13 November 2009

Friday Links


Yay yay for Fridays! Hmm, there was actually a typo and that last sentence read as Frodos! We're not quoting Gandalf today, no thanks.

Alright. So I came across this via Pharyngula's site. It's a fun jab at all those folks who dismiss scientific fact and run around believing in all sorts of nonense. I think Dara O Briain referred to them as the folks who should be in a sack. Now, to come up with my own scientific controversy ... I just have to follow the handy steps on that site.

And some of Verizon's customers are in for a nasty surprise. Ai Ai Ai! And I'm not talking about the fuss about the termination fee either.

Ooh didja hear that Dollhouse was canceled? That was a nasty turn of events there. I wish Whedon would find sponsors other those awful folks at Fox. Fox is responsible for the death of so many good shows. Apparently, years ago, Sliders also got the boot because of they were just not into that scifi scene anymore. Alright, so that's a bit of a stretch, Fox first tried to mess about with the show and then they canceled. Kind of what happened to Dollhouse too, isn't it?

And ... I also had a weird 'Oh that's who they are' moment. So here goes. While reading up on Bloodbath at the House of Death, I found out that one of the main guys in it used to have quite a few famous telly shows. Oh, the bloke's name was Kenny Everett. Anyway, his shows were well-known for guest apperances (dance numbers, what have you) by skimpily-clad dancers called Hot Gossip. This particular group (and am guessing that whole telly show) was parodied by NtNON here. Remember this?

There was also a bit where Vin Diesel was the butt of a few jokes. To be fair, it was an article about crappy action stars. You know, the way movie folks create lead characters for action movies?

12 November 2009

Really bad voice acting

Came across this on Felicia Day's tweets.


It's so bad! *cringe cringe*

#44 - He lived a 100 years? With that poncy voice?
#41 - "He's going to explode"? Right.
#23 - oh man, my ears! My ears!
#12 - your wtf moment
# 5 - Aaargh!
#2 - Dude, what's with the weird sputter?!

Kirk and the ladies

11 November 2009

Italian ex-MP calls Mohamed a Paedophile



Check out the fiesty granny behind the host. She got a bit worked up there.

And boy, doesn't the Host look uncomfortable? Apparently at the end of the show they put up a few lines saying that Daniela Santache's views were not the views of the programme etc. etc.

10 November 2009

It ain't global warming

Wow, this will upset a number of people.

Indian Environment bigwig Jairam Ramesh says that he can't see a link between global warming and the receding glaciers of Himalayas?

Quote from News24:

Ramesh released research on Himalayan glaciers in New Delhi on Monday that disputes the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), regarded as the world's top authority on climate change.

Well, you know Mr. Gore will throw a hissy fit when he hears this story.

Presenting another fun edu-manga

Definitely kawaii!

You know how they have educational manga?

They've added Lisp to their learn-through-a-comic list.

Makezine via Mangablog

09 November 2009

Now it should be easy to nab him!

Oh, man!

... must ... stop ... laughing!

Did you hear about a bloke on the run who went 'Ergh!' and 'Eww!' when he saw his wanted pic on telly?

And then sent in a prettier pic of his?

Read more at News 24!

06 November 2009

Friday Links

Alrighty! A new post, woohoo! Actually it's a bit late on a Friday so it takes a lot out of me to muster up that amount of enthusiasm. So let's move on, shall we?

epic fail pictures
see more Epic Fails

First up, I finished Tsukuyomi:Moon Phase. It was an interesting take on vampires, but not necessarily what you were hoping for. I think the young protagonist was a bit of a turn-off. I mean, unless the character is a bit daring and cynical like Ciel from Kuroshitsuji, the story quickly heads up Mount Boring. Incidentally, that implied loved angle was a bit on the 'meh' side. Well, if you like shoujo romances, this might be worth adding to the list.

Aah ha ha ha! This one's classic. Did you hear about U2's concert in Germany, the one where they were celebrating the fall of the wall? And how some idiot organizing the event put up a wall against ticketless folk? Well, Bono is a twat so what I'm hardly surprised.

Okay, Halloween was fun and we watched a lot of horror flicks. Bloodbath in the House of Dead was one and the new Dawn of the dead was another. I must say that the new one doens't even come close to the older one. A lot of social commentary was jam-packed into the earlier one and the new one was more of a gnaw-fest. Plus a bit of nudity. Incidentally, have you heard about the Giant Gila Monster? Ye, that's what nightmares are made of.

Eh? WoW already bleeds you slowly and painfully with a monthly subscription and now they are thinking of setting up a cash shop? Alright ... one of you wiseguys are now going to tell me that they always had one and that this is just about enhancing the said shop, right? It's been a few months since I kicked the WoW habit and I must say news like this don't make it look any prettier.

Something that might be of interest to anime/manga fans out there - a discussion about Christian themes in anime and manga. This article is more of a theory about why we come across such themes in these shows. After all, Japan is not a Christian nation; in fact, they are pretty much secular or at least pretty chilled about religious matters.

Oh my, look at all these folks complaining about Valve. Other online delivery services are getting their panties in a knot about the utterly awesome delivery service that is Valve. Do I sound in favor of the latter? You betcha. Incidentally Direct2Drive can go suck it! t(-_-t)

04 November 2009

Wit's End

New Guild Episode!
<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=c53b6435-06bc-4b28-ad6e-2f9dc8e51364" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 9: Wit&#39;s End">Video: Season 3 - Episode 9: Wit&#39;s End</a>

02 November 2009

Xenophobia, much?

You know how ICANN recently gave the thumbs-up for the use of foreign alphabets in domain names?

And everyone out there was waving flags and cheering and opening bottles of champagne?

Well, not everyone was all hey-ho and hello!

Someone was quite upset with that development.

And he decided to pen his thoughts about it.

Please brace yourself for a facepalm moment.

Thanks to Twilight *snicker* for that link.

29 October 2009

When folks fear science ....

... we're all screwed!

I came across this via the Dawkins website. I'm glad folks are pushing for this and making a case about it.

