And no, I’m not making it up, it’s a real one. See http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?name=Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A for some info.
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Author Archives: richard
Got dragged to a screening of Happy Feet 2. Overall rating: Meh. Good: The krill. Bad: Most of the rest. Wait for DVD / TV release.
Bren’s work had a sponsorship tie-up with Happy Feet Two, so we scored a bunch of free tickets. Given my biggest issue with cinema these days is how much it costs just to walk in the door I figured it was hard to refuse the offer! Even better, free popcorn and drinks for all (easily another $87 worth at cinema prices!)
We did fall foul of my second biggest complaint – the fact that every single film now just has to be in 3D.
I wear glasses. Having to wear another pair of glasses on top of my prescription ones doesn’t make for a comfortable movie watching experience.
Also, why? There really wasn’t any part of the movie that was begging for 3D effects to better involve the audience or tell the story. It’s just there because they can (oh, and so the cinemas can charge an extra couple of bucks per ticket – see gripe one). Showing the movie in good ol’ 2D wouldn’t have made any difference except for a bighter image and less eye strain.
Anyway – to the movie…
Honestly, they could have not bothered. I’m sure it will be a commercial success. Maybe. Just looked up the stats, and the estimated production cost was $130M, and so far it has grossed just over $43M in the US. A little more to go there… but holidays are coming up, and I guess it’ll do pretty well on DVD release. I digress!
Anyway, out of that $130 million, how about not spending the extra cash on the useless 3D eye candy, and flicking a few bucks out to some writers to develop a good script? The fancy visuals can help tell the story, but can’t make up for not having an engaging plot. Likewise, no matter how talented the actors (and there are some great one in the cast!), brilliant delivery can only go so far to cover up an awful line.
That said, there is some great writing, but it’s all for the two krill, Bill and Will. Voiced by Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, these two steal the show. Easily the best performances in the whole movie.
My escorts for the event, aged ten and eleven, said it was better than the original Happy Feet. That’s not great praise, as they then went to explain how boring they thought the first one was. I guess younger kids might like it as a rainy day DVD option. If you’re looking for something worth of a cinema trip then I’d keep looking.
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Fallout Developer Crafting South Park RPG | Game|Life
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Best web site idea ever – we so need this!
via dorktower.com
It’s sad, but I think I’d be prepared to kick in a few bucks to stop some films from being made, and have the production dollars diverted elsewhere.
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Blogsy – a follow up review
A few days back I posted a quick review of Blogsy, a blogging tool for the iPad, concluding that mostly it was pretty good. I’ve just spent a weekend away for a family wedding, sans laptop, and I’m going to have to change my verdict to “nice idea but doesn’t really work.”
My plan was to use the iPad together with the Camera Connection Kit to take the images from my old faithful Nikon DSLR and zap them straight over 3G to the I interwebs. The first part was pretty straight forward, no issues grabbing the photos. Once on the iPad I could view, email, etc no problem.
However, the next part proved all too hard.
Previously I’d used the normal “post by email”, which is quick and simple if you’re only sending a few pictures. Due to the way you have to select from a screen full of thumbnails it is a little unwieldy for picking out the best shots from a large library.
Enter Blogsy. The media selector in Blogsy allows you do view a preview at around a quarter screen, and easily select a bunch of pictures for a single blog post. I figured this would be simple!
Not so much.
The actual selection process started fine, but the app was very unstable, crashing multiple (read: many!) times during selection and when attempting to publish.
The publish process was also problematic, with the process often stopping without completing. It seems there is no background processing support, if your iPad goes to sleep during the upload then it aborts rather than continuing. Again, not too much of an issue with one or two photos, but terrible when you’re trying to upload an entire event from the field.
I really wanted this to work, but while a nice attempt Blogsy is just too unstable to be really useful right now.
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Sofie & Steve’s wedding
Sofie & Steve’s wedding
Almost wedding time – Campbell, Joyce and Sarah
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Quality protective footwear
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Congratulations Sofie and Steve!
Almost exactly twelve years ago (November 20, 1999, to be exact) Sofie Cremer was walking down the aisle. She, with most of her cousins, was leading the bridal party into the chuch when Brenda and I were married. I’ve been frantically looking for a good photo of the procession, but this is the best I could come up with. The group shot is better!
Today, Sofie is walking down the aisle again, this time for her own wedding. Amazing how things change in twelve years.
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