About me

I'm a geek working as a distance learning specialist for a large corporation.

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I went to see X-Men: First Class over the weekend. It was opening weekend for that film. Typically, a big film like that would have a huge audience in theirWhy isn't the theater filled?

The Dark Knight is coming out on July 18th. Everyone has heard of that. And I can't wait. But did you know about Batman Gotham Knight, the animated DVD (also downloadable)Batman Gotham Knight

I've been excited and worried about this one for a long time. Green Lantern is an exceptionally hard character to pull off in live-action. More than most other super-heroes, theGreen Lantern - first trailer

Back in April I wrote a list of the movies I want to see this year in the theater. So far I've seen all the ones I called as aSummer Movie List 2 - Revenge of the Trailer

... and then nothing but disappointment. That pretty much describes this podcast. Really there is some interesting stuff discussed somewhere in there, but to get to it, you have toGrand opening...

Trailer for 11 Minutes Ago The first thing that impressed me about this movie was that it was shot, in it's entirety, in a single day. For a feature length film11 Minutes Ago

Like The Matrix, you cannot be told what this is. Words cannot describe it. It must be experienced. You must immerse yourself in it to feel the awesomeness. Soak it in: Seriously,The most awesome thing to come out of India - ever

First, sorry about the absence of new posts lately. Plenty has been going on, I've just been too tired to write about it. Anyway... on to the review! The Rocky seriesReview: Rocky II

There were good and bad points to this [tag]movie[/tag]. First the good: the [tag]special effects[/tag] were really top-notch. Excellent work. And in the end, they were somewhat successful in getting meReview: King Kong

Timez Attack I am really impressed with this game. It's engaging, the graphics are great, it has a cool adventure environment, and it teaches math. Seriously cool. As you (a small monster)Fight trolls with math!

You know, I was going to write a whole post about the specifics of stuff I loved about The Avengers. You've already seen my spoiler-free gushing (assuming you have doneThe Avengers (2012) with spoilers, and new things on the internet

Hey... just a quick note to anyone following this blog in a feedreader or email that if you don't get any more posts from me by Tuesday, you might wantMigrating feeds

It's very simple, really. They brought me this: I make jokes about awesomeness all the time. That is truly awesome. The dad in that video is a friend of mine from college.Why Facebook and YouTube are cool

Slice of Scifi - Science Fiction TV & Movie News, Interviews & more » “The Dead Zone” Breaking News According to the shows creator/producer, Shawn Piller, the season starting next SundayThe Dead Zone: Back from the dead

I mentioned this a while back, but this guy decided to use the power of the internet to break Star Wars up into 15 second segments and have people submitStar Wars, like you've never seen it before

Changing morality to fit the technology

I came across a post tonight by a professor at the University of Georgia. He uses his response to a recent post on the NPR blog All Songs Considered as an opportunity to talk about the ethics of downloading music without paying for it. It’s a long, but good post. He makes a better argument, I think, than most posts on this topic, which normally come across as bitter and degrading if not threatening. This . . . → Read More: Changing morality to fit the technology

Two TED talks: Turkle and Whitacre – Internet Connections and Isolation

I had the opportunity to watch 2 TED talks tonight. Both of them were about the power of technology and its relationship to… well, relationships. The intertwining of connection and isolation as themes across these two videos really struck me tonight.

MIT professor and psychologist Sherry Turkle’s TED talk has gotten a lot of play in social media circles. That’s not surprising, given the topic. Her main point is that we are using technology to create . . . → Read More: Two TED talks: Turkle and Whitacre – Internet Connections and Isolation

TIDBABSH the second, part the first

Last month’s podcast was such a great success that I decided to do another one.

When I say it was a great success, I mean that it was successfully uploaded and at least three people were able to download and listen to it. I make no statements about the actual quality of the content (though those 3 people who admit to hearing it seemed to enjoy it (which reminds me, your payments will be sent . . . → Read More: TIDBABSH the second, part the first

Shocking news! Distraction causes lack of focus!

Recently a study looked at students who had Facebook on (even in the background) while studying vs. those without Facebook use, and compared their grades. Facebook users came out with 20% lower grades.

As stated on MSNBC:

The psychologist said the study wasn’t about whether Facebook’s good or bad, but goes more to the stereotype that younger people are fluid multi-taskers —sending text message, listening to music, reading a book, all at the same time, . . . → Read More: Shocking news! Distraction causes lack of focus!

The myth of the solitary gamer

Over on The COA we’ve been talking about gaming experiences. To us geeks, that typically means video games, in case there’s any confusion. Though this wasn’t planned, throughout the articles and comments there has been a thread about the social aspect of gaming, and a sense that the rest of the world sees gaming geeks as hunkered down in their parent’s basements eating Cheetos with only their computer for company.

Sure, there are times when . . . → Read More: The myth of the solitary gamer

The Neo-Luddite Geek Technologist

“Dude,” (for some reason this conversation frequently begins with “dude”) “you’re the most technical person I know. How can you not even have a cell phone?”

This conversation (or a variation focusing on a different piece of technology) comes up in my life with some regularity. It happened again recently.

It’s true. I don’t have a cell phone.

(Well… technically, there is a cell phone that exists with my name on the account. But my . . . → Read More: The Neo-Luddite Geek Technologist

A colorful cavalcade of classical coolness

This excites me on many levels. It’s so simple, and yet so cool.

It’s not at all new either. In fact, there’s a multi-award winning film that uses something very similar in its most famous scene. (Comment below if you know what it is.)

What is it, and why does it excite me?

Don’t laugh.

It’s a bar graph.

Yes, seriously.

Wait, wait! Don’t go… it’s not just any old bar graph. This one moves. . . . → Read More: A colorful cavalcade of classical coolness

Tuesday TubeWatch: Minority Report to Sixth Sense to PHUD – Interface Advancement and Integration

In Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s character was able to interact with a very cool looking computer desktop that he could manipulate with special gloves just by waving his hands around.

Tom Cruise in Minority Report with a super-cool computer interface

Everyone wanted it. Then Microsoft created a table that was remarkably similar. You could move and resize digital pictures directly on the tabletop with just your fingers! The future was here!

But was it . . . → Read More: Tuesday TubeWatch: Minority Report to Sixth Sense to PHUD – Interface Advancement and Integration

What’s in YOUR browser?

My wife can’t figure out what I do online for hours at a time. I can’t blame her for being confused. Sometimes I don’t even know how so much time can go by before I get out of this chair and do something besides attempt to contract cancer from my monitor.

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what I’ve got open in my browser right now and see if that . . . → Read More: What’s in YOUR browser?

4 sites to get free/cheap stuff – finding deals online

Recently Gather Little by Little posted an article on “Deal of the day” sites, such as Woot.com and Yugster.com. These are sites that offer one product per day for a substantially reduced price. The merchandise, frequently reconditioned but at times new, is sold until their quantity runs out or 24 hours is up, whichever comes first.

I took a look at a few of the sites that GLBLGuy posted. Some I found useful, but most . . . → Read More: 4 sites to get free/cheap stuff – finding deals online