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BIGKAHUNA
WIRE
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Updated: 11/6 10:45
am EST |
| LATEST
BUILDS |
Windows
32bit Family
Windows XP - 5.1.2600
Windows XP SP1a - v1106
Windows XP SP2 - v2180
Windows XP SP3 - v5512
Windows Server 2003 - 5.2.3790
Windows Server 2003 SP1 - 1830
Windows Server 2003 SP2 - 3959
Windows Vista - 6.0.6000.16386
Windows Vista SP1 - 6001.18000
Win Server 2008 - 6001.18000
Windows 7 - 6.1.7600.16385 |
Windows 64bit Family
Windows XP - 5.2.3790.1830
Windows XP SP2 - 3959
Win Server 2003 - 5.2.3790.1830
Win Server 2003 SP2 - 3959
Windows Vista - 6.0.6000.16386
Windows Vista SP1 - 6001.18000
Win Server 2008 - 6001.18000
Windows 7 - 6.1.7600.16385 |
Microsoft Office Family
Office 2003 SP2 - 11.0.7969.0
Office 2007 - 12.0.4518.1014
Office 2007 SP1 - 6213.1000
Office 2007 SP2 - 6425.1000 |
Misc
DirectX 9.0c - 4.09.0000.0904
DirectX 10 - 6.00.6000.16386
DirectX 10.1 - 6001.18000
DirectX 11 - 6.01.7100.0000
Exchange Server 2003 - 6.5.7226
Exchnge Srvr 2007 - 8.0.50727.42
Visual Studio 2005 - 8.0.50272.42
SQL Server 2005 SP2 - 9.00.3042
IE 6.0 SP2 - 6.0.2900.2180
IE 6.0 SP1 - 6.0.2900.5512
IE 7.0 (XP) - 7.0.5730.1100
IE 7.0 (Vista) - 7.00.6000.16386
IE 7.0 SP1 (Vista) - 6001.1800
IE 8.0 - 8.00.6001.18702
MSN Explorer - 9.60.0053.2200
WMP 10.0 - 10.00.00.4036
WMP 11.0 (XP) - 11.0.5721.5230
WMP 11.0 (V) - 11.0.6000.6344 |
Instant
Messaging
Windows Messenger 5.1.0556
MSN Messenger 6.2 - 6.2.0137
Windows Live Messnger - 8.0.0365
Windows L/M beta - 8.5.1235.0517 |
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THE
WEEKEND
POST
Saturday 8:30
AM EST |
|
.11/7
- |
Kahuna notes:
Alright, looks like me and
Kahunette are on the mend. I took Kahunette out for breakfast
yesterday, which she really liked after being sick and stuck in
the house all week. And hey, we've got a sunny weekend!
With temps in the 60s!! We're lookin' to bust out of the Beach
Shack and enjoy the weather. After all, with the way the weather
has been, this might be our only hit of Indian Summer. ...
Today, MSU (4-5) hosts Western Michign (4-5) of the MAC at noon
on BTN. At this point, seeing as MSU lost to a MAC team earlier
in the season, I won't be surprised if MSU loses again.
Definitely not the season I was hoping for. It could've been
different - MSU lost 3 games by 3 points or less and another by
8 (a TD and 2 point conversion). Damn. I blame those 4 loses on
horrible coaching calls. Oh well. UofM (5-4) hosts Purdue (3-6)
at noon on BTN. Purdue is unpredictable and has had some good
games, so Michigan, who's bowl hopes are still alive, must be
vigilant and play a mistake free game. In the pros, da Bears
(4-3) host the Cardinals (4-3) in what should be a hard fought
game, Sunday at 1:00pm on FOX. The pitiful LieDowns (1-6) travel
to the Seahawks (2-5). Two losers, who knows who'll win. Enjoy the
weekend!
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WinInfo
Short Takes: Week of November 9. |
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Weekly Virus Report...
Threat Center,
Virus
News,
Reports
&
Alerts. |
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HOT
NEWS
PICKS
Friday 3:50
PM EST
. |
.11/6
-
................. |
Kahuna notes:
Welp, Kahunette is finally
feeling a bit better today. Whew. She missed a whole week of
work. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend she'll be ready to
return to her classroom. I'm still hanging tough. I haven't
missed any work, but came close - having to literally drag my
sorry ass in a couple of mornings. Man, this crap kicks your
ass. It really hits your breathing machinery hard. I'm looking
forward to a restful weekend. Onward . . . |
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Gaming Scene News:. |
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Borderlands review
- 8.7/10 Oooh ! |
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Splinter Cell: Conviction preview. |
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Q&A -
Avatar - The Game. |
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Mytheon pics. |
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Torchlight review
- 8.3/10 Hmmm... |
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Crash
Time 3 demo.
(302.8mb) |
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Dark Salvation demo.
