Encontré esta web sobre iPhone que quizá tenga algo de interés para los apoderados capitalistas que ya sean padres de uno de estos ingenios tecnológicos. Hay servicios tan vitales y esenciales en la vida de todo geek como el wallpaper diario.

Fotos del decorado por el que se supone veremos corretear (tanto en horizontal como en vertical) al Príncipe de Persia. Click para ver a más tamaño:

Me acabo de enterar por casualidad que Herbert Powell (el hermano bastardo de Homer) estaba doblado por Danny DeVito. El capítulo lo pusieron ayer.

Entre otros muchísimos invitados (no como ellos mismos) están James Earl Jones (la voz de Darth Vader) a uno de los extraterrestres y Dustin Hoffman al profesor Bergstrom (es el capítulo que están poniendo en este momento).

Después de casi 18 años viendo la serie (la vi desde que la puso La 2 por primera vez) y saberme todos los chascarrillos de memoria he pensado que podría disfrutarla en sus voces originales. Por lo menos me libraría del doblaje de las últimas temporadas -_- (aunque admito que las dos más recientes no tocan fondo como las de hace tiempo).

Y si no son las peores, están cerca.

¿Quién me mandará estos remites en las cartas? Además que el botón de la moderación no funciona, le dí varias veces pero nada. Quizás ya había un aviso.

Solución al acertijo veraniego (click)

¡Dedicado a Mowei!

En las escombreras del túnel que se construye para el AVE a su paso por el municipio de Fuentes (Cuenca), basta fijar la vista para tropezarse con un dinosaurio, es decir, con un fósil de un tamaño respetable de hace 70 millones de años, cuando los gigantescos reptiles habitaban esta zona de la península.

Hace poco más de un año, las excavadoras de ADIF, la empresa que construye las vías, se toparon con el mayor yacimiento de Europa del Cretácico Inferior, un puzle más de 8.000 piezas de dinosaurios que los paleontólogos acaban de empezar a reconstruir en un gigantesco laboratorio a las afueras de Cuenca.

Afloraron en un paraje conocido como Lo Hueco porque, según cuentan los campesinos de Fuentes, cuando las mulas pasaban por allí cambiaba el sonido de sus pisadas, como si hubiera huecos en el interior del cerro.

Pero lo que había eran huesos. Gigantescos restos de titanosaurios y otros animales cretácicos que ahora llenan una inmensa nave de un polígono industrial, donde se han acumulado todos los fósiles, bien consolidados y empaquetados, para su limpieza y estudio.

Aún no hay publicaciones científicas que avalen los hallazgos, pero Francisco Ortega, codirector de las excavaciones, además de profesor en la UNED, adelanta que Lo Hueco "puede dar un vuelco a lo que hasta ahora se creía sobre los dinosaurios europeos".

No sólo se han encontrado nuevas especies, sino que hay fósiles casi enteros de animales de los que, hasta ahora, sólo había piezas sueltas, o solo huellas, y en un estado de conservación espectacular.

"Aquí hemos encontrado un dromeosaurio y dos titanosaurios nuevos, estos últimos con unas protuberancias óseas en la espalda (osteodermos) que no se les conocían. Y un terópodo carnívoro, un tarascosaurus de casi 10 metros de longitud", explica Ortega, mientras se pasea por la nave enseñando algunas de las piezas.
Cambios en Europa

El paleontólogo, biólogo hasta que se tropezó con un cráneo de cocodrilo mientras buscaba plantas, asegura que ahora se sabe que los dromeosaurios europeos (primos de los velociraptor americanos) no sólo vivieron en Francia, donde han aparecido unos pocos huesos, sino que estuvieron también en Cuenca, por lo que la península no debía ser una isla, otra hipótesis que se ha ido al traste. También hay mucho material del tarascosauro, un rompecabezas aún por armar del que se tienen muy pocas pistas físicas.

Ahí radica la importancia de Lo Hueco. "Aporta espectacularidad por la enorme cantidad de fósiles, y mucha información de lo que hace 70 millones de años pasaba en Europa y África. Todos conocemos bien los dinosaurios norteamericanos, y los asiáticos de Mongolia, pero muy poco de los de aquí. De los titanosaurios hemos descubierto, por ejemplo, que eran grandes pero muy gráciles, estilizados, que tenían una cola larga y que se alimentaban de ramas bajas de los árboles. El más grande que hemos encontrado debía medir unos 20 metros", continúa el paleontólogo.

Fue en la primavera del año pasado cuando los maquinistas de ADIF comenzaron a tropezarse con los dinosaurios. A unos tres metros de profundidad, en un nivel grisáceo que fue un canal en el Cretácico y ahora es un cerro, se acumulaban los fósiles.

Un grupo de paleontólogos, entre los que estaban Francisco Ortega y José Luis Sanz, de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, pronto se percataron de la importancia del yacimiento, formado en un momento de gran cantidad de fauna en lo que era una zona tropical próxima a la costa.

"Debía de haber riadas y el canal acumulaba barro con restos de animales que morían en la cuenca o en sus orillas, y éstos son los mejor conservados. Las riadas desbordaban el canal por la llanura y dejaban ahí todo el sedimento. Ha sido una suerte que el AVE hiciera necesario abrir el cerro para que lo descubriéramos", recuerda el paleontólogo.

Como se trata de no paralizar la obra más de lo imprescindible, la Junta de Castilla-La Mancha y ADIF autorizaron y financiaron unas excavaciones exprés. Unos 50 paleontólogos y 30 peones auxiliares no levantaron cabeza de Lo Hueco hasta diciembre, cuando llegaron al límite inferior del yacimiento en el tramo de la vía.

Ahora saben que en los laterales hay aún mucho por sacar (unos 50 metros a un lateral y otros 400 metros a otro), pero más adelante.

De momento, sólo otro de los codirectores, Marcos Martín, se acerca a Lo Hueco a rebuscar entre los montones de escombros de yesos acumulados cerca de la obra. Y siempre encuentra algo. «Esto no se acaba nunca», exclama, bajo un sol implacable.

Mientras, en la nave, dos compañeros, Adán Pérez y Mercedes Llandres, limpian y clasifican las piezas del puzle. Al menos tienen trabajo para dos años, o mucho más.
Un laboratorio industrial

El Museo de Ciencia de Cuenca no ha podido acoger las toneladas que suponen los fósiles y los sedimentos de Lo Hueco, por lo que ADIF ha financiado el alquiler de la nave donde se ha instalado el almacén y laboratorio del yacimiento.

La empresa es responsable del material hasta que se acabe la obra ferroviaria, que luego pasará a depender de la Junta de Castilla-La Mancha. Se habla de ampliar el actual Museo y también de crear otro nuevo museo en Fuentes, que pondría al municipio en el mapa de la paleontología ibérica.

De momento, para el estudio de lo que ya se tiene, los responsables del proyecto esperan que ocho personas comiencen a trabajar en septiembre en la nave, entre geólogos, biólogos y otros especialistas. Su intención es presentar el proyecto de Lo Hueco a tantas convocatorias de subvenciones públicas como aparezcan.

Estiman que con un presupuesto de 500.000 euros tendrían para trabajar tres años e incluso se platean volver a excavar en los márgenes de la vía durante el próximo año. Al menos necesitan cinco paleontólogos a tiempo completo.

Para que la colección sea conocida fuera, también se prepara su presentación oficial en un congreso sobre dinosaurios que se celebrará en Argentina el mes que viene.

