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  June 30, 2002
Square Watermelons
   

Square Watermelon

Check out these square watermelons!

They were developed to save space in refrigerators and cost 10,000 yen (US$80) each!


Posted by Guy at 09:22 AM | Comments Bla
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The Guilty
   

The Guilty
This movie was better than Serendipity, that's for sure.
But other than that, I don't have much to say about this one.
The most interesting thing about this movie is the fact that I couldn't find its cover picture on the net (not that I tried too hard).

There are some moments that make you think "what will happen next?" but besides that the story is pretty uninteresting.
If I hadn't seen this movie on the same day that I saw Serendipity I'd probably give it one star.


Posted by Guy at 09:05 AM | Comments Bla
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Serendipity
   

What can I say about Serendipity ?
Not much: this is one boring movie.
For 90 minutes all you see is two people (that are "meant to be together") who keep missing each other while they search for one another.
How many times can you see how one of them leaves a scene a half second before the other enters, just missing each other?
The only reason I gave it one star is because John Cusack's performance was pretty good.
Overall: borrrring!


Posted by Guy at 08:53 AM | Comments Bla
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About Face
   


I finished reading About Face.

My conclusion: great book!

This one is right up there with Code Complete. Anybody who designs software MUST read it.

Some of Alan Cooper's ideas and suggestions are revolutionary and difficult to grasp at first, but they really give you a new perspective on different aspects of creating good software.


Posted by Guy at 07:31 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 25, 2002
Silly Wabbit
   

Check out this cool rabbit that thinks your cursor is a carrot:

http://www.esu.lt/andrius/10/go1.htm


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  June 23, 2002
The Last Castle
   

Another movie we saw yesterday is The Last Castle .
Now that's a great movie!
Against all odds (I don't particularly like either one of the main actors, I usually don't like heavy movies like this, it was 2 hours long...), I really enjoyed it.
The acting was super, you really forget that you're watching a movie, and the story wasn't the least bit uninteresting (that's good, trust me).
Oh yea, and the sound effects give the home theater a nice workout.

This isn't a movie that I'd normally watch, but I'm glad I did.

Posted by Guy at 09:28 AM | Comments Bla
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Senseless
   

The movie Senseless started off pretty good, with Marlon Wayans playing the funny role of an economics student who will do just about ANYTHING to make money to pay off his tuition.
During one of his adventures to make an extra buck, he takes an experimental drug that sharpens his senses. In other words: he gets super powers (and of course uses them in order to try to get a high paying junior analyst job at a large accounting firm).
The story sounds stupid, I know, but surprisingly the movie was funny and enjoyable at first.
Up until a point in the movie where he starts suffering from side affects from the drug (that make him act like an idiot).
At that point the movie became really stupid and uninteresting.
They just went too far with the banal plot.
Too bad...


Posted by Guy at 08:56 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 21, 2002
Grand Theft Auto 3
   


Grand Theft Auto 3 arrived yesterday.

One word: this game is absolutely amazing! (ok that was more than one word but....)

I played for several hours without even noticing the time (I even forgot to eat).

The graphics are great, the world is incredible, and their attention to the small details is outstanding.

You can drive any car you want (like in the original GTA games), go any where you want, and do anything you want.

There are even several radio stations to choose from while you are driving: hip-hop, talk shows, classical, retro....


I guess you know where you can find me for the next month or so....
:-)


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  June 16, 2002
Hackers
   

I finished watching the movie Hackers yesterday.
I started watching it a while ago, so I didn't really remember the story (although I don't think I missed out on much).
The movie started out ok, but all the silly computer graphics during the hacking scenes made it pretty stupid.
According to the movie, hacking a computer network is like playing a video game, wandering around inside a state of the art computer generated 3D world.
I don't think so, Tim....

Posted by Guy at 07:03 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 14, 2002
Koda Speakers
   

It seems that many people are getting to Guy's World by searching for Koda speakers at google.

So just to recap the whole Koda story: I bought a set of Koda home cinema speakers about two months ago (5 satellite speakers and a sub-woofer).

I bought them online, which turned out to be a big mistake when you are buying speakers.

I got them pretty cheap, so I thought what the hell, how bad can they be....

Well, they sounded BAD.

I quickly returned them (and lost 40NIS on the whole deal) and picked up a set of decent home cinema speakers at a local stereo store.

I ended up paying a lot more for the speakers, but I was able to hear them and pick out the exact speakers that fit me.

Needless to say, my final home cinema setup sounds amazing.

I know I'll never buy speakers without hearing them in advance (and I probably won't buy Koda speakers...).


Posted by Guy at 12:37 PM | Comments Bla
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  June 13, 2002
Cross Off The List
   

Guess what I can cross off my wishlist?

Grand Theft Auto 3 for the PC!

The game came out today in Israel and I found it at mitos.co.il.


I hopped over to Office Depot to see maybe they have it in stock (I just can't wait to get my hands on it :-) ) but all I got was: "we're sorry, if the game came out today then it'll take several days for it to arrive".

Hey, I gave them a chance.


