What’s in the news and why I’m watching movies instead

Wall Street finally likes the stimulus.  Big gains yesterday after hearing about the Gov’t buying some of those “toxic assets”.  Do we love toxic so much we’re buying it twice?  I guess so.  I still struggle with why the DJIA is even marginally relevant and why so many sources live and die by what it’s performance “means” for economic indication.  Oh, well.  Even though the stock market was up and China has some 2 trillion in cash reserves, China is now calling for a different world monetary standard than the US dollar.  I can’t really blame them.  China works really had to make money (even though it berates capitalist values at every turn) and not spend it on infrastructure or services for its own people, they should be concerned.  In case you missed it, that was a bit a sarcasm since we don’t really know how to manage our finances but China has no business bitching since they take so few (if any) steps to contribute to our global social and economic structure.

Apple apparently has some goodies hiding in the wings but I don’t really care since all of their stuff is too expensive for me to buy anyway.  Yes, I know Apple pricing is skewed since they really don’t have any low end equipment (except the mac-mini but how many people even know what that is) so Apple appears to be higher priced than other manufacturers since other manufacturers always try and compare their low end stuff to Apple’s low end, which is actually mid range.  Sometimes I hate marketing.

Facebook has a new look and a high percentage of the users don’t like it.  Although Facebook is relevant in the social media space…  Who cares about the UI?!?  90% of the UI’s in existence look like shit and that’s web based applications, phones, software, you name it.  With all the creative people in the world do you think programmers would get some of them involved in UI design?  No!  I’m so tired of listening to people bitch about getting things to look like they did in Minority Report (good movie by the way).

Anyway…  I could piss and moan for pages about this stuff but I won’t.  All the above and more is why I’ve been delving into some movies that I haven’t seen in years.  The Terminator movies for one.  Partly because there is a fourth coming out and because I want to start over and watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles from the beginning.  Great action stuff but sad also because it is indicative of a social condition of people pulling together in times of great strife and adversity.  If we could only do that on a day to day basis…

Independence Day is also something I’ve watched again recently.  I really like Will Smith and have seen a bunch of stuff recently, iRobot, Hancock, Men in Black etc.  I just saw Iron Man recently.  I find I’m liking Robert Downy Jr more and more as time goes on.  I loved the Iron Man comic books as a kid and I liked the movie but it’s getting annoying all the little changes Hollywood makes in my comic book heroes for no apparent reason.  Spiderman did not shoot webs out of his wrists.  They came out of a device that he invented.  If Hollywood was looking for realism they should have had the webs coming out of Peter Parker’s ass.  I’m just sayin’.

All in all, the news is not new.  It reiterates the same old crap over and over, so pick and choose your sources carefully (think new media) and use the rest of that time doing something you like.  That is all.

This Week in…

I wish I could come up with a catchy title like TWiT (This Week in Tech)  but Leo Laporte already has most of the acronyms in use on his Netcast Network.  Oh, well guess I’ll have to stick with The Wandering Lunatic.

Lots of stuff going on this week.  First off is a move by the Cell Phone Industry (except Apple) to adopt a universal phone charger based on micro-usb.  If you own a Blackberry or Razr, among others you are already familiar with this kind of connector.   It’s a green initiative coming out of the Mobile World Congress this week.  No more bazillions of chargers floating around the house and not remembering which one is which.  We will have “One charger to power them all…”.  Okay LoTR references aside this is a beautiful thing and I am a bit surprised that an industry is getting together to do something that makes sense.

Michelin comes out with the e-wheel and not that I think this is the end-all-be-all for future drive train replacement but it is a step in the right direction.  The old gear boxes and drive shafts served a purpose but may no longer have relevance in the coming world of electric cars.  I hate to use old Apple marketing slogans but isn’t it time to “Think Different”?  Operating on the status-quo needs to come to a screeching halt.  The automobile industry is one great example.  They (all US car makers collectively) have done very little to innovate and make serious use of new technology or deliver product that makes sense for the changing world and all of the people that live in it.  Oh wait, they did start to use robots to make cars…  30 years ago!  Now the US taxpayer has to spend billions to dig these companies out of the holes they have created.

I can’t find the link for it now nut apparently Verizon is thinking about offering a $5/month inbound only (except 911 and support) service.  How this differs from the “metered” line that they have had for years, I am not sure.  A “metered” (charged for every call) line cost about $8 a month although I’m not sure that Verizon liked people knowing about it.  One day soon consumers will figure out that they don’t need to pay for internet and phone and TV.  All we need is Internet and all the rest is readily available.  I just hope that consumers figure this out before the phone/cable/satellite companies do, so that they don’t have a chance to weasel their way into the equation when they are no longer needed or financially feasible for consumers.

I also have a note here to check out Elisa, the free media player.  I have played with Boxee and I really like it even more than Xbox Media Center (XBMC) even though Boxee is based on XBMC.  Unfortunately Boxee is in an invite only alpha stage right now.