Since a month or two I am the proud owner of a Google ADP1, better known as the T-Mobile G1. This morning it was acting really weird though. When pressing the Menu-button in specific applications like the new NU.nl application and the default browser it immediately crashed the application. Conditioned as we are by sub-par software I thought a reboot might fix it. As you might have guessed after reading the subject line the handset didn’t even boot after this. It started the booting process but never got to the glowing Android (it got stuck showing the non-glowing Android).

After Googlin’ for a couple of minutes I couldn’ t find a decent solution on the internet. I decided to jack out the battery and SIM card and blow it like a NES cartridge. This didn’t help though. After putting the battery back in it immediately booted the handset but it didn’t get any further than before. Time for desperate measures!

The only other solution I could think of was wiping the data. Wiping the data results in a clean image so be warned: no applications, no data! Because of the connectivity with Google’s services and some backup applications I regularly run, wiping the data isn’t a huge deal for me.

1. Boot the handset while holding the Home-button.
2. It will now show a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark.
3. Slide out the keyboard and press Alt and L at the same time (this will show the command line interface).
4. Press Alt and W at the same time to perform the wipe.
5. Press and hold Home and Back to reboot.

The above steps fixed my handset and it booted correctly. All that’s left to do is add your provider’s APN settings (if you’re not using T-Mobile) and enter your Google credentials and you’re back up and running.

As you might know, Watchmen is an adaptation of the graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The books (twelve in total) have a complex narrative structure and feature some dense storytelling. Because of this, Watchmen has been regarded as unfilmable. Yet, here we are! As a big fan of the novel I had high expectations for the film but tried to prepare myself for disappointment anyway. I just couldn’t see Zack Snyder, the director of Watchmen and previously 300 and Dawn Of The Dead, bringing it to the screen as a coherent story.

Did he succeed? Well, that’s a difficult question. I enjoyed it immensely. The other people who joined me (which hadn’t read the book) enjoyed it as well but were left confused in places and disappointed in others.

Because of the aforementioned complexities it’s quite hard to give a plot synopsis which doesn’t spoil anything yet gives the uninitiated a taste of what’s to come. So I did a Google search which brought up the following:

“Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?” – Google

The film is an extremely faithful adaptation of the novel. The result of this is a film with unusual pacing. It also lacks the traditional three act structure usually present. This fact combined with the already dense story results in a film which demands attention from its viewer for all of the 163 minutes.

Performances all around were pretty good. Unfortunately, not all of them were great so let’s get the mediocre performances out of the way:

• Malin Akerman as Laurie Jupiter / Silk Spectre II: Ms. Akerman probably put in the most jarring performance of the lot. Although she definitely has the looks and charm to pull of the part her acting really isn’t up to chops. The emotional scenes featuring her aren’t the best this film has to offer but luckily it never gets annoyingly bad. Some of those scenes might have had a lot more impact if her role would’ve been portrayed by someone else (like for example Carla Gugino who excellently portrays Sally Jupiter / Silk Spectre I).
• Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: Although his portrayal of the world’s smartest man was a lot better than Malin Akerman’s I wasn’t convinced by his performance. He also didn’t really have the presence and physique I expected him to have. Veidt is oft described as the pinnacle of human physical ability. Goode has a lot of things going for him but his physique is not one of them. I think Goode has some acting talent but he was miscast as Veidt.

Above performances were deemed mediocre by me but acting allround was more than decent. Most notable for me were:

• Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan / Jon Osterman: Crudup portrays the only superhero with actual superpowers in Watchmen’s world. By the media oft described as the superman or a god he has become distanced from humanity. Crudup’s monotone voice really adds to this as he delivers lines concerning life and death as if he were discussing groceries. The slight facial animations and blank stares were also very effective although I wouldn’t know how much of this can be attributed to Crudup.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake / The Comedian: Morgan is excellent as The Comedian. I wish the story allowed more exposure of this charismatic yet insane and dangerous character. Laughing in the face of both danger as well as the cruelties he himself brings upon others. Morgan lets you feel for the character’s downfall despite being a despicable “hero”.
• Jackie Earle Haley as Walter Kovacs / Rorschach: Haley’s performance is probably the strongest performance in Watchmen. The story is told through this psychopath’s eyes  which gives Haley a lot of screen time. Both masked and unmasked he is an absolutely perfect fit for the part of our sociopathic protagonist.
• Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg / Nite Owl II: Wilson’s sad portrayal was very good. He was especially great in his scenes with Rorschach, not looking like a mad man because of his affection for the sociopath.

The most important character besides our aforementioned superheroes is the world of the Watchmen. An alternate take on The United States in 1985 in which Nixon is still president and costumed vigilantes are outlawed. Snyder has beautifully reconstructed this world in the film and put an insane amount of detail in the background. It will be a joy to deconstruct all the sets and find the props which refer to the graphic novel when the film is released on DVD / Blu-ray.

The musical picks are also top notch, most notably Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changing which runs over the extremely impressive opening credits. A lot of the picks contrast the visuals which will add another layer to most scenes but which will also pull you out of the film at the same time.

