Monday, July 23
here’s hoping the napkin doodles aren't actively protected
Copyright as described via simple napkin doodle. (boingboing)
On 10/19/05, the daughter of one of my MIT friends shadowed me for a day at work as part of a school project. One of the good things about spending time with children is that it forces you to explain things in simple terms. That day, I drew lots of drawings.
Wednesday, January 31
the lost room
The Lost Room (Wikipedia) - Did anyone see this show? It sounds pretty interesting, but I've not yet found it through iTMS. Oddly enough The Dresden Files first episode was offered as a free download through iTMS, but I've been watching too much Carnivale to get to it yet.
Note: Testing out-of-Beta Blogger's new features with this post.
Note: Testing out-of-Beta Blogger's new features with this post.
Friday, September 8
blade-o-rama
According to the only fan-site I can find for the show, there will be a Blade: The Series marathon this weekend on Spike TV:
(...) Spike TV this upcoming weekend (Sep. 9th and 10th). It looks like they’ll be playing all 12 previously aired episodes (counting the pilot as two episodes). The marathon will include this Wednesday’s episode as well. The marathon goes from 2 PM - 7 PM Saturday and Sunday.I’ve only seen four unconnected episodes so far, but it shows a lot of promise. I’m just about to purchase the “season pass” through iTunes Music Store. iTMS was what introduced me to the show; the pilot episode and one other were given away for free through it, and after finding a few more on P2P, I am hooked. The show is structured along the lines of Babylon 5 or 24, where things happen in each episode that affect later episodes, and standalone episodes are the exception, rather than the rule. Plus, hey, swordfights, gunfights, gore, blood, and partial nudity because it airs on Spike, not standard broadcst. Apparently they’re shooting additional footage and dialog for the DVD, which will be even more graphic in all regards.
This is a great chance to catch up and if you’ve got some friends or family that you’re trying to get hooked on the show, this marathon provides the perfect opportunity to show them why it’s such a great show.
Thursday, September 7
japanese tv commercial for gatorade
YouTube - Japanese Gatorade Commercial "MIX SPORTS": It doesn’t matter if the BMX rider is “safe” - he is clearly pwned by the sumo chappie.
Thursday, August 17
ipod video tagging made easy-ish
Apple does not make every tag that iTunes uses available to the user. And sometimes there are bugs (shock, gasp) even in Apple software. This is why videos tagged with TV Show do not show up in the predictable manner in the iPod's menu, but there is no way to correct it from within the application.
Fortunately, an application called Atomic Parsley allows users to get access to those tags and write those tags, themselves. Unfortunately, AP is a shell-based, command-line-interface program, which makes my 25-years-removed-from-DOS head a litte bit frightened. So it is extra nice that the oddly named but nicely Aqua-GUI’d Parsley is Atomically Delicious handles AP-style tagging in a user-interface that is simple and direct.
Now most of my TV programs are in the right place! Blissful viewing during train commutes, let me tell you.
Fortunately, an application called Atomic Parsley allows users to get access to those tags and write those tags, themselves. Unfortunately, AP is a shell-based, command-line-interface program, which makes my 25-years-removed-from-DOS head a litte bit frightened. So it is extra nice that the oddly named but nicely Aqua-GUI’d Parsley is Atomically Delicious handles AP-style tagging in a user-interface that is simple and direct.
Now most of my TV programs are in the right place! Blissful viewing during train commutes, let me tell you.
Tuesday, August 8
because i don’t visit the itunes music store every single week
Friday, August 5
pee tee vee
Sony has launched a video portal with content preformatted for PSP called “p-tv.” No, there is no complete collection of Beat Takeshi’s Castle on it; apparently that’s still what BitTorrent and the 3G Converter tool are for.
There is apparently a requirement to download from the site directly to the PSP via a USB cable, bypassing the interim PC in an attempt to preclude piracy. Are there areas on the Memory Stick that can be placed off limits to being read as a normal storage device? Does the user get to set that partition, or is it possible to have some proprietary app arbitrarily get all Manifest Destiny on your MemStick and land grab the bulk of space there?
