Posts

Posted on

Happy Birthday, Neptune!

Yes, this is a week late, but uh… better late than never and all that.

Happy “first” birthday, Neptune!

neptune_small

Our solar system’s last “real” planet (I’m still torn about Pluto) was discovered on September 23, 1846. Neptune is far too dim to be observed with the naked eye, so it wasn’t until the telescope was invented that it could even be seen. However, although it was observed by astronomer after astronomer, every last one of them thought Neptune to be a star (with “them” including Galileo, Jérôme Lalande and John Herschel). In 1781, British astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus, and by 1846 it was clear that Uranus had some orbital oddities that could only be explained by the presence of another planet. Thus, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system discovered by mathematical means, not observation. Interestingly, Neptune’s massive moon, Triton, was discovered by English astronomer William Lassell just 17 days later.

Neptune is the forth largest planet by diameter and the third most dense in the solar system. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 30.1 AU (astronomical units, the average distance from the earth to the Sun). It takes Neptune 165 years to circle the Sun, thus, if there were people on Neptune, they’d be celebrating the first year anniversary of when earthlings discovered their home.

Here’s a cool video from the BBC’s 1999 series The Planets about Neptune:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29wfzotaBIg

Even cooler, here’s a sound recording from the Voyager mission. This isn’t what the planet actually sounds like to human ears; it’s what the radio waves coming from Neptune sound like. And it’s really cool:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwnpXll_A_E

I love Neptune! It’s my favorite planet after earth!

Posted on

Heads Up, “Mad Men” fans!

I know several folks have found my site thanks to my Mad Men reviews, and I thought I’d give you guys a heads-up about a new show debuting this week that you might like.

It’s a six-part BBC series called The Hour. It’s set in a fictional 1950s British current affairs TV show. According to everything I’ve read, production values (costumes, set design) are supposed to rival Mad Men in authenticity. And, like our favorite show, The Hour is supposed to be a pastiche of actual people and events. For example, one of the characters, Bel Rowley (played by Romola Garai) is based on Grace Wyndham Goldie, the first female executive at the BBC, and a giant name in the history of British TV (although, as it so often happens on TV, Bel will look much more like Joan Holloway or Betty Draper than the real Goldie). And at least one actual event, the Suez Canal Crisis, will be featured on the show. Fans of The Wire will also be pleased that Dominic West will play one of the three main characters of The Hour.

Here’s the trailer for the series:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InILSU-ZV9M

The series is produced by Kudos, the production company that gave us Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Spooks, The Fixer and Law and Order UK, so I have high hopes for the show. The Daily Mail has a good piece about the series (and about how the character of Bel is based on Goldie) here. Check out Wikipedia’s page on the show here. Check out the official BBC page for the show here.

The show airs on Tuesdays at 21:00 BST (16:00 EDT) on BBC 2. There’s a 99% chance the show will appear on torrent and cyberlocker sites in both XviD and 720p formats shortly after the show airs. If you prefer, you can use this guide to setting up your computer to use a British proxy server and watch the streaming version on iPlayer.

The show will also debut on BBC America on Wednesday, August 17, at 10:00 PM as part of their new Dramaville series. Even better, each episode will be introduced by Luther‘s Idris Elba! I could swear I read somewhere that shows aired under the Dramaville banner will not be edited for time; there will still be commercial breaks, but instead of cutting content to make a 58 minute BBC show fit into a 43 minute US timeslot, the show will run for 75 minutes with breaks added. I can’t verify this at the moment, so perhaps a reader can help.

Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-07-17

  • R.I.P. Sherwood Schwartz. I’ll pour some chocolate milk on the pavement for you! #
  • NOTE TO SELF: Backups work better when you, you know, schedule them and all. #
  • OMG! @therealzooeyd sings on the new “Winnie the Pooh” soundtrack! I think my head will asplode from TEH CUTENESS! #
  • I meant to post this yesterday, but @Patt_Morrison is an idiot. #
  • Oh no! The “clown rape” episode of “Little House on the Prarie” is on! #
  • @shannonwoodward I don’t get it, either. #
  • RT @wagnerofficial: Quote from the dinner table : “Krispy Kreme , Texas Pete , a strip club and a steak in between.. What more do you need?” #
  • TODAY’S POINTLESS TRIVIA QUESTION: Who’s the only person who played for the Boston Braves, Milwaukee Braves and Atlanta Braves? No cheating! #
  • This sucks: @ajcgatech: Tech fined $100,000, forced to vacate 2009 ACC title by NCAA http://bit.ly/oYgm4z #
  • Just listened to New Order’s “Hellbent”. Sometimes “unreleased tracks” go unreleased for a reason. #
  • [sarcasm] Oh no! Not J. Lo and Marc Anthony! [/sarcasm] #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Posted on

