After the largest R rated release of 3,611 theaters, Watchmen pulled in $24.9m yesterday, with $4.6m coming from midnight showings.   It looks like it won’t manage to beat The Dark Knight’s $155m from opening weekend with $18.5m coming from midnight showings alone.  Just puts things into perspective doesn’t it?   Now all you Watchmen fanboys can get over yourselves.

via [THR]

Update: Watchmen pulled in 55m this weekend.

Today YouTube rolled out an update to their ever popular video player allowing embedded videos to be played in HD instead of having to click on a video and watch it on the YouTube site.   The new update adds a button between volume and fullscreen that is context sensitive to HD videos.  This also seems to fix the bug where videos would play incorrectly when swapped to HD.  The video below is an example of the new player. (Escape from City 17 by the Purchase Brothers.)

Each little update like this adds some chunk of functionality that feels as though it should have been there all along. Previous updates include widescreen, overlays, refined colors, etc. One more step on the way to Google taking over the world.

I’m sitting here, typing on my Smith Corona Coronet.  I’ll be transferring it digitally, figure that one out fellas.  Twenty minutes ago, things happened.  I wont tell you what they are, but they made me hungry.  Now, let me preface this with the fact that my favorite breakfast joint is here in…my town, and I’ve been gone a long while.  Long story short I got myself some breakfast.  But I got to thinking, did i just go to breakfast?  Because as we all  know breakfast is just breaking fast.  In this day and time, breakfast is a noun, but really it should be considered a super verb.  I mean why not, its two words turned into one to make a super verb.  Its like old school bands.  The english language can handle it, after all, crazy people have will power too.

When I eventually meet Geroge Lucas, I’ll have a couple questions for him:

1. Darth Vader’s name sounds strikingly familiar to “father” in German which is “vater”.  Is there any significance to this?

2. Why does Darth Vader feel no compasion towards C-3PO?  I mean Vader is his creator.

3. Where can I buy a Han Solo carbonite replica to hang on my wall?

4. Why doesn’t Princess Leia say to Luke, “You don’t look like a stormtrooper?” if they are all clones of Jango Fett?

5. Why does the Emperor explode when Vader tosses him down that tunnel thing?

6.  What’s with Princess Leia’s context sensitive harstyles?

First of all, you need to be able to recognize when you’re in a horror movie scenario.  When Johnny over there doesn’t come back after getting wood from outside, you probably shouldn’t send 1 person to check on him.

1. When people say they see crazy shit, believe them.

2. Don’t fuck up your hands or feet doing stupid shit.  (i.e. running blindly through the woods at night)

3. Always look behind yourself.  Use your fucking eyeballs and periphs.

4. Screaming only tells them where you are.

5.  Stay in the house.

6. Don’t split up.

7. If there’s a black guy with you, use him as a diversion early on to escape.  Those guys always die first anyways.

8. When facing paranormal activity, you’re either: a) all going to die, b) some of you might live, and will have a lifelong bond, or c) you all wish you’d die.

The BBC is reporting that a 67 year old woman on the way to a cemetery to bury her husband was killed when the hearse she was riding in was rear ended. The coffin slid forward and hit her in the back of the head killing her instantly, in a sadly ironic fashion. Her 76 year old husband died the day before of a heart attack. Authorities are investigating to determine the cause of the accident.

via [The BBC]

New segment I’m thinking about doing: recapping the last week in headlines, in case you missed any of the important ones.

• Sarah Palin and many online sources say that the San Francisco Chronicle had hidden audio from their interview with the candidate from earlier this year on his stance on coal in the United States.  It turns out that these were just fabrications, and even the McCain camp has bought into them.
• The Washington Post is reporting that Barack Obama’s grandmother Madelyn Dunham died earlier this morning, as she lost her battle with cancer at her home in Hawaii.  Obama was campaigning in Florida this morning when he learned the news.
• The election is in its final throws, and candidates aren’t stopping there, Politico reports.  Both candidates will travel to multiple states holding rallies on this last day of campaigning.
• Certain game manuals for Electronic Art’s new game, Red Alert 3, were incorrectly printed and are missing the last digit of the serial number.  As per their online help base they recommend users guess all 36 combinations of their key using A-Z and 0-9 to fill in the last digit till they find one that works.
• XKCD started an epic 5 part comic which concluded last Friday.  The entirety of it can be viewed here.
• Ars Technica is reporting that MTV and Harmonix, the makers behind the popular Rock Band and Rock Band 2 are developing a stand alone Beatles game in cooperation with McCartney, Starr and the survivors of Lenon and Harrison, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.

