Review: Halsey Street

Halsey Street by Naima Coster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

300: Rise of an Empire review

First off: spoilers. Not that there is much to the story that you wouldn't already know...but still. I might as well mention it. As you can tell, I don't write very much on this blog. I take a very laid back approach, and write when I want to. This is one of those times.

The original 300 movie was, in my humble opinion, excellent. It combined storytelling with combat, even if the numbers were skewed a bit (more in the army than just 300 Spartans, Xerxes army was probably around 300k and not over a million...that kind of thing), it got the idea of the story right. That is: very few Spartans and Greeks stood against an overwhelming majority and allowed for Greece to rally. Eventually turning the tide against the Persians. All well and good, history has been supported by worse data. Enter 300: Rise of an Empire.

If you want to read the Wikipedia articles on these battles, click here. If you don't want to read the entire thing, just start with the Second Persian invasion of Greece. So here we go.

1. Actual history: Marathon. No, Darius did not die. In fact, after the battle Darius went back home to raise another army to do what he just failed to do. However, the Egyptians revolted and this caused an indefinite suspension of the invasion. Darius later dies and Xerxes comes to power. During this time, Artemisia of Caria was princess (and later queen) of Halicarnassus (not even close to Athens or Sparta as invasions go) after her husband dies, also had a grandson. She was held in high regard by Xerxes, telling him not to go against the Greeks on the ocean (which he ignored, to his peril). She also convinced him to abandon the campaign to his generals after the loss of Salamis. She wound up in Ephesus to take care of Xerxes illegitimate sons and her lands were well off because of it. End of story.
   
   In the movie: Themistocles kills Darius at Marathon and "angers" Xerxes...but Xerxes is a wimp and so has to be motivated to go crazy by the supreme naval commander crazy girl named Artemisia who apparently had a grudge match with ALL of Greece because of her family being killed by some no name hoplites. Not the badass princess of actual history, but a sob story. Didn't happen, and not even a liberal analysis could say that this was close to accuracy.
2. Actual history: A random battle. I have no idea. I'm assuming this is part of the battles of Artemisium. Western style circle of ships, Greeks and Persians were essentially equal in losses, however the Greeks were much smaller in number and so losses hurt more. There were a multi-national force of over 270 in the actual battle.
   
   In the movie: depicts 50 ships against 1000. I think the studio is pushing this whole "lopsided odds fighting for the future of humanity and freedom and democracy against tyranny" thing too far. We are all aware that Greece had slaves as well, right?
3. Complimentary sex scene: God help me, don't get me started. No, Artemisia did not have faux-passionate pounding sex with Themistocles. Didn't happen. In fact, Artemisia wasn't even the commander of the Persian navy. She was a leader of 5 ships. That's it. What a horrible, disgusting, awkward transitions scene. I mean, 300 had a sex scene, but Spartan abs-master (you know him as King Leonidas) was fairly certain this was the last time he was going to see his awesome wife, and so had last time sex. Makes sense. But grudge match girl, commander of the Persian navy, invites naval commander of Athens to bone, and doesn't kill him? She just spent the first half of the movie randomly killing...well...everyone. She didn't take this opportunity to off the Athenian general (whom the entire Athenian naval strategy was hinged) and break the moral of the Greeks? Mmk.
4. Actual history: Athens burns. You see, Atheniens weren't idiots. They knew that the retreat from Artemisium and the loss of Thermopylae meant that Attica (Athens was located here)was undefended. They evacuated to Salamis to avoid major loss. There was a small contingent who held out in the Acropolis, but they were defeated. Athens was razed.
   
   In the movie: Athens just...burns. Random people getting murdered, Xerxes dropping a head ceremoniously...blah. Because no one knows that a 300 thousand man army led by a king with a piss match against Greeks was coming for Athens after Thermopylae falls. Thanks Obama.
5. Actual history: Battle of Salamis. You know what? At this point I'm not going to even explain it. Suffice to say that Themistocles whooped ass with around 378 multinational ships against over 1200 Persian ships. Allies that they knew were there from the start of the battle. Because real men don't just run into battle with nothing to fight with, no matter how awesome the cause, thinking that even though no one is there to fight, there's a slight chance that they'll come at the last second to make this whole thing worth while. Oh, and Artemisia lives.
   
