3-D Movies - Pros and Cons

Now Now People, It's been a while. I Know I'll be Rusty. I know my 'wit' will be not upto par. But one has got to start,, nay,, resume at some point irrespective of pursuit of perfection. So here we go...

The emerging, or as some say, the established trend of 3-D movies is for most movie lovers to see. Blockbusters like Avatar and not so seamless 3-D rendering of Alice In Wonderland just go to show that the 3-D phenomenon first pioneered and also debunked in the 60s or so has finally matured to a point where the visuals actually intended by the movie maker is projected to the audience rather than blurred out, flushed out frames that are more headache inducing torture rather than enjoyable entertainment.

However, as with any technology, the discerning adopters( read - the CONSUMER) always find out the balanced mix of pros and cons which ultimately can make or break any technology. And therefore, I shall present the comprehensive list every filmmaker should look up and think of(What the hey,, Blogs are BIG) while making his next 3-D Magnum Opus.

PROS

• Immersion - There's no doubt that a well made 3-D movie is immersive. Hell, Shrek Forever After looked mighty good, let alone Avatar.
• Focused Viewing - I have seen it first hand that 3-D movies tend to make the viewer give undivided attention to the movie, and not to the chitter chatter around them.
• Novelty - Watching 9 2-D movies out of 10 and one 3-D movie does tend to give it a feeling of novelty. Even if the movie is sub-par, viewer tends to be absorbed into it.
• No Mush - Ok Ok,, no need to scratch your heads. This is solely for those who've had to sit through a movie with a couple in front, or right at your sides being "Cozy" (noisily i might add) and crapping out your movie experience(Easy with the Stares,, you know am right). Why this is so?? I shall explain in due course...

CONS

• Unwieldy Eyegear - Well DUH!! Want 3-D?? Need Glasses that look like portable eye testers at your friendly optometrist.. NO,, Thank You!!!
• Headaches - Ok, Strictly not a generality, but dang,, sometimes one does feel like the head is being pounded. The Eyegear surely isn't any help either.
• Dark Visuals - It seems to be given that 3-D movies will be darker than normal 2-D movies. Whether it's a technical issue, or simply an issue with specific theaters (namely ALL in my case),, I cannot say. The Darker visuals in no way enhance the detail of the movie. Even Avatar is some scenes looked blandly washed out.
• No Mush - Right then, This is not a mistake. It DOES very well fall in both the categories. While one doesn't really enjoy loud mush from others, surely one cannot expunge oneself from the temptation of enjoying a cozy moment of 'magic' with one's partner in the dark confines of the theater (FINE.. it sounds hypocritical.. SUE ME!!!). So the CON?? Try enjoying a cozy moment when your eyegear keeps getting in the way. Not to mention looking into the eyes of the other is an impossibility. By the time one take the trouble of tearing them off,, the 'moment' is almost surely..... GONE!!

There Ladies and Gentlemen, is a short but precise take on the 3-D movie experience. While the listed attributes are movie-title agnostic, it is my personal view that animated movies lend themselves to 3-D much better than live-action ones (No Offence Avatar, but Shrek 4 was more immersive in my view). Before the Avatar aficionados start a flame war, lemme rephrase by saying that CG heavy visuals lend themselves better to 3-D than live-action.

And Finally, while 3-D is undoubtedly making strides,, personally i'll take good old 2-D anyday. If for no reason than simply to rid myself of the loathsome eyegear. But what the hey, maybe glass-less 3-D will be a reality someday.

We Shall See...

Portable Apps – Making sense on Desktop

Note :- This blog entry covers only Windows based PCs. Mostly for 32-bit Windows PCs, with 64-bit (where notified)

“My PC has gone so sloooowwww!!”,

“I’m getting too many errors!!”,

“What does this BLOATware do??”

We’ve heard these rants from PC users all too many times to even count. You buy a Fresh-Off-The-Rack PC or Notebook, load up your Operating System, and it’s all Zippy and Fast and Clean and you’re all happy getting hands on with your new tech baby. BUT as they say – GOOD TIMES DON’T LAST FOREVER. As you keep using it, you find it getting slower and slower over time and throwing up niggling errors, freezes and system crashes now and then just to frustrate us ‘gentle’ and ‘calm’ users into a state of plentiful stress and sometimes, sheer fury.

