Expedient MEANS

Notes on Film, Art, Writing, Technology and other things by Steve A Furman

  • Pandora – Radio From Music’s DNA

    For the last four months or so I have been exploring the Pandora music service from my computer (via the Internet) as well as my Sonos music system. Pandora uses the phenomenal work done by the Music Genome Project to serve up individual songs in a radio station format. In case you are unfamiliar, the Read more

  • Kindle Makes Electronic Books A Reality, Without the Web

    A colleague of mine who is an avid reader of books (the analog paper kind) is very excited about her new Kindle from Amazon. She was kind enough to bring it in for me to play with over lunch last week; here are my observations. The Kindle is Amazon’s first foray into launching a big Read more

  • Oscars Go Bleak – Love It

    The best picture category nominations are as follows. No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood (eight each). Michael Clayton, Atonement (each with seven), and Juno (four). This list of serious and dark films is a reflection of what we have been living this past year. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan droning Read more

  • There Will Be Blood – Film Review

    Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest offering, There Will Be Blood, is a departure from his large ensemble works Boogie Nights and Magnolia. This muscular, tragic film was penned for the screen by Mr. Anderson, based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil. Pic opens at the very end of the 1800’s when America was moving into the industrial Read more

  • Chess Incarnate Bobby Fischer on the Spectrum

    So much has been written in the wake of Bobby Fischer’s death. It’s all covered, the chess brilliance as well as the strangeness of his life. Mr. Fischer was the essence of chess in human form. When someone operates at the genius level, particularly as a child, we are naturally in awe. We want to Read more

  • Netgear Fails to Connect on First Impression

    In a previous post I wrote about a great out-of-the box customer experience I had with an Olympus E-510 SLR digital camera. Of course for every great experience there is likely to be one not so great. I think you know what’s coming. Very recently I opened up a new wireless router, the Netgear RangeMax Read more