Day: December 2, 2006

Years ago, when video tapes were first available, the movie industry was in an uproar. Not because of people taping things off the air, but because they felt if people could rent or buy movies, they wouldn’t go see them in the theatre. At that time, the movie industry had been in a slump.

To their surprise, video rentals actually reinvigorated the movie industry. People still wanted to see films on the big screen.

All these years later, I wonder now if perhaps their original dire predictions might have been correct.

I just watched King Kong. Not the unequaled classic 1933 version, but the 2005 Peter Jackson version. Actually, that’s not true either, this is the 2006 Peter Jackson super-enhanced, mega-long, “I don’t know when to stop” version.

I was never a Lord of the Rings fan. I don’t really care for that type fantasy and never read the books. Consequently, I never went to see the first movie. When it came out on DVD, a friend loaned me the ultra-extended version. What a great film! My wife and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I decided that I wanted to own them myself, and so I bought the extended version of the first film and the second, which came out about that time.

Now, here’s where my tale begins. I could have seen the third film in the theatre, but I didn’t. I could have seen the original version on DVD, but I held out. I knew that the complete version would be held back many months to bilk the DVD buying public as much as possible. But I was there the first day it was available as the extended edition.

King Kong was the same. While I was eagerly awaiting a worthy remake of one of my all-time favorite films, I knew that there would be more. Why should I waste my time on half-finished versions? I decided to wait for the extended DVD.

And that’s why I think that the movie business may be shooting themselves in the foot. They lost my theatre ticket sale and all that popcorn and Dr. Pepper. Is the day coming when people realize they’re being cheated at the initial release of a movie or DVD?

Technorati Tags: Blog, DVD, Movies, Review

Parallels => Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3036 Beta is available for download.

It’s with great regret that I say that I have to use Windows XP for my work. There simply isn’t any Mac way to do a few of the thing necessary. To remedy that problem (so I don’t have to tote around a second laptop) I use Parallels Desktop, which I’ve reviewed previously.

Yesterday they released a new beta version of the upcoming (free upgrade) release. It’s looks pretty darned impressive. They’ve added the ability to drag and drop between OSX and Windows (both ways), which will be a real time saver for me. They’ve also implemented a new operation mode.

Previously, you could work in either windowed mode, in which your entire Windows desktop resided within an OSX window, or you could run the Windows session full screen on the Mac. I must say, seeing a full screen version of Windows running on my MacBook never fails to unnerve me. The new mode allows the Windows desktop to disappear, leaving the Windows task bar at the bottom of the screen (or where ever you keep it) and the Windows windows float and mix freely with the OSX windows.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but the promise is amazing.

I have an exact bootable duplicate of my Macbook on an external drive, so I booted to that, installed the beta over the version on the external drive and had no problems with the upgrade whatsoever. The software did show a couple video glitches which I’ve not encountered in the production version, and the mixed windows mode doesn’t cross monitors if you’ve got two hooked up.

This is a compelling piece of software for someone is stuck running some Windows programs.

Major complaint – Windows emulation only supports USB 1, so if you want to use a USB device from Windows, it’s dog slow. Luckily, drag and drop will help alleviate that problem. Parallels also does not support 3D graphics in Windows. Not a problem for me, but others might be impacted by it.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Blog, Mac, MacBook, OSX, Review, Software