First off, I’m not too skilled in all the tech jargon, so you can expect a simpler discussion to why I still am, and will remain cooler than the Bogaman.

But seriously, it’s not about who’s cooler than who. Well, partly coz we all know who’s cooler. I’ve told him many times about my stand on Unix. I’ve used Unix in school several times. I’ve even had to run it on my computer at home for months and months. Although they haven’t been nice experiences (due to the shitty programming assignments),  I do realise that it’s an OS with huge potential, provided that YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT.

Which brings me to talk about some people who are boasting about how good UNIX is, when they don’t even use Unix in their computers. They only said it’s cool and good because they saw other people use it to some level of coolness. I don’t wanna be among those people.

I never said that Unix sucks. One reason I don’t use it is because I dislike change, and I’m too comfortable with using Windows to explore others. I’m not the exploring type. And also, Unix doesn’t have the softwares I’m comfortable with. They have alternatives, yes, but not the actual softwares.

For example, Adobe stuff: like Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver. Also, I don’t know about the sound editing software I use. I’m lazy to search if they have Unix versions. I’m thinking they probably don’t.

Oh and all the stuff which I’ve just picked up great interest on, like 3d softwares such as Lightwave, 3dsMax and other standalone 3d apps. Then there’s the game engine which I have to use for my schoolwork. They don’t run on Unix unfortunately.

Looks are important to me. I must LIKE what I see on screen, especially the desktop. That’s why I bother getting all those themes to replace the ugly XP theme. My schoolmates will acknowledge my obsession with a nice looking desktop, since I always bring around the theme with me and install it on every lab comp I use before working.

Unix can be made to look stunning, no doubt. Even Mac users are so bloody proud of it. Yeah, it’s nice. But again, I’m just lazy to install it. Or I don’t see a pressing need to.

Honestly, other than the stuff I mentioned above, I rarely use the computer for anything else except for the internet. Webdesign falls under web. Oh, I forgot to add Photoshop up there. It’s one major software I always use. Gimp is nice, but I’m lazy to learn and familiarise myself with it and I’m sure there are lots of stuff it can’t do that PS can.

Anyway, surfing the web is OS independent isn’t it? It’s not a worry which OS you use to check your mail, watch YouTube vids and whatever stuff you do online.

So all in all, the advantages of Unix are quite substantial, but not really so great that I HAVE to change to Unix.

That said, here’s the thing:

My Desktop, which I’ve recently formatted and reinstalled XP, is having problems again. Some authentication crap. My cracks didn’t work. So in 3 days time, it’ll expire, I think. If it does, I guess I won’t go through the trouble of installing Windows again.

Unix installation is quite a breeze, I’ll give you that. Or maybe it’s the damn lab session where they made us install Unix so many times, it becomes a walk in the park.

Therefore, I’ll probably get that OS in my desktop, while my laptop will remain running Vista (again, I have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude).

So there, Ram, I’ll be having Unix on the desktop soon. Happy? Then I’ll start bugging you for Unix stuff.

This is the concept photo/art of the Joker’s face. The finalised Heath Ledger version (right) was among the very first Joker pics released on the net. And we thought that was scary. I think people might piss in their pants if Joker had looked like the concept art.

Go to Cinematical for more. I got it from them anyways. However, the rest of the pics aren’t too scary.

Amidst all this exam/assignment crap, I’m surrounded by people who have finished their exams, and probably their school lives. Argh! The agony. Every single plan turned down, every single outing sat out, every single chill session left out… Damn. *insert vulgarities*. Damn.

Can’t wait to get this semester over and done with, it being the last semester with exams and all. Next sem: FYP! More viral marketing to come. Meanwhile these two weeks are gonna be shitty.

To lift moods, here’s a pic of legendary Jorge Lorenzo scooter replica of his 48 Yamaha Fiat.

Let’s jump right in…

Batman overlooking the city, helmet in his arms. No cape.

Closer shot, he’s got no cape for this jump!

Finally spelunking eh?

Split second frame. Look who’s in the car that Batman jumped right on! Looks like someone familiar eh? Scarecrow returns! Or I could be wrong…

I also noticed that Joker has a habit of licking his lips often. As can be seen here.