Fuente

¡No se pueden ver las olimpiadas sin conocer a las mascotas! Aunque la única que recordamos (al menos los españoles) es Cobi, las mascotas de las olimpiadas tienen un interesante papel como... euu... aparecer en merchandising. Estos monigotes son los de Beijing.

El Pez Beibei - color azul (lleva además una especie de olas como pelo) 贝贝Es chica, simboliza la prosperidad. En la cultura tradicional china, el pez representa prosperidad pues su ideograma (魚 / 鱼) se asemeja al de abundancia (餘 / 余).

El Panda Jingjing - color negro (coronan su cabeza tres flores de loto) 晶晶 Es chico y simboliza la felicidad. El panda es uno de los símbolos nacionales de China y del ambientalismo.

La Antorcha Huanhuan -  color rojo (su pelo son llamas inspiradas en las cuevas de Mogao) 欢欢 Es chico y simboliza la pasión. Representa el Lema Olímpico «Citius, Altius, Fortius» (Más rápido, más alto, más fuerte).

El Antílope (tibetano) Yingying - color amarillo (su tocado está inspirado en las máscaras utilizadas en Qinghai, en la cultura tibetana) 迎迎. Es chico y simboliza la salud. El antílope es uno de los animales más veloces existentes.

La Golondrina Nini - color verde (su sombrero imita una cometa con forma de golondrina) 妮妮 Es chica y representa la buena fortuna. La golondrina es la "mensajera de la primavera" y por ende es un símbolo de buena fortuna. El ideograma de la golondrina (燕) es usado en el antiguo nombre de Beijing, Yanjing (燕京).

Las primeras sílabas de los nombres dan como resultado "Beijing Huanying Ni" "Pekín te da la bienvenida".

Y ahora sí, disfrutad de los Juegos tranquilamente, y que ganen los menos drogados.

Variety informa que por tema de post producción y efectos especiales, la película de Prince of Persia llegará en 2010, un año más tarde de lo esperado y sólo una semana después de Shrek Goes Fourth, aunque se libra de encontrarse con Transformers 2 como antes.

Como se había dicho ya, Bruckheimer y Disney quieren hacer de esta adaptación una saga potente, llena de márketing y promociones al estilo de Piratas del Caribe. ¿Será esta una de las pocas adaptaciones respetables de los videojuegos en el cine, y la primera en tener éxito masivo?

Estos días estuve viendo algunas comedias como la clásica Los caballeros de la mesa cuadrada y sus locos seguidores. Pero después de muchos años, la película que más gracia me hace es No matarás... al vecino. La vi por primera vez hace muchos años (es de 1989, cuando Tom Hanks estaba orientado a la comedia) y la he vuelto a ver estos días, y no ha perdido nada de gracia. Esta es la sinopsis:

En un típico vecindario norteamericano de los suburbios llegan unos vecinos nuevos a instalarse al lado de la casa de Ray Peterson. Pero estos nuevos vecinos son realmente extraños: nadie los ha visto y por la noche se pueden escuchar extraños sonidos provenientes del sótano. Lo único que conocen es su apellido: los Klopeks. Un día Walter, un anciano del vecindario, desaparece y todos comienzan a sospechar de ellos.

Lógicamente, un grupo de vecinos bastante grillado entre los que se encuentra Ray (Tom Hanks) deciden investigar a sus vecinos y van descubriendo el misterio, todo con absurdos planes y unos vecinos que dan mucho juego a la imaginación. Como curiosidad, la mujer de Tom Hanks es Carrie Fisher (aka Leia).

Yo la recomiendo para estos días de verano ligeritos sin muchas pretensiones. Está en DVD aunque debe ser bastante difícil de encontrar.

Este es un final alternativo (peor que el que sí se incluyó) y el trailer original.

A más calidad.

Pioneer ha creado un disco Blu Ray con 16 capas, al parecer sin las complicaciones que suele dar esta tecnología (a más capas, más complicada la lectura). La buena noticia es que los lectores actuales podrán leer estos discos.

Pioneer has revealed that they have developed a Blu-ray disc that can store 400GB of data on 16 layers. While these super Blu-ray discs are nothing new, Pioneer claims that the specs for the laser remain unchanged compared to that of a typical Blu-ray player, meaning these discs would technically work in existing Blu-ray players.

There has always been difficulty with multilayer discs as the data on each layer can "bleed" onto other layers when being read. Apparently, Pioneer has used their expertise with the DVD format to solve that issue.

Little else is known about these discs, though more information is expected next week at the Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008, which is being held on the 13 July in Hawaii.

Algunas fuentes afirman que en las oficinas de Kojima Productions siguen esperando a tecnología con 54 capas para lanzar su próximo juego, pero no se ha confirmado :-P

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
explícame cosas bonitas, que m'aburro!

De-mon dice:
rosas azules

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
mmmmm

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
(Careto diciendo no)

De-mon dice:
mariposas

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
ban!

De-mon dice:
cubitos de azucar

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
mmmm... rico

De-mon dice:
plastilina, no plastelina

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
eso eso

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
jodida plastelina inexistente

De-mon dice:
bollitos de crema

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
finish!

De-mon dice:
tizas de colores

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
soy alérgico

De-mon dice:
a las cosas bonitas?

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
a ti

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
(careto con risa)

De-mon dice:
el lider lo sabe todo

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
mmmm... pablo?

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
(careto pensativo)

De-mon dice:
el lider que nos llevará a Felizonia

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
nananananaaaaa

Marc (nananananananana liiideeeeer) dice:
liiiiiiideeeeeeeeer

Típica noticia veinteminutera.

Un zorro profeta alemán pronostica la victoria de España en la final de la Eurocopa

El oráculo animal del zoológico de Chemnitz, en el este de Alemania, da ganadora a la selección de Luis Aragonés en la final de la Eurocopa frente a la selección de Joachim Löw.

El zorro polar "Manitou" lanzó hoy su pronóstico y, de acuerdo a la práctica de ese zoo, optó por la comida española en lugar de otro cuenco con el mismo contenido, correspondiente a Alemania.

Este animal ya predijo correctamente otra derrota de la selección de Löw en esta Eurocopa, la del partido de la fase de grupos ante Croacia.

El zoo de Chemnitz ha popularizado el oráculo animal gracias al alto porcentaje de aciertos de sus pronósticos.

Buenos augurios...

Anteriormente se utilizaron para la experiencia un tití, que auguró la derrota de los alemanes ante Austria, y un puerco espín que asimismo predijo la victoria de los de Löw ante Polonia.

En todos los casos, la prueba ha consistido en elegir entre dos cuencos con alimentos idénticos -dos galletas, dos pollitos u otros manjares-, uno para cada selección, y dejar que el animal elija.

En el Mundial 2006 de Alemania, el zoo de Chemnitz utilizó doce profetas animales para augurar el resultado de los encuentros de la selección alemana, aunque no todos acertaron.

... ¿o gruñiremos?

Me llega esta noticia de un fan grupo de Shirow:

Japanese websites are reporting a newly enhanced version of Oshii's original film will hit Japanese theaters on July 12, with new CG effects,a new dub, and a 6.1 digital soundtrack. i will post pics in the files area in the next few days.

Se trata de un remake o versión mejorada de la original Ghost in the Shell  con efectos CG, nuevo doblaje y mejor calidad de audio, para que esté acorde con el apartado visual de Innocence. Imagino que aquí nos llegará sólo en formato Blu Ray/DVD, pero para mí es más que suficiente, una de esas obras maestras de la animación de los últimos años.

