A Cinema Addict Sees: Pacific Rim 3D

Pacific Rim is exactly what it promises.  Gundam's vs Godzillas.  But moving beyond that I was actually very entertained and extremely happy with the overall movie.  Lets break it down.

SPOILER ALERT:

Guillermo del Toro really is one of the masters of using CGI effectively.  Considering Pacific Rim is roughly the same amount of animation that James Cameron used in Avatar, and not once was I genuinely displeased with it, I have to give a lot of credit here.  In a summer full of CGI, stunts, and super heros, Pacific Rim holds its own as the only action movie to not force me into saying "Thats ridiculous."  Lets break it down:

• Iron Man 3:  Every villain is a genetically modified super human that uses drugs to "Regulate" their condition into a manageable state.  The beauty of Iron Man was that previously it was always a battle of the builders.  Making the final villain in the series a scientist that can regenerate like wolverine, and heat the cells in his body up to 3000 degrees C, seems like making the human torch compete in battlebots.  
• Man of Steal:  The immediate arrival of Zod as soon as superman dawns his cape.  I am aware that its explained away.  By activating the old scouting ship to talk to his hologram father, Clark simultaneously activates a distress beacon that Zod traces.  But it all just feels too convenient.  
• Fast and the Furious 6:  Dom jumped out of a car going 90 quickly enough to smash into Letty in between two freeway overpasses with enough force to carry them both back across the gap onto safety.

Pacific Rim is not completely free from fault however.  Del Toro basically leaves it up to the audience to fill in who the evil creatures are.  They are left mostly unexplained except that they are basically dinosaurs that have been genetically engineered to be better at destroying planets.  The Rift they came through is a worm hole that needs to be destroyed to prevent them from coming back.  How it was made initially, Why it requires Kaiju DNA to work, and whats stopping the rest of the creatures from building another one is up to you.  

Beyond that though the movie begins to feel like a homage to several other pieces of film.  The entire concept of the movie is based on the Gundam TV series.  The only way it could have been closer is if it had been set in tokyo, instead of Hong Kong.  If you accept the fact that given the entire population of the worlds resources and expertise we could conceivably build a 250,000 ton robot with a couple nuclear reactors for a core then the most difficult part of the actual Jagers to believe is the dual pilot system.  Again thats explained but apparently bad neuroscience is less believable to me then a giant robot. 

Secondly, the ending of the movie is almost a perfect recreation of the independence day ending.  Including the look of the evil earth destroying aliens.  

FINAL THOUGHTS.... TL;DR

I thoroughly enjoyed pacific rim.  Well worth attending the midnight release of a visually amazing movie.  I had to remind myself it wasn't made by James Cameron as the ending came a bit too soon for the epic I was used to.  Right at the 2 hour mark the movie wraps up without a real growth by the characters.  Maybe if it was rated R instead the story would have gone a bit more in depth on the relationships the pilots had to share and the tension that could have caused.  But considering the target audience is the former 10 year old boys who rushed home to watch toonami on Cartoon network, I have to humble.  I was throughly entertained from start to finish, even when some side plots and some shots seemed unnecessary or unfinished.  If nothing else I'll say that if you have always wanted a live action Gundam movie, this is the best I can do for you. 

Otherwise I hope to see you at the movies - Ginger

Movies and Me

To say I'm a movie lover is an understatement.  I'm the kind of guy that will watch just about anything.... and I have.  I have a checklist of the IMDB top 250 that has about 75% checked off and nothing made after the year of my birth isn't checked.

The flaw with me is that I like every movie.  I'm sitting here trying to think of any movie I genuinely didn't like.  I got nothing.  From V for Vendetta to the Notebook, the Wizard of OZ to Avatar, and Ghostbusters to Daredevil I liked them all.  That being said it makes me a difficult critic because my inclination is to tell everyone to see every movie.  So if you're using my advice as a guide on whether or not to go to a movie, take my critique with a grain of salt.

Now with my words of warning out if the way, I'm proud to announce a new series that should hopefully make me post more.  "A Cinema Addict Sees."  I signed myself up for Movie Pass just be sure I would force myself to go to more movies in theaters and give you some up to date content.  The plan is to sit down and write my review of every movie I see.  So if you have something you would want me to sit down and watch leave me a comment and I'll do my best to get through it.  In the mean time I hope to have my first post in the series up for the world to see by tomorrow.

In the mean time, Peace - Ginger

Dual Monitors Setups

Like most computer geeks, I have recently become obsessed with the multi monitor setup and have started to play the mental dream play we all do. So lets play with some imagination and see how what I want to do to my desk.

