An Argument between 10 year old me and 38 year old me: Tron Legacy

by Stepto
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[WARNING: THIS ARGUMENT CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS]

“You’re going to be nitpicky,” 10 year old me said, “I’m really not interested in nitpicky. I like movies based on where they take me, not how they take me there.”

It was just before the opening 9:30am showing this morning of Tron: Legacy. I’ve loved Tron since the first time I saw it in the theaters.  But in my jaded adulthood I’ve distanced myself from its bold visions based on growing older, and in that growing older gradually shoving my 10 year old self further and further back from my now atrophied sense of wonder.

“It’s preposterous!” I said, more than a little bit justified in my adult non-wondrous anger, “I mean even in the original Tron it’s silly.  How could such primitive processors create a world and AI of such complexity? Sure it’s pretty, sure I love it for nostalgic reasons, but the entire premise is unrealistic! And in this new movie the computer is 1989 technology and isn’t even connected to the Internet? It’s probably just a late term Matrix copycat.”

10 year old me paused, “Matrix?”

“It’s like Star Wars with computers, if Jedi had ended with the Emperor and Vader signing a non aggression pact with the Rebel Alliance.”

10 year old me looked really confused.

Crap, I thought, Jedi came out when I was 11.

“Never mind, I’m just saying I know more now. Plus, how in the world does a spontaneously appearing algorithm cross back physically in our world huh?  Tell me that Einstein.”

10 year old me sighed a sigh my mother was probably quite familiar with.

“You were fine in the first Tron with Flynn being digitized?” he asked. 10 year old me was speaking casually.

“Well of course it’s fiction, but it was based on the fundamental concept of sampling which we accept today.” I replied. That was a good response.  I felt safe there in pointing out it was bullshit, but fundamentally sound bullshit.

“Hrmm and you are ok with Flynn’s son being sampled in the same way?” 10 year old me replied.

I was sensing a trap, but logic forced me to answer: “Well I guess since Flynn perfected the sampling technology such an act would make sense in the universe.”

“Universe ah.  Interesting.” 10 year old me replied.  Now he was walking alongside me like Morpheus in The Matrix, hands clasped behind his back. “So in a world where the deconstruction of physical matter into a digital environment is plausible if obviously fictional, wouldn’t that same principle apply both ways given enough study on the other side of the equation, as CLU has clearly done?”

I cursed knowing too much of the plot ahead of seeing the movie.  10 year old me is wily, and well versed in realms of amazing stories as opposed to worlds that were merely plausible. That is why he is 10 year old me, and I am 38 year old me.

“Let’s imagine,” 10 year old me continued, “That in the original Tron, a fictional universe was created where Encom designed a supercomputer capable of manifesting The Grid. And that ancillary technologies like laser sampling linked it to our world.  Let us further suppose that Flynn found a way to reliably and repeatedly meld the two.  Let us finally suppose that these developments are unique to Encom’s technology, therefore the advancements have nothing to do with the Internet or other processor or computing advancements. In other words today’s advancements are there, but not important to the story being told.”

I fell silent.

“Let us realize,” 10 year old me said, “that maybe like most things Disney is good at, they have created a world just slightly alongside our own where you can overcome your knowledge of what is possible in our world, and enjoy a world where that knowledge is transcended merely with good story telling. Oh, by the way, did you like Cars?”

I bowed my head. I did indeed enjoy Pixar’s Cars. It’s the lower of the Pixar films, which is like saying this amazing Scorecese film is good, but not his best. IT’S BETTER THAN 99% IN ITS CLASS.

“So you can be less nitpicky then. But for this, you’re are nitpicky,” 10 year old me said, “I’m really not interested in nitpicky. I like movies based on where they take me, not how they take me there.”

10 year old me was fading for some reason, and I didn’t want him to disappear, but he had one last point to make.

“Just shut the hell up and enjoy the story being laid out for you.”

38 year old me turned off my smart phone, with more processing power than that would be required to create the world envisioned in this film.  I relaxed in a stupidly luxurious reclining leather chair and put on a pair of Roy Orbison 3d glasses.  And for the next 2 hours fell in love with a mental space I have not been in for far too long.

