Month: December 2001

Microsoft Research

Does it sound like an oxymoron? It shouldn’t. The boys in Redmond have a huge organization, over 680 scientists on staff with five campuses globally, that does lots of cool, basic stuff. I had the pleasure of attending the Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Speaker Series presentation by MS Research head honcho Rick Rashid this past Monday (of course I meant to write it up sooner but its that damn ATT at fault again). Read the linked article and the MS Research site, they are working on an academic basis with an emphasis on publishing and lots of it. Rashid was very open, a good, refreshing speaker. Plus they bought us off with a free lunch.

Lazard and Wasserstein: investment banking dramas come together

Lazard-Freres is a quintessential investment banking house, sprung out of one of the great financial families of the 19th century. Bruce Wasserstein, conversely, is one of the quintessential investment banking machers of the 1980s and ’90s. Landon Thomas Jr., writing in the New York Observer, looks at the prospects as they come together. Stylistic clashes aside, can Wasserstein, never known as a people person, put back together three feuding offices in a firm which succeeded because of its people and not its financial muscle? Can he even reach back to the successes he had convincing CEOs they needed him because no matter what room Wasserstein was in he is always the smartest person in it? This article really connects with me, takes me back to the heady days in the ’80s when I would pick up a NY Times or WS Journal and read about another junk bond-fueled corporate acquisition, to the time when I wanted nothing more than to work on Wall Street.

Inside Jeff Bezos

Glenn Fleishman has a short but interesting analysis of a recent Washington Post interview with Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon.com. Of course, I’ve cited Glenn’s insight before on Lies, Damn Lies, and Lobbyists. Bezos is surely a man with a style and presence of his own; now all he needs to do is actually turn a profit and not just a pro-forma one.

Today’s book: Ripley’s Game

Most of you will remember Tom Ripley from the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon or my review of the original novel. Patricia Highsmith actually wrote five Ripley novels and Ripley’s Game is the third in sequence. I preferred the first novel but I do believe this one was interesting enough to get me to try and find numbers four and five (reviews generally say to skip the second one). Ripley is not so much the protagonist in this story but the main supporting character. Ripley connives to set Jonathon Trevanny, a dying man, down a path of little good and ends up most likely regretting his choice; Highsmith tends to leave at least some emotional results up to the reader to discern. The setting is mainly a couple of small French towns with a trip to Munich and a train ride and some care is taken to bring these villages to life. Not a thrill a minute but the kind of story where you appreciate the subtlety and emotional rat traps.

Passing 4,000

Well, I just love to see the numbers on the Sitemeter visit counter go higher and higher. I admit it. I love all those Google searches on George Carlin, Springsteen, Avolar, and Italy that bring visitors my way. And the occasional linkage, like USS Clueless and Winerlog. Simple thing but it makes me happy. Note: the counter started at zero on July 27, so this is visits for the last four months. Here’s a pic of the meter the first time I saw it passed 4,000:

Man Wanted in Abortion Anthrax Hoaxes Held

Clayton Lee Waagner, an anti-abortion terrorist, was arrested today near Cincinnati. Waagner, as previously discussed in this weblog, is a psychotic Douglas Adams fan who made creditable threats to kill a large number of abortion clinic workers without warning. I’m really glad to read that he’s been arrested before he could go ahead and harm anyone. Waagner had been on a crime spree across the eastern US since he escaped from an Illinois jail last February. He apparently was recognized by employees at a Kinko’s where he was renting some computer time and the local police were alerted. Way to go guys!

Buy Bill a holiday present?

One word: Aquos, only $1,799.99 for the 15″ model or $2,999.99 for the 20″ model from BestBuy but that includes free shipping. This is a lightweight (8.5 lbs.), skinny (2.5″), portable high performance flat screen Liquid Crystal Television from Sharp–sweet! Other bloggers have been known to post links to their Amazon wishlists or other donation/gift systems but I can’t really see any point to that. Aquos just looks so good you have to want it! Don’t you?

Tonight’s movie: The Man Who Wasn’t There

Face it, Joel and Ethan Coen make weird movies. Maybe it’s their last name missing the letter h that gave them a complex as children. Still, The Man Who Wasn’t There is the latest in a line of good but strange movies–O Brother Where Art Though?, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, and Raising Arizona. That last one made me think they were great filmmakers 14 years ago and only exposed the tip of their weirdness. I enjoyed this movie, but you have to be in the mood for something out of the Hollywood mainline if you see it. Just one example: this film was shot in color and then transformed into black and white.

