Anime Dub Vs Sub

Normally Anime fans regard the discussion of original subtitles vs dubbed English with disdain, because historically dubs have been terrible. No terrible as in an audio quality way, but terrible because the dubbers change the script to please a younger western audience. This can mean that characters nolonger swear, subplots are removed, cultural references get a more US flair and most scripts loose their edge.

In the last ten years this however has started to change and companies performing the dubs know that fans hate it when they change things, so they have been trying to do more unabridged dubs. For me this peaked when I seen the English Dub of Beck. I was shocked to discover the Dub was better than the original sub!

The reason for this is that Beck is about a native Japanese speaking band with no knowledge of English who sing English songs. This means they have a strong Japanese accent on all the songs and for myself an English speaker this was slightly jarring, the English dub however has none of this. And with an almost completely unabridged script, it's brilliant. I highly recommend the sub all the time, but the dub is better.

Japanese


English

Tilt Shift Cameras

Of the camera lenses in the world the Tilt Shift style seem to be getting very popular and so I went searching. What I found was rather interesting:



And one of those tight focus videos:

Random Fact

Smurfs are exactly three apples tall.

Data Through Visible Light

When I heard about Data Through Visible Light, I thought it was something about fibre optics, but this is something different. This is an LED based light transmitting a data stream through alpha waves (light in the range of human vision). On the surface this might seem pointless, but it has a few tantalising applications.

Imagine an advert on television where by using a mobile phone camera you could download the product. Or if you are in a club the lights could tell you what music was playing. Or if a power LED on a product could stream detailed information about what it was doing. Imagine a situation where you have twenty or more televisions that you want to display the same image, in sync from the same video source, with current technology that would take a lot of cables, but with this the screens would only need to see the light from a single source.

The future of all electronics will be to make them wireless and this will be another tool. Wither it will be a staple of consumer electronics is yet to see, but all mobile phones have cameras.

Upside Down Dog.com

Upside Down Dog.com is a photoblog of upside down dogs. Very pointless, very silly and nobody would have created such a thing pre-internet.

Money Island 2 Out Now On STEAM

Money Island 2 Special Edition came out on Steam (Link). Playing it, it seems a lot more polished than the last Special Edition. The developers commentary is excellent too.

I was reading an article today called 10 Things You Did Not Know About Monkey Island and unlike your usual "things you didn't know" articles this was very good.

Apple Says No Thanks To Bluray

Apple computers are premium computers that are stylish and do everything in HD because when you buy a Mac you know you are buying the latest technology. But for some reason you can't get one with a Bluray player.

One might think that this was a licensing issue, but Apple isn't bothering with Blueray because users are already buying movies from iTunes.

[Crunch Gear]

Korean Android Girl (Rihanna - Take A Bow)

Simply delightful.



Rihanna's version isn't half bad either.

Super Mario Crossover

Now you can play the original Super Mario Brothers Nintendo game with Samus, Mega Man or several other classic characters in Super Mario Crossover.

The History Of PC Audio As Told By Money Island

I seen this on Evil Avatar. I started with a SoundBlaster 16 myself and the first game I had with sound was Theme Park.

Omnitech Skateboard Figure

The Omnitech Skateboard Figure is a skateboarding action figure with a control rod so it acts more like a puppet.



The below video shows how they are operated, I don't think they will catch on, but they might sell enough to keep going.

Llewellyn On Copyright

Robert Llewellyn, writer, actor and comedian got hit with the YouTube video takedown hammer recently and he has some interesting things to say on Copyright as a result.

Website Naming Disasters

One Hundred Website Naming Disasters. My favourite is the children's charity childrenslaughter.com, is it Children's Laughter or Children Slaughter?

Power Rangers And It's Japanese Twin

Power Rangers was a very popular kids TV show during the 90's and 00's, but it had a Japanese twin called Zyuranger. All the in-costume action shots where re-purposed from the original Japanese show and re-used in the American show with new story pieces filmed around them for a western audience. I always wondered what the Japanese intro was like:

Dinosaur Squadron Zyuranger:


Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Into and Full Theme Music if you so wish.

Google Chrome Vs Opera Vs Potato

As a mindspace type ad Google put-together an odd advert called Chrome Vs Potato (see below), funny, but one does have to wonder what that has to do with performance benchmarking.



Now Opera have done a parody advert on the same idea, Opera Vs Potato. Proving that potatoes don't make for a very consistent browser speed test.

Random Fact

Horses are unable to vomit.

Harry Potter Linked To The Jewish Plot To Takeover The World

Some people on Iranian television would have it's viewers that Jews in Hollywood are using Harry Potter to take over the world. I am not sure how anybody could use Harry Potter to bring the world under their control, but I think this is a clear example that antisemitism is still very much alive in the world and not something that died with Hitler.

Octopus Guerrilla Filmmaker Steals Diver's Digicam

This Story is brilliant. Octopus steals camera, diver chases after octopus and wrestles it back.

Happy To Own

This guy seems very happy about his Neo Geo collection.

The Pink Panther:The Pink Phink

In 1964 the first episode of The Pink Panther won an Oscar for Short Subjects. I remember watching this as a kid, but unlike a lot of things back then when I rewatch them and realise how shallow they where, this is kind of cool.