation of separate “states” (which in those days was almost synonymous with “country”) to a single united entity.

Before the war you might argue that the association was freely entered into, and should be open to freely depart from. Lincoln disagreed, and forced the issue. If he had allowed the South to split off, later there might have been other disagreements and fractures, and we would have ended up as many small countries. It was forcing the union that brought our current greatness.

The theme song keeps playing in my head.

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June 20, 2010

Streaming Netflix

Filed under: Computers, Tech & Science,Family Updates — Daryl @ 9:59 am

We have had a Netflix account for several years, and generally like it a lot.

I quit Blockbuster because I got so frustrated with late fees — I would be charged a whole new rental period for being one day late on a return. With Netflix, you can keep a movie as long as you like and never get charged a late fee. Their selection is very large, and we usually get movies the day after they are sent.

The main drawback is lack of spontaneity. It’s Friday night, friends or family are over, and you want to watch a movie. But none of the ones you have on hand is appropriate for the audience. So you either end up going to Blockbuster anyway, or playing a game instead of watching a movie (which is probably a better alternative, but that’s a topic for another blog).

Now with Netflix streaming movies, we can choose something to watch on the spur of the moment, for no extra cost. If you have a Netflix account, you can instantly stream a movie or TV show directly to your computer, or with the right connections, to your TV.

Gisele, Derek and I are two-thirds of the way through the first season of “24”, which none of us had ever seen before. We have been watching 2-3 episodes a night for the past week. I was out of the country when Ken Burn’s “The Civil War” was shown, but now I’m watching that too.

Not everything is available. Recently released movies in particular are absent, and even the old ones are somewhat limited. But there are so many movies and TV shows that are available that I always can find something interesting to watch.

You can watch them on your computer if you want, but if you have a Wii, or Playstation 3 or several DVD players, you can stream them directly to your TV. We use our Wii, and the picture quality is very similar to DVD. It required a DVD to activate, but Netflix sent it for free.

I think this is the future of home movie watching, though I’m afraid that the movie studios will feel they aren’t being compensated well enough. We’ll have to see how it shakes out. For now, we can couch-potato as much as we want.

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June 1, 2010

Careless, but lucky

Filed under: Family Updates — Daryl @ 8:26 am

We flew to Ottawa, Ontario yesterday. While passing through Security at Phoenix Airport, I had to put my brand new $1000 laptop in one tub, and my shoes, wallet, etc. in another. After passing through the X-Ray machine, I nested the shoe tub on top of the laptop tub and took them to a bench to put my shoes back on. Got everything out of the tub — it was empty, let’s go!

Got to Ottawa, opened up my suitcase, and — extreme sinking feeling — no laptop. Frantically looking everywhere, when it dawned on me. It was left behind between the nested tubs.

Call Phoenix TSA Lost and Found. No answer — too late. Slept OK, but hard to relax completely. This morning, I called back, and they had found it! Fortunately the “empty” tubs after the X-Ray machine are only handled by TSA personnel. If it had been left anywhere else it would not be so likely to have been returned.

Boy, do I feel stupid, but lucky. Derek will pick it up for me. My presentation was on it, but fortunately my colleague Les has another laptop with a duplicate presentation (just in case!), so we are in good shape.

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