What A Slacker!

Sydney Pollack Dies of Cancer

Add comment May 26th, 2008

Actor / director Sydney Pollack has died today of cancer. He was 73. He may be best remembered as the director of Out of Africa, Tootsie and The Way We Were.

 According to the Associated Press he was surrounded by family at his home this afternoon when he passed away.

Schrödinger’s Cat is Dead or Is It

Add comment May 19th, 2008

Okay, my limited physics classes did not teach me about Schrödinger’s Cat, or if it did I did not retain the information.

Oddly enough two different TV shows this evening seemed to think the average Joe would know just who Schrödinger was and what was so god awful important about his cat.

In quantum mechanics atoms can exist in two or more different quantum states. But the question was raised whether a complex object made up of large numbers of atoms could exist in more than one state. In comes the cat.

The thought experiment takes the cat and puts it into a box with a vial filled with poison. The box is sealed. Since you cannot see the cat and do not know whether it is alive or has fallen victim to the poison. Therefore the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. Existing in both states. Until you open the box and observe the state of the cat.

First show I saw this in was Big Bang Theory. I have to thank the guys for geeking out and telling us what they meant when they used the term. In fact it was very relevant to what they were discussing.

The second show was Bones. Unfortunately they did not explain what Schrödinger’s Cat was and left their viewers in the dark. (I know, I know Google is a handy tool to have and so is Wikipedia, but when watching a show sometimes they need to fill the audience in on the science jargon.)

Get your geek on (I half expect to see Sheldon wearing one of these t-shirts on The Big Bang Theory some night) with the Schrödinger’s Cat tee.

 
Get this cool geek shirt at ThinkGeek.com

Has Big Bang Theory Lost Its Bang

Add comment May 15th, 2008

I think the post writer’s strike slump that seems to plague all of television these days has finally hit my favorite sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.

The last two episodes where Sheldon’s twin sister visits and Leonard’s birthday party were just lacking that extra spark of geekiness I have come to love since this show has been on the air.

Well I look forward to a fresh start and a bunch of great episodes next season. (In case you can’t figure that out that is a hint CBS. Light a fire under those writers of yours.)

Football, Baseball, and Basketball Oh My

Add comment May 8th, 2008

Sports. Some of us hate them and some of us love them. I fall on the hate them end of that scale. But I am surrounded by fans so I see more than my fair share of sports without even wanting to.

At least I am luckier than most as I only have football to deal with and not the full gambit of the sports world. So if you’re the better half of a sports nut tell them about AddictSports.com. It is a one stop site for sports forums, football picks, fantasy sports and more.

Boo to CSI’s Two and a Half Deaths

Add comment May 8th, 2008

I don’t know about you but I hate TV that tries to incorporate TV into the show.

Tonight’s CSI really kind of sucked. The regular cast had horrible dry puns that did not work and were very tired. The guest stars all of which are pretty decent actors seemed as if they were given the scripts ten minutes before filming.

Boo CBS and CSI for bring us such a contrived and truly terrible episode. Wow that writers strike really hurt you folks didn’t it?

Even if it had been more than mediocre I would still give it two thumbs down for poking fun at my favorite show Boston Legal by saying it wasn’t a comedy. Well it is really a dramedy and the best darned on the boob tube too!

What Are You Watching?

Add comment May 6th, 2008

Fellow blogger AlyCat posted a question asking what movies you watched over and over while growing up that wore out your VCR. Good question. Unfortunately, being a child of the seventies we did not have a VCR. In fact we did not have a VCR until I was almost out of High School and then it was because I bought it! It loaded VHS tapes in the front like the VCRs of today instead of a pop up top like some of the older styles. I’ll bet not too many of you out there remember those. Don’t get me wrong mine wasn’t overly modern as it still had a wired remote.

So my list of watched and rewatched movies while growing up is short as it was really only the films that were aired every year on regular TV like Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, etc. Once I got the VCR my true tastes in films came out. I repeatedly watch horror and sci-fi movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Aliens, Ghost Busters, Star Wars, ET, etc.

 Now that I have onDemand and a DVR I find myself with repeated viewings of even more. Most recently I am stuck in a V for Vendetta phase.

What movies do you watch over and over?

Star Trek References on Numbers

Add comment May 6th, 2008

Catching up on my DVR recorded TV shows this weekend and I spotted some more Star Trek references on a CBS show. Any chance CBS/Paramount moved the new Trek movie date from Xmas 2008 to May 2009 so they could exploit their TV series for additional exposure and try to make Trek more hip? Geek is as good as gold these days you know.

