Off to Taconnet!

We're heading off to Taconnet in a few short minutes, so I'll be even less likely to blog than normal. We're back at the end of August.

I just uploaded a new Taconnet minisite to my web site:
http://www.tophtucker.com/taconnet

I managed to integrate Windows Live Local into it... that was fun. The rest of my web site upgrade is coming at the end of the summer.

Off to Maine now! (I hope to get a ton of reading done...) Goodbye. :)

Zune + Xbox

As someone who loves conspiracy theories and evil genius and all that stuff, this is fascinating:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/20/the-clicker-zune-its-all-about-the-ecosystem/

Regarding Microsoft's failure in the music player market thus far: "Does that mean that Microsoft was wrong? Perhaps not. Perhaps they were just being a tad disingenuous in regard to their true plans. It's quite possible that we're just now seeing Microsoft's first real play in the digital audio player market. Perhaps, just perhaps, Microsoft has been stalling. And while claiming that Microsoft has just been stalling (as opposed to, say, clueless) might give them credit for an inordinate amount of self-awareness, we must closely examine this particular situation."

It's very interesting how J. Allard and the Xbox team have avoided being burdened by operating within a big, relatively slow-moving company like Microsoft by operating outside the normal rules of play. Supposedly that's what they're doing with Zune. Just throwing away Windows Media Player and everything and having total vertical integration, possibly including the Xbox.

It gets better. It was noted in an Engadget/Joystiq interview with Peter Moore on May 12, 2006 that J. Allard has been MIA since the Xbox 360 launch. Moore's excuse was that he had a BMX event or something, and that it was determined that Moore should be the singular face of the Xbox, and the Allard was super-busy running the platform. Turns out he's apparently been working on this project all along.

It, of course, remains to be seen whether Zune will be a total flop. Last time Microsoft launched a hype campaign (anyone remember Origami?) it turned out to be a disappointment, basically just a mini-Tablet PC with some extra interface stuff. But it'll certainly be interesting.

Coming Zune

http://www.comingzune.com/

All I can think of is ol' Didier from the Origen Xbox 360 hype machine. And if rumors are to be believed, the same team is behind Zune as was behind the Xbox 360. Oh how I love the intrigue.

In any case, initial pics of "Zune" are underwhelming. Come on, folks, you need something distinctive.

Also, it's a peculiar strategy in general - a full reversal of their previous one, which was handling the software end and letting partners make the devices and stores.

Also, after the big deal that was made about Urge, am I supposed to believe that this scraps that? And what about old MSN Music?

This is going to get interesting. As WIRED put it, get ready for the grudge match of the decade. Only, they were talking about Microsoft vs. Google. I'm talking more about Microsoft vs. Apple. But it's really more of a battle royale.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Blog!

Today marks this blog's third birthday... or should I call it the third anniversary of its creation? Regardless, it's three years old now. Congrats, blog! :)

Wow, lots of birthdays recently.

July 12 - Ben Burtt
July 13 - Harrison Ford
July 15 - MSNBC turns 10 [see here]
July 16 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince turns 1 [see here]
July 20 - This blog turns 3 [see here]
July 21 - My mom's b-day!
July 22 - Windows Live Messenger turns 7 [see here]

Congrats to them all! :)

Shadows of the Empire & Movie Recap

Shadows of the Empire

I just finished Shadows of the Empire earlier today, one year to the day after I finished Harry Potter 6. Overall, I thought it was very good. For the past, oh, 9 months or so I've been slogging throught the Original Trilogy time period, which means...

1. A New Hope novelization - out before the movie was, an interesting time capsule, but not exactly a page-turner
2. Splinter of the Mind's Eye - first spin-off book, released & taking place before Empire; again, an interesting and very dated time capsule (read: Luke/Leia romance)
3. The Empire Strikes Back novelization - not so interesting anymore, for the most part; by this point I'm slogging through my self-inflicted tour of the OT
4. Shadows of the Empire - see below.
5. Return of the Jedi novelization - I'm only a page into it and already it's gotten into "fourth dimention" mush

I originally started this because I had never read them, I thought it'd be interesting to go through the saga in order, and because there were no new Star Wars books out at the time. (This was after I finished the New Jedi Order and then The Joiner King, but before The Unseen Queen came out.) I thought I'd be able to get through it in no time, maybe by the end of 2005. Boy was I wrong.