The Movie Location Game (Round 2)

The game is simple: I post a picture of a movie location, you guess which movie it’s from. Hints will appear after the picture; highlight them to read. Using TinEye or Google in ANY WAY is cheating. There are no prizes, other than bragging rights. There are three pictures this week; we’ll start easy and get harder as they go along.

LOCATION #1 – For most guys in the 30-50 age bracket, this film EASILY ranks in their top 5.

Movie Location #1
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): This scene is one of the most talked about in modern film history. This because of how the scene was shot, not the content. The scene (and its filming) are discussed in several other movies.

LOCATION #2 – Although set in one city, this film was mostly filmed in another. This is one of the few scenes that was actually shot in the story’s city.

ff_ml_03a
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): The film spawned not one, but two soundtrack albums. Combined, these two albums rank at #7 on the “best selling soundtracks of all-time” list. The film is set in the UK.

LOCATION #3 – I hope you can remember who lives here!

ff_ml_02
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): This building is in Paris; the scene in which the building is used is also set in Paris.

Answers after the jump!

Continue reading “The Movie Location Game (Round 2)”

Posted on

Yes, we’re doing this again!

I hate to do this yet again, but here we go:

Grammar Police

A cannon is a large gun, used in battles and on ships roughly between the Middle Ages and the American Civil War. Canon is a group of laws, customs and traditions. It comes from the “canon law” of the Catholic Church, but nowadays it usually refers to the accepted facts and mythology of a TV show, movie or video game, such as the “Star Trek canon”.

Dual means consisting of two parts, things or people, as in “she plays the dual roles of CEO and mother”. Duel, on the other hand, was originally a contest between two people using deadly weapons, as in “Alexander Hamilton challenged Aaron Burr to a duel”. These days, “duel” usually has a less lethal meaning, as in “the game was a duel between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady”.

To insure something is to take out a legal financial instrument against loss or damage. You probably insure your car, for example. To ensure something is to make sure that it gets done, as in to “ensure that the insurance check is in the mail”.

Continue reading “Yes, we’re doing this again!”

Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-07-10

  • What's the opposite of irony? http://t.co/0wBxCXq #
  • OMG! Geraldo Rivera is losing his mind on #foxnews #
  • Random Internet quote; "Modern weddings have gotten so grasping they might as well send invoices instead of invitations." #
  • Word on the street is that Madonna is working with LADYTRON for her new album. Might be cool, eh? #
  • RANDOM FACT: Conan O'Brien's senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. #
  • @1outside SWEET! Thanks for the #sherlock pics! #
  • @emmyrossum Sorry for your loss, Emmy! #
  • Good luck and God bless, Atlantis! Thanks for making human spaceflight kickass all these years, NASA! #
  • Peter King even REMOTELY thinks that KERRY FREAKIN' COLLINS can get in the HOF? I want whatever he's smoking! #
  • Welcome to South Sudan, the world's newest country! #southsudan #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Posted on

The Movie Location Game

So… this past Friday I “invented” a new game on Facebook: I’d post a picture of a location from a movie, and I invited people to guess which movie it was from. People seemed to like it, so I thought I’d post it here, too.

The rules, such as they are, are quite simple:

1) The movies must be “popular”, in that most people have either seen them, or at least heard of them. I’m not going to try to sneak some obscure 1960s Bulgarian art film past you, or some “direct to DVD” film no one has ever heard of.

2) The locations must be “prominent” in the film. I’m not going to “cheat” by posting a picture of one of the houses Ferris ran through near the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which were only on the screen for second. Having said that, remember that buildings change over time, or might have been embellished for the film.

3) Where needed, I will obscure writing on buildings which might identify them. This is to prevent you from googling a quick answer.

4) Using TinEye is considered cheating!

Here we gooooooooooo!

LOCATION #1 – The grey building in the center of the picture was prominently featured in a popular 80s film. If you’re 35 or older, you’ve almost certainly seen this movie.

movie_location_01
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): The film was based in Washington DC. The building has been repainted since the film came out.