Trailer de la original:


Actualizado: cortesía de Fukuy, aquí algunas imágenes compartivas y vídeo anuncio de GITS 2.0.

Lógicamente, las cajas negras de los aviones (y otros transportes) no son negras, más bien todo lo contrario, para poder ser encontradas fácilmente en caso de accidente.

Información gratuita que nunca está de más saber.

Nota: ¡Vale, no tan mini!

Yo también me apunto a contar brevemente (ya se ha debatido bastante en el foro) mis impresiones de la película. Todo lo que se encuentra debajo de la imagen incluyen spoilers masivos, así que no usaré la opción de secreto, todo lo que viene a continuación habla de momentos concretos sin rodeos.

Para empezar, se que hay opiniones encontradas sobre las fantasmadas de la película. Debo decir que las hay, y algunas incluso salen de los cánones de la saga. Por ejemplo, que Indiana Jones y la panda sobrevivan a tres cataratas me parece normal, que una decena de soldados tiroteen a los protagonistas durante casi toda la película y ninguna bala les roce siquiera, entra dentro de lo lógico, pero es verdad que la (espectacular) escena de la nevera forrada de una capa de plomo (única explicación para que sobreviva a una explosión en ese extraño pueblo) me pareció metida con calzador. Aún así, la película es para entretener, no para buscar lógica, por lo tanto, ninguna queja.

La historia me pareció algo floja, o mejor dicho, mal llevada. No tiene ni más ni menos chicha que la trilogía original, revisando cualquiera de las anteriores podemos ver que se basa en perseguir algo y una sucesión de aventuras, y en Indy IV no aspira a más. Lo que si me pareció por debajo de las anteriores es ver a ese Indiana Jones diluido, como ausente, no es el que lleva la aventura y agarra al toro por los cuernos, es casi un espectador más que va de un lado hacia otro porque no tiene más remedio. Quizás es el papel que le toca a su edad, podría pensar, pero no, ya que la primera hora si es puro Indy, es la recta final donde se limita a seguir lo que le dicta el loco ese (un personaje que no me gustó demasiado) con una cara de algo despistadillo. Es una impresión, no se si la tuvo todo el mundo, pero su figura era más borrosa.

Hay un montón de altibajos de calidad/acción/diálogo. Por ejemplo, las escenas de acción en la mayoría de ocasiones son geniales, al nivel de las anteriores e incluso me atrevería a decir sin tapujos que en algún momento mejores. Me refiero por ejemplo a la persecución en moto por la ciudad, comparable a otras vistas como la de lanchas motoras en La Última Cruzada o las vagonetas en El Templo Maldito. O esa larga escena en la selva entre varios coches, por momentos recuerda a la persecución de los jeep en el Arca Perdida. O esa primera escena de acción en el hangar donde se guardan cajas de madera (arca incluida), eso es 100% Indiana Jones, 100% aventura.

Pero como digo, a partir de la segunda mitad cae tanto en ritmo como en interés. Hay algunas escenas, como la del cementerio, un poco risible (con un gollum-fantasma o algo raro), o la tribu que sale casi de la nada cerca del final (¿¿llevan toda la vida esperando dentro de las rocas??). Se ha perdido esa parte de violencia que siempre tenía la saga y apenas se ve sangre después de peleas a muerte, ni muertes cruentas. No, no quiero tampoco gore ni que Indy sea Rambo, pero... no es la misma personalidad de antes. Hay también algunos parones un poco tontos, como en el campamento ruso con el héroe atado a una silla mirando a la calavera, se me hizo algo largo y pesado.

Parte de la culpa de ver al protagonista menos brillante que antes quizá sea por toda la cohorte que le escolta, empezando por el hijo (el cual incluso me sorprendió y para bien), Marion (realmente buena química con Indy y un papel creible para su edad), un traidor en plan mosca cojonera (su muerte es patética) y para rematar la faena el loco de la calavera. Demasiados para el solitario arqueólogo.

Y luego, finalmente, sobre la trama general de la película. El tema es ya de entrada el que menos me atrae, cuando Spielberg se pone tonto con el tema es el director infantil que no me ha gustado, ya sea ET, Encuentros en la Tercera Fase o La Guerra de los Mundos. No obstante, es verdad que encaja bien con la mitología de la saga y después de dos temas religiosos como el arca y el cáliz y uno de sectas, este era una temática que se tocaría tarde o temprano, más cuando las fechas de la aventura coinciden con aquella moda de los ovnis, el área 51, KGB y CIA buscando paranormales (la saga MGS también tocó el tema en MGS con Psicho Mantis y en MGS PO con Úrsula/Elisa) y los mayas, pirámides y demás. Hasta ahí de acuerdo. Incluso hasta los últimos 20 minutos, todo sigue su cierta "lógica". Y esperaba un final con abducciones y demás. Pero me pareció que mostraba demasiado, nada de insinuaciones, el platillo volante sobraba, incluso se podía mostrar de una forma menos rimbombante e igualmente dejar al espectador con la duda de cómo llegaron. En fin, cuanto más mayor se hace Spielberg, más vuelve a sus temas de joven.

Aún es pronto para opinar de si está a la altura de las anteriores, como muchos me quedo contento por muchas cosas, y lamento que con un par de retoques aquí y allá la película podría haber salido redonda, al menos muy digna. Habrá que verla unas cuantas veces más y ya conociendo lo que nos espera. La película entretiene y de sobra, ir a verla es casi obligado, aunque es fácil que muchos sientan su memoria traicionada, según sus expectativas.

¡Felicidades! Y ahora a rezar para que el Pucela no baje :-/

Es de la nueva película de Street Fighter... pero podría ser de Starship Troopers.

O por lo menos muyyyyy ociosa.

Puede gustar su música más o menos, pero todos sus videoclips son un pequeño regalo para la vista. Este es el videoclip de Wanderlust.



Pero hay más. Si dispones de unas gafas 3D (vale con poner un celofán de color en cada ojo en plan clase de pretecnología XD) existe una versión tridimensional. Aquí podéis ver el vídeo en buena calidad y el making of.

El visionario James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic) está dispuesto a revolucionar el cine con las 3D. Variety tiene una extensa entrevista con el director y lo que prepara con su próxima película, Avatar.

Lo siento, pero se avecina un gran copy & paste.

Director James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar" must rank as one of the most anticipated film projects in recent memory. His first narrative film since making the No. 1 box office hit of all time, 1997's "Titanic," "Avatar" will be the realization of Cameron's long-held dream of melding digital 3-D stereo with epic bigscreen storytelling. Variety's David S. Cohen conducted this email interview with Cameron; it is the director's most extensive exploration of 3-D to date, however he is keeping specifics about "Avatar" under wraps.

(An abbreviated version of this interview appears in print on April 11, 2008 and is also available online)

You've worked in 3-D before and have been an evangelist for this technology. We've heard lots of people in the industry talk about the importance of delivering an in-theater experience that goes beyond what people can get in the home. We're seeing that audiences like 3-D and it's becoming a main driver for adoption of digital cinema systems in movie theaters. But speaking strictly as a storyteller and director, what does 3-D add to the creative side of a project?

