Creative Movie Posters

Once upon a time, I wanted to start collecting movie posters once I had a house. Although that hasn't come to pass (the collecting part, not the house), every once in a while, I see some posters that really make me want to start plastering my walls with them. A few years ago, it was the promo poster for HBO's Carnivale. Today, I ran across this blog post with a few good designs (and admittedly, some not so good ones--the posters and the movies).

My favorites are two from The Dark Knight (Joker/Batman/Dent and one with Joker), Lord of War, Max Payne, and, marginally, Cloverfield (which in itself, could have been so, so much better than it turned out to be).

Humble Beginnings

The National Science Foundation has some interesting historical maps of the Internet in PDF format. I was in college in 1995, so it's cool to see what the backbone looked like then. Today, the company I work for has more bandwidth to some of our medium-sized locations than a backbone connection did back when I was in school.

This Changes Everything, Part II

While I was previously blown away by the RED One digital cinema camera and looking forward to the prospect of a DSLR version, it looks like the RED team is gearing up for something even better. In an epic thread, Jim Jannard announced that they had taken the Scarlet back to the drawing board to introduce something even more game changing for delivery in 2009.

Given that Canon's new EOS 5D MkII DSLR appears to shoot amazing 1080p video, it looks like the possibility of a converged still/digital video camera is going to be the next rage.

Check out the high-resolution version (and that's only at 1/4 size!).

Seeing that $600 is the most I've ever paid for a camera, the $2500-4000 price bracket is on the pricey side, but seeing the results possible from such professional-quality cameras may make me take up photography as a serious hobby.

[EDIT: changed link to movie and removed the YouTube version which has been taken down]

Finally, a decent built-in Windows calculator!

While you've been able to download better calculators--even from Microsoft--than the simple one that's been included with Windows, it's nice to see that the next version of Windows will have a more advanced one. I still haven't ditched my trusty desk calculator (nor have I gotten used to using Google for calculations), so the Windows 7 calculator looks promising.



[ThinkNext.net via Gizmodo]

Bright Blinds for the cube dweller

I work in an office with no windows, and while it has crossed my mind to get our facilities group to break out the outside wall to get some natural light, this concept looks like a more-feasible option.



[via The Hottest Gadgets]

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

The very first computer game I played was Zork I on the Apple II. While the era of text-based adventure games is over, the art of interactive fiction is still holds a magical appeal despite the billions of polygons and realistic physics of today's games.

Once the family got a PC clone, I played almost all of the text-based Zork series, as well as other Infocom gems like Planetfall, Spellbreaker, and A Mind Forever Voyaging.

So it brought a smile to my face to see the Zork 404 page. I know it's not new, but it's the first time I've run across it in my many years surfing the web practically every day.

To Serve Man

Seeing the footage of the remake of TDtESS today got me thinking of classic sci-fi from 50's through the 70's.

There's certainly some good candidates: movies such as Westworld, The Black Hole, and 2001: A Space Odyssey and shows like Star Trek, and Dr. Who, Plus there's also the non-traditional ones like The Prisoner (which will one day warrant an entry of its own) and even The Wild Wild West.

For me, I think The Twilight Zone takes the prize as the best traditional sci-fi. Incredibly smart writing, a who's who of acting talent, and some definitely mind-warping plots. I remember watching re-runs at my grandparent's house when I was a kid, and the theme music would send shivers down my spine.



Some of my favorite episodes (warning, links have spoilers): "People Are Alike All Over," "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "The Invaders," and, of course, "To Serve Man."

Too bad they don't make TV like that anymore...

Netflix Origami

Diversion of the day: I normally shred the disc mailer covers from Netflix, but there's a far more entertaining use for them--Netflix origami!

My first attempt looked somewhat like the polo shirt origami, though probably an irregular, big & tall version on the clearance rack.

Miracle Fruit Tablets - Unboxing Photos

Well, Christmas came early this year: One of the things on my wish list was the Miracle Fruit Tablets that I blogged about last month. My wife read the entry and promptly scoured the internet for them. She was so excited that she couldn't save them for a stocking stuffer and gave them to me straight away.

I haven't tried them yet (need to stock up on sour stuff), but I'm very much looking forward to this product from SEN YUH FARM SCIENCE CO., LTD. (SAINT-FRUIT FARM) and TAIWAN PANBIOTIC LABORATORIES CO., LTD. If you're interested in getting some Miracle Fruit Tablets of your own, you can pick them up at ThinkGeek or on eBay.

Enjoy these unboxing photos:

Reasons why I probably will never buy an iPod

1. [planned obsolescence] Having better models come out 6-12 months like clockwork after the previous generation is disheartening. It's not like iPods are $50, so you'd think that you'd at least get some mileage out of them before they're worthless.
2. [sticker shock] They're expensive. Sure, they're great pieces of technology, but again, since they're obsolete so quickly, it's hard to justify shelling out for these essentially disposable gadgets.
   
