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It is now official and very real. Smoking in public places is not allowed anymore in the province of Quebec. I present my condolences to every smoker out there that will have to grief their cigarette during break times or will have to bend to extraordinary circumstances to get their smoke. I won’t hide my joy, I do not believe smoking is good for our health especially those of us that don’t usually smoke and are imposed upon. The government seems rather serious since if you are caught smoking in front of a building less than 9 meters from the entrance you get a $500 fine and the building a $1000. Every time they pick someone who outlaw he’ll fuel the province with a fresh $1500 that will help paying for the health care system.

But no matter how great it is for non-smokers to visit bars, pubs and restaurant that are smoke free, there is something much more important being that law. Are we finally considering all the negative effects of smoke? Why not extend it to the massive pollution we initiate as humans, by cars, industries and such. We might finally become responsible and slowly start kicking out bad habits for our own good and the well being of everyone else. I must state once again that you can’t compare smoking to other habits that are putting your health at risk because all the other ones (junk food, alcohol, sleep depravation, and lack of physical activity) do not involves directly the health of the others. Smoking was the first target but there is still work to be done to take care of our collective health.

The moment I’ve been waiting for so long has finally arrived. The release of the third X-Men movies. Many consider X-Men: The Last Stand to be the final chapter of the X-Men series but I doubt there is any reason to conclude such a rich and profound comic based movie.

I’ll go ahead with my first impression. It’s ok, not as great as X2: X-Men United but still a good movie. I did not find the story line to be as developed. I’ll be straight it’s shallow and pale compared to the second movie. But that’s not all bad! I enjoyed it and was looking for it very much and was not disappointed in the end. This one shocks, the characters, their actions you’re surprised a lot. You tell yourself you never of though he or she could do that! It’s scary and amazing.

The rating of Rottentomatoes is rather accurate, you won’t love it nor hate it. It’s in the middle with 51% (still moving back and forth up to 61%). I don’t think the change of director had a lot to do with it but you did notice several dissonance from the previous titles. At one occasion (when Angel flew off the building) I found the music score to be inappropriate, like it didn’t fit there. However, enough with the blame I was thrilled to see what would happen and got what I paid for, fun time at the movies. It’s been announced a few days ago that there was a short scene just after the credits and it’s really important to stay and see it if you want to leave the theater with more questions, surprise and relief in your heart. In hopes that this Last Stand will not be the last we see of the X-Men. I give it 8 out of 10, beating the first movie but still behind the second that was (almost) perfect.

After all those years I never realized how much looks can really be deceiving. Just this week was the season finale of the second season of Desperate Housewives and believe I became an instant fan. It’s obvious that soaps are always over the top dramatic but this one is in a fact a good comedy. I’m not sure if it’s the kind of humor I’ve been acustomed too but every time I watch an episode I laugh out loud on one or two occasions.

So the story starts with the suicide of one of the neighborhood and the housewives are intrigued by the suicide of their friends. It’s a classic soap in the sense that the worse that could happen always happens, whether it’s infidelity, disrespectful children, extra marital activities and murder. All of the proceedings added with a touch of humor and irony. I watched the first season all at once (over a whole week) and was spared the usual cliff hanger. I plan seeing the second season and the upcoming third. It’s a light comedy that was nominated at the Golden Globes, you’ll relate to many themes in that show and you’ll definitely be entertained. These women are gorgeous and their personalities are really something to see. In fact it’s so popular they lost no time making Spanish, German and French traductions.

Ever since last year I was intrigued by the success of Dan Brown novel. When I had heard they were making a movie I decided I had to read the book first. A year went by and I missed that opportunity. I didn’t care much about the international success of the book becoming a movie but thanks to a friend I went and saw it. First off I’ll say it’s a good movie. You start off with a simple murder that hides a much bigger conspiracy. Allies, traitors, mischief and riddle solving is present to give you a rather enjoyable time.The movie stars Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks as the “investigators” of the  situation. The visual effects brought a fresh way to see what was going on in the characters mind and the soundtrack was very inspiring. The Da Vinci Code is a movie that was worth my time, and I believe the whole controversy around this movie to be futile. The movie presents a set of hypothesis that allow a fictional story to take place. Ron Howard did a good job with that movie, it’s an adaptation and you can’t always expect to get the same feeling from reading a book. The medium is different and doesn’t reach people the same way. I believe using sound and image is the best medium out there.

I’ll have a special mention for Sir Ian McKellen who never ceases to amaze me! It’s not the ultimate summer movie, it has some action but the script is strong and that alone is worth your time. Good story telling and surprise endings are guaranteed. I advise not bringing any kids, they won’t understand the story, believe it’s all true or worse be traumatised by the auto-mutilation and gory settings.

From now on, up to the end of 2006. SkypeOut calls made from US & Canada to US or Canada land line or cell phones are free. You read right! In order to make free calls you had to have two Skype accounts using their computer. You also had to pay a small fee to make calls outside the Skype network. But in a mind blowing move, Skype owned by eBay gives more free calls! Now through my initial testing of the feature one call I made to a friend was even clearer that using my regular phone. I called her with Skype and at the same time used my regular phone. She stated no one would notice the difference since the Skype call was loud and clear. However it seems the first few minutes are not at optimal quality.

