Green Arrow Superheroes and Villains in Season 1 of ARROW

If you haven't already been watching the new television show ARROW then I gotta let you know about all the great superheroes and villains that have been making appearances in the show...

#1. Green Arrow / Oliver Queen - Well obviously, he's the main hero of the show!

#2. Felicity Smoak - Computer hacker - in the comic books she ran a software company, but in this case she is Oliver Queen's go-to-girl for all things computer geeky.

First Appearance: The Fury of Firestorm #23 (comics); Season 1 episode 3 "Lone Gunmen" (Arrow)

#3. Walter Steele - The CEO of Queen Consolidated.

 First Appearance: Green Arrow Vol 4 #1 (comics); Season 1 episode 1 "Pilot" (Arrow)

#4. Merlyn - The Arch Villain of Green Arrow... In this case there is actually two of them. Merlyn Sr and Tommy Merlyn. So far only the older Merlyn has shown any skill in archery - having beaten Oliver at his own forte.

 First Appearance: Justice League of America #94 (comics); Season 1 episode 1 "Pilot" (Arrow)

 #5.  China White - Chinese Triad Leader.

First Appearance: Green Arrow Year One #3 (comics); Season 1 episode 2 "Honor Thy Father" (Arrow)

#6. Constantine Drakon - Martial artist / Assassin / Bodyguard.

First Appearance: Green Arrow #27 (comics); Season 1 episode 1 "Pilot" (Arrow)

#7. Deadshot - Assassin who uses poisoned bullets.

First Appearance: Batman #59 (comics); Season 1 episode 3 "Lone Gunmen" (Arrow)

#8. Black Canary - The future wife of Oliver Queen... complete with fishnets!

First Appearance: Flash Comics #86 (comics); Season 1 episode 1 "Pilot" (Arrow)

#9. The Huntress / Helena Rosa Bertinelli - Oliver's brief romantic squeeze in one episode - but also the future Batgirl and wife of Bruce Wayne.

First Appearance: The Huntress #1 (comics)

#10. Deathstroke - Highly skilled mercenary Oliver fights on the island.

First Appearance: The New Teen Titans #2 (comics), Season 1 episode unknown. Mask seen in "Pilot" (Arrow)

#11. Speedy / Red Arrow / Roy William Harper Jr. - Oliver's future sidekick.

First Appearance: Speedy I: More Fun Comics #73; Speedy II: Green Arrow vol 3 #2 (comics)

Special Note!

There is actually two versions of Speedy - the other being a female version. Not sure if she will also make an appearance.

FINAL NOTE

While there is no plans to have Bruce Wayne / Batman appear in the season 1 of Arrow, it is possible he might make an appearance in season 2. Batman and Green Arrow are long time allies and share many similarities since they both lack super-powers. Plus the fans would LOVE appearances of Batman. Should be interesting...

On February 11, 2013, ARROW was renewed for a second season by The CW. Ratings for the show are reportedly through the roof!

All the recent fuss about archery in movies has caused demand for archery lessons in Toronto to skyrocket.

Star Trek's Nurse Chapel dies of leukemia

ENTERTAINMENT - Majel Barrett Roddenberry has been in more Star Trek episodes and Star Trek movies than any other Star Trek actor, for over four decades. She played the dark-haired Number One in the original Star Trek pilot but metamorphosed into the blond, miniskirted Nurse Christine Chapel in the original 1966-69 show.

She played the role of the ship's computer voice during all 5 sequel TV shows and many of the Star Trek movie incarnations, and Betazoid Ambassador Lwaxana Troi in 6 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and 3 episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Roddenberry died of leukemia Thursday morning (December 18th) at her home in Bel-Air. She was 76.

Just two weeks ago she completed the voice of the ship's computer for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie "Star Trek", which focuses on Kirk and Spock's first adventures together.

As Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's widow she nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death. Roddenberry helped keep the franchise alive by inspiring fans and attended a major Star Trek convention each year. She was also the executive producer for two other Gene Roddenberry series, Andromeda and Earth: Final Conflict.

She also appeared in a Babylon 5 episode "Point of No Return", as Lady Morella, the psychic widow of the Centauri emperor, and parodied her voice work as a guest voice on Family Guy as the voice of Stewie Griffin's ship's computer in the episode "Emission Impossible".

Star Trek and its successors often focused on political and philosophical issues of the day. Roddenberry and her husband Gene, who died in 1991, believed in creating "thoughtful entertainment" and were proud of the show and the passionate devotion of its fans.

