25February2011
Posted by Brent under: movies.
I got the guys a stocking stuffer at Costco: a DVD set of 4 ‘classic sci-fi movies’ for only $9.99: 2001, Forbidden Planet. The Time Machine and Soylent Green. Any collection that pairs 2001 with Soylent Green has such delectable lack of taste I had to buy it. Anyway, I was thinking the other day that my idea of the origin of the coming zombie apocalypse would be for there to be a food-processing contamination in the soylent green plant, which introduces a virus which lives in the wafers. Since *Spoiler Alert* ‘Soylent Green is people’, the virus would then infect everyone who ate a wafer from that lot. I think it could work, since the movie’s already set in an extreme dystopian future.
A side note: IMDB has a listing that they’re remaking Soylent Green for release next year, and remaking Forbidden Planet for 2013. Say it isn’t so!!! After all, the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still was such a success. Gort! Neo Annihilate!
6February2011
Posted by Brent under: movies.
In followup to my previous ranting about 3-D movies looking like ViewMasters. Roger’s Ebert’s blog has a letter from an Oscar-winning film editor about why 3-D won’t work. The argument boils down to parallax vs. focus. In 3-D movies our eyes have to aim near of far depending on the action, but all the while focusing on the screen at a fixed distance. Our brains don’t work like that.
8January2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
The other day the ‘check engine’ light came on in my car, so I took it in to the Trusted Mechanic who plugged it into his diagnostic computer to ‘pull the codes’ and decipher what the machine was complaining about. We reminisced about the simpler times when the most complicated instruments in a mechanic’s toolbox were the timing light and dwell meter. He got the results from the computer, which was that the gas cap wasn’t on tight. I tightened it up, he cleared the errors and the car’s been humming happily since. But wait a minute: if the gas cap’s not on firmly, the ‘check engine’ light comes on!?!? On my car the gas cap’s at the opposite end of the car from the engine. There was nothing wrong with the engine! How hard would it be to replace the ‘check engine’ idiot light with a simple 80 character display that would say something helpful like ‘tighten up your gas-cap, genius’? A current story says that car buyers are favoring high technology over horsepower in car-buying. If by ‘high technology’ one means communication in clear English rather than arcane computer codes and idiot lights, count me in.
24December2010
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Merry Christmas Eve, all! I just submitted an idea to the Mythbusters forum, starting with:
There have been several suggestions for Gilligan’s Island Myths: mostly about recreating the idiotic contraptions the Professor cooked up. How about the One Big One that he didn’t do, namely: Given the contents of a boat similar to the Minnow in the 1960s, and native island materials, is it possible to construct a radio transmitter? Assume the transmitter the ship was provisioned with was totally destroyed.
We’ll see if it gets any traction.
God Bless us, every one….
16December2010
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
One of our holiday traditions is making Chex Party Mix. As a Christmas present, here’s our variation. Start with the original recipe, but tweek as follows:
- Leave out the bagel chips. I know it says ‘original recipe’ but come on! Any of you remember such a thing as ‘bagel chips’ back in the ’60s?
- Cut back on the wheat Chex to about half what they say. Make up for it with more rice and corn
- Only use about half the mixed nuts, make up for it with pecans. Yum!
Enjoy!
15December2010
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
I admit it, I’d like an iPhone. But I didn’t ask for one for Christmas this year. Why? The speculation is that Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T ends about the end of the year and that Verizon will start offering iPhones maybe as early as January. Cringely points out that Apple will have to come out with a new model of iPhone, to do that since the current iPhone only works on GSM networks and Verizon used CDMA. So the iPhone that will appear at the first of the year will be dual-mode to work with either carrier. iPhone users are notoriously unenthusiastic about AT&T’s network. Cringe says that about 10 million of these users will have their AT&T contracts expiring in the first part of next year. How many of these will want to jump to Verizon? 10%? 25%? If only 10% do, that’s one million users. But wait! They can’t just jump to Verizon. They’ll have to buy the new dual-band iPhone to jump. What will they do with their old GSM iPhones? Junk them? Give them away? Sell them? The current 16Gb iPhone4 goes for $600 new. There’s 2,215 of them on sale on eBay, going for between $400 and $500 each. What happens when the better part of a million people want to unload their iPhones? My guess is the price on eBay will drop to between $200 and $300. At that point I’ll ask Santa to bring me a belated Christmas gift of a nice used iPhone4. Stay tuned. We’ll see if it pans out.