Kyle wrote:

Not really.

You ever know one of those obsessive audiophiles?  Hell, given the community here some of you might BE obsessive audiophiles, the types that agonize over which cables to buy and debate the qualities of several thousand dollar sound systems, insisting on only the purest sound quality for everything from home entertainment to portable headphones, and insist that MP3 is a horrible format for music because it ruins the original studio sound quality?

Someone should take all those people to the world's best recording studios and show them the cabling and computers that were used to record and produce all the stuff they're trying to find infinite analogue detail in. At least some of them might be cured, for a while.

Kyle wrote:

Granted, I don't have a 72" TV and if I did, maybe I'd be more willing to invest in a blu-ray player and some discs to feed it, but that goes against my sensibilities too.  Hell, my house finally got a 42" flat screen (the first of its breed in our abode) this year because a relative wound up in a nursing home and didn't need it anymore.  Until then I made do with a 30something inch CRT (or whatever it's called in TV-speak) and never really saw a problem with it.

I am being forced to buy my first post-CRT TV for home, now that the tube on our lovely Loewe Aconda has finally failed. I'm quite convinced that none of these LCD/Plasma gadgets has anything like the richness or contrast of that old thing's pictures, despite the notional added detail, the baffling profusion of input formats and the promise of viewing angles wider than a sofa.

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(78 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Chrome and Firefox both support Firebug, which has a mug's eyeful of debugging information in its console.

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(27 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Dorkman wrote:

Which of course is exactly what George has been doing since 2005.

http://www.georgelucas1.com/pictures_pics_photos_images/george_lucas_11.jpg

That image so requires a caption, such as GEORG'D or something to refer to being made "special" according to George's re-imagination.  However, I've just consumed enough pizza to have depleted my brain to a metric notch above 'zzzzz'...

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(30 replies, posted in Episodes)

Found this somewhere recently...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6221/6238740500_88ed08b1bf.jpg
Zombie Ed & Shaun monsters - Shaun of the Dead by No Knit Sherlock!, on Flickr

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(431 replies, posted in Off Topic)

FixedR6 wrote:

I'm shy.

We know a song about that, don't we, children?

381

(431 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Hello.

According to the links in my sig, I'm Frank, but you shouldn't take that literally since at least some bureaucrats don't.

IRL I manage a software team for a luxury retailer whose offices are so swish that we have several chandeliers to help separate the programmers from the supermodels. I have a semi-ridiculous technical background involving HP calculators, technical consulting and Interweb development, and my formal education includes such timeless classics as tonal music theory, molecular biology and computer science.

I don't remember exactly how I found DiF, but cold sweat and waking up screaming come to mind. However, I do enjoy movies as one of the better excuses for delivering film music into the world, which I happen to have been a lifelong fan of for approximately all of my long life.

My worst injury involved having my entire nose pushed to one side by someone else's unexpected face. Speaking of faces, in mine is where I like my non-pineappley pizza, and my avatar's face is not from The Simpsons, because the Simpsons are yellow, and my avatar is clearly not yellow.

Also, I have a sister now? Well, that's unexpected. I suppose asking if she's cute would be inappropriate, but I'm asking more for my wife's benefit than mine, so...is she cute?

Did I say 'hello' already?

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(1,649 replies, posted in Off Topic)

If you liked that, here is more magnety goodness, complete with Mozart:

383

(1,649 replies, posted in Off Topic)

So, magnets. Remind me, what is it with them and the working and stuff?

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It's English, but nodam tee skwerl ip.

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(56 replies, posted in Episodes)

I believe that one of the features of true Scotsmen is that they're not afraid to change their opinion in public, when presented with better evidence. I make this claim as a true Scotsman.

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(56 replies, posted in Episodes)

A potentially interesting book that relates to this discussion is Ken's Guide to the Bible, which, somewhat idiosyncratically, works through the Old and New Testaments, pointing out highlights and notable features as it goes.

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(28 replies, posted in Off Topic)

At last, the joint sequel to Watermelons Galore! and Attack of the Ribosomes sprays the silver screen with the juiciest clumps of mirth and recombination you've ever seen!

