link monday

I’m actually feeling a bit down from finishing my talk – I guess I was looking forward to it more than I thought? It’s weird. Maybe I need to work on whereslunch.org some more or something. Anyway, to cheer myself up:

• We saw Quantum of Solace this weekend. It was good – on par with Casino Royale (which I liked a lot). More Judi Dench = awesome. And we saw some good previews, like:
• The new Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams. I’m actually a little less enthusiastic now that I’ve seen the second trailer, but given that it’s a new Star Trek movie/franchise I’ll probably see it at midnight. Also, Zachary Quinto as Spock is an inspired choice! (he plays Sylar on Heroes) Here’s an interview with Quinto, Abrams and Leonard Nimoy about the passing of the torch.
• Watchmen – they showed the second trailer which I hadn’t seen before. Both trailers sucked me in really well, but it’s hard for me to see how well that will translate into an actual movie. Here’s the first trailer. Incidentally, both of them used very good trance-y music – the second one used “Take a Bow” from Muse’s “Black Holes and Revelations”, and I just discovered the first one used “The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning” by Smashing Pumpkins on their album Rarities & B-Sides. I’ll probably get the single to that, since the album has over 100 songs on it!
• The Wrestler – may or may not end up seeing this, but the trailer did a good job of establishing a feel for the movie and such.
• Speaking of music, Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy” is actually out! Here’s a really long review. Been waiting for it to show up on amazonmp3.com but no dice yet. 31 lost projects we’re hoping to see in the wake of Chinese Democracy
• Unrelatedly, Gay marriage: the database engineering perspective, or “Y2Gay”. I LOLed.
• Here’s a NY Times article about the Netflix Prize. (thanks amorphousplasma and wonderjess!) It kinda makes me wish I was still working on it…although I don’t have nearly the theoretical background that the top teams do, apparently.

Also, I put up some pictures David took of the talk. (thanks!)