I discovered Dropbox only last week, as I was looking for a solution to sync my 1Password software between 2 Macs, as mentioned in my 1Password post.
Now I’ve been using cloud storage in 1 way or another for a while now, and do believe it’s the future, as the internet gets faster, there is going to be less of a need for keeping data locally, and everything will be stored and accessed from the Cloud.
Dropbox is a simple piece of software, and essentially give you access to 2Gb of free storage (you can pay a monthly fee for the 50Gb and 100Gb version, however for my needs the 2Gb free version is currently sufficient). The storage is accessible via the Dropbox website, or via a application on your Mac, PC, or Linux machine.
How does it work ? Quite simple….once the software is installed, you get a new folder added to your machine, anything you drop into this folder will be synced with the Dropbox website, so if the worse case happened and you lost your hard drive, no worries !…it’s backed up on the web.
Now the beneficial thing for me was the syncing is done real time, so if you have more than 1 machine needing to access a particular config file to keep in sync, then this is the solution. I’m currently using this to keep my 1Password config file safe, not only is it backed, it’s also realtime synced between both machines, so if I add any new details on my MacBook, these are instantly reflected on my iMac
Dropbox also has a sharing function, meaning that you can share 1 file, or an entire folder with other Dropbox users, so anything you drop into folder, will be instantly downloaded to their machine. This is great if you have work you are collaborating on. It also allows you to send a link to a specific file, if you would like to share this with a non Dropbox user.
Dropbox also comes in the form of an Iphone app (and I believe also a iPad app now). This essentially means that any files I drop into the Dropbox folder, are accessible on the move. I’ve found this beneficial so far with photo sharing, basically, take a photo via the Iphone app, upload to dropbox, and it’s instantly downloaded to all your machines, and anybody your sharing the folder with, or you can upload any existing file from your iPhone to the cloud.
From what I can see, there are no file type or size limitation, so basically you can upload whatever you like.
All in all, a fantastic service, it’s fast, and most of all, it’s all FREE !
If you do want to increase your storage without having to pay, they have the option of the referral scheme, which essentially, if you get somebody to sign up to the free account, you and they both get 250Mb of addition storage, however they say that the limit is 8Gb additional space, so if after reading this, your planning on signing up, drop me an email and I’ll send you a referral link, this way we both get an addition 250Mb free storage.
Well, I’m honored to say, that I have finally seen the one of my most anticipated films of this year. This film is brought to you by the guys over at the Suckcast podcast. Just a little history before we start on the film, I was made aware of the Suckcast podcast when they tweeted the RedDwarfForum twitter account saying they were liking the ScutterCast podcast, back then we were getting quite a lot of flak due to poor editing, poor preparation, and just generally doing a poor podcast. I initially assumed that it was somebody else taking the piss out of us, especially with the name of Suckcast, and our podcast being called Scuttercast (there was method in my madness).
After doing a little bit of googling, I found that they also did a podcast, named “The Suckcast“, and decided to give it a listen, What a podcast !….I’ve downloaded every episode since and each episode makes me laugh out loud, a number of times.
The podcasts hosts are Man Guy (Dan Guy), The Herman (William Stendeback) and Cory (Cory Eskkridge Okouchi), each week they discuss their week, and discuss a movie they have watched that week and just generally have a laugh while doing it, you can tell by their synergy, they enjoy each others company, and enjoy doing the podcast.
At the beginning and end of each podcast they mention their sponsors, Ninjas Vs Zombies. Again after a little googling, I found that the movie is their own baby ! How awesome !, unfortunately they are still waiting for a publisher to take them on, so the chances of me ever getting to see their creation was starting to look bleak. Out of the blue a couple of episodes ago, Cory said that if anybody wanted a copy of the movie, to email in and he’s try to sort something out, so obviously I emailed in.
Anyway that’s the back story out of the way, now lets get to the film itself !
Is this film going to win any Oscars ? Nope.
Does this film have mindblowing visuals that make Avatar look like the first episode of the Simpsons ? Nope.
Does this film have martial arts that would show Bruce Lee a thing or two ? Nope.
Is this a fun, easy watching, laddish film ? Hell Yeah !!!
