Tuesday, February 27, 2007

National Security Is Everyone's Business

Reverse Hacker wins $4.3 Million in suit against Sandia Labs
Q&A Reverse Hacker Describes Ordeal

First piece of advice, don't work for Sandia.

COA doesn't exactly work well in the realm of government secrets, and it looks like Corporate America needs a wake-up call regarding protecting sensitive information. If you have a breach in security, you need to tell people who have a need-to-know. The information has been leaked - you can't get it back. But you can do things to prevent it happening again.

I think Sandia should be cut off from working on government contracts; management there obviously doesn't care about safeguarding sensitive information, and taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for Sandia's recent legal troubles.

It's like no one learned from our intelligence vaccuum of the 1990's. Hello?!? China (insert the names of a few other countries if you like) is not our ally; they want our secrets, and will do anything to get them. Spy vs. Spy is more than just CIA agents working in the back alleys of the armpits of the world, it's more than double agents or spies breaking into our think tanks. It's happening in Corporate America.

Monday, February 26, 2007

79th Annual Academy Awards - My Take

While I'd like to think I watch a lot of movies, I definitely don't watch enough to make a definitive judgment on what I feel should and shouldn't win at the Oscars for most categories. I think there's been a lot of criticism regarding the Oscars and the awarding of Oscars, and many films haven't stood the test of time - even ones I really like (Gladiator is a modern example). So I'll comment on the movies I've seen and the awards they did or didn't win.

Overall, I'm disappointed with the awards The Departed won. I will accept that Martin Scorsese finally received his long-overdue Oscar. But I feel that, in the Best Picture category, all of the other films nominated (Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen) were better than The Departed. Maybe I'm biased, but I just don't feel that a remake of a foreign film can be that big of an achievement. Granted, I've only seen Letters From Iwo Jima, but I've heard great things regarding Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen and Babel. Babel I would consider second-weakest in the category. I would have guessed either Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen for the win.

I was very happy with the awards Pan's Labyrinth took home. I really felt the movie raised the bar on the average quality of movies released in recent years and I thought it was great to see it take home trophies for makeup, art direction, and cinematography.

I was hoping Children of Men would be able to take an Oscar home, especially to upset The Departed in adapted screenplay (although I've read the movie's plot is not quite as close to the book as I would prefer). I also would have liked to see Curse of The Golden Flower take home its nominated trophy for costume design, although Marie Antoinette was probably as deserving (but I am getting a bit tired of seeing European historical dramas win for something that the industry has down pat now).

I'm not a big fan of documentaries, but wouldn't be opposed to start watching them. After all, I can see them in the theater now! While a couple of the documentaries sound interesting, I don't know enough by title alone to know if I'd want to watch them or not.

From the list of nominees, I've seen a few, heard good things (or bad things) about a few and haven't heard of the rest.

Of the nominees I haven't seen, I'd like to see the following eventually:

The Black Dahlia (which I heard isn't good, but I'm a sucker for noir)
Blood Diamond
The Devil Wears Prada
The Good German
Little Miss Sunshine
Marie Antoinette
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Queen
United 93 (I'm very against the idea of glorifying 9/11, but I'm interested in seeing the movie)
Volver

All other nominees I didn't mention, I either didn't know enough about the film to want to see it, didn't want to see it for any random reason, or have already seen it and didn't consider it noteworthy enough to mention in my review of the Oscars.

I was disappointed that The Fountain didn't get any mention at the Oscars. After reading through several message boards, the best theory seems to be the "present" timeline being the "real" timeline, the "past" timeline being the book Rachel Weisz is writing, and the "future" timeline being Hugh Jackman's consciousness. Yes, the trailers were hokey, but the movie was brilliant and breathtaking. Special effects in the film were alone worth a mention, at least in terms of creativity.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Movie Review - Pan's Labyrinth

I have an interesting story somewhat related to my viewing of this fantastic movie.

A few weeks ago, when Pan's Labyrinth was still in limited release, I bought a ticket to see a screening of it. I ended up not going to the movie because I ended up going on a date (a first date) with a fellow.

Some weeks later, the relationship is dissolved, and what does the newly liberated woman do? Buy another ticket to see a screening of the same movie, the night before the Oscars!

