Just Stormin’ Thanks…

April 28th, 2005 at 8:07 am by johnsee (Site News)

I just thought I would write a quick little news item on what’s happening with the site. Sandstorming is growing incredibly, with almost 10,000 unique visitors this month. We’ve served up half a million hits and almost 200,000 pages. This is twice as much a last month, which was twice as much as the month before. A page is served up to a visitor almost every 10 seconds. And we want to keep on growing…

Jobs

We’re looking for one more contributor. He or she will be expected to post 2 news stories as week (just the short links to news) and one basic article a fortnight. We’re pretty flexible guys though :) If you’re interested… drop an email here with why you want to help out!

Future

Over the next few weeks and months we plan to implement several upgrades to the site, these include and are not limited to:

• An upgraded method of viewing the image dump
• The ability to submit your own photos to the image dump
• The introduction of some merchandise to the site
• A new look (Ok so it’s not Easter any more…)
• Any other suggestions you think of and email here

Present

Please check out and support Match, who single handedly supplies the site with hosting, at no expense to us.

Thanks to all of you who keep coming back and recommending friends and enemies to the site.

UNDEAD: Aussie Zombie Flick Magic by the Spierig Brothers Reaches the States

April 27th, 2005 at 12:21 pm by johnsee (Features, Movies)

Almost 2 years ago now, my film and television teacher tried to convince several of us in his class to come and check out a flick at the local Dendy cinema. The dendy showed low-budget and arthouse type flicks that weren’t big enough to make it to the likes of the mainstream cinemas. The movie was an Australian flick called ‘Undead‘, and I tagged along and was delighted with the subtle mix of a zombie flick with Aussie humour. At the schools award night later that year, the two Spierig brothers were invited along as judges, and they told a remarkable story about undead. They had made the film for a lowly $1 million, which for a feature film, is extremelly lacking. All the special effects they did themselves on a home computer, with some of the frames taking hours to render. They didn’t just direct, they did it all.

Fast forward to today. I just checked out the apple movie trailers site, and there was a new trailer for Undead. I laughed to myself that someone had reused the name, and was quite surprised to find the movie was one and the same. Undead is about to be released in the US by Lion Gates Films. The movie which I think 99% of Australia has never heard of, that didn’t show in 90% of Australian cinemas, is now going to be everywhere in the US. The new trailer makes the movie look a lot more action orientated then it is. The film is more action/comedy then it is action. Think Dawn of the Dead meets Shaun of the Dead.

To those in the US where the movie is soon to air who are reading this, go see it when it hits the cinemas. It’s a great piece of work, and strays beyond your typical Hollywood norms. To those in Australia, go and hire the DVD out from your local video store, I know the place down the road from me has a copy or two.

A few interesting facts about the film (shamelessly ripped from IMDB):

• Over 600 liters of fake blood was used for special effects during filming.

• Most scenes were shot in only one or two takes due to the budget.
• There were two months of rehearsals before filming began.

• The original screenplay did not have any swearing. Most of the swearing in the film was ad-libbed by the actors.

• The film was entirely funded by the directors and their family and friends.
• The directors (who are brothers) rendered most of the special effects on their home computers, taking nine months for post production
• The backup battery supply that powers the garage door during the escape in the van has the name “Spierigfilm” written on it – the name of the film’s production company.

I still have the original trailer from Australia mirrored HERE
The new International trailer can be found HERE
The official website can be found HERE
Follow latest news on the movie HERE

Family Guy Season 4 Spoilers

April 20th, 2005 at 11:43 pm by Doc (Features, Television)

Wading through numerous articles, interviews and reference archives, I have come up with the definitive collection of information on the new season of Family Guy. All information on this page is backed up with a reputable news article + linkage. If this isn’t freakin’ sweet, I don’t know what is. Enjoy!

