Today I finally had a reason to use the program VirtualDrive ($39.95 regular version, $69.95 for pro version) that came with my M1400 tablet pc. The program is particularly useful for emulating a CD drive for games. According to the website some DVDs can also be copied, but I didn’t try that. Being I only have a 60GB HD (only, imagine thinking that), can’t see filling it up with DVDs. They do add the caveat that some DVDs cannot be copied because of copy protection.

I don’t have a CD drive built-into the tablet but do have one that plugs in via USB. Some games need the CD to run so that’s where this program comes in handy for copying the CD to a virtual drive.

CNET says:

VirtualDrive is a “Must Have” program for gamers, music lovers and travelers with laptops. Version 9.03 lets you use your system’s RAM to emulate a hard drive and run your programs faster.

I noticed from the official VirtualDrive website that they are up to version 9.0 now and the version I had preinstalled with the computer is 8.xx. In order to use the VirtualDrive LiveUpdate function registration was required, so I registered. Wasn’t really expecting to get version 9.xxx without paying more (and ultimately didn’t) but it had some large patch file to install and then reboot the system.

A good program that does what it’s intended to do. I don’t know if it’s worth the $39.95 or $69.95 for the pro version but for software that came free with the computer, it’s definitely worthy. Grade: B

Fans of Firefly and Serenity’s brief but exciting space journeys on TV should run, not walk, to their nearest theater to see Josh Whedon’s Serenity. What a complete breath of fresh air seeing a solid screenplay, lively acting, realistic and likeable characters and a director who leaves nothing on the table. The fans wanted this film badly and Whedon doesn’t disappoint. Want truly scary antagonists? Drop your Blue Oyster Cult and do fear the Reavers!

We caught the 7pm showing tonight and it was about half full. I think once the word and more reviews get out this film is going to make a lot of money this weekend. While leaving I heard somebody say: “That was pretty good.” Really, I can’t see anybody that liked Firefly not really liking Serenity. The questions are answered! Easily the best movie I’ve seen in 2005. If I say any more I’ll just ruin the film, so I’m not going to spoil the fun. I wish all movies were this engaging. If you like science fiction go see this film. Grade: A+

No worries, no spoilers ahead. Unlike the guys on the radio blabbing to each other on our way to see the movie earlier this evening. At least they said to turn the radio off if you didn’t want the spoilers.

As it turns out they didn’t really spoil anything.

It’s easy being fond of airplane movies and both my wife and I have been looking forward to seeing Flightplan. Jodie Foster was dynamite in Silence of the Lambs, which might just have been the last film I saw her in.

In this film Foster doesn’t disappoint as a despondent, soon-to-be-hysterical woman who just lost her husband to terrible fall to his death. The plan is return him in the coffin back to America along with her daughter.

Once she gets aboard the plan she falls asleep with her daughter nearby. When she wakes up, her daughter is gone. She looks everywhere on the plane and gets increasingly concerned that she can’t find her. Add to the fruitless search the fact that nobody else saw her daughter? That seemed like quite a stretch to me. Like you have 400+ people and kids are drawn to kids, so how is nobody going to see this woman and her child getting on the plane? Yeah, they may have been the first to board but … still.

As you can imagine take away a child from her mother and then tell her she never came on the plane to begin with is going to result in momma bear going postal. Jodie Foster’s character non-coincidentally worked on airplane engines in Berlin, so she knows more than a few things about how planes operate. This knowledge serves her well in her frantic search for her daughter that everybody says never came aboard the plane.

As far as airplane flicks go, the first 2/3rd of Flightplan rate right up there with the best of them. The final third is where things start to come unravelled, unfortunately. Not so bad that it ruins the entire experience, but enough to taint it.. There is a drastic and premature twist.

As we left the theater, people were saying positive things about the movie. I thought the ending was decent but it’s too bad the twist couldn’t have come later as it definitely seemed unnatural where placed. As for plausibility? Well, I think I’m going to give up on putting that in the equation with movies any more. Everybody in Hollywood must think America is stoned out of their mind, completely without intellegence, or just plain doesn’t care about plotlines that makes real world sense.

