Go now. Play

This is a real treat. Darth Vader will read your mind...

Can't wait until I have some actual time to try and stump it.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day. I hope that everyone had a safe holiday weekend. I am headed home from vacation in the morning, so our holiday travel is almost complete.

We've had a fantastic trip, but for Memorial Day, I thought it appropriate to share one of the most fantastic moments for me.

We visited the Gettysburg battlefield last week, something that I have always wanted to do. Since I am traveling with two restless kids, I decided that a full, detailed tour this time around was out of the question. I made a short list of parts I really wanted to see, and set out with the family in tow.

On the list were Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, and the site of Pickett's Charge. To make this quick, I saw them all, including an accidental find - the site of the 20th Maine's stand on the southern slope of Little Round Top.

To stand on that ground, and envision the dedication, honor, and bravery of the men on both sides was truly amazing.

I'll record more about it soon, but wanted to share that quick thought.

Live From Hershey Park

Sitting on a bench in Hersheypark, waiting for the kids to finish riding the carousel. This park is absolutely amazing. Far better than Busch Gardens or Universal, even on par with some of the Disney parks.

The kids have had a great time, they love the simple little thrill rides and had a fantastic time on the full bore flume ride. I thought my son was going to jump out of his skin on the final plunge.

More to come...

Sith Rules

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. A movie event for me. The end of an era.

I saw the movie twice on Thursday, and overall, I think it was a pretty fantastic flick. We all know that Anakin will become Darth Vader. We all knew that he would be 'consumed' by the Dark Side. What we weren't privy to was how that was going to happen, what circumstances would unfold to make this promising, well-intentioned kid become a monster. I mean, not many kids say, I want to be a homicidal maniac when I grow up... how did Anakin fall to the Dark Side? How do you do that? It's something you are warned about on a seemingly daily basis, something all Jedi beware, how do you end up embracing it? Simple answer? Fear and Love.

And while Lucas cannot write interpersonal dialog to save his life (remember, Harrison Ford called him on that during filming of Star Wars, "You can write this shit, George, but you can't say it") he does spin a pretty good story, and the story is what made Sith so fantastic to me. Yeah, the special effects were jaw-dropping, but I expected that.

Anakin, faced with a dream that his love, Padme, would die in childbirth is desperate in his fear. Palpatine, who has been manipulating the young Jedi since... well, I gather since before he was born, plays to that fear masterfully. By dangling stories of Sith being able to prevent death and playing against the Jedi Order's growing distrust of him, Palpatine skillfully maneuvers the young Anakin into a position where it was virtually certain that Skywalker would lash out and embrace his darker nature. But while Palpatine maneuvered and schemed... Mace Windu created Darth Vader.

Plain and simple. Windu, and to some extent Yoda, never trusted Anakin. They felt he was too close to Palpatine, but instead of trying to display their confidence and trust in the Anakin, they continued to use and distrust the young Jedi. When the council, probably spurred by Windu, asked Anakin to spy on the Chancellor, they sealed their fate. That act set up the terrible fall that would occur. Yes, Palpatine carefully arranged all the circumstances, but in the final result, Mace Windu pushed Anakin over the edge created by the Chancellor. Now, I don't blame Windu. He was doing what he thought was right - but it is a testament to the failure of wisdom on his part, and that of Yoda.

Lucas really did this right. As Anakin slipped farther and farther into evil, I found myself wanting to slap him out of it. To yell at the screen, "don't do that!". When he confronts his pregnant wife on Mustafar and ends up choking her nearly to death, I was on the edge of my seat. It wasn't until about halfway through the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader that I really realized that Skywalker was lost for good - that he truly was Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.

The movie very much deserved it's PG-13 rating. I saw way too many kids in that theater, in my opinion. My son would have loved to see any of the Star Wars movies, but at the age of 5, he is still too young. Maybe in a couple of years, I can start him out on the original trilogy. Anyway, Sith had two scenes in particular that made my blood go cold.

First, as Order 66 is being executed, and all those scenes were heartrending to me, Anakin enters the Jedi Council's Chamber and finds Younglings, no more than seven years old, hiding. When they ask what they should do, his only reply is to ignite his lightsaber. Even though it happens off camera, the fact that Anakin killed those children was a 'holy crap' kind of moment. A foreshadowing of Vader's evil.

Second, as Vader lies (in four pieces) on Mustafar, his mangled body slides too close to the lava, and his clothing ignites. The audience gets a lovely view of him screaming and burning. That was pretty awful to watch - even though by that point, Vader was clearly evil and probably even deserving.

