"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Friday, February 27, 2009

Links of the Day

Action Comics #1 Auction - The rarest comic of them all, an un-restored Action Comics #1 is up for auction which may get $400,000. Makes you wish your grandfather had collected them with care.

Rocky Mountain News Closes - A sign of the times, the Rocky Mountain News has closed its doors. The newspapers industry is losing money across the board. The death knell was predicted to be about 10 years off; it is now looking close to five. I would be sorry but the newspapermen easily and without a fight conceded their territory to bloggers that do their jobs with a great deal more skill and often more research.

August 31st, 2010 - That is the date that the "combat mission" in Iraq will end. This isn't to say troops will not still be there, it just means that most of them will finally get to come home. The date was pushed back from May due to elections over the summer and the need to secure them. It’s a year later then I would prefer but better then the never ending war that McCain advocated. By that time, the Iraq war will have gone longer then both World Wars combined and have cost more.

50 Most Influential Games - Guinness World Records compiled a list of the video games that most influenced the industry. A list that is wide open to debate considering their core criteria seemed to be based on "hey I heard of that game", sales volume, and sequel volume. I assume the assumption is if lots of people bought em, then lots of companies used them as a source of inspiration for their games. Nonsense but whatever. Legend of Zelda would have been number one in my list.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Links of the Day

Photo of War Dead OKed - In a reversal of Bush family doctrine that tried to prevent the country seeing the real emotional cost of their Iraqi campaigns, GOPer and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reversed the 18 year policy of not allowing pictures of the dead coffins as they return to be buried. There is a "condition" in that it’s up to the family of the dead to decide if the pictures will be allowed or not.

Jackson Continues As Nick Fury - After rumors that payday concerns caused Marvel to dump Jackson as Nick Fury (who was the model of the Ultimate version of the character), the hatchet has been buried and Samuel Jackson has signed on to a multi picture deal to play the character in Marvel's upcoming slate of movies. As a fan boy, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Obama Unveiled $3 Trillion Budget - In an attempt to roll back Bush's doctrine of rich first, big business second, war third, country last policies, Obama has released his very expensive spending plan. What makes this one so high is for once the defense spending (both military and Homeland Security) are mixed in making higher then we normally see. The ambitious plan includes re-funding Departments that Bush deemed unnecessary such as Education, Energy, and so forth. It also includes health care reform, energy and medical research funding (that the GOP ignored or deferred to the private sector leading to solutions such as that leg syndrome thing but no advancements beyond that) and budget cuts of unnecessary programs (not sure what those mean). More important it will roll back Bush's rich people first tax policies that he claimed would help everyone by helping those 5% the most. As the currently economy proves, just another area of many he and the GOP was wrong about. Since the passage, in the Senate anyway, will require about three Republicans to cross the isle (again), this budget will sadly experience massive and rich first changes that only the GOP can create. After all, if they didn't go out of their way to break government, how could they prove it doesn't work?

The Neverending Story Remake - Thanks to Friday the 13th's massive opening weekend (followed by a huge 81% drop), Hollywood has joined the remake train. Warner Bros. has optioned the book for a remake, this time following more closely to the original story. My only concern is approach as it needs to be modeled more closely after Lord of the Rings rather than straight out children's fare.

99 Greatest Internet Memes - Time breaks down (by topic, not ranking) of many of the 15 seconds of fame that the internet has wrought over the last few years. Somewhat interesting, I am glad to say I did an outstanding job of ignoring all of them.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Links of the Day

Conan, Richter Reunite for Tonight Show - After nine years, the team of will return when Conan takes over hosting duties in June. Richter left because he heard the call of Hollywood that resulted in usually good attempts and critical acclaim but no smash hits or megabucks. The return is likely helped that Conan is forced to move to LA for the hosting duties making it easy for Andy to continue to pursue Hollywood stuff and still announce the show.

Suntrust CEO Gets 75% Raise - Only on Wall Street. While everyone is getting pay cuts or outright layoffs, Wall Street continues to award its own for failure. It never ceases to amuse me how the rich are cheap in really stupid ways. They will argue until blue in the face about giving someone a five cents raise, but drop a few million on failure and they don't bat an eye.

CW Renews Six Shows - Good news to me anyway, Supernatural has got another reason to entertain and terrify. The show is often more entertaining the horror movies coming out in theatres. In additional, Smallville (way past its prime) gets a ninth season. The rest is America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and 90210.

