3D for the Masses!

Well, this pretty much explains itself.

Panasonic has released a consumer grade 3D camcorder for $1400 bucks and 3D lens for Lumix DSLRs.

The general gist: Blah Blah Blah, 3D camcorder. Blee bloo blah, 3D lens.

Middle america can now submit their drunken hijinks to America's Funniest Home Videos (season frakkin' 21!) in 3D!

New Mac Update Makes Me Want to Rob a Bank.

After another year of hibernation, Mac has souped up their line of wallet-shattering Pros. Gizzy talks about it here, but you can scope the new products directly here.

Granted you can't get one until August. But if you can't render CGI, process RAW photos, download new Adobe software and look at Daily Puppy at the same time, you might want to think about getting one.

They start at $5000. I'm not even sure my car is worth that. If you spec it out enough it can run you close to $30,000. I'm positive my car isn't worth that. One thunderstorm and/or a glass of Cabernet later...

At any rate, if you're just looking for a new workhorse you might just want to wait until the end of the year when Mac is expected to quietly upgrade the Macbook Pro to include a 1 Tb hard drive to go with its already sexy i7 processor, who look to be bumped up to 2.8GHz as well.

Avoid Cable Money Traps

Yet another article on Giz about avoiding higher priced cables, though this time it's about audio cables. In the past there have been some postings about how much of a rip-off Monster Cables are. It's true. If you went to Best Buy and bought a 8-foot HDMI cable it would set you back a whopping $130.

Before you do, I want you to think of all the things you could possibly get with $130 USD. Think of it as a moment of Home Theatre Zen.

OK, back?

Go here. Less than a dollar a foot. Scared about quality? Don't be. Also, grow a pair. I've had my cables from these guys for over two years and they're still great. Additionally, Firefold has all sorts of tech related deals as well as some awesome miscellaneous grabs. Take a look around.

Stereoscopic 3D is...dying?

Wait, I'm confused.

According to this article on Gizmodo, 3D venues have seen a steady decline in opening weekend grosses since the release of the, apparently, "tentpole" of Stereoscopic 3D features...Avatar.

Let's look at this a little closer. What do four of these six movies have in common? They're CGI kiddie flicks. It's ridiculously easy to make a 3D CGI movie these days. All you have to do is make the CGI film and then render it to two outputs that are slightly off. No actual humans were involved in adding the third dimension.

Avatar was shot in stereoscopic 3D and then incorporated CGI (see above).

In contrast the other Avatar (The Last Airbender) was shot in 2D and then hastily converted to 3D in an effort to combat the evident dismal film. This requires some editor/artist spending many hours in a dark room pushing and pulling the z-axis of the shots and CG in order to get it right. Most conjecture comes to the conclusion that M Night Shamamalama's film was so atrocious that they needed another gimmick to drive attendance up. They decided to do some absolutely-last-minute conversion to 3D to jack up the cost of tickets for an inflated box office gross. So to hold up Airbender as an epitome of 3D films seems ridiculous. Especially since the film itself is terrible. That's like walking up to an outhouse and saying: "Wow, this stinks." No shit, it's an outhouse.

I think the biggest hurdle 3D needs to overcome is finding a universal mount that is as comfortable and slight to be easily used by filmmakers. For epic long shots, yeah, stereoscopic 3D is king. I would love to see Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance in 3D. But if you want a close-up shot of anything, it takes all kinds of mathamagical calculations to get the two "eyes" to cross effectively. From a production point of view I can see the downside of this technology.

But there have been a few setbacks for the assimilation for stereoscopic 3D into mainstream American cinema. Because of the previously mentioned hassle of 3D rigs Marvel has passed on shooting the forth-coming Thor and Captain America films in 3D, instead opting for the post-production option of conversion. Although this might result in lack-luster effects as seen in this year's Clash of the Titans, it is a step in the right direction and a stark contrast to DC/Warner Brothers' anti-3D stance as decreed by their de-facto patriarch, Christopher Nolan. I personally think that The Dark Knight actually could have pulled off some decent 3D shots if they had applied themselves. But this, of course, is blasphemous.

At any rate, I think the first time we will really see the emergence of decent 3D films is when low-budget stereoscopic equipment becomes available to the plebeian auteurs. Hopefully Red will break through and save it before it falls back to the interest level of anaglyphic 3D.

And a special FU to the 3D faithful with that picture of anaglyphic glasses in their article. Props Gizzy.

Bitch: Now in URL form!

This site is nothing but a black-hole for time and intelligence. I'm still curious as to whether the web-masters actually built a program that makes logical statements or if it's just cross-feeding input from simultaneous users. In either case this "chick" (as she vehemently insists she is) is the most dada-ist bitch I have ever met in my life.

Enter her elaborate web of lies, misinformation and deceit at your own peril.

A Harmonious Marriage of Booze and Gaming

Few things in life give me as much pleasure as playing video games and drinking. Many, many hours of my life have been spent drinking beers of varying qualities and playing an engrossing game (e.g. The Metroid Prime Trilogy). I can also pretty much guarantee that if I had had access to alcohol during my first run of Chrono Trigger, I would still being working on getting my GED. And Super Smash Brothers Melee? I can't hear the theme music without wanting a beer...and gummi bears....and Cheeze-its...and more beer.

So it is no surprise that when I learned of not one but TWO separate sites dedicated to video game -themed cocktails and beers. Were I not currently dedicated to staying on the wagon for the rest of the month, I would gladly fall off and let it roll over me.

http://videogamesandbooze.blogspot.com/

http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/