February 21st, 2010
Last month I wrote a post called “Blu-Ray or DVD?”, thinking about whether or not Blu-ray actually offers advantages over DVDs. I’ve watched about 8 movies on Blu-ray now, and can offer my opinion, although there are two small side-notes to keep in mind: I don’t have an HD-TV, and as such can’t judge picture quality, and I used my PS3 to watch the movies, which may operate differently from other players.
The first thing I noticed was that every disc needs to load something, for some reason, and often does that more than once. This takes up far more time than I like, as I also am forced to watch all sorts of warnings and (often unskippable) previews.
Then there’s the main menu. While they’re all different in looks, the best thing about them is that they expand and collapse, rather than taking you to new screens when you want to see what’s in them (for example: subtitles and extras).
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Tags: Blu-Ray, DVD
Posted in DVDs, Movies | No Comments »
February 6th, 2010
Last week I got a “new” cell phone. It’s “new”, not new because my brother got a new one with his new cell phone contract, and so I got his less than a year old phone; a Samsung M8800 Pixon. A touch-screen (3.2″) phone with 8 megapixel camera. My first touch-screen phone.
Of course I had to figure out if I’d like the touch-screen interface. It took little getting used to and is surprisingly nice once you figure out how everything works. The basic functions are a given, but the browser is something I hadn’t encountered on any of my previous phones yet. That too works nicely, even though the screen is so small (compared to a regular computer monitor) it’s truly something I’ll use in emergencies only.
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Tags: cell phones, pixon, samsung
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January 13th, 2010
I’ve had my PS3 for quite a while now, but don’t yet have an HD-TV. That means that while I can play Blu-Ray movies, I can’t benefit from the higher image quality. With that seeming to be the main draw to Blu-Ray, I’ve held off buying any Blu-Ray discs so far. Until today.
It’s been a while since I’ve bought any “new” movies, so I figured I might as well shop around. If I’d find something to my liking, I could always decide whether to buy or not.
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Tags: Blu-Ray, DVDs
Posted in DVDs, Movies | No Comments »
December 27th, 2009
In a way we’re all familiar with Karma, be it through the Western saying “Reap what you sow” or the saying “What you do comes back to you”, or the original Eastern religious belief. As a kid we learn these things in a very simple way: be good and Santa will bring you presents. But if you’re bad, you’ll get coal.
Where am I going with this? Well, a year or two ago someone who is now a good friend came by the office for one thing or another and we started talking about an old pet project of his: cigar bands. Or more precisely: customized cigar bands.
His idea was to make cigar bands with someone’s name on them, to make them an extra special little gift for his friends.
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Tags: gift, karma, lamp, LED, LivingColors
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December 24th, 2009
I’ve loved soundtracks for a long time now. Where that started, I don’t know, but they’re easy to listen to in the car, or while working, without being distracting. Whether they’re movie soundtracks (Robocop, The Red Violin, Alien, Batman, etc.) or game sountracks (Gears of War, Half-Life 2, Halo, Hitman, etc.) doesn’t matters. Getting a good soundtrack with a game, as a bonus, is almost always welcome – except when it’s a 3-song remix disc like that of BioShock.
When I got the chance to buy Assassin’s Creed II in the “limited Black Edition” version (which apparently isn’t as limited as they want people to believe) a couple days ago, I didn’t have to think very long about it. Sure, it’s €85 compared to the regular game’s €55, but the statue, extra missions, artbook and soundtrack would make up for the extra money.
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Tags: Assassin's Creed II, DVD, games, soundtrack
Posted in Gaming, Music | No Comments »
