First Review: HBO's "In Treatment"

One early reviewer noted that the new series "In Treatment" from HBO was the replacement for "The Sopranos", but zeroing in on the psychiatry. I really like Gabriel Byrne, who plays the shrink, so I thought I would give it a spin.

I watched the first night and was a bit disappointed, but that was because I didn't understand the format. This is like a weekly mini-mini-series where you watch four days of the shrink listening to his patients, and then the last day of the week you hear him talking to HIS shrink.

That's what I didn't like about the first episode - that we got nothing from the shrink, but heard a 30 minute session about the patient. Byrne only had about ten lines (after all, he's a shrink and is supposed to listen). Apparently each patient comes back the same time each week (so each Monday will be the same patient, etc.) then each Friday Byrne goes to his own shrink to wrap things up, so I assume that will be 30 minutes of listening to just him.

So I will give it a full week before I give my final verdict.

Like legal shows versus real law, there is a lot here that you wouldn't find in "real" psychotherapy, but that is a discussion for another time.

Update: The second episode was much better. Blair Underwood did a good job as the "Tuesday" patient and there was a lot more feedback from Byrne this time. A good write-up is here.

Can You Say "Kludge"?

Apple fan-sites probably already posted this, but I heard about this only today. What a joke - you have to encase your entire phone, removing its functionality, to get a few more powers of optical zoom:

Thanks to the people at Conice, iPhone owners can now get in close on the action without actually being close, because here is an optical zoom lens designed specifically for the Jesus phone. Because there is nowhere on the iPhone where this barrel can screw in, the optical zoom lens attaches to a transparent protective case that wraps around the rest of the iPhone.Yes, it takes away from the sleekness of the iPhone and it weighs nearly as much (4.69 ounces vs. the 4.8-ounce iPhone), but now you get to enjoy 6x optical zoom.

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I Finally Had to Encrypt My WIFI

I've had a WIFI network for several years now and never bothered to put in a password. I didn't mind if a neighbor used some of my bandwidth AS LONG AS I still had decent upload speeds. I "borrow" bandwidth from time to time when I travel and I am conscious about using it just for quick email or light browsing - no video, software, etc.

Over the past few months I noticed my connection getting very sluggish. I finally logged on to my router and was shocked to find not just a couple of neighbors had been logging on, but over a dozen computers had logged onto my system. A couple of them had the names of teens around the block, and that is where I guess my bandwidth went.

So I finally encrypted my network. It's a little disappointing in a way since I don't mind opening my network as long as it isn't abused.

What if "Performance Enhancing Drugs" Weren't Just for Athletes?

We all know about various athletes who have been shamed for performance enhancing drugs. There are probably a lot more we don't know about.

So here's some questions:

• If there were a performance enhancing drug for your field or profession, you would take it?
  


• Would you take it if it were illegal?
  


• Would you take it if it had deleterious long-term health effects?
  


• Is there something close to a performance enhancing drug for your field or profession today?

Nokia Pulls Manufacturing Out of Germany

I had several thoughts about this article, but the bottom line is that I am not surprised: Nokia to close Germany plant, lay off 2,300

Nokia further said that renewing the site was not an option, as doing so would require additional investments that would not result in manufacturing in Bochum being globally competitive.
...
Nokia follows BenQ and Motorola in exiting mobile phone manufacturing in Germany

The article says they are moving production "elsewhere in Europe", so it will go to Eastern Europe for a while before finally settling in Asia, like everything else.