Archive for March, 2006

Anime Love (Part 1)

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

Sometimes it’s hard to believe how much I fall in the general category of boys that start off with reading Dragonball mangas just for the thrill of it to then become a skilled analyst of anime. I don’t have a master degree and visual conception of art (does a master degree like that even exist?) but I want to tell you about my favorite anime of the hour.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z

I’ll put my cards on the table right away, from what I remember, I used to watch Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z all the time and really liked anime over other animation, still I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mummies Alive! and X-Men. High school and college is pretty much a big black-out from anime culture, I still had my roots with my all time favorite character Piccolo.

Shaman KingShaman King: The story is about a young boy named Yoh Asakura who wishes to become a great shaman. The shaman merges with his gardian ghost who then enables him to use the ghost powers in the physical realm. Yoh teams up with the ghost of Amidamaru, an ancient samurai and throught their fusion they must battle ennemies and enter the Shaman Fight. The winner of the tournament will be crowned Shaman King and will receive the Great Spirit. By accomplishing this the Great Spirit grants his owner all the knowdledge of any spirit of Earth, thus gaining all-knowingness. The plot eventually thickens as the opponents become more powerful and the techniques required to fight them off more elaborate (Oversould, Giant Spirit). None the less the story eventually an evil twin brother who wants to destroy the world and reshape it to his own twisted vision. In the end the objectives change and Yoh and his friends have to go against an unbelievable new foe that is to put it simply overwhelming.

It’s a 64 episodes show of about 24 minutes each. Very fun to watch, oriented towards friendship and how to live with one an other and that you have to stick with your friends to the end. Even if there are ghosts all over the place the theme of death is crushing you since you have multiple parties with weird visions of what human life is worth competing to be shaman king.

Just like many other anime you sometimes get the impression the show got cancelled towards the end and they had to wrap up the show so towards the end you get crazy gear shifts, those actually add to the excitement of a great show. I have a short video sample from a previous post you can see what kind of content you can have in Shaman King.

You can read more on Shaman King on Wikipedia. Part two of Anime Love will present RahXephon and Vision of Escaflowne. Stay tuned with RSS feeds!

Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake Preview

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Ubuntu LogoSome people will start to picture me as a Linux activist, that is a good description because I fell in love with one of it’s distribution. To sum it up, Linux is like an operating system, it’s operates at the same level as Mac OS or Windows, despite their differences they can all be used to run a computer and make us enjoy the digital life style we all know of. Watching movies, listening to music, surfing the web, chatting with friends you can do with Ubuntu! So you get the picture, now since Linux is open-source and freely distributed many alternate versions were created. I can name SuSe, Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat and of course Ubuntu (based on Debian). Now from the myriad of distributions there are out there the first one I experienced was Ubuntu 4.10. As mentioned earlier I’ve been sticking with it since then, dual-booting with Windows XP.

Now on to the preview. So for this new release which has been rescheduled to a June 1st launch you can expect lots of improvement from the previous versions. It is obvious to expect faster boot times and new versions of about everything especially GNOME 2.14 witch is the graphical window manager and bundle of many applications. Now the main reason I believe this upcoming version has to be considered important is because it is the first release to be supported for 3 years on the desktop edition and 5 years for the server counter-part.

Some surveys claim that Ubuntu now represents 25% of the desktop Linux distribution, just before SuSe that has around 11%. Now the word Ubuntu means “humanity to others” and is aiming to reach all of humanity with it’s main powertool, the free CD distribution that gives people with limited Internet access to the hottest distro out there. A good thing for newbies is that Ubuntu also ships (or can be downloaded) a Live CD, that lets you run the system directly from the CD without affecting your hardware at all. This means it’s a 100% safe to try since it does install on the hard drive disc. Once satisfied you can partition part of your hard drive and install Ubuntu along side any other operating system you already have. This way when you boot your computer you can easily pick the one you need.

XGL Cube
Xgl moving cube, transparency, jello windows, glass tabs and more

For those still drooling about Windows Vista, I am now convinced it has nothing to make Linux world turn green with envy. The forthcoming of Xgl will be a definite competitor to Windows Vista Aero Glass visual look and features. Not to mention that Windows Vista has been postponed to a January 2007 release.

There are many reason why someone should use Linux, a few years back I had no reason to but here I am now, 18 months after testing a Live CD given to me by a friend I am in love with that system. The open-source software, the free alternative, the customization, the thrill of be controlled free and finally create and bend things to your likings is one of the great many things Linux gave me. I could go on like that to make you believe that you don’t have to waste thousand of dollars on software when sometimes the alternative would suit you.

I’ve been slightly slipping about the preview but the best way get the latest of Dapper Drake (code name of the next Ubuntu version) is to check all the pictures and info included in their wiki. The beta versions are available for download but are still unstable, you can see all info related to them by checking out Flight2, 3, 4 and 5 showing the added features one by one.

Gnome 2.14's Deskbar

One last thing I’ll point out from the new GNOME included in the next version of Ubuntu is the Deskbar. It’s like an equivalent to Google Desktop or something. Almost forgot about something important, the OS comes with a software called Synaptic that lets you check for updates on existing programs and let you choose new programs to add from a gigantic data base. So you get to download a software that has been fine tuned for the system that you are using. If the software is not listed you would have to manually install it, that would require using some command codes, it’s all changing now! You will be able to use a graphical installer to help you install any software you download elsewhere from the Internet. Ubuntu is so cool, I can’t wait for the next release!!

