(Note: If you haven't already, and are interested in some of the background of my needs and this testing, you should read my earlier review of powerline networking hardware)

So after the disappointment of the powerline networking experiment, I decided to give MoCA hardware a shot. If it performed as advertised, MoCA made sense in our house: There were already live cable drops in both the rooms in question, and the technology seemed far less jankier than powerline. So I ordered the Netgear MCAB1001 MoCA kit, which included two endpoints. This review will be much shorter than the last one.

I love this hardware. In fact, I really only have two gripes which I could think of:

• The configuration utility is Windows only, and is basically required due to...
• One of the endpoints was configured in "All Pass", which lets MoCA overrun the frequencies used for television.  One of the reviewers on Amazon mentioned this as well, so I knew to look out for it.  Fortunately I was able to use the configuration utility in a virtual machine I already had lying around, so I wasn't stuck.  But if you're a non-Windows user, you'd be screwed as far as I can tell.

Installation of this hardware was as straightforward as the powerline hardware:  Hook up the endpoints and you're live.  The endpoints even have a button which disables all of the front panel LEDs, which should be a feature on every piece of hardware.  Time to cut to the chase and get to the numbers:

milgrim$ time nc -v -v -n pbook 2222 < big-file.bin
Connection to pbook 2222 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
      124.98 real         4.20 user        31.90 sys
 
(1,073,741,824 bytes) / (124.98 seconds) = 65.5464874 Mbps

Compared to the 15 Mbps I got from the powerline hardware, this was literally night and day.  And this was using the USB Ethernet adapter on my Air, so I doubt it's fully flexing the bandwidth available.  Almost as important as the bandwidth (and the reason I sat on this review for awhile) is the reliability.  After I wrote the powerline review I learned that I was seeing all kinds of dropouts and failures.  But the MoCA hardware has been seemingly rock-solid. I've done many large data transfers over the link and seen no trouble whatsoever.  

I've been so pleased with this gear, that I've considered getting a third endpoint to put in the basement and move some 'headless' hardware down there (cable modem, Slingbox, time capsule, etc), as it'd be really easy to run a Coax drop down there.  Actually, I think the only barrier to that right now is that all the power in the basement is on the common circuit of the house, so I'd have to install an outlet that comes off of our breaker panel.  Anyway, I'm rather pleased with this hardware, and if you have similar needs, you might want to give it a spin yourself.

 

So the grand experiment with Powerline Networking has effectively come to a end.  Besides the MUCH lower than advertised bandwidth, which I decided to tolerate (since it was better than my WDS WiFI setup to extend the WiFi range), I've seen many dropouts in the past few weeks.  They are rather short dropouts, and always seem to resolve themselves on their own, they are significant enough to disrupt my transfers from the TiVo.  It's not fun waiting a few hours to pull a 20GB HD Movie off the TiVo just to have the transfer get interrupted.

So I'm going to sell the Powerline gear on ebay and give some Netgear MoCA hardware a swing.  Review TK.

Update: This equipment worked less effectively than I had thought when I originally wrote this review.  See this post for an update.

When we first moved into the new house, I initially set up a single WRT54G access point (running dd-wrt) in the office in the back of the house. I quickly learned, however, that this location didn't provide much signal to the rooms in the front of the house, most notably, the living room. Fortunately, I had a second WRT54G lying around as well as a good place to hide it in the dining room, so I set up WDS and used it to extend the network to the front of the house. This has been our basic network configuration for almost two years now. The equipment in the front of the house which requires network, such as the Xbox 360 and the Tivo, all have wireless adapters which are served by this second access point.

This was mostly dandy for your everyday bullshit web browsing and checking email. But as I started to put more demand on the network by pulling HD content off the Tivo, renting HD movies on the 360, as well as things like Netflix streaming, it started to creak. Truth was that not only was the signal between the office and the dining room pretty lousy, but just using WDS halved the bandwidth available to wireless clients. It was time to find a better solution.

The obvious solution is to use wired ethernet to distribute the network around the house. Unfortunately, our condo is the middle floor of a 3 story house, which means no access directly below or above us to easily run Cat5. While it wouldn't be impossible to get some Cat5 snaked through the walls into the basement, it wouldn't be easy or fun. If I took on this project, it would turn into a complete mess. If we hired someone to do it it'd likely be prohibitively expensive. Neither

coco_b nor myself are interested in running Cat5 visibly around the house, so that's not an option either.

