The Dark Knight Rises – a Fan’s love is the Fan’s hate!

Before I start, let me clear something – I’m a big fan of Christopher Nolan and it’s quite rare if I missed any of his work in movies. Likewise, I’m a great fan of Batman comics, having watched almost all animated series, movies and read few comic books as well (it’s really tough to get Batman comics in India, you know.). Also, note that this post contains SPOILERS, so stay away from this post until you watch the movie.

Nolan, as we all know, is a real magician behind the camera. He has a ability to turn any story awesome even if it’s seemingly too complicated (like Memento). So when he took the charge of Batman series with Batman Begins, I’ve every reasons to get excited, and hell I was.

Batman fan’s view -

When I watched the Batman Begins (then I was new to Batman animations, to be true), I was overwhelmed. It was an awesome plot – a great way to introduce a superhero, to show how he became one and at the same time having satisfying amount of action to make audience stick to their seats. For me, this is how a superhero movie should be (Iron Man is suitable example to follow the trend). And when I thought I have seen best of superhero movie, The Dark Knight simply blown me away. The movie had great plot, amazing action scenes and lots of sequences that dazzled me.

But when I went for The Dark Knight Rises, then the realization hit me. It’s not that the movie was bad, in fact, it’s very true to Nolan’s way of direction. But while watching the movie, the Batman fan in me kicked in, spoiling all the fun of Nolan’s art. I started comparing this movie (and past two) with the Batman comics/animations finding many things that didn’t seem fitting.

For any comics/animations/game adaptation, it’s quite okay if you introduce new characters or and new dimension to existing ones. So when Rachael Dawes was introduced in Batman Begins, Gordon had son instead of daughter or Harvey Dent was made lover of Rachael (The Dark Knight) instead the friend of Batman, I was quite fine with it. Even Maroni‘s character was apt, Joker was just perfect. Integrity of every characters was kept intact as in the comics, something a fan of comics will always loves.

In The Dark Knight Rises, things got ugly. There were handful of comics characters in this movie but a lot of them used as they were no one in comics (read Roland Daggett), and the basic characteristics of others has been twisted so much that they don’t feel quite (comics world) Real. For anyone who’ve read Knightfall and the series, would really be annoyed.

In the comics, Bane was monstrous figure, at least when he is on venom. On the same time he was extremely intelligent person and didn’t blow the Gotham City‘s wall for no reasons, as shown in the movie. And of course, since there was no League of Shadows (although there is different League of Assassins), he worked his way out to figure out who the Batman is, and then broke his back. The Bane shown in the movie was apparently an insult to the character. And speaking of insult, how come The Greatest Detective in the World couldn’t figure out who the hell is Talia al Ghul?

Coming to Talia, how could anyone show her a lover to Bane, when she was always shown in love with Bruce. I think she tops the chart of Bruce’s/Batman’s lover’s list (even surpassing Selina Kayle/ Catwoman). Also, the movie has completely wasted Talia and Catwoman to make any impact at all. I was always waiting to see a fight between Catwoman and Batman that simply never happened in the movie.

A bit of movie review -

Like all Christopher Nolan movies, this movie also packs the punch, but it falls short on some places. The characters in the movie doesn’t hold too well. Bane, who’s shown very powerful throughout, had very ordinary impression in the last fight and died way too quickly. Talia’s character was practically wasted, and even Bane could have carried that part with ease (having any random girl in place of Talia).

There were glitches in plot too. Bane was never shown making escape plans and with bomb detonating in few hours and him fighting with Batman, it seems he had suicidal mission, contradictory to the purpose of League of Shadows shown in Batman Begins.

The movie was, as I felt, unusually lengthy (so is my review right now ). There are few places where the it could have reduced in length, especially in the sequence when Bruce tries to climb out of the pit. This movie was also marred by the legacy of amazing two movies that came before this. Unlike Batman Begins‘ amazing character development and The Dark Knight‘s adrenaline boosting sequences, this movie was a bit slow and less action-packed.

