Links of the Whatever

One of these days I will figure out what direction I want this blog to go in but for now it remains focused on whatever thing that grabs my interest on any particular day. I seem to give good rants on forums, maybe just copy and paste those here :D.

RIP Nate Nielson, Lego Builder Extraordinaire
If you like Legos, especially ships, then the link above is worth checking out. It is the Flickr stream of "nnenn" who sadly died a few weeks ago in a car accident. Over the years he created hundreds of Lego crafts that are so good; it makes you wish that Lego might contact his family to create a line from his creative efforts. (via Gizmodo)

GM's Phony Loan Repayment
You know that commercial from GM where they brag that they paid off their government loans, with interest, five years ahead of schedule? Turns out they are lying. In reality they paid back $6.7 billion of the $52 billion they were loaned. What they claimed to pay back was one of several loans and to do that they used money from one loan to pay off another. Basically what they are doing is the equivalent of you bragging that you are debt free because you used one credit card to pay off another credit card. I guess this is Detroit math at work.

Supreme Court Stuck in 1960s Tech Wise
Considering the new frontier of the law will be based on technology and the internet, it’s particularly disturbing that the US Supreme Court has no meaningful knowledge of current technology. "Chief Justice John Roberts asked what the difference was “between email and a pager?"" I wish I was kidding. Yet these are the people that will decide what is legal or not with digital information. Giant corporations probably did back flips when they heard this.

4 Chords...36 Songs
Amusing bit from Australian comedy team Axis of Awesome as they point out that 4 chords are the fundamental underlying sound of 36 pop songs, many of them familiar hits.



Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
As the recent South Park episode proved, despite two wars and constant threats of killing Muslims, Americans' are still very afraid of them. This extends for showing a "respect" for their messiah that isn't shown for any other religion in the world. One interpretation of Islam law (of which there are thousands) is that Mohammad should never be seen, be it on TV, movies, or in a drawing. South Park theoretically violated this when the story supposedly put Mohammed into a bear costume (yeah apparently proxy use also violates their "law"). This lead to a radical Islamic group to threaten the lives of South Park creators. This caused Comedy Central to bleep the word Mohammed. The outrage over that led to the suggestion of Draw Mohammed Day. As the drawing shows, thanks to the radical Islamics rather wide interpretation drawing anything under the sun and calling it "Mohammed" violates their law, might as well have fun with it. It seems like a good idea to me as there is quite simply nothing anyone, even non-radical Islamics, can do that will satisfy the radicals (except all die of course) then there is no point in playing their game. If doomed to fail and get attacked anyway, might as say screw it and treat them with the same respect (or lack of) that is shown to other religions.

Warner Bros. Signs 20-Film IMAX Deal
I hope you are not tired of IMAX films especially the ones that are really just bigger versions of their regular film counterparts as WB has agreed to release such upcoming titles as Harry Potter 7 Part 1 and 2, The Hobbit Part 1 and 2, Happy Feet, Batman 3, Superman, and more for the screens. I want to be excited but I doubt that most filmmakers will take advantage of the format due to the cost and the reality that it doesn't really convert in any meaningful way to home movie release so hard to convince the studio to foot the bill for the expensive 70mm cameras.

Links of the Day

iPhone OS 4.0 Announcement - Today Steve Jobs announced improvements made to the iPhone OS. This OS is what runs the iTouch, iPhone and iPad. The key features are multitasking (with taskbar to track it), iBooks for all platforms, custom background, iAd advertising (yep more ads), 5x digital zoom for camera, and folders for all the programs. The iPhone and iTouch will get the update this summer, the iPad in the fall. The 1st gen iPhone/iTouch cannot support the changes; the 2nd gen will get most, but not all (no multitasking) of the new features.
Hands-On w/ video | Event video | Live blog

Starcraft II Editions Announced
Blizzard has finally released a few more details about their plans for Starcraft II when it goes gold. They are releasing two editions for the game. One is the standard edition for $59.99 and the other is the Collector's Edition for $99.99. The Collector's Edition will include a 176 page Art of book, 2GB USB flash drive in shape of Jim Raynor's dog tag with full game of Starcraft I, behind the scenes DVD, soundtrack CD, issue #0 comic book, WoW in-game pet, and exclusive Bettle.net content. (images)

Attack of the Pixels
Cool video "trailer" of sorts that shows famous 8-bit era characters attacking New York.

Links of the Day

HP Slate Details Leaked - In what I call a miss opportunity, HP finally leaked some details (specs sheet at link) on their response to the Apple iPad. They should have revealed official information along with release date on Friday, during the height of the chatter so that every review, article, TV discussion and more would mention this upcoming device as an alternative. The HP slate mimics the look of the iPad but runs off of Windows 7, with SD slot, and has greater processor speed but less battery life. Basically it is the power and convenience of a netbook in tablet form. The main advantage, other than Flash support, is that users are not locked down to programs and file formats that Apple neither approves of nor requires the constant use of iTunes as the middle man to move data around. The estimated release date is June 2010 with price of $549 (32GB) and $599 (32GB). Considering the iPad equivalences are $599 (32GB) and $699 (64GB), it’s priced to compete in this new market. The tablets are still all overpriced but hopefully competition like this will drive down the price much like it did for netbooks.

McCain Disowns "Maverick" Title
In a new article from Newsweek, John McCain has decided to disown the Maverick title, "I never considered myself a maverick. I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities." This is after he spent nearly 25 years happily using the title in commercials, on the campaign trail and more. It was often used as an excuse by Fox and other pundits as an excuse when he would flip flop on issues on a regular basis. McCain keeps proving there are not an ideal he isn't willing to sell, a moral code he isn't willing to forfeit and a lie not willing to tell to just to get a vote or money from his corporate sponsors. He is quite simply, "The Whore of the Senate". That should be his official title. I just hope the people of Arizona finally see through his lies and remove him from office.

Tea Partiers Refuse to Sign Anti-Socialism Pledge
To no surprise, it turns out with Tea Partiers, the buck stops with their wallets. When asked to sign a pledge were they would follow up words with action by refusing to participate in such socialism programs as Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, join armed services, run for public office, paved roads, call the police or fire departments, use colleges or public schools, libraries and post office. Basically those who keep using socialism (while really meaning fascism and communism) neglect to recognize that democracy can't function without socialistic programs. Of note is the response, which was complete disrespect with spitting, yelling and other childish behavior.

Town Conspires to Create a Fake Prom
The town of Fulton, Mississippi, including school officials, lied to a high school senior so that they could avoid having a lesbian couple at the event. The brief history is Constance McMillen wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom, the school said no. She sued with help of ACLU and won, so the school cancelled the prom. Parents got together and said they would have a private one, a week later this was mysteriously cancelled. It turned out that the parents created two proms, one for the "undesirables" like Constance and students with learning disabilities and another for everyone else. Constance and company didn't know about the real prom until after the event. I bet they were so proud when they got away with it. An entire town of adults conspired together to make sure a lesbian couple wouldn't come and then made sure their children participated in this lie. The whole thing is sick in its scale. I can't imagine having that much hate as that is the only thing that can explain such behavior. What is really sad is this town taught their next generation this same hate.

Resident Evil: Afterlife Trailer - The fourth movie in the series is coming out September 10th and below is the first trailer. The movie will be in 3D but unlike recent releases, was actually filmed for the format. I always found the series to be mindless fun so looking forward to this release.