Fatbob

Typically, when a show fails to make it past the pilot stage, it just quietly disappears. The episode is never shown to the public, and the cast and crew stop mentioning it in interviews, and it’s basically like the whole thing never happened at all.

Still, a lot of work has already gone into the show by that point, so on the occasion that a failed pilot makes it out, the results can be interesting to see. Last year, Sarah Silverman taped Susan 313, a semi-autobiographical half-hour sitcom about a ’90s rock star coming out of a ten-year relationship. She’s now posted the pilot in its entirety online, and you can watch it after the jump.

Ken Kwapis (the U.S. Office) directed the episode from a script Silverman wrote with Dan Sterling and Jon Schroeder. Starring alongside Silverman are Tig Notaro, Harris Wittels, Ken Leung as Susan’s neighbors and June Diane Raphael as an old friend who also lives in her building. Jeff Goldblum has a cameo as her ex.

Susan 313 was intended to air in the 2012-2013 season, but never got picked up by NBC. Silverman admits right in the intro that NBC “probably did the right thing” by passing on the show, even though she’s obviously pretty proud of it — and with good reason. The episode is funny and inventive, with loads of great talent. It’s not perfect, but then most shows (and comedies in particular) tend to improve as the first season progresses.

It’s also quite a bit more interesting than the comedies NBC did greenlight this year, including Sean Saves the World, The Michael J. Fox Show, and the already cancelled Welcome to the Family. Of course, looking at that lineup also makes it obvious why the Peacock didn’t want it. Susan 313 is funny, but it would’ve stuck out like a sore thumb in that lineup. It’s just too bad Fox or a cable network couldn’t pick it up instead.

What do you think?

• ‘Community’ Will Return in January
• LOL: Jimmy Fallon Enters Black Market Joke Trade in ‘Joking Bad’
• ‘Ass Backwards’ Trailer: The New Romy and Michelle?
• ‘Outbreak’ to Become NBC TV Pilot
• TV Bits: ‘Community’, ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Houdini’, ‘El Mariachi’
• See Seth Rogen, Adam Scott, and More Audition for ‘The Office’ in 2003

(YouTube link)

Edmond Hawkins has created a series centered on the character of Joe Hawkins, a visual effects artist for Breaking Bad. "Joe" has a video series called Fixing Breaking Bad in which he "improves" the show by adding more special effects, or otherwise changing it for the weirder. If only Vince Gilligan had listened to his advice when the series was on TV! There are already six full episodes, plus extras as he thinks of them. Yes, they do contain spoilers if you plan to watch the series for the first time in the future. This is episode five, which deals with a plot hole many have already discussed. You can find the rest of the series at Hawkins' YouTube page. -via Boing Boing

Turning a greenhouse gas into stone is a climate change technofix suggested for Earth. Now it seems it may have dramatically cooled Mars 3 billion years ago

Volgarr the Viking is a hardcore-focused throwback to classic 2D action titles of the past. Released last month, it has already pleased many gamers looking for a challenge. After a successful Kickstarter and getting picked up by Adult Swim Games, the developers at Crazy Viking Studios were keen to get the game into the hands of players. Unfortunately, it seems a high number of them have opted to acquire Volgarr through piracy.

Recently, the developers took to Twitter to comment on their current situation and how big of a bite piracy has taken out of their sales. "About 4% of the people playing Volgarr paid for it. That's why those that purchased it are super important to us, you keep the dream alive!"

The guys at Crazy Viking Studios took more time answering questions on Twitter, adding that the download numbers on torrent sites far exceed their actual sales. While the developers seem confident that the game will continue to sell, they're relying on fans and other like-minded gamers to do their part. Though piracy is a very common issue for games, it's especially troubling to see a successful Kickstarter title (funded by fans) suffer as a result.

Volgarr the Viking is available now on the developer's official web site, on GOG.com free of DRM, and also on Steam.

Those unwilling to spend big bucks on a laptop for their kids might consider a low-cost Chromebook as an option, but could be a bit hesitant due to the OS's lack of parental controls. That could all change however, thanks to a new feature the Chrome team is rolling out this week to its beta channel. ...

'Knightmare' traced to forgotten server upgrade, shoddy software and risk management

On August 1st, 2012, high-frequency equities trader Knight Capital lost $US462 million after automated trading systems went haywire, a mess that has now been traced to a mistake by a single sysadmin.…

Remember back in July when we brought you footage of a Japanese hobbyist's robot gymnast nailing a quadruple backflip? That was cool. But this is even cooler

Our robot gymnast returns in a new video uploaded to YouTube this week — but this time, it has an even more jaw-dropping trick

As you'll see in the video, above, the robot gymnast hits a nearly perfect triple backflip. But that's after it nails a release, momentarily letting go of its makeshift high bar, only to grab back on, and regain momentum

In conclusion: Humans had a good run. Get a sneak peek at our new sporting overlords; then let us know what you think in the comments Read more...