THE EPISODES
4.01 – North by North Quahog
In the fourth season premiere, Peter decides to take Lois on a second honeymoon. But when things go awry, they end up posing as a famous actor/director to stay in his fancy hotel suite, where they inadvertently discover a copy of “The Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This.” Peter and Lois attempt to destroy the film and end up in a high-speed chase with two Catholic priests hell-bent on saving the movie.
[Digital Spy article]

It is vintage “Family Guy,” with ruthless gags about Mel Gibson, an unbelievably dirty joke about Pinocchio and, right at the top of the episode, a hilarious swipe at Fox for canceling the show.
[MSNBC Newsweek article]

In the first episode we get to see “Peter’s Passion of the Christ”, Stewie as a plantation owner, and it is revealed that Lois is allowed to sleep with three other people aside from Peter, including Gene Simmons and Kermit the Frog and Alice eventually does go to the moon.
[Ain't It Cool News article]

Some gags to look for in this fourth season episode are a spoof on “The Passion of the Christ;” the Beyond section of Bed, Bath and Beyond; Lois’ love affair with Kermit the Frog; and Brian – the family’s talking dog – changing Stewie’s dirty diaper.
“Does it smell like servitude?” Stewie asks.
[The Lantern article]

The title of this episode is clearly a reference to the movie NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959), directed by the great ALFRED HITCHCOCK. The movie is a thriller about a man, mistaken for a spy, who is forced to flee 3000 miles across America while being pursued by both a gang of spies, and government agents.
[Family Guy Files reference]

4.02 – Fast Times at Buddy Cianci High
Drew Barrymore guest-voices as Chris’ new teacher in the “Fast Times at Buddy Cianci High” episode of FAMILY GUY Sunday, May 8 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT). When Chris’ beloved teacher wins the lottery and quits, Brian fills in as substitute but is moved to another class for troubled kids and teaches them to aspire to low-level jobs. Meanwhile, Chris is instantly smitten with his new teacher (guest voice Barrymore), who ends up promising to be with him if he kills her husband. When Lois finds the teacher’s written instructions in Chris’ laundry, she and Stewie conspire to cover up the plot with hilarious results.
[The Futon Critic article]

The title of this episode is obviously a reference to the movie FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1984). This was one of the most off beat movies of the 1980’s and had moments of both high comedy and drama.
[Family Guy Files reference]

4.03 – Don’t Make Me Over
The next week (Sunday, May 15, 9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT), Peter becomes jealous of his friends’ achievements – Mort bowls a perfect game, Joe clears a guilty Quagmire of unsavory charges, and Quagmire accidentally saves a woman’s life – and decides to break a Guinness record so that he can achieve something that he will be remembered for after he dies.
[The Futon Critic article]

4.04 – Blind Ambition

4.05 – Stewie B. Goode (Part I)
The first part in a story spanning three episodes in which Stewie discovers the man who may be his real father.
[Family Guy Featurette video]

The title of this episode is clearly a reference to the 1958 rock-n-roll classic JOHNNY B. GOODE, written and released by CHUCK BERRY.
[Family Guy Files reference]

4.06 – Bango Was His Name Oh (Part II)
The title of this episode is undoubtedly a reference to the popular children’s rhyme BINGO WAS HIS NAME-O.
[Family Guy Files reference]

4.07 – Stu & Stewie’s Excellent Adventure (Part III)
The title of this episode is a most righteous reference to 1989’s BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE.
[Family Guy Files reference]

4.08 – The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire

4.09 – Petarded

4.10 – Brian the Bachelor

4.11 – 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter
The title is based on a book called “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter: And Other Tips from a Beleaguered Father, (Not That Any of Them Work)” by W. Bruce Cameron. The book inself originated as a small internet column, also by Cameron, that grew in popularity, and eventually spawned the book – and later – the hit TV show.
[TV Tome reference]

4.12 – Breaking Out Is Hard to Do

4.13 – Model Misbehavior
The title Model Misbehavior is a reference to the movie MODEL MISBEHAVIOR (2000). It’s a childrens comedy/drama about a pair of twins who switch roles.
[Family Guy Files reference]

OTHER RANDOM FACTS
Fox executives have ordered into production 35 new episodes of “Family Guy,” even though the network has thus far committed to airing only 13.
[Newsday.com article]

Moby is interested in doing something with the show.
[E! Online article]

There will be an episode where Brian goes on a reality show.
KISS is going to make another appearance.
[Family Guy Featurette video]

“We’ve done 1,500 pages of comedy since last April.” – Seth McFarlane, March 2005.
[MSNBC Newsweek article]

“[In an upcoming episode] James Woods is playing himself. The school on the show is called James Woods High, and he got wind of that and thought it was funny and wanted to do the show. We were obviously thrilled, so we wrote an episode around him.” – Seth MacFarlane
[The Onion A.V. Club interview]

