Joss and Zack and Brothers

Oh Kay,

I never wright that one out fully, but there you are. Ohhhh Kay!
I just need to say that Dr. Horrible's blog is one of the best things in the world. I really enjoyed it when it came out last year even though I was relatively one of the last to see it.

In any case, I am just now listening to the commentary. The musical commentary. Infact I just listened to Zack's song. It's this kind of rap - it's pretty entertaining. Almost as much as the song that Neil did - that song really puts his SNL performance into a new context. Anyway, that's it.

Matt Greoning's most recent accomplishments

although Matt would likely be the first person to tell you these are things he has little creative control over I think they're still worth mentioning. The first point of discussion is the recent change that premiered this past Sunday. Season 20, episode 10 "Take my Wife Please". This was the first episode that Fox broadcast in 720p HD. This at first came as an unpleasant shock, but I quickly grew to accept it and be happy with it.

There are more advantages to using the new format. The first is the advantage of universal platform. 16:9 is the new 4:3 in every way imaginable. It's easy to understand why people want this aspect ratio. What's not fair though is the association of 16:9 to HD resolution. In any case, The Simpsons opted to bend to the wills of both.

What's more of a question is that on an earlier commentary from season 3 or 4 Matt Greoning specifically says The Simpsons is best enjoyed in a 4:3 aspect ratio - I think he was mostly complaining about people that stretch the image to fit onto the wider form.

But this was nearly 4 years ago, so if they noticed the emerging trend why did it take so long to officially change it? And why in the middle of the season? With no prior indication? In any case, it's a big plus.

The second thing worth going over is the new and final Futurama feature-length.
This last installment of the Futurama franchise features the Planet Express crew at some of their best if you ask me. Fry becomes telepathic and unravels the history of the guy in the 9 shirt.

There's a great chunk of political undertow, but it's more welcome than the anti-subtle messages on Wall-E.

Singularity U

So this was an article published yesterday on Tech Radar. The article is about the future study of practical implications for the next generations of intelligent technology.

Google is funding this research a great deal. I for one am really happy with how google is doing. They have the worlds most specific and future-driven business plans.

Anyway, the article here is more about talking about how this education should be handled. I suppose the emphasis should be on control, that's the first word in the articles title after all.

If we develop this technology too quickly we could have problems. We could be, at the very least, outdone in every conceivable measure by the machine mind. But I don't the machine mind has any sinister purpose, it will be developed in a way that speaks to a humanitarian mission. After all this is one of the appendages of the neo human race, and a big one at that.

Raymond Kurzweil is a very interesting man who has authored a few different volumes which focus on exponential development and radial growth. Very important subjects this day and age.

I suppose if I had to characterize how I react to this as a 20-something with no real skills - this is so big and gets bigger at such a rate. It's inconceivable that I can keep up with this rate of development. That any one person has that ability.

Technology Worship

I think eventually people will worship tech, because it's really one of the few things we can rely on.

It used to be that the divinity of belief came from the most intangible forces. That was thousands of years ago and I bet it started because some smart-ass scholar predicted technological evolution.

Science and Religion don't play nice at the best of time, so how could you worship technology? well the leaps and bounds in science help illuminate our world with new-found respect, but we still don't understand the 'why' as much as we did back in the dark ages. We do know more about 'how' though.
Your average student can use a personal computer - an appliance more complicated in its ability then many other things.

Why do we evolve this way? We strive for simplicity and purpose. We become more and more burdened with workload, as we are all motivated by self preservation anyway, technology just helps us achieve.

Morons that don't 'know computers' are a relic of the past. These days it's survival.

So, what happens when you believe in the next iPod. Or on evolving wireless infrastructures.

Last week Ar Technica published an artical suggesting our biological latin insignia be changed to Homo Evolutis. this is likely a prompt to Homo Technologis or something along those lines. Or possibly even neohuman.

We have more information at our disposal then ever before. We are the smartest generation and with each new birth we breed a generation that will follow us that has been exposed to this information for longer and with more volume. Not to mention improved techniques for delivering this information.

Think about the way the internet has evolved in the past 8 years. Think about how bots have influenced this design. Think about the IBM Sequoia project - the fast computer, which occupies 3000+ square feet calculating via simulation the process of nuclear fallout transmission in the atmosphere.

