Apple releases 10.4.8

If you are using an Intel-based Mac, note that after installing the delta version, the computer will restart twice.

For the second time in a week I was able to write up this post on The Apple Blog before I saw it anywhere else on the Mac web. My Software Update schedule must fall at just the right time.

Apple releases iTunes 7.0.1 update

According to Apple, the 25.7MB download “addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more.”

It's not often that I get wind of Apple news quick enough to post it to theappleblog.com before every other site, but today was an exception.

Noah & Eddie's Podcast premieres

Now online is Noah and my first attempt at a podcast: The Lame Show

Episode 1: It's Showtime

Noah first explains the choices for high speed Internet in Mexico. Then he and Eddie discuss all of Apple's announcements regarding new iPods, iTunes, downloadable movies and the device code-named iTV.

There are plenty of diversions involving lanyards, door sizes and TiVo.

Picks of the week include Michael Stipe & Friends' "In the Sun" and Coverville. And Noah nominates a product name to the Lame List.

Now you can get coasters, mugs, t-shirts, hoodies and more ... all branded with the new macCompanion logo I designed.

macCompanion Gear

I've gotten another hint published on macosxhints.com:

How to drag-scroll oversize images in Preview

Here's my first long post at The Apple Blog:

Why I will (probably) not renew my .Mac account

When .Mac was first announced at the July 2002 Macworld Expo in New York (remember those?) it held the rare distinction of being one of the few Steve Jobs keynote announcements to draw silence instead of applause. Of course, why should anyone applaud when they’ve just been told that something they were getting for free would now cost $100 per year? But when even the most faithful Mac users (i.e. the ones who waited for hours outside the building to get into the keynote) aren’t excited, then you’ve got problems.

I've gotten another hint published at macosxhints.com:

View TiVo Series2 Now Playing lists in Safari

Fox got bigger hit, but WB happy with Singer
The Hollywood Reporter

"Superman Returns will be profitable for us," says Warner Bros. production president Jeff Robinov. "We would have liked it to have made more money, but it reintroduced the character in a great way and was a good launching pad for the next picture. We believe in Bryan and the franchise. Clearly, this was the most emotional and realistic superhero movie ever made."

2006 Elly Nominees Announced

The Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance has announced the 2006 Elly Award nominees (PDF). San Joaquin Delta College's Dark of the Moon received a nomination in every one of the Drama categories:

• Costume Design - Beverly Norcross
• Direction - Harvey T. Jordan
• Leading Actor - Brian Peccia
• Leading Actress - Megan Devencenzi
• Lighting Design - John White
• Overall Production
• Set Design - John White
• Supporting Actor - Chris Hayhurst
• Supporting Actress -
  • Joanna Bernazzani
  • Sue Barnes

Urinetown didn't get any Leading Acting nominations, but it got quite a few in the Musical categories:

• Choreography - Valerie Gnassounou
• Direction - John White
• Lighting Design - Catherine Frye and John White
• Musical Direction - Scott Bowen
• Overall Production
• Set Design - Christina Martinez
• Supporting Actor - Parker Cushing
• Supporting Actress - Brittney Monroe

I often don't understand what qualifies a role as leading or supporting, since I considered Brittney's performance as Little Sally a leading one. At last year's Awards Ceremony, songs were performed from each of the musicals nominated for Overall Production.

If they do that for this year's, I'm curious what song will be chosen, since many of them are large group numbers.

RiffTrax

Do you feel that some of the movies coming out of Hollywood are just, well, missing something? At RiffTrax, you can download Mike's running commentaries and listen to them along with your favorite, and not so favorite DVDs. It's like watching a movie with your funniest friend.

And your funniest friend is Mike Nelson, head writer and (second) star of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Just so that I can keep up my streak of posting once per day in August, here are links to my latest posts on The Apple Blog. Check out the comments and help drive that traffic!

3. ‘The Business’ misleads on ‘iPod music phone’
4. Apple could allow video downloads to be burned to DVD

Terrorism scare doesn't seem to deter S.J. travelers

"It seems like a bit of an inconvenience at first, but the real inconvenience is if you are not safe," said Eddie Hargreaves, a Stockton resident flying from Sacramento to Portland today.

After my national debut in Many Straight Guys Say 'No Thanks' to 'Brokeback Mountain' I'm back on the local scene thanks to my connections as the husband of a Record employee.

I only fly about once or twice a year, but it always seems to fall right after some foiled attack means the airport has to implement stricter security measures.

iPod music phone now on the way from Apple

What does a headline like that tell you? If you saw it in a newspaper or on the ticker of a cable news channel, what would else could you think but that it was confirmed there will be an iPod music phone?

And what if you only got to see the first paragraph of that story and it was this:

After months of speculation, Apple Computers has confirmed it is planning to produce an iPod music phone.

Wow! Apple has confirmed it?! Let's see this confirmation!

Steve Jobs, chief executive of the iPods-to-Macintosh computers giant, dropped a hint that a new type of iPod music player was on the way when unveiling Apple’s financial results last week.

Wait? It's not confirmation? It's just a hint?

"The iPod continues to earn a US market share of over 75% and we are extremely excited about future iPod products in the pipeline,” he said.

That's the hint? I did not see the words 'phone' or 'now on the way' anywhere. Jobs says Apple is excited about future products in the pipeline at every single financial results recap.

Later, Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, appeared to confirm this: “We don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is [the best music player]. But over time, that is likely to change, and we are not sitting around doing nothing."

Peter confirmed what? The only thing he confirmed is that Apple is not sitting around doing nothing. Duh.

And the final paragraph stretches this report beyond belief:

Apple faces major challenges as competitors produce cheaper products forcing the US firm to diversify further. Mobile phonemaker Motorola has already launched a phone, the ROKR, designed to play songs stored on Apple’s iTunes software.

Anyone that didn't know better would conclude that Motorola was one of those competitors providing major challenges to Apple, when, of course, the ROKR was developed in conjunction with Apple and plays iTunes songs with Apple's permission.

So, to recap, no one at Apple, especially Steve Jobs, said anything about an iPod music phone, and certainly no one said it was "now on the way." But obviously they couldn't run this headline: Apple not sitting around doing nothing

Movie transfers to DVDs to become easier

Online merchants, like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store, could start to allow video downloads to be transferred onto DVDs.

