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- The Internet of Shit: Decouple Yourself from Skynet
- Netflix Animated Film ‘Scrooge: A Christmas Carol’ Rounds out Voice Cast
- Keanue Reeves’ John Wick Seen in Prayer Before Chapter 4 Action
- Spotify Announces Harley Quinn Podcast to Star Christina Ricci
- No Time to Die’s Ana de Armas “There’s No Need for a Female Bond”
| The Internet of Shit: Decouple Yourself from Skynet Posted: 24 Jul 2022 03:25 PM PDT
If you wanted to pinpoint the most bugmannish idea ever – a concept so technofetishistic, decadent, and pointless as to be a self-contained definition of bugmanism, you'd have to go a long way to beat "the Internet of Things."
The notion of hooking everything up to the internet lacks even the saving grace of saying, "Well, it looked good on paper." Anyone who believed that adding internet connectivity to fridges and dishwashers was anything but proof we'd slid into Mouse Utopia should be jailed.
I'm not alone in this opinion. While they maybe fine with smart TVs and music players, most normal people balk at the prospect of sending their stoves online.
If you're puzzled as to why, here's author David V. Stewart's harrowing account of his battle to exorcise Skynet from his thermostat in 100 degree weather.
As usual, David's take covers most of the bases. People with time horizons longer than five minutes realize that the Internet of Things means:
All in the name of providing solutions to nonexistent problems.
The fact is that almost all home appliances are mature technologies that are simple, well-understood, and quite functional. In the last couple of months, I had to have my fridge and my AC fixed. Both jobs were done in less than an hour at reasonable prices.
And therein lies the rub for home electronics manufacturers. Most home consumer products, from TVs to to dryers to microwaves, are as good they're gonna get – at least in terms of their core technologies. But the inexorable march of time (and inflation) requires appliance companies to roll out products with new bells and whistles each year. These are low-margin sectors, so manufactures need some reason to justify the necessary markup.
A good example of this dynamic was the 3D TV fad from a decade back. High definition displays had reached the point of diminishing returns in regard to image resolution. So the hunt was on for new gimmicks to bump up the price of next year's model. Somebody came up with cribbing James Cameron's push for 3D in movie theaters. They built similar 3D tech into big-screen TVs and sold them with the special glasses needed to obtain the effect. Customers were OK with wearing 3D specs in the dark but decided they'd rather not sit around the living room looking like dorks. So 3D failed to take hold.
The consumer tech business still follows the same principle behind 3D TVs, though. No well-adjusted person ever stopped during the commute home and thought, If only I could turn down my water heater from 130 to 120 with my phone! What happened instead was Big Tech inducing an army of nerd influencers to drum up artificial demand among normal folks.
There are two looming problems with this campaign, to the degree that it's been successful. One, smart devices rely on the internet to work, and the internet is dead. White Millennial bugmen may shill for web-integrated toasters, but tech firms' foreign indentured servants are proving unequal to the task of maintaining them. Second, the major threat of the unfolding Internet of Shit isn't so much that a software glitch or woke cube jockey will ban you from driving. It's that a portion of society deciding the risk is worthwhile mainstreams the erosion of private ownership.
"You will own nothing and be happy" is a stale meme, but Millennial geeks show no sign of hindering its implementation. If you don't control what you buy, you can't be said to own it. We now have a generation that has no problem with that statement.
So get a ten-year-old car, a used washing machine, and copies of your favorite movies on DVD.
And don't give money to people who hate you.
Originally published here. The post The Internet of Shit: Decouple Yourself from Skynet appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Netflix Animated Film ‘Scrooge: A Christmas Carol’ Rounds out Voice Cast Posted: 24 Jul 2022 12:55 PM PDT
Olivia Colman ("Landscapers"), Jessie Buckley ("Men") and Luke Evans ("Crossing Swords") will voice parts in Netflix's CG animated feature "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol," Variety reports.
The film is a supernatural, time-travelling, musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens' beloved Christmas story. With his very soul on the line, Scrooge has but one Christmas Eve left to face his past and build a better future. Evans voices Scrooge, Colman voices the Ghost of Christmas Past, Buckley Isabel Fezziwig, Johnny Flynn Bob Cratchit, Fra Fee Harry Huffam, Giles Terera Tom Jenkins, Trevor Dion Nicholas the Ghost of Christmas Present, James Cosmo Mr. Fezziwig, and Jonathan Pryce voices Jacob Marley.
