Link Dump

Link Dump

2 Comments / Link Dump, Neal Stephenson / /

You know the drill:

  • Given our current technology and with the proper training, would it be possible for someone to become Batman?: Wow. This is pretty well thought out:

    The genius of Batman is that it pretends to be realistic, it lets us convince ourselves that with enough money and training, we could become Batman, too. But it’s still fantasy, it’s just a fantasy that is more compelling and convincing and thus more fun.

    Because I have an unhealthy obsession with Neal Stephenson novels, the above quote made me think of this passage from Snow Crash:

    Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.

    So apparently, the “genius of Batman” only really applies to men under 25. Or something. Hey, speaking of realism and fantasy:

  • Science Fiction vs. Science Fantasy: Us cool science fiction nerds like to occasionally take a dump all over fantasy. We’ll even use the term fantasy as an insult sometimes. But who are we kidding? John Scalzi actually makes a good point:

    …everything you can possibly label as “science fiction” is in fact just a subset of a larger genre, which is correctly called “fantasy.” This is because science fiction — along with supernatural horror, alternate history, superhero lit, and the elves-and-orcs swashbuckling typically labeled “fantasy” — is fundamentally fantastic. Which is to say, it involves imaginative conceptualizing, does not restrain itself according what is currently known, and speculates about the nature of worlds and conditions that do not exist in reality. It may gall science-fiction fans to think of their genre as a subset of fantasy, but it is, so calling a film “science fantasy” is in most ways redundant.

    Of course, by that definition, every fictional story ever written could potentially be considered fantasy, but still, it’s an interesting point. However, I think part of the reason science fiction nerds are so protective of their subgenre is that they generally appreciate things like plausibility, scientific rigor, and internal consistency. In my experience (which, I’ll grant, isn’t exhaustive), Fantasy doesn’t really do any of those things. “Magic” doesn’t work for me unless there are serious limitations.

  • A Superman Post: Since I’m totally geeking out on superheroes, fantasy, and SF, I might as well keep it going with as good an explanation of the appeal of Superman as any:

    Superman isn’t Superman because of some tragedy which informed his growth. Pa Kent does not die because of a failure on Clark’s part – indeed in most versions of the story, Pa dies when Clark is already Superman. Clark’s knowledge of Krypton doesn’t make him a superhero either; again, this is something he finds out later, too late to traumatize him. Clark is Superman because he decides to be Superman without being prompted. That’s more complex and nuanced a story than “somebody did something to me.” Superman’s story, which informs his entire character, is one of someone who chooses to be good of his own free will and agency, with no influence other than moral upbringing. That’s both more compelling than the “somebody did something to me” origin most superheroes have and more difficult to work with.

    Lots of great stuff in that post. It’s a shame that the movies almost never really capture this.

  • Ken Jennings on Reddit: Read the comments. Jennings is way funnier than you’d expect. Aside from the fact that his username is WatsonsBitch, a good sample is this response:

    yamminonem: Will you be the leader of the Resistance against Watson once he starts to control Skynet? Please, and thank you.

    WatsonsBitch: Once we are all working in the slave-pits together, I will try to put in a good word for you all. I will be like the old Barnard Hughes character in Tron, who remembers the Master Control Program when it was just accounting software.

    Heh.

  • Predator: The Musical: There’s a whole series of these, but I think this might be the most brilliant of all.

That’s all for now…

Link Dump & Notes

Administration, Link Dump, Neal Stephenson / /

Just some interesting links and some notes about upcoming posts and whatnot:

  • First, an announcement! The Oscars are this Sunday, and in accordance with tradition, I will be liveblogging the event, as I have for the past 7 years (!) Feel free to stop by and leave some comments! Previous installments here: [2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004]
  • An update on Game Dev Story! I’ve finally figured out how to hire a “Hardware Engineer” and thus was able to create my own console. Well, I found this DIY Gamer page, which explains it:

    Perhaps the biggest secret in Game Dev Story, bagging a hardware engineer is simple – if expensive – stuff. The idea is to level up one of your staff to the max in every type of role. This can be done with a combination of development points and Career Change Manuals (from the salesman). Level your chosen character up to level 5 in whatever role they’re in, then use the Career Change Manual to swap their job to something they aren’t already level 5 in.

