Here Me Blog

From the previews I’ve seen, the Doom movie, which starts tomorrow and is based on the classic first-person shooter video game of the same name, looks pretty damn silly. Maybe it will be entertaining at least, but I think only diehard Doom fans are going to really like it.

The whole first-person view thing they are doing in it just looks weird. It might turn out to be a great new innovative thing for game-based movies, but I highly doubt it.

My suggestion… wait to rent or avoid completely. I’ll have to check some viewer comments on it tomorrow to see if my suspicions are correct or not. For now, color me skeptical.

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Who hasn’t wondered what the real cure for hiccups is? Holding your breath? Getting spooked? Not sure those ever worked for me, but I have not tried this suggestion yet.

The cure for hiccups: Rub your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Go all the way from the very back all the way to your teeth. Do this several times. It works! Try it next time!

I’ll have to make room in the brain for that one. Maybe I’ll save myself or someone else from horrible hiccups one day!

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First learned about the HP Pavilion MD6580n 65″ 1080p Microdisplay TV from my brother’s Sound & Vision mag a couple weeks ago, and I just got my drool cleaned up… yeah, there was a lot of it.

This $5,000 1080p beauty offers a lot to get excited about, including a very cool style — rounded corners with an optional stand to make the compete package a work of art. Add to this the fact that the inputs are all hidden behind a front panel, cable management of some sort is built in and even recessed handhold pockets for easier and more secure relocation of this beaut’, and you can’t help but want to shake the hands of the designers involved with this TV.

• “Future-proof” your purchase: this 1080p resolution TV can accept native and compressed 1080p through HDMI at 24/30/60 frames per second
• Stimulate your visual senses: HP’s Visual Fidelity technology features addressed resolution-doubling “Wobulation” for a crisper picture, all but eliminating the “screen door” effect
• Enjoy eye-popping color reproduction with warm, rich colors and natural skin tones
• Get deep, rich blacks and the best available contrast with HP’s DynamicBlack aperture and Dynamic Video Enhancement (DVE) with 7-segment color wheel; all without changing any settings
• Connect with other home entertainment devices through a conveniently accessible, lighted front panel of digital and analog inputs (component video, VGA, S-Video, composite video); keep cables out of sight
• Tailor to your eyes: Select a picture that suits your viewing style and content with four customizable visual preset modes
• Keep the picture bright: restore dimming over time to factory-fresh lightness by simply replacing the 150-watt lamp

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From the SouthParkStudios.com website:

From the Comedy Central Press Release:
A Global Warming State of Emergency is declared in South Park this Wednesday, October 19 at 10:00 P.M. on Comedy Central

Global Warming is determined to be the cause of the massive flood that destroys a neighboring town. It’s a brand new episode of “South Park” entitled “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow,” premiering Wednesday, October 19 at 10:00 p.m. on Comedy Central.

The world’s largest beaver dam breaks and the waters overtake the adjacent town of Beaverton.. As the victims wait for help to arrive, everyone in South Park tackles priority number one: who is to blame? The President, the mayor, scientists, the press and even the flood victims themselves are all busy pointing fingers. Only Stan and Cartman know who’s really at fault.

Also, SPS started a blog for this season to let us know how hectic their lives are as the deadline for the new episodes arrive. Here’s a clip from the first blog entry from Anne Garefino, Executive Producer.

Hi:

It’s midnight on Tuesday night in L.A.. It’s the biggest night of the week for anyone who works at South Park. The first show in the new fall run airs tomorrow night and we’re in the studio, working until it’s finished. We thought it might be interesting to do this blog from the middle of production hell every week. So for the next seven shows, somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m., I’ll give people an idea of what we’re doing and what shape the show is in; the show they will see on-air in less than 24 hours. One of the Production Assistants—whoever is the late P.A on Tuesday nights, (Tonight it’s Kevin),—will also give you an idea of what’s going on in the studio from their point of view.

It’s a typical first show of the run. It’s been a tough week in the writer’s room. We’ve been over-thinking every idea we’ve come up with. In the beginning we always have too much show and for once we’ve learned our lesson and have pared back some. We’ve still got a lot of story to pack into to 21 minutes though. But now we have some extra ideas to maybe develop for the rest of the run. We should hit our stride in another show or two.

Links:
Blog
SouthParkStudios

Wow! Good for you, AMD. You finally beat Intel on desktop processors for an entire month! I just heard about this and thought I’d share.