Merrill Lynch Investigated - One of the casualties of the mortgage bust is under investigation because of $3.6 billion in bonuses given out to employees (mostly the upper echelon of the company). More specifically the investigation is into characters that then CEO John Thain moves up the payouts to co-inside with a tax payer infusion in the company. IE, the tax payers paid those bonuses to all those executives that ran the company into the ground and helped kick off the recession.

Heroes, Chuck On The Outs - New record lows where achieved for Chuck and Heroes in viewership despite repeats on the other networks. The likely cause is juggernaut House and NBC's cluelessness on how to schedule and promote their programs. Net result is these shows are probably on their last seasons.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Links of the Day

Watchmen Reviews - The movie made its world premiere in London so while the US is still under a gag order, the rest of the world isn't. Overall the reviews are consistently good. Even more surprising considering some are form fan boys who tend to be very harsh when judging comic movies. Click the link to read some and below is a video interview with Malin Ackerman, posted mostly because she is gorgeous (but I prefer the brunette look over the blonde).


iPhone App Management Solution - Sadly not real, but very cool. A nice interface to organize and manage your iPhone apps via iTunes so not constantly having to go through the pain in the rear process of moving a bunch of icons individually on the screen itself. It is something that Apple might want to look into but probably will not as they hate to acknowledge ideas that don't come from in house.


Harry Potter 6 Sneak Peek - From Australia (love the accent) is a video at the link that is a mixture of the teaser trailer and the cast talking about the movie.

Economic Hits Keep Coming - Sadly a series of reports prove that the economic mess isn't close to ending (thanks GOP!). Ritz Camera is filing for bankrupty again (no surprise considering their love of MSRP). Target experienced a 41% drop for Q4 which will likely stop new stores and lead to layoffs. Consumer confidence has hit a new record low with 37.4 for January, likely the result of the continued layoff news hitting every few days. Also a sign just how out of touch the GOP as they continue the "tax cuts" drum beat rather then play the "job creation, job security" song. Rich first I guess.

Palin Whines About the Press Again - More from Palin, now saying the press is out to destroy her. I guess those softball interviews where killer. I hope she continues the whining because then the argument becomes real simple about her qualifications for President - If she can't handle the press how do we expect her to handle the stress of the job? God what a vacant, shallow idiot, so much like Bush it’s frightening (but then even he can handle the press).

Kindle 2 Reviews - The new toy is out and the reviews are in. Overall, it’s an improvement over the first Kindle, best e-book reader around but no substitute for a good old fashion book, especially at its current price and inability to read in the dark.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Links of the Day - Mostly Movies Edition

Academy Award Winners - Another year, another 4 hours of Hollywood breaking its arm to pat itself on the back. Some decent highlights, but as I write this hours later, no memorable ones come to mind.

Weekend Box Office - If your Tyler Perry, it has been a great weekend with a $41.1M take for Madea Goes to Jail. Taken lands second with $11.4M, Coraline $11M for third, He's Not That Into You for Fourth with $8.5M and fifth for now Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire with $8.1M. Last week's winner Friday the 13th took a massive 81% drop to sixth with $7.8M indicating the (crappy) film will flame out in theatres pretty quickly and a lesson that word of mouth will kill you or help you every time.

Dark Knight Breaks $1 Billion - It took about three months longer then expected but The Dark Knight finally broke the rare barrier thanks to a $533 million domestic take and $567M take overseas. The film joins Titanic, LOTR: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in that elite club. I also see it as proof that overseas sales are more critical then ever for the long term success of any franchise.

Obama Hopes to Slash Deficit - In what I can only call a neat trick if he pulls it off, Obama is shooting to cut the $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush in half to "only" $533 billion by 2013. Most of the plan relies on tax increases for the rich only. Considering Democrats continued inability to control the message, the GOP will easily sell this as tax increases on small business and everyone else and turn it into another tax cut.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Last Late Night with Conan O'Brien

And so an era ends. After 16 years, Late Night with Conan O'Brien ends. Fortunatly Conan movies on to the Tonight Show in June. Good luck Conan.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Links of the Day - Economy Edition

Credit Crisis Explained - An excellent video that breaks down the current economic and credit crisis for those that don't understand how it all fell apart. It leaves out the more shady practices (such as forced "Prime" borrowers to "Sub-Prime" for better deals) but it’s a must see for anyone with questions.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.


