Hindi movies, slumdog millionare & Ghajni

So I recently watched two hindi movies, which were both causing an insane amount of buzz, Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire. Ghajini had enough story for 10 movies and I really liked the humor, but it was just overreacted and could’ve been better, the ending sucked as well. Besides it is a remake of a remake so it is by no means original. I did like some of the humor (especially the parts that didn’t mean to be but were, I’m silly that way).

Slumdog Millionaire isn’t a true hindi movie in a way (look it up yourself), it is quite depressing at many points, but I think its a good movie, it is more a love story than anything else I suppose (which depressed me, I felt sorry for myself looking to my left to see the company I had, he’s not a bad friend but I could imagine some better company ). Anyway I think of a movie as good if I would buy it and watch it again and Slumdog Millionaire qualifies. Ghajini doesn’t.

GaB updated GoW, FFT and more

NEW to the GaB section added God of war: Chains of Olympus, Final fantasy Tactics; The War of the Lions, Wipeout PULSE, Castlevania: The Dracula X chronicles & icons. Yay.

Apples Aluminium Unibody Macbooks

Ok Apple updated its laptops on the 14th (yes I’m posting a week later, LAZY). Anyway there is some good bad and sad in all these announcements. Lets describe everything in laymans terms then I will move over to nerd speak. (Images link to apple page, just click).

	Macbook 13″ New enclosure with better graphics faster ram and higher specs, available with keyboard backlight, better battery life (claimed) , lighter (only 2kg now). White macbook still available at a lower price point (with older chipset and graphics etc…). Displayport & multi touch glass buttonless trackpad. No more firewire. Bottom line, great computer, deal breaker is no firewire OR expresscard (I need one of them) on offer anymore. Max Ram 4gb DDR3 up 2 to 2.4ghz CPU. SKU (stock keeping units) @ 999$ 1299$ and 1599$.
	Macbook pro 15″ New enclosure with better graphics faster ram and higher specs, 2 graphics processors one for performance and one for battery (like some vaios) , keyboard backlight standard, only glossy screens available (deal breaker), better battery life (depending on use) , 17″ Macbook pro uses old enclosure and chipset. Displayport & multi touch glass buttonless trackpad. Bottom line, great (expensive-ish) computer, deal breaker is glossy screen (not worth the money paying for reflections and poor colour accuracy), only 1 firewire port .Max Ram 4gb DDR3, 2.4 to 2.8ghz CPU Graphics up to 512mb 9600M GT. SKU @ 1999$ and 2499$.
	Macbook Air Better graphics faster ram and higher specs (notabely 120 gb hard disk). Displayport & multi touch trackpad. Ram fixed at 2gb DDR3 CPU 1.6 to 1.86ghz. SKU @ 1799$ and 2499$.

I won’t bother with the 24″ display (with integrated hub and laptop charger) because it’s worthless (GLOSSY AAAHHH). Or the good environmental stuff (YAY go environment). Why is the mac mini not getting any love? Why are the iMacs still glossy and lacking any expresscard slot or SOMETHING? Why display port and not mini hdmi?. Just for people who are uninformed there is something called a GPU which matters more than how much graphics memory you have (sick of people pretending to know what they are talking about by showing off the size of the graphics memory).

Ok time for nerd speak. First why firewire is a big deal; it is much faster than USB2 (raw benchmarks show 25% between FW400 and USB2) so USB for example tops up at 30 Megabytes/s read and 25 Megabytes/s write (performancew WILL be worse on laptops), FW 400 40 Megabytes/s read 30 Megabytes/s write, FW 800 +65 Megabytes/s read +55 Megabytes/s write (if the drives can go that fast these are high end 1TB commercial drives), these are averages, peak values are not very usefull (most sites report peak values or don’t specify). In real world use the differences are usually greater (in my experience) which may come down to various things (USB hogging CPU resources, poor controllers, software?, number and size of files, etc…). Macworld mentioned that Gigabit ethernet is faster than FW and that sounds like a good point, until you realize that the only storage you can get with Gigabit ethernet is a NAS and 2 drive NAS’s give you speeds of about 15 to 20 Megabytes/s (large file sizes). The Macbooks don’t have Firewire (or IEEE1394a/b for those so inclined) and don’t have any alternative, adding an Expresscard slot would mean you could add a Firewire card (at cost) or even eSata (which can easily surpass +100 Megabytes/s in a RAID). SAD. So losing Firewire practically breaks the macbook for me.