Born Majel Lee Hudec on February 23rd 1932, in Cleveland, she began taking acting classes as a child. She had some stage roles, then in the late 1950s and 1960s had bit parts in a few movies and small roles in TV series, including "Leave It to Beaver" and "Bonanza".

She met her husband in 1964 during a guest role for a Marine Corps drama he produced called "The Lieutenant". That same year, she was cast in the pilot for the Star Trek series as the no-nonsense second-in-command. The pilot did not appeal to NBC executives and a second pilot was made, although parts of the original later showed up in a two-part episode called "The Menagerie".

The couple married in Japan in 1969 after Star Trek (TOS) was cancelled.

Freak of Nature Video: BE SOMEBODY

Being that the holiday season is still upon us, I should probably be posting a holiday video, but oh well.

I'm a fan of MST3k, so for whatever reason, I'm fascinated by outrageously bad or bizarre videos from days past (the 80s is the best decade for this sort of stuff). Occasionally, a gem of a turd comes along that blows my mind and makes me wonder about God, the Universe and Everything.

So I present to you: Mr.T, The Movie. Be Somebody.

Okay, so maybe I don't know the actual title, but I challenge you to get through all 50 minutes of this video without looking for a large blunt object to bludgeon yourself with.

Synopsis: There isn't really a story to this, it's really just a collection of ways kids can survive in the harsh, harsh world of the public school system through the guidance of the 80s' most 'famous' educational icon. And singing. Lots of singing. But not by Mr. T - he half-raps his way through his lyrics with zest and style. I say 'half-raps' because he's saying the lyrics rather than singing them, presumably because his singing skills would bring more pain to the viewing of this video.

Why would I post such a thing? Because it's weird. And compared to what's on TV, the craptacular hilarity alone is worth more than most reality TV shows.

Contains appearances by New Edition (with the famous Bobby Brown) and a very, very young Fergie (in her Kids Incorporated days).

Young Indy gets a release date

Man I don't know what I did this year but God likes me...or at least wants me entertained before something bad happens. Before Christmas there's a ton of stuff I've been waiting for. halo 3, the super duper Blade Runner set and now this...thank you heavenly bodies.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles vol 1 is coming our way. Here's what www.dvdactive.com had to say:

Paramount Home Entertainment has sent over artwork for the first volume of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones which stars Sean Patrick Flanery, Corey Carrier, and George Hall. The 12 disc package will be available to own from the 23rd October, and should retail at around $117.99. According to our friends at TVShowsOnDVD.com, the set will include extensive historical documentaries, a "Revolutions Interactive Game", an "Interactive Timeline", and a "Professor Video".

Can I get a hell yeah? The show itself was awesome. Only question is, how many of these sets are their going to be?

Lots of Nerd News

Man, today has been filled with tons of geek news so I'll go over bits and pieces.

Video Game Goodness
It's E3 and there is a ton of game news...well maybe not news actually a lot of grandstanding about why "My system is better then the others guy's". Nintendo bragging about their sales figures...and why the hell not? A lot of people were starting to think Nintendo was going to head the way of Sega before the DS and WII appeared. So a lot of stuff was said and very polite smack was talked and there are much better reporters covering it then me, they've even got their own channel. So for all the news and video check out G4 on your tv or head over to their website, http://www.g4tv.com/

In the meantime, here's what caught my eye.

Nintendo
Zelda is coming to the DS and man it looks cool. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass appears to be very touch screen oriented which worries me a little (Starfox, I'm glaring in anger in your direction) but the demo looked really good and it's selling craploads in Japan.

The WII blaster...a connection to make the wimote and nunchuck into a lightgun...and a resident evil game to go with it...if they weren't so hard to find I'd buy a Wii just for that...except for the fact I want Halo 3 much worse.

Xbox 360
Saw a bunch of things we already knew about but at least saw in game demos. Left 4 Dead being a little bit of a surprise. Fast "28 Days Later" style zombies, team play...drool. Assassin's Creed looks like it's coming along nicely. There was also a demo of Rock Band, the guitar hero style game but with guitar and drums and bass. And yet another Halo 3 trailer...which shows The Arbiter standing beside The Master Chief on Earth looking at the sky.

