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• Archives

  Select Month October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 September 2007 August 2007

• Recommendations

  
  
  
  Itzhak Perlman
  Cinema Serenade
  
  
  
  Howard Shore
  Eastern Promises
  
  
  
  Claude Debussy, Leonard Slatkin, Frances Tietov , Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
  Debussy: La Mer; Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; Danse sacrée et profane
  
  
  
  Itzhak Perlman, John Williams
  Schindler's List: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
  
  
  
  Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard
  Gladiator
  
  
  
  Joe Hisaishi
  Spirited Away
  
  
  
  Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck
  Time Out
  
  
  
  Johannes Brahms
  Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem
  
  
  
  BT
  This Binary Universe
  
  
  
  Johann Sebastian Bach, Emerson String Quartet
  Bach: The Art of Fugue
  
  
  
  Douglas R. Hofstadter
  Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  
  

To buy it, follow the link. →Link “Created by visual effects master James Lima, Prada’s new “Fallen Shadows” video brings to life the Autumn/Winter 2008 collection with an animation sequence that references surrealist artists like Dali.” →Link My favorite place for trailers. →Link I just can’t believe this is real. →Link The short film appeared before Wall·E. →Link Coming 2010. Can’t wait. →Link Again, read it only if you are a fan of Wall·E. →Link Very very Lego-ish. Lego fans are never to be underestimated. →Link This is interesting choice of director. Darren Aronofsky(Requiem for a dream, The fountain) is not a fan of CG at all. Going to wait and see how it turns out. →Link Worth reading if you are a fan of Pixar and Wall·E. →Link to exclusive story | →Link to their favourite Wall·E moment | →Link to the storyboards of Wall·E “Even hardcore partisan political blogs, where people are discussing things of much greater significance than one magazine’s take on The Dark Knight, rarely get this nasty.” →Link Looking forward to this documentary. Not sure if it’s “the artistic crime of the century”, but definitely on the edge. →Link “Just making it so it exists in the 3D world - you need to make more decisions to limit the visual information just to be super-clear and to be as appealing as it can be for that picture plane, which is 2D. It’s funny, people say it’s 3D animation but really it’s just 2D animation in a 3D medium.”→Link Photo tour of Pixar campus. →Link Amblin‘ is its name. →Link

We found an Eve dock icon for Adium one month before Wall·E was out, and we all loved it.
Here is a screenshot:

Download it here.
We made a custom version with original icons from the author Maximilian Larsson, now EVE fires when you get a new message!

Sorry this one is NFR, but if you have some rudimentary image editor, here’s how you can do it yourself on a Mac (sorry Windows folks).

Step I. Download the EVE icon set from Maximilian Larsson’s site, using the link above. If you have CandyBar, download the CandyBar version, then export the icons you need from CandyBar to 512×512 png and skip to Step II. Don’t have CandyBar? Dont worry, go to Step I.1

Step I. 1. so you download the zip version instead, how to get the icons in png format? Easy, open the zip, you’ll see a bunch of folders with EVE icons applied, select the folder, copy (cmd+c), open Preview, go to file menu > New From Clipboard. Boom! you get the icons in preview, now just save the 512 version as png. Repeat this for all the icons you want.

Step II. Now you have the icons in glorious 512×512 png, take a moment to appreciate the beauty before your eyes. You need to crop them to make it look right on the dock, so fire up any image editor with crop support. (Personally I use Pixelmator) Cut off the excess white space so that the EVE fits comfortably in a 435×435 square, you’ll have her head almost touching the top of the cropped image. Repeat for each icon.

Step III. Let’s make a custom Dock icon set for Adium, the easiest way to start is to make a copy of the original EVE icon for Adium (you did download it right?). Go to your home folder/Library/Application Support/Adium 2.0/Dock Icons/, make a copy of EVE.AdiumIcon.

Rename the copy to whatever you want, right click on it, and select Show Package Contents, now delete all the old icons except sleeping.png, copy all your new pngs in (don’t replace sleeping). 

Step IV. Open the file IconPack.plist and start editing away! But just to get you started, here’s mine iconpack. 

Step V. Launch Adium and enjoy!

From the depths of Hollywood hell, comes this un-adoring sequel of our beloved horn-shaving, big red, devil tail, superstar HellBoy.  The look of the film has director Guillermo del Toro’s touch, but the story telling lacks his magic.  The story-line was bloated.  The dialog was dumb.  The characters were boring.  Yes, Big Red felt like he should have been in bed and on not on the set.  And that sums up the movie, things didn’t feel right.

As an action movie, HellBoy 2 is hampered and weighed down by fake character development scenes. It’s this mix-mash of poorly done sub-plots that makes the movie silly, dumb, and boring.

Liz, the fire-girl, is having relationship problems over living with HellBoy.  The issue: trivial woman stuff that’s glossed over with key-phrases like “more space”, and “you don’t get it”.  Of course, we never really get it because it’s never really revealed.  That’s silly.  The problem here is fake conflict for more drama.  Later on, Liz finds out she’s pregnant.  Oh brother! is the HellBoy franchize really going there?

