The Dark Knight Rocks

Everyone should go see the Batman: The Dark Knight movie. It is spectacular. I don't really care for superhero movies, especially overdone romantic cliches. This movie's different. It embodies an imperfect hero, a driven and merciless villain that is uniquely human (the Joker). More than that, every character is in a moral fight - the incorruptible Harvey becomes Two-Face in a terrifying transformation, Batman is confused about his own motives, etc. Batman isn't as pure as it seems.

This movie would have done better as an R or NC-17 rated film because the Joker wasn't used to his full potential.

Order vs Chaos, the origin of evil, and human nature are explored to their fullest.

Awesome!

I'm out.

ID Tech

One of the best camps EVAR for teens into video gaming and technology is ID Tech. Seriously, LAN parties, making your own game/website is awesome. The price may be a bit too steep, but it is worth it 100%. In fact, it is so enjoyable you will probably want to spend your whole summer there, hehe. Whether it is Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or Multimedia Fusion, you'll use applications so damn powerful you'll be permanently stuck with a Windows or Mac PC to use them :(
DoTA Warcraft III, Unreal Tournament are just some of the games you get to play. And you can be guaranteed that nearly everyone there (including the "instructors") will share your interests.

(P.S. My experience was at the SMU campus)

9/10, and that pt deducted just because of price.

- Astalavista,
The Shadow

The Microsoft Zune Reviewed (v2)

Unless you've been living inside a reality distortion field, you should have realized the Zune Music Player was released. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting very much, but I'm pretty impressed. Sure, the Zune looks more like a PDA, but I'm really liking the metallic case and crystal shield above the main display. The Zune features two ways of controlling it - a four-directional pad or touch sensor (down to move down, up for the inverse). The screen is also bigger and is better suited for widescreen movies (tilt it sideways!). The feature that sold me on it was 'Reverse Sync' - the ability to transfer your music back from the Zune to your computer. Sure, it still doesn't support OGG or any eccentric formats other than WMA/V, but it's a nice start. The User Interface is clean and easy to navigate, although the software is missing some features (like games, menu customization,etc). The sound quality seems superior when compared to the Ipod, but this is just subjective. In my other non-scientific tests, Zune transfer of music and video was slightly faster. One downside is you can't use your Zune as a USB device, but there are hacks out there to enable this. The Wi-Fi sharing of music is currently just a battery-draining gimmick, since not many people use the Zune yet and transferred files are placed with DRM that restricts usage to three plays of that track.

Total = 7.5/10

(A Rockbox'd player is better, but....)

For a far more detailed (and biased) review, go to ZuneScene.

The 6th Generation Ipod

The 6th-generation Ipod seems to have taken many steps backwards. Not only do they encrypt their firmware making it completely impossible to run custom software such as Rockbox or Ipodlinux on it, but the sound quality feels degraded and hollow. Sure, the case design looks better and it feels generally more robust (metal), but this is not an excuse to drop quality. They STILL refuse to make simple battery/hard drive replacements possible. It also can't play the variety of sound formats (OGG, FLAC, etc) Rockbox can. And.....can you play Doom on your Ipod? Free? Thought not.


Just a warning to all who want to run custom code.

- The Shadow

Firefox 3 Memory Leaks Plugged...well, not quite.

Firefox Beta 5 brings significant speed, performance, and memory usage enhancements. Opera was not tested, and it is still the fastest in my experience. According to This, Firefox 3 uses less memory than Internet Explorer (All versions). It's seriously a huge leap

.....or not.

For shits and giggles, follow the following steps:

- Create a, Word, OpenDocument, Latex or whatever your favorite format is document.
- Type in huge amounts of text. After your comp takes over 3 seconds to paste, that's a sign you can stop.
- Open GMail or a javascript-heavy site with a large textbox that updates every few seconds.
- Paste the document. For even more epic win, try uploading an attachment simultaneously.
- Your Firefox should be fried to the core, taking up a gig or more. (500,000 KBs on a modern desktop).
- The memory usage stays up EVEN IF you close that window!
- For even more fun, create a word document of maximum size and paste it into Notepad. Its memory usage will actually go DOWN when it crashes! =P
- Fun fact: Word can take up more than half of your computer's processor and memory (depending on your specs, of course) when at max size.

