Archive for the 'Opinion' Category

Oh God, My Childhood!

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on May 29, 2008
in Movies, Opinion, Rambling and Sad
. Comments

So I’ve been thinking about my childhood recently.  Really because the first dog I had is being put to sleep tomorrow.  Super sad.

Then I started thinking about all the new movies that are just remaking or continuing my childhood.  First, let us talk about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  This is probably the best of the recent childhood rehashings.  It wasn’t the best of the Indy movies by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a fun movie.  As a continuation of my childhood memories, it did a fairly good job, but it definitely didn’t match up to Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  So at this point, my memories of childhood are doing ok, still alive.

Then we come to the hardest hit portions of my childhood: Star Wars.  The original trilogy was one of the greatest movie memories I’ve had.  Since then, they have been among my favorite films and I really geeked out on them.  Then the prequels were released.  When I saw Episode 1, for a while, I tricked myself into believing it was a good movie.  Eventually, I had to face the facts and admit, it sucked hard.  Episodes 2 and 3 raised the bar a little with each movie, but never to the levels of vision and ingenuity shown in the original three.  Once Revenge of the Sith ended, I was hoping that the Clone War saga was put to a close and the Star Wars franchise could just die in peace, with what little dignity it had left.  That is what George Lucas did to his own series, he murdered it in cold blood.

Now, to exhume the body and presumably rape the corpse, is Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  The story to link together the stories of Episodes 2 and 3.  Just the last bit of shit to make sure that the Star Wars fans are completely pissed off and the series is wholly and completely trashed.  Don’t get me wrong, I will go see it, but I will NOT be waiting in line on release day.  I have seen what George Lucas has done to his much loved series and I am not excited about what’s coming.  Maybe I will be shown wrong and it will be a good production, but my expectations are so low, they can’t really be called expectations.

The last thing that I will talk about is Back to the Future.  This was another trilogy that was so well made and just enraptured me as a child.  The movies wove together so well and were excellently delivered by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd (among others), they also stand in my favorite movies below Star Wars and Indiana Jones (respectively from great to slightly less great).  Thankfully, the rumors of a fourth BttF movie were squashed and it will not be in production.  You can’t grasp how happy this makes me.  The series finished itself at the end of the third movie and everything was wrapped up all nice and tight.

Why do there need to be remakes and re-imaginings of movies that were just fine the way they were?  If you want to bring the movie to a newer audience, let them watch the original.  Let them figure out that if weren’t for these original classics, the stories we know and love today wouldn’t be around.  Please, let the old stories lay in peace.  They don’t need to be rehashed, reimagined, redone, recovered, rewhatevered.  There are so many creative people out there with so many great ideas and skills, give them a chance.  Throw some money to the independent film makers instead of $200 million dollars to remake and fuck up a movie that was just fine the first time.  Creative and original stories are the way to go.

The Future of Television

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on May 8, 2008
in Computers, Media, Opinion, Technology, Television and future
. Comments

As some of you may know, I am a Broadcasting major at University of Central Missouri in mid-west Missouri.  That’s right, I’m in the mid-west of the Mid-West.  Well, you should also know that I am a geek.  I mean… look at that list of social networks.  What that geekiness really means is, I like the Internet.  I’ve always liked it, but when I started working for Niche Productions, Inc. in Jefferson City, MO, I fell in love with media.  I changed my life around, dropped Computer Engineering at UMR (now Missouri S&T), and moved to Warrensburg to start an undergrad degree in Broadcast Media. Then, I found out there were these things called podcasts.  I love them.  This got me thinking.  A lot of thinking.  Where is this podcasting thing going to go?

This is when I developed my theory of the future of television.  The Internet is becoming such an increasingly important part of our lives.  The content available on the ‘net is astounding.  There is a lot of it.  A LOT.  User generated content, the ability to produce your own series, is more and more available, thanks to sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Revver, and the like.  A lot of that content is bad, but also, a lot is good.  Once we start moving to a more ‘net based viewer, I feel that the production values on a lot of shows will skyrocket along with their budgets.  Never before were we at such an opportunity for a Media Revolution.

