Man did he write some winners and he did f/x for Star Wars.  The horror and science fiction fans of the universe will miss you, good sir.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/movies/21obannon.html?_r=2&ref=movies

I am often asked if e-memory technology will have a negativity impact on our human memories: will our bio-memories get flabby from lack of exercise if we rely too much on e-memories? This concern is nothing new; in fact, it is literally ancient. Here is Socrates, as quoted by Plato, convincing Phaedrus that this new-fangled technology called writing will lead to forgetfulness and only the “semblance of truth.” The emphasis added is mine.

Socrates: At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

Phaedrus: Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any other country.

Socrates: There was a tradition in the temple of Dodona that oaks first gave prophetic utterances. The men of old, unlike in their simplicity to young philosophy, deemed that if they heard the truth even from “oak or rock,” it was enough for them; whereas you seem to consider not whether a thing is or is not true, but who the speaker is and from what country the tale comes.

Phaedrus: I acknowledge the justice of your rebuke; and I think that the Theban is right in his view about letters.

You can read the entire dialog at http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html

MyLifeBits is a Microsoft Research project led by the legendary Gordon Bell, designed to put “all of his atom- and electron-based bits in his local Cyberspace….MyLifeBits includes everything he has accumulated, written, photographed, presented, and owns (e.g. CDs).” 

SenseCam - Click to enlarge

Among other technical means, Bell uses the SenseCam, a remarkable prototype from Microsoft Research.  It’s a nifty little wearable device that combines high-capacity memory, a fisheye lens passively capturing 3,000 images a day, along with an infrared sensor, temperature sensor, light sensor, accelerometer, and USB interface. My group has played with SenseCam a bit, and shared it with quite a few interested government parties and partners. More info on SenseCam here, and more on its parent Sensors and Devices Group in MSR.  

The MyLifeBits project has enormous potential, I think, befitting something which aims to incorporate and outstrip Vannevar Bush’s extraordinary original vision of Memex.  The project has now been captured in a great new book I’ve been reading: Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything, written by Bell and colleague Jim Gemmell. Their Total Recall motto is, “The e-memory revolution is changing everything.” 

In the FAQ section of their website, Bell and Gemmell write: 

“Total Recall works best when capture is completely automatic. For example, we automatically make a copy of every web page we visit, with a note of the URL and the time visited. If this was manual, very few web pages would be saved. Similarly, we get pictures from wearing the SenseCam without having to stop enjoying the moment to become the photographer. Today, at the start of the Total Recall revolution, too much is manual. Part of what will change in the next ten years as Total Recall comes to full fruition will be more and more automatic capture.” 

Here’s a quick video look at it: 

The companion Total Recall project blog also catalogs other interesting projects in the same spirit, for example The Quantified Self (about which Bell writes, “The QS implies capturing and recording everything, but it goes beyond what Gemmell and I describe, by using the data for conducting experiments and for control.”

I find that notion in synch with several thoughts around the idea of “Government as a Platform” and Data.gov, so let’s explore the government potential a bit.

No Leader’s Life Unexamined

Lately it seems that the world – or at least the digerati’s virtual continent –  is divided into two groups of people: those who knew Dr. Mark Drapeau by that name, first and in real life … and those who got to know “@cheeky_geeky,” his ubiquitous online persona, from his widely read Twitter feed, his Posterous blogs, or his prolific online writing at Huffington Post, Washington Life, and so on. Drapeau lives up to the line from Socrates, that the unexamined life is not worth living. His fully examined life quite evidently is. 

I barely fall into the first group, as I met Mark at a National Defense University conference before the Twitter phenomenon really got rocking, but I’ve watched as this talented writer opened up more and more of his private and professional life to the universe of digital eyeballs. The conferences, the dinners, the speeches, the parties – we’re all watching a life examined, reflected through his eyes and refracted through thousands of others. Mark Drapeau’s life is as transparent as they come. To illustrate, he’s even had to introduce a new acronym to his torrential stream; “TPTT” for too private to tweet. 

