Tron: Legacy Soundtrack...

Tron: Legacy Soundtrack Review

By Daft Punk

"The Grid: A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see and then, one day, I got in…"


I just wanted to include a very informal review of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk on my blog because I feel that this music, is in some ways more powerful than the film (which I enjoyed immensely) and Daft Punk's musical score not only enhances the film, but stands as a body of work.

The opening piece, called "Overture", is emphatic and pounding and sets the tone for the entire score. This is Electronica at it's absolute finest! This is Mozart, had he 21st century technology…

The track "Armory" is very minimalist in tone and texture. This track is, what I could only describe as, seductive: inviting you into its mono-tonality and leaving you yearning for more. Fortunately, your ears won't linger unsatisfied for very long.

"Arena" & "Rinzler" take a turn towards the martial. Both tracks prominently feature a pounding, synth heavy rhythm. Basically, imagine Basil Poledouris' Conan The Barbarian soundtrack done with synthesizers. Both are excellent examples of powerfuliy evocative music.

"Adagio For Tron" can only be described as brilliant. Not since, Paul Oakenfold's remix "Adagio For Strings" have electronic musicians so succinctly captured the spirit of classical composition. Amazing, amazing stuff.

"The Game Has Changed" is a nice piece that is featured prominently in the theatrical trailer and is great example of how music can create a mental image in your head. I could listen to the track a hundred times and not tire of it.

"End Of The Line" is another gem. Smooth, silky, inviting, dare I say almost erotic. A refined example of what electronic music can be in the hands of skilled musicians.

Overall the soundtrack feels very minimalist, very Phillip Glass-esque. This music will create a powerful mental image in your mind and have you imagining the afore mentioned digital frontier over and over again...

All told there are 23 amazing tracks for a paltry $4.99USD on Amazon. This is a pittance when you consider Daft Punk's achievement. There is a reason why this soundtrack was more highly anticipated than the feature film and I will be the first one to admit that they did not fail to live up to the hype and deliver the goods.

I whole-heartedly recommend this soundtrack to anyone who is a fan of film soundtracks, electronica and just great music.

 Fight for the user and give it a listen… 

Holiday Shopping...

I'm horrible when it comes to holiday shopping...

I've realized that fact a long, long time ago. The "holiday" season always brings a certain level of anxiousness and anxiety with it, because I know I'm a horrible beast of a man when it comes to "shopping" and "gift-giving"!

"This year..." I told myself "This year was going to be different! I was going to be different!" I carelessly promised myself a different outcome and I'm sure most are you are familiar with the definition of insanity...

Well, this year was different in a few respects: I managed to get my christmas cards out in time (I usually only send them to a select few family members, I know its horrible of me, but please refer to the proceeding blog post before you judge me) and I also even managed to get a few gifts out the door too.

A few weeks ago, I rung up my Mom to ask her what she would like for Christmas.

"Hey Mom, how about a necklace? You know, one of those turquoise cross pendants that were really cool in the seventies!?" I asked, mentally willing her to answer yes.

"Well Son, you know I would love anything you got me."

Did I detect a hint of sarcasm in her voice? Even worse, was that disappointment!?

"Mom, come on! What do you REALLY want for Christmas!?"

A sigh on the other end of the line. Yeeeesssssss! Now we were getting down to the nitty-gritty. Exasperation is usually a good sign!

"Well Son, I would really like an iPod. I want some music to listen to while I'm walking..."

An iPod!? A f#@king iPod!? Really, this was going to be way too easy. I imagined a baby crying and someone running from the scene with handfuls of candy, absolute gobs of it!

"Well Mom, are you sure you want an iPod? Those devices are fairly complicated to operate."

I sent the warning shot over the bow of the proverbial ship, because I know that my Mother's computer skills, her tech knowledge in general, is pretty shabby.

Something so simple and intuitive to me, would be a labyrinth of confusion and fear in the hands of my Mother. She would eventually improvise, adapt and overcome (she was, after a all, veteran of the United States Marine Corps) but the learning curve would be steep and frustrating and unforgiving.

I was imagining her confusion when I sat her down to navigate the difficult and rough waters that is the iTunes software suite. So strange, so redundant, so completely unnecessary! iTunes is like cholesterol for your computer- eventually it will give your operating system a heart attack! It would make mince meat out of my mom's tenuous knowledge of her computer...

"Mom, how about an MP3 player that isn't an iPod. Something that isn't as difficult to operate, load with music and maintain." I felt confident, I felt like this year, Christmas shopping for my mother was something that I could do!