I could really go on and on, but I don't have any more time. Overall, I enjoyed the movie - it was exactly what I expected to see. I'm still processing things, and I plan to see it again next week, so I might have more insight/commentary then.

Until then... may the Force be with you.

Sith, Vacation, Toys, and Tor

Got a lot to cover this morning. I've been itching to write some stuff down, but time has been at a premium lately. I've been hacking out pieces of this post all weekend on my Treo, so I'm going to tie a bunch of stuff together this morning.

First. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. I've seen it twice, and frankly, I loved it. It was better than either of the other prequels, though still lags behind Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars (I refuse to actually call the first movie 'A New Hope'). I was going to review the film in this post, but I'm going to put the detailed, spoiler-ridden analysis in a separate entry.

Vacation. We leave Wednesday for a week's well deserved vacation. We are headed to Pennsylvania (yeah, that's was my reaction at first too..) to spend some time in Hershey, Amish country, and Gettysburg. I'm looking forward to the trip, not the least because we all need a change of pace. The kids are excited - they get to see chocolate getting made - and I'm looking forward to getting to see Little Round Top and Devil's Den. Not to mention the site of Pickett's Charge. Thanks to Blogger's email features, I'll post some from the road.

Last week, while in Wal-Mart, my 5 year old son picked up a Star Wars minatures-type game called Attacktix. He instantly fell in love with the slightly goofy looking Star Wars figures, so I started reading some. Turns out, it's a very simple game, so I took a chance and bought a starter set and two boosters. It's a 'collectible' game, meaning that you buy the initial box, which contains four known figures and a random model, and the booster packs contain three random figures. The starter box, which comes with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader (pre-armor), a Clone Commander, a Wookie Commando, and one random figure, isn't enough to really get going, so you need at least one booster right off the bat.

My son was hoping up and down in the store, and hasn't stopped chattering about the game all weekend. We've played several games, with the simplified ruleset, and he is having a great time. I admit, so am I. The game is stupid simple. The figures are all either 'Shooters' or 'Strikers'. A Shooter has a spring loaded missle launcher of some description, while a Striker has some sort of spring action melee weapon (Obi-Wan and Vader each swing lightsabers). The object is to actually knock the other guy's figures down, and the player with the last figure standing wins. Each figure can move a number of 'tix' on its turn, and as you move the figure across the table, the base will click. When you move the right amount of 'tix' you stop. Once you move all your figures, two of your units can attack, either by swatting at another figure with the melee weapon, or by firing a missile. That's pretty much it. It's simple enough that my son can play, and he loves it. There are advanced rules regarding special powers, but we haven't gone there yet. Right now, I let him take four or five figures, and I'll line up three or four against him and we go. I don't always let him win - he's old enough to learn that sometimes you lose - but he has fun anyway.

I see all kinds of tactics that can be used, flanks, screening high value units with the fodder, etc. I'll teach him the basics of that stuff as he gets older. As it is, I plan on buying a few more boosters.

Last on the to-blog list today is Tor. Tor is an onion routing project that I read about on /. Onion routing, to put it simply, is the process of routing packets through several intermediary servers and routers to obfuscate the origin and destination of the traffic. I've been on a bit of a privacy/securty kick lately, and I think I'm going to tinker with this. While I don't have much use for it day-to-day, I can see where it would be valuable to me when traveling with the laptop and I'm not assured physical security on the network I'm connected to.

Oh, bonus material! I bought a new digital camera this weekend. Actually, it's a digital camcorder and digital camera rolled into one: the Samsung SC-D6550. So far, I'm pretty thrilled. We'll see how it fares on vacation.

Chindi, Out.

Episode III

Yes, I've seen it. Twice.

More to come on that... and I have plenty to say.

3:43 And Counting....

Until I see Episode III.

Woot!

The office folks, along with some friends and my wife, are meeting at 10:30 at the mall parking lot where we are going to tailgate prior to getting in line. Scary, huh? I think so.

A Small IT Project (Literally)

My friend Narthex and I have been discussing, off an on, the virtues of having a secure suite of tools stored on a USB Flash Drive. And while that was a cool theory, I never really had a need for such a thing.

Enter my wife.

I sit at my desk all day, Trillian running, but I can't chat with her. Why not? Because the agency she works for has removed Windows Messenger from all their XP workstations, and they do not allow software to be installed. That is where the geek husband comes in.

