In 1999, everyone knew what the internet was, and what it could do for them. But almost no-one understood its potential and power. David Bowie was one of the few who clearly saw it, and this interview was more prophetic than almost anyone at the time understood, except for David himself.
The first two episodes of Haphead go live on their web site tonight, right after they show the entire first season at the Royal Theatre in Toronto tonight. It is a cyberpunk tale about a new haptic peripheral which makes videogames so immersive that people learn skills just by playing them (yes, that is pretty much their tag line). Thanks to Cory Doctorow for the heads up on this one.
This is a Fan-made series about what happened when Robin left Batman and struck out on his own as the hero Nightwing. The first 4 episodes are posted online over at Ismahawk YouTube Channel, with a fresh episode each week. It is not authorized by DC or Warner, but hopefully they will let them continue to create the show.
A new animated Judge Dredd miniseries put together by Adi Shankar had it’s teaser posted online today, with the full trailer due out on Thursday, and the miniseries itself scheduled to come out on the 27th. Since he is the guy that did the 2012 reboot of the Dredd film, this could be quite tasty. I haven’t found a link to where you can watch the episodes, but it should be announced with the full trailer, hopefully. In the mean time the teaser is hosted at Machinima’s YouTube Channel, so that’s a place to start.
I enjoy webisodes of programs like Eureka or Battlestar Galactica, where an ongoing TV series has bonus content you can only watch on the web (or wait for the DVDs to come out). It often includes background into things they don’t cover in great detail on the TV shows, or a chunk of the story arc that takes place between two seasons of the main program, bridging the gap to tell you how we got there. There have also been several programs that got their start that way, most notably Sanctuary. Now it seems a new one is coming out, Bryan Singer’s HPlus, and judging by the trailer it is going to be a monster. Thanks to Sci-Fi author Steven Hunt for the heads up on this one. The premiss is H+ is a direct neural interface that connects your brain into the Net and allows you to process information and be productive like never before. It gives you such an advantage over the competition that everyone has to have it, and all but a tiny percentage of the population has it installed. And then the system crashes, killing everyone who has it; this series is about what happens next.