Category: The Dork Report

Like Doctor Who‘s perpetually predicted feature film, the Genesis reunion rumors keep coming back. Now The Sunday Mirror cites a source claiming Phil Collins’ recent divorce has cleared the way for a 3-piece Banks/Collins/Rutherford Genesis reunion world tour (no longer online: sundaymirror.co.uk/showbiz/radar/) in 2007. I call bullshit, but we’ll see.

The LEGO Fanlisting (no longer online: fan.sebadrian.net/lego/extra.php), a collection of LEGO links, including these classic goodies:

• Immortalize yourself as a LEGO “minifig” with The Mini-Mizer (no longer online: reasonablyclever.com/mini). The above is the closest I could get to me.
• The LEGO set I always wanted as a kid! 1977! Wow! I’m old!
• Field recordings of LEGOs being dumped on tables.

The Guinness Book of Records belatedly recognizes Doctor Who as the longest-running science fiction television show (it crossed that threshold, oh, decades ago).

Claim a space for yourself on the official site for Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection Fragile Things (and see if you can find Neil while you’re at it).

MyDreamApp round 2 voting [no longer online: mydreamapp.com] is open; vote for 12 out of 18 wannabe America’s Next Top Mac Programs. My favorite (the only one I can picture using) is still Ground Control. The last round featured guest judge comments by Mac gurus including Cabel Sasser from Panic, and this time the guests are eminent bloggers from Daring Fireball, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, et al. (although they seem to be generally negative about everything!)

AguaT, a free band-aid for iTunes 7 that reverts the button styles back to iTunes 6-style blue glossy buttons. I’m all for fixing Apple’s questionable design choices, but I’m not into permanently mucking around with my system: “AguaT works by replacing elements of the /resources/ folder in the iTunes application. These changes are permanent to an installation of iTunes, so if you think you may want to revert back to the default iTunes 7 theme, you should back up iTunes.app before installation.”

An unnamed source told The Star that unspecified producers of the Doctor Who tv series “decided to make a big budget film.” [no longer online: entertainmentwise.com/news?id=22809] What a tease; there’s no news here. Deciding to make a big budget movie is decidedly different from procuring a big budget.

Jasper Hauser on designing an icon.

Steven Heller interviews Gary Hustwit, director of the documentary Helvetica.

A new record in narrowly focused blogs: Hawk Wings (no longer online: hawkwings.net) focuses exclusively on Apple’s Mail.app. Who knew there were so many add-ons (no longer online: hawkwings.net/plugins.htm)?

Disco (no longer online: discoapp.com/blog) is having Toast for breakfast. A much-needed tool for the Mac, cool-looking and blessedly cheap.

Greenpeace asks for a greener Apple [no longer online: greenpeace.org/apple]. Although Greenpeace is most concerned with the noxious chemicals in devices Apple markets as disposable (aka planned obsolescence), Apple’s product packaging has also long been an issue. Until recently, it seemed as if they had been making progress; iPod boxes, for example, went from large 6″ cubes stuffed with massive hunks of styrofoam to slim cardboard sleeves [no longer online: www.macintouch.com:80/ipodvidreview.html]. However, they’ve taken a suprising step backwards with their new plastic Nano packaging.

Brilliant singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur relaunches JosephArthur.com. One notable new addition is digital downloads of studio (the Junkyard Hearts EPs are very rare) and live recordings.

Time travelling Doctor Who star David Tennant discovers an unwelcome surprise [no longer online: timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-2372683,00.html] in his own past: his Scottish ancestors were Sectarian Protestants, aggressively anti-Catholic and home rule.

As usual, American Doctor Who fans must practice their patience: the Season Two DVD box set comes out on January 16, 2007 [no longer online: syfyportal.com/news.php?id=2875].

Aww, look! The cutest li’l spaceships you ever did see, from IconFactory.

Voting is open for the MyDreamApp first elimination round [no longer online: mydreamapp.com/vote]. You can vote for up to 18 projects, so the task is really better described as choosing which 6 will have to leave the island. The three I find most interesting and/or useful to me are Blossom (a virtual plant that feeds on productivity), Ground Control (an at-a-glance view of well, everything going on in your Mac), and Whistler [no longer online: mydreamapp.com/contestants/view/richardwhitelock] (bringing music making to the masses in an amazing new way, which if is technically possible, could be huge).