The film is directed by Stephen Donnelly ("Monster High: Welcome to Monster High") and features re-imagined songs from the late two-time Oscar and Grammy winner Leslie Bricusse ("Doctor Dolittle," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "Superman," "Home Alone"). The songs are arranged and produced by Jeremy Holland-Smith, who has also provided the original score.
The streamer revealed a raft of European animated titles last month, of which "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol" is one. The film will bow on Netflix in December. The post Netflix Animated Film ‘Scrooge: A Christmas Carol’ Rounds out Voice Cast appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Keanue Reeves’ John Wick Seen in Prayer Before Chapter 4 Action Posted: 24 Jul 2022 10:25 AM PDT The "John Wick" franchise isn't known for being calm, but such is the vibe of the first look at "John Wick: Chapter 4." Variety is reporting that Keanu Reeves' fan-favorite assassin appears to be praying while surrounded by church candlelights. Consider this the calm before the storm. As CinemaCon footage confirmed back in April, Reeves' character is going to have plenty of skull-bashing action scenes to fight his way through.
In the footage screened at CinemaCon, Wick was seen punching a wooden post to the point of his knuckles bleeding as co-star Laurence Fishburne served as his hype man. Wick also fights two baddies in the lobby of an art gallery — brutalizing them with nunchucks. The footage, from the movie's first trailer, can be seen below.
Joining Reeves in "John Wick: Chapter 4" are Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins and Clancy Brown. Franchise mainstay Ian McShane is back as Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel. The post Keanue Reeves’ John Wick Seen in Prayer Before Chapter 4 Action appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Spotify Announces Harley Quinn Podcast to Star Christina Ricci Posted: 24 Jul 2022 07:55 AM PDT
Christina Ricci is heading to Gotham City. The Yellowjackets star has been tapped to lead the voice cast for Spotify and Warner Bros.' next audio series, Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind, as Harley Quinn herself, THR reports. Ricci will be joined by Billy Magnussen as the Joker and Justin Hartley (This is Us) as Batman. The series, which has begun production, was developed by Homecoming writer and executive producer Eli Horowitz and tells the story of Gotham villain Harley Quinn from her perspective — instead of the Joker's. The series begins when Quinn is still known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a top psychologist at Arkham Asylum who is determined to help the patients her colleagues have given up on. "But her dad is sick, and in need of an expensive, life-saving operation Harleen can't afford. So when she meets 'Patient J,' a unique criminal who seems to have a strange power over everyone but her, Harleen makes a fateful decision: to use her relationship with J to get what she needs, leading both of them down a dangerous path that will change their lives forever," the series' logline says. Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind is the second audio series to be released as part of a multiyear licensing deal between Spotify and Warner Bros./DC. The post Spotify Announces Harley Quinn Podcast to Star Christina Ricci appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| No Time to Die’s Ana de Armas “There’s No Need for a Female Bond” Posted: 24 Jul 2022 05:25 AM PDT
There is “no need to take steal someone else’s character,” according to actress Ana de Armas, who played Paloma, a gun-wielding female agent, in the most recent Bond film No Time to Die.
De Armas was asked by the Sun newspaper if she thought the producers of the next 007 movie should go “woke” and cast an actor who self-identifies as “non-binary” to play James Bond. De Arrmas, who played a far more combative female agent than what fans are used to seeing in the Bond series, disagreed with that approach.
The actress believes James Bond does not need to be changed in order to please a more progressive audience.
“There's no need for a female Bond," de Armas added. "There shouldn't be any need to steal someone else's character, you know, to take over."
De Armas went on to say she believes some properties should stick to the traditional traits that have made them into beloved classics, but did admit she felt the ways women are portrayed in the series could use some updating from the traditional roles they’ve played in the franchise.
"This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he's at.” Adding that "what I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way," she said. "That they're given a more substantial part and recognition. That's what I think is more interesting than flipping things."
This thinking seems to compliment 007 producer Barbara Broccoli, who has dismissed the idea that James Bond could become “Jane Bond.” "Bond is male. He's a male character. He was written as a male and I think he'll probably stay as a male," Broccoli said at the time. "And that's fine. We don't have to turn male characters into women. Let's just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters."
Even the most recent 007, Daniel Craig responded in the affirmative about adding some diversity to the world of Bond, but couched his response to keep Bond a man. "There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, for a woman?"
The post No Time to Die’s Ana de Armas "There's No Need for a Female Bond" appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
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