Pan's Labyrinth is the most spectacular modern example of the Fantastic. Feel free to call me deluded, but I'm going to say that the magical stuff in the movie definitely was not the make-believe world of a child living in a crappy situation. Maybe I'm an optimist, or maybe I just want to believe that there's some good in a war-torn world.

Don't take your kids to see this - it definitely deserves its "R" rating. Is the violence necessary? I think so. I think we need the violence and the scariness to balance the goodness in the movie (and the world, as an extension). I'd like to think I'm pretty hardened to cinematic violence, but there was a lot in this movie I had to shield my eyes from. It's that brutal.

The music is wonderful; the lullaby (theme) will have you humming long after you've left the theater.

The scariest thing I've seen on cinema? The Pale Man. Without a doubt.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Movie Review - The Prestige

I really enjoyed this movie. On the surface, it's a movie about one-upsmanship, revenge, and obsession. Beneath, it's about the duplicity of character, truth, and what happens to relationships when deception is involved. Wow.

But, if you know anything about this movie, you already know all of this.

I already enjoy watching Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale act, and I'm a fan of Scarlett Johansson as well. Let's throw in Michael Caine and Andy Serkis too. And David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. To top it off let's point out the fact it's an adaptation of the award-winning novel of the same name.

Although there were a few things that stretch the imagination a little (OK, a lot) and the ending leaves the viewer somewhat unsatisfied (I was rooting for Hugh Jackman all the way to the end), the movie as a whole is excellent. Both magicians in the movie probably walk the Dark Side. But then, our society has a soft spot for the anti-hero, so I guess that's OK.

Plot twists are abundant, and I think the last time I enjoyed a thriller so much was probably when What Lies Beneath released.

This is an enjoyable, accessible movie to watch at night with lots of your favorite movie-watching snacks (air-popped popcorn with extra butter. . . yeah I know I'll pay for it one of these days).

Monday, February 19, 2007

Starbucks Name Deception

A friend from work and I have started going to Starbucks for coffee. More to get away from work, complain about relationships, etc.

Anyway, Starbucks has a very interesting, LEAN process when it comes to ordering a drink. The particular Starbucks we go to also has enough people on-shift that the ingeniousness of their process is highlighted.

First, a green-aproned employee asks you for your order and name to put on the cup (because some people forget what they order but will probably never forget their name). The cup is passed to the cashier, who rings up your order, takes your money, and passes the cup to the barista. The barista makes your drink and calls out the name on the cup. Unless the line is really, really, long, customers always have "something" to do (give order, pay, pick up drink), and there's rarely a long wait for their coffee. Today the ordering process was short, but the barista was a bit slow, and even then there wasn't too big of a wait for our orders.

Anyway, my friend will often give the order-taker a fake name, "Lucky" or "Bubba", as a joke, and has been encouraging me to do the same. So I thought about this all weekend, something my friend would be really proud to hear. Something that would be easy to write down and read, and something that would be clever enough to warrent more than a smile.

You want to know what I came up with?

Q.T.

(get it?)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Movie Review - Breach

For the first time in weeks I had a whole night to fly solo, and boy did I have fun! Happy hour with some friends from work, a great massage, and a chance to go to a new movie!

Breach opened tonight, and I have to say this was the spy movie that The Good Shepherd was not. Chris Cooper pulled a great performance as FBI mole Robert Hanssan, and every time I see Ryan Phillippe on screen I'm more impressed with him. He has an "All American" look and almost-naive quality that makes him perfect for the role of Eric O'Neill, despite the fact that he's less experienced an actor than Cooper or Laura Linney. "Rougher around the edges" is more what I would call it; he's going to be an actor to watch.

There is a slight amount of commentary regarding the intelligence hole the U.S. Intel Community was experiencing at the time (February 2001). The most significant line in this commentary is said by Cooper early in the film, "Cooperation is counter-operational". The commentary wasn't heavy handed, and to a certain extent helped the film.

I really enjoyed this film - it brings a whole new light on spying, lying and the wacky wiring some people have inside their heads.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

On Building a Stronger Relationship Through Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day sucks. Permanently. This website (which wasn't working when I checked it tonight) has some great images. I used to have some, somewhere, but I don't know where they are. Stuff like a cute stuffed puppy holding a stuffed heart (as if to give it) with the word 'slut' on it. Stuff that embittered singles can appreciate.

Anyway, without getting into detail, my boyfriend and I had a disagreement on what we were going to do for Valentine's Day and things that we do in general.

