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(article index)
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Unofficial BYTE FAQ
( R.I.P. 1975-1998 )
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(free Java applet)
ROTator
(free Java applet)
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Recent Movies
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an offbeat romance written and directed by Woody Allen. He doesn't appear in the film, deferring to younger stars like Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, and Patricia Clarkson. Set in Spain, the movie follows two young American tourists (played by Johansson and Hall) who meet an impetuous artist (the amazing Bardem, who was the sociopathic killer in No Country For Old Men). Adding to the volatile mix is the artist's ex-wife, a fiery character played by Penélope Cruz, a highlight of the film. This love quadrangle becomes even more entangled after the arrival of one tourist's American fiancé. The results are funny, sexy, and romantic, though these characters seem to exist in a world without money worries or STDs. By the end, everyone seems spoiled and frivolous.
American Teen is the best documentary about the pressure on young people to succeed since Hoop Dreams (1994). Filmmaker Nanette Burstein follows several high-school seniors in a conservative middle-class town in Indiana. She focuses on a socially wicked beauty queen, a nervous basketball star, a girl who wants to be an artist but is starting to feel trapped, a nerdy misfit who's clumsy with girls, and their circle of friends. As in Hoop Dreams, all these teens are beginning to realize that their futures depend on choices they make now -- and on circumstances they cannot control. Will the beauty queen fulfill her father's fantasy of entering Notre Dame? Will the basketball star win a college scholarship or settle for the army? Will the art girl escape her small town for an expensive education in San Francisco? Will the pimply nerd find love? The drama is emotional and all too real. It's terrifying when these kids begin to perceive -- or are told -- that their futures aren't limitless.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a respectable feature-film revival of a TV series that was canceled years ago. It is best appreciated by stalwart X-Files fans, although it's not too obscure for newbies. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles as spooky FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, except now they're former agents recalled to duty. It seems that a psychic is assisting the FBI in an investigation, and skeptical agents need Mulder and Scully to evaluate his authenticity. The long-running alien-abduction theme from the TV series is absent, replaced by an earthier plot that nevertheless strains credulity. To make the story even murkier, the bad guys speak Russian. Be sure to wait through the closing credits to see what really happens to Mulder and Scully.
Mongol is a stunning Mongolian film about the rise of the greatest Mongolian in history, Genghis Khan. Starting with his boyhood, the film traces the hardships that molded Temudjin (his real name) into a leader who united the Mongols and conquered much of Asia. Filmed on location, Mongol effectively portrays life on the Mongolian steppes of 800 years ago. Supposedly it's based on Mongolian records written shortly after his death, but no one is certain about his background in this detail. Nevertheless, Mongol is an impressive work intended to be the first installment in a trilogy. I won't miss the next two. (Mongolian with English subtitles.)
>> See more mini-reviews, including Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson ... Wall-E ... Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ... Iron Man ... Leatherheads ... Stop-Loss ... Shutter ... Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day ... and many more!
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Inflation Calculator
Tom's Inflation Calculator includes the latest U.S. government inflation data for 2007. This free Java applet can adjust U.S. dollar amounts forward or backward in time for any years between 1666 and 2071 for retail price inflation, between 1914 and 2008 for wage inflation, and between 1936 and 2008 for medical-cost inflation. You can view inflation rates for any intermediate range of years, too. New improved version 7.1 is available now. It adds a new data set: U.S. retail price inflation, December to December. The best inflation calculator on the Internet just got better!
Computer Dictionary
Common Terms Defined
Are you baffled by a technical term or acronym you've never seen before? Or just curious about the latest techie slang? Tom's Computer Dictionary may have the answer. From "AAC" to "zoo virus," it defines more than 750 terms in plain language.
Guitar Cheat Sheet
Do you want to learn the most common major and minor guitar chords? Instantly transpose songs from one major key to another? Find out which major and minor chords go together? Play scales in any major key? Learn the notes on the fretboard? It's easy! And it's free! Just download and print Tom's Guitar Cheat Sheet.
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Microprocessor Report
Index to Tom's Articles
Here's an index to more than 250 of Tom's articles in Microprocessor Report, the insider's guide to microprocessor hardware. Learn about embedded processors, microcontrollers, digital-signal processors, and other chip-related topics. (Subscription required for most articles.)
Microprocessor Report Editorials
Read Tom's editorials in MPR. No subscription required!
Test Your Java Security
How safe is your system from hostile Java applets? Find out with JSecure, one of Tom's free applets. JSecure harmlessly tests the security manager of your Web browser or applet viewer by trying to access information from your computer's operating system and hard disk. Try it today!
Scramble Text With ROTator
ROTator is a Java applet that lets you encode and decode text in the popular Internet format known as "ROT 13." Lots of other programs do that, too, but Tom's ROTator applet goes further by allowing you to encode and decode text in any rotational letter-substitution format. With ROTator, you can shift the letters left or right, and you can shift them by any number of letters from ROT 1 to ROT 26.
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BYTE Articles
Here is an index to more than 180 of Tom's computer articles from BYTE Magazine published from 1992 to 1998. (BYTE ceased publication in June 1998.) Most articles are still available online and include the original photographs, figures, and screen shots.
And more stuff...
- Tom's Mini Movie Reviews. Snappy reviews of recent movies, like those in the blue column on the left. Reviews that scroll off the column end up on the Mini Movie Reviews page.
- Shutterbug Articles. More than a dozen of Tom's photography articles from Shutterbug magazine are now online. Learn how to personalize your film speed, banish dust from your darkroom, make professional-looking postcards, find the best deals on used cameras, create special effects with open flash, and more.
- Tom's Oscar Contest. An annual tradition for 25 years, Tom's Oscar Contest is both entertaining and challenging. Hundreds of people have tried to guess who will win an Oscar in each Academy Award category. Competing against them is the computer brain of Tom's famed OscarCalc program, which sometimes wins the contest and always places near the top.
- The Death of BYTE Magazine. In 1998, after 23 years of operation, BYTE Magazine was shut down by its new owner, CMP Media. A year later, CMP launched BYTE.com as a very different web-only publication. To learn the inside story about what happened to the world's second personal computer magazine, see Tom's Unofficial BYTE FAQ: The Death of BYTE Magazine.
- Tom's Favorite Web Links. Find information about personal computers, microprocessors, Java, and other technologies. There are quite a few photography-related sites, plus some offbeat places you've never been. Lots of new links!
- Tools for Web Builders. The hardware, software, programming tools, and books used to build this web site might be useful to you, too. Most of these tools are linked to their vendors' web sites so you can find more information.
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