Mario Guido Dal Monte. Dal Futurismo all’Informale, al Neoconcreto, attraverso le avanguardie artistiche del Novecento
December 19, 2009 - April 5, 2010
*Vernissage Dec. 19th at 5:30pm
Museo di San Domenico - Imola
Curated by Enrico Crispolti
Catalog - Silvana Ed.
RADAR's got a great short documentary about our friends at MakerBot Industries (who were at the Gizmodo Gallery). Check out what they're doing, and why they believe we'll all have 3D printers on our desks someday. [RADAR, thanks Houseoftrim]
It wasn't supposed to exist. "The" Google Phone. Then we (and others) heard otherwise. And now, Google isn't just handing this "sexy beast" out to employees, they're going to sell it directly. Everything has changed. Here's what we know.
• The Wall Street Journal says it's made by HTC and called the Nexus One. It'll be sold online, directly by Google. You'll have to get your own cell service (which suggests it's an unlocked device). Curiously, the WSJ says, "unlike the more than half-dozen Android phones made by phone manufacturers today, Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone." Sounds weird, since they designed the look and feel of the software on the Droid and G1 too, except that our source had told us before that the current Android we know isn't the "real" Android. Also odd sounding: that name, Nexus One. But maybe not that odd.
• Google confirmed they handed out "a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe."
• A bunch of Google employees tweeted stuff like the phone is "like an iPhone on beautifying steroids."
• It probably looks like this: 
• It's supposedly an unlocked GSM phone running Android 2.1, powered by the crazyfast Snapdragon processor, with an OLED touchscreen (no keyboard), dual mics (for killing background noise), and enhanced voice-to-text powers. It's gonna be alllll Google branding. And it's probably coming out in January. Which jives with what our source saw a couple weeks ago, a huge screen running a brand new version of Android unlike anything out there.
• We heard it was referred to, at least in some capacity in the staff meeting where they were handed out, as the "Passion."
If Google really is going to push this as The Google Phone (and it's not just a dev phone), it's hard to understate just how radically this changes the landscape not just for Android, but what it means for Google and their relationship to the cellphone industry. The Google Phone would be a radically different model, a shift from the Microsoft one—make the software, let somebody else deal with the hardware—to the Apple and BlackBerry one—make the software and the hardware, tightly integrated. And Google's even taking a step further, by selling it directly, bypassing the carriers, at least initially. (Google would not be the first to sell a high-powered unlocked phone—see Sony Ericsson and Nokia—but neither them are, um, Google, and their well-known failures with that approach makes it even ballsier.)
It's a powerful message: to the companies making phones running Android, to the carriers, to developers, to consumers. Google is in this, to win. Everything has changed. You know, unless it hasn't.
Maybe everyone wouldn't be so riled up about Facebook's privacy changes if they knew what's up over at Twitter. A best man set up a prank where his friend's bed now tweets whenever the newlyweds are, *ahem*, "on the job."
The best man promised the groom that there wouldn't be any tricks before the wedding. Of course, he didn't say anything about after the wedding. Using the same concept behind the Twittering office chair, the best man set up a system where every time there's increased activity up top, the bed reports it. Once all is said and done, the bed reports a summary (including a "frenzy index"), along with a judge's comment for good measure.
The anonymous best man defends himself by saying "BTW - he stitched me up something rotten when he was my best man so I reckon this is reasonable payback :)" He also promises that he will never reveal who he is or the identity of the couple.
Depending on how you look at it, it's either a gross invasion of privacy or a hilarious prank. Tomato toh-mah-toe, I say. If this happened to me, it would definitely be one of those "I hate my friends" moments when I found out. [@newlywedsontjob via 140char, thanks Everyone Like Me]
This little tidbit just popped up on the Wall Street Journal. They're saying that the Google Phone will be called the Nexus One, unlike the Passion name that's been thrown around all day. Keep in mind that Sony calls their custom Android UI Nexus, too. Other than that, they're confirming what we've been hearing: It's built by HTC, Google put a lot of effort into tweaking the stock Android interface, they'll sell the phone direct online, and you'll BYO service plan. [WSJ]
For the past 15 years or so, most authors who've signed with publishers have explicitly defined their ebook publishing rights. But who owns the rights to the bazillions of books published before ebooks existed?
