ALT.SF4M

  Amusements 8/11/99

   • j********o@***.com
     11/08/1999 00:00:000 UTC

     Mystery Men: Lame-o! Borrring. Failed at every level (except for the
     cute

     waitress category). Maybe one laugh in the movie.

     Cool computer thing: Saw the second half of a news report about a
     (sports)

     trading card promotion - some random fraction of the packs have some
     kind of

     computer disc with video clips of classic sports highlights. Watching
     the

     report, I was baffled about what medium was involved - what would fit in
     the

     pack? Would one need a special drive? At the end, they showed that the
     discs

     are just _truncated_ CD's: two parallel chords have been sliced off,
     leaving

     an oval/rectangular shape that will fit in the pack! Seeing the thing
     put in

     the CD tray was really cool! What a sick idea. It must lose about half
     the

     storage capacity, but it's a much more convenient shape to carry around,
     and

     seems less likely to get broken if just left lying around. I wonder if
     some

     brave soul with a CD writer would see if they could format and use a
     truncated

     disk?

     Crusade: in the latest stupid episode (actually production number 3),
     they had

     a squandered opportunity to actually advance the plot. This alien race
     had

     been infected with the plague 1,000 years ago, but survived (after a
     fashion)

     by freezing everyone. This isn't a cure, but could buy Earth some time
     if they

     got the technology, which they naturally didn't!

     Gorno

     "She's dead, Jim."

       • Victor I. Poon
         11/08/1999 00:00:000 UTC

         JohnGorno wrote:

         > Mystery Men: Lame-o! Borrring. Failed at every level (except for
         the cute

         > waitress category). Maybe one laugh in the movie.

         I disagree. That movie was funny. I've never seen the comic book
         that it

         was based on, but I laughed most of the gags. Some of the jokes that
         the Blue

         Raja made were pretty lame but overall the movie was definitely one
         not to

         miss this summer.

         Victor

       • j********o@***.com
         13/08/1999 00:00:000 UTC

         I wonder if Dr. Rob knows that Joe-Bob Briggs' real name is John
         Bloom! He

         might be crushed...

         "Deep Impact" was surprisingly unaffecting. Mmmm, that Tea Leoni is
         a piece...

         sadly, that reminds me of that funny David Ducovney song. Dammit,
         now her

         superior look-alike Cheryl Lemke's married too!

         In article <1*************.*****.********6@n*****.***l.com>,
         j********o@***.com

         (JohnGorno) writes:

         >_truncated_ CD's: two parallel chords have been sliced off, leaving

         >an oval/rectangular shape that will fit in the pack! Seeing the
         thing put in

         >the CD tray was really cool! What a sick idea. It must lose about
         half the

         >storage capacity

         At least half, depending on how thoughtfully it's formatted - could
         be up to

         90%, if badly done.

         Another cool computer thing was an article in the Times on the 20th
         anniversary

         of the Walkman, which featured a piece on William Gibson. The
         Walkman was a

         big inspiration to him in inventing cyberspace, giving one the
         ability to enjoy

         a private, inward experience in public - to curtail the world around
         you and

         select a personalized element of the experience (the original Sony
         Walkman came

         with a second audio port and a "Share" button so you could listen
         with a

         friend, lest the device be thought "selfish.") The first model cost
         $200, and

         although Gibson couldn't afford it, and didn't even have any taped
         music, he

         just had to have one. His friends recorded some music for him, and
         he recounts

         wandering around Vancouver listening to Joy Division for the first
         time: "The

         music seemed to lend the city a kind of weird totalitarian grandeur
         that it

         didn't have before." Neat. I think I was born to listen to a
         Walkman... I was

         just waiting for it to be invented (perhaps that was true of all
         teenagers!)

         Gorno

         "Up, down, turn around -

         Please don't let me hit the ground;

         Tonight I think I'll walk alone -

         I'll find my soul as I go home."