Entrecard site has been taken down due to emergency problems with advertising not being published. I wonder if the team attempted to roll out new code, or if something destabilized as a result of the Entrecard site getting more and more traffic over the months. The last time I checked there were over 10,000 blogs listed on Entrecard and that number keeps growing steadily.
Meanwhile I hate when Entrecard takes extended outages as it usually means a 20% visitor drop in my site if the outage affects most of the day. I am still too reliant on entrecard for visits to my site, but it is a quick easy way to get initial visitors to see your site and share what you write.
In experimenting and looking for ways to have fun and explore twitter, I stumbled across a web application called Twittervision. This application mixes the Google Maps API with the Twitter API to show tweets in real time across the globe and display their originating location on a map. This is a fun way to watch tweets from around the world. Since mostly when you see tweets on twitter, or tweetdeck you don’t know what location they are coming from without going into the profile of the user.
You can watch which topics are on the minds of people in Africa, or The Middle East, and keep track of which events are being talked about worldwide. Personally I was having fun just watching tweets pop up from all over the globe and just fascinated how worldwide twitter is and this really shows it.
Twittervision Default View (Click for Larger Picture)
If a 2D map is not your cup of tea, or for a real globe visual you can also click the 3D view and see an incredible globe of the earth in full 3D showing the daylight / nightime sides of the planet. The earth will rotate showing you each tweet and what location the tweet originated from.
Twittervision 3D View
I like the 3D view but since it rotates the globe for each and every tweet, it is easier to track and read tweets from the 2D view. It is still fun to watch and a great website to visit and check out if you have not looked at it before.
Update: I found if you login to twitter vision on bottom left, you can click settings and configure twittervision to only show the tweets of your friends and followers:
In trying to branch out my Poetry Blog more, I decided to post a new original poem here on DragonBlogger, and encourage my readers to visit my Wanderer Thoughts Poetry Blog, if you enjoy my poems then vote for me for Best Poetry Blog on BlogNetAwards.
Cuddle Against The Cold
A chilling wind whips past our faces
Noses frozen and lips drying out
I wrap my embrace around you
With the warmth of an electric blanket
Our eyes meet and our lips part
No icy stare between these faces
Our gazes warm the soul
This is the look of love
So we continue to walk and our fight
Against the cold and dark frigid night
Only to reach the door to our dwelling
Where I can feel our love still swelling
We get inside and the door slams shut
We cuddle against the cold bodies heaving
Clothes unravel and pile on the floor
As to what happens next I can tell you no more
When I attended CA World 2008 this year I received a free copy of CA Internet Security 2009 with a free one year license. I decided to uninstall Comodo Firewall and Avira Antivirus Free Edition and give it a proper test and run for the money. I let it run for 24 hours on my system and installed all default features and functionality.
The product does take quite a while to install and it took almost four hours to scan my entire system, it only found some tracking cookies from my firefox and declared that my utorrent was a trojan. It seemed to have a small memory footprint but bounced between 1% and 20% cpu utilization depending on how much internet browsing I was doing.
Then I noticed the problems and severe performance degradation particularly with Firefox and Google Chrome. CA installs its horrendous CA Analyzer Bar which validates every URL is from a registered authority which is pointless in my opinion. Worse every link you hover over in every page the CA product tries to scan, if you single click it won’t follow links anymore you have to double click to follow links. Google Chrome suffered a huge performance hit as when I open 20-30 tabs which all used to open in about 35 seconds now take 2 minutes to fully load as the CA product scans each URL.
Here is a screenshot of this horrid toolbar (click for larger view)
I went through firefox and uninstalled the toolbar, reconfigured the CA Internet Security to stop the web browser monitoring, but still the link validation was being performed. The cumbersome control panel, intrusive interference with the web browsers and overall system speed degradation caused me to uninstall this product rapidly.
I am now back to installing the Avira Antivirus Freeware Edition which is my favorite antivirus product to date, this is after testing Avast, CA Internet Security, Norton Antivirus among a few others. Avira has a small memory footprint, low CPU utilization, catches trojans, spyware and viruses very well and it doesn’t cost an annual subscription or purchasing. I would eventually like to see how the premium edition fares and performs against the free edition, but I have had no reason to upgrade I am so happy with the freeware version.