Concluding, Watchmen turned out to be kind of a mixed bag. I loved every second of it but I find it hard to recommend to everyone. It’s not for the faint of heart as it definitely deserves its R-rating with lots of graphic violence, foul language and full frontal nudity (both male and female). It’s also not your typical superhero movie with lots of action (even though it’s being marketed as your run of the mill superhero flick) which might make it less enjoyable for a large segment of the mainstream audience. It’s definitely an acquired taste as it’s much more about the deconstruction of the superhero mythos.

The weakest part of the film is probably the last third. Not everything translates perfectly from panel to frame but Snyder has to be lauded for the effort. If you are even remotely interested in the film you owe it to yourself to check it out on the big screen. The only disadvantage being the continuous giggling at Dr. Manhattan’s blue glowing penis. I can understand giggling at it the first time but please audience, grow up!

Image via Apple.com

The Apple notebook event just finished and for me personally it was a disappointing event overall. I was looking for a new computer and was considering a MacBook. With the rate the prices of Windows-based laptops are dropping the last couple of years I was expecting Apple to offer a cheaper alternative to it’s previous offerings. I didn’t expect them to drop the Apple premium price tag but did expect a pricing between the old one and Windows-based machines (the rumored $800-$899).

Now that all the new products and their pricing are announced you can understand my disappointment. The old MacBooks are now sold for $999 and the new models (which are incredibly sexy) start at $1299. Way too expensive if you’re asking me and a pretty stupid move on Apple’s part. The current economic downfall makes pricing a more important feature than ever and Apple just priced themselves out of the market for most people.

Image via Wikipedia

Burnout Paradise is proof that EA isn’t the evil, roster-updating behemoth it was considered a couple of years a go. For the last couple of years they really seem to be trying to innovate and create original IP. This fall alone they are releasing highly anticipated titles including Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space. Burnout Paradise, released in January of this year, is the best proof so far though.

One of the innovations of the current-gen consoles is the internet connectivity. Connectivity was possible in the previous generation of consoles but it came to it’s full potential during this generation. This enabled the distribution of downloadable games and more importantly in the context of this blog post, downloadable content (DLC).

Aside from the excellent game released on the disc, Criterion (developers of Burnout Paradise) kept iterating on the game and released a couple of massive title updates. It all started with the Bogart update which featured a lot of bug fixes and other patches which streamlined the experience a lot.

The next update (nicknamed Cagney) adds (besides the bug fixing and streamlining which was also featured in Bogart) truly new content to the game, namely three new online modes, seventy online challenges, two new vehicles and a couple of new paint jobs for some of the vehicles.

A couple of weeks ago Criterion released the Davis update. It’s probably the biggest update so far and features two huge, new features: motorcycles, a day/night cycle and weather effects. The best thing about these updates is that they are all released for free.

Why would EA do this? It’s probably an experiment on EA’s part (a successful one hope) but I think the following reasons are behind it:

• Prevent people from trading in the game. Trade-ins do not fill EA’s pocket and no trade-ins available for people interested in the game only leads to long tail sales (which do fill EA’s pocket).
• Enthusing people for non-free Burnout Paradise DLC. What will happen when EA releases DLC for a small fee? Will more people buy it because of the great experience they had with the other updates?
• Enthusing people for the Burnout franchise. Will keeping people engaged in the game cause pre-order hype for the next game and lead to more sales?

As stated above I hope this experiment leads to more free content for games. Free is good.

A couple of days ago I saw the long-awaited The Dark Knight. I’m a fan of Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan‘s first Batman film from 2005, so I was looking forward to it’s follow-up.

The film has garnered some incredible hype on the internet. It is getting thumbs up reviews from most critics (94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing) and is loved by most ‘regular’ movie goers (a #1 spot in the all-time top 250 on IMDb with an average rating of 9.4). All this hype was built on a very solid first film, an incredible marketing machine and the untimely death of Heath Ledger (who stars as The Joker).

Joining Heath Ledger are all the stars from the first film: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Aaron Eckhart joins this all-star crew as Harvey Dent while Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Christopher Nolan takes another seat on the director’s chair while his brother Jonathan joins him to write the screenplay.

The screenplay is based on a story penned down by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Batman, Lt. James Gordon and new DA Harvey Dent are successfully rounding up Gotham’s top criminals until a new criminal mastermind only known as the Joker starts to wreak havoc on the city.

When Heath Ledger’s name was first linked to the part as The Joker I was a bit worried. I hadn’t seen that much of Ledger’s work but how could this guy top Jack Nicholson‘s performance in Tim Burton‘s Batman? I thought he wouldn’t be able to. That is, until I saw the first stills and teasers. The dark, grim Joker in this film has nothing to do with the Nicholson’s funny, over-the-top Joker. Don’t get me wrong, The Joker gets a lot of laughs in this film, but every time you laugh at one of his jokes it only takes a fraction of a second to bite your lip for laughing. That is the strongest part of this Joker, as a viewer you clearly feel he is pure evil, yet you cannot help to nervously laugh at all his escapades. The brilliance of The Joker isn’t just Ledger’s performance, a lot of credit has to be given to the make-up department. His pale purple and green outfit combined with his smudged make-up and scarred mouth are the finishing touch to Ledger’s performance.

