Author: ryan
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š¶ These 80s remixes are my new favorite thing
This post was originally published on gozgeek.com, be sure to check out the site and subscribe or follow to see even more geekier stuff.
I canāt believe Iām just now hearing about The Hood Internet, an artist on Soundcloud. He has a ton of remixes, including an entire set based on each year of the 80s.
1984 has all of the feels:
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š¤ Revisiting X-Men and more – This Geek in Review for 24 Jul 2020
This article was originally published at GozGeek.com.
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What do they call you? Wheels?
I grew up with the 80s version of X-Men, so twenty years ago I was pretty stoked for the X-Men movie. What I got was disappointment. Some of the casting was genius. Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen? Fantastic. Other casting was less so. Hugh Jackman was great in the role of Wolverine, but his Wolverine was not the version from the comic books. He was way to tall for starters. Conversely, Halle Berry was also great as Storm, but she was way too short! Plus, they had a phenomenal actress and gave her 20 lines in the whole movie.
My final disappointment was the lack of the Danger Room. It was one of my favorite things from the comic book, and was originally suppose to be in the first X-Men movie, but it was deleted. The Danger Room was alluded to in X2, but didn’t show up until the third X-Men movie, The Last Stand. And then it was a glorified holodeck, not at all what I imagined from the comic books. We at least finally had a look at the Sentinels.
Before the finale, there is a scene with a three dimensional display that looks a lot like the sand tables in Black Panther. Foreshadowing?
Does X-Men hold up after 20 years? Up to the X-Men release, there had been 3 great superhero movies released. Superman in 1978, Batman in 1989, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990. X-Men is not better than these three, so the answer is no, it wasn’t great then, and it’s not great now. It has its moments, especially the friction between Wolverine and Cyclops. But, not enough to make me say the movie is great.
X-Men is available to stream on any of the HBO services and DirecTV or to rent from any of the other services. You can also buy a digital copy. Amazon has it the cheapest at $9.99. If you’re a fan, you probably already own the DVD, but, if you don’t, Amazon has you covered for $6.45 Prime.
I bet you could also hit the $5 bin at Walmart the next time you’re there.
If Bitcoin is mentioned, it’s probably a scam
This past week hackers broke in to several popular Twitter accounts, including those of Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. What would you do if you were able to tweet as these people? Apparently try to get others to send me Bitcoin I guess. The hackers were able to get almost $120,000 worth of Bitcoin before Twitter shut them down.
Who knew the Egyptians got it right?
Pretty soon we won’t need letters to form sentences and will be able to write entirely in Emoji? More emoji is coming this year, including a dodo, pinata, and from the I don’t know how we survived this long without it department, the ninja emoji!
“My wife just sent me a message with the married couple emoji and the dodo. Does this mean she wants a divorce or that she wants to eat a bird with me?”
I need my videogames!
Things are all sorts of nuts right now in this dumpster fire of a year we call 20202, but the NBA is trying to bring some sort of normalcy to the sport by quarantining all of the NBA teams and players in Orlando. At the time of the planning, Orlando sounded like a good place, but now I wouldn’t go near Florida with a six foot pole. What I found interesting was what some of the players brought with them to FL. They will be there for three months, away from their families and friends, so I guess you need to find something to take up your time. The number of players with videogames, laptops, and their whole streaming set up is really cool.
Me, I’m in my own bubble in the basement. Not as cool as Disney World, but some call it the Disney World of Ohio. And by some I mean me.
Remember when things came with manuals?
When I first got my Apple Watch, I remember one of my first searches. There was a red dot at the top of the face, and I didn’t know what it meant. Nowhere did I see any description of the dot. It turns out, the red dot means I have notifications. I think I should get some slack for that, since the red dot doesn’t do anything when you tap it, you have to pull down from the top to see notifications.
On the other hand, people are now realizing that the button labeled Tip in the Apple Watch calculator app can calculate the tip on a check. I think that is worse than me not knowing what the red dot means.
By the way, if you need to use a calculator to calculate a 20% tip, here’s how to do it in your head. Take the total, move the decimal point one place to the left, and double what you see.
$17? Move the decimal left to give you $1.70 and double that to $3.40. Now I just saved you from buying a $300 watch. Email me at [email protected] and I will give you my PayPal address.
Actors are just regular people
Have you ever wondered what Superman did in his spare time? Apparently he builds gaming PCs. I’m very impressed with his perseverance, especially after he has to disassemble the computer after he realizes he put in the cooler upside down.
Get some major geek cred with these fonts
The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack contains every nerdy font you need.
Oh, how far we’ve come
It’s easy to forget all of the tech goodies that have been released in the last 30 years. We’ve come from acoustic couplers and 300 baud modems to super computers and high speed networking that we carry in a pocket. Here is a video of two daughters receiving iPods for Christmas. I love their look of, “I have no idea what this is”.
Fin
That’s it for this week! Be sure to get all the deets on Goz from gozgeek.com, your one stop shop for everything geek.
