aramation

With the advent of RSS feeds, it has never been easier to be updated with news and blogs. What everyone needs is a versatile, full-featured yet simple to use and possibly free RSS reader that can handle your demanding news viewing. Thankfully, Snarfer does all that, and more.

With the use of folders, you can keep your feeds organized by opting to display new items from a specific feed, a specific folder, or all the feeds at the same time. Clicking on a feed item will display the webpage in the reader without opening a browser instance.

Apart from feeds, Snarfer can also search eBay or Craigslist by setting a few keywords and the feed will be automatically updated and return relevant search results. If you’re looking for a specific product, this feature will greatly save you time.

Another great feature is synchronizing with Bloglines, which means you can access your feeds virtually anywhere by using either the desktop software or online. This way, your feeds will be up to date to your reading.

In the end, Snarfer is a great reader for all your feeds. Program doesn’t hog resources, and best of all, it is available for free.

[Download Snarfer from Snarfware]

 The Golden Compass is another one of fantasy-action movie that tries to get your kids excited with flashy visuals and fantastical creatures. The movie tells the first story in Philip Pullman’s first story in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Story stars Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old girl who sets out to rescue her friend who was kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers, and to reunite with her uncle who is in the North trying to mount an expedition to the other parallel worlds by using Dust. This parallel Earth is ruled by the Magisterium, a powerful organization bent on controlling all actions and thoughts, not unlike a totalitarian government or, say, the Catholic Church.

The books and the movies have been labeled anti-Christian, and thankfully it has been toned down in the movie for a commercial success. Unfortunately, the creative force behind the movie forgot a few key things to make it better than just mediocre.

The world is rich, and the visuals are powerful, mostly. It takes awhile to explain all the concepts (such as daemons, shape-shifting animals containing the child’s soul, creativity and conscience. They are directly linked so injuring them will injure the linked children as well). Magisterium seeks to sever the link between the daemon and the child to destroy the child’s sense of identity and independence. If this material is too dense, just imagine what a child would think when you layer on the anti-establishment and anti-religion message.

Another important aspect of the movie is that it ends abruptly, apparently designed to provide a happy ending to movie watchers, except it doesn’t resolve anything and hardly explains anything (for part of the cut ending, watch this video). The Golden Compass is best enjoyed on a high-definition Blu-Ray disk as you marvel at the scenes, and just not focus on the plot, character development or coherence.

Rating: 55%

When you have internationally traveling friends, sometimes all you want to do is to figure out where they are and where they are going. Or if you travel a lot for business or pleasure, you’d possibly want a central location and generate a RSS feed so your friend can compulsively know your whereabouts. DOPPLR.com tries to fill this niche market: however its usefulness depends entirely on your friends’ willingness to have another social network added…

With DOPPLR, you can list what trips you are going to take. Interface is incredibly simple as you type in your destination, DOPPLR will try to make the best effort to guess the exact location. For example, when I typed “Toronto”, it guessed that I meant “Toronto, Canada”, although when I typed “Turks and Caicos”, it thought I wanted to go to Khujand, Tajikistan (and I really don’t want to go there). You specify the dates of your travel, the method to get there and all those details will be saved.

The next step is to invite your friends to use DOPPLR so they can see your trips, and this is where things will be very tough for this website. It is already tough to survive in the world of social networking in the face of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. It doesn’t look like the usefulness of DOPPLR will be lost to many. There is also a travel guide component, where users can submit what to do when you get to a destination, but the quality of submissions is limiting, and the available information is lacking. You will be better off getting travel information from other dedicated websites.

In the end, DOPPLR presents us with a solution that not too many people care about. If you really want to find out where your friends are traveling to, there are easier ways to find out (Facebook, e-mail even phone calls). And if you absolutely want to show off how much you travel the instant you update your travel plans, I have a feeling your friends won’t be so interested in you afterwards.

Only Cafe is located on Danforth, east of Pape in a neighborhood with a lot of food offerings. I’ve had the chance to check out the brunch menu (available on the weekend between 9:00AM and 4:00PM), and unfortunately it was a disappointment. The menu is simple, featuring only 10 items. There’s a waffle – smothered in fruits, traditional eggs served with black forest ham or sausages, there’s of course a french toast and they even feature a baked french toast with goat cheese embedded within.

What drew me to the restaurant was the Huevos Rancheros, although what they serve isn’t traditional. Two eggs are topped with salsa, guacamole, sour cream and refried beans. At Only Cafe, they serve it with crispy tortilla chips which ruin the experience. Salsa wasn’t as fresh as it should have been and there wasn’t enough kick to it either.

As long as you avoid Huevos Rancheros, you’ll find the rest of the menu to be pretty good.

[The Only Cafe official website | menus]

The other day, while waiting for my car to be serviced, I had the chance to re-watch Cloverfield, this time on a much-smaller screen of a laptop. If you couldn’t stomach the big-screen version with all the shaking, you should catch up on this flick on the small screen.

