Made of Honour (2008) [movie review]

I absolutely loved this romantic comedy. Acting was good great story line. Honestly its true what happens in this movie, it happens to all of us.

I will rate it 6 out of 10. I recommend it highly if you are someone who loves romantic comedies, also its PG

Hell Boy II: The Golden Army (2008) [movie review]

My thoughts


Really, really nice movie. Filled with lots of effects and a lot of action. Story line was good but of course there were loopholes and a few inconsistencies (very few). 


I will rate it 6.5 out of 10. A really nice PG action packed movie. 

Today's Bit of Wisdom

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."

Charles Darwin

So you've read it, now ask yourself, what have you been doing the past hour and what are you going to do with the next? Now that should put things in perspective.

 I wish you a very productive day. 

image by Salvatore Vuono

I hate XFCE !!!

If you have been using the Linux I am sure you have come across Ubuntu. For those who do not know, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution managed by Canonical. Their latest stable version is Ubuntu 11.10. Ubuntu uses Unity as its GUI (Graphical User Interface). Now that is where the problem starts. Unity is a resource heavy GUI. It slows down your system for no good reason. As a result I decided to look for a lightweight GUI to use.

I started my search looking at what the other Linux distributions that are derived from Ubuntu use for their GUI's. I must say I was disappointed with what is saw. One distribution that I hadn't tried before and looked promising was Xubuntu. Xubuntu uses XFCE as its user interface and is praised for being lightweight. I saw some reviews and it looked promising but I must say after installing and trying it out my regrets were clear and obvious. XFCE is lightweight no doubt about it but the choice of fonts, colors and the design in general will turn you off. It was the exact opposite of Unity. Unity looks good and is also recourse heavy whiles XFCE looks ugly and unfinished but is lightweight. Personally I couldn’t stand it. The location of the active windows was just not right, it was on the top panel and the dock was actually a launcher. Its just not intuitive at all. I ended my journey with XFCE right there.

If you have used XFCE before I will like to know one thing, what do you think about it?  

Today's Bit of Wisdom

"Never was anything great achieved without danger."

Niccolo Machiavelli

Its the bare bones nature of this quote that I love. Strait to the point and needs no further explanation. When we are faced with making difficult decisions and we cannot make any decision, it is usually because we are paralyzed by the fear, the fear of making mistakes the fear of failing......... 


It is at this time that you need to remember that you cannot really succeed in life without risking failure. 


If you are still having a hard time with this. Ask yourself this simple question.


Did you learn to walk without falling? I don't think you can remember that, but observe any child and you will have your answer. 

Never was anything great achieved without danger

image by Salvatore Vuono

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“A friend to all is a friend to none”

Aristotle

         I am sure you can all relate this quote. If you have lived long enough to read this post you definitely have met people who happen to be on good terms with everybody and just happen to like everyone. I am not talking about the friendly people around you but those who decide to do everything possible to please everyone around them instead of taking a stand on things that they do not agree with. They are willing to do anything to win the friendship of others for personal gain. Typically these are the people who will desert you when they realize they have nothing to personally gain from maintaining their friendship with you.

        The next time you step out take time to analyze the kind of friends you have and stick with those who are there to help you when you are in need and not those who shower you with praises when you are doing well, in-order to gain your favor. Your true friends are those who are honest with you and tell you how they truly feel about your decisions, they also are the ones who are there to encourage you during tough times.

Remember, “A friend to all is a friend to none”.  

image by Salvatore Vuono

Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009) [Movie Review]

My thoughts

I must say it could have been better, but it was all about the entertainment value. If you were looking for something to entertain you its OK, but honestly it could have been better. I really don't have much to say about it.

I will rate it 5 out of 10. Its just good for entertainment and the story is a good one. If it had a higher budget it could have turned out to be a great action movie. 

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”

Niccolo Machiavelli

       I must say, this is really self explanatory. You are most vulnerable when your desires alone, dictate your actions. The fact that you feel like it doesn't mean you have to do it. Stop, pause and think about what you are doing and ask yourself if its in line with your goals.  

image by Salvatore Vuono

3D Printing : Watch out, Its getting bigger

What is the next big thing in technology?!

3d printing is what I think it would be. Not your thing? Probably you are right, but soon the applications of something like 3d printing will be common in everyday life. For now you might find it uneccessary and a little too geeky but I tell you soon you wont be able to live without it. A year ago the news of this type of printing was in the mainstream media with technology analyst talking about it becoming a common device. I really wasn't convinced but yesterday seeing a demonstration on Bloomberg West changed my mind.