Is that money Joker’s burning? The psycho don’t give a shit about money then…

The tank of gasoline/fuel. What’s it for?

Later on you see Harvey Dent’s face pushed down into it. I could only assume that somehow the liquid caught fire and erodes Dent’s face away.

Joker pushes/lets go of Dawes from a high storey window. Probably when he crashed Wayne’s charity ball.

The very famous screencap that shows hints of Two Face. Note the jacket’s left side, which is similar to the concept shot in the previous entry. So I guess that’s confirmed authentic.

“This city deserves a better class of criminals, and I’m gonna give it to ‘em. You’ll see, I’ll show you…” Who is Joker talking to in this bit? I’m pretty sure he’s face to face with Batman.  As can be seen by this released image.

And later on, you can see Batman smashing Joker into the wall of the interrogation room.

I can’t bloody wait.

Related Posts:
Batman Trailer Goodies Part 1
Two Face Revealed

This ‘ere, ladies and gentlemen, is Two Face, finally revealed, God knows from where. It hasn’t found its way to many websites yet, at the moment of my writing. It looks too real to be fake. And it’s F*CKING SCARY!

It makes you wanna take a poop on Tommy Lee Jones’ version of Two Face.

I was already excited when they revealed the slight scarring on Dent’s face in ONE frame in the new trailer. But this… oh man… it’s too much…

The anticipation for the movie Dark Knight is killing me! Maybe killing me more than the anticipation of my FYP selection results tomorrow.

You’d think Joker’s evil face was scary, but Two Face would probably put him to shame.

I am seriously in love with this show. They left us hanging for months after the Firebending Masters episode. But now, the episodes 14 and 15, called The Boiling Rock, has aired.

It’s about a prison rescue. I was a little sad when the Avatar himself didn’t partake in this, but I was shockingly awed by how the two man team managed the rescue. Sure, it’s like 10 times simpler than Prison Break, but the charm and wit of the Avatar series made it beautiful. Plus, all the bad guys, I mean girls, are in this one. And there was great drama within the trio.

Princess Azula returns.

They took a heck of a long time to release episodes, but it’s definitely worth the wait. Every episode is done in the absolutely highest quality of animation and art. Story, dialogue, basically everything involved in making a great story come alive. Unlike many other titles which tend to drop their quality as they get popular. Like NARUTO, for example… Tsk. Avatar really maintains its awesome animation and art. Every single episode is great.

There are rumours that a live action Avatar movie is in discussion. I was worried that they might screw up the idea and concept of Avatar, but after watching Iron Man, I realised that if they put the right people together, something truly great can be produced from an already great idea.

Meanwhile, the Dragonball movie looks like it’s headed for doom, based on what I’ve seen so far.

Meanwhile, Aang sleeps this one out.

Rossi’s victory antics were very welcomed today. Lorenzo’s racing well despite broken ankle

Valentino Rossi, SEVEN time motogp champion, has finally returned to the podium, clinching first place. I seriously hope this is a first of many, for this season. He only managed to claim the 1st position a couple of times in the last season, which led to Stoner’s eventual victory as champion. And who knows what the hell happened when Nicky Hayden won the championship the year before that.

Rossi was on form today, even though the road was glistening after the rain. He had a fantastic neck to neck race with Dani Pedrosa, who currently leads the championship. Dani eventually trailed off after breathing down Rossi’s back tires for 3/4 of the race. Awesome action for the number 1 spot.

Stoner had a ‘lonely’ ride at third place, enough to be clear of the pursuing Lorenzo, but too far behind to catch up with Rossi & Pedrosa. He seemed pissed. Right after the race, he began discussing technicalities with his pit crew, who didn’t look too interested. What’s happening to him? Adriana’s still hot.

But I still think the star is Lorenzo! He had an accident on the track on Friday. And rumours are circulating that he might miss Shanghai. Instead, not only did he attend the race, he climbed from 8th position all the way to 4th, and almost made it to third. He finished fourth, behind Stoner, ahead of other Motogp veterans.

Lorenzo’s injury on Friday. Shanghai pit girls.

