June 2008 Archives (17 posts)
Hancock may be the second bomb of the summer
The trailer for Hancock gets full marks in my book. Will Smith as a washed up super hero looks interesting, quirkly, and original. The special effects in the trailer look top rate. Unfortuantely, the trailer may be the best part of Hancock. The early buzz about this film is bad.
The first bad sign is the runtime of 80 minutes. The Love Guru was 88 minutes. The trailer seems to have all of the funny bits as did The Love Guru. Then there is the negative buzz from people that have seen the film.
I really thought that Hancock was going to be a good film based on the trailer but I had high hopes for The Love Guru based on the trailer. Enough said.
Posted in Movies at 2:13 PM | Comments (1)
Stingy Rogers iPhone voice and data plans
Rogers finally announced their iPhone 3G Voice & Data Packages and they suck. Their aren’t any unlimited data plans and the voice plans are lousy.
The cheapest plan they have is $60/month for 150 minutes of talk and 400 MB of data. If that isn’t enough of a slap in the face they claim:
iPhone packages include all the voice minutes and data you’ll need to fully benefit from the breakthrough device.
Rogers doesn’t have a clue. They are going to hurt 3rd part apps that require unlimited data and their expensive plans are also going to hamper how most people use the phone (WiFi usage whenever possible).
Rogers has one of the most expensive iPhone plans in the world. Want caller ID? That will be another $15/month! Their unlimited voice for evenings start at 9 PM. When did evenings start at 9 PM? What a greedy bunch of buggers.
The iPod Touch Alternative
I might consider an iPod Touch instead. I don’t use my existing cellphone very much and my plan is relatively cheap at $25/month ($35 after taxes and, network charges, etc). A Rogers phone would cost twice as much — up to $420/year for voice/data plus network charges and taxes. Factor in the price of the phone and a 3 year contract and an iPhone from Rogers would cost me $620 (CDN) in my first year.
Why not purchase a 16 GB iPod Touch for $419 (CDN) instead? I’d be ahead by at least $200 in my first year. Even if I purchased a 32 MB iPod Touch ($519 CDN) and continued using my crappy Telus cellphone, I’d be further ahead.
I think Rogers just lost a potential customer.
Posted in Apple at 4:07 PM | Comments (1)
Why I hate the Ministry of the Environment
This spring I had my 1988 Ford Mustang freshly painted and added a B303 camshaft to give the car a little more power and lumpy sounding idle. To put the car on the road I had to renew my license plate sticker.
In Ontario we have a Drive Clean program whereby you have to get an emissions test for your vehicle every two years. If your vehicle fails the test, you can’t get your license plate renewed.
The law used to be that if your car was 20 years or older it was exempt from emissions testing. I was looking forward to never having to test my 20 year old Mustang again. I hated paying this tax grab in the first place.
I went to the Ministry of Transportation office a month ago to renew my plates and they told me I needed an emissions test done. Huh? I told them that they were wrong, that the car was exempt. I was wrong.
In January of this year, some moron at the Ministry of the Environment decreed that cars built in 1988 and later would have to get an emissions test every two years, indefinitely. What? Who told them that they can change the rules?
That performance cam I had installed has cost me two failed emissions tests. The hydrocarbon reading on curb idle was a little high. So what is a guy to do when he just wants to lay down a thick patch of rubber? He goes under the table and pays the going rate for an emissions test.
After a month of waiting patiently, there will be a 1988 Ford Mustang GT Cobra laying down a lot of rubber in the east end of Toronto today. Happy trails!
Posted in Miscellaneous at 11:13 AM | Comments (4)
In Rainbows - From the Basement
Radiohead’s video album In Rainbows - From the Basement is incredible. About an hour ago I downloaded their album from iTunes and I’ve been watching/listening to it ever since. I’m amazed at how many instruments lead singer Thom Yorke plays on various tracks — guitar, piano, drums.
I’m not one to watch music videos but I found myself glued to my screen as Radiohead played 10 tracks from their last album, In Rainbows. The performances are flawless and show how tight the band is when they play live.
It is also interesting to see how the band creates their sound — you get to see who is playing a xylophone or guitar or singing during each song. Very few elements of the music are sampled and most of it is performed live.
At the bargain basement price of $7.99, Radiohead has one of the best video albums I’ve seen to date.
Posted in Music at 11:41 PM | Comments (3)
My mighty mighty push mower
If you own a house, you probably have grass and that grass needs cutting once a week. With all the rain we’ve had this month, that grass can grow pretty fast.
I’m not an environmentalist but I use a push mower to cut my grass. I was given a Gardena push mower from my father about 5 years ago. It used to do a great job but this year it seems to take a lot of effort and the grass doesn’t look evenly cut.
I was considering an electric lawnmower as a replacement when a bell rang, and rang, and rang. It was the knife sharpening guy driving down my street. I ran downstairs, opened the front door and yelled, “wait!”
