Battlestar Galactica Influences UN Policy – Really

If you are looking for truly innovative thinking, not just in terms of technology, but in terms of political and philosophical thought, try science fiction.

I’m not kidding.

The writing of people like Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov, or television series such as Battlestar Galactica and Firefly aren’t some kids fantasy of the future. They are fun and entertaining, but they deal with heavy social issues, issues that our news media usually gloss over or ignore because they are too complicated to explain in a soundbite.

Want proof?

Check this out.

A few months ago, cast members from Battlestar Galactica spoke before the United Nations.

Edward James Olmos at the UN

In recent days, Battlestar’s message that “race should never be used as a cultural identifier,” has actually changed UN language, and in turn, policy.

Halo 3: ODST, Firefly & Guitar Hero 5

Halo 3: ODST

I just watched  the newest trailer for Halo 3: ODST.

As I was watching, I kept feeling like the voice of the guy narrating was very familiar… then it hit me! It’s the voice of the coolest sci-fi hero since Han Solo; Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of the Serenity. Well, actually it’s actor Nathan Fillion, but you know what I mean. As the trailer progressed, I realized that they are also using his likeness.

Just to be sure that I was correct before blogging about it, I looked the game up on IMDB and saw that Fillion isn’t the only Firefly alum in the game. Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin, as well as Battlestar Galactica veteran Tricia Helfer all play prominent roles in the game. All they need now are a couple voices from Star Trek and Star Wars, and they will have geek “bingo.”

It’s worth watching this one in HD:

Browncoats (Firefly fans) everywhere will be able to follow the Captain into battle when Halo 3: ODST hits store shelves on 9/22/09.

What can I say… Browncoats are excitable, and I am a not ashamed to identify myself as one.

Guitar Hero 5

In other video game news, Activision Blizzard released the complete track list for Guitar Hero 5:

You can view the complete list on GameSpot.

Some of the songs that stand out to me at first glance include:

• Dire Straits – “Sultans of Swing”
• Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure” (coolest baseline ever) (Vanilla Ice sucks)
• Bob Dylan – “All Along the Watchtower”
• The Derek Trucks Band – “Young Funk” (Derek Trucks is the man)
• Gov’t Mule – “Streamline Woman”
• Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes to Midnight”
• Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain (Live)”
• King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man”
• Peter Frampton – “Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)”
• The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy for the Devil”
• Santana – “No One to Depend On (Live)”

There are many more great ones, but those really stand out to me, and a lot of them surprise me a bit.

Guitar Hero 5 is due out on 9/1/09.

Special Gchat Smilies

Melissa of My Digital Mind recently showed me the special, hidden Gchat smilies.

I’m especially fond of the “poo,” and the “more cowbell” ones.

"I've got a fever..."

News on Upcoming Captain America Movie

Marvel’s Kevin Feige spoke with Hollywood.com about the film. ‘This movie is Steve Rogers’ origin story, and I think it is our burden to make Steve Rogers as appealing as any of our other characters … he’s not just the perfect boy scout who follows order every time. He has ideals he wants to live up to,’ said Feige. The film will be sent during World War II. ‘The origin of Captain America is really the origin of the Marvel universe,’ he continues. ‘It’s about that time in history when the idea of the superhero began to emerge.’ (Source: CBR)

There are only a three or four comic book superheros that hold a special place in my heart, and Captain America/ Steve Rogers is one of them. Hearing that this is the general direction that they are planning on taking the movie makes me very happy. Now I just hope they can execute.

The cover of Captain America #1 is my all-time favorite.

Tron, Tron 2 & Thoughts On Sci-Fi Technology

I watched the movie Tron with my neighbors this evening. It was actually my first ever viewing of the film.

I enjoyed the movie for what it was, and was deeply impressed with the visual effects (in their historical context)… but I probably wouldn’t watch it again.

Watching the movie made me reflect on where our technology is in comparison with the various visions of the future depicted in science fiction from the 1980’s and earlier.

Two things strike me as interesting about the computers we usually see depicted in science fiction from the 80’s and earlier.

1. Computers remain gigantic in the future. It seems to me that it didn’t occur to many people that computers would begin to shrink in size while growing in capacity.
2. No matter how powerful a computer gets, they user interface always looks like an Atari game.

In many ways, our technology has far exceeded the imaginations of earlier generations, yet in others, we lag behind… I’m still waiting on my lightsaber and flying car.

I think that the most striking (and possibly the only striking) part of the movie Minority Report was that it had computers that re-envisioned the user interface. Typically future UI’s just talk to the user, and/or the user talks to the interface. Minority Report showed us something different, and I sincerely believe that the movie’s vision of computer/ human interaction has influenced software and web design. I have been in the room with a number of different designers who have referenced that movie when talking about software functionality.