In the last year, Mark has become an acknowledged thought-leader in the Government 2.0 space as well; he co-chaired 2009’s inaugural Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase in Washington DC (disclosure: I chaired a panel there), and is co-chairing the full 2010 Gov 2.0 Expo (disclosure: I’m on the Senior Advisory Committee for that as well). 

Now Mark is bringing those two parts of his life together, in a musing of the future of government transparency taken to its extreme. Yesterday he posted a provocative piece on Posterous, “What Would an Always-On-the-Record Government Look Like?” in which he proposes something like a Gawker site for government: 

Imagine if someone … wanted to document a day in the life of Senator Ben Nelson. It’s not hard. You check the general schedules of his committees and such beforehand, go through security at the Capitol, find his office, camp out, maybe ask the person at the front desk some questions, find some press in the hallways and ask some questions, stalk the cafeteria and listen for people saying “Nelson,” go back to his office and see him leaving to walk down the hall to a committee hearing, go to the committee hearing and tape it from a Flip in your coat pocket, upload it to YouTube while you follow him to his next meeting, and so forth. 

I’ve a mixed mind on whether this is progress in the life of the public square (I posted some thoughts in a comment there), but I’m a realist. The technology is definitely already here to enable the type of “amateur journalism” Mark writes about, and this past decade has seen an explosion in what is more typically called “Citizen Journalism.” 

There’s a high-minded aspect to this, beyond the Gawker mentality. As early as 2005 Steve Outing at Poynter Online wrote that Citizen Journalism was “one of the hottest buzzwords in the news business these days,” and proceeded to offer a thoughtful compendium of examples.   The next year, PBS put online ”Your Guide to Citizen Journalism,” saying that “The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others.”  Wikipedia has a good background entry on citizen journalism; and the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism among others now has a program in the subject. 

That’s all outside-in, the citizenry watching their public servants. There’s also another, less explored aspect: the inside aiming out, or having public servants open up the fullness of their lives, transparently for all to see – and judge. 

I’m not certain how quickly we will advance along that front. So far, Twitter adoption and blogging among elected officials in the U.S. and Europe (primarily) have been somewhat faddish, used mostly as another channel for self-promotion. That’s not always a bad thing, as many elected officials self-promote the actual good things they do. Most simply self-promote.  Mark Drapeau is after something more fundamental. 

Perhaps we will indeed find public servants willing to use new social-media technologies to live up to that old saw, “My life is an open book.” In doing so, we would undoubtedly uncover a few Gary Harts along the way – he famously told journalist E.J. Dionne, “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” They did, they caught him with Donna Rice, and his electoral career was finished. 

The consequences might in fact be negative. We’ve been suffering for the past twenty years since celebrity journalism included politics in its swath. Jack Kennedy would never run for office today; he enjoyed his girlfriends too much to give that up, and he’d never get away with them in a MyLifeBits scenario. Abe Lincoln would surely think twice about running, as he was already highly protective of his wife’s reputation and mental well-being… if there’d been some 24×7 spotlight on her and her Confederate relatives, as there is on Michelle Obama, Abe would’ve been toast. 

No Hollywood face looks great in HD television close-up …. and there’s a chance leadership in public service will never look the same under this glare. 

But science demands experimentation… so in the interests of science we must persuade some politician to step up to the challenge and do some real life-casting. Let’s strap a SenseCam around Sen. Ben Nelson’s neck – or better yet, fit it to a string of pearls for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi!

Talk about open government

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A little while ago, I spoke at the Corporate e-Discovery Forum, where you find the legal experts who deal with electronic discovery. These folks really got the Total Recall message: “this is coming, and we’d better start getting ready,” said one attendee. Already, this community is beginning to grapple with how much the law should protect the privacy of one’s e-memories. I noticed this quote in a paper they were discussing about facebook and e-discovery:

The law in this area is just beginning to unfold. Its evolution will say a lot about who and what we are.

