Author Archives: abstractviews

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Website Comments

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When in recent human history have the dregs of society been drawn like a magnet to anything like website comments?

Douche bags, idiots, mentally disturbed and losers with nothing better to do, flock to any website where they can share their negative, hateful, or at best off-beat opinions, thinking the rest of us want to see and read this garbage. And why do these scum bags think they can get away with voicing their opinions in public? Because the Internet allows them to do so (in most cases) anonymously.

Most of these people would not have the balls to say what they say in public if we all knew who they were. Why? Generally they would be shy, embarrassed, know better, or be afraid of being confronted personally or legally. But the Internet is a god send to the world’s human trash. They get to spew till in rare cases they get caught and confronted.

Recently Google has tried to deal with this problem on their media property YouTube. By requiring people wanting to comment to sign up at Google+, where in most cases they are required use their real name. Awesome! Well most intelligent people would think it’s awesome. According to the media, there was a huge backlash against this change. Shocking! If we can believe the often sensational and self serving “media” who often specialize in making “news” from small events, why would it be a surprise? It turns out the losers that use their anonymity to abuse and attack others were upset when their prize hobby was no longer the same or as safe. Not unlike a vandal being required to leave a personalized business card behind after doing their damage.

I enjoy seeing positive and informative comments on my own sites. But even this little personal blog has received some negative and trashy comments. And to those people let me explain something to you. This is a personal blog. No comments are posted without my approval. In fact I will only post positive and constructive comments I like and feel are appropriate. And for your information, the Internet DOES NOT have a rule that says you have a right to post your opinion where ever you want! If you have an opinion, get your own website and take responsibility for your own comments publicly. We all know that this type of person will rarely do so, as they are vandals at heart and attack in the shadows. These are the same type of people that will key your car in a parking lot when no one is looking, or poison your pet if they had a chance.

And to the angry, emotionally disturbed, and illogical woman that wrote me to call me a racist and to claim that all white men in North America are rapists (yes she said rapists, and it was completely out of context) I say get a life! Get your own blog, have your own opinions, and if people are interested they will come and read it, like you were interested in reading mine.

Man of Steel (2013)

Man ‘o Steel is a decent Superman remake. Decent but it still lacks in many ways.

Special effects are arguably flawless and fantastic. Our new Superman, actor Henry Cavill who I like, played a very boring and monotone super hero. The main villain, played by Michael Shannon, who I know best from the TV series Empire, does not a scary villain make. He’s excellent on Empire, but his voice is not the voice of a super villain. And even when he tries to act scary, it’s strange and surreal. So the story is built around a boring super hero and villain. With too many secondary characters that have little to no back story.

The movie is long, and like many movies over 2 hours long, it’s too long for what they have to offer us. And there are missing (unless it’s just me) explanations for things like, where did his perfectly fitting indestructible super suit come from? They explained how he wasn’t genetically designed like everyone else on his planet, so they had no way of knowing how he’d mature, so how could they have pre-made a form fitting suit for him? Maybe they did and it’s just really stretchy. There just seems to be a lot of holes in the story that could have been explained since it’s such a long movie.

I was left feeling bored and disappointed, and looking forward to the climax.

6/10

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Pacific Rim (2013)

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Merge the basic plots of Transformers and Godzilla and you have the entire plot of Pacific Rim. Well with a tiny plot slice that is a bit of a spoiler, so I will leave it out here, but it doesn’t change the story in the least.

This movie is fun and interesting for the first hour and a bit. Then it is simply boring, repetitive and pointless. I would rate the first hour at an 8, the last hour as a 5 at best. Giving this a 6 overall is somewhat charity, as it’s simply far too long for what it has to offer. This is one of those movies where you’d enjoy it at 1 hour and 20 minutes. Not 2 freakin hours and 10 minutes. Starts out very well, and ends up painful and you wishing for the end to come quickly.

6/10

This is the End (2013)

A brilliant comedic fantasy story, where the characters are actual actors and comedians that play themselves, in a scenario where Armageddon occurs while at James Franco’s house warming party.

I had no idea what this movie was about when I started watching. It was fairly new, had some currently well known actors, and I was in the mood for a surprise. So I was very pleasantly surprised. For such an off-beat story line, this movie is incredibly well written and thought out. To enjoy this film you have to be able to appreciate comedy and fantasy. And having a sense of what Armageddon is will definitely help as well.

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10/10

Elysium (2013)

We have the same old Sci-Fi “end of the world” rich people against poor plot. The only difference about Elysium would be the particular brand of tech and space station involved in the story. There is really little change in theme from Matt Damon’s Bourne movie series.

It’s fairly well told, entertaining action, and special effects are excellent. It was fun to see Jody Foster as the villain, but they could have done a lot more to build her character. And in the end it felt like her character just gave up, and we have to guess why, cause it was completely out of character. The movie would have been a lot better with her character having more air time, substance, and end fight.

The ending wraps everything up in a pretty little cute unrealistic bow. Which I could have done without. Sure have the good guys win, but maybe without the completely expected perfect ending. They obviously knew this was a one win pony and had no hope for a sequel. The ending in Sci-Fi doesn’t seem to matter that much these days, it’s all about the punch you can throw into a really good trailer. It’s a reasonably good movie with an infantile ending.

