Spot Reviews 11/17/23
Nov 17 2023
OmniDiskSweeper v1.14 (2022) [+] Mac app that examines your HD and gives you a view of where you are using the most space. List view with each folder showing total space and then you can drill down say from Users to specific user to specific folder that uses a lot of space. You can trash stuff directly from ODS (which allows it to immediately update its internal database). I’ve been using ODS on and off for a decade and Omni Group keeps updating this free utility.
Love Again (2023) [/] Netflix romantic movie. After her boyfriend dies a grief-stricken Mira (Priyanka Chopra) texts his old phone number as a way to remember him. Meanwhile journalist Rob (Sam Heughan) has a new work phone that keeps getting these messages. Intrigued he tracks down Mira, eventually meets her and they form a connection until the turn when Mira discovers Rob got her personal texts… Fairly typical movie for the genre. Has Celine Dion playing herself and providing advice to Rob (who is supposed to interview her for his magazine) and it’s organic.
Five Days at Memorial (2022) [-] Eight episode Apple TV+ drama miniseries based on a book. After Hurricane Katrina breaks the New Orleans levies and floods the city Memorial Hospital (and the co-tenant and smaller LifeCare Hospital on the upper two floors) is isolated and soon without power. Rescue efforts are minimal and sporadic and patients start dying and soon the staff has to decide who gets rescued first and who dies… It’s pretty bleak and I watched the first 3-1/2 episodes. In the first five episodes we cover one day per episode and the last three episodes cover investigation and case against one of the doctors, Dr Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga), who was accused of euthanizing critically ill patients. In any case not a series to watch unless you are ready for it.
The Shepherd’s Crown (2015) [-] This is the last Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett before he died in 2015. It’s the 5th novel in the Tiffany Aching series, which is for young adults unlike the rest of Discworld. I guess by now Tiffany is an older teen or young adult an she’s thrust into the role of Head Witch, or as close to a leader as the witches have, just in time to repel an invasion by the elves… In the postscript it’s noted that Pratchett wrote five novels in the last year or two of his life when he normally would take two or three years to write a novel, often writing some of one then some of another then coming back to the first and adding or retouching. Unfortunately this novel reads rather perfunctory. The story is there and plot is complete but lacks a richness. It’s nice that it leaves Tiffany in a good place (unlike Raising Steam which leaves the universe in motion) though maybe Tiffany’s last novel also did the same.
Love Again (2023) [/] Netflix romantic movie. After her boyfriend dies a grief-stricken Mira (Priyanka Chopra) texts his old phone number as a way to remember him. Meanwhile journalist Rob (Sam Heughan) has a new work phone that keeps getting these messages. Intrigued he tracks down Mira, eventually meets her and they form a connection until the turn when Mira discovers Rob got her personal texts… Fairly typical movie for the genre. Has Celine Dion playing herself and providing advice to Rob (who is supposed to interview her for his magazine) and it’s organic.
Five Days at Memorial (2022) [-] Eight episode Apple TV+ drama miniseries based on a book. After Hurricane Katrina breaks the New Orleans levies and floods the city Memorial Hospital (and the co-tenant and smaller LifeCare Hospital on the upper two floors) is isolated and soon without power. Rescue efforts are minimal and sporadic and patients start dying and soon the staff has to decide who gets rescued first and who dies… It’s pretty bleak and I watched the first 3-1/2 episodes. In the first five episodes we cover one day per episode and the last three episodes cover investigation and case against one of the doctors, Dr Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga), who was accused of euthanizing critically ill patients. In any case not a series to watch unless you are ready for it.
The Shepherd’s Crown (2015) [-] This is the last Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett before he died in 2015. It’s the 5th novel in the Tiffany Aching series, which is for young adults unlike the rest of Discworld. I guess by now Tiffany is an older teen or young adult an she’s thrust into the role of Head Witch, or as close to a leader as the witches have, just in time to repel an invasion by the elves… In the postscript it’s noted that Pratchett wrote five novels in the last year or two of his life when he normally would take two or three years to write a novel, often writing some of one then some of another then coming back to the first and adding or retouching. Unfortunately this novel reads rather perfunctory. The story is there and plot is complete but lacks a richness. It’s nice that it leaves Tiffany in a good place (unlike Raising Steam which leaves the universe in motion) though maybe Tiffany’s last novel also did the same.