Star Wars Recycled

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Ted

Warning: plot spoilers ahead…

No doubt about it. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a worthy successor to the Star Wars legacy. It’s action-packed, including a spectacular pair of light saber duels at the end. It’s also populated with a pleasing combination of intriguing new characters and welcome old friends.

If only the story wasn’t so weak (and we can’t blame Lucas this time). Actually, in isolation from the other Star Wars movies, the story is often compelling. Even with the other films as context, it managed to sustain my interest throughout. Things could be worse.

The problem is that I kept getting irritated with how much of the plot was a copycat retread of the prior films, especially Episode IV. While I understand fans’ desire to maintain the “look and feel” of the original movies (and you can count me in this group), there’s a difference between inspiration and imitation. Star Wars Episode VII crossed that line.

Consider the following:

• Episode VII concerns a small band of good guys (the Rebellion) battling an evil force (the First Order). As the film opens, the First Order appears to be in control of the galaxy.

Episode IV opened almost the same way, except it was the Empire instead of the First Order. The poor Rebellion seems clueless about how to take over and run a galaxy. It’s only 30 years after they destroyed the Empire, and they are already back on the defensive.

• Episode VII opens with a cute droid (BB-8) being given a secret document to be delivered to allies elsewhere.

Episode IV opens the same way —with R2D2 the recipient.

• Episode VII opens with a young adult (Rey), who lives on a desert planet, acquiring the droid and committing to help the droid complete its mission.

Episode IV opens the same way — except Luke is the youngster on the desert planet.

• Episode VII features a major villain (Kylo Ren) who dresses in an all black outfit and wears a hard-shell hooded mask.

I needn’t remind you that, in Episode IV, this precisely describes Darth Vader. I suppose the filmmakers would argue that this is deliberate, that Ren is attempting to emulate Vader (Ren does not actually require the mask to survive). But it’s still another copycat plot point.

• In Episode VII, Ren has a master who is even more powerful and evil (Supreme Leader Snoke).

In Episodes V and VI, the same relationship exists between Vader and the Emperor.

• Episode VII’s “bar” scene imitates Episode IV’s cantina scene, right down to similar looking aliens in the band.

• One of Episode VII’s biggest reveals is that Ren is actually Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo and Leia. He was training to be a Jedi, but was turned to the dark side.

This is a twisted echo of a similar generational reveal: Luke is Vader’s son. Vader was also a Jedi who was turned to the dark side.

• In Episode VII, Rey starts out largely naive as what’s going on in the galaxy — but eventually becomes a key player as she becomes aware that she possesses the power of the Force.

If this sounds similar to what happens to Luke in Episode IV, that’s because it is exactly the same.

• Episode VII concludes with a light saber duel between the two main protagonists (Rey and Ren). It ends with Ren surviving to fight another day.

Episode V ends with a similar fight between Vader and Luke, with Vader surviving to fight another day.

• There is a hint that there is a relationship between Ren and Rey, as yet to be revealed. Perhaps they are cousins (with Rey being Luke’s daughter) — echoing, with a twist, the relationship between Luke and Leia.

• Finally (although I am sure I have overlooked other similarities), Episode VII features a “death star” — and the only way to destroy it is via a well-placed shot by a fighter ship.

This is the identical scenario at the end of both Episodes IV and VI (and even Episode I to a some extent). I mean, come on! Isn’t there some other dramatic device the screenwriters could imagine besides a death star? Apparently not. I can only hope that this is the last death star we will have to endure.

The Force Awakens won’t win any awards for originality. Indeed, it too often seems as if there is only one Star Wars plot — and it keeps getting recycled. But it is a well-executed recycling. And I will be back in two years, eagerly awaiting to see what happens with the return of Luke Skywalker. With some luck, what happens won’t be a repeat of what has already happened in earlier Star Wars movies.

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My day as an extra in the Steve Jobs movie

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Ted

Back last March, I had the opportunity to attend the event where Steve Jobs announced the iMac to the world. What a fantastic day!

OK. I’ve created a bit of a reality distortion field here. What really happened is that I was an extra in the new Steve Jobs movie, starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs and with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

As you probably know by now, the movie focuses on three key media events: the announcements of the original Mac, the NeXT computer and the iMac. The recreations of all the events were done in venues around the San Francisco Bay area, although not necessarily where the events originally took place.

