The Langoliers

The Langoliers

Old classic Sci-Fi movie, oh, and it has time travel! Read more after the break!

Welcome to my second movie review on here. Today I picked something I had seen before (Though it has been a while) and enjoyed as much this time as when i first saw it.

This movie was originally a ‘made for tv’ miniseries, but with everything being released on DVD now, it was only a matter of time before it came out. From the great writer ‘Steven King’ comes a pretty decent psycological thriller that invoves Time Travel… Yay

First for the bad points. Some of the acting is VERY overdone or VERY underdone, it can be a hard movie to watch if your not into the story. Being that it was made in 1995 you have to excuse some of the early 90’s content. Treat it like you would any made for tv movie.

The Langoliers

The good. A cameo from Dean Stockwell (From Quantum Leap) makes an apearance as a writer that seems to know a great deal about what is happening. The story is solid, a great Sci-Fi theme with some blood mixed in. Also very easy to follow.

Here’s the plot! A group of passengers aboard the American Pride jetlines on there way to Boston wake up to find no pilot and a bunch of missing passengers. After a passenger (who is also a pilot) lands them they discover they alone… At least the airport is devoid of life. The movie follows the ten remaining passengers as they fight to figure out how to get home while staying alive with a psycho business man on the loose.

The Langoliers

I would recommend this to anyone who is a Steven King fan, or someone who just likes some Sci-Fi.

Quick-Review: Surviving plane passengers fight to escape a world that time left behind.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Recomendation: Download

IMDB Link: The Langoliers (1995)

Sunshine

Sunshine

Great Sci-Fi Movie from the director of 28 Days Later. Read more after the break!

So I decided to download some movies I either have been putting off or haven’t watched before. I started this evening with “The Deaths of Ian Stone” but this movie really inspired me to start writing some reviews. It stood out as an oddball Sci-Fi Thriller at first, though I quickly ‘got into it’. Danny Boyle directed this, you may know him from ‘28 Days Later’, another decent horror flick.

The overall setting for the movie takes place on a spaceship called the ‘Icarus 2′, the mission - to re-ignite a dying sun. Now they aren’t the first, as you can tell by the ominous ‘2′ in the ships name. The first crew disapeared almost 7 years before they set out. You do get to find out what happened, and it’s too good to ruin here.

This movie is full of decent acting, the kind that lets you get into the story and connect with the charactors. The ship is full of Scientists and astonauts that are willing to sacrifice everything to do the job. There didn’t seem to be any big name actors in this film, which probably helped in the budget area, but overall the story, the effects and acting seemed top notch.

Sunshine

Quick-Review: Group of scientists make a second attempt to save the sun from burning out, finding the horrible truth behind the first crews disappearance.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Recomendation: Download

IMDB Link: Sunshine (2007)

Illegal downloads of popular films are nearly as numerous as box office visits, a French antipiracy association claims

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This is the death of free speech, privacy and the internet.

Gotta love how Dark Knight (a truelly good movie) does $400 Million and people are bitching about making money. I wish I could be a Greedy Bastard just like the film industry.

With a Scatman John Music Video!

(This guy is awesome!)

So, you want to join the popular crowd and get a new iPhone… Well, you may be out of luck if you want to do any of the following…

Phone
-No speed dial
-Can’t search ‘recents’ call list
-Can’t delete single entries in ‘recents’ call list
-No call recording
-If you sync your contacts with exchange, you can’t add your personal contacts unless you add them to exchange
-Can’t use music from iPod app as ring tone
-Can’t sort contacts by categories such as by company
-Can’t add/modify contact groups
-Can’t select specific ring tone for unknown callers
-No voice dial

Mail
-No push Gmail/any other servies other than exchange, mobileme, and yahoo mail
-If you have multiple email accounts configured, the iPhone will send all emails with your ‘default’ email account despite replying emails that are in your ‘default’ email account.
-No search function
-No horizontal keyboard mode
-Large images are scaled to VGA resolution
-Only attachments allowed are photo attachments
-No support for sending multiple attachments
-Can’t save attachments unless it’s a picture attachment
-Can’t edit office attachments
-Can’t empty email box with one click
-Can’t delete multiple letters simultaneously

Calendar
-If you sync your calendars with exchange, you can’t add your personal calendars unless you add them to exchange
-No search function
-No week view
-No horizontal keyboard mode
-No advanced recurring options for calendar events (i.e.) Difficult to add events recurring on tue and thurs till mar 20)
-Not really a missing feature, but better use of multitouch could be employed in ‘day’ view (you can’t create an event by selecting a time like you can in iCal, google calendar and you can’t move an event by dragging it)
-No todo list syncing with iCal

