Favorite Movies of 2011

Note that I said favorite, not best. These are the movies that I enjoyed the most, not necessarily the best “films” of 2011. That said, enjoy. 

1. Hugo - Easily the best movie about movies I’ve seen in years. While that might sound a bit meta, Hugo is Martin Scorsese’s love letter to the movies. I went in to the movie blind, not knowing only that the movie took a hard left turn halfway through the movie. I won’t spoil it for you here, but suffice it to say that you will leave Hugo with a smile on your face.
2. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - Doing a parody of horror films is extremely hard. It’s easy to come up with a premise, but sustaining it can be a bit of a challenge. I mean, how many ways can there be for stupid college kids in the woods to accidentally kill themselves? A lot, as it turns out.
3. Hanna - Not only does this movie have an amazing score, it has some of the best performances of the year. Eric Bana, Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett all turn in impressive performances. Joe Wright’s direction is understated and haunting.
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Making a talking ape seem scary instead of laughable is this film’s most impressive feat.
5. Bridesmaids - A female-lead comedy where one of the characters shits in the middle of the street. That is all.

Bands I'd Love to See Live

I had a discussion with a friend recently where we talked about which bands we wanted to see live. We both made two lists, one for bands that we could actually see and one for bands that we can’t see live (i.e., most of the band is dead or they’ve broken up/retired).

Bands I’d love to see live that I can actually see:

1. The Presidents of the United States of America
2. The Who
3. MC5
4. UFO

Bands I’d love to see but can’t for one reason or another: 

1. Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio)
2. Creedence Clearwater Revival
3. Rainbow (again, with Dio)
4. 3rd Bass
5. Deep Purple (the original, Mach 1 lineup)
6. The Blues Brothers
7. Howlin’ Wolf
8. Billy Joel (specifically, 70s coked out Piano Man-era Billy Joel)

Laugh Track: Sam Kinison - Fire and Brimstone

Many people have said that Sam Kinison saw himself as a prophet, which seems like an apt description considering that he was once a preacher. His parents were preachers, so it was only natural that their son follow in their footsteps and become a preacher too.

How did he transform himself from a Pentecostal preacher into one of the most hardcore comedians of all time? Well, if you think about it, preaching and stand up aren't too far from each other. They both involve standing up in front of a crowd and entertaining them. Kinison used his father's fire and brimstone preaching style as a template for his stand up. Recordings of some of his sermons reveal that even as a preacher, he would shout at the audience and get them riled up and excited. The best way to describe Kinison's stand up would be to call it confrontational, but that doesn't quite cover it. He would literally assault his audience.

Although he started performing stand up in Texas in the late 1970s, it wasn't until Rodney Dangerfield discovered him and featured him on his Young Comedians special that his career finally took off. The special aired in the summer of 1984 on HBO and it was the first taste that most people got of Sam Kinison. When Rodney Dangerfield introduced him he told the audience, "Brace yourselves. I'm not kidding. Please welcome Sam Kinison." Also featured in the same special were Bob Sagat and Maurice LaMarche (who would go on to a successful voice over career, including voicing Brian on the television show Pinky and the Brain).



Kinison's profile continued to rise after a series of successful appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The Howard Stern Show. Kinison would frequently call in to The Howard Stern Show and embarrass other comedians or whoever happened to be on the show that day. In 1986, he hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared a number of films, including Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield.

Besides his stand up, Kinison was known for his addiction to both drugs and alcohol, which both fueled the legend of his rock and roll persona and brought about his early demise. In 1992, Kinison was driving his car when he was struck and killed by a drunk driver. When they performed an autopsy on him, they found cocaine and painkillers in his blood.







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"In another time and place he would have been called prophet."

-- Epitaph on Sam Kinison's tombstone

Date of Birth/Age: December 8, 1953

Date of Death: April 10, 1992 (38 years old)

Years Active: 1978 - 1992

Notable Associates:

• Howard Stern


• Rodney Dangerfield

Style:

1. Insult Comic


2. Confrontational

If you like these comedians, you'll like Sam Kinison:

1. Richard Pryor


2. Lenny Bruce


3. Joe Rogan


4. Roseanne

Know of a funny comedian that should be featured in Laugh Tracks? Please let us know.

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Review: HD HomeRun Prime TV Tuner - Watch Live TV on Your Computer

Watching television on your computer can be a pain in the ass. When we say television, we don’t mean going to Hulu and watching a show streaming. We mean watching actual, live television. Microsoft has made great strides in this area with their Windows Media Center software.

