Category: The Dork Report

A side-by-side comparison (no longer online: starwars.com/episode-v/release/video/f20060901/20060901_picview/pictureviewer.html) of changes made to the original 1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the 2004 special edition. Honestly, it’s more fascinating than it sounds, even to non-dorks. Spotted on C|Net News.com (no longer online: news.com.com/2061-11200_3-6112085.html)

And because it just isn’t The Dork Report without a flood of Apple obsession:

• The latest iPipeDream list of goodies predicted for Apple’s Sept. 12 media event: faster & bigger iMacs, overhauled iPod Nano, iTunes Movie Store, Airport Express with video, and that damn iPhone again.
• Update! Apple sneaks out new-model iMacs and Mac Minis with little fanfare well before the Sept. 12 media event. Obviously, Steve Jobs et al. don’t consider these to be big-ticket items, only amping up the anticipation for surprises even more.
• .Mac catches more flak, this time from The Apple Blog. I totally agree on at least three points: iDisk is useful but painfully slow, iWeb URLs are ridiculously long and impossible to remember, and the Berlin Wall between iWeb and Homepage sucks.

Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 are rumored to appear in Doctor Who season three’s Christmas special.

The Criterion Collection announces Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films, a breathtaking boxed set of 50 DVDs and hardcover book. Speaking of Criterion, the restored Seven Samurai comes out any day now, and the buzz is that the restoration is glorious! But Criterion disappoints me by using “impact” as a verb on their site. Another upcoming release to look forward to: The Double Life of Véronique.

Disturbingly plausible armchair psychoanalyses of Rumsfeld (no longer online: msnbc.msn.com/id/12131617) and Bush. (with reporting by Dave)

I just came across two more free stock image sites to complement my favorite (Stock.xchng): TextureKing (great stuff, totally free) and StockVault (free for personal or non-profit use).

Won’t redoing the special effects of a 40-year old sci-fi show spoil the enjoyable cheese?

Loads of new UNKLE releases coming up:

• Self Defense, a four-disc boxed set of remixes from the Never Never Land album, on September 12. But it appears only three (!) tracks are previously unreleased, so I think I may skip it.
• Tons of new remixes, none of which are available in the US, even on iTunes: I would especially like to hear Depeche Mode’s “John the Revelator (UNKLE Re-Construction)”, and Massive Attack’s “False Flags (UNKLE Surrender Sounds Session #2)”
• UNKLE’s new album The Future is Unwritten is due sometime this summer (with a teaser on the official site).

Steve Jobs’ latest inspirations come straight from cheesy 1980’s sci-fi.

PicoCricket, a new, uh… thing from Lego Mindstorms. Looks to be less “awesome robot” and more “pipecleaner arts’n’crafts.”

You too can gradient gel-ify your brand identity with The Web 2.0 Logo Generator:

The Unofficial Apple Weblog airs its grievances about .Mac, but makes nice by offering some constructive criticism. I don’t disagree with any of this, but I’m utterly and totally married to my bookmark, calendar, and address book synchronization, so I’m not bailing any time soon.

Learn who’s probably not dead in the new Lost poster [no longer online: p099.ezboard.com/fjjboardfrm41.showMessage?topicID=14351.topic]. (guest submission from Andrea)

Film reviews in four words or less: Snakes on a Plane, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Citizen Kane.

Yet another stunning example of the catastrophic failure of the Iraq invasion: General Tommy Franks was issuing orders to his troops in Powerpoint presentations (no, really). (spotted on Design Observer)

Whoda thunk, cows have accents [no longer online: cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/08/23/cows.accent.reut] too. Do Canadian cows say “moooeh”, and do Bristol cows saw “mo’”? (guest submission from “Cows come you moo like you’re from the norf?” Andrea)

Up From the Catacombs: The Best of Jane’s Addiction [no longer online: rhino.com/rzine/pressrelease.lasso?PRID=421], unfortunately including tracks from the 2003 Bob Ezrin-produced travesty Strays.

Every Mac Dork is blogging about the alleged MacBook serious security flaw [no longer online: blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08/hijacking_a_macbook_in_60_seco.html], so I might as well chip in. Daring Fireball gives an impassioned, detailed overview of the controversy. Two observations:

• The passion with which self-appointed Windows evangelists attack Apple is amazing.
• The passion with which self-appointed Apple evangelists defend Apple is amazing.

Another Apple controversy is brewing: Vivek Sambhara and others leaked a copy of Mac OS X Leopard onto the internet, and Apple’s legal department came down on them like a ton of bricks.

The Hoff Image Database [no longer online: hoffgallery.com] greatest hits: Dr. Hoff [no longer online: hoffgallery.com/displayimage.php?album=8&pos=13], MC Hoffer, and Being John Malkohoff.

