Okay, I've now spent three days getting through all the features on The IT Crowd DVD because this is a brilliant DVD! (The series itself is really funny, but what is on this DVD...)
It starts with the animated menus. Now, I'm not for menus distracting me, but this is very "cheap graphics" style (by the same people who did the opening titles). The sequence on the Extras reminds me of Manic Miner, and the sequence on the Episode Selection evokes Head Over Heels. Great stuff!
But then there are the extras! Not one but two commentaries (always, for me, the most essential feature for a DVD to have), the first with Graham Lineham (the writer) and the other with Graham and cast members Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson.
There are deleted scenes and outtakes. And a film by Graham Lineham also about computers...
But I have to mention the subtitles. Allow me to quote from episode one:
Roy: Wosup luser??? P0w3r cycl3 17. WTF! H1v3 j00 g0tz L3DS? D0n'7 70uch th4t d14l!
That's right! 1337! Other episodes are in other styles, and I score geek points for recognising them (and even being able to read some of the ROT13 subtitles!).
One down side is the menu for Setup, which is rather hard to see which option you're on.
One fantastic DVD to appeal to the ITer insider all of us.
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
The Them Crowd
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
What do YOU want?
As you know, I'm part of Conspiracy 2. Moreover, I'm organising the events. But, we got a lot of schedule and not enough events to fill them. So, what do YOU want to see as an event at Conspiracy 2?
Or, what events can we run in the months prior to help promote Conspiracy 2? (Note: these events will have to be in Wellington, although we take suggestions from anywhere.)
Any ideas out there?
Monday, 29 January 2007
Re... cy... cling?
Thanks to Penn and Tellar, everyone knows that recycling is BS for the most part. (Aluminium is worth it, and maybe some other metals.) When you get down to it, it is basically not energy efficient to recycle. (I will add: yet. There may come a day when we can efficiently recycle products, but not at the moment.)
But this doesn't stop anyone. In many ways, we recycle to feel good that we are doing our bit to save the environment, no matter what the real truths are.
Thus when I came into work today, I found on my desk a photocopier box lid, a little wee black box and a piece of paper informing me of my new recycling duties. Paper goes in the lid to be recycled there, the rest goes in the tiny tiny tiny black box... and it is then up to me to then place that rubbish in the right place in our gathering area with the larger bins...
This is really just a ploy to fire our cleaning staff, me thinks. You can't spell "environmental" without spelling "menial" (...and shuffling letters around...).
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Opening screens
(No, not opening credits, but they can be annoying too...)
So you decide to watch a DVD. You pop the disc into your player, and hit close. The DVD boots up... and there's the company logo... and there's the copyright notice... and the legal disclaimer... and the note about commentaries... and the GET THE $&*# ON WITH IT!!!
By this point, you'll be hitting all the buttons on the remote, trying to skip all this rubbish, but that's not allowed! (Although there are discs that aren't as strict as some.)
And then there's the anti-piracy segments. Hey, don't yell at us, we brought the damned DVD already, so don't inflict this on us! If you're lucky you can fast-forward, but that's about it.
Frankly, I could go watch another DVD during the time it takes that first one to boot up!
Saturday, 27 January 2007
I'm smarter than you, and you're smarter than me
So, ever had the occasion when you've just imparted some piece of esoteric knowledge and had someone reply "Wow, you're smart"? I don't know about you, but that really irks me.
All this is really meaning is that "there is some aspect of life about which I have more knowledge than you". But you know what? There are tons of other stuff about which I have less knowledge than you!
Ever gone up to a chef after they created some amazing piece of gastronomic delight and said "Wow, you're smart!" Me neither. We tend to only apply "smartness" in particular ways.
People seem to want to rank either other on a linear intelligence scale, as if there is only one universal way to be intelligent(*). MENSA is supposedly a society of intelligent uber-beings, but lets stick them on an island with no tools, water or food and see if their intelligence enables them to survive better than a native from a nearby island who's lived all their life that way.
My point to all this is: smartness is contextual, so don't get so big about ourselves.
(*)And this is a good opportunity for me to link to one of my favourite books by Stephen J. Gould: The Mismeasure of Man.
Friday, 26 January 2007
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Spiderman Heresy
[Note: this was an idea I had last year...]
So what's the most annoying thing about Spiderman? The whole "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" guilt trip of course.
This storyline occured to me. Spidey gets a clue to some big smakcdown about to happen by some guy living in the middle of nowhere on his own island (or whatever) and goes to check it out. Whilst infiltrating the base, he comes across a list of people, mostly now signified by the note "dead", one or two still to go. But one of the names of the list is Ben Parker.
He can't take out the big whosit at the moment, so goes to the other names and finds out they were big military types (mostly now retired) that had this big whosit as a case to take out, but he got away. During Spidey's talkings, these people are assassinated (or nearly so), with some seemingly two-bit punks being the killers.
And so it comes out. Uncle Ben was a big kahoona in his time, and was against the whosit. And so the whosit, in his next plan, had to take these people out, including Ben, and his killer was this seeming two bit punk (and there were more waiting in the sidelines).
The upshot is: no matter what Spidey did in stopping the guy at the wrestling ring, Uncle Ben would have been killed either way. IT WASN'T PETER'S FAULT!
Thus, this big guilt trip Spidey's been on is now rendered irrelevant, and we can lead off into a new investigation of why Spidey is a hero (as he would undoubtly remain so at this point), which I think would be interesting.
Having destroyed one of the fundamental building blocks of Spiderman, I now await the lynching parties...
