SF Signal

Some guy scanned in all the images from a PC Zone preview of Quake IV. Mmmmmmm…Quaaaaake…..

Filed under: Games

[Updated]

Will Firefox be the one to take down Internet Explorer? IE gets a bad rap for security flaws. But Mozilla has its own share of bugs.

JP and Kevin are big fans of Firefox. What do you guys think?

[CNet link]

Filed under: Computers

For all you /. (or is it \.? Argh!) readers, I stumbled across AlterSlash, a site that takes the SlashDot RSS newsfeed and formats into to something that’, in my eyes, much more readable. One downside: the RSS feed lags the original site.

Filed under: Web Sites

Well?

I’m James T. Kirk (!?!)

Filed under: Web Sites

If anyone is interested, the first 8 minutes of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence are now available on iFilm.

It may be a movie weekend for me…

Filed under: Anime

Here’s an interesting website. It’s Steve Dutch‘s Science, Pseudoscience and Irrationalism page. Steve is a University of Wisconsin professor of Natural and Applied Sciences. The page dips heavily into logic and reason and offers some realistic dissections of some sf movies and stories. Interesting reading.

[Link via the Why Am I Here blog]

Filed under: Web Sites

Via SciFi news Blog, Fictionwise is having a Fall special and giving away some free eBooks.

Filed under: Books

ENN reports: “Microsoft has released a patch for Windows to fix a flaw that could allow malicious code to infiltrate a user’s computer though JPEG image files.’

Just one more reason to re-read one of our most-requested posts, “LINK: JPG 2 ASCII“. Ah, nothing quite wakes me up in the morning like the site of Dan’s big, ASCII head.

Filed under: Computers

So Amazon’s search engine, A9, went live today. I thought I’d check it out by running a query against everyone’s favorite SF related web site. Imagine my surprise when I see that A9 also returns pictures with its results. LMAO!!

The only depressing thing is Jonathan Winters isn’t the first picture….

Filed under: Meta

…another Star Wars post. This one is about Star Wars Asciimation which is, well, just what it sounds like. And, when you get tired of that, there’s the Star Wars Blooper Guide. Still not satisfied? There’s always Star Wars Fonts, Star Wars Legos, Star Wars Origami, Star Wars cartoon spoofs and the Star Wars name generator!

Filed under: Star Wars

The now-defunct Ambit site has an interesting page…it’s the Sci-Fi Hall of Shame. Hey, any page that manages to connect Lyle Waggoner and Peter Graves is OK in my book.

Filed under: Movies • TV

Um yeah it is. And to help us all feel a little more geeky and keep the theme of SWSignal, I found this link for: Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers. It was over on Thinkgeek.com.

Filed under: Star Wars

This TV season’s SF lineup looks pathetic , at least with respect to new shows.

The only non-animated show that seems even remotely interesting, if not overtly SF, is Lost. I might, might, check it out.

As for the animated shows, I’ll be looking forward to the conclusion of the Clone Wars mini-toons and, possibly, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce, Go!, cause its got robot monkies along with the voice talents of Mark Hamill and Clancy Brown (oh, and Wil Wheaton). Of course, my brother might tune in the One Piece, except that, due to the magic of Bittorrent, he’s already watched the first 40 episodes…

The verdict: One big, gigantic, enormous ‘Meh!’.

Pathetic. Maybe the mini-series/mid-season replacements will be better, or at least have some SF, like time travelling martian nazis…

Filed under: TV

In an effort to keep our impromptu Star Wars Post-a-Day trend going (not that I troll Star Wars sites or anything) here’s one from Sci Fi Wire concerning Anthony Daniels’ last day of C-3PO shooting. He says that (surprise!) Lucas has overbalanced the prequels with too much CGI work at the expense of the story. Let’s not forget, Mr. Daniels, the story getting derailed with dialogue making comparisons to skin and sand!

Filed under: Star Wars

Looks like the planned Speilberg/Cruise remake of War of the Worlds was upstaged by the announcement of another remake that is just about to wrap production. Maybe the two can option one of Pel Toro‘s books?

Filed under: Movies

At the risk of breaking up our Star Wars blogging, Trek Today notes that Enterprise has won two Emmy awards. Of course, they were for visual effects and music compostion and for the glamour categories like best episode or best actor/actress.

Which is funny, because Shatner just won an Emmy for his guest role on The Practice. Go figure.

Filed under: TV

The Salt Water Pizza blog is having some fun with Google images via their Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Cliches. Simple but effective.

Filed under: Web Sites

Ok, lots of juicy Star Wars goodness today. First up, a couple of reviews of the DVD set:

• From The Digital Bits – Review – The Star Wars Trilogy
• From DVD.Net – SW Box Set Review

In other Star Wars news, LucasArts announces that KOTOR II for the XBox will be available in December, two months early. This could be good or bad. The PC version is still slated for 2005.

If you’re all hopped up about the forthcoming release of the Star Wars miniatures from Wizards of the Coast, then Star Wars en Direct has an entire program dedicated to them tonight at 7PM EST. Looks like SWED is a fan-run, internet only radio show. Which is cool, from a technical point of view….

And TheForce.Net is saying the animated Clone Wars has won an Emmy of some sort. Stay tuned. Or not.

Filed under: Star Wars

On Friday, LucasFilm re-releases THX 1138 in a limited release. THX 1138 , George Lucas’ first film, was made in 1971. Lucas talks about the film on CNN.

Filed under: Movies

Internet Movie Database lists the Top 50 Best (and 10 Worst) Sci-Fi Titles.

Ratings determined by user votes as explained on the page. Here are the TOP 10.

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
3. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
5. Matrix, The (1999)
6. Metropolis (1927)
7. Alien (1979)
8. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
10. Aliens (1986)

Filed under: Movies