The Fighting Chicken is back.
Ashlee Simpson has a big target on her back. (i.e. She’s probably going to be the butt of a joke somewhere.)
[Ain't It Cool News article]

The animator from Connecticut also revealed news about the return of the Evil Monkey that lives in Chris Griffin’s closet.
“We get very bizarre with the Evil Monkey,” he said. “Oh yes, there’s lots more of the Evil Monkey.”
Apparently the Evil Monkey will be holding a Hawaiian party in Chris Griffin’s closet that will prevent Chris from getting much sleep. But there will still be plenty of accusatory finger-pointings, McFarlene said.
[The Lantern article]

He also said one episode coming in the fourth season will feature Peter’s attempt to take on the FCC.
In this episode, Peter will create a show called “I Dare You to Crap Off That.” The show will have Peter taking dares from callers who dare him to crap off different places.
[The Lantern article]

- – -
Talk about spoilers. I spoil you guys rotten.

1 Comment

Lucky there’s a Family Guy!

April 18th, 2005 at 10:02 pm by Doc (Features, Television)

Rejoice! The crazy antics of the Griffin family from 31 Spooner Street, Quahog return in less than a fortnight!

If you haven’t heard already, one of the greatest shows ever made, Family Guy, has been officially “uncancelled” and brand new episodes begin airing in the US on May 1. I was feeling pretty nostalgic, so I’ve written a brief history of the show, and what Seth MacFarlane, the show’s creator, has to say about the new season from various interviews and special DVD features I’ve watched.

And for those who don’t know what Family Guy is, I pity you. Seriously.

- – -
Family Guy premiered in the US right after the Super Bowl in 1999, which, by American standards, is probably the best chance a show has got at surviving. It opened with an audience of over 22 million, and received rave reviews from critics. But the audience numbers soon slipped back down to a level typical of other Fox shows at the time, partly due to Fox failing to keep the show in a regular timeslot. It got through Season 1 and 2 with moderate success, with 6 and 21 episodes respectively.
The third season got off to a rocky start. Fox did not renew Family Guy in time to begin on schedule that September, and rumours were rampant that the show had been cancelled. After much fan support, it was announced that the third season would begin airing in 11 months time. Midway through the season, however, it was clear that the show was going to be cancelled. Family Guy was cancelled in February 2002, after 50 episodes.

Numerous internet petitions were setup shortly after (the biggest one collecting over 100 000 signatures), however, this did not sway Fox’s decision. Family Guy repeats were eventually picked up by Cartoon Network for their “Adult Swim” session, where it quickly gained popularity.
Then Season 1 and 2 were released on DVD in April 2003, followed five months later by the third season. Over 3.5 million Family Guy DVD boxed sets have now been sold, making it one of the bestselling TV shows on DVD ever.
Fox finally came to their senses and, for the first time in television history, a show was picked back up after being cancelled by the same network.
“60 years of TV for this to be the first, it’s pretty cool,” says show creator Seth McFarlane.

While fans may be a little worried that the three years since having been cancelled may have seen a decline in both humour and continuity, MacFarlane assures that the transition from season 3 to 4 will be pretty seamless.
“I’ve got to say Fox has been really good at walking that line: allowing the show to stay edgy, and to keep the off-colour stuff that makes it what it is. It’s a tough job for them, ’cause they’re under a lot of pressure, and thanks to them people can expect the same show.”

As for the show’s staff, MacFarlane has also managed to reassemble much of the shows original writing and voiceover talent, including:
– Alex Borstein: writer and voice of Lois.
– Mike Henry: writer and voice of Cleveland (the abnormally apathetic token black guy) and Herbert (the creepy old guy).
– Seth Green: voice of Chris.
– Mila Kunis (who plays Jackie on That ’70s Show): voice of Meg.
– Adam West: voice of the Mayor.
– Patrick Warburton: voice of Joe (the easily excitable paraplegic cop).

MacFarlane himself will of course also be returning as a writer and providing the voices of Peter, Brian, Stewie and randy neighbour Glen Quagmire.

MacFarlane can barely contain his excitement at being given a second chance with Family Guy: “This is kind of where the real fun writing begins, where we can start to explore the world that we’ve set up, and do those character altering stories that we couldn’t do early on. It’s really shaping up to be, to me, the smoothest season yet. I’m just thrilled with the way these shows are turning out.”

