Vincent Schiavelli passes away

Vincent Schiavelli was in a ton of memorable movies, including One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (where he played none other than Mr. Vargas), but to me, he'll always be John O'Connor from Buckaroo Banzai. A real shame. Rest in Peace, John O'Connor.

Vincent Schiavelli

Guitar Hero -- my new favorite game

My darling wife bought me Guitar Hero for Christmas this year. That night after the kids were asleep, I played the thing for two solid hours. Hey, I'm an old man--staying up until midnight playing a game is what I used to do back in my 20s and 30s. But this game is just a ton of fun.

I finally realized that, just like a good driving game lets you feel like you could really drive a car at breakneck speeds, and a good flying game lets you feel like you could actually pilot a fighter jet, this game lets you feel like you could really play "Ace of Spades" on the guitar. Of course, in the real world, I could do none of the above things--which is why games are so great at providing those experiences. So, no, you're not really learning how to play the guitar, but when your pinky has to hit that blue button to hit the high note on the solo in "You've Got Another Thing Coming," it sure feels like you're playing it.

I got through all the songs on Easy and am now working on Medium. I'm not sure how I got through "Crossroads" on Easy, and am not looking forward to how hard Medium's going to be, let alone Hard or Expert.

Great news out of Dover PA

I'm sure if you watch Yahoo News or some such thing, you'll know the news: the judge in the Intelligent Design case in Dover PA has ruled conclusively that ID is not science, that it was a not-so-subtle attempt to inject religion into the science curriculum, and that the sticker and statement proposed was not constitutional.

My favorite part of the ruling is where he points out that two Dover board members lied under oath about numerous topics. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy"

I find it utterly and sickeningly ironic that these people, who are supposedly God-fearing individuals, would lie in an oath taken to that selfsame God about the events that preceded the proposed policy.

Anyhow, I think the only phrase I can think of right now is, thank God things turned out this way.

Judge bans teaching intelligent design - Yahoo! News

Hamachi : Stay Connected

Note to self: check out Hamachi.

Hamachi : Stay Connected

Stupid mod tricks

Sorry, I consider it stupid, others might consider it retro enough to be cool. Engadget reports on a guy who's taken the guts out of his Xbox 360 and put it into an Atari 2600 console case. As Engadget says, "oh you crazy modders..."

The Atari-Xbox 3600 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Cinematic Effects in Source

Speaking of Penny Arcade, this article on Valve's Day of Defeat: Source was linked on PA's front page. Holy cannoli, the things you can do in a PC-based game nowadays... motion blur? Depth of field? Film grain and color correction? I'm downloading the movies right now; the screenshots alone are impressive. Wonder if they can get the 360 to do all this too?

bit-tech.net | Cinematic Effects in Source

Bad news for high-definition DVDs

Everyone is going on about how HD DVDs (whether HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) is going to get everyone all hot and bothered. Well, not necessarily. See, if you want people to buy yet another version of your movie that they already have on DVD, you better count on those people being able to recognize the quality difference between their SD DVDs and an HD one.

Easy, you say? Apparently not. Below is a link to an article I saw mentioned on Slashdot, discussing a recent survey that cable set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta took. They claim that a huge number (up to half) of HDTV owners think they're watching HDTV, when in fact they haven't gotten a HD cable box, or OTA tuner, and are in fact NOT watching HD programming. Some people think that just because a program says at the outset that it's in HD, then they must be watching it in HD. Others think that it looks just fine as it is. And those people are the ones who aren't going to run out and get Lord of the Rings on HD-DVD.

The Technology Liberation Front: Video Placebo: Is that Really HDTV You Are Watching?

The Elemenstor saga

There's been a running joke in the online comic Penny Arcade about a fantasy series called The Elemenstor Saga. At some point one of those wacky PA funsters decided to make a wiki dedicated to fleshing out the back story of the saga. And man, did it ever get fleshed out. I followed a link from the PA main page and started checking out the wiki. Oh My God, do people have a lot of time on their hands. The thing that kills me is the fake Saturday Morning Cartoon (Wizbits) with the fake episode guide, fake original Japanese titles, and fake MP3 theme song. Anyhow, it was all SO complete that I thought just for a moment that maybe it really was real. Nope. The Wired article below confirmed that for me.

Wired News: The Saga of The Saga

Apple's new DVR caching videos?

Just read this on Think Secret... a claim that the new Apple DVR coming down the road will serve videos via a caching mechanism, so that the file never actually exists on your hard drive and thus can't be easily copied. If this is true, I'm much less intereted in the box. This would explain away the conflict I described below, between paying the networks for content like Lost versus just recording it onto your DVR... the deal is, you're not recording it. That also solves the tuner issue: no tuner needed.

The only problem with this is it completely removes the ability to hop through a program like you can with a real DVR. There's no way that you'll be able to skip like that with a caching setup.

Anyhow, we shall see in a few weeks. Maybe. :)

Think Secret - Road to Expo: Apple's new media experience coming soon

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi

I'm just now coming up for air from my busy season at work. Actually, I'm still busy, but have these 60-minute pauses while I capture video. So, a little more time to blog.

Anna is hooked on Cartoon Network's Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show I must, of course, watch with them, in case of objectionable material. :) It's a fun show overall. The animation is a little flat, but that's an acceptable stylistic decision. The voice work is great, and I like the little dashes of Japanese they throw in there from time to time. The title song, by the way, is incredibly catchy. The only song that can successfully drive it out of your mind is the theme song from Theo's current favorite cartoon, Yu-Gi-Oh G/X.

More networks jumping on board the iTunes bandwagon

NBC has added some of their lineup to the iTunes Music, er, Music and Video Store. (When are they going to change the name of that store anyway?) You'll be able to get Law and Order, The Office, etc. Interesting that they're also providing some of their older shows... in the case of Dragnet, some of their super-older shows.

This kind of agreement, by the way, does call into question whether Apple will provide a DVR of their own. NBC was one of those groups that were not pleased with TiVo's recent announcement that they will allow TiVoToGo to work with PSPs and iPods. They want you to pay to watch their shows. They'd probably love it if they could make you pay when you think about one of their shows. If Apple lets you record the shows on their DVR and transfer it to your iPod, why would you pay for it? Hm, very interesting.

iTunes now offering NBC, SciFi, and USA television for download - Engadget - www.engadget.com