You Should Watch the Dark Knight

This week I'm in Vegas again. Got upgraded to a nice convertible (a Sebring Touring) that taught me 2 things:

1. Never drive with the roof down when it's 106 degrees (41 Celsius) outside.
2. Don't try to close the roof in the middle of a highway.
   

I decided to watch the Dark Knight on IMAX after reading about that special version. Since all shows for 2 days were sold out in advance, I had to book a ticket (using Fandango) for 2 days later. The theater was full and the line to go in started an hour before the show.

The movie itself was beyond great. I'm not a movie critic, but the Dark Knight goes way beyond a regular summer flick.
The action sequences are convincing and quite realistic. Even though this long movie (2:32 hours) has only 22 real IMAX minutes, it's worth watching on an IMAX screen. The opening shot alone made some people go "oh f___!".

The film itself is not your typical comic book movie. You can easily replace the Batman and the Joker with 2 un-customed people, and still get one of the best crime/suspense thrillers ever.

And suspense you have - in spades. Actually, a bit too much of it. The film never let's the suspense level down, which is a major flaw for such a long film.

Each character has its depth and flaws. The late Heath Ledger is mesmerizing as the Joker, with the greatest depiction of that character on the screen ever. Every minute he's own you're on the edge of your seat. Sadly, the greatest performance of his life is also his last.

Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart also deliver solid performances. Christian Bale is Ok, but not that convincing.

In short - go watch it. I enjoyed it so much I can't wait for the DVD (hey Hollywood idiots! Why not sell the movie's DVD at the theater and make a buck on people who are sure to buy it, instead of waiting a couple of months so people will download it illegally?). One more thing: this film is definitely not for kids.

Another thing that brought joy to my life was the trailer to next year's comic book film sensation, Watchmen. To watch this trailer (Quicktime plugin required) on IMAX was an amazing experience.

Watchmen, simply put, is the greatest comic book creation. Ever. This 12-issue limited series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons changed the way comic book artists treated their characters and their integration into the "real world". It brought in a dark side to comics, and started the age of the thoughtful comic book. I've added a link to the graphic novel in the Amazon widget.

Watchmen is not for kids (I still remember when as a kid, I've asked my parents to buy the book for me on their trip to the US. My mom told me later that the comic book store guy started questioning her to my age and recommended she'd get me something else. Luckily, she didn't listen and I got to experience this phenomenon - thanks mom!). Now I have to wait till March 09 to see it...

66,666

I know numbers mean nothing, but I just had to take a screenshot of this:

Congrats to my 66,666th visitor .

Another Week Goes By

Haven't blogged in over 2 weeks now. I was extremely busy flying to customers at Vegas and Austin. I pulled my first all-nighter in 7 years, working on a customer's production environment from 10pm to 1pm the day after, and let me give you this advice: at the end of every energy drink high, there's a "who shut my brain off" low .

Also allow me to recommend the flash video at TheWebSiteIsDown - if you were ever in IT, or support, you'll find this hilarious. Although it's probably more so at 4:30am, surrounded by other IT people .

So, what do I have for you this week? We'll start with a digest, which would probably have more items than usual - my collection is bursting.

We'll continue with a description and a review of the laptop I got 2 weeks ago (and since returned) - what did I get, why did I get it, should you get it and why was it returned.

Finally we'll delve a bit into a software development related post about the importance of installers. It's a piece I have to write, since I consider it an important issue to developers, managers, and users.

So, on with the show...

I'm in Dr. Dobbs Journal!

It was a long shot, but our marketing manager arranged for me to be interviewed by Dr. Dobbs Journal (the leading programmers journal out there). I was told not to get my hopes up - many others applied. That was almost 6 months ago.

Yesterday, while searching for my blog posts on Google, I stumbled upon last month's DDJ - an lo and behold: they've published my interview! And it's uncut - they left the plug to my blog .

I'll add the link to the permanent links on the right column, but in the meantime, if you've missed the issue, you can read the short interview here.

My next goal: be interviewed on Wall Street Journal.