Movies in weekend

Amazingly, this weekend I have seen two full movies.
Friday I have seen "The Rise of the Planet of the Apes". The story was predictable and linear but the special effects were stunning.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/81/Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_Poster.jpg/220px-Rise_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_Poster.jpg)

 

Saturday I have finally seen "Inception". It is a long time since I haven't seen a movie as good as it. I found it to be a modern version of George Roy Hill's 1973 "The Sting" mixed with ideas from"The Neuromancer". The idea of dreams within dreams and the possibility of building worlds (not only scam scenes) takes the plot to a more profound level. There are lots of similarities in the plot and in the characters but Nolan's movie is deeper and have more profound connotations. Most of the cast was remarkable (except for Marion Cottliard which gave a pale representation).

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7f/Inception_ver3.jpg/220px-Inception_ver3.jpg)

Mara One Year Old

What If?

As Nokia 's handset sales are going down, I wonder what would happen if they would provide a way to simply port Android on their released phones - E series and such.

IMHO they will gain instant community response - and projects similar with Cyanogen will be born. Possibly this  will add market traction to all the other models  - as they are very impressive as hardware.

The ideal thing would be a W7/Android dual boot both for them and for us.

Driving Technical Change

Reading this book I have realized why I have often failed to promote sane techniques in my organization.
I have to brush a lot my selling skills and diplomacy.

Facebook

(http://www.somegreybloke.com/)

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has resigned. Since then the press started to publish pictures with Jobs as a very sick man.
I really do not want tho see pictures.
I want to remember Jobs as the charismatic visionary that was mastering the "reality distortion field". I want to remember him as the guy in black t-shirt and jeans able to captivate people and create wonderful products.
The IT will miss the magic touch he had on every aspect of IT as he was one of the architects of humanizing this domain and make it accessible to larger masses of people. He transformed the way we interact with computers twice and created maybe the most elegant designs for computers, devices and interfaces.

Thank you for the GUI !
Good luck Mr. Jobs!

Hand-Made Arduino

It is kind of done. I haven't uploaded the bootloader yet.
It hasn't exploded yet - and this is a good sign.

Update:
1. Bootloader flashed ok with a BusPirate
2. Created the first app for it - works.

Next steps: Connect a PIR sensor and a camera for a nice alarm system.