This needs to happen if they want me to buy videos from the iTunes Music Store. I've downloaded a few free shows and never watched them because they can only be watched on the computer. Hooking up the computer to the TV is not something I like to do on a daily basis.

The Apple Blog

I'm doing some writing, er, excuse me, blogging, for The Apple Blog. So you lucky few who read this blog can now read blog posts by me on another blog that will be linked to from this blog. Blog blog blog.

1. Apple removes mention of G3s from Leopard pages
2. Microsoft releases Office 2004 security update

Is Steve Jobs the new power behind-the-throne at the Magic Kingdom?

As Hollywood still struggles to get a handle on what just happened at Disney Studios, Jim Hill suggests that it's time to start paying attention to all those phone calls and e-mails that Bob Iger gets from Steve Jobs.

Oni to publish Stephen Colbert's TEK JANSEN & ALPHA SQUAD 7 comics

Oni Press, in cooperation with The Colbert Report and Comedy Central, will be publishing a series of comics based off the unpublished sci-fi masterpiece Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure.

There's not a lot of information available yet, but anything with Tek Jansen promises to be hilarious.

Wow, a second hint of mine has been published at macosxhints.com! Rate it how you please.

Easily send Safari web links from iChat

Vote for The Muppet Show Season 2 DVD cover art

Muppets.com is asking fans to help choose the artwork for the next Muppet Show season set. The cover will feature Miss Piggy, but which of the three covers will it be? Vote now at Muppets.com and let your voice be heard.

The Muppets.com web site is very bandwidth-intensive, so if you've got a slow Internet connection, you can go straight to the poll here. And note the fine print: "BVHE reserves the right to make changes to the final packaging."

Behind the Magic

The Oakland Museum of California is the current home of the touring exhibition Behind the Magic – 50 Years of Disneyland.

Go behind the scenes to see how Walt Disney and his Imagineers envisioned, created, and brought Disneyland to life. This touring exhibition includes hundreds of images and artifacts, including original artwork, construction drawings, architectural models, archival videos, promotional materials, and historic souvenirs—as well as original vehicles from Peter Pan’s Flight and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Meet Disney’s first human Audio-Animatronics figure, Abraham Lincoln!

One of its neat features is to have your picture taken on Peter Pan’s Flight, the original vehicle from Fantasyland. And it only cost $1!

With the Best Hints contest as an incentive, I was able to successfully get my first hint published on macosxhints.com. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but it's hard finding anything that hasn't already been published there.

Download files in NetNewsWire without launching browser

'Aquaman' Going Swimmingly on iTunes
E! Online News

Aquaman is a hit--and this time iTunes, not Vincent Chase, can take credit.

The TV pilot based on the all-wet DC Comics superhero was one of the iTunes Music Store's most-played clips Tuesday, the same day the rejected series became available for download on the online music/video purveyor.

macCompanion August 2006

The August issue introduces macCompanion's new logo, which I designed. This month I reviewed:

• LocationFree Player Pak for Macintosh
  Sony is not famous for being Macintosh-friendly. Of course, it's not famous for being friendly with hardly anyone, considering it usually tries to force its proprietary formats on everyone (Betamax, MiniDisc, ATRAC, UMD, copy-protected CDs with rootkits) at the expense of consumer ease-of-use. Its latest venture, LocationFree, is no exception.

There are two things I didn't mention in my review of Sony's LocationFree system. The first is that it is most directly competing against Akimbo, not Elgato's EyeTV products. But Akimbo is not (yet?) Macintosh-compatible, and that is the focus of macCompanion. Second, Sony requires a separate user license for every machine you own. So if you want to watch TV streamed from your LocationFree base station to your desktop, that's one license. But if you want to use your laptop, that's another license you must purchase. And if you want to watch with a PSP, that's another license to purchase. Imagine purchasing a DVD for $20 and then being forced to pay another $20 to watch it on a DVD player in a separate room. And another $20 if you loan it to a friend to watch.

So Many Head Jokes, So Little Time
TeeVee

Bored with summer TV? Listless in the absence of your favorite shows? Posessed by the distinct sensation that there simply aren't a sufficient number of gun-toting chimpanzees in your life? Then by all means, make haste with great speed to the SciFi Channel's Web site, where you can watch the insanely wonderful new pilot, The Amazing Screw-On Head.

The pilot episode airs at 10:30 p.m. tonight on SciFi! (My apologies for not posting this sooner, but we've had Internet connection problems at home thanks to The New AT&T and, meanwhile, blogger.com's availability has been up and down over the past week.)

The Amazing Screw-On Head is a one-issue comic book by Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. You might think that would make it easy to find. But I had to look through many, many booths at a number of comic conventions before I finally found a copy.

If you watch the pilot, take the "short online survey" to share your opinion with SciFi. How often do you get to tell a network you like (or don't like) what they're doing? I've been waiting for the TV premiere (well, and our Internet connection has been erratic), so I can't give my opinion just yet.

24 Minutes of 'A Scanner Darkly'

IGN is pleased to bring you the first 24 minutes of Richard Linklater's new film, A Scanner Darkly!

Like a graphic novel come to life, A Scanner Darkly uses live action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process (interpolated rotoscoping) to create a haunting, highly stylized vision of the future.

Scanner has been rated R by the MPAA for "drug and sexual content, language and brief violent images." You'll note that the extended excerpt is age-gated -- you will have to enter your date of birth to view it.

Yes, "Weird Al" is still active

Someone recently asked me if "Weird Al" Yankovic was doing OK, since we hadn't seen or heard much from him since the death of his parents in April 2004. I'm happy to report that there have been multiple sightings in the last month.

First, I got an e-mail stating that:

We're very sorry that the new "Weird Al" Yankovic album is taking a little longer than expected to make its way to a record store near you. We'll let you know as soon as we have a confirmed release date.

In the meantime, we thought you might like to download a free mp3 of a brand new Weird Al song (which won't be on the album). Our gift to you, just for being so darn cool.

The song is a parody of James Blunt's wildly overplayed You're Beautiful titled You're Pitiful. Apparently Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, objected to its release on the album.

