Blogged on March 5, 2008 at 10:46
I was very curious about the last Nine Inch Nails (NIN) album! I was reading about all the hype on the way they used to distribute it. I was also aware of people having major problems getting to the download (just like it happened with Radiohead’s In Rainbows). And so I waited…
Yesterday, being tired of waiting I headed on to the official website. Surprisingly it opened on the first try and everything looked rather snappy and fast. I read about the download speed issues and realized we could download the 9 free tracks off of Bit-Torrent, tracked at The Pirate Bay, and uploaded by NIN themselves. I went on to get the free tracks over at TPB.
After listening to them 2 times I was already in love!!! I was even more in love knowing that they provided lossless download options, like FLAC and Apple Lossless. But I was even more impressed with the fact that they give you immediate access to those same downloads when you buy the physical version (that ships in April)!!! So I ordered the $10 (+ $6.99 shipping) physical edition of it! 
Since September and my move to the US I haven’t bought a single physical CD. Prior to coming, and just during the first half of 2007, I bought around 40 physical CDs! With the move o the US I came to realize that those physical CDs can be a real logistical PITA: broken cases from the travelling, lots of extra weight that is expensive when flying, etc… Since I got here, I already bought over 20 CDs through the iTunes Store and boy, am I loving it! The fact that I can buy any album on my iPhone, through wireless and get Instant Satisfaction™ is delightful!! Don’t get me wrong, I still love owning the physical CDs and ripping them to MP3s (used to rip them to OGG, but my iPod/iPhone changed my mind) or even AAC+ (which I have been learning to like in terms of quality/size vs the MP3s). But even with all of this, I decided to order the physical edition. What “tipped me” over was the fact that I still had access to Instant Satisfaction™: they give you the same download options when you buy the physical edition.
From my experience with my other CDs, I don’t mess around them much after buying them! I get them, rip them, put them on my iTunes/iPod/iPhone and only resort to the physical discs if something goes wrong or I’m about to travel! I do like the feeling of owning the physical disc, but I’m quickly replacing that with the knowledge that from a mobility standpoint, digital has taken over. In terms of listening, it has taken over a long time ago… at least for me!
I’m also the kind of person who downloads music albums… a LOT! I’m glad I do, because on some cases it saved me money! And saving me money allowed me to buy albums that are REALLY worth it! As an example, I bought Coldplay’s “X&Y” shortly after it came out, but had already listened to it MANY times to the point that when I bought it I didn’t listen to it for a while! Why did I buy it then, you may ask… Because I *loved* (still do!) the album and think it was worth buying! Yes, that’s how I view music purchases: I pay when I feel it’s worth the price! If prices went down, I’d buy more, but I still buy quite a bit of music!!
Having said that, I encourage you to get this NIN album! If for nothing else, do it because they released it under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, allowing you to do “whatever” you want with the music without having to pay royalties of any sort! That’s a MAJOR step forward and takes some gut feeling to do it! HUGE kudos to NIN for taking that step forward in music. I think this one is even more revolutionary than Radiohead’s album for many reasons like immediate download when you buy the physical discs, lossless formats, Creative Commons license, etc…
Bottom line: I’m *very happy* about this and can’t wait to see more artists doing the same! ^^,
Blogged on December 23, 2007 at 21:11
Hitman
This Friday I decided to see an overdue movie that was already at the “Dollar Theater” ($2 actually :p): Hitman. I wanted to see this movie because I played the games, and although I never finished any of them (I don’t finish single player games lol) I wanted to see the big screen adaptation.
This movie recreates pretty well the setting of the games: lethal human machines, bread with the single purpose of killing select targets. They work alone and don’t have any human contact with anyone, and no emotions at all! Then the movie goes on to try and add the personal and emotional aspect to the character. Although the movie does include some nudity, it is used mildly with the purpose of accentuating the cold character of Agent 47- When dealing with the human feelings of lust and arousal, he refuses to “fall” and carries on his mission. You’ll see they actually portray an emotional relationship between the two, but without the normal “chick flick” ingredients!
