A new update on the Dev Channel for Mac and Windows versions of Google Chrome now allows themes to be implemented in the browser.
So that’s cool, I’m sporting this saucy number, kind of a squary camo.
Makes sense, since this theme is called Camo (download).
The second theme available for download is called Snowflake (download). This theme is for the less hardcore Chrome users who can't take the squary manliness of the Camo theme.
If you try these themes and neither strike your fancy, you can still go into the options menu and reset Chrome to the default theme.
I must reiterate that this is a feature that is currently exclusive to the Developer version of Google Chrome, this is an incomplete but fairly stable version of Chrome. If you're using the Beta or Final releases of Chrome, you won't have this option. If you are a Chrome user and wish to switch to the Dev Channel simply click on this link, there are links to all three flavors of Chrome (Windows, Mac and Linux).
On a different, yet still Chrome related note, I just learned that the Mac version of Chrome has yet to have plugins implemented. I still encourage all Mac users to try it and then subsequently be converted to using it.
Well, one fine morning about twenty days back I wrote an article about my favorite things, in the Television section I forgot one show, which in reality is probably my favorite show out of them all, Supernatural. This show airs Thursdays at 9pm on the CW (well not right now, but it will soon). If you do not know what this show is, well, I honestly do feel bad for you.
Right, the show is about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (yes, their last name is taken from the fire-arm), who in the shortest description possible take on the evils of the supernatural world. They take on Ghosts, Vampires, Demons, Tricksters, Wendigos and anything else that goes bump in the night. There is one thing that needs to be said about this show, the writers take from a lot of myths and religions, for instance, the Demons do work for Lucifer but at the same time they fight the Wedingos from Native American myths, and also they portray Angels as not the nicest of the things they meet, so if you find the kind of thing offensive then this is not the show for you.
By now you must be wondering why I chose that quote as my title, well first of all I set up my desktop 2 weeks ago (and installed Windows 7 from a gamers stand point later maybe Friday along with my new Zune) and I started playing Civilization 4 again (along with Galactic Civilizations 2, Battlefront 2, Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 3) and well, I realized its one of my favorite quotes from the game (although pretty much everything is said by Spock so its all pretty rad). Second, it sums up the show nicely (so does Carry on, my Wayward Son) as these kids were raised by their father to take down the Supernatural, and their father listened to what is considered today as classic rock (who's parents didn't?) and it carries on to the shows, so in away whenever they save someones life, rock and roll saved their life.
Now, one of the big points of the show is it's like a forty minute Horror movie every week, not only in the fact that they have to fight all the stuff Horror movies are made of, but the way it is shot is like a movie, with wide shots, angles, the licensed music, music cues, really its not like most other TV shows, which are shot as TV shows, this show is shot as a movie and the acting is not that bad from the main cast, but sometimes the guests can be a little wooden (but what horror movie would be complete without bad acting?). One final point about the show is the humor, all I am going to say about the humor is this, in one episode a man shoots a sheriff when he is possessed, when he gets an exorcism performed on him and returns to normal he says remorsefully: "I shot the Sheriff," in which Dean replies after trying to hold it in "But you did not shoot the deputy."
Well I really can't believe that I missed this show on my favorite TV show list as it really is my favorite. Well I hoped you like my review and please check this show out. Season five starts on the tenth of September, a day before my birthday. As I said, watch from my review of the Windows 7 Release Candidate, the Zune and the Zune player.
My Ubuntu PC is back up and running. Pretty crazy.
All I had to do was switch the plugs and all of a sudden, it turns on. It's like a Zombie or something. So, with this startling revelation, a question arises: Should I kill it?
Sure it's fully functioning, just like it was before the lightning storm except now it goes by the name Ubuntu PC McZombieface, or some variation of that. I've read the Zombie Survival Guide, as well as World War Z and the Ninja Handbook for good measure, so I think that whether I decide to keep using it, or destroy it, I'll be prepared to go either way, so... yeah.
Now I'm kind of upset, I can't replace it anymore.
Friends, a lightning storm just claimed the artificial life of my Ubuntu PC. It just sits there now, like a paperweight. The post below this contains a screenshot taken around an hour before the incident.
Being an eMachine, it becomes obvious that this computer came from humble roots. Most likely, it’s origin was somehow related to Wal-Mart, and it is uglier than sin, but inside was a proverbial heart of gold (read: Silicon).
Lil’ Jim II (as we shall call it), came into my household with the attitude that it wasn’t gonna let those other computers push it around just because it’s system specifications weren’t exactly up to date. At all. It was from around, oh say, 2003 probably.
