Cloud Atlas

I wasn't expecting to catch Cloud Atlas this weekend, but both Tamara and the kids wanted to, so we did -- 4:45 matinee at the Moolah.

I was surprised that the kids wanted to see it. I was even more surprised that they sat through all three hours of it without visible loss of interest.

Short review: A great big mess of a movie, but a beautifully rendered mess. I expect I'll be seeing it several times (probably not on the big screen again, though).

Up sides: Stellar acting from a stellar cast. Magnificent visuals.

Down side: Three hours just isn't time enough to fully elaborate six separate plots, even though they are theoretically inter-related plots. I don't know what the filmmakers could have done to remedy that without the thing dragging out to another three hours (at least). Maybe nothing.

At any rate, I didn't leave the film wanting my three hours back. Not a grand slam, maybe not even a home run, but at least a ground rule double.

US Senate Elections Handicapping

My US Senate outcome predictions for next week. Sorry to disappoint anyone expecting really outrageous picks. A couple of these are a little risky, but nothing way far out.

Arizona -- Flake (R) beats Carmona (D) [Republican Hold]
California -- Feinstein (D) beats Emken (R) [Democratic Hold]
Connecticut -- Murphy (D) beats McMahon (R) [Democratic Hold]
Delaware -- Carper (D) beats Wade (R) [Democratic Hold]
Florida -- Nelson (D) beats Mack (R) [Democratic Hold]
Hawaii -- Hirono (D) beats Lingle (R) [Democratic Hold]
Indiana -- Donnelly (D) beats Mourdock (R) [Democratic Pickup]
Maine -- King (I) beats Summers (R) and Dill (D) [de facto Democratic Pickup]
Maryland -- Cardin (D) beats Bongino (R) [Democratic Hold]
Massachusetts -- Warren (D) beats Brown (R) [Democratic Pickup]
Michigan -- Stabenow (D) beats Hoekstra (R) [Democratic Hold]
Minnesota -- Klobuchar (D) beats Bills (R) [Democratic Hold]
Mississippi -- Wicker (R) beats Gore (D) [Republican Hold]
Missouri -- McCaskill (D) beats Akin (R) [Democratic Hold]
Montana -- Tester (D) beats Rehberg (R) [Democratic Hold]
Nebraska -- Fischer (R) beats Kerrey (D) [Republican Pickup]
Nevada -- Berkley (D) beats Heller (R) [Democratic Pickup]
New Jersey -- Menendez (D) beats Kyrillos (R) [Democratic Hold]
New Mexico -- Heinrich (D) beats Wilson (R) [Democratic Hold]
New York -- Gillibrand (D) beats Long (R) [Democratic Hold]
North Dakota -- Berg (R) beats Heitcamp (D) [Republican Pickup]
Ohio --  Brown (D) beats Mandel (R) [Democratic Hold]
Pennsylvania -- Casey (D) beats Smith (R) [Democratic Hold]
Rhode Island -- Whitehouse (D) beats Hinckley (R) [Democratic Hold]
Tennessee --  Corker (R) beats Clayton (D) [Republican Hold]
Texas -- Cruz (R) beats Sadler (D) [Republican Hold]
Utah -- Hatch (R) beats Howell (D) [Republican Hold]
Vermont -- Sanders (I) beats MacGovern (R) [de facto Democratic Hold]
Virginia -- Kaine (D) beats Allen (R) [Democratic Hold]
Washington -- Cantwell (D) beats Baumgartner (R) [Democratic Hold]
West Virginia -- Manchin (D) beats Raese (R) [Democratic Hold]
Wisconsin -- Baldwin (D) beats Thompson (R) [Democratic Hold]
Wyoming -- Barrasso (R) beats Chestnut (D) [Republican Hold]

So a net Democratic pickup of one seat or two seats (depending on whether we count Maine's King as a de facto Democrat), unless West Virginia's Manchin switches parties after the election.

I guess I should throw in my presidential prediction, too, as I don't think I've really done so here (but I have elsewhere). Obama will win in the electoral college with a minimum of 290 votes to Romney's 248. He may notch up as high as 334 to 204 (332 if Florida and Virginia slide out of the Romney column; 334 in the less likely event that it's Florida and North Carolina).

The Chromebox is Here!

First impression: This machine is sweet.

I've seen various boot times mentioned in reviews -- six seconds, eight seconds ... I didn't count, but I'm relatively certain it was under 10 seconds from pressing the button to the thing being ready to use.

Thanks to Google Sync, all my stuff is up to date (mostly, anyway -- while waiting for the new box, I had been working in Seamonkey instead of Chrome on the Mac, so a stray bookmark/password here and there are probably missing).

It's quiet, it's fast, and there doesn't seem to be a high learning curve here.

I do have some "getting used to" things to ... well, get used to. Mostly re-learning keyboard shortcuts since there's no longer a Mac "command" key. And I don't have the fonts just right for my pranged eyesight yet. That's always an adventure when I change machines.

And I have to start figuring out the cloud way to do the few things that I previously used hard-drive-based apps. I'll be working in Google Docs instead of TextWrangler, using an FTP extension instead of  Cyberduck, and so on, and so forth.

Sweet. Badass. But I've only been using it for maybe an hour, so I can't be sure something weird won't come up.

Brief, mildly disturbing update: When I first turned on the computer, there were two login prompts. One had a name, and the other was "guest." I figured the "name" one was some kind of cheesy sample/tutorial thing, and didn't think any more about it until later when I went into "manage users" and found out that no, that name was a real person, and the "root" user for the machine.

In other words, I was shipped used merchandise. Specifically, "open box" merchandise. With a little Googling, I was able to identify and contact the previous owner, who had returned the box immediately,  because it didn't support a particular dual monitor configuration he uses.

In my case, this happens to be a minor thing. The nature of the Chromebox is that there's not a bunch of stuff on a hard drive that I could use to do bad things if I was a bad guy. And the machine is in perfect condition, so I see no need to return it. But it's bad business to be selling "opened box" merchandise as "new," and it could even be dangerous from an identity theft standpoint.

The seller of the box is ... drum roll, please ... Amazon. I've advised the client who purchased the machine on my behalf to remonstrate with them. He deserves some store credit, and they need to understand that "opened box" computers need to be checked out thoroughly before resale (and not sold as "new").