On the casting, I think Timothy Olyphant turned out to be the perfect match for Agent 47. Olga Kurylenko (Nina) also does a pretty good job of portraying a rebellious prostitute. They were both able to show the cold and emotional side of their characters. On the weird side is seeing Robert Knepper (T-Bag in Prison Break) playing a russian secret service leader and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond in Lost) playing a drunk drug/weapon lord that is the brother of the president of Russia.
It’s not a great movie… But it’s not as bad as some “game2movie” adaptations we’ve seen! It’s got some interesting action that will appeal especially to those who played the games. On the bad side, I feel they rushed some scenes and lingered others. Not too bad, but not good enough to be a great movie! But go see it and comment for yourself! 
What I liked about the movie was the plot setting: a “nice” hitman that got framed by it’s employer, “The Agency”, and went on to bring justice with his own hands. Heck yea!! Conspiracy plots FTW!
My Score: 5.5/10
Bee Movie
I watched the “Bee Movie” yesterday (Saturday). To be honest, it almost sucks! lol The lifesaver for this one is Seinfeld’s jokes that are not even relevant to the storyline. Basically, after Pixar the stakes are REALLY high for animation movies, and although this one is not horrible, it’s poor. The CGI looks from the late 90’s more than 2007! And the story… Oh gosh… Don’t get me started! Loved the voices of Seinfeld, Chris Rock (small appearance, but has the best lawyer joke I have ever heard in my life!!!!!) and Renée Zellweger. And then we have Sting and Larry King as themselves (hilarious!) and… Winnie the Pooh gets “shot”! ahhh ah
Like I said, if it wasn’t for the nice jokes spread across the movie, I’d feel like I had been ripped off… $2!
My Score: 4.5/10
Blogged on December 16, 2007 at 22:02
So Friday was movie day! I watched two movies: Alvin and the Chipmunks and I Am Legend! (both opening on that day!). I’ll start with the latter.
I Am Legend
I Am Legend is a great movie, and I want to make that clear right off the bat. In my opinion, it’s an oscar-worthy acting for Will Smith. He’s brilliant and… he makes the movie worth it! That and the amazing deserted New York City landscape… stunning! But it’s a great movie with some major flaws. Although the story has a lot of potential I believe they rushed it towards the end, leaving us with a sense of “Ok, now what?” or “Sure he could have done it differently!”. And another flaw would be the crappy special effects… I mean, even Resident Evil can make more realistic zombies (as if there’s such a thing lol :p). The point being that they look… CGI! It still manages to get your heartbeat above healthy levels from time to time, and I loved that, but we expect more realistic creatures ever since Star Wars: Episode I hit the big screen… Right? I won’t go into further details on the above flaws to avoid… spoilers!
Bottom line, it’s a great movie, with brilliant acting, some hilarious jokes to decompress all the tension of the intensive thriller it is (”I was saving that bacon!” haha)… Heck, even the german shepherd should get a freaking canine-oscar IMO! =)
My Score: 7.5/10
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Ok, I’ll admit! Ever since I watched the theatrical trailer for this one I made my mind to go see it. And I got invited to go see it with some friends on opening day… Neat, huh? On to the movie itself, a heads up: your head will hurt and you’ll have tears coming down your cheeks… from laughing too hard! I mean it: it’s a very funny movie… for the first half of it at least! Yes, you’ll laugh your butt off with the scenes and awkwardness of some situations, and you’ll find the animated chipmunks too be “real” enough to make you forget they’re actually NOT there! But as the movie/story unfolds, it gets to a point where they try to actually tell a story… and it didn’t work. Some scenes are too long, laugh-less and boring. They try to add some drama to it, a “chick flick” of sorts starts to come up and… the movie ends! OK, I won’t be too hard on it… I mean, it’s the freaking Chipmunks, right? WRONG! I wanted it to be funny the whole way through! If you watched the theatrical trailer (the longer, more recent one) you’ll have seen close to half of the real funny scenes. I’ll have to say the “I’m waiting for the rinse cycle!” tops my list of funny moments, but… that’s me!
I sincerely urge to go see it… for the sake of your past/present inner-child! I loved the Chipmunks growing up and, apparently, I still do!
My Score: 7/10
So, get out of your cozy, warm living room, and go watch these two nice movies!