Then, not even a week later, I get another e-mail regarding The Weird Al show:

That's right, all 13 glorious episodes from Al's 1997-98 CBS Saturday Morning kids' show - complete with commentaries and animated storyboards and all kinds of junk - will be hitting the stores in a spiffy 3-disc DVD box set on August 15.

And to promote that DVD set, he was listed in Entertainment Weekly's annual Must List as #43 out of 113 "people and things we love right now." He penned a parody song (albeit very reluctantly) called I Will Comply (set to the tune of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive).

Dark Chocolate M&M's

You asked... we answered! Thanks to popular demand, summer 2006 features the launch of one of our most anticipated products—M&M'S Dark Chocolate Candies! Look for the purple pack and experience these delicious candies for yourself.

Delicious, anticipated and demand are definitely the words I would use. And they're supposedly in stores today.

The 53rd Annual Willie Awards

Stockton Civic Theatre held its 53rd annual Willie Awards (named for William Shakespeare) on Sunday, June 25, for its 2005-2006 season, which included:

1. South Pacific (at Delta College's Atherton Auditorium)
   
2. Over the River and Through the Woods
   
3. Amahl and the Night Visitors
   
4. Don't Dress for Dinner
   
5. Picnic
   
6. Kiss Me, Kate

Over the River received a total of seven nominations:

• Outstanding Supporting Actor:
  • William Smith (Nunzio)
  • Tom Kelly (Frank)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress:
  • Dorothy Mulvihill (Aida)
  • June Spencer (Emma)
• Outstanding Set Design: Gary Scheiding
• Outstanding Lead Actor: Eddie Hargreaves
• Outstanding Production: Lora Hinson

Megan and I attended the awards ceremony and saw a lot of folks from Over the River as well as some from Delta College: John White (who directed Urinetown, The Musical) won Outstanding Lighting Design and Valerie Gnassounou-Bynoe (who choreographed Urinetown) won Outstanding Choreography, both for South Pacific.

Tom and June won their respective categories and gave some very nice speeches. It was unfortunate that they had to go up against their counterparts, but I guess that's just the nature of the process.

Although I did not win, it was great to see the show get recognized with so many other nominations and wins, especially our director, Lora.

Comic Con Fans

Since the San Diego Comic-Con is looming on the horizon, I thought I'd take some time every day to do a drawing of some of the types of fans that attend. I've been attending the Con regularly since 1979 so I've seen a few characters in my day.

Hero's return wows original director
BBC NEWS

The original director of Superman, Richard Donner, was astounded by the big-budget relaunch of the Superman franchise, which opens in the UK ... nearly 30 years after he brought it to the big screen.

FBI plans new Net-tapping push

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

Terror On The Strip
Las Vegas Review-Journal

As its Internet preview suggests, "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas" has the makings of a kick-ass video game.

But the fictitious adventure could also present a marketing headache for Las Vegas because of its on-screen setting, sources said this week.

Yeah, you wouldn't want the city of Las Vegas to be associated with illegal or harmful activities.

"It's based on a false premise," [Las Vegas Mayor Oscar] Goodman said.

Does that mean Con Air, Ocean's Eleven, CSI, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Mars Attacks! were based on true premises?

The Escapists

Discovering his late father's decades-spanning vault of Escapist memorabilia at the age of six, Max became a fan of the Master of Elusion almost overnight. After exhausting the extensive stash of Golden and Silver Age comics, he needed more-and started writing his own Escapist stories. Now nineteen, he's determined to make the character a sensation once again, but where is he going to find an artist-in Cleveland? Meet Maxwell Roth and Case Weaver, latter-day versions of Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, in part one of The Escapists!

This 32-page comic is only $1 and there are no ads (other than the one for issue two) so anyone who enjoyed Michael Chabon's Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay has little excuse for not picking up a copy at their local comic book store. At the end of the comic is a column by Steve Duin, Metro columnist for The Oregonian, that's in the spirit.

The Apple Store That Wasn't

So, Apple wanted to build this Apple Store here in Portland, Oregon. And not just any old Apple Store — this was to be a built-from-scratch, non-mall, original-design Apple Store, one of the few in the world. It was to be something fairly special.

That was four years ago.

Anybody could write about this story (and many of those anybodies have) but what makes this take special is that it's written by Cabel Sasser, who is close to the issue both as a Mac software developer and:

I'm a Portland native, born and raised. I remember when the Blazers were awesome, I pronounce "milk" funny ("melk"), and I was once a serious contender in Ramblin' Rod's "Smile Contest". I also just so happen to live on NW 21st Avenue, exactly two blocks from the proposed site of this ill-fated store.

The 100 best products of the year
PCWorld

You know how many new-product pitches we get every year? Thousands, each declaring that the item is the best in its category. Though many of the companies making these claims are clearly delusional, some creations do stand as superbly designed top performers in their field--and you'll find all of them right here in our roster of the 100 best products of the year.

I'm not entirely sure what qualifies as their year, nor how Google can qualify as a product of that year, but the list is still relevant.

Pop Culture Beats the Street

You know a studio's marketing department has done a good job when a fictional movie tricks the Wall Street men. This morning I was watching CNBC when their morning anchor, Joe Kernen, reported on how Pirates of the Caribbean broke the opening weekend record, recording 132 million in ticket sales. Kernen said that Pirates broke the record held by last year's Aquaman.

What? You haven't heard of the Aquaman movie that held the all-time three-day box office record? Here's a link to a video recording where Kernen made the claim (although I'm sure he was just reading a Teleprompter).

It kind of makes you wonder what other facts they've gotten wrong on CNBC. I guess it's not a big deal, though, since people are only using information from that network to invest their money.

Why Ebert's opinion is wrong

A shocking title to a shocking post, as I'm sure most of you know that I'm a fan of Ebert and his reviews and opinions, even if I don't always agree with them. (And I certainly pray that he recovers soon and gets out of the hospital.) But it's not just that I disagree with his review of Superman Returns, it's that his opinion of the film is wildly hypocritical and, in a way, wrong.

