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October 31, 2005
The Brotherhood of War
I saw The Brotherhood of War, I thought this is one of the best movies that I've seen in a while. It's a Korean movie about the Korean war. The story is pretty much Holywoody where the younger and sickly brother is drafted to join the army and the elder and strong brother enlisted to protect him.
For the first 20 minutes or so I was afraid that this movie will be biased toward the South point of view, well it does actually but not by much. In fact it shows both the atrocities committed by both the North and the South Korean. The production is excellent and the stunts are nothing short of extraordinary. IIRC from the cover of the DVD they used 3000 stunts for this movie.
So in short good story, if not a bit too much cliche, amazing battle scenes not too shabby acting as well. I think I'll give it 4/5.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
NES 20th Anniversary
Celebrating the venerable NES 20th anniversary (has it been that long? Geez I still remember the first day my NES arrived!), 1UP.com is running a full week feature. The first day is the history of the little machine that changed the gaming world itself.
It's a very well written and well thought of article chronicling the early years of NES in the US. It always intrigue me to read the history of successful products and what made it so.
Posted by vhadiant at 09:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2005
Disturbing to say the least
This is just gold! It's waay too good not to be bookmarked hehehe.
Trucker charged in connection with bestiality deathA US truck driver, who filmed a friend having sex with a stallion in an act that killed him, has been charged with trespassing on a ranch used by bestialists.
Paul Tait will be the only person charged in connection with the death of his friend, who died of massive internal injuries after being sodomised by the horse at a stud farm near the north-western US city of Seattle in July, police said.
....
Posted by vhadiant at 12:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 20, 2005
Which religion do I fit in?
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You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 40% spiritual. 60% reason-oriented. |
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| Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com |
Interesting :) I was brought up a Catholic, my position must have moved considerably over the years.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 16, 2005
Where to attack next?
This is really funny. Some video clip asking a few American where to attack next (presumably after Iraq):
You have to watch it until the end to get the joke, don't stop halfway through.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 13, 2005
Apple got it right
While Sony is still clueless, this is a rant about Sony mainly. Apple just struck a deal that allow iPod Video owners to download $2 TV shows. Although downloading TV shows is pretty much what a lot of people have been doing in the past few years after the coming of BitTorrent - albeit illegally - this new direction by Apple is showing that this is the future.
I suspect the download will be pretty low quality suitable only for iPod minuscule screen size, and only available in US but this is a good direction regardless.
This is yet another setback to Sony, which with their superior PSP screen quality (wide-screen & bigger) still clueless how to capitalise their advantage. They should have moved quicker to secure the deal, but their paranoia with DRM (remember ATTRAC3 and the MP3 players that don't play err MP3 :) is really holding them back.
Sony now has been beaten in almost every single new product segments. Flat screen TV? Totally toasted by Sharp, Samsung, LG and Fujitsu. Mobile music player? iPod rules and the market is already crowded with the like of Creative, BenQ and the horde of Chinese made MP3 players. Music download? Yep they owned one of the big four recording companies, should have seen it coming and beaten by iTunes. Movie/TV download? Beaten by Apple, yet again. Laptop? Man they should really consider quitting the market, who in their right mind would buy VAIO? Unless you're loaded you really don't need to pay the "Sony" premium. Digital camera? They are still making some money from this one, but I only have 1 friend with Sony camera now. 90% of my friends and family own a Canon (or two) and the rest are an assortment of Kodak, Konica - Minolta, Fuji and even Casio. Their insistence of using the ultra expensive Memory Stick is really hurting them.
Console gaming? Microsoft XBOX 360 is looming. Although the advanced preview didn't impress a lot of journalists, I have no doubt that Microsoft will do a much better job in XBOX Live component than Sony rather sad attempt in online gaming. And online gaming is becoming a much important component in the gaming world. It's a pity I know, I'm a long time fans of PlayStation and will still buy PS3 (and Revolution) instead of Microsoft's XBOX but I can see Sony's demise will be much sooner than expected.
Sony is toast. PS3, the crown jewel of Sony Corporation, is under heavy attack by Microsoft. This is their Game division which account 51% of their profit in 2004. Sony is actually expecting an operating lost this year, the first in a decade. They've just appointed Howard Stringer as the first non-Japanese CEO, but I reckon the need someone like Carlos Ghosn, no less.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2005
Revolution controller with FPS
I've never thought about it before, but in this interview Shigeru Miyamoto pointed out a very excellent point that the new Revolution's controller will be very good in FPS game. Actually if you think about it, it will work really good. No longer you need to use that awkward little thumbstick to point the gun, you just simply point the controller to where you want to shoot it. While the other part of the controller (on your left hand) will still control the movement. Perfect.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 02, 2005
Another bomb attack in Bali
Just as Bali's tourism is in the recovery mode, another bomb attack struck Bali. The 2002 Bali Bomb pretty much mark Bali as a no-go place for most of the foreign tourist, this last bomb attack pretty much sealed its fate. I doubt that it will ever recover, unless there's a major change in the world's current situation.
I spoke to my Balinese friend a while back, he said that tourism in Bali has somewhat recovered. The decline in foreign tourists have been replaced with a sudden influx of domestic tourists, a sign of a recovering Indonesian economy. However domestic tourists spend less money than foreign tourists with their dollar.
It's really sad that Bali is now forever caught in this whirlpool of madness.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