Its surprising how small these devices have gotten over the past year. Although currently they are mainly used for the purposes of making small models for designers, it is their disruptive nature that is so scary. For instance you break a component in your car, lets say a platic piece on your dashboard that can be easily replaced but the parts will have to be ordered from the manufacturer because they are not available in your region, or even worse you drive an old model and the parts are no longer in production. Instead of shipping the parts to you, the manufacturer asks you to visit your local 3d printing shop and pick up that part. The entire process involved in shipping that part to you is cut short because of this technology. I dont know about you but if you start to think about the various ways in which this tchnology can be applied you will soon see how big it is. Certain aspect of the cargo industy will soon see falls in demand. This could totally disrupt the manufacturing sector.

Winners

Consumers will certianly benefit from a reduced cost in certain products and their availability.

Losers

Some transport companies and manufacturing companies will see their business moving away. China's manufacturing industry could take a big hit.

Its not too clear how much of a change this would be but it has the potential to be really huge.

What is 3D printing? 3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printing is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques (subtractive processes) which mostly rely on the removal of material by drilling, cutting etc. 3D printing is usually performed using a materials printer, and since 2003 there has been large growth in the sales of these machines. Additionally, the cost of 3D printers has gone down. The technology also finds use in the fields of jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

I like the new look for Google Plus even with white spaces.

New look for Google Plus

If you are on Google Plus you would know this by now that Google has made significant changes to its social platform. Its funny the mixed reactions people have especially in reference to a certain white space.

#usesforwhitespace

White Space

This topic has been trending on Google Plus the whole day, I wonder why people just wont get over it. I see nothing wrong although it would have been better if the column with the white-spaces was moved to the outermost part of the page with the Hangouts closer to the trending topics.

Hangouts Closer to the Trending topics

I like the old Google Plus but a change is welcome so long as it doesn’t stop me from sharing with my friends.

The navigation bar is on the left instead of on top. I prefer it that way, with Twitter and Facebook having theirs on top I like to see something different on Google Plus.

Your conversations stay in the middle where they are supposed to be. You have your hangouts on your right.

Its basically just a rearrangement of the features on your page but according to Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra the new design was created to accommodate the new features that Google would be rolling out in a couple of days? I cant wait to see what these features are.

So for so good, I like the new look.

I was right: Rick Santorum Steps out of the race for the Republican Presidential Nominee.

       

           I guess I was right when I made his prediction a week ago that Rick Santorum would step out of the race and give Mitt Romney the chance to ahead and take on Obama. I should have tweeted this but I would rather prefer to leave it right here. 

           For those who did not read my blog post "Rick Santorum might give in soon"on 4/4/12 you can take another look.

          What do you think the chances are for the Republican party to win this years elections?

Fool's Gold (2008) [movie review]

My thoughts


 Its a nice movie, some good elements of comedy and romance but some of the characters didn't seem to fit in properly especially the role of Gemma Honeycutt, what I mean by this, is that a lot more could have been done with those characters. It still is a good movie I enjoyed watching and also one of my favourite actors  Matthew McConaughey was the lead character.  I will rate it 5.5 out of five was funny and a lot of fun but not that great.

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“Go big or go home because it is true what do you have to lose?”

Eliza Dushku

     To really benefit from this you will have to think long and hard about the second part “What do you have to lose?”. If you didn’t realize it in order to follow in that philosophy you should be a humble person one who is not too bothered about failing publicly. Its not that public failure is a good thing but if you have a lot of pride you cant go big, you cant take any significant risk cause significant risks is usually equal to significant gains.

[Most people who are willing to take risks, take calculated risks]

     Some of you might not agree with my explanation but I will leave you with this illustration and I will ask you to think long and hard about it.

    Most people who are willing to take risks, take calculated risks meaning they came in well prepared at the same time those filled with so much pride(those who have something to lose) cannot take risks which might mean taking on some humiliation. What they do is sit back and watch others succeed. When they see the success of others their pide kicks in again and they seek to validate themselves by making attempts to gain similar achievements, but unlike the risk takers they are not prepared and do not take calculated risks. The result is they get badly burnt and never learn from their mistakes because they have something to lose.  




image by Salvatore Vuono

Facebook Buys Instagram

Instagram

Oh my Oh my, Facebook acquires Instagram. They actually dished out $1 billion (not actually cold cash but cash and stocks)to acquire Instagram and the word out is that Instagram users have already started deleting their accounts. I this the deleting of accounts is being over hyped right now.