Sony
Trumpeted their non-price cut price cut (the current PS3's will be dropped by $100 which would be a step in the right direction except it's because they're bringing out another version with more memory at the higher price) and the line up of games on the way...not many of which are exclusive. That may even include the new Metal Gear. But they've also got Lair which I admit, looks awesome, piloting dragons, wiping out armies. But the games are kind of moot if no one can afford the system.

The others
Plenty of multi platform games coming but the one that caught my eye was Stranglehold, the video game sequel to one of my favorite movies, Hard Boiled...ah John Woo before Hollywood ruined him.

Comics
A bunch of little items and then one big one.

- According to comic gossip columnist, Rich Johnston (yes we do have them, he's latest column is here ) The Punisher is having a baby.

- Jim Starlin is writing a miniseries for DC called Death of the New Gods.

- I saw the following at newsarama but felt it should be posted here as well.

From Jim Lee

To my fellow professionals, artists and comic book fans--In comics, we're always telling stories about people in life-threatening situations. That's thrilling in a comic book, but in real life it's the scariest ordeal you can imagine. Right now Gordon Lee, a retailer in Rome, GA, is facing the fight of his life. This August he will finally stand trial against two counts of distributing harmful to minors materials. He faces penalties of up to a year in prison and fines of up to $1,000 on each count if convicted. Gordon has been fighting to prove his innocence for almost three years. Fighting through being overcharged with two felonies and five misdemeanors, most of which were later thrown out. Fighting though the prosecution throwing out and refiling their case because the day before the trial they discovered that their facts were wrong. And now fighting against two remaining charges that are completely meritless. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has taken up the fight for Gordon, and now we need to help them finish that that fight.Right now, I'm asking you to join me in supporting the CBLDF's work on this case. To date they've spent nearly $80,000 defending Gordon, and they expect the trial to cost another $20,000 on top of that. To ensure that they have the cash on hand for Gordon's August trial, and to shore up their reserves for what could be a very litigious Presidential election year, they need our donations now.Please join me in supporting the Fund by making a donation of cash, original art, high-grade comics, or even some of your time (like I did in 2003 when I did a signing at Defender of Liberty recipient Chuck Rozanski's Mile High Comics as part of a CBLDF benefit auction). It's up to those of us who rely on comics for our living to stand behind the Fund in protecting our own. The Fund needs all of our support to win this case, where a conviction won't just harm Gordon, but its precedent could affect all of our livelihoods.To donate art or collectibles for the Comic-Con auction, please send an email to cbldf1@gmail.com to let them know what you are contributing. If you have it available, include a jpg of your donation so they can list it in their auction preview online. You can see my donation--a penciled promo piece of Batman for the upcoming DCU MMO--above.To donate money, go to Donations-CBLDF. To make sure that the Fund can include your donation in their Comic-Con auction preview, please be sure to get in touch with them with a jpg no later than Sunday, July 15. You can send the physical piece to their office until July 20th, or deliver it to them onsite at Comic-Con.Please join me in helping the CBLDF raise the resources it needs to win this important case. If you have questions or to let the Fund know what you're sending, email Charles Brownstein or Greg Thompson at cbldf1@gmail.com or call them at the CBLDF office -- 212.679.7151. And please send your contributions to CBLDF, 271 Madison Ave, Suite 1400, New York, NY 10016 and tell them that I sent you!Thanks for joining me in support,

Jim Lee

And finally a little personal retrospective. Until the early 90's I had bought comics but never hardcore collected...until the first issue of Rob Liefled's X-Force hit newsstands. Just look at that art...alright today it looks over used and plain but back then it really stood out.

Liefeld's been an interesting character when it comes to comics. Left Marvel to help form Image, thus helping to start a revolution in comics. Then goes back and takes over a couple of marvel books along with fellow creator Jim Lee and then get's kicked off of that and then get's kicked out (or leaves depending on who's version of the story you're ready) Image and forms or joins hands with numerous companies all the while only releasing a comic seemingly every few years.

This is not to mention the feuds he's started or snide remarks he's made about others (including his former Image brothers) or remarks made about him.

So lo and behold I was nearly knocked on my ass when I saw that Rob had teamed up with his former cohorts at Image to reprint old Youngblood material and print new Youngblood material.

You can read the story here and get a good view of the whole Liefeld story here.

Now the real question is, how long till the first new Youngblood comes out after it's supposed to and how long between issues? I say 3 months late for issue 1 and a year for issue 2.