   In the movie: No. I won't even spoil it for you. Actually I will. THEY HAD 4 SHIPS. OH, and a horse. Yes. A horse riding across the ocean. Sparta saves the day. Who saw that coming?

So there you have it. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 41%, which I say is a tad high...but I'm also a harsh critic in this regard. I personally feel it's a waste of Redbox funds, but that's just me as well. 

Tablets finally have had their run?

I recently came across an article that was labeled with the infectious title:

Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

 At first, I was curious. Surely, after a mere four year run tablets were not on the out. After reading the article, linked here, I had some significant misgivings. I feel as if the article, from a technical standpoint, could be proven true in the future. From a personal standpoint, and the fact that I reside on a campus, the article seemed to take some serious standpoints too far. For example:

The first issue I had was cellular vs. wi-fi. He states:

As phone apps improved in terms of quality and speed, users abandoned their tablets for the device in their pocket that could access the Web anywhere and anytime from Wi-Fi or cellular connections.

As a phone and tablet user myself, I find that I use both almost equally. Second, combining wifi and cellular connections seems presumptuous. Wi-Fi isn't everywhere or available anytime. I hate watching videos on my phone without a Wi-Fi connection because it eats up my valuable data limit. The larger screen real estate on a tablet allows me to watch YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Vevo all on full HD. Why go to my phone? If I have Wi-Fi, I have my tablet. That simple. Granted, some restaurants have Wi-Fi these days, so if I were out to lunch I won't necessarily bring my tablet along. The point remains, if I can use my tablet I would rather do so. Not only is it easier on the eyes, fingers and typing in general (mine has an attached keyboard dock), but even now apps optimized for tablets are simply great looking. Which brings me to my next point.

The writer said:

Based on the momentum of the phone, Netflix decided to merge the tablet and phone UIs.

I find this akin to stating that our love affair with PC's are out because it is now considered standard business practice to have mobile optimized pages. Just because one is used, doesn't mean the other isn't. With the emerging tablet market, only four years in, they are becoming household items. It isn't out the question to see either ten inch or seven inch models around the house. Combining phone and tablet UI's isn't unprecedented, indeed it would seem like the logical next step.

Bringing it back to the cellular connection, the writer stated:

Conversely, only 12 percent of tablets have cellular connections, instantly making them non-mobile devices.

I believe this is because of design issues, but much like the iPod without a data connection...it hasn't gone anywhere. The iPod is still being readily developed. It still sold even though the brand new iPhone C was quickly reduced in production. A device far older than the newest iPhone is still being produced and it has no cellular connection. Where the niche remains, the companies produce. One would think that should cellular connection be an issue, Apple would have eliminated the newest iPod. Not only do they have the iPod, they have four versions of the device with no cellular connection. Obviously these are not tablet devices, they they do share the characteristic of not having a cellular connection. Non-mobile devices are limited, granted. They need a Wi-Fi to fully operate. In the end though, data intensive apps should be used on Wi-Fi. It's logical, as many mobile plans limit data. So, data intensive is negated through Wi-Fi, larger screen real estate to play with, often real keyboards to type...tablets are not only convenient they are more useful when Wi-Fi is around.

Finally, size. This has always been a point of contention for any company, as Samsung has demonstrated. A rule hasn't been established on what is the "best" size. The Nexus 4 is perfect in my mind, but someone else may want something smaller. The Note is well known as the "phablet" as the article mentioned. Personally, this is huge. It doesn't fit comfortably in the pocket, so maybe that's why Samsung came out with the Watch. Either way, anywhere between four to five inches seems to be the zone. Any larger and you're in tablet territory, any smaller and you're dealing with fonts being too small to see, assuming the phone may not have the processing power to display it correctly. I see size as the most fluid of concepts in this article, since it's really left to opinion.

