The Avalon + Indigo May CTP (aka the “Beta 1 RC”) is now live on microsoft.com and ready for your consumption. You’ll also want to install Visual Studio Beta 2 before you start playing.
Drew Marsh has already started a change log to help those of you who plan to port your projects from the March CTP to this release.
And I will point you to other resources as they materialize…
Some Thursday evening geek humor for the hax0rs and Star Wars nerds out there (is one of those a subset of the other?)
Slate reviews Episode III, and they don’t hate it. I’ll let you know how I feel after Friday afternoon.
(And for those of us who are not big Star Wars geeks, they also provide a nice little guide to refresh the memory on what this whole saga is about anyway…)
Every now and then (perhaps to remind myself why I rarely pay $10 for a movie), I spend $10 and go see a movie. So last night I saw my first film in the theater in almost 7 months – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I don’t think my expectations were unreasonably high, and I had already read a few lackluster reviews, but I was still more than a little bit disappointed by the film. Perhaps if I hadn’t reread the book yesterday, I would have enjoyed the movie more (for one thing, I wouldn’t have noticed just how much the movie’s plot strayed from the book’s). But really – it just wasn’t that good.
The crappy Hollywood-ized romance between Arthur and Trillian was perhaps the worst part.
It did, however, have its moments. I thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin song in the opening scene. It’s actually pretty common for people who move to a different team at Microsoft to send out mail with the subject line “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish”; I expect that I will never be able to read such emails again without breaking out into song. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find an mp3 of the song anywhere – anyone have any leads on this? ;)
This promises to be a banner week for me, because not only did I already see a movie in the theater on Saturday, but I’ll be seeing another one this Friday! (I have even lower expectations for that one, but it’s one of those films you are required to see, and work is taking us to see it anyway…)
To follow up on the travel discussion: we decided on Argentina and Chile for December — flying into Buenos Aires and out of Santiago. Here’s some fun stuff that my first quick web search about Argentina and Chile turned up:
Argentina
For residents of the northern hemisphere, Argentina offers the inviting possibility of enjoying two summers in the same year, but the country’s great variety and elongated geography can make a visit in any season worthwhile. Buenos Aires’ urban attractions, for example, transcend the seasons, but Patagonian destinations, such as the Moreno Glacier in Santa Cruz, are best to visit in the summer months (December to February). The Iguazu Falls in subtropical Misiones province are best in the southern hemisphere’s winter or spring when heat and humidity are less oppressive. The winter months (mid-June to late September) also offer the opportunity to go skiing.
Chile [& Easter Island?]
Chile’s geographical variety can make a visit rewarding in any season. Santiago and Middle Chile are best in the verdant spring (September through November) or during the fall harvest (late February into April), while popular natural attractions like Parque Nacional del Paine in Magallanes and the lakes region are best in summer (December through March).
Conversely, Chilean ski resorts draw many foreigners during the northern summer (June through August). Easter Island is cooler, slightly cheaper and much less crowded outside the summer months. The same is true of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, which can be inaccessible if winter rains erode the dirt airstrip; March is an ideal time for a visit.