Jorge Quinteros
Blogger, web enthusiast & avid photographer based in Brooklyn.

5th June 2010

Antitrust ★ ★ ★ ★

As a techie, one my favorite geek movies is Antitrust starring Ryan Phillippe. It’s a film that presents a rather credible technology-oriented story line that can be enjoyed by the general public but even more so by those who have a more direct connection to the software/computer industry.

I have absolutely no programming knowledge but a great selling point for me was seeing how the movie showed many aspects of the current computer industry and if you’re the type to embrace the future, specifically in how a device like the iPhone has revolutionized the way we communicate and share content, then you’ll love this movie.

The basic plot is this:

Milo Hoffman and Teddy Chin are two of the brightest minds in the computer programming world and also best friends. Their views are very close to being the same when it comes to the world’s knowledge. That it should be free.

But one day Milo lands a job as an elite programmer for the most prodigious technology firm in the world (clearly patterned after Microsoft). His tech genius friends are disappointed that he sold out to the corporate giant.

They believe that all source code should be non-proprietary (translation: programs that programmers create should be free for everyone to use) and this is where the story gets juicy. The program that they’re both working on will let every device such as cell phones, PDA’s, laptops, and computers transfer and broadcast media such as pictures and videos.

It may not be the most accurate movie in terms of technical details and user interfaces or in how computers communicate, but all of that doesn’t matter. The movie is suspenseful, exciting, and highly entertaining and Tim Robbins plays a very convincing bad guy.

I can’t help imagine how well received this film might have been by the Open Source Community. I rarely ever buy DVDs. I’m more of a renter or streamer of content but I actually own this one.

8th May 2010

Iron Man 2 ★ ★ ★ ★

I think the reason sequels are sometimes difficult to pull off is because of the battles they must go against. There’s the necessity of finding the best story to tell, the necessity to retain ingredients that worked in the first film while surprising us with new material and more importantly the necessity to meet the audience’s expectations.

I’m the least well-versed person with anything comic book related especially in noticing proper plot development in the films but the action-packed combat scenes draw me in every time and there’s several in Iron Man 2.

The dialogue and character interaction was absolutely hilarious and I appreciate the writers taking a comedic direction because it helped the film a lot. Justin Hammer was my favorite character straight through. I’m assuming he was meant to be hated but I couldn’t help laugh at how zany he was.

On a sour note, the thought of knowing they were trying to do a little too much was inevitable. The impression of that need of them to squeeze the Avenger’s story and the additional characters made the film feel like two movies condensed into one at times.

It was certainly entertaining but I think there is a difference between a film being entertaining and one being a classic. The Dark Knight for me was a classic. Iron Man 2…well, you be the judge of that but either way, who doesn’t want to see a billionaire capable of building some amazing indestructible suit with an arsenal of cool new weapon systems while flying around?

Without spoiling the movie for you, I will say that one of the biggest questions you’ve probably had is finally answered – how does Iron Man pee when he is wearing the suit?

I also should have known better than to leave early and not wait for the rolling credits to be over. Apparently there’s an important scene we missed but of course it’s nothing you can’t find on YouTube afterwards. These cliffhangers is what make the audience look forward to the expansion of the franchise even more.

18th January 2010

Cameron’s Avatar ★ ★ ★ ★★

With all the well-deserved success and admiration that Avatar has attracted since it’s release, I can’t think of anything else that hasn’t been said about the film other than it’s the one movie I think we’ve all dreamt about seeing and which has a world we’ve all wished about visiting.

It’s by far James Cameron’s finest pieces of work and although I’ll be one of the many to grab a Blu-Ray copy, seeing it in theatre is an experience you should not miss out on regardless of how big your Hi-Def TV is. Even the 3D-glasses supplied were a considerable upgrade from the tradition paper and plastic ones so I kept them as a souvenir.

The most exhausting part of the movie is trying to make sense of what’s consider “effects” because the technology is so deeply ingrained that I had no idea where the discipline began or ended. It’s just sheer brilliance that has set a new bar in the industry.

One of the criticisms I’ve been reading about the film has to do with it’s plot. While it may come across as simplistic and familiar, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a story that you’ve been acquainted with because the difference will be in that one was well told and that’s the case with Avatar. It doesn’t just grab you visually but emotionally as well.