In the end, this article may be right from possibly an enterprise point of view. Then again, maybe not. iPads are being used in schools, can be appropriated toward certain restrictions and are easier to play with concerning apps. Android is trying to make headway into this market, so it remains to be seen what will happen there. It isn't the Samsung Galaxy S[insert number here] that they are marketing to businesses and schools though. It's the tablets, whether it's the 8 or 10 inch versions.

Hopefully, tablets can be seen not as going away, but changing the way they are used. They aren't just for personal use.

Apple vs. Google: Maps edition

Hey there!

We all know about the rivalry between Apple and Google when the mobile market is concerned. One of the biggest changes in recent history was the change from the Google maps engine to Apple's own version. Not only was this the biggest change Apple made to their operating system in quite some time, it was poorly conceived and even more poorly launched. You see, the issue was not so much that Apple was launching a competitive maps to Google, it was that Apple had no mapping software that could even compare with Google's tried and true system. Street view, 3D buildings, directions, bike paths, subways...you name it, it was part of Google's system. This means, of course, that Apple would have to rely on third party information to then sync into it's own app. This...hasn't worked well. In fact:

it's still happening today. So when a CEO issues a letter of apology, especially from a company like Apple...well, you can't say much for the launch can you? So, bear in mind that while Apple does in fact have a map service...it's ill used.After all...if you can't trust the icon...

Drives you off a bypass...

Doesn't drive you off a bypass!

That isn't to say that it's horrible all the time. Meh. I'll start with the visuals, we'll go from there.

3D Imagery comparison
Both Google and Apple boast 3D views of major areas such as New York City. Depending on your preference, "pretty" may be an important issue for you. Otherwise, why would you buy an iPad? BAM.

Kidding.

So here we have Apple maps of ground zero in New York:

Pretty right? I like it. Nice and sharp. It's not perfect, obviously. This is straight from the Apple Maps icon. I mention this because Google Maps and Google Earth are separate applications, although getting to Google Earth from Google Maps is a simple menu press away. Even so, it's combined in Apple Maps. So there's that.

Moving on to Google Maps, let's look at the same image...

Bleh. Quite horrible actually. This is with the cache at it's largest, and after a bit of time to let the ram catch up. I'm truly disappointed here. All is not lost though, as Google and Apple are actually quite close when set at a more reasonable level.

Just viewing the bay for both of them, top is Apple, bottom is Google.

As you can see they are much closer in resolution. There are both 3D, roughly the same viewing angle. I will point out that Apple, being integrated with the maps features and not a separate app as Google Earth is, has the destinations such as food, gas, transportation...etc. However, Google Maps has the same thing, save the 3D buildings aren't represented in the same way. 

Here, I would like to point out a few things. If comparing the features now, rather than the visuals, Google doesn't display as much information but more relevant info. For example, both Google and Apple Maps show traffic, but Apple shows traffic only on the Battery Park Tunnel leading into FDR. On both applications, the buildings in the 3D shadow mode disappear and the map becomes flat to show more places of interest when you zoom out.
Apple shows many restaurants, where as Google only shows what has been searched for or what are even more visited. I'm not sure of the criteria here and why things are shown versus others. Finally, did you notice the red wreck icon on this image? At the time, Apple didn't have it. Not only does Google Maps do traffic, it can also report wrecks and direct you accordingly. Both apps have road closure info, though...so you're not totally in the dark.

My verdict: Apple has the appeal of a great looking app that has an "all-in-one" feature. 3D buildings, many places of interest. However, as linked above...it has had its issues with directions in the past. A friend of mine used Apple Maps to find a location that was unknown location locally and it led her to an entirely different city. Google didn't have that problem, found the location quickly. I wish Google had more locations of interest, but since it is a search giant after all...once you search for restaurants it will lead you to more relevant results.

