Filed under: My Name Is Earl, Episode Reviews

(S03E11) "Honk if you know someone on death row." - Sign outside of A. J. Johnson Prison.

It's too bad the WGA is on strike because somebody needs to write another sitcom for Craig T. Nelson. When Earl finally does get out of prison, I will truly be saddened by the warden's absence. Maybe Earl can get a job working for the warden after he gets released?

The more residents of Camden County and the surrounding area I meet, the more convinced I am that their drinking water is tainted.

Continue reading My Name is Earl: Burn Victim

 

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The FBI system used to conduct instant background checks on would-be gun buyers suffered several software-related outages on Sunday and Monday but has since been repaired.

Each lead's world has a slightly different look within the suburban world.

Not many people outside the Midwest have heard of Dayton, OH. And making a confused attempt to correct my pronunciation of Daytona doesn't make you seem more intelligent. If you are exceptionally worldly, you might recall the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995. You might even remember that Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the airplane in Dayton. Perhaps, if you're reading this, a single neuron might flicker when I mention that Guided By Voices formed in the 1980s and recorded the low-fi (...) - MISC NEWS

Apparently Jason Chen doesn't write for the Chicago Sun-Times. Their tech writer Andy Ihnatko ripped the player a new one last week (maybe just upset that he was the last person in history to review the Zune).

Still, he had some nice quotables that attack the music industry in a tone you usually reserved for seedy tech repositories like Gizmodo.

The installer app failed, and an hour into the ordeal, I found myself asking my office goldfish, "Has it really come to this? Am I really about to manually create and install a .dll file?"

You'll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry's Bizarro World, where users aren't allowed to do anything that isn't in the industry's direct interests.

Microsoft's colossal blunder was to knock the user out of that question and put the music industry in its place.

The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.

So did he like it? – Mark Wilson

Zune Review [suntimes]

Date Added: Cardboard Office 11/26/2006 17:00

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Solomon Kane writer/director Michael J. Bassett has revealed this first poster for the epic adventure on his official website . Starring James Purefoy, it is an adaptation of the classic pulp stories by Robert E. Howard. Solomon Kane is a 16th Century soldier who learns that his brutal and cruel actions have damned him. Determined to redeem himself, Kane swears to live a life of peace and goodness but is forced to fight once more when a dark power threatens the land.

Despite everyone's whining about the FCC's regulating of Janet Jackson's nipple, dirty words, and the like, we writerly types (don't worry, we use that term loosely) should thank whomever's in charge that we don't have rules like they do in Britain, as today's Guardian reports:

Publications that call people "basket case", "nutter", or "schizo" could be breaching the Press Complaints Commission code of practice, the watchdog warned today.

Then again, they didn't say anything about the use of the word "retarded," so maybe we'd be safe.

Press Told to Mind Its Language [Guardian]

I am way too cynical for this movie.

Company says software maker has infringed seven patents, does not say which products use the technology.

Let no-one say, "there's no games for the PlayStation" again.

( Release: Nov. 22, 2006   Avg. Score: 2.5/5     Details | Trailers | Photos | Reviews  ) The Gist — Generic holiday snoozer

Date Added: Awesome Read 11/20/2007 01:01

ComingSoon.net's Heather Newgen talked exclusively to John Travolta, Miley Cyrus and Mark Walton about voicing the new animated comedy adventure, Bolt , in theaters on Friday, November 21st!

Apple said Monday it plans to open its third San Francisco retail store just in time for the holiday shopping season, with a grand opening slated for Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving. When it opens for business at 9:00 am local time, the...

[Lily Allen filming a music video across the pond; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Eileen gets an education.

Webreference: "The administration of the system could be done by writing directly to the database, since that is what most of the operations involve. There are strong reasons not to do so."

Filed under: Gaming

We're hanging out at Toys "R" Us Times Square this evening, getting all ready for a bazillion people to get their respective Wii on. As of 9PM the line is already mind boggling, but the word is Toys "R" Us is stocked with 5,000 7,000 of the dang things for the launch, so there are going to be a lot of people going home happy this evening. Keep watching this space for more of the action as it unfolds, and make sure to peep the pics after the break.

UPDATE 1: New pics aplenty. Also, the scuttlebut on the street is that there are actually 7,000 of the little machines stashed away in Toys R Us, and from the looks of white wristband ubiquity (the wristband guarantees you a console tonight), nearly reaching all the way around a city block now, that could very well be correct.

UPDATE 2: Tons more pics. Here's a map of the Wii line. That may not mean much to you non-New Yorkers, so let's put it in perspective. A short block is 1/8th a mile, while a long block is about 1/3rd a mile. So this line is the better part of 4/5ths a mile long. A little arithmetic... we'd estimate that's about 2,500 - 2,600 people or more. Good news for New Yorkers looking to buy a Wii tomorrow morning.