    Level them up to level 5 in this role, then repeat until they are level 5 in every available role. Now use the Career Change Manual on them once more, and the Hardware Engineer role will now be available for selection. Choose this, and you’ll then be able to develop your own console.

    Sweet. Of course, I’m now paying this person almost $2 million a year in salary, but hey, I got to create a console. And according to my records, my company has over $1 billion in reserve, so I should be all right (this is what happens when you sell 30-40 million units of each game). I still think there’s a lot of room in this concept for a deeper dive into some of these details (for instance, shouldn’t I get licensing fees from other developers who want to release games on my console? How about competition with other consoles? And so on…) but for a game that cost $0.99, I’ve had a blast.

  • The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2 – I never heard of this until now, but it’s an interesting story of some kid who stole the source code to Half-Life 2 before it was released. Very interesting stuff.
  • Black Widow Gone Wild – Heh.
  • Here Be Dragons: Governing a Technologically Uncertain Future 10 – An interview with Neal Stephenson on an earlier panel he participated in and the article he wrote (that I posted) a while back on the history of rocket technology. Some interesting stuff here, but it really just makes me want to read his new book (still no word on when that will be coming out, short of “2011” which is, uh, now).

That’s all for now. Look for my Oscar picks early on Sunday. Updates after that will most likely begin when the show does (I really hate the damn red carpet crap, but sometimes I’m on a bit early anyway).

Link Dump

1 Comment / Link Dump, Neal Stephenson / /

Time is short, so just a few things I’ve found interesting lately:

  • Star Wars Fan Documentaries: I realize that the phrase “fan documentary” probably made you throw up a little in your mouth, but these amazingly comprehensive movies are actually quite well done. They’re built on top of the base of the Star Wars movies themselves, but they feature all sorts of production notes, commentary from cast/crew, and are even sometimes re-cut with alternate takes, deleted scenes, concept art, and original audio. Creator Jambe Davdar must have spent years pouring through Star Wars minutiae to put this together. I haven’t watched all of the videos (there’s a lot of them), but so far, it’s great stuff.
  • The Most Ridiculous Thing that writer/artist Dan McDaid has ever drawn. It’s also pretty awesome.
  • Game Dev Story – An iPhone video game about… well, making video games. A meta video game, if you will. I don’t play a lot of iPhone games, but I heard the guys talking about it on Rebel FM a few weeks ago and it was only $0.99 so I figured I’d give it a try. It’s kinda addictive, despite the fact that the critics never rate my games well.
  • Space Stasis – I haven’t read this yet, but it’s an article by Neal Stephenson, so I’m looking forward to it (apparently a new novel is coming this year as well, though the news has been suspiciously quiet about that so far).
  • MST3k says: Packers win the Super Bowl! – They somehow knew!

That’s all for now!

Link Dump

Link Dump / /

I had a busy weekend, so here are some interesting links I’ve run across recently:

  • Awesomest Action Movie Ever: I see short clips of amazingly weird movies like this all the time, but they never actually tell you what the movie is. Granted, it’s probably not going to be available in the US or Netflix, but still, it would be nice to know.
  • The Thomas Beale Cipher: Gorgeous animated short about a guy who is on a treasure hunt (I think). It’s based on a real story, a set of three ciphertexts created by the titular Thomas Beale. The ciphers still haven’t been solved, nearly a hundred years later. Some believe that the story is a hundred year old hoax, others contend that there is about $65 million in buried gold treasure out there somewhere. The filmmaker seems to have also embedded 16 hidden messages in the film, though I haven’t really looked to hard for any of them (I did a cursory search to see if anyone else had found them, but came up short).
  • Excitebike Shop: It used to be that you’d only see videos like this for the classics like Super Mario Brothers or Zelda, but lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of Excitebike parodies. Weird.
  • Snowy Trench Run: Another amazing video that would have gone unseen without the internet.
  • Weightless Cats – I can has gravity?: Where would the internet be without cats?

That’s all for now!

