Guy's World: April 2002 Archives

April 29, 2002

The Others

That's it for Blockbuster.
We rented the last DVD on our membership and we aren't going to renew it since they are always out of the good movies, even at the weirdest hours of the day.

We heard from several people that we have to see The Others.
Well sorry, it just didn't do it for me.
Aside from a few moments that were scary (very few moments), the movie was just plain boring.
There wasn't any real suspense or mystery, and the plot was uninteresting.

Sorry, but all it gets is:

Posted by Guy at 07:17 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2002

Dr. Dolittle

After feeling burned by The Black Knight we decided to watch Dr. Dolittle on the VCR (we recorded it a while back when it was on tv, but never had a chance to watch it.
Not the greatest Eddie Murphy film but fun to watch (especially after feeling bombed by the knight).
The talking animals are pretty cool and some great stars contributed their voices to the various creatures.
We'll probably even give Dr. Dolittle 2 a chance (when we can't find anything to rent from Blockbuster).

Overall

Posted by Guy at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

Mountain Bike Orienteering

Yesterday my dad and I participated in a mountain bike orienteering competition that was organized by the Israel Sport Orienteering Association.

The event took place at Timrat and was the Israel national championship (we didn't participate in the championship, we just rode the short trail).

Although it was hard at some times (especially after some pretty steep climbs), the event was fun but it probably would have been more fun if I were in better shape and didn't feel like I was going to die several times .

Posted by Guy at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

The Black Knight

What's up with the movies at Blockbuster?
It seems that every movie we rent seems to get worse than the previous one!
I though that after watching "The Wedding Planner" last week that just about any movie would be ok, but...
We saw The Black Knight with Martin Lawrence.
Needless to say: it sucked!
It's the first time I see a Martin Lawrence movie that I didn't like (at least a bit).

I'll give it

(mostly because of the genre, not the movie itself)

Posted by Guy at 07:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2002

UpSave News

I added a news section to UpSave.com.

Guess what it's based on...

That's right: blogger!

Its a bit different from a regular blog: instead of having blogger update the entire page every time I modify a post (or add a new one), I wrote a Perl script that reads the posts from a data file (sort of XML) and displays the page.

All blogger does is update the data file on the server with all the posts (it updates the archives as well).

Posted by Guy at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Foldable Computer Monitor

How cool is this?

Its a new foldable computer screen by Samsung SDI who claim that it will be ideal for Internet users reading online books.

Posted by Guy at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2002

Bravenet.com

Yesterday I found a new web host for the "Daily Jokes And Other Fun Stuff" section.

I signed up for a free account with bravenet.com.

They seem to offer a decent free web hosting account.

We'll see if they really are....

Posted by Guy at 07:03 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2002

MSN Google Search

Thanks to the new google API you can now search google from MSN Messenger.

To do this just add a user with the email googlematic@interconnected.org

Send a message and get the top result. Click to go there, or type "more" to see a summary of the top five results.

Click on one of the addresses, or type a number for more details.

Posted by Guy at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

150m.com Suck

What the !?!?

For that last few weeks I've been hosting the images for the "Daily Jokes And Other Fun Stuff" section at 150m.com.

I just checked my account there and noticed that they erased ALL my files, without any notice whatsoever!!

That's it for me, no soup for you!

Now I need to find a decent free web host that'll do the job...

Posted by Guy at 07:43 AM | Comments (0)

The Wedding Planner

I wanted to see how the home theater works on a real mushy girl movie so we watched The Wedding Planner (that's not the real reason, but you know how these things go....).
I don't really have much to say about this one, although I did manage to stay awake for almost the entire movie

.

That gives it:

Posted by Guy at 07:28 AM | Comments (0)

Good Old Jimmy

I picked up a copy of Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix 2CD from Tower records.

I had some gift certificates left over from my birthday and the CD happened to catch my eye while wandering around the store.

I haven't listened to the second CD, but the first one is great, with some of the best Hendrix classics.

Posted by Guy at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)

Temporarily Shut Down

It seems that I've exceeded the maximum data transfer that guymal.com is allocated per day.

Netfirms (the guys that are hosting this site) allow me to transfer 100MB per day.

I find it hard to believe that I actually transferred anything close to this number (let alone more than that in one day...) but Netfirms claims that I did, and they shut the site down for one day!

Oh well, it seems that everything is up and running fine now.

Posted by Guy at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2002

Swordfish

Last night we watched Swordfish on the new home theater setup.
Well, the sound was stunning but the movie wasn't such a hit. Its a pretty good movie for checking out the sound system but other than that it lacks an interesting plot.
There are some cool visual effects (the explosion scene in the beginning was great) but the story just doesn't do it for me.
Maybe if there weren't so many open ends at the end I'd have enjoyed it more.

Overall:

Posted by Guy at 07:26 AM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2002

Now These Are Speakers

After returning the Koda speakers I needed to get myself a set of decent home cinema speakers, so I popped by a local stereo store that I particularly like.

Two hours later I had a set of very good (in my opinion) speakers.

I ended up spending quite a bit more than I had initially intended (5 times as much as the Koda set cost me) but I'm a happy camper.

The sound is absolutely amazing.

I got a set of Magnat Vintage 320 (front speakers), Magnat center 13, and Wharfedale 7.2 rear speakers.

Now the only thing that my setup is missing is a subwoofer and I'm all set (it never ends does it....).

Posted by Guy at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2002

Koda Speakers

I just returned the Koda speakers.

The whole ordeal sets me back 130 NIS (given that I actually get my money back....)

Oh well.

Now I have to get some decent speakers.

Posted by Guy at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2002

Artificial Intelligence: AI

We watched Artificial Intelligence: AI over the weekend.
Its a pretty good movie, although I usually don't like these kind of films.
For a movie that's over two hours long I was surprisingly not bored with it. I usually can't wait for a movie to end after the first hour and a half but with AI I didn't even feel the time fly.

Overall I give it

Posted by Guy at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

Koda Speakers

Well, my conclusion about the Koda speakers: they really do suck!

I gave them a fair chance over the weekend, but they just didn't sound right.

Now I have to get working on returning them....

Posted by Guy at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2002

Setting Up The HT

I just received the home theater speakers that I ordered.

I bought five Koda satellite speakers and a subwoofer.

My first impression is that they seem to suck (serves me right for ordering speakers on-line)!

I'll play around with my new Yamaha RX-V620 receiver (if I can figure out how to work it....) and see how the speakers sound.

Wish me luck.....

Posted by Guy at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2002

Good Reading...

Here are some books I recently read (usually on the train on my way to and from work), and recommend reading:

Code Complete : A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

by Steve C McConnell

Building Dynamic HTML GUIs

by Steven Champeon, David S. Fox

Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity

by Jakob Nielsen

Posted by Guy at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)