On another note (this is one disjointed post), the trailer for the new movie Tron Legacy looks pretty fun. I recommend watching it full screen in HD.

End of line.

News & “Likes” Don’t Always Mix

I think this one speaks for itself.

This cartoon come to you courtesy of Geek And Poke.

Simply Stunning: Music Meets Flash (Geek or non-geek, take a look at this one)

My new friend and co-worker, RJay is the senior web designer at Local Wisdom. The guy knows technology, design and just generally has good taste.

Both of us are frequently skeptical of Flash animations; they are usually pretty hokey.

This one most certainly is not (Once you are on the page, it takes a moment to fully load. It’s worth the wait):

http://soytuaire.labuat.com/

The song is called Soytuaire, and the artist is Labuat. I don’t think I’m overselling this when I say that the combination of the stunning music, beautiful design and incredibly innovative Flash coding demonstrates how programming can become art.

I find the whole thing quite mesmerizing.

Backup Reminder

If you haven’t backed up your computer lately, you should do so.

Practice safe computing.

Geek News: AT&T vs 4chan, AP vs Everyone, & a Not So Comic Con

The news out of the San Diego Comic Con wasn’t particularly interesting to me this year. That and a generally packed weekend meant no extra posts.

However, here is a quick run down of the top geek stories. Some really juicy non-Comic Con related stuff happened.

AT&T should prepare for an ass-whoopin from Anonymous

AT&T probably just created a really big problem for themselves in Southern California.

Reports are coming in that portions of the website 4chan.org are being blocked by AT&T in SoCal.

I have no idea if this is true, but if it is, AT&T should brace itself for serious trouble, from a non-organization called Anonymous.

I don’t have the time to explain what 4chan.org or Anonymous are this evening, so I am going to direct you to their respective Wikipedia pages.

4chan

Anonymous

I will say this, 4chan and Anonymous are incredibly interesting. They are neither good nor evil, they just exist. They have created and represent some of the best and worst parts of the Internet, and openly celebrate both. More importantly, they can be very cruel (sometimes for very good reason, and sometimes for no reason at all) and are not to be trifled with.

Update: This story has been confirmed, and you can find out more about it here.

The Associated Press announces an innovative plan to destroy itself

The AP doesn’t want anyone to use any part of any of their stories unless they pay for it. No headlines, no quotes, nothing.

I guess their goal is to stop news aggrigators from linking to their web site, or keep bloggers from doing them same.

This probably won’t work very well, they don’t stand to gain much from this in terms of revenue or traffic, it will damage their placement on search engines because they will receive fewer links, they are going to get sued over “fair use,” and they will alienate the Internet (their only future customers).

This is a special kind of stupid.

That being said, I am getting the message loud and clear. From this point forward I will not link to AP material. If they don’t want my traffic, they won’t get it. I’m also going to put fourth a serious effort to avoid reading their content (since I can’t link to it anyway).

Your welcome AP.

This issue could have long lasting implications for the future health of the Internet. For a better understanding of the situation, I recommend reading this post from Scott Rosenberg’s wordyard.

News from Comic Con

The San Diego Comic Con has been morphing into a big pop culture media convention over the past decade. It seems that they are raising the prices for table space every year, and it’s causing more mom & pop comic shops to back out of the Con. The economy seems to have really hit Convention goers pretty hard and as a consequence, they didn’t spend as much money as usual. It sounds like next years Comic Con might look very different.

Valerie D’Orazio (Occasional Superheroine) wrote a good piece on the changing nature of Comic Con and the comic industry.

Don’t Talk Back to Darth Vader…

I am exhausted, so I am going to leave you with the YouTube classic, “Star Wars according to a 3 year old.”

The last two lines are priceless.

Back again tomorrow with reactions to some of the big news out of San Diego.

Geeksploitation in Hollywood

Have they forgotten what original thought and new properties look like out in California?

Over the last decade, the volume of comic book properties that have been turned into movies has been growing.

I reflected over this rapid growth, then I  started to list all of the comic book movies that are due out over the next few years.