I’m a fan of Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full. Now scientists are joining in the song:

Old memories may get the boot from new brain cells

…

Essentially, the new neurons may aid formation of new memories by keeping the hippocampus from filling up with old ones.

Read all about it at Wired

The great Dan O’Bannon has left this world for another. A sad day indeed. For us, that is. However, wherever he’s headed, they’re in for a treat!

For those unfamiliar with Mr. O’Bannon, he was the talented visionary screenwriter behind such beloved classics as ALIEN, DARK STAR, HEAVY METAL, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, TOTAL RECALL, and many others, not to mention doing visual effects on a little film called  STAR WARS.

Mr. O’Bannon died at the all-too-young age of 63 after a 30-year battle with Crohn’s disease. We will miss him and his creative spirit.

Dan O’Bannon is a true sci-fi / horror legend. He wrote so many excellent screenplays you have no doubt seen some of the films based on his work.

He wrote the screenplay Star Beast (written with Richard Shusset) that was turned into Alien by Ridley Scott. He wrote the screenplay for John Carpenter’s directorial debut, Dark Star (he also played Sgt Pinback in the film).

Want more? How do the screenplays for Blue Thunder, Lifeforce (naked space vampires), Total Recall, Dead and Buried, Heavy Metal and Screamers grab you? He also directed The Return of the Living Dead and, get this, he did special effects work on Star Wars – the good ones.

Basically the man is a legend, yet sadly, he has been taken from us at the tender age of 63. Who knows what other flights of fancy he had in store for us, but no more. AICN are reporting that he had been in hospital for the past week but had lost the good fight.

He liked sci-fi, horror, H P Lovecraft, film and he could write up a storm. He will be missed.

This saddens me. Legendary screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, who gave birth to ALIEN among other genre classics (DARK STAR; HEAVY METAL; BLUE THUNDER; RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD; TOTAL RECALL), has passed onto the cosmic realm (or possibly even the Phoenix Asteroids…). I’ll have more to say about O’Bannon later, but this upstart storyteller and raconteur was a possible genius and true visionary. We are in his gratitude.

Here’s his finest moment in John Carpenter’s 1974 debut, DARK STAR, a genuine sci-fi satire with a clever script, unique effects, a beach ball alien and O’ Bannon stealing the movie as Pinback:

“Total Recall” came out around the golden age of Arnold Schwarzenegger films.  Back when he used to work with interesting directors and take on projects that had an edge. “Total Recall” was helmed by Paul Verhoven, who directed such films as “Robocop”, “Basic Instinct”, and “Starship Troopers”.  

“Total Recall” tells the story of a seemingly regular guy named Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger). The year is 2084.  At this point Earth has established a colony on Mars.  Quaid lives in a world where people sometimes don’t even take trips anymore.  Instead, they hire companies like Rekall to implant fake memories into their brains, causing them to think they have taken a vacation.  Quaid decides that it is for him.

Quaid’s vacation is along the lines of a James Bond adventure.  He plays the part of a secret agent who meets a brunette bombshell.  Something goes wrong in the procedure causing Quaid to think that he has actually gone there on a mission.  Soon his life starts falling apart around him.  Nothing is as it seems anymore.  His life, job and wife are all fake.  Is he a deadly agent?  Did he go to Mars.  The story follows this mystery right up to it’s shocking finale.

The appeal of Schwarzenegger is that he can always play a convincing everyman caught in an outrageous situation.  Despite his accent and impeccable physique, he always seems to pull it off. 

The film itself is well directed by Paul Verhoven.  He finds the right notes balancing the mystery and the action, all the while maintaining a very dark sense of humour.  I think one of his best moves was hiring Michael Ironside as the villain.  Being an R rated film Ironside is allowed to use as much profane language as possible.

Oh and about that R rating, this film fully earns it.  The violence is fairly bloody which caused some criticism towards the film.  My point of view is that it is what it is.  This is a film for grown ups.