 The April 11th episode of NUMB3RS had the following Trekkie conversation.

Megan Reeves : Look at you guys. This is kind of like when Captain Kirk used to beam down and would leave Bones and Chekov in charge.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt: No actually the chain of command went Commander Spock to Lt. Cmdr. Scott to Lt. Sulu then once during season two it actually went to Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle.

Or is it simply all us math and/or science geeks must also be sci-fi geeks and vise versa?

Me and You Like Rubber and Glue

Add comment May 4th, 2008

Last weeks episode of The Big Bang Theory had Sheldon arguing with Leslie Winkel. His response to her insult follows. I just loved it.

Sheldon: Yes, well, I am polymerized tree sap and you’re an inorganic adhesive. So whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns in its original trajectory and adheres to you.

Translation: I’m rubber. You’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.

Why Vulcans Have Green Blood

Add comment May 1st, 2008

It looks like CBS is making sure that we all remember Star Trek. Tonight’s CSI had a fun conversation between Hodges and Simms discussing a case with green blood and the agent that caused it which turns into a talk about Vulcan blood and Mr. Spock.

Liz Vassey who plays CSI Wendy Simms just happens to have a Star Trek connection she appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation — Conundrum — thanks Memory Alpha. Someone should really make a six degrees of separation site for Star Trek in general. It would be kind of cool to type in an actor and see how many hops until they are connected to something Trek. Or maybe it’s just me.

Any who here is their conversation.

Simms: What do you think turned it green?
Hodges: I suspect it might be sulfur.
Simms: Sulfur is a naturally occurring component in the blood.

Hodges: But in massive doses it tends to turn the blood a blackish avocado green. When the sulfur atom joins the hemoglobin molecule red blood turns green. Which is why First Officer Spock’s blood is green in Star Trek.

Simms: No it’s not.
Hodges: Ah, yes it is. Trust me I’m an expert.
Simms: Apparently not. Otherwise you would surely know that the oxidizing agent in Vulcan blood is copper. And that is why his blood is green. Or maybe that and the fact that he had a Vulcan father since his mother is actually human. And further more he was promoted to Captain just prior to Star Trek 2 and then he retired as civilian ambassador.

Hodges: You’re like a geeky, nerdy guy trapped in a woman’s body.
Simms: So are you.
Hodges: As I was saying here on Earth sulfur containing compounds could turn otherwise normal blood green.
Hodges: As I suspected.
Simms: Share.
Hodges: She wasn’t Vulcan.

Nice to see them showing women can be just as into Star Trek as guys.

Meat Loaf Hams It Up In Go Phone Commercial

Add comment April 30th, 2008

Looking for answers to some questions brought up by my friend about the ATT Go Phone commercial featuring Meat Loaf and got no where with Yahoo Answers. Not that it was my first choice. [This is a good example of how user supplied content can go awry.]

 Yahoo Answers, what’s the point? I assume they set this up to give people actual answers to their questions, but thus far I have not found anything good or accurate about the site. It is nothing more than a forum. My suggestion to people it to head to Answers.com or search on Wikipedia, but still take your answers you get with a grain of salt. But for Yahoo Answers take those with an entire shaker of salt. Because the questions are ill formed and the answers are incomplete. You’ll find better answers by looking elsewhere.

Example: Googled Meat Loaf Go Phone Commercial [I wanted to know who was in the commercial with him]. I feel Google is at fault here too for ranking this idiotic site so high. The third result was for Yahoo Answers to this question:

“If you can remember 8 tracks, or the “Time Warp” then you probably won’t know Meat Loaf. Is that Ellen Foley (Paradise by the Dashboard Lights) with him in the commercial? I know Meat has two daughters, but does he have a son?”

The question was marked resolved with this answer:

“The wife in the commercial is 80’s pop star Tiffany.”

This only partly answers the question as Meat Loaf only has two daughters and no sons. To completely answer the question they could have told us who the actor playing the son is as well.

My problem with this whole system is with the incorrect and incomplete answers but sometimes it lies in the questions too. Like this question. I remember 8 tracks and the Time Warp and I certainly do know who Meat Loaf is. How could anyone who knows the Time Warp NOT know who Meat Loaf is? EDDIE!

Oh, I found the answer to who is the son in the commercial. According to Best Week Ever he is played by Adam Cagley.

