E3 is scaling way down. Surprisingly, the reasons are reasonable. The video game industry no longer needs a big event to garner the attention of the press, and May is too early to display games scheduled for fall. It’ll now be a place to do some press conferences and let the bigwigs network. Since they closed it off to the public this year, I don’t think anyone really cares. I guess this is good news for PAX.
Category Archives: BTW
Weather.com – On the Spot
I just noticed that the Weather Channel web site has improved my local weather page. They added a pulldown menu called “On the Spot” that allows you to select conditions at nearby intersections, parks, schools, event venues, etc. Nice for those places that get much hotter, colder, or wetter than the rest of town. Man, I wish we had A/C.
Judge Rules on Film Censorship
Variety reports a judge has decided that it’s not ok to edit films, removing things you find offensive, then sell the edited version. Well, duh. It is ok, however, to use technology to skip over or mute stuff you don’t want to see or hear. That seems fair to me, too.
Kitto Katsu
Here’s a fascinating little story about how Nestle made KitKat the candy king in Japan. As KitKat is my favorite movie candy (which has disappeared from most theatre chains, the bastards), I applaud their effort. Kitto Katsu!
Oh, Frodo!
Found another goofy, funny voiceover video on Josh Rehman’s blog. This one covers the scene in Lord of The Rings where Frodo wakes up and everyone comes to visit. We finally learn what they’re saying! Safe for work. I think.
Delocator
Delocator is an independent coffee shop and cafe finder. I have had plans to do something similar for a long time now, albeit a bit more grandiose. I still may go through with them, or perhaps collaborate, but this does the job for now.
You Only Need The Zipper
It Should Be Outlawed: Men who not only undo their zipper, but also the button and belt on their pants when using a urinal. If you’re over 10 and you have to pull up your pants after taking a leak, you’re doing something wrong. You should’ve figured that out around the time you gained enough coordination to wipe yourself. And I’m seeing engineers do this, for Pete’s sake! It ain’t rocket surgery!
The Ice Harvest
Just saw The Ice Harvest, and I have to give it a pass. It’s a film noir/dark comedy, but it’s too much dark and not enough comedy. For a good, relatively modern film noir, try Body Heat or LA Confidential. For dark comedy, try Army of Darkness or Shaun of the Dead.
The Mission to Relax
The following are actual foreign titles for the movie RV:
- U.K.: RV: Runaway Vacation
- Taiwan: The Mission to Relax
- Spain: Vaya Vacaciones (“What a Vacation”)
- Other Spanish-speaking countries: Crazy Vacation
- France, Switzerland and Belgium: Camping Car
DVR Viewers Don’t Count
Variety reports that TV advertisers won’t pay for viewers watching the show on a DVR. Right now, those viewers make up only 4% of the audience for the big networks. But I wonder how will they make it up that revenue (i.e., charge consumers) as they lose commercial viewers.