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The Empire really strikes back and more – This Geek in Review for 17 Jul 2020
This was originally posted on gozgeek.com.
The 80s are back!
We are living in strange times, especially when The Empire Strikes Back and Ghostbusters top the box office charts almost over 35 years after their initial release. I wish it didn’t take a pandemic for some of these great movies to get some theater screen time.
In other 80s movie news comes the story behind The Pointer Sisters Neutron Dance in Beverly Hills Cop. The song was originally released in 1983, but didn’t become popular until it was attached to Beverly Hills Cop. I didn’t have MTV, so I’ve never seen the video. The video is genius on how it integrates the movie. When you watch the movie again (there is no if you watch it again), be sure to check out the IMDB Trivia page. I love the story behind “the five pounds of red meat in the bowels” bit.
To boldy go
I’m torn on the new animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks
On one hand, I’ll watch anything Star Trek, even if it’s with an inner rage (I’m looking at you, Star Trek Into Darkness). But, on the other hand, I don’t know if Star Trek will work as an animated show. Yes, I know about Star Trek, The Animated Series but that doesn’t mean I’ve watched it.
Lower Decks will be Star Trek canon, taking place in the Star Trek Prime Timeline (let’s pretend the Kelvin Timeline doesn’t exist). The show is set in 2380, which places it right after Star Trek: Nemesis and 5 years before the destruction of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. I was hoping that it would take place in the same year as Star Trek: Picard since I’m sick and tired of everything being a prequel. I want to see time move forward!
Amazon at 25
Amazon, the online store powerhouse, turned 25 this past week. I can’t find my early orders, the website only goes back to 2006 for me, but I know one of my first purchases was the Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual. Since then, I’ve spent thousands of dollars on the site, which is just plain scary. But, living in the middle of nowhere means that you have to mail order just about anything.
Thank goodness we no longer have to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery. We must have had the patience of Job back in the 70s and 80s.
An investment for the future?
When a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for over $100K, it’s a good thing for a seller, but a bad thing for the hobby. Every person who is currently holding on to sealed copies of games will now think that their games are worth a lot more than they are.
If it ain’t broke
Russiaās Retro Lenin Museum Still Runs on Decades-Old Apple II Computers
Giggidy
Did you know that it is Chuck Yeager’s voice that airline pilots try to imitate for in flight announcements?
I need TP!
One of the smartest shows of the 90s was Beavis and Butthead, and
they are coming back! I can’t wait to see what Mike Judge has in store for them. Not only was Beavis and Butthead awesome, but then along came King of the Hill, the show that is how I imagine it is like to live in Texas.To catch a CSGO cheater
I don’t know what is more genius, the writing of the fake cheater software or the naming of the punishments. The karma burns for these CSGO cheaters.
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Find your shows streaming and more – This Geek in Review for 10 Jul 2020
RIP Online Streaming
I signed up with YouTube TV right after the first price hike to $40. It was, and still is, pretty awesome. Unfortunately, with the price going up to $65 it means I’m going to cancel. Someone needs to tell the content producers that they just can’t keep raising rates for distributors. Along the same line, just because you can start a streaming service doesn’t mean you should. With all of the fractured streaming services that are available, it was only a matter of time before a service such as JustWatch would be released.Now, you can search for the show you want to watch, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and find out exactly where you can watch it. Apparently, it is currently on Hulu.
I don’t know whether it’s the terrible HD remaster, I hope not. I fired up the first episode and it is not in HD, so someone is lying.
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
Here’s an article on procrastination, I think I’ll read it later.
No, just no
I’ve got to admit, the first computer I lusted over was the ZX-81 kit computer. For the first time, a computer was almost in my price range at $99. Luckily, I never pulled the trigger because that computer would have been an exercise in frustration. A computer that was more famous in the US was the VIC-20. and it’s getting it’s own re-release. The VIC-20 is one up on the crappiness scale from the ZX-81, but hey, if that’s your jam, who am I to argue?
Paging Bobby Tables
SQL injection is a method of changing a database with a database query that’s ran outside of the context of the app. Here is a great story about some help desk software that had an SQL injection problem.
Where students are held in place by magnets
Magnets are magical, but they probably shouldn’t be stuck up your nose when inventing a coronavirus device.
Pull my finger
MSCHF and MrBeast set up elaborate pranks on the internet, and this past week the unleashed Finger on the App. The game was simple, once you start the app, you have to put your figure on the screen and not remove it. Periodically the app would ask you to move your finger.
The game went on for more than 70 hours before MrBeast ended the game and gave the final four each $20,000.
The shopping can’t wait!
If you are an elected official, you probably shouldn’t use government owned equipment for personal reasons. What’s even more important is to not go shopping during an important board meeting.
I thought the future was so bright I would need to wear shades
Here’s a movie from 1947 showing what the future would look like. Although the movie is in French, and it is showing portable televisions, it still looks eerily like today with smartphones.
