Just returned from 2012. Nothing much to say about that - quite tiring dialogs and super melodramatic overacting, but definitely still carries some memorable moments in movie imagery - like the destruction of Las-Vegas (first in movie history if I am not mistaken), and many others. It’s a very Californian movie - many inside jokes that are funny in California. The only notable actor in the whole set is only Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, A Scanner Darkly), playing a crazy conspiracy-theorist hippie broadcasting the end of the world. Awesome and funny performance.
Anyway, as always lots of goodies before the movie…
Here is a great ad. Listen to the sound effects, this is pure nostalgia (Steve Austin anyone?)
As for trailers, I had fun figuring out which video game this movie trailer is based on.
Lastly, this is the first time I see a full trailer for Avatar, which is arguably the most hyped movie of the year. Expected Dec 18 - I hope its interesting as the trailer is.
A few months ago I “upgraded” Office on my Windows laptop at work to Office 2007. I know, I was using the older version for too long - but it was working fine, till it stopped.
A few months after the switch, I still can not figure out the disastrous Office 2007 user-interface changes. This is a huge step backwards in productivity for me. I keep staring at the huge buttons - 100 pixels tall of wasted space across the entire top section, in all office applications, the strange ribbon (what was wrong with the single line customizable toolbar?), and the unintuitive office button at the top that hides all the useful stuff - it all seems like a move designed to give a sense of “need” to the Office suite, without a real benefit to the user. It clearly seems like Microsoft was trying to desperately make it look much different, in the false pretense that “different” == “improved”. Not so.
This week I actually stopped using word on Windows and moved to WordPad just because of the slow speed and bloated and useless user interface. I know its way too simplistic, but you know what? For editing RTF files, with some headers and fonts, you don’t need more then that.
Surprisingly for me, the Office 2008 suite on the Mac is actually one of the most polished, fast and beautiful applications I have ever seen from Microsoft. Not only it is on par with every other Mac application in terms of sleek-factor, fast-loading and intuitive to use, the user interface stayed true to the original menu paradigm throughout the lasts years, and did not change for the worse as in the Windows version. My guess this is due to the strict UI guidelines developers respect in the Mac application world.
On top of that, its elegant and beautiful. There are many small touches that are hard to notice without a careful one to one comparison - like the nice shading in the active cell in Excel, the beautiful fonts in all applications, or the more useful page layout in Excel. The Mac version of Excel is becoming one of my favorite applications on the Mac.
My suggestion for all the Office power users - try Office on a Mac. You will not believe this is a Microsoft product.
That’s it, it has been said at last.
Here is a statement by Microsoft’s partner group manager, Simon Aldous:
“One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics”
Isn’t it awesome and refreshing?
The following statement is out in the wild now, and there is no going back - in spite of Microsoft’s cruel response (To Mr. Aldous, that is).
Dear Mircosoft: Its OK to take the best and most useful ideals from your competitors, and build upon them. Its OK to praise a competitor on some aspects of their product, while still claiming that your product is better in other ways. But no, Mircosoft, it is NOT OK to lie, and it is NOT OK to throw one of your loyal managers at the dogs.
Also - I am sorry to be the one that tell you this, but we, the simple users, are not dumb. At the end of the day, every one of us decides if they want to use your products on their merits and our convenience. So please continue to improve Windows, make it nicer and easier to use. You can even try to innovate, as you are doing with the Surface. Just don’t lie to me.
Anyone that uses more than one computer would stumble pretty soon on the issue of syncing files between them. Especially when you try to be organized - you need your documents, media, configuration, and basically, life - available on every machine you frequent.
Of course, many people opt on the new philosophy, Living in the Cloud. Every day now it becomes easier then yesterday to have all of your data in the cloud: GMail, Google Docs, Pandora, Hulu, you name it. This method works fine most of the time.
Personally that is not how I want my life to be. There are many issues with keeping your data elsewhere - no internet connection, or provider server down (happens to all, even the mighty G). Being locked out of your data is a scary proposition, and for me not an option.
I opt on the other approach - keep my data local, but automatically replicate it across all of the my machines. This allows for immediate access to the data, plus the non-obvious but huge benefit of backup and automatic restore - in case of a catastrophe on one or more of your machines, your most important data is already backed up everywhere.
In the past I used Folder Share, that became Windows Live Sync once they were bought by Microsoft. I stopped using it once the application chocked on a folder containing more than 10K files. Also, the way to configure it is quite crude, where you have to login to the website, add machines, add folders, define permissions and connect them together. Arggh.
Enter DropBox. This is by far the simplest, hassle-free, most automatic and smart solution to folder syncing. It just works.
With DropBox you create a folder that is automatically synced to their server as you change it. Then, when another computer installs DropBox and uses the same dropbox account, its DropBox folder gets synced with any changes from the server. From this point on both folders continuously replicate each other.
It could not get any simpler then that.
There are many amazing little things this little service does so well. For instance, when you add or change a file, the file icon has a small sticker that shows its syncing, that changes to a green check-mark when its done. Of course, on all platforms you get a small floating notification once all files were synced to your current machine. Another thing: If you happen to work on the same file at once on both machines, you get a collision notification for you to decide which version to keep.
I use a Mac at home, a Linux workstation at work and a Windows laptop in between. DropBox works seamlessly on all operating systems, and its quite amazing to see your new note created on Windows, edited on Linux and immediately viewed on your Mac.
Did I mention its free?
I use it for several specific features:
- Keep all my archived files available always
- Centralize my notes and ideas flow
- Sync my passwords through encrypted files (Password Safe)
- Publish massive files for external consumption (a unique feature of DropBox for file sharing to non-DropBox users)
The iPhone app is out for a few months, and its another neat way to get to your data on the go. Sadly it is read-only, which means you can not add or change a file. If they would enable text file editing through the app, DropBox will become the killer note-taking app on the iPhone, as nothing can beat editing a note and having it immediately available on all of your machines.
