Produced as a one-man project with a total budget of $500, AVP Redemption truly is one of the best fan made movie we’ve seen online this year. Even if the movie’s visual effects aren’t that good, the whole thing is actually more entertaining than either of the big-time AVP productions that came out in the past.
Adobe Loves Apple… Or Do They?
A few weeks ago, Steve Jobs published a piece letting the world know about his thoughts on flash, and in response, Adobe started this ad campaign:
After the ad was released, a clever blogger then imagined Apple’s response to the commercial:
[Via Buzzfeed]
Illustrated Look At What Motivates Us
Being a worker and manager in the technology industry, this charmingly illustrated video by Dan Pink really hit home on understanding motivation and “Drive” in the modern workplace.
[Via]
Pirates Sail Across Baltic Sea
This may be the only time you’ll ever read this sentence: Politicians have come to the rescue of filesharers.
Sweden’s Pirate Party, which has one elected member in the European Parliament, has become the internet service provider of The Pirate Bay, the site at the center of much legal controversy in recent years.
The deal came about after six major Hollywood studios successfully applied for an injunction against CyberBunker, the German ISP which previously housed the site. The injunction blocked it from connecting any Pirate Bay site to the Internet, noting that it housed links to torrents to at least one recent release from each studios.
Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge (pictured) said (in a press release translated via Google Translate): ” We got tired of Hollywood’s cat and mouse game with the Pirate Bay… it is time to take the bull by the horns and stand up for what we believe is a legitimate activity.”
Falkvinge stressed that his party was, in his opinion, acting entirely within the law; he pointed out that the Pirate Bay itself doesn’t contain any illegal material and simply contains links to torrent files.
The relocation follows further bad news for the filesharing world after a US court injunction made it likely LimeWire will be shutting its doors in the near future. Both LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton are on the hook for as much as $450 million of damages after a copyright case brought by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The big difference between the LimeWire and Pirate Bay cases is that LimeWire was charging for a premium version of its software. It appears that profiting so directly (as opposed to the Pirate Bay, which makes money from advertising on its site) was enough for LimeWire to be held responsible simply because it knew the software was predominantly used for illegal purposes.
What content or web sites do you check out most on your phone?
As I noted a few days ago, I’m kind of lost without my smart phone, largely because I feel like I need to be connected to my email constantly. Of course, it also means that I’ve got access to all kinds of content – the whole web at my fingertips, so to speak.
In my post about apps, I mentioned Wikipanion, which is a way to access Wikipedia on my phone – definitely one of the things I check out most often. And even without an app, Wikipedia is great for phone browsing since the interface streamlines when you open it up on your phone.
Of course, my mobile web surfing habits tend to vary based on the specific situations – like last week when I was stuck in a doctor’s waiting room for an hour without a book. I spent most of the time browsing through Amazon on my phone, looking for a Mother’s Day gift.
I find my phone pretty easy to read on as well, and so sometimes I’ll read the news sites in the morning while I’m waiting for the bus.
What about you guys? What content or web sites do you check out most on your phone?
Did Lost Pull a Reverse George Lucas?
I loved Lost. When I first started watching, I couldn’t get enough. My husband and I blasted through the first season and then had to wait in anticipation for every single episode as it came on television. I don’t think I’d ever seen such a show before, having never watched Twin Peaks or other similar premises. I was hooked. I even dreamed of Lost.
Part of the thrill was watching the stories unfold, piecing together the story that just got more and more bizarre as time went on. Polar bears! Nuclear bombs! A time-traveling Scot! I mean, what wasn’t there to love?
So why am I not watching Lost right now? Why am I not glued to the screen awaiting every final clue, every last detail? Well, it comes down to the fact that I believe Lost pulled a George Lucas. But a reverse one. Which probably makes no sense to you at this moment, but let me explain.