 

Unable to come up with a true solution to this problem, I shelved it, accepting the status quo. A few days ago it occurred to me that there had been some companies developing equipment to send data over the electrical wiring of a home. Reviews on this equipment seemed to be pretty mixed, though. Some people raved about how brain-dead simple it was and how well it work. Others complained it didn't work at all. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to just give it a shot and if the equipment sucked I could always just resell it. I ended up ordering the Netgear HDXB111 Powerline HD Plus kit. It advertised a top speed of 200Mbps, but of course, actual data rates may vary...

I received the equipment yesterday and spent part of the evening doing some basic testing. First off, the actual setup of this equipment is just as brain-dead as advertised. I plugged each of the units in on opposite sides of the house and within a few seconds had link. That was it, it just worked right out of the box, no configuration, software, or anything else required. There was one other optional, but important, step, which was to 'randomize' the encryption keys used by the device. Out of the box, the key is set to a default value, but there is a 'pairing' procedure which generates a 'random' key and distributes it among the devices. You hold the "Security" button on the first device, and it goes through some motions and decides it is the primary device and generates a key. Then you hold the button on that device again, a light starts blinking, and you have 30 seconds to hold the button on another device. This distributes the key to the second device and you are, in theory, more secure. It apparently uses 3DES, but that requires trusting Netgear, so as always, it's in your best interests to never rely on it. There is also some Windows-only (ick) management software you can install if you wish to use your own keys. Either way, it's a pretty simple procedure and when you are done, you have link.

Before I started testing the speed of this equipment, though, I figured it was wise to benchmark the existing setup. I created an empty 1GB file to use for testing. 1GB might seem excessive, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get past TCP's slow start and get a good idea of the maximum speeds involved. So the first set of benchmark numbers are sending data from my MacBook Air in the Office connected via 802.11g to Corinna's Powerbook G4 in the Living Room connected via 802.11g to the second AP:

milgrim$ time nc -v -v -n pbook 2222 < big-file.bin
Connection to pbook 2222 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
      968.65 real         9.04 user        44.13 sys

(1,073,741,824 bytes) / (968.65 seconds) = 8.45713106 Mbps

So the performance of my existing setup using WDS was so much worse than I had imagined. I had never really bothered to test it before, and was truly surprised at how slow it was. Next up, I plugged in the first Powerline adapter in the office and patched it into the WRT54G's switch. I set up the second Powerline adapter in the Living Room and connected the Powerbook directly to it:

milgrim$ time nc -v -v -n pbook 2222 < big-file.bin
Connection to pbook 2222 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
      545.85 real         7.88 user        65.73 sys

(1,073,741,824 bytes) / (545.85 seconds) = 15.007786 Mbps

For those keeping score at home, 15Mbps is much slower than 200Mbps. Even though I had never expected to get anywhere close to the advertised bandwidth, I was pretty disappointed. While 15Mbps was almost twice as fast as my existing setup, it was still rather slow. I tried removing some equipment from the equation, connecting the MacBook Air directly to the office powerline adapter (so the two laptops were, in theory, "directly connected"), but I got very similar numbers. I then wired both laptops directly into the same 100Mbps switch and re-ran the test, and got around 60Mbps, so the laptops themselves were not the limiting factor. I also tried placing the two endpoints in the same room, using different power outlets on the same wall, and the speed went up a bit closer to 25Mbps, although I managed to lose the hard numbers.

So where do I stand on this technology? Disappointed, but likely sticking with it for the time being. Even though the throughput is MUCH lower than I had hoped, it is still better than what I had. And until I can figure out a way to get real Cat5 between the two rooms, I don't really see any other solution on the horizon. I'm certain that the slow speed is due to some noise in my wiring, but being that the wiring is new within the past 5 years, I'm guessing it is some device creating the noise. I guess I could try to figure out what it is, but I probably won't. I'll likely keep dicking around with the devices to see if I can get them to run any faster, and until then I'll take what I can get. Someday I'll either get physical wire between the two rooms or find another solution, and then I'll unload the equipment.. But until then I guess it will have to do.

"Frontrunner" follows the presidential campaign of Dr. Massouda Jalal, a woman who ran in the 2004 Afghanistan presidential election. The film moves from her impressive performance in the 2002 interim presidental election through her 2004 campaign. Jalal entered a heated political environment emerging from Taliban rule, and seeing the struggles and successes of her campaign was fascinating as an outsider.

