Posts filed under ‘Entertainment’

I recently received a gift card to ThinkGeek and decided to pick up a few random items for review. When the package arrived, the first of the goodies I tested were the Effervescent Cupcake Drink Tabs.

When I first saw them online, I figured screw turning water to wine – you can’t get much better than making water into cupcakes, or at least somewhat cupcake-y water. The tin and its contents looked safe enough – For $3.99, you get a small tin with 15 nickel-sized cupcake tablets. I popped one into a coffee mug of water and waited for the cupcake explosion to ensue.

Then, I waited some more.

I was expecting and Alka-Seltzer-like “Plop plop fizz fizz, i’m drinking freaking cupcake water!!” Instead, after 15 minutes of swirling the tablet in the cup, I had this:

That’s not effervescence my friends, that’s what I like to call “Cupcake Chum”. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what the water now resembles. I know, however what it doesn’t resemble – a cupcake.

The water was relatively tasteless, and after about 15 minutes, I gave up. Here, you can see what was left of the tablet after all was said and done.

I figured that if the tabs didn’t work in water, they might work if I simply ate them like a breath mint. I was wrong. Dead wrong.

The tabs seemed far more effervescent while in my mouth, but the flavor certainly didn’t wow me. It was somewhat cloyingly sweet, while also salty – probably due to the tablets containing some amount of baking soda in order to provide the lackluster effervescent bubbles. The tablet didn’t really taste like cupcakes either. There was a hint of eating frosting from the can, but that sensation was fleeting at best.

I was quickly losing faith in these miracle tabs, so I shoved a few more tablets in my mouth just to see if I could concentrate some of the cupcake goodness. This time around, I decided to chew them immediately to release the cupcake beast within. All I got was a mouth full of salty Cupcake Chum, and some strange looks from the people around me, as I was now foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog.

All in all, I am sorely disappointed in the cupcake tab experience. I partially blame ThinkGeek for not testing these ahead of time and discovering what a huge cupcake failure this tin contained. However, I also blame myself for having such high expectations of a $4 tin of “Cupcake Tablets”.

Next up: Effervescent Bacon Drink Tabs….I can’t wait!

Until recently when I needed to download media, either from Usenet or torrents, I searched for it manually. This usually involved either using a web based service or an IRC channel, searching for keywords and sifting through results that include spam as well as resolutions and file-types that were not what I was looking for. After successfully downloading the files, I would then manually sort them into their respective folders in my media collection, and rename them if necessary. This was especially tedious for items released on a regular basis (such as television shows), as the process would have to be done weekly for each item.


I realized there must be an easier way.


I had already been using SABnzbd for a while, as it was the only binary newsreader I could find with support for iPhone remote management, and I have to say, I loved it. SABnzbd has a very clean, intuitive interface, and although it doesn’t have quite the features of applications like Newsbin, it has many addons, such as the chrome and Firefox extensions, and a number of iPhone apps. Also, SABnzbd is free, open source, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. All the applications that will be used in this article utilize the extensibility of SABnzbd. Some can be used without it, but much of the functionality would be lost.

Sick Beard is a program that will periodically search for specified shows on various usenet search sites. When Sick Beard finds the episodes it is looking for, it downloads the NZB file, and sends it to SABnzbd for downloading. Sick Beard also comes with a script for SABnzbd post-processing, allowing for automatic renaming and sorting of downloaded media.

Sick Beard also supports downloading of NZB files to a “black hole” folder, rather then sending them directly to SABnzbd. This allows for other applications to pick the files up for downloading. In addition to usenet download support, Sick Beard also provides some torrent support, although there would be no provided post processing script so some extra configuration would probably be required to get file renaming working properly.

CouchPotato is similar in concept to Sick Beard, only it works with movies. Simply search for a movie using the application, and select the movie you want from a list of movies matching your search query that CouchPotato pulls from IMDB. The application will then search for all the movies in your queue at specified intervals, download the NZB file, and then either send the file to SABnzbd for downloading or send the file to a “black hole” folder, similar to Sick Beard.

These programs are the best I have found for the job, but off course these are just a couple suggestions. Episodebutler offers similar functionality to Sickbeard, although I have no personal experience with this one.

Also, a completely different route to go would be simply using RSS feeds. This can cause an issue however, as reposts will be downloaded multiple times.

Ever since there has existed an interest in anime outside of the language bounds of Japanese-speaking locales there has existed a fansubbing scene. Short for “fan subtitling”, fansubbing typically involves the translation of Japanese animation episodes into target languages and overlaying said titles into a distributable video format.

