Last night we went to the launch party for a new magazine here in Los Angeles called tu Ciudad or just “City”. I wrote about it for LAist but there are more pictures on my flickr page, in case you are interested. It was a fun party with lots of free-flowing music and booze. Plus, lots of beautiful people having fun. And, the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was the setting. Good times.
This again? Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. Really it would not be too hard to get OSX to run on Intel or AMD chip. Well, at least for the smart engineers at Apple. I’m sure that in some vault at Apple it is already doing just that. Humming along nicely, thank you.
Already? I’m surprised it took this long. Not that I condone this kind of thing (illegal downloads, that is) and I don’t always agree with Cory Doctorow (although, he probably doesn’t know or care). He is pretty much right on the money with his latest post at Boing Boing. I question what good DRM is all the time.
Although, as I probably know one or two of those “shouting, petulant babies” he refers to I must make a hasty disclaimeer: If any of you are reading this, that’s one of the parts I don’t agree with. I’ve never heard you shout, at least at me. There, happy now.
Ok, gotta go see “Star Wars:E3ROTS” in a theater now.
It’s looking to be a pretty hectic next few weeks for your humble writer (me, in case you can’t figure it). This week I will be all over the City of Angels at various events. Monday night is a screening of a new film at Cinespace, which is a great venue to see films while drinking (not that I condone that). It should be an interesting time.
Also, at the LA convention center is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka e3. This event promises to be very interesting as it was in years past. New games, new consoles (like the XBox 360 or the PS3) and all kinds of other cool toys for me to play with. Plus, there are usually one or two attractive booth girls to talk to. Not that i care about that or anything. I’m there to work, dammit.
This time, I will not only be going just for fun I will be covering the event for LAist. So, I will actually have to take a few notes and a few pictures with something other than the Treo. I hope having to do a little work won’t interfere with my fun.
And of course, the other big event this week, at least for many, is Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I will be seeing it on Thursday at high noon at the fantastic Arclight theater. If you have never been to the Arclight, I highly suggest going.
The best part is that you can buy your tickets in advance and get an assigned seat. No waiting in line or getting there an hour early. And, another great feature is that the Arclight doesn’t show those annoying commercials before the movie. Just previews and then the movie. That’s it. It’s the only way to go.
If you are going to E3 or to see Star Wars, be sure to say “hello”. The secret word is “Teraflops.” Why? Why not?
Forbes has the info. “It all started with a story treatment, handwritten in pencil on a few sheets of lined yellow legal paper.” And the rest, as they say, is history.
They also have a breakdown of the “Star Wars” franchise and how the dollars flow and where they go. Inspiring or depressing? Take your pick. I’ll go with both.
Sorry, but I am really busy again and only had time to write for one site at the moment. However, here’s my latest bit for LAist for your reading pleasure.
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There is something missing at the movies this year. Butts. No, not on screen, although perhaps you didn’t notice. No, we’re talking about in the theaters. As in, theaters have more empty seats. People are not going to see movies as much as they did last year and the year before that.
Perhaps many people didn’t realize that the summer movie season has started? Or, they are just not very excited about medicore remakes of classic horror films, like House of Wax. Even if they do have Paris Hilton in them. Or, they don’t realy care about big-budget movies with stars that perhaps are not ready to carry a big movie on their slim shoulders, like Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever their motivation, audiences are finding other things to do than go to the movies.
If you look at ticket sales, movie studios threw a party but not very many people decided to attend. Maybe they don’t like who was invited? According to industry watch group Exibitor Relations, which tracks these things, ticket sales declined 22 percent this year versus last year at the same time. That’s a big drop which represents quite a few dollars, and for that matter, butts. And, overall box office is down about 11 percent for the year compared to last year.
Also, movie studios are releasing at least a dozen fewer films this year than last year and the time it takes for a film to hit DVD is getting shorter and shorter. All of these factors contribute to the less than stellar business for the movies and for the people that make the movies.
With so many people in Los Angeles having their livelood tied one way or another to entertainment, how long will it be before this box office slump, if it continues, becomes a problem for them? If the trend continues, many of those people may be forced to look elsewhere to make a buck and that buck may be smaller than they are used to. In that case, they may be forced to spend less and buy less.
That reduction in spending could potentially have a negative effect on the entire economy of Los Angeles. With less money out there, other services and businesses could be effected. So, help save Los Angeles. Go out and see a movie this weekend.
In case you were wondering (and who hasn’t?), here’s how Lightsabers work. Cool.
I have been busy for the last week or so. Thanks, in part, to the good folks at Apple Computer putting out a new version of OSX that has, shall we say, a few “issues”. There are many things to like about Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger. Features such as Spotlight, the new iChat AV, new Mail, improved speed and a host of other features make it a great upgrade in most cases. There are some problems and some annoyances that I have been dealing with not only on my own machines, but on machines of people I work with as well.
As always, MacFixit has the scoop on many of the problems as well as some solution that have worked for other users. Macintouch also has a cool matrix of reported software incompatibilities. And, there is, of course, the Apple Tiger Discussion Forums. No matter what, always make a complete backup of anything you care about on your computer before installing a major upgrade like Tiger. Better safe than sorry.
It’s no secret that people are having problems. Take your pic as to where to find a possible solution or work-around for any issues you might be having. There might be one or it might take a little time for one to be available. No matter what third-party software vendors do, i’m sure we’ll be seeing Mac OSX 10.4.1 sooner rather than later.
Apple’s latest OS, Mac OSX Tiger has arrived. We went down to the Pasadena Apple Store last night to get our copy. I installed it on my Powerbook and my G5 and all is well. So, go out and get yours right now and enjoy. I have provided a convenient link for you on the right. Isn’t that nice of me?
Happy Tigering (is that a word?) Sure, why not.
This is pretty cool. People with talent amaze me. I wish I had some. Is being a pain in the ass a talent? Well, if it isn’t, it should be. Or something like that.
Happy Wednesday everyone.