"Uh, ughmmmm okay Son, whatever you think is best..." my Mom's voice trailed off. I could feel the uncertainty on her end.

Would her reluctance foreshadow the frustrations and struggles to come?

I'll keep you posted!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Merry Christmas To Me!

My Review Of The Radeon HD6970 

Okay, so let me state for the record, again, that I am one of "those" guys…

You probably know a few of them, or have heard about them in some capacity. They might described alternatively as the "computer guy", a "techie", "fanboy", etc. etc.

The point is I'm the kind of guy that likes to have the latest and greatest technology: I am a gadget geek, a peacock of many newfangled gizmos!

My first and foremost passion is the PC. The PC was my gateway drug into the world of technology. Way back in the 90s I bought my first computer and it felt as if I had had a religious conversion. The dawn of personal computing (and by "personal" I mean a device that would gain monumental significance in my life) began…

Over the ensuing years I have built many machines for myself, friends and family. So its fair to say I've invested a lot of time in research and keeping up with current trends in technology.

Which brings us to this posting. My "pre-Christmas" graphics adapter was powered by the amazing Radeon HD5850 chipset. A revolutionary piece of hardware that garnered rave reviews around the planet. It was a very respectable piece of hardware and it played my games admirably.

My "problems" began when I upgraded my monitor to a 1080p capable display. My HD5850 would begin to "bog down" at higher resolutions. Full graphics eye-candy brought my graphics card to it's proverbial "knees". I knew I would need something more powerful.

I decided to upgrade and for awhile I was planning on going the Nvidia route. Nvidia's GTX 570 caught my attention for a few weeks, but I had reservations because I had used a Radeon card for so long. Besides, AMD's Catalyst drivers were thoroughly hooked into my system and I knew I would have a devil of a time purging my registry WITHOUT performing a complete reformat of my machine. 

Gah! 

A reformat of my system was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

So I waited… and waited… and waited... I researched and did my due diligence as I waited. Finally, AMD released their enthusiast line of GPUs: the 6900 series cards.

If you want to a thorough review of these cards I would suggest many of the tech sites who have posted more "professional" reviews (you know, the sites that have the fancy graphs and "professional" commentary, complete with fanboy commentary). However, what this blog post will attempt to achieve is an anecdotal account of my initial impressions of this card. 

So here we go!

Size: This card is big! I'm talking 11" of big! Not only is this card big, it's thick as well, it's gotta be, the video card shroud houses a rather large "blower" style fan and "vapor" chamber cooling solution. I think most male porn stars would be jealous of this video card's dimensions. Fortunately I was able to fit it in my Antec Nine Hundred Two. The Nine Hundred Two isn't the most spacious case on the market, but it is able to accommodate the physical specifications of most newer generation video cards. The fact that the power connectors for the HD6970 are located on the side makes all of the difference. 

Heat: This card gets HOT! The card is fully encased in heat dissipating materials which ensures that the tremendous amounts of heat the card generates are somewhat tamed. Under full load this card get noticeably warm to the touch, but unlike the 4800 series video cards, doesn't get hot enough to warm your computer case or burn your fingers. Thankfully the card quickly cools, thanks to the power management systems built into the physical hardware itself. I'm not a big fan of hot video cards, but AMD has really come a long way in lowering the temperatures with it's power management hardware/software schemes. Additionally, the inclusion of a "vapor chamber" style heatsink, a'la Nvidia's "Fermi" GPUs, helps keep the heat generated by the HD6970's GPU in check.

Noise: Sadly, this card is noticeably louder than my HD5850. This card includes a larger fan and heatsink assembly and the inclusion of these devices increases the overall noise level associated with this video card. Fortunately though, the noise levels aren't all that distracting and I have not been bothered by the increased level of noise that this card's fan generates. 

Power: Not much to say here. I haven't noticed an increased in the overall power demands on my system. I freely admit that I'm a power supply evangelist when it comes to modern PC computing. A quality power supply is, simply, a must in modern electronics. Without a quality power supply, your system is doomed to all sorts of problems and general instabilities. My system has yet to crap out on me since installing this video card ***knock on wood***!

