Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Having finally got round to upgrading to Firefox 3 I have to say that I am impressed. It’s quite an improvement on Firefox 2 despite what quick makeover may suggest.

My biggest problem with Firefox 2 was that it eats memory like Claire eats men. Firefox 3 however seems far more conservative and doesn’t continue to plough through all your system resources until everything is gone. I leave my desktop open 24/7 with my browser open and Firefox 2 would just clunk up, it would take ages just to do things like open a new tab after a while and I would have to restart it. Firefox 3 is much faster, new tabs open immediately.

The second big improvement is that the download manager can now resume interrupted downloads so no longer will you get half way through a download only to find it dropped out for a second and you now have to restart the whole thing.

I haven’t really had a good look around the other new features and changes but they seem to have really hit the nail on the head with fixing Firefox’s shortcomings.

I’ve added a few Firefox extentions recently and it’s quickly making me wonder how I lived without them.

I’ve had IE View installed for ages which is really simple but really valuable. All it does is add an option when I right click on a page to open it in Internet Explorer. As I said it sounds so simple but I use it so much, especially when I’m testing cross browser compatibility of my sites.

I finally got round to reinstalling Web Developer which adds a toolbar and a load of functionality specifically designed for those developing websites and web apps. I’ve been without it for ages (we’re talking years) but I don’t know why, it add loads of stuff.

For example I can disable JavaScript and CSS with a click to see how the page degrades. This is especially useful in backward compatibility testing my Web 2.0 apps for users without JavaScript. What I also find mega useful is the ability for it to display all forum values including hidden elements and allow you to edit them so you can easily test things like people putting in rogue values (such as trying to edit someone elses profile by changing the user id in the hidden form variable to someone elses user id). I’m just scratching the surface here though, it has a massive toolbar of stuff.

Finally I also installed FireFTP which is an FTP client which sits in a tab of Firefox. I never got round to installing an FTP client on my desktop as I always used my laptop but it was annoying a lot of the time. So it’s convient to have one, especially that just sits in my always open browser. It’s not too shabby either it supports multiple accounts, quick connect, two panes (local and remote) and even lock-stepping.

While a night in front of the idiot box watching Lost or Prison Break may provide sufficient intellectual stimulation for people like Mr. O’Shea or Miss Le Breton, I personally have a slightly higher cultural taste. With that in mind I headed off to the Grand Theatre this evening to see a stage show of the hit BBC Radio 4 show “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” of which I am a big fan.

The show featured most of the long running members of the radio show with Humphrey Lyttelton taking on his role as the chairman, Colin Sell at the piano and Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer making up the original contestants with Jeremy Hardy taking the place of the now late Willie Rushton.

The Grand was rennovated a year or two ago adding in air conditioning and better seats as well as restoring it’s fabulous beauty. Once you add to that a very funny show and you have a winning night out. Most of the best rounds from the show appeared including one song to the tune of another, sound charades and of course, Mornington Crescent.

All in all, an enjoyable night out.

I finally got round to replacing my MP3 player on Saturday getting an 80GB iPod video. As I have previously mentioned, I installed Rockbox on the device so I didn’t have to use iTunes and spent most of Saturday loading as much of my music collection onto it as I could fit.

So far it’s pretty good. It’s easy enough to use once I get used to it although I end up struggling to decide what to listen to :D. The interface is a bit small given the size of the screen and I haven’t worked out how to make it bigger yet (if indeed it is possible). Battery life is awful as expected, I have to charge it up every few days (or every day if in heavy yse) but I wasn’t expecting anything better from a rechargeable battery.

Continuing my research into what MP3 player to get, I am considering going with an iPod. The latest generation all seem to be video for which you can pick up a 30GB one for £150 or an 80GB for £215. I’m toying with the idea of going for the more expensive option as I would be able to fit lots more of my music collection on it though I only budgeted for £150 (ha, not that my budget even balances, it’s in a bad state as it is).

As I said in my previous post I can’t deal with iTunes or DRM or any of that crap. To get round that I would need to clear off the crap you get with the iPod and replace the firmware with Rockbox (as good as the site is, especially with the comparison and feature list, the Wikipedia article is perhaps a better read).

It’s an open source firmware ported to most of the popular MP3 players and plays Vorbis, FLAC, WAV and they are working on WMA as well as a tonne of cool features.

As for an in-car solution, my car doesn’t have any inputs (or outputs for that matter) which leaves me with the solutions of either radio transmission or stand-alone speakers (which I really don’t want to go with as it’s no way near the same) so I’m going to have to keep searching for a solution there.

The plot: A cure is found for mutants but it doesn’t go down well. Magneto begins to raise an army while Xavier tries to prevent all out war.

The good: Captain Picard and Gandalf in the first minute of the movie – what more could you ask for? Some shockers too.

The bad: There isn’t really anything wrong with this movie. But then it’s not the most amazing movie ever either.

Conclusion: It’s a fun movie, if you like X-Men then you will certainly enjoy this. As comic book franchise movies go, this is a very good one.

Rating

Reviewed by Greg. I gave this movie a 6.5 out of 10.

The plot: Simple water boy Bobby turns out to be an amazing football player and is drafted in to the college team as their star player though lacking in social skills or knowledge of the real world.

The good: Lots of cool people in it – Adam Sandler, Henry Winkler (you don’t get any cooler than The Fonze) and Fairuza Balk (much better known as Nancy from The Craft).

The bad: It’s not laugh out loud funny.

Conclusion: Another solid Adam Sandler comedy, it’s basically Happy Gilmore but with a different sport to the honest.

Rating

Reviewed by Greg. I gave this movie a 6.8 out of 10.

The plot: A portrayal of the changes kids go through when they hit the teenage years as Tracey’s relationship with her mother is tested as she decents into the crazyness of high school popularity seeking, boys, drugs and sex.

The good: It hits some key points and makes you feel good inside that you weren’t that bad.

The bad: It was fair criticism made when the film was released that some of the scenes are just gratuitous.

Conclusion: Very, very good film though a bit heavy if you are not into your deep dramas. It’s a fairly low budget movie so it will appeal to film geeks more though don’t let that stop you watching it, it’s far from a purely indie appeal.

Rating

Reviewed by Greg. I gave this movie a 8.5 out of 10.

The plot: JB goes to Hollywood to make it as a famous rock star. When he gets there he meets a man named Kyle Gass who agrees to teach him the way of rock and roll. They team up in order to steal the pick of destiny which transforms average musicians into rock gods.

The good: Tenacious D music, Jack Black rules, it’s funny.

The bad: Maybe a little low-brow, could have done with a few jokes that were a bit cleverer.

Conclusion: Fun movie, go see it.

Rating

Reviewed by Greg. I gave this movie a 7.1 out of 10.

The plot: John Bennett is your average guy – he works at a car rental company, has a small apartment and enjoys getting stoned with his real life teddy bear that magically came to life after he wished for it to when he was a child. Unfortunately, his bromance with Ted is starting to get in the way of his relationship with girlfriend Lori.

The good: Has some funny moments, plus Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis are always welcome additions. Good ending. Features Sam Jones, the star of Flash Gordon.

The bad: Doesn’t have as many funny moments as you would like. Could have been more Mila Kunis.

Conclusion: It was always going to be a big challenge when Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane announced he was making a movie, because we were all expecting great things. As it is, we got something reasonably funny, but I was hoping for better.

Rating

Reviewed by Greg. I gave this movie a 5.8 out of 10.