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WWWWWWWWWW Site Directory Tom's Inflation Calculator (free Java applet) Inflation Calculator FAQ Computer Dictionary Mini Movie Reviews Tom's Guitar Cheat Sheet Microprocessor Report (article index) BYTE Magazine Archive (article index) Unofficial BYTE FAQ ( R.I.P. 1975-1998 ) Shutterbug Archive (magazine articles) JSecure (free Java applet) ROTator (free Java applet) Tom's Oscar Contest Tom's Oscar Contest 2011 results Tom's Oscar Contest Hall of Fame Favorite Web Links Tools used to build this site About the Electric Brain Contact Me Who is Tom? Recent Movies Dark Shadows remakes a vampire-themed TV soap opera that became a pop-culture phenomenon in the late 1960s. Under Tim Burton's eccentric direction, this reinterpretation mashes Edward Scissorhands (1990) with Beetlejuice (1988), two of Burton's famous fantasy films. Johnny Depp reprises the role of Barnabas Collins, a vampire from 1776 who awakens in 1972. More campy than scary, the story revolves around a 200-year-old feud between Barnabas and the spurned lover whose witchcraft cursed him to undead misery. A secondary theme is the vampire's befuddlement over 1972 American culture, now far enough removed to provide equal amusement to present-day audiences. Depp's performance is suitably droll. Although this movie is a fun romp, it collapses into a silly special-effects wrestling match that is supernatural but not magical. The Hunger Games is based on popular young-adult novels about a dystopian future in which the U.S. has dissolved into several districts ruled by a totalitarian government. To punish the districts for a past rebellion, each must send two young people to compete in an annual survival game from which only one contestant emerges alive. The violent games are televised and promoted like gladiatorial dramas. Jennifer Lawrence brilliantly plays a contestant from a poor Appalachian district who must rely on guile instead of fighting skills. The supporting cast (including Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci, and Wes Bentley) is superb. Although the handheld cinematography is annoying, and one critical scene is inconsistent, the storytelling is powerful. The most obvious inspiration was reality TV, but perhaps teens find this movie and the novels allegorical. In our day, we splurge fortunes on wars and weapons while slashing educational budgets and sacrificing the future of our youths. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax brings computer animation to a 1971 book written by the famous author of The Cat In the Hat. Published a year after the first Earth Day launched the modern environmental movement, the book is about a world that chops down all its trees to make a silly consumer product. Years later, a boy tries to find a surviving tree. The film adaptation (released in both 2D and 3D) has the same environmental zeal, adding musical numbers and voices by Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, and Betty White. By preaching against clear cutting, blind consumerism, and corporate greed, it has won the embrace of tree-huggers and the ire of conservatives. Putting politics aside, however, it presents a contradiction: Who wouldn't want to live in the ersatz but wonderful city portrayed in this movie? >> See more mini-reviews, including Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close ... The Iron Lady ... The Artist ... Hugo ... Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ... Young Adult ... War Horse ... The Descendants ... My Week With Marilyn ... Contagion ... The Debt ... One Day ... Another Earth ... Cowboys & Aliens ... Super 8 ... The Tree of Life ... Midnight in Paris ... Bridesmaids ... The Conspirator ... Source Code ... Paul ... Rango ... The Adjustment Bureau ... and many more!

Inflation Calculator Tom's Inflation Calculator includes the latest U.S. government inflation data for 2011, plus four alternative data sets. This calculator is a free Java applet that automatically runs in your web browser by clicking on the link. It can adjust U.S. dollar amounts forward or backward in time for any years between 1666 and 2071 for retail price inflation, and between 1936 and 2012 for medical-cost inflation. You can view inflation rates for any intermediate range of years, too. In addition to using the U.S. government's official inflation data, Tom's Inflation Calculator has an alternative data set from ShadowStats, a private company. Computer Dictionary Common Terms Defined Are you baffled by a technical term or acronym you've never seen before? Or just curious about the latest techie slang? Tom's Computer Dictionary may have the answer. From "AAC" to "zoo virus," it defines more than 800 terms in plain language. Guitar Cheat Sheet Do you want to learn the most common major and minor guitar chords? Instantly transpose songs from one major key to another? Find out which major and minor chords go together? Play scales in any major key? Learn the notes on the fretboard? It's easy! And it's free! Just download and print Tom's Guitar Cheat Sheet.  Microprocessor Report   Index to Tom's Articles Here's an index to more than 340 of Tom's articles in Microprocessor Report, the insider's guide to microprocessor hardware. Learn about embedded processors, microcontrollers, digital-signal processors, and other chip-related topics. (Subscription required for most articles.) Test Your Java Security How safe is your system from hostile Java applets? Find out with JSecure, one of Tom's free applets. JSecure harmlessly tests the security manager of your Web browser or applet viewer by trying to access information from your computer's operating system and hard disk. Try it today! Scramble Text With ROTator ROTator is a Java applet that lets you encode and decode text in the popular Internet format known as "ROT 13." Lots of other programs do that, too, but Tom's ROTator applet goes further by allowing you to encode and decode text in any rotational letter-substitution format. With ROTator, you can shift the letters left or right, and you can shift them by any number of letters from ROT 1 to ROT 26. BYTE Articles Here is an index to more than 180 of Tom's computer articles from BYTE Magazine published from 1992 to 1998. (BYTE ceased publication in June 1998.) Most articles are still available online and include the original photographs, figures, and screen shots. And more stuff... Tom's Mini Movie Reviews. Snappy reviews of recent movies, like those in the blue column on the left. Reviews that scroll off the column end up on the Mini Movie Reviews page. Shutterbug Articles. More than a dozen of Tom's photography articles from Shutterbug magazine are now online. Learn how to personalize your film speed, banish dust from your darkroom, make professional-looking postcards, find the best deals on used cameras, create special effects with open flash, and more. Tom's Oscar Contest. An annual tradition for 25 years, Tom's Oscar Contest is both entertaining and challenging. Hundreds of people have tried to guess who will win an Oscar in each Academy Award category. Competing against them is the computer brain of Tom's famed OscarCalc program, which sometimes wins the contest and always places near the top. The Death of BYTE Magazine. In 1998, after 23 years of operation, BYTE Magazine was shut down by its new owner, CMP Media. A year later, CMP launched BYTE.com as a very different web-only publication. To learn the inside story about what happened to the world's second personal computer magazine, see Tom's Unofficial BYTE FAQ: The Death of BYTE Magazine. Tom's Favorite Web Links. Find information about personal computers, microprocessors, Java, and other technologies. There are quite a few photography-related sites, plus some offbeat places you've never been. Lots of new links! Tools for Web Builders. The hardware, software, programming tools, and books used to build this web site might be useful to you, too. Most of these tools are linked to their vendors' web sites so you can find more information. TOM'S HOT LINKS Cool hobbies:   Phil's Old Radios Buy hardware:   OsoSoft Mineral Collection My guitar teacher:   Dave Creamer Straight dope on PCs:   Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor Almost-forgotten history:   Commodore Computer Nutrition adviser for family health:   Marsha Kunz, M.S., Give Me Five ONLINE PUBLICATIONS World's foremost CPU authority:   Microprocessor Report Kick-ass info about PCs:   Maximum PC Magazine Online archive of tech articles:   BYTE Magazine Practical photography:   Shutterbug FEEDBACK Contact the webmaster:   Feedback page Visitors to this web site since August 29, 1966: Last site update: May 15, 2012 Hosted By