Next why glossy screens are bad. Lots of reflections, poor colour accuracy (if the contrast is overboosted, yes I spell colour the British way), they look good to most people (high contrast colours “pop”). I’m not keen on spending 1999$ just so I get a firewire port, the big screen is nice but its SHINY and might practically useless for photo retouching and video work (video is me hobby and sometimes I need to do things on the road). There is a way around it, use a stick on matte filter (like this one for the macbook), the new macs (now including the macbook) also sport LED displays which is cool (I guess) , I’m sure they will be available soon enough for the new macbooks, not sure how well they work. I want a smaller laptop though, lugging this thing around is a bit TIRING.

There are some interesting things to note about these laptops. Offcoarse most abviously to most people is the outside (called a “unibody” enclosure) of the computer which is thinner and slightly lighter (in the macbooks case unquestionabely at least). Apple has moved to a new chipset provided by nVidia, which gives the macbooks there new (integrated but very playable and much improved) graphics, pcworld published some benchmarks which are not comprehensive but show an improvement, note these benchmarks are under vista (can expect better results for battery life for example in OS X). But what they clearely show is the graphics have markedly improved and should provide a very playable expereince at medium/low settings at a lowish resolution (800×500 is good on my old macbook) waiting on some more benchmarks though. The new chipset also brings in DDR3 which hardly matters yet (once speeds are up it might) except for the fact my ddr2 memory can’t be used on the new machine (bummer) but theoretically reduces power usage (yay).

Another point of interest is the new macbooks battery life. The macbook claims better battery life (from 4.5 to 5 hours) which may be true or not, but the “efficiency” should have gone up because the battery is actually a bit smaller (going from 55 w/hr to 45 w/hr), apple seems to be quite fair with its battery life estimates (according to the usage scenario it gives, especially recently) and they seem to get fairer with time, I was surprised to find my mothers McAir practically hits four hours of usage (3.5 easily) the way she uses it, which is practically Apples “wireless productivity”, half to one hour off the mark is quite good (my original thoughts were between 2.5 to 3 hours, maybe the software updates gave a boost?) also note that at times apple actually reduce estimated with product revisions, fancy that? it is good since the devices don’t actually run for less time but apples estimates become more relevant (McAir originally rated at 5 hours, now at 4.5, originally macbooks had claimed 6 hours, now its 4.5/5 depending on model, don’t remember about the pros), DDR3 and LED displays may help with the battery life. The Macbook pro advertises the same battery life (5 hours) with a smaller battery (going from 60 to 50 w/hr), in some scenarios an improvement in real world battery life should be seen because of the integrated graphics taking over under light load. Ars technica has put up some battery life benchmarks, I like them better than macworlds since they specify what they did. Note on the figures that they should be better under “general use” for most people since peopls shouldn’t be doing hourly backups (silly) or hourly online syncing (sillier) while on a battery especially. So I guess 3.5 to 4 hours use is a fair estimate (which is good) depending on use (and model).

In summary I like the new macs besides the removal of firewire from the macbook (dealbreaker I think at least for now) and glossy only screens (interestingly the new psp features a matte screen, just thought I would throw that in), the graphics performance is awesome (links at end of article) and battery life is OK. Good laptops overall. I just want FIREWIRE PLEASE. And I hope the displayport transmits audio and video (like HDMI)

LINKS My favourite is Ars Technica (since they are the most detailed). In summary everyone agrees laptops good, battery good, no FIREWIRE bad and glossy screen MEH (Ars has a detailed paragraph about that if your interested).

Ars Technica Unibody Macbook Pro Review Part 1 : General Part 2 : Performance.

Barefeats Unibody Macbooks Overview and Macbook pro Benchmarks

Macworld Unibody Macbook Review and graphics benchmarks.

TTFN. I am so confused, ALL I WANT IS A (new unibody) MACBOOK WITH FIREWIRE.

Cruel World? Geass is DEAD?