I loved Tron: Legacy, every second of it.  And I have a young version of me, and a well designed original vision to thank for it.

I Bookified my Blogerations part 2: The Hardbackening

by Stepto
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All right let’s see how deep a hole I done dug. Clearly I underestimated the demand for the personalized hardback edition of my book, so here it is.  I am now taking orders for A Microsoft Life, hardback edition.  The link is just over to your right on the Buy Now button.  Please note, the Lulu button is for the paperback and ebook copies.  (for those waiting on Kindle, Amazon.com, Nook, BarnesandNobles.com, and Apple iBook, there will be a third post in this series when those are available, and the buttons on the bade to the right will be updated)

Don’t click the button just yet!  There’s stuff you need to know. Here’s how this is going to work.  I have copies of the book heading to me.  They should arrive in the next 10 days.  Each paypal order (and yes I’m sorry wikileaks supporters I’m using PayPal) gets you a copy of the book personalized by me, as well as a free copy of the .PDF sent out via email so you can start reading immediately.

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS, IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS

During checkout you will see this screen, I need you to click where I note in the screenshot:

bookui

In the notes I need three key things:

The name or nickname you want the book personalized to.

That person’s favorite thing.

A valid email address to send the PDF to (if not the Paypal confirmation one.)

On the inside of the book I will be writing a short message to that person involving their favorite thing.  Plus I need a place to send the PDF.

I have set the price for the hardback at $24.99 with 6$ in shipping and handling inside the US and territories and $18 dollars S&H for International.  After doing a bunch of math, those rates seemed to be the best median price points for me to manage two shipping zones as opposed to, say, 7 or 8.  If you *really* think I’m a jerk for the shipping breakdown please send me an email pleading your case and your shipping charges and maybe we can work something out.

So!  I reserve the right to reject certain names (No “Dixon Cider”’s etc), and fair warning if this takes off I might have to throttle the amount, in which case I will take the button badge down until I catch up.  I don’t want anyone to wait more than three weeks from payment to receiving their copy.

Go for it!  I mean…you know, if you want to.

I Bookified My Blogerations!

by Stepto
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[UPDATE:  Personalized Hardbacks are now available for order. Click Here!]

 

Tuesdays are when new movies and new games get released, and besides this post is a long time coming, but I’m very proud to announce the release of my first book, A Microsoft Life.

The story of how the book came to be is an odd one. This year being my 15th as a Microsoft employee, I took some time to collect a ton of the Microsoft lore and stories that I have written about here on my blog, expand and rewrite them, then compile them into a rough narrative. Once the manuscript was complete I handed it over to a professional editor (the wonderful Joanne Starer) and my friend Mark Pedersen designed the cover:

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Joanne made the text readable through a ton of effort, and I think Mark did an outstanding job with the cover, from the hand drawn pointillism portrait of me to the idea of having the monitors each contain an image from one of the stories in the book. I’m immensely proud of the stories in the book, because they are the types of stories that I would be interested in as a geek.  Part Memoir, part history book, this project is designed to be a quick, humorous read that you can pick up and put down at any time. To be clear, it’s not a study of the company or some type of expose. But if you’ve ever wanted to know what the Redmond Reality Distortion Field is, why Microsoft buildings are designed to prevent you from attending meetings, or what a pig flu had to do with the Windows 98 product launch…well this is your book. It’s about a geek living an unlikely existence in one of the major technology companies in history.

I read the Windows 98 chapter from the book at w00tstock 2.9 in Austin and 2.10 in Dallas. I was super nervous at actually doing a live reading and announcing that I was going to have a book come out.  I mean, at that point that makes shit real ya know?  But judging from the number of people in the autograph line who said they were disappointed it wasn’t available yet for them to buy, I guess it got a good reception!

A Microsoft Life weighs in just shy of 50,000 words and is 169 pages. It is available right now from Lulu.com for $15.99 for paperback and $6.99 for a downloadable PDF.  It will soon also be available at those same prices from Amazon.com, Kindle, iBook, etc. In addition, I am also working on a hardback version that will only be available from here at Stepto.com that will be signed and personalized for $24.99. I will update this post when that happens.

