Leap Day

broderic on February 29, 2008

Hey! It’s leap day. I missed it the last time round.

Maybe you’ll be reading another post here on the next one.

Enjoy the extra day!

Be Kind Rewind

broderic on February 26, 2008

Be Kind Rewind is a paean to creativity and to those that inspire it in ourselves. It can be just a simple bedtime story or the films we watch. Whatever it is it can inspire.

This film follows the path of Cloverfield in making concrete the ideas of the YouTube generation. It is inspired and has inspired other ‘sweded’ films. You can catch a majority of them on internet video sites. Done by creators for simple, simple reasons. Unlike Cloverfield, it does posit that something magical happens when stories are meant to inspire. Cloverfield as a thesis for the YouTube generation inspires people to film their nuts getting kicked; Be Kind Rewind wants you to make your own movie about your nuts getting kicked.

3 of 5 stars.

Oscar results

broderic on February 25, 2008

Well, the votes have been tallied and the awards have been handed. The curtain has closed on the 1st Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool. And the winner goes to… riss! Congratulations. Now you have to contact me in order to receive your prize.

Thanks for everyone who participated. Watching was fun. Cheering and booing for my picks. Made the show even better.

1st Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool Official Thread

broderic on February 24, 2008

Read the rules. Please post your predictions in the comments to this thread only. Here’s the list. If you want to see an official looking one with actual people’s names, try here or here. Don’t forget that some predications account for more points!

  1. Best Picture: (3) Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

  2. Actor: (3) George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp, Tommy Lee Jones, Viggo Mortensen

  3. Actress: (3) Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard, Laura Linney, Ellen Page

  4. Supporting Actor: (3) Casey Affleck, Javier Bardem, Hal Holbrook, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Wilkinson

  5. Supporting Actress: (3) Cate Blanchett, Ruby Dee, Saoirse Ronan, Amy Ryan, Tilda Swinton

  6. Director: (2) Julian Schnabel, Jason Reitman, Tony Gilroy, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Paul Thomas Anderson

  7. Foreign Film: Beaufort, The Counterfeiters, Katyn, Mongol, 12

  8. Adapted Screenplay: (2) Christopher Hampton, Sarah Polley, Ronald Harwood, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Paul Thomas Anderson

  9. Original Screenplay: (2) Diablo Cody, Nancy Oliver, Tony Gilroy, Brad Bird et. al., Tamara Jenkins

  10. Animated Feature Film: (2) Persepolis, Ratatouille, Surfs Up

  11. Art Direction: (2) American Gangster, Atonement, The Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, There Will Be Blood

  12. Cinematography: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

  13. Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers

  14. Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers

  15. Original Score: Atonement, The Kite Runner, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma

  16. Original Song: Falling Slowly from Once, Happy Working Song from Enchanted, Raise It Up from August Rush, So Close from Enchanted, Thats How You Know from Enchanted

  17. Costume: Across the Universe, Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, La Vie en Rose, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

  18. Documentary Feature: No End in Sight, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, War/Dance

  19. Documentary (short subject): Freeheld, La Corona (The Crown), Salim Baba, Saris Mother

  20. Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood

  21. Makeup: La Vie en Rose, Norbit, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

  22. Animated Short Film: I Met the Walrus, Madame Tutli-Putli, Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven), My Love (Moya Lyubov), Peter & the Wolf

  23. Live Action Short Film: At Night, Il Supplente (The Substitute), Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets), Tanghi Argentini, The Tonto Woman

  24. Visual Effects: The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Transformers

TIE BREAKER: The official number of people watching the telecast in the US. Get as close to, but not over that number!

Good luck.

Prime System Integrators

broderic on February 22, 2008

This slate article, I believe, is wrong. No matter how much you believe in the US form of government, don’t believe them.

To account for this difference, the three SM-3’s needed new software, hardware, and sensors, and the launching systems had to be given new sensors and software updates. The bulk of this task would have been assigned to high-priced contractors—like Raytheon, the maker of the missile, or Lockheed Martin, maker of the Aegis system. And it would have taken a large crew of engineers to rewrite the code, debug it, and test it over and over again—all within three weeks.

I don’t believe this one bit. I don’t believe that each of these programs, the SM-3 missile or Aegis, would put anything on their ship in 3 weeks. Maybe, to discuss the need to make the changes, but not to create, debug, integrate and install that stuff. It’s as if you had to write your PhD thesis in the last week of your program, and then present it to the board immediately after.

Three weeks is not enough time.

Here’s a better explanation.

Last year, China shoots down a satellite. From here on out with the ballistic missile defense is now geared to shooting down a satellite ourselves. So its one year from the changes to now. A much better timeline for how the navy and its defense contractors work.

Those changes were available last year. It took them three weeks to figure out what to shoot down.

Trust no one.

The truth is out there.

iPhone says, "Here you are!"

broderic on February 22, 2008


iPhone says, "Here you are!"
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
I’m sitting in my office at home looking for some rental cars. The iPhone’s google maps implementation is more pleasurable to use than Google maps itself, because it gives just enough information. So I press the “locate” button.

According to iPhone, this is where I’m at.

For the punch line check out the rest of the series on my flickr page.

Vote Quimby II

broderic on February 21, 2008

Thanks to my three main readers (you know who you are). They've already
voted in the 1st Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool. For the rest of my
regular readers, why haven't you voted. Polls close Sunday at 5pm EST.
Go vote!

UPDATE: Alright, now we’re starting to see some action! We’ve got five participants! Here’s a view of the current predictions in a nice lovely spreadsheet.

The Treachery of Dreams

broderic on February 21, 2008

This is not a dream.

But I have been having them these last few days. Most likely due to the fact that I am really trying to get my self up early and by just thinking about it, I wander in the nether-dreamworld that occurs minutes before my eyes open. When they do, my most delicious of dreams are just that, dreams.

This is all prelude to me again writing what occurred in them here. And S is in them both. (Here we go again.)

I’m back working in Rubys. I think we both are. We’re chatting across the bar. The bartender is there as well. We’re flirting with each other. As the bartender, restocks the bar with beer. I take her by the hand. I think I kiss it. I wake up and it’s Tuesday at 6:15.

I’m at my friends house. We’re waiting for the party to start. S shows up. With some guy friend. I go up stairs and play guitar with my buddy. I go find S. She’s in the dining room drinking beer. I go find S. She’s on the porch, lounging in a chair, looking every bit as sexy as I remembered. Those feet of hers shod in sneakers, propped up on a table. She’s wearing capris and a white blouse. I spy her there through the windows in the door and the entryway. She’s talking with some guy. I end up outside. My friend tells me that Petit Louis closed at the location across from his house. They’ve gone franchise and can be found all over Baltimore. He says they converted the church across the street into a Rubys. I wake up and it’s Wednesday at 6:30.