Verity Fool

IMAX Censors Evolution

2005-03-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

This is great - now the fundies are demanding evolution not be presented at museums. That's right: a number of IMAX theaters (mostly in the South) are refusing to run movies that hold any mention of evolution, the Big Bang, and anything else that runs counter to their beliefs (hopefully they believe the Earth is round and revolves around the sun).

Hyman Field, who as a science foundation official had a role in the financing of "Volcanoes," said he understood that theaters must be responsive to their audiences. But Dr. Field he said he was "furious" that a science museum would decide not to show a scientifically accurate documentary like "Volcanoes" because it mentioned evolution.

"It's very alarming," he said, "all of this pressure being put on a lot of the public institutions by the fundamentalists."

What's the most disturbing about this is the fact that science centers are making this decision. Can you imagine what the fundies would do if scientists tried to forbid them to mention creationism in their churches?

Holy Crap - Fish Dudes!

2005-03-17T02:46:00.000-05:00

I confess to a soft spot in my heart for H.P. Lovecraft and his histrionic tales of Cthulu and pals, so this chance to travel to doomed Innsmouth via the XBox is a no-brainer for me. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth lets you assume the role of a P.I. investigating a missing persons case, only to stumble across a dark secret in a secluded fishing village.

Of course, I already know the plot, but it still looks like fun!

Tivo Dodges A Bullet

2005-03-15T13:23:00.000-05:00

Well, beleaguered DVR pioneer Tivo might be out of the woods. Today, an announced partnership with Comcast sent Tivo shares climbing. This could be a sweetheart deal for Tivo after being dumped by DirecTv - Comcast has a much larger customer base. Hopefully this will also lead to HD Tivo development - Comcast would be kind of stupid if they didn't.

Daily Show Archive

2005-03-15T12:48:00.000-05:00

Now this is why the interweb was invented: someone wrote a script for all the Daily Show clips from Comedy Central's site and streamlined it for easy access. Let the viewing begin!

South Park Studio 2.0

2005-03-11T12:12:00.000-05:00

An update to the incredibly addicting South Park create-a-character site. More stuff, more backgrounds, more ways to waste time!

PSP Crap On The Way

2005-03-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Brace yourself (and your wallets) - official 3rd party stuff is coming soon for Sony's upcoming Playstation Portable U.S. release. Logitech has announced new products for the PSP including a hard case, powered speakers, and custom earphones. Let the accessories begin!

MGM vs. Grokster

2005-03-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

Your consumer rights will be decided very soon by the Supreme Court - March 29th is the court date for the contentious MGM vs. Grokster case. If you haven't been following this, it's essentially the entertainment industry's last-ditch, no holds barred attempt to destroy peer to peer technology once and for all. Very informative article in today's Technology Review.

Another Mini/Car Installation

2005-03-11T10:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a sweet Mac Mini car installation in a Volkswagon GTi, complete with Firewire/USB hubs, an Alpine deck, touchscreen and an iPod dock. Really professional installation. I'm always amazed at someone who isn't afraid to dissasemble complicated electronics. Nice job!

The same guy also came up with a solid iPod dock for an Infinity M45. Bonus points!

Still Posting

2005-03-11T10:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the slim postings this week - I've been sick, and haven't felt like posting much. I'm feeling better, so back to it.

Artificial Muscles

2005-03-07T13:00:00.000-05:00

It's not exactly Big Blue vs. Kasparov, but researchers from around the globe are getting ready to test artificial muscles in an arm-wrestling contest against a human opponent. Artificial muscles are pretty cool - they're basically stretchy polymers which expand and contract via electric current.

The possibilities for electric muscle are straight out of sci-fi: working replacement limbs, robotics, vehicles with legs instead of wheels for planetary exploration. And of course, killbots.

Sony Shakeup

2005-03-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

Sony's board of directors has named the first non-Japanese leader in the company's history. British executive Howard Stringer will be the first foreigner to head the company, who has always gone with Japanese execs. Kudos, Howard!

However, don't look to Sony to reverse it's disastrous handling of home electronics just yet:

Stringer's election is expected to lead to more cooperation between Sony's disparate electronics and entertainment divisions. The company has been trying to take advantage of its position as one of the leading companies in the entertainment and electronics industries--getting its music and movies onto its gadgets. However, that strategy has been slow in developing.

Stringer is expected to push that strategy harder.

"Without content, most devices are junk," Stringer said in late January.

So, it sounds like business as usual - the media arm will keep telling the electronics arm what to do, and Sony will keep falling behind in the home electronics market. Apples got nothing to worry about.

Martin Denny, 1911 - 2005

2005-03-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

The king of lounge music passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 94. In Hawaii, naturally.

Let's everyone hoist a Zombie in his honor.

Evolution TV

2005-03-02T13:14:00.000-05:00

Well, this is Mac day - all kinds of neato stuff for my favorite OS. This time it's Evolution TV, a DVR solution for the Mac. Unlike El Gato's EyeTv, the Evolution records tv shows directly to either MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or DivX formats. This allows you to drop your shows directly into iMovie to edit out commercials (or overdub American Idol with 60's novelty songs), or copy them in DivX to play on your laptop without a lot of conversion.

It's also cheaper than EyeTv ($279 for Evolution vs. $329 for EyeTv) and features iCal integration for scheduled rercording. Nice!

Even More Mac Mini Madness

2005-03-02T12:57:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's OS X running on the Pioneer touchscreen deck in this guy's Lexus. A Mac mini in the dash, complete with Bluetooth, WiFi, and a Firewire/USB hub. Damn! Damn!!!

Stream Any Audio With AirFoil

2005-03-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

Rogue Amoeba Software is offering AirFoil, software that lets you stream audio from any application over Apple's Airport Express, instead of just iTunes. Mac only at the moment. Of course, there isn't a whole lot of audio I'd consider streaming besides iTunes, but you can now use RealPlayer, Safari, Quicktime, etc.

Rouge Amoeba makes excellent audio hacks for Mac OS X, their best being Audio Hijack Pro, which allows you to record audio from any application (including internet streams and DVD audio). They're a swell indie software company!

Video Games Hurting TV

2005-03-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

Americans are playing more video games and watching less TV. According to a study by Phoenix Marketing International, we play video games an average of two hours a day. It's finally becoming obvious (even to slow-witted American business) video games are the new Hollywood. That's probably troubling to TV network execs, who have already lost a fair percentage of the coveted 18-49 year old market to the internet.

The solution? More reality tv and restrictive copy-protection for their increasingly unwanted shows, obviously.

More Killbots

2005-02-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has an informative article on Army killbots and the military's eagerness to replace the common soldier with them. It's a ways off, but it's definitely coming. Registration required, unfortunately.