Tiffany is getting to be quite the guest shot star herself. She was recently in the Robin Sparkles video on the TV show How I Met Your Mother.

Toys and Time Travel

Add comment April 28th, 2008

The guys of Big Bang Theory buy the prop time machine from the film The Time Machine. Leonard jumps in and sets the machine to March 10, 1876 the date of the famous first phone call. They proceed to argue over the fact that they all want to go but they would not be able to all fit into the small lab and agree that they should travel into the future to get a cloaking device first. Here’s their conversation about the cloaking device.

Sheldon: First go into the future and obtain a cloaking device.
Rajesh: How far into the future?
Sheldon: If I remember correctly Captain Kirk will steal a cloaking device from the Romulans on stardate 5027.3, which will be January 10th 2328 by pre-Federation reckoning.

As a collector and a fan that plays with their toys the scene that followed was hilarious with the four guys acting out the high speed action that goes on around Leonard while traveling in the time machine. Penny comes in to tell them all how pathetic they all are for still playing with toys. Leonard then goes on to re-evaluate his life, his maturity and his collection. (Bad Penny.)

The Nerdvana that Leonard has created is disappearing as he is packing up his collection to sell to the comic book guy down the street. All his friends want to buy it off of him but he refuses saying it will hurt their friendship if he sells his stuff to one over the others. They try to stop him and he pulls out a Playmates Star trek figures and threatens to open it.

Sheldon: No I can’t let you do this.
Leonard: Sheldon, get out of my way.
Sheldon: (Grabbing a sword from Leonard’s box) None shall pass.
Leonard: Okay. I did not want to do this, but…I have here the rare mint condition production error Star Trek: The Next Generation Geordi Laforge without his visor in the original packaging. If you do not get out of my way I will open it.
Howard: Okay, man be cool. We’re all friends here.

Penny comes out and Sheldon lets her have it.

Sheldon: You hypocrite.
Penny: What?
Sheldon: Little miss grown-ups don’t play with toys. If I went in to that apartment right now would I not find Beanie Babies? Are you not an accumulator of Care Bears and My Little Ponies? And who is that Japanese feline I see frolicking on your shorts. Hello Hello Kitty.

Penny then apologizes to Leonard about the day before and he just about asks her out when a hunky guy comes up and goes into her apartment with her. Leonard grabs his toys and heads back into the apartment saying, “My turn on the time machine”.

Comcast Cable Sucks Here’s Why - Part 2: The DVR

3 comments April 28th, 2008

I have gone through three Comcast Cable DVRs since I have first had them and last night mine started acting up again! Last night’s problem had something to do with the hard drive or the software. I could watch TV, but god forbid I should try to pause or rewind. When I did that all I got was a black screen. From the black screen of nothingness I couldn’t get back to my show either. I had to go to another channel and back again to get anything.

But that wasn’t the only issue, I could not view any of the programs I had recorded to the DVR. They acted the same way. Hit play and all I got was a black screen nothing else, no picture. I was a bit distraught as I have the complete season of Heroes on there to watch and the last four episodes of the Terminator. Both shows I could probably get on DVD sometime soon, but why when I had them already?

Thank the fates that a complete shut down (unplugging and waiting 5-10 minutes) then rebooting seemed to do the trick. Although the box did not seem to want to come back from its complete shut down. It turned on, blinked and went right back off. Third time was a charm and I got a connection. First I tried to pause and it seemed okay, then I went to my recorded programs picked one that was recording while this whole problem was going on and I had picture and sound (at least for the first couple of minutes, I still need to fully test to be sure).

I have had quite a few issues with this box like the sound mysteriously disappearing for no reason. The picture freezes quite often. We get the lovely square digital pixels in the middle of the screen like there is a bad connection somewhere. With the first box we had the guy come out several times he finally put in some type of signal booster, although I don’t think it has truly helped us. That box completely died a long time ago.

Shows don’t always record. Setting a series up is easy enough as long as you want to tape every single show every time it is repeated. I have to manually set recordings for a every week because I can’t tell the DVR to record a show every Thursday at 10 pm only. I have to set it up to record all (because the guide doesn’t tell the system that the only NEW show is Thursday at 10pm and that all the others are repeats throughout the week). Having it record all shows screws with other shows I have series recordings for so I can’t make this easy on myself. The old Comcast software used to let you choose to record this show on the same day/time every week. I wish they would bring that back.

