Technology & Pop Culture

Burn Things with a Flashlight and Graffiti in 3D Space

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment, Technology

Today we have some YouTube distractions for your viewing pleasure…

4100 lumen flashlight burning some plastic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsV3-IvS8UA
http://www.i4u.com/article14324.html

Graffiti in 3D space!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dhxDpsg2Dk
http://www.freshcreation.nl/comments.php?id=1504_0_1_0_C

Tags: Distractions, Flashlight, Grafitti, Torch, YouTube

A Conversation with Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment

io9.com has posted a revealing interview with Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. Particularity interesting stuff on making expensive Hollywood cameras look like cheap, auto-focus handheld cameras. This is a great read for fans of the film.

Cloverfield is on track to shatter box office records for movies opening over the MLK holiday. The previous record was set by Black Hawk Down in 2002.

http://io9.com/346501/io9-talks-to-cloverfield-director-matt-reeves

Tags: Cloverfield, Director, Matt Reeves

On Cloverfield

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment, Personal

J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield is a modern day monster movie for the You Tube generation. A well executed tease brought to you by Nokia, Sephora, and Mountain Dew. Heavily watermarked which most people won’t notice. I digress.

I felt a connection to the no-name actors — they could be my friends or yours. Which was effective. The hand held camera point-of-view worked up to the point where I began to ask myself why our witty cameraman (Hudson) didn’t put the damn thing down. And then he did…

The creep factor was there. The monster was like nothing I’ve ever seen. The visual effects were deliciously understated. All without a soundtrack.

Ultimately Cloverfield delivers. A new era of systematically casual, digital film making.

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Tags: Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams, Monster, Movie Review, Slusho

From Macworld: Apple Releases Macbook Air, Time Capsule, et al.

Posted by Bradley under News, Technology

New Macbook Air fits in a manila envelope!

New Time Capsule backs up all of your computers without a second thought!

Apple TV 2.0 gets HD movie rentals and lower price!

So there you have it. The black turtleneck has spoken. Not to mention the iPhone gets new firmware, the iPod touch gets iPhone’s applications and iTunes gets movie rentals. Too many details to post here… full coverage over at Engadget!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/live-from-macworld-2008-steve-jobs-keynote/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/apple-macbook-air-first-hands-on/

Tags: Apple, iPhone, iTunes, Keynote, Macbook Air, Macworld, Steve Jobs, Time Capsule

Kansas City Named 22nd Most Wired City in America

Posted by Bradley under Technology

Forbes.com ranked Kansas City #22 on their list of America’s Most Wired Cities. Which surprises me. A lot of Internet traffic moves beneath our streets as we are a major point-of-presence for many of the Tier 1, backbone Internet tubes. Maybe they should factor that into their equation next year.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/09/wired-cities-wifi-tech-wireless-cx_ew_0110wired.html

Tags: Forbes, Internet, Kansas City, Most Wired

The Best of CES Tech and Some Infrared Prankery

Posted by Bradley under Personal, Technology

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has come and gone. Here are my picks for the best of this year’s emerging technologies.

Panasonic’s 150″ Plasma TV. Nuff said.

Mitsubishi’s Laser TV. Three colored lasers generate the DLP picture on these TVs. Current Old school DLP TVs need a bright white lamp and a color wheel to achieve the same effect. And unlike traditional DLP the lasers shut off entirely when displaying blacks — yielding insane contrast ratio and black levels. All this plus you get twice the color spectrum of current HDTVs and 3D picture capability.

LG’s Watch Phone. Phone calls, text messaging and Bluetooth on your wrist. Calling Dick Tracy…

Casio’s 60 Frames Per Second Digital Camera.This 6 megapixel digital wonder can snap 60 pictures in one second flat! In movie mode you get 1,200 frames per second — which is how big Hollywood creates super slow motion video.

Ion Audio’s LP to CD Ripper. Have a bunch of vinyl, CDRs and free time? Archive without a computer.

