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DC Comics And Beyond: Two Great ‘Star Trek’ Issues!

Filed Under: Comics, DC Comics And Beyond, Star Trek by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
July 18, 2012

 We’ve still got months to wait for the next Star Trek feature film to warp into theaters, but until then, IDW is making some great Trek comics, and two of them arrived in stores this week!

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who Assimilation2 (Squared) #3. Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee (w) • J.K. Woodward (a) The two greatest science-fiction properties of all time cross over for the first time in history, in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2! The true horror of the Borg-Cybermen alliance has been revealed, but what course of action will Captain Picard and the Doctor agree upon? And will the Doctor’s recently resurfaced memories shed new night on the dilemma? FC • 32 pages • $3.99

It’s still great to see all the members of the Enterprise D team interact with the folks from the Tardis. However, the most fun part of this issue for me was a flashback when the Doctor (Tom Baker) works together with Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the rest of that Enterprise crew. Even the art style changes, from painting to a more standard comic-book look. It’s a very well done sequence. I laughed when the Doctor asks Kirk to distract a Cyberman, and Kirk uses one of his trademark techniques! The last page has an interesting development that makes perfect sense given that the universes seem to be changed somehow! Excellent book, as usual!

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Music Review: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Soundtrack

Filed Under: Batman, Music by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
July 16, 2012

Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy of films has been a blockbuster one, breaking records around the world. Now the finale, The Dark Knight Rises, is about to swoop into theaters on Friday, July 20, and the soundtrack is widely available as of Tuesday, July 17.

One of the components that has made the movies so successful has been Hans Zimmer‘s dynamic scores. His “Mozilla” from Batman Begins still gives me goosebumps. And the music from the final film is just as moving, if not more so.

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DC Comics And Beyond: ‘Batman,’ ‘Hoax Hunters’ And ‘The Walking Dead’

Filed Under: Batman, Comics, DC Comics And Beyond by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
July 11, 2012

I just couldn’t decide which of the three top books that came out this week to highlight, so I’m going to review them all in alphabetical order!

1. Batman #11. The Court of Owls epic building for the past year comes to its stunning conclusion as Batman brings to light the mad machinations of the mysterious organization.

Batman finally faces his “brother” (Owlman?) and then has to pick up the pieces before moving forward. At the end of the issue, Bruce has a great discussion with Dick Grayson, and they talk about what’s been revealed about them. Great job!

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Comics Portal: ‘Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight’

Filed Under: Batman, Comics, Comics Portal by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
July 9, 2012

With digital very likely to be a major player for comics in the future, many comics companies are getting an early start on the entire “revolution” that may see us downloading issues from an FTP site rather than going to our local comics shops … sooner than we think!

DC Comics has been putting their toe in the water a lot recently, with some books like Batman Beyond Unlimited and Smallville Season 11 appearing in digital format before they are collected into a monthly comic. (I do love that first one especially, by the way!)

Recently, the company revived a previous Batman title with Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight, which can only be purchased online … so far. Here’s the description: “On Thursdays beginning in June, a new digital Batman series will showcase stories of the Dark Knight outside of regular DC Comics continuity and feature artists and writers such as Ben Templesmith, Steve Niles, B. Clay Moore, Nicola Scott and Joshua Hale Fialkov. One all-star issue teams writer — and Lost co-creator —Damon Lindelof with artist Jeff Lemire (Animal Man, Sweet Tooth).” Each chapter retails for .99 cents.

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The Blog Is Back!

Filed Under: Computers/The Web by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
April 2, 2012

Well, it’s time for me to get back to blogging!

It’s been an interesting couple of months since I posted last, with corneal transplant surgery in my right eye and a change in my work status! But I hope to post as often as I can as I enter a new phase of my life.

I thought I’d start with the following story about a law passed to regular the Internet, something I oppose. The article can be found at infowars.com:

>>The state legislature of Arizona has passed a bill that vastly broadens telephone harassment laws and applies them to the Internet and other means of electronic communication.

