Youthpad – Page 21

Originally posted at Youthpad.

The tech news that got everybody’s attention today was Google’s announcement of a new operating system called Google Chrome OS. Google is the 500-pound gorilla in the field of web applications and every single move they make is bound to generate a lot of excitement. Throughout the day major news outlets, tech blogs, Twitter – all were abuzz with discussions on Google Chrome OS.

You might have heard of Google’s Chrome web browser. It’s a new browser – under development right now – just like Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. Chrome browser has been praised often for being faster than other browser in the market on multiple counts – such as rendering a page, executing Javascript code, etc. Google did use quite a few innovative concepts when developing this browser. That said, it can be a bit unstable at times; so if you’re the kind who doesn’t like experimenting with software then stick to Firefox or IE.

Google Chrome OS (not the browser) is based on the concept of having a minimal interface with every work being done using a web application. Want to create/edit documents? Use Google Docs. Want to edit a picture? Do it online. Chrome OS is definitely not a challenger to Windows XP / Vista / 7. It’s an operating system restricted only to ‘netbooks’ – small-sized laptops such as the Asus Eee PC which are mainly used for browsing the Internet.

My thoughts on this news is that Chrome OS will be a big failure. Just because the devices on which it run are called ‘netbooks‘ doesn’t mean that they are always connected to the Internet. It doesn’t mean that a web interface is the magical solution to every problem. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be fast. Agreed that Chrome OS will start within seconds, but performance after that will be your-mileage-may-vary depending on how good your Internet connection is.

Say you want to listen to music. Is a web-based player the ideal solution for a situation like this? Definitely not. Or say you want to use your netbook to check some documents when you’re travelling – on a train or a plane. You can’t! Something as simple as thing will be impossible with Chrome OS. 24×7 net connectivity is all well and good if you’re in a developed country. Simply walk into a Starbucks or roam around public places and you’ll find Wi-Fi hotspots. But say someone comes over from there to…India. Now his netbook is nothing but an extremely expensive paperweight. And even then, connectivity issues can be a problem abroad too.

I know that some of you are going to bring up Google Gears now. Google Gears allows web applications to work in ‘offline mode’ and then synchronize it later with a web server. But then why bother making an OS which is a glorified browser running web apps and then create workarounds to make them work offline? Why not simply make a native lightweight operating system with option to sync with your stuff stored online when there’s connectivity? Surely that makes more sense.

In order to provide a boot-up time in seconds, Google gave no thought to common sense. However, nobody has seen Chrome OS till now of course. We can only go by what Google has told us about it. RMS will be shitting bricks when Chrome OS comes out saying ‘web applications aren’t free enough‘ (they aren’t). Time will tell how good it is and whether people bother to buy devices using this.

Let’s throw that open as a question. Would you buy a laptop on which you can work only if you’re connected to the Internet, but can start up within seconds? Leave your two cents below on this topic.

Originally posted at Youthpad.

My rating of Resident Evil: Extinction: C- (Disappointing)
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Mike Epps, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Ashanti
Directed by: Russell Mulcahy
Studio: Screen Gems, Sony Pictures

Resident Evil: Extinction isn’t worth the kilobytes that I’m using in my blog’s database for its review. I’ll still go ahead as this movie was a box office blockbuster. What exactly audiences saw in this is beyond my comprehension. A good example of why you shouldn’t believe Hollywood behind-the-scenes special shows. One thing that I’ve noticed is that when a movie is spectacularly bad, what studios tend to do is divert all those dollars to the behind-the-scenes department to jazz it up. Bad movies have actors babbling on and on on how fun the set was, how ‘visionary’ the director was, “Oh wowz thiz iz totully ossumz!” Ashanti bitches (while smiling of course) that she had to spend “so much time in the hot hot sun”; turns out her role was about 10 minutes long on-screen.

The first Resident Evil [my rating – A- (almost perfect)] still had something of a story to go on, but Resident Evil 3 doesn’t bother much with that. A simple 10-second long time-lapse sequence has the whole the Earth turned into a desert. Apparently Mr President, Department of Defense, Pentagon Cronies & Co haven’t survived the apocalypse. Everything is sorta ruled over by Umbrella Corp now. In an isolated Hive-like facility boffins are working on a cure for the T-virus from Alice (Milla Jovovich) clones. Elsewhere survivors are on the run from the undead. Rest everything is hack n’ slash with a dash of Alice’s new power of roasting crows, sending shockwaves in melee combat, playing with khukris, and levitating motorcycles. Who exactly do you think you’re kidding when at least three members of the crew are credited as ‘crow trainers’?

Of course you don’t expect anything deep and philosophical from a zombie movie. RE3 disappoints even in action and visuals. The only visual even remotely worth watching is a scene of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas simply because it’s so unique. Every other frikkin’ movie which has ever had to show always has that standard silly montage of one casino sign after another, a few advert billboards, then a shot of a few theatres; at some point one of the protagonists will lean out of the car / vehicle s/he is travelling in to ‘marvel the sights’. (Heck, even Bolt has critters standing outside the Bellagio admiring its fountain.) The so-called ‘Super Undead’ Umbrella Corp’s research scientist unleashes on the survivors (whom Alice has joined by now) to kill them off in Las Vegas turn out to be pretty lame actually. Not because they’re not badass, but the way these supposedly ‘super-fast’ and ‘intelligent’ zombies get killed within 15 minutes makes you wonder whether they would have survived an assault even from Ewoks.

Special effects are terrible. Explosions look so terribly fake – something you don’t expect from a blockbuster movie in this era. Seen the kind of explosions South Park uses? RE3 has explosions similar to that. The much-touted crow attack scene – compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (which itself is quite a lame movie; my rating for that would be C-) in behind-the-scenes – wasn’t anything very spectacular. The mutated Tyrant towards the end is done well though.

Sony Pictures always acts like a dick with any movie they associate themselves with. Once again, we are ‘regaled’ with endless shots of Sony products. Who cares if nobody else survived the apocalypse? Umbrella Corp must have its share of Sony Vaio laptops and Milla Jovovich must use a Sony short wave radio. Damned nonfunctional cellphone towers. They couldn’t sneak zombies checking text messages on Sony Ericsson phones in.

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Watch the theatrical trailer for Resident Evil: Extinction

Resident Evil 3 is a movie which feels made up entirely of poorly done video game cut-scenes. Nothing other than an avenue for Milla Jovovich to make money. She has worked herself into a corner where she can’t shake off this Resident Evil type role.