Google Week

Lately, Google has been aggressively smashing it down with one release after another. It renders many shocked and stunned with the rate Google continuously bombarding us with revolutionary ideas. But I love it!

Apple was undoubtedly the one company in my opinion that has truly shaped the way we perceive elegance and beauty in design and interface. No one in this industry has ever made white and grey so intricate, elegant yet beautifully simple like Apple does. Google, on the hand, is at the moment the one company in my opinion that is changing the way we think, the way we see and the way we do things. They’re the ones who’re aggressively shaping the future outlook of the web by presenting us with creatively revolutionary ideas and let us be apart of their quest to a very seamlessly dynamic and collaborative future of the web.

Let me go through some of their releases that I came across recently. And I hope you’re aware of some of them by now because they’re really really cool and helpful tools that will help shape the way you do things.

1. Google Wave
   I don’t know a better way to describe it better than the Google people do. So yeah I’ve linked them up instead. Just click the link and see what they for yourself. I found out about 2 months back before they started giving invites to users other than developers. Currently this is my most favorite release from Google. It completely blow me away… completely. I was utterly speechless and amazed by what they’ve done. I can’t wait for this to be fully released and for it to become contagious and spread among people because the more people using it, the more we’ll find Google Wave to be a genius invention. I think that’s probably why they name it, Google Wave.
2. Google Real-Time Search
   Again I’ve linked it up. Click the link and find out more about Google Real-Time Search. I find this really cool but at the moment, I don’t find very useful to me yet. And probably not in the near future as well. Frankly, I think it’s a bit distracting and annoying. Nevertheless, I can see the benefits that it could give to people who needs it.
3. Google Goggles
   I’m very excited about this. This release totally makes me want to get an iPhone or an android. Although, as Google mentioned, they still at a very premature stage and the search is not that powerful yet. But the fact they have managed to lay the foundation, if there anything we’ve observed from the history of technology and IT, it would be that it’s just gonna get better.
4. Google Search Side Bar
   I’ve been playing with it for sometime now. I’m not that crazy over this but I do find it very handy at times especially when doing my project which requires searching on certain specific categories. It helps speed up things. Well, that’s precisely why Google make it so it serves its purpose.
5. Google Chrome Extensions
   This is probably the release that I’ve been waiting for longest time. And finally… it’s here! I’m obviously very very excited about it. When Chrome was initially released, I downloaded, installed, tried, and uninstalled it. Didn’t care about it till Chrome 3.0 beta was out when I found I could change browser theme. I installed it back and played around with all the cool theme. Then got bored and left it alone. Then when Chrome 4.0 was here, I found myself half converted to Chrome. As far as net surfing concerned, Chrome will be my browser of choice. The loading speed and smoothness of page transition is addictive. Until Chrome 3.0, I was still yet to find any noticeable difference from FireFox, and that was why I was not persuaded. But with 4.0, it was obvious.

   Now that the long-awaited extension, it gives me a lot of reason to debate on the full convert from FireFox. But at the moment it’s not yet convincing because there are a bunch of the extensions that I use heavily on FireFox yet to be available in Chrome. So when they do, I’m gonna have to ask myself really serious questions because I’ve been a really huge fan of FireFox.

6. Liquid Galaxy
   At the moment, this is a just-for-fun thing. But it has potential to pose a serious implication to the future of GPS viewing.
7. Chrome on Mac
   Now peeps on Mac have another tempting option. It’s time for them to start scratching their heads too. Welcome to the club.
8. SPDY
   I keep my fingers cross and pray that this one will come through. Please let it do. I hope many peeps out there are aware of this project and start pressurizing Google for it. XD I know it will.
9. Google Speed Tracer
   This is a suitable item to end it since it’s the least useful and least attractive to normal users. This is more for geeks like me. We’ll find it very handy.

So how’s that for release? I hope you’re as excited about it as I do because you have no idea how useful and powerful they are until you are able to use them effectively and efficiently. Then you’ll most likely find yourself in the same situation as you are now with Google Search, gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Map.

Catching up

Wow before I know it, it has already been two weeks after exams are over. And more importantly, I just realize that I haven’t even had time to post a post to celebrate the liberty from this stressful hurdle. After my paper was over on 1st Dec, I had so many things that I want to and need to catch up on. First was to catch up on some friends and going out for dinner. Then catch up on my preparation for my internship, which is going start 1 month earlier then scheduled and thus instead of having 6 weeks holiday, I will only have 2. After that need to go around here and there buy some stuffs for some people, sending things for repair, repairing things.

