Stephen Fry: Actor, Writer, Apple Enthusiast

Mr. Stephen Fry, actor, writer, friend of Douglas Adams, and Apple Enthusiast, has written a non-review review of the new Apple iPad for Time magazine.

In short, he fancies it quite a bit. That is not at all shocking.
What is, however, is the amount of space he dedicates to the memory of Douglas Adams.

Early in the article, he recounts the joy in owning his first Mac (in fact, the second Mac sold in the UK. The first sold? Why, to Douglas Adams, of course), and how that user experience changed his relationship with computers. It made computers fun again, their use akin to playing with a shiny new toy.

He says about as much for the iPad – in many more words, perfectly and artistically ordered, of course. As an aside, I must admit a certain level of admiration for Fry’s writing style. Truth be told, the four page article can be boiled down to a preference for Apple products because they are fun to use, and that fun makes it easier to focus on the task at hand, rather than dwell on the fact that one is, in fact working.

It is his closing paragraph, however, that caught my attention the most- and solidified my own feelings on the nebulous device I’ve never laid hands on:

[For] me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands. One melancholy thought occurs as my fingers glide and flow over the surface of this astonishing object: Douglas Adams is not alive to see the closest thing to his Hitchhiker’s Guide that humankind has yet devised.

Indeed, this is what I’ve wanted to hear since day one. Yes, I’ve compared the iPad to the PADD, but at the back of my mind I’ve also thought of it as The Guide, as in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Not the book, but the plot device from which the books name derives.

The same can be said for both my iPhone, and my iPod Touch. And, of course, the iPod Video before that, or my Macbook, or my iMac. All of them designed to be inviting and warm, to exude a sense of calmness at the user, and – in general – be functional without requiring one to think too much about what it is one is trying to do.

I’ve promised myself that I’m not going to buy one of these things until I’ve had a chance to use it, to evaluate it, so make sure it’s what I think it is – and it can do what I need/want it to do.

But, I’m fairly certain that once those niggling doubts are satisfied, it shall become as ubiquitous as my towel: Always at my side, should I need it in a pinch to fulfill one of it’s many uses.

I found a digital camera in the woods…

With those words, one of my all time internet memes/pranks was created. I’m not familiar with the entire history of this particular meme, and – frankly – I think if I were to learn the whole truth it might rob it of some charm. So, I’m not going to bother finding out.

Instead, I’m going to post what I remember of it, including the full set of “found in the woods” pictures.

The year was 2004, and the internet was in full bloom. What we now consider the Great Meme Factories had yet to fully usurp Something Awful and Fark from their places of meme propagation. It was, indeed, a dark and lonely time.

These pictures are believed to have been created by SA Goons (Something Awful forum users), and were used numerous times in prank postings across the internet. A typical thread would read:

Last week I drove to a nearby town. The town is surrounded by tall hills and mountains, and you can have a very pleasant hike down any of the numerous trails there. Anyway, I was climbing one trail and enjoying the good weather when I saw what looked like a silver box. When I approached, I saw it was a digital camera!

It would then contain the pictures, and not much else. But, that’s all that was really needed. The photographs themselves, artfully edited, flow in such a way as to tell a story. Things start out nice, if a bit foggy, a walk down a road some where. Trees, grass, and fog. Nothing much to worry about – nothing extraordinary.

Then, things start to get a bit darker – lighting wise. The “hidden” things in the images begin to be seen easier (such as the humanoid shape, or the cat spiders), and you know things aren’t going to go well.

The photographer keeping trudging ever onward, seemingly oblivious to the ominous warnings around him. He sees some abandoned building, explores it a bit… then presses on. Finally coming to the fog enshrouded tower – and the what it contains.

In fact, it’s not until this point in the “narrative” that we’re even made aware of the photographer. By this time, the wordless, descriptionless pictures have managed to build a sense of dread, when we finally see the former camera owners hand. This hand injects a sense of humanity into the proceedings, and sets the viewers up for the final revelation and denouement.

If one were to apply any sort of logic to the final pictures in this narrative, one would realize that there is none – that the whole thing must be fabricated. And yet, this didn’t deter me from greatly enjoying the pictures, and reading the various theories as to their origins. To this day, it remains one of my favorite internet “finds”.

Below are the “original” photos, posted in much the same way as they were all those years ago. Please, enjoy them…
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Summary:

Last week (sorry about the delay!) I spent four days at the Star Trek Las Vegas 2009 convention.

That’s four days of Star Trek, Star Trek stars and Star Trek fans. Four days of wandering the same halls, looking over some of the loot, and generally being surrounded by folks geekier than I am.

Four days of awesome.

This year was actually a bit mellower than previous conventions – they had fewer folks on stage on any given day, but made up for that by giving them a bit more time to do their thing. This time was greatly appreciated, as it gave the cast time to open up and really get into things. As always, I would have preferred just a bit more time for some of them (Frakes and Dorn, in particular), but I’m not going to be too picky. Any time is better than no time.