More about Robots, Entertainment, and Sports

Since their introduction in 1978, Lego's Minifigs have, um, reproduced at a rapid rate. In fact, the toymaker has been making the little fellas at such a pace that they'll outnumber humans by 2019.

Read more...

Super Mario 3D World looks better every time I see it, mostly due to the sheer variety of the level designs shown off in each new trailer. This new extended spot gives us quite a bit of new info, including enemy designs, and even a few boss fights.

I'm really looking forward to seeing if the character specific abilities, mountable creatures, and multiplayer aspects keep things fresh. It's just a shame that it has to launch in the incredibly crowded "end of November" spot.

As a side note, Nintendo Life has uncovered that the game will only take up 1702MB digitally. Not bad!

NASA has smashed its record for transmitting data to and from the moon. Now, it boasts a frankly amazing 622Mbps transfer speed to the rock that circles our little planet.

Read more...

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise; highlighting a character's crotch on-screen at the movies is hi-larious, and always will be. But getting caught with a laser pointer in your hand and tossed out of the theater isn't. So thankfully red lasers have been around for decades, and have been miniaturized to the point where they can hide inside your smartphone's headphone jack.

Read more...

With free two-day shipping on millions of items, Netflix-style video streaming, and a library of Kindle books that you can borrow for free, Amazon Prime is a no-brainer for anyone who shops online. Today, a policy change for non-Prime customers makes a membership more valuable than ever.

Read more...

Neatoramanauts, rejoice! This week's collaboration with Conceptis Puzzles brings us Classic Hashi Light, a puzzle in which you get to connect bridges between islands.

The object is to connect all islands according to the number of bridges so that there are no more than two bridges in the same direction and there is a continuous path connecting all islands together. Bridges can only be vertical or horizontal and are not allowed to cross islands or other bridges. There is only one unique solution for each puzzle. There is only one unique solution for each puzzle.

Here's how to play: Point mouse on an island, move arrow in the direction of the bridge you want to connect and click when only one bridge area remains highlighted. First click connects one bridge, second click connects a second bridges and the third click removes all bridges.

So go ahead and check it out! Then visit Conceptis Puzzles for more neat puzzles.

(219): I sang Sweet Caroline with a homeless man and made him 25 bucks. Redbull vodka gives you wings!

via

 

colinneagle writes "I installed Ubuntu Touch "1.0" on my first-generation Nexus 7 tablet and have been using it as my main tablet system for the last four days. Here's how it went. First off, the installation was surprisingly painless. I followed the official instructions and didn't encounter a single problem. That being said, the installation is really geared toward software developers, power users or people already comfortable on a Linux command line. If you're not in one of those categories, I recommend holding off for the time being. Once installed, Ubuntu Touch booted up rather quickly — in only just a few seconds (a fair bit faster than Android 4.x on the same tablet). And, immediately, I was presented with a short tutorial that appears the first time the system is booted, which, I might add, has got to be one of the slickest, least annoying tutorials I've seen. But... there were problems. The battery life was, to put it mildly, terrible. Performance has been mixed, and the OS was prone to what I call 'The Pulsating Seizure Feature' a few dozen times over the weekend. In a nutshell: launching apps (and, occasionally, moving between apps) can cause the device to freeze and begin flashing the screen rapidly."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

via

 

The keyboard might not be the greatest input device when you're writing in a foreign language that uses special characters. Now you can handwrite those characters in Gmail and Google Docs.

Read more...

Nicolas Winding Refn is off Logan’s Run, but he does have the television revamp of Barbarella to work on. As far as features go, his next project may well be a Tokyo-set film that has been called The Avenging Silence, and which he has likened (in some manner — don’t take this too seriously, it turns out) to a prequel to Valhalla Rising. But details on that one are scarce.

In the meantime, there’s also the development of the ”all-female horror film” I Walk With the Dead, which Refn has been toying with for years, and which has been rumored to star Carey Mulligan. (Who also appeared in Refn’s breakout film Drive.)

Now young UK playwright Polly Stenham is going to be the voice of the film; while the director normally writes his own scripts, in this case he’s turning to an outside source to script. Why? Perhaps because, as he’s said in the past, he’s not great at writing female characters, and this film is meant to feature nothing but.

