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System Attic - June 2008

Watch New Movies Online

June 30th 2008 09:03
Lately, if you haven’t noticed, the cost of going to a movie is ridiculous. Anywhere from 5 to 10 dollars for a ticket, not to mention the price of drinks and popcorn. To be able to truly enjoy a movie at the theater by yourself you had better be ready to part with about 15 bones, if not more. Not to say that movie theaters don’t deliver. There’s a reason they still show movies in theaters. Because they allow you to experience the movie the way it was meant to be experienced. Full immersion into the world of the film. But if you just want to see the movie, there are alternatives. You could wait for it to come out on DVD (or Blu-Ray or VHS, whichever you prefer) or with some of the more popular titles, just wait a few days after the release, then log on to Watch-Movies.net.


W-M.net is a site that hosts videos that are uploaded by users onto other viral video sites (YouTube, MegaVideo ect.) and sorts the links to each film onto their own separate pages complete with the movie poster and a user rating of the film itself. There are usually several different links to different sites for each film, and each link is rated good or bad by users as they watch them depending on how well the link works, and a percentage of good or bad votes is displayed below each link.

Newer films are typically separated into four or six sections to raise the overall file size and therefore raise the quality. It can be a bit of a pain when the Hulk is just about to tear into Abomination and the section ends and you have to click the next link and wait for it to load, but hey, it’s free. None of the new release films I’ve seen are what I would call great quality, the audio sync is often delayed, the video is grainy, and depending where it came from, some of them tend to have Japanese subtitles. There’s also the possibility of laughter during the comedies or the occasional theater-goer who walks in front of the camera, but files with these flaws are typically rated lower by the users. To avoid these flaws altogether, and if there’s nothing in the theater you want to see at the moment, the site also carries a wide array of titles that have been released to DVD.


If you’re worried about legality, Watch-Movies.net is totally legal. It doesn’t host the files themselves, just links to them, and there’s nothing illegal about providing links. The links tend to go down now and then as the files are deleted from their host sites, but the administrators to a pretty good job of rounding up more.

If you love movies and there’s one out there that you’re really excited about, I say shell out the bucks and really enjoy it. (If you’re a girl, just get a guy to take you.) I think this site is great for a casual movie fan or for a film you may enjoy but don’t want to pay for. All that’s required is a decent broadband speed, but you’ll probably need pretty good speakers for a lot of the in-theater files for obvious reasons. Like I said, the files are hit or miss, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking it out.
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Websites I Couldn't Be Without

June 29th 2008 05:56
In the vein of my previous post about Gadgets I Couldn't Live Without, I now bring you a number of websites that I absolutely must visit on a daily or weekly basis, because they're cool. Now, some of these you may have heard of, some of them not, but the point of this is to invite you to enjoy the same wondrous websites that I do. Sharing the wealth and all that. It's good for the ol' karma.

Homestar Runner


If you haven't been here, and you are breathing, you need to go. HR.com is a flash animation website with an extensive library of videos and games created by the Brothers Chaps. The cartoons are hilarious if you have a tendency to occasionally regress to the mental capacity of a six year old, as I often do. It's your run-of-the-mill every day heavily innuendoed cartoon featuring colorful characters and exciting adventures. One thing about this site: If the first one... or five cartoons you watch don't grab you, give it more of a chance. I wasn't wowed at first either.

Wine Library TV


If you're at all interested in wine, and even if you aren't, you need to see this site. It's hosted by Gary Vaynerchuck (If you watch Conan, he's the guest who ate cigars and dirt), an overly charismatic, highly animated and boundlessly entertaining man with a heart of gold. Even if you don't know squat about wine and never wanted to, Vaynerchuck's personality alone could entertain for hours. He keeps a platoon of wrestling action figures on his desk to help describe his feelings on certain wines. Still not intrigued? Well, then this list may not be for you.

Tekzilla

Tekzilla is an awesome show for techies like me who want to know what's going on in the tech world, and see some really cool toys that I may never afford in action. It's fun, very informative and very entertaining.

Rolling Stone Movie Reviews


In the world of movie critics, Peter Travers is king. Enough said.

CentSports

Centsports is a really cool website. It's dominated by advertising and pop-ups but there's a reason for that. The advertisers give every member of the site a dime. And with this dime you can bet on any sporting event. If you win, you could double your money, and advertisers sponsor each bet for up to a 100 percent increase.

For instance, you bet your dime on a money line for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees and you could win 16 cents. You then have the option to have an advertiser sponsor the bet, which takes you to a page where you can cycle through sponsorships until you get a 100 percent match, which puts you at a chance of winning 32 cents. It doesn't sound like a lot but it adds up, and the best part, if you lose, you just get another dime and try again. You have to win $20 before you can cash out, but some folks on there have up to $1,000.

It's completely free and legal and lots of fun.

If you're bored or if you're curious, trust me, one of these sites is bound to tickle your fancy.
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Anyone getting bored with their Playstation 3’s plethora of capabilities yet? Not to worry. Sony CEO Howard Stringer came to the rescue today with the announcement of an on-demand video service similar to the current Playstation Store. And the best part, it’s slated for release in summer 2008, which if I’m not mistaken, is like, now. But if it’s anything like the Playstation Home, (which I doubt) who knows when it will be released.