Performance: I detected an immediate improvement in the graphics performance of my system. I am now able to play all of my games at the native 1080p resolution of my LCD panel with all graphical details maxed out. To be fair, I was able to do this with my HD5850 card, however, I wasn't able to enable full 8X anti-aliasing and HBAO effects. Although these details may seem rather trivial in the grand scheme of things, the ability to enable these effects definitely adds to the "wow" factor of the games I enjoy playing. I am now able to get a full 60FPS (frames per second) in all of my games. This fact alone was worth the upgrade price. My games run buttery smooth and thats a big deal if you're a gaming geek like me. The HD6970 also includes a full 2GB of VRAM. VRAM is important for things like storing textures, which in turn affects the performance of things like the rendering of distant in-game objects. While it's true VRAM doesn't always indicate higher "performance" at lower resolutions, the lack of VRAM will definitely affect performance at higher resolutions The HD6970 is a beast when it comes to rendering textures and I have a gut feeling that the true potential of this card will come to fruition in the future, when its abundance of VRAM and monstrous tessellation performance is fully implemented.

Software: The Catalyst Control Center and the AMD drivers have been pretty solid for a long time now. Classically, AMD/ATI's drivers were knocked for their bugginess. Fortunately, that reputation has been repaired in recent years. The real world benefit of the work done by AMD is that I experienced zero "stability" issues after uninstalling and reinstalling the latest Catalyst driver (10.12, as of this writing)…

Price: Ahhh, price. The all important factor for the gamer on a budget. I paid way too much for this video card at my local electronics retailer and even though I paid about 30.00USD over the MSRP, the convenience of being able to bring this card back within the 30 day return period must be weighed against the expense and patience involved in returning a high priced item to an internet based retailer like Amazon or Newegg.

My final impressions of this card are mostly positive when compared to my HD5850. That being said, I do feel that I paid a premium for technology that was disappointing, especially when you factor in it's inability to outperform Nvidia's GTX 570, which is about 20.00-30.00USD cheaper.

However, I felt that AMD's product was a better fit for me because it's software is so tightly woven into my current install of Windows and because of my extreme reluctance to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system in the event of a catastrophic system error i.e. the dreaded BSOD!

The performance of this card, while commendable, definitely comes at a premium if you compare it to Nvidia's product and ultimately price rules. If you're in the market for an AMD product, I would wait until the next iteration of AMD's flagship product, which should be far less power hungry and hot. If you need something right now and you're willing to put in a little extra work (especially if you're coming from an AMD based graphics card), I would recommend the Nvidia's GTX 570. 

Shock The Newbie!

I. 

I was making my daily rounds down to the water cooler at work the other day when one of my co-workers cornered me and said 

"Pat, you're a "computer-guy", I need some advice…" 

He shot me a confidence-affirming smirk. 

"Damn… I hate sales people…" I thought to myself 

I flashed my co-worker a knowing smile, after all, he was a noob. He was practically helpless when it came to matters of technology. 

"Yeah, something like that…" 

My fellow co-worker, Carl smiled and replied: 

"Good! I need your help…" 

Carl went on to explain his problem. Christmas was coming and he had decided to purchase a new monitor for his wife's PC. When he hinted that my computer savviness was well known around the office, my meekness was confirmed. 

I agreed to accompany Carl to a local big-box electronics retailer. 

"This should make an interesting blog post!" I excitedly thought to myself as Carl and I parted ways in the lunchroom. 

II. 

Perilous are the waters when treading the vast sea of tech with the computer illiterate. 

I am reminded of the dangers that Odysseus faced, not because Odysseus wasn't favored by the gods and not because the big O lacked any sort of cleverness, but simply for the inexperience of his fellow Greeks. 

There were several questions that I had for Carl. I wasn't sure if he had any answers. I know that Carl isn't a technical guy, but I really needed to know what kinds of video connections his wife's computer was equipped with. 

"Does your old monitor have one of those small blue plugs that you plug into the back of your computer tower?" I sheepishly inquired. 

"Yeah, I think so…" He replied; the confusion on his face was evident. 

He didn't have a f*$@king clue what I was asking him! 

I asked him a few pointed questions: 

How old was his computer? 

Who was the manufacturer? 

What sort of monitor was he currently using? 

("Does it look like one of those televisions we grew up watching?" I asked, satisfied by my seemingly superior wit.) 

I was eventually able to winnow my way to an answer as we wandered the vast, chamber-like structure of the electronics store. His wife's terminal monitor was an old CRT type beast and yes, it used a standard analog d-sub connector. 

Presently we found our way to the part of the store that housed the monitors. Literally dozens of displays sat arrayed in rows, glowing silently and dutifully. I pointed out a few models, made a few suggestions and explained the difference between the different models and connectors. 