So if you can put that aside you’ll probably walk out of this one feeling pretty good. Just sit back, fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride. Overall, Flightplan is a good ride with some turbulence. Grade: B-

Based on the Ray Bradbury short story of the same name, today we saw A Sound of Thunder which chronicles the events of a future world (2055) where time travel is possible via a company called Time Safari. Futuristic big game hunting is allowed by “jumping” back through time 65 million years ago and shooting a dinosaur. There are a couple rules to follow like: don’t go off the path, don’t leave anything behind and don’t take anything with you. The premise of the story is someone brings something back, unintentionally, which alters the future in future altering “time waves.”

These time waves create numerous plausibility problems particularly in the ending, which I won’t ruin here, but suffice to say that throughout most of the movie we are meant to believe the time changes are not immediate and take place gradually through the time waves and the ending alters this framework. Disappointing.

The last short story turned movie that I remember seeing was Stephen King’s The Langoliers which also coincidentally had to do with time travel. I liked King’s story which was more of a novella than a short story. I didn’t care for Maximum Overdrive (nor did most the movie viewing public) which came from King’s most excellent short story: Trucks.

I’m fascinated by time travel stories and I vividly recall reading Ray Bradbury’s short story. A Sound of Thunder does a pretty good job of taking that story and blowing it up into a longer work, if you are into that sort of thing. Rotten Tomatoes critics hate this movie and think it is an abomination. The creature portions of the movie reminded me a bit of Jurassic Park. I didn’t realize anybody was even making this story into a longer motion picture, but the short story that had already been adapted to Ray Bradbury Theater, got a much better special effect treatment. The special effect in the Ray Bradbury Theater version (available via DVD) show cheesy looking dinosaurs. The creaters in Thunder don’t look as good as Jurassic Park but they are more believable. You can tell there is a better budget for this film.

The acting is not great, but it’s decent, and there is no love interest really which is unfortunate. It is hard to really care for any of these characters, including the scientist who says he is just helping the greedy Time Safari owner to be able to find a way to bring back the animals that have all been killed off. Another plausibility hole, if there are no animals, then isn’t our future already doomed? If you can get by with plot irritations like this and just enjoy the popcorn thrills you’ll enjoy Thunder. My wife can’t stand sci-fi films so she was underwhelmed with the film. Me? Seen better and seen worse. If you like the original Bradbury short story and always wished there was more to the story than what was seen in the Bradbury Theater version and short story, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. Still, I’d wait for the DVD version or hit the matinee. Do not pay full price to see this. Grade: C+

I didn’t see the Slingbox ($249.99 USD) at CES 2005 but did see it yesterday at the local Megastore. The Slingbox comes via Slingmedia and is a little silver box that sits between your TV and the signal and broadcasts the signal to you through the network and over the internet. An IR remote gives you the ability to control your TV — including powering off, changing stations, watching premium cable (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc) — right from your computer!

That’s right, no need to route the signal through your computer and use external or internal TV cards, no need to buy an overly expensive media center setup (although you will get a better picture with a direct feed), because Slingbox sends the signal right through the internet and/or LAN to you. All you need is your user-defined password, the Slingbox software and an internet connection with enough juice (broadband) to carry the signal.

Some things learned about the Slingbox in the first 24 hours of ownership:
- works with Windows 2000 or Windows XP
- no HDTV composite connectivity and no plans to manufacture a Slingbox with HDTV composite connectivity at this time. This information came via the 1-877-go-sling support line customer service representative. He said the bandwidth required for HDTV streaming over the web would be more than most people have. Makes sense. Users can still stream non-HD from an HDTV setup (that’s what we’re doing). There is an S-Video connection.
- Finding the right IR codes for the device (DVD player, cable box, etc) can be a real chore. Not all IR codes are available. I couldn’t get one of our two cable boxes working at all.
- You can watch OnDemand with Comcast through your computer! I tested this out by choosing an OnDemand HBO movie right through the Tablet PC Slingbox software.
- make sure to plugin the A/V cables very securely or you might only get sound in one side of the speaker. I learned about this from my one support call.
- Watch and set recordings for PVR’d programs remotely. Basically anything that can be done with the remote in front of your TV, can done with Slingbox and your Windows PC.

