“Hey, Doctor Jones, no time for love. We’ve got company!”
-Short Round
What better way to celebrate Singles Awareness Day than to geek out with the new trailer for the fourth Indiana Jones movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
Is Harrison Ford too old to eat solid foods? Will Shia Leboeuf pull off a convincing 50s greaser? Will this movie be more patriotic than Spider-Man 3? We’ll find out May 22nd.
Facebook used to be the simple and clean alternative to MySpace, but after Facebook opened up it’s platform to third-party developers, it’s gotten so bad that I’m spending most of my time on there clicking “ignore” for multiple application requests. Well now there’s a solution that makes Facebook bearable again. You can now block applications and never have to see them again. This video from 5min.com user, brandon90, shows you how below.
All you need to do is search for the application, click on its main page and click on the new Block Application button. Simple and clean once again.
As you wish, my unusually sized rodent friend!
We rang in the Chinese New Year by making some noodles, which oddly enough is how we celebrate Thanksgiving too. Noodles are supposed to symbolize a long life on Chinese New Year and on Thanksgiving it means that your parents don’t know how to celebrate American holidays. It is also the year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac, which comes around every 12 years, and signifies luck for everyone born on this year.
Also on Chinese New Year, CCTV has a huge variety show event that includes singing, dancing, comedy skits, and a lil thing called Wushu, which is more popularly known around the world as Kung Fu. Here’s the best clip I could find of yesterday’s performance:
UPDATED WITH BETTER QUALITY VIDEO 2/9/2008
The performers in the middle are some of China’s top competitors from the 2007 All China Games.
If you’ve ever seen some commercials that feature people jumping off rooftops and stairs in urban areas or watched the opening scene of Casino Royale, you’ve probably seen Parkour or Free Running before.
Usually these terms can be used interchangeably, but purists differentiate the two with the distinction of Parkour going from one point to another as efficiently as possible, while Free Running is a sort of philosophy where more freedom of movement is involved. I I have always been amazed at what these athletes could do but this video (via Digg) takes the cake - combining Parkour/Free Running and Soccer:
It seems to be viral marketing for the game, FIFA Street 3. Is this just extremely convincing CG or amazingly precise acrobats?
The Apple store was down this morning and came back up with new doubled capacity iPhones and iPods Touch (passersby? tacos surpreme? Why not iPods Touch) at 16 gigs and 32 gigs respectively (via Apple). This is what most people wanting an iPod Touch were waiting for since 16 gigs just is not enough when you’re carrying your music collection and DVD rips. This comes at a cost though… of $499.99 each for both the 16 gig iPhone and 32 gig iPod Touch. Ouch.
Maybe once they perfect the PSX and GBA emulators for it with faster frame rates than this:
UPDATE 2/7/2008
Yes to be fair to the author, Zoddtd’s GBA emulator is quite up to speed with a playable frame rate. Here’s a video of it in action:
Jason Bateman, who played Michael Bluth on the show Arrested Development, has confirmed that Michael Hurwitz and Ron Howard have contacted the cast members to reprise their roles in an Arrested Development movie (Yahoo! TV). This is definitely the next best thing for fans hoping for another season of the canceled show. Arrested Development was one of the most brilliantly written comedies that rewarded you for being a fan of the show. Episodes would reference events and jokes that happened episodes ago or even foreshadow future events and continue reoccurring themes throughout the show.
Arrested Development would continuously break of the fourth wall with scenes that referenced the actors’ other works. It included ongoing Happy Days references like Fonzie and Chachi playing lawyers for the Bluth Family since Ron Howard, the executive producer and narrator of Arrested Development, used to star as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. Other cameos included Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Zach Braff, Heather Graham, and Charlize Theron.
Apparently the show was too clever for the average FOX viewer, who would rather challenge themselves to see if they are indeed Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and was canceled prematurely. Hopefully with enough fan support, Arrested Development will follow in the footsteps of Family Guy and Futurama, which were both canceled by FOX and resurrected on another network due to high DVD sales.
So if you haven’t heard of the show or watched any episodes, go Netflix it or pick up the box set immediately and watch it all in order like it should be viewed. You can also watch all the episodes streaming online here (you may need to use IE or Safari though since it’s an MSN site or just use User Agent Switcher extension in Firefox). For more info on the fight to save Arrested Development, check out Save Our Bluths to see how you can help. So go on and have a marathon, whether it’s for the first time or the fifth time, and tell everyone you know about this under appreciated gem.
Related: Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog
There’s nothing better than having the correct tool for the job. For the past year, I’ve been using a Leatherman Squirt, which is a tiny multi-tool that is small enough to attach to some car keys. It has served its purpose quite well with its built-in screwdrivers, file, scissors, knife, and bottle opener. Here’s a link to the Make store for their engraved “Warranty Voider” version of it (but you can find it cheaper at Frys or Costco). Late last year Leatherman announced it would be releasing a new tool for 2008 called the Skeletool, which gave me a bad case of upgraditis.
The Skeletool comes in 2 varieties: a steel handled one with a straight blade for $59.85 and a carbon fiber model with a serrated blade called the CX for $79.85. I don’t know what everyone’s obsession is with carbon fiber and prefer a straight blade for easier sharpening so I picked up the steel one (for sharpening tips and tricks, be sure to check out this blog: Knife Sharpening Tips, which has everything from the correct way of sharpening your kitchen knives, to pointing out that the razor stropping (sharpening) technique that Johny Depp used in Sweeney Todd was all wrong, now that’s hardcore).
The Skeletool is an incredibly sexy tool with an almost Steampunk design (if only it came in brass). I was extremely pleased with the construction and design that went into every little detail of it. It gets its name from the skeletonized handle and blade, which makes it lighter than other similar-sized multi-tools. There’s a belt clip and carabiner-like clip for easy transport, which doubles as a bottle opener!). The blade can be opened with one hand using just your thumb and has an ingeniously designed locking mechanism so it won’t accidentally fold back in.
It can take the place of a small toolbox since it includes: needle nose pliers, regular pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers, screwdrivers, straight blade, and a bottle opener. If the included Phillips and straight head screwdriver bits aren’t enough, you can also get this bit set for $14.99. I love how it is a barebones tool (har har) that is reduced to only the tools that are used the most compared with other bloated multi-tools. I highly recommend getting this for any hobbyist that may need all the essential tools available on the go. At $60 with a 25 year warranty, it’s a decent value too.