Full breakdown follows.

Pictures Taken: 331
Pictures Actually In Focus: 134

Mobile Me Gallery

Thursday:

• Rapping/Singing Ferengi
  Max “Rom” Grodenchick”
  Came out, told some interesting DS9 stories, some stories about the makeup and about being Rom, then did some songs and a bit of dance.
• Rapping/Singing/Dancing/Joking Klingons
  (Martok and Gowron)
  Pretty much what it says – two of the DS9 era actors, in full Klingon garb (only time I’ve seen a Trek actor actually in costume) and mostly in character, singing, dancing, fighting and generally being entertaining Klingons.
• Johnathan Frakes/Micheal Dorn
  (Cmdr. Riker, Lt. Cmdr. Worf)
  Not sure what else I need to say – Frakes was crazy as hell, and Dorn was barely saner. The two of them were just wild and entertaining, talking about everything from smashing eggs on “Ol’ Baldies” head, to flying planes and being old and fat.

Friday:

• DS9 Cast Panel
  A large group; Rosenberg enjoyed the hell out of it. I walked out, because it was kind of boring… Just like DS9.
• Robert Picardo / Ethan Philips “House Call”
  (The Doctor and Neelix, Star Trek Voyager)
  A two man play, written and performed by them. Very humorous – and filled with them bickering both in and out of character. I wish I could have recorded it – it was just awesome.

Saturday:

• George Takei
  (Mr. Sulu, TOS)
  It’s Sulu! What more do you need to know? Talked a bit about the new movie, and how he got into acting, his father, and then a bit about the gay marriage situation in California. Good times, great speaker.
• Christopher Llyod
  Doc Brown himself. Came out a bit dazed, and bit nervous but by the hours end he was rocking the joint. Told many great stories from his days of acting covering the entirety of his career. A great man, Mr. Lloyd.
• Voyager Cast Panel
  (Robert Picardo, Ethan Philips, Roxann Doawson, Tim Russ)
  As always, a highlight of the convention. Not sure why, but the Voyager crew are always my favorites to watch – always funny, always making each other – and us – laugh. They truly are a family, and it shows.
• Star Trek Online Developer Chat
  ZOMG! I cannot wait for this game to come out! I also got into the beta because my wonderful and amazing girlfriend was willing to sit in line for over an hour and half for me.
  The devs do have a handle on both the Trek universe and what it is that makes a game fun – I cannot stress just how awesome the game looks in motion, and how much I want to play it.

Sunday:

• Zachary Quinto (Harassed by Garrett “Harry Kim” Wang)
  (New Spock in the new Star Trek movie)
  Zach is hot. There’s no other way to put it – the man has such a strong stage presence that no less than THREE ladies (and possibly one man) nearly lost their shit when trying to ask him a question – and one girl was completely speechless in his presence.
  This, of course, did not stop Garrett from asking the nerdiest question of the entire convention, and also acting like the huge fanboy he must really be.
• William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
  There are no words to describe this. Shatner was still bitter, if only for comedic effect, and Nimoy pretty much called him on it. It was a great way to end a good convention.

Loot Report:

STLV09 Loot

• Star Trek fleece pullover
• Red Shirt cologne (Because Tomorrow May Never Come)
• Intergalactic Bartender drink recipe book
• Gallifreyan Institute of Technology Tee
• United Federation of Planets Tee (thanks Nadia!)
• Mini- Prometheus, All Good Things Enterprise-D, Original Series Enterprise
• Star Trek Voyager two pack toy (Species 8472 and Harry Kim)
• Star Trek Voyager Voyager tree ornament
• 3D Trek new movie Enterprise 3D picture

It it sounds like Buffy, well… That’s because it kind of is like buffy – only on a much smaller scale. The cast is much smaller, and while the story strives to be epic, it never reaches that full potential, always seeming somewhat smaller and less important than it wants to be.

The mythology of the story is a weird combination of the aforementioned Buffy, traditional Christian mythology, Lovecraftian Lore, and in later “chapters”, the Zodiac. Honestly, trying to make too much sense of it all is pointless – things happen, and then people fight and kill demons.

It’s a good, quick and fun read – nothing epic, nothing earth shattering, nothing more than a quick diversion. I wish I could say something more positive about it, but it generally feels like something that’s been done before…

5:22:29 PM: I’m going to annoy everyone on my Twitter thing by liveblogging the iPhone update. Yay technology!

5:22:43 PM: Installing now btw…

5:25:41 PM: Verifying. Hrm, blog seems to not actually be getting these updates.

5:29:05 PM: Okay, the blog is working. My phone? Not so much yet.

5:30:56 PM: Oh, what’s this? A warning that an app I have contains stuff not suitable for those under 17? Crazy…

5:32:15 PM: What’s this? Done already? Huh… Wonder why so many other people had to re-sync everything, but I didn’t.

