(no subject)
To anyone who was wondering where the hell I went for the last four days, my dad flew up to see me and we were running around in the rain, discovering that tours of the underground city CAN be surprisingly... drippy. :| I've more or less lost my voice from talking, but as long as no one wants to call me up to chat, we're all good.
So, instead, have a few quick reviews of my recent media experiences.
Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher
This is book eleven (I think?) in Dresden Files, and reviewing it is pretty redundant to anyone who's read other entries in the series. To me, this book sags a little bit and feels a lot like a transitionary piece setting up for Changes. Which sucks, because Changes is kind of a transitionary work too. Turn Coat is GOOD, but it's relentless and kind of emotionally exhausting, enjoying a nearly inexplicable plot phenomenon in which things seem to drag like hell while still cramming too much into every chapter. It's an enjoyable read but a little exhausting. 3.5/5, subtract one point if you HATE urban fantasy. Add one point if you're really a Dresden fan. Or possibly if the following moment is enough to float you through the surrounding misery:
"You're in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you'd prefer."
"You brought a sandwich?"
"Who do I look like, Kissinger?"
The Social Network
So apparently Rotten Tomatoes finds this movie to be absolutely immaculate. I will grant that it's a lot more enjoyable than any movie about the founding of a website deserves to be, probably. The acting is fantastic, in my opinion, and the characters are actually really well fleshed out. It's one of the more realistic portrayals of nerds I've ever seen in media, if not one of the more realistic portrayals of the college experience.
...That being said, it's one of the more realistic portrayals of nerds. Anyone who goes to school with, works with, or otherwise associates with guys in the CS field can give this film a pass, because it's more or less like two more hours at the office. Zuckerberg is that guy in your systems class, the one who doodled in his notebook to show how much he didn't NEED to listen and probably asked the prof questions like, "Well, did you ever think of trying it this way?" To everyone who's known that guy, the film's last minute attempts to redeem him fall a little flat. Very simply, he IS an asshole. It's just not the case that being an asshole necessarily means he's evil incarnate.
A+ for the side characters, consistently interesting and funny. Overall, if the film ISN'T totally your day to day life, it's overall probably worth a B+. You more or less won't feel like you wasted your time sitting through it.
Also, if anyone else sees it, can you please tell me what the point of the algorithm Zuckerberg was asking for at the beginning was? It sounded like an evaluation algorithm for expected outcomes (at least, that's what I gathered from it being used for chess), so what CONCEIVABLE purpose did it have on a site that didn't have any apparent AI component? Aside from that, I'll at least give their technobabble an A- for either being reasonable or being spouted so quickly that it wasn't obviously idiotic. No one was running off to DEFRAG. THE FREAKING. HUFFMAN KEY.
PS. MIKE'S HARD SPICED CIDER IS BACK IN STORES. I love this season so much.
So, instead, have a few quick reviews of my recent media experiences.
Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher
This is book eleven (I think?) in Dresden Files, and reviewing it is pretty redundant to anyone who's read other entries in the series. To me, this book sags a little bit and feels a lot like a transitionary piece setting up for Changes. Which sucks, because Changes is kind of a transitionary work too. Turn Coat is GOOD, but it's relentless and kind of emotionally exhausting, enjoying a nearly inexplicable plot phenomenon in which things seem to drag like hell while still cramming too much into every chapter. It's an enjoyable read but a little exhausting. 3.5/5, subtract one point if you HATE urban fantasy. Add one point if you're really a Dresden fan. Or possibly if the following moment is enough to float you through the surrounding misery:
"You're in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you'd prefer."
"You brought a sandwich?"
"Who do I look like, Kissinger?"
The Social Network
So apparently Rotten Tomatoes finds this movie to be absolutely immaculate. I will grant that it's a lot more enjoyable than any movie about the founding of a website deserves to be, probably. The acting is fantastic, in my opinion, and the characters are actually really well fleshed out. It's one of the more realistic portrayals of nerds I've ever seen in media, if not one of the more realistic portrayals of the college experience.
...That being said, it's one of the more realistic portrayals of nerds. Anyone who goes to school with, works with, or otherwise associates with guys in the CS field can give this film a pass, because it's more or less like two more hours at the office. Zuckerberg is that guy in your systems class, the one who doodled in his notebook to show how much he didn't NEED to listen and probably asked the prof questions like, "Well, did you ever think of trying it this way?" To everyone who's known that guy, the film's last minute attempts to redeem him fall a little flat. Very simply, he IS an asshole. It's just not the case that being an asshole necessarily means he's evil incarnate.
A+ for the side characters, consistently interesting and funny. Overall, if the film ISN'T totally your day to day life, it's overall probably worth a B+. You more or less won't feel like you wasted your time sitting through it.
Also, if anyone else sees it, can you please tell me what the point of the algorithm Zuckerberg was asking for at the beginning was? It sounded like an evaluation algorithm for expected outcomes (at least, that's what I gathered from it being used for chess), so what CONCEIVABLE purpose did it have on a site that didn't have any apparent AI component? Aside from that, I'll at least give their technobabble an A- for either being reasonable or being spouted so quickly that it wasn't obviously idiotic. No one was running off to DEFRAG. THE FREAKING. HUFFMAN KEY.
PS. MIKE'S HARD SPICED CIDER IS BACK IN STORES. I love this season so much.