time machine

The Time Machine
$12.99
Ignore all the bad reviews and comments about this movie. If you are like me, looking for an intelligent movie instead of the mindless drivel that 99% of the movies available provide, this movie is wonderful. It has a delightful ending which is very thought provoking. I also went back and watched the old time machine movie and found it to be boring and out dated. This new time machine movie brings up new and profound time continuum concepts. It emphasizes how important it is for us to try to get a glimpse of the future in order to understand what direction we should take in life. It even comments on the difference between short term self interests as opposed to long term community service. I guess in our narcissistic society obsessed with instant gratification, such noble and thought provoking concepts just sail right on by. How far we have fallen.

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Science Fiction (2001 A Space Odyssey / Soylent Green / Forbidden Planet / The Time Machine 1960)
$27.98
Received the item on time and was happy to see the quality of the DVD's. There are 2 DVDs with 2 movies each. Read side A as side B has no titles. I thought I would get 4 DVDs but after reading side A I was happy to be able to save storage space by having them this way. I am very happy with the movies and service! It is wonderful being able to buy my favorites like this and have ordered more classics as well. If you like older movies and want to get good quality and save money then these are the packages for you!

The Time Machine
$34.99
This Oxford annotated/critical edition of H.G. Wells' two most essential early novels is a great starting point for those starting their explorations of the work of the masterful and now mostly neglected writer, for all interested in the early history of science fiction, and for those who may have already read the works but want some context, without having to wade through full-length academic studies.

THE TIME MACHINE was Wells' first novel and for me it remains his most memorable, if not his best-written or fully-realized work. The classic parlor scene that opens the book - the Time Traveler regaling his guests with his theories, and their reactions which range from incredulity to doubting his sanity - the brief but exhilirating description of traveling through time - and most of all, the utter strangeness and wildness of the world of 802,701 have stayed with me through all the 35 years it's been since I first read the book, and keep me going back. Sure, Wells' sociological theorizing seems not just dated but a bit naive - but by setting his book at so remote a date in the future (a real stroke of genius - most early science fiction writers were content to talk about the world of the next century at most) he manages to negate any potential criticisms of real inaccuracies. And the haunting ending is the only appropriate way for such a story to run its course.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS would probably be my pick for the writer's greatest sustained piece of writing in this genre, though overall TONO-BUNGAY is my favorite of all of his novels. What still makes this alien invasion story work is the perfect balance between subtlety and bluntness of the allegory - the Martian conquerors standing in for the European powers' subjugation and genocidal warfare on the inhabitants of Africa and theAmericas - and the absolute inhumanness and incomprehensibility of the Martians. They land - they destroy - man tries to communicate - is met with cool disinterest - terror - subjugation. It's one man's flight through the worst of it, a journalist's excited personal story with both the factual elements to make it seem like the work of a real newspaper writer and the fear of armageddon beautifully conveyed in the author's stark and brutal prose; this is as close to horror as Wells ever came in a novel (excepting conceivably DR. MOREAU) and the vision of cosmic terror here must have had a direct influence on nearly every writer since who has contemplated an alien encounter that didn't go all that well for mankind. We're nothing but ants, and he never lets us forget it. This is the universe that science has opened up to us at its most terrifying, and Wells wants us to keep our eyes open.

The Oxford edition is sparsely but usefully annotated, offers 10 pages of illustrations and a map of the Martian cylinders' falls in the London area which is nice but could be more detailed. After the two novels are 14 critical essays, some contemporaneous (2 of them by the author) and some more modern, including pieces by significant Wells/science fiction scholars Bernard Bergonzi, Mark Hillegas, and one of Wells' important heirs in the field, Jack Williamson. All are worth a look though I'm not sure that any is indispensible; all of them are from previously published works - most are selections from longer full-length studies on the author. Still, in the absence of other critical editions of these two hugely important novels that form much of the foundation of their genre, this volume is indispensible.

Apple Time Capsule MB765LL/A 1TB
$299.00
My 1 1/2 year old Time Capsule died yesterday without warning. It ran hot even when not being used - it had no off switch an no apparent sleep mode. I'm out a router, wireless, and disk storage.

I'm satisfied with my other Apple products, but not this. The heat may have shortened the life - maybe not. I'd like something a little greener this time around.

Instead of the Time Capsule, I'm buying a separate router and hard drive: a Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router and a Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDE1UBK10000N (Black). It may be not as easy to set up, but I'll take my chances.