Link Dump

2 Comments / Link Dump / /

I went to a football game today and am still thawing out, so here are a few links:

  • Charles Bronson Kills Hipsters – Unfortunately, it’s only a parody. My favorite part is that it’s rated PG.
  • Fake Criterions – Spot on parodies of the Criterion Collection cover art, though honestly, some of the imitations fall a bit flat. Still, well done. (Update: Apparently Tumblr is down! Hopefully it will be back shortly.)
  • Paul Thomas Anderson Reportedly Adapting Thomas Pynchon’s Novel ‘Inherent Vice’ – Hell yeah. I guess I should read the book that’s sitting on my shelf. I get the impression that it’s Pynchon slumming it in a genre story, which means that maybe PTA will also be slumming it with a genre flick (in this case, hard boiled detective fiction). I love it when that happens.
  • Live Webcast Fail – Moron inadvertently reproduces the Droste effect (complete with recursive audio!)
  • Funky Forest – After School Club (NSFW) – I seriously hesitate to even post this. I have no idea what the fuck is going on in this video. It’s quite possibly the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen some weird shit. You know what, don’t click on this link. Seriously. Some things can’t be unseen.

So there you have it.

Link Dump

Link Dump / /

Some fine links we should all be thankful for:

  • Epic Meal Time: These guys are insane, and I love it.
  • Part Kid, Part Machine, All Cop. – I’ve been meaning to link to this for, like, two weeks… But it’s brilliant and cute.
  • Ben Kenobi: Private Jedeye – Brilliant parody of old-timey detective movies. Funny.
  • Software Props – Interesting science fictional interfaces made available in flash, including the interface for the Sentry Guns from Aliens and the Death Star power meter. There are only a few here right now, but apparently this guy is working on some new ones (including the motion tracker from Aliens).
  • Tweet of the Week: @DeathStarPR “He’s more machine now than man, twisted and evil,” said the guy who chopped off his arms & legs, then left him to burn alive. #StarWars

That’s all for now. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Link Dump

Computers & Internet, Link Dump, Movies / /

A few interesting links from the depths of teh interwebs:

  • Singel-Minded: How Facebook Could Beat Google to Win the Net – Wired’s Ryan Singer makes an interesting case for Facebook to challenge Google in the realm of advertising. Right now, Facebook only advertises on their site (in a small, relatively tasteful fashion), but it’s only really a matter of time until they make the same move Google did with AdSense. And their advantage their is that Facebook has much more usable data about people than Google. The operative word there is “usable”, as Google certainly has lots of data about its users, but it seems Google’s mantra of “Do no evil” will come back to bite them in the ass. Google’s promised not to use search history and private emails, etc… to help target ads. Facebook has no such restrictions, and the ads on their site seem to be more targeted (they’ve recently been trying to get me to buy Neal Stephenson audio books, which would be a pretty good bet for them… if I hadn’t already read everything that guy’s written). This got me wondering, is targeted advertising the future and will people be ok with that. Everyone hates commercials, but would they hate them if the ads were for things you wanted? Obviously privacy is a concern… or is it? It’s not like Facebook has been immaculate in the area of privacy, and yet it’s as popular as it ever was. I don’t necessarily see it as a good thing, but it will probably happen, and somehow I doubt Google will take it for long without figuring out a way to leverage all that data they’ve been collecting…
  • If We Don’t, Remember Me: Animated gifs have long been a staple of the web and while they’re not normally a bastion of subtlety, this site is. They all seem to be from good movies, and I think this one is my favorite. (via kottke)
  • The Tall Man Reunites With Don Coscarelli for John Dies at the End: I posted about this movie back in 2008, then promptly forgot about it. I just assumed that it was one of those projects that would never really get off the ground (folks in Hollywood often publish the rights for something, even when they don’t necessarily have any plans to make it) or that Coscarelli was focusing on one of his other projects (i.e. the long-rumored sequel to BubbaHo-Tep, titled Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires). But it appears that things are actually moving on JDatE and some casting was recently announced, including long time Coscarelli collaborator Angus Scrimm (who played the infamous Tall Man in the Phantasm films), Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown. This is all well and good, but at the same time – I have no idea what roles any of these folks will play. None seem like the two leads (David and the titular John). Nevertheless, here’s to hoping we see some new Coscarelli soon. I think his sensibility would match rather well with David Wong (nee Jason Pargin). (Update: Quint over at AiCN has more on the casting and who’s playing what)
  • Curtis Got Slapped by a White Teacher!: Words cannot describe this 40 page document (which is, itself, comprised mostly of words, but whatever). Its… breathtaking.

That’s all for now.

Link Dump

Beer, Link Dump / /

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over two months since the last link dump, so here goes:

  • A radical pessimist’s guide to the next 10 years: Author Douglas Coupland makes a series of 45 predictions about how technology and society will change each other. Some are interesting, some are way off, but most are interesting nonetheless. A few samples:

    3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now

    The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade.

