Links of the Week

Green Lantern Posters
Even though the movie is a year away, we have teaser posters that show off the main cast of the movie with Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern, Hal Jordan), Blake Lively (Carol Ferris), Peter Sarsgard (Hector Hammond) and Mark Strong (Sinestro). Nothing remarkable yet, other than the observation that Lively is exceptionally hot as a brunette. Hit the link above for hi-res pics.



New DMCA Exemptions
Oops. Apple spent the last year or so trying to make it illegal for user to jailbreak their phone and here the Copyright Office instead makes it not only legal but specifically sites Apple in their change. While Apple continues to march down the 1984 path (really, can't even do what you want to your own purchase?), it’s nice to see at least some people get in the way. The other major exemption is the use of clips from an already owned purchase as long as used for documentaries, non-commercial videos and educational use. Basically, if using the clip and not making money from it. This isn't a move a GOP administration would ever allow since they see corporations as their masters.

DC Universe Online Trailer
If only DC would actually make a movie that looks this good and this dark. The trailer uses pre-rendered CGI to basically show the intro sequence for the upcoming MMORPG that establishes the skeleton of the story driving the game. It involves a despotic future where the heroes are just defeated by all the villains when Brainiac invades. Back to the present, the heroes must make sure that future doesn't happen.

Stargate Universe Season 2 Trailer
If don't mind spoiling the season 1 "everyone could die!?!" finale, hit the video below to check out the return of Stargate Universe on September 28th. I just hope the series picks up the pace as I have been a fan since Stargate-SG1 premiered on Showtime but this series is a drag. Uninteresting characters (but with potential), not particularly interesting situations and very slow moving plot. The foundation of a great series is here but in an effort to not be SG1 or Atlantis (which should not have been cancelled), they created something dull. On the plus, breaking up the DVD box sets stopped my buying habit of all things Stargate, so saved some money there.



YouTube Time Limit Increased
Speaking of YouTube, after years of staying at the same number, the average uploader can go to 15 minutes. While YouTube already makes exceptions for "partners", this is the first major change in the time standards since nearly the inception of the website. Hopefully this will decrease the amount of "Parts" you find for many videos.

Links of the Week

Economy Does Better Under Democrats
For reasons that will probably never be explained, most corporations and people seem to think the economy thrives when Republicans are in charge. This isn't actually true as numbers repeatedly and always prove. There are really no exceptions in this. Consistently, Republicans are bad for the economy. The reason is fairly straight forward. The GOP believes in unrestrained greed. The problem with that is too much greed becomes destructive, which rarely leads to healthy companies. See Enron, HP, all of Wall Street, housing scandals, lead in toys and so much more. When you allow unrestrained greed, companies will often make decisions that make the short term look good but can lead to their death in the long term. On top of that, the GOP has a pretty straight forward belief that tax cuts to the rich fix everything. Except that isn't true either. The engine of the economy isn't the rich. It’s the middle and lower classes (who are 95% of the population). The rich are getting richer thanks to GOP tax cuts but everyone else is either getting poorer or holding steady. Even raises have been stagnant now for around 10 years. The result is less disposable income which leads to a sputtering engine. People do not make spending decisions on tax cuts. They make them based on available disposable income and job security. Eight years of tax cuts under Bush has proved it doesn't work, despite the GOP promising more of the same (while not trying to pay for it). Any case read the link for more charts on why your savings and investments are better off during Democrat administrations.

New StarCraft II Trailer
Blizzard has released a new trailer that hints at some of the story that will drive the single player campaign in the game. I participated in beta and found the game to be a whole lot of fun; however my computer is old and barely could run the game. To get the full experience, you should consider playing the game with a computer that meets the recommended specs. In this case that means one that is two years old or newer (my computer is five years old).

Links of the Week

Green Lantern First Look
In what is probably a test run of the all CGI costume, Entertainment Weekly has scored the first look at the Green Lantern costume. The movie is expected to hit summer next year. The result is rather interesting but a little too painted on for my taste. Really hard to tell for sure until the final look is decided and seen in action.

Price is Right Perfect Bid, Wasted Moment
An interesting story from Esquire that details how Terry Kniess became the only person in 38 years of the Price is Right to guess exactly value of the prizes in the Showcase showdown. The part that annoyed me was how Drew Carey and the show’s producers handled it. Which was very poorly. They basically assumed the guy cheated and was trying to make them look stupid. Carey has just recently replaced Bob Barker on the show and the long time executive producer Roger Dobkowitz was fired so he could be replaced by a cheaper newbie named Mike Richards. The next result is a whole lot of inexperience led to a horrible handling of a game show historic moment. It is kind of expected that the producers would be worried about image and credibility; however Carey's response was just wrong. At their core, a game show host's job is to advocate for the contestant. They should want the contestant to not only win, but win in the most dramatic way possible. By doing that, they create good television. Instead, all Carey focused on is his ego. How bad he would look and more. Basically, reading this article confirmed what I suspected. The Price is Right is no longer worth watching because the guy at the top doesn't recognize what his core job is. It is tragic.

Links of the Week

The Best Lego Films
Bleeding Cool has compiled 18 Lego movies that show off the many ways you can tell stories with Legos. They include a brief retelling of Star Wars, Thriller, Spinal Tap, and other movie related re-creations.

How They Make the Old Spice Commercials
Click the link to view an interview with Old Spice's Isaiah Mustafa that stars in those wild Old Spice commercials. He explains how the recent commercial was made. It turns out that it is one continuous shot that can take up to 40 takes to get right, it was filmed on a lake, used a real circular saw, man-made waterfall and more.

RetroN 3 Device for Old School Gaming
If you have $70 you can buy a device that will play NES, SNES, and Genesis games. It comes with two generic wireless controllers but also has slots to use the classic controllers for each system. The perfect system if have old games lying around or need to free up some space.

Links of the Day

DC Redesigns Wonder Woman's Costume
For the first time in years, Wonder Woman is getting a permanent (such as exists in comics) costume change. As the image shows, it retains some elements of the classic design but the goal seems to mostly lose the bathing suit esthetic of the decades old template. I think the change is motivated by a marketing desire to make the character easier to sell to parents and more importantly easier to create a costume if Wonder Woman ever makes it the big screen. Warner Bros show it is nearly incapable of exploiting its own properties well so not holding my breath on a Wonder Woman movie but moves like this might make it a little easier.

Best Buy to Fire Employee Over Internet Video
Yet another sign that Best Buy doesn't get it, they are going to fire an employee because of a funny iPhone vs. HTC EVO video (at the link) that pretty much makes fun of iPhone lovers. The video doesn't reference Best Buy or any store. The video has no Best Buy specific logos, dress or anything else even remotely related to the company. The only Best Buy aspect of it is the video was created by a Best Buy employee and expressed an opinion corporate didn't agree with so decided to take action. I imagine that if the video had been a glowing review of the iPhone, they wouldn't be taking this action. The lesson is for all current and future Best Buy employees, beware as Corporate Big Brother is watching and if they do not approve of your internet activities done on personal time, they may fire you for it.