Sorry folks for the lack of posting on my blog and for the silence over at BlogosphereRadio.com. We’ve actually got a few shows recorded, I just need to put them together. The problem has been final exams and everything that goes along with that, not to mention Xmas that is creeping up ever so steadily.

My last exams are tomorrow and Friday, so things should resume over the weekend. In the meantime, check out Megan’s blog, where I have heard over MSN that she is working on something pretty interesting. Also, I have finally discovered a use for that stupid channel 18 that shows a burning log 24/7 and plays Christmas music – it is the perfect noise for me to block out while studying!

The good folks at Nothern Voice just announced a schedule, complete with speakers! I am currently slated to be a panelist for the “Working with Multimedia Content” session. Actually, I have known this for a while, but wanted to wait for the official announcement before blogging it. I am not entirely sure how the panel is going to work yet, but I know there will be a few brief speaking moments and even some demos, so it should be fun.

I am really amazed at the job the organizing team has done. There are some pretty amazing people scheduled to be at this conference, including Robert Scoble, Tim Bray, Jeremy Wright, and Tod Maffin, among others. Megan and I will be attending for sure – if you are interested, you should come! Its only $20 to register!

One other thing to mention – BlogosphereRadio will be podcasting the event! We are not entirely sure how it is going to work yet, but we will for sure be doing some impromptu interviews in between sessions, so look for that. Ideally we would record and podcast every session, but aside from resource constraints we want to try to remain as invisible as possible so that attendees can focus on the speaker/content and not the equipment!

I’ll probably have more on this as the conference draws near, but in the meantime, make sure you register!

A new tool from Google came out in the last week or so, and it has been making the rounds in the blogosphere. I haven’t posted about the new Google Suggest, mainly because I think it’s a rather dumb idea. Basically it is a search box with something similar to Microsoft’s IntelliSense – you start typing letters and it suggests words and phrases you might be beginning to type.

Mainly I think it’s a dumb idea because it does what a directory does, but in a much less intuitive way. If I want to browse web pages, I’ll use a directory thank you. If I want to search, I will type the keywords for what I am searching, and I don’t need help typing them. Randomly typing in letters won’t make my searching or browsing any more productive, it’s as simple as that. I fail to see who Google Suggest is for, or how it is useful.

I was catching up on blogs tonight, and came across this post from Eric Rice. Take a look at what Google Suggest is doing to him. I now have a new reason to dislike the tool. And Eric, if you read this, I sincerely hope you can get something worked out. That’s just not cool, and I would imagine many other individuals and organizations will have similar problems.

I went to see Ocean’s Twelve last night, and man was it ever busy. The two early-late shows were sold out, so we caught the last screening at 10:45. We got into the lineup 45 minutes before the movie started, and we were at the very end, all the way out to the door. Fortuntely, we were able to get good seats inside. I have been waiting to see this movie ever since it was announced (and apparently so were a lot of other people) and as I really enjoyed Ocean’s Eleven, I had massive expectations going into this one.

And oh how those expectations were not met. Taken on its own, the movie is decent, it’s entertaining and visually appealing. The problem is that it cannot be taken on its own. If you skipped Ocean’s Eleven, you won’t have a clue what’s going on in this movie. Even if you did watch Ocean’s Eleven there are parts in the sequel that just don’t make sense.

Let’s start with the cast. Basically, the entire gang is back plus Catherine Zeta-Jones, who I think wasn’t used correctly. She spends the first three quarters of the movie giving everyone a “knowing smirk”, which makes it difficult to feel sorry for her or happy for her during the last part of the movie. Her part could have been so much better. George Clooney and Brad Pitt gave performances that were expected of them, but nothing spectacular. The only one that really had to do any acting was Matt Damon, and he was good at convincingly playing a moron.

So what about the story? Par for the course. Interesting twist with the competition, but it wasn’t the focal point of the movie. It would have been so much more interesting if it had been. Instead, the entire thing seemed rushed, and the big heist lost its appeal. Ocean’s Eleven did a much better job of making the heist interesting. In this movie, it almost seemed like an afterthought. It was like the writers said to themselves, “Oh, we have to include a heist in here somewhere, it is a sequel.” And an egg? I mean seriously, $160 million dollars is a lot more entertaining than some egg, no matter how much it is worth. Actually there are two heists in the movie, the main one and a smaller initial one that probably got just as much screen time. I daresay the only thing that was stolen in this movie was my time.

The part that really disappointed me was the inclusion of real actors into the story. For example, Topher Grace was looking after Rusty’s (Brad Pitt) apartment. Bruce Willis has some screen time as well, as himself, after he recognized Tess Ocean as Julia Roberts, who is played by Julia Roberts, and who in the movie, has to pretend to be Julia Roberts, because they look alike. Its even dumber in the movie than it sounds in my previous sentence. I ignored all the critics who said the movie was just a party between A-list actors, but including real actors in the story just made me regret ignoring the critics. Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, and Topher Grace don’t belong in Ocean’s Twelve, and it made the movie seem trashy.

Overall, I was disappointed. I mean, the movie wasn’t bad, and there are some great scenes and even some funny parts, but it could have been so much better. If you’re looking to watch something with a bunch of famous actors, this is your movie. If you’re looking for a good heist movie, watch Ocean’s Eleven or The Italian Job. Let’s hope the sequel to that movie is better than this one.

I went and saw Alexander last Saturday, but I just haven’t gotten around to writing a review. Or maybe it would be more correct to say that I wanted to be able to write a good review, and that’s why I have been putting this off. I like epics. Truth is, the movie just didn’t do it for me. And according to the Tomatometer on RottenTomatoes.com, the critics didn’t get anything out of it either, as the movie has a ROTTEN rating of 15%.

