The World's Most Dangerous Geek



Justin Frankel, inventor of Winamp, Gnutella and many other cool apps is a true programming "god". Rolling Stone's profile of Frankel is an excellent overview of his recent years, playing the part of rebel in the AOL corporate infrastructure.



"The most dangerous man in music is ready to rock. It's Saturday night in San Francisco as Justin Frankel, gangly and bed-headed, ambles through the warehouse garage he aptly calls his "playground." He has come here, as he often does, to screw around on his drums or his Moog or electric guitar. But first he needs his fog machine..."



The most dangerous Geek alive



Confidence



Saw the DVD Confidence last night and wrote up this Amazon review:



This watered-down "thriller" is the spawn of an unholy union: _Reservoir Dogs_ and _Usual Suspects_. Possessing neither the chilling terror of Dogs nor the mind-twisting plot of Suspects, _Confidence_ follows a formulaic approach in describing the aftermath of a grift gone bad.



Edward Burns is the leader of a motley group of con-men who have made their way to LA, having perfected a team approach to grifting. Their con takes place in a low-brow bar and when the "mark" witnesses a murder in the establishment - and the cops head in - the money is left behind in the confusion. Of course, the murder never really took place and the witnesses in the bar are in on the scam - as are the pair of crooked cops who show up. Problem is, this mark had money that belonged to the "King" - and when one of the gang gets capped in the head, Burns is forced to deal with the problem by having a sit-down with the King.



The King, head of a nonsensical, "independent" criminal enterprise, is played unconvincingly by Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman - as a Dennis Hopper-type prone to violence - simply doesn't fit the bill, given that any 16-year-old high-school football player could wipe the floor with Mr. Hoffman. Burns never changes his persona during the entire movie - whether making love to a female pickpocket (Rachel Weisz) that conveniently shows up in his life - being threatened by a large firearm point at his nose - or in his day-to-day life, planning the scam that will pay back the King and give the group their final retirement score.



I could go on, but why bother. You can probably guess how it all turns out. The sad truth about this flick is that the talented actors are abused by a story that is simplistic, silly and completely unbelievable. If you've got nothing better to do on a rainy evening, certainly give it a watch. But expect to be underwhelmed, given the ability of a cast that has a lot more to offer than what you'll see here.