Guess what? We talked it out, and even though we didn't solve the problem so either of us were completely happy, we were able to realize our differences, know that we both have things to work on if we want the relationship to work, and be OK with all of that. I can even mention the fact that we learned something about the other person tonight and that having this discussion tonight hopefully saves us from having the discussion (when it could be more damaging) later.

Yes, it caused me stress, and yes, I'm losing sleep typing about it as you read, but I'm really happy that I'm in a relationship where I can talk things through and know that if there's a problem with the relationship that we both are actively participating in fixing the problem. Is this what a healthy relationship is like? I've been in so many unhealthy relationships, dealt with too many psycho guys when I didn't have to, that I have no idea what a healthy relationship looks like. While I love my parents, I can't even look at their relationship for an example of a healthy one.

I know that I'm not getting the sweep-me-off-my-feet, millions of roses, candlelight dinner-for-two at a swanky place tomorrow night. But I can look forward to being surprised in a different way. I don't even think most women want the dreamy Valentine's extravaganza. I think women want to be acknowledged in a more tangible way than they are acknowledged during other parts of the year, and that the attempt is worth more than if the attempt is successful or not.

That's enough of my sage ramblings for the night. Now I'm going to take a shower and get some sleep.

Interesting Immigration News

Do Immigrants Make Us Safer?

This gives a little credence to the idea that the more diverse a society is, the more tolerant it is as well.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Interesting Blog I Found Today

the Hathor Legacy

Portrayal of women in the media. 'Tis interesting.

Movie Review - Letters From Iwo Jima

I haven't done a movie review in a while (mostly because I haven't been watching many movies in the theater), so here's one.

I was really excited about seeing Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers. After having seen it, I'm kind of disappointed and I'm not sure why.

Letters watches like a typical war movie. The "bad" guys are stereotyped, and the "good" guys, for the most part, don't want to be there.

One thing that bothered me about the movie was that Americans who are not remotely versed in Japanese culture wouldn't understand the "honor suicides" that occured in the film. While Eastwood has said that he made the film for a Japanese audience, I would have hoped that either Americans knew more about Japanese culture (and the world in general) or there would be a more satistfying explanation in the film.

There are allusions to the atrocities committed on Iwo Jima, but for the most part are glossed over. I feel this was unfair, as the war crimes did take place, were glossed over in Flags of Our Fathers, and are significant to the battle's story. For the most part, the Japanese did not treat their enemies nicely. If Eastwood could have provided an explanation for that, I would have felt more comfortable with the overall tone of the movie.

I liked the music in the film.

One of the previews before Letters was for a film called Black Book that I'd like to see. It stars Carice van Houten as this cute, spunky Jewish girl who turns all femme fatale on the Germans in WW2.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Do You Remember Laika?



This is news to me, and I thought I'd share it with the world.

Do you remember your middle school history? Or even your world history? The part that covered the space race? Do you remember your history book talking about the trials conducted with animals? How the Russians and the Americans sent up animals to see if they could handle being in space before we sent up people? Do you remember Laika? Do you remember what your history text said about what happened to Laika?

If your memory is as good as mine, or you happen to have a grade-school history text in front of you, I can pretty much bet that the texts don't say anything about what happened to Laika.

The internet is a powerful tool. The other day, I looked up Laika on Wikipedia. Turns out, Sputnik II (her space vehicle) experienced an anomaly in flight that caused the temperature control to malfunction, and poor Laika died 4-7 hours after launch from overheating. Not a happy way to go.

The original plan was to have a 10 day mission, after which they would euthanize Laika with a dose of poisoned food. Still not a happy way to go, but you would think it would be better for her to be euthanized than overheated.

I guess what really riled me was that, even though they knew what the problem was, the scientists just let her overheat. And yes, I realize there's nothing I can do about it now.

The new fellow I'm dating mentioned that, having majored in software engineering, I should be more logical about the whole thing and just be OK with the fact that Laika died a horrible death. (Several days later, I'm still not OK with it) While I do think that he's serious to some extent, I also think he was trying to poke fun at my expense.

I was at Disneyland the other day, and found a great sign. There was a silhouette of Tinkerbell on it with the words: "Slow" and "Pixies at Play" on it. I mentioned to my fellow how cute I thought it was, and he said:

"I think we should send pixies up to space to conduct scientific experiments!"