I think that one of the best ways for a fan to express themselves is through a personal license plate. I have an Isaac Asimov themed plate, and my wife has one dedicated to The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Yesterday my mother-in-law was riding in her car when her husband spotted one of the coolest license plates ever with a decal above it to match. AT-AT is the perfect license plate befitting a true Star Wars fan. She promptly posted it on her blog, which was forwarded to me by my wife via StumbleUpon. I had to get the full story from the source, and when I did she said she’d send me all 3 pictures. Here they are…
Tonight with my wife, I watched an interesting episode of Nova titled “The World’s Smartest Machine.” Romantic, right? You can tell we are a couple of geeks at heart. Being a huge fan of Asimov and his robot creations, I am continually amazed at the progress of robotics and artificial intelligence. As a kid I was playing chess as early as the 3rd grade. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty good chess player. When I heard about a computer that supposedly could beat a world champion chess player, I was intrigued. Garry Kasparov battled IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer in 1996 and won, however he eventually lost a rematch in 1997. Well, IBM is back at it, this time taking on Jeopardy. Nova takes us behind the scenes with the developers of “Watson,” the next step in AI. I was disappointed when the episode ended and it didn’t say who won. I didn’t realize until logging on PBS.org that the contest actually was taking place while I was watching Nova (on my media center PC). After some frantic Google searches, I eventually came across a Twitter feed with a link to a Youtube posting of the episode. This was not quite 2 hours after the episode aired! Isn’t technology great? I expect the Youtube post to be served a DMCA take down, so watch it soon if you plan on it. In addition to the episode at the end of this post, I’ve embedded the Nova preview and an humorous parody of the challenges Watson overcame during his development. I suggest watching the Nova episode first. If you are at all interested in AI, you must check these out!
There are two more nights to the match, airing Tuesday February 15th, and Wednesday the 16th. Be sure to check them out, along with some live blogging on PBS.org. I find myself rooting for Watson, not because I want to see humans defeated, but because I want to see humans capable of making something smart enough to do it. Who do you think will win? Who do you want to win?
I saw a preview for Real Steel a while back and completely forgot about it until I noticed it at my local Redbox. I didn’t really have high expectations of the movie, but I love robots, so checked it out. Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) plays Charlie Kenton, a washed up boxer that now competes in humanoid robot battles. After the embarrassing destruction of yet another robot, some guys track him down and tell him his ex wife died and now custody of his 11 year old son Max falls to him. His sister-in-law that wants custody, and Charlie wants nothing to do with the kid. Just as he is about to sign over custody, he notices she is married to some rich old guy. Seeing an opportunity to buy another robot, Charlie makes a secret deal for 100K to sign over custody. Conveniently, the rich husband is planning a trip to Europe, so doesn’t want the kid quite yet. The deal is 50K now, 50K at the end of the summer. Charlie reluctantly takes Max on the road to explore the underworld of robot boxing. (more…)
I’ve heard rumors of this “Final Cut” of Blade Runner for years. Blade Runner was one of the first movies released on DVD, but was such poor quality I was extremely disappointed. It is definitely one of my favorite movies, and felt a bit cheated that the transfer was so poor. The picture was grainy and the soundtrack was only in Dolby 2.0, not even 5.1 surround sound which was the main advantage to DVD (besides increased resolution) at the time. I’ve been meaning to review the original Director’s Cut DVD (without Rick Deckard’s narration and the happy ending) but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I’m glad to see that Blade Runner is finally getting the love and care it deserves. I have only seen the Director’s Cut, and have watched just a few scenes of the theatrical release with the narration on cable from time to time. I’m excited to see all of the different versions offered together. There are 3 different releases announced with a variety of alternate cuts of the movie. There is a 2 disc Special Edition, 4 disc Collector’s Edition, and 5 disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition (DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray). I plan on getting the 4 disc DVD version and reviewing it here in the near future. Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD 5 disc versions are available without the “Ultimate” briefcase for a lower price, but for some reason that option isn’t available for DVD. Don’t miss this release, check out all of the pre-order options (there are MANY) that are available on Amazon.
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