Barely being able to run Windows XP, new life was breathed into it with the installation of Ubuntu 8.04, which ran without a hitch (until today). Sure, it was noisy, made click sounds that I only heard from my old Windows 3.1 desktop, but hey, it worked.
While it may have been old and crippled from the beginning, not a singlething could ever replace it. So rest in peace, Lil’ Jim II.
I was going to post a couple days ago, but I'm lazy and that's part of my manly charm, so I have to keep that up from time to time.
ANYHOO...
A couple days ago, and update for the unstable release of Google Chrome I'm running on my Ubuntu PC was released and I grabbed that right up, this update was special for one specific reason, with this latest update, plugins are now implemented.
Needless to say, awesome. Not only because I no longer need to rely on two browsers to surf, but also because I can tell people this: it's still fast. I haven't noticed a single ounce of slowdown with the implementation of plugins.
My desktop looks considerably different from last time, but that's just a small testament to the versatility of the Linux Platform.
I am not the Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (I heard Ryan Reynolds is).
That would be sweet though...
I saw Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince.
This is my review.
It will have spoilers.
I believe that when you create a piece of art based on another piece of art you are allowed to change things to allow a proper conversion, maybe a different take on a situation, unless the original piece of art gave you something that would have been one of the best things this summer. I am of course referring to the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I'm getting this out of the way, this part is not really a review but rant. O.K. the ending of the book before Dumbledore is killed, a call to arms is issued by Hermione to D.A. (Dumbledore's Army) to fight against the Death Eaters, but in the movie, the Death Eaters just walked to the astronomy tower unopposed. So instead of a battle between a bunch of wizards we get nothing, just Dumbldore's death. So instead of a battle of epic proportions we get... nothing. Well, we get a two part movie next year.
O.K., time to put of my film student hat on (a little loose, must have lost weight, and yes, it is a fedora, and if it wasn't summer I would be wearing my film student blazer as i write this, but I'm getting off topic). This film was shot wonderfully, the first battle between Harry and Ginny with Beatrix is shot wonderfully. Nice jump cuts and fast panning creates a fast and intense battle, almost feeling like you're there. This film runs for two hours and forty min but it does not feel that long, I know some of the movies feel like you spend a year watching it, but not this one, it seemed to go by fast, maybe a little too fast. One thing the books did right was the fact that with each one it is darker than the one that came before it, keeping with the age of the reader as they were released, and the films seem to be doing the same and with a different director, it can be hard to do sometimes but this series seem to have stayed the course and is doing just fine by it. The film uses light well, but I miss the music cues from the first three, but good ol' John Williams will be back in seven and eight. Did I forget to mention that John Williams also did the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Superman series as well? So ya, the man is a movie music legend (Oh, and he is doing the Green Lantern film as well as The Adventures of Tin Tin film which will feature Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thomson and Thomson, so ya). I really enjoyed this film minus the hate from not including the big wizard battle, and that is a big achievement considering that I wanted to see (500) Days of Summer but alas, the movie theater did not have it there because half the screens were Harry Potter and it does not normally have smaller films anyway (i really wish they had Moon but nooooo that would be to sweet.)
Did I mention that there will be a Green Lantern film, yes staring Ryan Reynolds, I don't know about him for Hal Jordon but I will role with it. Oh and people complaining about it not beening John Stewart (The African American one) as the main character, its not because he is African American its because he is a bad character, yes if you read the comics you would see that he is the 2nd worst of the human Green Lanterns it goes like this Hal Jordon, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott, John Stewart, then Guy Gardener. you only like him because either he is African American or you watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, in which his personality is more like Hal Jordon, so take that!!!!!!!!
Turns out that my internal wireless card is not fried. That dude at the Service place just wanted to give up, and it’s always funny to notice that they sound like a broken record when they can’t fix something, it’s always fried, or the motherboard has to be replaced, when it’s something completely different.
The diagnosis for my laptop was that the WLAN was not working simply because the laptop got so hot that it fried my internal wireless card. That made no sense, since it stopped working after a software update.
Anyways, I’ve got my laptop back, and I’ve got a lovely 802.11 N Wi-Fi USB Adapter to plug into my laptop so it can live on with the interwebs a-flowin’ through it.
Here’s where the weird part comes in.
Much like a Ninja, or more so a wild Stallion, my internal wireless card occasionally shows up and functions. The Stallion analogy works better in my opinion. You can’t tame it, if you shut the gate it’ll just jump the fence and you’ll never see it again. If you leave the gate open, it’ll come in for a little fellowship from time to time with it’s fellow internal components. It seems to show up more often now, maybe it’s because it feels a sense of rivalry between the Wi-Fi adapter and itself… I am a little crazy, yes.