Ohh, and if you’re not into any of these genres (thriller and comedy), you can always go see “Enchanted“… I did last week, and… enjoyed it! Hilarious movie and good for a family evening at the theater while still entertaining both the “mom” and the “dad”, while taking some sincere laughs out of anyone who enjoys a good one! It’s a Disney cartoon story… in “real” life! Yup, even with birds and squirrels dancing and doing their choreography… I won’t review that one, but I’ll challenge you to go see it and report back on it… sincerely!
Blogged on November 26, 2007 at 11:34
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY (BUY)
Need I say more? 
Blogged on July 30, 2007 at 17:11
Well… This post will come out in English as it refers to a new phase in my life where English will have a prominent part of it!
As I’m getting ready to move on with my life, moving abroad gets in the way! (in a good way!) For that reason, I’m considering selling my current desktop PC (a close to 2-year old high-end machine) and buying a new computer in my new location. Now, a big dilemma pops in: being a long-last Apple fan and a computer enthusiast at the same time generates this mixed feelings on what to pick as my next workstation (that includes personal stuff too: entertainment, leisure, etc…):
1. Having fallen in love with Macs by using them for Audio/Music production a while ago (basically, OS9 - and then OSX - with ProTools LE on a Digi001, running on a dual 450Mhz G4), I have since then used them in various usages, choosing OSX to be my OS of preference, as to interface and stability.
2. I’ve been an Open Source/Linux geeks for a while. Since ‘99, when a Portuguese magazine distributed a RedHat 5.2 CD with it’s monthly issue, I’ve gone through tries and trials, learning ins and outs of the system. I have since then, become a huge fan of Gentoo, although I also enjoy Debian, and recommend Ubuntu for newcomers.
3. I’m a hardware/overclock enthusiast… And I love building, tweaking and juicing up my systems. At the same time, I hate burning DVDs/CDs with crap… I rather keep in my disks. So I have a big storage array… (I’ve done the math… it’s not that much more expensive to keep things on disks than on DVDs… I don’t use cheap DVDs as they tend to loose whatever I put on them, so, if buying some decent branded DVDs - I pick Memorex usually - it’s not that much cheaper than just buying internal SATA disks…). And I love the ability to just switch a video card if I can; add more disks; add more whatever…
4. I’m an internet/computer freak. I *LOOVE* the ability to read my feeds, check my mail, watch a TV episode, etc… when I’m in line waiting for something,when I’m on vacation, etc… While I do have 5g 80Gb video iPod, I’ve noticed I don’t watch video on it as I enjoy some HD-loving… So I could use a good, big laptop screen! And while I’ll buy a new cellphone and seek a decent internet plan, there are just things you can’t do, or feel good doing, on a cellphone…
SOOOOO… I’m here to humbly ask your opinions on one of these two options:
A. Switch… And get a Macbook Pro… And maybe a 22” screen later on, for desktop use. (still don’t know whether the 15” or the 17” high resolution MBP… :S) PS: I’d run OSX & WinXP (gaming) on it… maybe third-boot to Linux…
B. Stick to the desktop PC’s. And get a high-end PC… customized, custom built, blistering power, amazing graphics… and run Windows and Linux on it! But lose the mobility aspect…
PLEAASEEE help… :/
Blogged on July 23, 2007 at 01:36
Há filmes com categorias muito… próprias! Vou colocar no mesmo “saco” duas sagas: Die Hard e James Bond. Sinceramente, uma das coisas que mais me revolta em algumas análises cinematográficas, seja de leigos ou de supostos (e sublinho o “supostos”!!) comentadores, é falarem em “falta de realismo” na análise a filmes desse “saco”. Sim, porque numa saga como Star Wars o realismo é algo omnipresente… certo? Procurar realismo num filme destes é como procurar um político honesto na Assembleia da República: wrong room!
