A pullapart of Star Trek 2009

Ok,

It's 2016 and even though I watched this film and really didn't watch it to the end, yeah, I pussed out when they transwarped to the Budweiser Brewery Engine Room.

Netflix co-incidentally is showing 2002's Nemesis and even Data's self sacrifice saved Nemesis. Yes, the crew look tired but the relationship between Diana and Riker is still good (I really think they fancy each other in real life).

Anyway, here's my little list of things I really didn't like about Star Trek 2009.

1. When the kelvin gets destroyed, how do those shuttles escape?
2. Scotty was mistreated (a can solve anything character)
3. Red matter (lame)
4. The handbreak part is just dumb & makes everybody look dumb
5. The traveling tube in the engineering room of the Enterprise
6. The ejection of multiple cores at the end?
7. A lot of the action scenes seem to be poorly choreographed or edited
8. Cadets are in charge of the flagship
9. Bones getting Kirk on the Enterprise (cos there's no other doctors at the academy)
10. Ejecting Kirk to a planet instead of a brig
11. CGI monsters
12. Iowa (hahahahahahahaha)
13. The amount of product placement
14. Would SF cadets bash up a civilian?
15. NOBODY on Vulcan doesn't evacuate until Spock does something (6 Billion people srsly 10k survived)
16. Romulus didn't evacuate either!
17. Spock stays to watch Vulcan destroy and wait for Kirk than to report it
18. Kirk throws everything and shoots at Nero & gets a reward
19. Ejected the core & goes to warp at the end!
20. Alternative timeline, ok.
21. No other ships at Earth, orly?

The soundtrack by the amazing Goldsmith for whom died in 2004. Overall special effects, good even if I get tired of the blue flashes ><!

Messing about with history

A conversation about modernising existing films recently cropped up and was focused around this.

Cgi Replacement for the TOS Enterprise bridge by Kevin George, originally found here. https://vimeo.com/12023417

It reminds me of Lucas treatment of Starwars, and howe the 'enhanced version' had more things in it, even a new song. I'm sure that a lot of work and effort and I wouldn't imagine that many hours of toil would go into each scene.

It features a short sequence, well executed but I feel there's a few things that are wrong, but I think it's more subversive tho. Look at the handrails, they've been turned into rails instead of future standing stations. What if the original had no top plate, could then the set of TNG potentially not have standing stations like they had done now. I look at things that were from the old series and think, hell, they could design that like this (in my mind). It gives me initiative to do something better.
On the other hand, the work made in modifying and mapping camera angles and such is pretty good. But the burning question is is it a good thing to do? That comes down to the context.

I mentioned Lucas before, with him updating movies; I feel the quaintness of 'at the time design' is what I find a bit unsettling, why would I watch Metropolis if for the fact that it's an iconic film, a modern version could see digital displays inserted, this is how I feel about 'modernizing' such existing films. They loose their quaintness, their time desgn. How they fit into the psyche of people in that universe. They might be subtle things, but it erodes from the narrative of the story.


ARGH!!!!!!

The City on the Edge of Forever: Guardian of Forever

Loved this episode, I liked how the age of it really demonstrated that this was created far in the past; infact this design reminded me of an amoeba, something rather old and very robustly designed.

Star Trek: Justice

When would it take place?

A law team service that would travel to different planets within the federation assisting starfleet in different cases.

What is the setting?

Various locations from starbases, shuttles, planets.

What is the conflict of the series?

Values vs Local laws.

What sort of crew would you assign there?

About 6 cast being from any Federation aligned system, with a plot twist from one of the characters mid way though season 1.

Nokia Windows Phone apps: top installs

I have had my iPhone now for 4 years, which really feels like some sort of confessional that I'm telling you this as I have just recently started using the Nokia 620 which I purchased from a fellow student as he had it lying around.

It came preinstalled with windows applications, some of which I've discovered that already have features like audio recording in OneNote, if which I really don't think I'd use for anything else.

So far I have installed the following apps.