AMD Tops Intel in September Sales
Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service
Mon Oct 17, 9:00 AM ET

Good news just doesn’t seem to stop for microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices these days. Shortly after the company reported a banner third quarter earnings, the company is now being lauded for outgunning mighty Intel and capturing more than half of the processor market for desktop PCs in the U.S. during the month of September.

AMD captured a 52 percent share of the U.S. retail desktop market in September, topping Intel’s 46 percent share, according to market research firm Current Analysis.

“Despite its past successes in surpassing Intel desktop sales in select retail sales weeks, September 2005 marked the first time AMD was able to outperform Intel for an entire month,” Current Analysis said in a report released late last week.

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Went to slashdot and saw a post about some guy (Jack Thompson) trying to get the cops to arrest the Penny Arcade guys. That lead me to reading this article over at the gamepolitics livejournal, which then lead me to reading the article referenced in the title of this blogalicious entry. This article is from Game Revolution (gr.bolt.com). If you have some spare time and think too many idiots sue over complete nonsense, then it’s worth reading through this stuff.

From Duke Ferris’ GR article:

That’s it.

Jack Thompson, Florida attorney and longtime opponent of free speech, has officially lost his mind.

I suppose I should start at the beginning.

For those of you who don’t know about this sue-happy lawyer, here’s a quick history lesson. Jack burst onto the free-speech scene back in 1990, when he took up the case against the rap group 2 Live Crew and attempted to ban their record, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, for explicit lyrics. Then in 1992, Jack attacked rapper Ice T and his band Body Count over the incendiary song “Cop Killer.” He has also filed frivolous lawsuits against Internet sex websites and the movie The Basketball Diaries.

I can’t believe what this guy has done and continues to do…or try to do. Apparently, reputable professionals and government officials actually consult with this guy. Go read the rest of this article to find out how silly Mr. Thompson gets. Let’s just say it involves AIM buddy icons, alleged death threats, pleading with the NYPD to arrest the author’s boss…yeah, it’s hard to believe.

Links:
Duke Ferris’ drawing of alligator eating Jack Thompson
Wikipedia run down on Jack Thompson
Penny Arcade lovin’

Just read this article over at InformationWeek. I’m not sure why you’d want to mess with some unauthorized service pack to any software, even if it seems totally safe. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Here’s a bit from the article.

Microsoft warned users to stay away from an unauthorized “preview” of Windows XP Service Pack 3, just as the site which hosts the collection updated the package to version 3.
“Anyone who installs this thinking they are getting SP3 (even as a preview) is being grossly mislead and is posing a significant potentially non-recoverable risk to their PC and data,” wrote Mike Brannigan, who identified himself on a Microsoft newsgroup as an employee of the Redmond, Wash.-based developer.

Read the rest at InfoWeek.

You may notice some new ads on the main site (ReviewsHQ.com). These are Chitika’s somewhat new eMiniMalls ads.

eMiniMalls are actually quite useful and hopefully interesting to readers. They use Dealtime to search for specified products and then show them in a nice banner that allows you to check for best price, description, reviews, etc. They are pretty slick!

I hope they bring in a little more money. Thanks to my brother for sending me an e-mail with a link to ProBlogger’s post about Chitika and how it’s been quite successful so far for him.

And remember, stay off my grass…unless you cuttin’ it. (Sorry, the Coup concert is coming up tomorrow night and I couldn’t help myself.)

Full Disclosure: Those links do have my referral ID in them. If you don’t want to help me make money when you sign up, then don’t click those links. You don’t make less money if you use those links though by the way. I just make a little more.

Wow! I just saw over at techbargains that you can get the 24in 2405FPW Dell LCD monitor for less than $800! This display has some nice specs…

24″
12ms response
1920×1200
1000:1 contrast

Use coupon code WFQ9X9GW1VT?2R to get the price down, and you better hurry if you’re interested. This will be gone very quickly (read: it expires tomorrow morning).

It’s been a while since I went on a laptop chatter spree, and I don’t know if I’ll start one again. But, I will post that I’ve been thinking about and nearly obsessively checking out Dell’s Inspiron 6000. I still do want a laptop… I do really need one, though.

The only thing I wish the 6000 had that it doesn’t is better graphics options. The best graphics you can get in it is the ATi Mobility X300, which is way better than the onboard Intel graphics, but still, I’d love to have the GeForce Go 6600 in there. Then, I probably would have purchased on by now.

For now, I’ll keep watching for those great Dell coupons and hoping Dell releases a similar laptop with better graphics… just in case I ever want to play games on the damn thing. I do like some of the laptops that are out there that have the Go 6600, but Dell’s prices always pull me back in.