Blade Runner: The Final Cut - Movies - New York Times
Looks like there is going to be a 3rd version, 2nd Directors cut
being released to mark the 25th anniversary of the best movie ever
made. The article offers some interesting insight into Ridley
Scott and his original vision.
I've never paid quite so much attention to a movie, ever," Mr.
Scott said in a telephone interview from Washington, where he's
shooting a spy thriller. "But we had to create a world that
supported the story's premise, made it believable. Why do you watch
a film seven times? Because somebody's done it right and
transported you to its world.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut - Movies - New York Times
Family Guy does Star Wars... WTF?
[21:30] At least that's what I thought when I happened to be
subjected to a trailer for this abomination. I've caught some bits
and pieces of Family Guy over the past couple of years and I have
been quite unimpressed. The writing is juvenile yet unfunny
(contrast with the Simpsons where the humour is juvenile and adult
simultaneously and reliably funny).
Well, that impression has changed somewhat. It's 9:30pm and
during a commercial break as I write this. The Family Guy's
treatment of the first, um fourth, er first Star Wars film has been
pretty impressive so far. The attention to detail is impeccable.
Simple things like the vertical blind cut that leaves us with a
scene of the Jawa Sand Crawler, the subtle yaw as the Millennium
Falcon departs the Tatooine Space Port show a huge attention to
detail in preparing this obvious tribute to the original movie.
[21:37] Yeah, the over the top humour still bothers me but the
fact it's 9:37pm and Peter Griffin just broke into the prisoner
block and recited Han Solo's lines verbatim blows me away. How
have they managed to capture the entire story up to this point, add
a lot of additional material, insert those damn commercials and
still be ahead of the original movie timeline by twenty
minutes?
[21:43] Hmm... They avoided a great scene in the garbage pit.
The scene where the snake like creature brushes up against one of
the characters and then snatches Luke under water has been replaced
by them carrying out a dirty old couch. I wonder if that was
written in just so they could drop "Fabreze" as a product-placement
audio snippet???
Ok, they just took off out of the Death Star and I am sure it
was exactly the same scene. Did they work out something with
George Lucas to gain access to the original footage? I'm beginning
to think they've been using rotoscoping to get the realism.
[21:47] Obi Wan Kenobi is dead and its about time for Luke and
Han to battle the Tie fighters. Perfect, they've even preserved
the 1977 pre-CGA graphics of the targeting system. And, this is
awesome, they've edited in the explosions from the original movie
into the animation.
[21:49] We can do without the Magic Johnson bit.
[21:51] "Oh look, a light saber cheese knife" - Peter Griffin as
Han Solo. That would be a cool addition to any kitchen.
[21:52] They're flying into the trench on the Death Star. I'm
convinced this has to be rotoscoped.
[21:54] Star Wars over and back to the Griffin family living
room and a Robot Chicken reference. Maybe I'll start watching the
Family Guy.
Coding Horror: Rainbow Hash Cracking
Jeff Atwood writes on his blog Coding Horror about a password
cracking technique that uses rainbow tables. The premise is simple, taking
advantage of the time-memory tradeoff of storing massive amounts of
pre-computed hashes in memory.
The multi-platform password cracker Ophcrack is incredibly
fast. How fast? It can crack the password "Fgpyyih804423"
in 160 seconds. Most people would consider that password
fairly secure. The
Microsoft password strength checker rates it "strong". The Geekwisdom
password strength meter rates it "mediocre".
Coding
Horror: Rainbow Hash Cracking
Here's an anti-piracy ad I'd like to see at the cinema
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTbX1aMajow]