Monthly Archives: September 2005

Mirrormask Opens Tomorrow!

Posted on September 29, 2005 by Kelson

MirrorMask PosterNeil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s fantasy film MirrorMask opens tomorrow in limited release. Inspired by such classics as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, MirrorMask tells the story of Helena, a girl who wants to run away from the circus and join real life, but gets trapped in an otherworldly realm separated into kingdoms of light and dark. I, uh, may have mentioned it before a few times… ;-)

Word is that if the movie does well enough this weekend, Sony is considering giving it a wider release.

The Beat has a nice run-down of the film [archive.org]. The AV Club has interviews with Gaiman and McKean, and Time magazine has an interview with Gaiman and Joss Whedon, who has his own film coming out this weekend. (Gonna be busy!) Neil Gaiman’s own blog links to more press.

Oh, yeah, one more thing to do this weekend: Stop by a bookstore and pick up Anansi Boys, which apparently hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Somehow, despite reading about all the signing tours, I had it in my head that it didn’t come out until next month. But Gaiman is one of the very few authors whose books I buy in hardcover instead of waiting for paperback.

Posted in Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Server Crash

Posted on September 29, 2005 by Kelson

Everything’s restored, but we’re on a temporary server for now. With luck the main one will be back online tomorrow.

Update September 30: Miraculously, the regular server is back!

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That Belt of Venus Thing

Posted on September 27, 2005 by Kelson

About a month ago I posted about noticing the Belt of Venus—the red band that circles the entire horizon just after sunset—and the Earth’s shadow on the sky. I snapped this picture on the drive home this evening. This is looking east, away from the setting sun.

Looking east toward Saddleback at sunset.

If you look at the right edge of the picture, behind the silhouette of the tree, you can just see the red band fading into the dark gray of the Earth’s shadow.

(And to think, I almost brought the good camera with me this morning… Update: It turns out that I did bring it, and just didn’t realize it was there. Oh, well.)

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Dating the Dead

Posted on September 24, 2005 by Kelson

Movie Marquee in Laguna Hills featuring: Corpse Bride, Just Like Heaven

For a movie theater with only four screens, they seem to be going for themes lately. How else would they end up pairing up these two? Corpse Bride, Just Like Heaven.

(I passed the sign the night before, and it was pairing up The 40 Year Old Virgin with Just Like Heaven—another combination that’s just slightly wrong.)

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Free Opera!

Posted on September 20, 2005 by Kelson

[Opera Logo]That happened a lot sooner than I expected: With today’s release of Opera 8.5, the desktop web browser is now free. That’s no cost to register, no ads in the browser—100% free (as in beer).

Now we know the “new business model” they were hinting at. Reportedly they have a new deal with Google for search revenue and marketing. Edit: Opera’s Haarvard provides more info.

Aside from removing the ads, the change log shows mainly bug fixes, though they have turned on Browser JavaScript, a previously experimental feature that fixes some broken websites on the fly. I suspect without the business model change, this would have been 8.1 or 8.03. Edit: Tim Altman describes what’s in store for Opera 9.

Now that Opera and Firefox are both entirely-free downloads, the browser wars are about to get really interesting!

(via WaSP Buzz)

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Perfect Price Point

Posted on September 20, 2005 by Kelson

Reportedly the recording industry is still pressuring Apple to raise the prices on the iTunes Music Store. They don’t seem to understand that a big part of what made iTMS a success was the 99¢ price point. It’s sometimes cheaper than buying a CD, and more importantly, you can impulse buy at that price.

Steve Jobs seems to get it, though. He’s pointing out that higher prices will just drive people back to illegal downloading.

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Voyage of the FyreFawkes

Posted on September 19, 2005 by Kelson

A tale of the Browser Wars on the high seas.

Harken, lads, and listen to my tale. It is the tale of the FyreFawkes, a vessel that turned the tide in the never-ending battle for the high seas.

In this day, shipping lanes criss-cross the ocean like a Web, and in years past, that web was commanded by the Fleet of the Navigators. Wherever ye wanted to go, a Navigator ship was there to take you. But the wealthy My Crows’ Loft Company controlled the ports, and knew that if they did not take command of the high seas, someone might use the Navigator Fleet to build their own harbors, outside My Crows’ Loft’s sphere of influence.

So My Crows’ Loft built their own fleet, a fleet of Explorer craft, and after a great trade war, their fleet dominated the ocean. The Navigators’ fleet shrank, nearly forgotten.

But My Crows’ Loft grew complacent in their victory, and the Explorer fleet aged. Worse, the vessels had weak spots and leaks that pirates and brigands of all sorts knew how to attack. What was once a pleasant voyage across the sea became a journey fraught with danger, with spies, phishermen, and great wyrms lying in wait for the unsuspecting voyager. Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Mozilla, Writing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Blog Like a Pirate Day

Posted on September 19, 2005 by Katie

Ahoy mates, and let the parrrrrty begin! Talk Like a Pirate Day be upon us, at long last, and folk like me get to let our inner pirate out o’ the brig. Fer those of ye what don’t talk like pirates nigh every day, today be the day to learn! Ye best not practice with yer customers or yer boss, tho—some would as soon have ye walk the plank, as it takes a bit o’ humor to get into the spirit.

…speakin’ o’ spirits, where be the rum?

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Feathered Sunset

Posted on September 18, 2005 by Kelson

Here’s a picture of last Wednesday’s sunset (September 14) as seen from the 405 in Irvine.

Sunset with clouds (and monolith!)

The photo links to a larger copy.

And no, I wasn’t trying to get the “monolith” in there. I don’t remember exactly where this was, so I’m not even sure what the sign is for.

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Original Sinsuality

Posted on September 18, 2005 by Kelson

I was going to write a review of last night’s Tori Amos concert at the Greek Theater, but I realized I already wrote most of it about the Concert at Royce Hall back in April.

We got tickets for this one because it was a new tour, and we figured there was a chance it would be a different type of concert. Eventually it became clear from her newsletter that it was going to be the same type of show—just her, a piano, two organs and a synthesizer—but hey, we liked the last one, and we already had the tickets!

As it turned out, it was the same type of show, but a very different selection of songs. I tried to write down everything I remembered her playing last night, and compared it to the list from the last concert, and there are only 5 songs in common, all from the new album!

Some of the interesting bits: Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , | 1 Comment