Close Up of a Tooth

Way to go BoingBoing, after watching this all I want to do is brush my teeth... Guess I'm off to the store to buy more toothpaste...

Square Enix's New Game

Well it looks like Square Enix has taking a page out of Kojima's book and created an ever evolving web page to promote their new game... so far we have mountains, timer, a dragon and a boy (w/ a sword)

I fear this being an RPG, so I'll never play it... I do however like the marketing...

check it out here...

Activision Threatens to say Goodbye to Sony

Looks like Activison Blizzard President/CEO Bobby Kotick is upset w/ Sony... He is saying that Sony makes it to difficult to dev for their system, and has little incentives to do so... That would mean no more Call of Duty, Guitar Hero or Marvel titles...

Gizmodo has the whole story here...

New Rating System for Film

From the Hollywood Reporter comes an interesting new rating system for movies... As of late B grade movies are making allot of money at the box office all due to media hype and ignorant audiences (Transformers 2)... So should we still be basing the quality of the movie on what it makes in its opening weekend??? I don't think so...

I highly suggest that you check this out... I'd like to see this in action for awhile, and observe it's outcome....

R2D2 in Transformers 2

Yep, it looks like ILM is now sneaking R2 into all the films they work on... This should be a fun game for awhile...

Of course this doesn't mean you should actually pay money to see Transformers 2... Just wait till it goes to video...

Read about it here, thanks to Gizmodo

13yr Old uses a Walkmen for a Week...

Would a techno savvy kid from 2009 hack it in 80's...

Find out here

Thanks to the BBC

iPhone 3GS = Jailbroken

image source: thenextweb.com

The Dev Team has done it again *shocked face*

The 3GS is jailbroken, and the are in the process of getting it ready for the world...

check it out here...

Daybreakers - Trailer

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo another vampire movie... hows excited??? huh...HUH...

well, after watching this trailer, I am... So I suggest you do the same...

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Sam Neil

Check it out here
Thanks again FSR

The Invention of Lying - Trailer

And from another of my favorite English comedians (Ricky Gervais) comes the fist trailer for his latest film, The Invention of Lying... Thanks FSR... The concept is simple, what if their was no suching thing as lying... Everyone told the truth all the time... and then what if a man discovers that he can lie... Enter Mr. Gervais...

It seems like a light comedy, but as long as Gervais has had a hand in the writing it'll be good...

"What is Paul" Production Blog

It's here folks, the What is Paul production blog... What is "What is Paul"??? you ask... well it is the new film from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, you of course know them from Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and etc...

Inglourius Basterds... Trailer 2

You're going to have to wait until August 21st to watch Inglourius Basterds... but until then, here is the second trailer for the film...

Lightlane... Now a Little Safer While Biking at Night

This device projects a virtual lane beside your bike while riding at night... Now traffic will be able to see how far to pull out and "hopefully" not hit you...

Check out the video here thanks to Gizmodo

Dexter: Season 4

It all starts up again on September 27/09

Alice in Wonderland is Going to be a Sequel

According to /Film the new Alice in Wonderland is going to be a sequel...

The film is actually a sequel to the original story, and follows Alice, now 17 years old, as she escapes from a snooty party and follows a white rabbit down a hole, back to Wonderland. The White Rabbit is convinced that he has the right girl, the one who had visited the magical land ten years prior. But Alice doesn’t remember her past visit to Wonderland. The creatures of Wonderland are ready to revolt and are hoping/waiting for Alice to help them, but will she? Can she?

This sounds a blend of Through the Looking Glass and The Looking Glass Wars... which would be amazing, b/c Hatter Madigan is a fantastic character... but who knows, that's just speculation now...

9 + VM (Viral Marketing) = My Happy Place

I loves me some viral marketing (now called ARGs, or Alternative Reality Games).... I've been on the VM/ARG bandwagon ever since the H2: I Love Bees started up, and I wasn't even in California to fully appreciate it... So obviously when I found out 9 as an ARG, the lil fanboy in me jumped for joy...

www.9experiment.com
Check it out, you won't regret it (I hope)....