Cloverfield is a monster destroying New York City. What makes this movie compelling is the cast of normal twenty-somethings who are suddenly thrust into a situation they don’t know and that they can’t get out of. At Rob’s going away party, Hud starts documenting his last day in New York City before he jumps in a plane and head to Japan. Rob’s brother Jason, and Jason’s girlfriend as well as Malena, a girl that Hud has a crush on, try to survive when something attacks New York and start destroying building after building.

Supposed to be a video footage of the group surviving the beast, the footage does look indeed authentically amateur with all the shaking, sometimes off focus and oftentimes without proper lighting. In dark alleys and even darker subway tunnels, pitch black screen and monsters hissing will send chills down your spine.

The movie starts slow as it focuses on the party and introduces all the relevant character relationships. However once the monster shows up, the movie doesn’t let its pacing down as the main characters scramble to get away, go find their loved ones, and just try to survive against both the monster and the military’s attacks.

Not everyone will find the ending satisfying, and at some points in time, the main characters choose a course of action that a normal sane New Yorker will never choose. They do betray the scripted nature of the movie: however, suspend your logic and you will find one of the best monster movies this side of the ocean.

Rating: 70%

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is not a typical musical, nor a movie. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly taps his own pocket to write, produce and direct this 42 minute musical. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a shy but still mad scientist who tries really hard to get into the League of Evil, who works on his evil laugh with a vocal coach, and who secretly longs for a girl he meets at the laundromat. He vlogs about his plans and feelings, and ends up discovering it is watched by both his nemesis Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion) and the police.

Joss Whedon showed his musical talent in a special musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in its 6th season, and the music through this series is pretty outstanding. Just like a traditional musical, every major character suddenly bursts into songs to express their feelings. Dr. Horrible finally musters up the courage to talk to the girl of his dreams, only to watch Captain Hammer save her and start dating her.

Neil Patrick Harris is perfect as Dr. Horrible, and Nathan Fillion plays Captain Hammer to its campy fun. He is almost parodying himself in other heroic roles, and it is great fun to watch him sing about how much of a self-absorbed cocky superhero he is. The movie is available on iTunes (at just $3.99) and will soon be released on DVD. This internet mini-series should not be missed by all Joss Whedon fans as it is hilarious light summer fare.

Rating: 75%

When it comes to easy-to-use and even easier-to-program universal remote, Harmony products always rank high. Logitech Harmony One is a worthy successor to last year’s 880 model, improving upon virtually all aspects.

One look at the remote and you’ll realize the button placement is more intuitive than ever before. Gone are the tiny buttons next to the screen, and instead there is a full color touchscreen (220 by 176 pixels). The screen makes using the remote even easier and even more customizable. Some of the odd shape buttons (like “A”, “B” and “C” buttons on cable box) look just like they do on the unit remote, making them easier to spot on the screen. Another great use of the screen is to customize favorite channels when you’re watching the TV. By downloading and configuring your remote to display channel logos, just press the logo and you’ll be taken to that channel. TV station logos for virtually all channels in the world can be downloaded here.

What hasn’t changed is the software. As always, Harmony One requires you to set up the device online, which means if you don’t have an internet connection, you can’t set up the remote. On the flipside, you don’t have to read through rows and rows of device codes and trying each one to find what your devices respond to. Instead, just type in the brand and the model number, Harmony website will figure out what codes to use.

Harmony One still uses activities which is another way to describe macro. Default configuration will work for most users, but the option is available for you to tweak to your heart’s content (such as delay between button presses, order of devices power on…). For example, press “Watch TV” activity and, based on your programmed devices, the remote will automatically turn the TV on, set it to the proper input, turn the cable box or other audio devices on, and even set it to the favorite default channel.

In the end, Harmony One is a worthy successor to last year’s model, and it improves upon the Harmony 1000 which also featured a touchscreen. Harmony One is better looking, with better button placement, more comfortable to hold, and features a better screen. Even the recharging dock is improved with customizable LED brightness. Chances are, you have multiple devices in your home theater setup, and Harmony One will make controlling them much easier.

Latest movie from Pixar is set in the world where humans have abandoned Earth and left in a posh spaceship as refugees while robots remain behind to clean up the mess. Post-consumerism world run by a big conglomerate Buy ‘N Large has turned Earth into a wasteland, and it’s up to WALL-E robots to compact the trash. 700 years pass, and the last functioning WALL-E robot on Earth has struck a friendship with a cockroach, has developed a somewhat of a personality and is obsessed with Hello Dolly.

Unlike previous Pixar efforts, the movie’s grandiose visuals at the beginning, and then the antics of WALL-E who can’t technically speak dominate the beginning. For close to 40 minutes, there is no discernable human dialog in the movie, and you won’t miss it as you’re too busy marveling at the visual creations of Pixar.

And when humans enter the picture after WALL-E grabs a leaving rocket, humanity has devolved into a fat and lazy consumers where they use hoverchairs to avoid walking, and all their needs are attended to by robots. WALL-E and EVE overcome their prime directives, and will end up saving the world (as usual). This movie also marks the first time a human has appeared in a Pixar movie as Fred Willard plays the president of Buy ‘N Large.

The movie is another winning effort by Pixar. If the simplistic and charming story doesn’t win you over, the lush visuals will keep both children and adults glued to their seats.

Rating: 97%