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Remarkably faithful to the spirit of its source material, the film version of
Twilight
crams most of the key episodes from Stephenie Meyer's novel into its breathless, 122-minute
running time. Under the direction of Catherine Hardwicke
(Thirteen), Twilight gallops along handsomely, showcasing the cloudy, misty
beauty of its gorgeous Pacific Northwest forest locations; you can practically smell the pine
trees and feel the crunch of fallen leaves beneath your feet. Using voice-over narration
sparingly, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg trots
out all the major (and most of the minor) characters from the book, recounting the story in
abbreviated fashion while demonstrating respect for Meyer's novel and its huge, faithful
audience.
Twilight may not add up to much more than the sum of its parts, but those parts can be
mighty entertaining, especially when handsome Edward (Robert Pattinson, oozing
uncertain charm) is whooshing through the woods with plucky Bella (Kristen Stewart,
self-assured and determined) on his back. Still, the romance at the heart of the book has been
shorn of some of its heart in the translation to the big screen, sacrificed on the altar of a
broader demographic. Readers of the book could feel somewhat shortchanged by the relentless
emphasis on forward momentum rather than romantic fantasy; the flip side is that newcomers can
enjoy the whirlwind pace and the brooding, ominous atmosphere, and everyone can revel in the
spectacle of flying vampires playing a pinball version of sandlot baseball.
Seeing a Windows blue screen of death is fine, if annoying, if you're just balancing your
checkbook, but what if you see it in more...precarious situations? Like when you're pumping gas?
Reader Dave...
MAKE: Tokyo Meeting 02 was held on 11/8 at Tokyo's Tama Art University, and the MAKE: Japan
events just keep getting bigger, better, and wonderfully wilder. Here are a few highlights
gleaned from the massive influx of pictures, video, and bloggings that this event inspired.
Here's a video featuring four particularly awesome things from the meeting:
・Make: hat
・Air canon
・iPhone radio-controlled model car
・Homemade tank
Click through to see more!
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Senior directors of online payment site E-Gold, who had pleaded guilty to charges of money
laundering, received small fines and no prison sentences. A judge said it was due to a lack of
criminal intent.
Senior directors of online payment site E-Gold, who had pleaded guilty to charges of money
laundering, received small fines and no prison sentences. A judge said it was due to a lack of
criminal intent.
Great article from the Wall Street Journal's Paul Ingrassia that summarizes how and why the US auto
industry fell to pieces. My favorite part was this telling excerpt: In Detroit, amid worker
alienation and the "blue-collar blues," Chevies, Fords and Plymouths rattled, rusted and rolled
over -- and those were the good ones. The Ford Pinto's gas tank was prone to explode into flames
when the car was hit from the rear, making the Pinto the poster product for corporate callousness.
In 1978, after three Indiana girls burned to death when their Pinto got rear-ended, Ford became the
first company to be indicted for reckless homicide. The company later was acquitted, but public
opinion judged the Pinto guilty. For all the Pinto's infamy, perhaps no car better captured
America's decade-long haplessness than the pug-ugly AMC Gremlin, which debuted in 1970 and died --
mercifully -- in 1980. The Gremlin's shape, fittingly, was first sketched out by an American Motors
designer on the back of a Northwest Airlines air-sickness bag. On Aug. 20, 1979, 18-year-old Brad
Alty, fresh out of high school in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was driving his Gremlin to work when the car
broke down. He was two-and-a-half hours late to his first day on the job at a new motorcycle
factory that Honda Motor was opening in central Ohio. For the next few weeks, Mr. Alty and his 63
co-workers did little but sweep floors and paint them with yellow lines. Then they started building
three to five motorcycles a day. And at the end of each day they would disassemble each bike, piece
by piece, to evaluate the workmanship. How Detroit drove into a ditch...br style="clear: both;"/ a
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Chrysler has been toying
with in-car connectivity for months now, so it's really no shock to see the next logical step being
taken. At the San Francisco Auto Show this week, the automaker is set to showcase a "Web Edition"
package, which would theoretically be available as a dealer-installed option for most Chrysler,
Jeep, and Dodge vehicles. The bundle would include an
Autonet Mobile router (branded as
Uconnect Web), a Dell Mini 9, 8GB iPod touch, Sony PSP and an Eye-Fi WiFi SD card; couple that
with one year of internet service and you've got everything that makes up the $1,999 asking price.