The Low Down

Before we tackle the issue head on and provide (hopefully) a lasting solution to the problem, we must analyze where the problem arises and why. The primary culprit in this phenomenon of “ever slowing” PC experience is ‘the storehouse of information’ in the Underbelly of Windows – The REGISTRY!

As software gets installed and uninstalled over time, the registry size increases and it gets cluttered with obsolete and orphaned entries with keys pointing to nowhere and all that nastiness. Not only does this exact a increasing memory cost to load that registry, it also causes application crashes and BSODs.

The Solution

Of course the simplest solution is, don’t install anything new. But then again, that’s impossible to actually undertake. No Operating System comes with all the tools one needs and even if they did, users typically install their own favourite ones over the bundled ones. Therefore we look at 2 different ways to have a lean and clean PC and avoid these registry problems to the maximum extent possible.

• Solution A – Use 3rd party uninstallers and registry cleaners to get rid of all traces of an uninstalled program. This is a favoured solution of power users. There are several good Freeware uninstallers which do an amazingly good job at this.
  • Revo Uninstaller – Has a Advanced remove option which removes an application using built in uninstaller, and then scans for leftover files, folders and registry entries and shows them to the user for manual removal.
  • Eusing Free Registry Cleaner – Does an amazing job of cleaning obsolete registry entries. Another notable mention is Wise Registry Cleaner and Regseeker(for advanced users only).
• Solution B – Use Portable Apps. Portable apps are applications which are optimized to be self-contained and run from USB pen drives without requiring any installation. While the premise of portable apps is just that – Portability, one can make a case of using portable apps on the desktop with similar ease with the single most beneficial attribute – NO REGISTRY ENTRIES!

What all applications can best be used as a portable app?? Practically anything!! Though for daily usage for most of us who’re not power users, i’ll shortlist a few which have none or minimal changes in usage whether it’s a installed or a portable version.(All softwares named are available as portable AND install versions. Choose carefully from the software website before downloading)

• CD/DVD Writing App : My personal favourite is Infrarecorder. Available as both 32 and 64-bit executable.
• PDF Viewer : FoxitReader. Light, fast, small download and overall, LOADS better than the Adobe Bloatware.
• Download Manager : WinWGet. Does everything that heavy download managers can do including scheduled downloads
• Zip Manager: 7-zip. Handles all archiving formats including RAR, GZ, ZIP and more.
• Media Player – VLC Player and Winamp Portable. VLC Handles DivX/Xvid Video files without need of Codec Packs to be installed.
• Browsers: Portable browsers allows one to test run a new browser without the hassles of installing. Portable Chrome, portable Firefox, portable Opera are all available, along with instructions on the web to create your own portable version.
• System Cleaner – CCleaner. Cleans out temporary files, internet caches, cookies and even registry entries.
• Remote Desktop – AMMYY Admin. Connect to any PC in a few clicks.

PROS

• No Installation required. Simply Unzip and Use.
• No registry entries after installation or orphaned entries after uninstallation.
• Don’t Want the app?? Simply Delete the folder.
• Small install base
• No chance of required files being scattered all over the Windows partition and System folder.

CONS

• No Accessibility from Start Menu : Users have to create manual shortcuts for the apps.
• No preset File-handling: Apps like 7-zip, VLC Portable and so on have to be manually connected to the file types the user wants them to handle. One time issue though.
• Slower(?) WinXP and Vista/Win7 have superfetch with loads software into memory for quick loading. It is not known whether portable apps can be superfetched. Therefore loading time of Portable apps can be slower than installed apps.

While there are also portable Antivirus softwares and anti-spyware, such system critical apps are best installed on the host system and updated regularly.

Where Can I Get Them??

• Portableapps.com : Most popular portable apps site. Site offers categorized lists of softwares which can be used standalone, or inside the portableapps.com launcher and suite software.
• Pendriveapps.com : One of the largest listings of portable apps. Also has instructions on how to make your favourite app into a portable one.
• Wininizio Pensuite : Preset suites of portable apps inside executable launchers.
• Lupo Pensuite : 3 Suite options of Full, Lite and Zero.