Military planners say robot soldiers will think, see and react increasingly like humans. In the beginning, they will be remote-controlled, looking and acting like lethal toy trucks. As the technology develops, they may take many shapes. And as their intelligence grows, so will their autonomy.

Step 1 in the rise of robot overlords: Arm them and make them intelligent.

Previous VF posts on killbots here and here.

MP3 Clock

2005-02-28T14:21:00.000-05:00

About time - Phillips invents the mp3 clock. Well, it's actually a $160 256mb flash-based player with built-in speakers, but it has alarm clock functions that allow you to use your mp3s as a wake-up call. Not bad. Sure, you could just buy a cd clock that does the same thing, but this plays mp3s! Technology is cool!

Linux Jukebox

2005-02-26T01:28:00.000-05:00

MP3Beamer, a Linux-powered PC jukebox that allows you to access your music collection from other PC's, home stereos, portables (including PDA's), and lets you sync your iPod. It rips CDs and plays WMA and MOV files. It also supports iTunes. It may even make you a sandwich. From the website:

MP3beamer acts as a digital music recorder (DMR). Just as a digital video recorder (DVR) stores your video and allows you to play it back on TVs, a DMR stores your music collection and makes your music library instantly accessible from just about anywhere using any software or any device – including Windows, iPods/iTunes, web browsers, PDAs, and home stereos.

Pretty cool - and it's only $399 for a pre-built device, or if you have an extra PC you can install the software on it for $69.95.

Mule Kicks Mountain Lion's Ass

2005-02-22T20:43:00.000-05:00

This is amazing - photos of a mule beating the crap out of a mountain lion!

UPDATE: Dammit, I knew it was to good to be true. Apparently these photos have been circulating for awhile, and is probably a mule attacking a dead mountain lion. However, on a hopeful note:

the American Donkey and Mule Society says the images could be authentic and do show "exactly the mode of attack a mule or donkey would use" in fending off a predator (both have been known to attack dogs in this fashion). "While we are neither supporting nor condemning the photos," the ADMS Website says, "we do believe them to be a true depiction of what a mule or donkey would do faced with the situation of a predator invading their territory."

So maybe, there is an ass-whuppin' mule out there, giving wolves and cougars nightmares.

Link via Boing-Boing.

Remote Dogs

2005-02-22T20:32:00.000-05:00

The police in Britain have come up with a new device to outfit their K-9 units with remote head cams (cleverly named 'Fido'), which are extremely light and worry-free for the canines. The units include infrared and audio, allowing officers to observe the area the dog is searching.

Actually, I wanted to log this just for the picture of the cute pooch with his camera.

Movie Watch Update

2005-02-22T12:52:00.000-05:00

The trailer for A Scanner Darkly is online.

Swift Boaters Against AARP

2005-02-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

Brace yourselves - Dubya's going after your grandparents. The New York Times reports that a large neo-con lobbyist group, USA Next, have hired some of the same consultants involved with the infamous Swift Boat attack on John Kerry. They'll be going after the AARP, painting them with the same unpatriotic brush that they used on Kerry.

"They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts," said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. "We will be the dynamite that removes them."

Apparently, that strategy involves implying that somehow the AARP loves gays and hates our troops. Uniters, not dividers.

BTW, check out the ridiculous home page for USA Next. On the same page, they've got tons of anti-AARP diatribes and a bogus 'poll' - next to an 'ad' for cheap perscription drugs. When you click it, it takes you to a USA Next membership enrollment page. No details of the benefits or program beyond the offer of discounts on everything from perscriptions to airline travel. I tried to find some explanation of the program on Google - all I could find was this description on Bill O'Reilly's site:

USA Next is an organization that bills itself as an alternative to the AARP, and provides similar benefits and services as that organization:

USA Next is a family organization. There are no age requirements for joining. Americans of all ages are welcome to join and take advantage of the USA Next National Benefits Network.

Oh, I see.

Link via Boing-Boing.

GT4!

2005-02-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I know what I'll be doing for the next few days - Gran Tourismo 4 for the Playstation 2 ships tomorrow. NASCAR can go drive off a pier.

Dept. Of Crazy Ideas

2005-02-21T10:50:00.000-05:00

Someone decided to go that extra mile and make a Play-Doh version of Katamari Darmancy that really works! No word on how big his katamari got - maybe he's out rolling up park benches and dogs at this point.

For those of you unfamiliar with this f'd-up video game, it's like this: You play a tiny prince from outer space whose dad, the king, got drunk and wiped out all the stars and planets. It's up to you to find replacement material for the universe by rolling a sticky object called a katamari around picking up whatever sticks to it (and everything sticks to it, including pennies, chairs, people, trees, buildings, etc.). Probably the most original (and insane) video game ever invented - it must be played to be truly appreciated.

Goodbye, Duke

2005-02-21T10:11:00.000-05:00

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

Detroit Assaulted By Breasts

2005-02-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

Once again, right-thinking public officials have protected America from the freedom-hating sight of a woman's breasts. And these aren't even real, like Janet Jackson's. A judge has ordered an artist to jail, a fine, and probation for painting a mural of the creation of Adam (ala the Sistine Chapel) featuring a pair of boobs and the word 'Love'.

Besides jail time and the fee, Stross is to tastefully cover Eve's breasts before reporting to the Macomb County Jail on Monday morning, and to paint over "love" by May 1.

Apparently, Americans still can't handle even vaugely adult themes. When the government decides we're mature enough, they'll let us.

Disney Auction

2005-02-18T13:23:00.000-05:00

If you want to be immortalized on the pages of Verity Fool, just buy one of these Disney World ride vehicles for our personal amusement. Disney is auctioning off discontinued ride vehicles (for a pretty penny, I might add) on eBay.

I'm partial to the Mr. Toad and Space Mountain cars, myself. Of course, the Skyway car would make a pretty cool mini bar...

Robot Monkey Arm

2005-02-18T12:30:00.000-05:00

Scientists have developed a way for monkeys to control a robotic arm using only their brains. Tiny probes are inserted directly into the monkey's brains and interpret nerve signals to operate the arm. Could be a huge breakthrough for people who've lost limbs, although human testing is still a ways off.

Like I've said before, I'm holding out hope that by the time I'm geezing they'll have cyborg replacement parts available at Walmart. Same day service would be great.

iPod Shuffle

2005-02-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

So it finally arrived - my shiny white music stick from Apple. This is the 512MB version for 100 smackers. Here's the packing:

Not as elaborate as regular iPod packaging, but still tantalizing. Opening the box reveals:

The main things - Shuffle, lanyard, and earphones. After removing everything, we're left with:

Instructions, install CD (iTunes 4.7.1, iPod updater), earphone covers, and a wallet-size control guide. You also get 2 Apple stickers and some iTunes promotional crap. And here's the obligatory size comparison:

It really is about the size of a pack of gum, but much lighter. The Shuffle weighs almost nothing.

