Considering today's new GPS-related accident, here's a public service announcement. If you have a GPS navigation unit in your car, here are some important critical safety tips:

1. You still need to watch the road.

   I hate to break it to you, but your GPS unit isn't aware of construction. But hey, if you ever do ignore a "closed for construction" sign and plow your way through several barricades, there may be a pile of sand somewhere to catch you.

2. If you're on a pedestrian walkway (see picture), patio area with tables & chairs, a corn field, or railroad tracks, the GPS is wrong. Turn your car around and go back to the road.

   Remember this guy from earlier this year? Well, someone else make the same mistake today on the same set of tracks. Fortunately this guy was smart and exited the car before the train hit, calling 911. It can't be his fault though. Obviously, this particluar set of railroad tracks is evil and is luring cars to their doom.

   It could have been worse. In Britain last year, this poor girl opened the gate, drove her car onto the tracks, got out, closed the first gate, opened up the next gate, and then heard a strange sound getting closer.

3. If you and/or your car is sinking in water or is already submerged, the GPS is wrong. Exit the vehicle immediately.

   Sure, sometimes the current takes you 200 metres downstream before you can kick the Mercedes' window out, but you can't always use that excuse.

4. You still have to read and obey the road signs.

   If the top of your vehicle was there when your trip started, yet it's not there when the trip ended, you should have chosen a different route, despite what your GPS told you.

   A 12-foot-tall bus does not fit under a bridge with a 9-foot clearance. You still have to read the signs (like that big yellow one at the underpass saying Clearance - 9' 0").

It's simple -- don't be stupid.
(thanks to Engadget for several of the links)

Sorry for the delay. We've had some medical issues going on (listen to the show for more info), so we had to take a week off.

But we're back, and we want adaptations! Well, we want some adaptations. In this week's show, Brian, Andrew and Erik look at existing material (books, comics, games, etc.) that we'd like to see in film or television.

RC_021: We Want Adaptations!
Download MP3 ♦ Subscribe via iTunes ♦ Listen Now!

This week on TechChatter:

• Dead Workers Party ISP/Server Fiasco
• Microsoft dumps Jerry Seinfeld
  • It's Not Gold, Jerry: Microsoft Ditching Seinfeld
  • Farewell, Jerry, we barely knew ye
  • Microsoft's new ads: Seinfeld and Gates out, Hodgman lookalike in
• Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Copyright Cops
• Source code requests force breathalyzer maker to sober up
• Apple rejects another app for duplicating functionality
  • This is becoming a problem.
  • First "Podcaster" now this... So much for any hopes of an open platform
• What is "Brick" (Apple rumored new product that could be a game changer...)
• What is The Brick?
• Glitch shuts 'Big Bang' collider for two months
• Memewatch:The 6 Quirkiest Web Memes of 2008 (So Far)
• Picks of the Week:
  • Brian: Launchy (http://www.launchy.net) and Rocket Dock (http://rocketdock.com)
  • Eric: http://www.tanoth.com
  • Brent: Gmail http://www.gmail.com (lol) Total Recorder http://www.highcriteria.com/
    

If you've been keeping up with the show, then you know I've been pretty busy the past few weeks working on a no-budget short film called The (Hide And) Seeker.  If not, you can find out the details on the film's production blog right here.

The film was submitted to be part of the Campus Movie Fest, a national film festival that travels to universities across the country and gives students the equipment to make a movie.  All teams are given a one week timeline to shoot and edit their films, after which the Top 16 get shown on the big screen at a red carpet event, and the best ones are awarded prizes.

Not only did The (Hide And) Seeker make the Top 16 and get screened in front of a large audience, but we also won Best Actor and Best Comedy!  We got a bunch of cool stuff, including some iPods, Final Cut Studio 2, and a fake Oscar statuette that looks like a golden Ken doll with an afro.  The film also moves on to compete in the CMF regional finals in Atlanta in February.  Woohoo!  Not bad for a student film with no budget and non-actors...

Anyways, the film is available for viewing on the CMF website, though you'll have to settle for a small screen.  To access it, click here, or on the picture to the right.