I started looking around a while back for an IM client that would run from some sort of removable media. There is Miranda (www.miranda-im.org), but I've never used it. Ideally, the solution on my wife's end would be Trillian, since SecureIM would ensure that the IT wonks at her office wouldn't be able to listen in. And yes, they do that. I hope they are reading this blog - you guys are a bunch of clueless wanks. Yes you. In the white shirt. Get a real job! Failing that (which you will) at least figure out how to do this one properly! Dickweed. (There is some back story there, but I'll save it for later).

Ahem, excuse me.

It didn't take long to find trilliananywhere.com. By following the simple 'wizard', and extrapolating the info there to make the unlisted changes necessary for the latest version of Trillian (3.1 Basic in this case), it took about thirty minutes to get it working. I now have a fresh copy of Trillian, loaded with my wife's ICQ number, that will run from any location, including a USB key.

My next move is to stop by Best Buy, get her a 128MB key (they're cheap) and copy the directory over. The site even has info on how to create an autorun, so that whenever the disk is inserted, Trillian starts. Perfect!

The directory weighs in at about 15MB, so she'll have ample space left over to move files from work to home.

I'm tempted to move my Trillian install over to my USB key. I could then take it all with me whenever I move computers. And since I am looking at a virtual machine solution for web browsing and email, I would have an all-in-one type solution. All on a USB flash drive. Nice. That'll be the next project.

HUMINT Still In Trouble

A report released in March stated that intelligence analysts did not have enough new information to determine if Iraq actually possessed WMD. Really?

Since 9/11, intelligence agencies have come under increased fire due to the fact that their human intelligence - that is, spies - capabilities are limited. Toward the end of the Cold War, greater importance was placed on 'technical collection'; satellites, signals intelligence, and other means. Human intelligence (HUMINT) was placed on the back burner in favor of these other methods that were of lesser risk.

We've been paying for that decision for a while now, and the rebuilding process is very slow.

Even though there has been much clamoring over the need to increase HUMINT capabilities, particularly in the Middle East, growing these networks take time and resources. The recent appointment of a National Intelligence Director is a step in the right direction. But the obstacles are varied and complicated, particularly in where we need information the most - the Middle East. America's policies over the past decades have made us very unpopular with the people of that region, and the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq have only made that worse. Convincing the people of that region, using money, sex, or ideology, to assist us in our "war on terror", is proving difficult, I'm sure.

My major concern, at this point, is that while we may have all the earnest intentions necessary to create a new network of human assets, our status of pariah in that region will hamper all our efforts.

Newsflash: NBC Disappears from my TiVo

Okay, not completely, but close. With the cancellations of Third Watch and American Dreams, which are exactly half of the one hour dramas that we recorded, things are looking bleak for the network. Add in the fact that they are moving the ailing West Wing to Sunday night... and I might stop watching that too.

Basically, NBC is in really sorry shape. They have exactly one show left that we watch - The Apprentice. And no, I'm not interested in the Martha Stewart version.

TiVo has made me really, really picky about what I watch. And so much that the peacock puts out these days just doesn't pass muster. We'll see what they can come up with in '06.

American Rant

There is an article this morning on CNN.com that is reporting on a documentary being shown this week at the Cannes Film Festival. Called, "The Power of Nightmares", it focuses on the idea that current conservative administrations in the U.S. and Great Britain are exaggerating the terrorist threat to move their own agendas. The direct comparison is to the exaggeration of the Soviet threat during the Cold War.

I haven't seen the film, but I plan on it, simply because it appears to reinforce that which I already believe.

The recent forced passage of the Real ID bill makes me sick. The methods used are a blatant highjacking of the intent of the founding fathers, and everyone involved should be deeply ashamed. Not only was the bill passed with no debate, but it was done so with relatively little furor at all. I'm guessing that most people in the U.S. actually believe that the measure will make them more safe. Those folks should turn on their brain, and go read Bruce Schneier's essays on the issue.

ID's do not increase security. They are marginally effective at labeling a person with their name, address, etc., but that alone does not increase security. In fact, that does not impact security at all.

I do not know how many times I've entered a government building, usually as a guest or contractor, and showed my driver's license to the guard. In return, I got a battered Visitor's Pass to clip on my shirt that included a number, such as "601". On the sign in log - a simple xeroxed piece of paper - I would put my name, purpose (invariably for me it was either "Visit" or "Appointment"), and badge number. I'd also indicate the current time.