There's a battle raging (okay, it's actually being handled rather quietly through proper legal channels) right now between publishers and authors over who owns the digital publishing rights of older books. In one corner, you have the authors claiming that because ebook rights were not set explicitly, they retain the right to publish. In the other corner, you have the publishers claiming that ebooks fall under the category of "books" and as such they own the rights.
You can see how this gets messy. In 2002 a Manhattan judge ruled in favor of the authors. saying that ebooks are separate from books. But that's just one case, and there's sure to be more legal action to follow.
You can read more at the link. It's yet another interesting conflict over who owns what, brought about by the gadgets we create. [NY Times]
I was walking through NYC today, and noticed an invasion of people dressed as Santa Claus. At least a hundred. I don't know what they were up to, but none of their costumes were as good as the Red-Nippled Reindeer.
Best use of a LED in a very long time. [Thanks David Keyes]
I’m about to fly out of Boston to Reykjavik, and then on to Copenhagen, arriving tomorrow at about local noon. It is going to be a packed week: I’ll be blogging daily for Mother Jones’s Blue Marble (crossposting here), and thereby contributing to the Copenhagen News Collaborative, whose feed can be found on the right sidebar.
I’ll also do a blog post for Science Progress on Wednesday, and it looks like I may be doing a Bloggingheads, and perhaps some other spin off articles.
Plus, I’m participating in two panels:
1) On Sunday December 13, following a screening of Robert Greene’s geoengineering documentary Owning the Weather, I’ll be sitting on a panel to discuss the film and the role of geoengineering in the larger climate debate.
2) On Wednesday the 16th, I’ll be appearing with climate journalist and Guardian columnist George Monbiot at an event sponsored by FORSKERforum on the topic “Climate-spin – Science and Politics.” More on that when I have it.
So it’s going to be a busy time, and I expect the blog to be hopping. Check in frequently….
Carl Buell, who illustrated many lovely critters for my new book The Tangled Bank, has been adding some new paintings to his Flickr stream. Here’s his holiday ground sloth.
In the caption, he writes: “I’ve certainly drawn and painted enough of them over the past 15 years. Ground sloths are a favorite subject. Too big to hide from the weather, this big guy just hunkered down and slept through the storm. It’s hard to imagine these guys in snow, but Megalonyx ranged as far north as Alaska. Another Card idea that never got off the ground.”
Card or not, I’m glad he’s sharing his handiwork.
This video of the Festo CyberKite shows exactly how we'll arrive at our dystopian future. Robots will do our jobs and play our games. Eventually, completely devoid of feeling, we'll all...say, look at that kite go! [IEEE Spectrum]
I have a 2004 Chrysler Concorde XL. The car will not shift out of first gear and a mechanic friend told me that if the fluids were clear and did not smell burnt it may not need a new transmission. Is this true? The fluid is good and no bad smells. Could anyone tell me what it sounds like it could be
Protests from Copenhagen on Saturday:
Photo by Carolyn Chase
“This was the largest demonstration ever for climate,’’ Peter, activist from Dutch Groen Front! thinks. Saturday he joined the big demonstration for climate change in Copenhagen. He often took part in protests, but he never saw so many people on their feet to demonstrate against global warming.
Some people were arrested. [700, according to CNN]Â Many Dutch – including members of Christian organizations and environmental groups, students, anti-globalists and capitalists – joined the protesters on Saturday.
Despite the large turnout, Peter still worries. He does not expect the government leaders who have come to the UN summit, are influenced by the tens of thousands. “The summit is not about solutions, but about creating a new CO2 market.’’ Peter says the big polluters like power stations and airports must be stopped. He announced that he will join the blockade of the harbor in Copenhagen on Sundays. “That will be a symbolic action.’’
The anti-capitalist International Socialists traveled with a group to Denmark. ,”We can not stand by while the world leaders squander our planet for future generations. Averting a climate crisis is only possible by radically changing political priorities. “Spend billions of euros on windmills and free public transportation, instead of on banks and wars’’, a spokesman said. “
Many other reports are on the Climate pool Facebook page.  See lots of great photos here.  I hate to point out the obvious, because I love protests, but a protest with 100,000 people will not make a dent in politicians’ minds. A protest with 5-10 million people would.  That is what is needed.