I’m one of those people who always tries to put something witty and amusing in my Facebook status. Sometimes I come up with them myself, sometimes I ‘borrow’ them. My legal disputes aside I thought I’d post some of my recent ones for my blog today. Hey! Come on imaginary reader, don’t look at me like that. I’m busy working for my University deadlines, cut me some slack. Come on! Don’t give me that face, you know what screw you! You think you can judge me Mr ‘I forget about my friends whenever I get a girlfriend’. Jerk. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy these…

1. So I was thinking to myself “Rob, (cos me and myself are on a first name basis) if I had a fight with Chuck Norris, who happened to have his arms tied behind his back, was blinded by lava and had had his legs removed by angry sea bears, could I win that fight?” The answer is no.
2. “I don’t care what you think! In 30 seconds you’ll be dead and I’ll be home in time for cornflakes….” Total Recall is awesome.
3. Breaking News – Every scientist in the world today is working to try and find an answer to the worlds latest epidemic, how long is a piece of string?
4. woah woah woah, Edward Cullen is a 104 year old vampire? But Bella is only 17! Something sick is going down here….
5. No, I’ve already spoken to the manufacture and they say it’s not a normal feature to have a black hole in my fridge. Why would anyone build a fridge that sucked away all of your processed ham? I demand the Council do something about this…
6. For the facebook event ‘Christmas’ 637,056 have put Not Attending, while 198,252 have put Maybe. Brilliant.
7. In backwards world, Santa is the fat git who climbs down peoples chimneys and steals all the kids favourite toys….
8. My new t-shirt arrived today, but I can’t tell if it’s too tight. Only one thing to do, wear it until I get mocked. Then run home, cry and burn it…..
9. Don’t worry I speak leprechaun, I’ll handle this.
10. I don’t have a problem with Simon Cowell trying to kill Journey, as long as he doesn’t have a problem with me trying to kill him.
11. I just figured out that in 2012 the world is going to end due to God tea bagging us all….
12. Who is this jesus fellow I keep hearing about? wait, isn’t he a famous magician or something? Something about wine into water, and didn’t he sit in a box drinking only water for 40 days and 40 nights?
13. 2012 better be worth watching or I’ll be like “ah man, 2012 totally wasn’t worth watching…”
14. Trying to organise a pub gathering without a phone is like trying to amputate your own foot…with a spoon.
15. According to the Bank of England, the Frampton Dollar is not legal tender…well screw them is what I say to that.
16. Rob Frampton has joined the group ‘When I was your age, I still thought Pokemon sucked’.
17. Whenever you’re guilty of something you start talking about the weather. And you haven’t stopped talking about cirrostratus clouds all morning….
18. When ever I take drugs I start talking about pensions. “oh yes pensions are very sensible, shall we talk mortgages now?”
19. “Sex turns straights into gays and gays into mexicans, everyone goes down a notch”
20. “If I had to make a choice between the two, I’d choose one of them” Thanks for that Dad…

I love Phillip K Dick.  Some of his books I cannot put down and some I can’t even finish but the extremely great outweighs the mediocre to poor.  He was a sci fi writer who took on a lot of socio and political themes as well as the metaphysical.  Many decent movie adaptations have been made, with a few of the original stories in this book.

A few of my favorites in no particular order:

Minority Report has some differences from the movie, which I saw first.  To be more true to the story, Tom Cruise would have had to have been 50 and balding, but other than that there are few huge changes of note.  Obviously, it is a short story so a lot is added into the movie, but nothing that changes anything major.

We Can Remember it for you Wholesale is a great short story that turned into a cult classic: Total Recall.  If I remember correctly, Piers Anthony wrote a novelization of this story for the movie, but whatever.  This is a pretty short story with most of the time spent on Earth taken care of and little of what the movie depicts on mars.  It is satisfying to read the original ideas, but little insight is really gained.