So for anyone looking for spyware, virus and malware protection, I still recommend Avira Antivirus even after several main stream programs have been purchased and tested.
I want to start off by saying this is one of the more original movies I have seen in years and it doesn’t feel like your typical superhero movie while you are watching it. This can be good for people looking for a change, but bad for people looking for that typical good vs evil superhero action flick. Much of this film is spent about self reflection and learning who John Hancock is and how he came to be, as well as why he is the way he is and learning deeper behind what he wants to be.
That being said this film as an amazing piece that appealed to me but left me with more questions than answers and I feel it should have had a little more explanation behind what Hancock is. I went into this movie only seeing previews and reading some reviews, but no spoilers. So the movie had a big shock in store for me, I won’t spoil it here in case readers haven’t seen the movie yet, but I was completely taken aback by the twist in story.
It is hard for me to talk about too much without revealing and spoiling, but I will say this. Hancock starts off as a cocky, drunk, uncaring person of supernatural powers who just does things his way because he feels like it. He has some sense of good as he does try to help people, but his methods are careless and he causes more harm in trying to do good. This is similar to the way The Incredibles played it in that they caused damages, lawsuits, liabilities…etc. In Hancock however it is done with drama and not with comedy as a main point, in fact the movie has a few funny scenes but is really a dramatic movie and the previews would have you think it is a lighter film, but is actually much heavier in emotions.
What I like most about the film is that it isn’t about another super bigger stronger villain who is against the hero, as is the case with Iron Man vs Iron Monger, Hulk vs. Bigger Mutated Hulk Like Monster…etc. The villains in this film are all normal people without any powers. In fact there is nobody else who has special powers in the film who is a villain at all.
No technology to hurt or penetrate the hero, the hero is invulnerable on his own, but does have a weakness that is exploited by some villains in the movie. I can’t reveal what it is without spoiling, but it is both shocking, surprising and unfortunately not explained very well by the end of the film. You are still left wondering how and why this occurs, and how and why Hancock is the way he is from the start and how he came to be.
That being said it was a very good film, and I particularly liked when Hancock was convinced to voluntarily stay in prison to build up his public image and how he eventually started to gain self respect and dignity and grew as a human being from his incarceration. Will Smith did an excellent job with the character as I would expect no less from him, Justin Bateman did a great job as a PR Image person who is down on his luck and needed a big break. Charlize Theron I thought was a bit broody and had a strange behavior portrayed in the beginning of the film, but it all made sense and in retrospect I think she played her character well.
I would give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars, though I would still put Hellboy 2 and Iron Man as better films for 2008 in the superhero genre, this film as a dramatic film is still very good. I actually found similarites between this film and the Nicholas Cage film “City of Angels” from quite a few years abck.
First off I have to tell you I am a big fan of Ron Perlman and his portrayal of Hellboy from the first film, and a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro the director. I loved Pan’s Labyrinth and this movies creatures and set designs remind me of his previous film in many ways.
This movie has it all and starts off fantastic with a flashback to Hellboy’s early childhood years where his father reads him a story about the war between elves, goblins and humans and how the elves had used a golden army of seventy times seventy indestructible mechanical soldiers to beat the humans back. The elven king regretted the bloodshed and forged a pact of peace and vowed never to use the golden army again. I have always loved the human aspect of Hellboy, he is a lover of cats, beer and has a complex where he desperately wants everyone to like him and he also likes to show off.
This humanizing aspect is what makes his character so great and the movie itself so great, and Hellboys character in many ways reminds me of Mel Gibsons character in the Lethal Weapon movies. Brash, cocky and full of his own personality and insecurities that you really get into the character and feel for him.
I have to say I think Luke Goss did a fantastic job as prince Nuada, and portrays the emotion and conviction of a being who has felt wronged for centuries, I wasn’t necessarily for saving the humans in this film. I thought they did a good job showing how Hellboy kept seeking approval from humans but even after saving a baby and trying to help people derided and feared him which hurts his feelings.
