Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2009 in Star Trek
Watching this video is painful to me — William Shatner is a class act in this case, but there’s something cruel about not having him in this film. It would be one thing if Nimoy didn’t have a cameo because then you could argue that “we just couldn’t make it work with the script”. But sadly my bet is that while this may been about ego, it most likely had more to do with money (which may not be unrelated to ego). Shame on Paramount for letting this happen this way. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2009 in Science, Tech
Anyone who has watched the Six Million Dollar Man One knows that one of the holy grails of bionics is to create a bionic eye. But one problem (aside from portability) has been how to create an eye that isn’t a flat surface. This video shows some new work being done where scientists have placed a pixel detector on a surface that can be flexible which brings us a bit closer to making bionic eyes a reality: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2009 in Videogames
As an interface designer there’s very little in the world of hardware that looks more clunky than the original NES controller from the 80s (well except for Apple’s original iMac hockey puck mouse), but in a sense it’s that primitive charm that makes it such an iconic symbol for an bygone era of videogame innocence. Also in a sense the clunky factor adds to the fun of game play which brings one back to the good old days before ergonomics became a trendy. This Retro NES USB Controller is being distributed by ThinkGeek and features a modern USB connection and is perfect for MAME and NES emulators: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 29, 2009 in Comic Books
This comedy sketch for Funny or Die is cute, but at the same time it does make me feel bad for Adam West who brought Batman to life in the 60s. West is a real gentleman and you can find him at many conventions, but one would wish that Hollywood would honor him a bit more and give him some roles to show off his talents. Hollywood lives for youth, but one would wish that there would be a closet fanboy casting director somewhere willing to give the man some proper screen time (aside from appearances on the Family Guy): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 29, 2009 in Star Trek
I’m getting excited by this film! This new trailer has a bit of new footage, but nothing that adds much more to our understanding of the film. By the way I’m starting to see a great a great deal of advertising all over the place — here’s an ad I spotted in the NYC subway system: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 29, 2009 in Animation, Tech
If you’re any sort of anime fanboy (or fangurl) you’re going to want to sign up for Nico Nico Douga which is almost like a Japanese version of YouTube (in fact the first version of Nico Nico Douga used YouTube as a source). However most fans get turned off as you need to register to see any videos and the entire interface is in Japanese (although there are Spanish and German interfaces available if you know those languages). The other nice thing about the site is that it encourages users to post high quality video.
To make it easy to get started I put together the first three steps to get you to he right spot. This is where you click on the homepage: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 28, 2009 in Animation
I was quite pleasantly surprised that the above robot design was created by Disney! Earlier this year Disney cracked the Japanese market with a show called Fireball which was designed to appeal to a Japanese audience (with some help from Toei who did all of the heavy lifting). The main character is a robot-girl named Hatsune Miki who also goes by “Drossel” is a mech-girl — shown above is a figurine based on her character (which can be pre-order from National Console Support). Sadly Fireball didn’t do too great because a second season isn’t in the works, but here’s a bit of video to give you a taste: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 28, 2009 in Videogames
It’s funny the world of arcade video games seems to be so stagnant that it’s amazing to see what’s going on in Japan where they seem to be having much more fun. A good case in point is the Sega Storm-G ride which will spin the rider a full 360 degrees — the game emulates a bobsled ride on steroids. The first ones will be installed at Sega Joypolis in Tokyo. Read more…
Poor William Shatner! He creates the character of Captain Kirk and doesn’t even get a damn cameo in the upcoming Star Trek film which will no doubt generate millions of dollars worth of merchandise. But if that isn’t enough now they’re cashing in on his Twilight Zone work as well! Shown above is the Twilight Zone Mystic Seer Bobble Head which is based on the classic 1960 Twilight Zone episode Nick of Time which featured a ‘mystic seer’ fortune-telling device. The episode opens with this stunning narration by Rod Serling: Read more…
This comedy sketch for 
