The need for speed.

T-Mobile is promising 42 Mbps download speeds on its wireless network this year. According to my math, that means you could actually access their network at max speed for about 30 minutes before you hit their 5 GB data cap and your connection gets throttled.

With a top speed of 42 Mbps, maybe T-Mobile's throttled speed is something like 6 Mbps, which would be pretty awesome for a mobile device, as that's faster than my old DSL wired connection. Or maybe they're throttling the connection down to sub-Edge speeds, which is not too awesome at all.


I'm just asking... What's the point of souping up your wireless network if you aren't really going to let your subscribers take advantage of that speed? And with wireless speeds at 42 Mbps, why am I still paying the cable company $45/month for 7 Mbps?

Watched on January 5...

It's by no means innovative, but The Fighter is a damn effective family/boxing drama. Christian Bale is getting accolades for his portrayal of the troubled Dicky Eklund, but I think Amy Adams steals the show (as she usually does). I was going to give the movie bonus points for featuring Led Zeppelin and 'Til Tuesday on the soundtrack, but that goodness got cancelled out by a Red Hot Chili Peppers song.

Watched on January 9...

It's kind of cliche to call a Pixar movie "a masterpiece" at this point, and the same can be said for a Coen Brothers movie. But True Grit is another masterpiece from the the siblings that gave us Miller's Crossing, Fargo, and No Country for Old Men, so what ya gonna do? On top of the wonderfully verbose screenplay and rock-solid cast, frequent Coen cinematographer Roger Deakins delivers amazing images of the snowy frontier wilderness.

Rio Bravo is a classic Howard Hawks western that features Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson as formidable gunslingers. John Wayne is top-billed as Sheriff John T. Chance (I think this might be where my parents got the idea for my name), and the Technicolor cinematography really pops (even on the non-HD Netflix streaming version).

Also...

Alabama Ice-pocalypse 2011 got underway last night.

Uh oh. If Roger Deakins (hey... didn't I just mention him?) is really saying "film is dead..." well, it might be time to start taking digital cinema cameras seriously. And I might never get to shoot that black and white sci-fi epic on 35mm with anamorphic lenses. As much as I respect Deakins (he's my favorite DP working these days), I'd like to check out the Arri Alexa for myself and see how it deals with quick motion and strobes/flashes.

Guitars 4 Troops is a charity that provides guitars for our military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. You can donate some cash to the cause or donate an old guitar.

DRM rears its ugly head again: How Hollywood strong-ARMed Intel and the CE biz.

Somebody is really making the iCade. Crap. Now I have to buy an iPad.

I found out about the iCade from Engadget's Twitter feed. I have a Twitter feed, too.