Safari
-No flash, java
-Can’t open links in a new tab

SMS
-Can’t delete a particular message from a conversation
-No search function
-No horizontal keyboard mode
-Unable to customize notification sound

Photos + Camera
-No light flash
-No autofocus
-No optical, digital zoom
-No manual photo tagging
-No video recording

Maps with GPS
-Can’t load maps while using GPS unless you have cellular/wifi signal

YouTube
-Can’t login to your youtube account and access your playlists
-Can’t upload videos youtube

Stocks, Weather, Notes
-Can’t sync, email notes
-No categories avaliable in notes
-Can’t change order of cities in weather
-Can’t change indices in stocks

iPod
-no music streaming (AppleTV like streaming)

Misc
-No copy and paste
-No MMS
-No Lotus notes support
-No wifi, bluetooth sync
-Limited bluetooth capability (no file transfer, no stereo audio streaming)
-Inability to toggle EDGE state (on/off)
-No global search function
-User inaccessible internal file system
-No password management utility
-No blackberry plug-in
-No support for computer data tethering
-No iChat software
-No audio recording

Still worth $199/299 + 2 years with ATT now?

O, and if you unlock it, none of the official “apple store” aps will work.

Go get a real phone.

Also see: Activation Problems

Watch the video here: Electronic Bracelet for air travelers.

Even though that video is kinda old… Does “Running Man” ring a bell here? First it’s “Voluntary” but “Essential” for air travel, next everyone will have to wear one, and it will also keep track of all your files and “disable” you if you illegally download a movie…

I’m not really one to discuss political issues, so I won’t on here. This is just the next step after losing our freedoms one by one. It started with the FISA, then the DMCA, now back to the FISA, and even more crap in Canada and Sweden (What I thought was the only free country left).

So, with all this, and much more going down all around the world… What rights do we have as human beings? There are many better ways to take down criminals, but making everybody guilty until proven innocent is not the way to do it.

(and before anyone says “OMG, only terrorists and criminals are affected by this.”, who gets the say in whether you are a criminal or not? The people getting paid big money by private firms, thats who. They are in the interest of money, not you. (This does NOT include everyone in govt (whether in the US or overseas) there are exceptions to the rule.)

IDK, I call shenanigans.

I will post a longer article/opinion column about this. I have just about had enough of this shit…

So I figured I would do something special for my first official blog post. Well here it is, my hard work and time. I want to start this by saying that I spent no money on the mod itself, begin out of work makes it kinda hard.

So, using what I found around the house (paint wise) and a dremel (the best tool ever made) I was able to throw together a good mod in about a weeks time.

Here are the current specs of the system being modded:

Operating System: Vista x32 - Ubuntu 8.04 - Windows XP (Across 3 systems, Vista on primary.)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred (V.2)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600 (G0, Quad Core, 2.4Ghz @ 3.2 ~ Air)
CPU Cooler: ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 F9 (Ultra Durable Line)
Power Supply: Gigabyte Odin GE-S800A-D1 (800Watt Quad 12v, Controllable Via USB)
Ram: G.Skill 4x 1Gig G.Skill DDR2 800
Hard Drives: Seagate 2x 250Gig ES (Server) SATA2 Striped, 2x 250Gig Storage, 1x 500Gig Media
Optical: Light-On DVD-RW DL (With custom LED mod)
Video Card: eVGA Nvidia 8800GTS 640Meg Superclocked

Here is what I started with:

Your standard Antec 900 case. I choose this because I have been so disappointed with the airflow of every case I have used before this. The 900 definitely fixed my perception of good cases, with enough airflow for it to be a small win tunnel.

After looking around (AKA doing research) for ideas on what I could do with the Antec 900 case, I decided on some simple cable management and repainting the interior for a nice effect.

The disassembly is easy enough except for the two plastic clips towards the front of the top fan piece, very hard to get to. At this point I had decided on a paint color and started the priming.

Took me about 2 coats to get a nice even finish. I realize now the importance of time and patience when it comes to painting anything, too bad I only had a week to do this in. (I will be repainting the whole thing in the near future.)

I had picked a nice blue color, something close to a Ford Tractor blue (I live on a farm… It was the only color I found) and it was pretty close to what I wanted… So, I lucked out on that. The paint is from Rustoleum and is specially made for metal, and goes very well with the primer I used.