I also liked the new boss of the Paranormal research Johan Krauss at first he seems cocky and uncaring, but you learn a lot behind his story and how he feel’s. His ectoplasmic form are are a really cool feature and he is of particular benefit in some of the final scenes in the movie.
Selma Blair had a much larger part in the second film and had more scenes and was more vocal, I did enjoy her finally showing her feelings for Hellboy and her reasons for brooding and being moody were explained in the film but my favorite part of her scene was when she was saving Hellboy’s life and pleaded with Death.
Speaking of that scene, the way Death was portrayed in the film was magnificent. The makeup, artistry and disturbingly eerie appearance and personality was addicting to watch. I literally hung on every word studied every facial feature and was very impressed.
Action packed almost from beginning to end the movie has a few scenes in between that really show the heart of the movie, most notably when Hellboy convinces Abe to have a few beer’s and talk about love and romance, and the two of them are singing together. As mentioned the fact that Hellboy is human inside just with a different appearance and abilities is what makes this film so engaging.
In Summary I loved the film even more than the first one and am hoping that there will be a third in the future.
I have decided to put some funny Thanksgiving strips in my post to keep it light and fun. I hope all of you have a great time, and for those of you who work in the trenches on Thanksgiving and the day after, at least be thankful you are still working to help ease the sting of it.
I am thankful that in less than 4 months I have an average of 10,000 visitors to my blog and dozens of regular readers and several very good blog friends now. All of this started with the thought of putting Dragonblogger together, and I am amazed at how much fun I am having and how much I enjoy sharing information with you all.
Everyone who lives in a service area for Charter Communications is luckier than I am, because on black friday you can sign up for the Charter Communications Ultimate Service Bundle. I have not found a better online and telecommunications package bundle anywhere out there from any of Charter’s competitors.
This one bundle package includes:
10mb internet connection for your computer
Digital Home, Charter HD, Sports View, Digital View, HBO/Cinemax, Starz/Encore and Showtime/The Movie Channel for your Television
And Unlimited Calling for your Phone:
This for $165.97 per month and if you sign up, you will get a $250 gift card just for purchasing the ultimate bundle, which basically gives you some extra holiday shopping money or you can go out and buy something nice.
In addition to the $250 gift card, you will be entered in a sweepstakes to win an Xbox 360, if you are lucky you could be a winner, I know I don’t have one yet.
If I lived in a Charter Service area I would be on this deal like a bee drawn to honey because I pay almost $150 in Satellite TV and Internet right now, and I don’t have 1/3 of the features that this bundle deal offers. Plus I really could use the $250 gift card right now.
I encourage anyone to visit Charter Communications and see if you live in their service area, add up your phone bill, internet bill and satellite or cable bill. If your three bills add up to more than $165.97 per month then you need to sign up for this service, this deal includes premium movie packages, so you really can’t beat that price. We are talking about HD package as well. Compare wisely and you will see there is no better offer out there, and you can get the $250 gift card just in time for the holidays.
I feel there is no better deal out there and I have 3 different providers each for my phone, television and broadband right now, and they almost add up to more than this deal, I don’t even get HD Television or Premium Movie Channels either.
I wanted to be able to have 20,000 links on the web as recorded by Link Popularity Check (LPC) by December 31st 2008, and am now at 18,351 links for this blog. This is just 500 links behind my mentor Damien Riley’s Postcards From The Funny Farm blog. Aronil is still shooting way ahead with 22000+ links and her blog is just beautiful, I can see why it is getting so popular.
I decided to add my friend Jenn’s blogs BeforeIAmFamous and DragonFly Poems into the LPC and see how they stack up, BeforeIamFamous almost has 15,000 links, while DragonFly Poems has 3900. My poetry blog Wanderer Thoughts has 7,851 links and my personal blog Justin Germino has just over 3,100.
Someone told me that the blogger who runs Dooce.com makes a ton of money with their blog, so I added them to LPC and behold dooce.com has over 2 million links on the web, just for comparison the famous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has over 3.3 million links on LPC. So I realize that if my blog can eventually reach the million link level I can start really earning some revenue.
