The Buffy episode “Once More, with Feeling” gave fandom its first look at Joss Whedon’s inner Stephen Sondheim. Since then, we’ve been waiting for him to unleash his fully armed and operational choreographed song and dance chi! When the writers went on strike, the time was ripe. Whedon set to work in the dark Mutant Enemy basement devising an ultimate plan. This week, the plan was unveiled!

Enter Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!

Witness Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a failed super villain trying to prove his evil genius to the league and work up the nerve to talk to the love of his life. Pine after Felicia Day as Penny, the object of Dr. Horrible’s affections who eagerly hopes to save the poor and hungry of the world. Guffaw at Nate Fillion as Captain Hammer, nemesis of Dr. Horrible whose might is surpassed only by his smarmy smirk. It’s got action, romance, and singing!

Acts I and II are up for free right now at the site. The final act airs on Saturday. They’ll stay up for free until Sunday night. Then, they will vanish. Not really. You’ll be able to purchase all three acts for download when they’re all ready. And I imagine there will be a big honking DVD sometime after that.

This is pretty freaking awesome. A few people tried to link me earlier in the week, but it was so popular, the site was wanged. It now seems to be working so head on over there and catch the first two acts. Seriously, this is absolutely awesome! I hope Joss makes a habit of this because I want more. Thanks to the readers who sent me the link (William Schwartz, Charm City Shinobi, and Jeff Haut).

UPDATE: You can download from iTunes now! Hooray! $3.99 gets you a season pass which means you get all current and future episodes. So you’ll get Acts I and II with III downloaded when it becomes available. I predict much money for Joss and crew. Thanks Greg.

[Via Dr. Horrible]

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First, direct your browser to http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/viewer.html. I’ll wait.

Back? Wasn’t that FREAKING AWESOME?!

Apparently, you can download the data and create your own visualizations. If you create something cool, you can send it along to the band. They’d love to see what you can come up with.

Here’s a making-of video.

I can’t think of a better band to try this kind of visualization.

And finally, here’s the music video once again. I couldn’t figure out how to stop it from auto-playing so I stuck it behind a cut. Enjoy!

(more…)

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AZM ally Hawk sent over this video demonstration of VideoTrace from The Australian Centr for Visual Technologies which basically allows you to create 3D geometry from video footage. You literally just trace the object you want to model and poof, instant 3D object! I imagine that the source footage must have a good amount of parallax for the trace to work properly. If you only manage to get a side view of an object, there wouldn’t be enough visual information to denote depth. Freaking awesome!

This would be perfect for quickly modeling buildings in a location shoot to be destroyed with visual effects. I can imagine lots of gaming, tv, and film applications for quick and dirty effects and modeling.

[Via The Australian Centre for Visual Technologies]

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You’d almost expect Skynet to be a ninja master at chess. Given enough computing power, a computer can calculate every possible move on a chess board and extrapolate a proper counter against a human opponent. In essence, chess is an information based game. But what about a game like poker that’s based more on intuition and skill?

AZM regular Greg sent over an alarming article about Polaris, a computer program developed by Michael Bowling of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta that beat Texas Hold-em pros. This was Polaris’s second time at the big table. The first time it went up against human opponents last year, Polaris lost twice, tied once, and won once. This time around Polaris lost once, tied once, and won twice. Bowling believes that given enough practice and computing power, Polaris could play a perfect game of poker every time.

You know, if Bowling is ever hurting for research funds, all he has to do is fire up Polaris and hit those online Hold-em sites. What better way to give Polaris some practice and raise funds to continue development and research?

[Via ars technica]

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Illustration via The Independent

AZM ally and Morlock all star Nelly sent over this article which ponders harnessing the kinetic energy generated by boobs in motion.

Adrienne So, a columnist for The Independent, was tired of her breasts getting in the way during exercise. She wondered if it was possible to make a bra that would harness energy from boob motion to power an iPod. If they’re going to be flopping around anyway, might as well put them to work. She took her inquiry to three scientists; LaJean Lawson, who has researched breast motion since 1985 and consults with athletic wear companies like Nike to develop better sports bras; Gerogia Tech’s Zhong Lin Wang, who is developing nanowire technology to create fabric that harness energy from friction and motion; and Larry Rome, a biology professor with the University of Pennsylvania who created the Lightning Pack, a backpack that harnesses energy from the vertical motion of the pack on long hikes. All three present possible solutions for So’s iPod-powering bionic bra. Someday very soon, ladies, your happy fun bags could provide an endless supply of clean (well, depending on how much you sweat) energy for various devices.

I think it’d be more difficult to develop a bionic cup for men. The vertical motion of a wang is different depending on its rigidity or flaccidity. Boobs are probably more ideal to generate energy since they maintain a consistent size and, um, mooshyness. Hooray for mooshyness!

[Via The Independent]

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“*Droool* Second Life doooonuuuut!”