Honestly, the number of folks who are into this namby-pampy, wishy-washy, hoity-toity quack nonsense is unbelievable. I say Tina, when are you going to stop following ...alright, I will stop with the TBL references. I think I made my point.

Quote from article:

The tragedy is that we have largely refused to educate ourselves about science and consequently the gap between its knowledge and our own has become ever greater. Our fear and suspicion of it have grown accordingly - and yet when it comes to irrationality in all its guises, we have cast all suspicion to the four winds and thrown ourselves on the mercy of quacks and mountebanks. Hence we barely raise an eyebrow when we find a well known television presenter using his position of influence to promote dangerously anti-scientific nonsense on the subject of vaccines: nonsense which we could have excused a hundred years ago but which is now simply the height of ignorant irresponsibility.

The article is called Vaccination: the moral imperative by Paula Kirby. Read the full article, it is excellent.

26 October 2009

The Acoustic Version

...of Do You Want to Date My Avatar?

22 October 2009

They are not going to live it down

... are they?

14 October 2009

Copying and Stuff: New Guild Episode

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=ad9da3c0-f956-4a84-91a0-29281cc13c51" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 7: Coping and Stuff">Video: Season 3 - Episode 7: Coping and Stuff</a>

09 October 2009

Friday Links

Yay, another Friday Links page. And a lot has been happening!
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Funny Brutal Legend interview

Were these guys joking or did they really not get what Jack Black was on about? I'm talking about the promo conference Black and Schafer gave for Brutal Legend. Black, in his typical over-the-top manner, came out making fun of rugged action types and I think most folks didn't get it. Oh and that emoticon? \m/ ? Yea, totally digging that!


This is for Social Media n00bs
or for folks who are doing it wrong ...

I've been tempted to unfollow a bunch of folks from twitter and other social media sites recently. Reason? A lot of them have
a) been spammed their stream with the same link over and over again
b) shamelessly promoted a product without bothering to talk to anyone
c) misusing the hashtag of a trending topic just for attention
... and the list goes on.

Do you want to know the full list of Do's and Don'ts for using Social Media? Check out 99 Social Media Failures @Digitaloz. Good info here and with this list, you might find out why you are losing followers/online buddies.


Review of Bloody Pit of Horror

I've mentioned this link in my feeds. But the movie is worth mentioning here. Have you seen this movie? You can download it for free via the Internet Archive as it is in the public domain. I swear someone somewhere didn't do the correct translation for this movie. It's cheesy, it's the over the top and you can't stop laughing at this flick! Read review for BPoH.


Porfolio inspiration

Vandelay Design has a great list of portfolio sites, showing how folks are arranging their 'I did this!' pages. I am going through a few such links since I should be finishing up my own portfolio site ... any day now. By the way, that Adam Amaral site is awesome!


What you need to know about Contracts

Thank you, Smashing Magazine. They had this fantastic article about Freelance Contracts and it is a must-read. Some stuff I already know but I learnt that the hard way, after dealing with exceptionally pushy clients. Now I am older and wiser but if only someone had told me some of that stuff early on ... Go on, check it out.


Vash the Stampedo

Ooooooh! The good folks doing a movie adaptation of Trigun has finally set a date. It's supposed to come out in 2010. Woot! Check out ANN for full details and other great links to that movie.

08 October 2009

I remember why I don't trust RT

How do I get dragged into these things?

Why click random links and read articles that end up annoying me?

Sure, half the movies on this are worse than an elephant's turds ... even if it has a Batman perched on it ... but then again, why would you include The New Guy?

That was not so bad. It may not be the movie of the year but it's certainly better than some of the mind-numbing crap people usually list in the besta-movies-eva category!

And the bloody hell is Kaene:The Prophecy in this list? Did you leave your brain at the door when you reviewed this?

It worries me that people can't tell the difference in quality and subtance when rating movies like Big Momma's House and Kaene; that stupid Big Momma's whatchamacallit should never have been made and Kaene was so good, it wandered into the snooty-arty category.

Dr Horrible Part 2?

I don't know if I should get excited about this one.

There might be a follow up to the Dr Horrible Sing-along Blog.

On the one hand, I love the show and, let's face it, Joss Whedon's work is almost always awesome.

On the other hand, I will be bitterly disappointed and cursing at them if they decide to put this show on wucking-fanker-Hulu.

Hmm, that was a bit of a rant.

Meh!

06 October 2009

Season 3, ep 6 of The Guild

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=09ca7e47-a094-46b3-ace4-d28658ee76a1" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 6: Newbtastic">Video: Season 3 - Episode 6: Newbtastic</a>

New Guild episode is out. Go on, check it out.

30 September 2009

Blasphemy Day is Today

Go on, say something. Make the clerics proud. Must stop with the Equilibrium references.



What about the 72 virgins or something like that? Although, when you think about it, makes you wonder if he was going to get a continuous supply for eternity or if it was a once-off deal of virgins who end up as his wives and then nag at him to take out the trash for the rest of eternity?

28 September 2009

Banned Books Week

Equilibrium

This is it, it's here. The Banned Books Week. So, what's everyone up to?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I was planning to read a few banned books and talk about them this week. Turns out I didn't have time to finish reading any of it; in fact, I will start reading them this week.

Eeeyikes!

However, I will be planning to talk a bit about censorship, banned books and challenged books/videos/movies this week.

This particular article is not about a book but I am guessing if the movie is too controversial, any book by the good fellow is probably being handed to the clerics.

Check it out - US is shunning the new Darwin movie (Derren Brown's Blog)

24 September 2009

Did you jump straight into an activity?



This was a boring ad. Alright it was boring until they started out with their innuendos. If that was intentional, man, those were sad ... and creepy.

Or am I the only one picking up on that?

Oh man! Someone else was also thinking along those lines. In fact they built on the tension between the folks. Ai Ai. Check it out here!

Lily Allen infringes on copyright ... again!

Maybe Lily Allen must have a quiet chat with Lars about the follies of putting your foot in it.

After she became the poster child for anti-piracy tirade, it's no surprise that folks will start scrutinizing her life and seeing if Ms. Allen adheres to copyright law.