Meanwhile, HellBoy wants to be loved by the humans he not-so-secretly lives among.  But after rescuing a baby from a giant, green, elemental bean-stalk thingy, the crowd of New Yorkers boo him.  They shout that it’s his fault or something or other.  But wait, when did this anti-HellBoy sentiment started?  And didn’t they see him save the baby? That’s dumb.

And Abe has more of a role, too.  The main plot unfolds as follows:  An elven princess runs from her evil twin brother, keeping away the third piece of the golden crown which when made whole will give the wearer of noble blood absolute rule over the indestructible Golden Army.  Wouldn’t you know it, Abe falls in love with the princess. Ahh. And an un-romantic affair follows. That’s boring.

HellBoy 2 was too much of a mix of unrelated smaller stories.  Scenes felt fake and didn’t tie together nicely.  The visuals are certainly the better part: the creatures are bizarre, the costumes lovely, the lighting gorgeous, and the fighting decent.

Contrary to the rating on RottenTomatoes, which gave HellBoy 2 88%, I’ll give it 73%, the standard percentage of an equivalent letter grade B after a curve.  The pretty colors moved me up.

“Designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the new Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California can house over 1,000 employees on its 15-acre site. Inside, you’ll find a beautiful atrium, 600-seat THX theater, cafe, fitness center, and more. On the outside, a 600-seat outdoor amphitheater, gardens, and soccer field are viable entertainment options for the employees.” →Link Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard that is. Also you may be interested in reading Nolan and Bale: Why Heath Ledger will blow us away in The Dark Knight. →Link Good to see someone put The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) in the list. The recommendation list is not bad. Though I don’t think Children of Men was that good. Be sure to check the comments as well.[Link]

• Sponsor

  

• Discovered

  TopGear available in iTunes
  A favorable move by BBC. I personally would buy it if it’s updating fast enough. →Link

  Steve and Bill's pumpkins
  “That would be the perfect pumpkin, if only it had firewire.” →Link

  Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Paris
  France’s most iconoclastic designer maps out his favorite places in the City of Light. →Link

  The Dark Bailout
  Hilarious. →Link

  Rockbox 3.0 released
  Long time fan of this. It’s recommended to any iPod classic(the order versions too) users. It does literally everything. And yes, that includes playing Doom on your iPod. →Link

  The Godfather Trilogy blu-ray version is out
  To buy it, follow the link. →Link

  Another detailed look at Yacht “A”
  Remember the Yacht “A”? Now here is a more detailed look at it. For some reason I wish it can fly. →Link

  Adobe releases CS4
  “The new version of Adobe’s flagship software product takes its first steps in using the graphics processing unit, or GPU, said John Nack, principal product manager for Adobe Photoshop. For example, the graphics chip helps Photoshop CS4 fluidly zoom in and out, rotate the canvas so artists can reorient an image for the best sketching angle, display and manipulate 3D objects, and handle color correction.” That’s THE photoshop we were waiting for. →Link

  "I'm a PC" ad created by Mac?
  No, I liked those ads, I think they are great. But Appleinsider is reporting that they are created using Macs. Perhaps they got it wrong. It’s the advertisement studio who are using Macs, not Microsoft. Or tell me if I’m wrong. →Link

  Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’
  “One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. “Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”” For some reason this just sounds like an extreme poor idea to me. It will eventually draw more attention for Apple.→Link

  NYTimes: The iPhone Travel Apps Guide
  Next time when you travel, be sure to check if those apps for your iPhone. →Link

  JRDesign's great Leopard folder icons
  The aluminum ones look great on iMac, black ones look amzing on black MacBook. →Link

  Prada's Fallen Shadows video
  “Created by visual effects master James Lima, Prada’s new “Fallen Shadows” video brings to life the Autumn/Winter 2008 collection with an animation sequence that references surrealist artists like Dali.” →Link

  The Vivienne Westwood Opus
  “The Vivienne Westwood Opus offers a startling insight into Vivienne Westwood, her manifesto and her stunning designs, which reflect the passion of her collections. Since it is a very personal and special project for the Grand Dame of British Fashion, only a very limited number of 900 copies will be available to the public worldwide.” →Link

  Ten Striking Parallels Between Microsoft and John McCain
  Quite long, but he got some points. →Link

  New Leica cameras get detailed
  3 new models. →Link

  Undocumented features/fixes in iPhone 2.1 firmware
  With screenshots. →Link

  7,000 bhp car
  “It’s an 8-litre, supercharged V8 with 7000bhp that uses about 65 gallons of fuel a minute” “This isn’t an engine. It’s a bomb” →Link

  Who has time for complicated watches?
  David Colman:”It was one thing when the cellphone replaced the cigarette. But now killer apps have replaced killer abs, and the chicest parties throng with guys showing how they can make their iPhones look like Magic 8 Balls. It’s enough to make a man long for the days when all you heard from even the costliest accessory was the faint tick of a sleek watch.” →Link

  Leica's new cameras
  No spec yet. →Link

  CERN day 1
  I’m still here. You? →Link

  Does iTunes 8 sound better?
  I noticed so. Thought I was being delusional. But surprisingly a lot other people noticed as well. →Link