Dutch politician Halsema takes on climate sceptics
Climate sceptics must stop talking nonsense and join the debate with solid arguments. [which they don't have]  That’s what Dutch Green party leader Femke Halsema writes on her blog on climate for news portal NU.nl. . . . . According to Halsema climate sceptics tend to rely on dubious sources of scientists who have no understanding of what’s happening to our climate. Halsema points out that environmentalists and green politicians are the ones that struggled for years against global warming. “Sceptics like to talk in terms of conspiracy, but none of them can show which complot there is. They even can’t tell who the stakeholders are and what economic, financial or political interests are served with making people aware of global warming’’, said the politician.”
That’s the main problem with climate skeptics, they make no sense, and they just can’t shut up. Climate skeptics need to stop doing harm. Why speak out at all? Just sit in a corner and fantasize about your doubts, we don’t care. But just stop being so loud with your ignorance because its directly harming people. The problem with climate skepticism is that turns the issue political, which it inherently isn’t, and then puts a damper on any action to mitigate climate change, which harms all of humanity. The longer we wait to do something meaningful about climate [...]
Google Voice, which lets users consolidate all their phones under one number, archive your texts and voicemails, and much, much more, is two things to most people: vaguely promising, and totally confusing. Here's how to make the switch, in plain English.
It doesn't really help to describe Google Voice in terms of what it is—a bizarrely fragmented hodgepodge of different telecom and internet technologies, drawn together by Google—so you just have to start with what it does. In short, it can completely change how you use your phones, more or less for free.
• It can give all of your phones the same number for incoming calls. Google will assigned you a new, Google Voice-specific phone number for free, which you can forward to as many phones as you want. What always drives the point of Google Voice home for people is when I have them call my number, which causes three of my phones to ring at once. You can keep this number forever, too, without ever having to worry about porting it from carrier to carrier.
• It can give your phones the same outgoing number as well, with which you can make free domestic calls (well, sort of—more on that later), and very cheap international calls. Since Google Voice routes your calls through their phone system, they can connect you directly to cheap VoIP services to the rest of the world. It seems like you're just making a regular call, but behind the scenes you're doing something more akin to Skyping. End result: money saved.
• You can send and receive unlimited text messages for free. To make things even better, they're all all archived in your online Google Voice account, where they're fully searchable.
• It's got the best voicemail system in the world. Leaving a message at a Google Voice number is nothing like leaving your voice on a regular voicemail service—that is to say, it's not like sending your voice into a barely accessible technological horror pit where it might get listened to, but will probably be ignored. No, Google Voice is different: It stores your messages online, and converts them to text (which can then be sent to you as an SMS or an email). You can archive, forward, delete or save these messages from a simple interface on your phone or computer. Think of it as Gmail, except with voices. Plus, it's flexible in lots of little ways—you can change your voicemail greetings on a per caller basis, for example, or opt to listen to voicemails as they're being recorded.
• This voicemail system isn't just for Google Voice numbers, either—you essentially replace your carrier voicemail with Google Voice voicemail, without using a new number. It's brilliant.
• You have full control over your calls. You can record them for later listening, and have them transcribed into text.
• You can screen callers. You can block numbers, or have callers record their names for your approval. You can have certain contacts only forwarded to certain phones,
Each of these features is compelling enough on its own—together, they'll totally change how you use your phones, changing you from a mere mobile customer to a full-on switchboard operator, self-spy, info hoarder and telco executive. It's like you run your own little phone company, just for yourself. For free. Spectacular.
Now that I've got you all riled, it's time for me to pour an icy bucket of water down the front of your pants. Google Voice, as incredible a concept and service as it is, isn't perfect. In fact, there are a few things you need to know and accept before taking the dive, and they might be dealbreakers:
• You can't use your own phone number. At least, not in the way you wish you could. In an ideal world, you'd be able to port your old cellphone number to Google Voice, and have that—the digits people have been using to get in touch with you for years—be your new all-inclusive point of contact. You can't do this yet. For now, the closest you can come is to port your voicemail to Google Voice. That means that your T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon or Sprint number's voicemail can be outsourced to Google, but not its calls. You can unify all your phones under your new Google Voice number, but that means you have to switch. Along with the basic inconvenience of telling everyone about your new number, you're trusting an awful lot in a beta service, the terms of which could change quickly and without notice. It's not something I worry about, but it's not nothing, either.