Verdict -

In a way, this was a true end of legend as I don’t want to see the 4th installment after watching this movie . Maybe, now this series needs a reboot, just like Spiderman. Don’t get me wrong, Nolan has indeed done a great job to complete the franchise, but as Nolan’s (knowing his true ability) and Batman’s fan, I felt a lot falling short.

I think movie is good true Nolan fan, avoidable for true Batman (especially comics) fans. And if you fall in my bracket (being fan of both), all I can say is my sentiments is with you brother! We can neither avoid the movie nor see it with full enthusiasm.

Root any Android phone without hassle!

Android is really a fun mobile OS providing you the ability to customize it the way you like, or to install as many  app you want. But if you really want to take full advantage of the OS, you need to root the device. For those who don’t know, rooting is the method of getting root access (Android is Linux based after all) to the OS, or in other words it’s way to have full permission to practically do anything. Rooting also enable to install the apps which require to perform system level changes/access.

Now, as we know, rooting is powerful and more fun, question comes how we do it? And also if every mobile is rootable or not?

There are several versions of Android and every version is further customized by the mobile phone manufacturer to stand out. But this adds difficulty when it comes to rooting and most of the times the phone doesn’t root at all. And, if you’re not making something (rooting, in this case) you’re actually breaking it i.e. the phone can be rendered useless if not rooted properly. So, before you try, remember your warranty will completely void and you may end up with total plastic which do nothing.

Precautions out, and if you still dare, then here comes a very handy and comfortable tool to root the Android phones – Unlock Root. This is one stop solution to root practically any device running on Android OS version 2.1 (Eclair), 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3 (Gingerbread) and 4.0.x (Ice-cream sandwich). Some notable devices (some of which are pretty nasty to root as well) are HTC Wildfire S, HTC Desire S, Samsung Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, etc.

Interested? Just follow these very easy to use steps to root your phone and to unlock the world of possibilities.

Go here to download Unlock Root. Install this and make sure that your device drivers are also installed.

1. Open the Unlock Root application. The main window will open like this -

Unlock Root main interface

2. Make sure that your device must be in USB Debugging Mode. If not then just go to Settings > Applications > Development and then selection the option of USB Debugging Mode.

3. Now once you connect your device to the PC, it’ll be automatically detected by Unlock Root program and a prompt will come just like this -

Device Detection

4. Now you’re presented with very easy to understand two options – Root (the BIG red button) and UnRoot (the other small button). Rooting will essentially install one Superuser.apk file which will in turn grant you full permission.

One-click rooting of the device

5. Optionally (but highly recommended by Unlock Root people), you can install Power Saver tool as well to improve the battery life. This can also be done right from the same interface.

Install to extend battery life

6. Finally, you’re done! Now the application will require you to reboot your device and present you with this friendly message.

Reboot message

7. Done! Once rebooted your device will be properly unlocked. Enjoy the real freedom!

8. If, for some strange reasons, you want to unRoot your device, you can also do so with the Unlock Root application. Just connect your device and press that small little UnRoot button and you’re good to go.

How to get rid of Facebook Timeline (and bonus)?

If you don’t like the new Facebook Timeline and want it to removed in lieu of old Facebook Profile page, then you should know one thing – Facebook is not gonna do that, at least not anytime soon. So, can you get the old Profile page back by any means? The answer is – Yes, of course you can. Though the method is not official (in fact is complete opposite to that), it’s entirely harmless way to get the old Facebook Profile back. Read on!

Few hours back, Mashable has done the story that Facebook Timeline doesn’t work on Internet Explorer 7, citing Facebook’s recommendation of using most up-to-date version of browser. So, it’s quite simple, use Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) or less and get rid of Timeline completely, isn’t it? The situation is slightly tricky here – First, if you have Windows 7 then you cannot have IE7 installed and latest version of IE(9) is already installed. Also, older version of software means lesser support, buggy experience and most of the all vulnerability to viruses. Also, in case of Facebook, chat will not work properly.