As for the operation, it's incredibly simple - plug it into a USB port on your computer. Note - this is also how you charge the battery, but you need a powered USB port to do that. Since my main MP3 library is on my G4 tower, I have the Shuffle synced up to that via the USB keyboard port. But to charge the Shuffle, I plug it into my iBook while it's in sleep mode:

(Man, I need to clean my keyboard.)

A note - the Shuffle has a cap on the end of it which pops off to reveal the USB 2.0 connector. That's swell, but I predict the cap will soon get lost, and I will have to constantly use the lanyard cap. Someone is going to make a fortune selling replacement Shuffle caps. Anyway, after plugging the Shuffle in:

iTunes launches automatically, and soon and the Shuffle playlist pops up. At the same time, a mountable disk appears on the desktop. You can copy files to it like any flash drive.

Back to iTunes - in keeping with the Shuffle theme, you can tell iTunes to simply fill your shuffle with a random selection from your iTunes library (including playlists). In my case, being the raving music geek that I am, I had already put together a custom playlist for it. Also, since I have older Macs I don't have a USB 2.0 connection so copying songs takes about 10 minutes on USB 1.0. Oh well.

After that, it's simple - you have 2 play modes, ordered and (duh) shuffle. You slide the big-ass button on the back to set the modes, as well as turn it on & off. There's also a battery check button on the back (green means good, amber means low, red means none). The shuffle function seems highly random - actually, even more random than iTunes. Of course for an iPod called the Shuffle, it had better be.

The front controls are simple and solid - volume up & down, play/pause, forward/back, and next/previous (hold down for forward/back, click once for next/previous). There's a slightly annoying lag after pushing the controls, but I found out quickly the Shuffle likes single clicks much better than holding a button down.

As for sound, I have to admit it's pretty damn good. And loud - you will definitely be able to hear it over the noise of the subway. The earphones Apple includes are a little on the light side (nowhere near enough bass), but with a better set of phones the quality is excellent. No bass/treble or equalizer controls, of course, but if you really want to tweak the sound you could make up a custom equalizer setting in iTunes and assign it to all your Shuffle tracks. That's a pain in the ass to do, but if it's what you want, who am I to judge?

Final thoughts:
I still want a 'real' iPod, one that allows me to take my whole library with me wherever I go. But I'm a tightwad - I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on something I won't use everyday. At home I don't need a 40GB model, I commute by car so I listen to cd's anyway, and I travel infrequently. Still, I want something to use when the coffehouse is playing Good Charlotte or I'm killing time in the doctor's office. The Shuffle fits my bill - it holds approximately 10 hours of music, it's incredibly small, lightweight and sturdy, and I listen to most of my music in random shuffle format anyway. Plus it doubles as a small flash drive.

My recommendation? If you want a simple little music stick you don't have to worry much about (at $100, it's practically disposable) and that doesn't weigh you down, the 512MB iPod Shuffle kicks ass. Other flash-based players have more features, true, but they're usually more expensive as well.

Plus, it's an iPod! You'll look cool wearing it around your neck, like a preschooler with mittens pinned to your coat. Verity Fool says "Buy!"

Shirt Alert

2005-02-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

This tee from MadJoe's says it all, simple and clean. Check out their whole line - great stuff.

Link via PreShrunk.

Submarine Hotel

2005-02-15T13:34:00.000-05:00

Even cooler than the ice hotel, Poseidon Resorts is planning to build an underwater hotel in the Bahamas and other locations. Guests will travel to the hotel via underwater tunnel. Luxury abounds - from the website:

Currently in the final design stages, Poseidon will be the world's first sea floor resort complex. The resort will be a unique, intimate and exclusive, five-star destination providing the highest possible levels of luxury and service. Poseidon's guests will experience a marvelous ambiance of comfort and camaraderie that will not soon be forgotten.

And it will only cost $1,500 per night!

Odd Muppet Movie

2005-02-15T13:23:00.000-05:00

Here's a somewhat unsettling piece of animation that pays tribute to Jim Henson, kind of. Very quirky.

Uber Media Center

2005-02-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

The MediaGate MG-350HD sounds like a winner. A digital media device with all manner of connections (ethernet, USB 2.0, coax/optical, component/composite/S-Video, etc.), an internal hard drive, and wireless to boot. Not only that, but it looks pretty sharp, too. Not Apple sharp, but it would certainly look nice in your home theater setup. The only minor complaint I have is no optical drive - it would be nice to rip DVDs or CDs directly to the device. Oh well.
No word on pricing or availability, but one other swell touch - it's compatible with Windows, Linux and Macintosh. Honestly, is that really so hard?

Burning Napster

2005-02-14T15:57:00.000-05:00

Well, that didn't take long - someone's figured out how to get around Napster's DRM and burn tons of cd's. Windows only, unfortunately.

The Apple Store and Celebrities

2005-02-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

From Wired come these accounts of celebrities visiting the Apple stores around the star-heavy LA region. Cool stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Trent Reznor, Jon Stewart. Jerks: Melanie Griffith, LeVar Burton, and of course, Fred Durst.

Unamerican.com

2005-02-12T12:37:00.000-05:00

The previous post reminded me to finally get around to Unamerican. Full of righteous thoughts about freedom, you can get the world's coolest t-shirts, stickers, buttons and other message/medium paraphenalia. Lots of activism and free thought going on here.

And you will order about a million stickers. It's hard not to.

Won't Somebody Think Of The Children?

2005-02-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what you can get away with when you use the right excuse. For example, the Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, California, managed to force every student to wear RFID tags so they can keep tabs on them. RFID is radio frequency identification, the same sort of technology used by companies to track livestock. Nice. From the MSNBC article:

Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door.

Thank God we don't have to rely on trust anymore. After all, nothing ensures correct behavior like not having any choice.

The future of this country is here now - trading freedom for control and an illusion of security. Soon we'll all have RFID implants to make sure we aren't terrorists, or criminals, or Democrats.

XBox 360 This Fall

2005-02-11T13:01:00.000-05:00

It looks pretty good for a fall realease of Microsoft's next-gen XBox, with an official unveiling at this year's E3. Feel that? The console wars just heated up a little. This is going to get interesting.

Link via Engadget.

iDash

2005-02-11T12:44:00.000-05:00

More Mac Mini madness - an Open-Source project to give the Mini a multimedia dsahboard for use as a car stereo. This could be very hot.

If Apple pays attention at all to the market, it's pretty obvious people want the Mini as a multimedia jukebox. I predict eventually (and soon, I hope) Apple will release a multimedia version of the Mini complete with digital audio and some new iLife software.

More Killbots

2005-02-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

If anyone still doesn't think the future of warfare is the Terminator, here comes more proof. Another killbot - this one a heavily armored (and armed) mini-tank, courtesy of Carnegie-Mellon. It's partly autonomous. Yikes.