The Background

I like real estate in every way.  Physical houses, dealing with property management, home improvement and, more importantly here,  on my desk and on my screens.

For the last couple years I have been using a very simple corner desk.  Literally a right angle piece of painted wood with four legs from IKEA.  It works great because its dirt simple.  Next to it is a long skinny table that stretches down the wall.

At the moment, arranged from left to right wrapping around the corner, my set up goes: 2009 17" macbook pro, powered USB hub, 2TB and 2x 500GB external hard drives, 23.5" Asus monitor, PC tower, 2x Xbox 360's, and my 32" TV sitting on top of my receiver.

This system works great because even when I'm working at my desk and flipping between my Mac and PC, I can still play a movie or something on the TV for anyone who happens to be hanging out in the room.

The Dream

I want to move from a corner desk to a more work friendly "L shaped" desk.  The real-estate on the desk is increased around the edges near the walls, and because of the shape you can scoot your chair in closer to the monitors.  I'll admit the dream is to move to a 3 monitor setup and keep the TV.  I'd be able to open up documents and leave system widgets constantly on for monitoring, as well as easily multi task on each.  But the logistics of creating the setup might not stack up to the benefits. 

The Pros

MORE MORE MORE!  More room to work on anything, and everything, is always good in my book. The looks are almost impossible to screw up as well.  Even setups using a combination of several different size and make monitors still tend to look more impressive then a more basic setup.  But honestly the larger working environment, and the cool factor are the only major benefits to this setup.  

The Cons

Cost.  I'll just list all the things I would actually need to buy or build to get the setup working:  1 or 2 monitors, two cables to connect them, a second video card to handle the new inputs and the TV, and a desk with enough space to fit it all.  Running some quick math and assuming my good old GTX 460 can handle the brute of the work load and a second cheap card basically for the inputs will power 4 1080p screens, its looking like a 400 dollar investment if I'm careful and shop around.  

Dollar for dollar its not worth the investment for me at the moment.  However I'll leave you with a couple pics of beautiful multi monitor setups so that I keep fanning the hopes and dreams of others.  

First Robotics and Me

A second week of the 2013 Build Season is wrapping up and since a big chunk of my time has been devoted to it I may as well comment.

The backstory:  I first started out in robotics by joining my high schools FIRST Team.  For those that don't know FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non profit robotics competition.  There are various levels of competition ranging through all pre-college level school ages.  I started at the ripe age of 16 as a junior in high school doing FTC, and FRC.

Now my team usually recruited freshmen most heavily but I had several friends talk me into joining and a couple meetings later I was hooked.  The problem with joining as a junior is that most students by their junior year have had plenty of time to get trained on tools, and have learned enough about the different tools and techniques used for FRC specific construction.  The good news was I joined for the inception of my schools entry into the FTC program as well.  I learned quickly and worked more hours then anyone else on FTC and ended up becoming captain of that team.  My experience with tools and general construction, as well as far too many hours building LEGO contraptions growing up, gave me a leg up compared to the rest of the rookies and by the time FRC rolled around I was ingrained into the core builders of our bot and had already secured a pit crew position.

The current:  Flash forward 6 years and I'm back and mentoring my old team.  Its a harsh moment to realize that I knew as much as the current students when I was there, and how much more they have to learn.  Its not for lack of availability of the information but simply a lack of a good way to present it.  I'd need a whole separate post to deal with my thoughts on this so back to the real problem.



Now I've been working with the team of students for the last two weeks to try and break down this game and create a robot that will play the game effectively.  By reading forums like chief delphi, and talking to members of other teams, I've developed a feeling on how the Build Season is progressing.

This game is freaking TOUGH.  

The general feel is that teams there is a great divide between those with a lot of experience and those with less.  Frisbees seem to be a significantly easier to deal with game piece then previously anticipated and teams that have been putting their resources into handling them and shooting them to the goals are finding great success.  The hanging from the pyramid at the end of the game on the other hand....

My read on the situation is that there are three real camps to the hanging world at the moment: Those that are realistic about the difficulty and the odds of success; Those that have an idea and have become blinded by the cool factor and are going for a bonus with a device that will ultimately fail or never work to begin with;  And my favorite the silent but successful.

