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Favorite Tech and Gadgets of 2009

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Here is some of the stuff I have used throughout 2009 and liked a lot. In no particular order…

ZOOM H2: a hand held recorder that I use to make recordings. It’ll record in WAV files and has multiple microphones for stereo and surround. It uses SD memory cards and does a good job. Great for noodling or recording riffs before you lose them. One downside is the USB 1.1 interface that is too slow and should have been 2.0.

DROBO: How I love the Drobo. Redundant expandable storage that is beautiful to look at. Right now I have 3 terabyte drives and one 750gb drive in it and have beau coup storage for all my music and other media.

Ipod Touch: 32GB model does everything I can think of. Games, photos, audiobooks, podcasts and tons of music. I hate trying to use it to surf, but when I need to connect it’s there and works.

FACEBOOK: Connecting with old friends is great. I have concerns with its privacy controls, but still think it the best social site out there.

Audible.com: I love books, but spend a lot of time in the car. I’m not sure I’m an aural info processor, so I use it for entertainment books mostly.

NetFlix: I’m using the watchnow feature for the most part and stream content to my TV using the Windows Media Center interface. I’m very close to ditching DirectTV and getting all my TV over the internet.

Windows 7: Latest and greatest Microsoft OS to date. It works and is still compatible with almost everything I have no matter how old.

BlueAnt Supertooth Light: Simple bluetooth speakerphone for the car. If your car doesn’t have a hands free system, you need to get one. This is stupid simple and inexpensive. New models have more features, but this is all I need. If you hold a phone while driving anymore, you are an IDIOT!

Sherlock Holmes: The case of trying to start a franchise.

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Hyped as THE holiday premier blockbuster extravaganza is a high expectation to meet. Sherlock Holmes is entertaining and a decent movie, but falls short in the end. Had I seen it before Avatar and Up in the Air, I may have thought differently. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are very good in their roles and actually worked very well together. There was a chemistry that I didn’t quite expect and that really carried the film. The storyline was a bit over the top in the National Treasure sort of way that is distractingly unbelievable. Holmes’ powers of deduction are center stage and used for comic relief on occasion. The scenes of Elizabethan London were visually appealing and the costuming and set dressers deserve much credit for their work. Guy Ritchie knows how to put a movie together and seems to be doing some good work since the material girl is gone. The insinuation of a love interest for Holmes didn’t quite work for me and Rachel McAdams just didn’t come up to the level of Downey and Law. The Nefarious Moriarty is introduced as a shadowy figure and is clearly the basis for a sequel. The audience was enthusiastic and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the entire movie. I was hoping for a bit more. Nevertheless, Sherlock Holmes is worth seeing and it will probably be successful enough to spawn another adventure, if someone can manage to bring Law and Downey back together again.

Up in the Air: Depressingly humorous and an Oscar caliber performance.

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Think of the most depressing and thankless job (besides your own), put George Clooney in it and you have a dark, dark comedy that will certainly get him an Oscar nomination. The key to this movie is the script. The dialog is so intelligent and clever, you can see yourself in the conversation. Clooney makes it even more natural with his talent. Smart films are not common these days and certainly not at the time of big holiday releases. The movie sets up a number of contrasts between youth and maturity, love/lust, compassion/callousness, alienation/inclusion, and we get a sense of the characters motivations for their particular viewpoints. Clooney is the centerpiece that you follow through a personal journey that is often funny, sometimes depressing, maybe heart wrenching, but always interesting. The supporting cast is great with Jason Batemen as the boss, Vera Farmiga as the romantic interest, and Anna Kendrick as the protegé. Clooney is consistently putting out very good work and I really hate him for his talent, smile and politics. If he continues to make quality films like this, I’ll overlook the other stuff.

My first “Assault Weapon”

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Since gunpowder was discovered there have always been those who have tried to increase the firepower of weapons. With single shot weapons you had to increase the number of weapons, whether artillery or shoulder mounted musket/rifle, to increase the odds of causing casualties. (Lines of artillery or men shoulder to shoulder) You could add additional projectiles to the weapons at the expense of accuracy in an attempt to achieve the same thing. Canister and grape shot were used to great effect at close range in cannon and ‘buck and ball’ rounds were found to be of some use in muzzle loading long guns up through the Civil War period. Modern armies have experimented with multiple projectiles per round in small-arms to enhance hit potential. The goal has always been to send more “lead” downrange in the shortest period of time with some precision so as to be effective in either causing injury or disrupting the intentions of the enemy. To fulfill the need for firepower inventors have tried multiple barrels, multiple loads in one barrel, rotating barrels, the classic revolving cylinder and culminating in today’s magazine and belt fed weapons.

