Category Archives: review

Apple’s “Mighty Mouse”

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There is a lot of confusion about Apple’s new Mighty Mouse (which IMO is a crap name). As I’ve got mine today, I thought I’d dispel some of it:

  • It still has a physical micro-switch that is activated when applying force to the top of the mouse.
  • The capacitive sensors only detect which finger is applied, the actual click is initiated by the micro-switch. When both sensors register contact, a primary click is initiated (i.e. for a secondary click, you have to lift your primary finger off the surface).
  • The scroll ball works surprisingly well in spite of its small size; diagonal movement is a bit harder but I think that’s not due to the input mechanism but the way human fingers work. It needs a tiny amount of pressure on the ball to register the scrolling movement; it is possible to physically turn the ball without applying any downward force which results in no reaction. The scroll ball click (which I mapped to “Button 3” to keep Safari’s “Open in New Tab”) also uses the micro-switch for initiating the action but (somehow) is not confused by fingers lying on either contact surface.
  • The squeeze buttons (which function as a single button) are meant to be operated by thumb and pinky and take quite a bit of force to activate (to guard against accidental activation I suppose).
  • The “speaker” (a piezo clicker) is used for feedback when rolling the scroll ball and when activating the squeeze button. This is surprisingly effective.
  • The USB cable is still ridiculously short. This is fine if you have a hub in your keyboard or display, but anything else is a stretch.
  • Update: It seems to use the Agilent ADNS-2051, which is capable of 400 and 800 dpi. A good reference for which mouse uses which chip is here, but it does not include the new Apple mouse yet.

I am still a button short as my previous mouse was a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth 2 which had two thumb buttons which I used for Exposé Show Desktop and All Windows. The old mouse had the problem of disconnecting after a certain idle period (to save power) which lead to problems with the “Sleep” mode of the Mac Mini — it immediately reawakens when it realises that the BT mouse has severed the connection. Then you have to send it to Sleep again. Also, the middle mouse button on the new version of the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse is difficult to press: The scroll-wheel is continous (i.e. no distinct “notches”) which means you’re more likely to initiate a scroll than pushing the button (which requires a lot more force than before).
Ah yes, I was talking about the new mouse: It looks nice, it’ll have to cleaned more often than the grey / blue / black Microsoft mouse, the lift-left-finger-to-right-click is easier to get used to than I thought, the scroll ball is nifty, and the resolution is higher than the abysmal 400 dpi of the IntelliMouse for Bluetooth, although I don’t know what nominal resolution of the “Mighty Mouse” is.
Looks like a keeper… 😉

Nochnoy Dozor / Night Watch

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Nochnoy Dozor / Night Watch is a Russian film and the first part of a trilogy. It is a modern day fantasy about the age old struggle between good and evil which has come to a stalemate and now both parties try to keep the status quo (a bit like the Cold War) with the Night Watch (good guys watching bad guys) and the Day Watch (bad guys watching good guys) being the overseers of this truce, all the while letting the normal people believe that nothing of the sort of wizards, witches, vampires and shape-shifters exists. The members of the warring factions are called Others and are awaiting the arrival of a prophesied Other that will break the balance for one side or the other.
The director has mainly been doing commercials and music videos, and that is very evident throughout the film. Most of the time this works very well, once in while you feel as if a particular shot did not really have to be in slow-motion or that the camera didn’t have to twirl around the scene 3 times. In that regard it takes plenty of inspiration from Hollywood blockbusters, but is able to stand on its own with a certain grittiness, an odd sense of humour and non-sterile characters, but the blatant Nescafe ads are awful.
The Russian DVD of this has good English subtitles, although certain choices may confuse viewers (i.e. “the Other” = “an Other”, “funnel” = “vortex”).
Better than I expected (and I hoped it would be good). Recommended (as long as you don’t expect an art-house film).

Alastair Reynolds – Chasm City

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After having read Revelation Space I immediately started looking for further books from the same author. Turns out, I misspelled his name while searching Amazon.de, which just turned up the one book I had already read.
So, I’ve now been reading Alastair’s next book, Chasm City, which is just as good. It is set in the same universe (and Reynolds cleverly hands out a bit of fan-service for the people who remember his previous novel) and details a character’s road to revenge. Simple in theory, beautifully complex in practice and again raising plenty of interesting questions and concepts along the way.
With this novel, I have to revise my opinion of Reynolds, and I am now officially looking as much forward to his future books as I am excited about Vernor Vinge’s work!