The outputs and inputs on the back of the Slingbox.

Provided with the Slingbox are everything you need to connect to your TV with the basic connection including a single connector to red-white-yellow composite cable (both in and out). A single S-Video cord is provided, so you’ll need another S-Video cord if you want to connect that way.

The size of the Slingbox sitting above the cable box. The “n” in Slingbox turns fire red when powered on. The cord lengths are long enough to keep away from the cable/satellite box.

Cords snaking out from behind the Slingbox.

Configuring the Slingbox via the M1400 Tablet PC slate.

And now, after configuration, time to kick back and watch TV on the tablet. Note the Little League World Series being broadcast live to the Motion M1400 Tablet. While the Slingbox isn’t ink-enabled for the Tablet, it works great on the M1400.

Overall impression
Too bad they don’t make the Slingbox so they can stack easier as you’ll need more than one for multiple devices (Cable/Satellite TV, DVD players, etc), which at $249 USD each could become spendy. No more than buying Media extenders for a Media Center and then you stil can’t get the signal outside your LAN like you can with the Slingbox. If the goal is to get the best picture on your local connection then the Slingbox isn’t the answer, but if you want to be able to control and/or watch your TV from another computer with no monthly fees (did I mention that) the Slingbox is the bomb! Grade: A

What others are writing about Slingbox
Phillip Liu wonders: “Does anyone own a Slingbox?”
Deane is concerned about intellectual property issues
Washington Post article complaining about the Ethernet connection (why not WiFi?), no pause or rewind, and setup/install frustrations
potpoi wonders if Slingbox will upgrade their player for anamorphic stretch (turning it into a 16:9 monitor)
PC World: “Although aspects of its software interface are inelegant, I nonetheless found the Slingbox nifty. It does what it sets out to do–enabling access to live TV, a DVR, or a DVD player remotely–with reasonable ease and success.”
Terry Maxon for The Dallas Morning News and NWCN.com (subscription required, sorry) writes: “Slingbox’s seller, San Mateo, Calif.-based Sling Media Inc., says that it plans to expand the Slingbox to work with Macs, smart cellphones and personal digital assistants in coming months, but it hasn’t announced release dates.”
Engadget Slingmedia interview: “Over time there could be additional features and applications we could add to a Slingbox for incremental revenue. It’s hard to tell. After people start buying our boxes, we’ll make a bunch of other products, some hardware, some software, some service.”
CompHobby.org: “Couldn’t resist this purchase I’ve been intrigued by this device ever since I heard about it.”

tags: slingbox, TV, remote TV, PC, Slingmedia

We’ve caught several movies recently, including last night Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. None of us cared for it, but probably because we compared it too much to the original movie. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 83% so the critics seemed to enjoy this one. We didn’t like the modernized Oompa Loompa songs, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the eccentric Wonka, the child actors or the ending. MIA is the bubble lift incident with Grandpa Joe and Charlie, but there are other scenes. We did like the squirrel scene which replaced the golden goose from the original. I enjoyed reading Dahl as a kid — especially his twist ending short stories like Lamb to the Slaughter — and this movie is darker and more ironic like Dahl’s many stories, but it was just too weird and Michael Jacksonesq for me. I probably would have enjoyed it much more if I didn’t compare it to the original which is a timeless classic. I wish they’d stop remaking classics. Miracle on 34th Street sucked as a remake too. Grade: D

On the other hand, we all liked Fantastic Four. It’s clobberin’ time! This is post #13 in the vacation 2005 series.

tag: vacation2005

Unlike Episode II, I had been looking forward to seeing Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith. I was looking forward to Episode I but after seeing that, I no longer was as excited about the series.

