Jack's posts with tag: geek
 The Dark Knight: A First Review
[SPOILER(S) POSSIBLE]Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.
The trouble is that Batman, a.k.a. playboy Bruce Wayne, has had it up to here with being the white knight. He's pissed that the public sees him as a vigilante. He'll leave the hero stuff to district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and stop the DA from moving in on Rachel Dawes (feisty Maggie Gyllenhaal, in for sweetie Katie Holmes), the lady love who is Batman's only hope for a normal life.
Everything gleams like sin in Gotham City (cinematographer Wally Pfister shot on location in Chicago, bringing a gritty reality to a cartoon fantasy). And the bad guys seem jazzed by their evildoing. Take the Joker, who treats a stunningly staged bank robbery like his private video game with accomplices in Joker masks, blood spurting and only one winner. Nolan shot this sequence, and three others, for the IMAX screen and with a finesse for choreographing action that rivals Michael Mann's Heat. But it's what's going on inside the Bathead that pulls us in. Bale is electrifying as a fallibly human crusader at war with his own conscience.
I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to "savor the moment."
The deft script, by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, taking note of Bob Kane's original Batman and Frank Miller's bleak rethink, refuses to explain the Joker with pop psychology. Forget Freudian hints about a dad who carved a smile into his son's face with a razor. As the Joker says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stranger."
The Joker represents the last completed role for Ledger, who died in January at 28 before finishing work on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked. If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up. Ledger's Joker has no gray areas — he's all rampaging id. Watch him crash a party and circle Rachel, a woman torn between Bale's Bruce (she knows he's Batman) and Eckhart's DA, another lover she has to share with his civic duty. "Hello, beautiful," says the Joker, sniffing Rachel like a feral beast. He's right when he compares himself to a dog chasing a car: The chase is all. The Joker's sadism is limitless, and the masochistic delight he takes in being punched and bloodied to a pulp would shame the Marquis de Sade. "I choose chaos," says the Joker, and those words sum up what's at stake in The Dark Knight.
The Joker wants Batman to choose chaos as well. He knows humanity is what you lose while you're busy making plans to gain power. Every actor brings his A game to show the lure of the dark side. Michael Caine purrs with sarcastic wit as Bruce's butler, Alfred, who harbors a secret that could crush his boss's spirit. Morgan Freeman radiates tough wisdom as Lucius Fox, the scientist who designs those wonderful toys — wait till you get a load of the Batpod — but who finds his own standards being compromised. Gary Oldman is so skilled that he makes virtue exciting as Jim Gordon, the ultimate good cop and as such a prime target for the Joker. As Harvey tells the Caped Crusader, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain." Eckhart earns major props for scarily and movingly portraying the DA's transformation into the dreaded Harvey Two-Face, an event sparked by the brutal murder of a major character.
No fair giving away the mysteries of The Dark Knight. It's enough to marvel at the way Nolan — a world-class filmmaker, be it Memento, Insomnia or The Prestige — brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art. It's enough to watch Bale chillingly render Batman as a lost warrior, evoking Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation. It's enough to see Ledger conjure up the anarchy of the Sex Pistols and A Clockwork Orange as he creates a Joker for the ages. Go ahead, bitch about the movie being too long, at two and a half hours, for short attention spans (it is), too somber for the Hulk crowd (it is), too smart for its own good (it isn't). The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. It's full of surprises you don't see coming. And just try to get it out of your dreams.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS - WATCH AT YOUR OWN FRACKIN' RISK
This is the 6 min The Dark Night prologue being shown before the IMAX version of I am Legend.
Our introduction to Mista J....
Okay, take 2...let's try this one tdk_prologue.flv (14.9 MB)
POSSIBLE SPOILERS - WATCH AT YOUR OWN FRACKIN' RISK
This is the 6 min The Dark Night prologue being shown before the IMAX version of I am Legend.