Feel free to offer any constructive criticism, since I'm trying to grow as a filmmaker.  Not only that, but I'm also working on a longer "director's cut" of the film, so if there are things you think I should (and would be able to) fix, let me know.

I wish I'd realized this was posted in time for last night's recording (sorry Raoul; got behind in my email and RSS reading). Had I known, I would have mentioned it in the show.

In episode #20 of RandomChatter, we covered Watchmen by Alan Moore. Rather, we covered whether it can succeed as a movie. We'd hoped to have Raoul appear on the podcast, but things didn't work out. However, I'm glad to announce he's reviewed the graphic novel on his site, Trade Talks. Here's the opening paragraph:

Much more than Zot!, Watchmen is critically bulletproof. Its greatness as a work of comic art is relatively uncontested, even in the contentious world of online comic fandom. It is one of the three titles frequently nominated for the position of greatest comic story ever told (The Dark Knight Returns and Maus being the other two).

I'd love to quote more, but to do so would lessen the experience of reading a well-written review.

As always, Raoul's review is insightful and goes beyond the high-school-quality reviews I normally type up. Even his reviews of comics I know nothing about make me yearn for the time I actively collected, and they tempt me to quietly sneak back to the local comic book shops I've been avoiding for so long.

Check out his review here, and if you're at all interested in comics, add his site to your "must-read" list. Same goes for anyone who reviews fiction, comic book or otherwise; his is one of the best review sites I've seen yet.

Yup, I was right. These new Microsoft commercials are worse. Probably more effective though.

Sorry about not putting any shows out this week. Ren's been sick, Brian's been sick, and I've been sick. Andrew's got the least-whiny excuse though -- he's been working on his short film, The (Hide and) Seeker! He's wrapped it up (hopefully we'll get a copy of that posted soon), and the rest of us are feeling better, so everything's back to normal now.

Anyway, fear not -- we'll have a quick Righteous Kill review posted in the next day or so, and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programs this coming week. Look for new RandomChatter and MovieChatter shows Monday, and expect the new TechChatter show Tuesday. And don't forget -- LostChatter starts up again in a few weeks!

They're actually ditching Jerry Seinfeld. I don't believe it.

According to this New York Times article, Microsoft will no longer be making commercials with Jerry Seinfeld. Must be nice to make $10 million for two commercials.

Instead, they're going with a John Hodgman look-alike, who tells us, "I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype."

Again, I'm not trying to bash Microsoft. but they're making it so dang easy... We've apparently gone from "stupid" to "whiny".

Who knows? This may work well for them. It's probably a better move than the Seinfeld commercials were. I'm just starting to wonder whether I'm going to eat my words once I see the first commercial. Sure, it may be a better tactical move on their part, but something tells me the Seinfeld ads may be less annoying. Hmm...

Motion-X Poker (or "Poker Dice" as I've called it on the TechChatter podcast) is probably my favorite iPhone game so far. It's simple, good-looking, and addictive. There are over 30 dice sets to unlock, there are acheivement "gems", different tables with increasing bet amounts, etc. The interface is intuitive, and the physics, animation, and sound are near perfect. Dice roll like actual dice. Dice with rounded corners behave differently than cubed dice. Dice of different materials sound differently when rolled on tables of different materials. It's the subtle things that make this already-wonderful app shine through.

And I'm bitter. I paid $4.99 for it, but now they've lowered the price to only $0.99.

I'm not that bitter though. I've gotten far more than $5 of fun out of it. It's better than many of the $9.99 apps I've seen or tried. I certainly have no regret having paid $5 for it.

Only $0.99. That's a third the cost of several tip calculators on the app store. Yes, I know... I'm pimping this game pretty hard. For all the junk in the app store, software like this deserves good word-of-mouth.

So pick up this $4.99 app for only $0.99. I saw the story on Touch Arcade, and it didn't seem to indicate it was only temporary, but given some recent temporary sales from other app developers, I'd snag this now. This demo video will give you an idea of what the game is like, though it's far better in-person.

Written by J. Michael Straczynski, creator of <i>Babylon 5</i>.  That's enough to get me to see it, but it's also produced by Ron Howard and directed by Clint Eastwood.  Not too shabby.