Archive for May 23rd, 2008
It’s snowing in California? Ballmer says MSFT is going to spend $50 billion one way or the other. Yahoo is not a strategy. Carl Icahn worried a deal will never happen. Vista user account control are confusing says MSFT exec. XP SP3 corrupting the registry says Symantec. HP is now taking over the server business from IBM and Dell. RedHat software is greener. So what? Google slaps Microsoft. I’m just joking when I say the oceans are being carbonated by the CO2 in the air. I suspect the iPhone will have GPS built-in or have a bluetooth gizmo nearby.
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More rumors are being leaked about the upcoming GH4 release. This time, they center around the price of the game, and the bundle of equipment.
GH: World Tour Super Bundle
- Xbox360 - $189.99
- PS3 - $189.99
- Wii - $189.99
- PS2 – $179.99
GH: World Tour Guitar Bundle
- Xbox360 - $99.99
- PS3 - $99.99
- Wii - $99.99
- PS2 – $89.99
GH: World Tour Software Sku
- Xbox360 - $59.99
- PS3 - $59.99
- Wii - $49.99
- PS2 – $49.99
This is all pretty standard pricing and similar to the Rockband bundles, but at least we don’t need to worry about steep increases in the price.
Ultimately, this game could suffer from the fact that many of us have invested time and space into the Rockband series of instruments, and both companies will suffer if they don’t come to an agreement and standardize their equipment.
We have always known that the corporations like to play big brother with their employees, but now we have the hard research to prove it.
Forrester Consulting has released the results of it’s annual outbound email survey. The survey shows that large corporations have a strong sense of paranoia when it comes to what their employees might be saying on the interwebs, specifically email, blogs, and social networks. So, what are they doing about that paranoia? They are watching you.
The survey included 301 “email decision makers” from companies in the US with more then 100 employees, and here is what they found :
• 44% have conducted investigations into potential leaks stemming from email in the past year
• 23% feel that their business has been impacted by such a leak
• 41% of large corporations (20,000 + employees) hire people with the express purpose of disseminating outbound email
• 21% have investigated leaks surrounding posting on a blog, or message board.
• 12% have investigated leaks that occured using a social networking site, or IM application.
Companies have a valid concern, given the virility of information once it hits the internet. Sensitive trade information, corporate strategies, and other company secrets are vulnerable to third party abuse.
Email, and internet communication is a vital part of company business, but the risks are significant, and the days of allowing employees a measure of privacy online at work, are quickly coming to an end. So, when you start to type that steamy email to the wife, or mistress, be aware of who else is going to read it, and how it might impact your future employment.
In a recent interview with Australia’s ChannelNews, an unamed Telstra Executive made the following comments:
“We know what is coming, we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA, By christmas this phone will be capable of 42mbs which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world.”
If true it would suggest that Apple is building a wireless broadband chip into the new iPhones that support an advanced High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) protocol known as Evolved HSPA.
However, this should be taken with a LARGE grain of salt, since the current speed cap is 7.2 Mbps, which is a hardware cap set by the chip used on the iPhone, and unless the folks at Apple have mass-produced a chip that doesn’t exist yet, it is doubtful that the iPhone will be able to handle these type of download speeds, even if the telecom company Telstra is offering it.
After 19 years away, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford have recaptured that magic that has made the Indy trilogy so successful and have added a worthy sequel to a franchise that stands the test of time.
First, let me cover a few things I was not thrilled with. The start of the movie missed the typical Indiana Jones beginning focusing solely on him, and just sort of dropped you into a movie that was already in progress. Then there are the Aliens. Yep, there are Aliens in this movie. While I was not thrilled with it, I thought they at least did it well, and it didn’t spoil the movie. Lastly, I didn’t like Mac’s character. I don’t think Indy is stupid enough to be duped by the guy as many times as he is in the movie. That said… let’s get into the good parts.
The stuff we love about Indy films are here, the Paramount logo fading into a mountain-like object in the background, Indy’s phobia of snakes, the flight paths on the background maps with the old Pan-America Plane and Indy sleeping under his hat, and the numerous references to the first three films, including pictures of [ Sean Connery ], and [ Denholm Elliott ].
This latest Indy movie finds that perfect balance between action, humor, and humanity that made Raiders so special. It is not a goofy comedy, like Last Crusade seemingly was, though there is still plenty of humorous moments in this film, and the chemistry between [ Shia Le Boeuf ] and [ Harrison Ford ] is remarkable. It has a healthy plot building process, and we get to watch Indy and Marion’s love redevelop , in fact, the scenes with Marion and Indy together are some of the best parts of the movie. The action sequences are awesome, the car chase scene in the jungle is a fast-paced, thrill ride with a bit of a chill with the giant ants. While there was a liberal use of CGI in the movie, many of the action sequences are done old school, letting us remember back 20+ years ago to Raiders and why we loved it so much. I thought that they struck a great balance with the CGI, not too much, and not too little.
The entire cast is has perfect chemistry and everybody plays their parts incredibly well, even despite the fact that [ Karen Allen's ] last memorable role was in 1984 with Starman. Harrison Ford, obviously missed the role of Indy, and you can tell he is having the time of his life in his return to everyone’s favorite archaeologist. He we instrumental in getting this movie made as he spent years campaigning for this movie, and he puts his all into a strong performance. [ Cate Blanchett's ] heavy Russian accent is a bit over-the-top, but she ends up being just creepy enough, and intriguing enough to keep us interested in her character, and ends up being one of the better villains from the series.
A strong story and great performances don’t imply that this film isn’t flawless. It isn’t, but the flaws are few-and-far between and didn’t hinder my overall enjoyment of the film. The first 20 minutes are somewhat slow and while it isn’t necessarily boring; it is still entertaining, but it could have used several minutes of edits.
Bottom line, I loved this movie, and repeat viewings are assured. It is the Indy film that you’ve been waiting twenty plus years for, and the Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have proved that you can bring an American icon back from the dead and still have him wow the audience.
Indiana Jones is back, and oh how we’ve missed him.