Carl's biggest concern was future viability. He decided on a Samsung that had two HDMI ports and one D-Sub connector. I thought it a wise choice and openly mused about Samsung's quality. The matter was settled quickly. In fact I was surprised at how quickly he made his decision once he was armed with a modicum of knowledge.

III.

"With great power comes great responsibility..."

Believe it or not this quote brings me to the conclusion of my post. 

There is really only one way to approach the Carls' of the world. Keep your advice simple, concise and to the point and keep your interactions short. Demonstrate your knowledge, sow the seeds of that knowledge and then let them find their "wille zur macht"!

By overloading the "Newbies" in your life with too much data, you can potentially sabotage the softer bit of the brain that is in charge of making decisions. Always keep the less-is-more mindset and let the people in your life claim their inner-geek!

When you're that guy that people identify as being computer literate, they will flock to you with their questions faster than ghostly baseball players to a field of dreams! The goal of any geek should be to empower the computer-illiterate in their life. 

This advice serves two purposes:

#1: People who own a sense of power rely less on others and more on themselves. 

#2: People who feel empowered usually feel knowledgeable. 

This knowledge will keep the non-geek from pestering you in the future! This knowledge will also keep your superior knowledge in demand. Hell, it could even earn you a free lunch or a "date" with a hot chick -- in the form of going over to her place to have a look at her PC.

Hope this advice helps someone out there...

You can thank me later! 

Two Months With The iPad...

A Love Story

Part II.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder..."

Or so the expression goes and in the case of the iPad that expression resonated more and more as the summer wore on and innovation in the tablet market grew more interesting.

There was a ton of talk about this new-ish phone operating system called Android.

And the not-to-be-forgotten iOS continued it's relentless march. Unfortunately Apple's very public decision to hold off on the iOS 4.2.1 deployment on the iPad left me torn.

Those feelings of confusion and doubt evaporated once I realized that Google's Android operating system had very little traction in the tablet space...

For weeks I had been hearing about the tidal wave of tablets that were coming. The mythical iPad killer; the one tablet that could challenge Apple's juggernaut...

***Certainly there would be one tablet to rule them all!***

A friend and I engaged in spirited debates about the coming tablet warz and the veracity of the various hardware manufacturers' claims that their tablet would be the tablet that knocked the iPad from it's lofty perch.

While all of this was going on, my back was crying out for relief. Five pounds of laptop, even a very well balanced laptop is still quite a load to carry back and forth to Starbucks on a semi-regular basis. I know what you're thinking:

"Oh, boo-hoo!"

Yes, I'm a whiner, but that's my right as the author of this blog!

The point that I'm trying to make is that I was missing my iPad. The first stirring of doubt began one day when I bent over one afternoon with my backpack on and felt a dreaded twinge of pain.

"Oh no! Is five pounds really so heavy that it could potentially ruin my back!?" I mused to myself.

A few days later I had my answer in the form of some pretty excruciating lower-back pain. Perhaps I just moved on it wrong? Perhaps I stood up straight too quickly? Hell, perhaps the woman that I sold my iPad to had installed a voodoo doll app on my once-burned iPad and this was that evil (yet oh-so-sexy) piece of hardware's revenge?

And so I wondered to myself if lugging around a five pound block of aluminum, plastic, and glass was really worth it. Eventually my thoughts turned back to the iPad. I began to wonder if my attitude toward the device had been a bit too flippant and premature; after all the device was light, extremely portable and did most of the tasks that I did on my laptop efficiently enough.

In addition, the iPad did not have any moving parts that have earned a notorious reputation for sensitivity and failure over the years... yes, I'm talking about hard drives and optical drives! The iPad also generated very little heat - unlike my notebook, which heated up like an erupting volcano after a dozen minutes of intensive use!

I went back and forth on the subject for a few weeks. Thinking long and hard about a second chance with the device and gaining a new appreciation for it's capabilities and hadn't the market for iPad accessories matured to the point of producing a whole slew of useful cases, sleeves and screen protectors.

It was the impending release of iOS 4.2 that triggered my decision making process...

It was time to reunite with my lost love. I like to imagine that the sunset that evening was purple and pink, but it wasn't. It was just my imagination; my sad, pathetic, nerdy imagination (to further steal a line from the Temptations) playing tricks on me

In conclusion, I'd like to make a few points about the iPad for those of you interested in purchasing this device.

My first bit of advice would be to wait, if you can, until Q1 of next year when the second generation (or G2) version will be introduced by Jobs. Features that should have been on the first incarnation of the iPad will most certainly be on the second iteration. These features will make the device eminently more usable and polished.