The Last Airbender... No Longer Called "Avatar"

As a fan of the animated series, I can say that I'm not to excited for this film... Reasons:

• they nix'd "Avatar" from the title, probably b/c of James Cameron
• M. Night Shyamalan is not my favorite director, ESPECIALLY for this property
• Noah Ringer doesn't have Aang's flair/personality
• all the characters are wrong and I hate it.... ahhhhhhhhhhh HULK SMASH

Ok, so if I take my fanboy hat off and look at this just as a film... I guess it'll be good for the kids, and anyone who didn't watch the series...

Thanks to FSR...

Goodbye Farrah Fawcett *waves*

Farrah Fawcett died at age 62 from her ongoing battle w/ cancer...
Reuters link to story...

Ponyo... it looks like Totoro...

Is it just me, or does this look like it was made around the time (1988) of My Neighbor Totoro...
Is Hayao Miyazaki getting lazy and just selling his old films to Disney???
Are they just repackaging an old product for the western marketplace???

I don't know the answers, all I can say is that I feel nothing for this film. Aside from the shock that they are trying to pass it off as new.... Which it might be... but really doesn't look like it... *bah* at least he's consistent....

Thanks to FSR as per usual...

The Box... First Trailer = *gasp*

Film School Rejects has the first trailer for The Box... I don't want to say anything about it yet, just go and watch it and I'm sure to be discussing it more as time goes on...

Writer/Director: Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, S.Darko)
Actors: James Marsden (X Men, Hairspray, Superman:Returns), Cameron Diaz (The Mask, Gangs of New York)

16GB Flash Drive You Might Swallow

I have a handful of flash/thumb drives that I use, and it's rare that I really want another one... but when they start making them smaller then my thumb, that intrigues me...

Enter the 5mm Thumbkey by Buffalo

Not enough for the $156can price tag though...

Panasonic Locks out 3rd Party Batteries to Save Lifes

Thanks Gizmodo for heads up...

Well it looks like if you're a thrifty photographer, and own a Panasonic camera you're about to drop some cash on their proprietary batteries... What is important to note here is that Panasonic isn't doing this for the money, they are doing it for you safety... As you see, third party batteries may blow up in Panasonic cameras... You might have heard about it in the news... somewhere... don't ask me where *shrug*

So if you own a Panasonic camera, have third party batteries and want to avoid the highway robbery; don't update you firmware and you'll be just fine... unless they blow up o_O

Tim Burton + Alice in Wonderland = Exactly What You Expect

image by kimberjones_photo


Thanks to FSR for summing up my thoughts on the first images to Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland"... Everything we see here is exactly what we expect from Bruton...

Is that a bad thing??? No...

Will I go see this film??? Yes...

Will he do all he can to make HIS film and disregard the source material at will(like he did w/ Batman)??? Probably...

Will fans of all the Alice stories (including the spin off "Looking Glass Wars") have anything to look forward too??? I hope so...

Time Still Moves Ahead... Even on Vacation...

I've been on vacation (and still am), so please forgive the lateness of these posts.. It's all old news now, but I still want to post it... (and w/ any luck, Chuck hasn't already heard about any of these)

"Dull Life" ~~Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I've been listening to this song way to much... and you should do the same...
THE END

Air Conditioner Controls... Apparently!!!

Not really much to say about this... It kind of writes itself...

Thanks to Veronica Belmont <3<3<3

Toughbook vs Zoo

For those of you out there who are rough w/ your electronics, this is the laptop for you... Here is a video made by Forbes that puts the Toughbook up against a Tiger and and Elephant... It's to bad the host has the entertainment equivalent of a retiring high school guidance counselor...

Thanks to Gizmodo for the link...

AACS-LA Plans to Phase Out Analog Output of Blu-Ray and Other AACS-Protected Content

It looks like AACS-Licensing Authority is trying to close the Analog Loophole...