Two of my favorite Doctor Who stories are coming to DVD as parts of the Return of the Master [no longer online: bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/09/19/36478.shtml] DVD box set: “The Keeper of Traken” and “Logopolis,” plus “Castrovalva.” The exhaustive repair work done by the Restoration Team [no longer online: purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rtwebsite/ReturnOfTheMaster.htm] should put George Lucas to shame for dumping sub-par copies of the original Star Wars trilogy out on DVD.

WHO’s a good dog? Park Entertainment posts details and a poster (WHERE’s the hyphen?) on their site about K-9 Adventures.

Download Peter Gabriel’s Passion Outtakes, a bootleg of unreleased recordings from the Passion sessions and location recordings for Martin Scorcese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.

Gorillaz’ Phase Two – Slow Boat to Hades, a DVD of videos and live performances from over the past two years, is coming out in Europe on October 30. Comes with a CD-ROM and an absurd amount of extras.

Yo La Tengo, Hoboken institution, says I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (no longer online: iamnotafraidofyouandiwillbeatyourass.com)

The endearing cat sites just keep coming; now we have My Fat Kat (no longer online: myfatkat.com). I take it myfatcat.com was taken. I take back everything I ever said to Buckminster about his weight. I mean, look at Andy (no longer online: myfatkat.com/view/andycat/cat/228.html) crushing his poor owner, for crying out loud. (guest submission from Andrea)

Arrrr, I be forgettin’ Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday! Bah! ‘Til next year, maties! Undead monkey! (guest submission from Lady Cutthroat Andrea)

Beck’s two-turntables-and-a-microphone D.I.Y. aesthetic manifests on his next album The Information‘s blank cover and four sheets of stickers.

I have a Rubik’s Cube on top of my TV, but I’m too much of an idiot to solve more than the top layer. Is it cheating to read a solution (no longer online: peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html)? My feeling is that anything that involves learning algorithms can’t count as cheating.

MyDreamApp posts mockups (no longer online: mydreamapp.com/news/post/129/) of some of its contenders, which goes a long way towards clarifying what they’re supposed to do.

Another detailed iTunes 7 interface critique (no longer online: blog.wilsonet.com/archives/2006/09/16/facelift). Spotted on Dsandler.org (no longer online: dsandler.org/wp/archives/2006/09/12/other-it7-commentary)

While everyone (or should I say, everydork) is ganging up on Apple for changing a single pixel on iTunes, one should remember that the other giant computer megacorporation is far worse when it comes to inexplicable interface design. (guest submission from Dave)

The MPAA’s Greatest Hits, compiled on the official site for the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated. The very first two items speak volumes. Also, I had never heard about Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction gambit: “1994 – Quentin Tarantino, fearing an NC-17 rating for his cult hit “Pulp Fiction,” includes an effects sequence of a head exploding when he submits his film to the MPAA as a diversionary tactic. As expected, the MPAA suggests that he remove the image of the head exploding (which he had never actually planned to include) but allows him to hang onto the image of brains in Samuel L. Jackson’s hair (which he was worried they would reject).”

Rhino’s boxed set packaging design just gets better: A Life Less Lived: The Goth Box (no longer online: rhino.com/gothicbox) is bound in black leather and lace, and Tori Amos’ A Piano is, well, guess.

Weird Al wants to bowl with the gangstas in “White and Nerdy.” Multiplatinum Weird Al nails it again. How can one man cram 800 jokes into 3 minutes?

AppleInsider reports Apple is scrambling to slap together iTunes 7.0.1, which readers of previous reports will know this Dork Reporter eagerly awaits.

A new addition to the litter of kitty sites Stuff on My Cat (Stuff + Cats = Awesome), Cats That Look Like Hitler (Kitlers), and Kittenwar (may the cutest kitten win), comes Cats in Sinks (It’s about cats. In sinks.). Guest submission from Andrea.

