from Abstruse Goose by lcfr

from Dilbert Daily Strip

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You probably know by now that Windows Media Center extenders have been on life support with only Microsoft supplying the Xbox 360 as the sole extender product available in the retail market. The de-emphasis of the extender continues with the latest Xbox 360 Media Remote revealed by Major Nelson. Sadly for Media Center extender users, there is no more Green Button. Presumably, this is all due to the continued emphasis of the Xbox brand and bringing video content into the game console. Apparently, Microsoft doesn't want to confuse consumers with the Green Button or tempt them to be led astray from the native Xbox interface.

In addition, the Xbox 360 Media Remote was also announced. Media playback controls include play/pause, skip forward, fast forward, skip back, fast back, and display to control DVD, CD, or streamed media. The TV controls include power on/off, volume up/down, mute and TV input. The Xbox 360 Media Remote’s menu navigation controls include A, B, X, Y buttons, D-pad navigation, back and select. Live TV, if provided on the Xbox 360 by your TV service provider, can also be controlled with the Xbox 360 Media Remote. This Xbox 360 Media Remote will be available worldwide for $19.99 (U.S. ERP) and will be in stores in early November 2011.

Today Microsoft also announced the all new Xbox 360 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth. The device is compatible with Bluetooth devices such as mobile phones and PCs in addition to being able to connect to Xbox 360 through the console’s standard radio frequencies. The Xbox 360 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth will be available for $59.99 (U.S. ERP) and will be available in stores worldwide beginning early November 2011.

The one-on-one event at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 with Mike Judge was moderated by Jackass star, Johnny Knoxville.

Judge charted his course from being an engineer, musician, and a teacher to an animator. MTV gave Judge his start by airing his first four animated shorts in Liquid Television, with the series premiering in 1993 after the success of the "Frog Baseball" short.

Explaining where the names of the characters came from, Beavis was the surname of a friend back in Judge's hometown while Butt-Head was the nickname of a local idiot. He didn't intend to give the town in which Beavis and Butt-Head is set a name, but he distractedly named the high school Highland (which is the name of the Alberquerque school where his mother taught).

Judge joked that he brought the show back because he felt like TV was getting too smart. He explained that originally, he ended the series after being burned out, stepping away from the characters in spite of offers for sequels to the movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.

Many of the characters from the original series are coming back, including the hippie teacher and gruff military teacher (I find it hilarious that he doesn't call the characters by their names). Judge talked about pranking truckers over the CB by asking for locations of vegetarian restaurants in his hippie teacher voice.

Not only will the characters in the new show be riffing on videos, they'll be taking shots at footage from series like Jersey Shore and UFC fights. Judge also said that at this point, there are no guest stars lined up for the series. This could to change given the regular lineup of special guests on King of the Hill.

When asked about the animators he looked up to, Judge gave some love to Tex Avery and the golden age of animation, as well as John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy. He also assured us that the show was not made in a Korean sweatshop--but the studio has a "creative" use of space.

In terms of influences outside of animation, Judge credits Cheech and Chong and Jerry Lewis. He still respects the timing of Cheech and Chong and their comic timing, noting how well put together Things Are Tough All Over is.

We then saw footage from an episode called "Werewolves of Highland," which occurs after the boys have seen Twilight and decide that to pick up girls, they'll have to become vampires. Yeah, that's definitely more Beavis and Butt-Head - that is to say, yeah, I would really like to see more of this! The show strikes a nice balance between smart-stupid and stupid-stupid that worked so well with the original run of the show.

Beavis and Butt-Head will return this Fall on MTV -- but get your special sneak preview below!!!

Get More: Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV Shows

Amazon has announced its first deal with a major TV network to stream content through its subscription service, a move that ratchets up competition with Netflix and Hulu.

The world's biggest online retailer has announced an agreement with CBS to allow its Amazon Prime members to stream 2,000 episodes of 18 shows owned by CBS, including "Medium," "Star Trek" and "Cheers." Further details of the agreement weren't revealed, except that it is nonexclusive; CBS has already struck a similar deal with Netflix.

The announcement comes at a seemingly opportune time for the Seattle-based company. Hulu, partly owned by Comcast, Disney and News Corp., is being shopped around for new owners, a move that raises questions about the long-term future of its many licensing deals with those same companies.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced a 60-percent spike in its subscription price, sparking customers' ire and leading some analysts to question whether there will be an exodus of subscribers, currently some 24-million strong, to an alternative service such as Amazon Prime, or to movie rental sites such as Apple TV or Google's YouTube.

At $80 a year, Amazon Prime subscribers, who also get discounted, expedited shipping from the merchant, pay less than subscribers to Netflix, which costs a minimum of $96 a year. (Hulu Plus also costs $96 a year.) Netflix does boast a far larger library, however, with an estimated 20,000 titles. But with the additional CBS heft, Amazon Prime is slowly catching up and will now offer more than 8,000 movies and TV shows.

