Just Another Clone Wars - A Quick Review of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film)

I saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the film) today. However, it was a spur of the moment thing; I didn't plan on watching it today.

I've only got one word that sums up this movie: childish.

The animation is subpar, the action scenes are dull, the plot is ridiculously simple, and worse of all, it seems like the film is made solely for kids.

Even the previous animated series which bore the exact same title (the one which aired on Cartoon Network), looks a whole lot better that this one. Leastways the battle sequences in the preceding animation were not as repetitive.

"Remember how people talked about the Star Wars prequels like they were the worst movies ever made, when really, come on, they weren't THAT bad? The Clone Wars actually IS that bad." (Eric D. Snider, Film.com)

To all who have not seen this movie, you are better off saving your pennies.

I will say no more,
T'ang


(Theatrical poster from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_(film).)

School's back, but with a twist

Once again, a 2 month holiday is drawing to an imminent close. It's September the 2nd to be precise. It's weird though, as time really flies swiftly during the holidays when compared to the school terms.

But this time round, it'll be a little different. On September 2nd, I'm off to a university. That's a post-secondary institution. I've always dreaded a university, as to me, it implies a strenuous period of unmitigated 'suffering'. My friend from my university once told me that most students who score for their provincial exams, usually flunk their university ones. I certainly do hope that wouldn't be the case for me, fingers crossed. He added that in our course, more that half of the undergrads fail the course, with only a handful acing it.

As for the university itself, it is the University of British Columbia. I've also been awarded a few scholarships too, but I shall not delve deeper into that :) Currently, I've been admitted into the engineering faculty. It's general engineering for now, and I'll get to choose the specifics after my first year.

Just yesterday, I made my first trip to the university to get a number of things done. Of which, one of them is to purchase my textbooks. Oh my! The textbooks are inexorable! Not only thickness wise, but also by the dire sticker shock. In total, I've splurged close to 700 CAD worth of remorseless books. And that's only for my first term, which typically lasts for 4 months. The journey there was also exhausting. It took me a grand total of 1 hour and 10 mins worth of train and bus commuting to arrive at my destination.

So now, I better cherish my last week of my holidays before my doom commences.

The ginormous campus

It ever awaits me,
T'ang

(UBC logo from http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~jecorbet/UBC%20logo.jpg. UBC campus image from http://www.ubc.ca/about/campus.html.)

It's Not the Wind! It's the Yeti!

20 August update: Just like I suspected, the 'Bigfoot' found in Georgia turned out to be a hoax after all. It wasn't even a gorilla or some ape, but was someone's comical halloween party rubber suit.

To all Bigfoot believers: better luck next time guys!

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Looks like mysterious old Bigfoot has found it's way into our cameras again. Here's a recent photo of the alledged Bigfoot found in Georgia:

It still looks like another gorilla to me though. So now, there's supposedly more evidence to prove that 'frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film'.

Remember this from History Television?

Feel free to read more on this here.

Still feels like a hoax to me,
T'ang

(First image from http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-08/bigfoot-found-again. Second image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot)

A Big Hit

According to sources, the entire line of G84 and G86 chips all suffer from the same defect, regardless of desktop or notebook application. The chip generation utilizes the same Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), which supposedly has an issue with an "unnamed substrate or bumping material, and it is heat related." -taken from Tom's Hardware

Oops.

The defective chips include Nvidia's 8300, 8400, 8500 and 8600 series. And like the quote stated, not only notebook, but desktop chips suffer from this flaw. Plus, several sources reported that all G92 and G94 mobile adapters were also affected. Who knows? The omnipresent 8800GT may turn out to be a victim sooner or later. Despite the heavily touted PhysX, Nvidia is in for a troubled quarter ahead.

ATI on the other hand, is lauching a second wave at Nvidia with it's dual GPU HD 4870 X2. Performance wise, it looks promising too. It performs slighly better than dual HD 4870s in CrossfireX, perhaps due to its whopping 2GB GDDR5 memory.

What now?

Go, ATI, go!
T'ang

(image from http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/5)

Case Closed--Überclok Reaktor Part 4

Like I promised:

My system has been running fine this week. I have none but one minor gripe about my components: the two fiery red cards there run hot! It was like having a gargantuan heater below my desk. Once, my ambient room temperature rose from 29 degrees Celsius (it's summer now) to a sweltering 34 degrees!

I have completed my processor's complementary game, World in Conflict. It's a little short I must say. I accomplished all 14 stages in just a couple of days. Nevertheless, the graphics were intense. I managed to push the details to the max with a 1920x1200 resolution and suffered from no lag at all. To be fair, there was one short moment where my display stuttered a little. It was during one of the final missions where you are given the chance to deploy almost all of your tactical aid at once. Napalm strikes, tank busters, heavy artillery barrages, carpet bombings, and daisy cutters lighted up the sky and turned the ground into a barren wasteland. Yes, that was the moment.

Permit me to digress a little. I came across this video on youtube featuring South Park. It's a parody on the ubiquitous Mac vs PC ads that have been circulating all over the web. To those who have already viewed this clip, good for you. Just don't get chesty and gloat over how slow I am :P

It never ends,
T'ang

Edification--Überclok Reaktor Part 3

My PC has been officially released back to me on the 1st of August. But before I brought it home, I made certain that there were no more problems with the machine. After all, I do not have an automobile and I had to pull that hefty box back to the store. There’s no way I’m doing that again. After testing a few programs on it in the store, I was convinced that it was working in pristine condition. However, just when I was about to tie it back to my trolley, the salesman interrupted.

He said, “So, there will be a 100 dollar service fee. We charge a $50 per hour service charge for software problems.”

WHAT??! He never mentioned anything about a fee when I first sent my system for repairs. Also, my system is barely a few days old and it’s covered by warranty right?

“Yes, but that warranty only covers hardware, but not software,” he replied.

Oh my! What a nightmare! He is charging me 100 bucks for a simple reformat of a computer! Even slug heads can accomplish that task without much difficulty. Firstly, I didn’t know that the store will be charging me an exorbitant fee. If I did, I could have reformatted the computer myself. And how will I ever get to know that he really spent 2 full hours servicing my computer? Does a reformat really take that long? Even if it did, I’m sure that it was a slack job of just waiting for the drivers to reinstall while he drank a coffee or two.

After a lengthy period of disputation, the salesman agreed that I pay $70. Despite the “discount”, I was nonetheless infuriated.

Now, it looks like computer is running fine. No more flickering or Crossfire problems or anything of that sort. But for some peculiar reason, I still can’t run Condition Zero properly. I’ve ran 3DMark06 (a benchmarking software) twice yesterday. Once with Crossfire enabled and with it disabled on the other. Okay, at least I know Crossfire is functioning now. I got 16,000+ points on the first run and about 14,000 points with Crossfire disabled.

Sigh…

Well, lesson learnt: I will never patronize the store again. Thanks for nothing, Netlink Computers Inc!

I guess that concludes this article,
T’ang

Note: Photos of my system will be arriving shortly, perhaps after I install Photoshop.