The Year in Music

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Being blessed to have a job where I can do this, I typically leave the music cranked up all day in my office while I’m writing code. I’ve noticed recently that I tend to get obsessed with an album for about 2 months and then will move on to something different.

Isn’t it strange how listening to certain albums can take you right back to the point in your life when you first discovered them? For instance, listening to One Part Lullaby by The Folk Implosion takes me right back to working at the movie theater in my Junior year of High School; listening to The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips takes me right back to the weeks Lauren and I began dating. It’s wild how music can do that.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the last year to see what albums had the most playtime for me. Click the links throughout the list if you want to listen yourself… I recommend all of them!

In Rainbows

Jan-Feb 2008 - In Rainbows - Radiohead

This one comes as no surprise since Radiohead is definitely one of my favorite bands; I became obsessed with them in college, and if you did any work in the DMS lab at Union, you’ll know that they were pretty much all that we listened to in there (when Donnie Darko wasn’t playing, of course). I think this is their best album since OK Computer. Favorite track: House of Cards.

Sound of Silver

March-May 2008 - Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem

I picked this up on a whim on day at work and listened to it for weeks straight without listening to anything else. If you want something upbeat that WILL stay in your head for months, this is the album. Favorite track: Someone Great.

Click to continue reading…

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By Eric in Life, Lists, Reviews

Quasi-Review of Windows 7 (Beta)

Friday, January 23, 2009

**The one-sentence verdict (for those of you with short attention spans): it will probably finally give people a reason to upgrade from XP, but below the flashy exterior and mostly helpful UI tweaks, it’s still Windows.**

As I’ve mentioned before in previous geeky posts on here, I was a diehard Windows fan until we bought our first Mac back in late 2005. Since I’ve been firmly entrenched in the Mac world for the last 4 years, I thought it would be fun to install the beta of Windows 7 and see what Microsoft has been working on recently.

My Windows 7 Desktop

I grabbed the 64-bit Windows 7 beta from Microsoft and installed it pretty painlessly through Boot Camp on my MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM; just acted like I was installing Vista and it worked without a hitch). It should be mentioned that the installation was pretty painless, and much quicker to install than probably any OS that I’ve done a clean install of in the past; well done Microsoft!

So, let’s get down to the details, shall we? While Vista felt like a slower version of XP with a fresh coat of paint, Windows 7 feels a little more like a new approach to Windows, and mostly for the better. Although it’s basically just Vista with a tweaked UI, the interface is surprisingly minimalistic at the outset; the new taskbar is pretty much the meat and potatoes of Windows 7, so lets start with that.

The New Taskbar

Well, it’s pretty much a rip off of OS X’s dock, but after using it for a few days, I’d say that’s a good thing. I’m not a huge fan of the blockiness or the icon spacing, but it is certainly much nicer to use than the unmanageable row of minimized windows I’m used to seeing in XP and Vista.

Unseen in my screen grabs are the nice “Aero Peek” hover effects you get when you move your mouse over the icon of an open program; little thumbnails pop up of all the open windows in that program and expand to full size when clicked. Combined with Vista’s Flip 3D, this is pretty much Microsoft’s answer to Exposé on OS X. I found Exposé to be more helpful in practice, but Aero Peek was certainly a nice UI tweak.

Moving on, I really liked the redesigned start menu and the use of “jump lists” when you right-click on a program’s icon. Right-clicking now gives you the usual info, along with program specific information that’s pretty useful (recently opened files, playback controls for media, etc). Once again, it’s similar to OS X’s dock (and maybe slightly superior in this respect).

Notice anything similar?

Speaking of similarities, it’s almost comical how much Windows Explorer resembles Leopard’s Finder windows now… take a look at the screen shot above. I found getting around the system was slightly easier than in XP/Vista, but I prefer OS X’s lack of clutter in the Finder.

Performance-wise, everything was very snappy on my relatively-new MacBook Pro. Although the Aero interface may be a little heavy-handed with animated transitions and general flashiness, overall it was attractive and responsive (not sluggish like my experiences with Vista). It should be noted that it appears to be a much more energy hungry operating system than Leopard; my four hour battery life in OS X was only 1.5 hours in Windows 7, though the lack of good power management in the beta may be to blame.

