1/31/2009 - UStream on iPhone/iPod Touch

The Truman Show is one of my favorite movies and is probably Jim Carrey's best acting performance (I still love him as Ace Ventura more, though). The "Show" itself is actually a live uninterrupted broadcast of Truman Burbank (Carrey) and his life as it happens. It's a fascinating concept and the movie came out just as the reality-TV show craze started.

I bet the creators of The Truman Show didn't anticipate, however, that in just a few short years websites like UStream and Justin.tv would allow anybody with a webcam and an internet connection to broadcast their lives voluntarily. I guess these websites take advantage of the fact that there are a lot of voyeurs online.

Plus, it's just a great demonstration of technology. Just take YouTube, make it live, and fulfill your dreams of becoming an internet celebrity. I remember when portable TV's were a luxury item 15 years ago. Now with internet connected portable devices like cell phones, watching internet streams on the go will soon be a reality:

1/29/2009 - Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)

I never watch the entire Star Wars (original) Trilogy until it was re-released in theaters in 1997. Until then, I never "got" why it was so popular. I had always believed it to be a showcase of special effects and puppetry. Although it's more fantasy than science fiction, the original trilogy was imaginative and it spurred imagination at the same time. It set itself up as a timeless mythology with archetypal characters. Above all that, it was just fun. It's ironic then, that the prequel trilogy would largely devolve into a mere showcase of special effects and (computer) puppetry.

But if you were to ask me before 1997 what the original Star Wars trilogy was about, I'd probably have the same kind of explanation as in this video:

1/27/2009 - Watch boiling water turn to snow!

I'm going to Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks and my only trepidation about the trip is of the potential of some very cold weather. Living in the Southwest USA for most of my life, I have yet to experience truly sub-freezing temperatures. I mean, it snows in Tucson once every two or three years, and when it does, it makes the top of the news. I see tomorrow it will be 40 degrees Fahrenheit there and I would actually accept that for my trip. But I fear that the law of averages will play into the early February time period and below 30 degree temperatures will be awaiting me. If that's the case, I might try some experiments with freezing water or licking a metal pole or something. Watching this next video inspires me:

1/25/2009 - Legend of Zelda medley - A Capella Voices and Violin

This is one of the only YouTube videos where I would recommend watching with the browser window minimized. It's music from the Legend of Zelda series sung in A Capella with violin by one person. While the artist is undeniably talented, and the music is some of the greatest in videogaming, the performance looks... I don't know... it just looks strange when you have four unblinking singers stare at you for the entire performance:

1/24/2009 - Palm Pre and webOS CES DEMO

So the biggest product at the Consumer Electronics Show this year in terms of buzz was the Palm Pre (yes, that's the name). It's yet another touch screen smart phone, but this one actually has a chance to compete with the iPhone in terms of features and interface. iPhone users have been clamoring for features like a physical keyboard, multitasking, and copy/paste, and the Palm Pre actually delivers those features out of the box. And unlike recent smartphones like the Blackberry Storm, the interface is smooth and responsive, even when handling multiple applications at once.

Even though I think Steve Jobs' introduction of the iPhone is the best tech demo ever, the product should speak for itself, and that's the case with this introduction of the Palm Pre. The presenter is not a showman like Jobs, but that's not necessary when the product is so slick. It's almost as if Palm expected everybody to be 100% familiar with the iPhone interface, and they wanted to show how the Pre is different or better. I used to have a Palm PDA and I'm glad to see that they are back as a player in the consumer electronics industry.

1/22/2009 - How to Piss off a Geek

Yes, there's nothing more annoying to a geek than talking to someone who thinks they know tech stuff, but really don't. What else annoys us? Being told to restrict our bandwidth usage. Put both elements into a recorded phone message, and you have one pissed-off geek:



Oh, and his last name is pronounced pi-ri-loh.