It's often said that opinions can't be wrong. That's true if it's an actual opinion, such as "I think this ice cream tastes better than that one." But not if it's "I think this ice cream is colder than that one." Coldness is measurable, so you could simply measure one ice cream and definitively find out if the person's opinion was right or wrong. Thus it's not really an opinion at all. Similarly, what if you write that Superman should expect Lex Luthor to have kryptonite because he's done so in every Superman movie prior? Well, since Lex Luthor has not, in fact, had kryptonite in all of the movies prior, doesn't that invalidate the opinion formed from it?

If you have not yet seen Superman Returns, do not read his review and do not read any further in this post. I made that mistake and no one else should have to. It's not due to the fact he gave it two stars, but rather because he spoiled a major plot detail. So if you have not yet seen the movie you should neither read his review, nor the rest of this post (this is your second!).

(scroll down for more ONLY if you have seen the movie! Seriously, this is your final warning!)










The major plot detail spoiled is that of Lois' son:

Now about Lois' kid. We know who his father is, and Lois knows, and I guess the kid knows, although he calls Richard his daddy.

Most of the people I've talked to did NOT know or even suspect that the kid's father is Superman (even Megan, who has an astonishly high rate of predicting surprise twists). So thanks for spoiling that for me and everyone else who trusts you enough to read your reviews ahead of time. Post in the comments if you were not surprised. But even so, it doesn't excuse the revealing of it in the review. Unfortunately, it appears that even Ebert is willing to ruin a good surprise if he doesn't care for the movie.

This quote also brings up another major problem with the review: making assumptions that aren't necessarily true. Does Lois know that the kid's father is Superman? Certainly she knows when she visits Superman in the hospital. We don't hear what she whispers to him, but I think, at the very least, it is a fair assumption. And thus she probably knows after he throws the piano across the room. But did she know before that? We know that the two of them slept together in Superman II. But at the end of that film, Superman used a 'super-kiss' to give Lois amnesia, so she would not remember that Clark was Superman. Surely she would also have forgotten that she slept with the 'mortal' Superman. So what evidence is there (prior to the piano stunt) that Lois knew the kid's father is Superman? Unless she hooked up with Richard very quickly after Superman left, she probably doesn't think it's Richard's. Speaking of whom, what does he know? Does he truly think he's the father or is he playing the part of Joseph of Arimathea? I'm guessing Ebert would think Richard knows, since Ebert also guesses the kid knows. I have to think the kid doesn't know either, since, as Ebert points out, he calls Richard his daddy. Would a kid call someone their daddy if they knew that person wasn't? I don't think so.

Unfortunately, Ebert's misconceptions don't end there. In his TV review, he said he guesses that Lois knows Clark is Superman. I can't think of a single scene which would indicate that is true, and there are a handful which would refute that.

The other major problem regarding Ebert's review revolves around Superman's abilities:

Watching Superman straining to hold a giant airliner, I'm wondering: Why does he strain? Does he have his limits? Would that new Airbus be too much for him?

If we want to talk physics, we could say that maybe Superman could immediately stop the airliner. But what would happen to the airliner and everyone inside if they went from hurtling toward the ground to complete stop in less than a second? Well, imagine driving a car into a brick wall at 90mph. We saw him try to slow the plane from spinning and eventually the wing just gave way. So the limits are partly that of the regular world and trying to keep from overdoing things.

And if we want to talk drama, what's particularly interesting about being perfect? What if Superman were able to solve all the problems perfectly without any question? Would that be dramatic? Ebert said it himself in his review of Blade

Wesley Snipes ... makes an effective Blade because he knows that the key ingredient in any interesting superhero is not omnipotence, but vulnerability.

Ebert does not allow for Superman to have any vulnerability but one:

Superman is vulnerable to one, and only one, substance: kryptonite. He knows this. We know this. Lex Luthor knows this. Yet he has been disabled by kryptonite in every one of the movies.

First, Director Bryan Singer is not counting the third and fourth movies (and I don't recall kryptonite being in the fourth anyhow). And he was not disabled by kryptonite in Superman II, either. So really he's only encountered kryptonite once before.

Does he think Lex Luthor would pull another stunt without a supply on hand?

Lex was, in fact, going to pull the stunt without a supply on hand. It's only after Superman returns that he goes to get some. And Superman may not even know Lex Luthor is involved with the oceanic disturbance. We know Lex is the one pulling the stunt, but it's not a certainty that Superman does. And Lois isn't conscious to tell him. Maybe he could figure it out based on the missing crystals and the fact that Lex is out of prison. But Batman is the detective, not Superman.

Why doesn't he take the most elementary precautions?

What precautions? Inject himself with anti-kryptonite serum? Even if he knew ahead of time that Lex was out there, why would he expect him to have kryptonite? As far as Superman knows, there was only the one sample that was lost.

How can a middle-aged bald man stab the Man of Steel with kryptonite?

As Lex notes, "mind over muscle." He is the "greatest criminal mastermind of our time" and Superman is no mastermind. This is the same reason Lex was able to best Superman in the first movie, which Ebert and I both hold in high regard. And while it's certainly fair to compare this movie to that one, Ebert doesn't seem to allow for the concept of characters changing over time.

Jimmy Olsen, the copy boy, such a brash kid, seems tamed and clueless.

Apparently he considers "brash" to be a compliment. I would equate it with stupid or idiotic. There's no doubt the 1978 Jimmy Olsen was funny, but he was certainly clueless. If anything, this film's Jimmy is less clueless because he clues Clark in to insights about Lois and what's happened over the years.

Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has lost her dash and pizzazz, and her fiance, Richard White (James Marsden), regards her like a deer caught in the headlights.

This is supposed to be a criticism, but it's really a plot summary. Yes, Lois is not the same Lois as five years ago. People change. Back then she was sneaking onto the Eiffel Tower and risking her life to win a Pulitzer. Now she's won one ... for an editorial that didn't require her to leave the office. What's her motivation now for risking her life? And, let's face it, she knew Superman could always save her. Would you get near a hydrogen bomb if you knew Superman hadn't been around for years?

Even the editor, Perry White (Frank Langella), comes across less like a curmudgeon, more like an efficient manager.

Apparently this is also a criticism. I don't understand how, though. I would think someone who worked at a newspaper might recognize that an editor is bascially a manager, and being efficient is not bad.

