The Avengers build up

So The Avengers movie is coming out this week here in SA, and I am looking forward to this movie more than I have for any movie since Tron 2. It is not just the collection of awesome superheroes present and not the fact that it's written and directed by the nerd-god that is Joss Whedon. The main reason that I'm so psyched for this movie is that it is the culmination of Marvel's attempt to bring comic book continuity to the silver screen with all it's twisted geekyness and ramifications.

This past weekend a few mates and I did an Avengers movie marathon to prepare ourselves for the new movie... so I thought that in the post this week, I'd give my favorite points of each movie:

Iron Man: Robert Downy Jr's portrail of Tony Stark is absolutely perfect. Smart, smooth, successful and totally embraces the coolness factor of being a super hero. Also: the suit... I couldn't think of a better look for it, but my favorite moment has to be right at the end when Black Sabbath's Ironman starts playing... gives me goosebumps.

 

 

 

 

The Increadible Hulk: Mainly, I was just glad that this was better than Hulk /shudder. Edward Norton does a great job of showing Banner's pacifist torment, but my favorite moment must have been Lou Ferrigno showing up as a security guard... lol

 

 

 

 

Thor: "...the mighty, Thor the brave! Crush the infidels in your way!" It must be difficult to play a Viking-God-Alien... but Chris Hemsworth hits the perfect balance of naivete and nobility. Favourite moment: "Then give me one big enough to ride."

 

 

 

 

Captain America: This is in my opinion the most difficult super hero movie to make. It could so easily become an American propaganda exercise. So my favourite part of the movie is that it didn't. It maintained integrity and avoided being overly patriotic while giving us what could be the most well crafted story of the series so far.

 

 

 

 

So now we wait for The Avengers. I've managed to stay mostly spoiler free so far - not an easy feat, I'll tell you.



Welcome to the Era of the Geek, everybody... you're welcome.

-Odd

"I'm a frustrated actor. My ... goal is to beat Alfred Hitchcock in the number of cameos. I'm going to try to break his record" -Stan Lee

Corporate Decision-Making

During my work as an IT professional over the course of the last couple years, I have noticed a disturbing culture in all the large corporations I have worked at. It might just be a purely South African phenomenon… but somehow I don’t think so.

The problem is decision-making, or rather the lack of decision-making. It seems that everyone in any sort of management position at any given corporation is deathly afraid of making decisions. Perhaps it is career suicide if you are seen to make a bad decision? Maybe everyone is following the Wally Method^TM of productivity?

Whatever the basic motivation is, it is a tragedy of modern business. Every project I have ever been on could have happened faster, cheaper and finished with a better product if decisions could be made in a timely manner.

If you work in the corporate world and know the reason why every little thing needs to get passed up through five levels of management on both sides of the consulting tree before it can be settled, please tell me. If not then I have a challenge for you: Next time someone asks you for a decision, gather all the relevant information, weigh up the pros and cons, and CHOOSE!

Any leadership that makes employees deathly afraid of getting something wrong is not leadership at all. It makes every little process that the company must do a complete nightmare and ensures that you will not be able to react quickly (or at all) to changes in the market and we all know that such an attitude means a rapid downfall.

Ok… rant over.

-Odd

“When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.” -William James

Podcast Review: Nerdist Writers Panel

If any of you have been sleeping through the internet age, I’m going to introduce you to a cool new thing: Podcasts.

A podcast is an episodic series of files (either video or audio) that are essentially private radio shows broadcast (and downloadable) online. The word itself comes from an amalgamation of Broadcast and Pod (after the iPod that made digital media so easy to consume). I listen almost exclusively to podcasts when I’m driving and in this series of posts I’m going to introduce you to some of my favourites.

Today’s podcast: The Nerdist Writers Panel

The Nerdist Channel was started by Chris Hardwick and currently has a legion of different podcasts by a variety of hosts, but The Nerdist Writers Panel is easily my favourite. Hosted by Ben Blacker, the Writers Panel is just what it says it is: A Panel of writers (wow… no shit), specifically American TV writers. The guests talk about how they got into the business, what inspires them and what it’s like working on the various TV shows, genres and networks.

I find it fascinating to get this behind the scenes look at what goes into making the TV shows that I admire so much. It turns out that TV is largely a writer’s medium - by which I mean that the writers have the most artistic control over the process, some shows even sending the writer on set to make sure everything goes according to plan – as opposed to feature films where most of the control rests in the hands of the director.

These guys work far to freaking hard (makes me feel completely inadequate), but the collaborative process that happens on most shows (the writers room) sounds thrilling and I always like to hear passionate, creative people talk about their work.

So if you’re looking for something other than crappy pop music listen to on your way to work or while you’re in the gym trying to convince yourself that running on the spot is actually accomplishing something, then why not download a few of the Nerdist Writers Panel’s episodes and give them a listen. I enjoy it, and I’m fairly sure you will too.

-Odd

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway

Modern DRM

As I mentioned in my last post, I've just gotten back into computer gaming after many years absence. This means that I've had my first proper experience with modern DRM... and that was not positive.

For anyone who doesn't know: DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and in the context of gaming it means various software that is installed along with a game to ensure that it is not copied or pirated. Sounds good, right? Sounds fair? ... Well... not so much.

I'll be one of the first people to say that developers have a right to protect their products from being stolen (which is what piracy is) and I always buy legitimate products when and where I can, but the way companies are handling DRM is broken. It's horrible, and here's why:

Every game you buy these days has to authenticate itself online through whatever portal the developer is associated with (Steam, Orgin, Windows Live, etc.) and by itself that would be fine... but all these portal programs need to be updated and then the game itself needs to be patched (often on the day it releases). The net effect of all this is that (in South Africa at least) it takes hours (literally hours) before you can play a game that you bought.

As a case in point, a while ago a few friends and I bought copies of Kingdoms of Amalur and we all got together to play it. Here's the catch... three of us bought legal copies and one went down to the flea market and got a pirated copy at half price.

For those of us who bought it legit, it took 5 hours (5 Fraking hours!) to get the client and game to install, update and play. The guy who pirated it was playing it in half and hour.

So this is what I don't get: Why are games developers making it more difficult (and expensive) to buy legal copies of their games than it is to get pirated ones? I could understand if all this DRM had stopped people pirating games... but it hasn't. You can find them all over PirateBay or at any flea market you care to explore.

Now there are reports that Sony will block used games in their next console. What madness is this? It's like they're going out of their way to push people into piracy.

The world is mad, getting madder and we're all doomed... Doomed it tell you! Doomed!

-Odd

"Humans make illogical decisions" -Spock