My goal is to grow from 20000 links this year to 100,000 by the end of 2009, if I can gain 20,000 links in my blogs first 4 months I think I can grow that to 100,000 by the end of 2009.
Here is the latest image from LPC, click for larger view:
Several people have asked me not to use Hulu or find another video that displays outside of the United States, but I could find no legal video streams to support this. I don’t use youtube because it isn’t legal to play full episodes on youtube, I find a valid legal video source and I can’t find any that stream from the US to outside the US. So I still use Hulu for its quality of video feed and legality. If someone knows of a legal stream service that serves content outside of the US, please let me know.
Now to begin the recap and review -
I was nearly hopping up and down in eager anticipation for this weeks episode of Heroes. After a recap showing what happened in previous episodes flashed in a few moments the show starts with several sketches and drawings of Sylar, Mr. Bennett. Arthur Petrelli is creating as many future drawings as possible to predict the upcoming events as the eclipse is on the horizon.
We open with Elle and Sylar continuing to practice aiming and firing electricity. Arthur interrupts and wants Gabriel to find Claire and bring her to him. Elle offers to help Sylar and Arthur agrees for them to work together to find the cheerleader. Later in the afternoon Elle and Gabriel are still attempting to find Claire and Elle thinks Gabriel is being a little too responsible and helpful to Arthur. Elle betrayed Sylar and told the store owner about him being a serial killer and the cops being called. The store owner tries to hold them at gun point and Elle eggs Sylar on trying to confront him on whether he is a villain or a hero, after being butted in the face with the gun Sylar exclaims “I hate heroes”.
Cut to Angela and Claire walking through the corridor of The company and discussing how Claire needs to not get caught. Angela opens up Level 5 and tells Claire she has another plan.
Nathan and Peter are looking to find a villain and Peter convinces his brother to take him along even though the has no more powers.
Mohinder is busy dissecting a patient and trying to find out how to cure himself and make a formula that gives people powers. Mohinder confronts Arthur and explains that he needs the catalyst. Arthur learns that Claire will die, but they are baffled because she shouldn’t be able to die. Mohinder remembers that abilities started manifesting during the last eclipse and that there is another eclipse coming today. They are beginning to understand that something is going to change today. A short time later Mohinder is speaking into his recorder trying to figure out what is happening to him, and what changes are befalling his body. His hands start to excrete a sticky substance.
Daphne and Matt are in an apartment in Brooklyn trying to find clues to where Hiro Nakamura is. Daphne starts getting paranoid and wanting to run away again. She tries to waffle in fear and Matt reassures her, a knock at the door interrupts their discussion. Ando and Hiro open the door and show the comic to Matt and that Matt has to fix Hiro. Matt tries to pierce Hiro’s thoughts but Matt does not understand Japanese. Matt can’t figure out how to get into his mind and fix him, Daphne explains that she wants to run again and she does after Matt reads her mind about her home in Kansas.
Noah and Claire arrive at Stephen’s house to be hidden out from the enemy. Claire confronts her father about her being kept safe, and she still distrusts her fathers true intentions. At the hideout Noah and his daughter confront each other and let their anger out and Noah attempts to teach her.
We cut to Tracy who learns that Nathan went off to find the Haitian and Arthur realizes it is a smart move to try and use the Haitian against him. Arthur instructs Tracy to go to Paris island and the marine training facility. Angela interrupts Traci and has a clue as to whats going on as its revealed in her expression.
Later in the apartment while Matt, Hiro and Ando are arguing about how to track Daphne, Hiro teleports them into a cornfield in Kansas. They arrive at Daphne’s house and Matt can hear her thoughts. Ando looks up in the sky and see’s the eclipse is starting to occur. Here we see Arthur looking over drawings, Angela looking over drawings, Nathan and Peter fall from the sky, Sylar and Elle race off in a car. All of the paranormal heroes are losing their abilities at the same time as the eclipse falls upon them.
Mohinder breaks free from a cocoon and is completely back to his normal human self as a result of the eclipse. Nathan and Peter fall from the sky into a swamp and Nathan reveals he can no longer fly anymore. Peter realizes that there is an eclipse and it could be a clue as there is another eclipse right now. They have a long walk ahead of them to try and find the Haitian, they see dolls tied to the bamboo in the forest.