So, is Windows 7 worthwhile? From my brief experience, I’d say that it’s very promising, but still trailing OS X by a long shot. Beneath the nice new paint job lies the same basic Windows that you’ve used for the last 15 years, which may not be a bad thing depending on the user. For me, it’s all the extra features and polish built into OS X out of the box that make it far superior still. As I’ve waxed on about recently, the features in OS X that I use so frequently (Spaces, Time Machine, Quick Look, etc) are desperately missed, even when I’m using the latest version of Windows.

If you have a decently powerful machine running XP, I think Windows 7 will be a worthy upgrade to consider when it releases sometime this year. Microsoft is genuinely taking it’s operating system in the right direction.

However, if you’re on the fence about purchasing a new machine, I still think a Mac is the best option.

Have you played with Windows 7? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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By Eric in Geek Stuff, Reviews

Hooray for Free Stuff!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

In an odd turn of events today, I received an unexpected package in my mailbox at work. Unbeknownst to me, I apparently won a free super high tech solar powered flashlight that I entered to win months and months ago on Gizmodo (see kids, it pays to waste hours of time on a poorly written blog ;-) ).

The device itself is deceptively simple and is actually pretty cool. Apparently a guy made lots of money conducting business in Africa, and wanted to give something back to the developing nations he saw every year. Along with some self-funded research and technology shared with NASA, this guy created a powerful flashlight that uses solar cells to charge some super-bright LEDs.

The package says the light is designed to run all night after being left in the sun most of the day. From playing around with it a little today, I’d say that this thing definitely works as advertised. Fresh out of the box and after laying in the sun for just a little while, it produced one heck of a glow and would definitely be usable as a flashlight at night, although probably better suited for the indoors than outside.

I think it’s really cool that folks are developing significant energy these days to creating stuff where the main purpose is to genuinely help people. Check out the LifeStraw for another good example of technology used in an extremely valuable way.

For those of you involved in mission work… wouldn’t it be cool to visit a heavily impoverished area and be able to distribute life necessities like the SunLight and the LifeStraw? What a great way to really meet people where they’re at.

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By Eric in Interesting, Reviews

Returning from the Gauntlet.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Whew. This summer has been absolutely crazy for me, and this blog ended up being an unintentional casualty. Between Lauren’s switch over to freelancing full time, some crazy hours at my job and finishing up a big project I’ve been working on since February, what little spare time I’ve had recently has been devoted to reading and sleeping.

This has very little to do with anything, but makes me laugh, so deal with it.

Hypothetically, my level of busyness should slow way down as Summer comes to a close and the Fall months begin to sneak up on us, bringing with it my favorite weather of the year and hopefully some time off for a well-needed vacation. 

There have been all sorts of things I’ve wanted to post about over the last few months, but I just haven’t had a spare second. Let’s see… I’ll start with a few movie reviews…

The Dark Knight. Yeah, it’s pretty stinking good. Not “second coming” good, as I think many folks are making it out to be, but Heath’s Joker makes me never want to see another person in that role again. 91/100. This brings up a few quick points that I’ve already discussed with many of you, but will post on here anyway for discussion’s sake. (SPOILER ALERT) So does everyone thing Two Face is dead, or are they just throwing a fake funeral? Thoughts?(END SPOILER)

Also, where do we go from here? What villains make sense in the world that Nolan has created for Batman right now? There’s a lot of buzz about Maggie maybe becoming Catwoman somehow, which would be interesting given where here story arc ended up in this one. My money’s on The Riddler, portrayed as some sort of zodiac-like serial killer. 

WALL-E. Loved it, but it’s been months now since I saw it, so I’ve forgotten why. 90/100.

Let’s see… what other geekiness have I neglected to post about? Oh, got the new iPhone 3G after Moon made me a great offer on my old one. (Sidenote: If you’re on the fence about upgrading from your old one, sell that bad boy on eBay… they’re averaging between 200-450 on there right now! You can pick up a new one and make a profit.) I’m definitely a fan of the new phones, specifically the built in GPS (way better than the old skyhook based faux-GPS in the old one) and surprisingly, the better audio - I can actually hear my phone ringing now. I still wish I could switch back to Verizon for their phone coverage, but besides that, there’s no other better device on the market right now in my opinion.