Apparently not, especially if this Techdirt article by Micheal Masnick is anything to go by.

Quote from Techdirt:

When Lily was first trying to get attention, she created a couple of mixtapes with a ton of songs from other artists... available as MP3 downloads, and mixing in her own tracks. This is a well-known tradition in some circles and a great way to get some attention. We're all for it. But... it seems quite hypocritical of Ms. Allen to claim that file sharing is somehow evil and destroying the industry when she appears to be an active participant and used it to promote herself (oh my goodness! free music working as promotion!). According to the tracklisting of the second mixtape, it included 19 tracks by artists other than Lily Allen. Both mixtapes (mixtape 1 and mixtape 2) are available directly off of Lily's website, LilyAllenMusic.com, which has a copyright notice at the bottom from EMI.

Check out the full article, the writer makes a good point about implications of 'three strikes' in Lily Allen's case.

Parody about American Insurance Folk



Hehe, nicely said!

16 September 2009

Lily Allen hates piracy?

Want to know what Lily Allen has to say about file sharing?

Seems like she is not in favor of p2p sharers.

Quote from Cyberlaw:

“Last week in an article in The Times these guys from huge bands said file-sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world.

For new talent, though, file-sharing is a disaster as it’s making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge..."

Charming.

Someone should tell the young one what happened to Lars when he last made a comment along those lines.

Moore talks about print media

Hmm, interesting.

This is Michael Moore's take on newspapers going down the privvy.

Quote from The Wrap:

It’s not the Internet that has killed newspapers, the gadfly documentarian said in a four-minute detour from talking about his film, which rejects capitalism as “undemocratic.”

Instead, he said, it’s corporate greed. “These newspapers have slit their own throats,” he said. “Good riddance.”

There's a video on the site too, go check it out!

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Alright, so Banned Books Week is coming up - Sept 26th to Oct 3rd. It is a day marked in US where folks note which books have been challenged or brushed aside in the past few years.

There is focus on banned and challenged books of the current year as well, acting as a platform for authors and works which have been shunned or silenced.

It is basically a tremendous effort to ensure freedom of speech and freedom of expression is kept alive.

So, to mark this week I have been looking over the Banned and Challenged Books of the past few years. You can find out more here and here.

I am hoping to read/re-read 3 or 5 from this list - depending on how much time I can free up from my schedule - and write about them in the Banned Books Weeks.

You don't have to be in US to be passionate about this cause. In fact, it's not necessarily about US alone but free speech all over the world.

Would be nice is folks from other parts of world talked about books that have been pushed aside in their countries. Well, if they can and if they don't get in trouble for it. :(

You know, I expected racy or in-your-face type of novels and stories to be on this list.

Far from it.

Some of the books listed on there are just harmless. Well, other than the power to change the way we think, I suppose.

Check out some of the frequently challenged classics:

1984 (Hmm, no surprise there. Let's pause and ponder about the Kindle incident)
The Lord of the Rings (Wait ... what?)
The Maltese Falcon (Can't find why this is on the list)
Winnie-the-Pooh (Are you kidding me?)
The Wind in the Willows (Again with the wtf?)

15 September 2009

Oh, a wifman!

This was interesting.

It's one of the posts from Grammarphobia - absolutely fantastic source of language info - and the post in question talks about the use of singular and plural forms for the word 'woman'.

What was fascinating was the writer's account of the etymological background of the word 'man' and 'woman'.

Go on, read the post already.

10 September 2009

Derren Brown guesses lotto numbers

Oooh, everyone is talking about Derren Brown guessing the lotto numbers.

That was pretty mind-blowing.

Wonder how he did.

Took him a while to get this right so am guessing this is like the supermarket trick?

Or maybe not. He does say it is not a trick.

Well, they will air his explanation tomorrow on channel 4 - dammit, I don't have that on cable - but hopefully, Brown will upload/link to video for online viewing soon.

Man, you can't say Brown to refer to anyone else anymore, not after watching so much Mock the Week!

Darwin's cocoon

Awwh, this was so cool.

Quote from News24:

London's Natural History Museum on Tuesday unveiled an eight-storey extension in the shape of a cocoon to house the collections of Charles Darwin ...

The $129m building houses 17 million insect specimens and three million plant specimens as well as a Climate Change Wall of screens showing the impact of global warming.

I am glad UK is a bit more sensible about science and topics related to evolution than its other friends.

Hitler finds out about another Downfall parody



Must .... stop ... laughing!

This was one of the best parodies of Der Untergang I have seen.

07 September 2009

Leslie: My Name is Evil



This movie looks interesting.

Found it via Horror Movies

04 September 2009

Friday Links

Alright, so after a looooooong break in blogging I am back. And looking around to see what I missed.
fail owned pwned pictures
see more Fail Blog
Stargate Universe

Yea yea, I know I said I would probably shun this .... and I will too, just you wait ... but I have to admit, Robert Carlyle adds a certain amount of dignity to that show.

Apparently this show is darker than the other two. Will see.

Check out trailer here.


Dead Men Walk

Ooh and there is the review for Dead Men Walk. That was an enjoyable movie with just a bit of cheesiness here and there.

I don't think it helped that the vampire looked like an evil butler.

Even so, he pulled off the fang-boy moves better than the modern vegan vamps.

By the way, this movie is in the public domain.

Swear to God

And I came across this tidbit whilst browsing Reddit.

Apparently kids had to pledge allegiance to God in order to obtain a US citizenship.

Wait, I thought you didn't have to, that allegiance to God was specifically left out by the forefathers. After all, people did move to New World to escape religious persecution.


She has plans

I read this story about a wee little lassie in China who wanted to be a corrupt official when she grew up.

Now, did she pick up that idea from the movies? Or did she watch a lot of news?

Or is this a glimpse of what the parents talk about at home?

Here's a good TGIF moment

I got this in my email today (thanks Ferradine). It's a few random thoughts of 25 -35 years old and I must say, this made my day.

Wonder where these sayings came from? The way emailing works, I bet it's pretty popular on net and everyone has a copy so ... we'll find out soon I guess.