The Bad Comic Book Movies and TV

Megan brought back a lot of painful memories with her Legends of the Superheros clips. I have been a life long comic book fan and one of those things that always lit up my smile was when we heard about a Marvel movie. I grew up essentially a Marvel guy with DC overtones so after Batman (Burton version) came out, rumours started to fly about other projects. I'm old enough to remember the hype of the James Cameron version of Spider-Man that was never to be. Unfortunately I'm also old enough to remember other painful things. Things some of you are curious about but much like bad crack, if you try them because your curious you may end up with brain damage and horrible scarring to your psyche.

So as a public service, I figured I'd round up some of the bad I've seen, tell you why you should not see it and saving you the anguish that I've already gone through.

Captain America (1991)
See Cap Throw His Shield! See The Red Skull! See Cap walk from Alaska to Florida in a matter of hours...no I'm not kidding. What a hunk of crap. The Red Skull appears in costume for maybe ten minutes and then when we see him in present day he had facial Reconstruction surgery so he doesn't look like the Red Skull...not to mention he's not even German in the film. Now why the Hell would you do that? The Cap costume itself is a little weak but I just blame the time period on that.
Surprisingly I could not find the trailer to the film but I did find some footage from people who actually like it.



The Fantastic Four (1994 version)
My dislike of both The Fantastic Four comic and the 2005 film are pretty well known and can be summed up into one word: Crap. However as much as I dislike the current version, the 1994 version is worse. It is an hour and a half of your life that you will never get back. The worst part was that this was essentially a deal maker. The film company (headed by B-movie god, Roger Corman) had the rights to do a FF movie but not the budget. Time was running out on those rights and people with money were actually looking at the project (most notably Chris Columbus who had lots of money at the time due to Home Alone). But in order to maintain those rights, Corman's company had to produce something...and produce something they did.
Here's the trailer:



Justice League Of America (1997)
Ok. You're a television exec for CBS. Superheroes have become cool and you need to cash in. You have the rights to several DC properties. Solution? Make a JLA show. Wouldn't that be awesome with Superman...wait can't use him due to a movie in the works....But yous till have Batman and Wonder Woman....nope can't use them either.

So we'll use Green Lantern (Cool), Martian Manhunter (cool), The Atom (alright...could be ok), and Fire....yup...Fire....ok...and Ice.... that's kind of lame but could work. The Green Lantern is going to be a mash up of all of the Green Lanterns but we'll call him Guy Gardner....why don't we just cancel it now before it gets worse.

And that boys and girls, is what they did. Oh and Winchester from MASH was Manhunter.





Now there are others that are mediocre. The Dolph Lungren Punisher movie, a bunch of Captain America tv movies from the 70's. but these are the worst. You can thank me later, for now I must lay down and take some advil.

Genre Geekiness TV

Well this fall is going to be another interesting one for those of us who like sci-fi, horror, fantasy and what not.

I say interesting because for every Firefly, Buffy, Battlestar we also get Dark Angel, Blade and Stacked (Pam Anderson working at a book store, tell me that's not fantasy? I dare you).

But this fall there are a few series that have been given the green light with a few pilots waiting in the wings at the moment. (most of this info was taken from Aintitcool )

The Sarha Connor Chronicles
Yup that's right, we get more terminator goodness (but alas no Arnie) but this time on tv. But we do get Lena Headey (the babealisous Queen from 300) as Sarah, Thomas Dekker (Zach from Heroes) as John Connor and Summer Glau (River from Firefly) as a character named Cameron which is rumoured to be a terminator but as of yet no confirmation. Apparently this will be for Fox.

New Amsterdam
Apparently about a 400 year old New York cop...you'd think he would have retired on pension after the first 100 years. Also from Fox

I also know CBS has a zombie tv show in the works but I can't seem to find any of the previous articles on it.

NBC has a new version of the Bionic Woman set to go...but how come the Six Million Dollar Man get's no love?

Plus we have the returning Battlestar (which may be the last season) and Heroes.

And in cartoon news, Cartoon Network in the states has a bunch of their pilots posted.

I particularly like the Drinky Crow Show. Click here to check'em out.

This ain't Bobby Darrin

Found this on youtube from the documentary September Songs.
Nick Cave doing the real version of Mack the Knife.