The dude’s awesome. What I really wanna see is Lorenzo and Rossi leading the championship, battling hard every single race. But Pedrosa’s really good too. Oh well, this is truly turning out to be a great season.

One observation I made is that so far, every race had been won by a different racer. 1st race won by Stoner, 2nd race won by Pedrosa, 3rd by Lorenzo, and 4th race by Rossi. For the 2nd till 4th race, the podium people are always the same. The championship is really anyone’s game right now.

Anyways, photo courtesy of various sources and especially to fasterandfaster.net. Head over there for more.

Iron Man is one hero which I’m least familiar with. Yet the movie delivers in so many levels. I could identify some references to the Marvel universe while some more knowledgeable friends alerted me to other minute hints of coolness.

Spoilers below. Stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie… ah what the heck, read on, so that you’ll notice these cool stuff when you watch it.

1. War Machine hints: The supporting actor, the air force colonel who works closely with Stark, kept me guessing if he’s gonna be War Machine. As the movie progresses, I began to realise they won’t be including War Machine in the movie. Then there was the scene where Iron Man had left to fight and this guy’s standing around, saw the Mark II armour, and I got really excited. He IS gonna be War Machine! Then he said, (almost to the camera) “Next time baby…” That’s it man… Geekgasm…

2. References to Mandarin
I didn’t notice this at ALL. But zero 12 alerted me to what the terrorist organisation’s name is. Ten Rings. I didn’t really pay attention to it. Then looking back, I realised, the terrorist leader kept playing with the one weird looking ring on his finger, and Ten Rings… well, the MANDARIN has Ten Rings. Oooh…

3. SHIELD
Some nerdy agent guy kept bugging Stark and Pepper for an important ‘debrief’. He said he worked for an organisation which has a very long name. And everyone kept telling them that they need a new name or something short to call themselves. Towards the end of the movie, they told Stark they did settle on a name. An abbreviation… SHIELD.

4. The Post Credit scene.
Won’t say anything here. But Marvel comic readers MUST stay till the end. Ultimate Geekgasm.

Iron Man marks the beginning of this year’s superhero movie fiasco. Next up… Batman, Hancock, Hellboy, and many many more! (except Superhero Movie, that’s just lame)

The new craze of Hollywood film makers (who’re apparently running out of ideas) is to make hand held video camera movies. And with their super rich industry being able to afford expensive CG, they can make something relatively low budget, add in a pinch of special effects to make it look as if it’s part of all that shaky action, and release it as a movie.

The breakthrough came with Blair Witch Project ONE. I thought this was a bloody cool style. Really captured the truth of the moment, makes you feel like watching something REAL. Well, I didn’t really watch the entire movie. I just liked the idea.

Then, many B grade film makers adopted the style. Some of them pulled through nicely, like the movie Alien Abduction, which is made to look like a documentary with ‘professionals’ commenting on the footage throughout the movie. Up till here, it was still ok, although it’s starting to lose its freshness.

Then came the all too cool Cloverfield. I like the movie mainly due to its viral marketing, and how this kinda style can be used to make a Monster Movie. In that sense, it’s new. A monster movie using the shaky cam method.

But the line should be drawn there. Instead, recently, at Apple Movie Trailers website, I saw two movies in the horror category, Quarantine and Diary of the Dead, which are of the shaky cam genre.

And every single one of these shaky cam shits will show some stupid woman in distress with their faces smack closed up on the camera, crying and drooling mucus from their noses. Sometimes, they even show men in such situation, which is seriously gross. They had it in Blair Witch, Cloverfield, and yes, you guessed it, in the two ‘new’ movies, Quarantine and DotD.

Super Scared Women in Shaky Cam Movies. Cloverfield, Blair Witch and Quarantine screencaps.

Alright, I’m not saying I hate this style of movie making. I actually liked it. But the fact that Hollywood’s starting to adopt it, and making more and more of it, when they could be making proper movies with proper camera work and directing, just irritates me.

The shaky cam style is supposed to be a secret weapon for low budget film makers to capture the audience without employing high tech rigs or involving expensive effects. And these Hollywood people are taking it away from such aspiring film makers.