Our introduction to Mista J.... Import.flv (8.0 MB)
 The Warner Bros. intern staff is at it again, providing mildly entertaining but ultimately useless web content to keep us excited about a movie that's eight months away. Eight new Dark Knight websites have shown up online over the weekend, giving fans the chance to waste hours hunting for sad, irrelevant clues as to what this Joker character is up to, and why he's so good at Flash programming. The websites are: The Gotham Times - The Times website can provide you with all manners of useless information about Gotham City. Could all the crime referenced in its pages somehow relate to that Joker criminal that Batman is fighting? I bet it does! Will you feel awful when someone asks you about a current event in the paper, but you've never heard about it because you instead chose to read a fictional city's fictional newspaper? I bet you will! The Ha Ha Ha Times - Just like The Gotham Times, only defaced in the classic Joker style, which is surprisingly similar to the classic Jay Leno style. "Batman Saves Gotham Money On Car Insurance!" These headlines are hilarious! Remembering Gina - Remember Gina? Neither do I. Apparently she was fictionally murdered by gangster Sal Maroni, leading to her receiving a fictional webpage memorial. Thus far, six people have commented that they remember her, one of which only claims a vague recollection, and one that claims Gina uses the same sassy vocabulary as Tyra Banks ("I remember your hugs and the way you would tell me to 'Grow up, girl!'"). Gotham National Bank - It only makes sense the Gotham National Bank would promote itself in as many venues as possible, considering that they're one of the few banks facing weekly supervillain attacks. Their savings accounts better be pretty great if the money will likely be stolen by The Penguin. We Are The Answer - The official organization to report the corrupt cops of Gotham City. Only you can stop the next Batman equivalent of Rodney King. Gotham Police Department - Their website claims they are one of the first "modern" style police departments. Apparently, in the world of Batman, most police departments are still like Keystone Cops, with about twenty guys comically scrambling to pack themselves into the paddy wagon. Gotham City Rail - The best way to get up-to-date information on fictional trains in a fictional city, and it looks less like an old Geocities page than MTA.info. Why So Serious Personality Profile - The Joker's personality quiz to see if you'd make a good henchman, because nothing is more sinister than a MySpace survey.
 Link: http://www.whysoserious.com/The Joker viral marketing website for the next Batman movie continues to provide fun and amusement...
Now with a slowly burning/melting candle inside a Jack-O-Lantern.
What happens when the candle melts all the way down? Better keep an eye on it.
My money says it burns out on 10/31/07.... 
Geek porn.
Star Wars porn.
Lego porn.
Or, as The Fugs said, cream in my jeans.
Build the ultimate Millennium Falcon™! This is it - the biggest, most spectacular LEGO® Star Wars model ever! Straight out of the classic Star Wars movies comes the Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's famous smuggling starship. Every detail of the modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 freighter is here, all constructed to scale with LEGO minifigures. At almost 3 feet (90cm) long, it's the ultimate centerpiece to any Star Wars collection!
This Exclusive First Edition set includes an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, sealed within the product box, available only until the first production quantity is gone! Don't miss out, pre-order yours today!*
- With over 5,000 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO set ever made!
- Model is built completely to minifigure scale - minifigures can sit inside and man the controls!
- Landing gear provides a stable base for model to stand on!
- Ship is over 33" long, 22" wide and 8" tall! (84cm long x 56cm wide x 21cm tall)
- Radar dish rotates and elevates and boarding ramp extends!
- Top and bottom quad-laser turrets rotate for realistic play!
- Cockpit top can be removed to access minifigures!
- Includes 5 minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa!
- This special set also includes a display card with detailed ship specifications!
Link: http://whysoserious.comHA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha! HA! ha! hA! aha! HA!ha!
HP celebrates 35th anniversary of HP-35: launches 35s calculatorPosted Jul 13th 2007 5:54AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds  Feel that? That's the unexpected stir of nostalgia welling inside your dorktic-loin. Rest easy, you're not alone. In fact, that picture aroused a deeply seeded HP fanboi-ism long obscured by thick slabs of drab computing plastic and opaque printer ink. The 35s marks the 35th anniversary of the industry defining HP-35 pocket scientific calculator (and death of the sliderule) -- a first to offer basic trig and exponential functions. While HP preserved the original's reverse Polish notation, gone is the single-line of red LEDs which illuminated the childhood wonder of so many budding engineers. The new 35s also introduces an algebraic entry mode for those who find RPN entry just a bit too, well, reversed. Of course, it's fully modern with 800 storage registers, 100 built-in functions, and a large 2-line alpha numeric display with adjustable contrast. Better yet, the 35s will only set you back $60 compared to the $395 it cost back in 1972 -- that's a lot more 8-tracks for your swank Ford Mercury Capri, eh Pops? Read -- HP-35 anniversary video Read -- HP 35s
- - - - Dear Mr. Prime, We have received your accident-claim reports for the month of June—they total 27. I regret to inform you that GEICO will not be able to reimburse you for any of those repairs. I feel that I have sent the same letter to you once a month for the last six months, and I am now sending it again. Since becoming a GEICO customer in January of this year, you have reported 131 accidents, requesting reimbursement for repairs necessitated by each one. You have claimed not to be responsible in any of them, usually listing the cause of the accident as either "Sneak attack by Decepticons" or "Unavoidable damage caused by protecting freedom for all sentient beings." The only repairs for which you were reimbursed were the replacement of a cracked fender and a headlight, required after a Mr. I. Ron Hide backed his van into your truck; these cost $1,286.63. Our own investigation concluded that you were not at fault and that Mr. Hide had been drinking prior to the accident. Though police were unable to test his blood-alcohol level—Mr. Hide claimed that it would be impossible for police to examine his blood-alcohol content with a Breathalyzer, because he "doesn't breathe"—under Washington-state law, refusal to take a Breathalyzer test is equivalent to returning a result above the legal level. But, I repeat, those were the only repairs for which you have been reimbursed, and it was a very minor accident in comparison to your other claims. I mention a few to illustrate the larger trend: - $379,431.34 requested reimbursement for repairs to your truck cabin. You claimed the damage was caused by attacking fighter jets.
