barely fatal

How do you like the new look?

I finally had the chance to have closer look at Windows Vista, and I really don’t see why virtually everyone keeps on ripping it apart. It is stable, you can turn off the annoyances and any good firewall keeps it from calling home. It needs some getting used to, but that’s normal I’d say. So far I had no compatibility problems (that might change when I get it on my own computer and play games on it, though). It’s pretty and does the job, so what. I also like the new style of the Office 2007 applications, I think they let you handle stuff more effectively. They are not perfect, neither is Vista, but neither is any other OS or word processor. I for one can’t see why everyone’s raving about the supremacy of Mac OSX. It sure is nice, but but far from revolutionary or the answer to all things. In fact, I prefer Windows – simply because I got so used to it.

And the other Apple products like the iPod or iPhone – sure, nice gadgets, intelligent and beautiful designs … but do they really deserve the God status they get from the guys at CNET or Revision3 or everywhere else? I don’t praise Microsoft all day just because I like their OS, or deny others the right of existence, on the contrary. We NEED to point out shortcomings of the technologies we use, then we need to thank the successors or alternatives for doing it better. Hyping one company is unreasonable, especially when you consider how Apple does the exact same things we hate about Microsoft and Google: DRM, restrictive contracts and licenses, data gathering…

It’s ludicrous, short-sighted and biased. Once you start blindly adoring (or hating!) a product, a company, you lose perspective. I hate fanbois. Of course I am a fanboi, too, sometimes. But I keep it on the funny side, maybe mock others or try to convince them to try out something new. I don’t try to evangelize, I’m not a missionary. Variety is the key word here.

I might switch to Vista eventually because of the DirectX 10 support. It is not an evolutionary step I have to take, since XP offers all that I need. ‘cept DirectX 10, so.

Anne – yeah, her again – finally introduced me to Heroes, which is really a brilliant show. Thanks for that!

Have you ever had a nice hot bath? Then, after a while you noticed that you feel weak somehow? You get up, and you realize that you can hardly stand. You lose your balance, everything turns black, you gotta fight to not fall on your butt or worse. You somehow make it out of the bathroom, you lie down on the carpet or your bed while your stomach turns and you feel like puking. Blood pressure drops, then raises to top levels. You hear the blood pumping in your head. You’re totally aware of what’s going on, but you can’t do anything about it. And all that just because of a few liters of hot water. Too hot. At least you sleep like a baby that night.

Sunshine is not a bad movie, but yet I was disappointed after all the positive reviews. It’s way too predictable and nothing really new. Some good acting in there, but all in all not so special. I need good sci-fi! I so hope for Star Trek XI. Sci-fi has become so rare these days.

By the way, if you’re a movie fan, check out www.criticker.com. It’s a community site that lets you rate movies very easily. Different from IMDB, it’s all about the ratings. Once you have rated 10 movies you can compare your results to those of other users and find a ‘perfect match’ that way. When you have found someone who shares your interests and taste, you can check out the other movies they have rated and eventually identify those which might be insteresting for you as well. The more movies you rate, the better the recommendations you get, of course.

Did you know that the Bioshock Score can now be downloaded for free? (I know, so can the UT3 soundtrack, but who cares )

I tried the Enemy Territories: Quake Wars (what a title!) demo, and although it surely is fun it’s so much like Battlefield that I can’t be bothered to show real interest. Yes it does have the ‘new’ game mode(s) and gadgets and whatnot, but in the core the gameplay is basically the same. The graphics are not so impressive – not bad at all, but really nothing special next-gen wise. Maybe I need to spend more time with it, but so far it’s just another online team shooter.

Well, there’s one thing maybe. The voices of the Strogg (sp?) faction all sound like Yoda. Really.