Oy, Madonna! Damn, girl! When are you not doing something that offends somebody?
September 12 brings And I Feel Fine, a new compilation of R.E.M.’s “early years” (that is to say, when this Dork Reporter first heard them) on the I.R.S. label.
Today we’re at 158 on The Rapture Index. Perhaps not surprisingly, the record high was in September 2001, and the record low was when Clinton was in office.
The Sci-Fi Channel will broadcast Doctor Who season 2 beginning September 29.
Christian Kent notes on Macintouch [no longer online: macintouch.com/readerreports/wwdc2006/index.html#aug10] that in the Apple preview video for their new backup software Time Machine, the demonstrator searches for “Rose.” A coincidence?
Another ordinary person’s life [no longer online: blog.wired.com/sterling/index.blog?entry_id=1536428] revealed by her AOL search history. (spotted on BoingBoing)
Wickerman and A Clockwork Orange bubblegum cards from an alternate universe. (spotted on BoingBoing)
As more of a web designer than a developer (although I do both), AJAX has always been a little bit out of my league. But Adobe/Macromedia’s new Spry framework might make things a little more accessible to non-programmers like myself, I dunno.
What do you think, Art or Crap [no longer online: modestypanel.com/artorcrap]? More importantly, what the heck is a yoyo stand? (guest submission from Dadandrea)
An utterly engrossing Manhattan Star Map. How come I’ve never seen Dan Akroyd? (guest submission from Wishes-she-lived-on-the-Upper-West-Side Andrea)
The mystery continues: how can the only Mac font manager worth using actually be free? Linotype FontExplorerX is updated to 1.1.
Claire Danes wants these so-called snakes out of her so-called life, and this girl took down Arnold, so you’d better listen, you punk-breath snakes.
The fallout from AOL’s release of users’ search data continues. The New York Times reports on the suprisingly poignant personal issues that people look into when they think they’re alone: “mature living”, “depression and medical leave”, “how to kill oneself by natural gas.” (guest submission by Andrea)
Some bad news for Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood: seems hours of footage shot in low-light on hi-def digital cameras (a la Collateral and Miami Vice) had to be scrapped [no longer online: scifipulse.net/Dr_Who/Torchwood_HIDef.html] when the Panasonic cameras didn’t perform as advertised. I’m hardly an expert, but don’t you thnk they would have realized sooner the footage was unusable? (spotted on Outpost Gallifrey)
The Criterion Collection will release a Janus Films boxed set in October, with a book and no less than fifty dvds.
Settle some bar bets with Hey, It’s That Guy. Hey, it’s that Googly-Eyed Guy! Hey, it’s That Guy From Most Michael Mann Movies! Hey, it’s That Maybe-Clone-Maybe-Not-Clone Guy from Lost! Hey, it’s That Guy From V and 10 million other movies! This site could double as a Law & Order supporting players roster. (guest submission from It’s That Girl Andrea)
Helvetica, the movie! Tracing the 50-year history of the ubiquitous, evergreen typeface, and probably without being able to help it, of graphic design itself. Coming to a festival near you in early 2007. (spotted on Design Observer)
Breaking news: “Sexy music triggers teen sex.” How about just being a teenager triggers teen sex.
Those expecting Apple would release an iPhone-wireless-movie-store-tablet-computer-orgasmatron at today’s WWDC conference were probably disappointed when they instead only announced techie things that matter to “D” for developers:
Sleeeeeeep, my kitty, sleeeeeep…
15″ Powerbook G4 go BOOM. At least two of my family & friends own one of these. (spotted on Engadget and Cult of Mac)
Warner Music is going to sell albums on DVD with surround-sound mixes, videos, etc.? Great, fine, and old news. Yawn. But adding iTunes Music Store tracks to it is an interesting waste of space… it’s your legal right to be able to rip an album you own to a computer, so why would want pre-ripped files with DRM? Oh right, the labels want that, not you.
Exxon/Mobile reports record profits of $10.36 billion for the last quarter, the highest yet not just for themselves but possibly for any company ever. You almost have to laugh.
Wikipedia’s entry on Doctor Who‘s Sarah Jane Smith clears something up. The good news: there are now apparently two additional Doctor Who spinoff series in production (to accompany next year’s Torchwood). The bad: what I had thought was a Sarah Jane & K-9 show is actually two: the independently-produced K-9 Adventures, and Sarah Jane Investigates from the BBC and writer/producer Russell T. Davies. Either show may not feature both characters, which is quite a disappointment, as it would have been more than the sum of its parts.