As for what he hopes to achieve with season 4?
“If anything, our goal is to make it even funnier this time around.”

- – -
Can’t freakin’ wait. :D

Overclocking a Texas Instruments Calculator

April 18th, 2005 at 3:51 pm by johnsee (Tech & Science)

Ok, I don’t have one but a lot of people do. And via a cool link on the MAKE blog here is a site on how to overclock your calculator. Why you’d want to is way beyond me, but check it out here if your interested. In other news I’m a bit busy at the moment so don’t expect 2 or 3 posts a day. If anyone is interested in being a contributor, and submitting news like these, feel free to drop me an email or drop me a message in the shoutbox.

Goodbye Cell Towers

April 14th, 2005 at 11:23 am by johnsee (Tech & Science)

From WIRED: The makers of “Stratellite,” an airplane-like device, believe it will revolutionize the broadband and wireless industry — if it ever gets off the ground.

Wisconsin communications company Sanswire unveiled its almost-finished prototype of a hard-framed, unmanned airship designed to fly in the stratosphere 13 miles above the earth and send broadband and mobile phone signals to an area the size of Texas. Flying above the jet stream but lower than a satellite — and one-tenth the cost at $25 million to $30 million — the Stratellite also would render land-based cell-phone towers obsolete, its makers say.

The company hopes to start building and launching full-size Stratellites as soon as next year, with hundreds if not thousands of the devices eventually straddling the globe, staying aloft for months at a time.

SMH Lists Pope’s Achievments

April 14th, 2005 at 10:56 am by johnsee (Around the World)

Amongst others:

• the 5 million people who went to the funeral is about the same number of people newly infected with HIV in 2003. The Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II instructed its priests to condemn condom use. It also used its influence in some of the poorest and most AIDS-affected nations to prevent health workers from distributing, or even talking about, condoms.

• The Pope’s anti-contraception stance has contributed to the suffering of the world’s poorest women and children. An abortion is out of the question, he equated it to the Holocaust.

• In addition to failing to protect hundreds of innocent children from predatory priests, and failing to compensate or adequately apologise to those victims, the Vatican recently displayed horrifying callousness by giving a cushy Rome-based job to Cardinal Bernard Law, the former head of the Boston diocese responsible for covering up multiple child sexual assaults over an extensive period.

• He preached that homosexual acts went against the “natural moral law” and warned that to allow children to be adopted by gay couples would be to “do violence” to them.

SMH Article | atomic forum thread

1 Comment

Nikki Webster in FHM… One last article

April 13th, 2005 at 7:52 pm by johnsee (Australia)

Ok, I’m sure your all sick of hearing about it, and personally I don’t even find her attractive, but people keep stumbling to the Nikki pages off google and friends, so I feel I should keep up the info. The previous Nikki Webster posts were here and here.

Somehow a before and after photo of the FHM photoshoot has reached the net, and wow… did they have to do some airbrushing! They did a good job though I have to admit. So go and check out the before and after photo of Nikki Webster in FHM here!

14 Comments

Blocking Flaw in New MSN7

April 13th, 2005 at 1:26 am by johnsee (Online)

It appears the new MSN7, that was released from Beta just a few days ago has a bit of a flaw when it comes to blocking. I can’t remember if it applied to the 6 or so Betas I tried, but it is definetly there in the .777 public release.

MSN7 now has a ‘Personal Message’ feature, where they are basically jumping onto the idea that display names aren’t just names, most people add a bit of a message as well. You can even add in your current song information. When someone goes offline, this information dissapears, and it appears to be computer specific, not account specific like Display names. The problem comes if you block someone or appear offline. The personal message does not dissapear, instantly allowing you to pick who on your list has either blocked you or is appearing offline. Block checkers eat your heart out.

Great Story on Googles Road to Fame

April 13th, 2005 at 1:19 am by johnsee (Online)

I stumbled across a great article about google on style.com. It’s not dated so I’m not sure how long it has been there, but I’d estimate it’s about a year old. It looks at how Larry and Sergey built the company and how adament they have, and are, to do things there own way. One can see this with all the services google keeps offering at a loss. Its by no means short at 7000 words, but believe me when I say it’s worth the read if you are interested. Check it out here.

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