Stenham tells the London Evening Standard,

He’s got a lot of stick for doing films some people think are violently misogynistic. So he approached me with the idea of doing something different.

We still don’t know much about the film, other than that Refn once said it would have “lots of sex” and be set in Miami. Mulligan was still part of the project a few months ago, but as it takes time to get through the full screenwriting process, anything could potentially happen. (It isn’t difficult to imagine that Mulligan is key to any potential financing plan, however, as the film was part of a two-film package with Gaumont that also financed Only God Forgives.)

 

 

• Nicolas Winding Refn Off Both Jekyll and The Dying of the Light
• Film Scores: Junkie XL Working On ‘Mad Max,’ Stream ‘Valhalla Rising’ Score, Preview ‘The Counselor’ Soundtrack
• Clips From ‘NWR’ Documentary Explain Making of Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Only God Forgives’
• ‘Only God Forgives’ International Trailer
• Nicolas Winding Refn Might Make Tokyo-Set ‘Valhalla Rising’ Sequel
• New ‘Only God Forgives’ Theatrical Trailer

It's no secret that dogs plus great photography and super slow motion have the power to mend the wounds of the world. Who doesn't want more of that? You do. We all do. Here.

Read more...

cold fjord writes "An article at DailyTech begins, 'While many people scoffed at or failed to recognized the significance of Microsoft Corp.'s talk of a "unified" development path for Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone, the real world ramifications of that approach are now becoming clear — and they're significant. A pre-order page from Dell for the Xbox One "accidentally" (and, it appears, officially) revealed that Windows 8.1 apps will run on the Xbox.'" A Microsoft spokesperson told AllThingsD, 'The suggestion that all Windows 8 apps run on Xbox One is not accurate," but they didn't deny that there would be some cross-compatibility. PCWorld's article has words of caution: "It would certainly be interesting if the full-blown Windows Store landed on Xbox One. But don't hold your breath for it to be there at the console's launch, no matter what Dell's words vaguely imply."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yesterday, Google announced Project Shield, a suite of free tools to help small websites stay online during DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. To accompany it, Google has also made available a live map of DDoS attacks which shows when and where they're happening.

Read more...

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since the release of the movie The Exorcist. The first horror film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, it scared the pants of a generation to watch an innocent young girl succumb to a demon possessing her body. There are plenty of things you probably don't know about the movie, like the extra who was found to be a murderer.

17. Paul Bateson, who appeared briefly in film as an X-ray technician, is a suspected serial killer in real life.

Bateson was an X-ray technician at NYU Medical Center and served as an extra on the film.

In 1979, Bateson was convicted in the murder of film critic Addison Verrill. Authorities believe that he was also responsible for “the bag murders” of six other men — whose mutilated and dismembered body parts washed up in black plastic bags along the Hudson River.

That's just one of 19 Fascinating Facts About The Exorcist you can learn at Buzzfeed. There's plenty more.

Tenda networking kit contains easily-cracked vuln, claims researcher

Security researchers say they have discovered a hidden backdoor in wireless routers from Chinese hardware manufacturer Tenda.…

If this was 2010, RIM launching BBM on Android and iOS would have been viewed as a nod to open communication and a platform-agnostic product strategy. If this was 2010, it would have been marked as a win for RIM and a sign that company is here to fight. If this was 2010, RIM might still have a chance.

But at the close of 2013, BBM launching on Android and iOS is a swan song for Research In Motion-turned BlackBerry. And the 5 million downloads are just a hint of what could have been.

BlackBerry finally launched BBM on Android and iOS today, leaning on a reservation system likely to prevent the issues that plagued the first launch. And just eight hours after launching, BlackBerry took to Twitter to proclaim 5 million users had already downloaded the app. As of writing, BBM is the top free download in the App Store. The demand is there, but the future is not.

BBM was once the king of messaging platforms. Hit Me Up On BBM. It was iMessage and ChatOn before either one existed. And even five years ago it seemed to work better than its modern day counterparts. It was RIM’s secret sauce and had the company been willing to share a few years back, things could have been different for the Canadian smartphone maker.

RIM’s decline was clear a few years ago, yet the company proceeded as business as usual. BBM could have been a type of Trojan horse, showing Android and iPhone users the strength of RIM’s platform. But the company took too long to launch the messaging app on competing platforms. BlackBerry is now seeking a corporate buyer. Canadian wireless companies are not carrying the latest BlackBerry. And it won’t be long until BBM will be just a footnote in the company’s storied and sad history.