Uncle Steve Tells All

2005-02-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

Huge, huge, interview with Steve Jobs in a new Fortune Magazine article (subscription required). The Mercurial One lets slip an extremely interesting bit of info:

"Most tantalizing of all is scuttlebutt that three of the biggest PC makers are wooing Jobs to let them license OS X and adapt it to computers built around standard Intel chips. Why? They want to offer customers, many of whom are sick of the security problems that go with Windows and tired of waiting for Longhorn, an alternative."

The big, unanswered question: What did Jobs say to them?

More info from Mac Daily News here.

Soapless Washing

2005-02-09T13:42:00.000-05:00

Richard Pashley, a professor of physical chemistry at the Australian National University, has developed a way to clean clothes without soap. Called 'de-gassing', the process removes air particles from water, which somehow allows the water to clean just about anything off clothing (they even tested Vaseline stains - took 'em right out).

The only catch is that to de-gass water, he had to freeze it with liquid nitrogen. But he's working on a new way to do it with semi-permeable membranes (as used in oil rigs) to remove oxygen.

Is this the beginning of the end for soap?

Under Mars

2005-02-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

Under Mars is a fascinating site. In it's own words:

This site contains an archive of photos taken by soldiers serving in active duty. This site aims only to visually document their experiences and is not a political site. The name "Under Mars" is an homage both to Mars, the Roman God of War, and to the otherworldly nature of the experience.

Not much to add to that.

Warning: Some graphic photos.

Ice Hotel

2005-02-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's just what it sounds like - a hotel made out of ice. Every year, Yngve Bergqvist builds a massive hotel out of frozen chunks of Sweden's Torneälven River (in the northern Lapland area). It includes a bar, theater, and adjacent (non-ice) restaurant as well as snowmobile tours, dogsledding, and cultural activities. Very 'cool' (Get it? Cool? Ha ha...).

Napster Schmapster

2005-02-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

You probably saw Napster's Super Bowl commercials, featuring the above signage. Holy crap - 10K to fill up my iPod? And here I thought I would just use my own CDs and the stuff I downloaded from the old Napster!

(Shaking fists at sky) Damn you, Apple!!!

Anyway, Napster To Go is the latest battle in the music-download war, a scheme to rent music for $15 a month for your mp3 player. They won't see any of my money - I like to be able to back my music up - but it might catch on for people with constantly-changing musical tastes (i.e. tweenies). Those who wish to build a music library will look elsewhere, at least until someone hacks a way around it. And really, Sirius costs less and you don't have to do all the work.

Of course if the Napster service catches on, Apple will introduce the new iTunes subscription service, which will be hailed as a bold, revolutionary idea by the press.

Also, Napster To Go isn't Mac or iPod compatible. Not smart, Napster.

Password Panties!

2005-02-07T20:41:00.000-05:00

Just in time for Valentine's Day - password-protected panties! I could make a lot of smart remarks about access, back doors, user friendliness and the like, but that would just be crass.

Halo, Dolly

2005-02-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

Microsoft is contracting Alex Garland, the screenwriter responsible for 28 Days Later, to author the script for a Halo movie. Not much is known at this point (the script has yet to be written, let alone leaked to the web), but it does bring up a question: Who's going to play the Master Chief, the main character whose face is never seen?

I'm guessing Ron Perlman - that guy never gets to use his own face...

Animal Tees

2005-02-04T13:54:00.000-05:00

Check out these great Muppet Show T-shirts!

There's a ton to browse through at Zazzle, another DIY t-shirt site like Cafe Press. Also cool are the Vintage Comics selection of shirts.

PSP in March - $249

2005-02-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

It's official - Sony's PSPS will go on sale on March 24th in the US. Here's what you get for your 250 smackers:

The PSP Value Pack contains one PSP unit, a 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with remote control, a battery pack, AC adaptor, soft case and cleaning cloth, and a UMD sampler disc featuring movie and music clips as well as multiple non-interactive game demos. Additionally, the first one million PSP Value Packs shipped will come with a bonus UMD video release of the popular feature film Spider-Man 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Let the portable war begin!

Airborne KillBots

2005-02-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

The military is throwing a lot of money and hours into producing robot jets to do our killing for us. This is cool and scary at the same time. From the linked article:

“The long-range vision is that the president will wake up some day and decide he doesn’t like the cut of someone’s jib and send thither infinite numbers of myrmidons—robotic warriors—and that we could wage a war in which we wouldn’t put at risk our precious skins” is how John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a leading defense policy website, puts it.

The major obstacle to robot jet fighters is actually airborne communication. At 700K per hour, radio signals aren't reliable enough to transmit critical info to autonomous jets, so a whole new type of aerial internet has to be invented.

Let's just hope they don't decide to make robot nuclear weapons.

Huge iPod Shuffle!

2005-02-04T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, this is odd - someone made some pictures of a giant iPod Shuffle lounging about the house. Well, why not?

I actually included this link to mark the fact that I will (eventually) be the owner of a 512MB iPod Shuffle. I placed the order with the Apple Store last week, and am patiently waiting for my little music stick to arrive. Expect a full review when it does, complete with photos.

Car-Stopping Tech

2005-02-04T01:45:00.000-05:00

A cop's dream - a microwave system that uses electromagnetic energy to fry a car's microchips, thereby killing the engine and making high-speed chases a thing of the past. Made by James Tatoian, chief executive of Eureka Aerospace of Pasedena, the device is small enough to mount on a helicopter or possibly a patrol car.

Now if they'd just make one that would fry the circuitry of 500-watt car stereos...

A Simpsons Valentine

2005-02-03T11:12:00.000-05:00

Now you can play Ralph Wiggum to your very own Lisa Simpson. Geoff Stearns found a screen cap of the fateful Simpson's Valentine card that made Ralph fall in love with Lisa. You can print it out in hi-rez. He also links to someone's "Let's Bee Friends" card from the same episode.

Link via Boing-Boing.

Volkswagon Ads Pt. 2

2005-02-03T01:11:00.000-05:00

Here's another ad for Volkswagon, an amazing mix-up of Gene Kelly from Singin' In The Rain. I can't tell if this is cool (the effects are outstanding) or a travesty. Watch it and judge for yourself.

Google's Latest

2005-02-02T11:26:00.000-05:00

Google Suggest is the latest beta offered by the uber-engine. This one is pretty damn handy - as you type in your search request, Suggest gives you a drop-down list of its suggestions with results handily tabulated. And it updates with every letter you type. Slick.

Cinema Bed

2005-02-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

Behold the Ruf Cinema Bed - a home theater cocoon complete with LCD projector and screen. I'd hate to guess what it costs, but I'd say plenty.

Also: Look over the Funfurde blog - lots of cool furniture featured there.