As some of you may know, James stated in a previous post that he would be going to Camp until Sunday and returning today. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
James has been reported missing by the authorities not thirty minutes ago, and the only clue they have as to his whereabouts is this small transcript from a Journal he kept while he ventured into the unknown. This is his story:
9:00 AM, July 9th: We have now arrived at this Camp ground, and I seem to be the only one to notice that it is in utter ruin. The roads are not paved, these structures I see do not have satellites on top of them, some of them don't seem to even have electricity. I pray for the souls trapped inside these shells of torture, which others would dare to call “Cabins.”
10:45 AM, July 9th: My sister is trying to make my brother and I play this strange card game “Racko,” It is completely tactless. I feared that we were slowly turning into animals until my brother agreed that this game was, like, totally stupid, bro. We played Uno, that's better.
9:09 PM, July 9th: I can't believe this, the high-def tv my brother purchased for the half-week at camp doesn't pick up the Air waves without rabbit ears, this sucks. Truly this is a wasteland of nega-technology, where technology is frowned upon. Terrible.
11:30 AM, July 10th: I went searching for intelligent life, someone else sitting in their cabin like a sane person, not like these folk hanging around outside enjoying “Nature.” Nature, bah! If I want nature, I'll pop in a disc of Planet Earth, why go outside when David Attenborough is doing it for me?
Absolute Wasteland...
1:35 PM, July 10th: What is this thing!?
These folk seem to have lost their foothold in reality and created strange variations upon modern architecture. I pray that these people will realize their wrong-doings and come back to the sane world of Reality shows and emotional indifference. They're too... happy, it kind of makes me feel strange to see so many happy people. NO, don't give in James, you're a sensible, intelligent and independent couch potato, you don't need to mess up such a good thing.
7:00 PM, July 10th: I have been subject to torture, friends. I have eaten their food, and I am now digesting it.
Look at this cacophony of dark and evil materials, not a bit of which needed to be put in the microwave mind you, so you know there's something wrong already, crudely laid upon a plate of paper. A warning to you all now, friends, if you hear mention of a substance known as “Macaroni Salad,” run fast, run far, for it is a substance these creatures consume, even though it was pretty good... WHAT AM I SAYING!?
12:30 PM, July 11th: My mother may soon be lost to this settlement of nature loving... folk. She just let in two young children of another tribe to tend to wounds that developed on one of their knees. Apparently, the female child in question was injured when operating a machine known as, and I'm not sure if I'm saying this right, a “Bicycle.” My worst fears may soon be realized, I fear that this Faith Community hidden in the trees may indeed be a front for a child labour organization! Their minds were warped and twisted in a terribly perverse way, they were happy, with smiles on their faces, almost as if they were glad that they were being worked to the bone operating these Bicycles...
4:45 PM, July 11th: My mother has been gone for perhaps half an hour. She has supposedly gone to appeal to the leaders of this settlement to remove perhaps five or six wasp's nests hanging off of the outside of the cabin we are in, I personally believe that they may be weapons strategically placed there to emanate gaseous... gases into our cabin to manipulate our brains. My brother went out to find her after fifteen minutes had passed, and much to his misfortune, he found her fraternizing with the folk. Not just attempting to study them, she was interacting, laughing, conversing, she was one of them. They have infiltrated my family group, I can't even trust my own mother anymore, I may have to kill her.
Her expression. So empty.
3:01 PM, July 12th: I just returned from a most disturbing event. I travelled with my sister to some kind of pool full of water. Children were being dunked into it by their parents, most likely being taught diving for militant purposes. For the sake of the investigation, I went in this poorly disguised pool to study further. I wore my shirt in the pool, but it was only because I burn easily. Stop laughing. It... it wasn't fun at... at all. I... I... ok it was pretty snazzy, I could get used to these militant diving techniques, even if it looked a lot like swimming.
(Right here, there seems to be a large gap between entries, I think that this may have been when they pounced on him.)
8:00 PM, July 12th: I am now a man. I have created fire with my bare hands (also with wood, paper towels and matches). We made S'Mores! Did you know about these things? They're, like, Marshmallow, ok? Yeah, and then you light the Marshmallow on fire and wrap it in Graham Cracker and Chocolate (the Marshmallow shouldn't be on fire at that point). Boy, I sure was wrong about these kind folk. Just becauses they converse, laugh and don't need TV doesn't make them weird, it just makes them special. We also cooked assorted meats on the fire, Hot dogs and stuff. I wonder where a honky can get hisself a fire for inside the house...
