Hero Inc.

While driving in my car tonight, I had a strange little conversation. It was mainly strange because I was the only person in the car and I was not talking through my cell phone. I was actually chatting it up with the guy in the vehicle next to me.

You see, the guy next to me, who we will call Red Car Guy (RCG), and I had passed through about 3 lights together. I in one lane and he in the other. I had my windows down enjoying the cool night air and my stereo cranking out some much needed tuneage (music for those “un-hip” to my choice of terminology). Now, at the time I was not in the mood for Instrumental, Rock, Classic Rock, 80’s, Pop, Punk, Rap, R&B, Polka, Comedy, Christmas, or even Techno. I was in the mood for something good. Since I had just finished watching Four Brothers (good flick), I felt that The Temptations would be a good choice, and of course, I went to my favorite song first, “I Wish It Would Rain.”

Back to RCG, he got my attention to find out who I was listening to because he could not remember who it was. When I told him I received one of my favorite compliments: “Great group man. That’s a great song.” Wow, random conversation, but it was still great. I sometimes have wondered if the “oldies” were still respected as they should be. I guess I have my answer now. I mean, how often do you hear about someone complimenting your music (from another car) when you are blaring The Temptations, The Association, or The Playboys from your stereo? Honestly…

Maxwell Smart moves to the big screen in this updated version of the Mel Brooks’ created TV Show, Get Smart. This time, Max is played by the talented and hilarious Steve Carrell. Chaos is at it again, Control is struggling to save the day, and the humor reigns down upon you.

As I headed to the movie, I decided to lower my expectations after less than spectacular reviews. Also, I remembered all of the other old TV shows Hollywood tried to update and failed miserably in doing so. Would they try to sex/action/unnecessarily update a great TV show? Well apparently their consultants, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, showed them exactly what was needed to make this movie another success for Steve.

The jokes were just as good as they were during Don Adams’ stint as Agent 99. The action was updated to make current movie goers happy and even mimicked several James Bond style shots. The movie didn’t try to kill with too many jokes or too much action. There was actually a story there between 86 and 99 (Anne Hathaway) that was worth telling and worth watching.

I won’t lie. The “turning point” is seen a mile away but you don’t really care because it works and you are more interested in how Max will end up saving the day without truly trying. It was also great to see the random actors that showed up in this film to lend a hand in even the smallest of roles. I personally enjoyed the surprise president and agent in the tree.

Overall, it’s definitely worth the price of admission if you even remotely enjoyed the old Get Smart TV show.

[Rating: 4/5]

We are only a few years removed from Ang Lee’s “Hulk” and Marvel’s green monster is already returning to the big screen. This time, the cast includes Tim Roth, Liv Tyler, and Edward Norton. Will it be better? Can the Hulk beat Iron Man (in value)? Or are we just returning to the Greek tragedy that was Lee’s Hulk and the 138 minutes I wasted the first time.

Actually, let me set the record straight on Lee’s Hulk. I enjoyed it. I liked the visuals and the way the Hulk was presented. However, the Hulk story is just boring to me. It can be slow when it is moved to the big screen instead of the comic strips.

That being said, Incredible Hulk is not Lee’s Hulk and mostly for the better. This movie was not as good as Iron Man, but it did pick up where Iron Man was lacking. The final battle between Roth’s Abomination and the Hulk was exactly what it needed to be: a hulk bashing action scene for regular movie goers with certain elements thrown in to appease the nerdy masses as well.

I did think the first part of the movie dragged. It’s slow watching Norton on the run at times (especially when he isn’t running). I started to have flashbacks to the TV show. Maybe it was the “on the run” theme or the subtle music being used. Yes, that is the final credits song from the tv show thrown in a scene early in the movie. Of course, my mind raced to Family Guy’s take on it rather than the Hulk TV show.

Overall the movie wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I think the Hulk is just a hard character to make the transformation to the big screen due to the story and character structure. The story had to constantly switch from its serious tone and then to some comedy in order to keep the audience looking at the screens instead of their watches. However, the graphics were amazing. The details in the computer generated Hulk were definately worth it. The best shot is probably when he is outside in the rain near some caves. The Hulk’s face takes up most of the screen and you almost swear it is a real person in makeup.

[Rating: 3/5]

Sure Windows and Mac have Widgets, but what is a widget. Wikipedia defines a widget in many different ways. However, in the computer world, a widget is “a component of a graphical user interface with which a user interacts.” In other words, something really cool to stick on my desktop to provide different types of information. Some of the most common widgets are for weather, time, system monitoring and etc.

With Super Karamba, my desktop has come to life with widgets. Due to the speed of my current system, I’ve kept the widgets to a minimum and I am happy with my three main widgets and one substitute widget. These widgets include:

• Liquid Weather ++ => This widget is a weather widget designed to provided updated information concerning weather in a particular area or many areas. It can also provide weather maps for upcoming storms and web cams for different views around your area. You will of course need to provide the addresses for the web cams, but that isn’t too difficult to find.



• A-Foto => This widget is probably my favorite of my list. This one provides a wonderful picture frame of pictures based on a folder location. I find myself leaving my desktop clear so that I can see this particular widget.



• R-Monitor-SE ENGLISH => This widget provides up to the minute system information for monitoring purposes. I was happy with this widget from the start, but then I realized how easily I could modify the widget to look how I wanted it to look and I grew to love it even more. Now it matches my website (Hero Inc.) and personality. The link for the widget will show you how the widget looked prior to my alterations being made.



• cdKase Amarok => It’s always great to display album art if you have it. This widget provides a casing for the album art and Amarok controls on the desktop. However, I vary rarely use my desktop to control Amarok. It does look great though.

All of my widgets were found through kde-look. If anyone knows some other great widgets I should check out, please let me know.