For the final event (the introduction of the iMac in 1998), the filming took place on March 29 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The Hall holds several thousand people and the filmmakers wanted it completely full. This was, by far, the largest of the three media event settings. They put out a call for volunteers to be extras. I probably would never have known about this if it wasn’t for someone I follow on Twitter posting a link to the signup webpage. Given that I live only a short BART ride away from the Hall, it seemed too good to pass up. I signed up.

A few days later, I received an email confirming that I had been selected. I suspect that almost everyone who applied was accepted, given the large number of extras they needed. Regardless, I was in!

On the day of the filming, I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the time stated in the invitation. To my dismay, there was already a line stretching more than six (6) blocks, waiting to enter the Hall. And more kept coming. In fact, because parking near the Hall is so limited, the studio had set up shuttle buses from a distant parking lot. Around a dozen full size buses unloaded while I was waiting.

By this time, I was thinking that, in an attempt to be certain of filling the Hall, the filmmakers had oversold the acceptances — meaning that some of us would be sent home without ever getting inside. I was wrong. Everyone got in.

Waiting in line

Eventually, the line began to move. By the time I got to the front of the line, it was well over an hour from when I first arrived. I signed the required release forms and was ushered into the Hall. It was still only about half full. Over the next hour, the Hall eventually reached capacity.

Inside Davies Hall

A small group of “professional” extras were seated in the first few rows on the left. As it turned out, this was where Jeff Daniels (as John Sculley) would later be filmed. The rest of the Hall was filled with volunteers such as myself.

Where possible, the filmmakers tried to recreate the “look and feel” of the original event, including having replicas (originals?) of  banners hanging from the ceiling out in the hallway. Quite impressive.

In the hallway

Once we were all seated, various sound and lighting checks were conducted. Eventually, Danny Boyle and his assistant director came out and introduced themselves. They gave us details about what would be filmed and what we were expected to do. Essentially, there would be various audience scenes showing us anticipating Steve Jobs’ entrance on to the stage (including one sequence where we were to stamp our feet to make noise) and cheering him when he was finally introduced.

Initially, we rehearsed with a stand-in for Michael Fassbender. Interestingly, the stand-in looked much more like Steve Jobs than Fassbender does. A few people near me mistakenly initially assumed that he was Fassbender.

Eventually, Fassbender came out and we began filming for real. The main scene was where an announcer said something like: “Ladies and gentlemen….Steve Jobs.” At this point, Fassbender strides on to the stage and we all stand up and cheer wildly. The flashing of   camera lightbulbs was simulated by a variety of strobe lights situated around the hall, triggered to go off at just the right moment. It was quite effective. When the cheering died down, I believe Fassbender said “Thank you.” That was it. The director yelled “Cut”…end of scene.

I assume, in the final film, it’s fade out to credits after this scene. In any case, when it was all over, Boyle informed us that this was the final day of filming. After this, it was “a wrap.”

There was no CGI involved. What you see in the film really are thousands of people standing up and cheering.

A few other related scenes were filmed that day. There was the Jeff Daniels scene. Another one took place backstage (I couldn’t see what was going on from where my seat was located, but I heard it involved Steve’s daughter Lisa). Yet another one was the arrival of Steve Wozniak (played by Seth Rogen). As luck would have it, this took place just a few rows from my seat. If it turns out that I am actually detectable on screen in the final cut of the movie, it will most likely be at this point.

There was a lot of waiting in between filming of each scene. At these points, you could out to the hallway and get snacks.

Filming a scene outside

Finally, we were shuttled outside of the building in order to film a crowd shot. After that, we went back inside the Hall, where they raffled off a few prizes and provided us with a box lunch. By this time, it was around 6:00, a little late for lunch. But heck, it was free. It had been about eight hours since my arrival.

And that was it. The big day was over.

I haven’t seen the movie yet. But it appears that the Davies audience scene is a significant one. Glimpses of it are in every trailer. I haven’t tried freeze-framing to see if I can spot myself. I’m guessing no, but I’ll wait until after I see the movie to confirm.

Or maybe I’ll never bother to check. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter to me whether I am on camera or not. I had a great time that day. I couldn’t be at the original iMac event. This was definitely the the next best thing. A day to remember. Both in 1998 and in 2015.

 

Posted in Apple Inc, Entertainment, Movies | 3 Comments

Another day, another rabbit hole

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Ted

After years of procrastinating, I finally decided to do it. Or so I thought.