While this subject was fascinating, the film itself was a bit disappointing. I just don't believe there was enough meat for this to be a 90-minute feature film. Sometimes, instead of using other techniques to communicate some of the periods of waiting, the film just showed the waiting. This might have been fine once or twice, but it felt overused in this film. I also would have liked to see more interviews with the public, both her supporters and her detractors.

This wasn't a bad film, but I think it may have been better as a 60-minute PBS special (or if it had had more of the public voice).

"The Greening of Southie" documents the construction and design of the Macallen building in South Boston. Macallen is Boston's first residential "green" building, and the goal in desigining it was to achieve LEED "Gold" certification. The film begins with the foreman briefing the crew on day one and continues through the first residents moving in.

This was a pretty well-paced film, and took time to explain how the LEED point system worked and how several design decisions effected the score. Not only were the design and construction phases shown, but the film also travels to the source of many of the materials, many of which were local to New England, as LEED emphasizes local materials.

One of the things which struck me about this film was how the construction workers reacted to the green mission of this building. Some were skeptical, some embraced it, and others simply didn't care one way or another. Most seemed to acknowledge that green methodologies and design would likely continue to effect their work moving forward. It is in these interviews where the film finds its heart.

This film is airing occasionally on Sundance, so if you are interested in green building or just want to see a solid documentary with great interviews, check it out.

"Nerdcore Rising" is a documentary following the first national tour of the Godfather of so-called "Nerdcore Rap", Damian Hess, a.k.a. MC Frontalot, and his band. Featuring interviews with figures such as Prince Paul, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Jello Biafra, this film spends some time upfront explaining and justifying Nerdcore as a genre. From the beginning I was skeptical, and honestly, I'm not exactly sure when a genre becomes 'real'. In fact, I suspect some of the musicians themselves are equally skeptical of the label, but I guess in modern marketing, everything needs a classification.

Frontalot's songs lean towards the witty and clever, but as Prince Paul points out at one point, originally rap was about clever rhymes and outsmarting your fellow MCs. Their tour resembles many bands first tours, playing to sparse clubs, but computer nerds tend to be loyal to their own, and there always seemed to be someone at each show who knew the songs. There is a solid mix of live footage with backstage/van interviews, as well as with other musicians and comedians.

I'm still not sold on the viability of Nerdcore in general, but that doesn't really hurt the film. Frontalot is charming if awkward, and his band is a pretty fun funk unit. They are an amusing lot on and off the stage, and this film does a great job of presenting it's story.

"Big Man Japan" is a faux-documentary which follows a year in the life of the current "Big Man Japan", Masaru Daisatou. Japan has employed a members of Masaru's family for several generations as the first line of defense against the plague of giant monsters attacking Japan on a regular basis. Through a process involving an electrical substation, Masaru's size is increased until he is towering over tall buildings. Unfortunately, while Masaru's predecessors were treated like heroes, Masaru is practically discarded.

The special effects in this movie aren't great, but neither were the rubber suits they are replacing. The movie isn't quite logical, but it's fun. The various monsters that Masaru has to battle are hilarious, and the "data sheets" that appear before the battles are great as well. Masaru is greeted by the public with indifference at best, and he seems to exist outside of society. The ending ups the nonsense level to 11 and leaves you wondering if you were actually supposed to understand what was going on.

This movie isn't for everyone, but if you enjoyed Toho-style monster movies, you should definitely be entertained. Even if you are annoyed by the ending, the time leading up to it is full of gems. This isn't a movie you need to hunt down, but when it's available on Netflix, give it a spin.

"Second Skin" is a documentary focusing on gamers who play Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs). It follows a few small groups of gamers distributed around the country, all playing either World of Warcraft (WoW) or Everquest II (EQ2). All are rather committed to their games, some consider themselves addicted, with one entering himself into a 12-step program to try and break is addiction

Given how easily these subjects could have been played for laughs, I felt this movie was surprisingly even-handed. There were clearly some moments where humor was at the expense of the subjects, but they were few and far between. It was suprising in the Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening that the first question was basically a complaint that the film showed gamers in a negative light. It seemed clear to me that this person was just bringing their own baggage to the event.