Final thoughts: Apple for the visuals and lots of info. Google for the more relevant info with visuals on a lower bar. Comments below! Gimme feedback! Oh, and Google Hangouts vs. iMessage/FaceTime next!

Wormholes

I wrote this in passing one day when I was bored. It's based on the game called +EVE Online . It's a bit of fiction, and I wish I had submitted it when they recently had a contest for fan fiction. Oh well. Without further ado: "Wormholes".

The engineer who modified my pod couldn’t understand why I wanted audio specifically designed for music. A “waste of time, effort and your concentration”, he said. Heh, engineers. They may have the smarts to design every weapon system we capsuleers have available...but it’s all nuts and bolts up there. Efficiency, speed and product quality. Any loss of this triumvirate and a engineer breaks down. They don’t understand though. High security space is noisy; our HUD displays a constant chatter of local talk, low sec is threateningly quiet...almost an unease in the air, no matter where you are. Null sec space is almost as bad as protected high sec...alliance chatter, corporation chatter, intel chatter, you name it and people are talking. Talking, talking talking. Ship this, pilot that. This system, ship type blah blah blah. Every once and awhile, capsuleers need to get away. Sometimes, we pod pilots become the nuts and bolts we fly.

I think sometimes that the covert ops frigates designed for scanning down locations in space were designed by someone other than the technical engineers. When you look at them, they seem to absorb the darkness around them. As if they wrap themselves in the dark to calm the raging soul of a combat pilot. They're small, almost invisible even without the cloaks that make them so useful. These aren’t the hard, battle ready frigates that swarm the known and unknown depths of space...they're the information. The quiet calm in the innumerable conflicts that span constellations and regions of space.

So leaving my combat ships that are so loud, even when not moving, my custom designed pod is loaded into my frigate-class covert ops ship Anathema and I undock, allowing the initial momentum of the station flinging me into space to drift. Intel and alliance chatter still graces what my HUD calls "local"; that is: the pilots in the region or the solar system I'm currently in. I glance briefly at my starmap, and out of the 5000 systems I choose one at random. My onboard computer Aura informs me my warpdrive was active and I shoot away from the station. The gate fires and I jump, repeating the process until I arrive at my destination. Warping to a planet, its mass looms before me ever turning, ever silent. There have been “loud” planets before. The ultra rare shattered planet are in very few systems caused such an uproar that many now fear them as omens of the future. As many times as I have seen death, I know now nothing can portend the future. I launch my probes, infinitesimally small in comparison to the gas giant, and they float there waiting for orders.

A few minutes later I’ve found one. My probes have located the final frontier, and the quietest place in the EVE cluster. The pulsing wormhole is larger than my ship, but only known by the distortion of space around it. I order my ship through, and Aura informs me the wormhole has sucked my ship through to undocumented space. At first, my HUD informs me it can’t connect to the subspace network. This was obvious, as I could be an incalculable distance or I could be next door to known space. Essentially, I was both. I didn’t care; the majesty of the wormhole and the sudden and absolute quiet forces one to consider things greater than themselves. I close what was left of my functioning chat windows...truly quiet. We capsuleers don’t land on planets...but I imagine there are species there. Living their quiet lives, absorbed into their own conflicts and problems...their planet is all they know and it’s their biggest problem they know. I realize their “wormhole” would be space itself, if only for the inability to define space. It makes one think...how often do greater species jump into our EVE cluster and marvel at our inability to see outside our defined limits. That we escape death by machine, when they have found a way to simply ignore death altogether. Somehow, I feel as if these wormholes hold the answer to our issues, our cares and our woes. They twist the very fabric of space time and manipulate ships within their influence. If they're capable of supplanting the well established laws of space and time, would not those manipulations stretch to those who dwell within, possibly extending life or even eliminating death altogether?