The future of television?  I think it will have to change or die.  In the next ten years, the current model of television will be gone or at least severely crippled.  We are already seeing this in the structure of a season for many shows.  Viewable media will have changed into something we can’t exactly know, but I do know that it will involve the Internet and be at least somewhat interactive.  The ability to download and watch a show whenever you want.  Sounds a lot like a DVR, I know, but an Internet-based model will not restrict you to time slots.  The show will be sitting there, waiting for you to decide to watch it.

Some of you may be saying, “But I hate watching stuff on my computer monitor.”  I say back to you that you will be watching your content on a television.  Soon, there will be a blurring of monitor and television into the same entity.  You will sit down on your couch, check your email and watch a couple of your favorite shows.  Some of us do this already, but I will admit, the current system is… annoying.  The traditional keyboard/mouse system will have to change into something smaller, compact, capable of controlling several devices at once, and is easy to type and navigate on a computer interface.  Perhaps something like a haptic touch screen universal remote combined with the pointer capability of the Wii Remote.  Something you point at the screen to point and click, but also type on when necessary.

Regardless, the current broadcasting model will change.  I believe that instead of broadcasting shows, we will be receive Internet access.  Maybe not from the broadcasters, but wireless nonetheless.  Gone will be the days of tethered Internet.  Take your notebook or cellphone anywhere and access the web just as if you were at home.  Your computer attached to your TV will use that same wireless connection.  This way, the sets of eyes on your content isn’t restricted to the home, those eyes can be anywhere.  Able to reach anyone, anywhere, whenever they want.  Having access to all eyes all the time is a broadcaster’s dream.

Once we break down the current broadcasting model and broadcasters stop looking at the Internet as a rival, but rather a resource for distribution, we may see a Media Revolution that will take the bubble off Web 2.0 and move us past into waters unknown.

Are we mired in the current broadcast model forever, will there be a change, or will something completely different happen?

3G Rumors Afloat

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on April 29, 2008
in Apple, Cell Phones, Opinion and Technology
. Comments

Broken iPhoneSo, I just got home from a harrowing day of tutoring math.  A lot of people.  Ok, so I sit down in my comfy chair and at my trusty PC and start going through Google Reader and my RSS feeds to see what happened since I checked earlier today.

Well.  Apparently AT&T is going to subsidize the cost of the new 3G version of the iPhone down to $199.  I was at first very happy.  I’ve been waiting for the 3G iPhone since its launch several months ago.  I kept telling myself, “Just wait.  3G is gonna blow your mind.  Stick with that crappy HTC 8125 for a while longer and get a good 3G phone.”  In fact, I even got my wife into getting an iPhone.  So, our plan is to get the new 3G iPhones when they are released and all will end in happiness.

Then, I thought about the move AT&T is (pseudo) announcing.  If you sign a new two-year contract, you can take advantage of the new subsidy.  Ok.  Sounds good on paper, but think about it.  What is one of the big things everyone is worried about with the 3G iPhone?  Data transfer.  I read somewhere (and for the life of me, I can’t find out or remember where) that the average data usage on the iPhone is 100MB per month compared to 10MB of usage on average for Blackberry users.  If you bump the transfer speeds to 3G levels (~1.5Mbps), those numbers are going to exponentially skyrocket.

Undoubtedly, AT&T is worried.  They are afraid that their brand-spanking new 3G network will crush and dieAT&T Peeing on iPhone a horrible death under the power of the iPhone and its users.  I don’t blame them.  So, this brings me back again.  Why would they subsidize the iPhone, even if the offer is only for new contracts?  Because they are planning on cutting back the iPhone plans.  I have no proof of this, but it is just a prediction.  I present to you that the 3G iPhone will have no unlimited data option or if it does, it will be in the higher end “business” plans.  They will limit talk time, data, and probably even text messages, but truthishly, I can’t really see that last one, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Why would AT&T cut the iPhone at the knees?  To recoup the loss of cutting around $200 per iPhone.  If you get data-happy iPhoners (iPhoneys?) blowing past their monthly “limit,” you can make a fortune.  Especially on a phone that automatically calls to several places, using data you didn’t actively tell it to.  Naturally, I know that other phones do this too, but I’ve heard the iPhone does it a LOT comparitively, though I could be wrong, not being an iPhone user.  This seems like something a big company like AT&T would do, but it also seems like something that will make a lot of people VERY unhappy.  If this does happen, if we can’t use the 3G data network to our iPhone heart’s content, what is the point?  If we can’t browse and download new apps through the App Store on the 2.0 firmware or do anything we feel like doing on the net, why buy something like the iPhone?  If AT&T is going to kick its iPhone customers in the balls as hard as it kicks its regular customers, I’m not sure I want any part of it.

