January 2004 Archives
Well, the trifecta of depressing movies is complete. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both turn in excellent performances in their respective roles, but I'm beginning to wonder if Hollywood has forgotten how to make happy endings. The movie's setting, story, and its commentary on vigilantism all borrow heavily from 1996's Sleepers (right down to the ubiquitous presence of Kevin Bacon), which I think, in the end, is a much better movie. The Oscar buzz surrounding the acting in this one is understandable, but if you are looking for a even more powerful story, and more interesting characters, rent Sleepers.
If you enjoy feeling like you need therapy, by all means, go see this film. Cold Mountain was positively cheery by comparison. The story is compelling, however. It is essentially two overlapping Greek tragedies, with the protagonist in each serving as the other's antagonist. The result is that you find yourself rooting for both sides (here's a hint: neither side wins). But despite superb acting by two Academy Award winners, Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley, I can't bring myself to recommend that anyone see this movie because it is just so incredibly sad.
For Christmas my wonderful wife upgraded my old Handspring Visor Deluxe to a shiny new Palm Tungsten C. This gadget is definitely a 10 on the Cool-O-Meter ®. With a high-res color display, and built-in Wi-Fi connection and web browser, this one is hard to beat on features. I wouldn't recommend that you get in the habit of carrying it in your back pocket -- the case is not very rigid, and the glass screen is prone to cracking, and it will cost you $125 for Palm to repair it.
What's In Your Palm?
If you're like me, you've invested quite a bit of time looking for good applications and other cool stuff to load onto your Palm OS device. So you can now enjoy the fruits of my labors and if you see something here that you like, please feel free to download it for yourself. All of the packages provided here are freeware, most of which I got from PalmGear.com.
BibleR350d312.zip - Bible Reader - version 3.5 installation for Palm OS5.
FileZ.zip - Palm OS file browser
Khronos.zip - Digital stopwatch
TimeCopy1.4.zip - HotSync conduit that keeps your Palm's clock synced with your desktop.
palmbio.zip - Biorhythm plotter
conv21.zip - Scientific Unit Converter
ChemTable205.zip - Periodic Table of the Elements
trivopaedia12.zip - Trivopaedia - vast collection of trivial knowledge
PocketDivxEncoder - This utility is awesome! It uses the FFMPEG encoder to convert just about any video you have to MPEG-4. The compression rate is amazing. I can rip a 90 minute movie from DVD, and this will convert it to a 150MB AVI file! Which means I can hold five or six full-length movies on my 1GB SD card!