Usually I tend to shun free services, but the business model is to hook you enough so you will need more than the free 2 GB provided in the free account. A 50GB package costs $10 per month, and 100GB for $20. This seems like a fair price to me for such a huge feature, and its clear that somewhere down the path I will have more than 2GB of data to sync…
All the best, DropBox: Keep up the good work. I wish that more applications would be like that - elegant, simple and just working.
This is a very funny commercial from Verizon.
I won’t tell you which phone they are smacking, you will have to guess. :)
Very well done.
District 9 is one of the most original and memorable movies of the past years. Its also not easy to watch emotionally (its rated R for violence and gore), but you can’t stop - it is a suspenseful action Sci-Fi at its best, with enough effects, action and explosions to please, but with the look and feel of a low budget documentary.
The visual style of the movie is striking - a pseudo-documentary on the extraordinary events that happened that day, including interviews with various reporters, breaking news feeds, shots from security cameras and live action. This immediately immerses you in the action and is very realistic.
The lead actor is funny, emotional and likable. Superb performance from a guy that has never acted before. Another amazing tidbit is that the movie was made in a budget of $30M, which is about 1/7 of today’s Sci-Fi budget (Transformers cost $200M).
The story is compelling, completely original, and unexpected. The less you know, the bigger the punch in the stomach you will get. If you think you know what the movie is about from the trailers, you are wrong. This is intentional.
Do not read any reviews on the movie, as each of the ones I have read has different spoilers, just go see.
What if at the other side of the wall of your village there was a complete other mythical and forbidden world?
What if a fallen star that landed in this magical world would manifest as a lovely girl?
Based on a smart and original story by Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Good Omens), Stardust is a wacky and fantastic adventure - dramatic and suspenseful while light-hearted and hilarious at the same time.
Director Matthew Vaughn (Lock Stock, Snatch) assembled a brilliant cast - from the relatively unknown but charming Charlie Cox and Claire Danes in the leading roles, supported by awesome performance by Robert de Niro as the dreadful pirate Shakespeare (or is he?), Michelle Pfeiffer as the sinister decaying witch, and a touch of Peter O’Toole as the hilariously devilish dying king of the fairy kingdom.
Vile and murderous princes, evil witches, sarcastic ghosts, flying ships, swordplay, pirates and unicorns are all weaved into a charming tale about loyalty, betrayal, magic and love.
The majestic locations and wonderful camera sweeps remind of The Lord of the Rings in some parts. Coupled with captivating music, high-quality production and topped by the wacky humor that reminds of The Princes Bride, this fairytale for adults is a gem that for me is an instant genre classic.
A few months ago I decided to return to DMing and roleplay, after several years of downtime. As such, I still have to make a choice regarding the system I would like to run my game on. Apparently I missed a lot of excitement since 3.0 with two major game releases in a few years - both the 3.5 which I heard good things about, and the recent 4.0 which I am playing with right now.
So when KublaCon, the biggest yearly RPG Con in the Bay Area came by, I decided that it is worth it enough for me to bear the cost (a day off away from the family during the Memorial day weekend is extremely expensive, believe me).
So here are some tales from first day ever in a game con… And some thoughts that it provoked on the state of D&D.
Read the rest of this entry »
D&D 4th edition is a big disappointment.
I played and DM-ed 2nd and 3rd edition for many years. For me Dungeons and Dragons is a game of imagination, role-play, innovation, problem solving, teamwork and memorable moments. I don’t care as much about the mechanics - I would like to see less and simpler mechanics (like Burning Wheel, for example, which is in my wish-list). For me 3rd and 3.5 editions are a natural progression of the game, striking a healthy balance between introducing more options and trying to keep it simple.
In the 4th edition WotC invented a refreshingly new, simple and modular system for character advancement: All classes have several “at will”, “encounter” and daily abilities. The difference between all classes (and characters of the same class) is which powers they can choose. On the face of it, its a wonderful system. Its so much simpler then anything that came before it, and makes running the game much simpler for the players (and the DM). Moreover, when you print the character sheet from the official character builder, you get all powers as cards (they fit suspiciously perfectly in “Magic The Gathering” sleeves). The essence of character progression becomes “get more power cards”.
This in itself is not a problem - it could be the best mechanic ever. In a way, the 4th edition is a brand new game that is deeply different from its predecessors. From a heroic fantasy game it became a tactical combat game, centered on the maneuvers and blows during combat. The game seems to have been rebuilt from the ground up to reflect this purpose. As such, it does what it does very well. It might be that WotC wanted to bring the game back to its Chainmail origins, refresh the game, and bring it closer to other tactical miniature games like HeroScape.
Read the rest of this entry »
I have refreshed my CPU price-performance analysis, to reflect several months of price drops.
This time Ihave added new data from Xbit-labs, which benchmarked the newest 1333MHz FSB CPUs. I added to that my previous data from the March Xbit-labs benchmarks, which I posted on my previous CPU analysis post. I have included Intel CPUs only, as my current focus is builing n Intel based Hackintosh.
The main interest in the following graph is that is shows the performance of the different CPUs relative to the CPU cost (all costs are from NewEgg, November 24 2007).
Analysis
It is interesting to see that pretty soon after their introduction, the newest 1333MHz FSB CPUs (E6550 and E6750) have made it to the front of price-performance graph, and achieve the same value (performance per dollar) as the previous value champs, the E4400 and E4300.
On the dotted line, all CPUs have the same performance per dollar ratio, so the choice becomes really a matter of optimization on the overall system cost. For a medium cost system ($800 or so), I would choose the E6750, as it costs only $60 more then the E4300, but delivers much higher performance.