Maybe it won’t happen and I can get a 3G iPhone and go to town on a sea of free, unlimited data access.

Now.  We wait.

I will keep trying

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on April 9, 2008
in Opinion, School, Self Realization, Technology and Television
. Comments

On March 14, 2008, I posted something in the Facebook’s UCM Network discussion forums about the lack of technological opportunities on the University of Central Missouri’s campus.  Now, my ideas have evolved since then and I am currently scheduled to meet with a member of the IT department on campus tomorrow.  There I will discuss what new tech-based programs are being implemented or about to be implemented on campus and possible future projects.  Well, the Facebook discussion has gone from blah to blah.  My latest post, I will quote here.

Wifi is great all around campus. However, the Help Desk does not officially support Windows Vista and has no instructions on connecting Vista machines to the wifi network. This I see as a mistake as more students adopt it with newer computers. There is also no support for Windows Mobile devices, a rapidly increasing market share in mobile devices, including cell phones.

Tuition at UCM increased by about 10% over the last financial aid reward year. You are telling me that about another $1200 per student covered installing wifi in the dorms? That comes out to about 10 million extra dollars over the next financial aid reward year. Yes, I realize this is a drastically simplistic POV, presuming all students pay out-of-pocket for tuition. Regardless, where is that money going?

If you can give me a detailed list of where every single dollar is going on this campus, then fine, I will shut my mouth about the piss poor technology opportunities this campus affords its students. Until then, I will keep on trying to get this campus into the 21st century.

To be completely honest, I am surprised at the lack of motivation or desire in this field. I would figure that most of the students would see and embrace new technologies and their possible applications in education.

No matter what your degree field is, the Internet, converging media, emerging technologies, along with a shrinking world is part of our future. Students at this institution need to realize that so many of the business models that are around today will either be gone or completely changed in our lifetime. Not to mention incoming freshman’s lifetime. It shouldn’t matter how much you pay for tuition, if you are being prepared for the future, you aren’t getting your money’s worth.

My goal is merely to help guide students into a changing and evolving world. If my fellow student doesn’t want that, I’m going to keep trying anyway.

I will NOT get discouraged.  For the love of god, I can’t.  This is IMPORTANT.  I just know it is.  I refuse to accept the fact that I am going to an institution that lulls its students into a false sense of security that things aren’t changing because they pay a low tuition rate.  There have to be other students on campus that feel the same way.  There has to be students who see the future in much the same way I do.  There are so many changes that are just around the corner and many of the previous education and business models will be completely changed by them.  Students who are there to live and breath on that cusp will come out the other side ready and more willing to embrace and understand that change.

My personal degree field is about to be changed forever in a way that so many people aren’t going to see coming until it is too late to do anything about it.  Broadcasting is shifting in such a way that conventional television is look nothing like it once did.  We can already see some of these changes happening.  All of the major networks have their popular programming online.  Hulu.com, YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, et cetera are just the beginning of a digital revolution.  The turnkey moment is about to happen on February 17, 2009.  The switch to digital over-the-air broadcasts will go down as a defining moment in broadcasting history.  When the change happens, it won’t actually change a whole lot, but at the same time it will and has been changing everything.  Most broadcasters already send out a digital signal as it is, but before the 02/17/09 changeover, the public as a mass whole wasn’t that aware of what was going on.  Now, they are forced to be thrown into the thick of it.  This will, VERY slowly, bring an awareness of change into the mind of the average viewer.  Once this happens, things will change and change in ways that will only be foreseeable to those right there on the edge and ready to jump.

Now, I admit.  I could be wrong.  Conventional businesses could be around for another hundred years without drastically changing.  I could be wasting my efforts and maybe I should be focusing on something more conventional.