(480mb) |
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Dragon Age: Origins v1.01a patch.
(12.36mb) |
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Hardware Scene News:. |
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Seagate Savvio 15K.2 SAS 2.0 6Gb-s 146GB 2.5" Hard Disk review
- 92% Oooh ! |
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Q3: BlackBerry shipments grew five times faster than iPhone.
The latest IDC data place Nokia in the market share lead at
37.9%, followed by RIM (Blackberry), with Apple's iPhone getting
some smack down in third place with just 17.1% worldwide
smartphone market share during the third quarter. |
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Intel promises SSD firmware fix.
Intel is promising to issue a fix for its glitchy solid-state
drive (SSD) Optimizer update that was made available late last
month, but was quickly pulled by Intel after the update bricked
certain users' X25-M series SSDs. |
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A slew of smartphones is on the way.
Currently making the news and due to land at some point the
near future are the Nokia N900, the Motorola Droid and the HTC
HD2, not to mention Acer's three new touchscreens. |
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Dell Adamo XPS takes anorexic laptop crown.
Dell has combined its avant garde Adamo line with its high
profile XPS brand to come up with the slimmest gaming laptop to
date, the Adamo XPS. It packs a 1.4GHz Core2 Duo ULV CPU, 4GB of
800MHz DDR3 memory and a 128GB SSD. Unfortunately the 13.4in LED
display is powered by an Intel integrated graphics chip. Damn. |
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Gigabyte GeForce GT220 Graphics Card review
- 8/10 Hmmm... |
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Tech Scene
&
Miscellaneous News:. |
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Windows 7 sales outshine Vista.
Of course, that's not saying much. But judging by its initial
sales, Win7 is certainly proving more popular than Vista.
According to the NPD Group, MS sold 234% more boxed editions of
Win7 than it did Vista in the initial releases of both products.
However, lets not forget that
MS had to discount Win7 to fend off the growing competition. |
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Microsoft battles on in Mobile, Search and the Cloud.
Despite it's reputation for innovation, MS has been behind the
development curve in nearly everyone one of its endeavors since
day one. When faced with that kind of competition, MS resorts to
any and all underhanded, questionable and illegal methods of
securing a chunk of market. Just check day one -
MS stole DOS through a second party and then
MS stole Windows,
seriously. These days, it's more of the same as MS is
behind the development curve in Mobile, Search and the Cloud. |
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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs named Fortune 'CEO of the Decade'.
The honor is for Jobs' role in turning Apple into a
groundbreaking technology leader and the most valuable company
in Silicon Valley. The magazine's profile of Jobs noted that the
54-year-old overcame rejection from his own company in the
1980s, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation
scandal, two brushes with death and "his own often unpleasant
demeanor" to earn the title. Given that Jobs has transformed
American business, the publication has heralded the 2000s as
"the decade of Steve." |
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.Thursday
1:30 PM EST - |
.11/5
-
................. |
Kahuna notes:
What a brutal week. This flu
is absolutely brutal. I'm feeling slightly better today, but am
still taking naps here and there, ranging between 15 minutes and
an hour. Kahunette is a little better today, but she still had a
fever last night, so her return to work is questionable. So,
sick and sleeping, there's not much else to report. Onward . . . |
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.Wednesday
11:50 AM EST - |
.11/4
-
................. |
Kahuna notes:
Welp Kahunette is pretty
sick with the flu. She missed work Monday, Tuesday, today and
probably tomorrow. Now I'm sick. Coughing, hacking,
chills, sweats - it's brutal. The upshot, I've been skipping the
post - I'm just to sick to sit and pound it out. I was pretty
bad yesterday, but I managed to drag my sorry ass into work this
morning. I figure by Friday the old place of business will be a
ghost town as more get sick. Damn flu. |
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.Monday
10:50 AM EST - |
.11/2
-
................. |
Kahuna notes:
Saturday Kahunette and I
chilled, doing some fall chores around the house and yard. We
passed out candy to trick-or-treaters from 6pm to 8pm. It was a
bit cold (high 40s), but at least it wasn't raining. Then we
headed over to BigBear and BlueEyes for a little Halloween
party. Herbal was there, as well as P-dizzle and some other
family and neighbors. Good party. Sunday Kahunette came down
with a nasty cold / lower respiratory bug. She's been on her
nebulizer as the bug is causing breathing problems on top of her
asthma. I was worried about her, so I cut work short this
morning. So far, she's doing okay. Meanwhile, our streak of
crappy weather is still intact. Yesterday we saw some sun, but
the temp stayed in the 40s. In fact, it looks like 40s all week
with rain coming and going. More of the same. Damn. Welp, the
word is in on my new
Strat. My buds have been sending in their verdicts and it's
all good. People are freakin' on the high quality and low price
- not to mention its killer looks. Sweet. ... Not a
great weekend in the home team department. MSU (4-5) lost to
Minnesota (5-4). MSU had the lead in the 3rd quarter 31-28.
