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I woke up this morning having been mired in a more than usually surreal subconcious vision. In my dream I had an innate understanding of the task at hand, which was to install a Cisco ethernet switch into an equipment rack… a straightforward task to be sure, and one with which I am well familiar. The odd thing, you see, was that the switch, which plainly sported the Cisco logo, bore a striking resemblance to a window mounted air conditioning unit, witch an umbilical that connected to a bank of ethernet ports. Oh yes, and the “rack” was the closet in the upstairs bathroom at my parents home in Lindon.

I’ve been extremely lazy in my posting over the past couple of months. I think winter does things to me. Anyway, I will be trying to be more regular in my updates to this site, and today I have a couple of interesting things to write about, so here goes.

Ken Fisher of ArsTechnica is famous for his promotion of the idea of simultaneous releases of films in theaters, on DVD and pay-per-view, and rightly so. His most recent article on the subject appears here:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060105-5905.html

I agree with the concept for the most part. Caesar says most people would rather watch a movie in their own home, with their own treats, their own volume level, their own pause button and their own friends, than go out to a theater and wait in line with several hundred strangers just to sit and eat overpriced popcorn and be force fed advertisements. I would fit into that category with probably 8 out of 10 movies that I watch. However, I would really hate to lose the ability to go to the theater when I want to. There are a few parts to the experience of seeing a movie at the theater that are simple impossible to reproduce at home. For instance, though I have a big screen TV, it’s not 50 feet wide like the movie theater screen, and though I have surround sound, it’s a sub-$1000 system, not a $10,000 system. In my family we often end up have to choose which movies we will see in the theater based on whether we think the theater experience would heighten our enjoyment of the movie. A chick-flick can be appreciated at home just as well as on the big screen, because it will usually not need to drive its point home with supersize images and sound. Seeing a movie like King Kong for the first time at home would be almost sacreligious, though.

Apart from the benefits of the large screen and sound system, however, there is still something slightly magically about “going to the movies.” Maybe its a matter of being able to experience something with 300 other people. Maybe its the sense of nostalgia that the nicer theaters impart (my preferred local theater is done in a somewhat art deco style and features large prints of classic movie stars on the walls). It may even have something to do with just getting out of the house for a few hours. Anyway, while I am all for the ability to choose to watch the latest Steven Spielberg effort in the comfort of my own La-Z-Boy, I’d hate to not be able to catch it at the cineplex.

From: Rznhhn@american-metals.com

Subject: To tell or scorch cheeseparing