Let’s talk three things about movies for this once. Oh, the third thing is that there’s some high -tech issue in Iron Man that I have a bone to pick with.
1. Did you notice the pattern?
Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Favreau in Iron Man.
Sean Penn in Hulk.
Suddenly, it has become vogue-ish for acclaimed drama actors and directors to figure unabashedly in popcorn movies, movies that purvey the original reason why people go to cinema houses in the first place — to have fun.
Cinema is the natural evolution of the stage play and it maintained more or less the latter’s original objective — to provide fun and escapism for the majority of lowly mortals like us. And drama actors recently realized that, kindof.
Through time, however, cinema’s objective has been subverted, deconstructed, and diversified many times over to suit other purposes.
Hence, the emergence of pink movies (homos? hehe), art movies, porn, experimental cinema, propaganda, other so called highbrowed conceptual cinema that caters only to the tastes of narcissists and critics perched on their lofty ivory towers.
2. I just saw Iron Man. How do I rate it?
Two H’s: Iron Man is (1) human (after an epiphany, he was half the man he used to be to become Iron Man); (2) humorous.
Robert Downey Jr. is wonderful. The tomatometer for Iron Man at RottenTomatoes.com is at a staggering 95%+.
FYI, Rotten Tomatoes is popular for canvassing the opinions of known movie crtitcs worldwide and converting them into the convenient tomatometer.
I leave the reviewing to the critics. I’d say Iron Man compares well with the Spider-man trilogy and Batman begins. Good story and character development. Enough said.
One more thing. I feel that the Afghan scene in the middle of the movie where Iron Man revisits his captors is way more spectacular than the supposed climax at the end. That doesn’t distract me from praising Iron Man, though.
Now this is very important. Don’t fail to wait until the end of the credits!!!!!!
3.One small complaint: Funny physics. This is the Tech Don. Might as well discuss this. How hi-tech really is the Iron Man suit in terms of safety?
There are scenes in w/c Iron Man falls or gets shot down from the sky, or is rammed and smacked down by a giant robot (IronMonger), and Iron Man appears to go thru massive acceleration and deceleration (look ma, no parachute), and appears unscathed.
But survival is dubious at best because Mr. Starks, Downey Jr.’s character, is human, after all (e.g., is never mutant and wasn’t injected with some potion). What’s inside the Iron Man suit that helps stop his mortal body from hitting the Iron Man suit from the inside during the enormous positive and negative G’s?
If some hi-tech cushioning device is what is preventing Starks from hitting the Iron Man armor from the inside, his internal organs (they are matter) will still decelerate and accelerate.
This problem evokes the funny physics of Dr. Octopus, Spider-man’s enemy, in Spider-man 2. Note that Doc Oc can survive Spider-man’s mutant punch, although Doc Oc himself is no mutant .
These are geeky complaints, however. And the popcorn movie fan is no doubt unperturbed. See ya around, alligator.
The Air Jack , by using your car’s exhaust gas, is a hilarious attempt at paradigm-shifting the lowly car jack. Very unstable for a jack (the car will almost turn turtle) [picture from ajprindle.com]. I don’t know what the girl is smiling about (maybe she’s laughing). Priced at $129.95. Maybe I’d get one and motorists will slow down on my car being jacked up.
Verdict: I’ll use it to rescue earthquake victims pinned down under concrete, right? Or as a flotation device/lifesaver (quick! Find some exhaust gas!). Can be mistaken for a heavy-duty exercise ball. Otherwise, a dumb way to recycle exhaust gas (you’re not recycling gas if you deliberately inflate the jack with gas.
One big advantage, though: Can be used to jack up anything on uneven terrain.
There is nothing worse than being out listening to your music, or web browsing, or in the middle of a video and your iPod Touch goes dead. Well, the Japanese company Radius has just solved that problem with the radJacket CHARGE.
The radJacket is a cool little hard case that keeps your iPod Touch free from dust, dirt, grime, scratches, dings, spills, cracks, and anything else that could happen to it while you’re out. As cool as that is, that’s not the best part.
You can get a case anywhere but what Radius has done is put in a rechargeable Lithium ion battery to keep your iPod Touch fully charged. This recharging ability now prolongs the life of your Touch to up to 46 hours of music, 12 hours of video and 10 hours of web browsing. Nice.
The lithium ion battery can be recharged with miniUSB and is ready to go after just 3 hours. The radJacket is only available in Japan right now.
It’s nothing new to have a portable DVD player with the ability to dock an Ipod into it for the added functionality of sound/video. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.
The Philips DCP951/37 Docking Entertainment System is not really portable. It could be, as it does come with a battery with a life of about 2.5 hours on a single charge, but the DCP951/37 is better suited for spaces in your home, room, or dorm where a big screen or large entertainment system is just not possible or necessary.