MSNBC Rick Santalli Rants On Mortgage Bailout - The pundit (or reporter not sure which) loses it on Obama's plan to try and bailout mortgages. Funny thing how he didn't do this when the plan was to bailout the banks. Overall, he makes some valid points; I can't disagree with the thesis. The problem is those neighbors that screwed up are hurting us all. Not helping them doesn't help us. That is what is going on now. We are doing nothing...and nothing is happening. What alternative does he suggest? Nada of course. Kick them out of the houses and say good luck? Already doing that, it’s making thing worse. Like it or not, we have to save the idiots to save ourselves. It is the same reason we had to save those idiotic banks for creating and encouraging this mess. Help thy neighbor I thought was a Christian concept, but it is amazing in how a mostly Christian nation, they are the first to say no, even if it means hurting themselves in the process.


GM Hits 74 Year Low - Due to lack of confidence in GM's restructuring plan, its stock plummeted $1.52. The plan comes to laying off 47000 workers, borrowing $30 billion and focusing on four core brands (Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, GMC) while ending the rest. It does nothing about its debt nor addresses union obligations that add to that debt. Basically the perception is the company is in a death spiral, which probably isn't far off the mark.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Links of the Day

Sportsmanship Isn't Dead Yet - Nice story about a team that through away to free throws so that a player, whose Mom died the day before, could play the game without penalty. They made the choice to earn their points rather than have them given to them for a reason, that while part of the rules, wasn't just. In a time of stats ruling all, both the team and the player that purposely missed the free throws deserves a salute as indicated by this letter.

Dow Hits Six Year Low - Sadly the recession is continuing to show signs that recovery is at least a year away as a new low was hit today, the lowest it has been since October 9th, 2002. The cause is basically a lack in confidence in the stimulus bill since most of the programs where stripped away in favor of tax cuts at the demands of the Republicans. Because you know, companies make all their decisions based on taxes, not revenue. Just like they continue to believe you, the average American, make spending decisions not based on job security but taxes. Their (very rich) bubble must be a wonderful place.

Chimp Cartoon Creates (Artificial) Anger - Al Sharpton, starved for attention, as jumped on the cartoon to the right as proof of racism at the New York Post. Why? I don't know, to my know Obama didn't write the stimulus bill, majority and minority leaders in Congress did. Calling them monkeys is accurate and fair. Also, this crap about not being able to insult the president as others will twist it into racism as to end too. The right silenced naysayers after 9/11 and it wasn't right. It is not right when the left does it too. Assuming the Sharpton interpretation is accurate, guess what, Obama is the President. He is made of sterner stuff and he doesn't need the likes of Sharpton to protect him.

Acid Eye for Acid Eye - Through an Iranian law that allows literally an "eye for an eye", Ameneh Bahrami has asked her attacker be blinded by acid just like he blinded her. Human rights activists and bloggers are outraged but so what. Part of the reason we have the crime problems we have is the fear is gone. The phrase "you will go to jail" has no fear for many people anymore. If told though that you risk having inflicted on you the same thing you inflict on someone else, I guarantee many would reconsider their actions. It’s one thing to blind somebody if the worst thing that can happen is some jail time, but it’s a whole new ballgame if suddenly that act can happen to you too. Can you imagine how things like domestic violence would go down if the husband received the same beat down as the wife? A guy that shoots someone in turn gets shot? Stab someone...better not get caught or you will get stabbed too. The teeth is gone from punishment and something like this means that I guarantee the next stalker in Iran would think very long and hard before doing the acid trick again after this punishment is carried out.

More Megapixels the Better? - Short answer is no. At the link is a long article explaining why but the short answer is if the lenses and capabilities are not built in the camera then the picture quality may not necessarily improve. It’s kind of why the bigger the camera the better it is as more bells and whistles to get those perfect shots. Even shorter answer, if you’re not a professional or hobbyist, 6 megapixels is all you need.

Early Watchman Review - Apparently the sneak peeks have started and an early review found the film to be so-so. Oddly their complaint was the movie followed the source material too closely preventing proper exploration of the characters. Also high camp factor was cited (probably because of Malin, who looks amazing but acting seems so-so). Click here for clips.