What’s the best way then? Enter the User Agents! Before you ponder about what it is (the Wikipedia page is not very comfortable to understand), lemme tell about this in brief. User agents are like identification of browsers. Simply put, a server identifies the browser by reading it’s user agent. So if you change the user agent, server will recognize you’re using different browser altogether. Easy!

Now one final question arises? How can you change the user agent? Well, there’s an app for that (or extension to be more precise). Download user agent switchers for Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer. It’s simple to install and once installed you’ll get the option to switch/change the user agent of browsers (see images below for details). I recommend using user agent of Internet Explorer 6 to be certain that Timeline doesn’t come up at all.

Change user agent in Chrome

Change user agent in Firefox

Change user agent in Internet Explorer.

There are other benefits of using IE6 user agent as well – the news ticker will be gone and the chat will cover entire right part of window when opened, much like good old Facebook. once you set the user agent, just refresh the Facebook tab and see the magic! All this and that too without any issue or security problems. But keep one thing in mind, this no-Timeline thing will only appear for you and your friend will still see the Timeline if on supported browser.

Let me know if you like the trick. Till then, Happy surfing!

Facebook Desktop Messenger is here!

Well, almost. Although it’s available to selected few testers currently, but if you follow this link, you can get your hands on it right away! Now, as it’s clear that you can get the messenger damn easy, one question comes to mind – why one should download yet another messenger, especially when you can use web based messenger or, better, use multi-protocol Instant messengers like Pidgin? Nice question! Let’s see if we really need this messenger.

Facebook Desktop Messenger is not just a desktop messenger but it’s also a mini Facebook in itself, sans news feed of course, which makes it unique in itself. Clearly, if you’re Facebook addict, it’s a must have peice of software for you. For others, lemme go through step by step process to help you decide -

Installation of Facebook messenger is fast and easy, but it’s a web based which somewhat makes sense and it’s sole purpose is to used to access feature that requires internet connection. There is no customization feature as well, which is disheartening for tweakers.

After installation, you need to login to Facebook using your web and once logged, you get to see this message:

This essentially means, the only way to log out of the messenger is to log out from web. There is no separate logout for the app. Also, it doesn’t have any customization option whatsoever.

Once launched, you can see the messenger is split into 2 halves – news ticker and list of firends. Surprisingly and thankfully, the size of these windows is adjustable (this is the only customization you can do for this messenger).

You can see firend requests, notifications and messages as well. Image given below shows that:

One cool feature of this messenger is that it can be docked to the right of the windows, so that can always see it even if other windows are open. And also the chat window can have multiple tabs, not the first but is really a convinience!

Overall, it seems a pretty robust chat software and it’s look and feel is quite impressive. As I already said, it’s a must have software for Facebook addicts, but it’s also a very handy tool to try for others, especially if you’ve some friends on Facebook.

Learn new English words without much hassle!

Ah, so long, but wait is sometimes good (I’m not saying it’s going to be good this time though ). Anyway, moving to the blog post of the day (or should I say month, given the last post was on Nov 21st? ).

Now, we all know how to read and write in English (I mean or how else you’re reading this post and I’ve written it? Chuck Norris ), but when it comes to use right word, most of us simply fail. Just for example, I’ve used the word right instead of appropriate in last sentence, but appropriate was more, well, appropriate! And sometimes, people also get confused with the words. A friend of mine loves to call himself Simpleton thinking it’s very simple person!

So, how we improve our limited English vocabulary? It’s simple, we learn (Eureka, huh ), but in slightly interactive way (Hmm, listening, aren’t you?). Below are the 3 websites that can help you grasp more words relatively easily (just relatively, you won’t become Shakespeare in one day ).

1. Graph Words:

It’s one of the most intuitive website I’ve ever seen in learning space. Graph Words is, by definition, a online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and show connections among associated words. If this goes over your head, just like it did in my case, it’s simply a graphical representation of the words you search with the possible synonyms. Your searched word is connected to it’s set of synonyms and the connection tells you the meaning of word. So, you know what exact word is to be used in the given situation.

