It was a time when man and beast were untamed and the mighty mammoth roamed the earth. A time when ideas and beliefs were born that forever shaped mankind. 10,000 B.C. follows a young hunter (Steven Strait) on his quest to lead an army across a vast desert, battling saber tooth tigers and prehistoric predators as he unearths a lost civilization and attempts to rescue the woman he loves (Camilla Belle) from an evil warlord determined to possess her.
Aside from its plot holes, storytelling deficiencies and often terrible special effects, there were really only three things I could think about while watching 10,000 B.C.: colored contacts aren't distinctive, they're distracting; Roland Emmerich is essentially Michael Bay with more ambition; and in the wake of 300, all historical epics may in fact need that cartoonish, desaturated patina in order to be taken seriously. Why one would be paying attention to any of these things during an opus as sweeping and melodramatic as this film should be is a testament as to how effective the end result is. But as the default cartoon/parody version of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, 10,000 B.C. is a big movie whose charms are sadly small and superficial at best.
In the film, Steven Strait (The Covenant) stars as D'Leh, a young mammoth hunter who finds his mettle tested when slave traders invade his village and kidnap his beloved companion Evolet (Camilla Belle). Following the traders' trail through dangerous lands with the help of village elder Tic'Tic (Cliff Curtis), D'Leh begins to come of age, both as a hunter and a man. But when he arrives at an enormous construction site where Evolet is sentenced to be sacrificed to the gods, he quickly realizes that he must learn what it takes to be a leader.
The film's very first scenes are the ones featuring the worst special effects -- seldom have I felt less convinced that actors were in a given location than when projected here against detached wintry backdrops, or running alongside massive, computer-generated woolly mammoths. But worse than this is the fact that the movie is shot virtually without any style, as if set design and CGI would compensate for Emmerich's lack of directorial panache. I wouldn't have argued this at the time of its release, but 300 has really changed the defining look of these historical epics, perhaps for some years to come. Watching perfunctorily-shot exchanges between two extras from those cavemen TV commercials, the film feels more like a Saturday Night Live skit than any kind of authentic epic.
That said, Emmerich is actually a competent director, in the sense that -- visually speaking -- everything in his film makes sense. It's in this modest regard that I count him as superior to the aforementioned Bay, who sometimes ignores great stretches of necessary visual coherence in order to exercise his frenetic "creativity." Additionally, Emmerich's vision is larger and more ambitious: Where Bay seems content to make movies bigger and louder, Emmerich wants to expand their scope and really create a universe. Mind you, neither are destined for directing awards any time soon, and in fact there are plenty of stunning gaffes in 10,000 B.C., but I can respect its ambition enough to ignore some of those shortcomings -- for a while, anyway.
Overall, 10,000 B.C. is one of the more inoffensive films I've seen this year, even if it isn't very good. Unlike garbage like Fool's Gold, Emmerich and his cast and crew seem to be interested in trying something, even if collectively they don't pull it off. So I don't recommend the film, and in fact disliked it a lot, but there's nothing aggressively bad or painful about it. There have already been and will be plenty of awful pictures in 2008, but the worst ones will haunt you long after you've left the theater. In which case, the best thing that can be said about 10,000 B.C. is that it won't spend the next 10,000 years, much less 10 minutes, in your mind once you've seen it -- especially if you can ignore those contact lenses.
10,000 B.C. A Avrage One
Microsoft releses IE 8 beta for developers
Now at the ongoing MIX08, Microsoft's Web designer and developer conference, the software giant has shown the first IE 8 beta and announced its availability for download by developers.
IE 8 beta 1 is a developer preview for Web designers and developers to help prepare their Web sites for the new version. Some of the features designed for developers include a developer toolbar and improved interoperability and compatibility. The integrated developer tools will help quickly debug HTML, CSS, and scripts in a visual environment.