Ebert apparently will not allow for change, even though the story is following the instructions he gave in his review of Spider-Man 2, which he called

the best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with Superman. It succeeds by being true to the insight that allowed Marvel Comics to upturn decades of comic-book tradition: Readers could identify more completely with heroes like themselves than with remote godlike paragons.

And again in his review of Blade, he notes

There is always a kind of sadness underlying the personalities of the great superheroes, who have been given great knowledge and gifts but few consolations in their battle against evil.

Ebert uses that sadness against Superman Returns:

But when the hero, his alter ego, his girlfriend and the villain all seem to lack any joy in being themselves, why should we feel joy at watching them?

You can't have it both ways.

ABC Looks To DVR, Commercial Ratings Issues

ABC has held discussions on the use of technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, according to ABC President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw, with the primary goal to allow TV commercials to run as intended.

"I would love it if the MSOs, during the deployment of the new DVRs they're putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button]," Shaw said.

Since the article appears in a trade publication, it doesn't define what an MSO is. Regardless, I'm opposed to the disabling of the fast-forward button. And if you're going to disable it, why not just remove it? I think it would be more irritating for the button to be there, teasing you with its impotence, than to just not exist at all.

Shaw ... threw cold water on the idea that neutering the fast-forward option would result in a consumer backlash. He suggested that consumers prefer DVRs for their ability to facilitate on-demand viewing and not ad-zapping--and consumers might warm to the idea that anytime viewing brings with it a tradeoff in the form of unavoidable commercial viewing.

A change in temperature from absolute zero to minus-50 degrees could technically be considered warming, but no human being would consider it warm.

Who's Counting: Cheney's One Percent Doctrine
ABC News Commentary

In his heralded new book, The One Percent Doctrine, Ron Suskind ... describes the Cheney doctrine as follows: "Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty."

Mathematics professor John Allen Paulos looks at the consequences of an "if at least 1 percent, then act" doctrine. He also notes a bit of inconsistency:

A companion to the Cheney 1 percent action doctrine is the administration's non-action doctrine (if the probability is less than 99 percent, then don't act). This latter doctrine is generally invoked in discussions of global warming, where it seems absolute certainty is required to justify any significant action.

Yeah, now you're begging me to go back to comic books, aren't you?!

Comic Books and the Human Condition
washingtonpost.com

"Comic books provide valuable insight into the human condition," I've been known to proclaim. It was in search of such insight that I curled up last week with the hotly anticipated conclusion of a DC Comics series called Identity Crisis.

This column was published long ago (January 2005) but I still think it's interesting. And seeing as how the focus of this blog has been superhero-related lately, it's about time I linked to it.

Monterey Bay movie

Megan shot photos while we were at Monterey Bay and I shot video footage. You've seen the results of her work, and now you can see the results of mine. I edited approximately 30-40 minutes of video of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and stops on the 17-Mile Scenic Drive down to an 11:15 clip that is 16MB in file size. Broadband users shouldn't have any problem with that, but it'll probably be a long download for dial-up users (an hour, maybe?). Come visit and I'll show it to you in full size! And if you don't recognize the songs I used but would like to know what they are just send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

Monterey Bay movie

The Missing 'Superman Returns' Sequences

The trailers for "Superman Returns" featured more dialogue from Martha Kent than made it into the film, while also highlighting an elaborate sequence illustrating Supeman's return to Krypton. So what didn't make it into the film? We'll likely never know about everything that Bryan Singer & Co planned for the film ... but we can examine some important moments that were cut from the theatrical release of the film.

This blog is fast-becoming totally devoted to Superman, but I thought this story from CBR News would be of interest to anyone who has already seen the film.

I also got a hold of three of the four prequel comics, two of which add enlightment to the film's story threads.

Truth, Justice and (Fill in the Blank)
New York Times

In the first screen incarnation of Superman, the Max Fleischer cartoons that ran from 1941 to 1943, each episode's preamble informs us not only of the origin and powers of this relatively new creation (Krypton, speeding bullet, etc.), but also the kinds of things he fights for. It's a shorter list than you think. Before World War II, Superman fought 'a never-ending battle for truth and justice.' Back then, that was enough.

Erik Lundegaard puts the lie to the 'controversy' over the omission of "The American Way" in Superman Returns.

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, "Did she just say irregardless?," but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten.

That's not the case with written communications.

A number of these are taught in journalism classes and put on job tests. But even I'm guilty of making a few of these mistakes, especially #10. And if you think the article is short, take a look at the comments.

Radio Trivia

This morning on 99.3 KJOY ("Light rock and less talk!") host Rob Kacey mentioned that Superman Returns was premiering today and promised two tickets to the movie (along with the complete third season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman on DVD) to the first caller who could answer the following question: Which Cheers alum appeared in 1978's Superman: The Movie?

Although I wasn't the first to call in, I was the first to answer correctly (the first two callers guessed Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson), winning myself not only the prizes, but the chance to hear my voice on the radio in an unprepared way (wasn't impressed). I refrained from geekily-informing him that John also appeared in Superman II in a similar capacity.

When I picked up the prizes, I noticed on the free passes the following restrictions.

Good Only:

• at Stockton, Turlock or Modesto, Sonora, Jackson
  (OK, that rules out any IMAX showings. And what's with the 'or' placed after Turlock? Are they indicating they'd prefer you use the passes in Stockton or Turlock and not the others?)
• Monday-Thursday
  (OK, no Friday-Sunday showings. No big deal, it opens on Wednesday and I'd planned on seeing it on Thursday)
• Beginning July 10, 2006
  (OK, so ... wait, what?! I have to wait 12 days to use these passes?!)
• Weekends & Holidays Excluded
  (Um, weekends have already been excluded. So this limitation only means I can't use the passes on Labor Day ... September 4!
• Ticket must be redeemed while the film is still playing (Gee, thanks! I guess that rules out September 5!)

I guess until July 10 I'll be watching my DVDs of Lois & Clark: The Complete Third Season (Hubba-hubba).

Oh, there's one free admission ticket in the DVD box. It has a $10.50 maximum value (which is the regular cost of a ticket at the Dublin theater).