Belkin’s Podcast Studio. This little beauty sports a built in speaker, mic, two XLR inputs and a 1/4 incher. Plug in your iPod and record anytime, anywhere. Self-contained and wonderful all running off of two AAA batteries for two hours.

Azentek’s Atlas In-Dash PC. As is driving isn’t enough of a distraction. Windows Vista, Dual Core, 1 Gig RAM, 120 Gig Hard Drive, DVD/CD Burner, FM tuner and satellite radio. Done and done.

Yoggie’s Firestick Pico USB Firewall. Everyone needs a firewall. This makes the process brainless and easy for everyone.

Alienware’s Curved DLP Monitor. Woah!

Belkin’s FlyWire Wireless HD Transmitter/Receiver. Send up to 6 full HD 1080p signals across the living room to your HDTV. Look ma, no wires!

Gizmodo’s TV-B-Gone Infrared Prank. My favorite part of CES this year was not a new piece of technology at all but a prank that technology blog Gizmodo pulled. It pissed a lot of people off and they are banned from CES in the future but it’s oh-so-entertaining. Watch this video!

http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces

WARNING: Huge Load o’ Spoilers… One Week to Cloverfield!

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment, Pop Culture

With Cloverfield one week away it’s time for some spoilers. Strategically leaked most definitely!

1. Interwoven storyline of Rob and Beth’s relationship prior to invasion Monstertown
2. Rob’s friend is unknowingly taping over the evidence of said prior relationship
3. Taped evidence is of intimate moments
4. Film begins with footage from the tape
5. Footage is interspersed throughout the rest of the film
6. Monster known as “Clover”
7. Monster has “spooked” sensibility, disorientated and agitated
8. Monster has been living under the water for “thousands and thousands” of years
9. Monster first seen scratching back against building
10. Monster’s scratching destroys said building
11. Monster’s scratching releases parasites stuck to Monster’s back
12. Parasites are “dog-sized” creatures
13. Parasites can stick to things and climb walls
14. Parasites have a “voracious, rabid, bounding nature, but they also have a crab-like crawl”
15. Parasites have the “viciousness of a dog”
16. Parasites move more rapidly than the Monster
17. Parasites are “like little whirling dervishes that just destroy anything in their path”
18. Parasites are “totally deadly”

Awesome! These tidbits make me want to see Cloverfield that much more now!

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/01/09/cloverfield-building-a-better-monster/

Tags: Cloverfield, Monster, Parasites, Spoilers

Dexter + CBS = February 17th

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment, Personal

WOAH! Birthday surprise for my sister and I. Showtime’s sadistically addictive cult phenomenon Dexter will air it’s entire first season beginning February, 17 on CBS. (A great day for a premiere!)

In a nutshell Dexter is a serial killer who also works for Miami homocide as a blood splatter analyst — or vice versa.

This show comes with my personal recommendation. Brilliant cinematography, colors, locations, art direction and psychological screen writing. If you need something new to watch this show will captivate.

Dexter is Michael C. Hall of HBO‘s Six Feet Under fame where he played a homosexual mortician/funeral director.

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/01/dexter-to-bow-o.html

Tags: Birthday, CBS, Dexter, Showtime, Twins

Is this the Cloverfield Monster?

Posted by Bradley under Entertainment

Some hilarity for your Sunday. This is NOT the Cloverfield monster!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22116941@N06/2169050955/

However this might be…

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/real-cloverfield-monster-concept-art-revealed-maybe.php

Tags: Cloverfiled, Monster, WTF

16 Projectors 1 Screen

Posted by Bradley under Technology

Mitsubishi is showing off how to display live 3D video without the need for those bulky, oh-so-non-fashionable glasses. 16 cameras hooked up via firewire to 8 computers transmit the captured video over Ethernet to 8 more computers which decode and feed the 16 projectors. Practical for home use? No. Awesome. Yes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvn1e343Clo

Tags: 3D, Mitsubishi, Projectors, Video