Mock The Movie: Hercules, plus VLC live tweet stream!

September 11, 2012 Jason Thibeaultcomputers, geekery, humour, Lou Ferrigno, Mock the Movie, movies10 Comments

Oh hey guess what time it is? Almost? In a few days?

*crickets*

That’s right, it’s time to MOCK THE MOVIE! YAY! *Kermit flail* Stephanie has the details, and our upcoming schedule:

This Thursday, September 13, at 9 p.m. EDT, the mocking crew will subject ourselves to the Lou Ferrigno version of Hercules (currently available on Netflix and Amazon streaming video). This version promises that it’s “updated” for the 1980s. That apparently means bad hair, bad special effects, and… space aliens.

As he labors, so shall we. We probably won’t feather our hair, though.

I wish I had enough hair to feather.

Here’s how we do these things:

Start following @MockTM on Twitter.

Start watching the movie on the appropriate Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT.

Once you’ve got the movie going, tweet your snarky comments to @MockTM. Directing our tweets to @MockTM will keep our followers from being overwhelmed with our snark!

Set up a search for @MockTM on Twitter for the duration so you can follow along with everyone else sharing your pain.

If you have suggestions for other movies that can and should be mocked, send them to @MockTM. Preference will be given to movies that are free or stream on the major media delivery services. Watch the feed, and we’ll set up the calendar for more terrible, mockable movies.

In other related news, CompulsoryAccount7746 had a brilliant plan, and implemented it. That plan involved building a plugin for VLC that streams a Twitter search directly to your player as subtitles. That plan is brilliant because it means you could be watching Hercules in all its glory on a media center or computer with VLC installed, and could stream the mockery directly into to the video feed so you never miss a snark, all in realtime. WE’RE LIVING IN THE FUTURE, BABY.

It’s ready for public beta, so go check out the project page and download your copy now. If you plan on watching on a different screen from your Twitter, or if you’re not technically inclined, this might not be the best option. However, for geeks like us, it’s a great idea and a sound implementation. Couldn’t ask for anything better.

{advertisement}

Gamers Against Bigotry hacked repeatedly by computer-savvy bigots

August 8, 2012 Jason Thibeaultasshats, bigotry, computers, feminism, games, hacking, misogyny, PHP, privilege, security exploits20 Comments

Example #645,257,329 of why one must always sanitize every piece of user input that your code has to process. Doesn’t matter how foolproof or dead simple you think the action will be, or how safe or sane your users — someone will try to buffer overrun, break out of the current SQL statement and inject their own code, or just generally find any way imaginable to deface or destroy your work. Especially if your work is a direct confrontation of a particularly entrenched bit of misogyny amongst a terribly entitled and relatively tech-savvy audience, and that audience is inclined toward trollishness to begin with.

A group of social justice advocates in the video gaming community put together a pledge website called Gamers Against Bigotry (WARNING: Chrome reports malware!), asking people to sign onto the following statement:

As a gamer, I realize I contribute to an incredibly diverse social network of gamers around the world, and that my actions have the ability to impact others. In effort to make a positive impact, and to create a community that is welcoming to all, I pledge to not use bigoted language while gaming, online and otherwise.

Bigoted language includes, but is not limited to, slurs based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.

Read more about the pledge, including what is and isn’t included, and the overall purpose here.

Read why you shouldn’t use the word “rape” casually here.

All in all, it’s a simple statement, and a rather unobjectionable one at that. The only way one can end bigotry within a community is to “be the change you want to see” — to never engage in bigoted behaviour, and to challenge it when one is able.

The response, however, was in no way proportionate to the pledge, especially given its entirely voluntary nature.
Continue reading “Gamers Against Bigotry hacked repeatedly by computer-savvy bigots” →

Microsoft adds “Big Boobs” to Linux; apologizes

July 21, 2012 Jason Thibeaultasshats, brogrammers, computers, Embrace Extend Extinguish, Internet Explorer, Linux, Microsoft, server virtualization, sexism19 Comments

There are a number of relatively new phenomena in the server world that Microsoft has been rather slow to catch up on. Server virtualization is one of them. Where companies like VMWare and Sun (now Oracle) had pretty much already built the defining server virtualization software, with a robust hypervisor (software that lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server) in ESXi, and a great general-purpose software-based virtual machine in VirtualBox, Microsoft made their own hypervisor.

And in traditional Microsoft style, their server virtualization implementation required modifying the Linux kernel to get it to play nice. Rather than emulating the system hardware in such a way that the Hypervisor does all the heavy lifting, they chose to use OS-level drivers to “get the most out of” the hypervisor’s features.

This isn’t generally a bad decision, honestly. VMWare requires guest OS tools to be installed in order to do some stuff too. Microsoft’s actual failing, in this case, was in employing juvenile dudebro programmers who submitted kernel code that included a constant for the upper limit for virtual server guest IDs defined as 0xB16B00B5.
Continue reading “Microsoft adds “Big Boobs” to Linux; apologizes” →

CONvergence: Growing Up Online

July 11, 2012 Jason ThibeaultAnne Sauer, Ashley Hamer, Barbara Burke, computers, CONvergence, flame wars, Growing Up Online, internet, meatspace vs internet, Stephanie Zvan, trolls4 Comments

The second of my three panels from SkepchickCON at CONvergence. I grew up online and was probably in the first generation that would have had the opportunity to spend all of my formative years on the internet (if you include that hairy period where the “internet” was a series of BBSs and the connections you made were over 300-baud modems).

