Archive: January 2008
So, do artists get money from digital downloads or not? - January 5, 2008 9:08 PM
There's an article in the latest issue of Wired that has David Byrne talking to Thom Yorke of Radiohead about their pay-what-you-like digital release of In Rainbows. An interesting quote caught my eye: Byrne: Are you making money on the...
Disneyland - January 7, 2008 10:32 AM
Way out west in the land of animation, All times here are celebration! Look away, look away, look away, Disneyland. I wish I was in Disney, hooray, hooray, In Disneyland I'll take my stand, I'll stand in line at Disney....
The Autobot military conundrum - January 13, 2008 10:12 PM
One of the geekier things I do: I spend a lot (compared to how much time such a subject should warrant) of time thinking about military structures in the Transformers universe, and how they correspond to actual non-fictional militaries. Specifically,...
- ⇒ Transformers 2.0 (link from Jan 14, 2008)
Along the lines of my musings on the Autobot military conundrum, this great fanfic (which I've linked to before) is probably what got me started thinking along those lines in the first place.
Using Things - January 14, 2008 1:50 PM
I've been using Things for the last two weeks or so as my GTD application of choice. I was previously using Backpack for the same thing, but having been caught without a working internet connection a few times had me...
- ⇒ Encore Reissue 10? OMEGA SUPREME! (link from Jan 15, 2008)
TakaraTomy has announced they'll be reissuing the first of the giants, Omega Supreme. Even more than the citybots, even more than Fortress Maximus, I wanted this toy when I was a kid. That hasn't dimmed any since then. I've never been able to find one in good shape for a decent price. While TakaraTomy's price for the guardian probably won't be what I'd consider decent, I can at least get one in good shape.
Made easy - January 16, 2008 10:11 PM
I've not bought a Transformer in two months, maybe three. I've not ordered Sky Lynx, nor have I ordered any other toy that might not show up in a Wal-Mart. I probably won't buy the reissue of Omega Supreme, even...
- ⇒ Intuit To Rewrite Quicken, Demos TurboTax 2008 (link from Jan 19, 2008)
Oh, thank God. After trying a number of other financial apps for the Mac, I keep coming back to Quicken, because no matter how poorly it works, or how much it fails to integrate with the rest of the OS (e.g., ⌘+A opens the accounts window instead of selecting all; ⌘+D deletes entries), it's still the only financial package that does everything I want it to. The closest I ever came to switching was using Cha-Ching, which I even paid for because I thought it was the one, but I couldn't deal with the combined register view. I'll be extremely pleased when a new Mac Quicken hits stores. I'll be the first in line to purchase it.
Jason Todd as Red Robin - January 24, 2008 10:13 AM
Even though DC telegraphed it way too far in advance, I was thrilled when I came to this panel in Countdown to Final Crisis 14: Not the panel where Jason Todd is revealed dressed in the Red Robin costume, mind...
We get it already... - January 24, 2008 8:37 PM
I received this e-mail from the Transformers Collectors Club this evening: Hello Daniel Hancock! This is going out to all members. Thanks for your support and help. We hope you all enjoyed the sneak peak [sic] picture of Sunstreaker we...
- ⇒ G1 Optimus finally gets a new head (link from Jan 29, 2008)
They've done about a hundred reissues of the original Optimus Prime figure in the last few years, between Japan and the US. But finally, they're releasing a version with a new head sculpt that's much closer to the classic "Optimus Prime" look than the head sculpt from the original toy.That's right. Look at that sentence. It'd funny how much ol' Prime has evolved from that original Convoy toy, isn't it?
It's too bad that this remold comes on the iPod Player Prime (which is even a reissue of a previous Music Label Convoy figure), which is gonna run more ($140) than a standard reissue, else I'd snatch it up. Because you can never have too many versions of the same damn figure.
- ⇒ They were always real to me (link from Jan 29, 2008)
The website for Transformers: Universe, or Classics II, is really pretty. I love the art of Classics Prime in the masthead. But the home page for it includes a wonderful little animation, taking the Prime/Megatron battle from Transformers: The Movie and doing it in semi-realistic CG. They cut Hot Rod's role in the battle, but it's pretty graphic nonetheless. Neat website, Hasbro!
- ⇒ Sneak Peak: Transformers Universe Classic Deluxe and Ultra Wave 1 (link from Jan 29, 2008)
It's a big day for Transformers - Hasbro posted images of the prototypes for the upcoming Universe line. This month's club magazine has colored images, but prototype images like these are so much better for seeing detail (and I haven't gotten the magazine yet - this is the magazine I got the e-mail below about). The stars of the line are Sunstreaker and Prowl, who both are just amazing representations of the classic characters. Prowl's shoulder cannons and Sunstreaker's head, in particular, are making me drool. I'm not sold on the others yet; they look great, but they don't necessarily invoke the G1 nostalgia Sunstreaker and Prowl do. But I imagine the retail versions of the figures will be amazing, just like the original Classics figures. It'd sure be cool if these were out before Botcon in April.