Years ago, I adopted Steel, a Mac OS X app, as my password database. Almost as many years ago, the developers abandoned the app and recommended that its users migrate to 1Password. Even though I was already using 1Password with Safari, I was reluctant to transfer my 600+ passwords, registration codes, credit card numbers and such. It seemed too cumbersome a process. So I delayed. And delayed some more. Meanwhile, I continued to use both Steel (which still works well, although it offers no extensions or mobile device features) and 1Password.

Fast forward to today. I still have not given up on Steel. With the release of OS X El Capitan, I decided this was no longer a viable option. The day would inevitably come when Steel no longer worked. Before that happened, I had to take the plunge and convert everything to 1Password.

This is where things began to go off the rails.

Back when development of Steel was halted, AgileBits added an option to 1Password, allowing it to import Steel’s data. I quickly learned that the current versions of 1Password no longer include this option. This was understandable, given the passage of time. Still, it was disappointing. Several work-arounds exist, but they seemed too uncertain for me. I was already beginning to question my resolve.

Maybe I could come up with my own simple work-around. I knew I could export Steel’s data as a text (.txt) file. Perhaps I could import that to 1Password. No such luck. 1Password does not accept .txt files.

But 1Password does accept .csv files. And I could use Excel to convert my exported .txt file to a .csv file. Perhaps this would work without much hassle.

Unfortunately, when I attempted to import the .csv file, I found that 1Password’s Import dialog is broken. The dialog opens but neither the Import nor Cancel buttons work. I could use the Escape key (rather than Cancel) to exit the dialog but there was no way I could get the Import function to work. As I learned after some online searching, this is a known bug in 1Password 5.3 and will not be fixed until version 5.4 comes out.

So, after spending several hours trying to find a way to transfer my data to 1Password, I was left stymied.

Even if I eventually succeed, there will remain much work to be done. As I understand things, the import will place all my 600+ items into only one category (e.g., Secure Notes). I will then have to use copy-and-paste to get items moved to other categories, as desired. Ugh!

I don’t mean to zero in on AgileBits here. In my experience, AgileBits is a fine company with good customer support. And my problem is admittedly a rare one.

Rather, I cite this as an example of what happens far too often with modern digital technology: a task that you initially expect to be simple and quickly completed instead takes you down a rabbit hole where you spend the next several hours (or days) trying to find a way out.

One more thing…

In some cases, the blame for falling down a rabbit hole is not so much the technology itself but a support failure by the companies who make the products. Such was the case in my other recent descent into rabbit hole hell. It involves both Comcast (a company I loathe) and TiVo (a company I admire).

Once again, it started with what I thought would be a simple and painless task. After getting a too-tempting-to-resist discount offer from TiVo, I decided to replace my aging TiVo HD with a new Roamio Pro.

As soon as the new TiVo arrived, I began going through the on-screen setup procedure. Although it’s more time consuming than it ought to be, the procedure is straight forward enough. A key step required that I remove my Comcast CableCARD from my old TiVo and install it in the new Roamio. At this point, I needed to call Comcast and have them pair the card to the new device.

And here is where the trouble began.

I spent the next three hours (!) on the telephone with Comcast. During that time, I was disconnected on three occasions (and had to start all over each time, going through their infernal phone tree). At various points, I was transferred from the initial tech support person to other departments that were supposed to be able to resolve the problem. None of them could do so.

Giving up on telephone support, I asked to schedule an appointment for a “home visit.” Comcast couldn’t even manage this without difficulty, claiming their calendar software was temporarily down. Eventually, I did get an appointment and two technicians arrived at my doorstep two days later. They looked over the situation, made a brief phone call and — in less than five minutes — everything was working. Problem solved. Unbelievable!

The fix, as I subsequently learned, requires that the CableCARD be unpaired from the old TiVo before it gets paired to the new one. Without the unpairing, the new pairing will not work, even though it may look successful to a support person.

None of the people I spoke to on the phone were aware of this. In fact, they all acted as if they had never heard of CableCARDs until 30 minutes before my phone call. So the unpairing had never been done. [BTW, it turns out there is a Comcast department, with its own phone number, that does know what is going on and can handle the process correctly. But no one I spoke to on the phone that day connected me to them.] I asked the technicians why Comcast’s phone support was so clueless. Their answer was to smile and shrug their shoulders. At some point, you start to wonder if this is all a deliberate attempt by Comcast to discourage people from getting TiVo.