The first group is by far the most common in the digital world and comprises a lot of well respected mentors from a variety of top tier teams.  The general feel coming from these people is "Stop over estimating and be realistic."  Basically that climbing for the top of the goal is by far the most restricted and one of the most difficult tasks ever presented to FRC teams.  Its a logistical nightmare dealing with the rules, Q &A, and the rule changes that have come out.  Combine that with the shear difficulty of the physical task and you have yourself a problem.  Teams are going to fail.  And by fail I mean fall.  Thats a 150 lbs. of robot falling from at a low point for where teams are aiming, 5 feet in the air.  Wheels will break, frames will bend and sometimes shatter, electronics may be crushed.  The general gist being that robots are most likely not gonna survive a failure at this task really well.  That is the point that this group is making.

The second group however can be summed up as the wide eyed sophomore.  This group is basically the group that believes everything on paper is gonna work.  My read on their feelings is that many of this group has heard someone on the team say "We're gonna hang"  and in the best case assumes that they mean at the top of the pyramid and is wrong.  At worst it means that a much more significant portion of the FRC robotics community is building for the 30 point climb robot then I anticipated.  In the latter case a larger portion of the teams are gonna feel the pain of their robot failing, and in odds are too many cases they will have to suffer through the pain of having an unfixable amount of damage end their competition season early.

The third group is the most curious.  Personally I'm forced to leave my team 1/3 of the way through the season today which, as disheartening as that is for me on a personal level, is nice because I'm leaving them with a mechanism designed in CAD and roughly prototyped that is far simpler then most and will effectively climb the pyramid on the outside corner.  I will refrain from any guarantees because experience has taught me that nothing is final until it works in the final tournament at competition.  The reason this is curious is because the way I feel about it, is the same way I feel many other successful teams must feel about it.  Its a solution that by comparison to the things I have seen and also thought up is drastically simpler.  Its not the easiest to build, and its not gonna be perfect, but its easy enough that I can leave with faith that the team will finish the solution and make the robot work.  This puts me in the third group because experience has also taught me that when you have something that works.... SHUT UP ABOUT IT.  The exceptions being that good teams usually talk to each other, and the solution will probably make it into a few of our friends hands as well.  But generally speaking these ideas wont hit the web early enough to be copied by many teams.  

In short this season leaves me optimistic, but not overly enough so to put me in category 2.  I'm excited for regional play and especially to see what solutions more elite teams put on the field.  Falls will happen and this season will be a cruel mistress to those that are not cautious.  The game will be exciting to watch and teams will be excited for the next season at its conclusion, but will be a cruel reminder to some that working within your capabilities is a must, no matter how good you are at stretching them.

Welcome to Blogging

First.  Every blogger has a first.  The first post that's supposed to define the niche of your blog for the entirety of its life or risk losing the people who follow it as a result. 

Well to be honest I'm not ready for all that but to get started and start learning about blogging I have to start somewhere.  As a result all I can do is begin the only way I know how: promising to not do the things many other blogs do. 

• I WILL ... Not post regularly.  This is simply a fact of life and since I'm not blogging for any particular reason I'll tell all you readers the truth so you can keep your expectations of me low.  Have a little faith that this is probably best for everyone in the long run.  

• I WILL ... Not have perfect spelling, punctuation, grammar, and odds are I wont always have all the information in at least some of my posts.  On the other hand I would like to consider myself a reasonably knowledgeable individual so I will try to keep my posts at the very least legible, and accurate to the best of my knowledge.  

• I WILL ... Not stay to a strict theme.  High Tech Hobbies is a reasonably broad genera and that is intentional.   

 But speaking of topics, that's usually the point of a blog.  And High Tech Hobbies has a certain ring to it so I'd assume a reader that's held on to this point must be reasonably hooked by just the title.  So without further adieu I give you (in no particular order) a list of topics that at the very least I plan on discussing.

1. Robotics - One of my loves but more specifically I'll be dealing with home build robots as well as a lot of discussion of the FIRST Robotics Competition.  I've been involved with robotics in several applications and remain an active mentor to a high school team at the moment as well.
2. Custom Computers - And all its supporting technology.  Being especially interested in home networking, computing, as well as a typical DIYer I was bound to fall into this one. 
3. Personal electronics - TV's, tablets, receivers, laptops, and everything in between.  
4. Home improvement - I grew up learning how to fix homes and build things rather then pay someone else to do it for me.  So as the opportunity arises I'll attempt to pass along what I know.  
5. Tools and knives - a very important part of the high tech world is getting it all built.  There's no such thing as being over prepared so I keep up on the coolest ways to build things as well as what to build.  
6. Home theater - I'm reasonably into home theater and I keep getting myself in deeper so I'll put a bet down now.  
7. Movies - Whats the point of loving technology if you don't have something to enjoy it with.  
8. Life, Love, and the random thoughts I decide to add. 

But in the mean time, sleep is calling and I get to go find more new content.

Peace - Ginger