Just to follow up on my earlier Rock Band 2 post, more info about the game has been released now that we’ve hit E3, including the 80+ song track list, which is composed entirely of master tracks. There’s something for everyone on there, but personally I’m looking forward to “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “The Middle,” “Spirit in the Sky,” “Bad Reputation,” and “American Woman.”

Also, confirming the earlier rumor, you will be able to import “most” of Rock Band’s on-disc tracks into Rock Band 2 for “under $5.”

Finally, if anybody is looking for a present for me, the new premium Rock Band drum kit would not go unappreciated. If, er, you have $300 lying around that you’re willing to blow. On a fake drum kit. For me. Cheers.

If you enjoyed the TV show Get Smart, don’t get your hopes up. The characters here lack any similar chemistry, the zaniness is usually an entirely different sort of zany, and you will just be as disappointed as I was. In some ways, I actually think that Austin Powers was a better spiritual successor to that series than this movie, which had a few chuckle-worthy moments (certainly more for others in the theater than for me, I suppose). Generally, though, I thought the jokes were dull and uninspired, and I found all the major characters—Max, Ninety-nine, even the Chief—generally gratingly foolish rather than lovably silly.

Alright, I’m now pretty sure Harmonix has a bug planted in my car. A couple weeks ago, Gen, Jason and I were having a lengthy conversation about what we’d like to see in Rock Band 2. As more and more details become public, it sounds like they basically took every suggestion we made in that discussion and incorporated it into the game. Here are the bullet points:

• Make Downloadable Content backwards compatible. Harmonix has said that all your existing DLC will be compatible with Rock Band 2 (I’m not sure, but that also suggests that anything you buy in Rock Band 2 will be compatible with Rock Band). No need to buy “More than a Feeling” twice. Phew.

• Battle of the Bands: Gen suggested a battle of the bands mode where you could assemble your own band and compete against other bands online. It seems Harmonix will hold regular battle of the band contests, though they don’t spell out how it works.

• Online World Tour: finally, thank god. This was the single biggest missing feature from Rock Band, so it ought to be at the top of the list. Online quickplay was fun, but lacked much of the charm of world tour mode. They’ve also tweaked the mechanics of world tour to allow you to switch instruments and kick players out of your band, which have been sorely needed.

• Import original Rock Band catalog: okay, so this isn’t confirmed, but it’s been rumored in a couple of different places. It would be great if you could somehow play the original songs in Rock Band 2. Some have suggested it will all be available as free DLC, while others say that there may be a way to transfer it from your disc to your hard drive. Either way: that would be killer.

Of course, that’s not all that Rock Band 2 is going to offer. They’ve also redesigned the guitar (hot) and drums, added mini-campaigns, a drum trainer program, and 80 new tracks, all of which are master recordings. This has quickly become my number one anticipated game of the year.

Now comes the tricky part: with redesigned drums and guitar, do I just buy the game, or do I buy an entirely new bundle? I’m still in need of a separate guitar, and the new drums are wireless in addition to being quieter and sturdier—how can I resist? And if I’m going to buy drums, game, and a new guitar, then it should be cheaper to just buy the new bundle.

Calling this a YA book is somewhat deceptive: yes, the protagonist is a teenage boy, but I suspect it’s mainly been targeted at young adults because author Cory Doctorow intends it as a call to arms for the next generation. Teenager Marcus Yallow is in the wrong place at the wrong time after a terrorist attack on San Francisco, and is detained by the Department of Homeland Security in a nightmare scenario that, while at times farfetched, is still scarily possible. Doctorow’s portrayal of DHS veers somewhat into the cartoonish (though, as I pointed out elsewhere, perhaps not that far off), and sometimes his agenda gets in the way of his writing, but overall this is an excellent book with a good point: at the end of the day, the government is meant to serve the people, not itself.

[This was originally posted at my tumblelog where I've started keeping track of all the books that I read, but I though it would be worth posting here too—of course, now I've created a feedback loop, since a link to this post will show up there. I'll try reversing the polarity...]

I really enjoyed this movie. The sheer absurdity of its action sequences reminded me of Equilibrium and Shoot ‘Em Up (in a good way), but it actually has a better story than either of those. It was pretty straightforward as a “lovable loser becomes kickass” summer action flick, but had just enough new material to make it feel new and worth watching. It’s a little longer than it needs to be, maybe, but I didn’t mind. Basically, if you think you’d like seeing a movie where people shoot bullets that curve mid-flight from moving subway cars, check it out.

People responded a little too favorably to flipsiding for it to be very useful as an alternative to Rickrolling. I mean, heck, I knew I adored the Kidd Video theme song (“Video to Radio,” now the #1 Google result for “flipsiding”), but how could I have known that you lovable denizens of the intertron agreed with me?

And heck, even Rickrolling seems a little too good-natured to work as a prank, as far as I’m concerned. It’s like sending someone a postcard that’s secretly a candygram. In the tradition of pranks and jokes I grew up with, however, you send a candygram filled with black ink or electric eels. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down? Enough of this touchy-feely BS.

Thus, in an attempt to effect more mischief, I have uploaded to YouTube the most heinous music video I have ever witnessed in my entire life. When I confronted this … this … thing with my comrades, I was overtaken by a sudden sense of illness. Dan was forced to shield his eyes. I think Tony blacked out the memory of the experience entirely. Its evil is so thick and viscous that I dare not even allow its name to ooze from my mouth. Let’s just say that witnessing this Lovecraftian spectacle, in a darkened room surrounded by parents and their innocent babes, made me fear the prospect of ever bringing a son or daughter of my own into a world where such a thing could be created.

Use this with extreme caution, and may God have mercy on my soul.

My colleagues have already shared their thoughts and opinions so I’ll avoid direct comparison to the 2003 version.

The Incredible Hulk is a fine summer movie in that it has some nice action sequences, a decent story, but it is generally pretty generic and not particularly memorable. Edward Norton does a nice job as Bruce Banner, but I feel like putting him in a summer super hero movie is kind of a waste of his talents. The actions and chases scenes work ok for your standard summer action movie, though I thought the chase scenes with Bruce Banner were more interesting than watching CGI Hulk smashing things. I appreciated that they heavily condensed the origin story but they still chose to include a variety of scenes that feel awkward: Michael K. William’s (The Wire) has a cameo so brief I’m not really sure why it was included. Stan Lee’s appearance is distracting and I’m starting to get tired of the requirement that he appear in all of the Marvel movies especially in that it no longer seems enough to leave him in the background of a crowd shot. Robert Downey Jr. makes a brief appearance as Tony Stark that I think would have been better placed after the credits as the current location of the scene feels awkward at best.

Unfortunately I’m just not as interested in the Hulk as I am in say Batman or Spiderman. I thought Iron Man really worked well in that I had no prior interest in Iron Man but was inspired to seek out the comics after seeing the movie. (Note that Jeremy has told me there isn’t any great collection of Iron Man comics he can recommend and the new Ultimate Iron Man is somewhat disappointing. Spoiler: They made Ultimate Iron Man a mutant.)

In short, the Incredible Hulk is an ok movie but I could have just as soon waited to see it on DVD.

I’m not a fan of Christopher Hitchens, who is a supporter of disastrous American foreign military policy, and a divisive and intolerant ass in matters of religion and organized atheism. But I have to give him props: When he implied that waterboarding is not torture, and critics suggested he try it, he took them up on it—and changed his tune pretty quickly. Too bad our politicians don’t have the guts to do what a writer volunteered for. (I’ll leave it to you whether that refers to the “simulated” drowning or just admitting a mistake.)

Update: A video of Hitchens’s waterboarding, and the whole article in Vanity Fair.

The New York Times reports that Costco and Wal-Mart are ready to start carrying a newly redesigned gallon of milk. They seem pretty awesome, except not. Here, let’s quote a bit:

The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.…

But if the milk jug is any indication, some of the changes will take getting used to on the part of consumers. Many spill milk when first using the new jugs.

“When we brought in the new milk, we were asking for feedback,” said Heather Mayo, vice president for merchandising at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart. “And they’re saying, ‘Why’s it in a square jug? Why’s it different? I want the same milk. What happened to my old milk?’ ”

I suspect that different people will have different opinions about what the problem is here. Some—like the those behind these milk jugs—are saying that people are just too stubborn and need to learn to change with the times. Others—like those who dislike spilling milk, cleaning milk, or having to pour milk for children who can’t lift the redesigned jug—might contend that the problem here is that you ask for feedback before you design the damn jug.

I think it’s great that designers have begun taking things like environmentalism into consideration. But I also think that, at its heart, all product design is fundamentally about the creation of interfaces (according to people who are way smarter than I am). Making a milk jug which saves costs and materials is great—but if it doesn’t function as something people can recognize and use, well, then it’s a failure.

Mind you, this doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. Maybe you remember the new prescription bottle designed by a grad student at the School of Visual Arts. The thing is brilliant: more usable and more environmentally friendly. (Shame on the FDA for ignoring the thing, and kudos to Target for realizing what a step forward it is.)

Whereas the starting point for the redesign of this milk bottle was likely an economic concern, the pill bottle started with a human concern. Namely, the designer’s grandmother took the wrong medication because all prescription bottles tend to look the same, and usually highlight pharmacy branding and other inessential material over more crucial info (like, say, the actual name of the drug, or who the drug is for). The designer went through a number of different versions to see what would work for elderly people and users with sight issues, and ended up with something simple and more efficient.

Will it be worth teaching people the special trick to pour the new milk bottle? Maybe , in the long run, it will. But what would be smarter would be to get a group of people together to represent the interests of the average milk drinker (and pourer) during the design process to make sure that an important group of stake holders is represented. When people start crying over spilled milk, a good designer doesn’t admonish them for it; we go back to the drawing board.

An absolute gem of a movie, with sterling performances from Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Rufus Sewell. Jessica Biel is adequate as Norton’s paramour, but it is truly the gentlemen in this movie who absolute disappear into their roles. Watching Norton afterwards in the “making of” featurette, I was struck once again by what a consummate actor he is—I ceased to think about him as Edward Norton while I watched the movie, which is the highest praise I can offer a performer. The plot revolves around a marvelous magician in 19th century Vienna, his relationship with a duchess (who’s also involved with the crown prince), and the detective who attempts to uncover his secrets—to say any more would be to reveal the secrets of the movie itself. I think there’s much to be said about narrative in this movie, and how storytelling is itself a magic trick—or an illusion. This film occasioned many comparisons to The Prestige, which also dealt with 19th century magicians and came out at the same time. While I haven’t seen it yet (though I have read the book), I intend to in the near future.