🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄
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I can’t believe I’m 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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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.
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.
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?”
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.
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.
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.
The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack contains every nerdy font you need.
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”.
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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.
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, 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.
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.
Russia’s Retro Lenin Museum Still Runs on Decades-Old Apple II Computers
Did you know that it is Chuck Yeager’s voice that airline pilots try to imitate for in flight announcements?
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.
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.
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.
Here’s an article on procrastination, I think I’ll read it later.
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?
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.
Magnets are magical, but they probably shouldn’t be stuck up your nose when inventing a coronavirus device.
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.
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.
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.
Security today is a lot different than security was even 10 years ago. We carry more and more of our pers
onal data in our smartphones. This is why Apple and Google have been strengthening the security of their systems. In iOS 14 Apple is adding an alert to let you know when an Application accesses the clipboard and it’s already caught TikTok and 53 other iOS apps snooping on you. The clipboard stores any information that you copy, such as text and pictures. What is unknown is what these apps are doing with the information from the user’s clipboard. This gets worse if you have a Mac with continuity turned on, which means your iPhone and Mac share the clipboard. Anything you copy to the clipboard on the Mac is automatically placed in the iPhone clipboard.
One of the best security practices you can do is to turn on two-factor authentication on your accounts. Almost everyone uses one factor authentication, something you know in the form of your username and password. Your second factor would be something you have, such as your smartphone. Before a service allows you to authenticate, you not only have to have your username & password, but you also have to have your smartphone. If you don’t turn it on before your an account is compromised then the crooks may do it for you. Once the crook turns it on, it becomes very difficult to get control of your account again. So, turn it on, do it now! And be sure to save the backup codes in a safe place, such as printing them out and putting them in a safe.
Grandpa Pokemon Grandpa has leveled up to 64 phones on his bike so he can play multiple copies of Pokemon Go. Impressive not only on riding with that many phones, but to also know what’s going on with all of those phones!
Why spend time and money learning Protools or GarageBand, when you can use Excel instead?
I love retro tech as much as anybody, and I would love to have a portable way to listen to my copy of Pac-man fever album on 8-track. There is a beautiful genius on Reddit has made his own 8-track Walkman.
If the cost to produce a product goes up, and you want to keep the same profit margin you can either raise the cost of the product or remove items from the product. The rumor is that for the iPhone 12 Apple will choose the latter option and won’t include a charger in the box or earbuds. I find this hard to believe, especially if the charging cable is USB-C. A lot of people have extra USB-A chargers lying around, but few have extra USB-C chargers. The earbuds are less of an issue, unless they are upgrading from a phone that had a headphone jack. But, hey, let’s get people to buy AirPods!
We never had a local Blockbuster. Even at college we were more likely to go to a small local rental place rather than a Blockbuster. All I heard was that their prices were high.
Oh, and they had the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million.
When the Segway was announced, the hype was off the chart. It was going revolutionize transportation. I think the only thing it changed was everyone’s perception of security guards. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and today it’s the Segway’s scooter turn.
One thing that will throw me out of a movie is when tech is used that is not time specific. Guitar enthusiasts are the same way, they questioned Marty’s time traveling guitar. In more 80s movie news, there are rumors that Michael Keaton is in talks to return as Batman. I am all for that!
Have you ever dreaded sending a no to a person about a party? Or would like to be able to send a message that the recipient won’t probably see but you can still say you sent it? Then Straight to Spam is the service for you. It will add invisible SPAMming text to a message so your email will end up in the SPAM folder instead of the inbox.
Too bad it was overused in The Secret of my Success
At the beginning of the stay at home orders a lot of daily shows had to figure out how to work remotely. Some of the shows were really rough, but Late Night‘s production values were a step above the rest. LA Times went behind the scenes to show you how they did it.
By this time in your life you are probably tired of Bonestorm, so it nice to see the release of Lee Carvallos’ Putting Challenge. Speaking of video games, we also have a look at the genius that is the original NBA Jam.
From the “I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for Etsy” department, here’s a story that led the FBI from an Etsy review to identify a suspected arsonist. Lesson to be learned, don’t leave reviews if you’re going to do something bad.
Our long Flash nightmare is almost at an end, as Adobe Flash Player reaches end of life on December 31, 2020. The browsers have slowly been making Flash harder and harder to run, and after December it will run no more.
I’m not a big Facebook fan, but letting users turn off political ads is a bright spot.. It won’t affect me much since I only go on FB once every couple of weeks, but for others that use it every day, this is a godsend.
From the teacher fail department, here’s a letter from a teacher chewing out Neil Armstrong for faking the moon landing along with his response. I’m sad that he took the time to reply.
Got ADHD? Well the FDA just approved the first prescription video game to treat it. The game doesn’t appear to be available yet and I couldn’t find a link to pricing or if the game is available without a prescription.
Going to a retreat for 75 days without outside communication sounds pretty cool. Doing it at the beginning of March 2020 could have some repercussions.
The first killer program for personal computers was the spreadsheet, or more specifically, VisiCalc. Here is a behind the scene look at the creation VisiCalc. And, following along with vintage computing, how about
extracting constants from 8087 math coprocessor.
Back on May 21st I missed the 40th anniversary of the Empire Strikes Back. I’m bummed that I didn’t commemorate the day, but at least the date brought this article to my attention. Apparently, the ending of Empire changed from the initial 70mm print to the wide release of the 35mm print.
There was one show that I couldn’t miss growing up, and the was Knight Rider. It doesn’t quote hold up today, but the theme song does.
Not only has the coronavirus wrecked any sort of social life I have, it also has affected the accuracy of the weather forecasts. A lot of atmospheric data is collected from commercial airplanes, and when they’re not flying, less data is collected.
If you want to buy a decommissioned nuclear reactor control panel, I’ve found one for you.
What’s better than a robotic arm? How about one that can punch threw walls?
Hackers come in all shapes and sizes, which I learned from these genius hacks on Reddit and Twitter. First up is the genius 4th grade hacker who didn’t want to participate in a Zoom conference with his teachers so he covered his camera and named himself Reconecting(sp)…. He may have gotten away with it too if he would have learned how to spell reconnecting. Next up is the genius ex-girlfriend who takes Netflix password sharing to a new level. Finally, we have a not so bright adulterer creatively changing his girlfriend’s name on his smartphone to hide texts.
It seems like we’re living in some sort of bad movie, especially when we have monkeys breaking in to a lab, attacking a lab assistant, and stealing Covid-19 samples. Were they bored? Or were they part of some elaborate scheme?
I could have seen my brothers and I doing this back when we were young, but that was the 70s, when anything went! Three brothers let a black widow bite them in hopes of turning into Spider-Man
I thought it was going to be a joke when it was announced, but the monsters at Samsung have set a release date in the UK for their rotating TV. This is why we can’t have nice things!
30 years later, a lost Days of Thunder NES game recovered from 21 floppy disks It’s always cool to see things recovered that were thought to be lost.
