Sir Ive

Saw that Jony Ive was promoted to Chief Design Officer (new C-level designation, so far as I know) at Apple.  Thought Gruber's title, Jony Ive Levels Up was pretty good, but think he missed an opportunity with "Sir Ive Levels Up" sounding more game-ish.

More importantly, though, I wonder if this means that Apple will now have to report Sir Ive's salary.

Semi-related, I've been meaning to point out for quite a while this explanation of the manufacturing behind the Apple Watch.  Basically, it's an industry insider's detailed commentary on the Apple Watch creation videos that Ive narrated.  Fascinating stuff (especially for manufacturing geeks, I would imagine).

While Boeing is happy to provide tours of their Everett, WA facility, Apple continues to operate with Willy Wonka levels of secrecy. In the manufacturing world, we hear rumors of entire German CNC mill factories being built to supply Apple exclusively, or even occasionally hear that one of our supplier's process experts has been "disappeared" to move to Cupertino or Shenzhen. While we all are massively impressed with the scale of Apple's operations, there is constant intrigue as to exactly how they pull it all off with the level of fit, finish and precision obvious to anyone who has examined their hardware.

He points out where he's guessing, but even the parts he's sure of are pretty amazing.  And you can see why it is likely that no one will be able to match their ability to machine aluminum for a long time.  It also shows how Apple's insistence on having so few products pays off in more ways than just the obvious cost benefits; it also gives them the ability to make higher-quality goods.

Amazing.

Samba in the Moonlight

I watched Rio with my daughter a couple of weekends ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit more than expected.

I went into not really knowing anything about it, beyond being about birds.

Before getting too much into the specifics, it was kind of weird having Fox doing a movie about humans interfering with the environment, given that it seems to be Fox "News'" mission to discredit global warming.

Leaving that aside, the musical interludes were very well done. I especially liked the use of samba and bossa nova, as I'm very fond of both styles (although I don't think I could listen to either with huge frequency), and samba is definitely great dance music (though I've probably forgotten all the steps I used to know; it's been a while).

And the concept of the movie is also great; taking the brazilian bird to Minnesota, and having him grow up a geek. His initial attempts to learn to fly were hilarious.

I liked, too, the relationship between the two main humans. Predicatble, and not deep; in fact, pretty much playing to stereotypes, but funny.

In fact, the whole movie was pretty predictable, but still very enjoyable.

Jemaine Clement did a wonderful Scar-turn as the bad guy; he was excellent.

I liked it pretty much from beginning to end; just lots of fun to watch.