Zoe Saldana was the complete and absolute star for me. Her interpretation of Neytiri was fantastic, profounding and I’ll go as far to say that her Zoe’s attractiveness was very well translated to her character. Beautiful green eyes, great facial structure and lips but apparently there’s others that think much more highly of her which makes my statement seem less weird.

30th November 2009

The Perfect List

My wife and I are very consistent in managing miscellaneous responsibilities around the house but the one area where we’re both fairly uneven with is the food shopping.

We keep a nice yellow notepad in the kitchen and casually jot down items that we intend on purchasing in due course but when it comes to either of us making that trip to the supermarket, neither of us have the infamous list with us, so we both leave behind items that we each wanted. Needless to say we’re not in sync all the time in that aspect.

I figured the commercials never lie and as the minimalistic and organizational freak that I am, I naturally ventured to find a iPhone App that took the edge off this dilemma but that accomplished it in a very straightforward, simple-list-making, uncluttered interface kinda way.

When I refer to “simple-list-making”, I’m talking about literally elementary stuff. If I’m making a list of responsibilities or items, it should automatically be assumed it’s important to me, hence me making one. I don’t care for apps that offer ability to set priorities, include additional task notes or create sub-tasks because the excessive features just discourages usage.

The task management category in the App Store in itself is a bursting one, so having had the patience to evaluate quite a few promising and lackluster ones, I ultimately grew heavily impressed with Zenbe Lists.

Managing the process

Right off the bat when launching the app, you’re given the option to establish categories for any list you create so for example my initial reaction at the moment was to create a Shopping List and inside that I simply started entering all the food products we needed.

Zenbe List also offers a web-based system accompanied with nifty Ajax effects that’s free to setup, so anything else I thought of along the way while surfing the web, I immediately had access to input more information like there was no tomorrow and it updated right away.

You can also manage multiple lists. In addition to the Shopping List, I created several others that include Blog Ideas, Work Related, Errands and Interesting which is for cool software or gadgets that I have intentions in researching more. Each list is collapsable for easy navigation. You can also drag and drop list items to re-arrange them, mark items as completed, or simply delete them.

Get to the point

Ok, so now you know about the app but how does this solve my initial dilemma you ask? The thing that really makes this a valuable tool is in the ability it has for you to share any list you create and by sharing I don’t mean just for other people to view it but for them to have full access in adding or subtracting task from it.

Naturally the Shopping List I created from my end, I shared it with my wife. She received an email notification about its existence and launched it on her iPhone. So now if one day she suddenly gets an urge to stock up on bacon, all she has to do is input that item into the Shopping List we’re sharing and hit that Sync button in the app so that both our iPhones and the Zebe account on the web are updated.

For what I wanted to accomplish, Zenbe Lists has been an excellent solution and of continual use with one big feature setting it apart from the rest of the apps I tried and that’s its amazing ability to share and sync your task list over the air. So now launching Zenbe List while food shopping has become quite a habitual process for checking on those last minute items my wife may have added.

2nd November 2009

Magic Mouse Allure

The main selling point of Apple’s Magic Mouse is that it bares that much admired fruit logo branded on it that we all love, so immediately there’s no question ask or assumptions made about how wonderful the product will perform or look once we’ve gotten our hands on it.

From someone who hasn’t been a fanatic at all of any of Apple’s mouse units, without question this new edition looks remarkable and appears as refine and gracious in its packaging as in its usage. The experience with it feels almost as an extension of the gestures we’re already accustom to on our iPhone, minus the pinch/zoom feature.

View the unboxing of the Magic Mouse

Prior to the Magic Mouse, I used a Logitech device for all my scrolling but all I knew about it was that it was small, portable and got the job done but I could never confidently describe the actual model when someone asked. But why is it that when you suddenly incorporate an Apple product to your exisiting computer setup, you’re thereafter able to fully describe every detail about it including a public shout out a year later celebrating when it was first introduced?

Perhaps because “Apple doesn’t sell functional products; they sell fashionable pieces of functional art” that you in time admire and develop an emotional connection with. Apple wipes the fog that often exist with products that get you from point A to B and makes you more mindful of what it was like using their product rather than just saying you have.

When else would I have ever imagine myself drooling over a mouse much less having a thorough conversation with someone about how functional and seamless the experience with it is? Never. The amount of detail that Apple placed in the Magic Mouse is the same specifics that bring outs how much we can accomplish with a device that appears to offer less.