First, let’s take a look at what was good about the movie. I liked the sets, the costumes, and even to a certain extent, the music. I think as a purely artistic venture, the movie delivers quite well. The transition between settings was well done as well, moving from desert, to mountains, to jungle, all very fluidly.

I also liked Colin Farrell. To be honest, I didn’t have very high expectations for his performance, but I was pleasantly surprised. I never thought he could pull off a character like Alexander, but I think his performance in the movie was the best.

Now let’s get into what I didn’t like. My first gripe is that the movie was unnecessarily long, at 173 minutes total. And I have a suggestion for how they could have made it better – get rid of Anthony Hopkins‘ character. There really is no reason to have Old Ptolemy in the film, as all Hopkins does is tell a story. That could have been done using voice over on other scenes, saving probably 30 minutes off the film’s length. My second gripe is the casting. Don’t get me wrong, Angelina Jolie is pretty to look at, but considering she was only in maybe 30 minutes of the entire film, they could have picked someone else to play her role. She was too young looking, and her accent was weird – clearly not appropriate for the era. I suppose Val Kilmer gave a good performance, but he just looked out of place to me. It’s not like he did anything wrong, he just looked like he didn’t belong.

Actually that’s the feeling a lot of the characters gave. Perhaps the only one that was believable was Hephaistion, played by Jared Leto. He pulled off the gay lover thing to a T. And that would be my next gripe. Sure it’s historically correct, sure it was more common in those days, but really, did it need to be in the movie? I mean they didn’t show Alexander and Hephaistion going at it, so what’s the point of showing any kind of homosexuality? Obviously Hephaistion is important, and is the reason that Alexander dies, but their relationship could have been shown without the creepy gay undertones to get the same effect at the end.

My final gripe is that Alexander’s wife was not pretty at all. I apologize to you, Rosario Dawson, but you were clearly not right for the role. Or perhaps you were not utilized correctly. In fact, the only thing your presence did was make Alexander’s decision seem even more ludicrous than it was.

So there you have it, Alexander is not a movie I would recommend. Maybe the only other thing I liked about the movie was that at one point Asians were called “barbarians”. All of us got a good laugh out of that, especially Andrew. I guess I don’t know enough about Alexander to say whether or not it was really factually correct, but if it is, that’s probably the only reason I would give to watch the movie. Otherwise, spend your money on something more enjoyable!

For some reason I didn’t realize there was a beta version of MsgPlus! for the new Messenger 7.0 beta until today, but thank goodness I did. The chat history in MSN is terrible, really, really, terrible. I have felt lost without my MsgPlus! chat logs! You can get the beta here.

I posted a new episode of Blogging With… earlier this morning, in which I talk to Mick Stanic. During the interview we talk about his blog, the G’Day World podcast (which I have mentioned on here before), and the upcoming 2005 Australian Blogging Conference. Check it out!

Interesting “host” notes from this show? I mispronounced “G’Day” as “guh day” instead of “guh dai”. Silly Canadian I am hey? Also, the entire interview was done using Skype (PC to PC), so if you have any questions about Skype’s quality, this episode will answer them for you. Thanks Mick!

I acquired Gwen Stefani’s new album last night, and have been listening to it all morning. I figured I’d write up a review, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I haven’t done one in a while. More importantly, this album is really NOT what I was expecting. I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed, simply because they have certain expectations for the album. I’d have to say I am enjoying the album, but I don’t think it will become one of my favorites.

The album is a typical studio release in terms of what you get – 12 tracks for a total running time of just over 52 minutes. Nothing spectacular. On the other hand, the CD is appropriately priced, being 10.99 in the US and 12.99 in Canada. The first single off the album is the very catchy tune, “What You Waiting For?” I really liked this song when I heard it on the radio for the first time, and I still like it quite a bit. Just something about it! I guess you could describe that song as “electric-pop”, and unlike a lot of first singles, it is quite representative of the overall sound of the album. Basically, “Love, Angel, Music, Baby” is like an electric version of 1980’s Madonna.

Other tracks on the album include “Rich Girl”, featuring Eve, “Hollaback Girl”, “Cool”, “Bubble Pop Electric”, “Luxurious”, “Harajuku Girls”, “Crash”, “Real Thing”, “Serious”, “Danger Zone”, and “Long Way to Go” featuring Andre 3000. I think my favorite song so far is “Serious”, which sounds very much like something Madonna might have put out and then remixed. A lot of the songs are catchy, and sound very polished. “Rich Girl” and “Danger Zone” are probably my next favorite tracks (and no, the latter sounds nothing like Kenny Loggins’ song of the same name).

Overall I think the album is worth the money. I think Gwen has gone and made an album that she wanted to, but that is different than most people would expect, so kudos for that. I don’t know how she could possibly perform any of these songs live, at least not without backup synths and samples. If you’re not into electric-pop music, you probably won’t like this release. And if you’re expecting something that sounds like No Doubt, you’ll be disappointed. Otherwise, I think you’ll probably enjoy Gwen’s first solo effort. I know I am!

Wondering what Jeopardy! god Ken Jennings is doing now? The game-show-winning-streak-record-holder has become the official spokesman for Microsoft’s 2005 Encarta line of products. From BetaNews:

Jennings will embark on a nationwide media tour called “Quiz the Whiz” that challenges news desks to stump the human encyclopedia with questions from Microsoft’s Encarta Reference Library Premium 2005.

Pretty good deal if you ask me!

This has got to be the most expensive dance party ever (Windows Media Player required). It comes from Engadget’s test feed for “broadsnatching”:

The other feed is our test feed here that has a robot dance party, really we’re not kidding, it’s a dance party with robots.

Notable robots include a Segway, Aibo, and Roomba.

Read: Engadget