There’s no doubt that Batman is my favorite comic book superhero, and Batman Begins is easily my favorite superhero movie of all time.

So naturally, I’ve been closely following all the little tidbits of news that have been trickling in about the sequel, The Dark Knight, which is scheduled to hit the big screen in July next year.

This evening, Batman fans in a few select cities across the country (including NYC, of course) were in for a real treat – a six minute long prologue, introducing the Joker, filmed in glorious 70mm IMAX sweetness. And let me tell you – it was badass.

If you didn’t get a chance to catch this first look, don’t worry. It’s supposed to play again at every IMAX screening of the new Will Smith movie, I Am Legend, starting next week. The clip is probably already on YouTube by now (or will be), but trust me – you really have to watch it on the massive 80-foot-tall screen to experience the full effect.

Damn, it’s going to be a long and difficult wait until July!

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There’s been a lot of chatter recently about the “BSoD” icon that Apple uses to represent networked Windows machines in Mac OS X Leopard. The whole situation becomes all the more amusing when you stumble upon this article within Apple’s support pages, describing Leopard’s 301st new feature – a BSoD of its own.

When it really comes down to it, can any OS vendor claim to have a product that’s 100% stable and reliable? Of course not. The bottom line is…

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In case you missed the news a few days ago – Microsoft is offering full, legitimate copies of Office 2007 Ultimate to students for $60 from now until April 2008 through a promotion called “The Ultimate Steal.”

A number of universities offer free MSDNAA subscriptions to students, which include licensed copies of several Microsoft apps, but Office is not part of the package, so this is a good way to get the missing piece on a student budget.

A retail copy of the full suite costs over $600 on Amazon, and even the discounted “Home and Student” edition (which only includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote, but surprisingly not Outlook!) would set you back ~$120. This is a fantastic deal if you’re eligible.

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One of my favorite things about NYC is the fact that although it’s a fast-paced, crowded, concrete jungle, there’s a whole different world outside the city just waiting to be explored. Having been a big-city dweller for most of my early life, I really feel at home in the high-energy environment here, especially around Times Square, where I work; but when weekends come along, it’s nice to be able to go to a quieter, more relaxed place to enjoy some of nature’s beauty.

During the last couple of weeks, we went on two hiking trips up north. The first was at Sam’s Point Preserve atop the Shawangunk Ridge, where we hiked up through the “ice caves” to the Verkeerderkill Falls. The second one, with a big group of 22 people, was at the Delaware Water Gap near the NJ/Penn state border. Both trips were lots of fun, and I’ve posted two new picture albums.

While the weather’s still conducive to outdoor activities, we’re also planning to go on either a white-water rafting or overnight camping trip sometime in the coming weeks. Isn’t it nice not having to worry about homework, projects and exams on weekends anymore? =)

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This has to be one of the coolest hardware mods I’ve seen in a long time.

An enterprising “Wii60″ owner, OBsIV, has put together an elaborate system that allows him to use a Wiimote and nunchuck with an Xbox 360. He has a detailed post on his blog describing how it was done, and even includes a video of him playing Halo 2 on the 360 with the Wii controllers, which you just have to watch.

If someone were to package this up and sell it, I would definitely be interested. Very cool.

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The lack of updates during the last couple of weeks has to do with the fact that I’ve been in the process of moving from California to NYC.

I flew in to Manhattan last Tuesday, and there has been plenty to do since then, so I haven’t really been in the frame of mind to sit down and write. My brother and I have finalized an apartment here, and we’ll be moving into the new place this weekend. We’ve already bought most of the furniture we need, so now it’s a matter of bringing a U-Haul in and transporting everything over.

Work doesn’t start until the 17th, so I’ll still have a week to get everything straightened out. It’s like starting a new life here, and it’s all very exciting. :)

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In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Firefox as an example of an application that auto-updates itself in a simple and elegant manner, and highlighted some of the things that other software vendors could learn from Mozilla’s example.

Today, let’s look at one of my favorite aspects of modern Linux/BSD distributions – full system updates – and consider how Microsoft could potentially work with ISVs to build a similar mechanism for Windows in the future.

The screenshot on the right shows the Update Manager window from my Ubuntu setup. Notice how it offers to update Firefox and Gimp, both of which are “third-party” applications in the sense that they are not strictly parts of the operating system. In fact, any application that’s installed from Ubuntu’s vast software repository can be automatically updated in the same way. It’s a wonderfully convenient system that ensures that everything on your computer stays up-to-date, down from the OS kernel all the way up to high-level applications like web browsers and image editors.