Never been much of a fan of Second Life, but this is pretty damn cool. Reader Elliott Fox send over news that a research group headed by Assistant Professor Junich Ushiba at Keio University successfully demonstrated technology that allowed a man suffering from a muscle disorder to walk in Second Life and use “voice chat” all with the power of his brain meats. To read the patient’s brainwaves, electrodes are attached to the scalp. The computer interprets waves associated with forward movement and hand movement and manipulates the virtual Second Life avatar accordingly. And look, we have video!

While it is somewhat disconcerting to know that now Skynet has the ability to map our brain functions, this technology is great news for the physically disabled. It’s all very Ghost in the Shell, but it’s easy to imagine a future where you can jack into a computer with your brain meats and manipulate data without ever touching a keyboard. With a proper set up, a physically disabled person could get around just as easily as the rest of us without assistance. Of course, then we start blurring the line between man and machine and things get all cyber punky and awesome. Or Skynet becomes self aware and decides its tired of taking out the trash while we sit in bed jacked into a machine and Judgement Day comes. Damn tricksy Skynet!

[Via Science Daily]

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The dreamy eyes of Vigo Mortensen compel you to vote no on AFTRA’s deal with the AMPTP. Like a number of actors, he’s both an SAG and AFTRA member. A no vote is not a strike authorization. But it would force AFTRA to go back to the negotiating table. SAG President Alan Rosenberg explains just why the AFTRA deal is so damaging to actors.

So now this is all starting to make a little more sense. I can totally respect artist not wishing to endorse products they don’t believe in or possibly loosing existing endorsements because of competitive product placement. Product placement is horribly annoying anyway. Okay, the Moutain Dew bot shooting cans at everyone was amusing in Transfuckyou. I kind of question the effectiveness though. I can’t for the life of me remember what phone Tony Stark was using yet I know the company paid big bucks to put the thing in his hands.

Anyway, not sure of the timeline here regarding when the vote will take place. I also think it’s quite telling that Rosenberg clarified that a no vote does not mean a vote to strike. Perhaps the SAG recognizes the weakness of their current position. More as it comes.

More actors weigh in with their opinions over at SAG TV.

[Via SAG TV]

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“My farts smell like rose petals, tee hee!”

Nelly from Morlock Enterprises sent along the good news that Honda’s FCX Clarity will be the first commercially produced zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell car. I believe BMW tested a fuel cell car a few years ago but apparently, that model never made it to market. The good news, FCX emits water vapor instead of carbon monoxide like its regular fueled and hybrid powered cousins. The bad news, the dearth of hydrogen refueling stations ensures slow adoption of this technology. Hydrogen is also fairly costly produce with fossil fuels being the easiest method to produce the gas. Taking the use of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen into account, the carbon footprint of the FCX might actually be larger than a regular car.

Still, this is certainly a step in the right direction. I have every confidence that if enough money is thrown at hydrogen, a method to produce it cheaply and cleanly will be developed (that’s the very tiny optimist in me talking). Instead of outright selling the FCX, Honda plans to lease the vehicles to select customers in California beginning this July and later in the year in Japan. A three year lease goes for $600 a month. Honda plans to make 200 of these over the next three years.

This sounds really awesome and forward looking and all, but Nelly asks the obvious question.

If all cars were hydrogen cars will they emit enough water vapor to cause major roadways to always be damp? Would this dampness be enough to cause black ice or freeze? Would it be enough to make a difference to humidity around the roadways (if I break down in the summer do I want to be standing around the hot road to begin with, let along one that has water evaporating off it).

AND

The internals of the car seem to involve some bit of water… will that water freeze in the winter? Does it matter if it does?

Certainly it will take many many many many years before hydrogen vehicles are adopted widely enough to even speculate about their environmental impact. But say they were, would copious amounts of water vapor affect our climate? Some of you geeks out there with strong science jutsu, this challenge is for you!

[Via BBC News]

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“Why, Spock! Have you been working out?”

Long known for the copyright infringement perpetrated by its user base, it seems that Veoh now has actual licenses to stream network television shows. AZM regular Kevin Bahrt sent over the Star Trek Veoh channel which has most of the episodes from season 1 and 2 of the original series.

A quick look at some of the programs they offer reveals that some of them are grabbed from Hulu which I guess isn’t technically wrong, just a bit misleading. For shows that Veoh actually streams, unlike Hulu embed tags are removed. It’s okay to jack other site’s content but not ours? Weird. The other thing that sucks is these shows only stream for the U.S. Suck. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before these services start grabbing international licenses. I imagine international advertisers would pay top dollar to get on these shows. Until then, the torrent market probably won’t be slowing down any time soon.

[Via Veoh]

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Las Vegas’s Rio hotel and casino is getting six Microsoft Surface tables. If you ignore the annoying sales pitch voice over and incredibly perky feature actress, the Surface looks like it could be a lot of fun. The trendy bar scene seems like the perfect place for Surface. The cost of putting on in your home would just be stupid. You put a Super Monkey Ball game on that thing and watch people play after getting completely smashed and you double your entertainment value right there!

[Via Gizmodo]

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