ORIGINALLY AIRED: 1/18/2005
Red vs. Blue, TiVo ToGo, Video Jockies
Episode #5008
| Like, Ewww: Blogger posts sexy photos of a young Bill Gates. Will he be forced to return his crown as Nerd King?
Take That, MPAA! A new BitTorrent search engine called TowerSeek has been launched. We Feel Less Secure Already: John Hargrove decided to test the viability of those signature bars on his credit cards by signing increasingly zany signatures on his credit slips. |
| If you’re a fan of machinema – animated shorts created using game engines – then you’ve undoubtedly heard of Red vs. Blue, the extremely successful online series. Creators Burnie Burns and Kathleen Zuelch use a combination of different Halo editions to follow the odd conversations of Sarge and his band of whiny grunts.
“It’s like normal animation but instead of sitting down and drawing everything by hand, we use the game engine,” explainedBurnie. To a certain extent, the game dictates the content of Red vs. Blue shorts. “You end up writing around what’s in that limited world,” he said. “It’s a fun writing challenge.” You can view episodes of Red vs. Blue free of charge at redvsblue.com, as well as purchase fine Red vs. Blue merchandise |
| DVDTalk.com’s Kim Morgan dropped by with her rundown interesting DVD releases. This week, she caught up with some previous releases since this week’s weren’t too exciting.
Napoleon Dynamite: Kim likes this indie comedy about a high school loser. “This movie was made for $400, 000 and MTV really pushed it. And it was a huge hit. He’s a great character, almost unlikable.” Shaun of the Dead: This is zombie movie/romantic comedy is on her top ten list for 2004.”It’s hilarious,” she said. “It’s a loving tribute to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. It’s just so well done.” Catwoman: “Catwoman is a terrible movie,” she said. “I’m not going to say it’s so bad it’s good, but it is so bad that it’s entertaining.” But it’s “not as good as Showgirls,” unfortunately. “It’s on the cusp of being a John Waters film.” You can read Kim’s reviews at sunsetgun.typepad.com. |
| DVDs in Salt Lake City, Utah 5. The John Wayne Collection Box Set 4. What's Up, Doc? 3. Follow Me, Boys! 2. The Scarlet Pimpernel 1. Erasure - Hits! The Videos |
| In tech topics…
That’s Gotta Hurt: ESPN delivered the final coup de grace to Sega by dumping them to sign a 15-year deal with Electronic Arts, which had already signed an exclusive contract with the NFL and the Arena Football League. The lesson here courtesy of EA: If you can’t beat ‘em… then utterly destroy their livelihood by not allowing them to even compete in the first place. Harnessing Dark Fiber: Is Google planning to start its own global fiber optic network? Well, according to their help-wanted ad… Terminators Here We Come: Scientists at UCLA say they have successfully bonded muscles from a rat’s heart to a silicon microdevice. |
| No longer do you have to make messy mods or install Linux in order to port your TiVo recordings to your PC. TiVo makes it all happen with no muss via its new TiVo ToGo program. You’ll need Windows Media 10, and a video codec like Dscaler 5. (Sorry Mac folks, no TiVo ToGo for you.)
For more info, go to: |
| Video jockeys are becoming a popular addition to the club scene. Just like their DJ counterparts, they get crowds moving by mixing cameras, lights, and abstract videos to create original art. Many of them use their own custom-made software, and we’ve got an article by VJFADER explaining his own Neuromixer program – a free download at www.neuromixer.com. |
| Organize your web searches with Net Snippets, an online information manager that saves snippets of websites for later review. |
| Call #1: Anthony from Orlando asked Burnie what he thought about the Red vs. Blue spinoffs using their characters. “Considering that we use somebody else’s billion-dollar game engine to make our movies, we can’t complain,” Burnie said. “We love it. Knock yourselves out!” Call #2: Zane from San Antonio, Texas wanted to know how the Red vs. Blue team stays out of trouble with Microsoft when using the aforementioned game engine for their movies. “We got pretty lucky, I won’t deny that,” said Burnie. Basically, Microsoft likes the show, so they didn’t get in trouble, and they have since been contacted by other companies who would like to enjoy that kind of exposure. “Just let the game company know what you’re doing before you do it,” cautioned Burnie. |
| Kevin and Sarah tried out the latest high-tech cell phone, the Motorola RAZR offered by Cingular. It’s only 3.3 ounces and about a half-inch thick. It has polyphonic ring tones, an internal antenna, and integrated AIM for instant messaging. “My favorite thing has to be its Tron backlit display,” said Kevin.
But the built-in 640x480 resolution camera is just okay, and it lacks a flash. Also, Sarah had problems with the mute button hitting her cheek, making conversations a tad difficult. Furthermore, it may be too slim for some users who cradle their phones hands-free. “Yes, it’s very beautiful and slim, but this phone is very hard to hold because it’s so thin,” said Sarah. Finally, the price may be a deal-breaker for most people: $599 with a two-year contract. Visit www.cingular.com for more info, and hit Kevin’s moblog to see some pictures he took with the RAZR’s camera. |
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