Thanks to Coming Soon, by way of Moviehole. Not bad! Actually, really not bad, for such a trash character (sorry, ladies)...

http://www.moviehole.net/200816789-tim- ... ing-mutant

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There are a number of new features to the new Apple TV firmware released recently, and both lung and I were cautious about implementation, concerned about early reports that the new firmware broke some digital content. However, after researching and discovering it was only content converted in a specific manner to make use of surround sound, but that the methods we have used, and the Apple-specified conversion spec (easily used in Handbrake via presets) work fine as well, I decided to give it a try. Right off the bat, the good news was that all my files still worked. Now that Apple TV supports surround and HD content (for awhile actually), I have some changes to my conversion protocols to implement, but moving on to the new features:

First off, just for fun, I have the screen saver now piped to my Flickr account, so I can bring over any of my photosets as the gallery to be used. Currently, it's the Team Lope Cycling series...



Next, you can not only use the ATV as a remote speaker system (airTunes) as I do, but you can now control other airTunes speakers WITH the ATV. So, if you have a set of AirTunes speakers in another part of the house, you can run the ATV to pipe music to them via wifi, and your computers need not be on or present to do so (assuming you sync content to the ATV; I don't, but rather stream it, so I'd still need a machine running iTunes to do this). This new feature brings the ATV into competition with other wifi-based media streamers on the market, but as a free firmware feature. Pretty cool.

Finally, and of greatest interest to me, we've FINALLY got some sorting capability on the ATV. It's always driven me crazy that I didn't have sub-folders to organize my content. I'm that anal. And, with firmware 2.0 and on, they split movies, tv shows, music videos, etc into their own screens, as part of the reorganization of content designed around rentals/sales of iTunes Store content availability. It makes sense, but it further irks me. So, prior to the latest update, if you want to watch your movies, you need to go to Movies/My Shared Movies, and then youhave a massive list; you want to watch TV Shows, you go to TVShows/My Shared TVShows, same. GAH!

Well, we now have two pretty cool means of sorting. One, we can now use playlists in any category, not just music, and they can have mixed content of audio, movies and TV, together. The advantage here is that you can either now sort all content of a particular dweller of your home, in one playlist (ie. wifebot's music, movies, TV shows, all in one place) or you can set up party playlists with film, music, music videos, to run seamlessly and continuously, despite being different content types. That's awesome.



But for me, the real boon is the new ability to use LABELS to sort content. I don't want to go to different screens. I want to stay in one place and have access to everything. Plus, I want to have sub-folders. Now, by assigning labels to the 'Show' metatag of the content, you can group that content by that label, effectively creating a two-tier filing system. You can't further sub-sort, but what this means is that I can have my content all organized as i want; for example, I have a NEW movies label, an Archive label, a Favorites label (a Vehicles Going Go Fasta label) and of course, labels for common films, like grouping all the Bourne's together or what have you. Additionally, I can now have my TV shows in the Movies section, together in one place. So I've re-tagged all TV shows as Movies, then used a series of TV labels. So now, I can access everything from one place, have some sub-sorting, and have the ability to move content from label to label as I need to.

Pleased!

Also, final note: there's now the ability to drive volume with the Apple Remote, but only for music. Half-functionality doesn't interest me, and I use a stereo volume remote anyway, so this was at the bottom of my list of features.

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Grand Central: What is it and why should we care?

I think this could be big.
Grand Central was of note last year because they were the company to flip out when Apple announced visual voicemail. For those unfamiliar, visual voicemail merely means that your voicemail box is represented on your phone graphically. Ie. instead of having to call in to see who called and what they said, you see a list of calls to your voicemail, with who made them and when, and the duration, and can then call them back directly or press to instantly listen. Grand Central had a competing, similar version of the same technology, on which they were banking on making it big as a start-up. They'd already been poached, as I recall, by Comcast, or whoever supplied Comcast with their version (if you are a Comcast subscriber, and you use their VoIP service as I do, you can log onto a website and see the call activity, voicemails, and the like.