UPDATE 3: Attention, folks, Reggie has been spotted. We love the big guy, and the very privilege of watching him play a bit of Wii Sports baseball has us shaking in our little blogger boots. He was upstairs at the Toys "R" Us Wii display, so we got some pics of that too, all of which can be spied after the break. One hour to go!

Continue reading Live from Nintendo's Wii launch in New York

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Discover the nature of the beast in a bevy of classic titles.

In 1940, while escaping from Paris with her two children, the widowed schoolteacher Odile (Emmanuelle Béart) has her car bombed by the German airplanes and is helped by the mysterious Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel). They move into the forest and the find a huge house, where they decide to lodge themselves.

Left4Dead411 writes,

"We've just received and uploaded the Left 4 Dead Xbox 360 manual for all to see!

The manual covers the 360 controls, the Survivor and Infected heads-up displays, information on the Infected and Survivors, lobbies and more. Check it out!"

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

You think we have identity theft problems now? Wait until the Air Force develops its "voice transformation algorithms" so that it can convert any airman's (or woman's) voice into a "target voice." That means instead of having a pilot speak directly to enemies, software would be able to convert his/her voice into someone else's, ideally a person that the target recognizes as a friendly -- allowing the crafty airman to trick enemies with false intel. What about applications for us civvies? The Air Force acknowledges that there could be some "Phase III Dual Use Applications" which include restoring a voice to those who have a damaged voice box, or for creating voices in video games or for animated films. So once this gets going and we're ready to do "Engadget: The Animated Series," it'll be much cheaper to imitate our voices with no-name actors.


[Via DefenseTech]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Read our single review for 'Gilt Complex' by the Glaswegian quartet 'Sons and Daughters'

Downloadable back catalog tied to celebration that includes free Carcassonne download, new features set for December 4 firmware update.

A number of users are expressing their displeasure with the removal of the iCal drawer in Leopard, and that the substituted pop-up window is inadequate for their needs. Some users say their company depends on the sidebar to provide ready information to many users through their internal iCal server and that the new 'bubble' doesn't provide the same ...

Unless you are of a certain age or a rather excitable cinephile, the title Road House will mean very little to you. For those that know, you are probably wiping up messies from the inside crotchal region of your pants after reading that movie buzz word. The original Road House was the tender story of a head bar bouncer named Dalton, played methodically by one Patrick Swayze (I think he's described in the flick along the lines of ?the best cooler in the biz,? if that helps (...) - RELEASE NEWS

How can you win a competition that you never entered in?

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Tags: real hustle Scam

Griffin Technology has announced updated versions of its TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk devices for the iPhone, iPod nano 4G, Touch 4G, and Classic 120GB. Both products now feature inline microphones for communication or voice recording. The TuneBuds Mobile earphones include several sizes of washable ear cushions. The ControlMic button allows users to answer iPhone calls or send them to voice-mail ...

Take a peak at how the Metal Slug Anthology will play with the Nintendo Wii-mote.

Angelina Jolie, Will Smith and Johnny Depp are defying summer's blockbuster glut with their own possible hits in the cold months.

Richard Manley writes "A report on the card game trinket fiasco. When the UDE point system finally went live, I would imagine most of the people that logged in felt the same fury I did. Blizzard knows the lengths that its fans will go to get trinkets (look at the price of murloc cards on eBay), but their arrangement with upper deck simply takes advantage of the good will many fans have shown. " Having been through the MtG additiction twice, I've decided staying away from this CCQ is a good idea.

Snake killer ends up knee-deep in gore.

New, incredible video from director Zack Snyder.

Date Added: Nice Beer Belly 10/21/2007 01:01

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Well lookie here, induction charging has reared its electromagnetic head in the convenient form of a AA battery. That's right, instead of custom modules fitted to your battery powered devices a la the SplashPad, the AB-001 from AAK Corporation of Japan claims to provide contactless charging to any device sportin' them AAs. The NiMH battery is rated at 1.2-V and takes about 11 hours to fully charge over a lifetime of about 500 charges. Sounds great, right? Now the rub: instead of just setting your camera, toothbrush, penlight or any other AA-powered device near (or on) the charger for a top-up, it appears that you have to remove and then drop these induction AAs into the charger's cup, turning all that contactless charging into nothing more than novelty. While it's all a bit dubious at the moment, our Japanese bureau is on it and we'll holler back atcha later once they get the scoop.

[Via Engadget Japan]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Action game mixing on-foot, midair, and vertical combat hitting unnamed platforms in winter '08.

John Drake talks about the upcoming AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack.