Paycheck is the one film adaptation I have not seen from Dick’s work. So I won’t mention it.  Instead here is what Phillip K Dick said himself,

“How much is a key to a bus locker worth? One day it’s worth 25 cents, the next day thousands of dollars. In this story I got to thinking that there are times in our lives when having a dime to make a phone call spells the difference between life and death. Keys, small change, maybe a theater ticket — how about a parking receipt for a Jaguar? All I had to do was link this idea up with time travel to see how the small and useless, under the wise eyes of a time traveler, might signify a great deal more. He would know when that dime might save your life. And, back in the past again, he might prefer that dime to any amount of money, no matter how large.”

This is a very cool story and I now want to see the movie.  Basically a guy gets done with a job of which he has no recollection and can either take the paycheck and be done with it or take the trinkets instead and figure out what kind of work he did and what the company is up to.

Second Variety is probably my favorite story in the book.  It is about a post apocalyptic war still going on Earth.  The fighting is between the UN/US and the Soviet Union.  The US has had the upper hand in the war for a while due to artificially intelligent robot “claws” that take care of anything in their way.  But as the war continues, the “claws” recreate and improve themselves to take on the likeness of children, injured soldiers, etc. and start to take over both sides of the war and eventually the whole race.

The book is great because I love short stories and PKD but for most I would have to recommend his novels as a starting point, a middle point, and possibly even an ending point because they are so much more thought provoking.  I will not get into detail right now which novels of his to read as I will be re-reading many of them in the coming weeks and reviewing them on this site.

I’m a little late getting this up, big a new parent is pretty exhausting, and writing two posts in one  morning was more than I had energy for.  I really like last night’s episode of The Big Bang Theory. I thought it got back to the dynamics that made the show so great, and didn’t focus solely on the Penny/Leonard relationship which many of the episodes this season have had a tendency to do.

Howard is finishing his third date with Bernadette.  She informs him that the thrid date is typically the date for sex, but wants to make sure he’s serious about her.  Howard begins to waffle.  Howard’s problem is that he has way too high an opinion of himself and the type of woman he should be dating.  Bernadette just isn’t the fantasy woman he sees himself with.  He asks for some time to think about it.

Sheldon tries to inform the guys that he’s going to be interviewed on NPR the next day, but his archenemies Kripke spoils the surprise.  Back at home Penny can’t believe that Howard has put Bernadette up on a shelf the way that he has, and chastise him for it.

The next day during Sheldon’s interview Kripke feeds a line with helium in it into Sheldon’s office and his voice begins to get higher and higher throughout the interview.  Sheldon is humiliated, and it’s not helped when he finds out that both Leonard and Raj thought it was pretty funny.  Leonard tries to cheer him up and encourage him to get revenge by playing his own practical joke on Kripke.

Howard is in the tub along with a fantasy version of Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica.  The fantasy tells him that it’s sad that he would rather sit in the tub alone and play with himself instead of being with a real woman.  Howard heads to The Cheesecake Factory to search for Bernadette.  When he finds her he drops to one knee and asks her to marry him.  She thinks he is crazy, and walks off.

Sheldon has devised the perfect revenge on Kripke.  He’s found the perfect mix of chemicals that when combined form a gooey foam.  He’s planted them in the ceiling above Kripke’s office that will be set off when he enters the room.  The problem is that Kripke enters with the university president and the board of directors.  They are all covered and a computer image of Sheldon comes on in the office telling everyone present that Sheldon was responsible with Leonard and Raj’s help.

Never one to give up Howard get’s behind the piano at The Cheesecake Factory and sings a song he’s written for Bernadette.  While Penny is disgusted, Bernadette finds it to be the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for her.

