June 2008

First off, to my old friend John Champion (who told me last week he had not even seen the third series) – DON’T READ THIS.

OK, for everyone else, this page has almost a scene-by-scene preview of Saturday’s episode.

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This set of blueprints (yes, I know, blueprints for fictional equipment and spaceships are uber-geeky but hey, I gotta be me) will be coming out this fall. I’m on the waiting list.

Sigh.

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Many nuWho fans have already seen this, but I showed it to my wife the other day (who I think is even more obsessed with Doctor Who than I am) and thought it would be appropriate to embed here to promote it to anyone who has not caught it. It’s a sketch from UK’s version of Comedy Relief (Red Nose Day) featuring Catherine Tate and a certain actor you may recognize… Quite funny.

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I’m thinking that Donna is going to be revealed as something other than a “temp” that the Doctor just happened to meet twice (the end of this last week’s episode certainly laid the groundwork/telegraphed such a reveal). So here’s who (what?) I think Donna is…

She’s The Key to Time.

Huh, you may say? What’s that? Well, WAYYYY back when Tom Baker was playing the Doctor an entire series of episodes were structured around the Doctor’s quest/search for the Key to Time, an artifact that allowed the owner to have complete power over time and space. The last of the six pieces was revealed to be a human female. In order to prevent the power from landing in the wrong hands the Doctor threw the pieces across time and space… Lots of detail on this story arc is here.

Knowing how much the producers of nuWho love to have a near-apocalypse scenario be the challenge the Doctor has to overcome at the end of each series (and how often they have pushed a big ol’ “reset” button to save the universe) it would not surprise me to see them pulling the Key to Time back into the show’s “timeline.” This will mean, in all probability, that Donna will either A) die or B) forget everything after she “fixes” things… I wager B.

As to “who dies” in the finale… I’m thinking it’ll be Captain Jack, just to shock everyone (because he “can’t die”) and because they plan on making Torchwood more “family friendly” next year…

Anyway, we’ll find out in two weeks… 

UPDATE: I was completely wrong. Ain’t the first time, and it’s won’t be the last.

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EW published a list of the “New Classics” – the top 100 movies from the last 25 years – and the editors’ selections were… well, really bad. Here’s their top 10: 

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)

2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)

3. Titanic (1997)

4. Blue Velvet (1986)

5. Toy Story (1995)

6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

9. Die Hard (1988)

10. Moulin Rouge (2001)

Pulp Fiction is overrated, as is Moulin Rouge (and I like both). The Lord of the Rings trilogy are THREE SEPARATE  films, you can’t fairly lump them together as one. And Titanic has aged about as well as the actual ship.

And The Shawshank Redemption and Jurassic Park is not even on the list… COME ON.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s MY top 25 list…

1. The Shawshank Redemption (a near perfect film)

2. Die Hard (best action movie ever made)

3. GoodFellas (almost as good as The Godfather)

4. Toy Story (groundbreaking)

5. Finding Nemo (best Pixar movie so far)

6. Pulp Fiction (seminal, but overrated)

7. Fellowship of the Ring (best of the three films)

8. Blue Velvet (haunting, David Lynch’ best film)

9. The Matrix (great twists, visuals, and mythic)

10. Fargo (best true-crime movie ever)

11. Aliens (2nd best action movie ever)

12.  Boogie Nights (“You got the touch!”)

13. Terminator 2 (3rd best action movie ever)

14. Back to the Future (a true modern classic)

15. Ghostbusters (best horror/comedy ever)

16. Spider-Man 2 (best super-hero movie ever)

17. The Incredibles (a virtual tie with 16)

18. Silence of the Lambs (best horror film since Hitchcock… and since)

19. Memento (best edited/constructed/plotted film)

20. Fight Club (best twist/message)

21. This is Spinal Tap (another classic comedy)

22. Grave of the Fireflies (most depressing movie ever)

23. Edward Scissorhands (magical)

24. L.A. Confidential (2nd best true-crime movie ever)

25. Saving Private Ryan (best movie about WWII, ever)

I’d put Jurassic Park, Spirited Away, The Usual Suspects, and Se7en somewhere in the 26 to 35s…

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By Michael Arrington

Nika Smith wrote a post on the Google blog today showing the evolution of Google chat before it launched in early 2006. Google does extensive testing of new products using employees as guinea pigs (see our post on the pre-launch evolution of Gmail) as well as outsiders brought in to test software and interfaces in their usability lab.

I had a chance to see the lab a few weeks ago. It’s a small room with a large flat screen monitor, along with a desk and computer. It also has a number of discrete cameras (and a microphone) that keep an eye on the user herself as well as the screen. Around the corner is a second room where Google employees can watch people interact with the software real time. The room has a couch and a chair along with two screens and speakers to monitor the lab. See the image to the right.

The Gmail Labs team took us through some of the pre-launch iterations of Gmail chat that were tested in the lab. Most of these weren’t included in the Google post, so I’ve added them below. All of these were eventually abandoned as the team moved towards the much more low profile chat window at the bottom right of the Gmail screen we see today.

[Editor's note: Nothing so far on why gmail continues to suffer from serious security issues. But maybe that's seen as a security issue and not a usability issue?

Try telling that to someone who left their gmail account running on one computer, then logged on to the same gmail account on a different computer with no idea their private email was on show to all the world on the first one. Any Googletastic insights into why this bizarre oversight continues to exist welcome - editor@usabilitynews.com.]

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