This is surely a great acquisition for Facebook but I am not sure this marriage would be the best. Instagram as a service has come to be loved by so many people who really love sharing images with friend and your ability to edit pictures with their wonderful apps is an amazing experience although I must be honest with you I particularly don't like sharing pictures(the reason why I don't use instagram). Facebook however have the habit of disregarding user privacy and I can say for sure that Zuckerberg doesn't mind doing the same with his new toy. To be honest I think this is more of a great deal for the owners and developers of Instagram than it is a good deal for Facebook. Zuckerberg says that Instagram would stand alone as a seperate service but they would work closely with the Instagram team to allow some sort of integration. However the Instagram users would be able to opt out of sharing their Instagrams on Facebook, (Zuckerberg will definitely turn on sharing by default).

We know Zuckerberg well enough, I think his motivation is not to keep Instagram but to switch user engagement to Facebook and slowly kill Instagram. Not necessarily shut it down but slowly kill the service. Well we can only wait to see what he would do with Instagram.

I will end by congratulating the founders of Instagram Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom for creating such a beautiful service but I really wish you didn't sell to Facebook since Instagram was cerianly going to blow-up compete directly with Facebook, but considering the fact that Instagram wasn't making mush money its a good deal.

I wonder how this deal will affect Facebook's IPO?

A comment on online privacy

Tech Crunch

       


      Once in a while I see an article on tech crunch that makes me feel like leaving a reply to give people other perspectives than the already have. This article Selling Digital Fear was well written i must admit and honestly  Josh makes some good arguments in his article and i agree. But I saw on comment that made me pause and think about his point and i decided to leave a reply


       I don't have his permission to post his comment on my blog but in summery he felt that people should be more worried about the government spending lot of money to spy on citizens and rather shouldn't be worried about tech companies requiring their data in order to function.




So I left this reply.


        Seems like you don't really get the problem with online privacy. The Government doesn't need to work hard on spying on you anymore they just ask your social networks to give all needed information on you as a matter of national security very simple. Companies like Facebook make their work so much easier. Think about it, if you feel people should be worried about their government spying on them then you should be worried about Facebook having all that information available. Secondly the government is not the one that runs America. It is the big and wealthy corporations (big tech companies included) that pay lobbyist to set the agenda for the nation. You cant deny it, its the big corps that rule and they know all about you. I agree with everything that Josh says but privacy concerns for users are bigger than that.

Your thoughts.

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”

Confucius

       I once heard a motivational speaker say this in another form. He said 

“its a good idea to over deliver”, 

     and that is what I will like to dwell on. Its not strange to here people talk about things they know they cannot do, fearing that being honest will cause them to loose that contract or that job. The world is filled with a lot of people lying about who they are and desperately trying to keep up appearances. I am sure you have come across such people and if you haven't probably you are the one I am talking about.

       As much as people would like to defend such behavior, over delivering is a better way to go about life. As much as possible think about doing more than what you said you were going to do. There are times where it helps to reach for goals that are bigger than you and we can talk about that in another blog post but using that strategy 24/7 will certainly set you back. As much as possible when you are working with people especially in any kind of business it is better to set a realistic target and then plan towards doing better than the target you set. This strategy will win you more friends, customers and certainly more business. Why? Because people would tend to trust you more and more.

     I don't think I have to go any further in convincing you to integrate this in your overall strategy for succeeding life.  




image by Salvatore Vuono

The Nokia Lumia 900 [windows phone]

Nokia Lumia 900  
- image from  nokia.com

The Nokia Lumia 900 will be launched soon and really soon. I was thinking to myself that I might just take sometime to announce it on my blog just in-case some people have not heard about it.

I am not going to lie to you but I have not used it personally but I cant wait to get my hands on it.

So far the reviews on this phone have been very positive and most people in the industry think this would be the one to finally give windows phone the push that it needs to enter the Smart Phone OS market.

Features

• Operating System: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
• Memory: 14.5 GB
• Camera resolution: 8 megapixels
• Display Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels
• Display Resistance: Scratch Resistant Gorilla Glass
• Video: 720p video
• Integration with Xbox

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango to me is a really interesting OS that is definitely different in every way from the competition. Microsoft did a good job with it and I think they have a winning formula with this Mango release. The Lumia 900 comes with everything that you would need in a smart phone and the price of $99.99 is worth having a look at.

With windows phone's share of the market being insignificant and RIM's (Research In Motion: the makers of Black Berry) share falling to rivals like Android and iOS, this should definitely be the phone that changes the game for Windows Phone. In my opinion, a lot of the success of Windows Phone and Microsoft up coming Windows 8 depends on this phone. If Lumia 900 is successful then I think windows would now have the right kind of hardware manufacturer that would be able to showcase the beauty of the new Windows ecosystem that Microsoft is building.

If you are still one of those who think that Microsoft's windows phone SUCKS, then I think you should try this this phone. At $99.99 there is no reason why you shouldn't try this.

