FB-Cal (though, like CDK, I don’t trust many apps) is an application that generates an Apple iCal format of the calendar of the birthday’s of your friends which can be imported to your own calendar in Google Calendar. So, go allow the access to that app and make your life little easier…

Secondly, I am still under heavy fire at the moment. Have internal vivas from 10th to 15th. I still don’t know the entire wordlist and my GRE is on 21st October. To add to that, one of the teachers hinted that the external viva and practical examination will be held from 23rd. Which gives me less than 2 days to study for that.

Plus, the 2 articles I was supposed to write for Linux for You… I missed 2 issues now. It looks like I ‘might’ be able to send them during November if I get time out from my studies. Otherwise, a December submission gives me a place in January issue at the earliest. The other article ideas which I had submitted to Linux PRO… I am yet to hear back from them about it. Turns out that their editor was suffering from some sort of illness. Get well soon Joe.

Also, I might update the version of Wordpress I am using currently to the latest one. In case things screw up, the blog WILL be down till I can find enough time to sort things out.

Then there are some other insignificant when considered individually, yet collectively daunting issues which I am facing right now. Combined effect is that I have not been able to post here for a LONG time. And it looks like the frequency of posting has turned out to be a negative exponent of some positive value greater than one. I sense that it’s time for me to leave. Until next time, this is Aditya Shevade, bored and longing for a LONG vacation.

P.S. - Check out www.adityashevade.com, my online profile. Comment on this article if you want as I have disabled the comments on that page, or just drop me a line.

In another news, Linux for You, August 2009 features an article written my be (cover story), My Own Streaming Radio. Do check it out.

As I mentioned above, a movie, play, book… They must be read or viewed in the original language. I am yet to come across a good translation of a book or a good dubbing of any movie. The usual stupidity of only changing a few names (proper nouns) and make then English… That sucks. No one calls me Sun when we are chatting in English. (Aditya means the Sun). But the people who dub the movies don’t know about such things. They change the spells, they change the names. Heck, I even heard a name ‘Chetan Kaale’ in that movie. LOL. What’s more irritating is the inconsistency they have. They change a few words and keep the others as it is. As for the voices, almost all are good but the voice given to Tom Riddle (in dubbed version)… Well, I want to kick that person hard on the back. He makes Tom sound like an exaggerating kid. The book (and I am sure even the original English version of the movie) portrays that Tom was powerful and had authority in his voice since early days. This guy screws the job to badly that… okay, PG-13 only. That’s it about dubbing. Let’s move on to character choices.

Almost all the base cast (or the main characters I would say) are the same as from previous movies. I hate and have always hated the person who replaced Richard Harris. It is Michael Gambon. Somehow I never liked him in the role of Dumbledor. To add to the annoyance was his rubber band on that beard. Yuck. Surprisingly, he has acted quite well in this movie. What a way to leave a scene I would say. Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) is also brilliant as usual. The way he talks, pauses and the modulation of voice. Pity I could not listen to that voice… Slughorn more or less has very less work (more on that later) so you never really bond with the character to actually have an opinion. Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) does a remarkable job as usual. He is, without a doubt, the best actor of all the children in all the 6 movies.

Now about the movie, to be honest, I hated it. I really did. They have cut a lot of stuff from the movie. Important stuff. Right from the start, they showed nothing about Harry convincing Slughorn to join the school. Which is of course the most important part of the movie as you will come to know later. Second thing, okay, let me warn you here. If you have NOT read the book then the review is not for you from here on. Loads of spoilers unless you know the story.

SPOILERS START

Here are the things I hated, not in chronological order. First, Dumbledor’s hand. It’s shown lifeless most of the times, but you see it to be normal many times. There is no word about Merlin, Merope and Morphin Gaunt. No word about where Dumbledor got the ring. Nothing about the importance of the ring, or the horcruxes for that matter. They completely ignore the basic platform of this book, which is making the reader familiar with Voldemort. Like, why he killed his dad and grandparents, or about the 3 Gaunts, about the Locket of Slytherin. Now, let’s see the scenario here. In movie 7, unless they add these things, how can they justify Harry locating the remaining horcruxes? He can find it because Voldemort picked objects of importance as the horcruxes. Movie mentioned nothing about it. Nor is there a mention about the cave where they find the fake horcrux. He simply lands in that place.