• You can't record calls that you've placed, just calls that you've received. And every time you initiate recording, Google Voice notifies the other person on the line. This is all makes perfect moral and procedural sense, but just in case you had the impression that there were no limits on your recording abilities, well, there are.
• The mobile app situation isn't ideal. There are apps for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and iPhone via jailbreak, and they all work. That said, they're not perfect—they can be slow, poorly integrated, glitchy, or hard to figure out. And since they're supposed to replace the dialer on your phone entirely, this isn't wonderful. The online mobile interface is a good fallback for placing calls and sending texts, but navigating to that adds an extra step to any call or text that can get tiresome after a while.
• Lastly, the way American phones work, you're still going to end up paying for your minutes, somehow. Just because Google Voice says you can make free domestic calls and cheap international calls doesn't mean that you actually can: in both cases, you need to dial out to Google Voice's external system in the first place, which means you're still using your monthly minute allotment. There are ways around this which I'll discuss later, but Google Voice, as good as it is, isn't magic.
Discouraged? Don't be. Google Voice is still well worth you time and effort, and it's only going to get better. Now, for God's sake let's get started already.
Signing up. This is simultaneously the easiest and most irritating part of Google Voice: It's still invite only. Lucky for you, "Invite" in this case doesn't mean you actually have to wait for an individual to select you from the masses; it's just Google's way of saying their keeping the signup pace down at manageable levels while the service is still in beta. Just submit your address, after which Google "anticipate[s] that it will be a short wait before you receive your invitation."
What's a short wait? My invite took about four days. Some come within 48 hours. At worst, they take about two weeks. Lots of you will have already received your invite, and just not done a whole lot with it—you guys can keep reading—while the rest of you should just bookmark this post, and come back to it once you get your invite. Protip: check your spam filters.
—
Ok, hello again, people I was talking to anywhere between two seconds and two weeks ago! How are you? Now that you've got your invite, you can log in to your Google Voice Dashboard. It'll look familiar if you've used any Google Service before:
Logging in. Follow your confirmation link, or navigate here. Click around for a while to get a feel for the interface. This is how you'll manage your phones from now on. It's liberatingly simple.
Picking your number. You'll be given a choice of numbers, which you can choose from practically any available area code. Choose wisely: this will be your primary number from here on out. Choosing your first number is free; changing it in the future will cost you $10. Boo, waah, etcetera! But really not a huge deal.
Adding your phones. This is assuming you want to forward a single number to all your phones, which is kind of the point here, so: Go to the Google Voice settings page (up in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. In the first section, called "Phones," click "Add a Phone" or "Add Another Phone." Give it a name "My iPhone" and enter its phone number. That's it.
Now you'll be given a passcode, which you'll use to authenticate your existing phone. Clicking "Connect" will call your phone from your Google Voice number, and a friendly robot will ask for you code. Enter it. That's it!
Setting up your voicemail. Now that the phone is added, it can accept calls directed to your Google Voice number. If the call is ignored, it will forward the voicemail to Google Voice, where it will be stored online. Alternately, if you only want to use Google Voice for voicemail, you can disable the calling feature (by unchecking the box next to the phone), and set up the service to hijack your actual cellphone number's voicemails—even when the call didn't get routed through Google Voice.
This is much easier that it sounds: Just click "Activate Google Voicemail" next to your newly-added phone, and enter the number they give you exactly as it's written, symbols and all. Once you "call" that number, you'll get some kind of message on your phone. On the iPhone, it looks like this.
Your voicemail has been switched—all you need to do now is set up a quick bookmark in your mobile phone to Google Voice, which provides a functional, if sparse, interface for your Google Voice messages. It's like visual voicemail, except through your browser. (Or a mobile app, which I'll get to soon.)
Choosing the rest of your settings. Now you'll see your phone listed under the "Phones" settings tab. The other tabs contain a few pages of settings for your Google Voice account. How you toggle these is up to you, but here are the most important ones: If you want to forward SMSes to email, you'll have to enable that in the "Voicemail and SMS" tab; call screening settings are located under the "Calls" tab; and international call credit can be added under the "Billing" tab, from a credit card.