Reportedly, a slimmed down option will go for $1,100 and only include the router, service and Mini
9, though there's no indication of when it'll be hitting new whips. Nor if Chrysler will survive
long enough to tell us.
Currency Converter ($2) is a tool for converting more than 200 currencies including all of the
trading currencies of the world plus some legacy and even unofficial or virtual currencies. The
application uses a conversion table interface that is constantly updated as you type. The currency
data is updated automatically from the web every hour or users may choose to manually update it to
ensure the...
MacWorld Sweden caught the attention of iPhone users when they reported that Swedish carrier Telia
is planning on bringing Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) to their iPhone users. MMS is a feature
that has been long requested by iPhone users and wo...
pHP's newest tablet launched yesterday, with a combination of features and capabilities that might
breathe new life into a product segment that's languished in niche status for nearly a decade. With
multitouch rapidly ascending the list of desired features on both laptops and cell phones, Tablet
PCs might finally have their day in the sun. /ppa
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German company Ultrasone has released the smallest headphone in its HFI line, the HFI-15G. The
open-back supra-aural design features a decentralized driver position that is claimed to widen the
sound-stage by directing the waves to the outer ear, instead of straight into the ear canal. The
company lists a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz, with a sound pressure level of 96dB. The 40mm
Mylar drivers...
Orb Networks on Thursday launched OrbLive 2.0, the latest version of its media application for the
iPhone 3G and iPod touch. The original version was created before the App Store was opened, and
required users to jailbreak their phones. The new (official) app allows the mobile devices to
access media that is available on a home PC, including videos, music, live television and webcams.
OrbLive work...
Orb Networks on Thursday launched OrbLive 2.0, the latest version of its media application for the
iPhone 3G and iPod touch. The original version was created before the App Store was opened, and
required users to jailbreak their phones. The new (official) app allows the mobile devices to
access media that is available on a home PC, including videos, music, live television and webcams.
OrbLive work...
Some companies, like Dell, are encouraging employees to take a day or two offmdash;unpaid,
natchmdash;to help the company save money. Then there's Sprint. Oh, Sprint. Bleeding cash and
customers...
The LG Incite is yet another
smartphone that will compete against the iPhone. The handset will be available soon from AT&T
and it will cost as much as the 8GB iPhone. That's $199 with a two year
contract.
Before you
start spewing out the names of Hollywood's most annoying men as if some sort of gag reflex has
taken over your -- Rob Schneider! -- body, let me set this up for you: Variety
tells us Disney has picked up a comedy script called The World's Most Annoying
Man, written by Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (those magicians behind Nick's
Kenan and Kel), and so far no one has approached me to star ... which is good, I suppose.
There's no director or cast attached yet, but Andy
Fickman (director of upcoming Race to Witch Mountain) is producing.
And what could a film called The World's Most Annoying Man possibly be about? Animated
squirrel chess champions? Um, no. Actually, the film will tell of a man who must travel across the
country with his really annoying brother en route to his own wedding. Kinda sounds like Tommy
Boy (or any buddy road movie for that matter), except tack on a wedding to the end. Great. Got
it. So here's where the discussion comes in: Who, may I ask, would you cast as the world's most
annoying man? Do you cast a really annoying actor like Jack Black or Andy Dick or someone else
who's really annoying. OR, do you cast a funny actor who's great at playing an annoying man? Once
you decide all that, tell us: Who do you think is Hollywood's most annoying man?
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
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Before you
start spewing out the names of Hollywood's most annoying men as if some sort of gag reflex has
taken over your -- Rob Schneider! -- body, let me set this up for you: 