Superman II

Still prepping for Superman Returns, I rewatched Superman II and here's a brief list of things I noticed:

• One of the French terrorists is Harry Potter's horrible uncle
• John Ratzenberger is a NASA mission control operator
• Kal-El's mother says that 'scientists created' The Phantom Zone
• When disguised as Clark Kent, he uses his heat vision without removing his glasses

For more interesting notes on this film, check out this Wikipedia entry's sections on Controversy and cult status and Trivia, which includes descriptions of alternate scenes.

macCompanion July 2006 review

• EyeTV 250
  Last month I reviewed Elgato's EyeTV EZ, a low-cost analog TV tuner that allows you to watch and record TV on your Mac. Its shortcoming was that it made your Mac do all the hard work of encoding the incoming video signal, putting a hit on your processor and requiring a dual G5 or Core Duo processor for the best quality recordings. The EyeTV 250 takes nearly everything that's great about the EZ and improves on its main deficiency by using a built-in hardware decoder.

Superman's identity crisis
Los Angeles Times

Will the first and most elemental of superheroes be able to reassert himself as the paragon of the form, the hero that every other elastic-wrapped champion of justice can only yearn to be? Or will he be perceived as merely one more franchise along the entertainment superhighway? Or worse yet, will he come off as too simple, too old-school, even too corny for today's hero-savvy crowd?

Gerard Jones, author of Men of Tomorrow, Killing Monsters, and a number of Green Lantern comic books, wrote this thoughtful piece. I'm not really old enough to contend for some of his conclusions ...

That very corniness, of course, was half the secret to Superman's big-screen triumph in 1978. After a decade and a half of disastrous war, murdered and disgraced presidents, crime, inflation, drugs, cultural upheavals — in short, maybe the longest stretch of relentlessly nerve-shredding experiences in our history — Americans were overjoyed to allow an impossibly perfect hero to swoop from the neglected shelves of childhood memory and snatch us briefly from resignation.

I watched the Expanded Edition of the 1978 film recently and realized I had either forgotten or never noticed a few things:

• Jor-El is said to have discovered The Phantom Zone himself
• Martha Kent's middle name is Clark
• After Kal-El creates the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El tutors him for 12 years "traveling through time and space"
• The plane that Superman saves is Air Force One
• Krypton has a 28-hour day
• John Ratzenberger is a nuclear missile control technician
• Unlike most of the movie, the dam scene now looks quite fake

Schools pulling the plug on Macs
baltimoresun.com

For nearly two decades, Anne Peach has taught graphic arts at a Catonsville high school using Apple Macintosh computers, knowing her students would use that system in the working world.

But the Apple logo has given way to the waving Windows icon in Baltimore County schools' graphic design and multimedia computer labs, and Peach is furious.

The main reason previously stated for replacing Macintosh computers in schools with Windows PCs was that students needed to learn on computers they would be using in the workplace. Now they're saying:

Students and staff can share information efficiently if everyone uses compatible equipment. "All of this can happen only if we're all on the same operating platform."

Oh, sure. Apparently the world is not sharing information via the Internet using different operating systems (Windows 95, 98, Me, XP; MacOS 9, OS X, Linux, etc.)

Chris Isaak is returning to Stockton for his first hometown concert in six years and Megan put together a special section for Recordnet. It includes:

• The feature story for Timeout
• A photo gallery of Chris at his home in San Francisco
• Audio of his entire interview
• Related stories dating back to his past Stockton performances
• Links to his official site and MySpace page

Alcatraz photos

I've posted a gallery page of photos Megan took during our tour of Alcatraz Island on Saturday, June 10. Now run by the national park service, "The Rock" was home to a former federal prison, military fortification, lighthouse, and a 1969-1972 Native American occupation.

http://homepage.mac.com/ehargreaves/PhotoAlbum48.html

Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power
New York Times

On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.

Ah, The Dalles. Forever to be described as "80 miles east of Portland."

Mathematical references abound on The Simpsons
Science News

Although nobody would call The Simpsons a science show, the writing staff boasts an impressive array of former mathematicians, scientists, and computer scientists. Over the years, they have injected their brand of geeky humor into the show.

Heroes

Hmm, does this image look familiar?

Oh, right...

Hasbro Introduces Transformers Classics Line

This fall, Hasbro will pay a special tribute to the rich history captured in the saga that is More Than Meets The Eye with the Transformers Classics line of figures.

Each character in the Classics line will have a more detailed face and body, resulting in a more comparable appearance to the character seen on the original TV show and animated movie.

Sounds great. So why does the new "Classics" Megatron look even less like the TV show and animated movie than the original toy?

Bush's Broadband Goal In Doubt

President Bush's goal of universal broadband access for all Americans by 2007 appears to be in doubt, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. Between 42-48 percent of online Americans subscribe to a broadband service, according to two surveys.

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
PCWorld

Even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago.

I really only disagree with one item on the list (and it's not made by Apple).

Fat sitcom husbands
Slate

... several shows pair extremely attractive women, who are often clad in plunging tops and tight jeans suitable for a Maxim photo spread, with TV husbands who are not only not studly, but downright fat.

I don't know why it took me a year-and-a-half to find this article (maybe because I read Slate that often) but I've been wondering about this for a few years and King of Queens and Grouded for Life were the most prominent mismatches I had noticed.

eddiehargreaves.com

I recently did a domain name search for eddiehargreaves.com, just to see if it was available (which it is) and was given a list of "Similar Available Domain Names"

The following similar names are available:
theeddiefiles.com
eddieinventors.com
palmerhargreavesmint.com
yourhargreaves.com
theeddietheory.com
besthargreaves.com
theothereddie.com
superhargreaves.com
eddiehargreavesworld.com
eddiehargreavesguide.com

What do you think? Should I grab SuperHargreaves.com while it's available or would I be better suited to TheEddieTheory.com?

New World Record Established for Most People Dressed as Smurfs

290 people from across the U.S. established the first world record for "Most People Dressed as Smurfs" during San Francisco's famous Bay to Breakers foot race.

What was the Old World Record?

In Our Post-PC Era, Apple's Device Model Beats the PC Way
The Wall Street Journal

Critics attack the iPod and iTunes as 'closed' and 'proprietary,' because the songs Apple sells at its iTunes Music Store play only on iPods, and iPods can't play songs purchased from other music stores. But both the iPod and iTunes handle the two most common open audio formats, MP3 and WAV, and the most common open video format, MP4. They work well even if you never buy a song from Apple. And iTunes and the iPod work on Windows computers, not just Macs. So how is that closed?

