Now, I don’t mind being asked to review products – indeed I positively ask for it. However, as it’s a free service, I would at least expect a little bit of effort from those making the request.

So, step forward Digiarty Software, who asked me to review their two latest products – a free iPod media converter and a free DVD to iPod ripper. Which would be good, if I actually owned an iPod. Besides, the email missed one essential detail – any kind of link to the product or their website. A quick “Google” found it though.

Having said that, lines in the email such as “Here May I request a review of  these software on your web?” doesn’t bode well. Was I really sent an email from “Sophia”?¹

Now, their website is very professional, which always makes me wonder why software is being given away free, especially when I can see they have an affiliate program. In this case, they also sell commercial software, which is their money maker. However, there’s something about them that doesn’t sit right.

There are spelling and grammatical errors throughout the site and their “Privacy Policy” page has obviously been ripped from the Intel website. Unless they meant to write…

This policy covers the Intel Corporate website and is applicable worldwide.

Their is no reference to where they are based, although the site contains many examples of “broken English”. Who would buy from a site with such a lack of identity? Indeed, when installing the software the copyright notice makes mention of being “protected by United Kingdom copyright laws”. This is then followed up by “The sole owner of this product is Digiarty Software, Inc.” I didn’t think that UK companies used the “Inc.” suffix?

So, next thing to do – look up the website in popular “checkers”. First up, the McAfee Site Advisor. This shows no problems with the downloads, and a contact country of the US. Next, Browser Defender shows much the same, but this time the US is identified as the location of the server. However, the contact is rather different.

HanZhicai
ZhiCai (softsupport@vip.sina.com)
+86.2885258636

I wish I knew where this contact information was sourced from, because a WHOIS lookup doesn’t provide anything of use (the contact information appears to be protected). However, the above name doesn’t appear on other sites, making reference to the aforementioned software.

Sorry, but I’m not going any further. If I’m going to download and install some “free” software, I need to be able to feel the source is trustworthy. In this case, I don’t.

1. curiously, it was a Sophia who contacted me to review EASEUS software a while ago. Hmmm [↩]

I got the chance to see this film yesterday and, after reading many positive reviews, I was expecting good things. In the end, however, I felt it was just, erm, average.

The storyline is set after Judgement Day when Skynet is already in control and the older John Connor (played by Christian Bale) is plotting against the machines. He learns that a teenage Kyle Reese (his future, or rather past, father) is the number one target of Skynet, whilst the resistant learn of a potential way to shut down the machines once and for all. Throw into the mix a stranger by the name of Marcus, who’s last memory was being put to death by lethal injection before Judgement Day occurred.

The effects, and terminators, are superb. The music, by Danny Elfman, is in keeping with the past movies and, again, is very good. McG often creates entire, complex scenes which shows in one apparent take (for example, John Connor getting into a helicopter, taking off, being shot down, landing upside down and getting out).

What let the movie down, however, was the lack of a half decent plot. The storyline of Marcus seemed pretty obvious to me and there were numerous plot holes. For instance – John and Marcus end up at the “headquarters” of Skynet, where they end up in a factory making Terminators. Yet during all of this they are attacked by a couple of Terminators. The resistance then fly in and rescue a load of freed human slaves – all of this is done without a single Terminator or machine attempting to stop them.

And, yes, Arnie does appear – or rather his likeness. They CGI’d his face onto a similar body, introducing the T-800 to the time line. The CGI however was a touch ropey and I don’t think it really advanced the storyline a great deal.

Maybe a second viewing on DVD will improve my view, but after sitting through a 2 hour film I was just expecting a little more.

It’s now just a few hours since I got to watch the new Star Trek film. And unlike last week, when I went to see Wolverine, I’ve recognised that when I can’t sleep soon afterwards as a direct result, lying in bed tossing and turning is not the answer. Hence I’m up, writing this review in the early hours on my Netbook.

Not many people realise just how much of a Trek film I’ve been in the past, thanks to my more-recent Star Wars conversion. I think I was put off Trek in the end by too many insipid films and tv series that didn’t little more to expand the “franchise”¹. Never-the-less, I can recite Wrath of Khan word-for-word and can turn onto most episodes of Next Generation and identify the episode within a few short seconds.

So what was JJ Abrams, he of Cloverfield, MI:3, Lost and Alias, going to make with a series that most people considered already dead?

Well, he’s been bold². Unbelievably bold.

Ok, let me try and explain. The film, if you didn’t know already, takes us back to a young Kirk, when he first commands the Enterprise, and meets all the other characters in Trek that we know so fondly. The bad guy is a Romulan and, I don’t think I’m giving essential plot details away, he’s from the future. And there’s the device. Or McGuffin, as it’s known. Because this guy, Nero, has changed the past. He changes everything from Kirks upbringing to how he gets his command. Yes, die hard Trekkers, tear up your Encyclopaedia of Trek because this film changes it all. JJ Abrams has envisaged a new version of the Trek universe and has found a plot device to do it. And unlike most films, there isn’t a fantastic time-travelling conclusion that puts everything back to how it was. The Trek universe has changed and it’s staying that way. And doing that needed a lot of balls.