My father fractured and dislocated his wrist with some minor shattering, so he’s in a cast now. He might need an operation but he might be ok so they will decide after 2 weeks (offcoarse he decided that he needed one before the doctor). I know its cruel to say but the first two days he’s been milking for all its worth, it’s actually funny because in front of some people ooh aah ana miskeen in so much pain (which I thought justifiable at times but distasteful at others considering several things) and in front of others (his friend naturally ) hahaha why would I need help to an x-ray my legs aren’t broken, it was amusing I suppose, he seems to be better now (although spending an awfully long time in bed considering he’s the one that mentioned his legs were fine I mean ) I hopes he starts taking care of himself now (i.e. because he is so inactive his body is becoming VERY weak).

Code geass ended well, so many girls (and guys ) cried in that episode, it ended the way it should (that whole speech about becoming evil to defeat evil found a solution R2 episode 4) I suppose happy(ish) endings can be okay (I’m just thankful for a good ending, sometimes bad endings just ruin the WHOLE thing, in this case it more like saves it), I’m glad it’s over because the outfits (and character design i.e. disproportionate and SKINNY) was getting worse as the series progressed I think, ah well at least it was interesting (though REALLY silly and ANNOYING quite often, why can’t some people stay dead?), the power of absolute obedience ; SCARY, well Geass is dead.

Whoever believes talking might be the way to resolve things might change their mind if they knew of me. I managed to get locked out, and all I can do know is peek through the windows and I can’t see much (the curtains are closed) and maybe no one can see me. Either I’m bookmarked or not being visited. I suppose I can wait at the door for a while, maybe it opens eventually ( I won’t say it ). I should be patient, faithful, persevering and understanding (BUT IT’S HARD SOMETIMES). Well for now there is nothing to do but wait (I can’t pray for what I want unfortunately, there is a very good reason which I will keep to my self). Maybe talking about peoples feet is off putting? or maybe it’s unfair to ask someone not to rely on someone else’s guidance if they need it? (I didn’t mean it that way). I think I’m in love, this is so unfair STUPID BOWL (click to see).

Hindi movies Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Laila Majnu

Watched some hindi movies lying around at home. First Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (arabic subtitles), I found this movie wrong on so many levels, 1st I haven’t watched a hindi movie for so long and they should be wearing more clothes honestly, and I don’t like the way it was played out , but the last 20 or so minutes made the movie worth watching ,everybody showed and became their best, redeeming themselves and making me hate them a lot less hence not dislike the movie so much. Don’t particularly like the movie though I really like the song Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (means never say goodbye), the movies message didn’t make sense on so many levels because of the way things played out (and I’m really against extra marital affairs or “cheating” on your spouse/lover emotionally or physically, idea makes me sick), the story plays out over 7 years and the movie is way too long. But I like the song in the end .

Next watched Laila Majnu (english subs), I was told it’s not accurately subtitled and so not as blasphemous as the subtitles made it seem so I will go by the general spirit of the movie. ITS SAD TRAGIC AND LOVEY DOVEY. Its really about how much could someone endure for their love and how true to their love their willing to be I suppose, it’s not a happy movie but it is romantic tragically romantic if thats your kind of thing. Something that happened in the movie I wish I could do is take on somebody else’s pain but I suppose my faith isn’t strong enough or maybe then I could. Oh yeah the story though Indian is inspired by the poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah (wikipedia spelling ) from Bani Aamir قيس بن الملوّح العامري though it is fictional, thats why they dress a certain way and they are Muslim in the movie.

As if my insomnia isn’t bad enough these movies ARE NOT helping, have to find myself some love to drown myself in , or forget the whole idea (much more realistic considering the circumstances ie LIFE) next on my watch list is Sholay.

UPDATE movies added to WiW under Hindi.

Mobile Musings

I just installed opera mini on my phone and it works great, its also much faster than the built in browser so Im quite happy with it, If you’re not satisfied with you’re mobiles browser you should try it out. There is a mac linux and windows version too and it has some nice features, if you’re willing to give it a try it is very customizable.

