SRWare Iron - Chrome Without The Google Updater Crap

I installed Google Chrome once way back when it was brand new back in September 2008. It was impressively fast, and the thing I liked best about it was the address bar. Once you start typing in the the address bar, the browser searches your bookmarks and history for what you're looking for and almost every time, the browser gets it right. Then you just hit "Enter", and off you go to where you want. Though Firefox 3 has a similar feature, but with Firefox 3, you can't just hit "Enter" after the search because the results are shown below the address bar in a dropdown menu. So you have to either hit the down arrow key or the "Tab" key once before hitting "Enter" to go to the first result of the search. With Chrome, the first result of the search is shown inside the address bar itself, that's why you can just hit "Enter" right away.

But Chrome's primary weakness was it's lack of extensions. As a power user, you need extensions to make the browser you're using and the page you're visiting to work for you the way you want to. So after using it for a few days, I went back to Firefox. From my short experience with Chrome, the one thing I hated most about it was the fact that it installed Google Updater on my computer and they made it very hard to get rid of it. It's designed to always run in the background and check for updates for any of Google desktop applications you have on your machine. I don't like softwares that loads on startup and check for updates without my explicit permission. And this reason alone have made me stay away from Chrome, that is, until recently.

I was browsing through reddit and saw a story that says google has made the Google Updater open source. I thought if this is the case, then there might be a way to install Chrome without intsalling Google Updater. So I put forth the question in the comments section and got a reply linking me to a Lifehacker story on how to do just that, but only it didn't. The story shows where to get the standalone version of Chrome that installs Chrome directly. You see, if you download Chrome from its official site, you are actually downloading Google Updater, and then the Google Updater downloads Chrome and installs it. However, the Lifehacker story fails to mention that even if you install the standalone version, googleupdater.exe still gets installed on your system as it comes as part of Chrome itself. The purpose of the Lifehacker story is more about helping users with non-existent or slow internet connection get Chrome installed on their machine. The standalone version can be installed on any machine without requiring an internet connection whereas if you downloaded it from the official site, you're actually downloading Google Updater and if you run that thing you downloaded an a machine that has no internet connection, then you won't be able to get Chrome installed.

So, for those who want to install Chrome without having googleupdater.exe installed with it, the Lifehacker story was completely useless, or so it seems. This is where Web2.0 comes and saves the day. Browsing through the comments for the Lifehacker story, a reader commented that there's this thing called SRWare Iron. As it turns out, SRWare Iron is exactly what I've been looking for-a stripped down version of Chrome without any of the Google Updater crap.

I tried it out and it works as advertised. I'm not really going to use it as my primary browser. I'm working on a new project right now and I need to see the whether the web-based project works on the WebKit engine. My choices were either Safari or Chrome, but instead I found something better - Iron.

Slumdog Millionaire Is A Masterpiece

The latest product from Danny Boyle, the guy the brought us Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Sunshine but Slumdog Millionaire must be his best work yet.

It's not one of those movies that gets critical acclaim for it's great acting, or eyeball exploding special effects, or any of those award show categories. It is great because it does what movies do, and does it in an almost perfect way. It takes the everyday Joe's fantasy, put it in film form, and make anybody who watches it live the fantasy, even if just for 2 hours.

This movie is for the everyday Joe, what Twilight is for unpopular school girls, and Danny Boyle does it without the involvement of sparkling vampires.

Right from the get go the movie pulls you in. It's not one of those slow burning movies. The movie tells about this kid from the slums of India, who goes on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire gameshow and reaches the final question. They ran out of time before the final question is asked so they have to continue the next day. The police find it hard to believe a slum kid can answer all those questions so they interrogate him and he tells how he got to know the answers. In telling it, he practically tells his life story. And he has been through a lot. However, it is rather convenient that in the movie, the events that lead to him knowing the answers to each question in the gameshow is in the same chronological order to the chronology of the questions that are asked on the gameshow. But hey, it's a movie and I'm not complaining. So it shows how he knows the answer to the first question from events from he was a kid, up to the answer to the penultimate question from events just moments before being asked the question.

One of the things that sets this movie apart is how it shows India. This ain't your Bollywood India. It's the slums and how people go about their lives living there. Some scenes are harsh but at the same time, this is not one of those dark and gritty movies either. It actually is a feel good movie. Sure there are some hard reality shown in the movie but overall the movie is overwhelmingly feel good. It's so feel good that you can consider it to be Bollywood in a way. And that's why this movie is almost perfect. Everything was going perfectly in the movie, but how they wrapped it all up in the end seemed too Bollywood for me. Sure it's feel good, and I admit I did feel good, but I prefer my feel good endings have a bit more believability.

But why am I arguing about believability when I'm an everyday Joe and I had an excellent 2 hours. Plus, the music is great too. A.R. Rahman.'Nuff said.