When I watched the original Star Wars films, I was filled with hope (far beyond A New Hope) and wonder. My brain worked overtime to fill in the gaps: who Leia and Luke’s mother was, what the Clone Wars were like, what it must have been in the heyday of the Jedi. The mystery of it was overwhelmingly tantalizing. I devoured every piece of information I could get to try and make sense of the events leading up to Luke and Leia’s birth —I just knew it had to be spectacular.
And then came the prequels, and part of me died. Maybe I can’t really blame George Lucas for not living up to my imagination, but I could have dealt if the story fell a little short. The truth was it fell so short it turned me off to the entire prequel series. I just couldn’t cope. It ruined everything that I had imagined and turned it into a soap opera with Jar-Jar Binks.
No, I don’t think Lost went as far as Lucas did. But on the other hand, the disappointment I started to feel at the beginning of this season (and intermittently throughout the show’s run) is that the reveals just don’t justify the mysteries. And the worst culprit isn’t the devil in the details—my biggest disappointment with Lost has nothing to do with the actual nuts and bolts, the more science-fiction and fantasy related aspects.
Nope, it’s about character.
I will admit to my bias. I watch shows because I become attached to the characters. A good death or two is fine, don’t get me wrong. I’m not still bitter about Charlie. I swear I’m not. *cough* But I feel that Lost continually has re-invented characters all throughout the series (i.e. John Locke) or just rehashed the same old, same old over and over again (i.e. Kate and Jack). Either the characters develop so much that they are no longer recognizable (and therefore really hard to care about) or they refuse to change and get boring. Or, I suppose, their story gets so weird and wacky or soap-opera sappy that it’s just uncomfortable.
In the end, I find that the characters’ developments are just nowhere near what I’d hoped. What I’d hoped for never happened. When the mysteries lifted, the characters just couldn’t hold it up. It has nothing to do with acting and everything to do with the writing. I realize not everyone watches shows for the same reason I do, but I think that–since my approach is directly derived from fandom in general–there might be some readers out there who agree with me.
Now, I’m not saying Lost isn’t a good show. On the contrary, it’s done a whole lot for television—considerably raised the bar—and introduced audiences to speculative elements in a very mainstream way. I can’t complain about that. It’s better TV than a whole lot of crap that’s out there. Heck, I’d say it’s far better than many films, even. But as far as suspension of disbelief, I think the show left that in the dust a few seasons back. When the characters fall away at the expense of the plot, I think everyone loses. As a result, I’m not worried about spoilers and I won’t be up late watching the finale. In this case I really think I’d prefer to leave it all to the imagination.
What do you think? Am I off my rocker? Feel free to sound off in the comments.
Tags: Lost, lost finale
Using The iPad As A Secondary Monitor
This post is written by the guys over at iGadget Life, where you can find everything from LCD monitors to AV receivers.
So, you are hard at work on your Macbook, trying to get some work done before you play with your new gadget, a shiny new iPad. After stealing a quick glance at the iPad you sigh and get back to work, noticing that your work screen is really crowded. You wish you had a secondary monitor to help with your work, but there is not one handy. Or is there?
With the right software, an iPad can easily function as a secondary (extended) monitor for your Macbook Pro, iMac, or even Mac Mini. You can even do it wirelessly, avoiding the need to pack a cable and allowing you to prop up the iPad wherever you see fit. All it requires is the right software on both computers.
The Laptop Software
While there are different software options for the main computer, I suggest using ScreenRecycler. ScreenRecycler is a handy piece of software that sets up a virtual screen on your Mac and allows you to extend your desktop over to it. It installs its own driver, and even works with spaces as a real second monitor would do.
Once ScreenRecycler is installed, you can connect to it with not only an iPad, but with any computer that uses a VNC client, including Windows and Linux machines. For our uses we will focus on the iPad.
Laptop Installation
Once you have the ScreenRecycler app downloaded, copy it to your applications directory (or directory of your choice), and launch. On the first launch you will get a message that the driver needs to be installed, and prompts you for permission. Install the driver, and relaunch. From there you will be presented with the dialog below:
Now you are ready to have something connected, so let’s look at what you need on the iPad.
