So I ordered Snow Leopard last week.  It was (and is) listed as “in-stock,” but they now claim it’ll ship (not arrive) on September 4.  If I order now (and pay for one-day shipping), they claim they’ll have it to me on September 1.  What’s up with that?

I just ordered Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6.  I haven’t been playing with betas. It’s only $25 (with free shipping and no tax) from Amazon.

I’m a little worried that folks tell me one needs to install Rosetta to run our apps.  That would mean I’m about to get tons of calls.  I’ll change the answering machine message.

The best thing about the second most recent James Bond movie was the parkour chase scene from the teaser. The black guy Bond is pursuing, Sebastien Foucan, is a delight to watch.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is all about parkour as a game.  And undo via time travel.  (Great game, by the way.)

Anyway, I was just reminded of that by this robot parkour video.

Quentin Tarentino has an amazing reputation for someone who has directed so few films:

• Reservoir Dogs (***1/2)
• Pulp Fiction (****)
• Jackie Brown (****)
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 (****)
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 (****)
• Death Proof/Grindhouse (***1/2)

I appreciate Tarentino because he sees the art in exploitation films.  He’s a movie buff, and he makes movies that are more flicks than films, though that doesn’t stop them from being smart. He can make bad films good by taking delight in their badness (as Death Proof attests).

I kind of expected Inglourious Basterds to be a war movie — from the trailer it looked vaguely like The Dirty Dozen.

It’s not.

Once again, not recommended to all because of the ultraviolence.

I hadn’t read the book or seen any previews. There’s no science, and not much conflict, but the story is fairly compelling anyway.

Seems like there’s been a good batch of movies out this month.

Insurocorp!

The biggest danger to a free market is monopolies.  In most cases, when there are at least six competitors for some business, they’re each forced to provide excellent services at low prices, and still eke out a reasonable profit.  However, left to their own devices, they’ll buy each other until there are only a couple, and then collude to provide barely adequate services at high prices, and eke out a gigantic profit.

Ironically, a free market requires considerable regulation to keep it free.

Mira’s been playing with stop motion animation.

I’ve been participating in a research study for some PhD at the University of Michigan.  Saliva research.  I have to give them 2 samples every day, which basically means spitting into a test tube for 5 minutes way more often than anybody should.

Eww.

Now my freezer is full of spit.

Eww.

I recently signed up for Google Voice.  According to their marketing, “Google Voice gives you a single phone number that rings all your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text. Other cool features include the ability to listen in on messages while they are being left and the ability to make low cost international calls. To start enjoying Google Voice, just give out your Google Voice number. You can record custom greetings for your favorite callers or block annoying callers by marking them as SPAM. ”

My number is 40-JOEDELTA.  (That’s 1-405-633 3582.)  Right now I just have it forward straight into voice mail, so feel free to call it any time.  The voice mail is automatically transcribed and emailed to me.  The voice recognition isn’t flawless, but it’s not bad.  I’ll post some of the transcripts on Monday.

Now I want Google Voice to sit between me and foreign callers, recognizing, translating, and repeating everything each says.  Sure, there’d be an annoying delay, but that sounds pretty cool.

It’s in testing now, and by invite only, so if you’d like an invite, email me.

Hey, another good movie.  Sweet!  And this time far fewer exploding bodies.

Of course, my daughters are more freaked out by movies with kissing than those with disemboweling.  Go figure.