I was a bit dubious when my cable ISP, Shaw, released a new service called PowerBoost recently. The claim is that it provides a significant boost of speed for 5 to 20 seconds, but no specifics were given about what speeds should be expected. They’re charging $2.95 a month for this feature, but I received it for free because I’m already paying an extra $10 per month for Shaw’s 10 mbps Extreme package. I didn’t think much of it at the time, and honestly hadn’t noticed any difference (most servers can’t saturate a 10 mbps connection), but today I was downloading a series of files from my own server and noticed an impressive burst of speed: 2.4 MB/s real-world speeds when downloading two files.

The speeds didn’t last longer than a few seconds, which is unfortunate because when you’re downloading big files you need the speed for longer than a few seconds, but it’s nice to see that more speed is possible. Too bad Shaw wants $93/month for their 25 mbps package and it doesn’t offer more upload speed - I’d pay a bit more to get 2 mbps, but they don’t offer that as an option. Then again, compared to the 30 KB/s speeds a friend on the other side of the world is getting, I shouldn’t be complaining at all.

When I watch a movie, the single biggest thing I look for is impact. If it’s a comedy, does it make me laugh? If it’s a documentary, does it make me think, and perhaps change my viewpoint on something? If it’s an action movie, does it make my pulse quicken? If it’s a thriller, does it make me nervous and jumpy?

I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, is an action/thriller/horror hybrid that does the job quite nicely. I won’t ruin it for anyone, but the basic premise that the trailer reveals is that Will Smith’s character is the last human left on Manhattan Island, his only companion is his dog, and he has to find the cure to something…something that, when night comes, causes very bad things to happen.

Maybe it’s because Ashley and I went to a late afternoon matinée, so when we left the movie theatre it the sun was setting, or maybe it was because I was dropping Ashley off at her parent’s house and I was going home along to a house with only my dog…but I sure felt jumpy on the way home and for a while afterwards! The movie really got under my skin, but in a good, entertaining way. Will Smith pulls off the nearly impossible feat of not being boring when pretty much the only thing the camera focuses on for the bulk of the movie is him. About the only negative thing I have to say about it is that the CGI “creatures” didn’t look all that believable, but not comically so. It’s still a gripping, tense movie - a movie worth watching. [Web site / HD trailers]

It feels SO good to finally get the re-vamp of Digital Media Thoughts launched, with the name changed to Digital Home Thoughts, a new template, and hooked into our new forums. It took a lot of work from a lot of people (Fabrizio, Jorj, Janak, myself) and was on the heels of a double-server hack, so my life has gone from massively stressful to just a trickle of stress. Up next, migrating Pocket PC Thoughts…