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7/10

World War Z (2013)

This isn’t your traditional zombie movie, but it is a typical zombie movie. The only differences this round are that the zombies are very fast and strong, and act like rabid lemmings. There is good character and plot building. And the story is mostly action, and is well done. Other than that it’s the same old zombie, end of the world thing. The movie holds your attention, and is rather intense. And for that, I give it a good rating.

I would like to see a zombie movie that tried to use science to explain how a virus could make a human into a super human that can live forever without eating. Even vampire fantasy movies point out how a vampire has to keep drinking blood (fuel) to stay “alive”. But every single zombie movie I’ve seen shows that zombies live forever and simply live off air, and only eat for “fun” and to infect. I think the zombie concept is one of the lamest in the fantasy movie realm. I’m fine with the concept of a virus turning humans into mindless rabid animals, but the infinite life spans, and partial bodies, makes it complete fantasy. Where are the science fiction zombie movies? I felt World War Z tried to legitimize the zombie movie as science fiction, but it doesn’t come close. Nothing lives forever, and all plaques die out, and all “real” zombies would eventually die, assuming they were eating something and at least dying of old age.

I didn’t like that when this movie came out, the trailers told you absolutely nothing. I felt they were trying to hide a bad movie behind deception and mystery, which lead me to believe it was going to be a crappy movie. I think I was probably half right. I think they were worried it would be perceived as just another “same old” zombie warm over, and it is. It has a slightly new twist, and is well made and told. And for that it’s a decent flick. But because of the annoying and intentionally vague ads, I had less than no interest in seeing it in a theatre. Good job marketing department!

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8/10

Best Bluetooth A2DP Media Receiver

I wanted to listen to music and podcasts in the car from my smart phone. My car unfortunately didn’t have the required A2DP Bluetooth capability, only the standard hands-free phone Bluetooth connection. The car did however have a 1/8″ line-in jack. A cable is always less convenient, but does provide the best possible audio connection of course.

The other issue that can occur in some cars with some smart phones is ground loop hum, hiss and whistle when a power cord and line-in cable are both plugged in at the same time to a car audio device. Sometimes a ground loop isolator will solve the problem, and sometimes it will not. Either way, you still have an audio cable to plug into your phone.

My first attempt at using a Bluetooth media connection to my line-in port, was with a Belkin F8Z492TTP Bluetooth Music Receiver. Easy to set up, and very small. It’s powered by 5 volts DC, but does not come with a 12 volt car adapter, or a USB cable. So I had to fashion my own custom USB to tiny round jack cable, to power this item in my car. But the audio quality results of the Belkin were poor. General audio quality was poor, and worst of all, vocals had very noticeable and annoying echo. Music sounds okay, not great, and the echo wasn’t obvious with music. But vocal podcasts sounded like the speakers were in a barrel.

I next tried the Rocketfish Bluetooth Music Receiver (RF-BTR212). I had the same issues with powering the device, no included 12 volt adapters or USB cables. Just like the Belkin, it used a two wire round plug. It also was powered by 5 volt DC, so why these companies don’t use a standard micro or mini USB plug for power it is strange and annoying in this day and age. So I fashioned another custom USB to round plug adapter cable to power it. Most of us are used to using 12 volt adapters with USB ports in our cars these days. And some have 2 USB ports, which is ideal to charge a phone and then power a second device like a Bluetooth media receiver.

The audio quality of the Rocketfish is night and day from the Belkin! Far superior audio quality, excellent music clarity, and no echo on vocals in podcasts. The device is about 4 times the size of the Belkin, but still reasonably small. If using it indoors with a stereo, it also has an optical out connection, which is a nice option.

Reviews often mention that the Rocketfish does not have the range that is claimed. It claimed to have a radio distance of 33 feet. Many other reviewers say they only get 6 to 8 feet. In my case I only need 2 to 3 feet. So I’m good. I didn’t test the range of mine.

I would definitely recommend this item for streaming audio from a portable unit like a smart phone, indoors or like me in the car.

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10/10.

CSS Select Issues on Android 2.3.x Browsers

While writing some cross platform Bootstrap web code for a project I am working on, I came across an obscure issue, where a select drop-down list doesn’t work on the default Android browser on Android 2.3.x.

It seems to be a known issue with some web developers, and is a bug in the Android browser code. I came across the solution that worked for me here, in tip #13.

Basically add this to the head of the form page script (Code snippet updated 2013-07-27):

<style> <!-- This style section is used to fix a bug where drop-down menus on navbars don't work on mobile browsers. -->
  select { position: relative; z-index: 999; }
  .dropdown-backdrop {
   position: static;
  }
 </style>

Leap Motion Delaying Shipments Again

The long (very long) anticipated hand gesture device from Leap Motion has yet another delay. I think it’s close to a year since I first placed my pre-order for the device. Since they first went public with this much hyped gadget, they’ve claimed how fantastic it already was, yet customers are still waiting to see a working version for sale. They’ve been vague about shipping dates for the better part of a year since they first offered pre-orders. I’ve emailed them twice in that time, and both times received polite replies with little information.

They finally offered a release date not that long ago May 13. Today they emailed pre-order customers, and pushed that date back to July 22. Personally I’ll be surprised if a device ever ships to end users like myself.

I heard that Leap Motion has recently had press releases claiming a deal with HP for their gesture technology in HP laptops. Seems consistent to me that they keep putting out new hype all the time about a device that has yet to go for sale.

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