Hiro, Ando and Matt knock at the door of Daphne’s house and an older man opens the door and say she isn’t there. Matt tries to force the man to let Matt in, but his powers no longer work. He is baffled to realize his powers are gone, Hiro discovers his powers are missing as well. Daphne tells her father that its happening again, but we don’t know what “it” is still at this point. She asks her father if he “still has them” but we don’t know what them is yet either.
Cutting back to Nathan and Peter arguing as brothers do, when Nathan realizes that Peter did read the map correctly. Nathan and Peter continue to argue as Nathan explains he always saves his brother, Peter confronts Nathan about being a coward and not having a backbone. Peter tells Nathan that he has seen the future and that Peter has chosen their dad in the future. The Haitian intercepts them and leads them on and reveals that his abilities are lost too, he explains the villain they are looking for is his brother and his skin is impenetrable. His brother uses his fear to create an army, but his brother is loose and has formed an army. The army comes out of the bush to attack them and try to kill them. One of the soldiers explains that Arthur informed him they were coming and they take Nathan hostage.
Noah and Claire continue training and Claire is striking wood piece after wood piece against a wall to control her strength. She is out of breath and swings at her father. Noah yells at her and she explains how angry she was that Noah kept leaving. Elle arrives at the building and was about to shock Claire when she realizes she has no electricity. Sylar then realizes he has no abilities either. Noah and Sylar engage in hand to hand combat where Noah gets Sylar down and Claire runs in the way and takes a bullet meant for her father. Noah bashes Elle with a wooden board, and picks Claire up wounded and bleeding to rush her to his house. Sylar reaches for the gun but doesn’t retrieve it in time to shoot Noah in the back, then falls unconscious next to Sylar.
Noah arrives at his house to find Sandra and instructs they can’t go to the hospital as they report gunshot wounds. Noah does not know why she lost her powers, but Claire is actually happy to feel pain and Noah thanks her for saving his life. After sleeping for several hours Claire awakes and feels a little better after some first aid. Just after when Noah leaves, Sandra checks on their daughter to see Claire’s condition has deteriorated rapidly.
Matt and Hiro still have no powers and realize that they wish they had their powers returned. They both say they came her to save Daphne, Hiro explains that Matt needs to triumph without powers and not doubt his mission. The goading worked and Matt goes back toward the house to save her. Hiro says he has a plan to get his powers back and Ando and hero start walking, they realize they must find the next issue of 9th wonders to figure out the rest of the journey.
Mohinder shows that all formula effects have gone into complete remission and he is trying to study more and why. He pulls up Maya’s information on the computer and just before he attempts to go after her Arthur comes into the room with Flint. They confront Mohinder and explain that he must complete the formula and return their powers.
Hiro and Ando arrive and see if the latest issue of 9th wonders has arrived. Sure enough they see two men at the comic store who confront Hiro and Ando exactly as they see on the cover of 9th wonders.
Matt arrives at the house after her father leaves and he tries to talk to Daphne through the door, he lets his heart out to her and tries to convey who she is and what she means to him. She tells him the door is open and he lets himself in to find her crippled and walking on crutches with injured legs.
Elle and tries to set Sylar’s dislocated shoulder as he screams in pain, he tries and is quite dismayed to realize they both lost their powers. Gabriel is now confused and realizes they are just human again, he says that he feels relieved and doesn’t feel the hunger anymore. Elle explains that it was her fault that he became that monster, she tells him they can’t take what they want anymore and Gabriel challenges that and takes a kiss from her. Noah meanwhile is outside with a sniper rifle trained on them about to kill them.
I thought this episode was good but not as good and gripping as the previous episode overall. I do like that Claire and Noah have finally gotten to talk openly and both are rebuilding their connection and relationship, the same goes for Nathan and Peter being open and candid with each other. It is going to be interesting to see how the show continues with the Heroes having to fit back in as normal humans and continue onward. Noah would clearly have an edge now as he was always a human without powers, so he would have an edge over the former people as was seen when he took down Elle and Sylar.