How do I know ? Because my other half sat playing on her Blackberry all the way through it, asking how long it had left, because she was bored
The basic movie plot is that Randall (Dan Guy), is interrupted while attempting to bring his brother Eric (PJ Megaw) back from the dead by Herman (William Stendeback), who is banging on the comic book stores (assume that Randall works their), as he’s want to play their weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons. This results in a botched resurrection that does brings back his brother, however he suck the souls of the living to survive. Each person he sucks a soul from, turns into a flesh eating zombie.
As the film goes on, Eric gets a taste for the soul sucking, hence resulting in an army of flesh eating zombie terrorizing the neighbourhood. With no way, and no hope of defeating Eric and the zombies, Cole (Cory Eskridge Okouchi), Kyle (Daniel Ross), Fitz (Daniel Mascarello), and Randell are granted super ninja powers to help defeat Eric, and rid the world of the zombies.
From this point on, (and without spoiling the film for anyone) it’s essentially a fight between Ninjas and Zombie !
So how was it ?…well it was a fun movie, when I initially saw the trailer, the first thing that came to my head was one of Peter Jacksons first films “Bad Taste“, an overly gory film with just so much heart and soul, it’s one of those films you just don’t get bored of. I’m glad to say that Ninjas Vs Zombies didn’t disappoint, the film had a decent story, decent acting, and to be honest really good special effects as this seems to have been made on a shoe string budget. The “soul sucking” scenes, and the fireballs that Randell can conjure really wouldn’t look out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster !
Was the film predictable ?…well it was a good guys vs bad guy film, and there are very few where the good guys lose
I have to say, the homages to the great films out there were amazing, it felt like a little game after a while, every few minutes I was turning to the missus and saying “ooooo, look, that’s the Turtles”, or one of the other films they paid homage too. I’m not 100%, but I seem to remember thinking a lot of the fighting moves were either from Mortal Kombat, or Street Fighter…I may be totally wrong, but that what they reminded me of.
Did it have any nudity ?…Yeah, but only for a split second, if anybody has listened to the Suckcast, you’ll know why I was a little shocked to only see a split second of nudity
Would I watch it again ? Already have, and it gets more enjoyable with each watch, it’s going to be one of “those films” I think ?
Would I have changed anything ? No, not really, there were a few points in the film where the comedy timing was a little out, apart from that much fighting, much gore, loved it.
All in all a great movie, if your looking for Hollywood blockbuster, with great depth and millions of pounds of special effects, then this movie isn’t for you, if you are looking for a low budget, gory, fun moving, then this is the film for you.
I think the current score on IMDB of 6.7/10 is totally justified, I just hope a publisher takes them on, so the rest of the world can see this great movie.
My bro (The groom), leaves sunny Huddersfield at 2am on Wednesday 8th July 2009, picks me up around 3.30am, then picks up another guy from Watford Gap services, then down the M1, round the M25, up the M11, to Stanstead airport for around 5.30am ish, meet the other 4 in the other car, check in, have a few bevies, fly at 7.40am, and land in Tallinn around midday (+2 hours time difference), drink some more beers, goto the Beer Festival, see Moby, have a good time !
What actually happened
We did well, we got to the airport, we had the few beers, and at 7am decided to goto the departure gate…(40 minutes early), however in our wisdom (lets carry our bags as hand luggage as it will save us £16), we totally ignored all the 100ml rule for all liquids. Now this would have been fine if we’d have done 1 of 2 things, either a, not been drinking for the last hour and a half, or b, headed for the departure lounge a lot earlier.
To cut a long story short, the majority of us has toiletries with us, that were way over the 100ml limit, so we were given the option of throwing them, or checking the bag in, most went for the “sure, please feel free to throw my £40 aftershave”, however I gathered up mine and my bro’s toiletries, and took the advice of the security dude, and headed back for the check in desk to check in my bag.