Random thoughts of 25 -35 years old: Favourites -

- Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning that just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

- Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realise I had no idea what the f*** was going on when I first saw it.

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realised that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going?
But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

- I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies".

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories.

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem …

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV.. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'


- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new guy, I'm terrified of mentioning something he hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 25 km/h? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for paedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- The other night I ordered take away and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic cutlery. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

02 September 2009

Women and Wikipedia

I hate generalisations - women only play Sims, they are finicky, they love Ogres ... wait, what?

Anyway, I also hate to admit it, but a large percentage of women follow the socially determined gender norms and thus, contribute to dumb ass results ... like this one.

Quote from Mashable:

According to the The Wall Street Journal, the survey took place in November of last year, with results being presented last week at a conference in Buenos Aires. A total of 53,888 respondents indicated that they were Wikipedia contributors, but only 6,814 of them were women.

Meh!

17 August 2009

Sign if you want LAN

I don't think Blizzard gives a damn but ...

100,00 people have signed a petition saying they are really upset about the LAN-less option for Starcraft2.

Let's see if they care. I can see someone at Activision going 'Pfft!'

Don't get your hopes up.

Read more @Eurogamer

More BSG

Well, well, well.

Looks like there might be a BSG movie, directed by Bryan Singer too.

Quote:

Universal Pictures has confirmed blog speculation that Bryan Singer, director of Valkyrie, will take on directing and producing duties for a BSG movie.

I still have to watch the last season of BSG. Gaar!

Source: link

Do you want to date my avatar



Alright people, the music video for The Guild is out!

The video is directed by Jed Whedon ... I am having a de ja vu moment. I've mentioned this before, haven't I?

Well, at least I can embed the video this time.

You can buy the song from iTunes. Go on, buy it and support the good gaming folk!

Season 3 is out on Aug 25th!

13 August 2009

Legend of Neil and The Guild update

It's been a while since I blogged about anything. Or linked to anything for that matter.

I blame it on Evil Genius and Silent Hill. *mutter* Die, Dollie, die!

Been meaning to update blog so let's see what I've been reading.

I am gonna bundle these two news together since they are kinda related.

LoN

I watched Ep 2 of season 1 and it's worth a watch.

It's good fun for gamers who are familiar with the NES Zelda game.

I remember how much trouble I had finding that stupid blue candle.

That's when I drew my own map, aah bonus points there!

Anyway, check it out at LoN website.


The Guild

Which segues nicely into news about The Guild.

They released a fun little music video called "Do you want to date my avatar?"

The song was directed by Jed Whedon and co-written by him and Felicia Day.

It's quirky, it's fun and the part where the two guys rap is hilarious.

It is currently available on Xbox Live video marketplace.

Well, starting from Monday, the 17th of August, it will be available all over the net. Probably from The Guild's website.

You'll see.

I am pretty sure they also gave the date for the release of the third season of The Guild. Or was it the net-wide release of the song?

Guess this means I have to go check it again.

03 August 2009

Remember the Tryweryn

Graffiti in Wales was something I read about quite a bit today.

I have an interest in graffiti art (specifically relating to works like Banksy) and this one, though not as creatively ground-breaking, still reached out to me.

It's about a graffiti inscription in Wales and it describes the historic significance of this particular work.

Read about the Cofiwch Dryweryn.

Pratchett shares his thoughts

I saw him on BBC this morning. It was about this same topic - Assisted Death.

I must say, he did a very good job presenting his point of view. But then again, this is Mr. Pratchett. :)

Quote from The Telegraph:

"There needs to be, for the safety of all concerned, some kind of gentle tribunal, to make certain that requests for assisted death are bona fide and not perhaps due to gentle persuasion," he said.

30 July 2009

Men At Work sued by girls in uniform

... sort of. So some people are suing Men At Work because the band stole the riff from an older song.

Incidentally, the riff was part of a song for the Girl Guides.

So now the injured parties (Larrikin Music) wants royalties from the song.

Am I the only one thinking this violates the ideals and whatchacallits of the Girl Guide movement? Wasn't the movement a sort of a hippy 'we love the world' crap movement in the first place?

Or was that just tactics to avoid bears? I don't know, I steered clear of them in my school. The whole campfire singing, running away from bears nonsense looked less fun than a lazy weekend playing Wolfenstein 3D.

28 July 2009

Legend of Neil Update

Ai Ai Ai! The second season for Legend of Neil is out! Episode one can now be viewed at this link.

Oooooh!

*sings LoN theme song*

And Mother Nature wins

This is hilarious.

William Shatner reads Sarah Palin's farewell speech as a poem. And it makes more sense when he does ... at least it sounds less garbled.

Excellent job, Capt. Kirk!

23 July 2009

The Terminator's budget-cutting knife

As my better half said - the Gordon smile has been overtaken by the Arnold knife.



These folks might want to talk over some of these moves with their PR people. Or maybe the PR people are just really bad adapting to online networking tools.

21 July 2009

There's one in every country

Alright, this is just lame.

Sweden has its own copyright overseeing group and they thought of a new way to make lots of moolah.

Quote from Techdirt:

In this case, STIM has apparently sent out demand letters to thousands of Swedish companies telling those companies that if anyone at the company listens to music on the job, the company needs to pay for a license.

Season two of Legend of Neil

Ooh I must note that date.

Legend of Neil is coming back on 27th of July 2009. That's right, season two of the series will be up and viewable at Atom.

Surely there are other folks just as excited as I am?

Check out more info and pictures at io9.

10 July 2009

Friday Links

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

NO TGIF for these PCs


Ouch. This is bad.

Quote from News24:

A third wave of cyber attacks hit South Korea on Thursday evening, blocking or impeding access to official and private websites, amid suspicions North Korea or its supporters are to blame.

I can't find the link I read yesterday but I remember seeing Amazon listed as an affected site.

Surely this is bigger news than ... the trivial crap that has been sensationalized in past few days?


Extra extra, read all about it

Hmm, so NYT is slowly moving towards their subscription system.