NONE OF THIS WAS HERE BEFORE TODAY

Because of that we will continue to evolve more and more quickly, and we are beginning to see a new race of humans linked with technology. And we can interpolate that technology is a changing face. Evolution in the biological mindset and Moore's law combining more and more each day to create... the future.

So, I ask is the future of our race not enough to worship? Is each new tech breakthrough not some form of transubstantiation? does it not give us abilities we could have only dreamt of before?

We reach this crescendo of performance at some point in the deep, dark future and I think that is worth devoting worship to. That is worth meditation. Because that is more real than the scripture could ever be. It is the way of life.

Coraline

This was a delayed preview to the movie Coraline.
I was hesitant to write this because I was lazy and I wanted to see how it did in the box office this weekend - I'm happy to announce that it did quite well.

the reception has been quite warm - the movie is sitting at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and Ebert gave it 3 stars.

I'd like to briefly go over the production of this movie and some of the details of this process that stick out to me.
We all know that Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman are the forces at work here, but how did they make 'Coraline'?.
The production technique employed in this movie was stop motion animation. Think Nightmare Before Christmas or Wallace and Grommet.

I need to point out it has been about a solid decade since a real feature presentation done using this medium. Digital innovations in cinema led Disney to jump on the Elfman/Selick/Burton wagon of Nightmare. The camera moves and the animation really couldn't have been imagined before the tech exististed.

Now, let's see where 15 years of technological leaps and bounds in the most profitable industry have led us.
First of all, number one box office movie this weekend was a chick flick with an all star cast that cost 30 million to film - Just Not That Into You. Coraline cost about 70 million.

The extra money went into the right places, the filming was perfect. The DP lit everything perfect. Some scenes really take your breath away.

Direction from Selick and having Gaiman on set really made sure that this was as true to the story as could be imaged.

But the most impressive part of this production was Laika Animation Studio's devotion to making the entire presentation in 3D. Sadly the movie could only be shown in about 1200 theaters that support RealD 3D across the continent. Despite these minor set backs the movie has earned about 16 million so far.

To produce this movie, the stage was divided by curtain into about 50 or so sections. Each section was filming a different part of the set.

the Other World garden scene is perhaps the second most jaw-dropping.
This set involved the creation of few thousand prop flowers. All of which lit up. This is no digital animation trick, these are props and lighting, together in a most organic and beautiful marriage.


Here is a prop artist working on the set of the Other World garden scene.

Words cannot really express how deeply moving the imagry is in this film, it has a tremendous deal of variation.
I look forward to seeing this movie again and providing a more illuminating review.
The only thing that I feel that I can comment on is that RealD 3D involves the glasses. The glasses filter alot of light and so the screen does look incredibly dark. This is good for Coraline. It makes it one of the best productions in this medium ever, but I doubt very much that this summer's release from Pixar Studio's titled 'UP' will be able to deliver on such an intangible factor. In either case, I hope I can be confident in parting with these words: People want 3D - they will get what they want, just like they always do. Technology will provide for us. The movie Coraline is a shinning example of how far things can come over time.

Touchscreen Technology and the Next Video Game Hardware Generation

Please consider the following pretext to the following article: This is not in any way going to be the main revolution in the next generation and will be but a foot note in the history books, but it's worth writing about now.

So, today something sparked my interest. An article on DIGG about the next generation PSP (and how Sony is denying it).

The next generation PSP is, undoubtedly inevitable even if does undergo an entire rebadge and redesign. such as what happened with Nintendo and the Game Boy franchise evolving into DS. But what I want to talk about is the persistence of touch screen technology.

If Sony does decide to release a technology with a touchscreen, it will likely be beyond what the DS already offers. That is to say capacitive touch with the capability of multiple location tracking (multitouch in Apple-speak).

But a capacitive film over top of an LCD is nothing new. This has been the driving interface behind the iPhone for nearly 3 years now.

Now that industry has enough wealth to R&D the next display technology we can finally hope for OLED to replace the aging dinosaur technology of liquid crystals in suspension on thin films with a piece of reflective film from behind. OLEDs can offer the following two punches:

1) They can be curved over top of any surface. Just Google OLED curved. Sony's got a huge one on display.
Here it is just waiting for hungry, poor investors:



The second techno-advantage is that they can be made to be 100% Transparent or 100% reflective just through design. You can modify tint in an OLED that is completely transparent, but not likely be able to make it completely opaque, but none the less, this is worth noting for technology such as HUD, HMD's (which are going to boom by 2015) and also glass windows with programmable shading and/or advertisements.