I have to give Billy Bob Thornton props for his acting in this film. He plays the title character, I suppose, and his emotional absence throughout the movie is what gives rise to that title. He has an odd, amphibious, almost nerveless presence, never moving off a slow, stiff keel. Jon Polito (Homocide) and James Gandolfini (Sopranos) play bookends, one a “pansy”, the other a big man who is shown to be something else entirely. Frances McDormand, a constant in Coen films, plays Thornton’s wife with a surprising sensuality. Scarlett Johansson plays a teenage piano player who almost figures as a Lolita in the second half but never quite gets there, which is not to take away from her performance since I can’t imagine the Coens wanting such an easily categorized performance.

Classic guitars, modern tech

Gibson Guitar Corp., maker of some of the best guitars ever, is looking to move those annoying cables hooking guitars to effects boxes to pre-amps to amps to mixing boards from dowdy old analog to digital with a new open, royalty-free software standard that runs on plain old Ethernet cable called MaGIC: Media-Accelerated Global Information Carrier. This very cool stuff (look for guitars with Ethernet ports in the next 12-18 months) was developed by a group of 12 Gibson engineers right here in Silicon Valley over the last two years. “MaGIC provides a single cable solution that is trivial to install, requires little or no maintenance, and offers a data link layer that supports a simple yet sophisticated protocol, capable of offering a superior user experience.” Author’s bias note: I’m more of a Fender Telecaster fan. Via Slashdot.

Saturday’s movie 2: Behind Enemy Lines

In the current highly charged environment, this film plays like a lit match in a tinderbox. Good but fed up American Navy pilot (the dreamy, I’m told, Owen Wilson) tires of playing cop on a beat where he isn’t wanted (Bosnia) nears the end of his hitch and turns in his resignation. Trying to teach him a lesson, the grumpy old admiral (Gene Hackman, who works a lot for a 71 year old) sends our boy on a Christmas recon mission. Sure enough, something goes wrong, the plane goes “off-mission,” gets shot down by some really good bad guys (Serbs trying to sneak a little genocide past a peace treaty), and the horse are off on a race. Joaquin de Almeda plays a Spanish NATO admiral who keeps getting in Hackman’s way. Wilson and Hackman play off each other on a series of radio conversations. Nicely done action sequences, I never felt like Wilson had to do something completely impossible to escape Serb bullets, and the radio conversations give good pause and punctuation to the ever more dangerous movement–good direction by John Moore in what is apparently his first time out. Strong action film, recommended.

Saturday’s movie: Bridget Jones’ Diary

A definite chick flick. Amusingly, the producers felt there was no English actress capable of playing what was arguably the juiciest English female role in several decades and so we have Rene Zellweger doing a totally cute English accent. Of course, I’ve always had a little something for her, after such cool flicks as Nurse Betty, Empire Records, and even Jerry Maguire. Hugh Grant (sweet, smarmy, and of course unredeemable) and Colin Firth (overcool English reserve but a beautiful heart) have no problems in playing to character as the male romantic leads. Zellweger gained 20 pounds, drinks and smokes constantly in the film, and surely catching every eye with some of the outfits she wears–particularly the panties, tiny tee, sneakers, and robe she wears in one scene while running out into the snowy evening. Nice first time directing job by Sharon Maguire. Funny and sweet, recommended for watching as a couple especially on a rainy or snowy winter night.

Friday’s movie: Spy Game

Robert Redford rules in this movie, without a question, and for about the first time I recall, Brad Pitt actully does a creditable job of acting. I walked out of Spy Game laughing hard over how the clearly aging (64 years old!) Redford played the CIA assholes who for whatever reason were glad to see the last of him (the movie takes place on his last day working). If I had to pick one, the lack of any explanation or backstory for the animosity between Redford and Stephen Dillane (playing Charles Harker) would be my choice as biggest shortcoming of the film. The film uses Pitt’s current predicament and the play of power politics as the background to show us how Redford recruited Pitt into the CIA at the end of the Vietnam War, made him into a top agent, then blew up their relationship. Lots of explosions and bullets but good character development, cinematography, and pacing. The quality isn’t surprising to me, since Tony Ridley directed; his past films include Crimson Tide, Enemy of the People, and Last Boy Scout. Highly recommended.