![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nothing much
Feb. 26th, 2001 07:00 pmMon-26-Feb-01
Got some things done last week. We moved the computers downstairs and installed a real office here with three desks and stuff. Head office recently hired another one if the old guard's staff, an old colleague of mine and programmer. He's an interesting guy. Total computer nerd from hell, he was raised in a smaller-than-small town in the backwoods to an alcoholic lumberjack dad and a fairly crazy mother who spent the last ten years of her life in an asylum. Anyway, conversations with him around are usually fairly interesting, if not only for his characteristically unique outlook on life and interesting taste in music.
Watched The Matrix with a friend's newly-installed home theatre system on the weekend. Interesting experience, that digital surround sound. Has quite an effect, especially on a movie as trippy as that one. Was only the second time I'd seen it, but I know several people who have watched it more than a dozen times. I think it's almost one of the most profound movies of this century, but I recognize the possible bias inherent in my rating as such, since its philosophical bent was so closely aligned with my own (something I rarely experience in popular culture).
You must have heard the latest about Napster. I've personally noticed a downgrade in service quality since they installed their tracking software a few months ago. Before Christmas, my ping speeds were regularly <60 ms; since January they're rarely <95 ms. Anyway, I picked up some stuff today from Nap, but I can't help feeling that the writing is on the wall for them. Too bad for BMG, who has been bankrolling their increasingly meaningless existence for the past several months. Ultimately, they've run up against a pretty big problem with that whole copyright infringement thing. Christ, when I start thinking about how much the record companies could sue Napster for with their 50 million users' transactions, I almost can't help but laugh about it. Just like the great roller coaster ride that has been Nasdaq this year, the good times are over - time for a reality check, for all of us.
Got some things done last week. We moved the computers downstairs and installed a real office here with three desks and stuff. Head office recently hired another one if the old guard's staff, an old colleague of mine and programmer. He's an interesting guy. Total computer nerd from hell, he was raised in a smaller-than-small town in the backwoods to an alcoholic lumberjack dad and a fairly crazy mother who spent the last ten years of her life in an asylum. Anyway, conversations with him around are usually fairly interesting, if not only for his characteristically unique outlook on life and interesting taste in music.
Watched The Matrix with a friend's newly-installed home theatre system on the weekend. Interesting experience, that digital surround sound. Has quite an effect, especially on a movie as trippy as that one. Was only the second time I'd seen it, but I know several people who have watched it more than a dozen times. I think it's almost one of the most profound movies of this century, but I recognize the possible bias inherent in my rating as such, since its philosophical bent was so closely aligned with my own (something I rarely experience in popular culture).
You must have heard the latest about Napster. I've personally noticed a downgrade in service quality since they installed their tracking software a few months ago. Before Christmas, my ping speeds were regularly <60 ms; since January they're rarely <95 ms. Anyway, I picked up some stuff today from Nap, but I can't help feeling that the writing is on the wall for them. Too bad for BMG, who has been bankrolling their increasingly meaningless existence for the past several months. Ultimately, they've run up against a pretty big problem with that whole copyright infringement thing. Christ, when I start thinking about how much the record companies could sue Napster for with their 50 million users' transactions, I almost can't help but laugh about it. Just like the great roller coaster ride that has been Nasdaq this year, the good times are over - time for a reality check, for all of us.
