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The Dark Knight's Viral Websites Featuring Heath Ledger as the Joker Still Up

GeekSugar — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:01:21 -0800

Before Heath Ledger's death last week, I was very much looking forward to this summer's The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, which I loved. But now, the teaser trailers for the film just make me feel sad and wistful. The images of Ledger in his perfectly-cast glory as the iconic villain the Joker, no doubt a talent-filled effort, are heartbreaking. That's why Valleywag's report that the viral websites to promote The Joker's role in the film will remain active confounds me.

I can't say I'm outraged, because this isn't the first time a film has faced losing a star prior to its release, but this may be the first time a marketing campaign such as this - viral websites surrounding the deceased actor - has been launched. The Joker-centric sites - among them whysoserious.com (which has been sporting a black ribbon in Ledger's honor since the news broke), TheGothamTimes.com, and TheHaHaHaTimes.com, don't seem to currently display any actual images of Ledger, but it still seems to be in poor taste that they remain up.

With new technology, we face new decisions each day that we never had reasons for before, and sensitivities must be bred to respond to our new world. What do you make of Warner Bros.' decision to leave the sites up? Is it an expected move, since the proverbial show must go on, or do you think their response should be different?
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Facebook Measures How Happy We Are

GeekSugar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:10:41 -0700

Apparently this is a real metric: Facebook recently announced it would begin to track our gross national happiness via status messages. The social networking company worked with a team of social psychologists to come up with lists of positive words ("yay," "happy," and "awesome," for example) and negative words ("sad," "doubt," "tragic.")

It then published an index of how we are collectively feeling day-to-day. Turns out we're happiest on national holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and social holidays like Halloween. Our "saddest" days were Jan. 22, 2008 - the day of the Asian stock market crash/actor Heath Ledger's death and Jun. 25, 2009 - the date of Michael Jackson's death.

Apparently no one at Facebook actually reads your status updates; instead they rely on computers to find relevant words and measure data. You can check out the full happiness graph on the Facebook blog.

I think it would be funny if they started tracking other words, too. Perhaps Facebook could report on how happy we are in our relationships - or even at work. Could you imagine them coming up with a set of "angry" or "frustrated" words? Any other status trends you'd like to see?

Batman: Arkham Asylum Holds You Over Until the Next Movie

GeekSugar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:30:14 -0700

Who knows when the next installment of the Batman film series will come out? You'll be inclined to not care (as much) after seeing this trailer for new video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, where Batman looks like the villain in the realm of criminals.

Voicing Joker is Mark Hamill (that's Luke to you, geeks), giving a different feel from Heath Ledger's portrayal - but it's nearly as chilling.

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Oscar Worthy Gadgets: The Dark Knight's Cell Phone Capers

GeekSugar — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:31:55 -0800

One of my favorite films of last year, The Dark Knight unquestionably shines with the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker, nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The film's up for a slew of other nominations that I'm really interested in because of their technical slants, like Best Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects.

That's not just why the Batman sequel was a geek's dream; it featured the Nokia Tube as Lucius Fox's cell, and a couple pivotal scenes centered around cell phone communication as a plot device.

A cell phone being inside one of the thugs was particularity gruesome, while the scene with Rachel Dawes' and Harvey Dent's last cell conversation was heartbreaking. But not even their intensity can beat the staggering image of the city's 3D view of the cell phone network that would finally lead Bruce Wayne to his mark.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Daily Tech: A UK Company Shows Off the E7, An Electric Taxi

GeekSugar — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:25:36 -0700

Although London's taxi licensing division has given the new E7 the thumbs down, it is certainly an environmentally friendly car, offering 100 miles on a single charge. - Engadget
Co-stars of Heath Ledger from the movie Batman: The Dark Knight Returns told the Today Show that Heath's iPod had become a symbol of him as his friends would pass it around to each other, download the tunes, then share it with someone else. - Valleywag
Governments are cracking down on Google Maps, by making them take down images for various security reasons. Already, 51 locations have been removed from Google Maps and Google Earth. - Switched
A real-life Hello Kitty house actually exists! Every inch of the house is HK, with a Hello Kitty living room, bedroom and kitchen, crazy! - Gizmodiva
Wal-Mart and Dell have teamed up to offer tech support "Solution Stations" which are set to roll out in 15 Dallas stores. - Gizmodo
It's giveaway time! Be sure to log in for your chances to win a new iPhone 3G by Apple! - geeksugar

The Week in Geek

GeekSugar — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:09:06 -0800

This week was somewhat of a rollercoaster - we got a little riled up over The Human Car, Heath Ledger, and some creepy gadgets. Big sigh. Is it the weekend already? Get your recap of what was big on geek this week with my slideshow!

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