I believe that Godard got it exactly backwards. Cinema is not truth 24 times a second, it is lies 24 times a second. Actors are pretending to be people they're not, in situations and settings which are completely illusory. Day for night, dry for wet, Vancouver for New York, potato shavings for snow. The building is a thin-walled set, the sunlight is a xenon, and the traffic noise is supplied by the sound designers. It's all illusion, but the prize goes to those who make the fantasy the most real, the most visceral, the most involving. This sensation of truthfulness is vastly enhanced by the stereoscopic illusion. Especially in the types of films which have been my specialty to date, the fantasy experience is served best by a sense of detail and textural reality supporting the narrative moment by moment. The characters, the dialogue, the production design, photography and visual effects must all strive to give the illusion that what you're seeing is really happening, no matter how improbable the situation might be if you stopped to think about it -- a time-traveling cyborg out to change history by killing a waitress, for example. When you see a scene in 3-D, that sense of reality is supercharged. The visual cortex is being cued, at a subliminal but pervasive level, that what is being seen is real. All the films I've done previously could absolutely have benefited from 3-D. So creatively, I see 3-D as a natural extension of my cinematic craft.

A 3-D film immerses you in the scene, with a greatly enhanced sense of physical presence and participation. I believe that a functional-MRI study of brain activity would show that more neurons are actively engaged in processing a 3-D movie than the same film seen in 2-D. When most people think of 3-D films, they think first of the gimmick shots -- objects or characters flying, floating or poking out into the audience. In fact, in a good stereo movie, these shots should be the exception rather than the rule. Watching a stereo movie is looking into an alternate reality through a window. It is intuitive to the film industry that this immersive quality is perfect for action, fantasy, and animation. What's less obvious is that the enhanced sense of presence and realism works in all types of scenes, even intimate dramatic moments. Which is not to say that all films should be made in 3-D, because the returns may not warrant the costs in many cases, but certainly there should be no creative reason why any film could not be shot in 3-D and benefit from it.

When I started down the path of developing the 3-D cameras with Vince Pace in 2000, we were looking for an alternative to the massive film-based cameras I'd used in the past. Two years later, while deep in stereo technology development and production, I had an epiphany: that the digital projectors being proposed to replace 35mm film, could support 3-D perfectly, because of their high frame rates. They could actually display 3-D by projecting left and right eyes sequentially, at crazy high frame rates, which we perceive as simultaneous. So I figured this would mean that a whole new era of 3-D was now possible, and that our humble 3-D efforts would ride to market on the broad back of the digital cinema rollout, which was seen as imminent and inevitable.

It is ironic that half a decade later, the rollout is happening, but largely because it has been catalyzed by 3-D. D-cinema is riding 3-D to market. And that's because audiences are seeing something they like and are demonstrating a willingness to pay more for it. The new 3-D, this stereo renaissance, not only solves all the old problems of bad projection, eyestrain, etc., but it is being used on first-class movies that are on people's must-see lists. These are fundamental changes from what happened with the flash-in-the-pan 3-D craze of the '50s. 3-D is also a chance to rewrite the rules, to raise ticket prices for a tangible reason, for demonstrable value-added.

Quick definition of terms: I say stereo instead of 3-D, because I deal with so many CG artists who are accustomed to using the term "3-D" as a CG term of art. So I use stereo, a shortened form of stereoscopic, instead, so there is no confusion. However, when dealing with the public, I say 3-D, because they know what that means in that context -- they're going to get to wear the glasses and see something really cool.

Are there any myths about 3-D you'd like to dispel?

I sort of hit the myths one by one in the answers to the questions below.

Trailers and TV commercials are important for marketing, and homevideo is a vital revenue stream, yet right now there's no 3-D TV and you can't always count on trailers being seen in 3-D. How do you handle that as the film's director?

All films are made to serve many masters. Every director knows his film will be seen by more people on DVD or network TV on a small screen than in a theater. Does that change the way we direct? Not much. First and foremost the film must be a good movie. It needs to be firing on all eight cylinders whether it is conceived as a 2-D or a 3-D film. As a result, a 3-D film when screened in 2-D, on a screen of any size, should still deliver. The 3-D should always be thought of as a turbocharger, an enhancer, to a work whose raison d'etre is vested in its story, its characters, its style, etc.

In any case, with the number of screens currently available in North America, and certainly for some years to come internationally, it will be necessary to release in 3-D and 2-D day and date. So the film must be fully competitive as a 2-D title as well. Before I decided to make a major movie in 3-D, I had to resolve to my own satisfaction that the 3-D would not degrade in any measurable way the 2-D viewing experience. Could I shoot the same way? Would the camera placement or lighting be compromised? Could I cut as fast? Etc. Only when I had done enough 3-D production and testing to answer these questions was I willing to proceed.

As for 3-D in the home: The only limitation to having stereo viewing in the home is the number of titles currently available. When there is more product, the consumer electronics companies will make monitors and players. The technology exists and is straightforward. Samsung has already shipped 2 million plasma widescreens which can decode an excellent stereo image. There's just no player to hook up to it right now. They may be a little ahead of the curve in future-proofing their monitors, but it indicates how easy it would be for the big electronics companies to get onboard. It should be remembered that good 3-D requires a more immersive relationship between audience and screen. Unless you're willing to sit within 4 feet of a 50" monitor, which all but a few geeks (like me) will not do in a home setting, then you're not going to get the same bang for the buck out of a 3-D movie on a home system as you would in a theater, regardless of whether the resolution of the image is the same. So there may always be a greater distinction between seeing a 3-D movie at home vs. seeing a 2-D movie at home. Which is good. Because 3-D then becomes a technology which will help preserve the health of the theatrical exhibition business in a time when it is besieged.

Do you think it's possible to make a film that is too dependent on 3-D for the economics of today's movie business, and if so, how do you avoid that?

I don't think the economics of 3-D are clear yet, and won't be for a few years. So much depends on the number of screens, and more importantly (ultimately) the number of filmmakers who want to play in this new space, because the success of the 3-D renaissance is going to be content-driven. I think it is a mistake under any circumstances to make a film which is dependent on 3-D for its success, either aesthetically or commercially. The film should not be marketed first and foremost as a 3-D experience. The film should be sold on its merits (cast, story, imagery, etc.) and the consumer should be informed that they can purchase the experience in 2-D or, for a couple extra bucks, in 3-D. It should be like ordering at Starbucks. Lots of choices. If the new media of the last decade has taught us anything, it is that people like choices, and they like control.

WORKING IN 3-D:

How do you shoot differently because of 3-D?

On "Avatar," I have not consciously composed my shots differently for 3-D. I am just using the same style I always do. In fact, after the first couple of weeks, I stopped looking at the shots in 3-D while I was working, even though the digital cameras allow real-time stereo viewing. I had someone else checking them for good stereo as we were shooting, in a small theater we set up near the stage for that purpose. I would get real-time feedback from my "golden-eyes" team in the theater, if a shot needed to be adjusted to increase or decrease the stereospace.

Having said that, I am not above milking a good 3-D moment, as long as it doesn't interrupt the narrative flow. And there are a couple of minor adjustments that need to be made to lighting and camera placement to create a smooth and unobtrusive stereo experience. But once you learn these few tricks, you stop thinking much about them.