It is their hope that no HD device will have an analog-out by 2014... This of course would give them more power in prosecuting individuals who have copies of DRM'd material...

Ars Technica has a great article about it here...

Why Music Matters

photo credit to Kyle Cassidy


Amanda Palmer is one of those artists you either love or hate... I fall on to the "love" side of the fence, and even if you fall on to the "hate" side you would still have to respect how smart and insightful she is.

Here is an update from her blog that I've been putting off reading , for no other reason then it is rather long(ironic considering the beginning of her post); and I wanted to give it the respect it deserves. I do the same w/ movies. For instance, I have yet to watch "The Wrestler" even though I know I'm going to like it; I just need to find the time to respect it.

Anyway, check it out when you have the time. It's all about why music matters...

Plasma Blowtorch Now Used for Your Teeth

Ok, so the first thing I thought of as I read this story was "When is this coming to a toothbrush???"
I can see the marketing now....

*Do you get tired when brushing your teeth w/ only ONE Plasma Torch... Well now, thanks to PlasmaCo, your toothbrush has not ONE, not TWO, but SEVEN Plasma streams to blast that plaque away... 4 out of 5 Dentists reccomend PlasmaCo toothbrushes, and now its so much faster... act now and you get a free carrying case*

Sigh, the future is here folks...

US Army: Trying to Break Some Records

"No news is bad news" they say, but then again I don't think they were talking about this report. It seems that the US Army is on pace to break a record again. That record being for soldier suicides.

Soldier suicide count:

• March '09 = 13
• April '09 = 13
• May '09 = 17

Yearly totals:

• '09 = 82
• '08 = 133
  

Even if the suicides decrease to 10/mth, they are still going to pass the old record by 19. I think those troops are going to need a moral booster, possibly why The Colbert Report went to Iraq (and had the President video conference into the show)...

CNN has the full report here

Led Zeppelin "Kashmir" Animation

So remember when you went to see the Led Zeppelin reunion concert??? Well just in case you were to inebriated to remember, here is the back drop animation they played during "Kashmir"

Thanks to Boing Boing for the memories...

Shutter Island = Arkham - Batman

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are working together again in what I would call a murder mystery at Arkham Asylum sans Batman...

Using the Red One Camera

This just looks amazing... I don't know allot about cameras, but I'm pretty sure using the Red One is any film nuts dream... and the way these guys are using it is impressive...

Thanks to Gizmodo for the article...

Found at FFFFound

This sign would make me smile every time I crossed it...
Found at FFFFound which found it at deviantART, created by ~Draken413o

Bo Burnham Needs Your Help!!!

THE Bo Burnham is collaborating w/ Judd Apatow to create a feature film about High School, and music (ha, see how I skirted any reference to High School Musical... *pats self on back*)

It seems like Bo is looking for some help w/ ideas... so go follow him up on twitter (@boburnham) and collaborate w/ this collaboration...

Check out all the info here from /Film (aka Sexy Land)

Peggle for iPhone/Touch is $1 until Midnight

Thanks to Joystiq for the heads up here... For those of you out there who still haven't played Peggle b/c you're to cheap to buy it, then today is you're lucky day...

I'd write more about it, but really now... it's Peggle...

*UPDATE* Looks like you're good to get it at this price till the 14th...

Assassin's Creed II Black Edition

The Assassin's Creed II Black Edition, is the special edition of what will be another one of my most played games (right up there w/ Geometry Wars (not a joke, I actually play it allot (bah, forget it, just continue reading)))...

This Special Black Edition will include:

• 64pg, finely crafted leather style hardcover, w/ parchment finish book
• soundtrack
• Ezio action figure (aka Puffy shirt doll)
• behind the scene interviews
• 3 in game bonus quests

All of this wrapped in "black packaging" (w/a "unique authentic holographic signature")...

I'm not sure how I feel about this new trend for companies to give bonus levels to their customers as long as they pre-order... I think it would be a good idea to release those levels to the rest of the public as DLC... it doesn't have to be the same days as release, but a month or so down the road would be nice...