According to Arstechnica.com, no other video titles besides the movies and television Sony currently produces has been announced, but the selection should be plentiful. Great. The thing already is so convenient that you don’t even have to go leave the couch to turn it on or even to buy some games, and now it’ll have a whole library of movies just an X button away. No plans for an integrated soda fountain or popcorn machine have yet been announced, but I say why not? And throw in a blood sugar monitor while you’re at it so we can watch our slow descent into diabetes in crystal clear high definition.

But seriously, being the movie freak I am, I’m really looking forward to this. It only makes sense that they would make an on-demand movie service, and although unlikely, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them create a music store as well. It would be harder to compete in that market with iTunes and Amazon pretty well cornering it, but it wouldn’t take much to develop if they’re already providing video.

I’m not surprised that Sony has been able to do so much with the console. It really is one of the best gadgets I’ve ever purchased and one can only imagine what they might do next, with either the PS3, or, even further ahead, the next-gen Sony console. Any thoughts? I’m interested to know. Drop me a comment or an email.

On another PS3 related note, I found this cool OS X Leopard theme for the XMB today on deviantART and thought I would share it with my fellow Mac/PS3 fans out there. Check it out.

Also, props to Orblites Jon and Charles for deeming me worthy of this cool domain. I hope to do them proud.
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Back in 1989, Jack Nicholson sported a purple fedora and a load of lipstick and slapsticked his way to the bank as everyone’s favorite killer clown, the Joker, in Tim Burton’s Batman. Nearly two decades later Hollywood decided to give the Clown Prince of Crime another shot, this time with Heath Ledger behind the face paint in Christopher Nolan’s followup to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. I loved the first Batman movie mostly because of Nicholson, and his portrayal has already gone down in movie history. It was perhaps my favorite Nicholson performance prior to The Departed. (Although the Shining is close.) But in a time where movie villains have become more sly, greedy slime balls than sick, darkly demented killers, the Joker needs to make a comeback.

For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer to this film, check it out. Ledgers voice is somewhere between Richard Dawson and Charles Manson and the splotchy face paint and grungy hair are ideal for the new incarnation as opposed to the sleek and pristine mask and slick gangster do that had Nicholson looking more a pimp than a murderer. In the trailer when Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) asks if they found any identification on the Joker a policeman responds “Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.” The perfect teaser to prepare us for this new breed of bad guy. I’m going to say right now that Ledger's Joker could do for villains what Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man did for heroes


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Gadgets I Couldn't Live Without

June 25th 2008 09:26
Let me tell you a little about myself. I live in a town of about 800 people with not much to do. The biggest town within 50 miles has 43,000, and while it provides a little more excitement, with todays gas prices it’s not worth it. I work the night shift for the county sheriff’s office, and as you can probably imagine, it isn’t that busy. So I have to have something to keep myself occupied, right? Here’s a little list of mini-reviews (in no particular order) on the gadgets that help a techie like me get by each day.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3

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Songbird Media Player

June 24th 2008 09:52

Is anyone else having playback problems with iTunes? Do a search on Google, and you’ll find the answer to be “Hell YEAH!” I’m a big supporter of Apple products and services, but I’m also a fan of options in all facets of my life, especially with media. It all started a few months back while reading an article in Rolling Stone about someone (or someones..) who had become fed up with the poor audio quality of Beatles CD’s and decided to rip FLAC files to their computer from their collection of pristine Beatles vinyl.

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On June 19th YouTube debuted there very own Screening Room. I haven't spent much time there yet, but I did have time to check out one of the films currently showing. It's called Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody? and consists of John C. Reilly (Magnolia, Talladega Nights) standing on the sidewalk administering a one question survey. It's a somewhat uplifting, somewhat thought provoking effort, and I must say I enjoyed all four minutes and three seconds of it. If you have four minutes to spare, check it out.


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Cloverfield Blu-Ray Review

June 22nd 2008 07:37

When I got my PS3 back in November, the bitter, childish format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray was still in full swing. I was nervous to buy a Blu-Ray for obvious reasons (And also because I read somewhere that Sony wasn’t allowing pornographic content to be produced on Blu-Ray, which didn’t matter to me except that it may or may not have contributed to the death of Betamax back in the day.) But now that the war is over, I decided to delve into the Blu-Ray universe with Cloverfield.

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Celtics, Gambling, Gaming, Gadgets

June 21st 2008 08:01
I know this is kind of abrupt, but I'm a guy with a computer and a lot of time on my hands and I feel like voicing random opinions and shamelessly hoping that someone will care. So here goes...

The Boston Celtics kick ass and I'm really impressed with Kevin Garnett's passion. (Yes, it's a bandwagon thing, not afraid to admit it.) In other sports news, you should all be gambling. CentSports lets you gamble for free! Not make sense? Check it out. It's my new obsession. I'm also obsessed with Nascar 09 on PS3. Not sure why though. The game is a huge letdown from what I was expecting. I've just been bored I suppose. I need something as immersive as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in my life again. Pretty psyched about NCAA Football 09 though. And I'm finally going to get my hands on a copy of Call of Duty 4. I've heard the campaign mode is short but online is awesome. I'm more of a third person guy, but I'll give it a shot. Also on PS3, if you haven't checked out Qore yet, don't. By the time I got there, all the goodies, like the SOCOM demo and other things, were offline. Unless you're really bored and want to pay $2.99 to watch five and a half minutes of Veronica Belmont segment intros (which I enjoyed... a lot), pass on this one. I plan on paying for at least two more episodes (if it lasts that long) and I'll happily keep you updated


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