Turns out most of these don't go by nearly as quickly as the latest reads. I was at the Battle of Hoth at the New Year; I finished Empire and started Shadows a couple months ago. In other words, it's taken me a pathetically long time.

I'll try to speed through Return of the Jedi. In the time I've been stuck doing this - and once I started it was too late to get out - several more major books have been released. Now, my to-read list (in the order in which I'll read them) consists of:

1. Republic Commando: Hard Contact
2. A short story or two
3. Dark Lord
4. A short story or two
5. The Unseen Queen
6. The Swarm War
7. Outbound Flight [?]
8. Survivor's Quest [?]
9. Legacy of the Force: Betrayal [?]

The last few are questionable because they depend on when/if I get a couple of the newer books.

So: I started this project because I was totally caught up and had too little to read. By the time I finish it I'll be way behind again. I'm hoping to be mostly caught up again by the end of the summer... Maine (where we go at the end of the month) is always a great time for reading. With luck I'll be done with ROTJ by then and I can get on to the fun stuff.

(Of course, you can't forget summer reading books; I have three.)

Anyway, how did I like Shadows of the Empire? In short: a lot. Suprisingly so, in fact. It's a story I'm familiar with; one of my first Star Wars videogames (along with Rogue Squadron, Rebel Assault II, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter - they seriously need to make a sequel to XvT) was Shadows of the Empire for N64. Boy did I love that jetpack...

Anyway, I thought that SotE (only one letter off from that other OT bridge novel, SotME) did an excellent job of tying together the movies. It brought up some very interesting concepts, one of the most significant of which was Vader's attempts to heal himself. He was shattered, mentally and physically, after Episode III; he had, in many ways, lost touch with the Force. In SotE he draws on the purest dark side to let him breathe unassisted for precious seconds at a time; in Return of the Jedi he manages without his mask for, what, a minute? I'll never view that scene the same way again. Vader managed an unprecedented feat by drawing on, not the dark side, but the light side. Instead of pushing love and joy out of his mind, he embraced it. Yeah, so he couldn't keep it up for long, but he was pretty much fried by then anyway. It was a victory for him.

Reading the saga chronologically does have its benefits. I make some connections like that that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. I recommend to any Star Wars fan that they watch Episode I through VI in order; it only takes a day, and it's a neat experience.

Movie Recap

In Theatres

Cars - another Pixar success, albeit perhaps not at the same level as past megablockbusters like The Incredibles. Still, a great story, funny, sweet. And good animation too. And funny credits. :)

Nacho Libre - peculiar. Good, but not spectacular. Super-wacky - take, for instance, the point at which (SPOILERS!) Nacho hurls an ear of corn with all his might and lodges it firmly in some guy's eye socket, or when he flys at the end.

Superman Returns - awesome movie. Epic, a tribute to the originals. Great special effects, funny, good music, especially John Williams' classic theme.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - another excellent movie; another time I disagree with certain critics. Too long? Nah; I thought it was the perfect length! (I think I'm pretty much alone, even among otherwise positive critics, in saying that.) Confusing plot? No, but complicated; still, you can follow it. (At least, I could.) And ILM's VFX were great, to the point that many reviewers mistakenly referred to the all-digital villian Davy Jones as being done with prosthetics and makeup.

Oldies

Terminator - dated, but interesting. Pretty good overall. Lackluster special effects compared to today's flicks, but good for the time; stop-motion Terminator was painful, though.

T2: Judgement Day - much better. ILM's liquid-metal morphing holds up admirably to this day. Good story, characters, etc.

T3: Rise of the Machines - James Cameron is sorely missed. Execution is lacking; characters are, mm, so-so. But effects are great. I love the fact that this guy is now CA's governator.

Casablanca - a classic. Funny, well-written, enjoyable... it's amazing how many great quotes there are. "Here's lookin' at you, kid." "Play it [NOT 'again'] Sam." "I'm shocked - SHOCKED..." "Round up the usual suspects." "We'll always have Paris." "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Alien - wow, slow pacing compared to today's movies. But good.

Happy 10th Birthday, MSNBC!

My #1 online news site from the start, here's to a great ten years and ten thousand more to come.



...wait, ten thousand is a lot of years, maybe I'll stick to "ten more to come" for now and see where we are at that point. But still, you're a great site. Good news, good video, good layout. Keep it up, pal. :D