Month: October 2008

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Movie Review: Body of Lies

Poster

My Rating: 4Stars

This evening I saw the movie Body of Lies at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a movie along the same line as Spy Game with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. I came out presently surprised by the execution of what could have been a typical story that had been told over and over again. As always I will not review the plot or any spoilers but describing the plot of the story.

I saw a lot of symbolism in the movie, retelling the Middle East story with a slight anti-West slant. Russell Crowe purposely gain 50 pounds for this movie, so that his character, Ed Hoffman, was more believable as a paper mover. I felt Crowe’s character symbolizes United States and its politics; you can read more about my views on these politics in my recent post, American Principals. Leonardo DiCaprio played the lead character, Roger Ferris, whom I feel symbolizes the hidden voices of the West who question the policies of their respective governments. While Mark Strong plays the head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department, which I feel symbolizes the other side of Middle East, the side who are not openly against the West, in particularly United States.

If you go to see this movie, you will have to be prepare for a lot of dialogue and less than the usual actions from a “spy spoof”. With an opened mind you may get to see a different side of the current events in the Middle East.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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American Principals

Having lived in North America for over 20 years; almost half of my life thus far, with 99% of it during what is often referred to as the most influential period of an individual. Therefore, I am familiar with the “western believes” and “western culture”.

Today New York Times published an article about an “U.S. Study Is Said to Warn of Crisis in Afghanistan“. It is not that I do not believe that these people who conducted the study believe in what they’ve found, but I do believe that some times one cannot impose ones believe onto others.

Continue reading “American Principals”

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Is Smartone-Vodafone Listening?

A few days ago I posted an article, Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness, here about the decision of the local carrier, Smartone-Vodafone including a Task Bar on every browser page one visit while using their EDGE network. I will not go into details please, please read it in my previous article.

Today when I accessed these same web pages using the browser (MobileSafari) on my iPhone while on the Smartone-Vodafone EDGE network, this Task Bar is no longer there.

I do wish that I had some part in making this happen. I want to think that my blog is visited by employees of Smartine-Vodafone. Not just any employees, but someone high enough in their company to be able to execute a change in policy.

At the same time there is also a possibility that it was a coincident, and Smartone-Vodafone had always planned this change.

I will just think it is the former. If my assumption is true, this will further re-enforce my believe that Smartone-Vodafone is the only local carrier who make great efforts to serve it’s customers better. By first listening to what it’s customers need, which we all know is the first step in building a loyal customer base. Especially during this tough economic times.

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Apple Event on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10:00 PDT

It is confirmed that there will indeed be an Apple event at Apple’s Cupertino HQ, 1 Infinite Loop, titled “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks“.

I hope they will announce and make available a new MacBook that meets my needs. Most of all will be available this year.

I love to buy a MacBook that is:

  • Has a Core 2 Duo or faster processor
  • Has a maximum RAM capacity of greater than 4GB
  • Built-in Ethernet port
  • ExpressCard 34 or 54 slot
  • Removable battery
  • Has a real-life battery capacity of more than 4 hours.

The rest are not that important. The screen size can be anywhere between 13″ – 15″.

What is the ideal MacBook you hope Apple announce next week? Please do share here in the comments.

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Not Necessary Believable News

As the saying goes, “bad news sells newspapers”.

Being true to this saying the traditional media (CNN, New York Times, etc.) are again reporting the Mac rumors as fact. Even with a recent example of how irresponsible these traditional media were; CNN iReport incident.

You can see from Dow Jones Newswires article Apple Sets Oct 14 Event: “Spotlight On Notebooks” they are referring to all the rumors about what Apple may announce as facts. They even went as far as suggesting that Apple is using this event on October 14, 2008, 09:30 (PST) as a tactic to recover the falling price of Apple’s stock (AAPL).

This Dow Jones Newswires’ Ben Charny has such high regards for Apple, that he is basically suggesting that Apple has such a great foresight, as to predict the collapse of the US economy and the global financial market. So they planned approximately 2 years ahead of time to have an event on exactly October 14, 2008; several days after Apple’s stock price broke its 52-weeks low a few times, to make announcements that will recover the price of their stock. That is utterly ridiculous.

Continue reading “Not Necessary Believable News”

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Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness

Over the past year I had been trying to convince my current mobile carrier that their silly task bar; designed for WAP sites, on old generation mobile phones, is useless to me and should not be appearing on my phone, especially when I am using an iPhone.

They insist that this task bar is there to “enhance my surfing experience”, which I consider to be wasting valuable screen real estate for content of the web pages I visit. I told them that I did not signup to their service knowing that this task bar will be obscuring my surfing experience, and I believe that I should have the rights to remove this task bar from the web pages that I visit through their network (EDGE, HSDPA, etc.).

Continue reading “Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness”

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I Can Afford It

 

It is clear that there are many people who simply don’t care about any social rules; or in this case local laws.

I was walking by Causeway Bay in a very busy area where I see a vehicle with 4 parking tickets on the windshield.

As you can see from the first photo, it is parked along the part of the street that had double yellow lines, plus it is about 5 feet from the traffic light.

I was told by an parking enforcer that as long as there are no parking meter all streets in Hong Kong are no parking, and sections of the road with double yellow lines means no stopping 24 hours a day.

In most cities that I know, 3 is the limit that any parking enforcers will ticket a car, after that either the car is booted or a toll truck would be called to remove the car in question.

When I was a police officer in Canada, after two tickets we would check to see if the car was stolen or worst.

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Battle of the DSLRs



Last week in Hong Kong Nikon released their new DSLR, the Nikon D90 to much fanfare. You can checkout dpReview’s Nikon D90 “preview” report for a detailed look at the camera’s functions and capabilities.

Canon did not let Nikon steal all the fanfare by “arguably” one-upping Nikon to announce the successor to its 5D, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The significant differences being:

  • Still image size: Canon’s 21 Megapixels –> Nikon’s 12.9 Megapixels
  • Video Resolution: Canon’s 1080p 30fps –> Nikon’s 720p 24fps
  • ISO Range: Canon’s ISO 100 – 6400 range (50 – 25600 expended) –> Nikon’s IS0 200-3200 range (100-6400 expanded)

Note: yes, both DSLR are capable of capturing videos like most point-and-shoot. Of course with way better quality and flexibilities.



Vincent Laforet was lucky enough to be able to obtain a prototype Canon 5D Mark II for 72 hours to test, and his results were stunning. You can download the short movie he made called, Reverie. [Update: currently hosted at Canon and the demand was too great.] from his blog. You can check out the quality of the video and the 5D Mark II’s amazing low light capabilities from clips of the making-of video hosted at Smugmug.

Again you can checkout dpReview’s Canon EOS 5D Mark II “preview” report for details of what this Canon marvel can do.



Of course the other up-and-coming big shot in the DSLR market did not stand still and let the veteran steal all the lime lights. Sony, the company who made the chip that goes inside the Nikon D3, also announced a new DSLR of their own, the Sony Alpha A900. You can read dpReview’s Sony Alpha A900 “preview” report for details and sample images.

With brand new MacBook Pros just around the corner, it is really tough being a guy. I guess it is similar to some women and Manolo Blahnik.