Boredom Ensues – Links Edition

18 02 2009

NASA and ESA have announced their next major space launch – flights to the Galileian moons, including Europa.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/20090218.html

Clearly, 2010 is the worse time to launch such a mission.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace. 

 

 

If this sees the light of day, this doesn’t even need to have a good script.

Seriously – Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, and even Dolph Lungren. If they get Bruce Willis, this will officially be the Best Action Movie Ever Made in past, present and future. They could stop making action movies after this.

 

 

And people say I’m crazy because I still don’t trust the Russians.
…does anybody even use the Iridium satellites anymore??

 

 

Korean automaker has committed to season-long integration in Fox’s 24
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/national-broadcast/e3i0a2ed4a24bf26fb81bc2df7d7e70985c
So much for taking on North Korea in next season.   

Probably means that the Chinese will return from “bad guys” to “misunderstood”.

 

 

Final item of note is the utter failure of technical support to even appear like they’re trying anymore. The message I got from contacting HIS regarding a graphic card at work that wasn’t working at higher (but still within spec) resolutions was simply “Try using lower resolutions”.
Useless. Of the many third-party ATI and nVidia graphics card manufacturers, I now know that HIS cards are crap, and only worth a bit more than their abysmal tech support.
Not to be outdone, the lofty expectations of a megalithic company like Sun Microsystems also managed to disappoint. Here’s the email exchange between a coworker asking about training in BD-J, the variation of the Java programming language designed for use on Blu-ray video discs:
Hi, I am a DVD author that is making the transition to Blu-ray. Do you have any courses specific to BD-J, and if not, what more general courses would you recommend to get me started? Thanks,
Sun Education Services:
Hi:
I am not sure what BD-J is.  We have training for Solaris & Java.   
Please visit ca.sun.com/training and do a search on what you are looking for.
Thank you,

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Categories : Blu-ray, Boredom Ensues, Movies, Physics, Stupid People, Technology

In Praise Of Crappy Movies

4 02 2009

Following my move in with Simone, I found I had to change my viewing habits to find things more worth my time. As a result, I really haven’t visited the horror section of the Rogers Video for some time, and I’m more inclined to throwing in a tried and true blockbuster Sci-fi than a B-movie.

Working on the DVD for the Canadian distribution version of “Screamers 2: The Hunting” and seeing a handful of Canadian actors play in congested corridors revived my desire. So as I was doing research in the local Blockbuster (and yes, I can call it “research” now), when I picked up “The Black Hole” – a TV movie/Direct-to-DVD disaster flick that features a black hole created by a LHC-style machine, a monster made of electricity, and Judd Nelson playing a neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie scientist.

Actually, he looks a bit like my friend, Jo, through the entire film.

Almost in homage (but more likely just a revealing mistake) to Jurassic Park where they were watching the “live camera” on a QuickTime player, the start of the movie involves playing back “real time statistics” in Windows Media Player. That, along with some people in the background of a supposedly evacuated facility and the brutally cheesy dialogue make this a fun waste of 90 minutes.

Perhaps the most entertaining part was before the movie even started, as the other TV movie/Direct-to-DVD disaster flicks aire trailers beforehand. 

The first trailer is the much-anticipated sequel to 10.5, “10.5 Apocalypse”. Starring Dean Cain. Woo!

The next one is about scientists predicting (and the subsequent follow-through) that the Sun will go supernova and obliterate the earth. Starring such convincing smart-guy actors as Luke Perry, Tia Carrere, Peter Fonda and Lance Henrickson as the token army general. Would it be a b-movie without Lance Henrickson?
 
The third is a miscellaneous weather-disaster movie, where the big reveal of the hero waits half-way through the trailer when “Amazing Grace” starts to play and Randy Quaid, Gina Gershon and … wait for it… Shannon Doherty are revealed.
 
Sometimes, you need to watch some bad movies, to really enjoy the good ones.
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Categories : DVD, Movie Review, Movies