Unfortunately, in the 4th quarter, the MSU defense leaked even
more points, giving up 14 with the final ending up at 42-34.
That pretty much blows their bowl chances. Uof M (5-4) didn't
fare and better, losing to Illinois (2-6) 38-13. The LieDowns
(1-6) took another step down the road to being the worst team in
football, losing to the Rams (1-7) 17-10. Da Bears (4-3) managed
a win against the Browns (1-7) 30-6. The Yankees (3-1) beat the
Phillies (1-3) last night 7-4, coming out of the weekend with a
3-1 lead over the Phillies. Onward . . . |
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.Saturday
10:45 AM EST - |
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.10/31
- |
Kahuna notes:
Yep, I skipped the post
yesterday. It all started at work. As you might've heard, Diesel
landed a job at out local Best Buy, in the music store! Oh yeah.
Anyway, at work, Diesel was telling me and Huntster about all
the clearance markdown they did the night before. Okay. About
1:00pm me and Huntster headed over to
Elderly
to do a look see at the current stock. I saw a nice
Rickenbacker, but it was around $1,700 - no go. Then we stopped
in on Diesel over at
Best Buy and man did they have some deals. I was in
the market for a Strat and oh baby did I find one - a
Fender
American Deluxe Stratocaster (MSRP $2,000; MAP
$1,599). This baby comes with a lot of premium, high performance
parts, including: Fender/Schaller locking tuners, Samarium
Cobalt Noiseless pickups, S-1 switching, rosewood fretboard with
abalone dot inlays, 4 ply pickguard (wbw/Tortoise), American
Deluxe Tremolo Bridge with polished steel saddles and 2-point
synchronized tremolo system with pop in arm, and Schaller strap
locks. Also included is, a deluxe plastic-form hard shell case,
as well as a load of case candy. I got it all for $1,073. A very
sweet deal. Thanks Diesel !!! Later, I celebrated over at
the local pub - me, Kahunette and Huntster had the good ol'
"Chicken Special" for dinner. Yum. ... The MSU football team (4-4)
travels to Minnesota (4-4) tonight. Game time is 8:00pm on BTN.
This is a must win to keep MSU bowl hopes alive. UofM (5-3)
travels to Illinois (1-6); game time is 3:30pm on ABC. Michigan
should have no problem with this game. In the
pros, da Bears (3-3) host the Browns (1-6) at 1:00pm on CBS. The
Bears have some key injuries and took a beating by Cincinnati
last week, but hopefully they can handle the Browns. The
LieDowns (1-5) host the Rams (0-7) at 1:00pm on FOX in a battle
of the cellar dwellers. I'm not sure if the LieDowns can win
this one, but they've got home field advantage. Tonight, the
World Series continues in Philly with Philadelphia (1-1) hosting
the Yanks (1-1); game time is 7:57 on FOX. ... Let's
not forget, it's Halloween. We're going over to BigBear and
BlueEyes tonight for a Halloween shindig. Should be a blast. Be
careful when you're out partying tonight - watch out for those
little ghosts and goblins. Happy Halloween . . . and enjoy the
weekend! |
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RECENT
BIGKAHUNA
MOVIE
REVIEWS
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A word about the ratings -
Since being a movie critic is not my occupation, as a rule, I
generally avoid bad movies. That's why you won't see very many
bad ratings here. Occasionally I go to a movie and find out the
hard way it's a clunker. The other thing is, I hate critics who
knock 2 or 3 points off of a rating because the movie is a
seasonal comedy. My ratings are given based on other movies in
the genre. Therefore, you'll see some of the seasonal fluff
getting high ratings compared to dramatic, action and straight
comedy movies. If you care to check the
Box Office Rankings, you'll see those numbers will
support most of my ratings, even though my ratings are based
purely on my experience at the theatre and, as I've said,
compared to other movies in the genre. |
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July
-
The Hangover:9/10,
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:8/10. |
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June -
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:8/10,
The Proposal:7.5/10,
The Taking of Pelham 123:8/10. |
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May
-
Star Trek:9/10,
X-Men Origins: Wolverine:8/10. |
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BIGKAHUNA
GRADES
EXPLAINED |
We post the grades given by the
reviewing website and then add a comment to give BigKahuna's take. Our grades have a little bit of overlap which gives us some
flexibility in grading. Here's the key:
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Primo !
- - BigKahuna's comment for receiving a perfect score.
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Wow !
- - - Top notch; scores from about 92% - 99%.
.
Oooh !
- - - Great; scores from about 83% - 93%.
.
Hmmm... - - -
Good; scores from about 70% - 85%.
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No Comment - Average quality, about 40% -
70%
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Ouch !
- - -
Dubious quality, less than 40%. |
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