Saturday, November 19, 2005

I've seen it, and it's good - Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

Saw it last night, and I thought it was pretty good. There are some differences between the book and the movie, of course, but nothing of major importance was cut out. The pace of the movie was good, it didn't feel like a 2 and a half hour long movie, and I never had a moment of boredom. I didn't think Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes) was quite as scary as he should have been. He was REALLY creepy though, and I can't really think of a better actor to play him (here's a joke only my wife will get - Ralph Fiennes!! Yeah, he was great in The Pianist.) Great performances once again from the kids (Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and of course Daniel Radcliffe), they are really capturing their characters better and better with each film. Overall, I have to hand it to Mike Newell - he took a HUGE book that had enough stuff going on in it to make two movies, and turned it into one really good movie. It's a little darker in tone than the first two movies, and about in line with the tone of Prisoner of Azkaban, so it might not be appropriate for the younger kids - but I'd highly recommend it, even to people who aren't Potter fans!

Friday, November 18, 2005

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I'm going to go see it tonight - so I'll give you my two cents on how good or bad it was tomorrow. For now, here's a link to the Goblet of Fire site so you can watch the trailer! You can also get wallpapers and AIM Buddy Icons from the main Harry Potter site.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Want an Xbox360? You might be better off waiting...

...says a review written by CNN Money. A light (although diverse) offering of launch titles with no clear breakout game would be the strongest reason to do so. The built in support for Xbox Live and the new content available though it (including downloadable game demos) are the strongest reasons to go ahead and get one. The biggest question is - will you be able to find one?

Dear Steve Jobs : PLEASE don't change the pricing on iTunes Music Store

This worries me - Forbes.com believes that the flat-fee structure on the iTunes Music Store is coming to an end within the next year. Executives from EMI, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG have apparently been pushing Steve Jobs toward adoption of a tiered pricing scheme - i.e., an older song could be downloaded for less than $0.99, but newer more popular songs would cost more - and would probably be priced at over a dollar a download. The whole appeal to the iTunes Music Store is it's easy to use and cheap - why by a whole album if you only like one song, right? So why should I have to pay more for a song that's more popular - it seems to me that is just a way for the music companies to make more money off the popular songs, cause you know that none of that extra money is going to find it's way to the musicians themselves. I guess all good things come to an end eventually, eh?

Apple to start selling iBook with Intel processor next January

Found this on ThinkSecret - they have word from reliable sources that the first Apple machine to sport an Intel processor will be the iBook, and it will have it's debut at Macworld Expo next January. The say in their article that their sources are the same sources that gave them the scoop on the Mac Mini and iPod Photo before their respective releases. It would be very cool to get a new Apple iBook running an Intel processor - as long as the price is right. If they do bring the iBook down in price to $699 or $799 it would be hard to pass up that kind of a deal! I guess we'll see what happens at the next Macworld...

It's official - Ben Heckendorn has WAY to much time on his hands

For the uninitiated, Ben Heckendorn loves to tinker with old technology, and to make it portable. He made a portable NES, and a portable SNES - and now he's made his own laptop. Using an Atari 800 XE (well, actually an Atari XE GS which was the same thing in game system version). Click the link above to check out some pics (and the other projects he's done) on his website. Man, do I ever wish I had the kind of time to putter around with old tech like he does. That would be lots of fun!

Gaming addicts = drug addicts?

This article from the New Scientist about a new study conducted in Germany found that people addicted to gaming have many similarities to people addicted to drugs. Very interesting - so does this mean that gaming addicts who want to be cured would go to rehab centers like drug addicts do? Would a recovering addict have fallen off the wagon if he was caught hanging out at an EB Games store? Will people now say things like "Oh, I'm just a casual gamer - I can take it or leave it anytime"? Too many questions...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Darwin Awards - always good for a chuckle

There is still time to vote on the prospective nominees for this year's Darwin Awards - click the link and go right to the page with the list of nominees. Of course you can also checkout the previous winners, and the honorable mentions (people who get honorable mention did not die), and other fun stuff. At the very least, reading some of these will make you feel like your life could certainly be worse!