So far it looks like a $5 per month model.

I honestly don't see it working. I think the days of paid news is over. Time to find a system better suited for the times.


They looked startled? Maybe they had heard stories ...

... about human interrogation techniques?

There was this article in NatGeo about monkeys being peevologists. Or having the potential to be one.

Quote from National Geographic website:

Monkeys can form sentences and speak in accents—and now a new study shows that our genetic relatives can also recognize poor grammar.

I am not sold on that study. I suppose you can't really elaborate on that study in greater detail on that site, especially when NatGeo might not want to sound like a scientific journal.

09 July 2009

United Breaks Guitars



Ooh bad PR for United. They better be worried about negative publicity like this.

07 July 2009

Another Pratchett movie

Oooh!

Sky is going to make a movie adaptation of Going Postal.

I am not the biggest fan of movie adaptations but then again I was alright with Hogfather.

However, I am going to view this warily until I see the final product.

Quote:

Following the success of its Terry Pratchett adaptations "Hogfather" and "The Colour of Magic," Sky said Monday that David Suchet, Charles Dance and Richard Coyle will head the cast of "Going Postal," a forthcoming Sky1 high definition production of the novel from fantasy writer Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

Source:
Hollywood Reporter

03 July 2009

Not at those prices!!

I never did like EMI. Or the other big music folks for that matter.

Quote from Music Ally:

EMI Publishing is refusing to make its catalogue available for streaming under the new 0.085p minima rate proposed by PRS for Music in the UK. The publisher will now administer its own royalty collections with the aim of securing higher rates from streaming services.

Wonder if these new collection groups will also harass little old ladies and girl scouts.

02 July 2009

Put away the eye-patches now, it's over

So now we know that The Pirate Bay is going to be bought by a company called Global Gaming Factory.

Seems like another Napster, doesn't it?

Well, the folks over at TPB seem to be reassuring users that personal info will not be transferred.

Read the full story @ Wired.

Usenet lost

Isn't this cheerful?

Quote from cnet:

Usenet.com lawyers lost their copyright infringement case to the music industry on Tuesday and are now preparing for a federal court to assess damages. The judgment could be hundreds of millions of dollars.

You gotta read the full article, it's pretty depressing. The comments at the end don't help much either.

Always interests me, the way countries will not interfere when great number of folks are being killed but the moment it is copyright infringement, then they have to tell you how to run the country.

Charming.

26 June 2009

fail owned pwned pictures
see more Fail Blog

Apparently the judge likes his music

Didn't see this coming. Richard Marx has expressed his views on the recent Jammie-Thomas Rasset case. He seems quite upset that his music was used in that case.

Quote:

Her accountability itself is not in question, but this show of force posing as judicial come-uppance is clearly abusive. Ms. Thomas-Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this issue.

What's his face form U2 and Sheryl Crow could learn a thing or two from him.

Source: Arstechinca


Ways to improve posture

Ye, I got tired just by reading this article. Somehow I see myself sticking to the Igor pose near my work PC.

Well for anyone who is interested, here are way to "improve your hunched over the PC" posture.


Ad made of Zim dollars

Remember that billboard made entirely of Zim Dollars? The one that said "Thanks to (President Robert) Mugabe this money is wallpaper,". Ok, so it had other saying too but this one kind of stuck with me.

Well, this particular ad won an advertising award.

Read the article here.


Freelancing guide

And if you doing freelancing (more specifically, writing web content), this is a good article to read.

It's called Web Content Sites: Do you have job security?

Good discussion, great points. How sad that one of my former clients fall into all of the warning signs listed in that article. Hence why the person is an ex-client, I suppose.


Finishes with a Nike ad too

Not a bad article. The don't make excuses guide.

This is probably more relevant on Monday.

And when I am supposed to go for a long walk or something.

24 June 2009

It is missing, the zest!

Awwh, this was such a nice article. I thought I would share.

It is sure to beat the blah feelings today ... for whichever reason you have the blah feeling. It must be the Weird Wednesday feeling - you know, it's halfway from start of week and yet, not close enough to end of week.

So here it is - How to finally feel motivated at work.

If it applies to you and helps you to read this, great! If you happen to be shiny and happy and don't get what the hell this article is about, then go hug a co-worker or something.

1984 all over again

Eeek! Wtf!

More stories of police possibly abusing power in UK.

Quote from The Guardian:

Two female protesters who challenged police officers for not displaying their badge numbers were bundled to the ground, arrested and held in prison for four days, according to an official complaint lodged today.

By the way, isn't it an offence to take a pic of a police officer in UK now? Which is kinda scary.

Source: Guardian via Stallman.org

Ap = Networking fail!

This is so weird. It's almost like print media lives in a totally different world.

I am talking about the AP guidelines for Facebook given to their employees. And somehow, they have come up with the strangest rules.

Everyone is going on about the fact that you have to delete stuff others post (guessing it is from your profile page only) but other points strike me as even more odd.

"Also, managers should not issue friend requests to subordinates, since that could be awkward for employees. It's fine if employees want to initiate the friend process with their bosses."

Wtf?

And btw, I would not click a link that says "It's a good idea to reference the AP in the promo language, i.e. Just how much geek can be chic? Test your fashion IQ with this interactive game. "
Lame!

Source: Editor&Publisher

23 June 2009

Kids don't read anymore

Got this via a friend.

The article is called Get a Life, Holden Caulfield (via NYT) and it talks about the classic novel, Catcher in the Rye.

The article was a strange look at modern teens today. Apparently kids don't want to discover who they are and how they fit into the grand scheme of things any more.

Now folks just want to be sheep. All of them. Following one happy clappy path!

I know everyone likes to say that due to the Harry Potter craze, more and more kids are reading now. Yes, and according to that friendly spam email, mas mailing emails will eventually land you a free laptop from MS. Or save the business of someone in Nigeria. Depends in whichever hits your mailbox.

What I would like to know is .... so what are these kids moving onto from Harry Potter? With their new found love for reading? Dickens? E Nesbit? Books about Sherlock Holmes?

