Hardware Beyond the Hype
I’m assuming that most of you have heard about podcasting at this point. Basically, it’s XML feeds of downloadable audio that are scanned by an RSS aggregator of sorts which knows to only download the new stuff. I’m using iPodder to grab some news and such.
So while digging around I came across this excellent collection of public radio podcasts.
Someone has cobbled together an overview of the new Star Wars, built from scraped screen shots (where did those come from?) and analysis of fan discussion. This guy would make a great qualitative researcher. I’m sure that Lucas’ Sith lawyers are headed towards this guy’s house even as we speak.
[Massive spoilers]
There are a lot of great (in concept, anyway) movies coming out this year that Street Tech readers are likely to be interested in. Here’s a list of some of them and links to their online trailers:
Constantine (Feb 18)
Robots (March 11)
Sin City (April 1)
Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy (May 6)
Kingdom of Heaven (May 6)
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (May 19)
War of the Worlds (Summer)
Batman Begins (June 17)
Fantastic Four (July 1)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (July)
Corpse Bride (Halloween)
Don’t forget to touchscreen your Treos to remind yourself that Battlestar Galactica premiers tonight at 9pm) on the Sci Fi Channel. If it’s as good as the recent mini-series, it’ll probably be worth a Season Pass.
Don’t know if other Street Techies know about MusicPlasma, but I hadn’t. It’s a nifty graphical, relational database of musical artists. Really cool.
[Thanks, Alberto!]
The laughter continues at the expense of corporate pop confection Ashlee Simpson with this hysterical riff on Apple’s U2 special edition iPod. It even comes with enough money to use a payphone to call your daddy when you get caught lipsyncing live on national television. Talk about getting caught with your ultra-low-rise jeans around your ankles. Yikes!
In the past three weeks, I’ve been attacked by an undead can of tomatoes, completed the quest of the Deep-Fat Friars, and stormed the lair of the Ninja Snowmen with my trusty balloon monkey by my side. It’s the only online RPG populated by black-and-white stick figures, but I’ve become hooked on the Kingdom of Loathing.
Ever wonder why new audio formats like DVD-Audio and SACD aren’t catching on? Engadget says Consumers, manufacturers and the music industry all have to get behind a standard. Okay, so maybe I have an opinion or two about new audio formats.
How to pick up and carry your iMac G5
It’s good to see a resource available for people who might be confused about how to pick something up and carry it, and yet somehow have the technical skills to get onto the Internet.
As I mentioned in a previous posting, I worked with composer/artist John Bergin recently to create a soundtrack to Traitor General, the latest Gaunt’s Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett. The Gaunt series takes place in the gothic sci-fi gaming world of Warhammer 40,000. John and I created a soundtrack (with John doing most of the heavy lifting) to accompany a limited edition hardback version of the novel. I wrote an article for The Black Library about the making of the soundtrack and interviewed John about composing the music. You can also see a title list and the full credits here.