I just don’t think so.

Ok

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on April 1, 2008
in Opinion, School and Technology
. Comments

People, I will beseech you.  You need to do one of two things.

  1. You need to register with Twitter and follow garyvee, OR
  2. You need to subscribe to the RSS feed of garyvaynerchuk.com.

This man is amazing and has been totally motivating me.  Usually, I’m not the kind of person to gush about another human being, but Mr. Vaynerchuk has been cranking out a WL.TV and a GV.com video damn-near every day.  His message is one that, I think, really speaks to a person in the modern world.  Messages like establishing your personal brand and the like.

It is really becoming more and more obvious to me that personal barriers are breaking down and the Internet, social networks, online distribution of media is changing everything.  Perhaps not immediately, but there are a lot of business models that are in trouble and need to either change or die in the next ten to fifteen years.  The music, movie, news, and education industries need to change.  We can’t sit back and watch things flow by us anymore.  We need to be in the thick of it.  At the very least, we need to float along and immerse ourselves in the vast ocean that is the future.  I would rather swim ahead and be at the mouth of the river, but that is for another time.

Some of you may know that I have been trying (slowly and unsuccessfully) to get the neo-Luddites at the University of Central Missouri to listen to some ideas I have to help bring the university into the modern age.  I have many ideas that I would love to share with the university and see them implemented, but it seems that change is something that the faculty and students are afraid of.  A university should be the LAST place afraid of expanding technologically.  I really think that the fear is a result of the past.  That feeling of security that en-wraps you when you have something that works and are too afraid to implement that newer system that works better and provides more options.

Being technologically behind must be true at many other universities and we must do something about it.  University tuition is rising every semester by at least 5 percent, and for what?  I have seen nary a change on campus to warrant such flagrant rape of the student.  If I am going to be paying more for less, then why shouldn’t the campus release a detailed list, every semester, of where that money is going and why it is going there.  I would lay money down that this would make students think twice about just giving their money away to an institution that doesn’t think the ideas of its students is worth a damn.

Then again, perhaps I should try harder.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

I’ve been watching TV

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on February 6, 2008
in Interesting, Opinion and Television
. Comments

Lately, television has been taking a bit of a dive lately. Of course we all know the reason for that. The Writer’s Strike has been going on for a while now and I believe that it has successfully hit TV really hard. For example, the CHRISTMAS episode of House just aired the Tuesday before the Superbowl (January 29 if my reading of Google Calendar isn’t failing me). Wow. I understand the need to do a Christmas episode and similarly the need to stretch your season out as far as possible, but holy crap cracker, think about that. You are releasing a Christmas episode in January. Personally, they should have released it as the last episode of last year as that was such an interesting episode that it could definitely have worked as a “we’re taking a break” episode.

terminator_tscc.pngA show that I am slightly annoyed by is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This show is mostly annoying me because I think they write the episode AFTER they finish shooting it. Slight exaggeration, I know, but the show has such terrible points of atrocious acting and the inability to keep a straight story. I just finished watching Heavy Metal which is episode 4. Now, I have voiced my biggest issue with this show to those few that I have talked in person with about this show. Well, in case you aren’t one of those lucky few that I have had the pleasure of having dinner with, here it is. Summer Glau’s character is Cameron, the machine that is sent back in time to protect John Connor. In the pilot episode when you were introduced to the character, you genuinely believed that she was a normal high school student. Personally, I was doubting the fact that she was a Machine when you first hear her talk and interact with John. Then as the show goes on, she becomes a Machine like we expect; stale and static in personality. Don’t get me wrong, I like the way Ms. Glau is playing the character now, but that first episode was kind of off-putting in comparison to the character she plays in the rest of the series thus far. The one thing that is constantly annoying about the show is that John Connor is a whiny bitch. He doesn’t understand what the fuck he is doing, but doesn’t give a shit because if things don’t go his way, he will either sulk and be a whinier bitch or put everyone in danger much like in the episode I just watched. Btw, I just got around to watching it today because it wasn’t released online until today. I have to watch it online due to recording conflicts. You put six people in a house with a single DVR and eventually you have to give up a show here and there. Now, the show as a whole is rather enjoyable and I will continue to watch it regardless of how bitchy and whiny John Connor becomes.