Amazon's deal with CBS also makes the idea of buying Hulu less attractive to the company. Hulu's pre-existing deals with TV networks was considered the key reason Amazon was initially cited among the dozen prospective suitors, which include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and AT&T.

Additionally, the move is a further sign that networks value the Internet as another medium for showing content. ABC recently announced plans to license "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" for new episodes online, after it stops broadcasting the soap operas in the coming months. The network hasn't announced whether the soaps will be distributed to viewers directly or through a subscription service such as Netflix -- or Amazon Prime.

Story and Picture via iTvedia

A decade ago, marijuana advocates filed a petition with the DEA to lower the drug classification of marijuana from schedule I (the highest) to III, IV, or V. They finally got around to ruling, and it isn't good. Flying in the face of extensive research to the contrary, the DEA ruled about how you would expect from an organization whose very existence hinges on marijuana's illegality. Read on to find out something that will make you angry--if you didn't know about it already.


The DEA ruled “that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.

An acceptable level of safety?! What?! Even the most paranoid weed smokers I know can identify it's pretty safe, simply on the premise that paranoia breeds safety first behavior. And that's the paranoid ones!

16 States plus the District of Columbia have instituted medical marijuana legislation, and rather than rising crime rates in those states, crime has decreased!!!!

That same week, from Americans for Safe Access:

The denial also comes the same week as the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is holding its 21st annual symposium in St. Charles, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The symposium is sponsored in part by an array of pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and ElSohly Laboratories, Inc., the federal government’s only licensed source of research-grade cannabis (marijuana) used in therapeutic studies. Currently, several pharmaceutical companies are asking the government to reschedule organically produced THC, the primary compound found in the marijuana plant, so they can sell a generic version of Marinol, which is now made synthetically.

“The government cannot have it both ways, marijuana is either a medicine or it’s not,” said ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer. “If the government is going to sponsor a conference on medical marijuana, it should show the same deference to the millions of patients across America who simply want access to it.” ASA and its grassroots patient base has been urging President Obama since he took office to develop a comprehensive federal policy that would address medical marijuana as a public health issue.

I'm writing about this late, but really, you've probably already heard, and the hypocrisy and corruption in the DEA, and the federal legislation in place makes me want to give Obama a slide-show presentation, and probably smack some of the conservatives that are legislating on this topic while their teenage kids are smoking herb on the regular, and other kids are dieing from speed production in the Midwest.

A Zach De La Rocha KRS-One Black Emperor song comes to mind, which does a better job explaining why this pisses me and many others off. Fuck you DEA!

[care2; Americans for Safe Access; pic via HempNow] Story via HMJ

Japan's hottest game right now is not made in Japan, which doesn't happen often. Maybe more surprising is that four of the top 10 games on the country's bestseller list weren't made in Japan either.

Rockstar Games and Team Bondi's L.A. Noire enjoyed first place distinction in this week's software chart, with more than 70,000 copies of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game sold overseas. Team Bondi's detective adventure was followed by Sucker Punch's Infamous 2 and Vicious Cycle's Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, the latter of which was previously handled by Japanese developer Sandlot.

One new Wii game charted, the Wii MotionPlus powered Wii Play Motion with another Wii game, the also not made in Japan Goldeneye 007 hanging tough in the top ten.

For the rest of the bestselling games in Japan for the week of July 4 to July 10, courtesy of sales tracker Media Create, visit the source article at Kotaku.

Porsche Design has done a wonderful thing. This is by far the sleekest hookah, narghile, whatever you really wanna call it I've ever seen. Aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. Simple and elegant. How could you not relax smoking from this?

Only the most stylish of sticky need apply. [Porsche Design via Gizmodo]

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Drop your gmail address in the comments and we'll send you out an invite right away.

Get on this quick because google may not leave the invite window open past the weekend!

Frankenstein: The Dead Town Trailer

Garfield for 5/9/2011:

Garfield for 4/23/2011

Garfield moved locations people. Finally found the new one @ http://www.arcamax.com/garfield/

via ComingSoon.net

According to his post on I Heart Chaos, Cranberryzero's next logical step after purchasing a Nintendo 3DS was to head down to Blue Flame Tattoo in Raleigh, NC to have the gaming system's augmented reality card permanently etched onto his arm. Our reaction lies somewhere between stupefied bewilderment and geeky adoration. Call it paranoia, but we wouldn't be able to sleep knowing our Miis were always lurking on the underside of our most-prominent appendage. CBZ, as he refers to himself on the blog, was kind enough to share some video of the finished product. Naturally, things are a little shaky, but you try standing on someone's wrist suspended in mid-air and see how you do.
Continue reading Man buys Nintendo 3DS, goes wrist-on with augmented reality tattoo (video)

Man buys Nintendo 3DS, goes wrist-on with augmented reality tattoo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.