Remember Minority Report? Remember Tom Cruise? Remember that bad ass computer? Of course you do! The one where Tom Cruise made his pretty boy gestures to interact with the huge screen of jolly goodness. Welp, it’s here. It’s a new OS called G-Speak. Developed by Oblong Industries, it’s set to, well, BLOW PEOPLES’ MINDS.
I’ve gotta say that it looks really bad ass. I just woke up, so I can’t really think of any real world uses for it at the moment, but it just looks really bad ass. This should be some good competition for Microsoft Surface. Being at a restaurant and actually having to lean forward and press a selection from the table, or just pointing at a wall without having to move? WHAT?! EPIC.
I’d just like to say that I loved Jim Carrey in Batman Forever. However, I’m not a big comic book fan, so I didn’t care what he brought as the Riddler, but just as him. Yep. I’m a Carrey fan.
I’m not a hardcore web surfer. I check certain websites once or twice a day and I’m good. I kill time with games and program work(lol), not surfing; however, when I do surf, I like things to be snappy. Efficiency is key, and anything that helps me get things done quicker is a thumbs up from moi. Firefox 3.0 did this for me. Nice non cumbersome password save feature. Nice addons for, well, anything you would probably need. Overall, it was just sexy.
So, Google Chrome is out. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s an open source browser made by Google. Beta was released on September 02, 2008.
I’ve got to say that I’m a little edgy when it comes to switching browsers. Specifically from my beloved Firefox. Firefox is fast, effective, and it has all of my addons. That, and the familiarity factor weighs in quite a bit.
That being said, I actually like chrome. It’s not better than Firefox for me, yet; however it’s still in beta so a lot more options will be coming, I’m sure. As for addons, I have no doubt there will be major ports from Firefox. Speed seems about the same. It’s starting up a lot faster, but my Firefox has to load quite a bit of necessary addons. There are apparently bench marks of web page loading but I haven’t checked them out yet.
The design of the browser is as simple as it can get. The tabs are on the top bar instead of under the address bar. The status bar kind of appears shortly to show progress but doesn’t stick around, leaving more screen real estate. It’s very elegant.
What’s really interesting about the browser is the built in Task Manager. Yep, you know the oh so beloved Ctrl+Alt+Del that we so frequently use in windows? Chrome has a mini version in its browser. Whether one of your tabs hang, or you just want to check out how much resources each tab is using, just right click on the top bar and click “Task Manager.” Chrome will pull up a task manager, and the contents are exactly what you would expect from any old task manager. No more having to close the whole browser and restart everything because of one tab hanging!
Anyway, enough with my babbling. Here’s a short video showing off some Chrome features.
Ok, so that video pretty much just reiterated what I said, and touched on some other nifty things. ”Ninja Surfing” via incognito anyone? Porn surfers unite!
Yesterday, I went to the creative/technical convention known as Siggraph. They hold one every year and this year it was at the LA Convention Center which is really close to where I live (5-10 min.). A lot of big companies from the animation industry and game industry go there to demo and show people what kind of technology they used to create their work, usually 3D and CG stuff. Manufacturer’s also go there to announce updates and newer versions of their software mostly for artists (Maya, Max, XSI, Lightwave, etc.). It was pretty fun. I rolled in with a bunch of friends and saw a bunch of other friends there including some of the people that I have worked with and some of my idols. The tech there was pretty cool, but WAY too much motion capture for my taste. I think my favorite booths we’re probably the Disney booth, the Pixar booth, the Laika booth, and the Animation Mentor booth. Some of the other big studios were there too but their booths weren’t so great. Anyhow, for any tech heads, Siggraph was awesome.
Okay, so I know I haven’t posted very often, sue me. Things are getting a lot busier as my college career comes to an end. I’ll be graduating in about 2 months or so. But anyways! That’s not why I decided to post. I saw The Dark Knight at the midnight opening and it was amazing. I’ve seen it once every week since the opening, so three times now in theaters. Hats off to Heath Ledger who did an amazing job as the Joker. Anyone realize that he died on my birthday? Heheheh. Really saddens me that we won’t be seeing such a stunning performance from him again. RIP Heath Ledger. I kinda did a tribute piece to him and his role as the Joker. I had plenty of fun with this one. Got to used a lot of mixed media: Blue Col-Erase, Red Col-Erase, Green Col-Erase, HB Graphite, White Charcoal, and Copic Ink. Hope you guys dig it. Til’ here. Peace.
The Joker
Stephen
PS
If you guys are wondering what I’m up to every now and again. Stepheneusebio.blogspot.com
I’ve been a fan of Rage Against The Machine for awhile now. I first heard of them back when I was 13. It saddened me when I found out they broke up. Zack De La Rocha, their lead vocalist, took off, and the rest of the band moved on to do other side projects, including Audioslave(wtf).
Zack is what really made me love RATM. His lyrics and voice had such power that you just couldn’t help but love the songs. Anyway, there’s been rumor that RATM is getting back together. They’ve been doing some concerts and hopefully working on a new album.
In the mean time, however, if you want some Zack, here’s a new band called “One Day As A Lion” with their debut EP. Zack hasn’t changed, and the music is still as awesome as it was in RATM. I think it’s a 2 person band. Definitely pick it up.
Vemp, Pimpo, and I have been hanging out at this new place near the Waterfront. It’s no East West, but I like it, especially when it’s rainy, coz it’s not hot and you can hang in the balcony. They have this habit of closing the bar from 2pm-5pm though. I hate that. But look…
So after a coupla weeks of improving my art, enriching my sense of culture, and keeping abreast with global events (okay, I’ve just been sitting at home browsing and surfing a lot), I finally got me a new job. Funny story too…
What happened was I sent them my resumé, looking to fill in a position for illustrator, graphic designer, or creative writer — they needed one of each. I told them I could be all three… for a certain sum of course, and they said they couldn’t let me fill in the positions. WTF? But wait… it’s because they decided to hire me as creative director instead. I hate to pat my own back here but IS THAT. NOT. AWESOME?
They’ve given me flexi-time… which means I go to the office when I want to, just as long as they are able to reach me at any time of the day, especially work hours. So that’s a great setup. I have time to draw!
I already know I’m gonna fuck this job up somehow. Something inside me says it’s too good to be true, and I believe it. I’ll try to keep it steady though. We’ll see how it goes.
Marvel 1985 #2 (Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards)
This book makes me forgive Millar for his first FF arc with the lame-ass CAP robot. Marvel villains in the real world? What’s not to love? Also, the Hulk smells really bad apparently. Just puttin’ it out there.
Ultimates 3 #4 (Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira)
This is always such a guilty pleasure to get. I’m sorry, but this book makes me feel dumb, yet I get it anyway. For the art. Flip through the pages and avoid the bubbles, you’ll get a much better story than if you actually read it. Trust me. I tried.
The Boys #20 (Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson)
I always read this after a book I hate, coz it restores my faith in the medium. This week, I read it after Ultimates, and it brought my I.Q. back up to 30. I dig the conspiracy feel it’s exploring while still keeping the obscene jokes running. Completely different direction from the first arc, but it’s all escalation, and it’s great.
Secret Invasion: Frontline #1 (Brian Reed and GG Studios)
Remember Marvels? Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’s comic about the man-on-the-street perspective? This is that, but with bigger explosions and less mopey moments. With Marvels, i found myself saying “Come on already…” with this, I actually heard myself go, “hold on, hold on!” I like this better than the main Secret Invasion book already.