All is quiet as I warp to a local planet. My scan probes are deployed again, and I use them to search the system. These systems are quiet, but they are not empty. Broadcasts can still be sent in wormholes, and this is often dangerous. Even aside from that, there are the system "sleepers". Drones from a forgotten race, still functioning perfectly, and some say more dangerous than they were originally designed. So dangerous in fact, our Tech 3 strategic cruisers come from their shattered remains. Not only are these ships dangerous, they are able to be modified to fit most any purpose. I have one of these ships, and I almost yearn to allow the sins of the son to punish it's father. Billions of ISK go into these ships though, and indeed so much skill is required to pilot them that to have the ship destroyed whilst piloting it can actually cause your knowledge of flying it to severely decline. I tend to believe this is caused by the unique physique of a pod pilot and what we're flying.

Today though is a mission of exploration. I have no intent of even firing the single rocket launcher attached, let alone the demigod power of my strategic cruiser. Still silent and cloaked, I simply use my ships onboard scanner.. I find my query, and the ship uploads its location to my HUD. Just as silently, my ship engages the warp drive. I exit the warp tunnel 100 kilometres from them, those quiet drones. If you turn up the audio when near them...you can hear them quietly murmuring to each other. I haven't a clue what they're saying, but it must be important...for what could one say after an eternity of existence? They’re slowly orbiting a local station, protecting it as they have for time immemorial.

It's unnerving, almost. Looking at them, armed to teeth as it were, encircling their station constantly scanning for any threat. My paranoia starts to take over, accented by the fact that I'm a pod pilot. Paranoia is what we do. In spite of this, I silently command my ship to play some of the classical music I found. The one chosen was of particular interest to me...all I got from the archives was that it was called "Moonlight Sonata". It was mystical, and at it's end I would leave these creatures in peace.

For the moment though, today...this pod pilot would just watch and meditate. The silence of space combined with the haunt of this sonata put in me in a reverie. I don't know how much time passed...but it did, or so I assume; did that concept matter here? Eventually, that ever-present voice in the back of my mind told me it was time go. I was young again. These ancient creatures showed me the meaning of age and silent guns, and no longer would I be fooled to think that my fate was consigned to war making and noise. I would one day be at peace, and although it would take war to achieve such a goal...I would see silence rule the guns of our age. Was it possible?

My ship had bookmarked the location in space where the wormhole was. As I warped to the destination, the thought leapt in my mind: why not stay? Why not just crash land on a planet, engage the emergency pod evacuation and build a life? For the longest moment I've ever experienced, I considered it. As I commanded the ship to jump back into known space, I was curious if someday I would regret not turning around. The noise returned as I reactivated my chat and my compatriots contacted me for a fleet that was forming. The guns were not yet silent, and I put aside the foolish notions of the wormhole. Would I return though, and possibly make it a one way trip?

Evernote and Moleskine Review

The Apple Store in my hometown had a sale (believe it!) on the new Moleskine/Evernote notebooks. Since I had an iPod Touch anyway, I figured I could test it out. These are initial concerns with the product, so it may grow on me.

First impressions:
It's Moleskine. They're the best of the best, and I have at least three different notebooks I use. This one has a design on the front, which is normal for Moleskine, such as the journal for books. Either way, the purpose of the notebook was not the fact that it was from a particular brand, but what it was supposed to do. That being said, a little backstory.

The Backstory:
So I'm a gadget whore. I'll admit it, and I don't care to tell it to anyone. Smartphone, tablets, and all the little nooks and crannies they can exist in my life are just plain awesome. I use them everywhere, all the time. School is included obviously, and Evernote with that. See where this is going? Recently, the Evernote app on my tablet has started crashing, and while I like Evernote and they are most likely working on it, losing a whole set of notes unexpectedly can be devastating. So in response, I started to write my notes on paper and transferring them to Evernote later. This added benefit, while an extra step, can be better in the end because I am transcribing my notes to Evernote, repeating them and forcing myself to study in a fashion. Not my go-to for study methods, but it's there. Anyway, we have come now to Moleskine/Evernote notebook.