I was then free to enter the building and go about my business. No searches were made of my person, by briefcase, or anything else. How, exactly, does this make that building, or the employees working there, more secure? In my opinion, they don't.

And remember, the ID I used was a state driver's license. Now, fast forward four years. Same scenario, except this time, I show my new driver's license that complies with the requirements of Real ID. What changed? Absolutely nothing.

Now this starts to come full circle. I believe, with all my soul, that the current administration, at least in the U.S., is very much caught up in its own agenda.

They need to be proactive. Not a single politician, Democrat, Republican or Independent, can afford to appear to be sitting by, waiting for the next attack on U.S. interests. So to avoid the appearance of inactivity, they are fervently going after anything that the average person might consider to be 'additional security'. They set up 'alert levels' (I still don't know what those mean to me), they increase the appearance of security at airports, they pass intrusive legislation (Patriot Act, Real ID), and they attempt to frighten us into believing that this is all necessary to prevent terrorism.

They need to be right. The American people have very short attention spans. We are bombarded with information on a regular basis, from the moment we awake to the time we close our eyes at night. In order for the administration to maintain our focus on the 'dangers' of terrorism, they simply have to turn it into the 800 pound gorilla. If they don't, if they admit even once that al Qaeda is only a moderately organized splinter group, hiding in deserts and caves, with a few cells operating throughout the world... then we as a people will do several things. One, we will immediately turn our collective attention to 'American Idol'. Two, we will clamor that all the money and lives spent over the past 26 months in Iraq are wasted, and three... we might even elect a moderate or liberal administration the next time around, sending the neo-con cabal of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Delay and friends into powerless retirement.

Tell me I'm wrong.

And I really (seriously) don't want this to be anti-Bush, anti-Republican, or whatever. I still believe that these guys are doing what they think they need to do. Yes, personal power is guiding them to some extent, but I guarantee that personal power guides almost every politician. I just wish that this administration would realize that the American people are not as stupid as Karl Rove makes us out to be, and level with us.

Ah, the weekend...

Time to kick back and relax. Except I think I have more to do on the weekends that I do during the week. Really fun things like clean the house, mow the lawn, etc. As you can see, I'm making fantastic progress on my procrastination.

Team Dynamics

Chatting with Narthex today illustrated something that I haven't been able to put my finger on before now: the power of a functional team dynamic in the workplace.

Before I go any further, I should point out that I like and respect all of my former co-workers. That said, the team blew chunks.

In the spring of 2004, I headed up a small development team on a software project. In the end, the client was a nightmare, the client data was worse, and we fell behind. But I still had a team. We still made it a point to do stupid things like play Unreal Tournament and watch movies. Why? Because if you don't do things like that, people won't want to pull 110% when it comes to be crunch time. After that project finished, the cash flow problems started, and my entire team was layed off. Eight months later, with a huge sigh of relief, I resigned.

Those last months with the company are some of the worst times of my career. We had no leadership, no cohesivness. All the remaining employees were simply concerned with saving thier own skins, and frankly, it sucked ass.

Compare that to my current job. I feel like a valued and respected part of a team. The bosses know how to pull people together, from simple movie trips to four day retreats in the Keys when crunch time came. It's remarkable. (Which, oddly enough, is why I'm remarking on it.)

Only going back to my ISP days, where we all played darts and pool, and sat around griping about clients to one another, have I worked in such a healthy environment.

Here's to hope that it lasts a while.

Wookie Hooky Is On!

Is it playing hooky when your boss is going with you? How about when they buy the ticket for you? I think it has officially become a sanctioned team-building exercise.

So next Thursday, my entire office will be heading to the multiplex to see Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Can't wait.

And in case you are wondering, yes there will be in depth, spoiler ridden analysis here on this site. Stay tuned.

Sprint Treo 650 Versamail Crashes

My Treo 650 is, by far, the most fantastic communications device I have ever used. It does, however, have a major flaw. The e-mail application that ships (in ROM) with the handheld is a buggy piece of crap. Versamail, even the 3.1c version (the latest), contains a fatal flaw. At some point, it's going to start 'looping'. That is, every time you launch the app, it's going to soft reset the 650. As one comment in a forum put it, "So basically, you have a 'crash me' button on the front of your phone." Not the best design feature.

This morning, my Treo started this behavior. This is the second time I've dealt with the issue, and I figured that I should record my fix here for posterity. For the record, this is taken from several sources I found thanks to Google, and it definitely not the most 'surgical' approach. In fact, it's the sledgehammer approach. Anyone using this should know two things before getting started. 1. It involves a hard reset of your device, and 2. you lose all the email, attachments and Versamail settings on the device.