This is not quite the end of the story. I wound up buying two TiVo Minis in addition to the Roamio. The Minis are wonderful devices (linking to the main TiVo DVR and duplicating all of its functions for other televisions, without requiring additional CableCARDs or service contracts). However, when setting up the Minis, I could not get them to recognize that my main TiVo DVR was present. So the setup failed. Calling TiVo for help led me down yet another rabbit hole.

I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that it took some arcane troubleshooting and over 24 hours to get it all sorted out. The sad part is that, once again, if the initial support person had been sufficiently knowledgeable, it could have been resolved in a matter of minutes (as I eventually learned near the end of the process).

The good news is, despite having endured hours on the phone (with both Comcast and TiVo) stretching over several days, everything is now working perfectly. I expect smooth sailing going forward. Still, there was a good deal of unnecessary anger and frustration on the way to this ultimate success.

Maybe someday technology and its customer support will improve to the point that things like this rarely, if ever, happen. If so, I expect it will be a long wait. Until then: beware. Today’s technological marvels can be amazing when they work as promised. But when things go wrong — as they inevitably do — watch out for those rabbit holes.

Sign a petition to get the FCC to protect you against cable companies having too much control over access to CableCARDs and third-party set-top boxes.

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment

The ups (and occasional downs) of Apple’s new products

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Ted

Here are my brief reactions to the new products that Apple announced at its media event yesterday:

• Watch

So now you can get a gold Apple Watch for the same price as a Sport model. Actually, it is a Sport model. Apple now offers two new gold finishes for its aluminum Watch. You have to wonder if these colors were held back from last spring’s initial release so as not to give any competition to the actual gold models. Perhaps due to poorer than expected sales, Apple no longer cares about potential competition. In any case, yesterday’s event made no mention of the uber-expensive models.

• iPad

The 12.9” iPad Pro is quite attractive overall — especially so for people seeking Apple’s answer to the laptop/tablet Microsoft Surface. If I was in the market for such a device, I’d get one. [By the way, I predicted an iPad Pro back in January 2014 — and was quite close to what Apple released yesterday.]

The new connector technology used by the Keyboard seemed very cool. I look forward to see what third parties will do with it. I don’t see using the Pencil (I remain with Steve Jobs here), but I can imagine it being useful in specific applications.

On the downside, I’m bummed that the iPad Pro doesn’t include the 3D Touch feature announced for the new iPhones. It seems like a glaring omission…to have Apple’s most expensive iOS device lacking a key feature available in its smallest one.

A larger problem for Apple is (other than a minor update to the iPad mini — which Apple should have released last year), there were no other new iPads. Most especially, there was no iPad Air 3. This means that, unless you want an iPad Pro, there is almost no incentive for current iPad owners to upgrade to a new model. As such, I expect iPad sales for the coming holiday season to continue its decline. I don’t see the iPad Pro generating enough sales to reverse the trend.

• iPhone

With 3D Touch and an improved camera that includes Live Photos and 4K video, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus offer new features that are significant enough to motivate a substantial number of current users to upgrade. I expect the new iPhones to continue to gain market share and solidify Apple’s lead. Well done.

• TV

For me, the new Apple TV was the most “drool-worthy” of all the products announced yesterday. The new remote with a touch surface and Siri support can potentially change how we interact with television. As someone with the beginnings of hearing loss, I was especially blown away by the “What did he say?” feature, which rewinds 15 seconds and plays it back with captions.

For a long time, I have been advocating for the Apple TV to include its own App Store and provide better support for games. The new Apple TV delivers in both these categories. Yes!

Still, I do have a couple of concerns. No 4K support? This was a surprise, especially since the new iPhones can produce 4K video. And I didn’t see any option to play ripped DVDs, as you can do via the Computers icon in the current Apple TV. In fact, I didn’t see a Computers icon at all. Maybe it’s there and just not mentioned. We’ll see.

According to one article I read, analysts were overall left “underwhelmed” with the new Apple TV. They wanted to see the promised subscription service (and perhaps even original content). I too want a subscription service (especially if it means I can dump Comcast). But I have patience. I assume it will arrive in due course next year. I’d also like some sort of iCloud-based DVR, but I doubt I will see that. In the meantime, the new Apple TV is already a fantastic upgrade. I want one yesterday.

• Mac

One last thing. There was no mention of the Mac at the media event yesterday. Not even the impending release of OS X El Capitan (due September 30). Perhaps there will be some new Mac announcements in the weeks ahead, without a corresponding media event (because the iPad Pro was revealed yesterday, I no longer expect a separate event in October). Otherwise, we’ll have to wait till 2016 for new Macs.

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