And Nick's own classic The Mercy Seat...live on Japanese tv

Tons of new crap

Hola, Chittendango here from the middle of nowhere...which is just to the south of Barrie.
First thing first. Robot Chicken, produced to by geek-like-us Seth Green will be doing an 30 min Star Wars show. From the trailer I gather its going to be new stuff and the best of old stuff.
What trailer?
This trailer

Robot Chicken Star Wars

The problem with action movies today is the violence is all taken away. For instance The Condemed which I cauht a few weeks ago. Simple plot; convicts on an island rigged for internet ppv killing until the last man. Starring hopeful new man of action "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and everyone's favorite "I-Tie" hating British badass Vinnie Jones. Now a plot so simple I wasn't expecting much other then Mr. Austin beating the crap out of people. Every action scene was however ruined by the "Saving Private Ryan" shakey cam or a well timed explosion that didn't include any body parts.

Not like the movies of my youth. Which brings us to another www.dvdactive.com update.

A two disc Robocop.

Robocop was the king of violent movies....until you got to see the Criterion edition which had the uncut international version of the film which added just a little more violence. The board room scene for instance just has a few more seconds added but those seconds are drenched in blood and guts.

Which is why it's nice that MGM is bringing you both theatrical and international cuts of the film and a ton of extras.

MGM Home Entertainment has sent over details on a 20th Anniversary Edition of Robocop which stars Peter Weller, Kurtwood Smith, and Ronny Cox. The two-disc special edition will be available to own from the 21st August, and should retail at around $22.98. The set will include both the theatrical and extended cuts (presented in anamorphic widescreen, along with DTS 5.1 Surround tracks), along with commentary by director Paul Verhoven, writer Ed Neumeier and executive producer Jon Davison, a Flesh And Steel: The Making Of Robocop featurette, a Shooting Robocop 1987 featurette, a Making Robocop 1987 featurette, The Boardroom: Storyboard With Commentary By Animator Phil Tippet featurette, deleted scenes, an OCP Press Conference feature, a Nun In The Street Interview, and further featurettes on the cast, special effects, and design. Completing the set will be a Villains Of Old Detroit featurette, a Special Effects: Then And Now featurette, a Robocop: Creating A Legend featurette, and trailers and TV spots

Now if you already have the trilogy box set (like myself) it probably isn't worth it. But if you don't have it, I would pick it up. Plus once again, spiffy metal box.

I also highly recomend going out an buying copies for the younger generations in the hopes that we might avert an age of pansy movie watchers; Kids raised on blood less action movies (The Condemed, Ghost Rider, I'm looking in your direction). You know kind of like when you take a virgin to a whore. You're doing the best thing for them.

I'm going to do up a list of my top ten violent films later on.

Chittendango

Apartment of the future

Momus and his blog readers put together an amusing tongue-in-cheek look at a new year in Technology with his article "Touring the Home of the Future" over at Wired.

But how about touring the apartment of the now? I've been mulling this over for a while, and considering this age of 'convenient entertainment' that we live in, we can have most of that entertainment- for free (or cheap) and completely contained on a hard drive.

Of course, as a person that cherishes analog media, I would never get rid of my cassette tapes or battered paperbacks (or unique hard-covers). But that has a lot to do with how I was raised, and my own personal experiences.

If I were more bent on saving space (and really, I should be) then I would opt to have all of my media paperless, plastic-less, and all contained on a single storage medium.

Currently, with Flash memory at its finest, you can fit about 10 gigabytes into something smaller than the size of a deck of cards. Movies and videos are watchable even at a smallish resolution (YouTube has proven that). You can store a whole album's worth of songs in about 50 megabytes, and the average Microsoft Reader version of a novel takes up about half a megabyte (nevermind how mind-boggling small plain-text would be).

So let's speculate that I don't go too crazy, and I just get a couple of 500 Gigabyte external hard drives to store things on. I just recently signed up to iTunes, so I can eliminate all physical versions of future cd purchases. If I lived in the US, I could make use of a service like Movielink to buy or rent movies online, and just download them (legally). If I have more obscure tastes, there is always Google Video, YouTube, and public domain content, which totally free. There are many, many podcasts out there to listen to as well, which are usually free.

For books, there are often eBook versions of popular titles available, and many, MANY classics are legally available for free on the internet from sites like freebooks5000.com. I could spend a couple of lifetimes reading all of the best works of literature, without even filling out a library card.

There are also subscriptions to streaming content of popular video and audio through sites like SaltWaterChimp or Streamwired.com. For about $5 to $10 a month, I can watch as many hours as I can plow through of my favourite TV shows, all on Winamp, without taking up a single bit of hard drive space.