For a more Detailed Review Check CNet

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“Adopt the pace of Nature: Her secret is patience.”

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

      Patience is like wine, it gets better with time. In today's fast paced world of instant gratification, it is difficult to tell someone to have patient when making decisions but I have come to realize that in life the decisions that matter the most, are those that require patience to reap the best results. If you are a value investor you would know this. Making decisions that only take into account the short term future usually end in disaster. You must have patience if you really want the most out of life. 

       So, slow it down, take sometime to reflect on what your long term future should look like then make your decisions. Like wine, the results of good decisions get better with time and you will need patience to get the best out of life. 

Nothing really important comes fast, it will always require time and patience.  

image by Salvatore Vuono

Rick Santorum Might Give In Soon [The Republican Race for the Presidential Nominee]

I usually wouldn't go ahead and make a prediction about the presidential race but its obvious by now that Mitt Romney will be the most likely person to run against Barack Obama in November. Yesterday Mitt Romney went a step closer to achieving the inevitable by securing victories in Wisconsin, Washington D.C. and Maryland. . Rick Santorum couldn't even win in his so called Strong Hold of Wisconsin.

   This race has dragged on for months and a lot of people have either told Rick Santorum to give up the race so the party could concentrate on taking on Barack Obama or giving their endorsement to Mitt Romney in an attempt to end the Race soon enough. On the issue of the race taking too long I don't think is that bad for the republican party it only creates a better candidate in my opinion at least I can agree on this issue with Rick Santorum who is still determined not to give up the fight.

   But this is the point in the race where I think Rick Santorum gives up and Mitt Romney is declared the presidential Candidate for the republican party. He said he wouldn't give until the Mitt Romney had reached the amount of delegates required to be declared winner. But I really believe that he would throw in the towel this time around. It seems a little pointless to go on at this point. Rick Santorum has fought hard and its time he gives the nod to Mitt Romney.

   So that's my prediction, this week Rick Santorum throws in the towel. I know what you might be thinking that Rick Santorum still has a chance to reach the 1,144 delegates. It sounds possible but I think the pressure is mounting on Santorum and soon he would give in, maybe not this week but soon. Romney now has 646 delegates and Santorum has 272. Its still a long way to go and Santorum might just be fancying his chances of overtaking Mitt Romney. That is highly unlikely and it would take a major slip up by Mitt Romney to put Santorum in pole position.

    What do you think about the Republican race for the Presidential Nominee. Will Santorum bow to pressure or will he continue the fight until the end?

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you are not smiling in a regular basis, try another choice.”

By Steven D. Woodhull

I really don't have to do any further explanations here. Its just self explanatory.

Simply, if you are not happy with your life you have a choice to keep yourself in that state or a choice to change it. There is always a choice and that is a truth that you shouldn't forget. There is always a possibility and an opportunity to change your current state, its up to you to make the choice to keep on looking for a better state than your current one.

Your life right now is your choice. To put it clearly your life is based on your choices. Its all in your hands and you have the power to choose what you want.

image by Salvatore Vuono

Already Dead(2007) [Movie Review]

My thoughts

I loved this movie a lot. Action packed with all the explosions you want in a movie. It however of the highest quality you would want. But it was still fun to watch. Any one who loves action movies and is not really interested in seeing big named actors will love it. I am not saying that Til Schweiger is not a big name actor but when you watch it you will understand. The story is one of betrayal and deceit, and the loss of a son that drives a man to to do anything to kill his sons killer.

My rating would be 5 out of 10 mainly for its entertainment value but in-terms of the content not really up there but it was worth watching. It didn't go above five because its not the sort of movie that you think of watching again(just my point of view).  

The Other End of the Line (2008) [Movie Review]

My thoughts

It could have a been a really nice Bollywood movie the camera quality the locations all good but you could tell when they had to cut back on spending which resulted in the quality of the movie being lowered a bit (example: there was one scene where the Mercedes that the two lovers were driving in, changed from a C Class to an E Class on the same journey).

I would rate it 5 out of 10 for being a really fun movie to watch and a PG love story.  

The Note II: Taking A Chance On Love (2009) [Movie Review]

My thoughts

If you hate movies about love then you definitely don't want to watch this. Its all about and only about love. Nothing more nothing less. Movies about romance are not my type so I didn't really enjoy it, however it wasn't a bad story although I wish a lot more could have gone into the production of the movie(Yes folks it is a low budget movie). I don't have much to say about the movie so I will get right to my rating.

It give it a 5 out of 10. It didn't do so well for because I didn't really enjoy it but like I said it is a really nice love story. It would definitely be in my good books for being a PG love story.