Pocket Universe

For those who are interested in what makes our country great, the iTunes Music Store has the 2004 Republican National Convention Speeches available for free download. I can�t link directly to the page of all the speeches, but there is a link on the iTumes Music Store home page. In particular, I really enjoyed Rudy Giuliani�s speech, and I think you will too.

Even better than Rudy Giulianis speech at the Republican National Convention was Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggers speech. Really, it was just brilliant. Schwarzenegger is known for being one of the more moderate members of the Republican party, but he focused on all the key conservative elements of being a Republican. He talked about coming to America as an immigrant (a legal immigrant, I should point out), and of the career he made for himself through hard work, perseverance, and the American Dream. He was firm in his beliefs and strong in his faith in America.

And he also used humor to underscore his beliefs. When talking about the strength of the U.S. economy, he addressed the naysayers by saying, And for those people who say that the U.S. economy is weak, I say to them, ‘STOP BEING ECONOMIC GIRLY-MEN!” Fantastic! The audience loved him! Remember, you can download the speech for free on the iTunes Music Store, so you can put it in your playlist along with Cake and Sir Mix-A-Lot. Thats what Ill be doing.

For the sake of posterity, I�m going back to update several terminally-late DVD Tuesday updates. Hang on, because we�re going to plow through these pretty quickly…

I wasn�t originally going to include Shaolin Soccer on this list, since this is the DVD release of the edited American version. However, Miramax was gracious enough to include the original (and much longer) Hong Kong release on the same DVD. That alone makes this disc worth buying. And if you want to be totally technical, it even includes the two extended scenes that were previously part of the special edition. Since I think that one of those scenes is integral to the film, I am glad that they were included. The film is another example of that tired, well-worn genre, the comedy-romance-martial arts-sports movie. It is a slapstick comedy about a Shaolin martial-arts expert who learns to play soccer. Low comedy meets high-tech special effects. Think Victory meets The Matrix meets Big Trouble in Little China, and you will still be pretty far from describing Shaolin Soccer. I have never seen anything like it, and I�m willing to bet that neither have you.

Futurama…what can you say about it that hasn�t already been said? Cut short in the prime of life, I can�t imagine what the Fox executives were thinking. You have the creator of a show which single-handedly revitalized television, creating the longest-running comedy series of all time (The Simpsons, for those of you who have been in a coma under a rock in a cave for the past 17 years). Yet when he makes a new series, executives move it around, preempt it half the time, and cancel it before it really gets an audience. I simply don�t understand how the executives don�t give proven creators the benefits of the doubt. It�s as if the expectations are so high, no series can live up to them. Instead, we get numerous reality shows that are churned up like bile from Satan�s own belly, drowning out all other shows. Pathetic.

Sorry…where was I? Oh yes, Futurama: Great show. This DVD set is the fourth and final, rounding out the series up to its cancellation. Once again, the show�s creators have provided commentaries on every episode, as well an numerous extras. Definitely worth picking up. And due to excellent ratings for the reruns during Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, there is actually a chance that the show may resume production again, a la Family Guy (which became the all-time best-selling DVD release of a television series). I�m not holding my breath, but it�s nice to see a glimmer of hope every now and then.

Ah, who can forget the lonely Friday nights at home…when all other friends were gone, ABC�s T.G.I.F. lineup kept me company. And the crown jewel in the T.G.I.F. crown was Boy Meets World, the guiltiest of all guilty pleasures. A simple, family-friendly comedy about a bunch of grade-school kids, it struck that perfect blend of comedy, drama, and romance. It reached out to every boy who ever loved a girl named Topanga. And over time, the children grew to become high schoolers, then on to college, and then…well, why spoil it? Live the dream for yourself. Watch the series from the beginning, and revel in the untarnished joy that is Boy Meets World.

This article provides some interesting (and sometimes humorous) evidence that the videogame market is headed for another crash in 2005. (For those of you who remain ignorant of videogame history, the first was the Crash of 1984; sometime in the future, I�ll post some recollections on the crash from the perspective of someone who experienced it firsthand.)

I have to share a cool story: So I am having issues with a purchase I made online, where the company in question has not yet delivered, and I have been unable to contact them over email. (I am intentionally leaving the details vague, for reasons you will discover in a minute.) In desperation, I looked up the domain-name registration for the website, and found the phone number for the company who provides web-hosting services. I called them to ask for help, and the guy said he could forward my concerns to the company over email, and that I should call back in a few weeks if I hadn�t heard from them.

A few weeks go by, and I have heard nothing. So I call the web-hosting company back and explain the situation again. This person checks with his manager, and explains that they can not give out any phone numbers associated with the company. I explain once again that I am at the end of my rope, I have been unable to contact the company, and if I can�t get a phone number, I have no other options. So he says, �Well, there is a name and number that is listed on the public record for this website. Would you like me to give that to you?” I say sure, and he gives me the info.

And then he surprises me by saying, �So, is your number 319-555-2826?” For a half-second, I was confused, since he seemed to think that I was in the same area code as the previous number he provided. Then I figured it out: �No, that�s not my number.” He said, �Oh, okay, I must have been thinking of someone else. So that number was 319-555-2826.” I replied, �Nope, that�s not me,” as I wrote the number down. And he said, �Well, sorry I couldn�t help you out any further,” and I say goodbye.

Isn�t that cool? Just as I figured I�d face more corporate bureaucracy, I get some guy who is considerate enough to help me out, even though he�s not supposed to. I thought that was excellent! Obviously, I�m not going to say who it was who helped me out, since I don�t want to get him in trouble, but I thought that was really cool.

Burnout 3 ships today for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. If you still aren�t convinced that you need to pick this one up, here are a couple of things I read about the game:

A brief mention from Penny Arcade:

Burnout 3 hits today, and even when gazing on a month like this—hung heavy with bulging games—it might still come out on top for me. If you�ve been playing that demo they had on OPM, and a lot of you have because it�s a topic that comes up a lot, you know as well as I do that they have discovered some brilliant new action genre in which �racing” and �cars” are just useful, universal metaphors. It even has Team Racing modes, that elusive bandersnatch my spirit has yearned for. Grab some shit you aren�t playing anymore and get it on the cheap, but here�s a game whose value might actually be commensurate with its price.

There is already bucket-loads of buzz and hype surrounding this game, fed by both the electronic and printed media, and on some deep-rooted level that disturbs me. I initially was going to do my best to take a deep breath, ignore the tingling in my hands, the grin on my face and my compulsive need to skip working, eating and sleeping to play this game more. I was going to delve past the gloss, find the lurking flaws that just had to be there and undermine everybody�s bandwagon reviews by objectively critiquing the game. After all, it just couldn�t possibly be as good as everyone says it is—it�s only an arcade racer, not the second coming of Pac Man. �Surely, racing a car really fast can�t be that good, can it?” I asked myself. Despite my best efforts, though, it turns out I can�t buck the trend. Burnout 3 is awesome.

Only a few releases this week, but they are both very significant…

I�ll admit up front that I did not actually pick up The Passion of the Christ. While it was an excellent and powerful movie, I can�t see myself watching it very often. Face it, you don�t show off the new subwoofer and cool surround effects by popping in a quick scene of the nails being driven into Our Lord�s hands. While this movie ranks high on the importance scale, it is low on the gee-whiz scale. Maybe more computer graphics would have helped.

That said, this is a movie that everyone should see, especially if you are a Christian. You can not help but be moved by the suffering of Christ. It is powerful, painful, shocking, and moving. In particular, I appreciated the human aspects of Christ that were portrayed, as He showed weakness and temptation, without actually degrading into sin (in contrast to Willem Dafoe�s role in The Last Temptation of Christ). The role of Satan was also very well played; I enjoyed the deliciously creepy imagery associated with that character. The various glimpses of evil were just subtle enough to heighten the audience�s sense of vague discomfort. And Judas� descent into dementia was also a very disturbing, even if Mel Gibson took a few liberties with the source material.

On a lighter note, Invader Zim Volume 2: Progressive Stupidity is also available. (Side note: The DVD cover image I posted on the left is the original cover design which was rejected by Nickelodeon as too scary. You can read the painter�s take on the incident on his blog, you can click the image for a larger version, and you can download the original high-resolution version here, or even a complete replacement cover.)

You may remember my effusive description of the show back when Volume 1 was released; suffice it to say that my excitement for the show has not waned in the interim. Notable episodes on this collection include: Plague of Babies, Bloaty�s Pizza Hog, Battle of the Planets (Zim turns Mars into a giant attack spaceship, and Dib has to battle him by using Mercury as his own ship), Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom (an episode that makes The Nightmare Before Christmas look like The Care Bears Movie), Future Dib, MegaDoomer, Lice, and The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot. Most episodes also have commentary by the show�s creators, and there are a bunch of other extras on the DVD. Pick up the DVD, and revel in the screaming.

Macworld has a great interview with Greg Joswiak, Apple�s V.P. of Hardware Product Marketing, talking about the various design elements in the new iMac G5. Definitely worth reading if you care about elegance in design.

In case you hadn’t heard all the controversy about the alleged National Guard memos, the short version is that 60 Minutes did a piece last Wednesday about Bush’s National Guard service, and as part of their evidence that Bush shirked his duties, they presented four newly-obtained memos from Jerry Killian, Bush’s commanding officer at the time. You can read the whole article here, but basically, the memos said things like, “I’ve been pressured to sugar-coat Bush’s military record,” and other testimony that makes Bush look really bad.

The problem is, a bunch of people on the internet got together and found that if you typed the memo in Microsoft Word with the default font (Times New Roman) and settings (margin, spacing, etc.), it matches exactly with the memo from 1972. But since most typewriters in 1972 did not use proportionally-spaced fonts, or superscripting, or curly quotes, it seems extremely unlikely that these documents were from 1972, and more likely that they were poor forgeries by someone using Microsoft Word, who wasn’t even smart enough to use a monospaced font and turn off curly quotes.

So CBS is standing by their report, despite the preponderance of evidence that the documents were forged. I found a very convincing argument here, from someone with vast amounts of knowledge about desktop publishing, that seems to prove conclusively that they were forged. Interesting reading.

The Shape of Days has another good article about the forged memos, including some interesting points about automatic centering. Be careful though: You could probably spend several days just reading the comments.

�You don�t support Democrats. Why should your ketchup?”

In a move that surprised nearly no one, CBS and Dan Rather have finally apologized for using the forged National Guard memos as the basis for their story…well, sort of. Instead of admitting that the documents are forgeries, Rather said, �I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically.” And instead of admitting that they didn�t research the authenticity well enough, they claim that they were �misled” about where the documents came from. (You can read more about the actual source of the documents in this story.) I�ll stop giving you the blow-by-blow, since I�m just sick of listen to Rather and CBS trying to spin this story to make it look not as bad for them. It�s just desperate and sad.

My good friend Mike also sent me a link to a side-by-side comparison between the forged National Guard memos and similar memos which are verified as authentic. With all the discussions about what typewriters or typesetting devices could possibly have produced the memos in question, it�s important to see exactly how inaccurate the forged memos actually were, and how the source in question could have done a much better job using just a 1970s typewriter.

Only one big release this week, but it�s the most-anticipated DVD release of all time. Yes, the Star Wars Trilogy is finally here! Of course, George Lucas couldn�t help tinkering around once again, so these versions are different from even the Special Edition releases from 1997. (Lucas has made it clear that eventually the old tapes (and laserdiscs, I presume) will wear out, and these new editions will be the only versions that survive.) Some things are improved, some are added, and some have been changed to tie in with the new prequels. I wont belabor the changes here, but you can read some lists of the changes from Digital Bits and CNN. At some point, I hope to post a list of the more minor changes that Lucas has made. It should be interesting viewing, in any case.