The Love Guru Is Surprisingly Funny

Even before the movie was released, this movie had bad reviews. I myself thought this was going to be a shitty movie. From the trailer, it looks as if Mike Myers is recycling his old jokes for this movie. The last fairly good movie of his was the first Austin Powers, and every movie after that was terrible. The first Mike Myers movie i saw was Wayne's World 2, and loved it.

So after The Love Guru was released, the critics ripped the movie apart, saying Mike Myers is a "has been" and has lost his magical touch. It currently has a 3.2 rating on IMDB. They complained that he keeps doing the some jokes over and over again in his movies, and they have a point there.

Then yesterday, a screener of the movie appeared on the internets, and being that there has not been any good movies released on the net lately, I figured I'd give this one a shot. So after watching it, I was surprised at how funny I found it. Sure he rehashes some of his old jokes, but the rehashes worked well in the movie. These jokes worked better in this movie than in his Austin Powers movies. In his Austin Powers movies, he kinds of over-do it with his jokes, it's like "yeah, I get the joke already", but he keeps banging the joke on your head until it loses its funniness. It seems that he's learned from his mistakes and the jokes are done very well in this movie. He has learned when to stop.

Plus, compared to his previous movies, this movie is heavier on word-play jokes than physical jokes. And I like it like that.

Definitely, Maybe Is A Recommended Watch

Definitely, Maybe is one of the better romantic comedies in recent times. Just like the poster says, it's from the makers of Love Actually, another recommended romantic comedy. The story is set in the 90s, so there's Nirvana and Bill Clinton references, but they are more than just references, they are an integral part of the story. Instead of a story about one guy with one woman, or 3 guys with 3 women, it's about 1 guy with 3 women.

The story is told through flashbacks, the guy is telling this story to his daughter. The daughter wants to know about how the guy met her mother, so he tells her about the relationships he has had, and the daughter needs to guess which one is her mother. The story is heavier on the romantic side than the comedy side compared to Love Actually, but it's good. A highly recommended watch. And Elizabeth Banks is hot.

Lost Season 4 Finale Is The Best Episode Yet

Off the island they go

Desmond finally reunited with Penny

I've just finished watching the Lost season 4 finale, and it was by far the best episode yet. Every time Penny makes an appearance, the episode is surely going to be good, but this episode is almost perfect. It shows the actual rescue. The season started by implying that they're going to get rescued, but the actual rescue was only shown on the final episode. The so called rescuers that appeared at the start of the season weren't there on a rescue mission, but in the end they played a part in the rescue.

It shows how only 6 of them manage to get off the island. Desmond is finally reunited with Penelope. It was the most satisfying moment of the entire series. After showing them searching for each other for several seasons, to see them finally together was very fulfilling.

These Lost writers really are geniuses. They manage to find the perfect balance between resolving some story lines and to continue with some to make you want more. The show started with flashbacks, then this season, it's mostly flashforwards, but after the events of this season, it's hard to figure out how the format is going to be next season. It may very well be without any "flashes", showing events on and off the island as they occur. But that itself is going to be tricky, because the time on the island is different than time off the island. It's all about this space-time continuum.

So after being rescued and living off the island for 3 years, circumstances have all the 6 rescued to want to go back to island. And how they do that is what season 5 is going to be all about. And going about doing that isn't going to be easy because Ben has moved island.

L.A. & Vegas

Farmers Market

Farmers Market

Hollywood

The Grove, just beside Farmers Market

Hollywood

Filming going on in front Hooters in Hollywood

Walt Disney Hall

The famous & weird statue at Ernst & Young Plaza, downtown L.A.

Downtown L.A. from Getty Center

Getty Center

Getty Center

So I went to the U.S. of a about a month ago, more precisely, I was in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.It was my first time in the U.S., and also first time outside of Asia in more than 20 years. I expected to see white men everywhere, but it was easier to spot Hispanics than white men in L.A. And I blended right in with them. I think I was even mistaken for a gang member at one point, but that's another story. The cashiers there speak to me in Spanish so I have to speak to them in English first to give them a head's up that I'm no Latino.

The climate is dry. Coming a country where the humidity is high, this became a problem. My lips started to crack, eyes became red, nose started to bleed and my skin became stretched. And at Venice beach, I thought it was spring, the weather isn't that hot as it is in Malaysia, the last thing on my mind was putting on sunscreen. But when I got back, my face was burned.

The cars over there actually stop for pedestrians. The respect that they give to pedestrians is surprising. The freeway surface isn't that good, compared to what we have in Malaysia. So Samy Vellu isn't 100% incompetent as I would like to think he is. And also, you can turn right on a red light. The reason for that is because their roads are all in a grid. So it's very orderly. You can't do that in Malaysia.

The people are friendlier than I thought they would be. Bus and cab drivers always greet you. You don't always get that here. The public transport system is very good in L.A. The Metro rail and buses all publish their routes online, so it's very easy to plan your journey. The only problem is with the non-Metro buses and also on less popular routes where the buses aren't as frequent.

