So we’ve had a dearth of news items these last few days. That’s because everyone at StreetTech labs is obsessed with making their own cool rap songs from a random little flash audimation (?) called The Official Bubb Rubb Soundboard. To appreciate it, you have to see a local Bay Area news clip about a new car mod called a “whister” that makes the exhaust into a really annoying siren. The news clip features Bubb Rubb in his on-camera debut. After seeing that clip Long Island Supra decided to make a DIY flash-based rap-machine with a little 50 Cent in the background. It’s fun for about 3.8 seconds, but mostly just a lesson in why one should never get in front of a local news camera.
Honda Accord Reassembled by Rube Goldberg
Check out this very nifty Rube Goldberg inspired film from Honda. Look for the link to “the cog film.”
Matrix Geeks rejoice!
I don’t know about you, but the more I think about it, the more I chomp at the bit waiting for The Matrix: Reloaded to come out – TWO MORE DAYS! I’ll be there with black leather on, Carrie Ann!
**ahem** Sorry.
Anyway, the point of this post is the fact that I was able to get my fix of the Matrix universe when I found out about The *FREE*, downloadable ANIMATRIX episodes available from the movie’s website.
If you haven’t heard of the ANIMATRIX, you’re in for a treat. The Wychowski brothers are huge fans of anime, and they signed on some of the most popular Japanese directors to produce this DVD, which acts as kind of an extended backstory for the Matrix universe. Four of the nine episodes are available on the site, and the two I’ve watched are “geekasm” inducing, even in not so high-def Quicktime format. I think this is one of the few DVDs I will be waiting for on the day of its release, June 3rd.
Followup: Be aware that the DVD will most likely receive an R rating. One segment in particular contains some pretty graphic battle scenes that wouldn’t be suitable for young viewers.
iTunes Music Store; Apple Does Digital Content
To go with the new iPods, Apple has announced a new digital content service called iTunes Music Store. With a catalog of 200,000, the Music Store offers individual songs for $1/per directly from the upgraded iTunes music playing/organizing software on the PC. The songs can be previewed in 30-second clips, and then downloaded in AAC format at 128kbps. Plus, you can download the album art for free.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom — Free eBook!
For those of you who may have missed our first blog on this, Cory Doctorow’s first novel Down and Out in The Magic Kingdom is out, and available as a free download in any number of formats for PC or PDA reading — the author even permits use of P2P trading and printing. I’ve just starting reading it, but so far it’s a ripping read. Highly recommended. It’s also available from Amazon.com as a real book, if that’s your bag. Those inclined to micropay the author can probably just paypal him, though he doesn’t ask for it.
Update: Cory Doctorow was on NPR this morning (Thurs.) talking about the benefits of allowing his work to be traded in electronic form. Whata coincidence!
TLC’s Junkyard Wars: On the Road
One of our favorite programs, Junkyard Wars on TLC, is taking the show on the road. They’re visiting nine cities between now and mid-June, starting with Washington D.C. this weekend. Visitors will be able to actually become Junkyard warriors of a sort by building “gravity racers” to compete against other players (track for gravity racers pictured right). Prizes will be awarded for winning entries and most creative vehicles. Should be a lot of fun. Check the TLC website for when JYW will be in your neck of the woods.
Agent Bristow is available
I don’t want to get too “People Magazine” here, but almost everyone in my geekosphere watches Alias. Jennifer Garner, star of the show and who delivered a powerhouse performance in Dude, Where’s my Car? has just separated from her husband, who belonged to one of those pansy tv series that had no violence or technology to speak of.
My guess is he found out who she really worked for and mysteriously disappeared.
The Future of Online Music Distribution?
AOL debuted their MusicNet service this week, marking a major step forward for online music distribution. The service is perhaps the best model I’ve seen of a compromise between the interest of the users and the interests of the “artists” (by which I mean record companies).
MusicNet will essentially allow users to listen to streaming music and download secured versions of songs for playback on their PC. The service will also allow pay-per-burn rates so that users will be able to make their own CDs from downloaded music. Initial rates will be between $4/mo for limited service with no burning, to $18/mo. for unlimited service and 20 burns, which is not bad when you consider that a CD usually costs about $15 and only has 10 songs anyway.
MusicNet offers an alternative to Kazaa-like “stealing” at a reasonable price, and leverages AOL’s connections in the media world and its position as a gateway to the largest segment of internet users who already get monthly bills for their service anyway. Only time will tell if MusicNet will stave off piracy — it may be too little to late. But if lawsuits are sufficient to stop services like Morpheus and Kazaa from operating, MusicNet may be the only alternative left.
Agree? Disagree? Comment!
The CSI Effect.
Maybe you watch CSI, or its gorier spinoff, CSI: Miami (motto: Cleavage and Cut Up Corpses!). Apparently the show is having some real-world side effects:
An enviable array of real and not-so-real technologies and gadgets are at the disposal of the carefully coifed “CSI” gumshoes as they investigate slain strippers, kidnapped wives of millionaires and maggot-covered bodies found in the Las Vegas desert: DNA analysis; mass spectrometers to test chemical compositions; Luminol, a chemical test causing invisible traces of blood to emit a telegenic blue glow.
There are no real-life budget constraints: Every case gets the full-court press of available tests. There are no time lags for DNA results. Almost no courtrooms or juries either.
Faced with the weight of trace evidence, suspects usually confess.
Case closed.
In one particularly improbable plot line, for example, the intrepid “CSI” investigators are able to find the man who slaughtered a blacklisted sex worker in a snuff video by proving through DNA analysis that her final spurts of blood infected him with HIV – something local DNA experts say just isn’t done. That, however, was only after they’d used video enhancement of the motel-room encounter to discern that the killer had a telltale mole on his neck and to make out a crucial landmark outside the motel room window that allowed them to pinpoint its location using triangulation. Analysis of dirt lodged in the tires of the killer’s car led them to the victim’s body.
Apparently real-life prosecutors are being held to an impossibly high standard because of “The CSI Effect.”
Courtesy of Andrew at the BoingBoing guest blog.
It’s all about branding
The Total Information Awareness program has changed their logo from a creepy Illuminati-ish design to a confusing snarl of gibberish. I’m not sure which is scarier. Can you locate yourself on this chart?