It's amazing that this needs to be pointed out to people, but the Microsoft misinformation campaign is succeeding in convincing people that if you use iTunes or an iPod that all your music is locked in. Only music and videos purchased from the iTunes Music Store are locked from full and fair use (even free downloads). Competing digital music services are not Mac-compatible, so their claims of being 'open' are ridiculous. The music service that is truly 'open' is eMusic.

Superman Returns - First Listen

Most of the raw material present in [John] Williams' original oeuvre (the Fanfare, the Love Theme, the Krypton Theme, the Kent Family Theme) is preserved here and it is with great anticipation and pride that SoundtrackNet presents an exclusive first listen to the official motion picture score release of John Ottman's Superman Returns.

Perfect Strangers, Hooked on a Can Can and
YouTube

If you remember the television series "Perfect Strangers," you will probably find this compilation of clips (set to "Hooked on a Can Can") fun.

1987 Marvel Comics Parade Float
YouTube

Willard Scott is the least embarrassing thing about this 1987 video of Captain America, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Power Man (and Robocop?!) battling Dr. Doom, Magneto, Enchantress, The White Queen and The Hulk. All this is on a parade float playing music from "Back to the Future."

LEGO™ Batman

Lego's new branded collection of play sets and characters uses the Batman 'property.' To promote it, they've made some fun wallpapers, Flash-based comics, and movies. The movie(s) are computer-generated, rather than stop-motion. And the mini figurines have better character designs than some of the big-budget films.

PSYOP Creates Visual Haiku for MTV HD

It has been said that "God is in the details." That sentiment is strikingly rendered in a series of new station identification spots for MTV HD, co-directed by Psyop's Marco Spier and Marie Hyon.

Sacramento & Co.

I appeared on Sacramento & Co. with my co-worker Lisa Cooperman twice in the last two months to promote The Haggin Museum's Age of Armor and Birthday Party family festivals. Thanks to the EyeTV 250 I'm reviewing for macCompanion, I was able to create QuickTime movies of these 5- and 8-minute clips (respectively).

May 12 - Age of Armor (22.6MB)
June 9 - Birthday Party (33.3MB)

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.

Who is Malthus?

I am going to pre-emptively answer this question which will inevitably be asked by anyone who reads or sees Urinetown, The Musical.

Thomas Robert Malthus, England's first academic economist, is most famous for his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798, expanded in 1803), which the bio linked above summarizes as follows:

In this famous work, Malthus posited his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence.  Actual (checked) population growth is kept in line with food supply growth by "positive checks" (starvation, disease and the like, elevating the death rate) and "preventive checks" (i.e. postponement of marriage, etc. that keep down the birthrate), both of which are characterized by "misery and vice".  Malthus's hypothesis implied that actual population always has a tendency to push above the food supply.  Because of this tendency, any attempt to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes by increasing their incomes or improving agricultural productivity would be fruitless, as the extra means of subsistence would be completely absorbed by an induced boost in population.  As long as this tendency remains, Malthus argued, the "perfectibility" of society will always be out of reach.  

Monterey Bay photos

I've uploaded photos from our weekend trip to Monterey Bay. They include photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the 17-Mile Drive Scenic Tour in Pebble Beach. Most were taken by Megan, so they're quite good.

This photo gallery is a little different from past ones in two respects:

1. I was able to fit all the thumbnails on a single index page instead of being limited to only 48 on a page.
2. I set the full-sized images to be 640x480 pixels instead of 800x600. Hopefully this reduction will result in faster download times for those of you using dial-up Internet connections.

If you have any praise or complaints regarding this gallery, please leave a comment or e-mail me.

http://homepage.mac.com/ehargreaves/PhotoAlbum46.html

Congress readies new digital copyright bill
CNET News.com

For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite.

If this legislation passes, the person who is currently hosting that clip of Conspiracy School Rock could possibly be sent to jail for 10 years. And if the record labels copy-protect all the CDs, the iPod will essentially be an illegal device.

Geek Squad In Strife

Retail chain Best Buy is in trouble after aggressively promoted, 24-hour computer support task force the Geek Squad has been served with a temporary restraining order barring it from using a popular brand of system restore software, which Best Buy is accused of pirating.

But don't true geeks use pirated software?

Terrorist, or Truth Seeker?
Wired News

To the United States, he is a seriously dangerous man who put the nation's security at risk by committing "the biggest military computer hack of all time."

But Briton Gary McKinnon says he is just an ordinary computer nerd who wanted to find out whether aliens and UFOs exist.

Air vents are for air

Thanks to continuous bombardment in television and movies, the idea of characters shimmying through air ducts has become not just a cliché, but almost a given. The moment a hero finds himself stuck someplace, we expect his eyes to drift north to that spot just below the ceiling, where an oversized grate is beckoning.

I thought the same thing when I saw the episode of Lost referred to. But screenwriter John August, whose credits include Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and some others I'd rather not mention, makes the point even better in this funny, well-written post.

Edward Scissorhands Ballet

Matthew Bourne and New Adventures are back with their latest creation: a magical new adaptation of the classic Tim Burton motion picture Edward Scissorhands.

Although this production is currently only touring the UK right now, I overheard from the director of Urinetown, The Musical that it will be coming to San Francisco. Photos and video clips can be seen by following the link above, but if you have Flash Player 8 and a high-speed connection, you can visit the official site.

Conspiracy Theory Rock
via Cartoon Brew

This weekend, Saturday Night Live is airing an episode comprised entirely of Robert Smigel's animated Saturday TV Funhouse shorts. But there's one short that's guaranteed not to be on the line-up: Conspiracy Theory Rock. The 1998 Schoolhouse Rock parody, animated by J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, criticizes corporate ownership of the media and takes some sharp jabs at NBC owner General Electric.

I saw this short when it originally aired on March 14, 1998. Because I was doing a senior project on media ownership at the time, I was a little disappointed that I didn't tape it. And even more disappointed when I discovered they were never going to show it again (though not entirely surprised).