    10) In the same way you can never go backward to a slower computer, you can never go backward to a lessened state of connectedness

    34) You’re going to miss the 1990s more than you ever thought

    The 90s have a bad reputation, but I liked them.

  • The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games: No wonder they lost!
  • Experiments in Blind Tasting: I’ve been getting into beer in a big way this year, and one of the things I find a little amusing is the way a lot of people seem to review their beers. They always seem to have these amazingly well attuned taste buds, picking up the most subtle of flavors easily. Sometimes I think I’m missing something, and sometimes I think they’re just making it up. This article covers a course intended for beer judges, and it’s a apparently quite a challenge. The key graph:

    We were then given a batch of three unidentified black beers, and told to write notes on them, then attempt to guess the beer styles. After tasting the three we were asked one by one to read our notes on the first one, all of which went along the lines of “roasty, caramel, maybe a bit neutral”. The shock was considerable when we were told that it was, again, Ringnes Pils, this time with some black colouring added to it. Every single one of the 10 participants claimed to taste roastiness in the beer, and not one of the 10 so much as came near the idea that this might be a pilsener. An interesting example of the sense of taste being affected by visual signals.

    I knew it!

  • Kaedrin Beer Blog: Hey, did I just mention that I was getting into beer in a big way? Well yeah, I started a beer blog. I have no idea if it will last or how often I’ll update, but so far, I’ve been updating a pretty good clip. And it being me, of course there’s a little movie talk going on as well. I’m open to any comments or suggestions about the blog, and if you’re a designer, I need to come up with a nicer looking headline than the default template orange text thing I’ve got up there now.

That’s all for now…

Link Dump

Link Dump / /

Yes, there have been a lot of these lately. At this point I figure I should just stop apologizing for it and embrace it. So here you go, links:

  • Echo: LoadingReadyRun has been at The Escapist for a while and they can be hit or miss, but some of their more recent videos are really great stuff. Split Decision and A Stitch in Time are pretty good too.
  • Right on Cue: Ta-Nehisi Coates responds to Andy Rooney: “Rooney ends this with a jibe that notes his ignorance of Lady Gaga is fine, because kids are ignorant of Ella Fitzgerald. I suspect that he gives himself too much credit.” Heh. His notion of “Digging In The Crates” is an interesting one and I think he may be right.
  • Soldiers returning from war surprise kids, loved ones: As they note: “There is a 100% chance you will cry within 30 seconds of this video.”
  • I don’t know what the hell is going on in this video, so I am presenting it to you, without comment.
  • F**k You: Cee Lo Green’s profanity laden song is pretty great. And of course, the follow up videos have begun… Also of note, this song, which is completely unrelated, but awesome.
  • Sun Chips Bag: These videos are all over the place at this point, but this one’s pretty well executed, precisely because the guy doesn’t say anything.

That’s all for now…

Link Dump

Link Dump / /

Interesting stuff seen lately:

  • Wikipedia’s Lamest Edit Wars: Amazing list of recurring edits on Wikipedia. Should we mention House MD’s lack of asian diversity (8,000+ edits and counting). Should “wee” link to the Nintendo Wii or to the article on urine (20,000+ edits and counting)? A goldmine of almost unintentional hilarity.
  • A Tale As Old As Time: No comment necessary.
  • Predators Teenage Son: A while ago, I participated in an amazingly nerdy debate about aliens and predators, and this video reminded me of that geekout (specifically the part about whether or not the predator would win in a hot dog eating contest when competing against an alien).
  • Extra Credits: If you’re not familiar with Daniel Floyd and James Portnow (and now Allison Theus), they produced a series of great videos about video games on YouTube and are now part of The Escapist, posting new videos every Thursday (instead of twice a year, as they were doing before!) I don’t know that I always agree with them, but it’s always interesting watching.
  • Double Feature: I was getting sick of my current lineup of podcasts, so I started looking around for some new movie podcasts and found this one, which is pretty good stuff (and a large back catalog for me to work through). Any other good movie podcasts I should be listening to? (Besides Filmspotting, Creative Screenwriting, Filmically Perfect, Left Field Cinema, and The Treatment? I already know about those!)

That’s all for now, see you Sunday.