Portable apps along with regular housekeeping such as ChkDisk/Scandisk, Disk Defragmenting and power tweaking can help keep the system fast, clean and Happy(user too) for a long long time. If one is REALLY BRAVE, one could do a fresh install of the OS, and install Portable Apps for all functionalities that are covered by apps available, and then use regular install versions of apps whose usage is not taken care of by portable apps.

Update:- The idea of a Fresh Install is appealing,, especially for those whose systems are FUBAR with months and years of neglect and loose installs and uninstalls. But this option comes with a HUGE drawback,, especially for users saddled with low internet speeds. That drawback is the need to install all the security fixes and service packs from Microsoft for your OS. Therefore i would suggest you use this option only as a last resort, and also keep the latest service pack offline installer handy for quick updates with all the latest patches without the need for time-consuming internet linkups. Power users can use Nlite of Vlite and slipstream the service packs into a customized installer.

Mobile Illiteracy & Miserliness- The DARK Truth

Let's face it,,,irrespective of the fact that mobiles have gone from the realm of strictly "rich" to a level where even a rickshaw-walla has one to chatter away,,they're still the uber style and "status" icon on a 'portable' level. Mobile manufacturers churn out new models with glitzier styling, more features, better battery, larger screens and so on and so forth at such a rate that a state-of-the-art mobile today is OBSOLETE within 6 months from the "bleeding edge" Point Of View. And while witnessing replacements on a yearly, half-yearly, quarterly or even bi-monthly timescales; it seems hard to imagine that just half to three quarters of a decade ago,,mobiles were still considered a nouveau-rich accessory which users kept till the mobile died of "Old Age".

But it's not a bad thing at all. For the price of a "hand-held brick" that could do nothing but make phone calls and send messages with a battery life of hardly 5-6 hours,,today one can have a virtual handheld computer which is a camera, media player, storage medium and your personal secretary (albeit without the 'curves' ;) ) all rolled into one. Oh yeah,,they still make phone calls and send messages. (WWWooooWWW)

India today has the fastest growing mobile population in the world in percentage terms and ranks 2nd in absolute terms. Mobile telephony operators mint money,,LITERALLY,,by catering to the ever increasing horde of users. More and more services like banking and ticket booking are being offered from the comfort of the mobile phone. Everything seems a shining pot of gold for users and operators alike.


But all this glitz,,,all this replacements to be "up-to-date" in style and features,,,all this new fangled feature terminology and the ever present tendency of young and old to want to carry the latest 'HOT' product on the market hides a disappointing truth - Mobile users are ILLITERATE and amazingly MISERLY even if they flaunt the latest Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson P1i, XDA 02 or the latest incarnation of the ultra-popular Motorola RAZR.

Illiterate you ask??? MISERLY you ask??? Surely i jest,,right????

WRONG

Take a good long look at the mobile usage details of most of the population, if i may put a top of my mind number to it, 95% of mobile users in India haven't moved on from the basic "call and message" way of using their mobile phones irrespective of whether their mobile is a economy level plain-jane Nokia or a top-of-the-line Symbian or Windows Mobile Smartphone like the XDA O2 or the E90. Now why is that? Surely a person buying a phone with everything but the kitchen sink built into it would use most of the features inbuilt,,right??? WRONG again!!!! A study from BBC and WIRED Magazine showed that 90% of all mobile phone features are never used by the user. Why is that?? The easiest answer would be,,that the features are hard to grasp. After all,,if you go to a person with a mobile and say " Setup the net usage using GPRS or EDGE with sounds and images set to 'OFF' to save BANDWIDTH and speed up RENDERING", the majority chances are the least the person would do is give you blank stares as if you've asked a ascetic monk about the technicalities of the Kama Sutra,, or worse,, wallop you right in the eye for denting the "i'm a mobile user,,so i'm mod" image of himself/herself. Bottom line, the user has no idea how to go about it. Setup Email - No idea, setup PC drivers for USB transfers - No idea. Enable/Disable features on phone - Maybe not "No Idea",,but barring tech-o-philes or really savvy users,,most will crap out coz they feel they'll "Brick" their phones( Techspeak for making the phone inoperative)