The iPad Software
The iPad only needs to be a VNC client in order to act as our new extended monitor, and there are several choices on the App Store. You can let the price be your guide if you want a full featured VNC client, or you can use a free lite version for this purpose. After all, we don’t need to control the computer from the iPad, we just need to display the screen. A quick look on the App Store reveals several choices for the iPad, but we have used Mocha VNC with great success. Other choices include VNC Viewer and iTeleport. Please note that the otherwise excellent iSSH, which incorporates a VNC viewer, failed to make connection with the ScreenRecycler app on a regular basis.
Making the Connection
Once you have downloaded the app on the iPad and launched it, then a quick look at the ScreenRecycler dialog gives you the information you need. You need to point your iPad to one of the listed addresses, choose a port (6900 is default) and launch. If things proceed as expected, you will be presented with the dialog below. Congratulations, you are now connected.
Once the connection is made, you use the iPad as you would any extended monitor. You can drag applications over from one monitor to the other, and you can even watch video on the new monitor (if you have a good connection, and while it will not be perfect it is watchable). In fact, I have even positioned a running video between two screens. Overall I am impressed with ScreenRecycler, and it works great with an iPad as a client.
As you can see, it is easy to use an iPad as a secondary monitor on your Mac of choice. All it takes is the right software, and you will have a valuable work tool that, thanks to the iPad’s long battery life, will last as long as your Macbook does.
Foosh Energy Mints: Yeah, that’s some serious caffeine.
Apparently I’ve become our resident caffeine expert here at [GAS]; having been through chocolate-covered espresso beans and caffeinated chapstick, next up on the list was something else “seriously caffeinated”: Foosh Energy Mints.
The timing was once again spot-on, since a box of these landed on my doorstep just in time for exams. The general consensus among the bleary-eyed students that I offered them to in the past couple of weeks was that yes, they have quite a kick, and no, they don’t exactly taste good. But then, you don’t really drink Red Bull for the taste either. (At least I don’t – to me, it tastes like carbonated cough syrup.)
Don’t mistake – these aren’t candy, and they’re not a substitute for mints intended to just fight bad breath. But if you were going to grab a shot of espresso anyway and would rather (a) not have to worry about spilling it on yourself; and (b) spend considerably less than you would at Starbucks, then having a tin of Foosh for emergencies might not be a bad idea. One mint contains 100mg of caffeine, about the same as a cup of coffee.
Since the folks at Vroom Foods were nice enough to send me some to try, and I don’t want to encourage myself to overindulge (I do get some sleep these days), how about a small give-away? For the first 8 U.S. readers to comment on this post, we’ll send you a tin of Foosh in the mail. Just be sure to leave a valid address in the email field so we can contact you! And then after you get them, come back and tell us what you thought.
Or if you’d like to purchase some for yourself, you can get them straight from the source, or add some onto your order the next time you get something from ThinkGeek. A tin will run you about $3.99 for 12 mints.
Presenting the Cassette Tape Tie
Geeky ties have always had an appeal to me, from the first time I saw the 8-bit tie i have always loved combining geekery with my “corporate collar of oppression”. So, I was grinning ear to ear when I saw these awesome, if woefully expensive, ties made from recycled cassette tape.
The fascinating thing is that the Sonic Fabric is made from 50% Cassette tape, and 50% polyester, and you can actually construct a Sonic Fabric reader from an old Walkman and hear strains of the audio from the tracks directly off the fabric.
[via Mister Honk]
Tags: Cassette Tie, Sonic Fabric
Could this Laser Zap Malaria? [Video]
Nathan Myhrvold and team’s latest inventions — as brilliant as they are bold — remind us that the world needs wild creativity to tackle big problems like malaria. And just as that idea sinks in, he rolls out a live demo of a new, mosquito-zapping gizmo you have to see to believe.