Far East

The Junkman Cometh

In anticipation of Chinese New Year, people have to buy new clothes, thoroughly clean their homes (after all, it is the Spring Festival) and get rid of any old junk they have laying around, even if said junk is still functional. Junk-folk have a field day, as there is a designated area for citizens to dump any and sundry items they don't want cluttering up their home, up to and including appliances, furniture, beds, etc. A good way to get rid of stuff you don't have storage space for.

I, Approve

Though only loosely approximating Asimov (the credits read 'suggested by') in that there are robots, murder, and a shrink named Calvin, still a kick-ass flick. Particularly when Will Smith starts using his own deep dark secret against the robot menace.

Ooh! Ooh!

I so want to see the animated film A Scanner Darkly, now under production. Coincidentally, I just picked up a collection of Dick novels that include same, and currently reading it. Funny and scary.

In Your Face

The whole argument about torture and death squads, for or against (though I can't think of any for) misses one point: that they've been around for a long time, and that the main problem people have with them is not that they exist, but that they're out front where people can't ignore them. Seeing them mentioned in the news every day makes it hard to do that. Obviously torture and death squads bother people for their inherent wrongness, but if they're a bit more covered up, then we can safely deny them and go on our merry, super-sized ways. No amount of shiny baubles can distract from them at their current level of visibility. And that's bad for consumer confidence. Can't have that.

Creepy Time

Casting about for something good to read, and came across lost boy lost girl, by Peter Straub. Good idea to turn on all the lights when reading this one. It only has ghosts, a serial killer, suicides, and a haunted house. More cheery winter reading from Mr. Straub.

Free Tech

If you're a communist like me (see Bill Gates CES remarks), then you like Open Source software. Unless you're mega-rich, buying MS Office for the occasional use just isn't in the cards. Well, there's Open Office, you think to yourself; not exactly: you have to use the X11 windowing system (Unix) under Mac OS X to get Open Office to function. No nice Aqua/Quartz graphics, no tie-in with the Finder, etc. A real drag. Not any more! Now you can use Open Office under Java. All runs natively under OS X, with all the goodness that means. It's a big download (112MB), but well worth it. Link Spend the money you save on Office on something useful, like the new flash iPod, for instance (just a rumor, but Thinksecret.com is getting sued for that 'rumor', so may be something to it).