Another show that I am starting to watch and enjoy is In Treatment. This drama is about a psychologist and his patients and how his sessions with his patients influence his personal life. The show is on HBO every Monday through Friday. Each day is a session with a client on that particular day. Monday’s are Laura, Tuesdays Alex, et cetera. Every episode is simply the session with the client, so the complexities arise in the dialog between Paul, the psychologist (Gabriel Byrne), and whatever client(s) he happens to have that day.  Not a whole lot happens in each episode, just talking and two people interacting, but the way the show has played out so far makes it extremely interesting.  Maybe its Gabriel Byrne.  Maybe its that this show is about what my wife wants to do with her life.  I can’t really explain why it is interesting other than the interactions between the characters is so damned enthralling.  I definitely recommend this show if you haven’t started watching it.

Well, I think that’s about it for now.  I hope you all enjoy the nifty stories that share in the Google Reader widget over there to the right.

I propose a boycott

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on June 19, 2007
in Movies and Opinion
. Comments

I propose a boycott of Blockbuster.  Why?  Well, because they have decided to back Blu-Ray.  Now, I don’t have a preference of one format over another, but I do have a problem with a company restricting their customer’s access to either format.

Read the info here.  It clearly says that the only place you can get HD DVDs from Blockbuster are via those 250 stores that already carry them and online.

I have never been a fan of Blockbuster, especially since I got Netflix.  True, you can get the same service from Blockbuster, but to me, it seems pointless to go to the store to get a new movie.  I’m sure you can’t even do that unless you live in an area with a corporate store.  Places like Jeff City, which has a franchise store, probably won’t let you do the exchange thing.  Though, to be honest, I don’t really know.

I think I might get GameFly when I start my job in August.  $16 per month for one game out at a time.  Not great, but not terrible.

Once upon a time.

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on May 29, 2007
in Bitching, Opinion and Sad
. Comments

[protect]

Yeah.  I’m going to filter this entry.  What of it?

I hope John and Holly are happy.  They have completely removed my desire for anything.  I guess this happens when you loose a close friend over something so stupid.  Of course, I mean stupid referring to what I said in a couple of voice messages I left on John’s phone.  Everyone tells me that I should just get over it and move on.  That I should work on removing John as a friend.  I can’t do that.  I go to bed every night extremely sad because another day has gone by and I still haven’t received a call from John.

I even contemplated suicide.  Thinking, “That would show them what happens when you don’t forgive someone.”  Writing the suicide note that explicitly says it was their fault.  Then I realized that I have other friends that would be sad.  Not to mention Lexy.  I like to think that she would be so pissed that she would follow me into whatever afterlife there is just to kick my ass.  Dave and Natasha, Adam, Steve, my parents, other members of my family.  I think Dawn might be sad too, but you’d never guess it since she’s never home.  ;)  Ok, maybe I should let up on those “Dawn’s never home” jokes.  She has other people besides us.

Taking your own life for someone who wouldn’t care is definitely not worth it.

I do have Dave.  He’s always been an awesome guy and it sometimes makes me feel bad that I’ve looked him over in the past year.  I don’t think he thinks about that anymore, or whether he ever did, I don’t know.   All I know now is Dave is a better friend.  He understands that when I get pissed, that if he just gives me time to cool down, then we cool.  I think John had that too, but I think Holly might have convinced him otherwise.

Not that Holly is a bad person, she is trying to protect herself and her husband.  I can’t blame her for that.

I have been getting better about controlling my temper.  I don’t get upset at people as often, but a person’s past can definitely come back to haunt them.  That’s what happened between me and John and Holly.  I suddenly, for one reason or another, was asked to carry too much without an answer from those two and I broke.  I think what did it was that they were more than happy to tell other people the problems they had with us, but never us.  Things could have been so much better with communication.  I don’t know how many times I need to apologize.  I doubt it ever did any good.  I would love to just sit down with the two of them and explain everything.  That will never happen, though.  At this point the conversation is passive.  Kind of like TV.

