Haibane.info

Author: fledgling otaku

  • dell coupon code: XPS M1210

    $200 off XPS M1210 Notebook: $999 after instant savings. (no coupon code required)

  • the Joker revealed

    A very cool viral marketing campaign by Warner Brothers – in which the Joker hacks Harvey Dent’s campaign website – leads to the first hint of what Heath Ledger’s Joker will look like in the upcoming Dark Knight movie. This is going to be one dark movie. Image copied from AICN below the fold…

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  • the Improbable Calvin and Hobbes

    An enterprising soul transcribed the complete Calvin and Hobbes into a searchable database. And then ran a statistically improbable word analysis on it.

  • search traffic

    According to Google Analytics, over half my traffic comes from google searches, and 70% of my readers are first-time visitors. The referral logs are fascinating, in that these searches really reflect the eclectic mix of topics I blog about here. Here are some particular cool search strings I’ve noticed:

    I’m also seeing a lot of traffic related to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard.

    Overall, I think I’m doing a good job at giving equal time to all my various interests. The roblem is that there are so many that I can’t give detailed attention to any single one 🙂 That category list just seems to keep growing. I am satisfied though – even though I like having a regular stable of returning readership, I also find it gratifying somehow that a lot of what I write isn’t scrolling off the page to oblivion, but actually does get found by someone who, for that particular moment in time, was interested in precisely that topic and nothing else. I try to keep my blogging rooted in what I want rather than what I think my readers want, and the google traffic predominance really helps give me that freedom from temptation. It’s a nice balance, one that is sorely lacking from my other blogs.

  • Diet Coke Plus

    sspx0343.jpgSlashfood reviews the new Diet Coke Plus, which is essentially Diet Coke with a few vitamin and minerals added. Specifically, Niacin (PDV 25%), B6 (25%), B12 (25%), Magnesium (15%), and Zinc (15%). This appears to be a craven ploy on the part of Coke to make Diet Coke drinkers feel better about all the phenylketonurics. Personally, I favor Diet Coke with Splenda, though as an aside I completely failed a taste test a few months ago between DC/Splenda and Coke Zero. So who the heck knows why I drink what I do or what my real taste preferences are. I am more a poseur than a connoiseur, but whatever; my goal is to indulge in brand loyalty, and get my caffeine without the sugar load. Given that they were giving boxes of DC+ away with purchase of a regular 12 pack of Diet Coke (which I secretly swapped for DC/Splenda), I figured there was no downside to trying this new stuff out.

    Verdict?

    tastes pretty much exactly like DC. (yes, as mentioned above, I failed a taste test between Coke Zero and DC/Splenda, so your mileage is almost guaranteed to vary). No chalky aftertaste that I could detect, and overall far better than the crazy metallic tinge you get from drinks like Red Bull or Rockstar. What next, Taurine-enhanced Diet Coke? Maybe. At any rate, if you are drinking DC anyway, then you might as well go for the DC+. I think I will pass, though.

  • Skywalkers in Korea cross Han solo

    Best headline to a news story EVER. Perfectly descriptive, too:

    SEOUL, South Korea – They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety.

    The top prize was $15k for crossing the wire fastest; I was tempted to try for a greedo/shot first joke, but I know my limits.

  • so say we all?

    Contra Edward James Olmos’ assertion a few days ago that Galactica would end after finding Earth in season 4, comes this from producer David Eick:

    Contrary to comments by Edward James Olmos (Adm. Adama) at the Saturn Awards on May10, no end has been announced for the award-winning show. Battlestar Galactica is preparing to film its fourth season, one that will include 22 episodes, rather than the previously announced 13.

    “For those of you who have been paying attention over the years, this is not the first time Eddie has made an announcement about the possibility of the show’s end,” chuckled Eick. “I promise you that when [executive producer] Ron [Moore] and I make a decision about Galactica’s future, we’ll let you know.”

    The plot thickens. Note that Ron Moore has not weighed in himself, as yet. Also, I think that it’s significant that Eick didn’t bother to address the fact that they are finding Earth next season. I think we can safely assume that to be the case regardless of whether the powers that be decide that Galactica needs a season 5.

    However, given SciFi’s track record on canceling shows, the expensive nature of production for Galactica, and the fact that Galactica almost had no season 3 or a half-season 4, I think Eick is just blowing smoke here.

    UPDATE: From a SciFi Q&A with Ron Moore a while back:

    I think our show has a definite beginning, middle and end. There’s a story to be told here that moves toward a definite conclusion and I think our biggest mistake would be to just try and continue to churn out episodes for as long as we could get them on the air. Certain stories need an ending, and this is one of them. I’ll miss it more than you can know, but you gotta be true to the tale you’re telling.

    I think that pretty much settles it. Incidentally, the rest of that Q&A is worth reading, particularly for this nugget:

    Q. Do you already know who the fifth cylon of the final five is? If so, have you already left us some clues?

    A. Yes and yes.

  • power corrupts…

    and Google corrupts absolutely. With that maxim in mind, this little Google hack might be of interest:

    -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Linkin Park"

    Of course, you can replace “Linkin Park” with whatever other artist or work you may be interested in. This searches open web folder indexes for files that people have uploaded and left publicly accessible. Other enterprising folks have even built an entire application around this, called G2P (Google to Person).

    Please use your newfound powers for good, and not for evil.

  • Philip K. Dick week

    Don has the details at Scuffulans H. PKD’s niche was all about questioning reality; the philosophical foundations stretch clear back to Plato. Truly one of the great masters of science fiction, who helped make scifi into a truly literary subgenre.

  • Galactica Season 4: Earth

    earth_rdm.pngGalactica will find Earth in season 4. So says Adama himself:

    iF MAGAZINE: What’s coming up for season four?

    EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: It’s fantastic. I think they’re going to discover some very important issues about what the fan base really, really wants to see and what’s to understand about this show. We’re heading into the final season. This is the final season as we speak. All of us are very saddened by that, but we always knew there was going to be a conclusion and we would find Earth, so we will be finding Earth this season.

    woah. awesome. I am not saddened by this; far better to go out with a strong finish than drag it out forever. I’ll buy the DVDs as penance for having torrented the series all along, and then move on to the next thing, probably Heroes or Firefly (or both).

    UPDATE: Olmos repeats the news in a separate interview:

    When asked about the next season of Battlestar, Olmos had this to say, “This will probably be the most extraordinary season of Battlestar, it’s the final season so, it’s definitely going to be the most vicious.”

    IESB: Final?

    Olmos: You heard it first.

    IESB: Are you serious?

    Olmos: Very much so.

    vicious? I kind of like the sound of that.