Let's for one moment take a summarical view of what the most usage styles of users who have mid-range phones and top end phones are. MP3 listening and transfers are right on top of usage time. So is transfer of video clips and pictures using Infrared or Bluetooth. Listening to FM. Now you ask me, all these things are a sign of tech savviness, is it not? Well,, one one level it is. But then again,,take a good long look at the things listed above. MP3 , pictures and video transfers using Bluetooth, FM listening - All FREE!!!! It doesn't cost a CENT. Now just tell that person so generous in transferring the media to send it to you via GPRS to your email,,and i can bet pretty penny,,that person is gonna BALK. Why? Coz it costs MONNEEYY!!! So,,the most features one uses on the phone,,are ones which can be used for FREE. That's a telling example of why usage of the internet over mobiles hasn't taken off till date in India though every phone from Rs 4000 onwards having WAP or GPRS are well capable of it. The Illiteracy about telephony features is so rampant that, with an example to clarify, people don't even know that most mobile operators offer basic internet packages on their networks FOR FREE. (Airtel Live is FREE,,for those of you who didn't know till now whilst browing other pages costs a measly 15 paise per 10KB translating to Rs 15 per MB of usage. Expensive compared to fixed line packages,,but you can't beat the portability ease and anywhere internet lookup for sure). Taking pictures is a big thumbs-up for mobile junkies. Camera Mobiles are really mana from heaven for the young who want to capture certain 'Cherished' moments with family and friends( Now Now,,keep your thoughts clean,,i know about the seedy side of this usage). But to see guys and gals going ga-ga over more and more Megapixels on their phone cam is a avenue of amusement in itself for a musing techie. While a 5MP camera on the N95 sounds amazing,, it's also pretty.......USELESS! Why? Simply because no home PC monitor can show 5MP in it's full size state. So the picture has to be zoomed out to be viewed. So if one is zooming out to see a smaller picture,,why have the need for massive sized photos of 2MP and beyond in the first place? The Sweet Spot for mobile cam phones is 2MP giving you 1600x1200 sized shots. Anything more seems overkill especially since mobile cameras use CMOS sensors rather than good quality CCD sensors that standalone cameras use. The quality difference is so world's apart no serious photo-junkie worth his salt would be caught dead using Camera Phones to capture minute detail professional level shots,,no matter how good camera phones are. Though as a side note for buyers, i must say,,Sony Ericsson has the best camera quality in phones. Their 2MP phones like the K750i can run circles around a Nokia Nseries in camera quality while the higher rez 3.2MP K800i and beyond are a class apart and give a good alternative to budged standalone digicams for casual users.


So,,,after all the hoopla,,,one sees that either users are completely clueless about how to use most of the advanced features of their phones, or are too cheap to pay for using most of the features that their phones offer even if they ARE tech savvy to use the features. So this brings up one question. IF,,in majority of the cases,,if all one has to use is the calling and messaging feature and occasional MP3 listening,,what's the point of changing for newer and newer phones every 6 months????? Why would one want to chuck, say a Nokia 6680 for a Nseries whilst in the end using the same things in both phones and nothing more? Why would one want to blow a month's salary on a high-end phone like a XDA 02 or Sony Ericsson P1i or Nokia E90 when you're gonna do the same things that you did with a 8000 bucks mid-range?? But beyond all that,,,,,,,,,,,,Why spend such high amounts of money,,,,when most users are not even generous enough to actually CALL and instead save that precious rupee by giving MISSED CALLS and wait for the other person to call back???? Why flaunt your mobile's EDGE, 3G, Java, Blah-Blah, Bling-Bling if you don't even know how the hell to use them? How many of use see anyone using their mobiles to book tickets over the mobile internet,,or pay their bills,, or do mobile banking??

Barring the top 5% of users comprising of businessmen who really use the services like mobile banking or checking their email and so forth and the techies (i'm a proud member of the techie world if i may boast) who actually have the skills to use their mobiles to the hilt of what it offers,,the rest are just shams and posers for whom the most knowledge about phones which they are aware of is the MAKE AND MODEL of their phones. Mobile Internet????? Duh!!!!!

That concludes the insights on the "hip, modern and technologically astute" world of Indian mobile users.

Which part of the world do YOU come in????Put in your views.....


Author's Note - Has a MotoRIZR Z3, tweaked for extra speed, additional software for Fax and setup for mobile internet using EDGE where available or GPRS as backup. Hates the Java based OS for it's speed,,but loves it for the ample software for it available on the net.

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