There is still an issue with no sound when you turn the box on. You have to go to the DVR and hit play then go back to whatever show you wanted to watch just so you can hear it. This was an issue early on that was only half way fixed. Either that or it came back.

Biggest problem I have with them is the fact that the DVR even with the problems wasn’t a bad deal, price wise, to begin with. I think I started out paying $10 a month for my box. Each (I have two – even though they kept trying to tell me I was not allowed to have two. That’s why the other one is still a single tuner as I am afraid to take it in an have them refuse to give me another one). Then the prices went up to $11 bucks a month, still cheaper than the Tivo service. Then they rose again and I saw that I had two different prices on my bills for the two different boxes (I really need to find out why) but they jumped to $12 and $16. Now I see by the latest Comcast Cable bill on my table the costs have gone up again to $12 and $18! Okay, now I am seriously going to be looking into a Tivo the Comcast prices have now exceeded the Tivo service fees and in my book the Tivo (an actual Tivo and not this non-working Tivo software crap from Comcast that I have been reading about online) is a much better product and service.

I can’t live without my DVR but no one says it has to be a buggy piece of crap from Comcast just because they are a monopoly and I don’t have any other cable options. Yes there is always Fios, DirectTV or Dish Network as alternatives (and some of these are cheaper and offer more channels too), but I have invested far too much time and money with Comcast to let them ignore me. If you are sick of the ever increasing prices, lack of services and failing equipment please do like me and call them about it. Their number is easy enough 1-800-COMCAST.

Comcast Cable Sucks Here’s Why - Part 1: The Channels

Add comment April 27th, 2008

Comcast needs to do some re-organizing of their channel line up. That way they can give us some channels we want. Some of the newer ones out there like the Chiller Channel and some long awaited ones like Boomerang. (The Chiller Channel is so much better than that Fear Net onDemand crap we have now and we should have had Boomerang added to the Comcast line up years ago.

Just a few years ago (if even that long) Comcast removed what they considered duplicate or redundant channels such as all the East Coast line ups for the premium channels. Which really were redundant as it offered different programs at different times therefore giving us even more viewing options. Well if Comcast wants to stand by their decision to remove duplicate channels they got some work ahead of them.

Their On Demand service is on channel one, but there are at least 22 other channels that point back to Channel 1. That list doesn’t even include the seven channels that are all pay per view. I thought that the OnDemand service replaced the old pay per view system. Didn’t it?

Comcast’s onDemand menu is not that hard to navigate so why so many channels all pointing back to the same place? Plus once you click on one of the other channels like say the movies on demand channel 315, it takes you to that section only. You cannot get to the OD main menu from the one. You have to exit and re-enter the On Demand menu all over again. Which can be a pain depending on how long it takes the menus and content to load. Personally, I never access those subsections because of this draw back and only go to Channel 1 so I have all my options available to me at one time.

I am tired of hearing Comcast say they don’t have enough channels in their system when they are wasting so many channels on their own crap. I haven’t even mentioned the duplicate channels they are using for the high def channels. The premium stations like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz all have HD channels in their group of channels but Comcast also list them down in the HD channels too. Why? Clean up the channels and give us more content please.

The HD channels that can be removed are:

215 HBO HD
219 MAX HD
223 SHO HD
227 Starz HD

Because they are already in the channel listings as:

300 HBO HD
319 Cinemax HD
339 Showtime HD
369 Starz HD

As for all the duplicates of Channel 1 they are:

151 Movies OD
166 Fear Net onDemand
228 HD on Demand
238 HD on Demand
297 Local on Demand
298 Free Movies on Demand
 299 HBO on Demand
315 Movies on Demand
366 Movies on Demand
390 HERE! On Demand
487 HD on Demand
488 Free HD OD Movies
490 HD Premium Channels on Demand
491 HD Music on Demand
499 Movies on Demand
740 Exercise OD
886 Entertainment OD
888 Searchlight OD
891 Searchlight OD
892 Searchlight OD
893 Searchlight OD

I will leave the duplicate Spanish channels out of my griping as they are needed, especially in areas with a high Spanish speaking population like ours. But why, oh why, all the channels pointing back to the same place? If you really want to offer us better service and give us more options then add a few channels to the line up and stop pointing everything back to your on demand service.

If you are sick of paying the high, high prices for Comcast Cable then do something about it. Pick up the phone and give them a call and tell them you want more channels, better programming and less channels going to OD content! Their phone number is 1-800-COMCAST. Go ahead and give them a call.