V for Vendetta

Friday, March 17th, 2006

V for VendettaI’m a few hours from seeing V for Vendetta and I’m still thinking about it. We live in a world where we are aware of our mistakes but do nothing to act. Smokers know smoking is bad for their lungs, eating fast-food is bad for our hearts but we still go through it. Let’s say that it’s even worse if you are not aware of your mistakes or the ones of your government.
Let’s go on with a quick summary of what happens in the movie: Eve is a young woman, living in what seems to be London in the near future. Caught wondering past curfew she is caught by officers of a harsh government. She is saved just in time be a masked man naming himself V. Soon after, she is witness to a “terrorist” attack orchestrated by V himself that is the next morning that attack is covered by the government claiming it was a planned demolition of the building. It is obvious from the start that this government is corrupted or at least totalitarian. In all for all, V is there for vengeance being a victim of this government dark secrets. In the process he tries to awaken that fiber of freedom we all share. In the trailer, the movie is quickly associated with the makers of the Matrix, witch should not be an indicator of what the movie is. You get a totally different feel, and I would not present it as an action movie as well. The story expands being the two close combat scenes and is not focused on the genius V uses to elude it’s pursuers. All the action is only an added treat to make us discover something that is much more. Throught this feature you get the feel that ideas and words are things really powerfull, much more than what a single man could handle (even if his “super natural abilities” does help him). If you go see it in theater you’ll uncover a dark secret, see some splashing blood, fireworks, Nathalie Portman and of course how far this creation of manking can twist itself and torn our beliefs how they see fit. If you do believe that governements do have secrets, like everybody else, or that you are a conspiration theorist V for Vendetta is a must see! If you just want a good time, seeing a intelligent movie, a bit dark but intense adrenaline rush for your emotions you’ll love that movie. At least you’ll get some time to think after leaving the theater.

Now here is the trailer you can watch directly from my blog, brought to you by YouTube.

What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television… I want *everyone* to *remember*, why they *need* us!

March is a great month

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

March, I just realized today that this month means so much for me. This year in particular I believe the is a lot to expect from a month who takes origin after the god of war. So here is my personnal guide to what is so good with this month in particular.

First of all, the month started with my one week spring break! I had some time to take some pressure off and prepare some school stuff that were already late. The month of March is a birthday month among my relatives, some how there is at least a dozen birthdays. Unfortunately they are not associated with any parties so the point is just to wish them happy birthday and know they are spending an extra year with us.

For a more commercial approach I have to mention the release of my long awaited Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, it might be the subject I’ve blogged the most about. I did receive the bonus disc for my pre-order witch is great and have to wait four more days to get my hands on this little baby and revisit MGS3 and get a shot at the praised online gaming mode. In addition, This re-edition of the game will include the original MG1 and 2 that were released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Movie buff that I am, I’ll also mention the release of V for Vendetta, a futuristic vision of the future brought to life by the brothers how transformed the world with the Matrix trilogy. It hits theaters March 17, 2006.

You might not find it much to expect, but also consider that spring is coming and we’ll all enjoy some nice weather :D

Dead Series Society (Part 2)

Saturday, March 4th, 2006

This post follows Dead Series Society (Part 1).
I’d like to take some time to talk about an other show that was lost. It starred Domic Purcell as John Doe, a guy that has complete amnesia about who he is but knows everything else there is to know, litteraly everything you could study in school he
knows. The show was based on police investigation of different crimes and
John Doe was the lead expert on everything. But that was only half of the story, the show introduced clues on how could Mr. Doe know everything and the supernatural quickly came in order (or at least science-fiction). The show never was able to find it’s right place on Fox and was not renewed leaving all the viewers with a cliff hanger to kill all cliff hangers. As referred in the previous article, some shows like Firefly got the opportunity to rise from their ashes and come to the big screen. Some other show have the opportunity to make a mini-series to close up the show in an orderly fashion (not the case of John Doe). So by talking about those two “dead” shows I’ve realized that they are not really wasted. You have to consider that Scifi channel has/is airing those shows and they have decent ratings for re-runs.
The Internet is a beautiful medium that started to change our lives a decade ago, but the changes in the services and products we are used to getting will dramaticly change. You can start thinking about VoIP phone services that are way cheaper than regular phone.
I might of drifted away from the main subject but one thing I’ll settle on is that I will not judge the value of a show, a song, an artist or a movie from it’s ratings or it’s popularity. There are some movies that are rated 35% on rottentoamoes.com that I still like, and no matter what some critics may say I’ll still love it. Whenever you get the chance make yourself an idea using your own head. Thanks to the marvels of the Internet I can do that…
**Sorry for the delay before this post was finally published**

Kid, Ubuntu Desktop

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

Today was a big day, mostly because I had a video project from school. It all went well and the kid we filmed was very cooperative, and so were the parents. I’d like to send them a big thanks for letting me get in their home and film their child for an oral presentation in one of my classes.

More than ever I’m fired up about Ubuntu and I’m really starting to adopt the system a lot more often. Something that started as an experiment with version 4.10 is now becoming a nice habit up to now with version 5.10 (Breezy Badger). Ubuntu is a linux distribution that is quite on the go with one CD and I’ve managed to get everything working like I want in a few days. After setting the media players to play Quicktime, WMV and DVD, setting up my ATI graphics card and UT2004! I’d like to present my first stable version of Ubuntu which lets me do everything I usually do, from Torrents to website, Office work or games, and instant messaging my friends. New life style might emerge from this. Just enjoy the fresh and cool look of my desktop. Leave comments, please!

My Ubuntu Linux Desktop

Be sure to come back tomorrow to read the part two of the Dead Series Society