- $665,789.11 requested reimbursement for repairs to your trailer. You claimed the damage was caused by a giant mechanical scorpion, which I can only assume is some amusement-park ride, although I question the wisdom of bringing your mobile home so close to such dangerous equipment.
- $6,564,239.44 requested reimbursement for repairs to a truck part called the "Autobot Matrix of Leadership." You stated this occurred in "an ultimate confrontation between good and evil," with a Ms. Meg Atron and a Mr. U. Nicron causing the damage in question. Mr. Prime, I have checked every known car- and truck-part catalog published in the United States and have found nothing even resembling that part, never mind any part so expensive. Whatever disagreements you had with Ms. Atron and Mr. Nicron, I suggest that next time you either settle things peaceably or leave your Autobot Matrix of Leadership at home so it doesn't break. GEICO does not cover Autobot Matrix of Leaderships.
And the list goes on. Mr. Prime, I am going to remind you again: Your policy with GEICO only reimburses you for accidents that occur while you are engaged in the reasonable use of your truck and trailer. As I told you when you originally purchased the policy, GEICO does not offer Megatron coverage, Starscream coverage, Soundwave coverage, Decepticon coverage, or Energon-blast coverage. Those are just not the types of damages we would expect from reasonable use. To sum up, GEICO has been unable to reimburse you for any repairs, but due to the high number of accidents you have been a party to this month, combined with the many accidents you have had in the preceding five months, your premium has increased to $235,567.50 per month. While that may seem like a lot, I remind you that it is a savings of $137 over Progressive and $98 over State Farm. Please have your check into our main office by the end of July. Regards, Simon Furman
GEICO Agent
 Have you heard about the iPhone? It’s a wonderful new invention that lets the NSA illegally record all your phone calls, copy all your contacts, keep records of all your Web and IM activity, watch you through the camera, listen in on your household through the mic, and probably put you in a terrorist no-fly database for listening to Cynthia McKinney singing that stupid Pink song.
How does this expensive “miracle gadget” do so much domestic spying on you? Well, to use the iPhone you must sign up with AT&T, the telecom that has been tirelessly working with the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, which has installed massive data-mining and recording machinery on AT&T Internet hubs in every major American city. Asked why Apple would only bundle the iPhone with the NSA total surveillance system, Steve Jobs laughed and said it’s because AT&T has “been investing billions of dollars in the last couple of years to create a great network.” Yes, it certainly has. In Orwell’s future, total government surveillance was a terrible thing that was forced upon the people — just the kind of paranoid bullshit you’d expect from somebody like him. In reality, people literally line up all night long for the chance to be the first to pay $600 to be watched around the clock by the government. Steve Jobs addresses new AT&T/iPhone controversy [TECH.BLORGE]
Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 01:36:06 PM PDTHilarious:
Visitors to Sen. John McCain's MySpace page were likely surprised
Tuesday by a statement that the Senator has reversed his position on
gay marriage and "come out in full support of gay marriage ...
particularly marriage between passionate females." Most won't be
surprised that the statement was apparently posted as a prank.
The co-founder of an online news site, who said he designed the
MySpace template used for McCain's page, claimed responsibility for
changing the site. Mike Davidson, cofounder of Newsvine, said on his
Web site that he commandeered the MySpace page because McCain's office
used a design template of his without providing him credit. Davidson
also said his imagery was used on the page and his server is used serve
up McCain's MySpace images.
Because McCain was stealing bandwidth from Newsvine, Davidson was
able to alter the MySpace page without doing a single thing illegal.
"So, the only thing necessary to effectively commandeer McCain's
page with my own messaging was to simply replace my own sample image on
my server with a newly created sample on my server," Davidson noted.
"No server but my own was touched and no laws were broken. The
immaculate hack."
The number of Republicans who've proven they just don't understand
anything about how the internet works - from Ted "series of tubes"
Stevens to concern trolls like Charlie Bass staffer Tad Furtado and
McCain's own campaign staffer Jill Hazelbaker (back when she was
working for Tom Kean's senate campaign) to this and the dozen other
examples I'm sure will be mentioned in comments - is mind-boggling.
Link: http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/macjanitor.htmlThe Unix subsystems on Mac OS X were originally written for machines that were typically never shut off. Mac OS X inherits this assumption in version 1.x, and has many system maintenance tasks that are scheduled to run between 3 am and 5 am. In addition, there are scripts designed to run weekly on weekends, and once a month in the middle of the night. If these maintenance tasks are never run (such as on a laptop that is always shut off at night), many log files and system database will grow extremely large or fail to get backed up. MacJanitor provides a way to run these system tasks at the click of a button. Laptop users could click the 'daily' button every morning (or every few days), or office workers could click the 'weekly' button on Mondays.
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