It’s your semi-daily Dork Report dose of Doctor Who:

• The Guardian has more information about the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures: a 60-minute special in early 2007, with a full series later in the year. K-9 will appear in the special but sadly not the full series. It’s pitched at a younger age group than the flagship Doctor Who, while Torchwood entertains older Doctor Who fans with snogging and no doubt many double-entendres.
• A bunch of Torchwood fan sites: The Torchwood Institute (no longer online: community.livejournal.com/torch_wood), The Institute (no longer online: torchwood.time-and-space.co.uk), Torchwood.tv (no longer online: torchwood.tv)
• A Doctor Who skeptic comes round, featuring the hilarious title: “In the science fiction universe, one long-lasting program stands out from the nerd.”

Currently enjoying LEGO Star Wars II on my Playstation:

• The official site (no longer online: lucasarts.com/games/legostarwarsii) is kind of fun; clicking around earns you lego “studs” (the currency of the game), which you can trade in for cheap downloadable goodies, just like Skeeball.
• Some mainstream press reviews: MSNBC (no longer online: msnbc.msn.com/id/14802039), Village Voice (there’s an odd error in the first paragraph… if the writer was actually the nerdy college kid he claims to have been, even one who would remember that Marv Wolfman wrote Crisis on Infnite Earths, surely he would remember it had nothing at all to do with teaming up DC and Marvel characters?)

The Maine national Guard is issuing “Flat Daddies” and “Flat Mommies” (no longer online: boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/30/guard_families_cope_in_two_dimensions) to the families of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. No, really. Spotted on Big O (no longer online: bigozine2.com).

Zune comes in (eww…) doo-doo brown (no longer online: news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6115689-6.html).

I need to find a copy of Scott McCloud’s Destroy, the most violent comic book ever!

Despite what their name implies, the Star Wars “Original Trilogy” DVDs are certainly not definitive releases of the original films. The official word from Lucasfilm is that the original edits of the movies are included as bonus material to the special edition versions, and as such are mere dupes of the 1993 non-anamorphic (horror!) laserdisc versions. (guest submission from Dave)

Three cheers for Wikipedia defying China’s censors! Boo hiss Google and Yahoo! (spotted on Boing Boing)

It’s always fun to read DVD Time’s reviews of Doctor Who DVDs, written from the perspective of longtime fans. The upcoming The Mark of the Rani DVD just reminds me how unexcited I am for the character’s return in season three of the new series.

4Flix offers DRM-free digital movies to own (viewable on iPods or almost any computer). Granted, most of their feature films are probably in the public domain and thus free, but $1.99 is probably worth the hassle to squeeze one onto your iPod.

An Ultimately negative (but insightfully so) piece on Watchmen, gleaned from its Wikipedia entry: “Fighting Evil, Quoting Nietzsche: Did the comic book really need to grow up?” by Tom Shone.

Quinn [no longer online: simonhaertel.de]: a really fun and really free Tetris falling blocks game for the Mac.

Serve with Chips has loads of scoops on the upcoming Transformers feature film: Bumblebee is no longer a VW Beetle! Bummer! Megatron’s face looks like the Sarlaac Pit, and Optimus Prime is seriously blinged out.

The Beatles are suing their label EMI [no longer available: businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8JRJ1J82.htm] for nonpayment of $57 million in royalties, and are seeking the return of their master recordings. Of course, The Beatles are already bazillionaires, but on the other hand, being in that position gives them the ability to do the right thing: taking on a megacorporation to protect the rights of artists.

The new SpiralFrog [no longer online: spiralfrog.com] online music service (backed by Universal and EMI) is just… crazy [no longer online: forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2006/08/29/universal-spiralfrog-cx_cn_0829spiralfrog.html]. Who in their right mind would listen to 90 seconds of advertising before each song, and visit the site monthly? That’s worse than commercial radio. Free is not cheap enough. (note: the “90-second” statistic comes from BigO, but I can’t find confirmation elsewhere)

Supergroup Asia prog-rockin’ it like it’s 1981, with an official website design like it’s 1996!

Fonts for Flash [no longer online: fontsforflash.com] relaunches with a much narrower design. One little detail I don’t recall ever seeing in a Flash site before: visited link colors.

This is seriously one of the dorkiest things I have ever seen: Miniature, self-contained, working Atari game keychains [no longer online: thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/80fc/?cpg=36H].

I want to move to Norway. The Oslo Contemporary Art Museum dumped three tons of LEGOs [no longer online: kutv.com/topstories/local_story_249202328.html] outdoors for people to build whatever they wanted for a future exhibit.