This panel discusses the difference between “online” and “meatspace”, e.g. that there is no real difference, just that “online” is a sort of shadow-culture that evolves in parallel with “meatspace”. We also discuss flame wars and their genesis, which Stephanie posts about in greater detail.
Continue reading “CONvergence: Growing Up Online” →

My CONvergence schedule

July 5, 2012 Jason Thibeaultapocalyptic propecies, computers, CONvergence, current events, feeding the trolls, feminism, internet, misogyny, privilege, pseudoscience, trolls5 Comments

I’m on three panels at CONvergence this weekend, in the Science/Skepticism track. I have no idea what panels I’ll be attending outside of these three, which I have to attend by virtue of having a spot on them. So this is all I can confirm right now.

*record scratch*

Wait, I’m on panels!?! WTF!!!
Continue reading “My CONvergence schedule” →

Thoughts from on a plane travelling 504km/h

June 30, 2012 Jason Thibeaultcomputers, flying, technology, travelogue9 Comments

Air Canada, I have to say, has some snazzy planes. I have a live map of where I am in the flight, how long it will be til I get there, and to feed my OCD and need for more information than is actually necessary for any normal traveller, exactly how fast I’m travelling and at what altitude. All on an LCD panel that’s built into the seat in front of me. 1h 46 mins, touchdown at 10:02 am local Toronto time. This is definitely information overkill.
Continue reading “Thoughts from on a plane travelling 504km/h” →

Getting a PS3 controller to work with Windows and Linux: compare/contrast

June 5, 2012 Jason Thibeaultcomputers, games, Linux, PS3 controller, The Binding of Isaac, Windows24 Comments

A bit of nerdery to lighten the mood. It’s been so heady around these parts lately.

Recently, I decided to connect my PS3 controller to my laptop so I could play The Binding of Isaac on Steam with a real controller. I know, I know, I could have gotten a PC controller and saved myself a ton of hassle. But I had that PS3 controller right there, and a geek like me is gonna make do.

Continue reading “Getting a PS3 controller to work with Windows and Linux: compare/contrast” →

Buy the new iPad from XS4ALL to “upgrade” your lover

May 31, 2012 Jason Thibeaultadvertisements, feminism, iPad, misogyny, XS4ALL4 Comments

Tired of your current bed partner? If you buy an iPad from XS4ALL, you’ll be able to switch ~~her~~ it out for some other model! It’s super easy when human beings are simply-manipulated objects!

Bra-fucking-vo. Slow clap. Marketing a super-expensive computing toy to men who think the women in their lives are replaceable bed-warmers, because they’re the only demographic with disposable income — the misogynist asshat is evidently, after all, the fastest-growing privilege group.

I only wish this was a case of “this ad would never fly in THIS country”. We both know damn well it would probably spike their sales here. And my blood pressure.

CISPA goes to a super-quiet senate vote soon

May 29, 2012 Jason ThibeaultBig Brother, cispa, computers, privacy, warrantless wiretapping4 Comments

CISPA, the cyber-security bill that passed in the House that would allow companies to “voluntarily” hand over everything the government asks for them about their clients while indemnifying them against any legal action taken by the parties whose privacy they just violated, goes to a vote in the Senate soon. Only nobody seems to know who supports and who opposes the bill. The Senate is collectively playing this one undeniably close to their chests, and the media’s pretty well dead silent on it, AGAIN.
Continue reading “CISPA goes to a super-quiet senate vote soon” →

Pentametron creates sonnets out of users’ tweets

May 5, 2012 Jason Thibeaultliterature, poetry, python, Shakespeare, sonnets, twitter, twitter bots13 Comments

This is certainly a lot better use of a Twitter bot than most. It’s just the sort of high-concept bot I would love to do, if only I had a decent idea for one. And I bet it’ll irritate real poets, like Cuttlefish, for its (present) flaws.

Creator Ranjit Bhatnagar built, in PHP, a script that searches Twitter’s millions of tweets an hour for any and all tweets that match iambic pentameter scansion, finds rhyming couplets, and compiles them together into a sonnet. And considering the source, there’s some amazingly deep stuff! For instance:

still haven’t eaten anything today…
Have had a lotta nicknames growing up
BOO Chelsea !! Liverpool deserve the cup !!
Blue is the Color, Football is the game…

Fame of the money, Money of the fame.
Do not appreciate the referee.
REMEMBER LOVE, REMEMBER YOU AND ME
So many babies at the outlet mall

Abundant Life Assembly welcomes all! 😀
Its fucking hailing! Hail! In fucking May!
im shirted up… and ready for the day!
Tomorrow Baby Steps and Twinkle. O/

I was invited to the city tho :)))))
i Hit the mall and spend a G today .

See!? Civilization has totally achieved its purpose, the world can end now.

Continue reading “Pentametron creates sonnets out of users’ tweets” →

Lousy Canuck

… Because I don't watch enough hockey, drink enough beer, or eat enough bacon.

Computers