On top of that, I had so so many movies to catch up on… the list has been built up since the semester started. Apparently, I was so preoccupied that I didn’t get a chance to see any. Let’s see what I have seen since after exam, 2012, Ninja Assassin, A Christmas Carol, Ice Age 3, Monsters vs Aliens, Four Christmases, American Pie Presents Book of Love, Watchmen, and Aliens in the Attic. Not bad quite a number, but still so many more to go.. Law Abiding Citizen, Public Enemies and The Hangover, just to name a few. Besides that, I’m also resuming The Lost Symbol, which I started reading during school term due to inability to control the temptation and put on hold when exam coming due to panic, desperation, and fear of not being able catch up on time for exam. Then the past few days, I’ve spent catching up on South Park season 13, Family Guy season 8 and my most favorite TV show, So You Think You Can Dance season 6. Then finally, it’s time to resume jogging and badminton after a month break without exercise.

Wow~! seems like I really have a lot of catching up to do especially when the time frame is so short. I really need to clear them before internship start. Otherwise, I’ll be really distracted. With that, I’ll sign off and chiong to do some more catching up. TEE HEE!

Aliens in the Attic (2009)

My Rating:

Aliens in the Attic is boring. It’s a redundant cliché of all the kids-fight-aliens/monsters movies that have been made so far. I have long lost the the joy of seeing such movie. If you are the type who’s particular about logic in a movie, you’d probably hate this more than I do.  You have to get over a lot of logical facts to accept this. Like how supposedly highly advanced and super intelligent aliens, who is coming to invade the earth, were stupid enough to not have anything to fight against children. Not recommended… unless you’re really bored.

Four Christmas (2009)

My Rating:

I’d say this is a pretty good Christmas movie. It probably makes you want to change your mind and go visit your family members you decided not to for whatever reason. I’ve never really celebrate Christmas but I always find Christmas to be a very fascinating holiday period. Whether you celebrate or not, you’d feel the the spirit from the environment. And that makes you smile and happy.

Call me emo, but from the things that have been happening around me lately, I was actually able to identify with a lot of things in there like how being so sure of what you want, what you need and what you’re doing can be a your disadvantage. Sometime, you really need to let yourself loose and go with the flow. Always having clear sense of direction doesn’t do you good all the time. Another thing is about opening up yourself and share with people around you. Sometime, there are certain truth about yourself that you should let your partner before or he/she finds out and realize that he/she knows nothing about you. And quite certainly, you and your partner should never set a boundary to what can be discussed and what’s not. Otherwise, you both will be nothing but acquaintance.

Monsters vs Aliens (2009)

My Rating:

Another 3D movie crossed from the list. This is strictly for 3D animation lovers. I gotta say, there is really nothing much there. Just monsters vs aliens and that’s it.

So to keep the writing a bit longer, I’ll babble a bit about the morale of the story. One is embrace your friends for who they are and how they look like for then they would do the same back to you. What counts is their heart for you. It doesn’t matter what people say, it’s your friends not theirs. Next would be, it’s true that sometimes we ignore our instinct for being so accurate about the truth that we fear.

Ice Age – The Dawn of Dinosaurs (2009)

My Rating:

I like it but somehow, I just don’t find it that funny any more. I kinda felt that it’s getting redundant and thus the feeling that made me felt in love with Ice Age 1 is no longer there. I’ve grown out of it. Well obviously the animation, details and the actions are much better than the 1st two of the trilogy, but that’s kinda a given and what’s expected of it. In the end, it’s still Ice Age.

Ice Age is one of the examples of the movies that I wanna keep seeing it despite the fact that I no longer find it impressive any more. And probably, there a lot of viewers out there do feel the same I do, which was why the two sequels were made. So yes, check this out.

A Christmas Carol (2009)

My Rating:

hmmm… The animation was good. I mean really good. The details were superb. The rest was just hmmm… ordinary. Let just say that this isn’t exactly what I want to see for Christmas. However, there were actually some moments that I was able to identify with and share the sentiment with. Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend this movie.

Ninja Assassin (2009)

My Rating:

I got to know this movie through YouTube by accident. I was watching random youtube video and came across this interview with the guy who did the visual effect for Matrix and he wast mentioning that he’d be involved in Ninja Assassin. So then I was tempted to check this out. Then I checked release date and realize that it’s cinema. I went to GV site and just nice it’s still showing in GVMax one more day. So yeah went to see it.

Ninja Assassin is of those movies that I don’t really know if I hate it or like it. Simply put, it’s not bad but forgettable. What I like about it is the mixture of new school and old school effect in the movie. They don’t just focus solely on the cool move and matrix-like slow motion but also the abrupt and swift stealth and mercilessness of a ninja. And I’d say they’ve done a good job in portraying elements of ninja. Ninja is not cruel. They don’t torture you, what they do is make sure you’re dead as fast and painless as possible unless you put up resistance.