Filed under: Horror, New Releases, Sony, Theatrical Reviews, Remakes and Sequels

What makes The Grudge 2 so bad? It goes without saying that it's a sequel, a remake and a remake of a sequel, which -- as far as Hollywood is concerned -- makes it a safe bet three times over. Probably less obvious is that the film continues an almost 30-year tradition of trying to re-create the success of John Carpenter's groundbreaking Halloween (1978), a pared-down scare flick in which the only thing that happens is a supernatural being hunting down and killing innocent characters.

But there's something else going on here. Horror movies are the ultimate in "body" cinema, or cinema that we experience physically, rather than mentally or spiritually. Because of this, nudity and sex have always gone hand-in-hand with the genre -- even before nudity could be shown. Look at Cat People (1942), in which the heroine turns into a murderous feline when sexually aroused, or the shower scene in Psycho (1960), the ultimate in vulnerability.

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The Grudge 2 blows its two opportunities to revel in sex. Toward the beginning of the film, we drop in on three English-speaking co-eds studying in Japan. Blonde Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and sexy Miyuki (Misako Uno) tease the more bookish Allison (Arielle Kebbel) and teach her to wear her schoolgirl skirt just a little higher. The movie never bothers to explain why the two popular, promiscuous girls would give the time of day to the nerd girl, but so be it. The trio heads for the spooky house of the previous films and, though Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) tried to burn it down, the curse still holds: anyone who goes in there will have the stringy haired-girl and her creepy blue brother breathing down their necks.

My point is this: in any, more playful horror film, Vanessa and Miyuki would die in some compromised position, preferably naked. And The Grudge 2 sets it up for us: Vanessa takes a shower, the camera decapitating her from the shoulders up and from the knees down, and Miyuki meets her boyfriend in a hotel for a romp in the sack, only to meet the beastie before her sweater comes off. Presumably some earlier screenplay draft made more of these scenes before some nervous producer toned it down. Part of this thinking is to aim for a PG-13 and thereby draw in more of the expected age group for this type of film, but the main problem is that, by shutting down the film's libido, it becomes frigid and lifeless.

And thus the other plot threads proceed in the same, safe, sanitary way. Playing Karen's sister Aubrey, Amber Tamblyn is presumably the heroine of the film, but writer Stephen Susco and director Takashi Shimizu (the man responsible for all preceding Grudge movies so far) forgot to provide her with a personality. The best she gets is that her mother (Joanna Cassidy, from Blade Runner and Who Framed Roger Rabbit) loves her sister Karen more. Hearing the news that Karen started a fire and is now in the hospital, Aubrey is dispatched to Japan to find her. Gellar gets a glorified cameo, acting crazy and terrified and finally succumbing to the beastie with the stringy hair (once more played by Takako Fuji).

Incidentally, Amber's dad, Russ Tamblyn, was lucky enough to have one superior horror film on his resume, Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963).

Aubrey meets a so-called journalist, Eason (Edison Chen), who has supposedly been working on the Grudge case for "three years" and yet doesn't know any more than to go back inside the house, and to bring Aubrey with him. Chen's bizarre, wooden acting -- full of awkward pauses -- only emphasizes just how awful Susco's script really is. Characters continually respond and react in the oddest ways to the events around them. It made me wonder if the writer had ever spent any time among other human beings before sitting down to his keyboard.

In Chicago, a third group of characters undergoes similar terrors. Jennifer Beals (yes, the one from Flashdance) plays Trish, the new step-mom to a young boy (Matthew Knight) and a cute teenage cheerleader (Sarah Roemer). The movie treats us to a preview of coming attractions, showing us an incident involving Trish, her new (jealous) husband, a frying pan and some bacon grease. The apartment building this family occupies goes crazy when a mysterious figure in a gray, hooded sweatshirt comes to stay. (Or maybe it's not so mysterious if you're watching carefully enough.)

With their nonsensical stories, the Grudge movies have other Asian horrors over a barrel; too many of them save their "surprise" for the ending, a gambit that hardly ever works. The Grudge 2 isn't smart enough to save anything until the end, and so there's no real downturn or disappointment. In fact, I have to applaud the tidy, compact ending The Grudge 2 does come up with.

Moreover, director Shimizu knows how to piece together the occasional good jump-scare or creepy mood, even if his work is a pastiche of Craven and Carpenter. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of seeing his 2004 film Marebito, a low-budget quickie reportedly shot in eight days and starring another Japanese director, Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man). A good portion of the action has one man, a filmmaker, descending into Tokyo's cavernous underground, looking for something scary. He finds it.

The impulse behind Marebito shows that Shimizu has enough ambition to deserve a fascinating career. But first he needs to escape the curse of The Grudge.

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Many of the biggest challenges security shops face have nothing to do with the bad guys. Here's how to manage when the deck is stacked against you.

Ten-gallon adaptation fires everyone and plans replacement actors.

Try this trick to speed Dashboard's load time, and perhaps even speed up some widget operations.

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Between his two movies and LOTR, that's 15 butt-numbing hours.