In general I found that good lighting was good lighting, and worked quite well in 3-D. Wide lenses are fun in 3-D, but long lenses work well, too. The Fusion cameras can dynamically shift from hypo-stereo, which is to say less than normal interocular distance, (the distance between the left eye and the right eye lenses) for closeups -- to hyper-stereo (wider than normal) for long lens shots where the subject is relatively far away. The new cameras work well on Steadicam, on cranes and dollies, on SpiderCam and Cablecam rigs, and work very well handheld. So all the normal types of shots can be done. I compose the shots on a 2-D monitor, while in the back of my mind I'm imagining it in 3-D. That way I know I'm always making a good 2-D movie as I go along. I also edit in 2-D, for the same reason.

Someone told me that "Citizen Kane" was a great example of how to shoot for 3-D: great depth of field, wide-angle lenses, etc.

I think it's a myth that you want deep focus in 3-D shots. I find the opposite is true. Selective focus, created by working at low f-stops with longer lenses, evolved as a cinematic technique to direct the audience's attention to the character of greatest narrative importance at a given moment. With 3-D, the director needs to lead the audience's eye, not let it roam around the screen to areas which are not converged. So all the usual cinematic techniques of selective focus, separation lighting, composition, etc., that one would use in a 2-D film to direct the eye to the subject of interest, still apply, and are perhaps even more important. We all see the world in 3-D. The difference between really being witness to an event vs. seeing it as a stereo image is that when you're really there, your eye can adjust its convergence as it roves over subjects at different distances. Convergence is the natural toe-in that the eye does to align the left and right eye images of objects at specific planes of depth. In a filmed image, the convergence was baked in at the moment of photography, so you can't adjust it. In order to cut naturally and rapidly from one subject to another, it's necessary for the filmmaker (actually his/her camera team) to put the convergence at the place in the shot where the audience is most likely to look. This sounds complicated but in fact we do it all the time, in every shot, and have since the beginning of cinema. It's called focus. We focus where we think people are most likely to look. So I've found that just slaving the convergence function to the focus works exceedingly well, and makes good stereo a no-brainer on the set.

Every time I watch a movie lately, from "300" to "Atonement," I think how wonderful it would have been if shot in 3-D.

How does that third dimension change or complicate those directing techniques?

Shooting 3-D is more complicated, undeniably, because you're doing all the stuff you normally do (blocking, lighting, performance, etc.) plus dealing with stereospace. From a director's perspective, the camera team should be handling most of this, and the director need only get involved to the extent that they choose to, because they're excited by the new format and tools.

How does working in 3-D change the way you cut a film? The current trend toward very quick cuts, so popular now in action films, seems not to work in 3-D. Or does it?

The new cameras allow complete control over the stereospace. You should think of interocular like volume. You can turn the 3-D up or down, and do it smoothly on the fly during a shot. So if you know you're in a scene which will require very fast cuts, you turn the stereo down (reduce the interocular distance) and you can cut fast and smoothly. The point here is that just because you're making a stereo movie doesn't mean that stereo is the most important thing in every shot or sequence. If you choose to do rapid cutting, then the motion of the subject from shot to shot to shot is more important than the perception of stereospace at that moment in the film. So sacrifice the stereospace and enjoy the fast cutting. Stereo is just another color to paint with, and the new camera tools allow complete control. I think it takes a few frames, maybe the better part of a second, for the eye to properly assimilate the stereospace of a shot. If the shot only lasts 18 frames, you're not getting much value out of the 3-D, so let that drop down in priority below the flow of the motion.

The real issue here is that when you're shooting action photographically (as opposed to CG animation) you can't predict at the moment of shooting exactly how you're going to cut, so it pays to be conservative on the stereospace. In a CG action sequence, you can pump the stereo up a bit more because you can optimize each shot after the scene is cut. The interocular continues to be malleable up to the final render of a CG shot, but it gets baked into a photographic shot the moment you pull the trigger and can't be changed later.

Does directing in 3-D require that the director and producer have a thorough grasp of the technology, or is this something an inexperienced director could mostly delegate to a d.p. and stereographer the way a writer or actor turned director might delegate camera angles and lighting to the d.p.?

Most directors couldn't load a film magazine or balance a Steadicam to save their lives. But that doesn't stop them from using these tools brilliantly. Stereo should be thought of in the same way. A good, experienced camera team which has shot a stereo movie using the new tools should be able to make the stereo as invisible to the director as focus. Meaning, sometimes the director gets asked where they want the focus in a shot, or the director may have an idea before the fact to do something stylized, but generally it just gets taken care of by the camera team. I do believe in the need for a "stereographer" to assist the d.p. This should be an experienced person who watches each and every image as it is laid down, and advises the director and d.p. regarding the stereospace decisions, based on what they're seeing at the moment.

Of course many filmmakers will be drawn to shooting in 3-D because it is fun, new and challenging, and they will meet that challenge by learning the ins and outs themselves, and learning-by-doing how and when to push the envelope. Fortunately, the new 3-D cameras are able to meet their revolutionary performance specs, that no film camera could dream of matching, because they are HD. So that immediate real-time stereo image is there for the filmmaker to experiment with.

And every single director will approach 3-D in their own way, and use it differently. So even though I believe that a standardized methodology is necessary for widespread adoption, that methodology needs to be open to the creativity of the individual filmmaker.

DIRECTING ACTORS:

Last year Variety did an article on how digital capture changes the way actors work (The actors said no reloading means fewer breaks to prepare, much more continuous shooting, more of their process recorded for posterity so they have to have less ego). I've recently talked to the "Beowulf" vfx team, which said performance capture let them shoot very fast, with very little downtime for the cast. They were moving so quickly that the actors had to ask for breaks to work on lines, because they weren't expecting to get to the next scene so soon.

I didn't experience that. We were doing lighting, figuring out shots, moving assets around in the CG environment on production days with actors. This took significantly longer than the smash-and-grab mo-cap techniques used previously. Also, I tend to spend a lot of time on performance, so nobody was complaining about the speed.

Does 3-D also change the way actors work or the way you work with actors, and if so, how?

I made it my mission to keep the 3-D out of the actors' consciousness completely. Most of them forgot we were shooting 3-D, because we did playback on set at a 2-D monitor. Every once in a while one of them would go over to the theater and watch some dailies, and come back wide-eyed. But it really didn't change a thing they were doing on set. As a director, my work with the actors was not affected in the slightest by the 3-D component of the shooting.

As for the lighting and photography, we found that the normal gutsy lighting that I like worked beautifully in 3-D. Every once in a while we would have to make an adjustment to hide or reduce "ghosting" of a bright light in the background. Ghosting is an artifact of projection, not photography, but we decided to mitigate it in the photography to improve the experience in the theater. Hopefully, as projector technology improves, we can forget about that.

Right now, 3-D is pretty much being used for films that have some spectacle in them, whether it's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" or "U2 3D"; nobody's talking about using it for domestic dramas. But there are people wondering whether it will actually enhance the impact of character-driven stories. What are your thoughts on how 3-D changes the experience of watching actors act?

I plan to shoot a small dramatic film in 3-D, just to prove this point, after "Avatar." In "Avatar," there are a number of scenes that are straight dramatic scenes, no action, no effects. They play very well, and in fact seem to be enhanced by the stereo viewing experience. So I think this can work for the full length of a dramatic feature. However, filmmakers and studios will have to weigh the added cost of shooting in 3-D against the increased marketing value for that type of film.

3-D POST AND PROJECTION:

We've only just seen an all-digital pipeline come into being.

I've been doing it since 2001.

What about an all-3-D pipeline?