The player is equipped with a 9 inch diagonal LCD screen with built in speakers. The iPod dock swings from the back when needed. In addition to being able to playback DVD and it’s iPod functionality, it also has SD/MMC card slot for memory cards and supports a wide variety of playback formats including DVD, DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, DivX & MPEG4 videos.
In the portable DVD market, this is a pretty good gadget and is something that is rather inexpensive (only 199.99 at Amazon).
What is the point of NapTV by designer Sung-kyu Na? Umm see picture. It looks like kiddy stuff but NapTV isn’t just the way to make your kid lazy, man. And please, it isn’t the coolest chair to sit on while doing school work. Your kid will mostly likely watch TV most of the time. ”Mom, it’s the NapTV for what it is!”
Of course, lying on bed and looking above must be the most comfortable way to watch TV but maybe it’s not good for your health.
So, a kid might be better off socializing with the opposite sex. On second thought, the drawing of the person with the NapTV above is that of a kid at heart rather than that of a kid. I’m okey with that. It’s one more reason to stay in bed for us adults. Pretty terminal.
Verdict: Now, don’t they make a version for the whole family?
Are you in the market for a 4Gb flash drive? How about one that also doubles as a TV tuner?
Buffalo has come out with it’s DH-KONE4G/U2DS (why can’t they ever think of anything other than numbers and letters for names?), the latest 1Seg TV tuner USB dongle. So if you’re ever out and not only want to carry your files with you but want to catch your favorite show at the same time… you can!
The Buffalo DH-KONE4G/U2DS includes 4GB of internal memory which gives you the ability of recording up to 20h of TV programs directly on the USB key. It could possibly be low quality video but still… ya gotta admit… pretty cool.
Just recently, the US Army has announced that they will be issuing handheld lie detectors to select soldiers in Afghanistan in order to “root out potential terrorists” and help “narrow the list of suspects after a roadside bombing.” The the device isn’t exactly perfect, but its a good enough effort on the part of the Army in order to save American lives and help uncover out allegiances that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Hailed as PCASS (Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System), the underlying unit is a TDS Ranger that relies on three sensors connected to a respondent and integrated software that uses Green to signify truth, Yellow if it can’t decide, and Red if it recognizes a horrible liar on the other end. Lafayette Instrument Company is probably excited no matter what the outcome, considering that the Army has already purchased 94 of them at $7,500 apiece.
Pioneer just launched the Navgate AVIC-F500BT, a navigation system designed to guide the users all across the Europe. It will let you control your phone hands free. It fits and looks great in a car. Scheduled to be available during the Spring 2008, the NavGate AVIC-F500BT can play multiple audio and video formats. You can also connect it to the computer. The software it comes with lets you add points of interest in the unit maps. While navigating you can turn on the built in DVD Player to play DVDs and CDs containing Divx, MP3 and WMA.
The AVIC-F500BT is equipped with a high-quality 5.8-inch WVGA touch screen to display maps in dazing high-resolution relief with elevation and 3D detailing. To save you from watching the screen over and over again, the NavGate offers voice guidance in 20 languages and Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality.
Features:
Pre-installed Europe-wide mapping on the 2GB fast-response flash memory,
TMC bulletins and
Accurate positioning in areas where GPS coverage is compromised
Full-scale entertainment
Powerful processor delivering an extensive menu of multimedia and communication
There is a trend a brewing in the world of flash drives. Small is coming. And maybe in?
Imitation has just launched it’s tiny “Atom” flash drive and is it a coincidence that it came just one day after Super Talent’s announcement of their “world’s smallest” drive?
Super Talent’s moniker of “world’s smallest” flash drive is still safe with the “Atom” coming in at 30.5 x 13 x 5.6mm, but the Atom does come with an aluminum design.
The Atom is available in storage sizes ranging from 1Gb to 8Gb and can be carried around on a keychain. One of the great things about this drive is that it is password protected and has the ability to share data with other users. If you like your drives small then this sounds like a great one. The Atom is available now but no word on pricing yet.
The new WiMAX network is really causing quite a stir today. People are excited about the opportunity to be able to have blazing internet speed for up to 10 miles of mobile computing. I know I am.
And Siemens looks like it can’t wait for the new technology either. Even before the WiMAX network is available Siemens has made available their Gigaset SE68 WiMAX ExpressCard. The SE68 is based on the IEEE 802.16-2005 standard and complies with Wave 2 specifications (including MIMO A / B), and supports beamforming.
When the network is in place we can expect speeds of up to 20Mbps. The summer of 2008 is going to rock with this baby sticking out of laptops everywhere! But, of course you can always get your hands on a WiMAX ready internet tablet too.