Or is it more accurate to assume these same ones are going for something more similar to the style and content presented in Potter series i.e. the Twilight books and such?

Freelancing emergencies

I have had emergency calls from clients. Well some more than others. What if you have too much to do? Other deadlines to meet? How do you say 'No'?

Laura Spencer wrote this great article about dealing with such last minute issues - Learning to say 'No' nicely - How to keep from burning bridges!

Sigh, now to heed some of that advice.

Cult of Snuggie



This was just too funny! This came up 'cos someone I know bought a snuggie.

22 June 2009

Calling E.T.



Ooh nice!

I found this via Aleksander L. Zaitsev's blog. Incidentally, I wish there were translations of his blog (most of them are not in English which is a shame).

The topic in question is a documentary named "Calling ET" and it is made by a Dutch director, Prosper de Roos. Nice! Check out the trailer; it looks like it will make interesting viewing.

People should be paid not to play their horrid duff duff ringtones!

Almost all my copyright-related stories start like this ... WTF!

Apparently ASCAP thinks playing a ringtone is copyright violation. Still shocked about that girl scout story as well. Eeek!

Quote from EFF:

ASCAP's outlandish claim is part of its battle with major mobile carriers (including Verizon and AT&T) over whether ASCAP is owed any money for "public performances" of the musical ringtones sold by the carriers. The carriers point out that the owners of the musical compositions (i.e., songwriters and music publishers) are already paid for each ringtone download, but ASCAP claims that it's owed another royalty for the "public performances" (i.e., ringing in a restaurant) of those same ringtones.

19 June 2009

Friday Links

TGIF! Yay! Alright, so what's the news?

fail owned pwned pictures
see more Fail Blog

Fighting Child Porn; an excuse folks use to censor free speech

Found this via Richard Stallman's site.

It is about internet censorship in Germany.

Quote:

Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture.

What is it with Germany and such stringent laws? Don't they want to move with the times?

It's annoying that they use the old excuse "fighting child porn". Ye, apparently all these measures don't make the children any safer: look at South Africa and India and what is happening to children there (note: foreign tourists are involved); also look at all these freaky people locking up their own children in vaults and basements.

Eh?

Source


Creepy and cool at the same time

Ooh check out this artist!

Kinda like the surreal feel. My favorite is the last one, the pink fish hug.

The artist is Alex Pardee by the way.


Who?

There might be a Dr Who feature film.

Woot!

At least that's what Film School Rejects say.


Making a splash

Google Labs is developing something called Flipper; it's a news viewing app.

Quote from TechCrunch:

While we have yet to use it, what looks nice about it is that you can not only browse by sections, but also by sources, keywords, and most importantly by elements such as “most popular” and “recommended.”

Take that, stupid newspapers!

18 June 2009

Why IE8 is better than other browsers

Must ... stop .... laughing.

To all those out there who know what a browser is (yes, I saw the Chrome video recently and boy that was funny too), this will be ... painful. And utterly hilarious.

Comparing IE8 to other browsers. Oh dear dear!

Quote:

Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.

Er, 'That's just not nice'? Is that your argument now?

Side note: No sign of Opera ... wonder if that's cos Opera would kick their behind in the browser dept.

Easy money using copyright nonsense

Garrrr this is annoying. But then, when is anything linked to copyright news pleasant?

A collection company (i.e. one of the Sheriffs of Prince John, RIAA) is not happy that stations don't wanna play music of finicky copyright-pro musicians? Isn't it upto the stations to play what they want?

And then these folks have the gall to talk about lack of democracy in the 3rd Third. Hypocrisy much? At least some of the more stringent countries are open about their nasty laws.

Quote from Techdirt:

Earlier this week, musicFIRST, the big time lobbying group put together by the RIAA to push for the highly questionable Performance Rights tax on radio stations, did a neat little publicity stunt where it asked the FCC to investigate radio stations that apparently were "boycotting" musicians who supported the Performance Rights tax, claiming that it was an abuse of the airwaves. Remember, this is the same group that just recently called radio "a kind of piracy."

Use the footer wisely

This was a useful little article by Smashing Magazine: Informative and Usable Footers!

It has great design tips as well as a list of sites with creative use of footers.

All great inspiration for my own site. If I can sit down and finish it one of these days.

17 June 2009

The Guild is looking for videos

The Guild is having a fun little contest for fans.

It's called a Worst Guild Candidate and is open to US residents.

Quote from The Guild website:

Here’s what we’re looking for:

A short video clip that is an “in character” proposal for joining The Guild. So, that is, you as a character proposing why you want to join Codex’s Guild. Pretend Codex put a call out for new members - this is your character’s response. It is intended to be fake, fictional, ridiculous and hopefully funny.

This should be fun.

Virgin ain't coy about downloads

Eh?

Virgin Media is making a deal with one of those big honcho music groups to provide unlimited downloads of music based on a subscription service.

The new system is purported to have a number of perks - you can keep music even after you stop using system and you can download as many as you want in a month.

It annoys me more that Virgin is kind of alright with the three strikes idea.

Quote from Arstechnica:

... Virgin says that it plans to implement a graduated response system (also known as "three strikes") that will result in temporary suspension of Internet access for repeat pirates. Unlike other three-strikes implementations, though, Virgin says no users will be permanently disconnected and that the system won't depend on network monitoring or interception of traffic. Again, Virgin does not specify how it plans to catch offenders without monitoring their traffic.

So 'graduated response system' is the euphemism for 3 strikes? Thanks for letting me know. *mutter mutter* euphemisms, PR and deception....

16 June 2009

Google is not for everyone

First off, let me say, it's a rather pretty site. Not bad, as far as layout is concerned. Might have had a nicer nav menu but you can't win them all, hey?

Well, what am I going on about? Koogle! It's a search engine aimed at conservative Jews so that the folks could use the internet without worrying about dodgy content.

It's not for me, I would be quite upset with such an engine. But, am also thinking this is probably stuff that local folks actually want as opposed to being a system that is implemented by authorities on them.

Source: News 24

15 June 2009

Let a real expert talk about it

Isn't constant dialog defending New Age pseudo-science stuff just making your case all that weaker?

