Salt Lake Comic Con 2013

Comic Con in Salt Lake City was certainly a success for sponsors and more or less for fans. The mother of Comic Cons in San Diego California had approximately 130,000 attendees, and Salt Lake, a first year con, had nearly 80,000 attendees on the final day. By noon on Saturday, the fire marshal threatened to shut the Salt Palace down because of potential safety risks. Some ticket holders were turned away, what a disappointment.

Generally I was pretty impressed with the organization and the quality of artists and panel speakers. There were several instances of confusion, especially the registration system meltdown on Saturday, and lack of attendees willing to pay additional money to high-profile celebs speak (William Shatner being one).

Now on to the positive. The art displayed was amazing. The image above is a life-size replica of the White Orc from The Hobbit, created by Weta Workshop. The New Zealand company had a great showing. There were also a number of well-known artists and just as many indie guys showing off their wares.

Overall I would say as a con goer this was an impressive first showing. There are obviously kinks to work out, and the group has a year to make it happen. I purchased some books and comics which I'll link to below.

The Runelords by David Farland. David is a great writer and has several books on the market. Checkout his Amazon page here. (Affiliate link)

Met an author named Michaelbrent Collins, yes, spelt correctly. A lady working at his booth sold me on a unique zombie story called The Colony: Genesis. On the back of the jacket it reads "In under 10 minutes, 99.9% of the world's population will be dead... Or changed. Conversion is instant. Headshots just make them angry. And they're getting smarter." Wow what a great hook. Had me, so I bought. Hope the story lives up to the great description.

Then I ran into a graphic novelist named Dixon Mullins, who has created a series called M.I.S//ing, a take on he IT world. Seemed pretty cool, and she had a great deal so I bought. Looking forward to reading the three volumes I purchased.

One final note, I've been to dozens of cons and I'm a little more strategic than most. I plan and plan my schedule for efficiency, giving me time to see everything, eat, drink, pee, and learn. I wish more people did this, I think the overall experience would be better.

See ya next year. (Get the VIP pass for sure).

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Hot New Star Trek MMOG On The Way

According to a CNN.com article, Cryptic Studios Inc. has purchased the license rights to create the game. There had previously been an attempt to create a Star Trek themed game but it seemed to have ended in failure.

Personally, I'm stoked to see this happen. Even the basic premiss of starting as "the captain of a small Starfleet or Klingon Empire ship", and then have to work your way up the chain sounds very fun.

My one hope for the game is there isn't an ending. Space is endless, and so the game should be. Allow users to create their own planets, solar systems and galaxies. This includes species and technology. Being able to extend the game will mean a longer life. Let's hope this happens.

My biggest fear is that CBS sticks their big fat nose into the production somehow. They really don't know how to manage the franchise and seem to screw things up more than they help. So please, CBS, stay out. Let these guys do what they do best. And listen to the fans.

Photo from the CNN.com article, and I originally saw the story on myextralife.com

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War Games 25 Years Later

On July 29th, MGM will release a 25th Anniversary edition of War Games. This movie was an icon to geeks the world over. We longed to find an open line with our war dialers. Finding some unprotected computer system and taking a look around was the ultimate prize.

By the way, a war dialer was a program that automatically dialed numbers and checked for a modem tone on the other end. If a tone was found, the number would be captured for later use.

I must admit my VIC 20 and Commodore 64 paled in comparison to Matthew Broderick's computer of the day, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to hack into a few computer systems myself.

Most of today's kids would not get the significance, or even care that your could, connect to other computers through the phone. Bulletin Board Systems, or BBS for short, were the precursors to public Internet access. BBS's allowed people to share information and files, start discussions, and were basically very early social networks.

The movie didn't have any impact on technology, but it did give the audience a glimpse of what the United States Government was using to run its defense systems. The WOPR, a mainframe type computer, depicted in the movie as a very large metal box with a bunch of LED lights, was the master mind, or central computer. This computer took on a life of it's own, when a young kid, played by Matthew Broderick, some how finds a back door using a war dialer, and starts a war simulation.