There is apparently a requirement to download from the site directly to the PSP via a USB cable, bypassing the interim PC in an attempt to preclude piracy. Are there areas on the Memory Stick that can be placed off limits to being read as a normal storage device? Does the user get to set that partition, or is it possible to have some proprietary app arbitrarily get all Manifest Destiny on your MemStick and land grab the bulk of space there?
Labels: TV
Wednesday, April 13
batty grrl
If you liked the anime movie Blood, you’ll be happy to hear there’s an animated series coming out.
Labels: TV
Wednesday, March 30
it’s a good thing i like books better than tv
Since TiVO is testing banner-ads during fast-forwarding over advertisements, would someone please patent my idea of running banner-ads in the black space on the top and bottom black space in letterboxed content? Caveat: You must have enough money to defend the patent, and you must refuse to license it to anyone. ’k-thx-bye. This whole era of DRM and unspoken social contracts that imply advertisements are being watched to fund TV, not watching them is “stealing” is rife with silliness. It gets the people making products focusing on appeasing the content providers instead of consumers.
Labels: TV
Wednesday, November 17
tv to the rescue
In Warren Ellis’ Mister Sleepless livejournal, he has given a link to the torrent file for the Justice League Unlimited episode that he wrote. It features the best Batman deadpan I’ve seen to date, and proof that Atom is a very lucky superhero.
Labels: TV
Sunday, June 13
global frequency
I'm interested in Warren Ellis' writing lately, though I've preferred his prose to comics. I am interested in the TV series that will be based on his Global Frequency comic, and was stoked to find this interview with some people involved with it.
Labels: TV
Thursday, April 22
but he's no kaga takeshi
'Iron Chef' Sets Up Camp in America: "'Iron Chef America.' The weekend-long set of specials pitting Food Network stars against two of Japan's Iron Chefs kicks off at 9 p.m. ET Friday (April 23)." I can see it now: "Today's theme is... GRITS!"
Labels: TV
Sunday, April 4
terebi
Yes, television is weird in Japan. Especially when the gaijin talent starts showing up out of context.
Labels: TV
Wednesday, January 21
star trek: eulogy
Yesterday I was finally able to watch Star Trek: Nemesis, the tenth Star Trek movie and ostensibly the last "Next Generation" movie. Simply put: I'm done, and if this is the best that Paramount can muster to continue the Next Gen. property, I hope it is the last movie.
From Star Trek VII: Generations onward, the movies took on the cast of the Next Generation. Despite the best aspects of the series being its ensemble cast working well together, taking turns in the spotlight, and playing off of each other, the movies with the same cast consist of ways to showcase how remarkably clever Captain Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Data are, and what fabulous acting chops the Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner have, respectively. They are remarkably talented, but Trek is at its best and most interesting when the entire group is interacting, and perhaps more importantly, in the way and pace that the characters move in-and-out of the focus of the narrative. Two guys hogging all the screentime is not what Trek is about, and it's sad to see that this is the direction that the movies have taken.
As if to top this trend with something even more centralized to those two characters, Nemesis revolves around making an additional Picard and an additional Data as the primary foils. Good grief, who promotes this kind of thing within the studio? The Praetor Shinzon, a clone of Picard, is obsessed with him, needs him to solidify his worldview (and some other DNA technobabble) -- the whole movie is about obsession about Picard; this is ironically the status of the entire movie franchise. At one point in the movie, Picards head fills the whole screen as he marches purposefully toward the cameraman and states, "This isn't about me anymore." Sadly, this only meant it changed to Data, who has one of the most interesting E.V.A.'s I've seen, before meaninglessly blowing himself up, for want of a autotransporter beacon.