Now Deepak Chopra has rolled up his sleeves and defended the recent Oprah controversy.

Quote from main article:

The medical profession is burdened with a host of problems that Oprah addresses with more candor and force than the AMA. She promotes wellness and prevention, two areas that drastically need improvement. She brings up creative solutions to problems that medical science is baffled by, such as the healing response itself and the role of subjectivity in patient response. These are issues that few M.D.s are willing to explore, yet she has done so for decades.

Is it me or did he just admit that, yes Oprah has been promoting pseudo-science nonsense for years?

Why not shut up about it?

Better yet, go for the "You'll never understand it" and then fold your arms and sulk in a corner ... seems to be the socially accepted way to win an argument in this regard.

Don't come up with all these arguments and justifications as if both sides can reason this out for a middle ground. Er, you can't. Sorry but science has the upper-hand on the logic and reason, best you stick with that tingy feeling in gut that tells you what to do.

Source:
Huffington Post via Reason Weekly

What's with these stupid remakes?

You know, I heard that bit of news about the new Buffy movie a while back. Could have been last week but who's counting?

Anyway, when I first heard about it, I was not sure if Whedon would be a part of it. Sure, they were hinting that some other folks were going to dabbling around with the concept but there was no outright "Whedon = No".

Until now.

Airlock Alpha was talking about it recently and they have quoted Whedon as saying that he is nowhere near that project. By choice.

I'm with the site on this one - good luck to guys trying to remake / maim the beloved series. Whedon was the one who made it cool in the first place. Ye, I watched the original movie and it wasn't all that brilliant.

I also have this fear that any new allusions to vampires post-Twilight will have the wannabe-goth look going on. Boy, is that going to be painful.

Source:
Airlock Alpha

12 June 2009

Friday Links

What's been going on this week? There are links to the Stargate Atlantis movie premeire (mostly because of the number of searches for it on my blog), Terry Pratchett and the copyright law in France.

fail owned pwned pictures
see more Fail Blog

Stargate Atlantis Movie

A lot of folks looking for information about the next Stargate Atlantis movie. I must admit, I have been somewhat oblivious to recent updates. In between moving abroad and getting tons of new work, I never got around to finishing the last season.

Well, for anyone curious about it, it looks like they might be working on it. At least that is what the wiki says.

If you are looking for good sources about Stargate Atlantis, I suggest subscribing to Joseph Mallozzi's blog (thanks to aindy for pointing out the blog in the first place). I noticed that he talks about upcoming projects and throws in titbits about the Atlantis movie.

From what he said on June 2009, a date has not been set for Stargate Atlantis movie. And they have not set date to shoot the movie.


It's a cold day in a non-existent hell

Unless there is a heat wave where Dreamworks is based.

I came across this bit of news today.

DreamWorks Animation is going to bring a mix of original films, sequels and spinoffs to the big screen, announcing it will release eight animated feature films through 2012.

Yea, like I care.

Oh wait ... one of the movies will be:

Truckers, based on the first book in Terry Pratchett’s The Bromeliad Trilogy about a society of tiny beings that live in a department store. The script is being written by Simon Beaufoy, who won the Oscar this year for Slumdog Millionaire.

Noooooo! :( You expect them to take an excellent story like that, one that comments on society and religion and make something decent out of it.


Copyright police: Companies vs. the public

Found this article about France's three strikes rule.

Seems like they might have a bit of problem enforcing the blacklisting tactics. Read the full details here as there are more complications than they are admitting or letting on.

I loved the references to how the law violates the rights of man. Damn right.

Quote:

But IFPI hasn't received much in the way of "cooperation" from ISPs, which will generally disconnect paying subscribers only under government mandate. That's why no US ISP has come out publicly in support of a similar (voluntary) graduated response scheme proposed by the RIAA, it's why UK ISPs would only agree to go forward with warning letters and nothing more, and it's why French ISPs aren't currently cutting off subscribers.

09 June 2009

Michael Jackson's Second Ranch

So let's get this straight.

The guy is moving to a country that is reportedly the one with the most surveillance cameras and he wants to rebuild his fantasy style ranch there?

Quote from News24:

Jackson reportedly wants a funfair and bowling alley installed in the grounds of the historic Foxbury Manor, Kent, as he is pining for the Californian home he was forced to sell.

Right!

Some fun jabs at Trekkie series

Me and the better half have been catching up on some original Star Trek series. Aaah, the good old days when it was all about morals and saving the Earth ... albeit with characters that seem to be questionable references to various cultures on Earth itself.

I'd still pick these over the new Trek movie. Oh the misery!

Anyway, I just thought I would share some fun details about Star Trek that we were joking about.

Izzard and the red shirt

Remember comedian Eddie Izzard talking about the red shirt guys? And how they are almost always roadkill? I am sure it was Izzard who mentioned it.

Well, turns out he had a point there.

If, on any given instance, Kirk, Spock and the good doc beam down to Earth along with a good old red shirted crew member, who do you think will be dismembered/turned into a cube/poofed into a stone/killed?

If there were two red-shirted folk and one of them was a woman, who would be killed first?

Turns out I was wrong in my wager there.


Kirk and the Ladies

Which brings me to the next point.

Capt. Kirk almost always makes out with the ladies. Spreading the good word, herpes, you know the drill.

But how do you know if he will be donning some lip balm in that episode?

Look for any new female cast members; the amount of clothing on a woman's body is directly proportional to her chances of being his next target, I meant love toy, no wait, lady love.


What's with the killer kick

If there is a fighting scene (and you know there will be), watch out for Kirk's killer kick. He does this strange wrestler type jump and it seems to be his trademark move.

A running jump followed by two feet kick.

Very Street Fighter 2.

It can't hold a candle to Spock's deathly grip though.

05 June 2009

Friday Links

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged on this site. Busy busy and all that. Well I got some fun links for this awesome friday.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Evidence that the younger generation is a lost cause

Alright, so I lied. This is not awesome; this is painful and just wrong.

Why why why why!!