That's not to say that the movie didn't have it's flaws. The "storylines" of the various sets of subjects were intercut, and at times it was difficult to keep track of the relationships and who the various players were. I also would have liked to see more information about the rehab facility. The woman who ran the facility seemed to have a very negative opinion of gamers, accusing them of feigned helplessness and laziness. She didn't strike me as emitting the kind of energy that someone in recovery really needs. And as far as I can tell from the film, her only accreditation is that her son was an addicted gamer. The film presented her as a very negative character, and I wonder how true that is.

Online gamers are often dismissed as anti-social losers, but this look into the lives of gamers and the relationships built between them is an interesting counterpoint to conventional wisdom.

The Independent Film Festival of Boston opened yesterday at the Somerville Theatre with the new Brad Anderson film "Transsiberian". Anderson has a pretty good record so far, with Next Stop Wonderland, Session 9, and The Machinist, so I was rather excited to see his new work.

Transsiberian follows Jessie (Emily Mortimer) and Roy (Woody Harrelson) as they return from an aid mission in China. Roy, as a huge train nerd, wants to take his wife on a bit of an adventure, so they take the Transsiberian railway from China to Moscow. They share a cabin with Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), a couple who appears to have some secrets. As you may guess, some bad things ensue during this week-long journey.

The previous paragraph sounds makes this film sound cookie-cutter, but I'm happy to report that every time I felt I had the movie figured out it threw me a great curve ball. There were times where I felt the pace bog down a bit, but just as I started to think about it I would get surprised by a twist. These twists didn't feel contrived, they weren't bricks over the head, they were subtle surprises that drew you further into the story.

The movie wasn't perfect, but it was really good. Mortimer was clearly the star, and she delivered a fantastic performance. The supporting actors were all solid as well, although Harrelson's character was more of a caricature, being the comic relief in a rather serious film.. Unfortunately, his levity felt shoehorned in at times... When the film ended, my first instinct was that it needed about 10 minutes trimmed, but I think this was a kneejerk reaction. In all reality, if it weren't for the moments of feeling slightly bogged down, I don't think the payoff of the twists would have felt as special.

After the film, the director, co-writer, and Sir Ben Kingsley himself did a very nice Q&A session, even in the face of some rather rude audience members who were talking over them and getting up and leaving en masse mid sentence. But the three of them gave pretty good, considered answers to all of the questions asked.

My MacBook Air finally arrived on Friday, after more than three weeks of anxious anticipation. This machine is replacing my old 1.67Ghz Powerbook G4, which now belongs to coco_b. Now that each of us has our own Mac, we are freed from the scourge of Windows. Corinna was reluctant to "switch" while she was finishing her masters, fearing learning new shortcuts and whatnot would slow her down while working, but now that she can learn at a more leisurely pace, she doesn't seem to mind. Just before Christmas, the boot disk in our PC died, and the frustration of getting that machine back in working order was finally the last straw. After the new year, I began posting the eyepieces I won at Stellafane to eBay to get the money for a new laptop.

I was interested in the Air from day one, but after they started showing up in the local Apple Stores and I actually got to play with one, it was game over. For me, the tradeoffs that most people see weren't really existent... I walk to work as often as I can, so a lighter machine is a huge win. And most of the time, my old G4 was plenty fast, so the slightly slower processor in comparison to my work MacBook wasn't really much of an issue either. The only thing that really concerned me was the slower rotational speed of the hard disk, but after playing with it in the store it didn't seem to be much of an issue (not to mention that eventually there will be faster discs in that form factor that I can upgrade to in the future). I ended up ordering a 1.8Ghz machine (with a traditional hard disk).

The machine is simply awesome. When I'm holding it I feel like if I left go of it, if it didn't hover in place it would at least gently float to the floor (I haven't tested this out yet). As you've likely heard in just about every review of the machine, it feels way sturdier than you'd expect given it's size and weight. I'd venture to say it even feels sturdier than my Powerbook, which always felt like a tank to me. I feel like I could drop it from the roof of NRH and still use it when it hit bottom (of course, the floating would help).

I read some reviews criticizing the battery life, and frankly, I just don't see any problem. Sure, when I was downloading a 10GB file using the 802.11g, the battery life was shortened. But whenever I'm using the machine in a more normal setting, I get 3-3.5 hours out of the battery. I'm sure I could stretch it further if I disabled Bluetooth and WiFi, but whatever. As far as I can tell, it lasts longer than my Powerbook battery ever did.