Windows Marketplace – Evolved:

So how could something like this work on the Windows side? Here’s my idea. Many of you have probably heard of the Windows Marketplace, a Microsoft site that showcases thousands of third-party Windows applications from big and small ISVs. Microsoft could launch a campaign to revamp the Marketplace into a true software repository with the help of prominent software partners. Incentive programs could be set up to encourage smaller ISVs to also get onboard.

Consumers would be able to install third-party software quickly and easily from this repository via a companion utility. Commercial applications would be available for purchase through the Digital Locker and would be installed using the same system. An update utility similar to Windows Update (with BITS support) would then ensure that all these applications are always kept up-to-date.

There’s no doubt that implementing something like this would be a huge undertaking, and there are bound to be roadblocks along the way, but wouldn’t the end-result be great?

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Firefox 2.0.0.5 was released earlier this week, which I promptly installed on my computers, and it got me thinking about how software updates are pushed out by various software vendors in the market.

Even though most software updates are delivered via the internet in some shape or form, there’s still a large fraction of applications that don’t include any kind of built-in updating mechanism (which is why tools like FileHippo are so handy). No wonder I come across so many people who continue to run old versions of software on their computers for months, or even years; they simply don’t know that there are updates out there, and who can blame them for it?

Moreover, out of the applications that do include the ability to update themselves automatically, very few manage to do so in an elegant way. Some applications install separate helper utilities that run when the system boots up, and they remain in memory, checking for updates at regular intervals. These tools often slow down the boot up process, consume system resources, and pop up update dialog boxes when you least expect them. Other applications relentlessly notify you of available updates, then force you to manually save and close all your work when you finally run out of patience and give in. I won’t point fingers at any particular apps, but I’m sure most of you can figure out which ones I’m referring to. ;)

For these reasons, I find the Firefox update process so refreshing. It works exactly like one would expect it to, and even goes above and beyond to avoid inconveniencing the user.

• There are no separate memory-resident helper utilities; Firefox automatically checks for updates only while it’s running.
• When an update is found, a dialog box appears, giving the user the choice to download and install the update, or defer the process for later.
• If the user accepts the update, Firefox saves its state (all open tabs), closes, installs the update, and re-opens in the same state as it was before. Brilliant.
• The update mechanism plays well with the User Account Control (UAC) feature in Windows Vista, something that even many commercial applications have yet to achieve.

If only more software vendors would follow Mozilla’s example, the desktop would be a much better place.

In the next post, we’ll take a look at another great software updating mechanism that uses a different approach, but works very well too. Until then, can you think of other applications that do a particularly good job at keeping themselves up-to-date without getting in the user’s way?

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Last December, I wrote about the initial release of Live Search for Mobile, Microsoft’s mapping and local search application for mobile phones. As noted in the post, Google only had a slow Java-based client for Windows Mobile devices at the time. Earlier this year, however, a native Windows Mobile version of Google Maps was released, which was a huge improvement over its rather unimpressive predecessor.

Last week, Microsoft improved its offering with the second version of Live Search for Mobile. The update improves performance with better caching, includes user reviews for local search results, and improves upon the GPS navigation features. The most noticeable change, however, is the addition of movie showtimes, powered by data from AMG.

Just like other local search results, movie theater listings can be viewed as a simple, text-only list, or as overlays on a map. Users are given a choice to select either a specific movie to see which theaters are showing it, or a specific local theater to see which movies are playing there. As shown in the screenshot above, the application displays movie showtimes, as well as the address and phone number of the theater so that you can call or get directions in just a couple of clicks. Also included is the option to SMS this information to your friends (with full phonebook integration), which is very convenient.

All in all, a welcome update to a great mobile application.

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I enjoy using Visual Studio as an all-in-one IDE for Windows programming, but when I’m writing code for the web, I prefer simpler text editors. I’ve tried many, and eventually settled on Notepad++ sometime last year.

What I really like about Notepad++ (besides the fact that it’s free) is how lightweight it is. It fires up instantly, just like classic Notepad does, and at the same time includes all the features that I want, including syntax highlighting, auto-completion, brace matching and auto-indentation, tabs, support for regular expressions, macros etc.

As I was working on a project this morning, it occurred to me that I should mention a custom syntax highlighting style called Ruby Blue that I’ve been using (image above, courtesy of the author). It’s quite surprising how beneficial a good font and syntax highlighting scheme can be, and Ruby Blue, coupled with DejaVu Sans Mono or Consolas, works very well for me.

The Ruby Blue style is also available for Vim and TextMate.

Do you have a favorite text editor, monospace font, and syntax highlighting scheme?

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