What hell was soon-to-be ex-Mr-Madonna thinking when he directed this?

Of course lesson here is, I didn't have to watch it. Serves me right, really.

Wtf am I going on about?

Trailer for Sherlock, the latest atrocity.


Creepy news for the day

Christianity and the US military. Er, yea I have been hearing about this a lot. Surely, military and governing bodies should always be secular?

And they said non-religious soldiers is what made the world go wrong in past wars.

Link to story: The Crusade for a Christian Military.


Does it sound like pseudo-science?

For shame, poor guy is threatened with legal action for questioning whether certain issues have a scientific basis?

The issue in question is about Simon Singh and how he is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association.

Quote by Simon Singh:

"It has been a stressful and frustrating twelve months since I published my article on chiropractors and their attempts to treat children with conditions such as asthma. The British Chiropractic Association's decision to sue me for libel has been an enormous drain on my time and energy. However, the support that I have received from family, friends, readers, bloggers, scientists, journalists and those who care about free speech has been incredible, and it has played a crucial role in my decision to continue defending my article and fighting the libel action."

Link: Sense about Science


Wonder if the Pirate Party will win

No wonder I have not checked the news for a few days. When I do, I come across stuff like this: Foreign Affairs As The New Copyright Law.

It's about US and their whole piracy yabba dabba crap.

02 June 2009

Censorship and Internet

Thanks, certain Western nations.

With all your piracy and internet is socialist crap, you have given certain countries the ammunition they need to hinder the freedom of speech of their people.

Aren't you proud.

Barely four months after dropping its proposal of forcing TV channels to show only an "authorized" feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Source: Times of India via Stallman's site

1984: scary look into the future

We watched 1984 the other night.

Boy, that was depressing. It was an excellent movie ... but you get really down thinking that the world is headed this way.

Despite all these excellent authors creating warning signs.

UK is moving more and more towards this type of society.

Sigh.

Well, people, go watch the movie, tell your kids about it and have a strong drink at the end of the day. Or kick a pigeon, whatever works for you.

27 May 2009

Faceplant for Sony CEO

Oh my word!

Felicia Day put forward the links to this article. It's a pompous article by Sony CEO about how piracy is bad and all sorts of other nonsensical arguments.

Like Felicia Day pointed out, check out the fantastic comments by readers for that article.

Woot! All those guys made my day.

25 May 2009

CCTV protest

I found this via Stallman's site.

Students walked out of a class in Loughton, to protest them being filmed on surveillance camera. Way to go, kiddies!

Quote from The Guardian:

PUPILS walked out of classrooms in protest against Big Brother-styled CCTV cameras recording their lessons.

And they came back wearing masks!

There's hope for the future just yet.

19 May 2009

I wonder how bitchy publishers will react

Tell it like it is!

Actually, in all honesty, this was a fantastic answer, Google!

It was along the lines of "Do you know how to block our spiders?No? Well, here's the text for it."

I'm sure Good luck and happy new year would have worked well as a nice send-off after that.


Read full details here @ Beet TV.

Little bit of news from across the Channel

I came across a news article about Sir Terry Pratchett.

Quote from This is Gloucestershire:

The novelist, who revealed he had been diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2007, has said he is 'disgusted' with counties such as Gloucestershire having no memory clinics.

18 May 2009

Plagarism amongst the pros

Found this on twitter (via @doshdosh).

This was hilarious.

Apparently a bigwig NYT journalist just might have 'borrowed' a sentence from someone's blog.

She claims she heard that particular sentence (read: paragraph) from a friend and she thought what the heck, let's throw that in. Or something to that effect.

Then she found out friend was probably quoting this blog.

Ye, no one is going to call it "copy and paste".

Thing about so-called Chinese whispers is ... you never remember sentences word for word from other folks. Unless you have a photographic memory.

So it was funny to see the 'friend's random quote' being an almost exact copy of the other guy.

For shame!

Twitter Comedy




Oooh I thought I would mention this.

There is gonna be a twitter comedy club event on June 8.

Got lots of familiar names too.

Check out the full details on their site.

Oh, and here is their twitter account - @tweetcomedyclub

15 May 2009

Real Life Twitter

Friday Links

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

FYI, David Bowie is a legend


Hmmm, the list itself disturbs me (yea, this is totally what Steinem fought for) but the title is what offends me the most.

"Weird looking guy"? Seriously? Is that what we are reducing people to now?

Just another sign of how shallow modern society is, I guess.

Read annoying list here.


Good response

This was a good answer indeed. It's Neil Gaiman's response to someone whining about GRR Martin.

It is annoying when people go yabba-dabba at writers and feel a sense of entitlement.

This is especially true for scriptwriters; it seems like too many of them seem to be caving into viewer pressure and then creating somewhat crap shows.

The example I would cite? Heroes, for one thing.

By the way, while we are on the topic ... whenever a movie goes PG-13 from the original grown-up only rating ... run, run far away.


WSJ rules = wtf?

Am I the only one who finds this set of rules absurd?

You can't dictate such terms, especially about online media, to your employees.

And, if that's how you conduct yourself on the internet, you won't get a big following. Cos that's not how they stuff around here...

14 May 2009

A little bit about Mininova

I was wondering about Mininova. Apparently the trial is on 20th May and not the 12th as I iniially thought.

This was a nice little article about the company and what they are upto.

They are right about adapting to consumer needs and changing times.

When will big companies learn?

Read article here ....

MJ auction is kinda creepy

I have been hearing about the MJ auction and how it was canceled and yada yada.

Big deal I thought to myself.

Then I came across this site which has an interesting array of stuff that was up for auction.

And all I can say is ... WTF??!!

What's with the knight poses? And the gate? And the cartoon art thingy?

Update: I found a link on the above site to a video. You can view it here. Just gets weirder.

07 May 2009

Can you spot him?

Oh come on!

This is an excellent ad!



I was wondering what the fuss was all about. People going on, complaining that this advert is patronizing.

You know, if I hadn't read the article in the first place, I wouldn't have seen the cameo appearance anyway.

The man's a good sport.