I have had a 21″ CRT monitors for a long time now. I think I have gone through three of them. Each of these 21″ monitors suffered the same fate; the screens all got a greenish tint to them that got progressively worse. I love CRT, I think they provide a much better picture than LCD monitors and I think they will continue to do so for some time. That said, I bought a LCD.

I got sick of all my 21″ monitors turning green so I decided to try out LCD. I had bought all 21″ CRTs used, but that is only because new CRT monitors are quite expensive, so maybe that helped contribute to their early demise. I still run a CRT in conjunction with my new 20″ Dell 2007FP, I have a 19″ that does duty as my secondary monitor.

I have been quite happy with the 2007FP. Text looks great, it’s super sharp, has nice colors after I dialed it in with my Colorvision SpyderPro. It was a breeze to install, it came with all the necessary cabling including both a DVI and VGA cable. It has to USB ports on the side. The monitor came with a stand that is height adjustable, as well as able to rotate and pivot. The screen is actually slightly larger than the old CRT. I can run it at 1600X1200 which was actually a requirement for me when I was shopping for a new monitor.

I considered getting a widescreen monitor but when I looked at the Dell E228WFP, which is their 22″ model, it actually had fewer total pixels than the 20″ traditional aspect ratio monitor. The 22″ was cheaper too but it wasn’t part of the Dell Ultrasharp line like the 2007FP. The fact that I have dual monitors sort of makes it so I don’t need a widescreen monitor as well, plus I don’t watch movies on my computer or play any games on this rig. I have the Home Theater for that. I have made a deal with myself. I am going to get the 30″ widescreen LCD monitor when I hit my first financial goal, the first month that I could afford to buy two of the 30″ monitors I will buy myself one.

If you are in the market for a nice 20″ LCD I can suggest the Dell 2007FP, I have been quite happy with mine so far. I purchased it from the Dell Outlet which saved me about 75 bucks.

Ever wonder what it would be like if internet chat rooms were real?

It’s a little long but totally worth it.

Wow.
Amazing.
Superb.
Excellent.
Stunning.

Those are just a few of the thoughts that went through my head as I watched Children of Men. I will be surprised if I see many films this year that even come close to this movie.

I knew next to nothing going into this movie, about the only thing that I knew was that it starred Clive Owen and that he was on the run from something. I am not going to talk specifics about this movie because I truly feel that this is one of those movies that the less you know going in the more you will enjoy it.

This movie is a masterpiece, Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) has created a movie that is not to be missed. One aspect of the film that I absolutely loved was that there was zero hollywood in it. Children of Men is played out like reality not like a hollywood blockbuster and it is a much better movie because of it.

The camera work in this movie is outstanding. There are two scenes in particular that stick out in my mind. I will try not to give away too much because I don’t want to spoil anything. The first scene starts with a car on fire. The scene appears to be shot in one continuous take and is simply amazing. The second scene is later in the movie and involves Clive Owen’s character walking down a battle torn street trying to meet up with someone else. This scene is mind blowing and again appears to have been shot in one continuous take.

I highly suggest seeing this movie, it’s outstanding. I want to see it again before it leaves the theater.

I knew very little about this movie before going into it but an ex-coworker told me that it was one of the best movies that he had seen in the last couple years and I knew that the critics were loving it as well. About the only thing that I knew about the movie was the it starred a little girl, took place during a war and that the little girl had fantasy world that was a reality.

I need to say this right now before I talk more about the movie. This movie is brutal, surprisingly brutal. Do NOT bring your kids to see this movie. I don’t want to go into specifics because I don’t want to ruin anything for you. I will say that the first scene of brutality smacked me right across the face, I totally did not see it coming and truly shocked me.

The movie is quite brilliant. Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, The Devil’s Backbone, Mimic) has created a truly remarkable film and one that I highly suggest you take a look at if you like fantasy and don’t mind some gore. Ivana Baquero, who plays Ofelia, the little girl, is simply excellent in her role. All around the cast was excellent but Ivana and Sergi López, who plays the Captain, are the real stand outs here in my opinion. Ivana for her expressive eyes and young innocence and Sergi for his heartless and amazingly cold performance.

I also need to mention the set design, makeup and visual effects in this movie. If this movie isn’t nominated for a few academy awards it will be a travesty as this is one of the most visually stunning movies I have seen in a while.

I highly suggest Pan’s Labyrinth, but I am serious about the violence, this movie pulls no punches so beware.

The code on Moe’s Realm had been a mess for a very long time. I built the template that the pages used a very long time ago and the web has moved on considerably since then. I have been meaning to update it for a long time but never found the time. After a friend of mine took a look at the code and made a not so nice comment I figured it was time to get off my butt and do something about. He also pointed me to this page which gives quite a few sample code snippets for navigation using CSS. The navigation was the big bloated part on Moe’s Realm so this was perfect for me.

Long story short. The combined total size of all the HTML pages on Moe’s Realm used to be 244 MB. After cleaning up the code and actually improving the look of the site in the process the total size of all the pages is now 48.5 MB, a fifth of the original size.

I also made a few other changes that the user will never notice but will make my life easier when it comes to updating the site and stuff.

Take a look at the new look and let me know what you think.

www.moesrealm.com

It has bothered me for ages that in Windows you can not reorder the items on your taskbar. I often have the same programs open day in and day out on my computer and I like to have them in a specific order. For instance I like Netremote to be on the far left near my quick launch items, it’s always there and if it’s not there it screws up my workflow just because I am so used to it being there.

Yesterday I decided that I had had enough and I went looking to see if there was a solution to my problem. As luck would have it there was. Not only was there a solution but the solution was free as well. The program is called Taskbar Shuffle and so far I am in love.

Not only can I now reorder the items on my taskbar I can also middle click the buttons to close them, something I have gotten very used to doing with Firefox tabs. Taskbar shuffle is a tiny little program and consumes very little resources.

If you are looking for a way to arrange and reorder the items on your taskbar look no further than Taskbar Shuffle

If you are wondering why I stopped making the Spot Seven Puzzles there is a good reason. I decided to make a section on Moe’s Realm that was devoted to it. I am going to be offering visitors a new puzzle every weekday, I am taking weekends off (at least for now).

I could use some help spreading the word about this so if you know anyone who is into puzzles let them know, or if you could maybe mention it in your blog, or in a forum post or something like that I would greatly appreciate it.

Here is the link
Spot The Seven Puzzles