Alleged Mac OS X Leopard screenshots & feature set (spotted on Macintouch). If these are anything other than phake Photoshop phantasies, here are the highlights for me:
I’ve been hearing about Quicksilver for ages, but never tried it because I didn’t really understand what it was. But I’m playing with it now and understand why… it’s a kind of blank slate that does nothing and yet everything. For any Mac users who might stumble upon this blog, I say try it right now (hey, it’s free, and skim this for a few ideas on how to use it). I suppose one way to describe it is what Spotlight could have and should have been.
Starry Night in Lego. (spotted on Kottke.org)
Darth Vader as Doctor Evil: Zip it! Zipit! Zip! (guest submission from Frau Andrea)
Outpost Gallifey reports on an upcoming Doctor Who spinoff, Sarah Jane Investigates, written by Russell T. Davies himself. Is this a different show than the K-9 show in development?
But first we have Torchwood.
The Hoff is King! Of! The! Internet! (guest submission from The Halk)
Look out, the boss is coming! Make any site safe for work with Workfriendly.net (spotted on Kottke.org)
Hi Iconfactory, welcome back! You look so pretty and so Web 2.0-y! Loads of new stuff, including possibly the first useful desktop widget ever (I’m not a fan of widgets) and a huge new suite of free awesome robot icons.
Turns out Peter Jackson had a few feet of leftover film he actually didn’t use, so now we have the King Kong Extended Edition, with 13 additional minutes, due in November.
Another must-buy DVD: Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier, featuring both the 1979 and 2001 cuts, on August 15.
The Fake Leopard Screenshots were nothing, check out the fake iPhone commercials.
A new contender for Dorkiest Link Ever (must do a Dork Report Greatest Hits entry some day): $198.99 buys you a Lego recreation of the famous “1984” Apple TV ad directed by Ridley Scott. It’s got everything: iPods, Legos, movies… (guest submission from Dave)
Got a song stuck in your head, like “My Humps,” “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” or “Feel Good Inc.“? Exchange it for another with Maim That Tune. (guest submission from Queen Apologist Andrea)
Heath “Mumbles” Ledger is the Joker [no longer online: cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/01/film.ledger.reut]. Oh wow, whose idea was it to call it The Dark Knight? They obviously didn’t run that one by a comic book dork focus group. One of the most famous (and commercially successful) graphic novels ever is called The Dark Knight, and fans won’t accept anything less than a straight adaptation. Not to mention the fact that chunks of it were pillaged for the previous bat-movies anyway. (guest submission from Poison Ivy Andrea)
Fake Leopard Screenshot Contest winners on Phil Ryu’s Blog. There’s a world of difference between Photoshop fantasy and computer programming reality, but still, Apple should hire some of these big thinkers.
Oh no, again with the iPhone! (spotted on MacRumors)
Apple addicts tease because we love (no longer online: macspoofs.com). (guest submission from Dave)
Color photos of Russia, ca. 1909, much older than the color photos from the Great Depression. (guest submission from Dave)
Havn’t checkout out Blambot for a while, and was suprised at how many free (for non-commercial use) fonts they have, as well as useful speech balloon graphics. I used 10 Cent Comics and Blambot Casual (as well as Matt B from Chank, the best handwriting font I’ve ever used, and free free free!) on the American Splendor site (no longer online: americansplendormovie.com).
The wraps are off, and “the new IconFactory” debuts tomorrow.
Breck Eisner’s 1994 student film “Recon,” starring a cyberpunk Peter Gabriel. I’ve always wanted to see this… never occurred to me to check out YouTube.
Just to further illustrate that YouTube has everything, here’s video of “Rachel Blake’s” impassioned Hanso Foundation protest at the Comic-Con Lost panel.
Catching up on Neil Gaiman:
With AOL.com (now free to the public, with tons of video), AIM Fight, the new AIM Pages, AOL is trying really hard to look cool in the face of massive impending layoffs.
Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time. The usual suspects are present and accounted for (Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Brazil, etc.) but kudos for including less obvious choices (and Dork Report favorites) like Before Sunset, Brazil, Rushmore, and Big Night. (spotted on Kottke.org)
