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Nerd Lunch Episode 184: Down the Rabbit Hole

Posted in Genres, martial arts, movies, music, podcast, pop culture with tags internet, movies, music, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture on June 23, 2015 by Paxton

This week on the Nerd Lunch Podcast CT and I are joined by Timly Barger from timlybarger.com and Jeff Somogyi of sommerjam.com.

This week we are taking one of those trips through the Wikipedia rabbit hole.

Down the Rabbit Hole

You know those trips, you go out to Wikipedia to look up something and next thing you know, 20 minutes later, you’re 50 pages away from where you started. So, we have two of us pick random topics and we see if we can somehow navigate our way from the 1991 movie Karate Cop all the way over to the 1981 Rush classic, Tom Sawyer. We make several stops along the way. Come join us on this Internet-y trip!

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

Nerd Lunch Episode 144 – Adventures in Craigslisting

Posted in internet, podcast, pop culture, technology, websites with tags internet, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, technology, websites on August 12, 2014 by Paxton

And we meet again. This week the nerds are joined by former Atomic Geek and current Classic Film Jerk Andrew Bloom to talk about that ancient bastion of Internet classifieds, Craigslist.

bill_delivers5

We all delve into our local Craigslist Classifieds and find some nerdy and weird ads featuring VHS tapes, compulsively curated comic book collections, the Fun TV portable videotape player and Bill. Who makes deliveries. It’s a fun discussion with lots of Internet craziness. Come check it out.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner. Or listen to it online right here.

The new Coke Freestyle soda fountain + other bad ass Coke machines

Posted in Coca Cola, hackers, internet, soda, technology with tags Coca Cola, hackers, internet, soda, sodapalooza, technology, vending machines on July 23, 2009 by Paxton

Coca-Cola has started test marketing a new soda fountain called the Coca-Cola Freestyle.

It is run by computer and controlled through an LCD touchscreen. The soda dispenser has the ability to mix up over 100 different types of sodas, waters, teas and energy drinks. The menu even includes items not currently sold in the US like Grape Vault (yes, please!) and Raspberry Coke. As of right now the Freestyle is only being test marketed in Atlanta and Southern California (list of locations here) but further test markets will be opened up in the Spring of 2010. Don’t worry, that sound you hear behind you is a chorus of angels in the background singing “Ha-lle-lu-yah!” Now, whenever I approach the soda fountain at Subway, I’ll immediately have brain shutdown due to the ridiculous amount of soda choices at my finger tips.

There have been rumors about this very thing for years. Coke and Pepsi have so many flavor variations around the world and the US really only sees a SMALL portion. Grape Vault? Are you kidding me? I really want to try that. I’ve heard of Raspberry Coke in New Zealand, but it doesn’t sound THAT appetizing. How about the discontinued Coke with Lemon? It’s all up for grabs with this new machine. However, don’t expect things like New Coke and Surge to be available, because this isn’t a time machine, it’s a soda machine.

Check out a video demonstration of this glorious machine here.

Now that the technology is here to let the dispensing machines do all the work for us, how long is it before we get into a SkyNet situation? I mean, are we just a lightning strike away from one of these machines going Johnny Number 5 on us? Will this be fun Johnny Number 5, or laser weapon fry your ass like a Roman Candle Number 5? How long before we see this:

Run tiny, Japanese children!! Run like the wind from the giant Coke branded inhuman monstrosity!!!! Save yourself!!! It feeds on CHILDREN!!! CHILDREN!!!!

Speaking of bad ass Coke dispensing Terminator machines, people have been hacking vending machines for years to make them better. One of the more popular things to do to a Coke machine is to connect it to the internet. Connecting your Coke machine to the internet allows you to check inventory levels and dispense sodas remotely from your computer. While this is quite awesome, it also calls onto the carpet not only your laziness, but the fact that you can’t even wait 30 seconds to put money in the machine and make a soda selection. No surprisingly, this trend was started by Computer Science students.

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3 Wolf and Moon shirt is officially greatest shirt in the Universe

Posted in humor, pop culture with tags Amazon.com, humor, internet, pop culture on June 5, 2009 by Paxton

Here’s some Friday fun for everyone. A new phenomenon has taken over the internet. The 3 Wolf/Moon shirt.

This seemingly trailer park attire has become incredibly popular the last few months causing the shirt to become the #1 best selling apparel item on Amazon.com. That’s right, this shirt is the #1 selling clothing item on Amazon. WTF, you ask? The popularity is based on the customer reviews. People have started writing ironic and snarky comments expounding the virtues of wearing one of these shirts. People talk about how the shirt will increase your success with the opposite sex, fill the empty void in your soul, raise the dead, transport you to another dimension to meet the Wolf God and many, many other incredible feats.

Here are some of my favorite reviews (Click the images to see them full size):

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Bait and Switch: Horrible movies that had great trailers

Posted in humor, internet, movies, pop culture with tags humor, internet, movie reviews, movie trailers, movies, pop culture on May 27, 2009 by Paxton

preview_screen It’s happened to all of us. You are sitting in the theater, watching the coming attractions, waiting for your movie to start, and a trailer comes on that blows you through the back of the theater. You think, “That looks AWESOME!” and mentally make a note to check it out later. When the day comes that you can finally check out the movie you’ve been building up in your mind for months, you are disappointed. Maybe more so, maybe you are pissed. Perhaps even outright hostile towards the movie which did nothing to you except suck the will to live out of you. It’s called the “bait and switch”. Offer you one thing to get you in the theater, then give you something completely different.

Cutting together a trailer has almost become an art form in today’s Hollywood. How many times have you watched a trailer and one funny line kills you, then you go see the movie and that was the only funny thing in the entire flaming pile of “poo doo”? Too often. Movie trailers should be considered a social contract. If you promise to deliver an ass-melting action movie, then you better damn well deliver or I get to go to the director’s (or actors’, or producers’) home and suplex them through their glass topped living room table. It’s only fair.

Let’s take a look at a list of movies that had really awesome trailers, only to not deliver on said promise of awesome.

Snakes on a Plane (2006) – When the trailer for this movie started making the rounds on the internet in 2005-2006, it blew up big. Everyone was talking about it. People thought this movie was going to open HUGE. It didn’t. Turns out the movie kinda blew. The best part of the movie was Samuel Jackson and his one line about muthaf’n snakes which, by the way, was not originally in the film and added during post-production. The expectations were too high for a Grade B horror movie that works better late at night, on HBO with like 5 drunk friends. Surprisingly, it’s not as entertaining when you’ve just paid $10 for admission, $20 for concessions and aren’t completely bombed.