General

Stardust

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, April 30, 2006

Coming from the maker of the Sandman series I was a bit apprehensive about Stardust. But it came highly recommended so I made an effort to turn the cover and then the first page. Then time passed and surprisingly I was at the last page. I guess what I liked about the book is that it evokes, even if only a bit, a sense of wonder and awe that, for example, the Harry Potter series wasn’t able do. Or perhaps it was the fact that I watched instead of read them :P In a way, it’s almost a children’s book if it were not dark and twisted at times. But then the Fairy Tales by the brothers Grimm were also like that, so who am I to say it’s a children’s book? It’s also pretty clever, without appearing contrived. I can’t wait to read Neverwhere and Coraline.

Rating: 4/5

General

Philips VisionPlus Headlight Bulbs

By Jay Lagare on Thursday, April 27, 2006

Yesterday, as I was driving out from the basement parking at work, I kind of noticed something amiss with my headlights. I couldn’t place it until later when I noticed from my headlights’ reflection on the car in front of me that my left headlight was dim. The bulb was busted. Thankfully, I was able to get home without any incident (mulcting cops come to mind).

So this noon, Paul and I went to Han’s at Shangri-La to get replacement bulbs. Paul had recently upgraded his headlight bulbs to brighter Philips DiamondVision white-light bulbs. His headlights looked absolutely great and I have decided I’ll also get Philips bulbs though not the white-light version. Also something that doesn’t require upgrading to ceramic sockets and relays which he needed to do because of his bulbs’ higher wattage.

Luckily for me, Philips has just such a product: the VisionPlus. It has 50% brighter than stock bulbs without requiring the aforementioned ceramic sockets and relays. We installed the bulbs earlier this evening just before leaving the office. It was pretty easy and in no time they were installed. I flicked the switch and lo and behold: There was LIGHT! I’m not sure if it’s 50% brighter but it sure is brighter. They work just as advertised and, considering the importance of light, I don’t see why people shouldn’t go for these bulbs when their stock bulbs eventually fail.

Rating: 5/5

General

New Trackpoint Cap

By Jay Lagare on Tuesday, April 25, 2006

A week ago, my friend Drawde finally delivered the Trackpoint caps I asked him to get me a few months ago during one of his not-too-infrequent trips to Japan. Unfortunately, he had misplaced it and only found it last week. He gave me the tiny plastic bag and there they are: three perfectly-shaped Trackpoint caps. These are the textured flat-headed caps, not the easily worn down eraser-head caps that I have been using (there is a third type: rimmed flat-headed caps). I immediately replaced my current cap which I had just installed not too long ago. The new cap fit snugly in place and definitely improves control by providing a bigger point of contact and better traction. And although it looks pretty durable, the insurance provided by two spare caps is very comforting.

General

Creative SBS 350

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, April 15, 2006

The subwoofer of my old Logitech 4.1 speaker system had given up the ghost a few month back. I haven’t found a reason to replace it then. But lately I’ve been listening to music. And with the holy week then coming up, there’s the inevitable marathon of TV show episodes. Listening to limited-bass sound for a lengthy duration, though quite feasible, is not entirely palatable. So I decided to get an SBS 350. It’s a 2.1 system. I decided on 2.1 because I hadn’t been using the 2 speakers from my old Logitech system. The speaker units are black, elegant-looking and well-made. They matched my Thinkpad quite well. Installation was a snap. There was sufficient length of wiring to position the satellites and the subwoofer anywhere within reason. At a total of 20W power, it’s more than sufficient for solo listening or even for a small room. Just don’t expect surround. The bass can be overwhelming at times but you can tone it down with the graphic equalizer available in any media player software. It’s not the best speaker system there is but for most bang for your buck, it can’t be beat.

Rating: 4/5

General

V for Vendetta

By Jay Lagare on Monday, March 27, 2006

Remember, remember, the fifth of November.

I don’t know about the fifth of November but I sure will remember this movie.

Coming from the Wachowski brothers of the awesome The Matrix and the not-so-awesome Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, you would expect V for Vendetta to be a great action-packed movie. But that is not really the case. There was not a really spectacular action scene except towards the end when the protagonist eviscerates a bunch of the British Gestapo in a few seconds. Okay so it was slowed down, but that’s for the benefit of the viewers :P

This is not to say the movie is not good. in fact it is very good. But for other reasons. Aside from a being a bit of an action movie and a not-so-quite-love story, it is also an almost political movie. An oppressive regime, a diabolic scheme to gain and maintain power, a vengeance seeking freedom fighter (or terrorist depending on who you talk to), the use of the media for political purposes, inspiring the reluctant into taking action against oppression, … It was actually this side of the movie that I liked best. Parallels to the current situation in this country? You be the judge. For that you need to watch this movie. So go!

Rating: 5/5