Google Voice has started as an “open beta”, similar to how GMail started. Invitations have been starting to roll out to specific group of peoples on waiting list and after that more invitations will be sent until it has reached a great amount of the market and probably just let anyone register for the service. It seems like it will be a great success so far. I’m just hoping that international calls will be cheap enough.

Yasser

In my opinion companies need to start standing up to Chinas censorship and stop agreeing to their demands of helping them censor everyone in China.

UPDATE: It seems that everything got back to “normal” at around 6pm yesterday.

Yasser

I ran into some new products lately including something from Verizon which was called MiFi. I was a bit confused at first thinking that they got WiFi wrong but as soon as I started reading I realized about this whole new idea called MiFi. The basic idea behind MiFi technology is to take the 3G Network and convert it to WiFi network and possible making it a hot spot for you and others. The benefit of this is that you could easily get a 3G signal than some WiFi Hotspot that is available for you. Novatel seems to be the company behind this technology and already releasing a version in Spain for Telefonica. Besides providing a HotSpot it can also serve as a “server” for software since it brings a small storage capacity. At the moment only Verizon and Sprint are the ones that have this in the U.S. but you can expect it to go big through out the year if it is successful. Note to mention, the speed on these isn’t great and depending on how many people are you sharing the network with it could be even slower. None the less you could expect to hear more of this soon.

Update: A new product from Huawei, check it out.

Yasser

Yasser

I am a huge fan of horror movies but everyone knows that only one out of ten movies that come out classified as scary or horror are good, the rest are a joke. With Drag Me to Hell I expected a very corny movie that would be full of nothing and a few spooks but I was very wrong. The movie moves along at a good paste and tries to scare you from the start with little things and big things. The story line of the movie is good, keeps constant and somewhat believable. The whole movie is full of disgusting scenes that at some effect to the creepiness. It isn’t very bloody at all which maybe explains why it is PG-13 but it didn’t need blood to do the job. I recommend to go watch this movie, it is a fun movie to watch at the movies.

Yasser

Yasser

I was a big fan of Night at the Museum when it first came out in 2006. I thought it was pretty funny and very educational at the same time. When part two was announced to come out I was a bit excited over it, thinking that it will be the same or better. Unfortunetly Battle of the Smithsonian didn’t live up to what I expected. The movie was not as funny and the story looked a bit more rushed which meant you needed to see part one in order to get some of the jokes and some of the story. Robin Williams is such a great actor and comedian and they barely used him during the whole movie, he could have added a bit more of fun factors and jokes. The educational side of the movie was still there which is very good. Overall it wasn’t a bad movie but it wasn’t a success either. This movie is not worth going to the movies for, you are better off renting it when it comes out on DVD.

Yasser

Yasser

I finally decided to spend some money and buy a new computer that I can take anywhere I want. I do have another laptop but it has battery problems and it needs to be connected at all times, it is also very heavy to carry around. So I decided to got for a netbook, one of the new small laptops that are ultra portable and extra light. I ordered from NewEgg.com an Eee PC 1000HE and I must say that I love it so far. I’ve been playing with it for a few hours now and the battery is still going, it is said to last at least 8 hours. It is small and light but it is 10inches which makes it not too small but just small enough. It brings 160GB hard drive which is more than enough for what I am planning to use it for. The keyboard because it is small took a little to get use to but it is not that big of a deal. I would truly recommend anyone to get a Netbook because they are super portable. You just have to know that it is small and it is not meant for everything, it does have its limitations.

Yasser

Colors

The easiest thing to find in a movie is color patterns. The use of the color red usually means love, sex, passion, anger, blood, death. Depending on the movie you will notice. But this isn’t always the case, the director might use the color in a different way or have little or no meaning. In the movie Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee, he uses the color red to show heat. You could take as an example the movie The Sixth Sense which uses the color red a lot in the scene where the kid and the mom are in the kitchen (near the start of the movie). Some movies might use a combination of colors and are used to set different moods of characters throughout the movie. Next time you watch a movie focus on the colors used and if they have a specific meaning to the movie.

Camera Angles

Camera Angles are a bit more complicated to understand and see. A low camera angle makes someone look taller but more than that it makes someone look important, superior. It is usually used with main characters of action movies. Sometimes a big villain might have a low camera angle to show how big he is. On the other hand, a high camera angle gives the meaning of not too important, if it is zooming out then they are usually loosing importance. Always pay attention to something that is in the frame for more than two seconds, it usually means something important that will have a meaning latter on in the movie.

Motion

Motion is a very tricky case because the camera usually moves a lot but in same cases it does have a special meaning. When the camera is moving away from a person (usually from a top view) and makes the object/person smaller and smaller it means that the person is getting less important or is getting lost, usually something negative. Zooming into somebody gives importance to the that picture, the director wants you to see details so pay attention to them. If a camera moves 360 degrees around a person/object, it usually means change, something is changing or is about to change. Mostly used when someone realizes something the camera does a 360 around the person. Typically in society everything goes left to right, it also applies to pictures. Most scenes you will see will have people walking left to right for the most part, if things are moving from right to left then it is something odd happening. Same way you would consider something is happening if people are moving away from the camera and not towards it.

These are some simple tips of things to look at when analyzing a film. There is a lot more thinks to take into consideration and some are far more complex than others. I might publish a second part to this.

Yasser