The Haunted Mansion

2005-02-01T13:17:00.000-05:00

Few dark rides or attractions have had the lasting impact or huge fanbase of Disney's Haunted Mansion rides. I am one of those fans - the Haunted Mansion is one of those ineffable pleasures that just never fails to satisfy. I mean, where else can you find ghostly ballroom dances, creepy portraits, and singing busts?

But my devotion pales next to these folks: here's a great set of links to all things HM.

Doombuggies
The 800-lb. gorilla of Haunted Mansion fansites. There's a ton of photos, videos, sounds and information. Very well done site.

Grim Ghosts
Another well-made site, GG features 'virtual rides' through each of the three Haunted Mansions.

The Harry Packer Mansion
Supposedly the inspiration for Walt Disney world's Haunted Mansion

Haunted Dimensions
Ray Keim is making excellent 3-D illustrations of the Mansion, and has a lot of other interesting stuff besides.

The Haunted Studio
Not a Haunted Mansion site, but it offers wonderfully spooky paintings of other "real" haunted houses.

Laff In The Dark
A wonderful site about dark rides and funhouses in general.

HP Patents Face-Blur Technology

2005-01-31T11:17:00.000-05:00

HP is appaerently developing a technology that allows people to opt out of having their picture taken by a digital device (as long as the device in question is equipped with HP's device).

By activating a remote that would trip the identity-blurring circuitry in digital cameras, someone could insure their face would be blurred out. Interesting idea - not that it would take long for some hacker to bypass it, however...

Invader Zim Toys Of Doom

2005-01-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

Not quite as cool as the Hieryonomous Bosch action figures, but cool all the same - finally, Invader Zim action figures! From Nickelodeon's defunct, pitch-black cartoon devised by the twisted mind of Jhonen Vasquez. I still can't believe Nickelodeon ever gave this guy a cartoon series, but it was fun while it lasted.

Movie Watch Update

2005-01-30T13:44:00.000-05:00

Hayao Miyazaki, the extrordinary director of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service is at it again with Howl's Moving Castle, a tale of a young girl under a curse that traps her in an old woman's body. She comes across the walking magical castle of a wizard, and begins a quest to remove her curse.

Miyazaki is a director for those (like me) who don't care much for Japanese anime, with their stilted world views and stereotypical stories. His films transcend the limitations of typical anime to create beautifully realized fantasy worlds populated by very real characters. His greatness lies in the fact that Miyazaki doesn't take the fantasy elements as make-believe or deaux ex machina - he makes the fantasy an integral part of the story, giving his films an incredible feeling of exhilaration. That his films are beautifully (and traditionally) animated doesn't hurt, either.

Howl's Moving Castle will be realeased in the US sometime in 2005. In the meantime, pick up Miyazaki's other realeses on DVD (especially the wonderful Spirited Away).

Ann Coulter isn't in Kansas Any More

2005-01-30T13:32:00.000-05:00

That, my friends, is the look of getting bitch-slapped by The Truth.

The lefty sites are all abuzz over Ann Coulter's recent appearance on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's news program "The Fifth Estate," in which she tells Canadian news journalist Bob McKeown that Canada sent troops to Vietnam.

I'd say more, but you just have to watch it. Funny, funny stuff. Props to McKeown for his handling of the situation.

via Crooks And Liars

Dubya looks like that all the time.

Gates Loves The Commies

2005-01-30T02:22:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates just gushed a love letter to the Chinese Communist Party. Most telling is this observation:

He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead".

Wow. And like most neo-cons, he is full of admiration at the Chinese supply of cheap labor:

Looking ahead, he added: "You know they haven't run out of labor yet, the portion that can come out of the agriculture sector" was still considerable.

I'm speechless.

Classic Flight Jackets

2005-01-29T01:57:00.000-05:00

A.I.R. Supply is the online store for Alpha Industries, a major supplier of flight jackets for the military. They've got some pretty cool and functional jackets for decent prices. Check 'em out.

Sony To Start PSP Music Service

2005-01-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

In the latest attempt to unseat Apple as the major player in the legal music download market, Sony has announced it will launch a music service for the PSP, Sony's highly-anticipated portable game machine. Since there's no storage on the device, likely it will use flash cards to store the music. Whether the downloading occurs on the PSP itself (or via a PC, then transfrerred to Memory Sticks) isn't clear.

Of course, Sony has done an incredibly poor job of competing in the digital music scene so far, on both the hardware and content ends. They've only recently decided to actually include the mp3 format on any of their portable music devices, for example. Previously you were forced to convert everything to Sony's pointless ATRAC format, which was just plain stupid.

Will the built-in audience of PSP users (there will be a billion of them, I wager) translate into serious competition for the iPod? I doubt it, because Apple does much better market research. The PSP will live or die on the strength of it's gaming ability, not it's multi-media applications.

Now, if Sony wanted to flaunt the PSP's movie functions instead, they might be on to something.

(Note: Josh is working on his review of his import PSP after living with it for a few months - look for it soon. I'll give you a hint: you are really going to want one of these things.)

The Krampus

2005-01-28T14:05:00.000-05:00

Well, it's a little late for Xmas trivia, but I find this whole thing terribly fascinating. In Austria, St. Nick has a traveling companion known as the Krampus. The demon-like Krampus was the stick (literally) to Santa's carrot - the Krampus would beat wicked children with switches, and if the kinder were really bad he'd carry them off in his basket. So the Krampus's job was essentially to terrorize children into behaving; long-term trauma notwithstanding.

Not only that, but he had a foot-long red tongue that made him popular with the ladies. No kidding, there's a rich tradition of the naughty Krampus getting it on with babes. (Warning: Link may not be worksafe)

Recently, the Krampus was featured on Cartoon Network's excellent series The Venture Brothers, which was what led me to research this in the first place.
Could this be the first step in the Kramp's comeback?

Pirate T-Shirts

2005-01-27T13:59:00.000-05:00

What else is there to say? Pirate t-shirts!

Chimeras

2005-01-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

The latest foray into messing with the natural order concerns taking animal and human stem cells and mixing them up, creating 'chimeras'. There have been pigs with human blood in their veins, rabbit/human cell fusions, and a planned experiment to create mice with human brains.

Of course there's a lot of consternation and uproar over the ethics of doing all this, with pro arguments being the incredible biomedical knowledge we'll gain and the possibility of creating replacement parts for humans. The con side is it might be, well, evil.

Me, I'm still reeling over mice with human brains. Mice. With human brains. Haven't these scientists ever read The Island Of Dr. Moreau?

Bosch Action Figures

2005-01-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

We're dedicated to bringing you the cool here at Verity Fool, and it doesn't get much cooler than this: Hiëronymus Bosch action figures. God only knows how much these cost, but can you put a price on cool?