Anyway, Grand Central was just purchased by Google.

The system is this: you can have all your phone numbers, and all your emails, routed to a new common phone number and email, and get it all in one place, on your mobile or on the web.
Now, this isn't something I personally need, but I can totally see this being a killer app. It allows Google to provide visual voicemail on the Android phones, allow people to have the one-contact-point-to-rule-them-all we increasingly crave. And they've already pretty much got a stranglehold on the email front in that regard.

Private beta now, but you can sign up and reserve an area code for your new number, etc...

http://www.grandcentral.com/home

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A thankful Thanksgiving in Chez Wrongrobot!
Wishing you the best as well! And hoping you'll understand when my ubiquitous presence on the forum, and art output in general, decline suddenly in mid 09...

yay!

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this isn't a review of the film, really, but i thought it best fit into this topic, so that's why it's here.

i just re-watched the brilliant mike judge gem "office space" last night after a long night of projects, and it had a completely different effect on me this time through. the last time i watched it, i was working at a place that didn't resemble that atmosphere at all. sure, we had cubes and shit, but we didn't have a dress code, our leadership was fast, motivated, and cutting-edge, and it was a priority for this leadership to not only make the employees feel like they had a hand in the bottom line of the company, but also to reward them for a job well-done. there was no double-talk, no shady passive-aggressiveness, no flaunting of fragile senses of superiority -- it was actually a pretty awesome place to work, considering it was a massive fortune 500 company, heavily traded and tightly watched by wall street.

but this time ... well ... take everything i said above and reverse it. where i work now, it's actually laughable the level of importance that's placed on bullshit, the drama that follows miniscule details, and the unENDing levels of management that don't do much actual work at all. literally, laughable. in other words, i have laughed at it.

here's some literal comparisons for YOU to laugh at.

: : :

TPS REPORT COVER SHEETS...
in "office space," the big thing at the beginning was that peter had forgotten to put the new cover sheets on the TPS reports. over the course of the movie's opening moments, two different managers brought this to his attention, and even though he explained that he'd simply forgotten and that it wouldn't happen again, in addition to having remedied the situation on his own BEFORE it became an issue, the situation was clearly shown to be, like, an issue! they offered to re-send him the memo highlighting the new procedure. they didn't listen to the simple explanations of "i just forgot," and "i've fixed it before it was a problem, so it's not really even an issue anymore," AND "it won't happen again," and continued to repeat the same thing over and over again -- "we're using cover sheets on those now." the idiocy is made apparent in this small moment of dialogue, and in addition, management's passive-aggressive communications are made apparent with their distant gaze and the application of mediocrity to their audience.

now, how does this apply to my job? easy. "deliverables" folders. when we do a job, the final step is to place all the assets in a "deliverables" folder on the server. some people do this starting at the first round. i do it as my final step. the reason i do so is so that nobody gets confused and sends out the wrong thing. but yet, i've been "reminded" on various occasions that final jobs go into a "deliverables" folder. it usually sounds something like this ...

"you know, the final files have to go in a 'deliverables' folder."
"right, well, so-and-so still has to approve it, so technically, there are no deliverables just yet."
"well, just so you're aware, all final files have to go into a 'deliverables' folder."
"right, check. and they will. as soon as i get final sign-off."
"do you want any kind of a reminder set up so you don't forget?"
"no, see, there's no NEED for that, because as you well know, i always put my review files in the general folder and i don't create a 'deliverables' folder until everyone's approved the job."
"well, just as long as it's in a 'deliverables' folder when you're done."
"sigh."

or the one time i forgot (god forbid!) to put the job in a "deliverables" folder...

