Categories
Books

Planet Google

Planet GoogleI decided to give non-fiction a chance with my last read. Planet Google turned out to be really interesting. It detailed the history of Google, which as a web developer is something I follow closely to begin with.

The early years were really interesting to me. With the emphasis on the algorithm throughout very cool. The chapter on the YouTube acquisition and the failure of Google Video was cool. I’d almost completely forgotten about their early video efforts. WIth all their amazing success, it’s easy to forgot some of their flops (such as social media, Wave, etc.).

Some of the early chapters were massive and the book did get off to a slow start, but I stuck with it and it did pick up and am glad that it did. Heads up, this was published in 2008 so much of their hottest properties such as Android and Chrome aren’t yet mentioned.

Categories
Development

Adobe Contribute CS5 Sucks, But Here’s a Fix That Worked for Me

I really dislike using Adobe Contribute CS5. It was a great solution many years ago before the web based CMS has become so easy to use. However, I do work with some sites that are still based on it (for now) and do have to tolerate it.

Recently it’s been crashing every single time I’ve started up the application. As you can imagine this can pose quite a serious problem. I attempted all the tricks, even a clean uninstall then reinstall of the application on OSX.

I finally stumbled across a discussion thread that saved the day for me!

Deleting the folder “ConnectionsHomeOMBackend”

(user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CS5ServiceManager/extensions/ConnectionsHomeOMBackend/

fixed the crashing on startup issues. Thanks so much for the folks who took the time to share this on the forums. I was really beginning to grow a bit scared that there wasn’t a fix for this.

Categories
Books

Star Wars Fate of the Jedi Outcast

Star Wars Fate of the Jedi OutcastI’m still on my library reading tear, and the second book I’ve conquered has been Outcast. All those hours of watching Lavar Burton on Reading Rainbow is finally paying off (except for that goat episode, that was just plain scary). It’s the first Star Wars book in the Fate of the Jedi series.

The story takes place 40 years or so after episode IV, so a lot of the standard characters are prominent with a lot of new characters that I wasn’t familiar with as well. While I’m still very much bummed that Chewbacca was killed off previous to this book, I still decided to give this a shot.

Things started off a bit slow for me, but that also may’ve been that so many of the characters were new to me. Much of the early story was politics driven, and I suppose I was expecting more lighsabers and blasters. But the slow start did setup the story a good deal, and this is a 9 book series so it does make sense.

I was glad that Lando and Wedge Antilles both had roles in this book. I always liked the side characters, and was glad to see they’re still around. I expect to read this entire series now, pretty sure 7 of the 9 are already out with the remaining 2 due out pretty soon.

Categories
Movies

Thor

Thor

Since one of my all-time favorite comic book heroes has always been Thor, I was really looking forward to seeing the movie. I even made sure that I saw the 3-D version (not really a big fan of 3-D movies in general). Since I’ve read so many comics growing up I’m always hesitant when a comic film comes out, the number of bad ones greatly trumps the number of good ones.

I was very glad to see that Thor was well done and definitely got my approval of a good film adaptation of one of the cooler comic book characters. While the story was altered a little bit for the film, it wasn’t anything too major (Jane Foster is and astrophysicist not a nurse, etc.).

The Asgard scenes were really amazing. I was glad to see how true they stuck with the comic interpretations of Asgard and the other realms. The battles with the frost giants were great, and really displayed just how off the charts powerful Thor is.

There was a decent mix of humor along the way as well, but not too much as to take away from the serious nature of the story. Loki and Odin were very well done too. Not too over the top or evil in Loki’s case.

I was glad I hung around till the end of the credits. There’s a pretty good hint as to what might take place in the upcoming Avengers movie if you do stay around long enough to see.

Categories
Books

Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil

A few weeks back I was determined to make use of a public library. I’ve been buying a lot of books and since I rarely read them twice, why not just borrow one for free. Plus I feel kinda smart and wise if I walk into a library every now and then.

I got a few suggestions from NGM on some good reads, but when I got to the library I got a little intimidated. Books seemed to be everywhere and they were all hardcover, and I’ve only been exposed to softcover books for the longest time.

Sadly they didn’t have what NGM had recommended, and I couldn’t recall the titles of some others as well. So in a bit of panic I grabbed a Star Wars book. It just seemed safe to me, so my decision was made.

It was a pretty solid read. The events take place right before Episode III, which was really cool. It gave characters who didn’t get much screen time in the film a time to shine. I was especially glad to learn more about General Grievous and Count Dooku. It was nice to see just how mean and feared they were to the Jedi and not some clumsy cowards who die a few minutes into the film.

If you’re into the whole Star Wars thing, then I’d recommend this highly. Very good read, with the last few chapters being the most exciting.

Categories
Video Games

Transformers: War for Cybertron

Finally got around to playing Transformers: War for Cybertron. This game was amazing, if you’d of taken me and a bunch of my friend from 3rd grade and asked us how a Transformers game/story should be done this is how it would’ve turned out. It was so accurate to what I remembered best from Transformers growing up and none of that silly stuff from the recent movies.

The ending credits were amazingly 80’s! An original song by Stan Bush, the nostalgic graphics, it was great!

Playing as both the Decepticons and Autobots was a nice touch. Starscream, Soundwave and cast were always favorites of mine. Actually recruiting Starscream in the first chapter to the Decepticons side was really fun. It was cool to see that he was still working with Jetfire at the time. If you have any idea of what I’m talking about then you are an excellent Transformers fan and I have your back should you even need it.

Even if this game didn’t have the Transformers license, it’d still of been a terrific game. This is an extreme rarity and a real shame that licensed games almost always turn out bad. It you grew up liking the Transformers and ranks the death of Optimus Prime right up with the Challenger explosion then buy and play this game right away. If you don’t then still play it, it’s really good.