They also have sculptures featuring Dali, Klimt, and Breugel, among others.

Eat balls, Monkeyman!

2005-01-26T18:02:00.000-05:00

This Inquirer article is a few weeks old, but I just caught wind of it and can't resist sharing.... It would appear that not long ago, Microsoft was actually attempting to buy Nintendo. After having little success in negotiations, they sent Top Howler Steve Ballmer to Japan to try to work out terms. However, then-President Hiroshi Yamaushi wasn't having any of it, and recalled the story himself in an interview with Wired magazine:

...Yamaushi didn't like the deal, which he saw as a loss on a level similar to World War Two. He said he ranted a bit about Japanese values and identity but it went no-where. So in the end he said in Japanese "suck my yellow balls Mr Ballmer".
The translator looked embarrassed and was clearly not translating the phrase exactly, although Ballmer did smile at a sentence that included the word 'yellow' in it.
Frustrated Yamaushi stood on a chair, put his hands around his mouth and very slowly and in English said: "Hey Ballmer why don't you suck my tiny yellow balls."
He said Ballmer and team were speechless. They were as scandalised as if he had shown them a nipple at the Superbowl, he said.

Who could possibly have expected this from a Japanese executive? Those MS guys must be world-class assholes.

Oh, so small.

Welcome To Our Future, Pt. 2

2005-01-26T13:59:00.000-05:00

Robot killing machines. In Iraq. By April.

The Army is sending 16 machine-gun toting robo-warriors to Iraq to kill stuff. The robots are called SWORDS, for 'Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems' (nice acronym - what's wrong with "KillBots"?). They are remotely controlled by human operators, and can only fire when the operator pulls the trigger from a half mile away.

So this is our future along with armored urban party vehicles. Kinda sucks.

Pyschotronic Art

2005-01-25T15:06:00.000-05:00

I loves me some crazy art, and Monster Fetish has it in spades. Dave Burke takes pop culture, superheroes, monsters, tikis, and sexy feet (of all things) and mixes it with crystal meth to create some truly weird stuff. Check it out.

Warning: May not be worksafe (no nudity that I could see, but adult and bizarre).

Welcome to Our Future

2005-01-24T22:53:00.000-05:00

Ford has designed a car for the future of America, and it is armored and bullet-proof.

Seriously.

The unfortunately-named Ford SYN^US concept car (not 'sinus'...'sin us') was introduced at the recent Detroit Auto Show, and has provoked a myriad of responses. Basically, it's a mini Brinks truck with a 45" LCD screen (with cameras) for a rear window. The thing is designed with urban enviornments of the near future in mind:

Short and slim for easy city maneuvering, it looks bank-vault tough on the outside - with intimidating and outrageous styling that even features a vault-style spinner handle in back with deadbolt door latching. When parked and placed in secure mode, SYN^US deploys protective shutters over the windshield and side glass. Small windows on the flanks and roof are non-opening and bullet-resistant.

Actually, it wasn't all that long ago this was a joke in the National Lampoon.

It's also supposed to be a kind of rolling playhouse, with it's boxy interior and focus on the digital lifestyle. Some of it's features are actually pretty cool - the front seats turn around and the steering wheel folds under the dash. I suppose it's pretty easy to turn into a home theater/multimedia/communications center, but still - Ford has looked at America's future, and it's like something out of a William Gibson novel.

Crispin Is Still Weird

2005-01-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

Hollywood's favorite nutjob Crispin Glover has released a preview of his movie What Is It? No one knows what "it" is (or really wants to know, I suspect), but here's the link. It's going to be screened at Sundance.

Warning: Not worksafe, and possibly offensive.

Your Corporate Culture At Work

2005-01-24T13:26:00.000-05:00

I know by linking to this incredibly offensive viral ad , it's helping the morally retarded people who made it, and additionally Volkswagon (who should know better), but I think it's important to understand the mentality of the corporate world. Simply put - they will do anything for a buck. Anything.

Uber Reciever

2005-01-23T23:06:00.000-05:00

Holy crap, I want this so bad! The Onkyo TX-NR1000, a 'future-proof' home theater box that has everything, including stuff that hasn't been invented yet!

Onkyo’s Premium Digital concept takes on a new state-of-the-art look with the addition of HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and i.LINK (IEEE1394) pure digital ports. All the latest encoding formats—THX Surround EX, DTS 96/24, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and more—are here along with the knowledge that you’re ready for the future with upgradable flash memory. Onkyo’s exclusive Net-Tune protocol provides streaming music from your computer or Internet radio from the waves of cyberspace.

Internet ready, every concievable connection and a module system in the back for future upgrades! Me wantee!

Synthesis

2005-01-20T15:55:00.000-05:00

I am officially a fan of the Greenskeepers. I absolutely insist that you go to their site and watch the video for the song "Lotion." You'll be better off.

Apparently these guys are from Chicago, but their tour schedule shows them to be world travelers. (They're playing a show in town tonight, but I have a work party, bleh!)

Oh, and one more thing (wink wink)... The video for "Filipino Phil" is cut from clips of the movie Forbidden Zone. I shit you not. Check it.

Oy vey, the Yiddish Charleston!

More Mac Bashing

2005-01-18T11:48:00.000-05:00

This week, it's Dell CEO Kevin Rollins' turn to slam the iPod:

"It's interesting the iPod has been out for three years and it's only this past year it's become a raging success. Well those things that become fads rage and then they drop off. When I was growing up there was a product made by Sony called the Sony Walkman – a rage, everyone had to have one," he said. "Well you don't hear about the Walkman anymore. I believe that one product wonders come and go. You have to have sustainable business models, sustainable strategy."

So many harsh words for such a sucessful product! Of course, it does remind one of Michael Dell's comment a while back that Apple should 'shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.'

Gigapixel Photography

2005-01-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

Clifford Ross, a photographer and artist, has broken the gigapixel barrier. He's invented a camera system to capture and display one billion-pixel images, resulting in the most highly detailed images ever produced. Scientists are also interested:

Computational scientists at Sandia, a National Nuclear Security Administration lab, believe a display system of the magnitude proposed by Ross will enhance the ability of its scientists to visualize and gain insight from massively complex data sets that can be understood only through human intuition, ranging from supercomputer-generated physics simulations to high-resolution satellite imagery.

Check out a sample of the level of detail here.

Dept. Of "What The...?"

2005-01-17T13:48:00.000-05:00

Wow. My mind is blown.

Slow News Day

2005-01-17T13:35:00.000-05:00

Man, where's the cool on the interweb? Nothing amazing for a couple of days now, so here's more Mac Mini stuff - Cyndustries is making an analog synth hybrid using the dimunutive Mac. Says the product page:

You can go from your analog modular oscillators and filters - into digital audio effects plug-ins, and then right back to analog, and if you like the results can be recorded right there in your rig - using your favorite digital audio workstation software!
You can even use multiple Mac minis in your system side by side if you like! (Think of the zillions of sound files and play lists you can have right at your fingertips as you patch! The sequencing possibilities are amazing...

