Futurama DVD Movies

Somebody explain this to me: how can the 1st Futurama movie be so bad when the 2nd one is so good?

The 1st movie feels like way too many ideas strung together with no coherent structure. It’s all over the place, every major character from the TV series is getting crammed in, and a flimsy time traveling gimmick is trying to hold everything together (but fails). And for some reasons most jokes misfire! The ending is kinda neat, but comes way too late to redeem the movie.

The 2nd movie, on the other hand, is very entertaining. I was just going to watch the beginning late one night, and ended up watching the entire movie all in one sitting. It still feels like a long TV episode with several small plots, but it’s entertaining throughout and never feels drawn out. And the jokes work!

I’m hoping that the 3rd and 4th movies are going to be good. As of now, there’s a 50% chance

Speed Beyond Belief Lite – The Movie

As I’m verifying the links to all of my old Quake and Doom files, I keep finding cool stuff. The Beyond Belief speedruns were great back in the day. What I didn’t know is that the QDQ team had also recorded video versions of the speedruns, which make it so much easier to watch. Here’s the SBB2 Lite Run:

Video currently offline.


This is my own Flash version of the movie. It’s kind of crappy compared to the real deal. If you would like to see the run in 640×480 with less compression artifacts, go to the official SBB Page and download their .avi file. You can also snatch a second version of the run in first person view.

I’m still getting acquainted with the Flash movie player, and with hosting these movies on my own server. I’ll have to see how much bandwidth the streaming of these files is taking, and if the servers are fast enough. Please let me know how well this is working out for you!

NHRA Promo Trailer

Another promo trailer for the local racetrack. This one is really quick and dirty, did it in 3 hours or so. But I think it works well enough.

Why I Don’t Love The New GoW2 Trailer

Epic and Microsoft have released a new trailer for Gears of War 2, “Rendezvous”. Buying GoW2 is a foregone conclusion – this game is going to kick ass! But there’s something that’s bugging me about the trailer. Something that leaves a bit of an empty feeling in my stomach. It’s not what’s in the trailer. It’s what is missing from it.

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Umbrella Girls

Infineon Raceway Timelapse

Testing a WordPress video player. This is a timelapse I recorded at Infineon Raceway when NASCAR was in town last June. The team haulers are lined up on the drag strip, waiting to park in the garage area. This took ~45 minutes in realtime.

Why do you Twitter?

Here’s an honest question for everybody who has a Twitter feed on top of their regular blog: why do you do it? I feel like I’m missing something. If you have a phone that can update a Twitter feed, and you have a WordPress/Blogger/Livejournal blog, it’s relatively easy to just update the blog using the phone. The built-in webbrowser can do it. If you have an iPhone, there’s various (upcoming) apps that make it even easier. And the little bit of extra hassle to log in etc. sounds like a good filter to me to weed out everything that isn’t really post-worthy.

Which brings me back to the question: what am I missing? Is there some social component that I’m not aware of? Is Twitter turning out to be a fad and I just haven’t noticed it yet? Help me out!

WordPress for iPhone

This WordPress for iPhone app looks very nice. I’ve been able to log in through the regular admin tools and post on the road, but this makes it so much easier! Taking the laptop on vacation is becoming less and less of a necessity…

The Movie Distraction Test

I’d rented two Blu-ray movies for the weekend but didn’t have a chance to watch them, so instead of just returning them I decided to play them in the background while working on the webpage. A great way to judge a movie’s appeal, really: if the movie good, your attention will be drawn to it against your will. If the movie is bad, it’s easy to ignore. Based on this test:

• Spiderwick Chronicles is good.
• 10,000 BC sucks. Bigtime.

10,000 BC sucking isn’t a big surprise, of course. I figured it might be fun for its pretty pictures, or be entertaining in a dumb way, like Stargate. But it’s just a boring, unengaging mess in which I don’t care for any of the characters. Extra negative points for opening the movie with the same mountain ranges as The Two Towers! I thought I was in the wrong movie…

Spiderwick Chronicles is a pleasant surprise. Well told, well executed, great family movie that adults can enjoy as well. Much recommended!

Happy 4th of July!

Technology is pretty damn cool. I’m driving back towards Tiburon on a boat after watching the fireworks, and I can update my blog on the iPhone. So I figured I’d wish everybody in America a happy Independence Day! Enjoy the long weekend