LOCATION #2 – This church was seen into two films: a late 80s classic and an early 2000s rom-com. Name either film.

movie_location_02
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): The first film was not directed or written by John Hughes. Julia Roberts was not in the second film. Both films featured young blonde actresses who died unexpectedly.

LOCATION #3 – This house was featured in a super-popular 80s film. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t seen this movie.

movie_location_03
(click to enlarge)

HINTS (highlight to view): The film was set in Chicago. The lead actor became one of the biggest movie stars in the world because of this film.

Answers after the jump!

Continue reading “The Movie Location Game”

Posted on

Google Flops

So, yeah. Google released a limited beta of “Google+”, their answer to Facebook, this week. And some people on the Internet were creaming in their pants about it. Why?

Why is it that certain people seem to have this blind trust in Google? To these folks, Google wouldn’t ever do anything bad, ever. Not that I think Facebook is prefect by any means. But all Facebook knows about me is what I post, what my friends post, what I import onto my Wall (mainly this blog), and the relational aspects of my friends.

These are the people who scream bloody murder whenever Windows wants to phone home for updates… but the same sheeple who somehow see no problem with using Gmail, Google Talk, Google Voice, Google Apps and Google DNS. Windows just wants to see if its up to date; Google knows more about you than your wife and mother combined.

Sure, Google+ looks kind of interesting. But there’s no killer feature in it that Facebook couldn’t implement in a couple of weeks if they wanted to. For example: FB’s new video chat feature is supposed to be absolutely dead simple and kickass.

So it boils down to who has the most users. Sure, Google has far more potential users than Facebook, but Facebook owns social networking at the moment. And, despite how some people fawn all over Google, they’ve had some massive fails, too. Google Wave was supposed to replace email and instant messaging. How did that work out? Google Buzz died a quick death. And did anyone ever create a Google Profile?

At least Google+ is a product that some people might actually want, unlike…

Google Catalog (really? scanned catalogs?)

Google Video Player (just what the world needed: another proprietary video format!)

Google Checkout (“It’s like a digital Discover Card!”)

Google Answers (“We somehow lost to Yahoo! Answers?”)

Google Page Creator (“You know what we need? Our own version of Geocities!”)

Google Knol (“What’s better than one Wikipedia? TWO Wikipedias!” Too bad no one ever visited Knol.)

Dodgeball (“Wait… in May 2005 we bought a company that did exactly what Foursquare does and somehow forgot that it existed, then created Google Latitude to compete with Foursquare… which we helped develop when we gave all that money to Dennis Crowley?”)

Jaiku (“Wait… in October 2007 we bought a company that did almost exactly the same thing as Twitter and somehow forgot that it existed? Why does this keep happening?”),

Orkut (“Wait… in 2004 we bought a company that does almost exactly what Facebook does… and somehow it only ended up being popular in Brazil and India? SERIOUSLY, WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?”)

Needless to say, I’m skeptical about Google+.

Posted on

Installing Win7 via Flash Drive

For over 15 years, Microsoft has distributed Windows installation media on optical disc. And why wouldn’t they? CDs and DVDs can hold significantly more data than floppy disks, and optical drives are (were?) far more ubiquitous than competing technologies like Zip, Jazz and LS-120 disks.

But times have changed. Most netbooks and many “ultralight” laptops don’t come with optical drives. And, let’s face it, new technologies like flash drives are much, much faster than optical discs.

Thankfully, Microsoft listened to IT folks and came up with an easy way to install Windows 7 via flash drive. I’ll show you how below. Although it might look like a lot of steps, I’ve just been very thorough with my documentation. In practice, it’s really quite easy.

To create a Windows 7 installation flash drive, you’ll need the following:

1) A working Windows 7 computer with DVD drive.
2) A 4GB (or larger) flash drive.
3) A Windows 7 installation DVD.

The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure that the computer(s) you want to install Windows 7 on can boot from a flash drive. Most computers built in the past five years should be able to do this; computers built in the past three years almost certainly can. To test, insert a flash drive into one of the USB ports on a target computer, then power it on. At the boot (BIOS) screen, you should see something that says Press ESC for boot menu (the exact key will vary; F10 and F12 are also common choices). Press the key. If you see the flash drive listed as a boot choice, you’re good to go. If not, see if you computer or motherboard manufacturer has a BIOS update on their website. Run the update and try again.

Continue reading “Installing Win7 via Flash Drive”