Today we see most militaries and security forces armed with the so-called “Assault Rifle” typified by the M4/M16 family and the many variations of the Kalashnikov AK series of rifles. These are magazine fed weapons usually capable of firing semi-automatic, automatic, or 3 round burst in the case of most of the US military issued rifles. These weapons typically fire a medium power round that is a compromise between power, recoil, and effective range. Civilian versions of these rifles are flying off the shelves of gunshops across the country and every good citizen should acquire one (or more) and support the rights of all law abiding persons to own the same. Now I have my ‘Black Rifle’ (an original Colt AR-15 sporter post ban w/ 16″ barrel sans flash hider and bayonet lug), but not everyone can afford these weapons and may find them politically incorrect for their neighborhood or jurisdiction. The ancestor of today’s military style rifle is still readily available and maybe even more practical for urban, suburban and rural environs.

Spencer Rifle
Spencer Rifle

One could say that the first truly practical assault rifles that saw relatively widespread use appeared during the Civil War. These were the Spencer and Henry repeating rifles. They were both lever actions and fired metallic cased rimfire rounds, but each operated a bit differently. The Spencer was loaded through the buttstock. To operate, the hammer was brought to half-cock, the lever brought down, forward and back which moved the .52 caliber cartridge from the magazine tube into the chamber, the hammer was brought to full cock and the trigger pulled. This could be done 7 times before reloading the magazine tube. The Spencer was famously tested by Abraham Lincoln who essentially forced a reluctant ordinance department to order significant numbers for Union troops, primarily cavalry units. The Henry was introduced in 1860 and bought in small numbers by the Union, but was usually an individual purchase. Some units that had wealthy members or patrons outfitted their men with Henry rifles. At the time there was no weapon that could equal the sustained rate of fire of the Henry. It held 15 rounds under the barrel. It’s lever action cocked the hammer and moved a cartridge from the magazine tube into the chamber in one smooth motion. Pull the trigger and repeat until ammunition is exhausted. The Henry utilized a .44 caliber rimfire round that propelled a 200-215 grain bullet around 1000/fps and was considered somewhat anemic even in its own day compared to the rifled muskets of most regular troops, but it was effective enough at the ranges armies were engaged in during the Civil War. The Henry was the rifle “you could load on Sunday and shoot all week”. Soldiers used to single shot muzzle loading muskets were quick to acquire these weapons whenever they could. Ammunition to feed these weapons were their major drawback and one reason why the ordnance department was hesitant to procure them in large numbers. There were already a myriad of weapons and calibers in the supply chain and new ones just added to the logistical problem.

Henry Rifle
Henry Rifle

After the Civil War the Spencer sort of faded away. With surplus Spencers on the market, new rifles didn’t sell and the Army went to single shot breechloaders converted from surplus muskets and eventually to the 1873 “Trapdoor” Springfields. The Spencer’s action, compared to the Henry, was crude and crude rarely sells well in civilian markets. The Henry, on the other hand, fared much better. There seems to have been a steady demand for a reliable repeating rifle. Now the gun that really ‘won’ the West was the lowly shotgun and single shot hunting rifle as these were the most common weapons settlers possessed. Handguns were expensive luxuries and of limited use on a farm or ranch and a repeating rifle even more so. Still, there was a market and the well heeled lawman, cowboy or rancher would purchase quality firearms when they could. A shirt maker named Winchester was the largest investor in the Henry company and eventually took over. The Henry rifle was improved and became the classic Winchester lever action rifle. General Custer discovered the hard way that an enemy with superior numbers and significant numbers of Henry’s, Winchesters, and even some Spencers could over whelm  and wipe out even the most well trained and experienced cavalry unit foolish enough to split its forces and attack without proper reconnaissance.

