Red Dwarf ran its new special 3-episode series, Back to Earth, and it became available on DVD at the start of this week… in the UK. It was supposed to be a world-wide release according to a posting before the original air date (since modified), but Amazon doesn’t know that quite yet. But that’s OK, because there is more good news! At the Better Than Life Con last weekend in Bedford, Cat, Kochanski, and Kryten all confirmed that the ratings for Dave TV (renamed Lister TV for the event) blew the doors off of the BBC ratings for the same time slot. As a result, an entirely new 6 episode season of Red Dwarf is in negotiations. Anything that gets us new Red Dwarf is a good thing!
A brand new update to one of the best free 3D tools has just been released: Daz Studio 3.0. This is a well-rounded software package to allow you to import and modify models, create scenes and animation sequences, and render them into video. If you are looking for 3D Animation training, you can visit their YouTube channel for a collection of free tutorial step-by-step videos. If you try the free version and want something even more powerful, you can upgrade to the Daz Studio 3.0 Advanced. Download the 30 day free trial of the Advanced version; it decays gracefully into the Free variant if you don’t purchase the license. Happy creating!
Yesterday I embedded a song by MC Lars; today I got word that it (meaning that very song) is up on the list of this years Hottest 100 Songs of All Time over at TripleJ. You should take a look at all the nominees, and put in a vote for your favorites; there are so many great ones on the list! On the Who front, IO9 has a quality spoiler for the next Dr Who Special, specifically about the guest stars expected. DVD Times has a review of the first special released to disk (basically saying save your money for the box set). And the Gallifreyan Embassy has posted details about their Second Life virtual meetings, including the data you need to find your way there. If you make the meeting, don’t forget to put on your Tardis Hud.
This had to be shared. Weird Al is singing about the internet again, although the music style doesn’t count as Nerdcore. Or maybe it does, since I got the heads up on this one from MC Lars. I also used to know the keyboard player, another reason to add this tune. Then, just to keep it balanced, a parody song by a fem about the glories of geek (but also not actual Nerdcore). Sometimes silly trumps all other choices, just because you need your daily laugh quota. OK, screw it, one actual Nerdcore song (third one down) from MC Lars.
This is impressive, a project and tool set everyone can benefit from. For once, it is the future I am encouraging everyone to build, rather than science fiction. I found out about this courtesy of the Daily Galaxy Snag Films entry, and what a tool it is. Billed as The Planet’s Documentary Indie Film Widget (VIDEO), it will allow everyone to promote and distribute their own personal subset of documentaries or other independent films. If you haven’t created a film of your own, you can still promote your favorites by embeding a virtual theater onto your web pages. The baseline link is at Snag Films, and the widget works for all recognized browsers. The number of contributing movie sources is huge, and growing every day. And yes, you can add your own independent movies to the growing collection!
Roboworld is now open at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. Billed as the largest robotics exhibition in the United States, it includes robots you can play air hockey and basketball with, and a number who demonstrate the basics of robotic senses. There are also some famous Film Bots, such as C-3PO from Star Wars and Maria from Metropolis, as well as Gort, Robby, and Dewey. The Post-Gazette has a nice little video introduction to the exhibit, if you don’t mind sitting through a short commercial first. And then there is Robot Truth…