1/20/2009 - Theremin Hero

Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour have the element of karaoke in it where you can sing along to the song and be judged on your timing and pitch. So, is it possible to cheat in the vocal gameplay? I guess if you were to play the recorded song back to the microphone, you could. But what's the fun in that? Take an instrument that produces a human-like voice sound like the theremin, pipe that to the microphone and you get "Theremin Hero":

1/18/2009 - ZY2K (2 videos)

Ah, Microsoft... It seems like every one of your products has some kind of flaw that inspires ridicule or scorn. Red rings of death on the XBox, anyone? How about the system requirements of Vista? Microsoft's Zune may not be competitive with Apple's iPod, but it can be said that it is more feature complete than the iPod (if you discount the iPod Touch, of course). Its style might be lacking, but it wasn't considered to be a "broken" product that made it a non-viable choice of an MP3 player. Well, that was the perception of the Zune before December 31, 2008. That was the date when all 30gb Zunes suddenly stopped working. Why? Because 2008 was a leap year. That's right: the programmers for the Zune's software handled programming for a leap year incorrectly, and the result was dubbed ZY2K:

1/17/2009 - PS3 + xbox 360 = PS360

As a person in the Playstation 3 camp, I'm not sure how to feel about this video. It's a demonstration of a Playstation 3 console whose guts has been replaced with the core components of an XBox 360. Essentially, it's an XBox 360 with a Playstation 3 faceplate. It's an impressive mod to be sure, it's just that it seems to be a waste of a perfectly good Playstation 3.

1/15/2009 - Thundercats Movie trailer (fanmade)

The biggest cartoons for boys when I was growing up were the Transformers and G.I. Joe, and it's a wonder they took so long in coming to the big screen. We'll see the Transformers sequel this year, as well as the G.I. Joe movie. Even though the first Transformers movie was not entirely accurate to its source material, it was a fun summer movie with great special effects that didn't take itself too seriously. I hope that they use the same kind of approach to G.I. Joe, because looking back on the cartoon, it's clear that it was more of a vehicle to sell action figures.

Another movie that I would like to see made is one for the Thundercats. Even though it ripped off Star Wars in a lot of ways, it was a very cool cartoon for the tweens and it was a little more mature than G.I. Joe and Tranformers. I still remember being scared by Mum-Ra, being sad at the death of Jaga (in the very first episode!), and the excitement of the trials of Lion-O. This next video would indicate that I'm not the only fan of the series who wants to see it as a movie. It is a fan-made movie trailer that uses footage of various movies that have been Photoshopped FRAME-BY-FRAME!



While it is quite impressive, I have to disagree with the casting of Brad Pitt as Lion-O. My pick would be Tom Welling of Smallville.

1/13/2009 - Gaming Expert

Forget about being smarter than a fifth grader, try your gaming knowledge against this ONE YEAR OLD GIRL:



Seriously, if your heart doesn't melt from hearing her recite what Pikachu says, you're not human. There is a little debate going on as to if this is healthy learning for the child, but I would say that if this makes learning fun, then roll with it.

1/11/2008 - More Mega Man Madness (2 videos)

I'm sure you've seen some kung-fu movies and thought, "Why can't all the bad guys just gang up on the hero at once?" Well, if that happened, that would probably be a very short movie. The same kind of logic can apply to video games. You go through the various levels and encounter some kind of boss character at the end of each level. It's a staple, in fact, for all the Mega Man games. In Mega Man games, however, you do encounter them all again right before Dr. Wily himself. But you still only face them one at a time. Certainly the NES couldn't handle all the boss characters on one screen, but no such limitations apply to a hacked ROM:



Then of course there's Met, sometimes called Hard Hat for a very obvious reason. He is perhaps the most annoying Mega Man enemy and has been part of the series since the first game. Met is only vulnerable when he peeks out of the hard hat, only at that time he fires a spread shot at you. If you don't time your shot right, he just goes back to hiding under the hard hat. Of all the boss weapons in the Mega Man games, what is most effective in dealing with Met? This video attempts to find out:

1/10/2008 - Cruel Summer (2 videos)

I've been complaining how MTV and VH1 doesn't show music videos anymore, but I think I have an explanation as to why they aren't. I think that musical artists now are reluctant to do music videos even as promotional material for their albums (which was the primary reason for them in the first place). Why are they so reluctant now? Well, just watch this video:



Oh man, that is so incredibly retro... and not in a good way. The 80's where definitely a goofy time and it shows in that music video. After seeing something like that, I can understand why some artists would not want to do music videos for fear of looking stupid in the future. I mean, "Cruel Summer" is a great song and it's one of my favorites, but that video is breathtakingly bad. Ace of Base did a remix of the song only 10 years ago and even their video seems dated:



Still, I would prefer watching these music videos over the crap they're showing on MTV nowadays.