Where will Mini madness end?

Movie Watch 2

2005-01-15T01:47:00.000-05:00

The trailer for Frank Miller's Sin City is online, and it looks amazing.

More On The Mac Mini

2005-01-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

Turns out that the new Mac mini is almost exactly the same size as the average car stereo. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Classic Restorations, a NY auto restoration firm, is the first to offer customized installation of the mini in the car of your dreams. Melvin Benzaquen, President of Classic Restorations, makes an interesting point:

“For around the price of mounting an iPod in your car, you get a whole Macintosh computer.”

Actually, installing a Mac mini with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a touch-screen would cost a lot more than an iPod installation, but it would be infinitely cooler. Is the age of auto computing finally upon us? Maybe it's time to bling out my 95' Geo Prizm, yo.

"They're Everywhere!"

2005-01-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Before the Covenant or the Combine there were Pfhor. My best buddy and I went out of our way to play Marathon on whatever network we could get onto, and I was consumed by the story of each of the three installations: Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon: Infinity.

Now, the trilogy is available as a free download from Bungie.org, along with the Anvil and Forge tools for making your own levels. Dig out the old PowerMac 6100 (or re-install your Classic environment) and let yourself get lost among the 2-d sprites and tiny, tiny textures.

$^#*)%$!#@

Sour Grapes Dept.

2005-01-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

Sim Wong Hoo, the CEO of Creative, seems to have had his Cheerios peed in by Steve Jobs. Hoo, whose company has made countless thousands of flash-based MP3 players, had this to say about the iPod Shuffle:

"So I think the whole industry will just laugh at it, because the flash people -- it's worse than the cheapest Chinese player. Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM. They don't have this kind of thing, and they expect to come out with a fight; I think it's a non-starter to begin with."

Maybe so, but watch Apple sell a ba-jillion of these things anyhow. The cheap Chinese brands (and Creative's) didn't have Apple's design savvy and mega brand-awareness, not to mention the world's best-selling MP3 jukebox. Let the Shuffle ads begin!

Mini Madness

2005-01-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well, Macworld didn't fizzle - it sizzled.

The Mac mini, iPod Shuffle, and the "i" software unveilings have collectively rattled the cage of computing and consumer electronics. For the first time, Apple seems poised on an actual marketshare breakout.

I plan on picking up a Mini even though I don't really need one. Granted, I'm a huge Mac geek, but I think a lot of people (even Windows people), are going to have the same reaction to the littlest Mac. It's only 6.5 inches! It's even smaller than mini-PC's! It's even smaller than an external drive! It's adorable!

Of course, you have to spend more than $499 on it. It has no digital audio, so you need an external sound card if you want that. The video also needs an adapter for hooking up to a tv. And while 40G hard drives are fine for an internet terminal, you're going to want an external drive at some point. Most people already have an extra CRT monitor and USB keyboards and mice laying around, so that isn't much of an expense. But if you want to go wireless, you need an AirPort card. And Bluetooth? No problem - for a nominal fee...

Still, this little bugger is a lot of Mac for the money. Anyone wanting a cheap extra computer for the web and/or synching-up your iPod would be crazy not to consider a mini. And that is Apple's new marketing strategy - put Apple in the hands of more people. A lot more people. I think they will, too.

And it's so damn tiny!

It had to happen sometime...

2005-01-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

...but I honestly didn't think it'd be this soon.

The Wall Street Journal tells the story of a music industry scrabbling over the final stocks of high-quality 2" magnetic tape, since Quantegy - the last manufacturer of such tape - shut down its manufacturing plant on December 31. It looks like studio owners are paying upwards of $200 per reel and buying all they can find - 50, 60, 70 reels at a time. Even NASA is struggling to find 20 reels that they need to record shuttle data.

With all the concern about finding blank tape, Jeff Tweedy (shown above in traditional WSJ fashion - who'da thought?) is quoted as saying

"I'm just fearful that all the master tapes at the loft would be worth more if they were blank"

Do not fear, Jeff. The box set they'll make will be worth its weight in gold, too.

And Steve Said, "Let There Be Tiny Things."

2005-01-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

And so the tiny things came to pass.

I think Apple knew that they were going to have an unusually high number of active streams for the Macworld Keynote speech today, and so rather than allow a chorus of "I couldn't connect" whiners to usurp their press, they decided not to webcast it at all. That said, I think the event is over (I can't really tell if Apple alt-cheerleader John Mayer is off the stage yet or not) and so I'll say my peace on the new "next small thing."

Indeed, the big-deal-item during this Macworld is the Mac mini - a 6.5"-square by 2" tall dream that the Mac community have wanted Apple to realize for a long time. The Good: Tiny; $499 entry price; DVI/VGA video out; Combo Drive; USB 2; FW 400; with WiFi, BT and SuperDrive available as options. (Also featuring ethernet and the vestigial modem jack.) The Bad: 167MHz bus speed; 1GB max RAM could feel cramped in a year; audio-out not optical; WiFi, BT and SuperDrive only available as options.

The idea here (as emphasised by the Mac mini not coming with a keyboard or Apple's infamous 1-button mouse) is that users who have already dropped $499 on an iPod are now more likely than ever to try the Apple method, as long as they can swap it into their existing computer system as easily as they could an iPod. I like this idea. I think it's going to go over like gangbusters.

Also made even more miniature: the iPod in the form of the iPod Shuffle. $99 gets you 512 MB and $149 gets you 1 GB of flash-based music storage in a nifty THX-1138-esque white pendant. No screen of any kind, it has a single hardware switch that lets you switch between in-order (folder) play and shuffle play, and the usual playback controls in position for easy thumb-use.

Other noteworthy items include HD-capable versions of iMovie and Final Cut Express and a new "suite" of (two) products that appear to be the continuation of Apple-brand productivity software. It's not sexy, but Pages does have some pimp features.

Apple's got the stream of the keynote going now, so you can have at it from here, but as always, expect to hear more from us later on each of these fascinating little developments.

Paul has left the building - just for a sec.

Concrete TV

2005-01-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

This is some fucked-up malt liquor. Concrete Ron is a guerilla video editor, taking samples of 70's action films, porn, kung fu movies, shoot-em-ups, etc. and mashing them up in a way that'll blow your mind. I wish I could get NYC Public Access TV, channel 56, Wednesday at 12:30.