If you’re reading this blog and this is the first you’ve heard of this magical “vote” phenominon that is sweeping around the country, then you probably have some problems.  But if not, this is one more reminder that this election seems to be a major turning point in Modern American history.  Also; if you vote tomorrow then head over to Starbucks, you’ll get a free tall coffee.   If a free cup of cheap coffee isn’t enough to get you to vote then maybe a free Krispy Kreme doughnut is.    Still not enough? Well, Ben and Jerry’s isn’t offering human breast milk icecream yet, but you can get a free scoop of any of their other types of ice cream tomorrow.

Americans like free stuff, and if they vote, they get free stuff.  Win win situation my friends.

Woot’s eCommerce eKommissar Larry Stalin sent me a robo-email detailing a Woot-Off tonight.  Let’s hope they return to form, and have some good deals and items.  Maybe I’ll get my bag of crap tonight, or as they call them on the Woot forums, bandolier of carrots.

WOOT, INC. INTERNAL EMAIL
STAFF EYES ONLY

Attention Woot employees -

We are now entering the final phase of preparations for the Woot-Off planned for midnight tonight. This is when we depart from our usual deal-a-day model and sell one product after another, offering a new deal as soon as the previous one sells out. For some reason, Woot members like zulfy26 continue to have high expectations for this event. We must make every effort to ensure that they feel disappointed and betrayed.

All workers should be physically and mentally straining to make this Woot-Off a success, like every muscle in a wolf’s body strains to capture and devour its prey. We expect total compliance with the following objectives:

• Make sure the stables are thoroughly cleaned and the horses properly groomed and shod. As you know, Commander Rutledge prefers to lead us on horseback during Woot-Offs. Charge!
• Customer Service department: all vacation requests for this week and next are approved. If you have not filed a vacation request, take one anyway.
• The little green pills in the kitchen are there to keep you alert and working. Take as many as you need. Officially, Woot does not believe in the concept of “overdose”.
• Take at least one of our servers offline, just for laughs.
• Go to the landfill and dig up some more Sansa media players. If you see any Digipro Graphics Tablets (and you will), grab those, too.
• Place crap bags in company latrines so those orders can be “filled”. To this end, the company will provide free lunch today from El Feo, the filthiest burrito joint in Dallas. Do your worst, guys.
• Neutralize all negative thinking among our members. We simply cannot tolerate any more posts like “do not want” or “Woot-Off killer”. If electronic means like word filters and IP bans do not work, we must reactivate the rapid-response teams to physically eliminate all threats to our reputation.
• Last time, spot checks revealed that approximately 25% of products shipped are broken, incomplete, or excessively dirty. This is unacceptable. For this Woot-Off, defective shipments must make up at least 40%.
• Remind SmartPost that there’s no need to hurry on these orders. Prompt delivery makes our customers spoiled and argumentative. Let them learn humility and gratitude while they wait.

Above all, we must strive to make this Woot-Off even more tedious, disappointing, and lucrative than the last one. The employee who achieves the most toward this end will be rewarded with one brown Zune. Second place: two brown Zunes.

Forward into battle! Remember: to give one’s life for Woot is glorious!

Larry Stalin
eCommerce eKommissar
Woot, Inc.

THIS EMAIL WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN 90 SECONDS

It’s awesome and sarcastic emails and blog posts like this that I keep shopping at Woot, also because they have good prices occasionally.

Metallica’s new Album “Death Magnetic” has been so utterly compressed to achieve a super high decibel level, that it sounds like complete shit. The good news is though that the version of the album that was released on Guitar Hero III’s download service has a much more dynamic range and as such, doesn’t sound as bad. According to Ian Shepherd, the new album’s “CD release is roughly 10dB louder than the ‘Guitar Hero’ version – almost twice as loud, on average.”  That’s bad, it means that to hear all the sounds in the music, one would have to turn up the player to an unbearable level, in which it is uncomfortable to listen to and/or damaging to the ears.

Waveform comparison between Guitar Hero (top) and album (bottom) versions.

There’s been a “war” between audio mastering technicians to basically see who can make the loudest track. The reason behind the increasing loudness is simple: loud tracks stand out in noisy situations, mono speakers (iPhone, YouTube, internet radio, etc), and on the radio.  Rolling Stone covered this topic last year in an article titled, “The Death of High Fidelity,”  calling out U2, the Artic Monkeys and Nirvana for having overly compressed tracks.