After the first coat. Working back in forth in and on/off style to prevent too much paint where I stop. I was focused mainly on the areas that would actually show when the computer was re-assembled. In the last pic you can see the un-evenness of the paint where the motherboard goes, this can be fixed with more (thin) coats and wet sanding between coats.

Here is the correct way to paint this and any case:

-Strip the case of ALL components.
-Use stripper to remove any sticky areas and anything not metal (silicone/runner feet, spacers, etc.)
-Lightly sand the entire surface to be painted. (Makes paint/primer stick better.)
-Wash surface w/ soap and water to remove any residue and oils.
-DRY the entire case. You don’t want water to drip onto your wet paint…
-Prime (Dark primer for dark paint, Light primer for light paint.) Very thin coat!
-Let dry for at least an hour (dry times depend on temp/humidity).
-Second coat of primer. Still THIN!
-Let dry at least 24 hours.
-Wet sand surface, rinse, dry, wipe with tack cloth.
-Optional coat of primer, 6 hour dry time.
-First coat of color. Very thin as always!
-Let dry for a couple hours.
-Second THIN coat.
-Let dry 24 hours, NO LESS.
-Wet sand color to even surface, rinse, wipe.
-Third coat of color.
-Optional fourth coat.
-Let dry about 48-72 hours before doing ANYTHING to it.
-Optional clear coats. 3 THIN layers, wet sand after second.

Be sure your case is COMPLETELY DRY before assembly. Trust me. You can ruin a weeks worth of work if you have soft paint and decide to assemble.

(This guide is a bit out of order due to my own idiocy and not planning properly, AKA I cut the case after I painted, as you will see.)

After the ‘final’ coat. The only areas I really care about looked perfect (back and bottom) so I decided to move on to cutting for my wires.

Measure twice, cut once. There are a couple ways to do the PSU for a 900. The way I decided to go was with the PSU fan facing up (pulling air OUT of the case) as opposed to turning it ‘upside-down’ and cutting a hole in the bottom of the case so it can breathe. I was lucky in the length of my cables, the 24 pin motherboard cable ended up being just long enough fith it in the following configuration.

The upside down version:

The holes were pretty easy to cut using my dremel and a cut off wheel. I found out why they sell the wheels in packs of 30 or so, they break easily. (Safety glasses are a must.)

For the layout of the holes I decided to run what I could behind the motherboard and have no more visible holes than the two that came withe the case and the PSU hole.

For the 8Pin power cable and the Front Panel connectors I just laid the mobo in the case and marked where the hole should be. Then I drilled 4 guide holes and switched to the cut off wheel to make the final cuts.

You might notice I don’t use any kind of strip of guard for the edges, besides not having anything to use on hand, I don’t really like the look of edge guards. So to make sure I don’t get any cut cables I filed down the edge using the Dremel and a filing stone tool. The edges are don’t cut the back of my finger, so I think they are smooth enough for the cables.

After cutting I did some touch up paint work to cover the areas I ground down.

Now I turn to assembly and wiring. I set everything up and connected it as it will be in the case. This helps me decide what cables I need to route, and how long everything is.

My first task for wiring was to extend the severly short front panel connectors on the 900.

I ended up cutting off a 10 pin plug from a DB-9 ’serial’ header and wrote up a pin list so I could solder it all together.

Since I seem to be missing my wire holder thingy (makes soldering wires together a hell of a lot easier) it took me a while. I was also missing all my small shrink wrap so electrical tape was used.

Now onto putting everything back in the case.

This was the easy part, now I have to figure out what to do with all those cables….

Notice the 8Pin power extender? It’s a must have for this case. Everything else reached what it need to without any modification (minus the front panel cable).

Here is the final ‘back of case’ cable layout. The side panel was a bit hard to put on, but everything ended up fitting.

The inside with all the cables moved:

At some point I might do a ‘reverse drive’ mod to get rid of the HDD cables, but I was in a hurry…

And the finished case.

So it was also the week of my b-day, and I decided to get myself a little cooler…

This is the “ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm 2-ball UFO Bearing / Transparent CPU Cooler”

Nickel/Chrome plated, it gleams with an aura of evil… Damn this thing is cool…

So, installation….

The big plastic retainer goes under the board.

Paper thin coating of Artic Silver 5.

On the board and in the case. This thing can be a bit of a pain to install, make sure you remove the fan and get a long thin screwdriver.

Did I mention it’s HUGE?

Now some closing glamor shots…

In Closing:

Was a pretty simple mod. Nothing too involved. And the ZEROtherm cooler? Kick ass and cools like the arctic.

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading my first post! More (hopefully) to come soon.