California Budget - A nice little summary talking about the problem that is facing California due to some of its laws that have placed huge limited on how the state can raise money and pass budget laws. Laws that allowed a single Republican to hold the state and its thousands of workers hostage.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Links of the Day

What Is In the Foreclosure Plan? - A breakdown of some of the ideas in Obama's plan to get the country out of the housing foreclosure crisis that has brought banks to their knees and stopped the credit train that keeps many businesses going. To me any plan that doesn't include interest rate caps on credit cards and bank loans, while strongly encouraging re-negotiating loans at lower interest rates is plan doomed to fail.

Nintendo DSi for North America Dated - Nintendo DS version 3.0 is coming stateside on April 5th. The device will no longer play GB Advance games but will play all DS games and includes features such as cameras, voice recorder, music player, SD card slot and other features. It will retail for $170.

Track the Stimulus Bill Spending - A new website from the Obama administration attempts to keep his promise of increased transparency in the White House by launching the website Recovery.gov so people can see where those billions are going. A good start and hopefully a sign of more use of technology by the government.

The Legend of Chun-Li Clips - Five clips, none of them exactly confidence inducing footage. Moon Bloodgood is looking hot though.


Watchman Run Time, Clips, DVD Release Info - The Watchman marketing machine continues. With that is news the theatrical run of the movie is 2 hours 36 minutes, and a DVD director's cut is in the works that will be 3 hours 10 minutes. There will also be a 3 hour 25 minute cut with "Tales of the Black Freighter" footage to create a movie experience that as close to the book as possible. Also, clicking below is a bunch of clips from the movie coming out March 6th.
Clip 1 | Clip 2 | Clip 3 | Clip 4


Hypocrisy of a Republican - Keith Olbermann points out the hypocrisy of Eric Cantor and other GOPers. On one hand, they happily give up 800 billion to banks, a trillion to Iraq, etc but they have fits over the stimulus bill. They crow against the bill while in their home state issues press releases about what they did to bring that money to their states while not voting for the bill at all. In the case of Eric Cantor, he does all that and makes sure his wife got hold of some of that bailout money. Is there a time when a Republican isn't a hypocrite anymore?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Links of the Day

Stimulus Bill Signed by Obama - The $787 million stimulus bill, still smaller then Bush's $1.4T bill from 2001, is now signed into law. Now the wait begins. It will probably take at least 6 months before any potential is felt as the money works its way through the state government, lines the pockets of officials, and makes its way into companies hired to carry out the various projects the bill approves. In the meantime that extra $10 in tax savings should show up about late summer.

National Debt Chart - Click the link for an example of just how full of s$#@ Republicans are when they claim to be fiscally responsible. It is a myth that the stupid buy year after year despite zero proof of it. Republicans have NEVER been fiscally responsible. For current proof, see California, about to go bankrupt because they refuse to raise taxes despite the fact that 10s of thousands of workers are about to get laid off because the state doesn't have the money to pay them. They STILL insist tax cuts fix everything. How it makes money appear out of nowhere they have yet to explain.

Bristol Palin Interview - Funny how Palin has a "stay away from my children" policy except when it will get her national screen time. In an interview with Fox News (of course) the now 18 year old daughter talks about being a mom 10 years too early and finally says what common sense tells all of us but Bush, Palin and their base - that abstinence only education is not realistic. Well no $@#^! Why does it take personal experience to teach these idiots the obvious? As for Bristol, now that she is legal, damn that girl is gorgeous. If not for the child, she could have been a model. Too bad she probably also inherited her mom's brains.

Clinton Economic Record - The GOP likes to attack the Clinton years as proof of excess. Never understood why, everyone they represented (rich, corporations, etc) all benefited more under him then any president before or after.

Minutemen The Game - A throw back to the early 90s era of video games to help promote Watchman.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Links of the Day

Charter Communications To File for Bankruptcy - Considering how cable companies have a virtual monopoly on the areas they provide service, it takes a special kind of stupid to go bankrupt but Charter managed to do it. Could it be their crappy prices? Their nonsense tiers designed less for the customer and more to try and drive up those monthly fees? Maybe it’s the packet sniffing and other throttling practices they have engaged in? Or the fact they don't really bother to invest in their infrastructure, choosing to keep older neighbors behind the times. Considering I am one of their customers, I am going to have to go with all the above and much more.