In short, Windows Media Center is a program that allows you to watch live television on your computer if you have a tuner installed in your computer. Microsoft originally shipped the product in 2002 as a special version of Windows XP that was only available on computers that came with it preinstalled. Starting with Windows Vista, it came as part of the operating system, meaning that anyone with Windows Vista or 7 just has to plug in a television tuner and they can watch live television. The problem is that if you want to watch television on the computer, it must be near the cable jack. What if you want to watch television on your laptop? It’s a big problem with these types of cards.



A surprisingly large number of desktop computers come with basic television tuners included in them (most $600 computers at Best Buy include them). People just don’t know about them. The problem with these tuners is that they can only capture basic channels like ABC and CBS. Some can capture cable channels (think AMC and FX), but they are rarely in HD. The reason for that is that cable providers encrypt most HD broadcasts and pay channels like HBO so that people can’t just record an HD copy of a show and upload it to BitTorrent (obviously, they haven’t quite succeeded). That’s where CableCard comes in.

CableCard is a special little device that is about the size of a credit card provided by the cable company. It plugs into specially designed tuners and allows you to access all of the premium and HD channels that are encrypted. Think of it as a middle man between the cable company and your device.

So...what the hell does all this mean for you? Well, it means that watching premium channels on anything that isn’t a cable company approved tuner (such as a DVR) needs one of these cards. The problem is that tuners that are compatible with computers were almost non-existent until recently and if you could get a hold of one, it was usually preinstalled on a custom-designed machine that was certified by the cable company as compatible with CableCards.

The HD HomeRum Prime, made by veteran tuner manufacturer SiliconDust, aims to fix both these problems. First, it is compatible with CableCards and second, it works over your home network. The way it works is this: you connect it to your wireless router and then attach a coaxial cable from the wall. After that, any computer that is on your home network can access the tuner and watch or record television.

Setting up the HD HomeRun Prime is a mess, but it’s not SiliconDust’s fault. It’s the cable company’s issues. In order to set up a CableCard device, a cable company technician must come to your house and install it. It took two different visits from Comcast and five hours of work before our tuner was up and running.

Any computer that is on your home network can access the tuner and watch or record television.

Once it was up and running, however, it worked like a dream. We were able to stream HBO HD to our laptop without any problems or stuttering. Granted, we were using a 5GHz wireless N network, which is as fast as you can get. People using an older wireless network might have issues, but perhaps they aren't the prime audience for this product in the first place.

Recording a program was easy as well. Since the HD HomeRun Prime includes two tuners, you can record one program while watching another (or record two programs while watching a third, already recorded program). The only downside is that your computer must be turned on in order to record a program. That means you have to leave it on over night if you want to record a program at 3 AM.

After using the HD HomeRun Prime for a few days, we forgot it was even there. That’s the highest compliment you can pay a piece of technology like this. It is supposed to be invisible. You shouldn't have to worry if it will record your program for you; it should just work. The HD HomeRun Prime succeeds at this. In our testing, there wasn’t a single missed recording.

Set up is a hassle, but if you aren’t a fan of your cable company’s DVR and want something that is a bit more elegant and customizable, the HD HomeRun Prime is worth the money.

RATING: 4/5

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You can get the HD HomeRun Prime from Silicon Dust for $249.99.

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Weekly Knowledge Dump: Tech News for 10.21.11

The Weekly Knowledge Dump is the weekly tech column that gives you the biggest news in the tech world for the past week, plus a guide to all of the interesting but non-news stories from the past week. It's like backing up a dump truck of knowledge to your brain.

Hulu Plus is Coming to the 3DS and Wii

One of the biggest disadvantages of Nintendo's products has been that they were always focused on gaming. Nintendo has always felt that gaming consoles should be just that- gaming consoles. They seem to have realized that consoles and handhelds are becoming the media hubs of many households. It started with the addition of Netflix to the Wii and the 3DS and Nintendo looks to be expanding their list of partners, announcing this week that they will be adding Hulu Plus streaming to both the Wii and the 3DS.

Would You Like to Know More?

Google Announces Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4, the version that will unite the tablet and phone interfaces of Android, was announced this past week. It will offer a slew of new features to future Android phones, including face unlock (which allows you to unlock your phone using facial recognition), an all new voice recognition engine and a new multitasking app switcher. Odds that any current phone will get this new dessert? Slim to none.

Would You Like to Know More?

The iPhone 4S Supports GLONASS

You're probably asking yourself what the heck GLONASS is. Well, it's the Russian version of GPS. GLONASS stands for Global Navigation Satellite System and works in much the same manner as GPS does, using three satellites to triangulate your position. In many parts of the world GLONASS is more accurate, especially in more northern regions of the world. This is good news for those that live in areas like Greenland and Russia.

Would You Like to Know More?

RIM Announces Next Generation BlackBerry Operating System BBX

If an operating system falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it- does it make a sound? That's the problem facing RIM at the moment. They announced their newest operating system, which is supposed to work on both phones and tablets. But with BlackBerry bleeding both money and users over the past few years, it had better bring something amazing to the table...

Would You Like to Know More?

Bonus: Interesting Dispatches from the Past Week

Here is a small selection of interesting articles that aren't really news, but are still worth reading anyway:

• OCZ's Octane SSD: Indilinx Everest, Up to 1TB in a Consumer Drive by Anand Lal Shimpi (AnandTech)


• Why Computer Voices Are Mostly Female by Brandon Griggs (CNN)

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Laugh Track: Henry Rollins – From Music to Spoken

Chances are, if you know the name Henry Rollins, it's from his time in Black Flag. Or maybe you know him from The Rollins Band? While he's primarily known as a musician, Henry Rollins is also an accomplished speaker.

If you have ever seen any of Kevin Smith's An Evening With Kevin Smith documentaries, then you should have a good idea of  what Henry Rollins speaking tours are like. Except there is more yelling. A lot more. He yells almost as much as Sam Kinison did. It's hard to call him a stand up comedian, because he doesn't really tell jokes, he just tells stories. It's just Henry Rollins on stage talking, telling stories.



But the stories that he tells are fascinating. Some of these stories are funny (like his meeting of William Shatner), some heart warming (his meeting of Spina Bifida Boy) and some absolutely gut wrenching (an account of his best friend's murder). You can tell that he enjoys speaking; his passion comes through in his show. No matter what he is talking about, he manages to draw you in and make you feel as if he is talking to you...if you can get through the yelling. A lot of people are put off by the yelling, but he isn't yelling just to yell. He's yelling because he cares about what he is talking about.

One of the things Rollins is known for are his his lengthy shows. A typical show lasts around three hours. That's more than three times as long as most comedians talk for. I can personally attest to this fact; when I saw him perform in 2008, his show went on for three hours...and then he stayed around for another two hours talking to the small group of people who stayed after the show.



Since he started doing his spoken word tours in the late 1980s, he has released over fifteen albums. He has also released ten concert films of his spoken word tours.

He might not be a comedian, but he is one of the funniest people to get on a stage.







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"All this mindless blather comes out of me like shit from a goose. I'm like your old boring uncle at a party who just never leaves."

-- Henry Rollins

Date of Birth/Age: February 15, 1961 (50 years old)


Years Active: Early 1980s - Present

Notable Associates:

• Black Flag


• The Rollins Band


• State of Alert

Style:

1. Ranting


2. Raving


3. Political

If you like these comedians, you'll like Henry Rollins:

1. Bill Hicks


2. George Carlin


3. Sam Kinison


4. Kevin Smith (sigh)

Know of a funny comedian that should be featured in Laugh Tracks? Please let us know.

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Weekly Knowledge Dump: Tech News for 10.14.11

The Weekly Knowledge Dump is the weekly tech column that gives you the biggest news in the tech world for the past week, plus a guide to all of the interesting but non-news stories from the past week. It's like backing up a dump truck of knowledge to your brain.

iPhone 4S Sales Begin

This morning, retailers around the world started selling the iPhone 4S. Apple's flagship New York City stores had lines that stretched around the block. There were also lines at Best Buy, AT&T and Verizon stores across the country. The only store that seems to have been spared long lines is Sprint. That might be because Sprint customers wanted to make sure that they their hands on the iPhone 4S on launch day, so they pre-ordered theirs.

Would You Like to Know More?

Over 1,000,000 Pre-Orders for the iPhone 4S

Last week, customers could start to pre-order their iPhone 4S  to ensure that they would get one on launch day. According to a press release from Apple, they took in over 1,000,000 pre-orders in the first 24 hours. That's nearly double the total amount of pre-orders for the iPhone 4 back in 2010. Take a look at the video above and you'll see just how woefully out of touch with consumers most tech journalists are.

Would You Like to Know More?

Google Kills Off a Bunch of Services in "Fall Sweep"

In a blog post entitled "Fall Sweep", Google announced that they were killing off a number of services, including Code Search and the University Research Program for Search. Both of these programs were meant to serve rather small audiences, but those that use them will still be upset about their phasing out. More importantly, Google announced that they were killing both Buzz and the social features of iGoogle. iGoogle proper will still remain, but the social features will no longer function. Google said the killing off of Buzz was natural, since they wanted people to share things via Google+ from now on.

Would You Like to Know More?

Roku Adding HBO Go Streaming to All of Its Boxes

Roku, the maker of numerous streaming devices, has announced that they will be adding HBO Go to all of their set-top boxes next month. This is great news for people who have HBO, but don't have access to on demand channels (such as people who own TiVos). This is the first TV-connected device to get HBO Go, but it isn't the only one. Microsoft announced that their Fall 2011 update for Xbox Live will include an HBO Go app as well.

Would You Like to Know More?

Bonus: Interesting Dispatches from the Past Week

Here is a small selection of interesting articles that aren't really news, but are still worth reading anyway:

• Cleaning by Marco Arment (Marco.org)

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Laugh Track: Steve Martin's Stand Up Years

Steve Martin was the king of the world in 1981 when he became the first (and at that point, only) comedian to have a stand up album that went Platinum. He was treated like a rock star. But then he stopped. He just walked away from it all and decided not to do stand up anymore.

Martin started performing in the mid 60s, but he didn't catch a break until his girlfriend at the time showed his work to Mason Williams in 1967. At the time, Williams was the head writer for The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour. Williams saw something in Martin and hired him to become a writer for the show. He stayed with the show until it was canceled two years later. During that time, he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Writing.

The show was a massive hit, but since Martin was mostly behind the scenes, he hadn't become a household name yet. That started to change with his 1969 appearance on The Steve Allen Show, where he performed his stand up act on television for the first time. This was the first taste that America got of the absurd brand of comedy that Martin became known for.



After The Smothers Brother's Comedy Hour was canceled, he moved on to writing for several other successful shows, including The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour.

Around this time, he also started to perform at a small club called The Boarding House in San Francisco. His unique mix of stand up comedy and banjo music hit at just the right time. He was at the intersection of the California folk music scene of the 1960s and the comedy scene of the early 1970s, and his act started to grow in popularity. As he drew in more crowds, he was offered a chance to host a new hit series on NBC: Saturday Night Live. Over the next 30-plus years, Martin would host SNL 13 times, making him one of the people to host the show the most. (The only person to appear as a host more times is Alec Baldwin).

His fame continued to grow, and in 1977 he released his first stand up album. Let's Get Small went on to become a national phenomenon, sparking the catch phrase "Well, excuse me!" The album went platinum, selling over one million copies and winning Best Comedy Album at the Grammys. Over the next two years, he released two more comedy albums, A Wild and Crazy Guy and Comedy is Not Pretty. While both were successful, Comedy is Not Pretty was the only one of Martin's stand up albums to not be certified as Platinum. It did, however, manage to sell over 500,000 copies. A Wild and Crazy Guy won Martin his second Grammy in as many years.

The same year as Comedy is Not Pretty was released, Martin's first starring role in The Jerk. It served as a showcase for Martin's bizarre and out-there sense of humor and managed to strike a chord with audiences. The film, directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner, was successful enough to shift Martin's focus away from stand up and toward writing and acting. To this day, The Jerk is often listed as one of the funniest movies of all time.

Yet Steve Martin hasn't performed stand up since 1981. Let's take a look back:







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"Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute"

-- Steve Martin

Date of Birth/Age: August 14, 1945 (66 years old)

Years Active: Mid 1960s - Present

Notable Associates:

• Dan Aykroyd


• Carl Reiner

Style:

1. Musical Comedy


2. Existential


3. Absurdist

If you like these comedians, you'll like Steve Martin:

1. Martin Short


2. Dan Aykroyd

Know of a funny comedian that should be featured in Laugh Tracks? Please let us know.

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Weekly Knowledge Dump: Tech News for 10.7.11

The Weekly Knowledge Dump is the weekly tech column that gives you the biggest news in the tech world for the past week, plus a guide to all of the interesting but non-news stories from the past week. It's like backing up a dump truck of knowledge to your brain.

Steve Jobs Passes Away

The co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, died at his house this Wednesday afternoon. All over the globe, there was an outpouring of condolences for his family and friends, including on the homepages of Google and Microsoft. Apple's homepage was changed to an image of Steve Jobs with the text "1955-2011". Probably the classiest tribute came from Wired.com, who's site was changed to all black for the day and filled with quotes from people remembering Steve Jobs. He was 56.

Would You Like to Know More?

Samsung and Google Postpone Galaxy Nexus Launch

Google was all set to announce their latest flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus. The reason isn't clear, but there are rumors circulating that Google and Samung (who manufactured the phone) were having trouble getting journalists to come to their announcement. The trouble is probably due to the fact that the announcement was supposed to take place at CTIA, which is an enterprise-focused conference. The event was also supposed to be the unvieling of Google's newest version of Android, to be called Ice Cream Sandwich.

Would You Like to Know More?

iPhone 4S Orders Bring Down The Websites of Apple, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

The iPhone 4S was supposed to become available for pre-order at 3:01 AM EST this morning. Except that it didn't. The Apple website was so swamped with people trying to pre-order the phone that they could not even get their store back online to start pre-orders until around 3:45 AM. AT&T's website, on the other hand didn't start accepting orders until around 4:15 AM. The Sprint and Verizon sites fared a bit better– managing to start taking orders around 3:30 AM, but by around 3:45 AM, people were reporting that the sites were only working intermittently. Twitter was full of angry comments from people who were frustrated with their inability to order the phone. Remember guys, it's just a phone.

Would You Like to Know More?

Microsoft Kills the Zune HD...No Wait, It's Still Alive.

Some day, Microsoft will actually kill the Zune HD. It wasn't this week though. Early this week, Microsoft announced that they were going to stop selling the Zune HD after the current stock is sold through. They removed the device from the Zune online store and posted a note on the support site announcing the end of support for the Zune HD. Then, the next day, Microsoft's Zune Support Twitter account sent out a message saying that the Zune HD wasn't being discontinued. So things look uncertain for the Zune HD hardware, but Microsoft has made it clear that the Zune name will live on as part of Xbox Live and Windows Phone 7.

Would You Like to Know More?

Bonus: Interesting Dispatches from the Past Week

Here is a small selection of interesting articles that aren't really news, but are still worth reading anyway:

• Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot by John Gruber (Daring Fireball)


• By Any Other Name by Marco Arment (Marco.org)


• Review: The 2011 $79 Kindle with Ads and Buttons by Marco Arment (Marco.org)

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Style Notes: Headblade For the Bald and Brave

The Headblade makes stylized razors that are specifically designed to make shaving your head as comfortable as possible -- the razor is kind of like a toy car that rolls over your scalp as you shave! They offer a wide range of products including kits and gift sets. Headblade's razors are used by people the world over, especially MMA fighters (there must be some rule that says they all have to be bald, as we've never seen one of them with a full head of hair).

A product like this that gives guys the ability shave their own heads, is certainly convenient. It also begs creativity. With no supervision, your buddy doesn't have you available to tell him that he probably shouldn't shave that lightning bolt into his temples...

Some people just shouldn't be allowed near a razor, since they clearly don't know what they are doing. With that in mind, we present a few of the craziest haircuts we could come across. Prepare to revel in other people's poor life choices.

The Reverse Cop Mustache

Imagine getting pulled over by a cop that had this on the back of his head. It sounds like a scene out of Super Troopers. It's not some weird Voldemort thing, but rather it's a ridiculous haircut that someone thought would be a good idea after a drunken night of partying.

There is a man somewhere in this world walking around with a pair of cop glasses and mustache shaved into the back of his head. The thing that is more disturbing is that he posed for a professional photograph... in a turtleneck.

The Crispin Glover

Cripsin Glover is probably one of the creepiest actors you'll ever come across. While he is best known for paying George McFly in Back to the Future, he has been in many other movies. The creepiest is by far Willard, where he plays the titular character, as a man obsessed with rats.

This haircut is what would happen if you took Crispin Glover's Willard hair and ran a razor right through the middle and then shaved the sides off. Think of it as a reverse mohawk with a dash of creepy thrown in the mix for good measure. It also doesn't help that this guy looks oddly like Sam Worthington. The worst part is that the shave lines aren't even symmetrical. If you're going to make yourself look like an ass, at least shave the middle instead of slightly off center.

Going Green

Spotted at some sort of outdoor concert, this haircut is an odd mix of flower-power era hippie and punk rock that Al Gore would love. The biggest question that jumps into our mind when we see this haircut is "Why?" Some of life's mysteries will never be explained.

Also, does he have to change his flowers out every few days? That seems like it would be a pain in the ass.

The Caesar Crown

This man obviously has a drinking problem. How else do you explain this haircut? Or maybe he is really into that whole college fraternity thing.

Julius Caesar used to walk around with a crown made of olive leaves. Perhaps that's what this frat boy is going for. Better yet, it could be some sort of initiation thing. Imagine a whole frat house of guys walking around with this ridiculous haircut. Imagine them trying to explain this ridiculous haircut to their parents...

Where to buy:

If you need to exorcise some frat boy demons, or really just want to get together with some buddies for some beers and ridiculous fun, the Headblade makes it easy. They seem to have thought of everything you might need to care for your dome as well, including sunscreen and all of the "lube" you need to get that scalp slicked up and ready for the razor.

They also composed some head shaving rock and roll. Um... whoa:

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