My head is spinning, counting all these Doctor Who spinoffs! Cancelled before it even began was Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, starring Billie Piper. The other three are still in motion: definitely Torchwood and maybe K-9 Adventures and Sarah Jane Investigates.

Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites for 2006 (and Top 25 overall). Yay Cute Overload! Boo Shockwave.com! (who knew you still existed? but you still suck for using a cross-platform technology and excluding Macs anyway)

RightWingWatch.org, a new blog keeping track of our own homegrown radical religious nutjobs, such as those that that equate Darwin with Hitler and use cheesy science-fiction nightmares to argue against stem cell research.

Google expands their world-domination plans:

• Writely, a browser-based word processor useful to practically everybody (competing, obviously, with Microsoft Office)
• Google Analytics, for web site, uh, analytics (competing with things like Mint – no longer online: haveamint.com)

Edge Magazine profiles Katamari creator Keita Takahashi (no longer online: edge-online.co.uk/archives/2006/01/everybody_loves_1.php). The original print design is fantastic (no longer online: edge-online.co.uk/archives/katamari11.php).

Life imitates art: Snakes in a Movie Theater! (passed around at work)

Excavating some barely-remembered childhood tunes:

• The Muppet Show Mahna Mahna song. Sublime.
• The Sesame Street pinball counting song. Much more dated than I remember, but I’m digging those steel drums!

A grand idea: My Dream App (no longer online: mydreamapp.com). On my first skim through the submissions, a Quicken-killer sounds like a winner.

Applepeels, the blog of a 20-year veteran at Apple.

Inside the mind of business genius and worst boss ever, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. (no longer online: fakesteve.blogspot.com)

A Snakes on a Plane blow-by-blow.

Kitties bustin’ a move (no longer online: b3ta.hnldesign.nl/index.php?list=4) in the rekkid sto’. (passed around at work)

A win for the ACLU! Confirming what every sensible person already knows, the government broke the law.

Flash bites the hand that feeds it. Brilliant (and cathartic)! (spotted on Boing Boing)

Too impatient for Snakes on a Plane to become an audience participation phenomenon (no longer online: uta.fi/~cstivi/rocky.html) the natural way? Here’s a script to rehearse for opening weekend. (spotted on Boing Boing)

The snobs aficionados at Pitchfork have been busy making lists:

• 100 Awesome Music Videos. A few personal faves: Triumph of a Heart, Coffee & TV, and D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat.
• Worst Record Covers of All Time. How could they have overlooked Yes’ Tormato (also, not coincidentally, once of the worst records of all time)? Actually, come to think of it, one of their better albums also has a horrific cover.
• Top 100 Albums of the 1970s, from Eno to Bowie.
• Top 100 Albums of the 1980s, from Minor Threat to Sonic Youth.
• Top 100 Albums of the 1990s, from The Orb to Radiohead.

After years of designing and building web sites on a Mac, and ensuring they work in Safari, Mozilla, Mac Internet Explorer, Opera, etc. etc. etc., only to find them hopelessly busted in Windows IE, I wholeheartedly support any move to boycott IE (no longer online: windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/47208/windowspaulthurrott_47208.html), a “cancer on the web.” Spotted on project.ioni.st (no longer online: project.ioni.st/post/883#post-883)

Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black (no longer online: veer.com/ideas/btt). (spotted on Typographica)

Macitt (no longer online: macitt.com), a Digg for Apple news. (spotted on Dougscripts.com)

Although it’s hardly unbiased, MacWorld picks apart Apple’s claim [no longer online: macworld.com/2006/08/features/macproprice] that the Mac Pro is almost a thousand dollars cheaper than a Dell, and finds that, if anything, Apple understated their claim.

Pitchfork reports: DJ Shadow is back with a mixtape and new album The Outsider (no longer online: pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/2006/6/29/DJ_Shadow_Reveals_Tracklist), a new album out on September 19.

The Good The Bad and The Queen: a new supergroup comprised of Daman Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Tony Allen & Simon Tong of The Verve, and Paul Simonon of The Clash.

A playable Lego guitar (no longer online: geekasaurus.com/clint/gallery/legoguitar).

Yay, fun! Lego Star Wars II! (no longer online: lucasarts.com/games/legostarwarsii)

Sleepy Kitties II and III. (guest submission from Meowzzzzz… Andrea) (YouTube links no longer online)

The Tron Guy, the Peter Pan Guy, and all of us… we are the web (no longer online: wearetheweb.org). Net neutrality is no joke, actually. (spotted on Zeldman.com)

Title near-misses: Trimalchio in West Egg, Tote the Weary Load, or The Nude Bomb.

Revealed at last, the long saga of Snakes on a Plane (no longer online: calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-snakes13aug13,0,3273.story).

Proof positive tuxedo cats are obsessive-compulsive. (guest submission from Kitty Shrink Andrea) (YouTube link no longer online)