The screen is gorgeous, even if it is glossy (why can't you make the matte finish a BTO option on all the lines, Apple? I'd happily pay more!) The LCD backlighting is so bright at full brightness it is almost uncomfortable. I haven't really trained myself to use the multi-touch stuff much at all, honestly, it seems mostly like a novelty. I've been wrong before, though, so I'm going to see if I can make it useful. My guess is that when a 3rd party releases a trainable gesture system, it might become more attractive. I just don't zoom photos enough to get a semi over the pinching. :)

I haven't played with Remote Disc... I bought the external drive, but honestly I probably won't be using that all that much either. I've gotten to the point where optical discs are the new floppies. I pretty much buy all of my music and software online these days, so it's pretty rare that I need an optical drive. The only time I watch movies on a computer is when traveling, and I always ripped DVD's to the hard disk for travel anyway (as the optical drive devours precious battery).

I don't really have many gripes with this machine.. I seem to sometimes get a double login prompt when unlocking the machine, but I don't know if that's a Leopard problem or specific to this machine. It is also strange not hearing the optical drive initialize every time I wake it from sleep. It's like trying to sleep in the country after living in a city, the silence is disconcerting. All in all, it's pretty awesome.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a very-advance screening of next year's "In Bruges", which comes out in March.  I knew almost nothing about the film going into it, other than it co-starred Colin Farrell, which is never a good sign for me.  But I fell in love with this dark comedy within the first 5 minutes.  The story follows two hired killers as they lie low in Bruges, Belgium after a particularly high-profile hit.  Ken, played by "That Guy" Brendan Gleeson plays Ken is making the most of this unexpected Belgian holiday, even if Farrell's Ray is completely bored and itching to return to London.  With no desire to give away the plot, let's just say that things don't go according to plan...

Any dark crime comedy has it's share of hijinx, double crosses, and surprises, and often these can feel formulaic.  The plot of In Bruges seemed fresh and engaging, rarely evoking the "how many times have I seen this before?" sentiment.  If I had to pick one criticism of the film, it was that there were some ShakyCam shots early on that were a bit annoying, but after the first minute or two I stopped noticing.  We were sitting rather close in the theatre, as well, which may have contributed to the discomfort.

The Stop and Shop on Pleasant Street (right on the Watertown/Waltham line) has introduced the greatest improvement to grocery shopping since the barcode scanner.  They call it EasyShop, and while I won't say it makes shopping fun, it seriously decreases the pain.

When you first arrive at the store, there are a bunch of little handheld barcode scanners with color LCD panels on their backside, all locked up in a little kiosk.   You scan your discount card and and one of the scanners unlocks for you.   There are plastic and paper bags at the kiosk for your use as well.  Then, as you shop, you scan the items you wish to purchase and bag them right away, in your cart.  It tells you the price of anything you scan, giving you an option to add it to your order or forget about it.  It keeps a running tally of everything you've bought, and you can remove anything from your order with a button press and a scan.   For produce, they've set up little self-weigh stations that allow you to enter the produce code and print a barcode label.

Once you have everything you need, you head over to one of the self-checkout lanes and scan a little "I'm Done" barcode, then return the scanner to a rack.   After scanning your discount card again your entire order is instantly transferred to the self-checkout register and all you have to do is pay and you're done.  This is so fundamentally better than any of the previous attempts at "self-checkout" systems, which too often relied on scale platforms after the register to keep track of the weight of things you've scanned at an attempt to ensure you aren't taking more than you're paying for.   In my experience, about 60% of the time these scales malfunction requiring one of the employees to come over and swipe their card.

There were only a few suggestions I had for the system:

1. Right now, to checkout using EasyShop, you have to use the general self-checkout lanes, which are often being used by people not using EasyShop.  So you sometimes still have to wait around for the person in front of you to deal with all the usual frustrations with self-checkout.  It would be nice if they had one or two EasyShop only lanes.  Since there's no need for a conveyor belt or such, these could be much smaller.
2. As far as I can tell, in order add produce to the order you have to print out a barcode label using their printer.  When I'm using my cloth reusable bags, I often just keep one bag for produce and don't put my produce in the clear produce bags they offer.  This means that not only is it wasteful for me to have to print out one of these barcode labels for each vegetable I buy, but once I've printed and scanned it, I have nothing to stick it to, since the produce isn't in one of the plastic baggies.  It'd be nice if there was an option that allowed me to be less wasteful.
3. It'd be neat if they could come up with some way to help keep the tops of the bags open in my cart while I'm shopping. 
   