It seems some IPs that start by 7 don’t have access to the feature yet. I guess it’s that easy to filter users that are not logged in Canadian or US territory. My Bell Sympatico access starts by a seven and SkypeOut is not working yet. However my Vidéotron access starts by a 6 and it’s with it I’ve made my calls. You can check what is your IP address by looking at the top right of the DNS Stuff webpage.
Anyway feel free to add me to your list, I usually prefer typing my ideas but I’m willing to make new exceptions!

Get Skype and call me for free.

Previous posts on the subject:

• The place where I belong
• VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

UPDATE: IP issue seems to have been solved within a few hours. Now it works fine! For Bell Sympatico users and many more IPs starting by 7.

The lastest E3 gave us new screenshots of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. One of them had great wallpaper potential and I decided to keep it as simple as possible. It’s 1024×768 so it can fit most screen resolutions. The game will be released on the PlayStation 3.

I’d call this a extended trailer. Tonight on FOX aired seven minutes taken from the upcoming movie X-Men: The Last Stand.

It pretty much shows three partial scenes, one where “the cure” is announced to the world and how the people from Xavier’s school react to it, and a second scene to see how the other mutant react to it. I have to add the part where Angel is about to be injected the cure but escapes through the windows as we saw in previous trailers. The seven minutes preview ends with a re-edited version of the action scenes we saw before. It’s quite interesting and is a thrill to see. If you missed it on TV you can get it now by visiting Dell’s web site (yeah marketing campaign, first MySpace now Dell…)

There was another scene right at the beginning with Logan and Cyclops bragging about the death of Jean. Useless trust me… worth mentionning but at least you know that Cyclops doesn’t just dissapear out of thin air from the start.

See it now while it’s hot! : Dell’s X-Men page and contest

Previous talk on X-Men 3

• More X-Men on it’s way
• X-Men 3 Teaser Poster
  

Let’s all agree that the next generation of gaming witch started with the Xbox 360 is truly amazing. Game play and characters have never been so realistic. The PS3 promises just as much if not a higher capacity to bring texture and multiple simultaneous animations on screen. However, I get a feeling that Nintendo’s Wii console is another form of evolution that does not follow the others. It’s obvious that they’ve had a different marketing approach since the N64. When you look at Sony’s track they’ve always improved game graphics but did little to evolve into something new. Just look for the name of their gaming systems, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Further more even if backward compatibility is important look at the controller. Even if the inner workings progressed, pressure sensitive or motion detection it’s just the same outside! Then again the argument “don’t fix what’s not broken” applies.

Where does the quest for higher definition gaming stop? In a small interview with Clint Hocking, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal he confessed that it’s a “fundamental problem of approach” to continue to push for stronger graphics, he said. He argued such an approach puts game developers in situations where they have to be factory workers. Assemble art texture here, model texture shades here. Repeat. (Source)

OK so we’re asking too much from game developers but I’ve never asked them do make higher definition. They just noticed that making a game visually appealing made their sales go up and E3 is a great place to start a hype frenzy. Just seeing the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII made me forget all about Final Fantasy XII due out later this year. The real problem with High Definition is that people who have an HD-TV are a small minority. I read statistics saying something like 10% at the beginning of 2005 and Sony it will be 25% in US house holds. So you got a console, either Xbox 360 or PS3 capable of astonishing graphics to work at a fraction of their capabilities. It’s not like they’re asking to have a TV nowadays getting one is rather cheap. But jumping to high-definition LCD or Plasma is still a quite expensive jump. Even if Blu-ray and HD-DVD are being released this year how long before it becomes main stream like DVD’s I’d three or four years before video rental stores began to shift to the high definition spectrum.

We end up in a kind of bind where there is not enough HD TV and not enough HD content. How long ago was the first broadcast of high definition TV, that was some years ago but it’s still not mainstream. You need something to boost the market and you also need to show people what they are missing. Here’s a personal bracket; I had an old pair of speakers that came with my first computer. I always though they were good. But the day I bought a 2.1 system (still nothing fancy) I was amazed by the new sound quality. I didn’t understand how come I missed so much in years. It’s the same thing with Dolby Digital and in our case High Definition gaming. I know that you can use a computer screen to play your Xbox 360 and at least get a much better resolution than a normal TV but I believe we’re a generation ahead.

Then again, someone has to make the first step. Someone who wants the best out of their games are going to make the jump and it won’t be a lost investment since HD TV will become mainstream someday. However I still feel the jump stretchy and I doubt the transition to be that smooth. Higher technology means higher price, but does it really mean more quality entertainment?

There will be a battle just like the one the Neanderthal & Cro-Magnon man had. Who’s best suited to rule the future of gaming? Is it being user oriented, using the body as a controller, real as life graphics or are we going to see virtual gaming where the player is emerged in a real life 3D environment? Can’t wait to see how fun it will be, one thing is for sure button pushing won’t stay for ever and game developers are going to have to bring more consumers to their products and HD gaming is one of those marketing tricks.