Well this is overdue, I'm Anthony Doom. I was going to write something for two Fridays ago, then last Friday, and well, finally this is it, my introduction to this blog and hopefully one of the many future contributors. First, let me say I'm a student a Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Computer Science Major (with a film studies minor). Most importantly right now, I have no Internet, that is right, a computer science major with no Internet at his house. Until September I have to come to the school to use the Internet so I might not be able to post as often as I would like, but I will try as hard as I can to update every Friday, with a multitude of videos and humor, mostly tech related but also Pop-culture related as well. So to introduce my self I have decided to do 5 top five lists so you can judge my opinions compared to yours so you can decide how much salt to add to my views. Well, lets get started and in no particular order (the number 5 slot for each will be reserved for my favorite current item on the list I am watching/listening to/surfing, not all time favorite, I guess that would be a particular).
Doom's top 5 favorite Television shows
1. House M.D. -Fox Well here it is, my first favorite TV show, House. If you do not know what House is, well, where have you been (have you been in a Coma?) House is about Doctor Gregory House, he is a drug addict, cocky, an atheist and based on the fictional Sherlock Holmes, who always figures out the current episodes illness in a manor that is best described as a brain wave, but the real meat of the show is the humor which is mainly about House's overblown ego, which is done by the great Hugh Laurie, and the drama created by House's drug addiction and love for a certain person who I will not mention.
Here is a trailer for season 3 there are some spoilers but still shows some of the basic humor of the show.
2. Stargate (Well, both of them I guess)-Showtime and Sci-fi Some people do not like science fiction show or movies. They will not like my list of shows or movies then, if you are one such person its probably best to skip ahead (or hey, try watching anyone of these shows, you might like them). This is a great science fiction show, it has an episodic format of endless possibilities but also with the ability to have long season stretching arcs, this is done by having the Stargate. The Stargate is a device that allows one to travel to another Stargate by creating a wormhole that connects them. There are two shows, both finished in their runs but a third is in development. The first of the two shows was the original, Stargate SG-1, this show followed Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), a tough as nails soldier that has a sense of humor, the everyman that leads a team into the world of science fiction stories (this is where much of his humor comes from). Second (and my favorite character in the original), is Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) the resident archeology nerd, I almost became an archaeologist because of this character, he grows from a weakling nerd who could hardly hold his own in a fire-fight to becoming one of the strongest characters. Oh and he died, a lot. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), a scientist who isn't very funny in the beginning, just their to break down gender roles like one episode where the inhabitants of a planet kid-nap her so they can sell her to another clan to make peace, which leads to a new leader being chosen and the gender roles are equalized. The last character I will go through for this show is Teal'c(Christopher Judge), he is the resident alien (oh, I forgot to mention that the "aliens" are in fact humans taken from Earth that other aliens placed throughout the galaxy, and there are snake-like aliens, that take people over and masquerade as Gods), a super solider that realizes his Gods are fake and wants to help his people by jumping sides. These people go from planet to planet fighting the Goa'uld, an evil race of snake-like aliens that burrow into the skulls of people and take them over and using their advanced technology and pretending to be the Egyptian, Asian, and other Gods to make the people worship them.
Here is a small selection of the many funny moment in SG-1
I will review Atlantis at another date.
3. Umm just give me a second..... right, Top Gear-BBC
Top Gear is a car review program from England, it stars Jeremy Clarkson, Richard "Hamster" Hammond and James "Captain Slow" May. It's unconventional, rude, crude, politically incorrect and well, I will let video speak for me (These guys work blue folks, don't watch if that offends).
4. Firefly-Fox (ONE MORE TIME!) This is the little show that could...not. This was created by Josh Whedon (Buffy, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog) about a ragtag group of space cowboy smugglers that go from one dangerous situation to another, with nothing ever working out for them but they still go on, they still have hope. I cannot find an appropriate video that represents the show.
5. Kings- NBC
This is the story of King David's rise to power set in the modern day about a fictional country called Gilboa and their tensions with the country and their rivals Gath, but the weak acting of David and some of the other members of the court is all washed away with the acting of King Silas (Ian McShane, of Deadwood fame) that is why it is my favorite current show.