The law, which is being pushed under the guise of an anti-bullying campaign, would mean that anything communicated or published online that was deemed to be “offensive” by the state, including editorials, illustrations, and even satire could be criminally punished.

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Your iPad Could Be Hazardous To Your Health

Filed Under: Computers/The Web, iPod, iPhone, iPad, i by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
January 26, 2012

Remember that I’m sitting at a computer while bringing this article from breitbart.com to your attention!

>>Users of tablet computers should place their device on the table and tilt its screen, rather than have it flat on their lap, to avoid potentially painful hunching of the neck, a study suggested Wednesday.

“Tablet users may be at high risk to develop neck discomfort based on current behaviours and tablet designs,” it warned.

A team led by environmental health researcher Jack Dennerlein of the Harvard School of Public Health asked seven men and eight women who were experienced tablet users to carry out tasks on an iPad2 and a Motorola Xoom.

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Postal Service To Cut 260,000 Jobs

Filed Under: Unusual News Stories by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
January 24, 2012

Does anyone still get a lot of important mail anymore?

My landlord is big on checking the mail daily, but mostly all I receive is junk mail and coupons. More things of value come through FedEx or the overnight Postal Service delivery than the regular drop-offs.

So the following article from CNBC was interesting:

>>The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its “financially insolvent” condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said.

Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year, Issa told CNBC during an informal gathering of senior House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members.

“It’s a combination of delivering what people want at a price they’re willing to pay,” the California Republican said. “We’ve restricted what the post office can charge for various classes of mail. But the biggest challenge is there are about 660,000 workers at the post office. In the private sector there would be about 400,000.”

Though Issa’s numbers are likely on the high side — the most recent official estimates from the postal service put the total employees at 574,000 — reducing the size of the workforce and consolidating operations has been a priority.

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Four Die In One Day On NYC Subway

Filed Under: Unusual News Stories by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
January 23, 2012

When I went to the New York City Comic-Con late last year, I found the subway somewhat difficult to use. The voice overhead was muffled, the stations were not clearly marked, and it was tough to find someone working for the system to answer questions. Interestingly enough, people who rode the subway were very helpful, which went against the stereotype of folks you find in NYC.

Well, I was intrigued when I came across the following story from the AP:

>>Four men have died in New York’s subway in less than 24 hours.

Police say the mishaps — all on Saturday — are unrelated.

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A Victory For The Internet Or Not?

Filed Under: Computers/The Web by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
January 20, 2012

One of the great things about the World Wide Web has been that it has been largely unregulated. Anyone can pretty much do anything out here, which is why it has thrived so strongly over the past few decades.

Well, there are parts of it that folks don’t like, including piracy, which is understandable, but a new attempt to impose rules on the Internet has met with a lot of opposition. Here’s the AP’s article on the latest developments:

>>WASHINGTON (AP) — Yielding to strong opposition from the high tech community, Senate and House leaders said Friday they will put off further action on legislation to combat online piracy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday “in light of recent events.” Those events included a petition drive by Google that attracted more than 7 million participants and a one-day blackout by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, quickly followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

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Books Or iBooks?

Filed Under: Computers/The Web by Wayne Hall — Leave a comment
January 19, 2012

Since I work for a newspaper, I’m always interested in when technology replaces something non-technical.

Here’s the story of textbooks likely being replaced by electronic devices like the iBooks, iPad and Kindle. It’s from the International Business Times website:

>>Apple announced it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities. It also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books. Apple’s late co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs had hoped to bring relief to the higher education masses in the late 80s and early 90s, but 20 years later, Jobs’s legacy lives on in Apple, which hopes to make yet another dent in the education industry.

In NYC on Thursday, Apple revolutionized the education industry with its new iBooks 2 app for marking up digital textbooks, its new iBooks Author app for quick and easy e-book publishing, and the iTunes U platform for teachers to better communicate and share materials with students.

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