Battery by enless soft

this app is really good, although it does have advertising when you use the main screen, it does keep track of battery life and expected day's left in charge.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/battery/c8e96f8e-cda1-4e25-b628-e934815b25cb

eBay

I've been a moderate user of eBay on the iPhone and, it's not the same :(  the interface is different and you can't contact sellers? what's up with that.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/ebay/92d3a3a3-66d9-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

facebook

it's easier to see things like photos, contacts, but messages are still stuck in the old design, not the bubbles.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/facebook/82a23635-5bd9-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

Google Mail

I think I'm using the internal client, I just added my Gmail to my phone and it came up. Not sure how that worked :)

LinkedIN

A lot easier to use, and infact the phone sems to integrate services like this into the phone nativly.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/linkedin/bdc7ae24-9051-474c-a89a-2b18f58d1317

Metrotube

I think Microsoft got the shits as I'm unable to find Youtube for Windows Phone but Metrotube does the job.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/metrotube/8d93224f-2808-e011-9264-00237de2db9e

Pocket Recorder (tm)

It works, nothing much else really to say.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/pocket-recorder/eda4e045-733f-e011-854c-00237de2db9e

Viber

Yes, it works on the WP, but it seems to be not as fluid as the iPhone version. It post messages but I'm let to find a way to tap to the application without going to the menu to click on the icon.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/viber/3d051f9b-9e03-456f-b647-bea34fe7031c

Conclusion
I'm presently surprised about the battery life, clarity of the screen, although their seems to be a few things that need to be improved. I do have to say that Nokia do have apps that they make for the phone to improve it, I guess they are yet to release such updates, I did see some beta products there.

1. The lock screen is fiddly and really needs more than a numeric lock
1. I like the slide down to power off
2. The tile system needs to be improved
1. Some tiles do give more information
3. Apps shouldn't be so accessible, should be lockable menu
4. Having tiles go left and right, not just up and down
5. More notifications on the front screen, only seem to get one
6. A built in recorder than OneNote, it seems clumsy
7. A Youtube for WP8. Common Nokia/Microsoft!

 Also, the urls for the windowsphone website are not user friendly!

lenovo laptop b590AB i5

 I've found very little support for this laptop in Australia, but a lot of references to Hungry!

The appropriate amount of memory is fundamentally influenced by the operating system and user programs speed. General home or office use 2-4 GB of memory is recommended. Design programs, databases, and games run 4GB or more of memory is recommended.

 The 500 GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive with an interface to have sufficient capacity to comfortably accommodate the operating system with the user programs and your data. Typically, it is a 500 GB hard disk storage space for 223,000 documents (2 MB) or 148 700 high-resolution photos (3 MB) MP3 song and 89.200 (5 MB).

     Data stored on the hard drive is extremely important in many cases irreplaceable (family photos, videos, documents). Therefore, data protection should be paid attention and time. Recommended for regular data backup to external media.
     A hard drive failure can be predictable and unexpected. To protect your privacy, predictability detect errors, some hard drives SMART capability that are able to manage their operations. External program, this information can be read out of hard drive space and determine its status (GNU / Linux Ubuntu Live + 9:10).
     IMPORTANT NOTE: The hard drive manufacturers terminology of 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes.
     IMPORTANT NOTE: The hard drive formatted capacity is dependent upon the use of the file system used.
     IMPORTANT NOTE: It is recommended for regular data backup on one of a variety of media to ensure the safety of the data. These include: memory stick, CD, DVD, external (USB or eSATA interface surface) hard drive.

The Super Multi DVDRW drive capacity is based on the multimedia capability. Enter today's popular CD (74 min - 650 MB, 80 min - 700 MB) and DVD (DVD9 to DVD5 4.7 GB and 8.5 GB) formats, offering cheap and quick solution to save the data.
Color: BlackWarranty: 2 years: The warranty period is 2 years, which does not apply to software.Purchase some manufacturers extended warranty is available within 90 days from the date of purchase. The thus acquired an additional 1 or 2 years on the battery and the software is not covered.Bluetooth: 4.0
Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mb / s): Provides full, up to 1000 Mb / s connection to the home network or high-speed cable Internet service.USB: 1x3.0.2x2.0

Card Reader: 4-in-1Are used by digital cameras and mobile phones are popular types of memory cards with Secure Digital ™ (SD ™), MultiMediaCard ™ (MMC ™), Memory Stick ™, Memory Stick PRO ™ (MS ™, MS PRO ™) use is possible aa memory card reader. The same format can be used for micro and mini versions of converter.

