A coupe of days ago I watched I Am Legend (directed by Francis Lawrence), which tells the story of a lone(ly) human which must survive in a world overrun with Vampires. While the core plot is simple, Will Smith does a great job bringing the feeling of utter-loneliness and slowly loosing your mind to the white screen.
He plays Robert Neville, the lone uninfected (and immune) human in NYC, who’s smart and determined, but whose sanity is starting to fray, even as he seeks to find a cure for the retrovirus that has wiped out 90% of humanity and turned most of the rest into bloodthirsty, light-fearing monsters.
The film has a somewhat “rushed” ending, which is unfortunate, but overall I liked the movie a lot and would rate it 8.5 out of 10.
It’s not clear why (dissapointed viewers ? Will Smith leaking the ending ? or one of the vampires complaining :o)), but they shot a whole new alternate ending, which is available on the DVD release.
WARNING - SPOILER: Only look at this fragment if you have already seen the movie !
UPDATE 04/07: Mobistar (the Belgian operator) announced tonight that the scheduled press meeting of July 4th (tomorrow) has been cancelled. The press meeting was supposed to inform us about the Belgian release date and prices. The given reason was that Mobistar hasn’t been able to get everything ready by tomorrow.
But… (there’s always one)… as far as we can see it will be sim-locked, and at this moment Mobistar will be the only provider selling this nifty piece of technology.
This is where it get’s cloudy. I spoke to an official Apple Store employee today, and she confirmed the cost would be around €200 for an 8Gb iPhone.
Update:
Rumour goes however that we’r emore likely going to pay €499 for an 8 Gb model and up to €569 for the 16Gb model… This same source indicates that we’ll have to wait until September to get our hands on a new iPhone…
The same source and a Mobistar reselleer confirmed that Mobistar will hold a Press Release this Friday July 4th (What’s the deal with all these Celebration days ??) on prices and availability.
The release of Firefox 3.0 on June 17th was followed by rapid usage share gains, topping 4% worldwide. In the first hour after the effective release of the product, Firefox 3.0 gained 1% of worldwide share. Firefox 3.0 share gains came mostly from users upgrading from Firefox 2.0, while its overall usage share by grew about .4%, primarily at the expense of Internet Explorer.
Those guys really have nothing else to do then spend money, don’t they ?
Latest architectural news from Dubai is a rotating skyscraper…
While David Fisher’s Twirling Tower is not the first rotating tower we’ve spotted (Dubai Tower Clocks the Sun), and not the first that generates power from the wind (Wind Shaped Kinetic Pavilion), it’s definitely the first to pack this type of power. Designer David Fisher claims his Twirling Tower can not only generate enough energy to power itself, but it will also generate enough energy to power ten additional buildings similarly sized. While details on the tower’s true ability to generate electricity have not been proven, we are definitely a fan of those willing to search out new ideas.
What differentiates David’s Tower from other moving towers is the integration of a large wind turbine sandwiched between each floor giving the tower its potential for energy. Inserted at every other floor, the turbines alone might be enough of an energy generator to stop residences heads from spinning, giving the penthouse owners at the top of the building the ability to control their view rotating to their hearts content. One might imagine that such a unique tower would be destined for the Dubai skyline, but Fischer plans to build this tower in a place only fitting of its energy potential, in the windy city of Chicago.
First, let’s get back into our schoolbooks. Current electronics are based on three main cornerstone components: The transistor, the capacitor and the inductor.
Researchers at HP Labs have now built the first working prototypes of an important new electronic component that may lead to instant-on PCs as well as analog computers that process information the way the human brain does.
The new component is called a “memristor“, or memory resistor. The circuit element had only been described in theory by Leon Chua back in 1971, nobody managed to actually create one.
You knew about StreetView, right ? Well, Google has now integrated their fancy 360° photo gimmick into their Google Maps navigation tool; meaning you can now get StreetView images while getting directions.
To give it a try, just open http://map.google.com and get the directions between two locations (Tip: use US locations, since they are already covered by StreetView…)
Question now is who (and when) will release a mobile navigation device for use in your car with this function ?
OpenOffice.org 3.0 is due in September, and it promises to be worth the wait. Even though OpenOffice.org 2.4 is not yet out the door, plans on OpenOffice.org 3. are getting very concrete, and the firts (beta) results are looking promising.
According to the 
Researchers at HP Labs have now built the first working prototypes of an important new electronic component that may lead to instant-on PCs as well as analog computers that process information the way the human brain does.
This great piece of Flash code allows you to actually drive around Google Maps.
Belgium has a couple of great bands, Stash is one of my favorites.