After running through security, then across the airport to the Easy Jet check in desks, then getting stuck behind the woman who had packed far too much in this bag that you could have lived in….I finally got my turn at the check in desk, only to be told that check in had closed for our flight ! WTF!?!…. so decided to run back to security and just ditch everything, as it was now 7.25am. Queued up again, went through security….stood staring at the time, and my bag that had been pushed to 1 side for about 5 mins before somebody finally got around to re-searching it again, I politely told the lady, “Please, my flight leaves in 10 mins, that guy over there told me to go back to check in, but check in is closed, so please just throw everything!”…..this took her at least another 5 mins, as you swabbed my bag for drugs, and carefully removed the toiletries
So anyway, 7.35am, I’m through, I’m allowed to carry on, only to get a phone call from my bro saying, “Never mind the flight has gone!”….Unfortunately I wasn’t there, but apparently some jobs worth from Easy Jet allowed 4 to get on the plane, but wouldn’t allow the other 3 that were waiting for me, however another 2 got back off the plane, leaving only 2 on and 6 of us in the airport with a missed flight!, Please note: the plane was delayed leaving, as it took them 20 mins to get one of the lads bags off !
After 25 mins of us sat there giving it the “So what we going to do now”, we were all call to a collection point, as if it was a normal morning practice for them “If anybody has missed an Easy Jet flight this morning, please make yourself known at check in desk 4″….so we moseyed up, and well as 2 business guys, who had missed their flight by 25 minutes, suggesting that the information on the ticket was ambiguous, and they thought the flight time, was actually the start boarding time …….the future is bright…..
We were then all frogmarched through the airport until we arrive back at arrivals, only to be told the next flight to Tallinn is on Friday morning !…WTF…we needed to put out heads together, so back to the pub it was ….After multiple phone calls, and about 5 hours of trying to sort out flights, we had a couple of options, fly to Riga, then a 17 hour coach ride to Tallinn, which we agreed on, but when we came to book it, there was only 4 seats free, so scrapped that. Around 1pm and after much more beer we decided the only way we could get there on the same day was…..a flight from London Heathrow to Copenhagen (Denmark), then a flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki (Finland), then a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn (Estonia). Sounded sensible enough to us, as we did have a stomach full of beer
The epic journey then began; we booked the flights (£962), and ordered a taxi to Heathrow from Stanstead (£130). As we were waiting for the taxi, my bro had a phone call from his other half to suggest that my card was declined, and I needed to ring my bank. Knowing I had plenty of credit on the card, I rang the bank, but with my name not being to main card holder I needed to get hold of C to authorise the payment. This was an issue, as she was driving to Swindon for a meeting, and doesn’t answer the phone while driving (since bought a bluetooth car kit). We decided to get in the taxi anyway. The hour and a half taxi journey consisted on my texting, phoning, and email C to get her to authorise the payment, but to no avail, only made worse buy everybody else’s partner ringing in to see if we were sorted.
As we pulled into Heathrow, my phone rang, and it was C, I’ve never been so relieved, the conversation resembled the conversation between Luke, and C3P0 when he’s asking him to Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level, kinda a don’t talk, just fix please. Bless her cotton socks, off she went and 10 mins later I got a call saying, all good, try again, the fraud department had put a block on the transaction, which she’d had lifted. Myself and my bro, then ran to the SAS desk, and paid the lady, I’ve never been so relieved to payout nearly a £1000 on my credit card !
Once we’d received our confirmation, when headed for the check in desk, where this guy wouldn’t let us through, we thought, oh dear here we go, but we were wrong, it was probably the best service we’ve ever had, this guy ran us through the self service check out, helped us pick our seats, printed the labels for our bags, and then let us through to the check in desk….we were finally on our way !
Walked all the way through everything we could, and went to plonk ourselves down in the bar as we had 4 hours before the plane was due to depart, and drank….drank a lot.
5.30pm came round, we went through to departures, and on the plane, everybody slept the entire flight, as it has already been a very long day, and we’d been drinking for 12 hours already.
9.20pm (Denmark time) we arrived in Copenhagen, got off the plane, and went to the pub, as we had an hour and a half before the next flight. One of the lads offered to buy the round, which he regretted, it work out around £8 a pint !
10.00pm, we went to the departures desk, as there was no way we were missing this flight, walked through, all smooth, and again, we all slept on the flight.
1.15am (Finland time), we arrived in Helsinki, collected our bags, and headed for the airport café. As the ferry wasn’t departing for Tallinn until 8am, we spent the next 3 hours sat in the café drinking beer, some lads crashed out, some of us just drank !