But the fall of Vader promised in Episode III was definitely enough to renew my interest!

I took our middle teen son with us who goes by the nickname online of Spawn. Before the movie, Spawn writes:

I think that Anakin will get his revenge on all the people that he hated in Episode 2.

I rarely will read reviews of movies I’m about to see because I don’t want it to taint my opinion. It’s human nature that if enough people like or dislike something to want to fall into step, so I kept an open mind and have stayed away from reviews of the film before seeing it. If you feel like I do and haven’t seen the movie then bookmark this post and come back after you’ve seen the film.

Here is the spot where people who don’t want to know much about the movie before seeing it should stop. I’m going to try and not spoil anything significant, but if you don’t want even a few spoilers stop.

I’m just making.

Lines.

So.

That.

People.

Who don’t want spoilers.

Will stop. Stop. Stop.

Ok, enough warnings let me start with the plot which the basics of is Anakin Skywalker in his continued path as a Jedi to help flush out a mole. Meanwhile the princess tells him she is pregnant (she says “baby” but we know it eventually will be twins) and Skywalker has dreams of impending doom for his wife during childbirth. It is through this fear that he is lured into and coerced over to the Dark Side. A series of political deceptions help shake Skywalker’s faith in the democracy and the Jedi council of which he is allowed to sit but not be named a Master Jedi. The Chancellor that Skywalker is asked to spy on turns him onto the concept that his wife can be saved through the childbirth by employing the one power that no Jedi can possess: the Dark Side of the Force.

We saw the first show at 9am and one of the things which I noticed once the show actually started (9:15am) is that the theater was about 70% — maybe — full. Throughout the film I got the feeling that most of the audience felt the same way as me. There were no cheers, no clapping, no boos either, but not a lot of excitement, even when Darth Vader came to be … which we all were waiting for to see the birth of this badass.

But it was not like that fanciful day in the seventies when I first saw Star Wars IV: A New Hope. People were cheering there for Luke Skywalker, Obi Won Kenobi, the rebel alliance and laughing at the droids and other banter.

There wasn’t much laughter in the theater for Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith. Ok, maybe a few chuckles here and there but otherwise it was very quiet. Not morgue quiet, not disinterest quiet, just … quiet.

Revenge of the Sith is definitely a dark film, which has already been widely reported. There are decapitations of unarmed opponents and plenty of other violence againt bots (mainly). No blood or gore really except for the final sequences (not blood, but something unpleasant).

We get to see Chewbacca and his home planet. Yoda gets it on with the saber. Those that want to see Yoda kick some ass will not be disappointed. These are both high points.

The cinemaphotography is fantastic and well beyond anything in the original series. The opening scenes especially have some really cool spaceship scenes. This is the area where George Lucas has always excelled.

As I left the theater I was thinking about ranking the films. Here’s how I’d rank the Star Wars films:

#1 (best): Star Wars IV: New Hope
#2: Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
#3: Star Wars VI and Star Wars III — a tie
#4: Star Wars II
#5 (worst): Star Wars I

I’m calling a tie on Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith. Sith is definitely better than II or the godawful Episode I. Would give Sith the nod over VI if they had brought Jar Jar Binks back to be carved up by either Jedi or the empire.

Sith didn’t really wow me, but it wasn’t boring either. It just reminded me alot in terms of pacing as Return of the Jedi, but without the cuteness of the ewoks (which arguably were annoying). I remember my stepmother crying when that one ewok died in Star Wars VI.

Sith doesn’t answer every question or bridge every gap from III to IV but it comes darn close. In particular I’m curious about how Chewbacca meets up with Han Solo. I’d have to go back and rewatch the original three films to see if that is explained, but it definitely isn’t explained in Sith.