Fui ver ontem (sábado) à noite o Die Hard 4.0 (que nos EUA tem o curioso título “Live Free or Die Hard”). Gostei do filme! Não vou comentar o realismo da acção (esclarecimento: não o considero realista, okay?:)), mas salientar o facto que os efeitos especiais foram quase todos… reais! Confuso?? Eu explico: numa era digital, os efeitos especiais são quase todos tão reais como… um jogo de computador, onde tudo é digital. Ecrãs verdes, azuis ou às bolinhas, decoram os estúdios de gravação, e os actores já se habituaram a ter diálogos com personagens invísiveis que são depois acrescentadas digitalmente. Já no filme que comento, não há coisas dessas. Lembram-se da cena do túnel? Foram gravadas como estão ali… inclusivamente os carros a voar e o vôo bélico de um deles (”… I was out of bullets!”) é resultado de muitas tentativas, cálculos matemáticos e físicos, experimentação, estudo, etc… Claro que, e por causa disso, os actores recorrem bastante a duplos (espécie em extinção pelas razões que sublinhei acima, do novo processo de criação de efeitos especiais em sofás ou cadeiras relaxantes, com monitores e mesas digitalizadoras, e tudo durante a pós produção!), mas isso não é por “medo” (se bem que em alguns casos, até eu!) mas por intransigências das seguradoras e dos realizadores que preferem pagar a duplos do que arriscar lesionar/perder a estrela do filme.
Mas passando a um comentário mais objectivo, gostei do filme! Um filme é uma forma de entretenimento e isso é coisa que este transmite sem se fazer rogado: boa acção, excelente cumplicidade entre a parelha principal (surpresa esta boa actuação do Justin Long!), Bruce Willis melhor com a idade, e uma mulher muito bonita a embelezar o “palco”. Quem se lembra dos filmes anteriores da saga, lembra-se do tipo de humor de John Mcclane… e isso tá melhor que nunca. Não vou adiantar nada em relação à história, mas enquandrando o filme num ambiente técnico-geek, as saídas de Mcclane, alguém que em Portugal cairía na categoria info-excluído, são muito cómicas!
Bem… chega de comentar. Vão ver o filme, se gostarem do género… Se não gostarem e forem vê-lo, POR FAVOR, não desencoragem outros de ver o filme que eles até podem gostar do género!
Blogged on July 10, 2007 at 21:35
Depois de ter visto “acidentalmente” o trailer deste filme (bem feito por sinal, não revelando muito da história… coisa que me faz evitar ver outros trailers!) na net há umas semanas, nunca mais fui o mesmo! Sinceramente arrepiou..
Sempre fui grande fã da série quando era miúdo, e a primeira impressão que tive quando ouvi falar numa hipotética adaptação ao grande ecrã fiquei céptico. Não que não tenha gostado de outras adaptações de clássicos de BD p.ex., mas tinha medo que o fizessem como um típico M/6 (”Filme para maiores de 6 anos”) e com as condições que isso abarca. Claro que todo o meu cepticismo caiu por terra tendo visto o trailer, mas ainda assim, fiquei expectante… Não queria ter uma desilusão!
Fui vê-lo no domingo à noite com 2 amigos, sendo que nenhum deles era tão grande fã dos desenhos animados como eu, e apenas um deles se lembrava vagamente deles, apesar de ambos se lembrarem do que se tratava. Apesar de o filme ter começado quase 20m depois da hora prevista, e sem trailers, publicidade ou outra coisa a ocupar-nos entretanto, lá nos recostámos e “apertámos os cintos”! Tal como é “pecado comum” a filmes deste género, a história não é o factor-chave, e as personagens não são muito desenvolvidas, mas isso não nos impediu de disfrutarmos do fantástico espectáculo que se seguiu.
Tanto eles como eu ficámos muito satisfeitos e com “flashes” cravados na memória visual. Porque essa é mesmo a grande virtude deste filme: VISUAL FX!!! Quem não viu o filme mas lembra-se dos desenhos animados, consegue imaginar a complexidade das transformações dos objectos mecânicos nas mais variadas formas. Não ficarão desiludidos! A nível de efeitos é dos filmes que mais me impressionou, quiçá, arrepiou - e garanto-vos que o fez em inúmeras ocasiões - especialmente quando entrava em cena o grandioso Optimus Prime.
Não vou revelar nada da história, deixando-vos apenas com o “bichinho” de o ir ver… E quem já o viu, sabe do que estou a falar, certo??
Hey! I‘m Levi Figueira, an ‘82 portuguese tech enthusiast a.k.a geek! My interests range from design, photography, multimedia, production and music to linux, networking and development! *Personal tastes are subject to change without prior notice* :p Enjoy! =)
