Day: January 29, 2004

I’ve spent most of the day walking slowly past the computer trying to catch up.  I have not looked at the aggregator since before the sun came up.  The following are a bunch of links that I need to read and catch up on when I get home:

• Please Sir May I Have a Linker?
• The man behind CTRL-ALT-DEL retires.
• PocketPC Thoughts on yet another memory card format.  As if we didn’t have enough already.
• OSNews reports on IBM’s Linux.
• Science Blog discusses the artificial island being constructed off the coast of Dubai.  I saw something on PBS about it a few months ago.  It’s extremely expensive, but when complete will be an absolutely great place to live if you are worth millions.
• The Server Side (dot com) points out WARS as an alternative to MVC.
• Rael points to Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks, first in a new series of Hacks books.
• Fonts for programmers via Nelson.
• CNet: Samsung is bringing always-on email access to their phones through a partnership with RIM.
• Via Slashdot, bootstrapping your own software company is worth reading.

If the Xbox really falls to $99, I’m so picking one up.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark II is a monster of a camera.  It sports a 8.2 megapixel sensor that can capture up to 8.5 frames per second, and up to 40 frames per burst in RAW mode.  The CMOS sensor is a bit bigger, which reults in a 1.3 multiplier instead of the usual 1.5 or 1.6.

It’s not going to be cheap, but man it’s gonna rock!

Expect many more announcements from Canon throughout the next couple of weeks.  It’s PMA time!

Ugh!

I saw Kill Bill Vol 1 shortly after it was released last year.  It was awesome.  I was foaming at the mouth for Vol 2 as soon as the credits started rolling.  It was okay though, because Vol 2 was coming out in February.  I could deal with that.

A few weeks ago I checked up on it.  It was still coming out in February (I’ve been foaming at the mouth for some months now), and my friend Tony and I had been speculating about DVD release strategy.  Would it be best for them to knock out a quick and dirty barebones DVD to have ready for the release of Vol 2?  Would they then release Vol 2 on DVD six months after it hit the theatre?  How long would they wait for the box set with all of the commentary and special features that Tarantino junkies require?  We had no solid theories.

Last week, I read somewhere that Vol 1 was going to be out on DVD in April.  That was a bit dissapointing, since I had wanted to rewatch Vol 1 and then see Vol 2.  But no matter, Vol 2 was going to hit in Feb, and I would just deal with it.

Except, now it’s not.

According to Yahoo! Movies, it is now slated to be released on April 16, which just happens to be right around when the DVD comes out.  The absurd part about it is that the movie has been in the can for quite some time before Vol 1 even hit the theatres.

I’m sure that this has something to do with the okay but not spectacular numbers that Vol 1 posted at the theatres.  It has managed to pull in about $70 million since it was released, which is not a bomb, but not very good either.  It quickly reached cult status among a subset of moviegoers, but it failed to hit critical mass and go mainstream like Pulp Fiction did.

I can only assume that Miramax decided to push back the opening of Vol 2 in hopes that significant buzz would be generated by the release of Vol 1 on DVD.  To whomever decided to do this: Eff you!  You’ve managed to piss off the people that saw Vol 1 and told all of their friends to see it.  We’re not happy.  We’re still going to fork over $9 to see the movie, but we’re going to come in angry.  We’re probably going to buy Vol 1 on DVD the week it comes out, Vol 2 as soon as it comes out, and eventually the boxed set, because we’ve got to have those deleted scenes, that commentary, those interviews, and that extra content.

But Miramax, you have pissed us off.