Having said all that, the bad guy wasn’t that exciting – he’s certainly no Khan. As with most “first” films it spent a lot of time setting up all the introductions and allowing you to get to know the characters, so the second film may be better with a lot more time to dedicate to more of an action romp.

Let’s turn to the actors now. Chris Pine was unexpectedly brilliant – he WAS Kirk – and a stand out for me. All the other characters were spot on too. Chekov gives early comic relief, with Scotty providing it later. However, I have to give maximum kudos to Karl Urban as McCoy – simply fantastic.

References to Trek past (or is that future?) came thick and past, with various quotes from Wrath of Khan and even a mention of Captain Archer from Enterprise.  In some cases I think they even overdid the references, almost crowbarring them in every other sentence.

The effects – provided by ILM – were as excellent as you’d expect and the whole thing had the retro feel of the original TV series without looking too 60’s and odd. Sound effects old and new were mixed together and you’ll have to wait until the final credits to hear the original music. But when it does come, it’s a modern mix of the original series music, complete with the singing, set to a cheesy, but somehow still good, credit sequence.

So, conclusions.

It’s a very good film and a fine reboot to bet things restarted again. With a bit more action and a finer script next time around, it could seriously threaten Wrath of Khan as the best Trek film. But not quite yet.

I was worried what JJ Abrams would do with Star Trek, but I shouldn’t have worried. He’s brought it into the 21st Century with humour, action and a touch of very classy retro.

Oh, and before I forget – there’s no extra scenes during or at the end of the titles! So no need to sit in the cinema until the bitter end if you don’t want to. I do that for you

1. an expression often used and just goes to show that they think of Star Trek more as a money making exercise than anything else [↩]
2. no “boldly gone” jokes, please [↩]

I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this film, especially after the mediocre review from Empire Magazine, but I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised. That’s not to say it was a great film – it certainly had its flaws.

As you’d expect from the title this film is all about Wolverine – why he is who is he, how he got to where he was in the first X-Men film, etc. A lot of the most interesting stuff – him and his equally indestructible brother fighting together through 4 wars (American Civil War, Two World Wars, Vietnam) is glossed over through the opening credits. His brother, who we know as Sabretooth, then turns bad. We don’t know why, after all this time and it’s not really explored. This puts a rift between the 2 brothers.

Obviously the X-Men, as we know them, haven’t been formed by this point, but there are lots of other “mutants” with abilities, with many of them being pretty exceptional. Agent Zero (AKA Maverick), for instance, with his gun skills is particularly good. And Gambit… well, it’s a been long time coming and it was great to see him. He, seriously, needs a film of his own.

Cyclops also makes an appearance as his younger self but he never meets (that he’s aware of) Wolverine, so that remains consistent with the earlier films. In fact, it’s consistency with those films was my main concern about this film – how would they do it? Or, rather, would they not? Well, from what I could tell, they kept the consistency and they flowed together nicely. Obviously, Sabretooth is in the first X-Men film and why Wolverine doesn’t recognise his brother is covered. Sadly, why Sabretooth doesn’t recognise Logan isn’t, although there’s blatantly a number of years between the end of this film and the start of the first X-Men film.

One tip – wait until the end of the credits. Yes, there’s an extra scene part way through the credits but there’s another right at the very end. Sadly, depending on the cinema, one of two possible scenes is shown – one is better than the other. If the one you see involves a bar then make sure you read Wikipedia on the other scene.

Still, it had it’s flaws – there wasn’t much of a plot and it seemed to just jerk from one set piece to another. And if you hadn’t seen past X-Men films you’d probably have been confused to hell about some of the storyline elements.

But, not as bad as I was expecting. Roll on Star Trek next week!

I was going to append this to the bottom of my recent review but, in the end, I thought this deserved its own post.

As I mentioned in my review of TotalEdit, I’ve been feeding back to the author during the beta stage of this new release. However, even after it came “out of” beta and I reviewed it, I continued with some feedback. All of which the author has taken on board and now, with release 5.0.6 out, now fixed.

Fixes of mine that he’s fixed include…

• Opening files from Windows Explorer now works when remembered files are being opened too.
• The menu has been updated so that the File Explorer control can be updated with no documents are open.
• Shortcuts can now be assigned to external tools.  Use the Customize menu and the Tools tab to assign a control.
• Re-enable the icons of external tools on the menu

None of which is a small change and I’m very grateful for him to make them – now I can assign shortcuts to those customised commands I’ve added to the menu (launch page with Firefox, for example) and clicking on a file that launches TotalEdit will now open the files as well as just the application.

Oh, and that point 2 was that if you didn’t have any open files the option to update the file explorer list wasn’t available – there were ways around this, but it didn’t make sense that all the controls for modifying the look and feel of the application couldn’t be used at this point.

Anyway, all fixed and it makes TotalEdit even better in my eyes.

Well done James – and superb customer service.