All in all, though, these are minor suggestions, and I'm sure they will refine the system as time passes.  Some people may be annoyed by the occasional "cha-ching" the scanner-phaser emits as it notifies you of a super-deal (a.k.a. advertisment)!  This only happened to me 2 or 3 times in a 30 minute shopping trip and I quickly learned not to even look down when the cha-ching sound struck.

I noticed that the deli at this same Stop and Shop has a little computer kiosk to input your order into...   Next time I need some deli supplies I'll be sure to give it a swing and report back to you

In college, jon and I split the cost of a surround sound setup. Jon purchased the receiver and I purchased a set of speakers to complete the 5.1 setup. After I graduated I lost the use of Jon's receiver, so I bought my own, which I used for the first few years living in Boston. After my retreat to New Jersey and subsequent return, coco_b and I decided that the living room in her old condo was simply too small, and the walls too fragile, to mount all the speakers to. So my glorious surround sound setup collected dust for several years.

( Read more... )

Tonight, coco_b  and I met up with the film club to see a special preview screening of "Hot Fuzz" at the Brattle. "Hot Fuzz" is the latest film from the guys who created "Shaun of the Dead". "Fuzz" is officially released here in the states in about a month, but the guys (Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost) are going around the US doing some screenings to build up buzz.

The screening was at 5:30pm, but our passes were first-come, first-served, so I figured we'd get into Harvard Square around 3pm, grab some lunch, and then buzz by the Brattle occasionally until we saw a line starting to form...  Well, we stuck to plan until the "buzzing" part;  After lunch, we did our first pass by the theatre and there was already a line 100+ people long..  So we got on line a bit after 3pm, and stood there until 5:15ish when the doors opened.    The show started about 10 minutes late, but Edgar, Simon, and Nick came out, introduced the movie, and then we were rolling..

Sweet Jesus is this a funny film..  It is every bit as clever as "Shaun of the Dead", but from filmmakers that show a bit more confidence (and a bit more budget).  The film never really felt slow for me, and when I wasn't laughing hysterically, I had a broad smile on my face...   There was a point towards the end where I thought I might be really disappointed by the ending, but then it took a fantastic right turn...  In fact, I think the actual ending was funnier in light of where I thought it was going...

I don't want to spoil it too much, so I'll just say that this movie is great, and you need to see it.

After the flick, the guys did a lengthy Q&A session, which was quite enjoyable...   They mentioned future projects they are all working on together, but didn't give any details...  They mentioned they announced "Hot Fuzz" 9 months before they started writing the script, and wanted to avoid announcing anything too early again...  Whatever it ends up being, based on their first two films (and what I've seen of the BBC series, "Spaced"), I'll be at the third on opening weekend!  

Last night I watched Episode 1 with commentary from RiffTrax. RiffTrax is the brainchild of Mike Nelson, formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  If you were a fan of MST3K, you already understand the basic premise behind RiffTrax:  Mike (and friends) record a snarky commentary track to a film and release it as an mp3 file.  Simply load the file into whatever media player you choose, press play and follow the audio directions.  I understood this all in principal (especially since I beta-tested the same concept a few years ago when patrickwonders was experimenting with DVDTracks), and I loved MST when it was on the air, but I couldn't tell if this would work or not.

When I saw that they had done Episode 1, I couldn't resist..  The first thing you notice is that the commentary is delivered in a zip file containing an unprotected mp3 and a text file.  The text file contains some basic information and also a guide to mapping "movie time" to "audio time" with some dialog snippets to help you in case you pause or stop the film for whatever reason and lose sync between the two.  My biggest concern was the issue of sync, but the RiffTrax guys handled it very well...  At the start of the audio file there is some introductory matter, and then there were instructions to pause the audio track after a countdown and to un-pause it after "A long time ago..." faded off the screen.  In addition, they have a "robot" named DisembAudio which occasionally recites a line of dialog so you can tell if they were in sync.  In practice, I found that it didn't really matter if they were out of sync, even if it was by a second or two, but also that unless you were pausing or whatever, you didn't have to worry about sync at all.  