Resident Evil 4 (GameCube)

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I finished RE4 yesterday evening — and at this point in time, me finishing a game is in itself a recommendation. It manages to revive the franchise in so many ways while still staying true to its core, coupled with amazing visuals and sound effects. Most in game cut-scenes look better than pre-rendered sequences used in other games and the game itself is equally well executed with plenty of atmospheric particle effects, good texture work and excellent character models. The only (small) mar is that it always runs in (non-anamorphic) wide-screen mode.
It is a fairly long game (a bit below 22h for me — with 908 enemies killed), but due a variety of nuances in the core gameplay (partner, vehicle, etc.) it manages to stay fresh and interesting throughout with an amazing intensity. The merchants with their different available weapons, upgrades and available mini-games improve replayability manifold as you can take your inventory and excess cash into a new game.

Dan Simmons – Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion

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As a follow up to my review of “Hyperion”, here is my take on the rest of the series: As the titles suggest, the series is split into two times two books (with more reappearing cast than one thinks possible at their respective beginnings). “Hyperion” is the tale of the 7 pilgrims, the “Fall of Hyperion” is the story of a poet, “Endymion” is the story of a chase, and the “Rise of Endymion” is the story of one who teaches. And they are all excellent, more relying on emotions and characters than on hard science, but they are not worse off for it as the scope is huge. In fact, I am (once again) drying tears from my cheeks at the ending. Which is perfect.
I have also fallen for many a red herring (whether through my own overly vivid imagination or because they were meant as such I do not know), and as such have been pleasantly surprised that Simmons has not resorted to clichés I thought were coming.
Very recommended (but then I usually do not bother writing about bad stuff ;)). I have a feeling that the story of the last two books (in particular the final one) — and thus pretty much all of it — will stay with me for quite some time…

Emma – Victorian Romance

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I quite liked the first episode of the “Emma” anime (and I have to admit that I did not yet get around to take a look at the manga — although I’ve finished “Shirley” by the same author), all of which is thankfully provided by the iichan translation group. If you have a strong dislike of (non-superpowered) maids, this is probably not for you; it is very much “down-to-earth”.
I find it very intriguing and in the same vein as Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (“Yokohama Shopping Log”) with its slow development and strong focus on tiny little details (with good and detailed animation), but “Emma” seems to have a sadder undertone, which is underlined by the dark brownish-grey colour scheme for a Victorian London (I presume it is London from the picture of Big Ben in the ending), the contrast between poverty and the Rich as well as Emma’s reluctance to accept what would probably be best for her (in a variety of ways); but this is what makes the story. My only hope is that not too much trouble lies ahead for Emma, as I wish her well.
Slow, but recommended. Associated feeling of the day: mono no aware.

Darwinia

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Darwinia is the new game from the folks at Introversion (the last of the bedroom programmers as they like to call themselves). They are a small independent game company and the only reason I found out about them, was that I liked their previous game Uplink, which is some sort of hacking simulator. Enough with the href-pimping, on with the impressions.
The box of Darwinia is green, and when I say “green” I mean “GREEEEEEEEEEEEN”. It practically yells at you. That way it’ll be relatively easy to find it should a retailer stock it (which may or may not habe been their intention ;)). The game itself seems to be some sort of action RTS, a bit reminiscent of “Cannon Fodder” or maybe even “Syndicate”. Graphics-wise, the Introversion-folks have made the best of their lack of graphic artists and implemented a retro-futuristic, texture-less “dreamscape” which fits the game well. The interface takes a no-clutter approach (using a separate gestures screen) and some clever computer-metaphors (ALT-Tabbing your units). I am not sure about their decision to compress chip-tune music as ogg, I would have much preferred an actual SID emulator (or code something akin to kb[fr]‘s software synths) — if only for the additional geek factor.
It is a labour of love, and it shows. Everytime I’ve started the game, I was greeted by a different intro, some reminiscent of 4kb-intros from the scene, others being digs at long out-of-business software companies (“Sensible”), and others still “emulating” a C64 loading process complete with flickering. And all have evoked feeling… Recommended (even for people like me that hate “proper” RTS games)!