H_Fisher - Slashdot User

Submission + - Just in time for Life Day: "Star Wars Holiday Special" Upscaled to 4K 60fps (youtube.com)

Submitted by H_Fisher on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @03:53PM

H_Fisher writes: Call it a Life Day miracle, even if nobody was asking for it. YouTube historian and retro-tech enthusiast Perifractic uploaded a restored, mostly-complete 4K upscale of the "infamous" Star Wars Holiday Special to his channel on Wednesday. From the video summary: "Using Topaz Labs [Video AI] with a few other techniques we've meticulously upscaled & restored the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special to 5120x3840, with stereo elements, to the best quality the technology currently allows."

Jokingly labeling the resulting file "5K" (8K video height, but tagged "4K" by YouTube due to its original 4:3 aspect ratio), the upscaled version unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) replaces some songs and omits some segments that were flagged by YouTube's copyright watchdog.

Submission + - "Pharma Bro" Shkreli's One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Clan Album Has Been Sold at Auction

Submitted by H_Fisher on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @03:47PM

H_Fisher writes: Only one copy exists of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin , and it was owned by "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli. Now, NPR reports that this album has been sold by the U.S. government to an unnamed buyer in order to pay Shkreli's civil forfeiture judgment following his conviction for securities fraud. The album, which was originally sold for $2 million, exists only as one physical CD copy. It was seized along with other assets in 2018, and while the sale price and buyer weren't identified, Shkreli's attorney says that his client has now repaid the $7.4 million forfeiture judgement.

Submission + - Theaters' latest gamble: Adding commercials during movie trailers 2

Submitted by H_Fisher on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @10:05AM

H_Fisher writes: Movie-watchers (in the U.S. at least) already have to sit through 20+ minutes of commercials and other advertainment before showtime. Now, two major theater chains are mixing commercials in with movie trailers in a bid to generate more cash. According to the report, "regular commercials will run for five minutes after the lights go off and before the trailers at two of the country's largest circuits, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theatres. And one 60-second 'platinum' spot from a top-tier brand will roll before the second-to-last or last trailer."

National CineMedia says that other worldwide markets have been watching ads alongside trailers for years, "with no significant consumer backlash." Right now, after the lights go down, Cinemark shows 15 minutes worth of trailers before the actual movie begins while Regal's trailer block runs 15 to 20 minutes, according to the news report.

Submission + - Star Trek's LCARS could become your virtual assistant

Submitted by H_Fisher on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @12:18AM

H_Fisher writes: It has arguably inspired many other technological innovations in the fifty years since its premiere, and now another Star Trek -inspired touch could be coming to your device: the voice of Majel Barrett from the Trek universe's LCARS computer system.

As CNET reports:
The voice of LCARS was provided by Majel Barrett, who was married to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Although Barrett sadly passed away in 2008, she took several roles on the show over the years, including nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek: The Original Series and Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. According to a tweet by the official Roddenberry account yesterday, this has provided enough phonetic data to perhaps get Barrett's voice appearing in upcoming new 2017 TV series Star Trek: Discovery — and maybe even a Siri-like virtual assistant.

Submission + - Dad hacks "Donkey Kong" - now Pauline rescues Mario (digitaltrends.com)

Submitted by

H_Fisher

on Monday March 11, 2013 @02:54PM

H_Fisher writes: "What do you do when your daughter wants the girl to be the hero of your old video game? If you're Mike Mika, you hack the game ROM to reverse the roles. He even changed the "M" at the top of the screen to a "P.""

Submission + - The rise and fall of Kodak (latimes.com)

Submitted by

H_Fisher

on Monday December 05, 2011 @04:18PM

H_Fisher writes: "Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times writes with a frank look at the decisions and changes that have led to Kodak's decline from top U.S. photography company to a company whose product is almost irrelevant. He writes: "[Kodak] executives couldn't foresee a future in which film had no role in image capture at all, nor come to grips with the lower profit margins or faster competitive pace of high-tech industries." He also notes that Kodak's story comes as a cautionary tale to giants like Google and Facebook."

Submission + - Sony blaming Anonymous for PSN hack (reuters.com)

Submitted by

H_Fisher

on Wednesday May 04, 2011 @01:24PM

H_Fisher writes: "In a letter to Congress, Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony's board of directors, blames hacker group Anonymous for making possible the theft of gamers' personal information. "What is becoming more and more evident is that Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack designed to steal personal and credit card information for illegal purposes," Hirai wrote. He also indicated that Sony waited two days before notifying the FBI of the theft."

Submission + - China bans time travel (time.com)

Submitted by

H_Fisher

on Wednesday April 13, 2011 @04:20PM

H_Fisher writes: "Disrespect the Chinese government at your peril ... and this includes anything you do with the past. Time magazine's "Techland" blog reports that China is banning references to time travel which are disrespectful to the nation's culture and history. No word on whether this includes a travel ban on time lords."

Submission + - Mitochondria may hold secret to preventing death

Submitted by

H_Fisher

on Monday July 16, 2007 @01:20PM

H_Fisher writes: "Research into mitochondria — small parts within a cell that have their own DNA — are a cause of cellular death, Newsweek reports. The article from the most recent edition of the magazine, entitled "The Science of Death: Reviving the Dead," reports on people who have recovered from sudden death due to cardiac arrest through the use of medically-induced hypothermia. The cooling process may help stop the death of brain and heart cells caused by the mitochondria once they are deprived of oxygen. The next step: figuring out how to keep the brain from dying, and arguing for or against "the view that the mind is more than the sum of the parts of the brain, and can exist outside it.""

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