Battery: 6-cellThe rechargeable Li-ion batteries have a finite lifetime, due to the chemical nature of the operation. Typically 1-3 years in a continuous loss of performance wear out while charging the battery and the charger may become warm. When using the laptop, depending on the load of charging or post forrósodhat. Remove the battery when using the laptop is not required, but regular (at least once a week) is recommended. Batteries can fall below 0 ° C and above 30 ° C.
The battery life is highly dependent on the performance of the battery is given time to measure the power consumption of the laptop.
     Wireless LAN b / g / n 300MbpsOpportunity for wireless LAN access point or router can connect to the network within the argument or two laptop computer connected to radio network (ad-hoc). Different standards for operating frequency and maximum speed defined by: IEEE 802.11b: 2.4 GHz, 11 Mb / s, 802.11g: 2.4 GHz, 54 Mb / s, 802.11n: 2.4 / 5 GHz, 248 Mb / sec.

Keyboard:
The most important means of communication between the user and the computer keyboard. The successful and rapid work it is necessary that the user knows the signals and their precise location on the keyboard. The laptop keyboard, custom signs are that different, as defined by the manufacturer functions. These will appear in a different color to the keyboard. These features may change between the increase and decrease the screen brightness, volume and reduce Hibernation and Standby mode, the command monitors, touchpad disable and enable, disable and enable numeric keypad, and much more. These functions of the Fn key and function keys to be combined lenyomásáva achieved.

Pointing Device: Touch PadTool for the touchpad to move the mouse pointer. Functionally, certain features such as the mouse.
 
Numeric Keypad: YesHDMI: Yes
HDMI ™ port with digital video and audio signals for transmitting uncompressed television, monitor or projector. HDMI ™ output media can easily be connected to high-definition televisions, and even Full HD content will also be available for display at the multi-channel audio content. Materials with Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is displayed on the external displays. HDMI ™ standard full compatibility with the DVI standard, and therefore can be used to transfer without loss of quality via HDMI ™ to DVI video image.

Webcam: YesThe built-in webcam makes available the popular instant messaging (Instant Messaging) services, with the possibility initiated via the Internet and receive voice calls or video calls (via Windows Live ™ Messenger, Skype ™).

Other ports: VGAUse the VGA port to easily plug monitors, projectors and TVs to a computer.

Apple branded hardware & PC's

I have realized now for some time that you are able to get Apples OSX for around $20 for some time, but I was also looking at if it can be installed on a conventional computer. But not only if it can be installed, but can it be legally installed because it doesn't sound right that I could just dump a piece of art onto a supermarket.

Well, you can put it onto a PC and it's called a hackentosh. It's essentially hardware that is OSX compatible and is able to give you the joy of a real apple system, but it's not as straight forward as that.

Even though you can install it, should you? There's some debate over the EULA (End User License Agreement) to which it states that you can't install OSX onto a PC but has to be on apple branded hardware. Now, I've for some time tried to find the definition for "apple branded hardware", but i found this in clause H.


H. Other Use Restrictions. The grants set forth in this License do not permit you to, and you agree not to, install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so.

But is this anti-competitive in Australia? To offer a product that can be purchased for the intent of using it as an operating system should it be restricted to the hardware as a condition of sale of purchase?

Possibly this is a left of field thought, but, what if you purchased apple ram, would this meet the condition of "apple branded hardware" as it is Apple product. But the arguement that Apple has taken is that of the case of that the external machine is not a apple product and that it is being sold as one, diluting the purity of Apples branding.

I wonder how IBM felt as IBM clones poped up in the 1980's. IBM did try to sue businesses that copied their OS also made IBM loose their market share.

Maybe it's time Apple jumped into the Microsoft model, would that really be a bad thing? Could offering OSX to everybody be such an impossible thing to do, I wonder how many future coders and users would benifit rather than looking at the bottom dollar figure. Since SJ is no longer around, this type of philanthropy will not be coming from Apple, I don't think there's anybody their who has the backbone to shake up the system, to question the corporate board decisions as well as to take risks.

References:
Apple EULA:http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/OSX108.pdf

Apple cites EULA: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2008/07/19/_b_apple_b_tries_to_put_mac_clone_maker_out_of_business_citing_eula_terms

Hackintosh: http://lifehacker.com/5841604/the-always-up+to+date-guide-to-building-a-hackintosh

Send in the clones: http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/302