So I plunked down 189NIS at mitos. That's about $37, unlike the $50 at amazon!

And the shipping is free!

Gotta love that.


I'll post my first impressions in 3-10 workdays....


Posted by Guy at 04:36 PM | Comments Bla
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McDonald's Spam
   

Get this: McDonald's in Hawaii are starting to serve spam!!

Yup the real, supposedly meat, kind.

It seems that they already serve odd stuff like noodle soup and a Portuguese sausage breakfast!

What will they think of next, liver?


Posted by Guy at 07:29 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 09, 2002
Be Back in 5
   

Check out what I got when I tried to reach Amazon.com:



I guess they closed cuz they need to wash the floors :-).


Posted by Guy at 08:31 AM | Comments Bla
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Say It Isn't So
   

Say It Isn't So is the final movie we saw during this comedy filled weeked.
It's quite difficult to surpass Dude, Where's My Car (in the comedy genre) especially since we saw "Say It Isn't So" only a few hours after "Dude".
It's a pretty weird movie, trying to mimick the gross-out genre but not quite successfully.
There were several scenes that were great (like Gilly's boss's (Larry) disfunctional family) and there's a great performance by Orlando Jones as Dig McCaffrey: a double amputee pilot.
The story was a bit mushy but bearable (and fun).


Posted by Guy at 08:27 AM | Comments Bla
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Dude, Where's My Car
   

Now here's a cool movie!
Although the name Dude, Where's My Car makes the movie sound like a stupid teenage movie, this one really rocks!
The silly plot and the great characters make it a definite cult movie candidate (right up there with Wayne's World).
Unlike this guy we had some great laughs.
Things like "continuum transfunctioner", "Zoltan", "Dude", and "Sweet" are true cult movie icons.
This is my first (well deserved) five star.

Dude! Sweet!

Posted by Guy at 08:27 AM | Comments Bla
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Saving Silverman
   

This is the first movie we rented from Multivideo.
I saw Saving Silverman on the shelf for quite a while but it just seemed like an American Pie wanna-be, so I never really thought of renting it (BTW: I feel the same about the movie Loser but I heard that it really does suck).
It's is a pretty cool flick although we were told that it is even better than American Pie and it isn't, in my opinion.


Posted by Guy at 07:47 AM | Comments Bla
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Whew!
   

Whew, what a weekend!

In addition to a Check Point summer party on Thursday and dinner with friends on Friday, we saw three movies and I played a round of Delta Force 2, on-line, with some friends.

The game was really fun except for the fact that I got whipped!

For some reason I kept getting killed!

Hmmm, maybe I need more practice......


Posted by Guy at 07:39 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 05, 2002
Smells Like Teen Spirit
   

Instead of ordering the usual lunch at work, we decided to try out a local burger joint (Burger Bar).

We pass the place every day on our way to work and the smell has been driving our sense of smell crazy for a while now.

The burgers were pretty good, although they were a bit of a disappointment after the daily torture of smelling the burgers on the grill (usually on my way home during the hungry hours).

I bet that on my way home today I'll still go crazy from the smell.


Posted by Guy at 01:17 PM | Comments Bla
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  June 03, 2002
Wishlist (or maybe wish lust)
   

I added a wishlist to the site.

It's a list of things that I want to buy (or that you can buy me :-)).


Posted by Guy at 02:34 PM | Comments Bla
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Delta Force 2
   

Yesterday I dropped by Office Depot to get some batteries for my PenCam (I killed the original batteries in 2 days!).

I picked up a four pack of GP AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries.

They cost more than regular batteries (duh!) but I've been using them for my Olympus C-3030Z digital camera (and couldn't live without them).

Let's see how the PenCam treats them.....



While I was at Office Depot I grabbed a copy of Delta Force 2.

I friend of mine plays it online, so I've been wanting to get in on the action.

As soon as I saw that it costs only 50NIS (about $10) I didn't think twice about getting it.

I played around with it a bit last night and the game seems fun, although it's pretty hard!

I tried several missions and was able to make some progress in one of them (although I didn't complete any).

Can't wait to get into a multiplayer on-line game.


Posted by Guy at 08:27 AM | Comments Bla
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  June 02, 2002
guymal Webcam
   

I added a webcam section to guymal.com (what a surprise, ah?)

I haven't added links to it yet (except for the ones here).

I checked out several programs for automatically capturing an image and uploading it (by ftp) to guymal.com.

The program I settled on (for now at least) is ConquerCam.

It seems to work great, with just about everything I need.


Posted by Guy at 09:44 AM | Comments Bla
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the PenCam Is Here
   

Surprisingly, the PenCam arrived on Friday!

I played around with it a bit over the weekend and came to several conclusions:


  • It works great as a webcam
  • Taking pictures in good lighting yield pretty good results
  • Taking pictures in bad lighting can result in ok or very bad pictures.

Overall, if the lighting is good then the resulting pictures aren't too shabby.

I'll upload some sample pictures soon.....


Posted by Guy at 07:44 AM | Comments Bla
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