I went with a friend to see Brokeback Mountain, also known as “The Gay Cowboy Movie”, this last Sunday. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing a movie about two guys falling in love, but being the movie buff I am and the immense critical acclaim and press this movie was getting I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. Boy was I wrong.

Forget that there are two guys kissing and, yes, having sex. Put that aside for just a second. Let’s instead focus on how absolutely boring this movie was. I felt like I had ran a marathon at the end. And the acting? If Heath Ledger gets an Oscar for his performance it will be a complete and utter travesty. You can’t understand a word he says, when he does actually say something and the entire “plot” moves along at a snail’s pace.

My other problem with this movie is that it quickly brushes over what I think are important plot points. Highlight the following for plot spoilers. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character has illicit affairs in Mexico with male prostitutes, another affiar with a ranch hand in Texas and winds up being killed for being gay. A total of five, maybe ten, minutes are given to these stories.

Overall, I’d say this movie is something to avoid at all cost and it’s not because it’s two guys falling in love, it’s because it’s just a terribly acted and horrifically told story.

I’ve been waiting to write this review for quite some time. I wanted to really play with my PSP before I sat down and wrote up a review for all three people who read this blog on a regular basis. If you’re in a hurry the short review is that the PSP kicks ass, but leaves you wanting more.

The first thing you notice about the Sony PSP is that they seriously tried to put the kitchen sink in this thing. In fact, I think they did manage to get a water fountain in there. The unit comes with an amazing LCD capable of doing 480 x 272 resolution, WiFi, IrDA, Memory Stick DUO and a UMD reader. The UMD format holds about 1.8GB of data and is cable of storing music, videos and games on it (sometimes all on the same disk).

The good stuff …

1. The graphics and controls are great. There’s even an analog joystick that’s simply amazing.
2. The built in WiFi simply works and it works well. It does fast scanning and even tells you if the access points are open or not.
3. The new 2.0 firmware, which despite being “Japanese only” can be installed easily from the internet, comes with a Mozilla based browser. To put it simply, the browser kicks ass. It renders sites amazingly and the UI is top notch. I barely miss my keyboard doing simple browsing.
4. The 2.0 firmware supports a wide range of codecs and image formats, including Apple’s AAC format, MPEG-4 video, etc.

The bad stuff …

1. The LCD’s apparently have dead pixel problems. The one I bought didn’t have any dead pixels per se, but does have some “fussy pixels” that come and go. I’d recommend the Best Buy service plan, which will replace the unit after 8 dead pixels, while the Sony warranty won’t replace the until there are 38 dead pixels.
2. Unless you’re lucky enough to get the 1.5 firmware (not 1.51 or 1.52), you won’t be doing any homebrew stuff on your PSP. I was really hoping to get install MAME, but until they crack the 2.0 firmware I’m out of luck.
3. I want something that makes it simple to put video onto the PSP. There are a few programs, but the process for ripping a DVD and putting it onto a PSP is tedious at best. If I own the DVD I shouldn’t have to to purchase a special PSP movie to watch it on my PSP. It’s so shitty that I’d rather buy the UMD than tinker with ripping the DVD and converting it.

If Sony was smart they would …

1. Add a VoIP client. It has WiFi and an interface port next to the headphone jack. They could easily add the ability to use a headset. I would pay for a soft phone for this thing in a second.
2. Add chat software and/or voice-to-text software. They should release a headset and allow me to talk into the headset for chat over the internet (ie. iChat) or create voice-to-text software.
3. Start selling and external hard drive or add a USB driver so I can plug in any USB hard drive and watch video, view images, etc.
4. Sell a UMD writer and blank UMD disks.
5. Sell and SDK and allow developers to start creating and selling homebrew games and applications.
6. Create PIM/Calendar/Email/RSS clients for the PSP. I can’t stress this enough. I want a simple PIM/Calendar app for my contacts and calendar, iCal/Address Book integration, a simple IMAP/POP email client and an RSS aggregator. The aforementioned SDK would clear these needs up in less than a month I bet.
7. The browser needs flash support so web developers can create flash games specially formatted for the PSP.