Besides Ledger all the actors deliver awesome performances. The only annoyance I had with the performances was Batman’s voice. Bale uses different voices for playing Bruce Wayne and Batman. This in itself isn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately Bale uses an extremely gravely voice when playing Batman which is really over the top.

The film tells a very twisty, dense story. It weighs in at about two and a half hours and is filled to the brim with (back)story. It doesn’t slow down one moment and is one big roller coaster ride. The biggest critique I had with the film is related to the story though. The first and second act of the film are awesome (although I didn’t think Batman’s Asia trip in the first act was all that necessary). For me it really fell apart in the third act though. Nolan uses a silly technological solution to solve one of the problems which has a really comic book feel to it. This is a shame because nothing in this film breathes comic book at all (except for the capes of course!). It’s a gritty, action-oriented crime drama all the way through to the third act and then suddenly turns into a comic book adaptation.

The same could be said for all the psycho-analysis and social commentary at the end. All the things they are trying to say are intelligent and thought provoking. Unfortunately all those things are literally spoken out by the characters. These are all conclusions I could have drawn myself and would have wanted to draw myself.

At first I walked out of the theater a bit disappointed. This because of the events in the third acts. After a couple of days of pondering though I’m still blown away by the majority of the film. The Dark Knight is the best superhero film I’ve seen, one of the best action films I’ve seen, features the best film villain I’ve seen and is probably the best film of 2008 so far.

So… What are you still doing here? Go see it!

For the last couple of months I have been using Eclipse more and more in both a personal and a professional setting. Eclipse can be an overwhelming and daunting IDE but is a very powerful one too. One of the features I hadn’t discovered until recently is the breakpoints properties screen. This screen has a number of cool features but I’d like to highlight two of them in this blog post.

Hit count

Eclipse allows you too only suspend the thread for debugging when hitting the breakpoint a certain number of times. Look at the example code below.

for (int i = 0; i <= args.length; i++) {
 System.out.println(args[i]);
}

Imagine a much more complex version of the scenario seen above. You’re skipping through arrays and suddenly an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException is fired. Wouldn’t it be easy to be able to debug this piece of code without having to click through the loop a gazillion times until you reach the phase of the loop you’re interested in?

Eclipse makes this all possible in its breakpoints properties screen. This screen is shown below and can be opened by right clicking a breakpoint and selecting properties in the menu. As you can see in the image below you enter a numerical value which indicated how many hits a breakpoint should get before suspending the thread and allowing you to dive into the code.

Conditional breakpoints

An even more powerful feature than the one shown above is the conditional breakpoint. An example of this can be seen in the picture below.

Using the settings seen in the image the breakpoint only suspends the thread when the condition in the text box is true. You can enter any boolean condition in this box.

Both of the above features allow for some very, very powerful debugging.

Just a quick update to let you know the new Ubuntu release 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was just released. Hardy Heron is Ubuntu’s new LTS release which stands for Long Term Support. This means the desktop and server version get support for 3 and 5 years respectively.

The new version can be downloaded here.

Release notes can be found here.

Developing a J2ME application using the Location API can be pretty annoying. It’s quite difficult debugging an application which uses a GPS device as a form of input. You usually can’t get a GPS fix in a building (which is where most people do their developing) and even then you would have to continually get up and walk around to see if your new bit of code functions properly.

OpenLAPI to the rescue! OpenLAPI is an open source implementation of JSR-179 (J2ME’s Location API). It contains the complete JSR-179 API and then some… One of the extra features solves the aforementioned debugging problem. We’ll come back to those features later on in this post.

In a previous blog post you read how to create an instance of the LocationProvider. The LocationProvider is basically an abstract factory and instances are built on a set of criteria. As a developer you don’t have any direct control over what type of LocationProvider you receive. You just tell the API which demands you have and the API gives you the implementation closest to your demands.

LocationProvider provider = LocationProvider.getInstance(new Criteria());

OpenLAPI however gives developers some extra flexibility when creating a LocationProvider. You can choose to use either a GPS device, an NMEA log file, a KML file, a LandmarkStore or your own specific implementation of the LocationProvider class. All you have to do is add a configuration file called OpenLAPI-mode.txt to the root of your MIDlet. In this file you place GPS, NMEA, KML, LMS (for the LandmarkStore) or the full class name (including packages) of your own LocationProvider implementation. Now all we need to do is add one of the log files in the same directory as the configuration file and we are done (more details can be found here).

Using the feature mentioned in the paragraph above we can now debug our application with ease. We can use NMEA logs from GPS devices or create a route in Google Earth and export it to KML. Doing this really makes GPS development a lot quicker and more reliable.