A simple word graph for word friend is given below -

Search graph for the word Friend

2. Vocabulary:

Well, name says it all. It’s great vocabulary resource. But the interesting part of the website is when you visit, it present you with objective type assessment with point system. This assessments, although contains simple words, helps in knowing words and it’s use in pretty decent manner. But the fun gets multiplied when you enter the website. By default, they compare few similar looking words (remember simple and simpleton? :twisted:), but as you search, you’ll get the word suggestion (don’t need to remember spellings, wow!) and once selected, the you’ll see full page for the given word explaining everything about it. Quite cool, isn’t it?

3. Learn Word List:

Although the site says it’s a Free Vocabulary test Prep for GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, SAT, but you can use it for any purpose (they haven’t restricted us from doing so, I swear). This is the only website I find till now which has famous GRE flash cards, and it’s quite awesome! You can learn new words quickly and the use it to revise as well. Generally, there’s not much help in this section apart from the meaning of the words and it’s use in one sentence, but fret not, any further details needed is taken care in subsequent tests this site has. There are quite a varied selection of tests covering practically everything related to the words.

So, with these websites, I think you’re practically covered. Learn about a word through Vocabulary, get it’s meaning graph through Graph Words and finallyprove your skills on Learn Word List and you can call yourself pro! And before I part away, You can always use Google’s define method for quick reference.

After Gmail overhaul, it’s YouTube’s turn!

It seems Google has decided to overhaul the User Interface of it’s entire services. Few months back we’ve seen the redesign of Google’s homepage, then few weeks back we’ve seen complete redesign of Gmail, and now it seems that YouTube‘s next.

But for YouTube, it’s not that easy. Right now, Google’s is just testing the new layout and it’s not yet available even in TestTube. But fret not, the method to enable new UI is pretty straight-forward and easily revertible too. All you need is to play with the cookies, and in case you want to revert to older looks, just delete the cookie, simple!

So, how do you get the new UI? Just follow these easy steps -

• Open your web browser and navigate to YouTube. Right now, this method seems to work only in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 (I’m using the Chrome for the process right now).
• Open developer tools – Press F12 in IE9, Ctrl+shift+j in Chrome and Ctrl+shift+k in Firefox for quickly open the developer tools.
• Now navigate to console part and enter the following code:

document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU”;

Clear your console before proceeding, if you wish.

Just input the code shown and you're done.

• Done! Just close the developer tools and refresh the YouTube page and you’ll land into new refreshed page.

After the refresh, you’ll see a simple guide to the changes done. If you like follow these to learn or simply take a look at the images below. Also to note, these changes goes pretty well with CosmicPanda, released by YouTube some time back and I strongly recommend to use this as well to have an immersive experience.

(click images to enlarge)

Now see what you want to, on Facebook.

Few time back, Facebook started experimenting with it’s news stream. As a result, Highlighted stories born, a seemingly novel idea to put news most important to user at the top, though the end result was nothing like expected. Most of the times, some stupid posts cover up your news stream and you completely loose the track of very recent stories. It seems if 4 or 5 of your friends have posted about a link, it is considered highlighted for you and kept above the news posted on your wall a second ago. This is pretty annoying, isn’t it?

I’ve seen quite a few users moving away from Facebook or at least shouting out loud in different forums/websites/blogs because of these changes and even I’s quite frustrated too. I mean, who’s Facebook to decide which story I want to read, most importantly when it fails every time in guessing that? Marking those stories as not a featured/highlighted post wouldn’t help either.

Till now, I was using some chrome extension to get only the recent stories but it seems that Facebook has finally heard our request.Actually, it heard few time back already, but the change was gradual and not all users got the control over the news feed (I got this feature today itself). With this change, now user can select if they want to see Highlighted news (current news style system) or the Recent news (the loved old style). No matter what type of news feed you choose, the pesky real-time news update will be there. So there’s no getting away from that, at least officially.