Two days ago, Microsoft also announced that IE 8 will be set to render content using methods that give top priority to Web standards interoperability -- and this will be the default. The new version includes two new features, Activities and WebSlices. "Activities" are contextual services that will provide quick access to external services from any Web page. The feature will look up information related to data on the current page and send content from the current page to another application. "WebSlices", as the name suggests, will enable Web sites to expose portions of their page that users can subscribe to, and bring that content with them on their links bar wherever they are on the Web. Users will be able to receive update notifications when the content changes.
Apple Partners Nike, Samsung Adidas
Apple and Nike have announced that together, they are going to work with several gym equipment manufacturers such as Fitness, Precor, Star Trac, and Technogym and some health clubs like 24-Hour Fitness, and Virgin Athletic to help exercise-enthusiasts keep track of their health regime.
users will be able to plug their iPod nano into an iPod dock on their cardio gym equipment like treadmills, stair climbers, and stationary bikes. While they are sweating it out, the iPod will allow them record their workout data, as also upload and track this data at the nikeplus.com Web site. To make it even more interesting, they will be able to compare notes with other fitness-freaks on the site, and set exercise goals for themselves. Another instance of tech focusing on fitness is the partnership between Samsung and Adidas; they're coming out with a fitness program dubbed "miCoach" that comprises a mobile phone acting as a fitness trainer; a heart rate monitor tuning into the rhythm of the user's body; and a stride sensor to measure speed and distance while running. The phone in question is a camera-clad quad-band slider from Samsung, optimized for music-listening and data storage. It offers latest-generation phone features. "miCoach" works as a pedometer, heart rate monitor, and MP3 player -- all in one. Once a user is connected to the heart rate monitor and step counter, "miCoach" will provide information about the user's heart beat, distance covered, and running time when he/she plans to go for a run. All this information gets stored on the mobile phone, and can be accessed by the user later through earphones. It can also be uploaded onto miCoach's fitness Web site to keep track of the user's fitness regime; like in case of the Apple-Nike partnership. All said, for Samsung and Adidas, this is a first but for Apple and Nike, their association dates back to over a year ago when they introduced the "Nike+ technology".
Dil Mil Gaye Star One Arman Malik Gone
The famous Series from Star One Arman Malik gone for some days by geting angry onm rhythima
AMD Opteron Launch
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has announced that its quad-core Opteron chip (previously codenamed "Barcelona") for servers is ready for launch. The company will start shipping the B3 version of the chip to channel and distribution partners this week.
Earlier, a 2007 release was announced for the quad-core chip but due to a bug discovered in the chip before its launch, the B2 version was distributed only to a select high-performance computing market. The company declared a 2008 release last December. And now that the bug problem is said to have been solved, AMD will start pushing out its product to a wider audience.
t is learnt that system vendors like Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) will be adopting AMD's quad-core chip. The chip will be integrated in their upcoming servers to be made available in the second quarter of this year. HP s upcoming ProLiant DL585 will be using the processor.
The Opteron is AMD's first quad-core chip for servers; Intel being the first to introduce its quad-core chip for servers in 2006. Intel implemented the method of putting two dual-core chips together to create its quad-core chip. AMD, on the other hand, has integrated all four cores onto a single chip.
Intel anounces Atom
Intel has announced naming (branding) its new family of ultra-small, low-power processors for ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) as "Atom".
Described by the company as "a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices," "Atom" joins other Intel brands, including Core, Core 2, Celeron, and Xeon.
The "Atom" family of processors is based on a new microarchitecture; meant for smaller devices with lower power consumption, Intel said.
A typical "Atom" chip is less than 25 square millimeters, with 11 of the chip's dies (slivers of Silicon with 47 million transistors each) capable of fitting into an area that's less than the size of a US penny.
Two of the members of the "Atom" family; previously codenamed 'Silverthorne' and 'Diamondville' have already been discussed at length, and are scheduled to ship towards the middle of this year. Both 'Silverthorne' and 'Diamondville' are based on Intel's 45 nanometer chipmaking technology.
'Silverthorne' integrates a new low-power state, enabling it to shut down in between processing tasks, thereby reducing power consumption. Meanwhile, 'Diamondville' is said to sport a design much simpler than that deployed by standard Intel chips.