Ribbon Bar

A month or two ago I was browsing the Vista screenshots and I was thinking to myself, the new UI is looking pretty good; the transparent windows and simplified menus gives you a less cluttered look and feel.

Then today, I saw a screenshot of the ribbon bar that's replacing the menus and I have to say, what the heck are they thinking??


So this ribbon bar thing is suppose to be a "context sensitive menu" that presents the users with only those actions that are relevant to their current task. It is supposed to "reduce visual clutter", but they sure have a hard time convincing me with that screenshot.

That ribbon bar looks huge with those icons that are spanning 2 rows. Realistically it's probably occupies the same vertical area as a normal menu bar and 2 toolbars would, but visually those large buttons just make it looks much taller (I am not a fan of large buttons). Not to mention that the whole thing looks like a big jig-saw puzzle small buttons mixed in with large buttons mixed in with some menu items.

It just looks like one big mess.

Something for Mom

It was my mom's birthday a couple days ago, we took her out to a fancy dinner and even got her a nice present this year! I say "this year" because our family doesn't have a habit of exchanging presents, not even on Christmas. And this time it was actually my dad's idea to get her something (I wonder if he's has done something to make my mom angry... =p). I should get into this habit for other occasions too.

[Review] The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse

If you are a computer geek like myself, then you'll most likely know what Eclipse is (for those who don't, you can read about it at wikipedia, which can explain it much better than I could).

On its own, Eclipse is a pretty powerful Java IDE, but what make eclipse even more cool is that anybody can write plugins to extend its functions, and you can use Eclipse to write these plugins for itself. There are ton of books and articles to teach you how to muck around with eclipse, this book on the left for example is a good starting point.

The book is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 teaches you how to use Eclipse, part 2 teaches you how to extend Eclipse, and part 3 are exercises to give you practice on stuff you've read (part 1 mostly). If you have used eclipse before, you can probably just skim through part 1 and part 3.

The flow of the book is easy to follow (no need to flip back and forth) and there are plenty of clear examples to illustrate the concepts. There were a few places in the book that seems like it was repeating itself from a couple pages before, but this is only a minor distraction.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get my hands on the first edition of this book, which only covers Eclipse 2.0. The second edition covers Eclipse 3.0 (current Eclipse release is 3.2).

My rating: 4/5

Tang Concubines

Gosh, I haven't updated this blog in 2 weeks. I haven't been terribly busy with work, in fact things are winding down because we are close to release. I guess this lull at work has made me kind of lazy and that's why I haven't been updating my blog (yes, I tend to operate quite opposite to most normal people...)

So what have I been up to recently? My mom got 2 tickets from the bank to go see Tang Concubines at the Toronto Center for the Arts. My dad didn't want to go and so this is where the dutiful son steps in. I am really glad I went to see the show. At first I wondered if they will be speaking Chinese or English, and I was going to guess English because how else would the western audiences understand the story? But at the same time it would be quite strange to hear the ancient Chinese characters speak in English. Thankfully, the show was not in English, nor was it in Chinese... it was told by body language. There were 2 lighted billboards that explained at the beginning of each scene what the scene was about (this was in English and Chinese). The audience can then sit back, relax and enjoy the ensuing dance sequence, without having to worry about listening to the dialog. Reading the program before the show also helps quite a bit.

I was amazed by the flexibility and fluidity of the performers, it's hard to imagine that the human body is capable of such graceful motions. And you know about those people that can bend their body in all sorts of weird shapes and knots? I've seen them in TV shows but this is the first time I have seen one in a live performance. She can literally bend over and sit on her own head... that was a bit disconcerting. It sure give a new meaning to the phrase "I'll cut of my head for you to sit on" (no thank you, I can sit on my own head).

New HCM Pro Galleries

Sazabi

Zeta (Gallery 2)

Other HCM Pro news...

Nu Gundam Promo Pic
34-00 and 35-00 (some kind of zaku)
Sazabi SP Ver. (arghhhhhhhh!!!!!)

Soukyuu の Fafner

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I have just finished watching a series called Soukyuu の Fafner, also known as Dead Aggressor. Fafner tells the story of a group of young kids living on Tatsumiyajima island somewhere off the coast of Japan. The island is a peaceful place where not much happens, and the kids attend to their daily lives without a care in the world. However, this all changes when one day, the island is attack by an alien life form known as a "Festum". The truth is slowly revealed; the rest of the world is already in ruins from the alien invasion and Tatsumiyajima island is the last paradise, and also the last line of defense of mankind. For this reason, Fafners were developed on the island, and only the children of Tatsumiyajima island can pilot these giant robots to fight against the festums.

Kazuki, the main character, aka Shin Asuka's part time role

I am sure that from the above description alone, Fafner is sounding like another series of the EVA genre. That would be a correct deduction. Fafner has all the necessary elements: 1) an incomprehensible alien enemy 2) robots that can only be piloted by children 3) and most importantly, an incomprehensible story line (for most part of the series anyways).

Yes, Fafner has its fair share of dialog that would stop abruptly, or dialog that sound like riddles, keeping the viewers guessing and scratching their heads throughout-out the series. However, I am glad to say that the Fafner manages to escape the pitfall of other animes of this kind, that is, at the end of the series, there is a sense of closure; there is a coherent and comprehensible story underneath all that wishy-washy EVA-ish fluff.

The Fafner Mark Elf	Kazuki and the other main character, Soushi (yaoi territory)	A Festum attacking

All in all, Fafner is an enjoyable series. It has a nice blend of 2-D and CG animation, you never feel that the CG animation is overdone. The cast of characters all have their own very unique and well rounded personalities, that's quite a feat considering the large cast. In a series such as this it's inevitable some characters will die and those moments are really well done; you can feel the pain an anguish that the rest of the characters are going through.

My rating: 8/10