The short of it is that the Sony PSP is an AMAZING platform. If someone created one of these and opened up the platform with an SDK every kid on the planet would want one. What I’d recommend is creating an online store that would allow independent developers to upload and digitally sign their applications. They would then sell them through the store with a cut going to Sony. This would allow independent developers to create games, while keeping the platform closed and reducing the ability for people to copy video games. I could be sitting at a cafe and someone with a PSP could walk in. In order to play against him (or her) I’d need a copy of the game. No big deal, just go to the PSP store and download the game before playing.

I love the PSP and I’m quite addicted to Need for Speed Rivals, but I really hope and wish Sony will listen to the tremendous demand for an SDK and find a way to coexist with the independent developer community.

For the last four months I’ve put up with mediocre Bluetooth support on my SonyEricsson T608. The T608 is basically the bastard child of Sprint PCS. They don’t talk about it, it was never publicly available on the site or through the stores. So when they announced the LG PM-325 had Bluetooth I was excited to finally have a phone to take advantage of all Bluetooth had to offer.

Yesterday I picked up an LG PM-325 at my local Radio Shack and had it activated. From the very beginning there were annoyances. The following things are just a few of them.

1. When the phone is slid closed (it’s a sliding phone) you cannot scroll through your contacts, however, you can scroll through your call history.
2. The default shortcut when you scroll down is to go to the menu with call history selected. It took me about five minutes to figure out how to set the shortcut to scroll through my contacts when I pressed down.
3. After searching all over the web and tinkering on my own I’ve come to the conclusion that the phone doesn’t appear to support any Bluetooth functionality beyond pairing, which basically makes Bluetooth worthless in this phone. If anyone knows how to get this working with iSync or as a Bluetooth modem please contact me or post a message.

Needless to say I continue to be disappointed in what Sprint has to offer in the way of Bluetooth phones. Crappy or no DUN support (in OS X anyways) and no OBEX support. They finally tout a Bluetooth phone publicly and I can’t even sync it with my contacts or use it as a modem, much less send SMS messages through it.

Looks like it is time to “move” to Europe and switch carriers.

I’ve been watching a few movies these past few weeks and thought I’d pass on some of the better ones. Read on for more details.

First up is the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” starring a whole slew of headliners. George Clooney and Brad Pitt give outstanding performances in this genuinely great movie. Somehow they manage to put together a great movie without violence, a ton of “F” words, or any sex. A must see.

Next is “Vanilla Sky” starring Tom Cruise as a playboy who is disfigured in a car accident. This movie keeps you following a single plot until the very end when the entire movie comes rushing at you in a matter of only a few minutes, much like “Fight Club” and “The Sixth Sense” did. Another amazing movie to see.

Finally, is the movie “America’s Sweethearts” starring Julia Roberts, Kathrine Zeta Jones, John Cusack, and Billy Crystal. It’s your typical John Cusack movie (boy is madly in love with some girl), but manages to be different than the rest (the pinnacle being “High Fidelity”). A great date movie.

Not a half bad movie. The official website leaves a lot to be desired, but Yahoo! comes through in the clutch with this article. Basically, Marky Mark gets stranded on a planet full of Apes and then an epic battle ensues. Lots of comedic relief as well. I enjoyed it.

Final Fantasy (the new movie) is AMAZING. First check out this this story about the technology behind it and then go here to see the trailer. Finally you will want to buy tickets and see the movie. This is NOT a movie to skip seeing in the theaters!

Startup.com is a documentary that follows the life of GovWorks.com. It’s a lesson to all those who think starting a dotcom is easy work. I thought it was a great movie and could fully appreciate it considering I work for a startup.

It took me a while but I finally got around to watching “Raging Bull”. It was a LONG flick – but good. I’m amazed at how much weight DeNiro gained for the last half of the movie (you can’t even recognize him!). I might even have to go out and buy it myself.