Thoughts and Observations:

• I love that Sheldon things Howard is inferior since he only has a Masters from MIT.
• Speaking of MIT, do you think that Howard’s mom when with him while he was at MIT?  Do you think she relocates with him everywhere?
• Do you think Jim Parson’s had the help of actual helium or dd he just make his voice go that high?  Either way it was very funny.
• Howard and Katee Sackhoff’s conversation in the tub was classic.  Katee: “Thanks, Howard. Always nice to be part of your masturbatory fantasies.”  Wolowitz: “Come on, Katee. Don’t make it sound so cheap.”  Katee: “I’m sorry. Fiddling with yourself in the bathtub is a real class act:”
• “My mother is very excited. She’s convening her Bible study group to listen in and then pray for my soul.” – Sheldon on his NPR interview.
• Leonard to Wolowitz: “You’d have a better shot with the three-breasted Martian hooker from Total Recall.”  Wolowitz’s response “That movie was like 20 years ago. Imagine how saggy those things would be.”
• Melissa Rauch who I’ve only seen on those I Love The… VH-1 Specials and Best Week Ever is great.  I always thought she was hilarious, and she sure can fill out those uniforms from The Cheescake Factory.
• Not much Penny in this episode, and that’s not always a bad thing.  I like Penny, but it’s nice to see it be about the guys again.

Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who has painted cityscapes in intricate detail after only a single helicopter tour.

‘I draw from memory, buildings and cities mostly. I can look at something for a few minutes, take it in, then go somewhere else and put it on paper. The lines, the shapes, and angles and arcs. I can go back in my mind and draw a scene I saw years ago – like the Chicago skyline in 1991, or what I saw during a carriage ride in Central Park yesterday.’

The recall of this autistic man is just staggering for those of us with average memories. Watch him draw Rome from memory:

I have 3 papers to write tonight so to express my anger here is every death scene from “Total Recall”

<3

Dear Hollywood, please let Paul Verhoeven make another American action film:

Pretty juvenile but hey, it cheered me up. As the man said ‘It’s as if Philip K Dick’s words flew right of the page and came to life in front of me…..’

Show me a better combat movie made in the last decade and I’ll enlist tomorrow…

Kill Them All!

sogar die goldfische sind dabei.

I was thinking about film today, as I do pretty often, wondering what I’d pick if I tried to come up with a combo list of slightly strange sci-fi movies including some post apocalyptic stuff.  Films I liked.  Films that had an impact on me… couldn’t forget scenes from them, made me think a bit… that sort of thing.  This is what I came up with…. in no particular order.

2001: A Space Odyssey (68)

2010 (84)

A Boy and his Dog (75)

A Scanner Darkly (06)

Bicentennial Man (99)

Blade Runner (82)

Brave New World (80)

Capricorn One (77)

Cherry 2000 (87)

Damnation Alley (77)

Dark City (98)

Demolition Man (93)

Dreamscape (84)

Escape from New York (81)

Gattaca (97)

Handmaid’s Tale (90)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)

Jacob’s Ladder (90)

Liquid Sky (82)

Logan’s Run (76)

Mad Max Movies (79-85)

Matrix Trilogy (99-03)

Metropolis (27)

Minority Report (02)

Mission to Mars (00)

Omega Man (71)

On The Beach (59)

Planet of the Apes Films (68-73)

Quatermass and the Pit (68)

Scanners (81)

Red Planet (00)

Silent Running (72)

Soylent Green (73)

Stargate (94)

Tank Girl (95)

The Running Man (87)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (51)

The Island (05)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (77)

The Andromeda Strain (71)

The Time Machine (60)

They Live (88)

The Thing (82)

V for Vendetta (05)

Total Recall (90)

Videodrome (83)

The Warriors (79)

Waterworld (95)

Westworld (73)

Zardoz (74)

David Pogue of the New York Times has an interesting blog post about reQall that includes a great video explaining what you get out of it.

I am currently reading Total Recall, by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmel on their ongoing work in the field of life-long “e-Memory”. They mention Evernote and reQall as current, interesting and cloud based e-Memory applications and as a long-time Evernote-user, I simply had to try reQall…

Reposted from Total Recall book blog

Pre-Production is when the filmmakers and Producers have been green lit to make a film and are finishing the script, gathering funds, casting and hiring. There is a good chance the film will be made at this point, though until it’s in post-production, there is never any guarantee. And sometimes there’s no guarantee it will be released even when it’s completely finished.