3. [iTunes] Aside from Songbird being my player of choice, iTunes is bloatware. Boo to being held hostage by hefty, proprietary software.
   
4. [format support] Why should I have to convert or re-encode files to either preserve storage space or to play them at all?
5. [Sarbanes-Oxley] Ah, I long for the days of free software upgrades, not having to make micro payments every time a new feature comes out.
   
6. [Jack FM] Since the Jack format covers a good chunk of my music library, there's less of a need to carry around an MP3 player.
   

A low tech wish

Ran across this "digital message tape" and it's another thing to add to my wishlist. Reminds me of those convenience store signs that work on the same principle.

Sure, I could use a magic marker and write on the side of a box---that would be faster and cheaper. Or use the Brother P-Touch labeler I've used for years. But what's the fun in that?

How hard is it to send an e-mail?

A big pet peeve of mine is when internet stores cancel orders without sending you an e-mail. There are few things more frustrating than expecting to get something in the mail, wondering why it still hasn't come, and then checking the order status and seeing "Cancelled." It shouldn't be difficult to trigger a "we're sorry, but your order has be cancelled" message, should it?

That happened to me a few days ago, for the Seagate portable drive I bought from their online store on closeout. It was a fantastic price...obviously too fantastic or too much demand. After seeing that it was cancelled, I thought, "oh, well." That is, until I got an e-mail from Seagate with the subject "Seagate Followup Offer" that began with, "As a follow up to the original communication regarding your canceled order at Seagate.com and as a valued customer, we are offering you the following special program on one of our most attractive new products."

While it's nice they were willing to send what amounts to a 20% discount on a product I'm not interested in, I'm somwhat annoyed that they said that they told me my earlier order was cancelled. I even went through my spam folder to see if it had gotten tagged as spam. Nothing from Seagate.

It just seems like good customer service to drop a line, even in the case of a price mistake or out of stock situation. At least I wouldn't have to wonder whether the order was coming or not.

I'm still a button masher

I finally got around to playing the PS3 demo of NHL '09, and it reminded me why I don't buy sports games. Sure, it's gorgeous and has great commentary by Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. But despite missing plenty of classes in college playing NHL '94 on the SNES, now, as then, I'm a button masher. That means I often get owned by the CPU because I can't master the finer mechanics of the game, and that makes it not-so-fun.

Looking at some videos of NHL '94 vs. '09, it's amazing how far the graphics, artwork, and animation have come. In some respects, it's getting almost photorealistic, but every few seconds, wooden animations and bad texture mapping jarred me back to reality. As far as the demo, I didn't manage a win in several attempts to play through the demo's final period of a Penguins/Red Wings game, so no chance of me picking up this title.

Unfortunately, besides confirming that my mashing skills are intact, I've got the song from the demo, "Warriors of Time" by Black Tide, firmly stuck in my head. Woah, woah, woah...

Google Chrome: No Thanks

I remember reading about Google about a decade ago, when it was still an obscure search engine. Today, my life revolves around it. Google Maps. Gmail. GOOG-411. And, now Blogger.

While I'm somewhat put-off by the rather bland styling of Google properties and privacy concerns, I'm still captivated by their products. For example, I'm looking forward to the Android phones to see how they'll stack up to the Apple and Microsoft offerings. Captivated, that is, until Chrome.

In a surprise about as big as Sarah Palin, out of the blue Google released the beta of Chrome this week, and while there's plenty of coverage on it, I'm not biting. Architectural improvements aside, it exists only to ensure targeted advertising reaches us. And one day, I'm sure that Chrome will be mandatory to use Google services and applications.

Google should get revenue for providing useful services, but I'm not sure a Google sandbox browser is the answer. Viva la Firefox!

Chronicles of the Fast and the Babylon A.D.

We caught Babylon A.D. over Labor Day weekend because my wife and sister both like Vin Diesel--alot. Don't get me wrong, I like him too, ever since Pitch Black, but B.A.D. (hmmm) is a collection of his typecast roles, from The Fast and The Furious to Chronicles of Riddick to xXx. A Children of Men clone (which I liked enough to buy on DVD but I was't as impressed by that movie as some), B.A.D. fails to capture even a tenth of the plot development of CoM.

The movie had promise, especially the first couple of acts as "Toorop" (whaaa?) and his package escape from Russia to Canada on their way to New York. I loved the dystopian future combined with the glimpses of future technology (interactive e-ink map, omnipresent Google, and the ginormous TV wall). I was hoping for more, but alas, it didn't even approach the futuregeekness of, say, Minority Report.

However, the movie ultimately falls apart because it doesn't give the audience a compelling reason to root for the characters, unlike CoM, which the very future of humanity was at stake. And don't get me started on the ending...I won't spoil it, but it was either the most blatant sequel setup ever or they ran out of ideas or money or both since there's seemingly no final act. I think the "WTF?!? C'mon!" reactions from the crowd as the director credit appeared sums Babylon A.D. up best.

With that behind us, bring on the next Fast and Furious. My sis and wife need a better Vin fix!