Went with a nice clean new install of 7.10... backed up my documents and then wiped the partition. Probably for the best, I've now cleared out all kinds of junk that I've probably accumulated. The install from CD went incredibly smoothly, unlike doing the update over the network which failed miserably.
Interesting note that in order to configure compiz the way I'm used to, you have to install "ccsm" before you can turn on the cube and all the snazzy animations. Here's the page that told me all about that.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Quite displeased with Death Proof
No, that's not some new utility to keep your computer from crashing. It's Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse movie that did an enormous belly flop earlier this year.
He expanded his half of the movie and released it separately from Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, even going so far as to submit it to Cannes. My question is: why?
Maybe I'm too old to be a Tarantino fanboy anymore, or maybe I'm just getting cranky. But I was expecting more than the same old Tarantino stuff. There's a fine line between tossing out references to your previous movies to make the fanboys happy, and rehashing all your old material yet another time. Let's make a list: foot fetishes, foot massages, out-of-trunk shot, Big Kahuna burgers, "tasty beverages," Red Apple cigarettes... I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few at this point.
I also found the ending annoying on multiple levels. I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but my many many MANY readers can always ask for them. The abruptness alone was annoying. Maybe it's something that grindhouse pics do, but it was annoying nonetheless.
The only scene that did anything for me was when Kurt Russell was talking to "Butterfly" just before the lap dance--tension-filled and menacing. Other than that? Didn't like it at all.
He expanded his half of the movie and released it separately from Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, even going so far as to submit it to Cannes. My question is: why?
Maybe I'm too old to be a Tarantino fanboy anymore, or maybe I'm just getting cranky. But I was expecting more than the same old Tarantino stuff. There's a fine line between tossing out references to your previous movies to make the fanboys happy, and rehashing all your old material yet another time. Let's make a list: foot fetishes, foot massages, out-of-trunk shot, Big Kahuna burgers, "tasty beverages," Red Apple cigarettes... I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few at this point.
I also found the ending annoying on multiple levels. I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but my many many MANY readers can always ask for them. The abruptness alone was annoying. Maybe it's something that grindhouse pics do, but it was annoying nonetheless.
The only scene that did anything for me was when Kurt Russell was talking to "Butterfly" just before the lap dance--tension-filled and menacing. Other than that? Didn't like it at all.
Upgrade to Gutsy went not so well
Maybe I should have installed from a CD... instead I used update-manager to try to update my system from 7.04 (Feisty) to 7.10 (Gutsy). It took a loooong time to download all the files, then started taking even looooooooonger (yes, requiring even more Os) to actually install the files. I'm talking the better part of a day here. That should have tipped me off. Then, seemingly before all files had a chance to install fully, the update-manager window grayed out. Yep, now there's trouble.
On reboot, it thinks 7.10 is installed, and things work for the most part, but what isn't working is the nvidia driver. No nvidia driver, no compiz, no compiz, no happy. Will have to mess with this some more, or just give up, back up my home folder and some key config files, and start from scratch.
On reboot, it thinks 7.10 is installed, and things work for the most part, but what isn't working is the nvidia driver. No nvidia driver, no compiz, no compiz, no happy. Will have to mess with this some more, or just give up, back up my home folder and some key config files, and start from scratch.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Halo 3 deflates Hollywood box office?
Interesting theory... apparently the October box office is down dramatically, and some analysts believe it's due to Halo 3's release in late September. $200-$300 million spent on Halo 3 in the first week or two--yeah, that could put a dent in things.
Bad Box Office Sales Blamed on Halo 3
Bad Box Office Sales Blamed on Halo 3
Monday, October 15, 2007
New 360 and Freezing Forza
My 360 did arrive on Thursday as scheduled. Actually, it wasn't my 360, it was a refurbished 360 sent "to expedite the repair of your console" or some such phrase. The fact that it was a different 360 comes into play in a bit.
Microsoft was also nice enough to send along a 1 month extension to my Live membership. It's not much but it's something.
Interestingly, there was a orange slip of paper that was some kind of quality checklist stating what was done to the unit and how it was packed... I'm not really sure what all was done to it as the checklist was in Spanish.
So, on with the games, right? Almost. Got to play Halo 3 finally. Yes, I suck at Halo 3, I was able to confirm that. All other games seem to play just fine... with the exception of Forza 2. Almost every race I've done with it ends in a freeze. The console simply freezes up and won't respond to anything but powering down. This never happened with the old 360, just this new one, as if the freezing is component-dependent. Turn 10 doesn't admit to this on their forums, so it looks like I have no recourse or fix. I probably just won't play this game anymore... it's very frustrating to get 6 laps into a 7 or 8 lap race, and then have the game freeze. Grr.
Microsoft was also nice enough to send along a 1 month extension to my Live membership. It's not much but it's something.
Interestingly, there was a orange slip of paper that was some kind of quality checklist stating what was done to the unit and how it was packed... I'm not really sure what all was done to it as the checklist was in Spanish.
So, on with the games, right? Almost. Got to play Halo 3 finally. Yes, I suck at Halo 3, I was able to confirm that. All other games seem to play just fine... with the exception of Forza 2. Almost every race I've done with it ends in a freeze. The console simply freezes up and won't respond to anything but powering down. This never happened with the old 360, just this new one, as if the freezing is component-dependent. Turn 10 doesn't admit to this on their forums, so it looks like I have no recourse or fix. I probably just won't play this game anymore... it's very frustrating to get 6 laps into a 7 or 8 lap race, and then have the game freeze. Grr.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Homecoming?
Microsoft tells me that my 360 is on its way back to me, hopefully never to red-ring again. Guess I won't believe it until I see it but I've got my fingers crossed. But now the dilemma is: do I finish Bioshock or start Halo 3?
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
ATM was hot, hot, HOT!
Ran the Army Ten Miler on Sunday and boy was it hot. Not as bad as the Chicago Marathon, of course... sounds like 1/4 of the runners in that didn't finish and another fourth didn't even try to run in 90-degree temps. But it was plenty hot, and it showed in our times... I think we did 8:50 miles. Wasn't planning on running sub-8s as I'm heavier than I'd like, but it's nice to have another excuse for not doing so.
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