1. Hot sync the Treo.


2. Perform a hard reset. On the Treo 650: take off the battery cover, hold down the power button, and press the reset button with the stylus. Wait until the circular Palm logo appears, then release the power button. Press up on the D-Pad, and everything just went, *poof*. Follow on screen instructions from there.


3. Open the Palm user Backup directory, typically, DRIVE:\Program Files\palmOne\<DeviceName>\Backup


4. Delete (or simply remove) the following files: MultiMail_Attachments.PDB, MultiMail_Disconnected.PDB, and MultiMail_Messages.PDB. These contain your Versamail messages, attachments, and account settings.


5. Hot sync the Treo again. When prompted, choose the the existing username that was associated with the device before the hard reset.


6. At this point, the device should be back to the state it was in prior to step 2, with the exception of Versamail. Versamail is a clean slate at this point - which was the initial goal.

You can renew the Versamail settings by going into Palm Desktop and then Hot syncing again. All your messages are gone, but the account settings are restored.

This procedure works well for me simply because I use Versamail to keep track of my messages from anywhere, but I don't care about storing mail long term. So the loss of mail and attachments doesn't bother me. If it bothers you, yo might want to think twice before trying this. There are other solutions out there that include a third party utility, deleting files from your handheld, etc. But the time investment there wasn't worth it to me.

Hope this helps someone.

Malicious Software Removal Tool

My workstation this morning had updates from Microsoft to install. Namely the "Malicious Software Removal Tool". Is it just me, or is this thing just oddly implemented. It has no user interface that I can find, so I can only assume that it does its scans... well, I don't know when. When it's updated? On some schedule that I can't control? WTF?

I hate stupid software.

All is right with my world...

Yes, my wife is out of town and I miss her. Yes, I'm getting over strep throat and feel pretty run down. And, yes, my son told me a while ago that his throat was starting to hurt.

But.

When I woke my son up to take his temp and give him some Advil, he sleepily told me, "Love you, daddy."

Thanks, Bud, that makes it all good.

Back Into ColdFusion

My new job is a 100% ColdFusion environment. That's a switch from what I've been doing lately, and frankly, it's a relief. At first, I was a bit apprehensive about going from object oriented C# back to CFML scripting. Then I realized that my ColdFusion expertise is a couple of versions out of date.

The last version of ColdFusion that I used extensively was CF 5. Since that time, three major release have passed me by. As I started to dig into the new capabilities of CF MX 6.1 and MX 7, my jaw hit the floor.

First and foremost are ColdFusion Components. While at first glance they appear to simply be another way to encapsulate and reuse code, they are much more. First, they are pseudo-objects. That is, they can be instantiated as objects in CFScript blocks, properties and methods can be referenced using dot notation, and they can extend from other objects. There are limitations, apparently, in the areas of persistence and levels of inheritance, but the are a huge improvement over straight scripting. For me, they let me design the way I've come to prefer, where business logic is safely segregated from the presentation layer.

Second, every CFC is a SOAP Web Service. Simply by calling the CFC file as a URL and adding the query string '?wdsl' the CFC responds as a web service. Talk about versatile. I'm so excited I can barely stand it.

The good news is I have plenty of projects to flex these new techniques on. As I go forward, I hope to share some code snippets here for the sake of posterity.

Other People's Data

I have decided that I will never again take on a development project where I have to build an interface to other people's data. It's a nightmare - always.

I'm consulting for a client of my previous employer. They have an application, which I built originally, that is causing them some problems. The issues, as it turns out, all relate to the data in the database. Since the app is strictly an aggregation and reporting tool, the changes in data structure come out of thier other systems. Now they are upset because the data no longer looks right.

It's ridiculous. And since the systems in question now reside behind a firewall, it's pretty difficult for me to diagnose the issue.

So never again. I will not do anything like this again, especially in the education market.

A Paradigm Shift

In my eight years in the IT field, I've always worked for companies that focused on information technology in one way or another. I was a network administrator at an Internet Service Provider; a programmer for a firm providing IT solutions for tradeshows; a programmer and sysadmin for a company that provided IT products and services to the education market. Every one of those organizations held IT as a core mission.

My current job is with a university center that does emergency management training, exercises, and policy planning and consulting. The IT component is simply a support function, yet I find the work infinitely more satisfying than anything else I've ever done.