1/8/2008 - Astronaut demos drinking coffee in space

Being a science geek as a kid, I always thought that being an astronaut would be a dream job for me. But as I got older, I've been more and more apprehensive about even the idea of being in space. It's like I have some kind of phobia about it or something. Maybe it's the exact opposite of claustrophobia... an extreme form of agoraphobia perhaps. I don't know what it is, but the idea of being stranded out there and being far away from Earth gives me the night sweats.

Still, I would really like to experience weightlessness. I guess it would fulfill the dream of flying, being free of gravity, and just having fun with it. Imagine the "fun" you could have with a cup of water in a weightless environment. What's amazing is that scientists have found a way to make an open container that will work in space where the liquid doesn't fly everywhere:



I'd LOVE to try that with Tang.

1/6/2009 - Mactini

The last MacWorld keynote (with Apple's participation) was today and a lot of people expected an Apple "netbook" to be announced. Netbooks are the big trend in computing these days. People seem to like their ultraportability despite having underpowered processors. They're meant to be carried anywhere and everywhere, and they cost about half the price of a regular notebook computer. I'm actually skeptical of the longevity of netbooks because their underpowered processors can't handle the HD video that is becoming more prevalent. Still, I think Apple would have been well-served if they did come out with a smaller laptop but one that has a real processor in it. My previous laptop was a 12" PowerBook and I thought it was the perfect mix of portability and power. The smallest laptop Apple has now is 13" and my complaint of it is that it won't fit into those small safes you find in hotel rooms. Ugh.

Well, if Apple ever did make a netbook, I'm afraid it will look something like this:

1/4/2009 - Immersion

There has been much talk about the link between video gaming and childhood obesity. I'm not going to make a judgment about that except to say that I personally don't have such an issue, despite being a gamer for over 20 years. Genetics may be part of it, but I feel that I actually burn a lot of calories when I'm gaming. Maybe that's because I really get into the games... I take the life and death situations in the game seriously, and that translates into the physiological responses associated with flight or fight situations: heart rate increase, perspiration, etc. In other words, unless it's a boring game, I don't become a zombie when I play... unlike some of the kids in this video:



It's funny how a lot of the kids have an intense, yet sleepy stare when they are playing. It's as if they've been pulling an all-nighter on the game... which wouldn't surprise me.

1/3/2009 - The Price is Right, Showcase Showdown PERFECT BID!

Have you ever watched the movie "Rain Man"? You know, the one with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, where Dustin Hoffman plays the title character who is an autistic savant that can barely function in society, but has extraordinary recall abilities that allow him to count cards to win at blackjack and even count toothpicks. Well, I think this Price is Right clip features a real life Rain Man:



What's extraordinary is how close Terry's competitor was as well in her bid. But what will blow your mind is what you didn't see: that Terry had another perfect bid on the opening item that led to him being in the Showcase Showdown! Unless he cheated, he should go down in the Price is Right as their greatest contestant.

1/1/2009 - The Art of the Quincy

So Playstation Home is finally out and I must say that it's mostly useless. Trying to copy the success of Second Life, PS Home aims to provide a virtual environment where gamers can congregate in the form of avatars. The problem is that there's really not much to do in the virtual environments that Sony provides. The videos take forever to load, the minigames aren't much fun, and they limited the ability to voice chat. It kind of makes me angry to think that Sony has spent all this money to develop Playstation Home instead of using it to improve their network or to cut deals with game developers for exclusive games.

Really, the only thing to see in Home is how the mostly male population flock to the female avatars in the virtual environment. The problem is, there's no way to tell if the avatars truly represent their gender in the real world. Which is why a prank like this is possible: