it's that time again...

we'll start with some ctrl-alt-del news...
because i'm a nerd.... get over it.

winter-een-mas is fast approaching, are you ready for it? that lovely winter holiday based entirely around video games... how can you deny it?

really though, i want people to watch these (it's about 20 minutes in total, but it's ok to skip ahead here and there...):





tim was kind enough to show some video of him creating the recent christmas comic, and it's just fun to watch. the big thing for me, though, is that he's using a wacom cintiq, a 22" lcd monitor / pressure sensitive tablet at 1600x1200 that i would kill to have. well, perhaps i wouldn't kill for it, but i would love to get my hands on one, because they are sooooo much amazingness filled with happiness and wrapped in a bow of joy. of course, the price tag weighs in at just over what i still owe on my car, so, i don't see myself making such an investment at this juncture, instead i will stick with my little wacom graphire for now... but someday, right? hell... i'd take a damn intuous even.

absolut
ly great site...

although i'm not an absolut kinda guy, i don't mind it, but if it's going to be cheap, i'd rather suffer the smirnoff, and if it's not going to be cheap, i'd rather enjoy the stolichnaya....

what was i talking about? oh, yeah. abolut has built a great website for their current marketing scheme, 100 absoluts. it's pretty damn well done. there's a great mixture of media and music and interface. being a web geek, i had to poke around it for a while.

it's one of those things that you can't help but be amazing by. it's done entirely in flash, and i can't imagine the hours of actionscript (read: the devil's language) coding involved in just their main site, let alone the 100 aboluts subsite. put on top of that all of the relatively smooth animation, the great music system, which segues nicely into video to show you various 'commercials'. it's just really well done.

don't get me wrong, i'm all for clean design and interface, and i have known and loved a great many other sites, this one just struck me today.

please note, for some reason you have to be 21 just to look at their website. i'm not sure if somehow you are going to end up a little inebriated just from looking at it, i certianly (unfortunatly) did not. but, you've been warned little ones. (lol interwebs!)

thanks for the 4 course meal... here's Mex$1000.

time.com featured this article. apparently there's a push for a new restaraunt format, whereas you pay what you can and feel is fair for your meal.

as someone who doesn't automatically tip, and will flat out NOT TIP if the service doesn't meet my opinion of at least being on level with mediocraty, this seems like a very 'what could go wrong?' kind of situation. but hey, it seems to be working for them... i guess.

honestly, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. those who can't afford anything are encouraged to put in an hours work around the place, sweeping, weeding an organic garden, washing dishes. meanwhile, those who are more affluent are encouraged to help offset those who are in need by chipping in a little extra here and there.

sounds great on paper, but i personally wouldn't want to try and make a profit off of it.

ps3 kiosks freeze up...
on purpose?

this article from destructoid.com made me laugh... not really out loud, but in my head, a sort of mild chuckle that comes from reading about sheer sillyness.

the story goes: playstation 3 kiosks across the country are freezing up, more than just a little bit, it happens a lot. at first thought, you might think that the massive behemoth of a machine is working hard, heating up, and not very well ventilated. we shall forgive them, perhaps. but then, a rep says, "no, it's on purpose, so that people don't play them all day."

oh.

does anyone remember the old ps2 demo machines, perhaps the gamecube, the n64, or even the original NES? they used an interesting trick, they would have their software (whether onboard, or in the 'demo game') set up so that after a set period of time, perhaps 5, 10, or even 15 minutes, the machine would either just flat out reset, or drop to a message thanking the person for playing, and asking them to get the fuck out from in front of it so that someone else might play.

here we are, the 21st century, and sony cannot manage such high end software coding? i can imagine why quite easily, their software guys are all probably quite literally on hiatus, not to be seen until the much anticipated playsation 4, which will be released sometime in early 2012...

i'm going to step right up and call shenanigans on the whole thing.

could it be true???
dateline december 1?

ign.com posted this article a little while ago that i only now became aware of. it states in no uncertain terms (meaning, a source they don't cite, whith no comment from universal and a denial from joss whedon's camp) that there is to be a serenity seguel designed for air as a made for tv movie on the sci-fi channel. could it be that the massive firefly following might actually have pulled heads from their respective asses?

one can only hope.