I've got my pda and cellphone for on-the-go computing, and note-taking, and who needs paper when I've got windows notepad? I can ditch that pesky landline phone too, and just have myself a headset, and a Vonage subscription.

So my apartment 'of the future' could feasibly just (aside from appliances), contain one or two large hard drives (which would take up significantly less space than my bookcases), my desk, my PC, a really kickass monitor and some nice speakers, and perhaps a large screen tv. There are many online and cd-rom versions of classic board games, and if I scan all pertinent correspondance, I can get rid of that pesky pile of old mail in the corner.

Ape Call!

If you've ever claimed to be a participant in the older fandom of Planet of the Apes, this DVD collection- The Ultimate DVD Collection- is probably all you'll ever need to own. It has all 6 movies (yes, including Tim Burton's), the TV series, AND the animated series, and a crapload of bonus material to boot. It spans about 14 discs and retails for just over $100 US, which you have to admit is pretty damn good. It is the most perfect collection you could ever buy. But what makes it truly great-

it comes in a fucking ape head, damn it.

Yes, this DVD collection fits snugly into the back of a bust of Caesar himself, complete with green shirt and combable hair (if you're so inclined). There is no better way complete the feng-shui of your living room than with a life-like ape's head.

If this were any other fandom, it would seem tacky, but there's something strangely dignified about it. Like having a big painting of Vincent Price in your living room or something.

80's Cartoon Marathon - musings

I am thinking sometime in the middle of august, for the saturday morning marathon. I'm currently looking for suggestions on location, as my apartment (and sadly, my TV) are probably too small.

The long weekend at the beginning of August is probably not a good idea (though I will be home- my budget didn't fair well enough this year to go to the reunion :( ) and the labour day weekend is just too damn late for my tastes, so I'm figuring second or third weekend. Anybody reading this, let me know how that works for you.

Ghostbusters

I accidently stumbled upon why the Ghostbusters cartoon was called The Real Ghostbusters.
Apparently, it's because of this monstrosity. Based on a 70's live action show, I'm guessing they registered the name first, leaving the other cartoon to be a little more inventive in the name department. Sad, really.

I'm guessing other people already knew this, but I found it kind of interesting. *shrugs*

Oh what a day it was last day

I made my first TV appearance.

Jay Ingrim showed up for our editing class, and we got to participate in a recording of "Jay's Journal" for Daily Planet/EXN. The one we just did will air on the Discovery Channel on Monday night, sometime between 7 and 8 ( I think that's what he said), and on CTV tuesday morning. It should be up on the website by that point- I'll be sure to post a link. We all played extras.

It was really fun! There was a couple of shots that we had to do over, and over, and over again, but it was still totally a blast. Jay is just as cool in person- he loves to explain that stuff and talk about it.

The JJ that we shot involves pantyhose. That's all I'll say for now.

Later we really got rolling on the Riverdale Share site, and next week we should be ready to go live with the new version.

And then we went out drinking at the Old Nick. It was really fun...some people get a lot wierder when they're drunk (possibly me), but that just made it more fun. We played Trivial Pursuit...well, sort of. As much as a bunch of drunk people can "play" Trivial Pursuit in a bar. There were a lot of lude hand gestures.

Technify the Old

First of all, I managed to find some drivers for my TV card, from the company website, since I can't find the disc that came with it. I don't get the program that it's supposed to run with it, but that's okay too since it's a generic card.

This time around, I actually have Windows Movie-Maker,(and a better computer) so I hooked up the VCR and gave some VHS capture a shot- it worked. I had to fool with the audio to get it to come through- I don't think the audio on the card is set right, so I used my sound card instead.

Anyway, when I get some more time I can capture all of my favourite home-movies to digital format and burn them to DVD. This also means that I could make little music videos and such.

In other news, my computer clock keeps losing time...it's very disconcerting.

Considering XP

I know, I know, I swore I would go purely Linux on my uber little machine, but with the number of drivers actually available for the hardware I have, it would be more efficient to use Windows (and I will not have wasted my money on that DVD-RAM drive or that TV card). To practice my Linux, I will do what Arthur did and just use Knoppix (Linux of the bootable CD variety) and maybe put Linux on my crappy little laptop as an alternative way to practice my command-line Linux skills (which are terrible right now, another reason why Linspire is not panning out for me). I also have some software that I am dying to use, but can't, because it's meant for Windows. I have all this damn stuff that's been given to me since I switched to Linux, and it's pissing me off.

