Various Thoughts

My, haven't I been the bad blogger. Tough to walk around and not have anything to say! But I thought I'd just drop a short note to make sure I hadn't forgotten how! So here are some short, and hopefully interesting, thoughts:

• The Matrix, Part Trei - Well, my wife arranged for a night of babysitting and off we went to see Matrtix: Revolutions. Without giving anything away, it ends in exactly the way it would end - no big surprises, no deus ex machina. And with that said, I have to say that somehow it was an ending that felt hollow. Not that there's anything major unresolved (and thus sequel-able), but the ending just didn't have the resounding feeling of satisfaction that I desired. In fact, I was surprised that I desired this "satisfaction," but I know I'm not alone; my wife made the same observation. Oh well, it had to have an end sometime - all movie franchises do
• Screaming Fruit - No, this isn't some report on foodstuffs that were genetically engineered with mouths - it's a congratulations to Virginia Tech for building the world's 3rd fastest supercomputer out of 1,100 off-the-shelf Macintoshes. Currently, it is only the third comupter ever to work faster then 10 gigaflops. This should be interesting, and not just for Apple; this success is reflected in other new supercomputers in the annual top ten built by network Linux boxes. I've always thought that the power currently put at our collective computing fingertips was more than we imagined, and these off-the-shelf supercomputers seem to bear that instinct out. How many years until you can build such power into your basement? And what is possible, both good and evil, then? Learn more here...
• The Fear of Believing - Got to finally see Finding Nemo this weekend (the birth of our son interrupted my wife and my first, finely-laid plans), I have to say that I was blown away. Entirely enjoyable, technically impressive, can't wait to buy the DVD for myself. But there was a nagging analog fear at the back of my skull once I started looking at the DVD bonus material - in one of their first rounds of tests the directors asked the Pixar research department to mimic small movies of underwater life. Scary part? They reproduced it too exactly! This is not my criticism, but rather that of the directors! They had to tone down the realism so that the movie could remain a stylized cartoon. This is pretty amazing - reproducing nature digitally, and in motion, is very, very difficult. It certainly seems that it won't be long till everything we see can be reproduced in a CGI environment, obliterating the line between "real" and "imagined" experiences. On a more positive note, I think Pixar might be the single most enjoyable place to work. That, or they have a really good PR firm working on the DVD! I am certainly jealous

Okay, that's it for now - I'll try to be back soon...