In other news, Lauren’s been enjoying her first few weeks as a full-time freelancer. Outside of posting pictures of animals on our blog, she’s been doing a ton of work for lots of different clients. In the time she’s saving by not having to drive downtown everyday, she’s also becoming quite the expert at sewing and home decorating (I got her a sewing machine for her Birthday last week).

I just wrapped up a few freelance gigs, so I finally have some money to put towards a mountain bike. Anybody have any suggestions toward a low end model, purchased new? I’ve heard good things about Haro and Gary Fisher bikes. 

Oh, and did anybody else catch the opening ceremony for the Olympics? Holy moses that thing was nuts. What about Phelps already setting another world record?

That’s it for now; hopefully I’ll get back on the horse and update this thing on a regular basis again. 

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By Eric in Geek Stuff, Life, Reviews

A Handful of Reviews

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I’m going to have to start posting more often; whenever I get a chance to post, it seems that I always have too much on my mind to write about. I’ll start the first in a series of posts with some reviews for entertainment I’ve taken in recently.

Movie Review: The Happening - 37/100

M. Night Shayamalan… wow, what happened my friend? For those of you that are aware of my love for cinema are likely also aware of my fascination with Shayamalan’s films; I adore almost all of them and even like the ones that weren’t necessarily my cup of tea. [SPOILERS AHEAD - Don't read if you don't want much of the movie ruined for you.]

Therefore, it pains me to write my feelings about his latest original story “The Happening.” It’s a train-wreck of a film, which is made even more frustrating because you can see the possibilities for a really great disturbing movie lurking just below the poorly crafted surface. I’m going to try to avoid going into much detail here in case you still want to subject yourselves to a broken movie experience, but there are a few things that will clarify my feelings on this disaster.

I think he just couldn’t find his tone for the movie. It begins with a truly disturbing sequence in New York that’s pretty serious in tone and mystifying at the same time. Inexplicably, some truly bizarre storytelling decisions are introduced from this point onward. We move immediately from scenes depicting grizzly mass suicides to scenes with a poorly-acted goofy gardener and a young man in uniform that seems straight out of a B-movie from the 50s. Our main characters are pretty cheerful despite the fact that they may, at any moment, choose to light themselves on fire or bludgeon themselves unwittingly with a hammer.

It feels as thought Shyamalan got half-way through filming the movie, only to realize that he had some terrible actors in many of his scenes. With that in mind, it feels like he tried to take the concept (the cause of the suicides is already pretty goofy in and of itself) and edit everything together as more of a campy horror film at the last minute, instead of an intense suspense film like he originally intended. Sprinkle in a few other badly put together scenes (the man feeding himself to the lions at the zoo comes to mind… people laughed at this in our theater, not a good sign), and you have the recipe for the most disappointing movie of the year.

Album Review: Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends - 88/100

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Coldplay this time around. Apparently in contrast with the feelings of many around me, I thought X&Y was a pretty mediocre album that sounded like a band that was bored with itself.

A few months back, word began to circulate that their new album was a departure from their previous stuff, and would be quite a pleasant surprise; I couldn’t agree more. Launching alongside two killer singles, Viva la Vida is definitely my favorite Coldplay album to date, and probably one of the year’s best in general. It’s upbeat, unusual in parts and actually pretty mainstream… but don’t let your inner music snob write it off. I’d say it joins The White Stripes “Icky Thump“ and Radiohead’s “In Rainbows“ as a prime example of artists at the top of their game. Don’t miss it.

One final cool link to recommend… Check out this story about a family in New York and the Indiana Jones-type hidden mystery that an architect secretely built for them when remodeling their appartment - it’s fascinating.

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By Eric in Interesting, Reviews

Product Reviews: Apple TV and Ooma

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Because I like to read other people’s opinions of new stuff, and because I’m a total dork, I thought it might be fun to throw up a few reviews here on the blog every now and then. We’ve purchased a few interesting pieces of technology recently, so that’s as good a place to start as any. I apologize for the geeky nature of this post in advance.

Apple TV Take 2 (link)

Apple TV

A few of you have probably already heard the story of how I came across this impulse buy (found an unopened return at Sam’s for 70% off, still in the shrink wrap). I’ve had it for a few months, but just now have had a chance to hook it up now that we’ve moved. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed.

Click to continue reading…

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By Eric in Reviews