Could be...so....uber....

Well, it was an interesting experiment, anyway. But I don't think I'm ready for it. I just don't have the computer skills to harness the power of open-source.

And I didn't accumulate much in the way of files, so burning those will be no problem.

This is purely a software thing, really. If I get Windows I'll be able to watch DVDs and TV on my computer again.

Woot.

Originality is too risky

This is from my Decima ICT Update that I get every week, dated November 16, 2004:

"Video games are artistic and deserve Canadian support: proponents
Mainframe sees better earnings

The creation of original intellectual property in video games development is critical to the industry’s success in Canada, and the government has an important role to play in nurturing firms creating titles outside the mainstream of licensing and sequels, attendees to the Montreal Games Summit in Montreal November 3 and 4 heard. In a session hosted by International Games Developer Association program director Jason Della Rocca, the audience was presented with the conundrum of modern-day games development - whether to pursue established Hollywood properties such as Harry Potter and other movie and TV titles, or work from scratch to develop original games. The answer, says Della Rocca, is that the industry relies on established properties to generate reliable profits for shareholders, but that the industry will stagnate without the creation of new titles. Further, he noted, original IP is the surest path to spectacular success as compared with less risky titles with lower potential upside. Della Rocca pointed to such titles as Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, SimCity, Myst and others as examples of how a new idea can take the game world by storm to create blockbuster success. But, he noted, games publishers are putting comparatively little investment into new IP. He cited statistics that Electronic Arts puts only 3% of its resources into original titles, Nintendo 12%, and Sega 5%. Yet, he says, most of the worst titles to hit the market - those poorly reviewed by gaming enthusiasts, have been based on Hollywood titles and other franchises. He pointed to unit sales and profits to show, however, that while franchise titles rarely reach the highest levels of sales, they are more consistently profitable, and present less business risk to the large, publicly-traded publishers. "

Decima Reports ICT Update, Monday Sept. 20, 2004

This is taken from the NewMedia section:
"Al Jazeera decision cited as precedent for further Internet regulationThe CRTC’s decision to grant Al Jazeera carriage in Canada but at the same time require TV distributors to ensure no derogatory comments are broadcast on the station could serve as the legal basis for holding ISPs accountable for illegal material transmitted through their lines. Mark Goldberg, a prominent telecom and broadcast consultant, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that he has been involved in early discussions around the formation of an industry self-regulatory body that would block access to sites hosting illegal content, with the threat that ISPs might be held liable for hate and kiddie porn crimes if they are made aware of illegal material and continue to allow subscribers to access it. Goldberg says the Al Jazeera ruling makes it clear that carriers can be held responsible for content, and hopes the principle will be applied to the interactive environment, as well."

What the hell? I support all efforts to rid the web of kiddy porn and hate-crime, but I still think it is completely unfair to try to hold ISPs responsible. It's one thing to monitor TV programming- it can be difficult, but compared to trying to censor every webpage on a single ISP....my god, I can't even imagine. Maybe my understanding of how the internet works isn't quite hitting the mark here or something....but it's fairly easy to make TV stations hold responsibility for their content. It's not as though it's going on under their noses or something. There's only 24 hours in a day after all, and some TV stations go off the air at night. That's a finite number of programming hours to be responsible for in a day. The hardest of those being anything filmed live (take, for instance, Don Cherry having to now work on a 'delay' due to his overactive enthusiasm). The internet is live. All the time. Stuff can go up and come down in a manner of hours, even minutes. When Gnutella first began it's reign, the main code or whatever was only online a few hours before it was torn down (this was in the wake of Napster's demise); but that was all it took. Tons of people downloaded it in that small amount of time. They go up, they come down. It's all in the control of the users, and what they want to use their space for. Every Average Joe just can't hook in to the TV station and broadcast what they want- there's a lot of decisions to be made in between.
So do they want the same level of control for the internet? Can only change content once a day or something? The way the net works, some pages are meant to be updated/changed multiple times a day, that's what they're for. That's what the medium is. Immediate information. Live information. That's why the internet is the internet, and TV is TV.
Is there a happy middle-ground? Maybe. Possibly. But holding the ISPs responsible for the actions of their customers just doesn't seem like the proper solution to the problems of the internet. At the very least, it doesn't seem very feasible at this point.

Ya, that rant probably sounded totally insane. But anyway.