Moving on to few non important parts that they ignored or gave away… Harry sees the vanishing cupboard in Borgin and Burke’s. AND, he also tells this to Lupin, Tonks and Arthur PLUS, he also sees that in the school and does not get a hint. Stupidity at it’s height. Harry and Slughorn’s so called bonding is also somewhat ignored in the movie. It’s half done. Either do it completely or don’t mention it at all. Half knowledge is more dangerous than complete lack of it.

The most absurd thing was… There is no fight at the end of the movie. Only 4 death eaters enter the Castle from the Room of Requirements and they only watch Snape kill Dumbledor. Then Bella goes on a rampage and destroys the great hall. I mean, why go through all that trouble if you only wanted them to watch? Even higher height of stupidity.

On lesser (or non important stuff the inclusion or omission of these doesn’t necessarily affect the story or the experience much) note, nothing about Bill, Charlie, Fleur. Nothing about Grayback being a werewolf. Lavender Brown is fat. Nothing about Grayback biting Bill (of course). There’s only one quidditch game. I don’t remember much in this area as it’s not important.

SPOILERS END

When I come to think of it, the story, according to me, lacks depth. The attention paid to the less important details of the story is great and the important stuff seems to seep through somewhere. The movies, of course, have to eliminate most part from the book to fit in the given time constraints. Which lays the lack of depth open in front of you.

As far as the movie goes, I think the director has concentrated too much on making the movie a simple one to understand for kids. There are, many, obvious mistakes in the movie. (Not goofs, mistakes). In the attempt to make is an easy for understanding movie, very less attention is paid to the detail, which contributes to those mistakes. Alright, Harry is stupid, but the movies portrays other people as stupid as well. How come no one can get a hint? (I am not taking about the book now, the book conceals everything beautifully, not the movie).

All in all, it was a fun experience. It made me appreciate the first 2 movies. After watching all 6, I can say, or I am saying that Chris Columbus really made gems out of those two. I had a fun time. A major reason was the douchebags sitting in the row behind ours who were wildly chatting (loudly as well) about stuff they did not fully know.

You are free to comment. Don’t expect me to be nice and friendly if you are not. ( just a friendly warning ).

Check out what’s new in this version in the video here, http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/video/firefox-3.5.html

Happy foxing…

When I queried about this on #archlinux on freenode, I was told to install openntpd. I did that abd voila! scrobble works fine now. IRC rules.

About my health, the reason I have been away from blogging (again)… I have been having a constant stomach ache (much like I used to get back when I was 10). Nothing else, no other symptom. Only the stomach ache… like someone has kicked me hard Once I get over it (which may be in a day or two), I will be back again. I have also been working on an article I am trying to get published in Linux PRO magazine about using an old computer as a download slave. That also has to be completed before 22nd of this month…

Seeya!

In another event, I finally joined twitter as adibis (www.twitter.com/adibis). It looks fun. Not sure how long it will be able to keep me engulfed in there.

And lastly, my laptop has gone kaput again. This time it were those hinges that secure the screen to the keyboard that broke. It’s a plastic part and is not covered under warranty. So, I have to pay. First those morons made me pay 300 bucks to give the quotation about the matter. Then they took 3+ days to give the quotation and now they tell me I have to spend 27K on a freaking old laptop and get the entire screen changed (which I mind you is NOT damaged AT ALL). They really are morons aren’t they. /me makes a mental note to ask about hinges change while buying new laptops from now on.

I will be back with some good posts in a while. Finally convinced mom to let me install openSUSE on her desktop. I am using it now. Until the final word about the laptop is reached. Just installed SUSE yesterday. So, I am in update + additional S/W install phase. Will see ya all later, maybe with review of SliTaZ…