MacWorld SF

2005-01-10T17:21:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow's the big day - Steve Job's keynote at MacWorld. Expectations are running high for a plethora of new hardware and software products, and a lot of people are going to be dissapointed if there's not at least a couple of blockbusters. Rumors so far include:

• A sub-$500 Mac with no monitor
• Flash-based iPods
• Powerbook upgrades
• Firewire based audio box
• New versions of Apple's iLife software suite (iMovie, iDVD, Garageband, iTunes)
• New office productivity suite (iWork)

If even half of these pan out, it'll be a MacWorld to remember. C'mon, headless iMac!

Make Ken Lay Pay - Literally.

2005-01-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

Kenneth Lay, the chief architect of the Enron scandal, is trying to use search engines to get his self-serving version of the fiasco into the public eye. He's paying search engines per click to return results for 'Ken Lay' or 'Enron scandal' for his website www.kenlayinfo.com. Apparently his upcoming trial is making him a little nervous.

So click this link to cost this greedy butthead some money. Maybe it will chip away at his legal defense funds...

(Link via Boing-Boing)

CES - Getting Better

2005-01-08T20:13:00.000-05:00

Maybe I was a little too hard on the Consumer Electronics Show, wrapping up in Las Vegas. The multi-colored Sumiko Debut II turntable is pimp.

Even cooler, the clear acrylic Sumiko Pro-Ject Perspective. Only $1,299!

100 Scariest Movie Scenes

2005-01-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

Ahh, scary movies; where would we be without them? We wouldn't be in a dark movie theater with our dates jumping into our laps, that's for sure. Of course, we also wouldn't be lying awake at 3 a.m. clutching our bibles and wondering if that was just the floorboards settling out in the hallway.

The always entertaining Retrocrush has compiled the definitive list of the 100 Scariest Scenes in the movies. They left out some of my faves (for example, Henrietta coming out of the floor of the root cellar in Evil Dead 2 - nailbiting!), but overall some wonderfully creepy moments in cinema. Tar Man rules !

Cool Shirt

2005-01-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

Lo-Fi Customs presents this shirt, which says it all.

Lo-Fi also has lots of other kool, kustom-kulture stuff. Tikis, devil girls, skulls, and our old pal Satan!

Movie Watch

2005-01-08T13:11:00.001-05:00

Some great stuff coming down the pike: First, Tim Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, as well as The Corpse Bride. Both of these star Johnny Depp and both look like vintage Burton. Yes, it will be hard to top the Gene Wilder version, but Burton is wisely trying to stay more faithful to the darker Roald Dahl book. And Depp was born to play Willy Wonka.

The Corpse Bride is even more intriguing; the holy triumverate of Burton/Depp/Elfman, and stop-motion animation to boot. I couldn't find too much on Corpse Bride, but the stills look promising. After a spate of so-so films, Burton seems to be returning to form. Based on an old Russian folktale, it involves a young man mistakenly marrying a long-dead bride. In Burton's hands, this could be as much of a classic as A Nightmare Before Christmas.

Also, The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy! I'm not sure if this is animated or not (the stills seem to suggest it is), but this could be great. Of course, if not done exactly right, it could also be terrible. However, the screenplay was apparently written by Douglas Addams himself before he passed away, so here's hoping.

Finally, there's Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, a dark, animated tale based on Phillip K. Dick's novel of a drug-addicted cop with a split personality trying to bust a drug dealer who happens to be himself. Linklater's previous animated film, The Waking Life, inspired the animation technique of filming the actors first and rotoscoping the animation over it. The animation for Scanner will be much more stylized, resembling a graphic novel.

CES - Yawn?

2005-01-07T18:50:00.000-05:00

I've been keeping an eye on the coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show (thanx Engadget and Gizmodo!), but all I see is version 2 of the same old shit. Yes, the world's largest plasma tv is something I want (even though it reminds me of Farenhite 451), but I won't be able to afford one until they cost $500. Cell phones that play iTunes, koooky USB flash drives, DVD recorders that stream files from your computer: booooring. Wake me when they come out with voice-activated computers that really work like Star Trek, or portable video devices that don't take hours of fiddling and 18 steps to record tv and movies.

White House Needs To Smear Social Security

2005-01-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

Your neo-cons at work: Peter Wehner, the deputy to White House political director Karl Rove, noted in an e-mail message that

“We need to establish in the public mind a key fiscal fact: right now we are on an unsustainable course. That reality needs to be seared into the public consciousness; it is the precondition to authentic reform.”

For some reason, they seem to be having a hard time selling a 1-2 trillion dollar plan that will actually cut benefits. Go-go Gadget Smokescreen!

Windows Snafus At CES

2005-01-06T20:18:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates, touting Microsoft's 'digital lifestyle' in his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, managed to freeze up a Media Center PC while attempting to demonstrate digital photography on the Windows platform. His remote control would not respond. Later, a product manager got the infamous 'blue screen of death' while trying to demo a racing game.

Prior to CES, the world's richest nerd had this to say about the Media Center:

"For us, the key convergence product is the Media Center PC, which is the idea of that single remote control giving you the best TV experience, music and photos but also the full power of the PC, and we've got lots of partners who keep signing on to Media Center and doing neat things."

Keep that dream alive, Bill!

Holo Storage - coming soon?

2005-01-06T15:04:00.000-05:00

InPhase, an offshoot of Lucent, announced they have perfected a protoype holographic drive using optical discs that could store up to 1.6 terabytes. Holy crap - 1.6TB! That would hold all the digital info I've ever stored in my life with plenty to spare. No word on availability (when or if), but one of these days we're going to wake up and find 100TB hard drives in our computers.

Of course, by then MP3's will be 70 gigs...

The Governator hauls out the Big Guns

2005-01-06T14:22:00.000-05:00

I must admit to becoming rather enthralled by Governor Arnold's "my-way-or-the-highway" approach at running things in California...

"The current system is rigged to benefit the interests of those in office and not those who put them there," he said. "We must reform it."
...
"If we here in this chamber do not work together to reform the government," the governor said, "the people will rise up and reform it themselves. And, you know something, I will join them. And I will fight with them."

Daaamn. Well Put, sir. I hope people more important than I get more out of the words themselves than I do by repeatedly "listening" to him say it in my head. It makes me laugh.

The Times article on the topic includes some interesting, concise data regarding congressional redistricting that makes it pretty obvious how self-preserving the system is:

According to The Cook Political Report, 151 Congressional seats were considered competitive after the redistricting that followed the 1990 census. After the 2000 redistricting, only 45 seats were considered competitive. In 2004, only 13 changed party hands and only 7 incumbents lost.

And then goes on to say, with regards to House Majority Leader Tommy DeLay's successful redistricing of Texas:

Of the seven incumbents in the House who lost in 2004, four were Texas Democrats squeezed by the DeLay plan.

So, even despite the potential for Democratic losses in the state legislature of CA, I certianly approve of someone - anyone - in one of the most visible offices in the country saying "Fuck this - you guys are messed up."

I promise I won't do this often.