Collectors will talk about various models and rare chamberings, the 1866, 1873, 1876, 1895, the 1 of 1,000, engraved by Tiffany, the take-down and trapper models, etc. Books abound and may spark your own desire to acquire or collect. But the quintessential Winchester has to be the 1894. It became available in many calibers, but is most remembered as chambered for the new smokeless powder powered round the 30-30 Winchester. Some have said more deer have been taken by Winchesters in 30-30 than any other rifle/caliber combination in history. Especially handy in the wooded Eastern US, the Winchester is a familiar sight during hunting season. The lever action rifle is a familiar weapon to almost everyone through the westerns we all watched all through our lives at the movies or on TV. They are not as ‘menacing’ as those black rifles and as sad as that thought is to some of us, the reality is that in some areas a Winchester or Marlin will draw no attention in a gun rack or cabinet, while an AR-15, M1A1, SKS or Romanian AK will label you a “gun nut” or “Rambo”.

Before I could afford an AR-15 system, I picked up the next best thing in my opinion, a poor man’s military style weapon in the form of a new Winchester 1894 chambered in .357 magnum. It is a “Trapper” model with a 16″ round barrel. Having several revolvers in .357/.38 special allows me to feed a number of guns with the same ammunition. This can be important in a zombie apocalypse and maybe even in a real world disaster/survival scenario. Being a newer Winchester (2000ish) it has the hideous cross bolt safety at the top rear of the receiver and is a side ejector, unlike the original 19th century Winchesters, which is useful if optics are to be used. Compared to my Colt AR-15 it is roughly the same overall length and both are in the 6-7 pound range depending on sights and ammo load. The 1894 will hold a good 10 rounds of the .38 special +P’s I carry in my revolvers and am fully confident they will do the job if I do my part out to football field distances. For backwoods travel I would certainly look at some heavy cast loads in .357 magnum. The 1894 is svelte and handy. It carries well and could be fitted with a sling if you wanted. Don’t get me wrong, given a choice I’ll grab my AR and bugout bag, but if I only had the Winchester, I wouldn’t feel much at a disadvantage. Sure you can pull the trigger faster on an AR, but only hits count and the first shot from either is going to come within an eye-blink of each other. Follow up shots will be slightly slower with the 1894, but with practice you can expect to achieve a

Winchester 1894 in .357 magnum

round per second AIMED fire. Watch a cowboy action match and you’ll see maybe 2-3 rounds per second hitting the targets with the lever guns from the top competitors. Keeping an AR fed is also easier. In a couple of seconds you can go from open bolt to fully charged with 20 or 30 round magazines. In a couple of seconds you can feed probably one round into the Winchester. So, you should treat the Winchester as  a shotgun when it comes to ammunition management. That means shoot one, load one whenever possible and top off at every opportunity. Practice keeping that tube filled.

Now with USRAC Winchester gone (Belgian group Herstal now owns them) my Trapper has a little more value and I’m going to keep it. My Black Rifle may become an outlaw if certain political groups have their way. As I’ve explained, the century and a half old design can still fulfill its defensive/survival role if and when needed.

Zombies beware!

The Road: Better less travelled.

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Cormac McCarthy has a way of drawing the reader into his books. The Road is a great book. No Country for Old men is a great book and was made into a great movie. The Road was made into a forgettable movie. We have another post apocalyptic story that centers around a man and his boy. It is a sad dreary existence and that is about the only thing the movie portrays correctly. Viggo Mortensen is a good actor and he does a fine job as a father desperate to keep his son alive long enough to be able to take care of himself. He is the song of experience while the boy is the song innocence. The boy still has a little bit humanity that the father can’t afford. Charlize Theron is the mother and has no place in the story, but we get her inserted for no good reason. Cameos by Robert Duval and Guy Pearce are nice. This is a book that shouldn’t be a movie. The parables are too subtle and too deep. They don’t translate into screen magic. After the success of No Country it appears someone optioned The Road and thought to capitalize on Cormac’s name. Maybe I liked the book too much and had unrealistic expectations for the movie. Perhaps, but maybe it is just another bad film.

Avatar: A whole new ball game.

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James Cameron knows how to tell a story. He understands technology and knows how to use it without it being the story. Some $500 million was needed to bring this movie to the screen and it was worth it. Cameron knows how to market things too. There are 3 versions to show in any theater. Regular 2D, but no one should see that, Real3D for most theaters and an IMAX 3D version that I hope to see before too long. So, we have a standard noble savage versus the mean ‘civilized’ visitors who wish to exploit them and their resources. Nothing too subtle or innovative here. We like these stories when done right. David versus Goliath and we love routing for the underdog. What Cameron excels at is creating this visually stunning world that is beautiful to look at. There is no detail too small for him to note. Everywhere you look on screen is something spectacular. The 3D effects are seamless. There is no tomahawk thrown at your head, just a depth of view that extends out of the screen. It doesn’t feel right to say you are brought into it, the movie seems to flow out and around you and that is the magic Cameron brings to the audience. There is plenty of excitement as we are taught about this world just like our hero is. We experience things as he does, another way to bring us into the movie. While Jackson had to use New Zealand to create Middle Earth for us, Cameron uses a green screen and motion capturing technology to blend live actors with their CG ‘avatars’ to go where no man has gone before. The adventure film will never be the same again. Everyone will be trying to match or improve upon what Cameron has done with Avatar. The bar has been raised to new heights. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Let’s see who can rise to the challenge.