If you're ready to take the plunge right away, you should keep in mind one single fact if you decide to forget all others:

The iPad will not replace your laptop or desktop!!

That is not it's purpose and it will break your heart and make you very upset if you labor under that false delusion.

What it will do though is give you a great web browsing experience from virtually anywhere in a highly compact and portable platform. I would say that this device functions as a surrogate for my laptop/desktop about 75% of the time.

That being said, it is not a full-featured computer...

But again, what it does (and it can do a great many things very efficiently), it does very, very well.

If you're on the fence about buying one, you should go down to your local Apple store, Best Buy or even Wal-mart and try one out.

You may fall in love...

(Don't say I didn't warn you!)

Two Months With The iPad...

A Love Story - Part I

Next week will mark a personal anniversary of sorts; it will be the two month mark for my iPad and I.

We had a rocky start and like any couple bound for catharsis and redemption, the stage was set for an eventual reunion.

When I first spotted the iPad, cradled lovingly in Mr. Jobs' arms during an Apple keynote address, I knew it was love and I thought to myself:

"This is the future of computing!"

I mean, how could it not be the beginning of something?

Wasn't this the magical and revolutionary device that Mr. Jobs promised us. Wasn't this the device that was going to revolutionize the way that I would use the interwebz? Wouldn't I have the power of the Internet and the sum total of human knowledge at my very fingertips!?

How could this beautiful piece of hardware be anything but magical? This svelte, wonderful pound-and-a-half slab of aluminum, glass and awesome that, roughly, three months later I held in my excited hands.

"Will this replace my laptop?"

"Can it do all of the things my laptop does?"

"Will it significantly alter my mobile computing experience?"

Questions plagued my mind as I struggled to contemplate the iPad's potential place in my digital lifestyle. I am unashamed to admit that I was smitten with the device when it was first announced.

The answers to all of the questions that I hitherto discussed with myself came in early April of 2010 when I finally purchased an iPad.

I am an "early-adopter". Early adopters often bear the burden of being burned by the bugs of first generation products (or "G1" products in geek-speak). Less importantly to the masses, but more importantly to their fellow geeks, is the "fan-boy" stigma associated with early adopters. I steeled myself for this stigma and reaffirmed my commitment to a philosophy, rather than a vendor. I wanted to be "that guy"! I wanted to be on the cutting edge of technology!

My first go-around with the iPad wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. I tried using the iPad as a laptop replacement. A job that it clearly was not intended to do. I didn't appreciate it's capabilities, I took it for granted and couldn't see it for what it was. I tried to change it and make it something I wanted it to be.

My initial approach was all wrong and doomed to fail from the outset.

I made all of the mistakes.

In short, I failed to see a good thing!

I ended up selling my iPad to a woman who was very excited to purchase one. Clearly she was in love.

"If you love something set it free" I thought "and if it comes back to you it was meant to be..."

I gave the woman a deal: I didn't charge her the sales tax and ridiculous recycling fee (i.e. tax) that I was charged when I bought my iPad.

I decided that my iPad was never coming back to me...

That was the end of my odyssey for several months, or so I thought.

The reality was that my experiences with the iPad and the possibilities therein were just beginning!

My Thoughts On The Chrome O/S

Just signed up for the Chrome O/S pilot program. The program attempts to marry it’s current beta stage software, with an attractive hardware platform and potential user.

The cynic in me scoffs at the idea of uniting an experimental operating system with a hardcore Google fan base. I find the idea somewhat counter-productive because of my doubts regarding the ability of a fundamentalist (or rather a dumb-damentalist) to be objective.

Google: [earnestly] How can we make this better?

[long pause]

Google fan-boy: [sincere; a slight tremble in the upper-lip] Can you make it any better? [bats eyelids]

If the engineers at Google plan to make a viable operating system they need two things:

+ Really smart programmers capable of combining a design aesthetic with simplicity. (An emphasis on security would be three things…)

+ Unbiased feedback: in the form of anecdotal experiences from the tech-savvy and from the open-minded “every” person sort of user.

In short, I think Google needs to follow Apple’s lead and develop a hardware platform that emphasizes a chic, modern aesthetic and an operating system that emphasizes minimalism, simplicity and ease-of-use.

I am a big fan of the Chrome web browser for a few of the above-mentioned reasons and I use the Chrome web browser almost exclusively now.

I would love a chance to be part of the Chrome O/S pilot program and I have applied for a unit. My next few entries will detail my experiences with the “do no evil” guys and their forthcoming operating system.

Wish me luck!