Following in the wet footsteps that are all that's left of their mentor Dr Rex McPkAnk (John Hurt), this year's intake of genetic engineering lunatics at Pips-R-Us Food-n-Monsters Inc proves to be the most careless yet.

In the midst of her project to create the world's most carnivorous watermelon, Dr Susie 'Sue' Soo (Zooey Deschanel) falls madly in lust with lab supervisor Herr Doktor Professor Fritz 'Ritzy' Witzensteinerhassenpfeffer (Ewen McGregor). But their technically illicit affair causes bigger problems when Susie's previous squeeze, the world's second-most carnivorous watermelon, comes looking to wreak squishy revenge for being jilted before all its results were published in the New England Journal of Fairly Apocalyptic Experiments.

Pip-based pandemonium ensues as Susie and Fritz mostly avoid being eaten while singing and dancing their way to a slushy, romantic ending surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of almost-believable human-fruit hybrids.

Don't miss the witty banter of the self-juggling pumpkin sisters (Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman)!

Coming soon: No Wood for Old Men

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(102 replies, posted in Off Topic)

You mean, like he's been working on The Last Dangerous Visions without a deadline for about 40 years now?

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(28 replies, posted in Off Topic)

In a world where everyone is colour-blind...

In a time when laughter is forbidden...

In a costume that fits a little too poorly...

One man is on a mission to save himself from the gallows before time, and the rope, runs out.

On trial for his life, Bonzo the Accountant (Jeff Goldblum) stands accused of making colourful fun of the head of the Church of Lyingtology, a crime punishable by DEATH!  BY HANGING!!

In a series of tense courtroom battles, the Church's founder, and chief Lying Officer, Dr Rex McPkAnk (Tom Cruise) hits Bonzo with one damning pie after another, but Bonzo refuses to laugh.  Despite the best efforts of Bonzo's team of defence chimpanzees (all played by Helena Bonham-Carter), Bonzo eventually crumples on the witness stand.

The jury is forced to consider just how large Bonzo's shoes are, just how aggravated bulls are by his allegedly bright red make-up, and just how many billiard balls can fit into his mouth at once.  Finally, with the startling proclamation: "YOU CAN'T HANDLE DULUTH!", McPkAnk makes Bonzo confess to being red, funny and a little bit creepy, all at the same time.

The jury themselves are so incensed, they drag Bonzo out into the street, string him up from the nearest unoccupied gallows, and leave him twisting in the wind, a warning to all who would be funny, or red, or Jeff Goldblum.


Coming soon: The Night After Alaska.

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(102 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I think it was Harlan Ellison who said that he once heard a Hollywood exec suggest remaking The Wiz...with white people.

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

So, how about actors and roles where they unexpectedly played the best game of catch-the-javelin that no-one thought they could do, because it was so different from their previous body of work? For example:

Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie
Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in Doctor Who
Greg Kinnear in As Good As It Gets

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Meanwhile:

Jodie Foster in Contact

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Actually, I think Pulp Fiction is another movie where, basically, the entire cast nails it to whatever one nails whatever it is to.

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Samuel L Jackson in Snakes on a Plane.(*)

(*) Note: I have not seen Snakes on a Plane -- as I understand it, I do not believe this matters.

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Billy West as nearly everyone in Futurama, quite possibly at the same time.

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Looks as if Adobe likes FCPX:

http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/09/07/a … nal-cut-x/

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Oh, and how about John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich? Or is that some kind of weird special case?

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(83 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Oh, and Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in the first two Psycho movies.

Oh, oh, and Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in Bound.

Mmmm, Bound...

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(Sorry, apparently it's physically impossible for me to do just one.)

Leonard Nimoy throughout Star Trek.

Holly Hunter in The Incredibles.

Douglas Rain in 2001: a Space Odyssey.

Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz.

Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense.

Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in The Fly.

Sean Connery in any James Bond movie before Diamonds are Forever.

And, of course, Bruce Willis in Surrogates.