You don't need to be in 3-D at every step of the way. And as long as your work will be viewed in 2-D as well as 3-D, whether in a hybrid theatrical release or later on DVD, it is probably healthy to do a lot of the work in 2-D along the way. I cut on a normal Avid, and only when the scene is fine-cut do we output left and right eye video tracks to the server in the screening room and check the cut for stereo. Nine times out of 10 we don't change anything for 3-D. I operate most of the shots myself, including the handheld (I defer on the Steadicam shots), and we use 2-D monitors and eyepieces to operate. On-set playback is in 2-D. A shot is judged on the merits of performance, operating, lighting, etc., and not 3-D. I think this is a healthy approach.

Where is the existing pipeline working well and where do things still need to be improved -- or invented -- in 3-D production and post?

3-D post is mature and pretty straightforward. If the material is shot properly, you don't need to do much to "fix it in post." Witness the Hannah Montana concert movie, which was posted in less than three months. The visual effects pipeline could use some good stereo tools, to aid in compositing.

I'm hearing that there are already calls to increase the frame rate to at least 30 fps for digital 3-D because certain camera moves, especially pans, look jumpy in 3-D. I saw that in the Imax 3-D "Beowulf." You've been an advocate for both 3-D and higher frame rates. Have you seen the problem and do you have any thoughts on it?

For three-fourths of a century of 2-D cinema, we have grown accustomed to the strobing effect produced by the 24 frame per second display rate. When we see the same thing in 3-D, it stands out more, not because it is intrinsically worse, but because all other things have gotten better. Suddenly the image looks so real it's like you're standing there in the room with the characters, but when the camera pans, there is this strange motion artifact. It's like you never saw it before, when in fact it's been hiding in plain sight the whole time. Some people call it judder, others strobing. I call it annoying. It's also easily fixed, because the stereo renaissance is enabled by digital cinema, and digital cinema supplies the answer to the strobing problem.

The DLP chip in our current generation of digital projectors can currently run up to 144 frames per second, and they are still being improved. The maximum data rate currently supports stereo at 24 frames per second or 2-D at 48 frames per second. So right now, today, we could be shooting 2-D movies at 48 frames and running them at that speed. This alone would make 2-D movies look astonishingly clear and sharp, at very little extra cost, with equipment that's already installed or being installed.

Increasing the data-handling capacity of the projectors and servers is not a big deal, if there is demand. I've run tests on 48 frame per second stereo and it is stunning. The cameras can do it, the projectors can (with a small modification) do it. So why aren't we doing it, as an industry?

Because people have been asking the wrong question for years. They have been so focused on resolution, and counting pixels and lines, that they have forgotten about frame rate. Perceived resolution = pixels x replacement rate. A 2K image at 48 frames per second looks as sharp as a 4K image at 24 frames per second ... with one fundamental difference: the 4K/24 image will judder miserably during a panning shot, and the 2K/48 won't. Higher pixel counts only preserve motion artifacts like strobing with greater fidelity. They don't solve them at all.

If every single digital theater was perceived by the audience as being equivalent to Imax or Showscan in image quality, which is readily achievable with off-the-shelf technology now, running at higher frame rates, then isn't that the same kind of marketing hook as 3-D itself? Something you can't get at home. An aspect of the film that you can't pirate.

Other than that, for digital 3-D, would you rather see energy going into moving from 2K to 4K, or into moving from 24 fps to 48 or 72 fps, and why?

4K is a concept born in fear. When the studios were looking at converting to digital cinemas, they were afraid of change, and searched for reasons not to do it. One reason they hit upon was that if people were buying HD monitors for the home, with 1080x1920 resolution, and that was virtually the same as the 2K standard being proposed, then why would people go to the cinema? Which ignores the fact that the social situation is entirely different, and that the cinema screen is 100 times larger in area. So they somehow hit on 4K, which people should remember is not twice the amount of picture data, it is four times the data. Meaning servers need to be four times the capacity, as does the delivery pipe to the theater, etc.

But 4K doesn't solve the curse of 24 frames per second. In fact it tends to stand in the way of the solutions to that more fundamental problem. The NBA execs made a bold decision to do the All Star Game 3-D simulcast at 60 frames per second, because they didn't like the judder. The effect of the high-frame-rate 3-D was visually astonishing, a huge crowdpleaser.

I would vastly prefer to see 2K/48 frames per second as a new display standard, than 4K/24 frames per second. This would mean shooting movies at 48 fps, which the digital cameras can easily accommodate. Film cameras can run that fast, but stock costs would go up. However, that could be offset by shooting 3-perf, or even 2-perf, because you'd get the resolution back through the higher display rate. The 48 fps negative or digital master can be skip-printed to generate a 24 fps 35mm DI negative for making release prints, so 48 is the magic number because it remains compatible with the film-based platform which will still be with us for some time, especially internationally. 30 and 60 fps are out for that reason. Anyway the benefit of 30 is not great enough to be worth the effort, especially when 48 is so easy to achieve. SMPTE tests done about 15 years ago showed that above 48 frames the returns diminish dramatically, and 60 fps is overkill. So 48 is the magic number.

Of course, the ideal format is 3-D/2K/48 fps projection. I'd love to have done "Avatar" at 48 frames. But I have to fight these battles one at a time. I'm just happy people are waking up to 3-D.

Maybe on "Avatar 2."

It's turning out that 3-D that's optimized for one screen size doesn't look right if the screen gets a lot bigger or smaller.* One potential solution would be correction built into the software at the projector, but the people I've spoken to who actually make 3-D movies think that these are creative decisions and different 3-D masters will be needed for different screen sizes. Do you think this is something you would ultimately trust to software or will you need to do it yourself?

*(Specifically, the interocular changes by the same multiplier as the screen size. Double the screen size and the interocular doubles too, and can be so big that it's difficult for the eye to resolve the stereo. On the other hand, cut the screen size in half and the stereo effect flattens out.)

I don't agree with this at all. I think the effect you are describing has more to do with the fact that people tend to sit farther from monitors than they do from cinema screens, when calculated as a ratio of viewer distance to screen width. If you sit close to a good stereo monitor, like the Samsung I demo'ed a few months ago, the stereo effect is the same as a cinema screen. The stereo effect even works on smaller monitors. The advantage of small individual monitors, like laptops, is that they will be available as autostereoscopic displays, meaning no glasses. I've seen demos of these, and the effect is good. The ones I saw just suffered from low frame rates (flicker), but they'll work that out.

I certainly would never change the stereospace of a film to fit different screen sizes. In fact, for photographic films, it can't be changed. The interocular is set at the moment of photography. People will tell you they can fix it later, in post, by changing the convergence, but they are wrong. Convergence does not change stereospace, it only changes the ease with which viewers can fuse a shot after it appears onscreen.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that 10 or 15 years from now, stereo displays will be ubiquitous, from cinemas to open-air advertising, to home screens and down to handheld devices. IPhones will be in stereo. Small displays will especially benefit from stereo because the small size of the screen can be offset by using Z-depth to stack information, which will reduce visual clutter, or conversely increase the density of information held within a single visual field. It may be that eventually all of our news and information, as well as our sports and entertainment, will come to us in stereo.

In the future world shown in "Avatar," all display devices, including handheld devices and even photos, are all in 3-D.

We evolved to see in 3-D for a reason. It made us better hunters, or allowed us to spot and avoid predators. Why wouldn't we want this Darwinian edge in our workplace, in our sports and entertainment, in all our peak visual experiences?

You know what I think.

Hay cosas que es mejor no buscar en Internet. Una de ellas son por ejemplo fotos de la adorable invocación de algunos Final Fantasy, Rubí (Carbuncle en inglés).