I asked the knife sharpening guy if he sharpens lawnmower blades. He looked at me like I was an idiot. Twenty minutes and $35 later I had a lawnmower with blades like a Ginsu knife.
The knife sharpening guy said that the blades should remain sharp for about two years. Now I can gently push my mower and cut the grass with ease no matter how tall or thick it is.
I love that I don’t have to visit the gas station every couple of weeks and fill up a gas can for my lawnmower. This spring the CBC noted that High pump prices spur push mower sales. I’m saving money by using a push mower and it is environmentally friendly.
Incidentally, my father just replaced his old gas mower. No, he didn’t get a push mower. He picked up a top of the line Toro gas mower with an electric starter! It has 6.75 HP, pulls itself along (you only have to nudge it now and again to keep it straight) and belches its fair share of pollution into the air over Toronto.
I have to admit that the electric starter is a pretty cool feature.
Posted in Observations at 4:21 PM | Comments (5)
Rogers iPhone Pricing
If you’re an Apple fanboy in Toronto, then you’ve been waiting patiently for Rogers to make some kind of announcement on data plans for the new iPhone. They haven’t.
Rumour sites have been posting leaked information about Rogers pricing for data plans.
It looks like you’ll only have to pay $30/month for unlimited data in addition to a voice plan. This sounds reasonable. You can get voice plans for as little as $25/month. I could live with $55/month for cell phone service.
Posted in Apple at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)
The Love Guru (2008)
I desperately wanted The Love Guru to be a good movie. I just went and saw it with three friends and the general consensus is that Mike Myers made the worst movie of his career.
Parts of The Love Guru were filmed down the street from my house on Lake Ontario. I watched as the film crew built the incredible sets at Bluffers Park and I took several photographs last summer. Unfortunately The Love Guru is so bad that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, even for a video rental. It doesn’t deserve a theatrical release.
Almost everything in this movie has been recycled from other Mike Myers films. The gags just aren’t funny the second time around. Take a pass on this film unless you want to see the Maple Leafs win their first Stanley Cup in over 30 years. 
Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.
UPDATE: I just read a Love Guru review by Harry Knowles that I feel is spot on:
Unbelievably unspeakably awful. THE LOVE GURU is astonishingly rancid… With this film, Myers puts a shotgun in the mouth of comedy and kills it. This isn’t merely a bad film, but a painful experience that you keep telling yourself to leave. However, I have a very strong belief in witnessing the terror.
I’ll be surprised if Mike Myers gets an opportunity to make another comedy after this debacle.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 12:34 AM | Comments (2)
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008)
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan is everything you’d expect from an Adam Sandler movie. It’s silly, ridiculous, crude and completely unbelievable. It’s also very funny.
The movie is a torrent of one-liners, jokes and gags packed into the 113 minutes. Some of the jokes slip by while others bowl you over with laughter. It’s not the type of movie you want to watch alone. Go and see it with a friend or two and you’ll find yourself quoting one-liners and recalling one of your favourite scenes.
When Zohan and his buddies footbag with a live cat instead of a Hacky Sack, I lost it. Next to Mike Myers’ Love Guru, I’m guessing that this will be the ‘funny’ movie of the summer. ½
Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 7:44 PM | Comments (2)
Sable WaterOptics
Sable WaterOptics makes competition and recreational swimming goggles. In a recent news story the New York Times considered Sable’s RS101 goggles to be the best in the industry. JAK Media designed their website last month just before they were featured in The Oprah Magazine.
If you’re a triathlete or an avid swimmer that wants the best swim goggles in the industry then have a look at Sable’s products.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 5:41 PM | Comments (0)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
More incredible than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but not as good as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk is a decent popcorn flick.
If you watch a crappy download version of this film on your home computer then you’re a loser. It deserves to be viewed on the big screen! Millions of dollars were spent on making the CGI look fantastic yet some people would prefer to watch a shaky camcorder version with terrible audio.
I seem to be in the minority when it comes to people that enjoyed Ang Lee’s version of Hulk (2003). Louis Leterrier’s update of the angry green man will appeal to the masses for its simplicity and action.
On another level you might enjoy the film knowing that it was shot in and around Toronto. I found it amazing how director Leterrier made different locations around University of Toronto blend seamlessly with Morningside Park in Scarborough. Downtown Yonge Street in Toronto combined with downtown Hamilton looks like a believable version of Harlem (even if Sam the Record Man and the Zanzibar Tavern are featured prominently in the background).
The aerial shot of a neighbourhood in Rio at the beginning of the film is incredible as noted by Roger Ebert in his review:
This is the “City of God” neighborhood, and as nearly as I could tell, we are looking at the real thing, not CGI. The director lets the shot run on longer than any reasonable requirement of the plot; my bet is, he was as astonished as I was, and let it run because it is so damned amazing.