When it got to around 4am, we decided it would be a good idea to head for the ferry port very early, as we had to be checked in by 7am. Short taxi journey later, and we were outside of the ferry port. The port itself didn’t open till 7am, so there we were 6, blokes, 24 hours worth of beer in us, dehydrated, hungry and cold. The ferry port was like a ghost town, very windy, no open toilet, which is bad when everyone had a bladder full. After about 30 mins of wandering around, we took up refuge in a couple of bus stops to shield us from the cold, and wind.
After another 30 mins or so, of us dying, we noticed a market was starting to be set up, so 1 of the lads went on a mission to find food. 1 of the first tents he came to, did do food, but wouldn’t be ready until 6am, but told us, 6am on the dot, we could eat and drink there.
I have to say, that has to be one of the longest hours of our lives, we sat there looking shattered, red eyes, and trying not to make eye contact with the locals who were now starting to use the bus stop for it’s correct use. The bus stop was sat facing a clock tower, I think we all spent the hour with our eyes fixed on it.
5.55am, the rain started, and I mean really started, it was bouncing a couple of feet of the ground, and the shelter didn’t really protect us.
Finally 6am came round, and we made a run for the tent, and all huddled around this table. 6 coffees were instantly ordered, and we were just glad to be finally warmer and dryer. We asked what food they had, and she ran through a list of donut related products, and meat pies….6 meat pies it was. When she put down the 6 paper plates, she took 6 “pies” from this box and gave us all one each. I remember everyone looking at each other with a WTF ?!? look, as these weren’t pies as we know them, there were large donuts ?…first bite, again, this is a donut without the sugar…2nd bite, and sure enough there was some kinda of meat, mince I think. To be honest we were all that hungry we just ate up and drank out coffees. At this point the heavens truly opened and we were sat, in a tent, in Finland, in the middle of a thunderstorm, the rain was so bad, we had a small river running past our feet and soaking our bags, it was terrible !
It got to around 6.30 ish, and the rain started to die down, so we decided to make a run for the ferry port. A short run later and we were there, we were finally inside the ferry port, with time to spare !. We all sat on the benches with a big smile on our faces knowing that all we had to do, was get on the ferry. We looked at the boards, they said, in on 3 columns, 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, the next row said, 9:00,10:00, 12:00, and it seemed to say this another 6 times, so we assumed it was boarding time, departure and arrival time.
About 15 mins later, I looked round and noticed the board had changed to 7:00, 8:00, Peruutettu, and 9:00, 10:00, Peruutettu…..this didn’t look good. My bro went to the person in the news stand and asked what Peruutettu meant in English……Cancelled he said……our faces dropped …….
We were told that due to the bad whether, the ferry wouldn’t be going. As the only way from Helsinki to Tallinn was ferry, we were kind of screwed !, we were however told that there was another ferry port where the big ferries were…which was about 10 mins in away in a taxi. 3 of us jumped in the only taxi outside, and we ordered another taxi for the other 3.
10 minutes later, our taxi arrived at the other ferry port, I took a wonder inside to see what time the ferries left, 1 left 7.30am, the next left at 8.00am, however the check in time for both was 7am…..it was currently 6.55am ! The next ferries left at 10am….so we had to get all our tickets and within the next 5 mins, which was fine, apart from there was a queue, and we were still waiting on the other 3 to turn up…..
After a minute or 2 the taxi pulled up, and they slowly walked to the entrance like zombies….I shouted to them, we had minutes to get out tickets and everybody burst into a run. We ran in the building, up the stairs, to a kiosk and demanded 6 tickets, we didn’t even ask the price and handed over our passports, and paid (180 euros), ran up and down the ramps (which where the lengths of the ferry) to the ferries, and finally boarded …..
A very rocky 2 ½ hour ferry ride across, and we were finally in Tallinn !, a journey that should have taken 2 ½ hours, direct on a plain, took an additional 21 hours, and nearly £1300…..but we made it.
I discovered Dropbox only last week, as I was looking for a solution to sync my 1Password software between 2 Macs, as mentioned in my 1Password post.
