Archive for October 2009
Shutter Island (Trailer)
CAUTION: The following trailer contains some scary situations.
I was going to post this earlier, but now that there’s only one more day until Halloween, I thought now the time was right. Shutter Island tells the story of two U.S. Marshals (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) who are called to a mysterious island housing a mental hospital where a murderess has gone missing. The colors and even the darkness of the green card at the very beginning really make this movie look especially good. It comes out in February (rather than “October”), which actually shocked some people. Apparently it’s out of the running for Oscars now. Anyway, enjoy the trailer!
Invictus (Trailer)
This movie looks pretty good. I’m not normally a fan of sports movies, but this one I might be interested in seeing. Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, tells the story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who joins forces with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of South Africa’s rugby team. Mandela believes that the whole world can be united through sports. My favorite shot in this trailer is right at the end, where we freeze on Mandela’s image before going to a title card. The movie comes out in December. Enjoy the trailer!
Upgrading Windows Vista (and XP) to Windows 7, plus 2 more tips
Now that Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7, has come out, I bet a lot of you want to upgrade. Here’s how in Windows Vista.
http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf
It’s much harder going from Windows XP, though…
http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf
And here’s how to make a system recovery disc in 7 in case anything goes wrong with the new OS.
http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf
If you want to take the easy way out with upgrading, there are a few programs that can cause Vista to have a 7-like feel.
http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf
A New Movie for Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
- Michael Jackson's This Is It. Genre: Concert/Music. The movie collects over 80 hours of rehearsal footage from Michael Jackson's last days as he prepared for his "This Is It" comeback tour. PG for some suggestive choreography and scary images.
The "Miniature Railroad" in Germany
I got this in an email, and it’s really interesting. It’s a miniature railroad in Germany, and it covers over 15,00 square feet of space. Here’s some more fun facts.
It takes 40 computers to run the trains, ships, places, and people in this model…
Famous sights in the major European countries and the U.S. are represented.
The “Miniatur Wunderland” model railroad in Hamburg, Germany is the largest in the world, covering 16,146 square feet of space with more than 10,000 train cars running around its 6.8 miles of HO scale track. Now, the makers of this huge layout have created a video that gives you a jaw-dropping look at the vast scope of this intricate work of art.
Its construction started in 2000, and is still underway, with a tiny airport due for completion by the end of this year. This is just the beginning – there are plans to double the layout by 2014. We especially like the Las Vegas portion, complete with dazzling LEDs lighting up the night.
You have to watch the video below to get the full impact of this remarkable achievement, which has taken in excess of five hundred thousand working hours to build. There’s good reason why this is Germany ‘s most popular attraction, already visited by more than five million flabbergasted tourists.
It’s actually funny how the narrator says that the landscapes go all the way to “distant America”, even though most of my readers are probably living here.
DroidDoes.com
This is going to be short, but it’s interesting. A few weeks ago, Verizon premiered an ad for their new phone, the Motorola Droid. The ad attacked the iPhone’s lack of a physical keyboard, Flash, customization, and more.
http://www.youtube.com/v/dPYM-XTqcec&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1
It seems that the Droid comes out on October 30th, which is fast approaching.
The website http://www.droiddoes.com/ offers a shortened version of the “iDon’t” intro, and then comes to a page where you can enter your email address and Verizon will tell you when “compromise is deactivated”. Apparently some bloggers got letters in their mailboxes that said “The day of Droid is approaching”. (See pictures over at www.tinyurl.com/droidletter.)
Deskbot
I found this on MakeUseOf.com.
This sounds like an interesting tool–it’s an animated character on the desktop that can do so many different things. You can change the character and its voice. Among other things, it can say the time every few minutes. The cool thing about it is that you can copy text from a webpage or document into the program and it will read it to you in a little balloon above its head. It can even greet you when you turn on your computer. And for an added touch, it sleeps when you aren’t using it.
Dear John (Trailer)
In Dear John, a man must go to war, so he engages in writing letters to his girlfriend back home. Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. The movie comes out soon.
New Movies for Friday, October 23rd, 2009
- Astro Boy. Genre: Family/Adventure/Animated. Voices: Freddie Highmore. A young (robot) boy that has been granted special powers learns what it's like to be a hero. PG for some action and peril, and brief mild language.
- Amelia. Genre: Biopic. Starring: Hilary Swank. The true story of the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and her relationship with her husband. PG for some sensuality, language, thematic elements and smoking.
Falcon Heene: Balloon Escapade Was "For The Show"
I bet you’ve already heard the story of young Falcon Heene, who somehow got himself into a weather balloon when it took off. Luckily, the Colorado boy has been found safe at home, but was his–the whole family’s, rather–story just a hoax? Falcon was found in a box hiding in his family’s garage, but wouldn’t come out when the mother and father called his name. When asked why he wouldn’t come out (in an interview on CNN) he replied with “You guys (his parents) said that we did this for the show”, which was followed by an awkward pause and the father abruptly changing the subject. The family has appeared on the reality television series Wife Swap, so were they trying to rekindle some of their former glory? Here’s the interview.
Popcorn Bytes 