Monthly Archives: June 2009

Transformers 2: One Paragraph Review

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Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

This movie was pure insanity. It’s two and a half unrelenting hours of explosions, robots and boobs. I would say it’s equally divided between moments of sheer brilliance, and WTF moments. If you’ve seen the first movie, then you have a good idea of what to expect, but crank it up a notch. This movie makes everything more extreme, both the good and the bad. When I walked out, at first, I wasn’t sure if I really liked it. Overall, I’ve decided I enjoyed it, but wow. Talk about over-the-top.

For another perspective, here’s an excerpt from a review on io9:

Michael Bay understands that summer movies are about two things: male anxiety, and pure id. That’s why he casts Shia LaBoeuf, that supreme avatar of pure male inadequacy, in the lead role. …LaBoeuf, who’s actually a fine actor, is the stand-in for the male viewers’ greatest fears about themselves. No matter how great a loser they might be, they can’t be as losery a loser as Sam Witwicky. And yet, Sam has awesome giant robots stomping around telling him he’s the most important awesome person ever. And he has the hottest girlfriend in the universe, Megan Fox, for whom banality is a huge aphrodisiac.
– io9, “Micheal Bay Finally Made an Art Movie“

Infamous vs Prototype

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“I suppose we could say that the two games are equally fun, and that there’s room in this world for both, but FUCK THAT. History needs to know which is best, so I’m going to award victory who whichever game’s developer sends me the best picture of the other game’s main character wearing a woman’s bra.”
– Zero Punctuation, comparing Infamous andPrototype

Be Nice

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“I don’t care how good you are at programming, finding bugs, whatever. If you’re rude, or if you speak poorly to people who don’t understand your… quirks… you will wind up being shunted to the side. No one wants to work with someone who makes them feel beat down all the time, or someone who they simply can’t understand, or someone whose reaction to every issue is to start wailing about the end of the world.”
– Catherine Powell (via 37signals)

Saturday Night Live "Moon" Short Film

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Update: It DOES exist! No sooner did I finish typing this than I managed to find a reference to it. It was directed by Adam McKay, it was called “Neil Armstrong: The Ohio Years,” and it aired on March 11, 2000. Now, I just need to hunt down the video.

Annie and I clearly remember an SNL sketch from maybe 10 years ago starring Neil Armstrong. It was a short film, very similar to the digital shorts they do today, with a little title card saying it was an SNL Short Film, and listing the director (who I don’t remember).

The film itself just showed a normal day in the life of Neil Armstrong: Getting dressed, eating breakfast, picking up groceries at the store, etc. But over the top of everything, we hear Neil’s inner monologue, which is all about him going to the moon. All day long, he’s thinking things like “I went to the moon! I was on the moon. The moon! The god damn moon!”

And all day long, his inner monologue gets louder and more insistent, until by the time he’s in the grocery store, you just hear him yelling “MOOOOOOOON!” over and over again. It was hilarious, because of the juxtaposition of this polite older man and his outragous inner voice.

And I can’t find any indication that it ever existed. Annie and I remember it clearly, but no one else does, and there’s no mention of it anywhere online. SNL doesn’t appear in Neil Armstrong’s IMDB page (or any of the other astronauts who landed on the moon). There’s no mention in wikipedia. Google is no help. I’m seriously starting to wonder if I just dreamed it.

Do any of you remember this sketch? Better yet, does anyone have a copy?

Bugzilla’s Reset Password Page Sucks

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Bugzilla's Reset Password Screen

Frequently, my coworkers will forget their Bugzilla passwords. They come to me, because I manage it, and I always send them to the reset password page. Inevitably, they come back a few minutes later and tell me that it didn’t work, and I just reset their passwords by hand. Well, I finally figured out the problem. Take a look at this screenshot and see if you can spot the problem. Remember that they’ve gotten to this page by clicking on a link that says “Reset Your Password.”

In case it’s not obvious, here’s a screenshot with the reset password form highlighted:

Bugzilla's Reset Password Screen Highlighted

Yes, that’s right, when you click on “Reset Your Password,” you’re taken to a page where the first and clearest call to action is a login form! Hidden beneath it is the actual form, but no one ever sees it. Seriously, Bugzilla, I love you guys, but hire a UI designer, please.

Note: This was originally posted on my work blog, and I’m re-posting it here for archival purposes.