I’m not DRM’ing the PDF, the main reason I am supplying it via Kindle and iBooks, etc is mostly for convenience for people. As a Kindle app user on my iPad it’s a super easy way to get books. It’s also a severe hit in the return I get, so I figure the least I can do for adding DRM to the process is take a lower cut to make up for the inconvenience and not mark it up. Please note the PDF does *not* contain the front and back cover art, but the Kindle and iBook versions will. Oh, here’s the back cover art in readable size:

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(the blank box is for the UPC)

So.  That’s done. 

Over the next 12 months I actually have two more books in the works, and a fourth probably in 2012.

I hope you enjoy what I’ve done.  Open-mouthed smile

Gunnar Optik Bitsurfer Glasses

by Stepto
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Over the past three years I’ve discovered I’ve dramatically increased the amount of time I spend looking at computer screens.  I didn’t think that could be possible, but I’ve begun to notice it recently with some occasional eye strain and the random headache. I have a very light eye prescription to correct some minor near-sightedness in my left eye (so light I don’t legally need my glasses to drive), and I found that on days where I wore my glasses quite a bit I had less eye strain at the end of the day, but on days I didn’t my eyes were really tired.

I’ve needed some new glasses for a while and had heard about Gunnar Optik glasses from several friends.  For those who don’t know, Gunnar Optik makes a line of eye glasses available in both prescription and normal that are designed for people who spend a lot of time looking at screens all day. They make a variety of lenses as well for things like active technology 3D and outdoor work as well I have a pair of their “Bitsurfer” design, which is the one of their inexpensive lines (roughly $89 a pair online or elsewhere):

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The frame is a metallic crimson and the lenses themselves are super clear, and light yellow tinted.  They came in what seemed like a metalized box which is quite nice, and inside the glasses were set in an insert for protection.

So do they work?  I confess I was *really* turned off by their marketing language, here’s a sample:

diAMIX lens material, fRACTYL lens geometry, i-FI lens coatings, iONIK lens tint. The wrapped lenses also reduce air flow around the eye, creating a microclimate with increased moisture levels.

Their jargon is infused with snAKEoIL phrases and BUnCOMBE language that really turns the science oriented geek in me right off, so I was super skeptical. But friends who had them swore by them.  I can happily say that after several days alternating between the Gunnars and my old glasses, they do indeed seem to work.

In fact, I love them.  The lenses are much wider than my old glasses and the frames fit better.  There is an ever so slight magnification on the lenses as well which not only more or less equals my old glasses but I find really works well for the large screens I work on now. The tint takes getting used to.  Everything does indeed become yellowish.  For some things that actually works great, as the tint makes computer monitor images have a much less stark contrast while still being crisp and clear.  But I find watching movies in hi def, the tint changes things a little too much. Not a deal breaker at all since you certainly don’t have to wear them all the time.  Just something to note. But doing computer work or gaming either on the PC or my consoles is clearly changed for the better given just how many hours I spend doing it.

There’s only one flaw in fact so far that I have found.  The lenses themselves are so highly polished that in certain lighting conditions I can clearly see the reflection of my eyes in the lenses!  It’s a tad distracting but almost all glasses have this to some extent.  It’s not often but when it happens it takes some getting used to.

Could I get the same benefits from cheaper glasses or ones from an eye doctor?  I have no idea if the Gunnars are overpriced or not, but I can report that at $89 they do what they claim to do, and after several days of using them I’ve noticed at the end of the day I have much less of that “sand in my eyes” feeling of tiredness.  That makes it reasonable when I consider I paid $200 for my prescription pair of glasses. So while I’d do a rewrite of their marketing lingo, I like these enough to investigate going to an eye doctor to perhaps get the prescription version to wear all the time.

Plus Rochelle says I look good in them, which it’s always a bonus when your wife likes your glasses.  Now if I could just get over feeling like Bono when I wear them…