Check out Kotaku for the rest...

Movie Pirates Are Communists, says director Milos Forman

Our friends buddys complete-strangers-that-we-don't-know over at /Film have a great piece about Director Milos Forman, and his opinions on movie pirates... It's interesting as to what older directors have to say about the way media is handled these days... Check it out here while I paint my room red (where does one get that official Communist red paint???)

Assassin's Creed II - Trailer and Interview

First things first, check this out for the trailer...

Now, I'm somewhat of a fan of the Assassin's Creed IP... Despite the game's flaws it still maintains a place in my top games list, I have yet to write said list but I'm sure its on there...

Although Jade Raymond (<3<3<3) isn't involved in AC2, they still have good people working on the sequel; however, I am convinced that if she was involved, Eizo wouldn't have that damn puffy shirt...

Anyway, here is an interview w/ the creative director Patrice Désilets from the gentle(wo)men at Joystiq...

*image credit*

iPhone 3GS's GPU is Shocking

Over at Ubergizmo they did a review of the GPU in the new 3GS'...

Word is that it's basically "like going from Half Life to Half Life 2"... Which is a pretty bold statement (actually I italicized it *shrug*)

ALL DAY: 80GB PS3 is $350 at Amazon.com

Everyone else seems to be posting about this, so I figure why shouldn't I...

Amazon has reduced its price of the 80GB PS3 by 13%... Sadly it's only till the end for the day people...

Still to pricey for me, but for those of you who work 12 different jobs this should defiantly be a consideration...

The Problem w/ Video Game Studies

This article isn't surprising at all to me as I spent the better part of my youth studying psychology, and as always the classes I loved to hate ended up teaching me some of the most important things. Those being Stats, and Psychometric Theory.

< tangent >

Stats class covered (get this) statistics. Everything from how to get them, to how to manipulate them. Trust me when I tell you that I can get hard data on pretty much anything, beat it up w/ some statistic clubs and come up w/ whatever results we wanted.

Psychometric Theory class covered all psychological tests. Everything from administration to analysis. All of them biased in some way. Once you know how they are biased, you can manipulate at will.

< /tangent >

Now I'm not rising up against all testing, just on how said tests are analyzed and reported upon.

Now we in the gaming world all have read our fair share of studies. From violent "games bread violent behavior", to "game playing increases reflexes/hand eye coordination", and I believe we all take them in w/ a grain of salt. We understand that the reporters tend not to be games, they are not one of the "representative random sample" They are however sensationalists looking to boost ratings, all to keep their precious jobs in a dying field.

So yes dear reader, we have more ammunition against those people who scoff at us... Now go forth and read that article, for one day the knowledge may come in handy to slay the critics.

And if that doesn't work, we can always run them over like a hooker... then take their money (which floats around their lifeless body).... then paint the car (to loose the one star).... just like rl...*



*note: that last sentence was in jest... please don't kill your hookers... that's just mean...

xkcd - Android Girlfriend

and for the scroll-over go here

Assassin's Creed II - Screen Shots

Check them out here at Kotaku...

The shots look good... but Ezio is not Altair, and he has a puffy shirt... and if pirates couldn't make puffy shirts cool, how is an apprentice assassin (who isn't Altair) going to...

Oh course I'm sure the game play will be awesome, and hopefully I can get blood all over that puffy shirt to make it a little more manly...

Palm Pre Uses Konami Code <3<3<3

This news makes my inner geek jump for joy...

The idea of Entering the Konami Code to access the Dev Mode is fantastic...

I kind of want a Palm Pre now... Well, not really... I think I just want to find someone w/ one and test it out...

iPhone 3GS Processor and RAM Uncovered

Well it looks like Gizmodo found out just how fast the new iPhone 3GS is...

CPU = 600MHz (up from 412MHz)
RAM = 256MB (up from 128MB)

Does this really mean the "S" = "Speed"???