Review:
First off, the idea is there. However, Livescribe has been doing this for a while now. Their pens are excellent, I've used the first generation of them. The application of this version of moving from physical paper to Evernote should have, in my opinion, been implemented better. Basically, this notebook feels like a notebook sponsored by Evernote, not something implemented to actually make the transfer of physical notes to Evernote easier.
This is a comparison of a 5MP iPod Touch vs. a 8MP Nexus 4:

From my point of view, the 8MP looks better. It's obvious that it would look better, but Evernote advertises that these notebooks are designed for the page camera app. In other words, why buy the moleskine at all? Why not just have a phone with a nice camera on it and upload a pad of paper to Evernote that way?

Anther complaint, based on my experience with Livescribe, is they have now come out with wireless on their pens. If the notebooks (not the initial investment of the pen) cost cheaper than the Moleskine, wouldn't it be financially prudent to just buy the pen and then the three pack notebooks?






I'm not against them completely. I see their application, although when it comes to usage it seems they are underwhelming...just not impressed with this at all. I recommend an investment into Livescribe if you require paper notes (possibly due to a strict professor or boss).

Eve's rebirth (aka Retribution)

This is a new time for +EVE Online . As of late, I've been suffering from Eve apathy. This common mind set occurs quite often, even more when you play more often. However, there is a subtle difference I have found with Eve vs. other leading MMO's such as World of Warcraft (the one I'm familiar with) or Guild Wars (played but less familiar with) or Star Wars (wating for F2P, then I'll be familiar...er). These MMO's rely on content to propel their subscription base. So for WoW, it was expansion packs. The trend went something like this: [New X-pac]>SUPER Excited, play play play get gear play more. Get to the final boss, marvel in it's TOTALLY AWESOME final battle (even some storyline sweetness), get more gear. Sounds good right? After the umpteenth time, and you have to wait a week because you didn't get that last piece of gear again. And again. And again. The redundancy of expansion packs are like caffine. Works for the short term, causes worse circumstances over the long term. It's how they do it, indeed the only way they can.

CCP (makers of Eve) have somehow managed to avoid this cyclical process. To be sure: expansions matter. They ramp up resubs, they increase player turnout for day to day activity etc etc. However, I know there is an expansion coming in December, and yet...I don't care. At least, I don't care in the same way that I would if Blizzard were to announce a expansion pack to Mists of Pandaria. My point being: CCP avoids the whole rigmarole of large game changing (might I add expensive) expansions and just focuses on the game itself. I find it refreshing. More to the point: here is why I'm excited for Retribution. 

They have changed the roles of the ships. You see, Eve used to be about straight up training plans geared toward specific ship types. So you would be a capital ship pilot, logistics, mining...etc. These roles would then be fulfilled in required ships. So if you were taking out a fleet, you would choose a certain ship and stick with it (obviously the best one, so you don't get rolled). The other ships would fall to the wayside. The Omen is a good example. It's a glass cannon, and really couldn't be fitted with anything that would do significant amounts of damage, or be able to take significant amounts of damage before fireballing. A counter-example to this would be the Stabber. Even CCP said of the Stabber:

The Stabber is the quintessential Attack Cruiser with a huge speed advantage over other Cruisers. We are keeping its speed intact and adding a projectile weapon falloff bonus to extend its skirmish range.

So, obviously a fleet commander (FC) would take a cruiser roam with Stabbers, not Omen's. CCP is attempting to change this by readjusting fitting requirements and slots. Same with the horrible Coercer. Quite possibly the worst ship in the game. One mid slot allows you to fit either a scrambler or a prop mod. Le sigh...
Good news though! CCP is adding a new round of destroyers. They are also changing the original ones as well. The changes aren't game breaking (few are), but they make them just a little more appealing. Suffice to say, if I hear a fleet is on a frigate roam, I'm grabbing that brand-spanking new Dragoon or Algos (Amarr and Gallente respectively).

All in all, I'm very excited for the changes coming to Eve. I have recently come out of the lull I experienced recently and activity is ramping back up. Who knows what awesome combat will come out of the new designs. Suffice to say, I'm still glad it will always be the same Eve: from the ground up a great game.