Recap of episode one
Doom's top 5 favorite Podcasts
1. iFanboy Pick of the Week Podcast
What happens three liberal New Yorkers get together and talk about Comics? Hilarity ensues. These three podcasters Josh Flanagan,Conor Kilpatrick , andRon Richards (Richards!) talk about what they love and hate about Comic Books. Make sure you listen to the end where they talk about G.I. Joe its the greatest part of this episode. 07.05.2009 - Episode #191- Batman and Robin #2
2. This Week in Tech
Leo Laport gets together with other tech personalities and talk about... you guessed it, cakes. No, wait! Tech, I meant tech. this WEEK in TECH
3. Diggnation
Two guys getting drunk on a couch and talk about news, they are quite witty. Hosted by Revision3
Ok, yeah... The last two are just Revision 3 Revision3
Doom's top 5 favorite Songs
For this I'm just going to place a video for each song so please listen to them
Doom's top 5 favorite Movies
1. Elizabethtown
This is a weird choice for me, I don't generally like these kind of movies, but it has a nice selection of music, a nice story about a man coming to terms with the death of his father, falling in love with a women and about killing himself. It's a pretty story and soulful as some people would describe.
It stars Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst
2. Blade Runner Riddly Scott's classic Neo-noir masterpiece staring Harrison Ford as Rick Deccard a "Blade Runner" a man who hunts down Replicants, humanoid robots that are illegal on earth.
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
My favorite of all the Trek movies, an analogy for the tearing down of the Berlin wall and the old men who have had the disdain for the enemy that they had for their hole life, so in this film, Kirk and the Klingons try for peace.
4. Hot Fuzz Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are cops in a small town and uncover a plot so secret that I would be killed if I revealed it here. Hilarity Ensues.
www.digg.com is a social news website where you get to vote on your favorite stories.
2. ifanboy
www.ifanboy.com is a site where you can make your pull list of comics, read articles and listen to a podcast by the podcasters mentioned above.
3. Cracked.com
www.cracked.com Yes the website with the lists, the main attraction to the site (for me, at least) is SWAIM's videos.
4. Io9 www.io9.com A social blog about science fiction, television shows movies, what not.
5. Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org, yes, I know this is a cop-out about my current favorite sites but it is.
Well thats it. Sorry about any spelling and grammar mistakes, I am looking forward to writing more articles so watch out for them and if you think that there is any thing I should check out that you think I would like and should check out you can email me at punisher1135@gmail.com. Thanks.
Before I head off to Camp until next Sunday, I thought I should post that the nice man caring for Lil' Jim has just told me that the internal Wireless card is officially fried. The only way for Lil' Jim to communicate with the outside world is to strap him to life support... or wireless support, or something.
Well, like a good Mother (don't read into that), I shall still care for it no matter how many appendages are broken by it's own Mother (once again, don't read into that), serviced and declared dead.
I'll be grabbin' up a wireless card and continuing on like there's nothing wrong. Though, in the spirit of denial, I shall try one last thing to see if there's life in the card. I'm gonna try and stick in a Linux Live CD and see if it detects it. IT'LL WORK DON'T JUDGE ME AUUUUGH!!!
For the past few weeks, I've been using my Ubuntu PC as my predominant computer due to Lil' Jim still being in the shop (we miss you, man), so without the luxury of Windows Live Writer for writing my blog posts, I've been forced to use the in-house writer built into Blogger, but I digress.
The true nature of this post is to impart upon my fellow geeks and people who come here accidentally that Google Chrome is the bestest thing in the history of forever. Now, to some of you, you may think of this as some sort of metaphorical poke with a stick. Some of you may be thinking "But James! You cruel, un-moustachioed man! Chrome isn't available on Mac and Linux yet, stop torturing me!"
Well, you're right, Chrome is indeed not avai- Oh hey! Look at that!
That, dear reader, is Google Chrome running on Ubuntu 8.04.
Granted it's a dev build and not the final release, it's stillGrease Lightning, no, it's Greased Grease Lightning. That's even faster.
I'm not kidding when I say that Chrome is fast on Linux, it's the fastest browser that I've ever used on any Operating System ever. However, it's not the final release for a reason, it's still not done. According to the splash page you see when you first open the brower, the following features have not been implemented yet:
Plugins, including Flash (so no YouTube, Hulu, etc.)
Printing
Complex text
Complex tab dragging
Gears support
Looking at the first bullet, you can probably figure out why Chrome can be so fast, there's no plugins. That's not to say that it isn't still fast with the inclusion of plugins, it's just alot faster without.
When I first downloaded Chrome, I spent the first few minutes attempting to make it crash. I only found one way to do it, and that was to exploit the lack of Complex tab dragging. This is where you drag a tab out of the browser window to form a new window out of the tab. It's not too bad until you try to drag the new window back into the old one again.
At least that was a problem until the alpha build was updated. With the release of the new Dev build a few days ago, the complex tab dragging seems to be working, soooo I don't really know why that's still on the splash page.
Now I'm stumped. This build is supposedly a minefield, yet I can't crash it, but maybe you can! Just visit the following link to download the dev build of Chrome for Mac and Linux (32-bit, 64-bit). Have fun.
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