Finding your feet. Take some time to experiment with some of Google Voice's core features now. Place a call using the button at the top left of the Google Voice homepage. Enter your recipient's number, and choose which of your phones you'd like to place the call with. Google Voice will call your phone first, which upon answering will immediately call your recipient's phone, which will think it's getting a call from your new Google Voice number. It might sound odd in writing, but once you see it work, it just kind of clicks. You can also place these calls from the mobile web interface, without a computer. Texting is more direct—you can send those directly from the web interface without any intervention from your phone.
Placing calls. The aforementioned methods is the most obvious, and it will reliably work. It's a little cumbersome, especially if you're used to just tapping on a contact and placing a call. Thankfully there are a few more ways to place calls from your phone, and have it routed through Google Voice:
• Apps: This is by far the best way to use Google Voice. Android has an official Google Voice app, as does BlackBerry.These automate the dialing/texting out process, so you don't need to mess with a web interface—you just opt to make some or all of your calls through Google Voice, and the app takes care of the rest. Windows Mobile has unofficial clients that do the job pretty well, as does the Pre, in the App Catalog. iPhone clients are available, but they're not approved by Apple: You'll need to jailbreak your phone and install them from Cydia.
• The call-in method: Simply dial your new Google Voice number from your cellphone or landline, press 2 once it's connected, then enter the number you want to dial. This is less convenient than the web interface method, even, but it's vital to the next one:
• The contact method: This is a little cheat to automate the aforementioned process. What you're doing, basically, is saving your Google Voice number, a pause, the number 2 (which selects "call another phone" from the Google Voice automated menu tree), a pause, then your recipient's number.
Adding a pause is different on each phone—on the iPhone, for example, you need to save a number as a contact, and in the number editing screen, press the "+*#" button at the bottom left of the keypad. The zero will be replaced with a "pause" button, which when pressed inserts a comma into the number. Google is your friend for this one, though most smartphones make the option available in their respective contact editing screens.
Sending Texts. Again, using the web interface is a great way to send texts, as are mobile apps, if you have one. If you don't, though, there's a great trick for adding Google Voice texting to your existing contacts.
Have the person you want to text send a message to your Google Voice account. When you receive the message, it will be from a number you don't recognize, with the area code 406. It will be labeled with the sending contact's name, and any replies to that number will return to the person who sent them, but the number is completely new. This is a Google Voice SMS alias, which you can use forever: Just save it as part of your friend's contacts—perhaps as a secondary cellphone or a work number, whatever you can remember—and use it as their primary SMS contact number. It will work, even if you initiate the conversation.
As you've probably noticed, Google Voice is kind of a loose system—and a system that's ripe for a little gaming. There are two methods that currently work for getting truly unlimited, free calls over Google Voice. This is where things get really interesting. Interesting in a good way for you; interesting in a terrifying way for the phone companies.
• The Calling Circle Method: You know how some carriers let you designate a few contacts that don't count toward your monthly allotment of minutes, like T-Mobile MyFaves, or the AT&T A-List? By making your Google Voice number one of your friends, you can filter all your calls through Google, whether they be free domestic calls or cheap international calls. Once your Google number is added to your circle, making free calls is simply a matter of dialing into your Google Voice number and, using Google's audio menu system, dialing through to your recipient. (The contact method listed above will work too.)
To make incoming calls—including outgoing calls initiated from the Google Voice web interface—free, you'll need to change your Google Voice settings under the "Calls" tab. Select "Display my Google Voice Number" under the "Caller ID (in)" setting, and you're good to go. A full setup guide for the calling circle method can be found here.
Note: Designating Google Voice as one of your preferred contacts may be against your carrier's user policies—check with them if you're concerned.
• The VoIP method: By signing up for a number with free VoIP service Gizmo5 and adding to to your Google Voice account as a phone, you can place unlimited free calls from your VoIP number to landlines. You can also forward the calls through to Skype, if you'd prefer. This isn't a solution for mobile phones, but it's a great way to make yourself an effectively unlimited VoIP landline for free. Lifehacker's got the whole rundown here. UPDATE: Registrations for Gizmo5 have been closed. Sorry!
Lifehacker has assembled a fantastic guide for easing the transition from many numbers to one, covering everything from how to convince people not to call your old numbers, to coping with voice latency.
That's pretty much it! If you have any tips to tricks for getting the most out fo Google Voice, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our Saturday How To guides.