Equally amazing is the work that Rhythm & Hues Studios did in creating a CGI version of the Hulk. I think it is getting harder for special effects studios to impress audiences these days. The scenes with Abomination and Hulk are very well done and I found very little to complain about.
There are a few good laughs for the fanboys in the audience, including cameos by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. I was surprised to learn that the speaking parts for Hulk were performed by Ferrigno who is hearing impaired.
The next time you visit the movie theatre, take a look around the lobby to see if they have a life-size Hulk on display. It will give you some perspective on how large the CGI character is compared to the human actors. Tim Roth looks like a child compared to the massive Hulk model I saw. ½
Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 11:29 PM | Comments (2)
Are you feeling lucky?
Just go to the contest website, register to play and try your luck at the Match 3 game for instant prizes. Grand prizes include a Toyota Camry Hybrid, vacation package from VIA, a golf package and more.
The contest closes on July 4 so you have lots of time to play. Good luck.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 9:31 PM | Comments (0)
iPhone finally arrives in Canada
Apple finally announced that the iPhone will be coming to Canada. Rogers will be the carrier and they have next to nothing on their website. The unfortunate thing about the iPhone is that I’ll have to become a Rogers customer again. Can’t wait.
Everyone is raving about the new 3G iPhone which is now half the price of the old iPhone and twice as fast. The question on my mind is what will Rogers gouge us with in terms of service plans?
In the US, AT&T is going to charge $30 unlimited data per month for consumers and $45 per month unlimited data for business (on top of voice service fees). I’m predicting that Rogers will charge around $50/month unlimited data for consumers.
At $200 a phone to start, Apple is trying to flood the market and it will kill the competition from Samsung and Nokia rip offs.
Posted in Apple at 1:33 AM | Comments (1)
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour
On June 16 I’m going to attend the Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I need to get out of the home office and learn something new, anything.
Posted in Design and Photography at 5:34 PM | Comments (1)
Apple abandoning PowerPC platform
The big buzz among Apple fanboys today is that OS X 10.6 may be shipping for Macworld (Jan 2009). The bad news is that it won’t run on any PowerPC Macintosh computers. Looks like I will definitely have to upgrade to a new Mac next year.
My PowerMac G5 may be a great machine but by this time next year it may be sitting in my attic next to my Power Mac G4 and Macintosh 9600.
I’d have to agree with John Gruber:
I still think it seems too soon by at least a year to drop PowerPC support — especially for G5s, which are still extremely capable machines by today’s standards — but that’s the word on the street.
I’ll squeeze another year out of this PowerMac G5 if I can. I managed to get 20 years out of my Ford Mustang and it is still running strong. My new B303 cam (in the Mustang) may not like Ontario’s emission testing but that’s another story.
Posted in OS X Software at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)
Web surfing hampers your sense of smell
It’s true. Surfing the web hampers your sense of smell. My wife was reading her favourite blogs just a few minutes ago a mere two feet from our dishwasher. Unbeknownst to her, the heating element in the dishwasher was slowly melting the lid of a Starbucks thermos (it fell from the rack).
She got up from her laptop, walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to my office to ask me if I could smell “that”. I just finished sniffing my Power Mac G5, worried that the CPU was beginning to melt. I ran downstairs to find the source of the burning plastic.
I went downstairs to the kitchen and the acrid fumes from the dishwasher were overpowering. I was amazed.
How could anyone sit two feet from a piece of burning plastic and not know where it was coming from? And she complains that the 9-year-old becomes a zombie when he plays the Wii. Sheesh!
Posted in Observations at 9:18 PM | Comments (4)
I am anti-line
When it comes to notebooks, I prefer a Moleskine with blank pages, no lines.
I love this amusing quote from Rands:
I’m fervently anti-line on the page, but for the sake of science, I’ve tried a couple of lined notebooks. The result: yeah, you eventually stop seeing the lines, but read that again, you stop seeing what? I don’t need lines on a notebook. I needed lines in 3rd grade when I was learning how to write. I’m good now, thanks.
I find the lines get in the way. I can be more creative with my sketches and ideas when I have a blank canvas. Lines hamper creativity.
I also feel like I have to cram as much information as possible onto a page. Wasted space fills up a notebook in no time and means that I have to get a replacement. My Moleskin notebooks last an average of 12 months.
I am anti-line.
Posted in Books and Miscellaneous at 8:51 PM | Comments (2)
Kicking Horse Coffee
I picked up a pack of Kicking Horse Coffee and it is fabulous. I had some last month in Vancouver and was impressed. I was in a Dominion store yesterday and noticed they sold it there. I grabbed a pack of Kootenay Crossing and wasn’t disappointed.
At $16/lb it isn’t cheap but it beats the taste of Starbucks. Kicking Horse prides themselves in selling ‘organic fair trade’ coffee whatever that means. Personally, I don’t care, just as long as it tastes good.
Posted in Food at 7:57 AM | Comments (5)