Finally, the finances and future of the series. My prediction is that if this film doesn’t make over 200 million the first week, it has no shot at taking down Titanic. It’s going to make tons of money and be a hit financially, but will it be the best-selling film of all time in the theaters? I have my doubts. Will this bring in tons of money? Absolutely. Will it spawn the rumored final three pictures in the saga? It could. My personal opinion is that George should quit why he still can, but he seems to have been bitten by sequelitis and if the original story was a nine-part space opera, then if he doesn’t do the films somebody else might do it posthumously — and probably not as well. So if it’s a choice betwen Lucasfilms doing 7, 8 and 9 or some stranger? There is no choice there.

Also what about Harrison Ford? Would he come back for part 7-9? Luke? Where does he fit in. Mark Hamil has definitely aged so I’m not sure if he’d be pulled out of obscurity. Carrie Fisher? She doesn’t look anything like Princess Leia any more, but then depending on how far into the future 7-9 would be set, it might just work.

In summary on Revenge of the Sith, this film does do some of what the original three films did, but doesn’t capture the magic of the first two original films (IV and V). Is it fun? You bet! It’s the best Star Wars film in a long, long time and at least some of what Star Wars fans craved with Episode I. It is much better than Episode I and II. If you want to find out how arguably the most evil villain in sci-fi history was born, then there is probably no better fix, but if you are hoping for and expecting the magic of the first show the framework is there at least, if not the execution. Grade: B.

Now, I can go out and read what others have to say and think about the film and see if my feelings are validated or disputed by others. I’m particularly interested in what the critics at Rotten Tomatoes are saying (83% Fresh as of this writing, which is pretty good). I may link up some of the other reviews here as well, so might want to check back.

With the MSN Desktop Search Toolbar now out of beta (take tour of the features), I wanted to try it on the place that I need the most productivity (and that is most Microsoft-centric): my M1400 Tablet PC. Firstly, the download on my blazing cable connection was very, very slow, so Microsoft’s servers must have been getting pounded.

Addins allow searching additional file types. It comes with yet another Pop-up blocker, automatic form-fill and access to MSN services.

One thing I didn’t like, which I mentioned before (Dec 14, 2004) with MSN desktop search beta, was that they default check to change my default search engine and home page. I really, really wish vendors wouldn’t do that. Just because I’m installing your product doesn’t mean you should assume the importance of being my default search engine and home page. Obviously, my complaints, and those who agree with this line of thinking, went totally ignored. Also, I noticed that during the installation you could actually skip the customization and not even see that these options were still checked. For the people who do that without realizing they are having the defaults changed? Doh!

On the positive side of defaults note from the screenshot above that only email and My Documents folder are indexed by default. Users have to choose to index more than that. This was a smart move.

So what about actually using the MSN Desktop Search? I noticed with it in the toolbar that it shrinks the space in Portrait mode to almost unacceptable two application spaces. That doesn’t work, so I undocked it by clicking and dragging out into the desktop. Now it’s more like a Mac Dashboard Widget and more space-friendly. I tried a few demo test searches and the results were all returned very fast. A huge improvement over the older traditional dog search (somebody must finally have put old yeller out of his misery).

If you click in the text area of the deskbar a window pops up with the various Desktop shortcuts likes: ?help, ?syntax, !quote (stock quotes), !movies (search for movies with Fandango tie-in), !travel (expedia reservations), !word (open a new Word document), !calc (loads up calculator) and !outlook (loads Outlook).

It’s too bad I can’t ink right inside the deskbar, maybe some enterprising Tablet PC developer will add that functionality someday. Yes, you can work with it using the Tablet Input Panel (TIP) but despite using that for nearly six months, I still find that kind of awkward. I want to write on the screen or anywhere and have it fill in input boxes. Anybody know of a program that will do that? I tried Orange Guava, but that’s not quite what I’m talking about. Just write anywhere on the screen (I write big) and have it input into the Deskbar. Now that would be handy. Anybody?