But one thing that bugged me the most is this culture of "tips". They expect tips for the slightest of things. WTF is up with that? Why can't they just do their damn job. Don't extort people out of their money. Even cab fares need tips. This tip thing is needs to go away.

Maybe I wasn't at the right place at the right time, but in L.A. I expected to see a hot chick at every corner but that wasn't the case. But the percentage does increase as you get closer to the coast line. But in Downtown, not so much. And downtown L.A isn't as busy as I thought it would be. And it's quite small. You can explore the whole downtown area on foot, which I did.

Other than Downtown, I also went on a tour that took me around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I thought I saw Stan Lee, or at least somebody that looked like him at the Farmers Market. The next I visited the Getty Center. Then on the day after that, my plan was to do the beaches. Take the rail down to Long Beach, then go back up a bit and do a triple of Redondo, Manhattan and Hermosa beaches. But by the time I was finished with Redondo, it was already late, so I didn't get to Hermosa or Manhattan beach.

Long Beach

Redondo Beach

Next, I did a double of Venice and Santa Monica. The first thing that I noticed about Venice/Santa Monica beach is how wide it is. The amount of sand you have to wade through just to get to the water, it's like a 3 minute walk in the sand. This is where da girls at.

Venice Beach

Baywatch on Venice Beach.

Venice Beach

Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica Beach

It's Hot

And in Vegas, there wasn't much travelling to do becsue the hotel was right there on the strip, so I had time to really watch tv there. I switched through the late night talk shows that they have there. There's Leno and Conan on NBC, and there's Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS. Of the 4, I actually like Craig Ferguson the best. Craig Ferguson is Drew Carey's boss, Mr. Wick, from the Drew Carey Show. His talk show is actually very funny. He doesn't have a sidekick to pick things up if the shows gets slow, because it doesn't. It's a one man show, and still he manages to beat the others in funniness. When Letterman calls it quits, he should get Letterman's slot.

Vegas reaches it's peak on Fridays and Saturdays. People start coming in droves on Friday afternoon. They do whatever they went there to do, then leave on Sunday, and go to work on Monday. So it's nice to go for a walk on weekdays when its not as crowded.

The dancing fountains at the Bellagio is reason enough to go to Vegas. And the best part is it's free. It is easily one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It starts at sunset every night, but they turn it off if it's too windy.

And there's quite a big population of Muslims in Vegas. There are even mosques there, but not on the strip. So, halal food in Vegas isn't a problem. There are halal restaurants and even halal grocery stores. My mom bought some chicken and rice to cook. While there, there was this halal restaurant that served Philly Steak. At first I thought it was a steak as in one big piece of meat, but a Philly Steak is actually a sandwich. What?! I expected a steak and they gave me a damn sandwich?! But the sandwich is actually good. It's filled with little slices of meat with melted cheese together with sliced mushroom, and it's really really good. I wish they had it here in Malaysia.

And I also went to see Ka, a Cirque Du Soleil production. I've always wanted too see a Cirque Du Soleil show ever since I saw a documentary about them on tv. The show was okay, it had it's moments. It was the only Cirque show on discount at the time. Ka is more about the props, stage and special effects and a bit lacking in the actual circus acrobatics stuff, compared to other Cirque shows.

Vegas Strip

Vegas Strip

The newly opened Trump International in Vegas

Encore,Wynn and Palazzo on the Vegas strip

Bellagio Casino

Bellagio dancing fountains.

Protest against income tax in Vegas. It seems that there's no law requiring individuals to pay income tax. It's only for businesses.

Barstow Station. We took the Greyhound to travel between L.A. and Vegas. Barstow Station is somewhere in between.

I can go on writing a lot more about my trip but this is already the longest post on the blog. And it took me a long time to make this post. So it ends here. Plus, nobody reads my blog anyway. The reason I'm late in posting this is because I was waiting to finish editing all the photos that I took on my trip, but there just too many of them. So I'll attach the few good ones that I took, the rest of them will be on Flickr when I've finished editing all of them.

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Traffic

• Lanes are just whites lines on the road to be ignored.
• Instead of using signal lights, just honk.
• It's really hard to spot a car without a dent on it.
• Light bumping between vehicles are normal.
• Hardly any motorcycles.
• Most vehicles run on CNG.
  

Food

• Good briyani. Katchi(mutton) briyani is traditionally served at social functions.
  
• They squeeze lime over their briyani.
• Most of the chicken is the "kampung" kind, though they have multi-storey chicken farms.
  
• Lots of Jack fruit.
• Allegedly has the best mangoes in the world.
• Avoid tap water.

People

• About 90% muslims, a lot of the women wear sari.
• Their perception of Malaysians is that we are a very religious bunch.
• They learn about Tunku Abdul Rahman in their schools.
• They admire Dr. Mahathir.
• 11 million millionaires there, out of 150 million population.
• Very small middle class.
• Canada is a very popular migration destination for the rich.
• Advised by the hotel staff not to go out at night.
• A lot of police officers around. It's like there's one every 100 meters.
• Supermarket entrances have metal detectors.