iOS 5 part 1
Posted by tommark in Reviews, Technology on October 13, 2011
iOS 5, and it’s 200+ changes, has been loaded onto my iPad. After Apple’s build up over the last few months, the results are a little underwhelmed.
The Upgrade
First, Upgrading from the Windows edition of iTunes was a pain in the arse. It took a magical hour to backup and upgrade to the iOS. Boring and relatively painless, except…
It ended up effectively removing all of the downloaded apps in the process. Also, since this iPad hadn’t been plugged in for a few months, it also meant iTunes was missing a lot of the purchased apps. Why iTunes didn’t sync automatically before the upgrade is beyond crazy.
Thank goodness for the “purchased” feature that allows previously purchased goodies to be re-downloaded at no charge. Instead of spending time looking for the 5 apps I should have downloaded, and being the lazy person that I am, I clicked the option that downloaded anything missing from iTunes, since storage on my computer is cheap. This included apps I downloaded on my iPod Touch years ago, and used maybe once. Once the hundreds of apps that iTunes was missing were downloaded and updated, it was now time to sync.
The Sync
Okay, at 2 hours into this, it was finally time to use of the new features of iOS 5, wireless sync, which is something Android has had forever. After trial and error trying to figure out how to turn it on (it’s on the first page of the iPad sync settings BTW), the iPad was finally free of the cable! Success!
The actual sync took the longest time, because all of the apps that were just downloaded from iTunes tried to sneak back onto the device because it thought all of the apps I had just loaded were new, meaning most of them had to be deleted. This process was a time consuming. Sad times at Ridgemont High.
Once I have played around with it some more, I’ll post my impressions.
Tom Mark's (Mid-Summer) Summer Movie Awards 2008!
Posted by tommark in Entertainment on June 10, 2008
Anyone that can prop themselves up next to a computer and can formulate an opinion has an entertainment website. And of that anyone, most wait until the end of summer to give out awards for the summer movies. Not I!
In the spirit of being above the average, I’ve devised a new tradition to break next year . . . The (Mid-Summer) Summer Movie Awards! Also, since I think boring awards like “Best Actor” and “Best Movie” are more than covered by that aforementioned “Anyone,” I’ve opted to make my own awards!
5 Reasons Indy 4 Isn't as Good as the First Three Movies
Posted by tommark in Entertainment, Lists, Rant, Reviews on May 26, 2008
Spoilers, Ahoy! If you care about that sort of thing!
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun filled adventure movie that many will love. The “Big Damn Ants” scene was incredible, as was every action sequence in the movie. The comedy was there, especially when Indy insisted they call a snake a rope before he would grab onto it. However, there are a few things that set it apart from the other movies in the series, in a bad way.
Read the rest of this entry »
More Inkscape Practice
I’ve been messing around with Inkscape, trying to get used to it. Who needs Fireworks anymore?
Introducting . . . BenchMark
Posted by tommark in Site Updates on May 3, 2008
I was going to do more with this feature, but really, all you want to see are pictures and results. Yeah, I went with Vista! Since Microsoft gives away Ultimate edition like water (if you know where to look*), why the heck not?
*I got mine going the Windows Feedback Panel route, but I also got a copy from going to the “Hero’s Happen Here” conference (ah, the perks of being a developer 
).
The Photos:
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- First step, get the case out of the box . . .
The Specs:
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1
Case: Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. CROSSHAIR
Processor: 3.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ (Black Edition)
Hard Drive: Seagate ST350063 SCSI HDD (500.11 GB)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S183L SCSI CD/DVDW
Memory: 2GB X2 (4GB total) of Patriot DDR2 RAM
Graphics: ASUS EN8600GTS SILENT
I Am Legend Review
Final Grade: A
I Am Legend is a movie that seemingly everyone and their mom wants to see. This is evident by the couple hundred people lined up outside the theater, in the cold and rain for the free screening I attended, hoping to get a precious seat inside. Typically, these types of come one, come all movie fests, based mostly on commercial hype, usually end up being enjoyable (i.e. Transformers). They typically don’t end up like the “I should know from the trailer this is going to be boring and artsy” films (i.e. No Country for Old Men).
This film is based on the Richard Matheson novel of the same name. For the curious, this is the same novel the Charlton “Cold Dead Hands/Moses” Heston movie Omega Man is based on. In this adaptation, the apocalyptic catalyst is still a super virus, with a twist. In the first few minutes of the film, we are treated to a news interview with scientist that uses a biologically engineered version of Measles to kill cancer cells in her patients. She’s awfully proud of killing cancer. Too bad that isn’t the only thing her research kills . . .
Will Smith plays the scientist Robert Neville, who is the last uninfected human in New York City. Most of the movie is following Robert through his daily life, which consists of various daytime activities. These include hunting in time square, with his dog (and last friend) Sam, and trying to find a cure for the virus that all but destroyed humanity. Once night starts to fall, he locks up every door and window in his house. When he sleeps, he has nightmares about what tragically happened to his wife and daughter.
The shots of a deserted NYC are incredible. There are weeds growing though the streets, thousands of abandoned vehicles, deer and lions (I’m guessing from the zoo) roam the area. These images are believable and must have been a challenge for the special effects crew. The creatures can best be described as a Zombie and Vampire mix. These “Night Walkers” can’t survive in UV light, but lack the intelligence and sophistication of the Bram Stoker or Anne Rice definition of Vampire. The only intelligence they do posses is in the hunter and gatherer area. There is a great scene that takes place in a dark warehouse with these guys, with our hero’s only light source being a flashlight.
The story of what exactly happened to humanity is told in flashbacks, and various paper and magazine articles in the background. This made for a fun exercise of trying to read everything (note: look for a billboard for a certain superhero movie in “development hell” in time square). Different people may get more or less of the back story this way, although some might find it frustrating, because everything isn’t explained up front. There is somewhat of a left turn at the end that shows up at Neville’s lowest point, that some might consider a cheesy plot turn that includes the line “I like Shrek.” That is up to the viewer though. The ending is very heroic, without saying too much, following the trend of horror movies lately.
Although there have been criticism of Will Smith’s acting ability, his performance here is stellar. The audience can place themselves in the situation; it would be extremely lonely seemingly being the last human. Our audience laughed during his comical initial interaction with mannequins in the video store (not in a Dane Cook way, sicko).However, due to the circumstances of the story, the same interaction that made everyone laugh before became cry inducing. There are some sad moments in this movie.
Overall, this is a great movie, it’s touching when it needs to be, scary, funny, all number of things. The only really bad thing I can say about the film is this, and it’s just a technicality really: the run time is only an hour and a half. I wanted more. Maybe I’m just greedy. My final grade for this movie is a big A.