Eventually the computer completes the simulation, but nearly started world war three in the process. The movie plays on the attitude, and fear, most Americans had at the time, about an all out nuclear war with the Russians. Interesting how the use of geeky technology was used to make some sort of political statement.

If its been a while since you've watched War Games, go rent it, or download it. If you've never seen the movie before, go rent it, you'll be glad you did. But most of all, buy the anniversary edition when it comes out at the end of the month.

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Star Trek: The Experience To Close

Captains log, star date, well, today. It's sad to learn that Star Trek: The Experience will be closing its doors at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 1st.

This attraction was a unique opportunity to see Star Trek memorabilia, get sick on a few rides, and spend some of your hard earned cash in the souvenir shops. I was able to take a couple of photos with a Borg and a Klingon Woman when I was there not too long ago. It was a blast. I really hope CBS listens to the fans and finds a new home for the attraction in Las Vegas, and even expands it. Great time to do this with a new movie coming out. I really hope the fans aren't screwed again by Paramount and CBS.

Long Live Star Trek!

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Beowulf Movie, The Good And The Bad

No Spoilers in this post.

I was able to see an advanced screening of Beowulf last night. I hadn't read anything about the story or the movie, I only heard Angelina Jolie was in it. Well that's what I get for not doing my homework before seeing a movie.

The first thing I learned was the movie is all computer animation. I don't really care for all computer animation, but I really liked the way 300 was made using real actors with computer animation added. The next thing I learned was the movie is in 3D. Yes, in 3D. Images of uncomfortable paper red/blue glasses ran through my mind. But that wasn't the case. The glasses were actually really nice and looked like a pair of sunglasses. They were comfortable and covered your whole eye area so there was no distractions coming from the side. The next thing I learned was the showing would be in the IMAX theater. That excited me. I love IMAX theaters and the one in Jordan Commons is really nice.

The movie itself was fantastic. The 3D worked really well. Despite having to sit near the front of the theater I really felt the depth of the 3D. They did a good job. At one point during the show the cameras got out of sync and it made my eyes cross. That only lasted for about 30 seconds and never happened again. I would say the 3D coupled with an IMAX screen and exceptional computer animation made up for any of the other crap that happened. The movie was great.

** This movie is not Kid friendly ** There, I warned you.

While standing in line this guy, apparently associated with the theater or production company started to tell us they wouldn't allow any electronic devices into the showing. In fact they had what looked like metal detectors at the entrance. This person said if they caught anyone with devices in the theater they would escort them out and suggested we take our cell phones, cameras, PDA's and iPods (not sure why an iPod would be targeted) to our vehicle's. So, I left my spot in line to take my mobile phone out to the car. That pissed me off which is part of the reason I had to sit in front.

Once everyone was seated this same person started repeating the no electronic device mantra he was spewing in the lobby. Funny thing was, there were dozens of people sitting in the theater with mobile phones on, with cameras, one guy was playing a PSP, and the whole time the guy who was laying down the law just stood there. I'm thinking, didn't you tell everyone out in the lobby they couldn't bring anything into the theater, and I lost my place in line while you stand there and do nothing? What ever. It was very lame.

I'm not sure if the whole phone/pda deal was a Jordan Commons thing or something the movie distribution company mandated, but the guy didn't do a very good job, I felt like a thief, and don't they know a version of this movie will make it out on the Internet whether they want it to or not? Besides, you can't take quality photos with a camera phone, and there wouldn't be enough storage or long enough battery life to record on your phone. Duh, get a grip.

I do want to thank Jeff Norris at iscifi.tv for providing the tickets. You rock Jeff. I also had a chance to meet Capn T. Rex. He's the awesome guy who started iscifi.tv. We had a good conversation which I will blog about later.

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