To GOP: Don't Take the Money - Considering how the GOP forced a substantial number of tax cuts, while decrying the spending of the stimulus (and ignoring their previous eight years of record breaking spending habits), Paul Begala makes a simple proposal. He tells the GOP to stand by their morals and refuse the money for their states. Sure most of them accept more in federal money then their state provides via tax revenue but since the GOP thinks the federal government should stay out of it, and then refuse the money. Use their states as testing grounds to prove that their way works (nothing but tax cuts). I think it’s an outstanding idea and I guarantee no GOPer would do it as they know its political suicide. Just like they know that tax cuts don't work but it sounds nice and at the end of the day the GOP's secret slogan is "Party first, America last."

GOP Stimulus Support History - As the picture to the right shows, the GOP has a history of only supporting their own stimulus proposals. All this talk about how the bill isn't partisan (despite 40% of it being concessions to the GOP) is nonsense. In the last 20 years, they have only supported GOP bills. All that talk about the costs, also bullshit as they happily supported Bush's 1.4 trillion package in 2001 without batting an eye. What it comes down to is that continued belief that they have to prove that government doesn't work by trying to sabotage it every chance they get.

Friday the 13th Breaks Record - With a take of $42.4 million, Friday the 13th has the record for highest opening take of a horror movie. No mean feat considering the many horror films coming out. This likely means theatres will once again be swamped with cheap horror films and that A Nightmare on Elm Street remake is about to get fast tracked. Sigh. He's Not That Into You (too cute, mostly bland) took second with $19.6M, Taken (very entertaining) took third with $19.3M, Confessions of a Shopaholic is fourth with $15.3M, and Coraline (cute, kids will love) took fifth with $15.3M. The other new movie, The International (boring) took seventh with $10M.

How the economic stimulus plan could affect you - A nice breakdown of the ways the new stimulus bill will affect you right off the bat financially. Most of them are good if you’re out of work. On the taxes side, as expected, if your john q average middle class or below worker, the savings in taxes comes out to about $10 per pay period. Yep, enough to pay for dinner out one night. All that noise from Republicans and that’s what most of us get. Thank god we have the GOP to get in the way because wow that $10 is going to change my life.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Links Of The Day

DesktopGaming Wallpapers - Currently down but when the site is back up, a good place to go for wallpaper based on video games through the 16 bit era. In the meantime, go here and here for examples of their work (including Legends of Zelda: Link to the Past on the left).

Peanut Corp Files for Bankruptcy - The company that is source of the national salmonella outbreak has filed for bankruptcy, more then likely to avoid the lawsuits that would have been coming and to keep the executives who made the decision that shortcuts in safety were the best way to go to pad the bottom line so they can get their bonuses. Good riddance, too bad all those workers not directly responsible will be out of their jobs.

Obama Collector's Coins Huge Rip-Off - Sure they have "celebrity" Montel Williams selling them, but sadly that isn't enough to verify their authenticity. Instead of being coins produced specifically to commemorate Obama's election, they are in fact poor quality stickers applied to regular coins. Yep, for $20 you can own 91 cents in change with color stickers in a plastic case. As far as scams go, it must be pretty profitable. Video here.

Judges Paid Millions - It turns out that sending kids to detention centers can be very profitable as two judges found out to the tune of $2.6 million. Essentially the judges were paid to keep the poorly maintained PA Child Care filled with teens so that the center could charge the state for services poorly rendered.

The Simpsons New Main Title - After 21 years, the Simpsons has finally updated its title sequence, apparently as a result of the show going to the widescreen HD format for HDTV transition starting this Sunday. Not bad, lot going on and much like the previous, easy to cut down depending if the show is going long.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Links of the Day - God of War 3 Edition

For whatever reason, Sony released the trailer (below) for God of War 3 and allowed the press to discuss the game they got to get a look at and interview some of the people working on the game. Overall, it looks like the franchise will have another hit, to bad we will probably have to wait nearly a year to see it.

God of War 3 Impressions - A write-up of what was scene as they watch a part of a level get played for the game. The game has an epic feel with Olympus Gods vs Titans while Kratos continues his quest of revenge on Zeus.

Stig Asmussen Interview - An interview with the God of War 3 directly as he discusses his game and some of the hurdles they are working on.