"hey, this job isn't in a 'deliverables' folder."
"oh, my bad, here, let me make one up right now." (...pause, for 3 seconds...) "there you go, it's in there now."
"well, it wasn't in there before."
"right, that's cause i forgot, but it's there now."
"if there's no 'deliverables' folder, nobody knows what the final file is."
"i don't know how that could be, since the review file, once approved, IS the deliverable file, whether it's in a folder or not, and everybody in the process is copied on the emails which SHOW approval, and thus could, with the application of a little logic, determine what's the deliverable file. but see, none of that matters now, because it's been in a 'deliverables' folder for the last 33 seconds of this conversation, and also isn't due till next week."
"well, it just helps for it to be clearly marked."
"right. as it is now."
"ok, well try and remember for next time."
"check. also, do you realize we just wasted almost an entire two minutes on this conversation?"

: : :

333 LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT...
in "office space," we learn over the course of the efficiency consultants' interviews that there are 8 different managers that peter reports to, in order to get a single task completed.

how does this apply to my daily? same. exact. way. i have, at last count, 5 different people who have to approve any of my work.

001 . editorial manager -- supposed to review all the copy to make sure that grammar, spelling, and "voice" are all appropriate. except for where she's an insecure and passive-aggressive jerk who's been with the company since it's inception, and continues to offer design input, which she's not only not supposed to do, but also completely unQUALIFIED to do. but yet, she forces changes onto projects so that she can feel like she's contributed. and there ain't shit i can do about it. i've tried fighting with her, and i've tried explaining my design rationale clearly and concisely, but it falls on deaf ears no matter what. it doesn't matter that i've been in the business for 10 years and am an award-winning designer. she's not feeling the color green that day, so damn it's psychological impact on the target audience, i can't use it that day.
002 . design manager -- supposed to review the creative. this guy is actually a stellar designer, but he's been beaten down by the upper powers so much that he now regularly quips, "they won't go for this, redo it." in other words, he won't even present good ideas any higher, because he's afraid to take the chance. also, he's a hack. he'll often kill one of my ideas, and then take elements of it, repackage it as his own, and push it through. this, of course, makes me want to kill someone. and by "someone," i mean "him."
003 . project requestor -- supposed to make sure the creative request is being fulfilled. this person varies, and inevitably needs to have their voice heard, too, so they'll infer their "creative" input and i can't always talk them out of it.
004 . creative manager -- supposed to ... huh. not really sure, actually. but she's fucking cool and never EVER causes a problem. see, she actually understands that she has no creative talent, and is only concerned with specific details.
005 . brand director -- this person is inevitably the thorn in my side, moreso than even that aforementioned editorial manager. she LIVES to be "outlandish," and so she reacts to designs, rather than evaluating them. if she, for instance, sees a swastika instead of the sfGiants logo (yes, it actually happened), that's it. it has to go. (nevermind that that particular project was a CO-BRANDING EFFORT WITH THE SF GIANTS.) and the rules are NEVER the same with her. one moment she loves something, the next, she doesn't. same thing, same colors, same placement. "i love that!" 3 minutes later, "change that." she also has no creative side, so her feedback is SOLELY for "shock value." she's as insecure as they come, and in a position of power, which as we all know, is a deadly mix.

: : :

this turned into quite a ramble, but it was interesting to me that depending on WHERE you work, and WHO you work with, this movie might mean some different things.

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And tells us pretty much nothing, other than that Paltrow isn't confirmed yet, and that War Machine appears to remain involved. But man, I can't get over the fact that my actor choice for an Iron Man fantasy casting... is writing IM2...

http://movieblog.ugo.com/index.php/movi ... ron_man_2/

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Best international one-sheet of a comic adaptation that doesn't include Batman, ever!

