Movie and Game Reviews, and Such
I do what I consider a good amount of reading (especially since I got my Kindle) and while I do read some fiction, I read mostly non-fiction on business, web development, or politics. I love reading stories of how companies got started and how to deal with certain aspects of business. Several books I’ve read have given me great perspective and advice I can use as a freelancer, and I’d like to share 5 of those books today.
It must be that time of year, because I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people about what cell phone they should upgrade to. This is likely because I switch phones entirely often, so I’ve seen my fair share. I will generally ask whoever is asking me to consider the following (after the jump of course).
A week or so ago, Gina Trapani wrote on her website about AppBrain, an Android app that inventories your apps, makes recommendations, and makes it easier to manage them. I installed it and played around with it, and have go to say, I’ve actually started using it more than the native Marketplace App. Read my review after the jump!
I played with an iPad on display at Best Buy today, and I’ve got to say, I don’t hate it. After reading about it, I bashed it for the same reasons I bashed the iPhone/iPod Touch, not to mention that in my not-so-humble opinion, it is an awful ebook reader and won’t hold a candle to the Kindle. See my thoughts after the break.
Those of you who know me might be surprised that I got a Droid less than one year after I got the Blackberry Storm. Those of you who really know me aren’t surprised one bit. As soon as I saw an Android phone come to Verizon, I was interested. I’m highly dependent on Google (Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, etc. etc.), I missed a physical keyboard, and I did my thesis on Android, which means I can program on the platform. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks now- here are my thoughts.
At the beginning of the year I wanted to find all-inclusive, online accounting software. That is, something that kept track of invoicing, other income, and expenses. As much as I loved Zoho Invoices, I needed expense tracking. So after doing some research, I settled on Less Accounting. Here are my thoughts.
Pros:
Cons:
All-in-all I’m not to impressed by Less Accounting, despite all the rage about it, and the fact that they sponsor a site called, “We All Hate Quickbooks.” The design is nice as are some of the features, but they took some liberties on user experience (or poorly designed their databases), leading to some pretty big grievances.
Did I miss something? Am I doing something wrong? Comments are open.
Two weeks ago Tuesday I decided to purchase something I’ve been looking at for a long time: a netbook. Tiny, cheap, a little weak on performace, but perfect for doing web based stuff. After two weeks with the Acer Aspire One, I’d say for $400 this little machine is worth it. For reference, the main specs are: Windows XP, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 3-cell battery, 120GB hard drive, 8.9″ display.
Let me get the gripes out of the way first: The keyboard and trackpad are a little tough to get used to, which should be expected. The battery life could be a little better, but I could always buy a spare. And the WiFi at times is flaky, a problem that can be solved by restarting (which solves most problems in Windows). Other than that, I’ve had a very pleasent experience.
When I got this I was curious to see if I could manage with just this during the day while I was on campus. My day-to-day work includes web development and other programming, instant messanging, checking email, and listening to music. The last three can be taken care of on the web, using Meebo for IM, GMail for email, and Pandora for music. My concern was the software development stuff. Eclipse, my IDE of choice, is pretty heavy duty stuff. As it turns out, Eclipse takes a little while to start up and at times runs slower than desired, but it doesn’t hinder my productivity. I actually slightly underestimated the performance of this little machine.
However, there are some things to consider. As I mentioned, I run a lot of programs from the browser. I can do email, IM, music, Office (using GoogleDocs), and much more using just my web browser; and for that I use Google Chrome (which is by far the fastest browser I’ve used). So being concious of performance constraints, I was able to come up with some easy work-arounds and get more bang for my buck.
There are several limitations working on a netbook. For one, if you can’t work on a small display, this might not work for you. Also, I haven’t tried running more than Google Chrome and my development environment on it- but I don’t have a lot of faith. While my development environment is pretty demanding, I have a feeling once you read more than four major applications- IE or Firefox, AIM, Microsoft Word, and iTunes for example- you will see a big degradation in performance. That’s why my work around relies heavily on my broswer. If you don’t use a lot of web based resources, you might want to look into them before purchasing a netbook.
My conclusion is just what I thought it would be: this is great machine for web based stuff (and even some heavy lifting), but I could never make it my primary computer. I have several tools on my primary computer that just wouldn’t work on this netbook, and furthermore goes beyond what I think the netbook was created for. All-in-all, it was a very good purchase for me, and I think it would be a good purchase for someone looking for a cheap second machine.
