Remotes Are Nice

I had a pretty fun Saturday night so it's weird that my Sunday night has been so averse. The main reason this night was not good to me is because my phone has gone from bad to worse. It works, but the screen doesn't. Hence, unless a Sprint store can help me out I've lost all my numbers. Please pray for my Samsung A460! If it eats my numbers I will murder it gruesomely. The title of this post probably sounds dumb, but I just had two articles about remotes that I thought were neat. The first is a technology that allows you to control a human being via a remote controller through wiring in ones vestibular system. It's exhilirating and scary at the same time. It could be used to enhance the experience of playing video games, but it couldn't it also be used to control a person in bad ways? Interpret that as you may. The other thing is the idea of using clickers in college classrooms to poll or quiz students in large classes. It could greatly help the instructor get an idea on progress in certain areas and spurn discussion, but the price is an issue for students. Still it's a pretty neat idea and I think that within 10 years from now it'll become pretty big.



The other tech news today isn't too bad. A company in Colorado has invented glow-in-the-dark lightbulbs to provide light even in power outages. It's a real neat idea, though it does sound like an oxymoron. Cnet is running an article on the top 10 flops from the dot-com boom, and it really does bring back some memories. The FCC has decided to expand the CALEA from forcing phone providers to allow wire-tapping on phones to forcing broadband providers to allow for insecure backdoors to their customers. The point of this is to give the FBI more power, but it's really taking things too far and I agree with the EFF's stance against it. Lastly, the New York Times has a pretty extensive article on hackers using their skills to essentially extort cash from companies. They threaten to rip up operations if a large sum of money isn't paid to them, and I can't emphasize enough how disgusting I think it is to get money so dishonestly using what one has learned from others in good faith.

The movie news isn't too bad this weekend. The Dukes of Hazzard ended up dominating the box office with a weak $30 million gross. I guess it was no surprise that it would go to the top given how well the publicity machine has been working, but I'm more surprised that March of the Penguins rose to 7th and I actually want to see it. While Batman Begins has fallen off the chart, the buzz regarding the sequel continues and it seems as though the rumor regarding the possibility of Steve Carrell being the Joker is false. I guess the role wouldn't fit him, but I just think he's hilarious and a great actor. The writer of the first movie, David Goyer, claims that The Flash will be his last comic book adaptation, but I suspect that Christopher Nolan could twist his arm into another Batman movie. All I have left is some multimedia. There's a trailer up for the next Elijah Wood movie, Everything is Illuminated, and it looks like it could be pretty good though the trailer didn't really depict that very well. IGN has a clip from The Transporter 2 for all you action freaks out there. There's also a new trailer for Tom Yum Goong that sounds pretty awesome but was down at the time of this posting. I suspect that it will be back soon.



Before I get to the meme I have to mention my regret for the death of Peter Jennings. It was just announced minutes ago, and it's sad to lose such a great journalist. He lost the fight to lung cancer, but I think he'll be a legendary news anchor nonetheless.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Complexion::Skin
   
2. Teach::Learn
   
3. Back to school::August
   
4. Months::Time
   
5. Nominate::Candidate
   
6. Favorite curse word::The F Word
   
7. Concerned::Scared
   
8. Better::Healthy
   
9. Escalate::Brinkmanship
   
10. Unveil::Reveal