Invictus: Protect us from actors turned director who want to change the world.

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Clint Eastwood is a good director and has tried to explore various directions and depths of the Human experience. Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima were two sides of a dark story and fine films in themselves. Pretty Baby and Unforgiven deserved their Oscars without question. I just don’t know what the purpose of Invictus is supposed to be. Rugby overcomes apartheid is a bit simplistic, but that’s the message. Matt Damon is good as the captain of the team. Morgan Freeman is Mandella and the best part of the movie is watching his characterization of the dissident turned president. He is depicted as an astute observer of human nature and utilizes that skill to try to bring some cohesion to a country with a long and terrible history of racial discrimination. That South Africa’s racial problems ended after winning the Rugby World Cup is not accurate. The gulf between the white minority and black majority remains. Eastwood will get some acclaim for this movie. It is well done with fine performances from all the actors involved. Is it a political film or a sports movie? It’s not enough of either and that is the reason for my ambivalence. Also the poem the title refers to really isn’t the title as the poet, Wm. Ernest Henley, never gave it a title and it was added by a later editor.

Armored: Not tough enough.

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Laurence Fishburne, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, some rapper and Fred Willard might make a decent cast, if there’s a decent script and a decent story. Heist gone bad has been done a few times hasn’t it? OK, we’ve all wondered about armored car drivers making minimum wage and guarding huge amounts of money haven’t we? Here is their story and it’s not a good one. We have basic good guys who decide to turn bad and they screw it up and end up killing each other in this bad movie. With these good actors you’d think something could be done, but the director and writers give us nothing but stereotypes and clichés. It wants to be Under Siege in an armored car, but is more of the Apple Dumping Gang with a bit of graphic violence. I stayed for the entire movie just to see how ridiculous it could get. This could have gone straight to DVD and any money it makes will be from people who have never heard of it and see the cast and think it has to be OK, but it’s not.

Ninja Assassin: Good gloriously gory mayhem.

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Take your standard Hong Kong Fuey or chop-sockey and add new state of art CG effects that makes the gore and violence even more gory and you have a martial arts movie of epic proportion. If you don’t like the genre, then you’ll not be impressed, but if you’re a kung fu fan from the days of Kung Fu like me then you’ll enjoy the graphic violence and improbable feats of these ninja assassins. The acting is mediocre, the story stale and predictable, but the action is excellent. The modified kusari-gama is the main attraction. It gets Matrix like effects and is CG’d to do amazing things that can’t be done in the real world. The machine gun like use of shurikens is like the western revolver that never needs reloading. This is not for everyone and maybe even not for anyone, but I like ninjas and epic martial arts fights, so I really enjoyed this movie.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Well…it’s Fantastic!

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Some of us are old enough to have grown up watching Gumby, Davey & Goliath, most of us can’t go a Christmas without watching Rudolph, many of us love Wallace and Gromit and Tim Burton is one of the masters of the genre. Claymation as it was called has a long history in film. Using clay or flexible models or puppets gives a unique look that goes beyond cartoon animation. The look of this film is simply delightful. The cuteness of the animals is almost overwhelming. The detail of the sets is astounding. Your eyes are constantly finding new things to observe. Coupled with incredible voice acting and you have a truly fantastic film. George Clooney is the Voice of Mr. Fox and the wit and charm that I hate him for comes out perfectly. The voices of Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, et al. are perfectly suited to their characters as well. The story is by Roald Dahl and is the solid foundation that the script and scenery are built upon. I couldn’t help but smile throughout the entire movie, and that is very unusual for me. Kids might be a little bored because a lot of the story is dialog, clever and intelligent dialog that adults will enjoy, but may be over the heads of smaller children. There is nothing I didn’t like about this movie. If you don’t see it and don’t love it, then you are probably just an idiot.