I think so b/c w/ this upgrade, not only will I be able to copy/paste till my lil heart is content; but, I'll be able to do it 46% faster...

Check out the full article here...

Little Girl Likes Little Boy. Little Boy Bikes BMX Bike

"Marry Me" is a short film directed by Michelle Lehman...

She's Australian, it's semi-biographical, annnnnnnnnd not much else to say....

OH, except that when I was growing up, I had a BMX... I can't say that I loved it more then girls, I can't say that; but, I can say I may have ignored some girls b/c of it... and it was worth it...

A Perfect Getaway - Trailer

At first this trailer seems to embody one of those mock trailers... You know the ones that let us see what Jaws would have been like as a love story, or the the touching story about father and son in The Shinning...

Well A Perfect Getaway starts out just like that, and then....

FSR Gets a NEW One-Sheet for 9

I don't know how FSR does it, but they are always on top of everything regarding 9... Here is a one-sheet that they, ummm, "found"...

9 being and animated film directed by Shane Acker, that I believe will be one of my favorite films of '09 (up there w/ The Brother Bloom)...

It has everything going for it, from Coheed and Cambria playing in the first trailer (prob. not in the film, but I'm a sucker for "Welcome Home") to the voice acting of Chrispin Glover, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landeau...

First Trailer
Second Trailer

You know where I'll be Sept 9th

A Samurai Western Promo Reel For "The Warrior’s Way"

As usual, /Film has brought to light another movie I want to see... I was skeptical at first, as I'm tired of all the kung fu, wire work, over the top sword play, action films that have spawned (*sigh* gone are the days of Seven Samurai); but, after watching this trailer I found myself excited to see this film... Aside from the cgi at the end (hopefully fixed in post) everything look delightful (even the VO at the begining)...

Some of the Cast:
- Kate Bosworth - The Horse Whisperer, Blue Crush, Superman Returns, 21
- Geoffrey Rush - Pirates of the Caribbean (1-3), The Tailor of Panama, Elizabeth, Myster Men
- Danny Huston - 21 Grams, 30 Days of Night, Children of Men, X-Men Origins:Wolverine

Tim Burton's Art Exhibition at the NY:MoMA

If you're in NY (New York) and a Tim Burton fan, and you happen to be around the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), AND the date is in the range from Nov 22/09 to Apr 26/10; then I'm thinking you should pay the and enjoy the hell out of the retrospective of Mr.Burton's work.

Thanks to /Film for the heads up...

Game Crazy releases App for Gamers

Game Crazy has released an app that allows you to keep on top of your gaming addiction... It keeps you informed of all the new releases, ratings, and just where to buy them...

NEW Zero Punctuation: inFamous

100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds

From Liquid Generation to /Film to us, here is what they claim to be the 100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds...

Smartphone = Necessity

According to the New York Times the sale of Smart Phones is on the incline (a 25% incline this year)... This is no surprise to anyone who keeps their ear to the ground of tech, and it is my opinion that these devices are tremendously useful. That is assuming that you use the device for all it's worth, and sadly I believe that is NOT the case for the majority of owners...

These devices have become somewhat of a status symbol where the users have little to no clue as to how to properly use the phone, however they do know how to decorate them...
I speak from experience here... When I was in the customer service field I would ask iPhone users if they had upgraded their firmware to v2.3, and for the most part they had no clue as to what I was talking about... They did however have allot of great ring tones...

It is my opinion that their should have to do a test to purchase a "Smart-Phone", and if you pass you are allowed to purchase said phone; however, if you fail you get the "Dumb-Phone-that-lets-you-look-like-you-have-a-Smart-Phone-but-is-cheaper-and-can-change-colour-to-match-your-outfit"... I guess the marketing team will have to work on the name...

Finally in Conclusion, this is the End of this rant...

Mentos in an Ice Cube Prank

and here is another trick from the wonderful people at Gizmodo... times like these I'm glad I don't drink pop/soda/soft-drinks...

xkcd

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