5:33:47 PM: “whats this? what’s this?” Who am I, King of frakin’ Halloween?

5:36:46 PM: Checking out some settings. There’s an App Store entry in Settings now.

5:38:43 PM: Trying the Find My iPhone thing now…

5:40:22 PM: Getting some strange feedback on the blog. I think I’m also going to setup a new twitter account just for liveblogging.

5:43:33 PM: Found it to within a several blog area… refining it to within twenty feet. Not bad.

Kind of like Crackdown, or Saints Row 2, I suppose. A sort of “One more mission, okay, one more mission, really, I mean it this time, just one more… You know what? I’ll just play another hour or – it’s what time?! Well, one more mission won’t hurt” logic starts running through my head. I can kill hours doing almost nothing in the game, and enjoy it all.

Yesterday was Apples developer conference; nothing major came out of it. Cheaper laptops, cheaper (sort of) iPhones, updated OS’s for both… Nothing revolutionary, nothing really worthy of causing me to head to the Apple Store this weekend to spend money.

One nice thing, though, was the price structure for the next OS X upgrade: $30. That’s right, $30 to upgrade the OS. $40 if you want to do it on five machines, and $130 if you don’t want an “upgrade” version, although what the difference is I’m not sure. Compare that, if you will, to Microsofts price structure. Vista upgrades start at $90 per machine, and the full OS is $250. So, yeah, you might pay a bit more upfront for the Mac, but it evens out over the life of the machine.

At this point, come September, I should have the money stuffed away to pick up – with cash – a new 13″ MacBook Pro the “family” pack of Snow Leopard to update my current Macs. I’m going to offer Nadia my current Mac, and if she doesn’t want it I’ll figure something else out.

First, I’ve changed the theme – again – and think I’ll settle on the current one for a while. Traditionally, as soon as I post something mentioning a new theme and how it’ll stick around for a bit, I move instantly to a new theme. Not so much this time – I’m digging the layout and the colors, and only plan on doing a few minor tweaks to it in the coming weeks. Definitely going to change the header – can’t stand that font – and will take any suggestions from you, the readers.

Second is the Lifestream page that I recently added. Basically, it’s a page that collects the various updates to social networks in one handy location for people… Also makes it easier for me to log what I’ve been saying where. Right now it’s got Twitter, Facebook and XBox Live, and I’m considering adding a few other things – like Google Reader shared thing. Again, suggestions welcome.

And, on a related note, I tied my Twitter to my Facebook, so that tweets change my status. Basically, it now allows me to annoy more people with less effort, which is always a win in my book.

For me, at least.

Warp Core Breach : Best Drink in Existence

I’ve found it! I’ve finally found it!

After months of looking, I’ve found the fabled recipe for the Best Drink Ever: the Warp Core Breach, once proudly served in Quarks Bar and Grill at the Star Trek Experience.

I remember one night, a month and change before the place shut down, Rosenberg and I hit the place up for a visit… and we got to talking to the bartender, who promised that the recipe would find it’s way online.

Well, today I had a bit of slow time at work… I did a Google query, and found it nestled deep on a Trek BBS somewhere on the interwebs.

So, here it is, straight from someone purporting to be an actual STE Bartender:

Bacardi Select
Bacardi Dark
Bacardi 151
Bacardi Limon
Captain Morgan (Bacardi Spice)
passion fruit punch
raspberry razzmatazz
Lots of Ice
A Small amount of Dry ice

To make a full size of one of these drinks, evenly mix equal parts of the different rums to about a quarter of a pint and top up with raspberry, passion fruit (tropical type) punch, ice and dry ice (best to put that in first).

I’m torn between trying to make this myself – and failing epically, or giving the recipe to someone at PT’s and asking them very nicely to make one for me. They do make the Sonic Screwdriver (or just bluedriver), so I don’t see why they wouldn’t make this too.

According to “sources”, the Star Trek Experience could re-open as soon as May! Of course, the catch there is it’d just be the restaurant, bar and gift shop – the rides would come later.

Personally, I’m just excited that there’s more forward momentum on this thing… The STE was pretty much my favorite thing to hit in town, and I’m just excited as hell to see it again.

Also: WARP CORE!

Best. Drink. Ever.

Star Trek The Experience To Re-open in May? (Maybe) | TrekMovie.com.

Sunday I watched BSG while Nadia napped – and I’m wondering just how the hell they plan on wrapping up the series, and just how much more depressing things are going to get. It’s really getting bad.

I also – over the course of the weekend – managed to re-watch the entire run of The Middleman, my favorite show of 2008. Turns out it’s available for free watching on the ABC Family website – you just gotta dig for it a bit.

I also stumbled across the new Batman cartoon, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Damn fun stuff, that. Kind of light hearted, very much just for fun… and it made me realize that Coldiron is Aquaman.