As this new feature is easy to miss, here is step-by-step procedure to control your news feed -

1. Just look for the Sort option in the top of the news.

2. Click on the Sort button and you’ll see two options – Highlighted Stories First (in bold) and Recent Stories First.

3. Select the news style you’re comfortable with and you’re done. If you prefer new Highlight style, only Sort will be written, else Sort: Recent Stories First will come.

Deleting Facebook !!

So, I met this *friend* of mine yesterday on chat. He’s going to delete his Facebook account citing the uselessness of the website. Obviously, it made me tempted to ask a few questions before he went forward. Here’s the funny and quite interesting chat log which we had. Have fun reading this!

note: Statements in <> is my thinking at that time, not the part of actual conversation.

• HE: Dude, I’m deleting my Facebook account.
• ME: Really? Bold step, hah! <Like I care >
• HE: What bold step buddy, it’s just a distracting social network.
• ME: Seems you have nice and new revelation. Good for you. <One less stupid poster, what’s better I can get? >
• HE: New? I always knew this. Facebook kills our productivity. If you really want to make new friends, go out meet in person not virtually.
• ME: Wow! You’re really think too much on this. But I think, we’re still making friends here, the *real* ones. <not you of course>
• HE: Real? how can you say that? Anybody can easily fake on this $%^& sites.
• ME: Well, all you need is something inside your head and a bit of common-sense <you’ve none >, you can easily identify the real people. No big deal.
• HE: That’s too difficult to implement than to say. But anyway, it still kills the productivity and has absolutely no privacy.
• ME: Productivity? You do 8-9 hours job for 5 days a week, enough for your company. You don’t use Facebook in this time, do you? Then how does it kills productivity? <Anyway, first you’ve to productive, isn’t it? >
• HE: I do use use Facebook in these time as well
• ME: What? But Facebook is banned in your office, isn’t it? <getting bored >
• HE: Well, you don’t understand. That’s the fun – to fool our IT admins!
• ME: Wow, so how exactly you do that? <I’m not interested in knowing though. Your computer knowledge sucks anyway. >
• HE: Simple, I’ve to set the proxy server setting in my browser, which masks Facebook as some harmless URL and open gates to Facebook.
• ME: Is it that simple? <I know it’s not, at least for you, even if somebody configures it for you>
• HE: No, obviously not. These proxy server URL and settings needs to be changed every hour to avoid detection. Also, I’ve to make sure that nobody’s seeing my screen.
• ME: <See! Somebody tell him about VPN or Tor.> What the hell. You do all these things and risk your job just to use the service you just want to delete. Heck, I think you’ve to spend more time connecting to Facebook than actually use it.
• HE: Hmm, leave it. But it kills productivity na.
• ME: Don’t use Facebook in the office, simple. You still have 16 hours a day left, you can easily give 3-4 to Facebook and I think it’s more than enough. <People are already fed up with your posts >
• HE: But what for? And hell, nothing is private here. Anybody can see your posts, pictures, and other informations. It has no value too.
• ME: You get social networks all wrong buddy <like I expected him to understand it correctly>. You’re here, only because you want to share something. If you’re so concerned about privacy, use emails, not these social networks.
• HE: But my things should be private, right? Why any random person can see my stuffs? Facebook is so stupid.
• ME: If your stuffs are so private, then why are you sharing it at all? Just keep it to yourself, use emails or other private channel send these informations to person in concern. <And don’t include me in your private circle >
• HE: You talk like freaking Facebook agent. Tell me, why can’t I have my stuffs private here only?
• ME: Just because, PRIVATE and SOCIAL don’t go abreast you FOOL! Anyway, Facebook also has privacy and sharing settings. If you tweak it correctly, you can pretty much control who sees what part of your *stuffs*. <I know, fighting with Undertaker is easy for you than this>
• HE: Is that so? Never knew that. I’ll check and see. Thanks for that.
• HE: But still, it’s not useful at all.
• ME: Now, how can you say that? <For me useless is you not the Facebook! 8)>
• HE: What the hell. Can’t you see? Either you’ve to keep your stuffs private or not share at all. So, if I’m not sharing with people, Facebook is worthless.
• ME: You’re currently using Facebook chat to talk to me, dumbo! <Yeah, seen that F symbol? >
• HE: Ohh crap! Yeah, this might be the use, but that’s it. Chatting.
• ME: and connecting with your friends. Even if you’re not psoting, they can post about their lives. You may learn about new things or websites as shared by others <general knowledge, not applicable to you though >. May make new friends and hell you can land into new jobs because of it. So, why are you complaining?
• HE: I still don’t like it.
• ME: Don’t give me that bullshit. After this conversation, I know you’re love Facebook and even risk your job for it. Tell me the real matter. <How else you justify thousands of posts a day >
• HE: Actually, I just broke up with my girl yesterday, because of Facebook.
• ME: Is that so <Nice! >? Man, that’s a real problem. But how does Facebook involved in this.
• HE: Actually, yesterday was her birthday.
• ME: And you missed her birthday, because you’re too involved in Facebook? <Leave my stream, grab her, *ugh*, hand>
• HE: No re, actually it’s different. I met her in person in the morning and wished her, but forgot to wish her on Facebook.
• ME: What the F***!! She’s also addicted. And, how does it a big deal. You wished her in person, right? <Ahh great, like one is not sufficient. Thanks a lot God. >
• HE: But she likes Facebook wishes more. She loves if someone posts in her wall.
• ME: Ah, but you could have used some excuses like there was no internet access at that time. <If you have brains to think that far>
• HE: Actually, we had the booze party a day before which ran till 3 a.m. yesterday.
• ME: So? <Why are you telling me this?>
• HE: So? She saw the pictures of party I’ve posted @3:15.
• SILENCE on both ends!

