Stargate shows have always featured aliens, but they weren’t alien-ish for the most part. The story line of SG-1 and Atlantis of course supported the creative (and budget) decision, but SGU is different. This time our cast is exploring exploring the very deepest parts of space and so the aliens should be different. And different they are.

This is actually the very first pic of the show’s alleged antagonists. Previously all we got was a profile shot shown in the season 1.5 trailer, but this guy’s ugly mug is front and center on Stargate’s official MGM page advertising the upcoming half-season premiere this Friday. I can’t wait. The show might finally become a valid Stargate series. Now all they need to do is get rid of the damn communication stones, which is the show’s biggest cop-out. [MGM via GateWorld]

I wanted to tell you guys to watch this without seeing the description, but it’s difficult to do so. Better find someone nearby, tell them to close their eyes, and then open them when they think they’ve got it figured out. This piano-based voice synthesizer breaks down the morphemes of normal speech into components which can be built up using piano keys. Sounds crazy in theory of course, but actually seeing the keys playing themselves and a voice coming out of it makes me think the end times are coming.

Will this be the voice with which our robot antagonists will soothe future generations of cowed humans?

[via Reddit]

There is a fairly standard montage in the canon of bad 80s movies. It involves the protagonist(s) working hard to build/do/invent something to beat the stuck up and dismissive antagonists. See, for example, Summer Rental, a John Candy vehicle in which Candy and crew convert a seafood restaurant that was originally a boat back into a boat in order to win a big, rich boat race against snobs. I don’t quite recall why they needed to win the race, but that’s immaterial. In the end [SPOILER ALERT] they thumb their noses, triumphantly, at the crews of the other, more richly appointed boat. It’s the tale of the underdog – an important tale to be told in that dark decade – and it is applicable here.

This brings us to the HTC Hero, HTC’s first Android phone using their new Sense UI.

In one sense the Hero is “just another Android phone”; in another sense, it’s an entirely new direction for HTC and the platform.

The Hero is a great phone. It is on par – and ultimately better – than the Palm Pre and, some would say, the iPhone on many points. It also turns those lumbering Windows Mobile and Symbian into something that you will fondly remember from your youth, a set of dinosaur technologies now extinct.

Furthermore, we can easily extend the metaphor above to say that the Hero is John Candy lacquering the deck while Apple and Palm are the rich, stuck-up yacht club members laughing at the upstart. I’m here to tell you that these yacht club members should ignore this upstart at their peril.