Several things come to mind here: Was there only one of those beacons? That might have been stated, but it's unclear. They said "prototype," but that didn't clear up why it can't be replicated. Data presenting Picard with the device, then hanging out for the boom was like watching Bruce Willis intentionally go into the end of Armageddon with a broken wristwatch. What else...? The subatomic radiation that Shinzon is using was clearly detectable (though only theoretical!) in the beginning of the movie, but his perfect cloak can hide it along with everything else. Hm. Okay, fine: technobabble is not held to internal consistency. What about the transporting through shields? What about broken transporters working on the beacon? What about... Oh, sorry; I was really getting to be a pain-in-the-ass, nitpicking geek there. A list of the problems with the movie feels like it would nearly become a shot-by-shot recounting. It felt really sloppy, and disrectful to the efforts of keeping the shows honest. If this is the curve the movies are on, let me off here.
Last July, five years into their ten year contract, Activision decided to sue Viacom (Paramount) due to the "stagnation" of the Trek license as a property. A better idea than that, unless Activision needed something to keep their lawyers busy, would be to make a new deal with Paramount, wherein the content of the games would be considered Trek "canon." Maybe players could be Riker, Picard, or Data -- maybe not. But I can't think of a single Trek fan that would be able to resist playing through additional storylines that were considered really, really, really part of the same universe as the TV shows and movies.
UPDATE: Maybe these guys can keep the dream alive.
From Star Trek VII: Generations onward, the movies took on the cast of the Next Generation. Despite the best aspects of the series being its ensemble cast working well together, taking turns in the spotlight, and playing off of each other, the movies with the same cast consist of ways to showcase how remarkably clever Captain Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Data are, and what fabulous acting chops the Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner have, respectively. They are remarkably talented, but Trek is at its best and most interesting when the entire group is interacting, and perhaps more importantly, in the way and pace that the characters move in-and-out of the focus of the narrative. Two guys hogging all the screentime is not what Trek is about, and it's sad to see that this is the direction that the movies have taken.
As if to top this trend with something even more centralized to those two characters, Nemesis revolves around making an additional Picard and an additional Data as the primary foils. Good grief, who promotes this kind of thing within the studio? The Praetor Shinzon, a clone of Picard, is obsessed with him, needs him to solidify his worldview (and some other DNA technobabble) -- the whole movie is about obsession about Picard; this is ironically the status of the entire movie franchise. At one point in the movie, Picards head fills the whole screen as he marches purposefully toward the cameraman and states, "This isn't about me anymore." Sadly, this only meant it changed to Data, who has one of the most interesting E.V.A.'s I've seen, before meaninglessly blowing himself up, for want of a autotransporter beacon.
Several things come to mind here: Was there only one of those beacons? That might have been stated, but it's unclear. They said "prototype," but that didn't clear up why it can't be replicated. Data presenting Picard with the device, then hanging out for the boom was like watching Bruce Willis intentionally go into the end of Armageddon with a broken wristwatch. What else...? The subatomic radiation that Shinzon is using was clearly detectable (though only theoretical!) in the beginning of the movie, but his perfect cloak can hide it along with everything else. Hm. Okay, fine: technobabble is not held to internal consistency. What about the transporting through shields? What about broken transporters working on the beacon? What about... Oh, sorry; I was really getting to be a pain-in-the-ass, nitpicking geek there. A list of the problems with the movie feels like it would nearly become a shot-by-shot recounting. It felt really sloppy, and disrectful to the efforts of keeping the shows honest. If this is the curve the movies are on, let me off here.
Last July, five years into their ten year contract, Activision decided to sue Viacom (Paramount) due to the "stagnation" of the Trek license as a property. A better idea than that, unless Activision needed something to keep their lawyers busy, would be to make a new deal with Paramount, wherein the content of the games would be considered Trek "canon." Maybe players could be Riker, Picard, or Data -- maybe not. But I can't think of a single Trek fan that would be able to resist playing through additional storylines that were considered really, really, really part of the same universe as the TV shows and movies.
UPDATE: Maybe these guys can keep the dream alive.
Labels: TV
