Enthiran- movie review

Finally after two weeks I got a chance to watch Rajinikanth’s latest movie, Enthiran.  Rajinikanth movies are know for over-the-top action and dialogues and this one delivers the former in great amounts. As a science fiction movie fan its not difficult to see elements taken from movies such as Terminator, iRobot, Bicentennial Man and Iron Man used throughout this film. According to Wikipedia this film had a record budget of 36 Million Dollars (162 Crore Rupees) and you wonder what on earth the production controller and producer were thinking when they were signing off such humongous amounts for dance and song routines in South America and other exotic locations. To be honest it didn’t make much of an impact in the movie overall.

This movie runs for almost 3 hours and by the time the end credits rolled up I was left drooling in my seat like a mindless idiot, my mind had left my body as it could not cope with the amount of action and computer generated graphics that flickered on the giant silk screen in front of me. It was a wise man who once said that a Rajini movie is best enjoyed with a bag of good quality weed and in the company of your closest friends. Well all that doesn’t matter coz Enthiran has been running to packed houses all over the world and Rajini and Shankar probably know what the people want and they have delivered. Unfortunately I was left wanting more.

Garmin Nuvi 205W long term review

I’ve been using the Garmin sat nav for more than 5 months now and its a very useful piece of equipment for your car. A lot of people have asked me why I need navigation in a small place like Kuwait but its not the size of the place that matters, rather how quickly you can get to a spot without getting lost or having to stop to ask directions.

First of all you need to update the map on your device,
1. To do that you’ll have to register your device,
2. Install Garmin communicator on your PC
3. Update/install the latest map version
There’s a Garmin Kuwait portal that will load the latest 2010 map onto your device, as far as I’ve seen its 99 % accurate except in areas wheres there’s new roads or traffic medians being constructed.

One useful file you might want to download is the Speed Camera POI (Point of Interest) file. Just copy this into the POI folder on your GPS and enable alerts for that POI. Each time you drive towards a traffic camera or speed camer it will beep and alert you.

Speed camera POI [link]

The GPS device also comes into good use for the following;
. Locating houses in residential areas, tested it out in Mishref, Mangaf and Qurain, works perfectly.
. Finding a gas station when you’re running out of fuel in an unfamiliar place
. Locating fast food places or shops
. Lets you know the speed limit for the road you’re currently driving on

Now although many locations are not mapped in the navteq map, you can add spots using the coordinates from Wikipedia, Wikimapia and Google Earth. What you should be looking for are the Latitude and Longitude coordinates and once you enter this into your device it quickly draws a route to that location.

Last weekend I had to attend a cultural program at ICSK Khaitan. As I wasn’t sure of the location I searched it in Wikimapia and entered the coordinates into the device. It led me right in front of the school without any problems. I’ve done the same for other locations as well and its worked fine so far. I’ve marked out the steps below;

 

search location on wikimapia

 

 

Select desired location from result list

 

 

Confirm location

 

 

copy coordinates and input into your device

 

 

GPS draws route to destination

 

Other details:

Battery Life: A couple of times I left the GPS unplugged from the charger during long drives and it lasted me under a week under normal conditions. Its better to leave it plugged in though coz then it will turn on and off automatically whenever your turn off or turn on the ignition.

Screen response: It uses a resistive touch screen so the actual touching is a little different from that of an iPhone. You do have to press gently for it to register a touch.

Animation and Sound quality: I compared my friend’s G-Hanz device with mine and the Garmin feels a lot more upmarket than G-Hanz. There’s no delay in drawing new routes and the sound is crisp and sharp.

Customization: There are a variety of sounds to choose from, you also change the icon for the car or vehicle and even change the start-up picture to match the brand of car you’re driving.

All in all this piece of kit is a must-have for your car.

Nikon Speedlight SB600 – Mini review

A lot of people would advise against using the on-board flash on your camera since it creates very harsh shadows and sometimes gives an artificial look to the scene. All this while I’ve been trying to avoid using it as much as possible but now that I have the SB600 I can experiment with different flash angles and maybe even Strobist type shots.

This is just a small review on the actual flash itself since I haven’t done any ‘experimenting’ yet, just took some family photos with the bounce flash and they came out quite good.

Mitsubishi Outlander – Long Term Review

I’ve this vehicle for more than 2 years now and recently it went in for maintenance at the 40,000 Kilometer mark. A lot of people keep asking me about this particular model so I guess writing a review would be the logical thing to do.

Workrave – Software review

I found this nifty little software recently thats aimed towards people who work in front of computers all day and run the risk of RSI. Workrave is opensource which means its free and you can modify the source code if you want to customize it to your needs. What is does is split your rest breaks into periodic intervals during which on-screen instructions pop up, instructing you on how to exercise your hands, shoulders, neck etc.

Sony DSC S930 First Impression

My mom wanted a small, reasonably priced digital camera that she could use to shoot photos of events at school or while on a school picnic. Her main criteria was it be very easy to use, ie, as few buttons as possible and should be small enough to fit into her purse, and she didnt want to spend more than 50 KD on it since it would only be used once a month or less frequently.  I’d always recommend a Sony point and shoot camera to anyone who’s not too particular about fiddling with settings or just quite simply want to take a picture and so I selected the DSC S93.