  Apple trailer website got a new look
  My favorite place for trailers. →Link

  Ars Technica Guide to Virtualization
  A comprehensive article on virtualizaion. →Link

  The evolution of Olympic torches
  Interesting to see how the torches evolved in a century. →Link

  Tutorial: Turn Your iPhone Into a Wireless Modem
  Guide on “turning our iPhones into wireless modems with the $10 NetShare application” →Link

  First iPhone Application
  Easy to follow guide for your first iPhone app. →Link

  Goosh.org:Google for the command line zealots
  I adore it. →Link

  Large Hadron Collider nearly ready!
  Too many times I’ve read about the LHC(Large Hadron Collider) in science fictions. It still strikes me as one of the most brilliant thing man has done. “The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. ” →Link

  On Daniel Day-Lewis and his lucidity
  “..in the US the social balance of things was exceedingly delicate and almost ‘behind closed doors’, with the only indication of a social blunder being a slight change in conversation and your phone stops ringing. ” →Link

  Apple DNS Patch Fails To Randomize - Users Still At Risk
  “For Apple, it matters most that they patch the client libraries since there are so few OSX recursive servers in use. The bottom line is that despite this update, it appears that the client libraries still aren’t patched.” [Via: TUAW] →Link

  NetShare's undecided fate
  It appeared. Then disappeared. Appeared again. Disappeared again. →Link

  BBC has gone mad
  I just can’t believe this is real. →Link

  Transmit icon ripoffs
  →Link

  Alan Jaras Light Photography
  What most interesting is all these images are created by using a beam of light passing through a transparent object. →Link

  Security update 2008-005 released
   ”The update patches several vulnerabilities including a much-publicized DNS/BIND server vulnerability where an attacker could cause a Mac OS X DNS server to direct clients to forged websites.” →Link

  Small-Car Styling
  They missed Mini Cooper. And the beloved Peel P50. [Via: DesignObserver] →Link

  Coolest skyscraper ever made
  Just found this. →Link

  Disable IE/Firefox autofill
  “Use autocomplete=”off” in either < form >(for all boxes) or each specific input box.” →Link

  Why Apple won't drop Intel chipsets any time soon
  So Ars tried to prove that Apple won’t move away from Intel chipset. →Link

  What's new on Delicious 2.0
  A much better improvement. →Link

  An ATM in your living room
  I like this idea of having a little ATM at your home. →Link

  Guides to cables by Giz
  Kind of useful. →Link

  iPhone native interface vs the remote app
  Apple should make the native interface just like the remote app’s. Here’s why. [via ★]  →Link

  Apple ARM licensing?
  It’s interesting if Apple manufactures its own chipset instead using Intel’s, which will make Apple “Different” again. Also, it can potentially eliminates the possibility of Hackintoshes(Psystar). →Link

  Dynolicious iPhone application
  “..it uses the accelerometer in your iThingy to measure 0-60mph times, lateral Gs and even horsepower.” →Link to introduction | →Link to App Store

  Mac Mini Vs Dell Studio Hybrid?
  I need the Blu-ray option for Macs. Badly. →Link

  iPhone 3G white developing cracks?
  This is not looking optimistic for Apple if it’s real. →Link

  Pixar's Presto
  The short film appeared before Wall·E. →Link

  Lightroom 2 is out
  Be sure to read this Lightroom 2 vs My Lightrrom 2 wishlist. →Link

  Randy Pausch dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ continues to inspire
  A great lecture. “He did, however, mention that he experienced a near-deathbed conversion: he switched and bought a Macintosh computer.” →Link | →Link to YouTube Video

  Steve Jobs Opening Line Generator!
  Hilarious stuff. [Via RealDanLyons] →Link

  Interesting analysis of the "Steve's Health" NYTime article from FSJ
  “If Apple lies in a press release, or if its CEO lies in an on-the-record statement, the company has problems. But if everything was off the record, who’s to know? ” →Link

  Photos of Jupiter
  Absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. →Link

  Darren Aronofsky confirmed to direct RoboCop
  Coming 2010. Can’t wait. →Link

  Microsoft seeking a new strategy
  I wonder if some day Microsoft just simply make their own PCs, say “MS Box”. →Link

  DRM still sucks: Yahoo Music going dark, taking keys with it
  “Yahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good—and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. ” →Link

  Mechanical wooden elephant
  Can’t help to post when I saw “mechanical” and “wooden” in a single sentence. →Link

  Aurora Feint game de-listed from App Store
  This was one of the free games I liked. “Aurora Feint looks through your contact list, sends it unencrypted to their servers, and matches you up with your friends who are currently playing right now.” Scary. →Link

  Game rating system should learn from movie rating systems
  Nice thought from Ars. →Link

• Recent Posts

  • TopGear available in iTunes
  • Steve and Bill’s pumpkins
  • Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Paris
  • The Dark Bailout
  • Rockbox 3.0 released
  • The Godfather Trilogy blu-ray version is out
  • Another detailed look at Yacht “A”
  • Adobe releases CS4
  • “I’m a PC” ad created by Mac?
  • Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’