Users can also create custom Deskbar shortcuts. Very handy!

In summary, MSN Desktop Search seems more tightly integrated than the Google desktop, though I read that others (PDF) like Chris Pirillo like Coppernic better. I’ll have to check out Coppernic more closely someday and see if it’s a better fit for the Tablet. In the meantime it will stay installed on my Tablet — at least until I find something better or if it goes south like it did for Warner who had some serious conflicts with his M200 and the Desktop Search. Grade: B.

Based on the marketing alone, I wanted to see the new movie with Paris Hiton and Elisha Cuthbert. Besides, until Star Wars III next week, it’s really the only game in town. It’s the remake of the Vincent Price movie: House of Wax (HOW).

The basic plot is a group of young adults are heading to a football game and take a detour and camp out near a creepy town. During this campout one of the campers has his fan belt break (or be cut?), so he has to make the trip into town with his girlfriend, played by Elisha Cuthbert, who has the lead role, not Paris Hilton. This is where they see this House of Wax which is quite literally a house made of wax.

These two siamese twin brothers, separated at birth, have a thing going where they cover real people with wax. From the previews I thought wax people came alive and walked the earth, sort of zombie style, but that’s not how it goes. Also, in the end, there is a slight twist — which I won’t ruin — which almost guarantees there will be a sequel. Or two. Or three. That’s the way it goes in the horror movie franchise.

Paris Hilton really has only a small part in this movie and most the time you see her locking lips with her African American boyfriend who seems more interested in getting to the football game, getting laid and playing his tunes than being involved in the movie. Though I didn’t count, it sure seems like Paris Hilton has more lip-locking and close-ups of scantily-clad dress scenes than actual acting scenes. When she does act, it’s horribly wooden and unpolished. Get into pron officially already, Paris!

Elisha Cuthbert, perhaps most notable for her role as Kim Bauer in the Fox TV show 24, has a different look and does OK as the lead in the flick. It can’t be a step up for her career moving into remakes of old horror flicks though.

So the real question is: does Paris Hilton get waxed? I won’t tell you if she gets wacked, that would ruin the fun, but she definitely does not get waxed. I was hoping they’d put some wax in her and put her on display at the end of the movie. They could have tied in some clever Simple Life asides.

Comparing this movie to other B-grade horror flicks and it’s not bad, but it takes a good hour — which is too long — to get the story and characterization drawn. Some of the characters are sterotypically cheesy: football jock looking for redemption, brother and sister feuding, etc. Still, no boobs! No nudity aleft! What is a lame horror movie without bare breasts? This movie could have been so much more with some headlights on, but you don’t even see those through any shirts. You get some pictures of chests, even closeups, but no knobs. Downgrade there.

Sound wasn’t anything special. There were a few jump out of your seat spook moments, but not enough to make HOW truly scary. HOW may make for a good rental, but forget about it in the theater. We paid Matinee prices which, after popcorn, soda and candy, worked out to be like $30, not counting the $5 gas to get to the theater. Wait for it. Grade: C+

Went to see Fever Pitch tonight with SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon and ET friend turned Charlie’s Angel, Drew Barrymore. Man, I must say, Barrymore is getting hotter and hotter. Fallon plays an obsessed Red Sox fan and erstwhile school teacher who catches the fever for Barrymore, a mathematician? Somehow Barrymore doesn’t seem like a brainiac, but her part still somehow works. Sorta.

It’s Fallon who’s unhealthy Sox fever is the unlikely antagonist in this girl meets boy, boy falls for girl, baseball season starts, Red Sox lose, Red Sox win story. Not your typical sappy love story comedy, but nothing that will be up for any awards either. Sort of reminded me of Mr. Destiny — not from the storyline, but as far as likeability. I’ll give Barrymore an B+ and Fallon a C-. The pitch comes down the plate and it’s just a bit off the corner. Wait for it on the DVD cycle unless you are desperate for a makeout movie. Grade: C+