Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Rest In Peace Randy Pausch

Last week Friday, Randy Pausch passed away at age of 47 from cancer.  For those of you that are asking who Randy Pausch is, he is was a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University that gave his last lecture on September 18, 2007.  This lecture has since been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube and gave him some TV appearances, such as Oprah, due to the fact that this lecture has been very inspiring for many people. It is said to see him go. 

For anyone that is interested this lecture has been made into a book by Randy Pausch called The Last Lecture.

 

Friday, July 25, 2008

Nas Stands Up Against The “Sly Fox”

For Those Of You Who Hate How Batman Talks

 

I saw this over at The Movie Blog and thought that it was hilarious,  so here it is.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Terminator Salvation Trailer

Friday, July 18, 2008

TV Meets the Web


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

 

It appears that the migration of TV to the web has finally started, with the release of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  This is probably the first online series to be produced by a big Hollywood name.  (At lest its the only one I know of.) The series Stars Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion.

According to the Movie Blog, when it released it, the site was brought down do to the amount of visitors to the site, and has since then managed to top the iTune's Downloads list.  For anyone, interested in seeing this online just click on this link, or you can buy it in iTune's for $4.

Trailer for Heroe's Season 3

 

I saw this on the Movie Blog's website and thought that it would be a good thing to also share with you guys.  This trailer is pretty dame cool.  I can't wait for Heroes to come back in September.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Will Smith in Open relationship

Hello ladies.  For any of you that have wished to have your chance with Will Smith, it appears you might be able to get your wish.  According to MSN's CeleEdge , Will Smith (in an interview for Reveal magazine), has stated that he is in an open marriage with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.  According to the interview, both Will and Jada are free to sleep with anyone, as long as, they tell the other person first what they are doing.

Now I do have to say that I don't really agree with the idea of an "Open Marriage"  (call me old fashioned), but I guess if it make them happy its um.... ok.  I wouldn't be in one, but then again maybe I could use a night with Jada. 

DC vs Mortal Kombat

 

Here is the latest trailer from DC vs Mortal Kombat coming out of DC.  Upon watching it I'm kind of left with one thought.  Has Mortal Kombat hit rock bottom?  When Mortal Kombat was first released it was a very popular video game.  I spent hours playing it in the Arcade and on the console.  It was a very fun and innovative video game for its time.  But, as the series went on it just became more and more crappy.  Not that it was terrible, but it wasn't what it use to be.  The series started to be more about gore and less about innovation, unlike the Street Fighter series that made a number of changes over the years.

So now as Mortal Kombat has been teamed up with DC for this new video game, you have to wonder if the developers are beginning to acknowledge that the franchise needs some spicing up.  Whether it will be as refreshing an experience as playing Marvel vs Capcom, we  will have to wait and see. I hope that it can be, I think they should shelf the series for a few years until they can bring in that level of innovation needed to save the series.  Then again, maybe its to late.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Why I can't wait for Mega Man 9

 

As a kid, one of my most favorite game series was the Mega Man series of games.  From when I first got my NES gaming system I managed to get a hold of a used Mega Man 1 gaming cartridge, I've been hooked on Mega Man.  Buying all the Mega Man series games (etc. after Mega man 6 &7)  and the Mega Man X series on the Super Nintendo. 

So when it was announced that Capcom would be making Mega Man 9, it was a no brainer for me if I was going to buy it.  Now am I completely excited about the direction of the game?  Not everything.  I think they should have gone with at lest 64 bit graphics, since it now looks older than the last set of Mega Man games that have released on the DS and even for the Super Nintendo.  The sound should have been updated also.  But those things aside, Mega Man was always was about the game play and if they can deliver the old Mega man game play, I'm more than happy with that. 