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man, i wish i would've watched this on dvd, because there was about 333 r3-approved screencaps in there, not the least of which being a bomb whose countdown timer was only shown at two points -- 0:33 and 0:03. but alas, the entire reason i even went to this movie is because (SG)f and i were watching two kids yesterday -- a 7-y/o grrl and a 10-y/o boy -- the former; a daughter of one of her clients, and the latter; her nephew and godson. (because of miley cyrus' involvement alone, this is likely a movie i'd have blacklisted otherwise.)

having seen it, though, i have to say i really liked it! i even laughed out loud at a couple of points. the plot is pretty well-known at this point, but just in case you haven't been following -- bolt the dog (john travolta) is the animal star of an action/adventure television series which, according to the director (voiced by r3-fave james lipton), owes it's success to the fact that the dog believes what's going on is true. in other words, they hide the cameras and boom mikes and makeup trailers and so on from the dog so that he thinks what's being filmed is what's reality. and what's being filmed is his and penny's (miley cyrus) ongoing attempts to thwart the nefarious plans of "the green-eyed man," dr. calico (malcolm mcdowell). there's all sorts of subtext going on, not the least of which being the rivalry between cats and dogs, which is prevalent throughout -- sometimes to great effect, but most of the times just cheesing off people who prefer cats ... such as me.

but i digress.

point is, the movie is pretty action-packed, ESPECIALLY the establishing scene of penny and bolt being filmed. there's three helicopters chasing them around, dropping motorcyclists out of the cargo bays, whose drivers wield electrified claws and toss out the aforementioned 0:33 bomb. this is an incredibly tense action scene -- in fact, far moreso than i thought would pass the ratings board for a kid's movie, but then i realized -- this is PG. likely for this specific scene, in fact. anyway, after that, we move on and penny gets filmed being kidnapped, obviously the first time in the series this has happened, because bolt freaks the fuck out and escapes his trailer, on the hunt for her.

it's here that bolt accidentally gets shipped to NYC, where the movie takes it's natural and expected turn, and bolt discovers that he's "powerless." he initially blames this on styrofoam packing peanuts, which lends itself to some funny dialogue, such as when he gets thrown in a dog-catcher's truck, and, trying to break the door down, exclaims, "it must be made of styrofoam!" that was LOL funny to me for some reason. he meets a cat there, and a hamster in the midwest somewhere, and together, the three of them continue making their way to hollywood.

this brings me to the funniest character of the movie, rhino the hamster (mark walton). holy. shit. this character is completely, certifiably, undeniably IN-SANE. and in a parallel to bolt, rhino believes that what he sees on tv is true. so to him, bolt is a true hero. of course this drives the cat, mittens (susie essman) nutso, as she has to try and pretty much stay alive as the other two fling themselves headlong into crazy situations on the road to hollywood -- which, in itself, could be argued to be the craziest situation of all.

again, though, i digress.

as you can imagine, and as disney loves to try and do all the time, there are lessons to be had here. lessons of individuality, truth vs. fiction, and dealing with abandonment, to name just a few. and of course, the movie ends the same as every other kid's movie ever made in forever -- a crushing emotional blow followed immediately by a happy ending. yay, bolt!

a couple final things noticed...

+ each section of the country boasted it's "everyman" stereotype through the use of three pigeons. there were nyc pigeons, midwest pigeons, southern pigeons, and hollywood pigeons. this was really interesting to me, as there are pigeons everywhere, so why not? also, pigeons are truly living amongst their habitat, so it totally stands to reason that they would be the "working class" of the animal kingdom. very subtle and cool thing there.
+ this movie was the first time i ever saw animated product placement. not only was there a shipping company highlighted, but there was one apple macbook pro clearly shown (apple logo front and center), and one apple iphone clearly shown (apple logo AND touchscreen shown, even if the latter was just for the briefest moment). interesting. as i type this, i suppose i'm contradicting my own self, considering i can remember at least one occurence of coca-cola in an animated movie. so i guess it's been going on for a while now. this was just the first time i noticed APPLE. ok, nevermind, carry on.

so in the end, i give this movie a 6/10 CLANKS!
7/10 if you go with kids.
5/10 if not for that initial action sequence.

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i'm gonna cross-post THIS over HERE, too.

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I wish the whole show was like this.
So awesome.

January 09!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx4gj7UIQi0

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