Ken Feldman Interview - A discussion with the WoW 3 art director. He talks about some of the artistic choices, level design and the like for the game where they are allowed to go further thanks to the power of the Playstation 3.

God of War 3 Trailer - Below is the full trailer or download the HD version here.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Links of the Day

God of War Series Retrospective - In a run up to God of War 3 articles and videos coming out tomorrow, 1Up.com has a retrospective with the various creators of the games in the series. Interesting read and if you have not played the games you really should.

The Onion: New Stupid Piece of Sh&T - A hilarious spoof of new electronics that were not created to work very well.

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work


Right To Privacy < BillO's Need To Know - Hilarious bit from the Daily Show pointing out the continued mindless hypocrisy of Bill O'Reilly who tends to bash people for behavior that he engages in on a regular basis.


Kindle 2 Coming 2/24 - Amazon is releasing their next iteration of the handheld electronic book and the result is meh to me. It still has no backlight, still wastes a lot of real estate that could be used for a larger screen, and still way too expensive. Video here.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Links of The Day

Retail Credit Card Losses Mount - The bad economic news continues, now extending to credit cards as retailer are learning people are not paying off their CC for cards specific to retailers (such as Wal-Mart). Funny how a solution that could be a lot of help, reasonable interest rates, is not considered an option. You would think credit card companies would rather get some of their money back rather than none of it.

How a CEO Can Live on 500k A Year - Obama plans to cut wages for executives whose companies accept bailout money to $500k a year and already there are complaints about how unfair it is that the tax payer don't want to foot their luxury lifestyle in New York. Consumerist offered some suggestions on how to cut those costs such as having the parents parent their children rather than nannies, maybe take less vacations, and just possible but that vacation home may not be a necessary expense.

Cut from Stimulus Bill - In an effort to appease Republicans who continue to twist the stimulus argument into something about pork rather than jobs, lots of needed programs where cut. Some examples include making federal building more energy efficient (think of the power, AC, etc saving costs in the long term, plus jobs created retrofitting the buildings), money to upgrade law enforcement agencies wireless options (god forbid they have easy access to information to help them do their jobs, plus jobs to create and maintain that wireless system), $100 million for FBI constructions (because who needs building jobs in a market where no one is building much), $122 to modernize Coast Guard icebreakers (because don't need jobs to do that nor do ships use the arctic to get around, oh wait they do), and so on and so forth. Tax cuts do not create jobs; I wish people would get that through their skulls.

Watchman Viral Campaign: The Keene Act - Another great video about Watchman that sets up some of the background for the film. If you see them you might have more understanding then those that don't. I just like the re-production of old style videos from the 70s.

Ultimate Alliance 2 Trailer - Pretty good looking trailer for the game that will be based of Marvel's Civil War story arc from a year or so ago.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Links of the Day

Torchwood Season 3 Trailer - New season coming out of the darker side of the Doctor Who universe. It’s an acquired taste but makes for entertaining television.


Nintendo Training Video from 1991 - Amusing video that shows what a pain in the rear customers can really be as they demonstrate worse case scenarios when trying to help people. I just think its cool to see images of Nintendo and GameBoy games from back then, some of which I still own. My how the time has flown by and it just gets faster as you get older. Never believed that when I was a kid.


Violist vs. Beatboxer Duel - Click the link for two videos that shows Violinist Hilary Hahn and beatboxer Beardyman doing an impromptu duet/duel. Below is the second video from when the two got in their groove.


IMB Offers Moves to India...with Caveats - In a sign of the usual shit that passes as reporting, CNN.com reports on an IBM program that allows IBM's US workers the chance to move overseas where they are needed on the companies dime. The reporter, Karina Frayter, clearly just read the press release, emailed two people for a comment and called it a day without first asking the question of "what is the catch." After all, that would require real reporting skills. In this case, the catch is a massive salary cut as you get paid the local areas wage scale. This means that once you move there, moving back will be a bit of a challenge since you will not necessarily have the money to come back if things don't work out. Sigh, its lazy reporting like this that is why the internet and blogs have become new sources for information.

