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May 3, 2005

Brief movie review: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Kevin Dangoor

I’ve read the Hitchhiker’s Guide books at least a couple of times. Consequently, I didn’t like some of the script choices that they made when they moved the story to film. They excised a number of the funniest bits in exchange for some added visual bits that were not particularly entertaining or important to the story.

I did like the visuals, and I think the movie may have played better to people who weren’t as familiar with the Guide. (This notion was somewhat supported by one of my friends who saw it with me and was less familiar with the books.)

For my part, though, I give it a 5 out of 10. It’s mildly entertaining, but a far cry from what it could have been.

May 3, 2005

No need to subscribe here and at Blazing Things

by Kevin Dangoor

FYI for anyone who is already subscribed to my RSS feed here: there is no need for you to subscribe at Blazing Things. My posts to Blazing Things will also be posted here. The Blazing Things site will have the “official” word of Blazing Things, whereas Blue Sky On Mars will continue to be my place for personal commentary and technical discussion.

May 3, 2005

What’s with the Zesty News name?

by Kevin Dangoor

I figured that I’d start my articles about Zesty News off with a light, uncontroversial topic: where did the name come from?

The Zesty News name actually came to mind when the original idea did in mid-2003. I liked the sound of it, and it even has a nice, although generally food-related, definition: “marked by spirited enjoyment”. That’s the way keeping up with the goings on in the world should be.

So, you’d think that the story would end there. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t end there. When I started this new company, I was having a rough time coming up with a business name that had a .com address available. Anyone starting a business today will know what I’m talking about. It seems that almost every combination of words has been taken.

I ran through many whois queries and tried a number of Nameboy combinations. Nothing was striking me, until I finally hit upon Blazing Things. On January 1st, 2005, I registered blazingthings.com. It made sense to me at the time to have a tight branding connection between the product and the company. So, I registered blazingnews.com also, and that was the name that the software started out with.

Kirsten, the graphics designer I’m working with, was just getting going on logo concepts when POW! In March, Go Daddy introduced a service called News Blazer. Blazing News and News Blazer were just too close for comfort. Hence the decision to bring back the Zesty News name.

In fact, the biggest reason that I announced the Zesty News software before I had the alpha test ready to ship was to get the name out there. I would have thought that Blazing News was a safe name until News Blazer came along.