Also, since this is only a download game, it should be a lot cheaper, which is a bonus for any fan of the original series.  As for anyone that isn't a fan, it might be a hard sell, but if it really takes off, maybe a non fan might give it a shot.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The iPhone Releases

The Apple iPhone 3G released today, after much hype, to long lines at many stores around the world, including here in Canada were there had been much publicized outrage at Roger's pricing plans.  Now whether in the end it will be a huge success for Roger's will be seen in the days to come.  If in fact the iPhone is as hot a seller for Roger's as it was in its first debut last year,  we might kiss any reductions in data plan rates or roaming good bye.  Then again, I guess we get to use a get phone.  (Well you do, since I'm not buying one).

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Max Payne Trailer

Fake iPhone 3G in China

 

While everyone over here is making a fuss over the new 3G iPhone.  It appear's that China has us beat.  According to this news report, Chinese counterfeiters have been able to duplicate the iPhone, and not only that, they have added new features to the phone.  The best part is the phone sells for about half the price of the new iPhone. So if you have trouble getting the real thing, it might be time to take a trip to China.  Well that is assuming the phone is as durable and as reliable as the real iPhone. 

The only thing that sucks is that us Canadians, will still have to deal with Roger's since they are the only GSM carrier.  So it wouldn't still work out to well for us.  But maybe it does for you.

Roger's Make a Concession

Engadget is reporting that Roger's Wireless, in response to the public outrage at there pricing plans, is offering a 6 GB data plan for $30 a month which can be applied to any voice plan.  Also, Roger's announced that they would be holding 8 am iPhone launch events at a number of Roger's stores, which includes breakfast. 

Now this does sound better then what was offered before, but it does come with a bit of a catch.  The offer is only available to people that sign a contract for 3 years before the August 31st deadline.  Meaning that these people may have to pay a higher price once there contracts are up. 

RuinedIphone.com has thanked Roger's for there concession, but have stated that "It's Not Enough".  RuinedIphone.com will be continuing the push for Unlimited data plans, as well as, a reduction on roaming charges.

So in the end, it appears that Roger's may have bitten off more than they could chew in trying to bring the iPhone to Canada.  We weren't happy as Canadians with the prices we pay for service and the iPhone just brought it out more into the forefront (which is a good thing).  I've wanted for years to see a decrease in the prices we pay for cellphone service, and it appears that because of the iPhone we might just get it. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

What's up with RuinedIphone.com?

As you know a couple of week ago, ruinedIphone.com launched there online petition to get Rogers to change there data plan prices for the upcoming release of the Apple iPhone in Canada.  ruinedIphone.com has received a lot of attention for their online campaign with newspaper articles and News broadcasts picking up the story.  Even I wrote a Post for this petition and signed my name to it. 

Last week, it came out that oilchange.com has bought ruinedIphone.com and is planning to help the guys at ruinedIphone.com to continue there fight against Rogers.  Now this kind of makes me feel funny.  Not that I think that the guys at oilchange.com are bad guys, but I've never heard of an online petition or any type of protest site or group sell themselves to another company or organization before.  It doesn't feel right, even if the oilchange guys just stick to helping out.  Last week, I encouraged people to sign this petition and now there info belongs to another company.  (This doesn't sit well with me.) I personally would have felt more comfortable if the Oilchange guys had just given money to the site.  So I have to wonder, is there something about the site that the Oilchange guys want.  Is it the advertising they would get from the site, or the e-mail addresses?  Will we start receiving spam in our inboxes?  In truth, I don't know.  I would like to hope that these guys are all upstanding people who just wanted to help out. 

In all truth, I hope that the site's acquisition doesn't slow down any of the support that this campaign is getting and that people will continue to support it.  If we stop now, Rogers could still end up winning.  We would lose any hope of actually getting some measure of change in the cellular phone market, here in Canada.  So I've decided to try and be optimistic about the future of this campaign and that the guys at oilchange.com will not do anything nefarious with our data. 