RIAA Lawyers Take DoJ Top Posts - As the photo shows and the link gets into details, previous RIAA lawyers, many of whom participated in the current war on consumers campaign have taken top DoJ posts. This means that other then being at the RIAA's beck and call, they will likely try to swing the departments focus and resources on RIAA and MPAA's wishes. Considering that Clinton sign the DMCA that has become such a bane on technology, what comes next will probably not be pretty.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Links of the Day

Obama Limits Bailed Out Executive Pay - After wasting billions last year on bonuses to executives who clearly didn't do their jobs, Obama put a limit on executive pay to $500,000 on companies that accept bail out money. Now what isn't clear is if this includes all the different ways executive get their millions (bonuses, stock, incentive pay, commission, stipends, etc) or just straight up salary. On the plus side this move will probably get companies to think very carefully about asking for a handout now that those in charge will feel a pinch on their wallets which is the driving force behind their years of poor fiscal policy.

DTV Switch Changed from 2/17 to 6/12 - After years and who knows how much in advertising, the date to switch to digital TV has been pushed back to June 12th by Congress. Personally it seems like a waste of money to me as people have had years to prepare by this point and no matter how much they push it back there will always be people that will not take action until they are forced to.

Car Sales Plunge 37.1% - Now that job security has reached bottom, people have decided that buying new cars just isn't a priority now. As a result, car sales hit a 28 year low. The credit crunch, where banks are holding onto money, even bailout money in a tight clinch of death isn't helping. The big three experience the biggest drop but Toyota and Honda were also deeply hit. Sadly, it looks like Republicans are winning the day with their push for more tax cuts that will do little to stop the job cuts that are occurring.

Windows 7 Gets Lot of SKU's - It appears that Microsoft didn't learn its lesson with Vista as it once again invites consumer confusion with 6 different SKU's rather then the three that they should focus on (Home, Business, Ultimate). It's another in a long series of stupid decisions, so I can't say I am surprised.

Olivia Munn Jumps in Giant Pie - Hilarious video from Attack of the Show where Olivia Munn, wearing a sexy maid outfit, jumps into a giant pie. The aftermath video is also amusing.


Christian Bale Mashup Video - As all over the net, apparently Bale has a bit of a temper. On one hand, the lighting guy should not have tried to adjust a light during filming, as normally that is done between takes. On the other, his mistake could have been handled in a much more professional manner and just generally not productive and accomplishes nothing except making you look like an ass. This leads to the many mashups that have appeared online. Below is my favorite one so far which is NSFW due to F-bombs.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Links of the Day

Porn Interrupts Super Bowl - In Tucson, Arizona, Comcast subscribers got a shot of porn's Evan Stone private part for a porn scene from Club Jenna. The moment last about thirty seconds before switching back but I am sure many where floored with guys having homophobic heart attacks and women going "why isn't my husband that big?" I suspect a class action lawsuit is on the horizon. Any case to see what Tucson say, click the link above (NSFW).

Cash4Gold Scam - A report from a former employee talking about what a scam the company. Which I thought was pretty clear from the commercials. I mean think about it, they want you to send them potentially hundreds of dollars of gold stuff and you trust them to give you fair market value in return? Why in the world would they do that since they already got your gold jewelry. It’s a scam; avoid it, tell your friends to avoid it. You want to sell your stuff, go see a pawn broker; you might actually get more money that way.

Macy Cuts 7000 Jobs - It has now begun in earnest as the retail sector begins to shred jobs that will hit mostly the middle and lower classes in a huge way. For those thinking the bottom has been reached, all I can say is hunker down. But hey, if you listen to Limbaugh and friends, tax cuts will save the day because that’s what companies look at when laying off people - taxes, not profits. I am sure those tax cuts will help you while your not earning a pay check too because of lay offs.

Weekend Box Office - Taken (very entertaining) took the top spot with $24.6M forcing Mall Cop to second with $14.0M. The Uninvited took in $10.5M, Hotel for Dogs $8.7M and Gran Torino $8.6M. It looks like the Underworld franchise is done considering it only took in $7.2M. Inkheart took in $3.7M so that is probably the final nail in the coffin for movies based on children's fantasy books.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Noteworthy Superbowl Commercials

I am like a lot of people that tend to watch the Superbowl less for the game and more for the often great and entertaining commercials. Here are a few I like.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen


Star Trek


G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra


Fast and Furious


Angels & Demons


Alec Baldwin for Hulu - Hilarious


Speaking of Hulu, cool widget from there to find all the commercials that aired during the game: