017 - Ten Bad Tech Ads

017 - Ten Bad Tech Ads
The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Geek - Ten Bad Tech Ads: The tech industry has a rich and hilarious history of being unable to promote itself as anything other than unutterably dorky. Originally I was going to call this 'The top ten worst tech ads', but as I hunted around and discovered these are pure gold. They are shockingly bad, but you'll derive so much pleasure from watching them it didn't seem right to use 'worst' anymore. Anyway, I've collected ten of my favorites -- in no particular order -- that made my laugh, either because they feature lyrics, awful singing, pathetic old technology, Steve Ballmer or some combination of all of the above. To watch videos I played tonight go to - http://thescifigeek.blogspot.com Promos played: Remember The 80s, Geek By Night, and Treks in Sci-Fi

Ark of Truth Soundtrack

FreeClyde Music announced a limited release of the soundtrack to Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the straight-to-DVD movie based on SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, featuring music by the show's longtime composer Joel Goldsmith. The CD drops on April 18, but can be pre-ordered online.
The CD features music recorded live with the Seattle Northwest Sinfonia and includes a 16-page full-color booklet with articles by Ark of Truth writer/director Robert C. Cooper, executive producer Brad Wright and Goldsmith. The CD will also feature original artwork by the FreeClyde team and photography from the film.
The first 100 pre-orders will be signed by the composer. The CD can be purchased at Goldsmith's official Web site.

Sci-Fi TV on NBC

NBC unveiled a 2008-'09 television schedule that's dominated by new and returning SF, fantasy and horror programming, including a series revival of Knight Rider and a new anthology series called Fear Itself, as well as the renewal of Medium, whose fate had been in question.
The announcements came at the network's "infront" (the new nickname for upfronts) presentation to advertisers in New York on April 2.
The shows and miniseries will be part of the network's ambitious 52-week program strategy and will premiere anytime between this May and summer 2009.
The new series include Kings, Fear Itself and Knight Rider, all of which had been expected to make the schedule, as well as the surprise entries My Own Worst Enemy and The Listener.
Waiting in the wings is Merlin. Also on the way is The Last Templar, a Da Vinci Code-esque miniseries.
Returning shows include Chuck and Heroes, which had previously been announced and which will premiere in September, and Medium, which was reportedly on the bubble but will return next winter for a fifth season.
Speaking of the NBC slate in his presentation, Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, said, "There is a ton of noise out there. There is a cacophony of crap. Even the sports pages are filled with scandal. We need to break through and deliver eternal themes and heroic themes and entertaining themes and escapist themes. We're going to give you real heroes and superheroes, and we're going to engage you with our content in a dramatic, emotional way."
Debuting on May 29:
Fear Itself. The show, a horror anthology series from the makers of Masters of Horror, will feature such stars as John Billingsley and Shiri Appleby and showcase the talents of directors including Brad Anderson, Mary Harron, Ernest Dickerson, Ronny Yu, John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon.
Shows on the fall 2008-'09 schedule:
Chuck, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Heroes, airing Mondays at 9 p.m.
My Own Worst Enemy, airing Mondays at 10 p.m. Christian Slater makes his television series debut as Henry Spivey, an efficiency expert and married father of two who learns that he has an alter ego named Edward Albright, an operative who speaks numerous languages and can kill with his teeth. The network is touting it as "Jekyll and Hyde meets Jason Bourne." Heroes veteran David Semel directed the pilot and will stay on as executive producer.
Knight Rider, airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. NBC scored a hit with a two-hour backdoor pilot movie that aired in February, and the series picks up where the movie left off. K.I.T.T., the supercar with a mind of its own, returns, as do stars Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Bruce Davison.
Shows debuting in winter 2009:
Merlin, airing Sundays at 8 p.m. A fantasy series set in Camelot but inspired by 21st-century storytelling, Merlin stars Colin Morgan (Doctor Who) as the title character and Bradley James as Arthur, and it explores the characters' lives before they became legends. Co-stars include Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Richard Wilson and Angel Coulby.
Kings, airing Sundays at 10. A modern-day spin on the King David tale, the show stars Christopher Egan as David and Ian McShane as the king. Michael Green (Heroes) penned the pilot and will executive-produce. I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence directed the pilot and will executive-produce the series as well.
Series debuting in summer 2009:
The Listener, airing Thursdays at 10 p.m. Toby Logan (Craig Olejinik of Thirteen Ghosts) is a 24-year-old paramedic and telepath who's always ignored his ability to hear people's thoughts ... until now. Having changed his mind, he uses his unique gift to help others.
Miniseries debuting in 2009:
The Last Templar. In this four-hour miniseries, four horsemen dressed as knights crash the New York Metropolitan Museum during the opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and swipe an arcane medieval decoder, thereby sending an archaeologist (Mira Sorvino) and an FBI agent (Scott Foley) on a wild chase for the secrets of the Knights Templar. Co-stars include Victor Garber and Omar Sharif.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs on DVD