I have laid eyes on my potential future (mobile) it is the Sony Ericsson c905, its features include an 8 mpix camera with xenon flash, (maybe) 640×480 video recording, wifi, good battery (hopefully), tv connectivity (no biggie), gps, don’t remember the rest but there is more. I am quite happy with my current phone (k850i) and 5mpix is more than enough however the video is only 320×240 and the exposure time is sometimes unbearable, so if the c905 has a better sensor setting a 5mpix instead of 8mpix should improve the exposure time (maybe I try 3mpix on my current phone to see if that helps). The video is a big deal for me because my phone is my camera because I always have it with me (i.e. attached to my hip), the phone would be alot less appealing if the resolution is only 320×240 (means I probably won’t buy it ). Some sites claim 320×240 others 640×480, the SE whitepaper says QVGA (320×240) but I’m hoping the final model gets revised.

UPDATE forgot to mention AT&T claim to be releasing the iPhone in the USA without a contract at 400$ above the contracted iPhone price (8gb for 599$ 16gb for 699$), cool what a steal (NOT ).

Portégé R500

Well everyone has talked about it, so far. Anyway here is the skinny (no pun intended), Toshiba R500 skinny 12″ .77″ thick laptop starting at 1700$ with pretty good specs (besides the cpu and graphics) and includes an optical drive (which the macbook air lacks) and is not as ugly as the Lenovo thinkpad x300 (I’m materialistic, vain and cruel I know) and on the upper end has a 128gb SSD as an option on the 3000$ model and only weighs 2.4 pounds (no backlit keyboard offcoarse or camera which I hardly care about though), the SSD is what’s causing the most buzz because at around 3000$ both the thinkpad and mcair only include a 64gb SSD compared to the r500’s 128gb, no big deal to me I can’t live with that little (because I run OS X, Kubuntu, XP and do video work), and no full size Firewire, though if I bought a pc to use on the road to come home to a mac (or hacked OS X onto a Wintel Laptop :p ) I would consider the low end laptop (given it has decent battery life), hmmm I know someone this laptop might be good for and if they want OS X I will get a chance to get my hands a bit dirty , oh and it has a dock, 3 usb, 1 i.link, gigabit ethernet, vga out and a pc card slot. They claim 7.5 hours (on all models) but this is probably with the display off (its transreflective meaning it can work without backlight if you’re in a well lit environment) so I say closer to 4 to 5 hours max. The screen resolution might be a bit too high for the size of the laptop.

Crisis core review, GaB

FF7 : Crisis Core is a great game. I just finished it about a month ago and it rocked. posted a review in the new Games and Books (GaB) section. Adding podcasts to WiW section soon.

iPhone price cut litigation

Ridiculous is the only way to describe the amount of media attention this gets. Its unfair in a way i suppose unless you look at the grand scheme of things, first there is apples price protection policy, and if that doesn’t cover you have the 100$ rebate, good for you; i think apple is being more than courteous enough. You bought the phone, life is tough, consequences of your actions and all. Besides i haven’t heard of people suing retailers on game consoles that they charge double the MSRP then a month to three months later they could be half the price, or suing a store because you bought an item just before the special promotion on that product and it just so happens even after the special promotion the price was still lower than the original asking price, did i get irritated when just after i bought my laptop from apple they started bundling more RAM, yes i suppose but it was more like too bad i didn’t wait, not “YOU SHALL FEEL MY SCORN AND TASTE PAIN, PAIN i say PAIN”. Amazon just last month had prices on one of the macbook pros fluctuating by a good 400$, but i reckon that was just due to supply issues, whatever i won’t sue them over it.

How about we forget about hardware for a moment and pretend we had a similar situation with software, some software transitions from shareware to freeware in a very short time, does that mean you should burn the developers at the stake? Or less of an extreme some software does go through significant price changes in a short time frame, such is life.

How about movies, i bought a dvd off amazon that cost 30$ but a week later a different edition was available for 17$ but it wasn’t available at the time, should i sue them for that?

The people doing the suing should get their tempers/impulses under control, or find a better way to make money (with all due respect to those who deserve it). Have a nice day people.

New Macbooks with leopard

Im predicting and hoping for a macbook update with the latest OS release, the macbook is due for an update and has not gone through an update for back to school specials which is unusual, im hoping apple will reintroduce a 1000$ version though i wont get my hopes up, what im hoping for is a lighter laptop and with the intel GMA X3100 IGP. Im still ok with my macbook, but i might consider updating around december or so. Its not unusual for apple to release new hardware in tandem with new software, so its not a completely unreasonable thought is it? What do you think?

Im also expecting leopard to be pushed to the very end of October if not delayed further. Either way i will wait it out until at least December.