What does this mean for the pesky PSP 2 or 3? Well I'm submitting that it will likely take the shape of a most ergonomic design. I currently believe that the X360 controller is the best example of a controller designed with ergonomics in mind.
I never have to put my 360 controller down because of RSI. But that is just a face with buttons, well, replace the face with a curved OLED that features multitouch, maybe also haptic feedback if it can be done and voila a small, but notable change in our portable gaming. The screen becomes the layout for control.

Now apply that to gaming from a couch. These techs could come to the living room in the form of a controller with a programmable button layout. Animations between buttons. This is provided we can control touch sensitivity, otherwise buttons may still reign champion for a few more generations.

What would be after a fully alterable button layout on an curved, ergonomic glowing OLED backdrop?

Likely that same technology that can change shape. Imagine putting a pivot point between both halves of the controller. only putting these points in a number of places. The controllers material would have shape altering properties, so imagine this pivoting controller with all of its hinges covered in silly putty that responds to touch and shape manipulations while also being a display surface.

After that point it will just be done through neuron scan and sophisticated AI algorithms.

Bernie Mac and Sanjay Gupta

Why couldn't Sanjay Gupta die and Bernie Mac live?
Why are you testing us with this?

Everyone on Digg hates this guy because of his disapproving (albeit enlightened) stance on Marijuana use - Time published something I read today. So what if this is a two-and-a-half year old article, it still demonstrates that Sanjay is somewhat disconnected.

But that's not all folks, heres a video of the 'doctor' demonstrating his skills towards a non-materialized career as a circus freak.

And he's in the news. Sanjay, Sanjay, Sanjay...

Bernie Mac died in August and really folks, I still haven't finished mourning him.

In conclusion: Bernie Mac = good
Sanjay Gupta = strange

Skydiving

I think I should go skydiving. Tandem with the SkyDive Toronto company.
I should call them and get a price. They have a winter special on right now that's quite attractive.

Automated Features

Merry Christmas, yeah yeah.

Here's what I want to talk about: robot movies and Robin Williams.
I think two of this guys greatest performances in mainstream Hollywood features are when he is playing a dedicated humanoid.

The first movie was Bicentennial Man from earlier in the decade. I really liked the theme of the movie - not knowing how quite to react to a being displaying human traits while being 100% artificial. It wouldn't be until Spielberg's A.I. that I would really see this touched on again.

Williams fit the part so well - sure he's a little repetitive but this was a certain change for him and his ideas really shone through the character of Andrew.
I felt like his personal experiences really helped him in this movie, because he was able to act as if he had never had any - 'loved and lost' didn't even apply to him, he really had to just be a stranger to the humans.

I like the idea acting as a 'stranger to the humans' - I think it's about as narcissistic a role can get. Whether it's Neo, or Andrew - the 'one' is always a critical stint. The writing is equally as important, but for what it's worth I think this was Williams at his best. A non-human.

Recently I had the chance to watch the amazingly cast Robots. Williams comes back as a robot and let me tell you - he is just killer funny. Sure it's not him acting, but the style Williams usually animates himself shone through in his voice and the little, red CG character was the perfect tool to amplify his very unique way.

With killer timing and with an amazing attitude this guy nails it to the wall.
I don't like Williams in my things, but this was him really at his best. A role he is good with and I think he came away from the experience with more in his head because of it.

Just a nice little, unedited rant.

A Blossoming

Ok, so some of you might know what my old job was in my past life. IT Support as a contractor to the IBM office in Toronto to corporate AT&T users.

Another detail: this was my old job - I was let go about a month ago due to performance and cut backs. It happens, right?

The man that helped me get my foot in the door is now facing the loss of his job.
You see AT&T can't afford the service offered by Canadian agents - this has happened before.
They have made a cost cutting decision to move more people to India. Outsourcing. The glass-ceiling. All that.

So, my good friend will likely loose his job because the fat cats don't want to sacrifice any of their comforts - this is the system we as humans have designed.
God fuck are we a pitiful species or what.

But then this happened: http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2008/12/is-the-internet.html?%3F

No internet in India - no outsourcing.
Money, money, money, money down the drain.

So, talk about bad luck, eh AT&T?

PS Fuck you AT&T - I dont work for you anymore and all your employee's are the biggest fucktards on the planet. No room for incompetence in the New World Order, but here we are. I hope that corporation dies and dies hard.