Fox will release "Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs" on DVD this June 24th. Don't miss this thrilling conclusion to Futurama: Benders Big Score!
Extras will include Audio commentaries, a "Long-Lost, Full-Length Adventure Produced for the Futurama XBOX Video Game," "Deleted Scenes," and lots more!
Synopsis:
Bender and the Planet Express crew must work to fix rips between their universe and another inhabited by a planet-sized, tentacle alien which soon takes over the Earth and uses it's ability to control Fry to command an entire religion which takes over and convinces the inhabitants of Earth to abandon the Earth to live in a pseudo-heaven, leaving the robots of the world to inherit the planet.

eBay Bans Auctions Of Digital Goods

We've pointed out more than a few times how digital goods muck up traditional markets that are based on the concept of scarcity, and it appears that eBay has come to the same conclusion. It's now banned the direct sale of purely digital goods from either its auctions or its direct sales offerings. Instead, those who want to sell digital goods need to put up a classified ad on the site, rather than a transactional platform. The basic reason has to do with the (wouldn't you know it?) infinitely reproduceable nature of digital goods. That allows eBay sellers to list the same product many, many, many times over, since they have an infinite supply. This practice is screwing up listings and (more importantly) is being used to manipulate feedback ratings, and so eBay has done away with it.

Second Futurama DVD In June

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the second of four new Futurama movies, The Beast With a Billion Backs, on DVD June 24.
The company described the movie this way: In their latest extraterrestrial exploit, Bender, Fry, Leela and the crew encounter a repulsive, planet-sized creature with billions of probing tentacles and find themselves involved in a disturbing--yet sensuous--interplanetary love story.
The movie will feature guest voice performances from David Cross, Brittany Murphy, Dan Castellaneta and physicist Stephen Hawking.
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs also features bonus materials, including commentary from Matt Groening and David X. Cohen and cast members Billy West, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche, as well as director Peter Avanzino and producers Claudia Katz, Lee Supercinski and Michael Rowe. Other extras include a 30-minute "Lost Futurama Adventure" and behind-the-scenes featurettes "Meet Yivo!" (with David Cross) and "A Brief History of Deathball," as well as a sneak peek at the next Futurama movie, Bender's Game. The disc also contains storyboard animatics, deleted scenes and bloopers. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs will carry a suggested retail price of $29.98.

Iron Man Robert Downey Jr Addresses His Past

Robert Downey Jr., who plays the title character in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man movie, told SCI FI Wire that he's aware that his personal history resonates with that of his character, millionaire playboy Tony Stark, who has his own history of substance abuse.
The tabloid-fodder Oscar nominee--who is perhaps better known for his prison sentence (on drug- and alcohol-related charges) and rehab stints than for his critically acclaimed performances in such films as Chaplin and The Singing Detective--addressed the issue in a question from SCI FI Wire on the film's Playa Vista, Calif., set last June.
Downey, who successfully completed rehab in 2002 and by all accounts has been clean and sober since, is ready for the inevitable question.
"I think when someone has had a fundamental change, and they're not just trying to backpedal and make it seem like 'I'm going to rehab again, everything's fine,' whatever, ... my thing is, what else is attractive [to me about the role] is, yeah, Tony Stark, he's been known to go bonkers and be so irresponsible that he's, like, too hammered to put on his shoes," Downey says in his typical elliptical way. "And [when they approached me,] I was like, 'Really?' And they were like, 'Yeah, really.'"
Even so, Downey downplays the significance of his personal history to the casting and the character. "There's so much stuff in this movie as it is that we decided not to do, like, the Pirandello thing," he says, referring to the Italian dramatist and his play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, in which the lines between actors and their characters are blurred. "But I get it. In a way, that's why it's, like, ideally suited for me, and I'm ideally suited for it."
In a well-known 1979 Iron Man comic arc, "Demon in a Bottle," Stark struggles with alcoholism, a first for a major superhero character.
That particular aspect of Stark's character won't come up in the first Iron Man movie, but will be addressed in any sequels, director Favreau says. He acknowledges the similarities between Stark and Downey's own personal histories, but added that the casting allowed him to go to new places.
"When we cast Robert--when he was approved and we got him to be in the movie and Marvel gave it the OK--it completely freed me," Favreau said. "Because I knew I was halfway there to having a movie that I could be proud of. ... I can't think of anybody better than him. He brings a reality, a humor, a panache, ... a life of experience. ... There's a lot of Tony Stark in him, and that's so much better than trying to teach somebody to pretend that they are funny or pretend that they are smart or pretend that they are talented." Iron Man opens May 2.