The Skeptical Optimist

Best movie ending ever

Until yesterday, I ranked the ending of The Shawshank Redemption as the best ever.  Now that one's in second place. 

I'm no movie critic; that's why I hardly ever talk about them here.  But this one, The Lives of Others, now ranks at the top with me.  My son told me not to miss it, and he was right. 

All I'll say about the plot is this: it takes place in communist East Germany in the mid-1980s, and it's a movie about character.  For the first half of the movie, I was wondering where it was going.  Then... what a finish.

Here's the link.  Rent it or buy it; just don't miss it.

Sorry the site was down

I transferred this site to a different domain name server, and it was down for a day as a result.  By the way, now you have to put a "www" in front of "optimist123.com" to get here.  I'm trying to fix that; we'll see. 

Full disclosure

For whatever it's worth: I don't wear ties much anymore, plus I've added a few more wrinkles in the last seven years -- so it was time to update the photo.

Comment authentication is on

To comment here, you now need to authenticate yourself through TypeKey.  Sorry to the good guys for the extra hassle, but the hit-and-run smart asses (many of them afflicted by a gold fetish) need some grownup supervision.  [Send me a private email and let me know what you think of the TypeKey experience; if it's too much hassle for the good guys, I'll try something else.]

Macbook Air: Update on what's wrong

[Follow-up to last week's post.]

Here's more detail on why the Macbook Air I used to own wouldn't connect to the 802.1x network in question...

Macbook Air: Don't get one yet . . .

...not if you have to connect to a wireless network using 802.1x, anyway.  I bought a Macbook Air three days ago.  Today I returned it and got my money back; I'd rather have my money in the bank collecting interest than have my Macbook Air on the desk collecting dust. 

Bad bug in Microsoft Excel: I'm dead in the water

Sorry, I have to postpone the usual GDP and Employment analyses and charts.  I am dead in the water, because of a formatting bug in MS Office Excel 2008 for Mac. 

Apparently, Microsoft did not test their new 2008 software on Excel models saved in the Excel 2004 format prior to releasing their new version.  I am now blind in all those analytical models until Microsoft fixes their goof and issues a software update. 

Some advice: If you use MS Excel for Mac, do not purchase or install Excel 2008 until this crippling bug is fixed.

New policy: Golden Rule v 2.0

My involvement with the new project I had mentioned previously requires a step-up in the efficiency with which I handle this blog.  As a result, I need to post a frank message about how I'll be handling some comments, and some commenters, from now on.

I will be following Golden Rule v 2.0:

Do unto others as they deserve. 

Almost all of you are welcome here.  Reason: almost all of you, regardless of your ideological leanings, have exhibited an honest desire to engage in objective, respectful debate.  Almost all of you possess enough self-confidence and backbone to use your real name in private messages.  That's the community I enjoy the most in this blogging activity; that's the best forum I've ever found for advancing knowledge; and that's the community that keeps me intent on continuing this blog indefinitely.  Thanks to all of you for making this an enjoyable two-way street.   

However, there's a tiny minority that isn't like the vast majority described above: a few who apparently made a commitment to their chosen ideology at an early age, then learned how to keyboard and name-call... but, sadly, never learned manners, decorum, or respect; a few who prefer to be able to throw their objections, barbs, and smart-ass remarks around, while carefully guarding their own personal anonymity.   

So, especially for that tiny minority, here's the new policy: If you run and hide when I ask you privately for your real name, I will consider you a low-integrity coward.  Expect to be ignored, and expect your comments to be deleted and banned.  One of the best things about the freedom to blog is the freedom to choose who I hang out with.  Low-integrity folks are not on my list. 

Golden Rule 2.0 will be applied from here on out.  Most of you have been abiding by it for years; I thank you for that.  I will trim this community as necessary from now on, with a goal of achieving 100%.  Not much trimming will be necessary, but it's not zero, either. 

Who is this?

Need some technical help.  Firefox is now popping up these security screens on me frequently.  I would appreciate some advice about who this is and why it's intruding all of a sudden.  Comment or email, whichever is easier for you.  Here are two screenshots (click to enlarge). 

Review: Sony Reader PRS-500

Don't buy it; save yourself $300+ and a big headache.  After wasting seven hours' worth of my time, most of it on hold waiting for Sony customer support people who ended up being no help whatsoever, I boxed it back up and returned it to Sony.

I had been looking forward to storing up to 80 books in their new-technology, hi-res ebook reader.  But not any more.

In theory, it interfaces with a Windows machine.  In practice, the Sony software ("Connect Reader") would not even run on my Sony Vaio notebook computer running the latest XP SP2 update, with 22GB free space on the hard drive.  [Note to self: Theory and practice frequently diverge.] 

I remain an optimist, however.  Specifically, I am optimistic that one of three things will happen: either (1) Sony will fix their software so that it works as advertised with Windows XP (on a Sony Vaio, no less); (2) Sony will write their software to interface with the OS X operating system; or (3) consumers will stay away from Sony products in sufficient numbers to drive Sony out of the business of wasting consumers' time and money. 

[One nice thing about running your own blog is the freedom to publish a warning like this every now and then, to help others avoid a time-wasting mistake.]

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End Note:

Not that I need help with this any more, but here is the error message that wouldn't go away no matter which Sony employee "helped" me or what I did to the boot.ini file based on stuff I found in the Microsoft knowledge base.  Click to enlarge—or, better yet, just wait for my next article later today, now that I have free time to work on it.  I'll be using my Mac.