Sunday Movies 4

Moral of the story: cheating is bad.

An enlightening song about George Washington

Well, you see, the front fell off

This guy singlehandedly made 3M turn a 4th quarter profit

Ukuleles – Thumbs Up

Interesting story from NPR – ukuleles are making a comeback.  Due to the recession, sales of musical instruments are down nationwide – except for ukuleles.  The lilliputian lute is an attractive alternative to guitars and other such instruments because of its low price (around $30) and ease of use.  Plus, as Mark Upton, president of Kala Ukulele in California says, “it’s hard to be sad when playing the ukulele.”

I find it hard to disagree.  Just check out Somewhere Over The Rainbow, covered  by Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole, or any number of ukulele covers on YouTube.

Almost makes me want to buy one and start strumming right now.

LOST Book Club – Thumbs Up

Full disclosure:  I’m a huge LOST nerd.  Staying true to form, I was checking out the LOST website on ABC.com one night.  Eventually, I stumbled upon a link to the “LOST book club.” Intrigued, I clicked on.

Essentially, the LOST book club is a collection of books that are in some way connected to the show.  On The Road, by Jack Kerouac, for example, is featured because Ben Linus assumes one of the main character’s names in a fake passport.  Island, by Aldous Huxley, is included because the Pala ferry is named after the eponymous island.

The books on the list certainly won’t contain any major revelations on the show – reading Walden Two can’t tell you the nature of the smoke monster – but they do allow the reader to draw interesting thematic connections and see which works have inspired Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the head writers of the show.

As shallow as it sounds, the LOST book club gave me a  good reason to pick up some classic literary works that I hadn’t gotten around to reading yet.  It is a fine reading list that will undoubtedly keep me occupied for many lazy summer afternoons.  I’d recommend checking it out to anyone looking for a way to pass some time this summer.  At the very least, reading them will provide for an enriching experience.  Besides, there’s only so much Hal0 3 you can play every day.

Time Warner Cable – Thumbs Down

Time Warner Cable has introduced a plan that will force customers that use large amounts of bandwidth to pay higher monthly rates.  The plan includes a pricing tier, with packages allowing for 10, 20, 40, 60, and 100 gigabytes (GB) per month.   Overage charges are expected to be $1/GB, capped at $75 per month – so if you go, say, 100 GB over your plan, you’ll still (only) be charged $75.

The internet provider is planning on introducing these pricing schemes in Rochester, NY, and Greensboro, NC, later this summer as a pilot program, so for now, most of the country is safe.

Why does Time Warner Cable think I should be penalized for using the Internet to its fullest extent?  Why do they want to charge me more for providing the same level of service?

This plan strikes me as utterly ludicrous and logic-defying.  Websites and Internet applications are becoming increasingly bandwidth intensive.  Netflix, for example, now allows users to stream high definition movies and TV shows directly to their computers – someone streaming a few high definition movies per week could easily exceed Time Warner Cable’s 100GB/month ceiling.   Soon, the needs for the average consumer will no longer be met by a basic 20GB/month plan from Time Warner Cable.

Ostensibly, this plan is intended to provide cheaper service to “casual” users (read: your grandmother) and to slow the growth of bandwidth consumption.  Time Warner Cable seems to be in denial about the nature and direction of Internet applications – as bandwidth intensive applications, such as multimedia streaming, videoconferencing and gaming proliferate, users everywhere are going to be needing more bandwidth.  This plan seems to be a coverup for their lack of foresight in neglecting to add additional bandwidth capacity.

The good news is that Time Warner Cable has somewhat eased off.  The pilot was originally supposed to be introduced into Austin and San Antonio as well, but plans to impose the program on those two cities have been pushed back until October.  Unless you live in Rochester or Greensboro, you’ll be fine for now.  Just don’t get too used to streaming your favorite episodes of Battlestar Galactica in high definition every week.