No, no lo hagáis. No busquéis en imágenes Google Carbuncle.

Rubí aún no ha buscado su nombre en Internet y por eso está feliz

Esta película promete... disparos.

Una lista de las curiosidades/tontadas que se pueden encontrar en algunos programas, juegos y películas. Es un copy&paste en inglés, pero se entiende bien.

Programas y hardware.

  1.  Photoshop CS2: Merlin Li ... : Hold down both the Alt key and the left mouse button, then move your mouse over Palate Options in the Layers window. Let go of the mouse, and Merlin appears.

  2. Gnome: Wanda a Fish: Go to the Run dialog in Gnome and type "free the fish.” Click the Run button and a fish called Wanda should pop up and wander around the desktop.

  3. Skype: A Few Hidden Emoticons in Skype: Enter a chat session and type words like “drunk” and “ninja” with the brackets to view amusing emoticons.

  4. uTorrent: Tetris in uTorrent: Select About in the Help menu and press "T" on the keyboard.

  5. Microsoft Paint: Hidden Drawing Tool Options: Use the Ctrl key to stamp, scuff and use brush pressure, as well as to draw straight or diagonal lines with the pencil.

  6. Bloodshed Dev-C++: Fish: Click About Dev-C++ in the Help menu, then click and drag the Really Flash Dev-C++ logo onto the authors button. A fish should appear, and if you click it, it will change direction.

  7. OpenOffice.org: Star Wars Game: Create a new spreadsheet in the OpenOffice.org Calc. Type "=game()" intoa cell and validate it by pressing Enter. The cell will display, "Say what?" to which your typing finger will reply “=GAME("StarWars")." A new window will open with a little game called Star Wars.

  8. Spybot — Search and Destroy: Game Hidden: Click the little icon that appears in every window you open by selecting an option on the left-hand panel. You will get access to a game where you have to fill in as may squares as possible.

  9. Cool Edit Pro: Game in Cool Edit Pro 2.1: Go to Help, then click About CoolEdit Pro. Click over the two silver balls to have some fun.

 10. Winamp: Spinning Fish: Bring up the Preferences box and go to Plug-ins > Input. Click the Nullsoft Vorbis Decoder, then click About. Click the fish to make it spin.

 11. AutoCAD: AutoCAD 2005 Development Team: In AutoCAD 2005, open the Layer Properties Manager dialog box. Hold down Shift+Ctrl and select the Invert Filter button to see the egg.

 12. Firefox: Firefox's Revenge for IE5's Joke: Type "about:Mozilla" in the URL bar to read a reply to the Internet Explorer 5 team's joke about Mozilla crashing computers.

 13. KPT Vector Effects Plug-in: KPT Arachnoid: Draw a shape and choose KPT Vector effects/3D Transform from the Filters menu. Once the menu opens, hold down Ctrl+Option+Command, then click the blue-and-red logo in the upper-left corner of the interface to play Arachnoid-style game.

 14. SureDocs: Aladillo: Go to Help > About and press Ctrl+Shift. Double-click the wordl "mode" in "a la mode" under the word “SureDocs” to crack this egg.

 15. Flash (Macromedia version): Flash MX Pro 2004: Go to Help > About Flash Professional. Click the small “™” near the number 2004 and the About screen will offer six different games.

 16. FlashFXP: Nibbles: Open FlashFXP, select Help, then choose About. Double-click the FlashFXP logo, and a version of the game Snake — called Nibbles — will slither to you.

 17. ICQ: ICQ Devils: Click the Main button and select Preferences and Security. Go to Status Mode, hit the Tab key and put the mouse cursor in the middle of the empty space. Press Ctrl+Shift while clicking the left and right mouse buttons together, hitting the left button first. You should see the ICQ Devils, the creators of the ICQ products.

 18. Image Ready 7.0: Ducks: Click Help > About. You should see a picture of a globe in water. Hold down the Ctrl key, and the mouse cursor will turn into a stamp tool-icon. While still holding Ctrl, click somewhere on the image of the globe and a small yellow duck will appear. Do this 10 times and hold down Ctrl+Alt to bring up a miniscope to shoot the ducks.

 19. SMS (Microsoft version): Picture of All Team Members: Run “admin console” (MMC) with the “/SMS:EE=238” switch, then right-click the root node and click Credits. Pictures of all team members and their names will appear.

 20. iPod: Breakout Game: Select About from the main menu, then hold the center button for a couple of seconds. A miniature Breakout game, created by the founders of Apple Inc. when they worked for Atari, appears on the screen.

 21. HP 100LX: Hidden Limerick: Turn Palmtop off and press and hold the key. Turn it back on and release the key. Scroll down to Display and press 14 times to see a limerick.

 22. GameCube: Different Jingle: Plug in four controllers, hold down all four “Z” buttons and turn on the GameCube. A different jingle will play when the logo appears.

 23. IRIX: Hidden Recipes in Release Notes: Open a shell and type “relnotes dmedia_eoe 29.” You’ll recieve recipes for Kung Pao chicken and tiramisu.

 24. Commodore PET: Microsoft Joke: In PET Microsoft Basic, type the command “WAIT 6502.” The screen will fill with the text "MICROSOFT."

 25. Linux: Printer on Fire!: Print from the network and force a printer jam. Issue a print command and watch the output of the console read, “lp0 printer on fire!”

 26. Palm OS: Easter Egg and Taxi: Go to General > Preferences and draw a small circle, counterclockwise, on the screen right above the calculator silk-screen button.

 27. Atari Portfolio OS: Creators Names and Credits: Open the text editor, then open the Help area using the F2 button. Open the help file for the keyboard, then press ALT+[. You’ll see a few names and credits for the system.

 28. Windows CE: The Perfect Hand in Solitaire: Press Ctrl+Shift, then tap Dea” at the top of the software keyboard. You'll get a perfect solitaire hand.

 29. Mac OS X: The Lord of the Rings: In the Applications folder, open the Utilities folder. Open the terminal and paste type “grep LOTR /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history” to enjoy some laughs with The Lord of the Rings.

 30. Debian GNU/Linux: Got Apt-Get?: Log in to a shell as root, type "apt-get moo" and press Enter. An ASCII-based drawing of a cow saying, "Have you mooed today?" will appear. If you type "apt-get," a help file with the various switches appears. At the very end, it says, "This APT has Super Cow Powers".

 31. BeOS: Change Your Windows Decor: Hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift and clic the Be button on the desk bar. A previously hidden menu item called Window Décor will appear, giving you options for changing the look of windows.

 32. Kyte Aura: Frappilino!: Go to the desktop and click the Kyte menu button. Continue to Computing Properties > Help > Credit and watch until Lead Designer: Frappilino07 pops up. Click that name, and you’ll see a 3D- rendered spinning cup with the words, "It’s a Frappilino NOT a Frappacino" inscribed on it.

 33. NEXTSTEP: Jack-in-the-Box: Run Configure, call up the Info panel, and hit Command and Alt+click on the application icon to get your yolk.

DVDs

     There’s more to these movies than meets the eye.

 34. "Toy Story 2": Binford Tools: When Buzz and Woody get taken back to Sid’s house for certain death, the toolbox that holds all of Sid’s tools has the name Binford Tools stamped on it. This is a reference to Tim Allen, who does the voice of Buzz, and his TV show "Home Improvement," which was sponsored by Binford Tools.