2012: It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

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Comets, climate change, aliens, and Plagues oh my! How many ways have we seen the world end over the years? Personally, I think it will be the zombies that get us, but in 2012 it is the Sun just as the Mayans predicted. John Cusack is our hero who is trying to save his family when he discovers the government has been hiding the truth from the people about the end of the world. What ensues is the reason for the film: special effects. The entire movie is based on the effects of the world coming apart. Things falling, volcanoes erupting, waves crashing, all forms of destruction that can be imagined. The goal is to make it as realistic as possible and they do a pretty good job. But can effects carry an entire movie? Not for most adults anyway. Cusack is a good actor and he carries off his role as the loser ex-husband who turns out to be a hero. Does he get the wife back? Does he save his kids? Is there any hope for Humanity? I’ll let you guess. There have been worse disaster movies and the effects will keep you mesmerized for awhile, so if there is nothing else to see, this might be worth a look.

The Men Who Stare at Goats: The parts are better than the whole.

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A wonderful ensemble and an interesting story based on some real crazy things the government tried should make for great movie. This has some great scenes and performances, but the whole kind of left me scratching my head. George Clooney is great as a crazy psychic warrior that takes Ewan McGregor on quite a wild journey. Jeff Bridges plays the officer in charge and is essentially “The Dude” in a uniform. Still a funny character. The best part of the film is the interaction between the dweebish McGregor and Clooney’s bipolar character. Through flashbacks we are told the story of this experimental military project and things are delightfully bizarre and humorous. Things fall apart in the end when there is a need to bring things back to the real world and try to give meaning to the whole adventure. It gets dumb at that point or maybe too bizarre, in any case it ends for me on a flat note that is disappointing. Three quarters of the movie is very good, so if you skip the last 15-20 minutes, you’ll have seen the best parts and can end on a high note.

Law Abiding Citizen: No he isn’t.

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Gerard Butler is either in great demand or wants to make money while he can. Either way he is making some decent movies. This one is not bad. Revenge has been a common theme since Homeric and Biblical times. Gerard decides to take on the criminal justice system after his family is victimized and justice is not served to his liking. The depth and intricacies of his plans are the key to this film and you wonder how he does it almost till the end. There is graphic violence and you may think this is one of the Saw movies in a few scenes. Jamie Foxx plays the Prosecutor who is trying to stop him. The characters are complex. No one is perfect and we see their flaws. There are some underlying messages that are lost in the action and violence. This is kind of like And Justice for All meets The Bourne Identity, but not as good as either. Still, this is an entertaining action/thriller that is smart enough to keep you guessing most of the way through it. Action for the guys and Gerard Butler for the girls, this could be a win-win for a date night movie.

Zombieland: Everyone loves killing dead people.

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It doesn’t matter how it happens, only that it does. I’ve been waiting for the zombie apocalypse since first seeing Dawn of the Dead on HBO at my friend’s house and then seeing Night of the Living Dead. I keep a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide handy and believe you can never have too much ammunition. Sean of the Dead was a great twist on the genre, being an overt comedy, and very enjoyable.  In Zombieland Jesse Eisenberg is the dweeb hero who gives us some simple rules for living in a world with flesh eating undead. He runs into the king of zombie killers, Woody Harrelson, and the fun begins. I don’t know the psychology behind our love of killing zombies, but this film makes it very entertaining. The contrast of normal vs. abnormal vs. the new normal is interesting even in a farce such as this. Bill Murray has the cameo of the year and is worth the price of admission in itself. Of course there is a love interest, because after the end of the world we always need a new Adam and Eve. If you like zombies, and who doesn’t, you’ll like Zombieland.

The Informant: Portrait of a Sociopath

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This is a fascinating character study of a true sociopath. You usually don’t see such people until they kill a bunch of people and make headlines. But the fact is there are legions of such people that function quite well when they find suitable employment. (Which tends to be Politics, law enforcement and the corporate world) Matt Damon is wonderful as the corporate executive/scientist who gets involved in a convoluted plot that involves him blowing the whistle on his company for price fixing. He works with the FBI and is hilarious in his escapades. The plot twists and turns through out and you may not figure it out until the very end. (If you deal with such people daily as I do, you will see it coming, but Damon is great to watch as he exhibits the perfect pathologies throughout the movie) I don’t like to give away too much in my reviews, so I won’t say too much. It is a good movie and a wonderful portrayal of a personality disorder at the least and probably a diagnosable mental illness. I bet you know at least one person who fits the mold perfectly.