Another thing that I have to give props to Ninja Assassin is that they actually include the traditional elements of true ninja – jutsu hand seal, shukuchi and the moving from shadow to shadow (don’t know what’s that called). These magical elements of ninja is often not presence in the modern ninja movies.

Lastly, I think you might not wanna check this out unless you wanna see Rain killing people mercilessly.

2012 (2009)

My rating:

Finally, I managed to catch this after exam. I was lucky to get to see it in Digital on last day of showing. First, let’s go through the good part. Quite obviously, the CG was awesome! I went there for that, if it’s not awesome, I’d be utterly disappointed. Probably the most elaborated catastrophe I’ve seen on screen. I know I shouldn’t be excited about witnessing the visualization of such tragedy but I couldn’t help it. I gotta be ignorant here and say “it’s just a movie. come on!”

Now on to the not so good part. Before going for this movie, I asked a friend of mine for the her critique. And she said the movie was too American for her. So I was like I can tolerate that. But after the movie, I have to agree that it’s a bit over the top. There are just too many coincidences in the movie to be believable.  Well, then again it’s not meant to be believable anyway. Well, if you can overlook all the little details about the logic and reality of the movie, you’d probably will find it exciting.

Movies to look forward to…

I was watching some trailer on Apple.com and suddenly I feel like compiling the list of movies I’m really looking forward to in the coming year 2010.

1. Prince of Persia: Definitely my number 1 in the list. I couldn’t play the game because my blardy laptop for too lousy to run it. Now at least, I can watch the movie and get the gist of the story. And yes! Gemma Arterton is in!
2. Up In The Air: I think it’s gonna be fun. However, I don’t think it’s worth catching in the cinema. Either way, it’s George Clooney’s work so must watch.
3. Green Zone: Matt Damon has done it for this genre so many time. So it’s kinda a taken for granted thing  that this one might just gonna be an awesome one. So yeah, hence the need to watch it.

4. Date Night: After Anne Hatheway, now Steve Carell goes on another non-sense action with Tina Fey in Date Night. The title and and the poster really gave me the impression of a romance comedy movie. Who knows that this is an action.
5. Extraordinary Measure: Brandon Fraser teams up with Indie to save lives. I thought it was touching.
6. Old Dogs: John Travolta and Robin Williams team up for comedy hhmmm…. Look really fun though. Either way not like I care, all comedy I must watch.

7. Everybody’s Fine: It’s been awhile since I see Drew. Everybody’s Fine really looks like a nice family bonding movie.
8. The Blind Side: I’m really hoping that this is good.
9. Despicable Me: Haven’t seen the trailer for this one but yeah looking at the Steve Carell print there I assume that it’s gonna be a comedy.

10. Dear John: Channing Tatum in a romance. I’m just interested to see how it turns out.
11.  Invictus: Matt Damon in an inspirational genre with Morgan Freeman. Interesting. Haven’t seen the trailer. But I have a feeling that this is gonna be interesting.
12. Valentine’s Day: I don’t really care about this movie. I’m only looking forward to it because of the cast list. It’s rare to see a super star gathering in a movie. Let’s see what are the names that might interest you: Anne Hathaway, Talyor Swift, Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Aston Kutcher, Julia Robert, Emma Robert, Jamie Foxx, Joe Jonas, Jennifer Garner. See? Crazy right? When I saw the trailer, I was like wow this is madness. I don’t think I can recall a movie has a super star cast gathering as big as this one. So watch out for Valentine’s Day. Obviously you know when it’s going to come out.

13. La Danse: I have no idea what this is about. Haven’t seen the trailer either. But the legs interest me . Nah but seriously, I like dance movie.
14. Vampires Assistant: I saw the trailer, and I’m interested in seeing how crap could this thing turn out to be. We already have a vampire who glitter in sunlight, now a vampire who owns different ability. Sound to me like Heroes.
15. A Chistmas Carol: A Jim Carey’s 3D Movie for Christmas. So yeah.

16. Law Abiding Citizen: This better be good. My favorite genre. I’m not gonna say much but I’ll keep my fingers cross for this one.
17. Toy Story 3: Finally, it’s about time for TS3 in 3D.
18. Pirate Radio: Interesting.

19. Where The Wild Things Are: It looks fun to watch.
20. STAN Helsing: Spoof movie FTW! I know they suck. But sometime having good stuffs all the time does make you bored and wanna see something really really crappy. Like………. Dance Flick!
21. Couple Retreat: Kisten Bell!!! Vince Vuaghn go die. Just kidding. I like the genre. It really helps to lighten up the mood from all the serious, crazy or explosive action movies and allows you to loosen up and look at people do nonsense stuffs. And the sceneries are really good, at least those that I saw in the trailer.