As far as content goes, Mike has Kevin Murphy at his side for this one, who you may recognize better as the voice of Tom Servo on MST.  Other tracks feature Bill Corbett, who voiced Crow and was also a writer on the old show.  While the commentary for Episode 1 started off a little slow (just like the movie!), once they got into a groove it was like old times again.  It was a great experience, and if you are an MSTie, you owe it to yourself to grab one of their tracks and give it a go.   Obviously with my small sample size, I don't know how much the quality varies, but for 2-3 bucks, it's a pretty good deal.  I might even consider renting some REAL stinkers and just buying the RiffTrax that go along with them to make them watchable. :)

Friday night I hung out with a bunch of friends from work... It was John's birthday and he had a bunch of people over his house and then we went to watch some Minor League hockey. The game was terrible, we left after the second period, but it was good spending time with these guys (and gal) outside of work for a change.. I didn't get home until past 1am...

Saturday coco_b and I just chilled out for most of the day, for the first time in a long time. She had been powering through one of her last assignments of her masters, and even though she still has more work to do in the next few weeks, she decided to take a "personal day", which I appreciated, because I've felt like I've had a part-time girlfriend for awhile now. :)

Today the two of us took a walk in the snow "storm" and grabbed some lunch at Moogy's. I had the film club tonight, while she had to stay home to resume her schoolwork. We saw The Ice Harvest. It was OK, but it was a little too predictable. It straddled the line between slapstick and serious, and I think if it veered a bit closer to slapstick it would have been better (and the predictability wouldn't have been as noticable). I got home and found that one of the traps I set out for our little "mouse friend" had been successful. I had set out both spring and glue traps, because I wanted the little bugger gone, and he wandered into one of the glue traps. I'm not a fan of them, because they seem a bit like torture, but it got the job done, and I dispatched the poor guy as soon as I found him. I have more traps out in case he has any friends..

Last night coco_b, Audra, and myself made another trip to the Mendon Drive-In to see The Skeleton Key and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Skeleton Key kinda sucked... It was from that class of thrillers/horror that isn't PARTICULARLY bad, but is so bloody mediocre that it really isn't worth watching... I don't want to spoil the "big surprise", but trust me when I say you've seen it before. 40-Year-Old Virgin, however, was surprisingly funny. It was kind of refreshing, because recent comedies seem to try to beat you over the head with big obnoxious, raunchy, or blatant humor, while this movie was subtler. Audra described it as a romantic comedy for guys, and I don't think that's inaccurate.

I also noticed while moving my leg around near the boom box we were using for audio that it seemed to be effecting the reception (beyond usual human-body effects on radio reception). Not sure if this was just wishful thinking or an actual effect, but it was amusing nonetheless.

I am going to be lazy this weekend, mostly sleeping and playing video games...

I saw Murderball, a documentary about Olympic Quad Rugby, on Sunday with the film club. Now I knew nothing about Olympic Quad Rugby (a.k.a. Murderball; a.k.a. Paralympic Quadriplegic Rugby) going into the film, but it seems to me that after this film this sport will be much more widely known. The sport is intense, and the players literally beat the shit out of each other and their chairs. It's like rugby, but instead of using shoulders and elbows to take out the carrier, you use a big metal chair as fast as you can get it going. I think we are trained by culture to think of quadriplegic people as helpless, but this film will literally rewrite your definition of even what the word 'quadriplegic' means.

The movie focuses mostly on two people, Mark Zupan, a player for the USA Paralympic Rugby team and Joe Soares, a former player for Team USA who was dropped from the team and now coaches Team Canada. The bitter rivalry between the two teams is perfectly captured, both with the "action" scenes as well as some scenes where Soares is referred to as a traitor. The soundtrack is pretty good too, with several of the game action scenes backed by Ministry which I still have a soft spot for (by "soft spot" I actually mean "whips me into a frenzy"). Anyway, enough babbling, go see this movie.

coco_b and I got into a free screening of The Devil's Rejects on Wednesday. It was first come, first served, but they were already turning people away when we had gotten there. Determined to at least give it the old college try, I went up to the ticket taker and said "Hi, I'm Sean Graham with The Phoenix". The guy said "Oh, you're with the press, right on through" and let us pass into the theatre. Now be clear, I did win my tickets from The Phoenix, so it wasn't a complete lie... :)

We got into the theatre and pretty much all the seats were full (go figure, given the above), so we were banished to the front row... We probably would have asked for a refund if we had paid, but the tickets were free, so we sucked it up. The film was great, assuming you are into horror/gore films. Rob Zombie definitely gave the film a distinct 70's horror feel, and even though this was a genre film, he did an outstanding job... He really does have a clear and vivid vision and is really able to get it up on the screen well. It went for fewer laughs than his previous film, House of 1000 Corpses, but there were still some funny moments (uncomfortably or otherwise).