Seven years later, I had the opportunity to ask J.J. Sedelmaier about the short (at the San Diego Comic-Con last summer). He said I was lucky to have seen it at all, since it had only aired on the New York feed once (which doesn't seem to jibe with my having watched in Forest Grove, OR). Thanks to the Internet, everyone can see it here. In addition, there's a good New York Times story about Saturday TV Funhouse here.

DC Bridges Films with Superman Returns Specials

DC Comics bridges the classic 1980 movie Superman II and one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer with its Superman Returns Specials, four books that each deal with a character from the new motion picture!

I would typically remove the exclamation mark, but it is pretty exciting. It's going to be a big year for Superman, if Warner Bros. has anything to say about it: Year of Superman

Raiders of the Lost Ark as an animated gif

Pretty much the entire movie in only 257KB.

Methanol-Powered Robot Muscles - Bend It Like Bender

Alcohol-powered artificial muscles for robots? They could be one way to solve the limits that batteries place on robotic limbs and prosthetics.

This science news is a good excuse to give a compiled history of Bender.

Episcopal Churches Turn to U2 to Pack Pews
Associated Press

As the electric guitar in the U2 anthem "Pride (In the Name of Love)" faded from four speakers, the Rev. Robert Brooks welcomed worshippers to Grace Episcopal Church with an unusual suggestion: He warned them to protect their hearing.

Christ Among the Partisans
New York Times

There is no such thing as a 'Christian politics.' If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program.

Tired of technology

I'm tired of reading jackasses on the Internet who propagate factually incorrect or inaccurate technology information and cliches. I'm tired of their never-ending bickering and condescension. I'm tired of people hiding behind the anonymity of a computer screen and using that shield to wreak havoc and disturb the peace in a multitude of ways, without consequence. And I'm especially appalled and sickened by the level of illiteracy and carelessness the Internet has revealed among people who are either too lazy or too stupid to take the time to write clearly.

Aaron Adams is tired of a lot of things and I agree with him on most of them. I may be bitter, but I'm shocked and disturbed by the level of unnecessary hatred and anger I see on online message boards. Combine that with the level of factual errors and and it's worrisome. In the last few months I've heard Diggnation podcast co-host Alex Albrecht spout such untruths such as 'Apple has made more money from iPods than it has ever made on Macs' and 'Pixar was started at Disney, so its weird to see them bought back.' At least newspapers have a section for corrections.

The ham's big. It's the movie that got small.
The Seattle Times

Other amateur filmmakers had warned that the editing process takes a long time. These folks often repeated the admonition ("No, I mean really, a long time") as if I hadn't been paying sufficient attention.

A funny first look at digital moviemaking.

Prisoner of Redmond
By Robert X. Cringely

What do you do when your wealth is immense but completely tied to people whom you inherently do not trust? If you are Paul Allen you watch your tongue and spend eight years getting out from under that burden.

This should be of interest to anyone in the Pacific Northwest who are undoubtedly affected by Paul Allen's post-Microsoft ventures. And to anyone else who wants to know a little bit more about how Bill Gates got to be the richest man in the world.

Hijacking the Internet
PC Magazine opinion by John C. Dvorak

It seems to me that if you buy a 1.5-Mbps connection, you should be able to redline the connection, to use the full capacity without being charged more. And you should also be able to use it for whatever you want to use it for. Otherwise, it's like selling public-utility water to people and making them pay more to use it for washing dishes.

Dvorak is loathed by many in the Mac community for his hyperbolic statements. But he has his moments and this is one of them. We've lived in California for a little more than three years and have seen the phone company change hands as many times. So I especially appreciate his noting that

In just six years, the name of the fabulous baseball stadium in San Francisco has gone from Pac Bell Park to SBC Park to AT&T Park. Just the expense of changing the signage and promotional collateral tells you that someone is making plenty of money.

The ads promoting "the new at&t" tell me that "your world is suddenly changing for the better ... all because two companies — two great companies — have now joined forward to deliver the world that matters most: yours." That 'better' world I'm inhabiting has resulted in a DSL connection that drops unexpectedly and repeatedly, regular phone service that was out for a week due to their own downed equipment that they wanted to charge me to come look at, customer service via phone that uses those maddening voice recognition menus (which don't recognize much) and then I get to find out about this:

Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker ...

Cox Newspapers tunes out AP Online video
Barnako.com

While 450 news outlets are distributing video newsfeeds from the Associated Press, using its Windows-only viewer, Cox Newspapers is opting out.

According to the interactive-projects editor at the Palm Beach Post, Cox is dropping out because the MSN-supplied player does not work with the Firefox browser or Apple Computer's Macs.

Nice to know someone has some backbone.

How France Is Saving Civilization
Wired News Commentary by Leander Kahney

But French legislators aren't just looking at Apple. They're looking ahead to a time when most entertainment is online, a shift with profound consequences for consumers and culture in general. French lawmakers want to protect the consumer from one or two companies holding the keys to all of its culture, just as Microsoft holds the keys to today's desktop computers.

Many Apple fans have been deriding the bill in France aimed at forcing digital music files to be played on any hardware device. But as Leander points out, if Microsoft held the position in digital music that Apple currently does, those same fans would be complaining to high heaven. They also seem to forget that it would force online stores selling protected Windows Media Audio files to be compatible with the iPod and Macs. Hmmm, that would give Apple competition, and they'd have to respond by making a stronger case to consumers: higher quality files? subscription option? more freebies?

Of course, we also have to consider where this train of thought could take us: Should all blades be legally obligated to work on every razor? Should XBox games be legally compelled to run on a Playstation 2?

The Torn-Up Credit Card Application

Could a determined and dexterous criminal gather all the bits, tape them together and apply for a card in my name? Would a credit card company balk when confronted with an obviously resurrected application?

Overhyped bands
Boston.com

Boston.com has compiled a list of bands from the past five years that we feel were over-hyped by the critics. While you may be angry at some of our choices, remember, we're just a bunch of bitter computer geeks.

Bitter? Count me in! I don't agree with all their choices, of course, but it's a fun trip with a surprise at the end.

Inside Scientology
Rolling Stone

In June of last year, I set out to discover Scientology, an undertaking that would take nearly nine months.

15 years after the Time magazine cover story, Rolling Stone magazine has published an up-to-date and well-researched look at the "religion" that may take you nine hours to read but is engaging nonetheless.