 35. "Shrek": That'll Do Donkey: A donkey is just as good as a pig in this reference to the movie "Babe." During the part when donkey goes through the bridge, Shrek walks up to donkey and says, “That’ll do Donkey, that’ll do.” The farmer at the end of "Babe" says the same thing.

 36. "2010": Using the Zero-Gravity Toilet: In the movie "2010," the movie crew and director honored the first movie by creating references to using a zero-gravity toilet. All the technical-looking writing on the wall in "2010" that looks is actually the same instructions for using a zero-gravity toilet. If you watch the movie, you will see them everywhere.

 37. "Nacho Libre": Legend of Francois: Check out the deleted scenes. Click the Left button, and an eagle will appear on Nacho Libre's chest. This will open a special behind-the- scenes story.

 38. "Fight Club": Hidden Message at Start: Look at the Attention warning followed by the signature FBI warning to read a special message from the main character of the movie.

 39. "The Ring": Deadly Tape: If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the main menu screen, the cursor will disappear. Hit Select, and it will start showing the infamous videotape from beginning to end, uncut.

 40. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory": "Ed Wood" Reference: When Wonka and the others are in the elevator touring rooms, they pass a room with a bunch of pink sheep. Wonka says "I don't want to talk about it." The statement is a reference to "Ed Wood," another Tim Burton film in which Johnny Depp starred as a cross-dresser with a penchant for pink angora — material made from sheep — sweaters.

 41. "Eyes Wide Shut": Masked Ball Song — What's Behind?: During the opening of the masked ball, an odd, indecipherable song called "Masked Ball," by Jocelyn Pook, plays. Play the piece in reverse, and you’ll hear an Eastern European prayer song.

 42. "Shaun of the Dead": "A Clockwork Orange Tribute: The choreographed pool-cue beating of the zombie in the Winchester is an homage to the assault on the homeless man in "A Clockwork Orange."

 43. "The Little Mermaid": Nasty Cover: This well-known egg regards the insertion of male anatomy on the movie's cover.

 44. "X-Men": David Hayter: David Hayter, who wrote the film's screenplay, appears toward the end as a police officer who gets killed by one of Magneto's goons.

 45. "Three Amigos": Reference to Previous Incarnation: This egg is yet another reference to Steve Martin’s character in "The Man with Two Brains." Each amigo must say a chant to summon the invisible swordsman. At the end of Steve Martin's chant, he shouts, "Hfuhruhurr", the name of his character in the other movie

 46. "Blow": The "Real" Kristina Jung Is in the Movie: George Jung's real daughter, Kristina, is in the movie as a bank clerk.

 47. "RoboCop": Ed Solomon: A series of hexadecimal numbers appear at the bottom of the screen when the film is first turned on. If you convert the numbers into ASCII, they spell “Ed Solomon," one of the film’s producers.

 48. "Godzilla": Armin Tamzarian the Taxi Driver: In the scene where Matthew Broderick is being chased by Godzilla in a taxi, he throws a taxi-driver identification plate out of the cab to alert the big Army guy. The name of the taxi driver is Armin Tamzarian, which is Principal Skinner's real name in "The Simpsons."

 49. "The Outsiders": S.E. Hinton Appearance: The precocious teenage author who penned the book that spawned the film actually appears in the movie as the nurse that tells Johnny that his mother is there to see him.

 50. "Monty Python's Life of Brian": A Beatle!: As Brian is being pushed through the crowd of his new believers, he is introduced to George Harrison from the Beatles, who mutters a quick “hello.”

 51. "Back to the Future": Clock Tower: When the camera sweeps past the clocks in the opening credits, one of them is a model of the Hill Valley clock tower and includes a Christopher Lloyd action figure hanging from the minute hand.

 52. "The Silence of the Lambs": Cover Art: If you look closely at the picture of the death's-head moth on the cover of the movie box, the skull is actually made up of naked women that represent the killer's victims.

 53. "Three Men and a Baby": A Ghost and Rifle: When Ted Danson’s character’s mother picks up the baby in the bedroom, a figure of a boy, and in the next frame, a rifle, can be seen in the window.

 54. "Cadence": It's a Family Thing: The military policeman manning the reception desk to the psychiatric ward has the name "Estevez" on his uniform, a nod to Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen’s son and Charlie Sheen’s brother. (Both Sheens are in the film, while Estevez is not.)

 55. "Adaptation": Adaptation Answering Machine: Highlight Play on the main menu, hit the Up button and a red telephone will appear. Click the red phone and a separate screen will pop up that reads "Adaptation Answering Machine,” followed by a phone number. Call the phone number and leave a message with your opinion of the movie.

 56. "Freaky Friday": Hidden Jamie Lee Guitar Solo: On the DVD's main menu, go to Bonus Material, then to Freaky Music Videos. Highlight the first Option button and press left on your remote control. Two blue guitars will appear on either side of the picture of Jamie Lee Curtis’ head. Select to watch a short video of the actress playing guitar, which was cut from a scene in the movie.

 57. "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy": Extra Animated Sequence: Visit the Outer Planets menu on the second DVD and turn on the Subtitles option. Then, go to the Inner Planets option and press left. The words “Don't Panic!" will appear on the screen. Press Enter to see an animated sequence that appeared on the screen of the Heart of Gold in Episode Three.

 58. "Insomnia": Avalanche: This Al Pacino thriller makes it snow if you choose Production Diaries from the Special Features menu. Scroll down and highlight Features at the bottom of the screen, hit the left arrow button and choose Enter. You will then see footage of an actual avalanche that occurred during filming.

 59. "Jerry Maguire": Hangover: Go to the section for video commentary and spell out “Maguire” using the cursor on the keyboard in the background. The keys will light up, and you’ll see a special feature of the three main actors preparing for audio commentary.

 60. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring": MTV Parody: Go to Select A Scene and scroll to the last scene. Press down once, and you should see a little ring next to New Scene. Select it, and you’ll have the Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar Lord of the Rings parody performed at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards.

 61. "Mallrats": How Dare You!: Highlight the toy robot's eyes and press Play in the menu. Director Kevin Smith will appear and start yelling at you for trying to find an Easter egg on the disc.

 62. "Ocean's Eleven": Sands Implosion: Go to Special Features and click the map of Las Vegas. There will be a list of different casinos. Select the Sands and watch the segment. Then click it again to watch a clip of its 1996 implosion.

 63. "Predator": Don't Drink the Water! Go the photo gallery on the second disc and scroll to the 16th photo of Hawkins with his glasses on his head. Highlight the predator-targeting triangle on the right-hand side of the screen and click it to view a hidden documentary about the cast getting sick after drinking water in Mexico.

 64. "Reservoir Dogs": Hidden Tarantino Interview: In Special Features, hit left so that the option is over the policeman's ear. Click the bloody ear that appears. A menu appears saying that you have found the Hidden Features, where you can view a Tarantino interview.

 65. "10 Things I Hate About You": Detention Sign-In: Watch the detention sign-in board at the start of the Heath Ledger detention scene. The third name from the bottom of the board is Ross Fanger, whose name appears in the credits as unit production manager.

 66. "Spiderman": Spiderman CGI Bloopers and Gag Reel: On the first disc, click Commentaries. Click the picture of actor James Franco on the left-hand side of the screen, and a new screen appears with bloopers. You’ll see real parts of the film but with video-game characters and other funny additions.

 67. "The Karate Kid": Hidden Survivor Video: Inse