Oh, and the music is supposedly flipped in the surround channels, so music that comes out of the right front channel will come out of the left rear instead of the right rear. I don�t think that Lucasfilm will be repressing the discs, though. I guess we�ll just have to wait for the high-definition DVD boxed set of all six movies that might be released in 2007. For the best deal on the current DVD set, Deep Discount DVD has it available for $41.88, but shipping usually takes a few weeks. Otherwise, Best Buy is once again your best bet, where it is $42.99 in stores this week. And make sure to pick up the silver box, which is the widescreen edition, instead of the gold box, which is fullscreen.

It�s a big week for videogame news! On Monday, Nintendo announced the launch date and price of the Nintendo DS. If you don�t already know, the Nintendo DS is the new portable system from the makers of the Game Boy. According to Nintendo, it�s not a successor to the Game Boy, but rather a whole new portable device (although it can play Game Boy games). The key selling point is that the DS has dual screens, hence the name. The design hearkens back to the old multi-screen Game and Watch games, like Donkey Kong.

The processing power seems about equivalent to the Nintendo 64, so it can display full 3D on one screen, and a 2D view on the other. So, for example, you could play a racing game with a 3D view on one screen, and an overhead map with racer positions on the other screen. There are a lot of gameplay possibilities that can come from this new design, and I am looking forward to see what the game creators come up with. Oh, and the bottom screen of the DS is a touch screen, and it comes with a stylus. The DS also has wireless networking, so you can play wirelessly with people in your general area, and possibly with people over the internet. Animal Crossing DS seems like the killer app for this system!

But back to the news of the day: The Nintendo DS will be available in North America on November 21, at a retail price of $149.99, which is $30–50 less than what the analysts were predicting. The system will also come with PictoChat, a wireless chat program that also allows you to send drawings to people within range of the device. I�m pretty excited about this new game system; with any luck, I�ll be picking one up around Christmas!

In other videogame news, while it�s not a PS3, Sony has announced a redesigned PlayStation 2 that will be released on November 1. The new system is amazingly thin: only 2.8 cm, versus 7.8 cm for the current model. The overall weight has been cut in half as well. It looks like the new model uses a flip-top lid to insert games, instead of the slide-out drawer currently used. But most significantly, the new model has a built-in Ethernet port, so a network adapter is no longer needed. (However, if you want to use dial-up networking, I guess you still have to get the older machine and the current network adapter. It looks like Sony is embracing the Xbox model of broadband-only networking.)

To get an idea of just how small the new PS2 is, compare the size to the picture of the controller, or just look at the side-by-side comparison with the previous model. It really is amazing how much they can pack in to such a small unit! I can easily see people buying one of these as a pseudo-portable gaming system…it�s so light and thin, there�s no excuse not to take it with you wherever you go!

And on a somewhat unrelated note, Sony has also announced that the PS3 will use Blu-ray discs as its media format. The Blu-ray format is one of two competing formats for the next generation of DVDs that will display high-definition resolution, the other being HD-DVD, which uses the same red laser as current DVD players. Blu-ray players use a blue laser, which allows for more data to be packed onto a single disc; HD-DVD relies instead on better compression algorithms to achieve the same amount of data on a disc. The press release also mentions the MPEG4-AVC codec, which was developed by Apple to produce high-definition video with the same data rate as current DVDs. It is still unclear which format, Blu-ray or HD-DVD, will gain traction in the new high-definition DVD market, but at the very least, this will mean that the PS3 can potentially play back high-definition video in its native format. Truly, we live in wondrous times….

For years, I�ve been saying that Conan O�Brien is funnier than Jay Leno, and my belief has finally been vindicated. In a bold move, NBC has announced that Conan O�Brien will be replacing Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show when Leno�s contract expires. However, you may not want to set the TiVo just yet…Leno�s new contract extends his tenure as host for another five years, meaning that Conan will take over hosting duties sometime in 2009. As far as I�m concerned, it can�t happen soon enough.

For those of you who know Dave Evans, you will appreciate the many layers of subtlety which are reflected in the title of his blog, Nowhere Near the Edge. Fans of U2 or Yes will understand. Please enjoy the verbal sparring by one of this site�s most prolific commenters!