Which brings me to the point. This truth, that IT can shine best when supporting something bigger is a fact that has escaped me for over eight years.

I've stopped thinking of myself as a 'senior programmer/analyst'. I now think of terms of simply what value I can bring to whatever mission we are working on. From designing a better database, to providing support to the people who are in the field, I'm thrilled to do it all.

More on this later, I've got to get some sleep.

Single Parenting... Temporarily

My wife is traveling this week, which leaves me home alone with the kids. Normally this isn't a bad thing, but I came down with strep throat over the weekend, and I still feel like I've been run over by a bus. My biggest fear is that as I am getting over this stuff, one or both of the kids will come down with it. I felt terrible, and I'd hate to see how it hits a 5 year old or a 2 year old. So far, and this is two days after I got it, there have been no signs. They bounced around this evening just like their normal selves. If they wake up fine tomorrow, I'll start to feel more confident.

I've got my fingers crossed.

On an good note, I discovered that my new boss is very cool about this. I felt pretty bad about calling in sick today, but I figured no one wanted my contagious butt in the office. Not only was she nice about it, but insisted that I take it easy and not code from home. Wow. I finally have a boss that understands that other things might actually be more important than work.

On Revenge

The first reviews for Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith are hitting the mainstream. I've been avoiding the flavors of spoilers out there, I like my spoilers mild and non-specific, but I found most reviews are polite about that. Especially since, like Titanic, everyone pretty much knows how this ends. This movie is all about the ride.

Most of the reviews agree that while the film may not be the greatest, it's at least better than the other two entries in the new trilogy. Comments included raves for the effects and filmmaking, slight praise for the story - many mention this is the culmination of many plots woven through the first two flicks - and diatribes against the bad dialoge and wooden acting.

Exactly what I was expecting, actually.

I should point out that I am a huge fan of Star Wars. Nothing entertained me more as a child. Nothing else captured my imagination as Lucas' vision. Nothing else has stuck with me the way those stories have. My first 'no fucking way' movie moment was when Vader claimed to be Luke's father. Of course, I doubt I expressed it that way at the tender age of 9. My first glimpse of redemption came at the end of 'Jedi' when Vader choose his son over his master. That act of selfless compassion is what cemented my belief that Darth Vader was the best villain ever. He showed that courage could overcome a lifetime of evil, that a live could be redeemed. Once again, while these seeds were planted at the age of 11, they would fully form a few years later.

The fact that Vader looked and sounded frickin' cool just helped get the message across.

So, the reviews thought the writing was weak and the acting was wooden? Well, duh! I'm not going to the theater to see an Oscar caliber film. I'm going to watch the culmination of 27 years of space fantasy, boyhood dreams, action serials, and spectacular confrontations between good and evil. I'm going to see how the tiny kid we met on Tatooine became the evil monster feared by all citizens. How the child who just wanted to help people was finally corrupted into Darth Vader. And I know I'm going to groan a bit. So what? Anyone who watches 'Return of the Jedi' groans a bit when the Ewoks show up. (Admit it, you do. All three people who liked the Ewoks are dead. One from old age in 1986, and the other two, brothers, in a freak snowmobile accident. So face it, everyone else detests them) And anyone who thinks Mark Hamill could actually act really needs to be taken out back and beaten. But we loved him anyway. Not because his overdramatic delivery was good, but because the story was so much fun; the action fantastic to behold. I expect the Ep.III is going to be the same. Helluva ride, with forgivable blemishes.

Everyone is talking about how awesome the visuals are in this movie, especially the fianl showdown between Anakin and Obi-Wan. I remember reading about that duel when I was a kid, and arguing with friends about how someone could survive getting dumped in lava. Now we get to find out.

To sum all this up, I've gotten excited about this flick, and I've dropped my cynicism about the movie. I don't think it's going to suck, and I can't wait to experience it.

Blogger and w.bloggar

As part of my objective to renew my blog, I've completed testing on a new blog engine to replace Moveable Type 2.61. Blogger, now owned by Google, has come a long way since it was the first home of my blog (still active at chindi.blogspot.com). All their new features, combined with the ability to post pages via FTP to my ColdFusion server made it an easy choice.

Right now, I'm live at both URL's, but very soon (once I have all my old content transferred into Blogger) I'll be retiring the old server.

I've also discovered a replacement for Zempt - w.bloggar. This is a tool that allows publishing of entries to several different blogging engines. It is feature rich, and easy to use. Overall a nice tool.