Yesterday I beat The Force Unleashed for Xbox 360. This was a game I had been looking forward to as a Star Wars fan and as a programmer. A few months ago I saw the type of work they were doing to make this world seem more realistic- better physics engines, smarter AI, etc.- and got pretty excited to see how well it worked. After playing the game through, I wasn’t disappointed.
First I’d like to point out that the story line at times seemed to have better continuity than the prequels. The Force Unleashed takes place between Episodes III and IV, and is about a secret apprentice that Darth Vader takes on to kill any remaining Jedi. The story progressed in true cinematic fashion and had some pretty great twists/surprises in it. It little sappy, but the fact that you can see why some things in the original trilogy happened is really cool.
Now, onto the game play. I’ve read and been told by a few people that they think the game gets repetitive. While that is true, I still think it is awesome. In my mind, there is nothing better than force gripping a storm trooper and throwing him into a wall or whatever fatal structures there are in the level. I held one in front of a beam and waited for it to fire, incinerating the trooper. Also, shocking a jawa is fun. It’s a little RPG-ish in the fact that you pick and choose which skills, abilities, and force powers you want to hone, and it definitely effects game play; my friend and I played it at the same time and had different trouble points due to the skills we each chose.
The game is also a little buggy. While it did cause me to restart twice, I’m willing to overlook that due to the sheer power of the physics engine it uses. The events in this game are truly non-deterministic, meaning you can do the same thing over and over again and get completely different results based on probably hundreds of different variables. The AI in enemies is smart enough that they try and grab onto things as you throw them.
There is very seldom a game that I will beat and then go back and play levels just for the sake of playing them and I find myself doing that with The Force Unleashed. It’s a lot of fun, well thought out, and a must for any Star Wars or gaming fan (but especially Star Wars fans).
You didn’t think I’d let a movie like The Dark Knight slip through the cracks on this site, did you? Admittedly, I haven’t reviewed a movie on here in a while, that’s usually because what I have to say about a movie can be found on my Flixster profile. But The Dark Knight is different. The Dark Knight managed to trounce it’s predecessor in action, story line, and acting while also continuing to reveal the story of why Batman is the way he is.
It should be no secret that I’m a big music fan. I’m no pro and choose not to review music because generally I like a certain genre and don’t really know what to look for when reviewing an album. That being said, here are three albums I’ve been listening to a lot lately.
This is the sophomore album from The Raconteurs, a group made up of some very talented musicians including Jack White of the White Stripes. Every single song on this album is catchy with great lyrics, great story telling and complicated and cohesive musical interludes. Oh, and sweet ass guitar solos. My personal favorites are Rich Kid Blues and Carolina Drama, in which Jack White tells an excellent story about a boy living in South Carolina. While I am usually into heavier music, I highly recommend this album.
Alkaline Trio has been around for quite a while now, but admittedly I’ve only gotten into them in the past few years. This latest album is my favorite and is said to be their most mature. I’d say every song on the album has a recurring theme throughout it, which you can hear in the instrumental parts as well as they lyrics. My favorites include Calling All Skeletons, Over and Out, and Help Me.
Let me start off by saying I love a girl who can sing, so by default I have a crush on the lead singer of this band. This is their first commercially release EP (I believe), which you can download on District Lines for $4.99. The CD release is set for July 15th from Smart Punk. People say they sound a lot like Paramore, but I feel they have a bit more of a mature sound than Paramore does. You can listen to the entire EP, as well as my favorite song- The Blank Static Screen- on Pure Volume.
On a closing note if you read this and though, ‘Hey- I have similar music interests to this guy,’ you can check me out on Last.fm. I mean if you want to follow me just to cut down my musical tastes, that’s cool too. To each his own, right?
You want to build better systems, but you don’t know where to start. That ends today. Get 4 systems every solopreneur needs, the exact tools to create those systems, and automations + AI prompts and skills to get you to a calmer, more reliable business faster.
That ends today. The Solo Systems Starter Kit will give you 4 systems every solopreneur needs to run a less chaotic business, the exact tools to create those systems, and automations + AI prompts and skills to get you to a calmer, more reliable business faster.