macCompanion June 2006 reviews

• EyeTV EZ
  When Apple released its Front Row software solution, the most notable omission was the ability to watch and record television. If they do add that capability (which I predict they won't) they will have a long ways to go to catch up with Elgato, who has combined Terratec's USB 2.0 TV receiver hardware with their award-winning software to create the EyeTV EZ, a low-cost, simple, and fun way to watch and record TV on your Mac.
  
  
• BT500 Rechargeable Bluetooth Mouse
  RadTech's original BT500 Bluetooth mouse was the best wireless mouse for mobile Mac users and the newest model improves on that excellence by adding battery recharging capability.

Unfortunately, I had to send both of these review units back to the manufacturer.

Urinetown The Musical photos

I've posted a gallery page of photos from Urinetown The Musical. These were taken on multiple days during the week of dress rehearsals (you'll probably notice varying degrees of set completion throughout). As with last time I sized the images to 640x480 pixels instead of the default 800x600 to decrease download time. There are 136 in total, so you'll kind of get to watch the whole show if you click the 'View Slideshow' image. And if you think that's a lot of photos, consider that I pared it down from a field of more than 470 797.

http://homepage.mac.com/ehargreaves/PhotoAlbum47.html

Delta College stages funny, fast-paced trip to 'Urinetown'

Far from reinventing the genre, "Urinetown" depicts the death of the musical as a progressive and relevant art form. Along the way, though, San Joaquin Delta College's current production invites audiences to a clever, funny and wickedly virtuosic funeral.

Neutrality of the Net

When, seventeen years ago, I designed the Web, I did not have to ask anyone's permission. The new application rolled out over the existing Internet without modifying it. I tried then, and many people still work very hard still, to make the Web technology, in turn, a universal, neutral, platform. It must not discriminate against particular hardware, software, underlying network, language, culture, disability, or against particular types of data.

The creator of the World Wide Web speaks out regarding Net Neutrality. If you don't know what it is, try this Google News search. One notable link from that search is McCurry Sells Out to AT&T.

'Nightmare' awakens for 3-D release

Sally will drop nightshade into Dr. Finkelstein's tea in 3-D come Halloween, when Walt Disney Pictures releases a digitally remastered version of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

'Urine' for something

At first glance, the show appears all silliness and satire. Set in a world where people must pay to use the bathroom, the musical features arch characters, star-crossed lovers right out of "Romeo and Juliet" and a score that goes out of its way to spoof such landmark musicals as "Sweeney Todd," "Chicago" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Even the title carries a pun.

As with his preview article for Over the River and Through the Woods, I disagree with most of what Brian McCoy presents as fact (the excerpted paragraph above is one of the few parts written I consider accurate). And I'm not completely sure why all the photos on the Record's web site are so washed out. But if you click on the image to enlarge it and squint real hard, you can see me in the upper left corner (some of my fellow actors are actually behind the sign).

Delta College Press Release

Inflation gets the best of us. The cost of everything from postage stamps, electricity and gas continues to rise. We gripe, groan and moan as we lament how much cheaper everything was “in the good old days.” Now, contemplate how you would feel if you had to pay to use the toilet and the costs kept going up? What if you were a low-income citizen who scratched out a living day by day? Would you continue to gripe and groan or take a stand? This is the premise of URINETOWN.

Transcript of Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner
via Daily Kos

Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

This also includes a transcript of his "audition tape" when he applied to be the new press secretary.

Fake or Foto?

Take a look at the ten images. Some of them are photographs of real objects or scenes, others are created by computer graphics artists. Test your ability to tell which among the array of images are real, and which are CG.

I got 7 out of 10 correct, which is an improvement over my score on the original Fake or Foto.

macCompanion May 2006 reviews

• Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual
  The titles in the Missing Manuals series from Pogue Press are each billed as 'the book that should have been in the box.' But if that were the case with Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual, the box would weigh an additional three pounds. At more than 900 pages long, it is not a quick read.

Lego® Star Wars™ The Videogame review

Head on over to Raybob Industries Inc. to read my review of Lego® Star Wars™ The Videogame. The review is based on the Nintendo GameCube edition of the game, which was released last October. I'm pretty certain it is all applicable for the XBox, PlayStation 2, PC, and Mac(!) versions. It does not apply to the Game Boy Advance edition, however.

A PC demo and Mac demo are available for download but I don't think having two players on a computer keyboard is particularly fun.

And now you know what I did during Spring Break.