But, on IMDB Pro, here are some of the films listed as in Pre-Production:

Saw 7 - In 3D! (I’m not kidding.)

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2

Wanted 2

Lethal Weapon 5

Kung Fu Panda 2

Rambo 5: The Savage Hunt

Scream 4 (Do you see a theme with sequels? There are plenty more coming.)

The Three Stooges - with Benicio Del Toro as Moe and Paul Giamatti as Larry. Sean Penn was originally Larry, but dropped out. I loved the Three Stooges growing up, but I’m shocked at the quality of actors they are getting. This may actually be pretty good.

Total Recall – This is still in the script phase. The original film with Arnold Schwarzenegger is super cool. They better not cast someone like Vin Diesel in the lead role.

Red Sonja - Rose McGowen starts, but her boyfriend Robert Rodriguez is not directing, only producing this film. I’m a Rodriguez fan, but with him not at the helm, I’m uncertain about this film. I’m not a big McGowen fan.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Sam Worthington from Terminator is Captain Nemo. There’s potential here.

My Fair Lady - A remake to star Kiera Knightley as Eliza Dolittle. She looks the part (Audrey Hepburn played the part in the original film, though she didn’t sing.) Can Kiera sing? Guess we’ll see. Wonder who will play Professor Higgins? An interesting note: Emma Thompson is writing the screenplay.

Spring Awakening - A very successful new musical. I’m very curious to see who will be cast. The girl from Glee was in the original Broadway production. Maybe she has a shot.

Mary the Mother of Christ - with Al Pacino as Herod. Oh, the jokes, the jokes…

The Warriors – A remake Benny is super excited about. No news on casting yet. Probably will be mostly unknowns.

Hamlet - Another one? This one with Emile Hirsch. The Speed Racer guy? He better have the acting chops for this or it could be a disaster. I am always interested in who will be Ophelia. Kate Winslet rocked it in Kenneth Branagh’s version and the best part of the Mel Gibson one was Helena Bonham Carter’s Ophelia.

Jack and Jill - with Adam Sandler playing both parts. Was Jim Carrey busy?

Excalibur - Bryan Singer is doing this film. Love him. The Usual Suspects is an all time favorite of mine and I love the King Arthur mythology. However, the original Excalibur film is awesome, so I’m not sure what Singer can bring to the story. No casting news yet. I wonder if they will remake Camelot the musical too?

Battlestar Galactica- I’m a huge fan of this series and I’d love to see a film version. Right now Bryan Singer is also slated to direct this, though it looks like it’s a long way from being a done deal.

Warcraft - Directed by Sam Raimi, this could be fun.

Gordon Bell and I published an article in the Library Journal 9/15/2009

The rise of digital records of daily life means unmatched access to our pasts, presenting both challenge and opportunity to libraries

When Stanford University obtained the Buckminster Fuller archive, it heralded it as “one of the most extensive known personal archives in existence.” Taking up 2000 linear feet of shelf space, including hundreds of thousands of pages and over 4000 hours of audio/video, Fuller’s collection does indeed sound impressive. But Fuller, considered an eccentric for leaving behind such an enormous corpus, will be put to shame by the vast repository of electronic memories (e-memories) created by the average Joe of the next generation. And these e-memory archives will take up a lot less shelf space.

For many people, getting started with Total Recall means taking charge of their personal health information. Here are a few options for you to check out:

• Google Health lets your store your health data online. You can import data from some partner hospitals and pharmacies.
• Microsoft HealthVault also lets you store your health data online. A number of devices can upload data to your account. Some third party sites and applications use HealthVault for storage.
• Minerva Health Manager stores your health records on your PC, and also on a USB stick to share with a hospital, new doctor, etc.
• Polka’s My Health has a web-based interface that synchronizes with SmartPhones

From Total Recall blog