8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

In my ever-present battle to obliterate the empty wall space in my apartment, I have made a recent print purchase.  These two companion pieces are by Huck Gee, and were a limited run sold in 2007 to coincide with the launch of a limited-edition run of Dunny vinyl toys.  I was ecstatic to track down a seller through the kidrobot forums, and the transaction went smoothly.  Now I’m off to the framer!

- images courtesy of OMG Posters!

My love of Legos runs deep and true.  When I moved into my new apartment last year, I tried to strike a better balance between my inner-geek and my quasi-adult life.  In this spirit, I outfitted my place with practical accessories with playful touches.  Many of the key players in this aesthetic came courtesy of Lego.  I was able to find Lego coasters and Lego ice trays.  You can find many of the accessories online, but I have had better luck at the Lego retail stores.

One of my favorite anime movies in the past couple of years, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” is screening in L.A. at the Imaginasian Theater through this Thursday. It is the story of a high school girl who discovers that she has the power to literally “leap” through time. At first she takes advantage of her new skill in order to correct the minor mistakes that she identifies as catalysts for unpleasant situations: sleeping too late, saying the wrong thing, etc. However, she quickly learns the repercussions of her actions as she realizes the power of the butterfly effect.

I would highly recommend making your way to the theater to see this film. I actually was fortunate to see this screened last year and hear a panel with the director following the showing. I always take advantage of the chance to see animated films on the big screen, and this is one that I am happy to have the opportunity to see again.

- click here for showtime information

I am about to hop on a plane back to LA after having spent the weekend in Albany, New York visiting my grandparents. Whenever I make it here it is always a reminder of all of the fun times my brother and I used to have when we would make the trip up from DC for fun-filled, parent-free weekends. Many of our elaborate Lego escapades are still on display, most likely untouched since we first proudly positioned them on the dressers years ago.

There is one toy that holds a very special place in my heart. The top-loading NES that still works perfectly in the basement has been the provider of countless hours of entertainment to all of the cousins. As one of the older grandchildren, I remember my devious instructions to my younger cousins that they could “help” me by controlling my fire with the second controller while I was dedicated to working my way through the bosses in Megaman. This was the only way to ensure that I was “sharing” while also working my way towards Dr. Wiley.

While I actually prefer the “dog bone” NES controller that shipped with the top-loader, I know there are fans who consider the redesign blasphemy. I also found this console to be more reliable than the original that served as my home console for many years.

The gap between my home console(s) and the NES that has remained in Albany has widened of the years, but there is always a sense of satisfaction and happiness in throwing on Super Mario Brothers 3 in a non-emulated way on a TV as old as I am and getting in some quality gaming time. Ah, nostalgia…

Here is a great clip of Tom Servo and Crow from Mystery Science Theater: 3000 delving into general geekery as they debate the merits of Macintosh and the PC.  There is even some Amiga humor thrown in there!

- video originally found at TUAW

I feel like a broken record with these posts, but yet another one of my beloved anime films is being revisited. This time it is not being given the American remake treatment, but instead is going the Lucas route.  The seminal cyberpunk classic, “Ghost in the Shell”, is going 2.0 with a new CGI version set to hit Japanese theaters on July 12th.

The new release will feature a new 6.1 remix courtesy of Skywalker Sound, new voice-acting (some by the original actors), and CG and digital effects inserted into select scenes.  This whole endeavor is eerily reminiscent of what George Lucas did with the original three “Star Wars” films, and so, of course, I have the same concerns.  I am all for old films getting digital clean-ups and better transfers, but don’t see why directors want to go back and digitally meddle with their works.  ”Ghost in the Shell” was already a great film, and I hope that these “enhancements” don’t ruin a classic by over-engineering it.

- news courtesy of Anime News Network

It is probably abundantly clear through the URL of this site that I am a fan of the 8-bit era. My fondest gaming memories all stem from the hours spent sitting on the floor immersed in the pixelated worlds of Mega Man and Super Mario Brothers.

I’ve been on a bit of a binge recently procuring various mildly geeky artwork to cover my walls. My most recent acquisition is the above piece by “eboy”, a German pixel-art collective that creates these amazing and massive cityscapes that contain a dizzying amount of detail.  My poster is of Tokyo, and will be arriving on these fair shores in about a month, if the shipping goes as planned.  Definitely peruse the site and check out not only the posters, but also the cool vinyl toys, t-shirts and all the rest.

A friend of mine sent me over a link to this Flickr set: LEGOd Video Games

These are amazing recreations of classic video game moments constructed with the most revered building block.  I have often thought that legos would be perfect for creating some pixel art, but have had reservations about the fidelity, since legos don’t have a square ratio. “Pixel Blocks” do seem like a toy up to the task, and will probably be my go-to block for when I eventually get around to my Megaman crafts project.

- picture courtesy of skinny coder

Today at Apple’s WWDC developer event they announced “MobileMe”, a replacement for the “.Mac” suite of services. “MobileMe” will enable a user to keep their contacts, calendars, e-mail, synchronized across all devices via push. It also offers enhanced photo sharing capabilities that will be integrated into the iPhone and new website, as well as better data synchronization courtesy of iDisk. All of these new web applications and services can leverage “MobileMe’s” new 20GB of storage space.

So, the question inevitably becomes, “is it worth $99?”. For me, the answer is a resounding, “no”. There are a couple of major snags in the offering. First of all, my e-mail is associated with this domain, and so I have no interest in getting a “me.com” e-mail address. I have scoured the new documentation, but it doesn’t mention allowing you to do an MX forward so that you could associate a personal domain with these services. Major bummer.

Second, the services don’t match the price. $99 is a hefty sum for synchronization services. I use a Zimbra mail host for my personal data management, and it provides roughly the same functionality (disclosure: I work for Yahoo, which owns Zimbra, but this has nothing to do with why I use it).  The Zimbra hosting allows me to keep my personal domain, and offers an iSync conduit that keeps my address book and calendar in sync across all of my devices and has a web interface for accessing my e-mail, calendar, and contact list.  iTunes also supports syncing iPhone contacts with Gmail and Yahoo!, and I imagine that both of these companies will offer native apps for the iPhone to help keep everything up-to-date.

If you combine one of these PIM solutions with a free file storage solution like the most excellent Dropbox you can replicate these services for a much cheaper cost.  I pay around $6 a month for Zimbra hosting from 01.com and Dropbox is currently free.  Sure, you may not get everything managed in a single place with the extreme elegance and simplicity of an Apple product, but you do get a more flexible solution.  Is “MobileMe” for me?  Certainly not.  Is it a great service that would be perfect for my mom?  Definitely.

The futurist and technologist in me very firmly believes that augmented reality will reach ubiquity and will dramatically change the way we interact with the internet and information.  Check out this video for a demo.