David’s Ramblings

Recently my friend Mike was looking for a service to sync his documents between his laptop (Linux) and his desktop (Windows). This is often a tricky problem involving a USB stick or something of that nature, but he wanted something more automatic. I told him I knew of nothing that would quite fit the bill.

Of course, my other friend Tom decided that there must be a solution out there somewhere and did some googling. He found this little gem:

getdropbox.com

I don’t really have to much need for such a program, but I decided to download it anyway. I must say it is rather nifty. After installing the program and registering it to your account, you are given a folder that represents your Dropbox. It acts just like any other folder in your filesystem except for one very important rule – in the background the Dropbox program is constantly checking for updates to the folder and updating as necessary. After syncing with the online storage, any other computers running dropbox and set up for the same account will see and automatically download changes.

But that’s not all! Since it all works by syncing remotely, you also have the option of logging in through the web interface to download files you might need without having to install the program on another computer. It also can help you undelete or roll back changes.

But wait, there’s more! Not only can you log in and get access to your files, but you can also put files into the public folder in the dropbox and share them with friends via a link. Or you can put the files in your photos folder and create a gallery that can be viewed in slideshow form.

And that’s not all! You can also invite users to share folders in your dropbox. Then any of them can make changes and everyone will be able to see the changes instantly. That’s really sweet for collaboration on a group project.

So, if you’ve ever been wishing for an easier way to keep files in sync between multiple computers or for a way to instantly share some of those files with friends without having to upload to something like flickr, look into dropbox. While it’s in beta, you’re limited to a free 2GB storage limit. They have plans to offer a paid 50GB storage limit down the line, once testing is complete.

I’ve been updating my blog a decent amount lately. To do so, I’ve been using the blogging software known as MarsEdit. WordPress comes with a web-based system for posting, but I find a desktop application to be far more effective for meeting my needs in an application.

MarsEdit meets my needs pretty well. It allows me to save drafts locally and work on them when I don’t have an internet connection. It also allows me to drag and drop pictures into my posts with no additional work. I can literally drag a picture from wikipedia and drop it into the edit box, having it come out as it did in my previous post for Cog Sci. It handles all of the uploading and resizing automagically.

MarsEdit certainly isn’t the only desktop blogging application. I’ve tried a few others before. Mainly Ecto, and a bit of Blogo. I feel MarsEdit has the cleanest, most useful interface I’ve encountered though.

It does come with the unfortunate price tag of $29, which seems a little steep for the amount of use I personally will get out of it. (Seeing as my blog only stays active about one month a year.) I’m not sure if I’ll find myself buying the full version when my trial expires, but if I don’t, I think I’ll have a hard time replacing it. Bottom line, if you need to make posts to a blog on a Mac, wish to avoid using the web interface, and are willing to pay some money, MarsEdit is definitely a worthwhile tool.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the nifty Flickr integration, which doesn’t affect me a whole lot, since I rarely post to flickr, but it can upload your images to your Flickr account before dropping them into your post.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been subjected to a number of good movies. It is of course my humble duty to share my completely unbiased, objective observations of them with you, my reading audience. So, here goes: The Fountain is the best movie of 2006 and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is the best movie of 2007. End of story. Without question. If you think otherwise, you’re retarded.

Now that the objective part of the reviewing is out of the way, let’s get to my own opinions on the movies.

 The Fountain – 4.9π / 900º

Everything about The Fountain screams out “masterpiece.” Visually, it’s a feast for the eyes. The visual effects are top-notch and will remain so for a few years to come at least. The entire movie is just pretty, the golden color leaking in to almost every crack of the film. The acting is well done. They couldn’t have chosen a better man for the leading role than Hugh Jackman. Rachel Weisz makes an absolutely stunning leading actress. All of this pales in comparison to the story, however, which is absolutely brilliant in ways that will leave a more active mind turning over for days.

 It’s helpful to understand that the storyline is left intentionally vague and open to interpretation. This is part of the brilliance. The intention wasn’t to write a story that you passively follow while watching the film and throw away when you’re done. It was to write a film that makes you think for a while, makes you scratch your head. And while that might seem a bit pretentious to some, I think it makes up for it by really making you think.