I made this staggering list off the top of my head in less than five minutes:

(In no particular order)

1. Spider-Man 4
2. Nick Fury
3. GI Joe
4. Jonah Hex
5. Man of Steel (Superman)
6. Green Hornet
7. Sin City 2
8. Deadpool
9. Green Lantern
10. X-Men Origins: Magneto
11. Wanted 2
    
12. The Avengers
13. The First Avenger: Captain America
14. Thor
15. Iron Man 2
16. Scott Pilgram vs The World
17. Magdalene
18. 300 2 (Yeah, forget the fact that damn near all of the characters died… that gives me an idea. “THIS IS ZOMBIE SPARTA!!!”)
19. Batman 3
20. World of Warcraft
21. Castlevania (Not a comic, but a video game is still close enough. This is only being made because of the current vampire boom in pop culture.)
22. The Last Airbender, which is  live action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender (A cartoon, but another geek favorite)

That’s 22 right there, and this isn’t even counting novel adaptations and movie remakes (Twilight anyone?). I think they are all due out within the next two to three years.

I am also fairly certain that I forgot a few.

It’s kind of shocking isn’t it?

My feelings on this are mixed. On one hand, I’m sure a few of these will be great, but on the other hand, a lot will be steaming piles of poo.

Additionally, I am troubled by the lack of original thought. I understand that when the economy is in the toilet, studios (and everyone else in media) want to put their money in a “sure thing,” but this trend began when the economy was booming.

Most of these adaptations don’t add anything to the characters, they usually detract. When they are done well, they usually match the comics at their best.

Make something new, unique and good, and I promise I will go to see it. As far as this current wave of geeksploitation that we are experiencing goes, I think I am going to have to be more picky with the comic movies I support. I hope you will too.

Thought on TV Shows on DVD

All TV shows on DVD should be indexed so that a push of the scene forward button skips to the end of the opening credits.

Making it more difficult to skip the credits is a small, yet easily fixed erosion of the user experience.

Apple Grabs 91% of $1000+ Computer Market!?

Three years ago I would have gotten a good laugh out of that headline, but it’s true (This in depth and interesting article details the market shift).

Apple has completely conquered the high-end computer market, while PC makers have been producing weak machines with lower profit margins.

PC manufacturers fell victim to one of the classic blunder, (“The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia” The Princess Bride) got themselves caught up in an unwinnable battle over price.

Back in March, Microsoft began running the “Laptop Hunters” ad campaign. I had a particularly negative response to the whole thing.

Here’s part of what I argued:

The second problem with this section of the ad is the price-point. Microsoft doesn’t sell PCs but their partners do. The profit margin on a $700 laptop isn’t usually amazing. They set Lauren’s budget at $1000, why not have her spend $950? or $990? The ad lowers the expectation for what consumers will expect to pay. If Lauren could get a “great” computer for $699.99 then that’s what a PC should cost.

This ad also degrades the value of a PC. Apple is now officially the gold-standard… Microsoft said so in its own ad. Microsoft has made Apple the BMW of computer makers (if they weren’t considered that already, there is no debate now). PCs are the computer you buy when times are rough… like now. But in the future, the economy won’t be in the dumps (hopefully sooner than later). Then people will have money again. When they replace the cheap POS of a PC they bought during the recession, they are going to want to replace it with something better. Something top of the line… and now we all know that PCs are the cheap computer.

I guess I learned something in those brand management and consumer behavior courses I took in grad school.

Couple Apple’s market share victory with Microsoft’s first annual sales decline, and you can imagine that a lot of folks in Redmond are having a pretty crappy week.

High-end computers are where the money is, and Microsoft (and PC makers) can’t possible afford to concede that turf to Apple… That’s like agreeing to split an apple with a friend and agreeing to eat the core; there isn’t much to eat, and the seeds contains trace amount of cyanide. They need to win back consumer confidence (good luck with that), and they need to do it fast (seriously, now is the time to throw money at the problem). If Microsoft doesn’t change their product’s image problem before the economy recovers, there will be a mass exodus from cheap PCs to the high-end Apples.

It’s become abundantly clear that if the average consumer is going spend a lot of money to buy a good computer, they prefer to purchase it from the fruit company.

Comic Con Kicks Off

This is the big one folks. Geek Mecca. The San Diego Comic Convention.

I have no doubt that big news from the comic, movie, television, and video game industries will flow over the next few days.

One thing you will hear about is how “this is the biggest Comic Con yet.” It’s impressive in that there are so many geeks who flock to the event. However, it’s not a huge accomplishment that this is the “biggest ever,” because every year in recent years is bigger than the previous one.

I will do my best on a busy weekend, to react to the news coming from the event that makes me geek out or hulk-out.

Google marks the start of Comic Con with a special banner from Artist Jim Lee

This copy of the banner is from the typically useless DC Comics blog.

OneLook – The Reverse Dictionary

Every writer inevitably hits that wall where he/she knows there is a word for something, but can’t remember what the word is.

Enter OneLook, the reverse dictionary. You give it a definition, and it gives you possible words.

It’s no where near perfect, but it can help.

OneLook was brought to my attention via my buddy and frequent commenter pochp.