loonyblog.

There’s an excellent article up at MousePlanet (found via BoingBoing) that chronicles the latest chaos at Disney’s traditional animation department. The article covers all the bases, and it touches on a pretty clear thing that nobody at Disney has realized: the reason their 2D movies have bombed isn’t because they’re 2D, but because they sucked. Does anyone really think that Treasure Planet would have made more money if it were in 3D?

Pixar’s movies make tons of money because they’re great movies, not because of the style of their animation. Pixar themselves has always admitted this from day one! Their movies go through intense screenwriting revisions before full-scale animation gets underway, and then it’s continually revised as they go along. The people at Pixar make great movies. The animation (good as it may be) comes second.

The erosion of 2D animation in cinema is a crime against filmgoers. 3D is good, yes. But it’s a style, and nothing more, and shouldn’t be looked at as being the future of animation in cinema. In the article linked above, it’s mentioned that Michael Eisner has toyed with the idea of remaking classic Disney movies in CGI. No idea could possibly be more offensive to anyone who appreciates the work of the great Disney animators from the days of Walt. A CGI Snow White would be as offensive as the colorization of black and white movies during the 80’s, if not more so.

I really hope all of this is cyclical. It would only take one huge, Lion King size success to turn this whole thing around. The only problem is where is it going to come from if the major studios no longer want to make 2D animated movies?

I knew it was too good to be true…not too long ago, F.W.B. stepped forward and claimed that their upcoming PC emulation software RealPC was not only going to be able to provide incredible performance on Mac OS X, but it was going to be able to run games. Well, it turns out that those claims really were pure hyperbole, as MacMinute is reporting that not only has F.W.B. ceased development of RealPC, but despite the company’s previous claims that it was already “in late beta and about to be released,” development had never actually started on the product. Yeesh.

Soul Calibur II has been out for nearly 12 hours and I’m neither drunk nor playing it right now.

*sigh*

I’ve posted a rare update over at loonygames as today is the fifth anniversary of the site’s launch. It’s crazy that a whole five years have gone by since then…but at the same time, so much has changed. When I started loonygames I was in the summer before my senior year in college. And here I am now, four years out of college (and married, nonetheless!). And the gaming community has changed along with me — not always for the better. Great sites have sprung up and disappeared, same with great magazines (including one-time loonygames partner Next-Generation).

Fortunately one thing that hasn’t changed: Duke Nukem Forever, which was the subject of loonygames’ first cover story, still isn’t out. Thank god some things are still the same.

This article at Wired News says that Toyota is going to be unveiling a new self-parking car in Japan next month. Supposedly it accomplishes this feat with a rear-mounted camera, although I would have thought it would need some kind of more accurate measuring system to determine the placement of the curb (not to mention motion detectors and some other high-end doodads). Chances are that even if it does work, it’s not going to work perfectly…at least not yet. But it is good news for me, since I’m sure at some point down the road I’m going to need to get a car again, and while I can drive just fine, I never managed to get the hang of parallel parking (I hit the curb during my driver’s test — and passed anyway!).

An awesome new NetNewsWire beta is now available, featuring the new Safari-powered HTML renderer. This is great news for anyone who reads this site with the program, as it means that posts now look exactly the way they should, complete with proper image alignment. Also new in this beta is the ability to set updated items as unread, and even highlight changes in updated items. This means you can have any new comments highlighted automatically. Very cool stuff indeed. This is a beta version of the full program only, and not the lite version, although there is a trial period for new users.

Update: It’s out of beta already…w00p.

As part of my continuing efforts to get to the bottom of the Dragon.ca debacle (see stories here and here), I’m pleased to post another follow-up on the situation. The following was posted anonymously to the comments of my last story by a former employee of the company:

A shame that so many people had to be screwed by the pompous, harrassing owner. As a former employee, let me tell you how horrible an experience it was! Once I found out all of the illegal activities of Dragon’s business, I tried to change things, both for the staff that was told on a daily basis how stupid they were and for the customers that were being screwed out of their $$. When it became apparent that I couldn’t change the illegal operations, I did assist in getting some people’s money back to them before I left.

Trust me, it was hell on earth to be employed there. The company moved to Orangeville in June ‘01 and operated out of a warehouse there. I have recently been told by sources that Sanjay Mehta is now operating an illegal DirecTV hu card operation in Canada out of his girlfriend’s basement. Buyers beware. Not only is owning a DirecTV satellite system in Canada illegal, these hu cards screw legitimate DirecTV owners out of their signal.

When I can find out more detailed information about the sites (yes, there is more than one) he is operating, I will post them here. Stay posted…

If there’s anyone else out there who has any information to share, you may contact me by e-mail anonymously.

Apparently it’s finally been confirmed that Apple is going to be releasing a Bluetooth wireless mouse + keyboard combo. This has been rumored for a long time now, and it fits completely in line with Apple’s design flair, so it’s not much of a surprise. But I still don’t see the apeal of a wireless mouse and/or keyboard.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love all the cables coming out of my computer, but with their ADC connection Apple’s already reduced the power, USB and DVI connections for their LCD down to one, and there’s a single USB cable running from my monitor to my keyboard and another from my mouse to my keyboard. That’s hardly a mess.

By my best guess, I’d say the average amount of space between a monitor or CPU and keyboard is a foot, maybe two or three. How lazy do you have to be when that becomes too cumbersome for you? Here at work, there’s literally mere inches between my keyboard and CPU (it’s an LCD iMac, so my large Microsoft keyboard starts underneath the raised monitor).

And then there’s the problem of batteries. Batteries! In something as simple as a mouse or keyboard! I’d hate to be in a situation where I can’t get any work done because the batteries on my mouse have died. Logitech found a satisfactory solution to this problem by adding a cradle and rechargeable battery, but then that means you have to have a wire going from the computer to the cradle (or the wall to the cradle). I imagine Apple’s planning something similar, since I can’t see them releasing anything that requires AA batteries.

Hopefully this new cordless mouse will at least contain more than one button. Wireless mice and keyboards are significantly more expensive than their wired counterparts, and Bluetooth ones even more so. And if someone’s going to have to shell out $100 or more for a keyboard and mouse, one would hope it offers a bit more than a single button. Actually, I’d love to find out if they’re going to use this wacky wheel patent they filed for some time ago.

Update: According to Think Secret, these new devices will run on AA batteries. The mouse will require two, while the keyboard needs a whopping four.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time over the last week or so pouring through resumes for the open jobs we have here at netomat (if anyone’s interested, here they are — be sure to mention I referred you), and as such I have learned some very valuable tips for submitting resumes:

• When applying for a Java programmer position, make sure you list “Java” as one of your skills.
• JavaScript is not Java. Seriously. Don’t kid yourself into thinking otherwise.
• If English isn’t your first language, have someone proof-read your resume and/or cover letter before sending it off. Case in point: “I apply for java maker position” sounds like you want to work at Starbucks.
• If your work experience is limited to driving a forklift or working as a doorman, you’re not qualified for a senior level position.

This whole thing is depressing enough without running into some of those goofs listed above. At least this isn’t as bad as the time I went to a job fair to advertise for an entry-level QA position and had people who were (and I’m dead serious here) decades out of college inquiring about it. The job market sucks these days, and I’m very glad to be on this side of the fence.

Paul Newman has an op/ed piece in today’s New York Times that lampoons Fox News’ rediculous “fair and balanced” lawsuit against comedian Al Franken. Paul Newman’s a great actor and his company makes great salad dressing and tomato sauce (while donating all proceeds to charity), but who knew he could moonlight as a writer for The Onion?