I hope the pain will go away.

[/protect]

The Talks have ended.

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on January 30, 2007
in Opinion
. Comments

I have talked to a couple of parties about a situation that shall never be spoken of again.  Hopefully both sides understand just how much the situation hurt other people.  I don’t think I got my total impression across, but I promised that it was done.  Let’s just leave it at this: It’s really hard for me to trust people, so the fact that my trust was broken and I am still friends with the related parties… count yourself very lucky.  Unless you don’t really like me that much, then I guess you can consider yourself unlucky or whatever.  Though if you don’t really consider yourself lucky, then we should talk again.

Upon looking at the above unmentioned situation, I have come to a realization.  This realization is one I have bitched about for many times.  I am, of course, talking about how people don’t really ever talk to me.  “Well,” I told myself, “maybe it’s because people don’t KNOW they can.”  So, here is my official statement: If at any time, any of you want to talk about something, I would like to be considered an option.  I have an extensive amount of experience listening to people’s problems.  I suppose I could put together a list of references, but I might laugh at you if you make me do that.  So, if any of you out there think I can have some good advice, need a dude’s ear, need the viewpoint of someone not involved, need the viewpoint of someone who is involved, or just someone, I’m your man.  Doesn’t really matter.  See, the reason I’m doing this is probably a rather selfish reason, but it sounds good to me.  I don’t want to be the last person to know something.  Especially if it involves situations like the one I won’t talk about.  I feel that people shouldn’t keep extremely important and possibly friendship-threatening problems to themselves.  They need someone to help them come to terms with it as well as maybe help understand just how far-reaching the consequences can be.  Of course it doesn’t have to be a serious problem, I’m just saying I will accept anything, little or big problems.

So, there you have it.  I’ve made my willingness known.  People, you now know that I am approachable.  I’m not this constantly pissed off guy that blows up at the smallest drop of a hat.  If that doesn’t make any sense to you, I’ve heard that people are usually scared of me.  It kind of confuses me, but whatever.  So, here I am.  I have put myself out there, let’s see if anyone bites.

Just finished a book…

Published
by
Anthony Thompson
on January 2, 2007
in Bitching, Books, Media, Opinion and Politics
. Comments

I just finished the Spider Robinson-finished Robert Heinlein book “Variable Star.”  It was a pretty good book, I enjoyed reading it.  Also, not a very hard read at all.  There were parts of the book that the author seemed like he didn’t want to do any more research or thinking so he just kinda skipped over or failed to explain certain parts.  Overall though, very interesting.  It takes the reader for quite the mind-bending ride if you don’t think too hard about what you’re reading.  The next book I plan on reading is Thomas Harris’s “Hannibal Rising.”  It’s about the youth and creation of Hannibal Lectar.  Who, by the way, is one of the best villains ever.  Sir Anthony Hopkins did a smashing job playing the character too.  I’ll let you know how that book turns out too.

Ok, something else I wish to mention.  People who have an obsession with seeing Saddam Hussein’s death.  If you needed to see him die, the only reason for that would be he directly affected your life by killing a family member.  Which means anyone who did not physically see him kill someone right in front of their eyes, doesn’t need to see him killed.  He didn’t do anything to me, so I don’t want to see the grainy cameraphone footage of his hanging.  That footage is illegal anyway and YouTube should be cracking down on that shit.  If they wanted to televise his hanging in the US, I’m sure there would be HD footage of it, not grainy, shitty cameraphone footage.  No, I didn’t see it.  I refuse to.  I don’t need to because I’m not a sick bastard who gets his jollies off seeing someone die.  If I want to see carnage, I’ll watch a movie or play a violent video game.  People sicken me.

In other news, I have decided that I want to focus on CGI integration into live action film.  You know, all that CGI in the Star Wars prequels and other such movies.  I want to do that.  I don’t want to create all animated movies, but I want to be a part of enhancing RL movies with computer graphics.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I finally think I have decided that it’s something that I would love to do for a long time.  I’ll have to see if the Communications Department has any kind of emphasis for that kind of thing or if they have any ideas how I would go about it.  Well, I’m gonna stop Silent Hill because Dawn obviously isn’t going to. ;)