And if you have any topics you'd like to see covered here, please let me know. Happy Voicing, folks!
during these days we are talking a lot of preventive actions to avoid A1H1N1 contamination ,and one of these actions is hand-washing with liquid soap.Please if any body can help getting the formula or how can we fabricate this type of soap,we find different qualities on the market but we are not sur
As I understand it, some aircraft used engines with water injected to increase HP. I also heard of diesel ship engines that used a steam / diesel hybrid piston engine. Even the mighty B52 bomber used to inject water into the turbines.
Why was this abandoned? It seems smart to me to use the
NASA needs more money, because let's face it, rocket launches ain't cheap. The good news is, it looks like they'll be getting some. Not as much as they want, but some.
In October NASA said they would need $3 billion more per year to go forward with meaningful human space exploration, i.e. not just sending more robots up. For a while there were rumors going around that Washington was going to severely scale back the program's budget, but now according to Washington insider John Logsdon, "there will be more money."
He's also saying that Obama doesn't want to be that president who cuts a future oriented program. So he'll keep it alive, but he'll only give them a budget somewhere between their current spending and the $3 billion per year increase NASA is looking for. But all that means is that NASA will have to buddy up with international space programs a little more.
Let's face it, we weren't going to get to Mars on our own anyway. As long as NASA is still alive, and there's still a remote chance of me seeing a mission to Mars in my lifetime, I'm a happy camper. [New Scientist, image via Matthew Simantov]
The Pen de Touch provides haptic feedback while interacting with virtual objects. It also looks like Jeff Bridges could streak across the interface any second.
If the device "senses" contact with a virtual boundary, it reacts accordingly. For example, If you're drawing on a virtual surface, the pen pulls in the opposite direction to represent friction.
The idea is to use the device in museum applications and such, but let's face it. This thing was built as a Light Cycle control device. All other uses are secondary. [Tachi Lab via Designboom]
The Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince Blu-ray Liveblog starts now.
11:50: Ten minutes left until the star (Daniel Radcliffe) and the director (David Yates) pop up and start talking about the movie while watching the movie.
11:51: If you're using the PlayStation 3, you should make sure you've got the correct audio output to hear the audio stream. Otherwise, like myself last time, you'll hear nothing.
11:53: If you miss this, it'll be on BD-Live in a few weeks, says the British announcer.
11:53: I just figured out that they're doing this livecast at 12 noon instead of 6PM Pacific because kids in the UK need to watch this too. Otherwise, it'd be 2 in the morning.
11:55: There's a weird bug right now with two audio streams being overlayed simultaneously. One announcement and one...announcement.
11:56: Oh and if you need to get in, here's the invite.
12:00: Two voices talking simultaneously is more annoying than you'd imagine.
12:02: It's about to start in a minute.
12:02: Before we start, I gotta say this was probably in the top half of the Harry Potter movies, for me. The only problems I had with it was the fact that it looked like the whole movie had a power outage. And, that it didn't follow the book as closely as other movies.
12:03: It's starting.
12:04: I'm having audio difficulties and had to restart the movie.
12:05: It would be nice to go through one of these screenings without technical problems. You'd think the PS3 would be the most stable platform, but I guess not. And now it's having trouble loading the BD-Live.
12:06: Millions of kids around the world are logging into BD-Live right now apparently. Hey kids, get off my (virtual) lawn.
12:06: I'm back in! Daniel is talking about Harry Potter and how he differs from the character.
12:07: To answer a person who asked a question about if Dan learned anything from Harry Potter, he says yes.
12:10: His favorite movie is #5. He likes shooting and watching that one.
12:10: The director says he doesn't have a favorite.
12:12: Oh wait, the director couldn't make it—this is someone else.
12:12: Harry Potter is there though.
12:13: Daniel is saying the director is great, and can see the whole film while shooting an individual scene.
12:13: Here's a little hint of how Dumbledore is gay: he was treasuring a knitting magazine (with JK, the author, on the cover).
12:15: Someone asked what other movies he wants to try and get into, and Dan says he wants to concentrate on finishing the last two movies, and then maybe go back to the stage in London or NY.
12:17: Now a question about Alan Rickman. How did Dan feel about hearing Alan Rickman speak, in the first movie? Answer: probably terrified.
12:19: It's too bad the director isn't here, because I would very much ask him why the movie is shot during a power outage...in a black hole. Seriously, I couldn't see anything.
12:20: Q: Is Helena Bonham Carter as cool as she looks?