Side note: Firefox still accumulates memory usage over time, but it has gone down significantly from FF2.
On another note, Firefox has added an 'Auto-Rename' tabs feature. They should really make up their mind, because they specifically filed a bug saying FF didn't work with Vista parental controls. Hmm. Such hypocrisy.

Grand Theft Auto IV Review

Well, the newest edition of the fascinating GTA series is here and I was able to snag me one for PS3 and put some play time into it. I was glad to see that the setting is more modern than previous GTA games, that the graphics are the greatest of any GTA game yet, although I wouldn't personally recommend it for use on a conventional tube TV as the bright spots are too bright and the dark spots are too dark. The realism presented is very unpredictable (in a good way) because you don't have any idea of what's going to happen next...people talking on cell phones, to each other, and thhey also have realistic movements, unlike GTA SA (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). You can take cover behind objects during gunfights, fly through the wind shield of a car when you crash (seriously, seatbelts? Not for Niko), when your tires pop, they actually fall off instead of just dropping slightly below the ground, and shopping for clothes has slightly improved because you don't have to choose the item from a list and wait for it to load for every article of clothing, you can see them on the shelves and hangers and you walk up to them and select the option to try them on with no loading times!

One of the features of the PS3 is SIXAXIS motion-sensor capability and, of course, it can be enabled in the game. As you cannot use it to steer a car, you can use it for choppers (the ones that fly :b ), bikes (in general), boats and reloading firearms; it also allows for auto-pitch calibration.

So, in short, here are the pros & cons:

Pros

• The only loading times are right after you start the game and when you start missions
• Realistic graphics (includes visual accuracy, accurate movements, etc.)
• Interaction with other people in the game (via cell phone)
• Cheats only have to be entered once and may be selected from your cell's database (via cell phone)
• Web surfing is enabled via in game computers as long as you have it enabled on your system
• You have the ability to break into parked cars with locked doors and hotwire them
• You can summon cops, firemen, or paramedics (via cell phone)

Cons

• Ammu-Nation is apparently out-of-business, so you have to use a black market of sorts
• The guy that runs the place has a good memory and can rememer troublemakers (such as yourself) and has a select group of henchmen to take you out if he dies
• Cars are hard to keep in good condition, even the slightest bump into a person can leave a blood stain and possibly a dent
• You have to find a place away from any attacks when using the phone, as Niko will put it up after taking a hit
• Cops are usually late and paramedics can't take a hint (they can be only a few feet from a person in need & won't see them)
• If you use cheats, you will not be able to gain 100% completion
• You are usually penalized for giving the paramedics and firemen something to do (you don't necessarily have to count this one)

Overall: 9.5/10

Making Light of Dark

Do you want to know what a completely unrestricted internet would look like? That's ED. It is by far the most funny website. EVAR. 'Make fun of everyone and everything' the maxim they write by. It's like an untamed version of Uncyclopedia. Don't follow anything you see there. It's specifically crafted to be as utterly annoying for as many people as possible, while still being drop-dead hilarious. On a more "serious" note, ED documents many 'underground' internet phenomena, such as infamous site chronology, IRC flaming contests, among other pointless things. They ridicule everyone including themselves. It's an endless cycle. It's even got some things, which if I posted here, would get me banned from my host in 1 microsecond. There are many events and images that are pretty much ONLY found on ED. It's a gamble to say if the site will last much longer.

WARNING! :

You WILL be offended. Unless you can tolerate absolutely everything. Remember, it is a parody site. A PARODY. Joke. Comprende? It is NSFA (Not Safe For Anyone) That includes you. And me. And everyone else in this fucking planet. =]

Encyclopedia Dramatica.
Long live the LULZ!

The Dark Chronicle

A girl asked me the other day to hack her boyfriend's myspace for her. Besides being utterly ridiculous, it was beyond funny. I mean, doesn't that fit every stereotype you've heard of about girls? That one fits the mold dead-on. Of course, she got DENIED and I took screenshots and conversation excerpts for the lulz. Shameless and evil? Perhaps. Deserved? Definitely. Funny? Hell yes.

And this is not the entire conversation.

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4230/conversationoneexcerptmq5.png
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/958/conversationtwo2cc0.png
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7189/conversationtwotr5.png