The practice of fansubbing dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when outside interest in the anime phenomenon drove the importing of programs in various formats for viewing at a growing number of anime clubs. As many did not know the Japanese language hardcore fans sough to increase the accessibility of the programming through the process of subtitling the episodes for further distribution. The initially extensive and expensive process of subtitling an episode required first acquiring raw episodes in Betamax, VHS, or Laserdisc format then extracting the audio to text via manual or paid translation. The next assigned task involved timing the subtitle’s appearance to the audio through a process dubbed (no pun intended) timing which may or may not have the use of custom software or professional hardware. Finally, a master of the episode was created by feeding the timed script and raw video feed through a genlock to a high quality medium. Finally the episode was copied from the master and distributed to anime groups through the use of distribution runners or postal mail.

Modern technology has vastly increased the quality and decreased the time-to-distribution of fansubs. Raw video acquisition has moved to digital capture direct from television signals and ripping from DVD or Blu-ray for internet transmission directly to fansubbing groups. Translation may be performed by oversea team members, and timing, styling, and encoding occur through more modern software equivalents of the once expensive hardware and genlocks. Finally, distribution has moved to much more accessible and reliable methods such as IRC and Bittorent.

The recent history of fansubbing has expanded the practice beyond merely the anime genre and into other foreign language programming including animation, television episodes, and movies. While the legality of fansubbing still remains a hot topic of debate amongst the community the rapid increase in the level of technical sophistication and friendly global collaboration serves as one of the most successful examples of what can be accomplished by the passion of true fans uniting with a common goal.

Now you know!

[Thanks to Armin Tamzarian]

Take a good long look at that picture. Unfortunately, that’s not a picture of strawberry ice cream. Think about that picture each and every time you stop by a fast food restaurant for chicken nuggets.

You might be asking, “What does that picture have to do with chicken nuggets?”

The quick answer would be “everything”. The long answer goes something like this:

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it.

Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.

There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.

I can only imagine mechanically separated beef and pork look just as terrifying. On a diet? Keep that picture in your wallet and give it a good look the next time you feel like breaking down and feasting on some junk food!

[Early Onset of the Night via Gizmodo]

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

With that, the Dark Tower series both begins and ends. As I finished the final book, I thought that I would hear nothing more from Stephen King on the matter. I was first given the third book in the series, “The Waste Lands” years ago and proceeded to read the first two books immediately after I finished it. Despite catching the story mid-way through, I couldn’t put the book down. I anxiously awaited the arrival of the fourth book for years, reading the three I had a few times over, just to keep things fresh in my mind. King put out the last four books in relatively quick succession, much to my enjoyment.

This is my absolute favorite “sci-fi/fantasy” series of books, hands down. Sure the Lord of the Rings is neat, but it never grabbed me like the Dark Tower did. Throughout the series, I always wondered how it could be translated into a movie, or more likely a series of movies due to the depth of the storyline. While I would be excited at the premise, I was also worried that the movies would end up a watered down representation of the books, as some of King’s other big screen adaptations have suffered the same fate (see The Stand).

I was however, extremely excited to hear that there are indeed plans to make a film adaptation of the books, which will be directed by none other than Ron Howard [PDF press report]. Extremely excited is probably an understatement.

Nerdgasm would probably be a more appropriate.

Anyhow, it looks like they are going to make a series of movies, using TV series to bridge the gap between the feature films. I honestly think it’s a pretty cool idea, and with someone like Ron Howard at the helm, I feel like this movie actually has a chance at being fantastic.

Now that it’s announced, the real waiting begins…

Image courtesy of Stephenking.com
[Stephenking.com]
[DarkTowerMovies.com]

3D as a whole is an interesting beast.

I don’t necessarily think that 3D is a bad technology. I will freely admit, I used to have a ViewMaster as a kid, and I loved it. He-Man and Transformers in easily transportable 3D format…what else could I have asked for?

Today’s 3D technology is clearly a bit different than it was back in the 80s. With multi-billion dollar blockbuster movies and a flurry of new TV sets, the 3D revolution has finally arrived…sort of.

In my view, there are several things that will ensure 3D goes the way of Betamax tapes and Laserdiscs:

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For a while now, I’ve been getting my anime fix from Hulu. Netflix is still my main choice for getting them delivered, but between discs I jump online to have the juicy animation streamed directly into my brain. (Well almost!)
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