New Gmail is live now!

Hi,

The new and more robust Gmail (discussed earlier) is finally live for everyone. What could be the better day to choose its official launch than on my birthday (Or maybe I’m thinking too much )!! Although it seems to be open for everyone right now, but chances are that you may not see the option to switch to this new interface, as Google is not making it default for now. But knowing the fact that it’ll be default interface in future, I think it’s better to switch early and get accustomed with.

Just follow these steps to get the new interface for the Gmail:

1. Look in the bottom right corner of you Gmail, and you’ll find the option to switch to new look.

2. Now, you’ll see a popup asking you to switch to new interface or continue to old one. Just press switch and you’re done.

3. Now as you’ve switched to new interface, you’ll be greeted with te change-log and an introductory video. just go through the links if you wish to know more, else click Continue to the new look.

Great! Now as you’ve new interface, just start fiddling with it and customize it to suit your taste. You can also read (really?) the official Gmail announcement here.

TapSense – Intelligence to the touch!

I’ve covered about various methods of interacting with the system earlier, but what if you want to see improvement in the existing methods of interaction? That’s where TapSense comes into play. It’s essentially a technology that can enhance the interaction of finger with the touchscreen.

TapSense, developed by Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University, essentially facilitate touchscreens to differentiate between the touch input, i.e. it can make a difference between normal human finger and stylus. And that too with 99% accuracy!

Although interesting, this is not that exiting part. The more fun part is, TapSense can also differentiate between various parts of fingers! With 95% of accuracy it can detect what part of the finger has touched the screen. The defined four parts which it can detect are – Tip, Nail, Pad, & Knuckle.

Apart from the touchscreen, TapSense requires a microphone to operate. Combined with touchscreen, TapSense detects the input that has touched it. As it uses sound as input, it’s also able to distinguish between the users who holds the pen type input, just by the applied pressure. Seemingly, simple and not so great innovation at first, this actually opens up a huge possibility to the way interact with the system. Now, one can have apps that can perform different set of actions based on the surface touched the screen. Now you may get the idea.

Though pretty much in it’s proof-of-concept phase, it surely has huge potential and maybe a newer opportunity for application developers to create immersive applications.

Just look at the video showing it’s ability, and get overwhelmed.

 

You can read the detailed paper from here.