12:20: A: Yes. Also she is mad. And she pulls off that wig well, and she is hilarious.
12:23: Someone just asked him about what bands he likes. It'd be better if they focused on, you know, what's going on in the movie, but I guess that's the kind of question we're going to get today.
12:24: Q: Is Emma Watson as beautiful in person as she is in the movies?
12:24: A: "Yes!!" That Dan.
12:25: And now they're singing the praises of Blu-ray, and saying the interactive experience of Blu-ray is "mindblowing."
12:25: This is the first time they've actually seen one of the Harry Potter movies on Blu-ray, apparently.
12:27: What Blu-rays would you want directors' Q&A of? Post in the comments.
12:27: Q: "What's your favorite special effects sequence in this film?"
12:27: A: The island near the end of the movie, with the cabin and all the monsters in the water.
12:28: A: Dan's favorite is the dragon chase in #4.
12:30: Q: "If you had the ability to use an invisibility cloak, what would you do?"
12:30: A: Dan says robbing banks. He did not say sneaking a peek of Emma Watson.
12:32: Q: "Are you or the others going to be Twittering soon?"
12:32: A: Dan says no. He says he likes Twitter, but he feels he'd be inundated.
12:35: Dan's talking about sports.
12:36: For the most part, the audio stream is a lot more stable than it was during the Terminator live event.
12:38: What's the next step in these? Video streaming of them in a corner? That might be pretty fun.
12:39: Dan says he was in the right place at the right time to get the part of Harry.
12:43: Unfortunately the two people answering questions, Dan and the other guy, don't know any technical stuff. It's too bad the director couldn't show up.
12:44: Q: Has anyone ever challenged you to a Harry Potter trivia match?
12:44: A: Yes, and I've lost every time.
12:48: I'm leaving out the questions about him playing Quidditch and other silly dialogue, btw.
12:54: To answer my own question, I would really love to hear Michael Bay give a commentary on Transformers 2. I'd like to hear his thoughts behind why he wanted to do the CG a certain way, or if he left that all up to the CG folks.
12:57: Q: Besides acting, do you want to get into another part of the film business?
12:57: A: I'd love to direct, but it's a long way off.
12:59: And now, a peepee break.
1:06: We're back.
1:06: They're talking about how an actor on screen now playing Marcus Belby was killed, stabbed, while protecting his brother.
1:10: It would be nicer if you could submit questions directly from your Blu-ray player as well. That would make it more of an all-in-one experience, without having to have a phone or a computer in front of you.
1:15: On another note, BD-Live kind of forms the basis of community watching, in a sense. Right now you can watch with directors and hear them talk, but if you can go in the direction of the Netflix community watch on Xbox Live, you can get communal viewings with your friends as well. That would be pretty interesting, being able to watch the same movie, synced, with a buddy across the country.
1:21: Someone asked if they could get Ricky Gervais into the movies.
1:34: Slight spoiler for #7: They'll be playing themselves in that one scene.
1:41: They're talking about the acting process, and the audition process and so forth. Nothing that interesting.
1:43: Q: Do you find it hard working around green screens and CG?
1:44: A: Not really. I don't have to spend a lot of time in front of a green screen. I only have to do about three days in front of a green screen at a time. In the first film I did a month in front of a screen for Quidditch and that was mind numbing.
1:52: Looks like the audio stream just cut out.
1:53: It's back.
2:00: I'd also like to hear JJ Abrams talk about Star Trek too. That would be one interesting live commentary.
2:01: I think they're doing another peepee break now.
2:10: Now the audio is just cutting in and out like mad.
2:29: Oh wow has it been 20 minutes since I typed something. How long is this movie?
2:34: The audio is finicky again, and the movie's about to end.
2:42: Movie's over, and they're saying their thanks for watching.
2:42: Thanks for reading! (Maybe we should stick with Sci Fi movies from now on.)
Model #43F300
Serial #V3K009482
The picture is warped top and bottom and the colors appear separately on the picture, giving a tripple picture effect.
is this an easy fix, costly fix?
Thanks for the help!
How do I calculate the strength of a 9" concrete floor on pillars?
I am considering leasing a 1930's era commercial building as a warehouse. The building has seen various commercial uses over the decades including furniture and carpet store, meat lockers, retail food, retail clothing, etc.
