📺 The worst TV sitcoms from the last ten years and more - This Geek in Review for 2021-12-17
By goz
Yes, Spider-Man: No Way Home opened last night, and yes, I saw it, but I don’t want to say anything until others get a chance to see it. It is a must see as early as possible movie though. I’m sure headlines will give away a ton of spoilers over the week, so if you want to be surprised, you better get to the theater ASAP.
Screen rant has their list of the ten worst TV sitcoms that premiered in the last 10 years and I’ve got to say, most of them aren’t that bad. Granted, I’ve only see a couple of episode of some of the shows, including the show in first place, Kevin Can Wait, but the fact that Rules of Engagement is on the list is a travesty. Sure, the last few seasons of the show went off the rails, but that happens to a majority of shows.
It’s disappoint to also see Mom on the list. That show is mostly about addiction and how a group of women work through their drug dependency and other addiction issues.
Masayuki Uemura, Creator Of The NES And SNES, Dies At Age 78
We lost Masayuki Uemura this past week. He was responsible for the creation of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES. These are two systems that I don’t have much experience with. By the time the NES was launched in the US I had moved to playing games on the computer. As for the SNES, I was a Genesis person, mostly because of the fantastic port of Super Street Fighter II.
The NES came in at a strange time. The videogame market had just crashed in the US, causing many to believe that videogames were a passing fad, much like pet rocks, mood rings, and Cabbage Patch Dolls. Then in 1985, Nintendo unleashed Super Mario Brothers which introduced the world to the most iconic videogame song ever released.
For a majority of the videogame playing public, the NES was unlike anything they had ever seen outside of high end computer games. Instead of the one button joystick, we had a two button control pad, which started all sorts of arguments on the correct way to hold the controller. The biggest innovations though were the automatic switch box and the ability to start the game from the controller. Both of these were introduced on the Atari 5200, but that machine was not flying off of the shelves.
Here’s to Masayuki Uemura and his wonderful creations!
Fun fact, Atari was such the juggernaut in the early to mid 80s that Nintendo approach Atari about selling the Famicon in the United States. Atari declined, which probably wasn’t the best decision. Sounds a lot like when Blockbuster had the option to buy Netflix and said no… Or Yahoo! buying Google…
Internet Travels
Geek
- Here’s What to Expect From the Firefly Reboot From Disney+ - I guess we’ll have to see if this is more 20th Century Fox or more Disney. I know I would like to see more of the ‘verse.
- The hand-cranked calculator invented by a Nazi concentration camp prisoner | Ars Technica
- Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop is canceled - The Verge
- A Painfully Honest Review of Netflix Cowboy Bebop - YouTube
- Star Wars: Eclipse is a new action-adventure game set in the High Republic era from Quantic Dream - The Verge - I watched the trailer, and now I want this game in movie form.
- Star Trek: Resurgence is a story-driven game from former Telltale devs coming in 2022 - The Verge
- Marvel and DC legend George Perez says he has less than a year to live - CNET
- First Sonic 2 film trailer improves on Sonic 1’s weird debut | Ars Technica - I probably should watch the first one sometime.
- AlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentary - YouTube - When you see a board game move described as beautiful, you know you’re witnessing something monumental.
- » Might and Magic The Digital Antiquarian
- Top Excel experts will battle it out in an esports-like competition this weekend | PCWorld - Finally, an esport I might have a chance in.
- WarGames | The Greatest Movie of All Time - I wouldn’t call it the greatest movie of all time, but boy is it good. Matthew Broderick was given a Galaga to practice on for the Galaga scenes.
- Michael Dorn, Actor-Director-Star Trek: The Next Generation-ENCORE - Storybeat with Steve Cuden
Retro
- The insane resurgence of vinyl records
- Helios-NG: An open source cluster OS • The Register
- Reverse-engineering a vintage power supply chip from die photos
- Cracking Open The Prince Floppy After The Purple Reign | Hackaday
- Analogue Pocket review: The greatest Game Boy ever made | Ars Technica - I want one, but I don’t want to spend $220. I think I’ll stick with my Pi4 powered PiBoy…
Technology
- The Popular Family Safety App Life360 Is Selling Precise Location Data on Its Tens of Millions of Users – The Markup - I know a multitude of parents that are using Life360, and I’m sure this article would not scare them as much as it should.
- Space sleeping bag to solve astronauts' squashed eyeball disorder - BBC News
- Workers Are Using ‘Mouse Movers’ So They Can Use the Bathroom in Peace
- Researchers trigger new exploit by renaming an iPhone and a Tesla - The Verge
- Toyota owners have to pay $8/mo to keep using their key fob for remote start | Ars Technica - This is plain wrong in so many ways.
Pop Culture
- Freddie Prinze Jr. Said He, Sarah Michelle Gellar Won’t Act Together - I’m only including this because I forgot they were married.
- ViacomCBS announces partnership with Wattpad to adapt originals - The Verge - I can’t wait to see the movie where Kirk and Spock finally hook up.
- The Wow’en Wilson Quiz
Pot Pourri
- 900 Better.com employees learn their jobs are being eliminated in a Zoom call
- Better.com CEO accuses laid off employees of working only two hours daily | Fortune
- The Better CEO who fired 900 people over a Zoom call is taking time off - The Verge
- Better.com execs resign after controversial mass zoom layoff
- Pearl Harbor attack forced Pan Am crew to fly around the world - The Washington Post
- Paul Harvey Archives - The Rest of the Story
- Woman, 48, lives — and dates — as her 22-year-old daughter at university | Ottawa Citizen - I’m sorry, how did a 48 year old pass as a 22 year old?!?
- Barcodes with interesting shapes - Wow, there really is a subreddit for everything.
- How we came to depend on the week despite its artificiality | Aeon Essays
- Students Don’t Read Syllabi