Roger's Feels the Heat

iPhone Well that's at lest according to Apple Insider.  In a recent article, Apple Insider  reported on a rumor that due to the public backlash to Roger's rate plans, Apple has decided to divert a "significant amount" of there iPhones over to Europe.  According to the article, each store could have only about 20-30 iPhones at launch here in Canada.

If this is true, it could be good for us the consumer.  If Rogers begins to hurt it might encourage them to offer unlimited data plans, which is what everyone has been asking for.  Well except for me, since I'm not planning on buying one, but I'm sure the people that are buying one will greatly appreciate an unlimited data plan for their iPhone.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Hellboy on INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO

All is not well in Movie land.

varietyboycottWell at lest, as it comes to the reporting.  As you probably know, online there are many movie news sites, as well as, blogs that report or give commentary on movie news stories that emerge from Hollywood.  One of the main tenants of any type of blogging or journalism is that if you get the story from someone else, you give credit to the person or site that you got the story from. Not every blog, does this, but the reputable ones do.  Well all except Variety, which has a long standing policy that they do not give credit when they get a story from a blog or news site.  This has infuriated many of the online movie news sites, who have asked Variety to stop using this practice and has lead these sites to boycott Variety. This boycott was first started by a small number of the online sites, but as Variety has decided to continue to follow the same practice, other sites have joined in on the boycott, namely The Movie Blog where I first found out about this story.

Now, I'm not sure what all the news sites and blogs have decided to do, but I can tell you what "The Movie Blog" is doing with there site (which you can read here).  John Campea (the founder of the Movie Blog) has simply decided to do what Variety is doing to him and others and just take Variety's stories without linking to them or giving credit, while Rodney Brazeau (a writer for "The Movie Blog") has decided just to not even look at Variety for stories all together (which I very much respect). 

The hope of these blogs and news sites is that with the lose of links from their sites, as well as, an traffic that Variety may receive from these links, will lead to Variety changing their practices.  (It should be note here that without the links generated from these online news sites and blogs, Variety may possibly face a lowering of there site on Google, due to the fact that Google ranks pages partly based on how many other sites link to them. In other words, if Variety stops being linked too, they could become a less relevant search result.)

Whether these actions will help to force Variety to change their practices, I don't know.  I do have some reservations which John Campea tried to address in his follow up post, but I'm not still not convinced that this boycott will change anything. If they can gain enough support, sure something will definitely happen, but Variety is a big site on the Internet, which also has a magazine and is reference on shows like "Entertainment Tonight". So the question is, "Will these blogs be able to hurt Variety enough or gain enough attention to make it matter?  I'm not sure.  So while other sites are boycotting Variety, Variety is free to continue to take there stories without credit. It doesn't seem right, and I feel Variety should be ashamed to be continuing this practice. Give credit where its due, it doesn't cost anything.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

How Long Can the Wii last?

Ever since the Nintendo Wii debuted in November of 2006 it has been flying off store shelves at an unprecedented rate, so much so that even after a year after its release it is still rarely found on store shelves.  (Well that is depending on where you live.)  Seeing all this, the question keeps coming to me, "how long can this really last?"   After reading this article done by Kotaku I have to wonder. 

In the article, it talks about this rumor that the Xbox 360's spring dashboard update might allow users to use a new motion control that Microsoft is supposedly working on.   If we are this close to a motion controller from Microsoft, I have to wonder how long it will take before Microsoft can started swaying people to buy and Xbox 360 instead of a Nintendo Wii.  Or is it just to late for Microsoft?

In truth I'm not sure.  To think that casual gamers would change from wanting a Wii to wanting the more expensive Xbox 360 is probably unlikely.  But what if Microsoft released there controller with a price cut to the XBox 360 and some casual games.  Would people still want a Wii?  In truth, I'm not perfectly convinced they would, but then again I'm not completely sure either.  If Nintendo was to lose there only technical advantage over the other systems, would it be as desirable?  You have to wonder.

Quantum of Solace Trailer