The movie follows three stories, each somewhat distinct. There’s a story set during the Inquisition and Spain’s conquests in the New World. This story is the first introduced, and later we find it tying into a story set in our own time of a man trying to find a cure for cancer – hopefully in time to save his wife. Turns out that the story of the Conquistador is one being written by the man’s wife. Later we’re introduced to weird floating tree in space with Hugh Jackman living next to it. There are many possible interpretations of how this last story fits in, and I think that the line is intentionally blurry on this one. If you think your brain might explode reading just the explanation than you probably wouldn’t appreciate this movie to the fullest extent possible, but if it sounds intriguing to you, I highly recommend seeing the film.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters – 4.5π / 900º

If you’re not an Aqua Teen Hunger Force fan, you’ll probably be able to ignore pretty much everything I say, but I warn you that you are a horrible person for not liking Aqua Teen. Yes, I know that 2007 isn’t over yet, and that, as far as movies go, the year has just begun, but in my mind they might as well just start 2008 right now to make it fair for all of those other movies. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is hands-down the best movie of 2007.

The story starts millions of years ago, in Egypt. 3 PM. Downtown New York. 1492. The humor continues from there. Actually, it starts before that. I could have walked in and sat down for everything up to the opening credits and been amused enough to have had my money’s worth. The rest – as in everything following the opening credits – was just a bonus. It was like watching an hour and half long ATHF episode, which is just awesome.

To everyone not understanding what I see in Aqua Teen, I know where you’re coming from. When my roommate subjected me to a season’s worth of it, I had no clue what he saw in it. After a while though, you start to see some really funny stuff. It just takes a certain taste (or lack thereof) to enjoy. It’s probably even better if you’re high when you watch it. In many ways, it is sort of a spiritual descendant of Beavis and Butthead. Brainless, but almost witty at the same time.

If you see one movie this year, make it 300. This movie is already, hands down, one of the best of 2007, and we’re only to March. If you see it, I’m sure you’ll have to agree.

300 is a historical film, based on 300 Spartan soldiers who stalled the entire Persian army for several days while the rest of the country prepared for war. More than a historical film, however, this film is also based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. The same Frank Miller we should all know and love from Sin City.

We can see the wonderful style of Frank Miller come through from his graphic novel onto the screen in this movie as well as we do in Sin City. The shots throughout the movie are beautiful, and the fight scenes artistically embellished.

Fight scenes? Oh yes. This movie is two hours of violence and ass kicking. Spartans are historically known for their fighting skills, and this movie makes sure to touch on that fact. A lot. If you’re in the mood for some action, look no further.

Don’t let that turn you off if you’re not into the whole fighting thing. If you’re not into action, then you’re probably either a chick or gay, and in both cases, you’ll probably be pleased to note the fact that 75% of the movie is about near-naked, sweaty men. In fact, that’s probably the reason this movie only gets a 4.7π. It’s a pretty good movie otherwise.

Yesterday I had the good fortune of attending a pre-release screening of the new movie “Zodiac.” This movie is about the real life serial killer who called himself “Zodiac” in letters he taunted the police with. The movie seems to follow the real events of the case (though I’m no expert on these matters) and this makes it somewhat more interesting.

The actors in this movie all do a terrific job, especially Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie does a good job of helping you feel the panic that must have been about in San Francisco due to the Zodiac as well. I particularly liked how music was used to add to the setting.

Unfortunately, the movie follows real life far too well. Unless you want to feel like the detectives who had their lives sucked away trying to solve this case, you’ll find the movie lacks appropriate pacing. Zodiac follows the true life storyline so closely that we’re treated to 30 minutes of excitement and 2 hours of tension that eventually becomes boredom as we desparately hope for a break in the case, or at least for the Zodiac to do something new.

The movie can also be disorienting, jumping large spans of time almost randomly and without warning, but this is important since the killings were quite spread out. I wouldn’t pay money to see this movie, but if you have the chance to see it for free as I did, you might not be completely disappointed. I rate it at a measely 2.3π.