NBC 29: Count on Us - Letter from Mike Stark
Letter from the man who was assaulted by George Allen’s staff today.
31 October 2006
30 October 2006
Popular Adult Costume Choices
“Witch” is an astounding winner, I’m guessing that’s always the case, then this year it’s pirates and vampires.
The Walking Dead
It happens every year or so that there’s a show, movie, book, band, or whatever that I’ve heard enough good things about that I know it’s going to be great, yet still never get around to picking up. Over the weekend I checked one of those off my list with the purchase of The Walking Dead Book One. There are five trade paperbacks out collecting the first two years or so of its run, and there’s one hardcover out which collects the same material as the first two trades1. In the afterword the writer says that he loves horror movies but what he hates about them are the words, “The End.” What happens once they flee to the island, or get rescued by the army? The Walking Dead is an ongoing comic series which tells the story of a group of survivors trying to stay alive and avoid zombies. Each story arc reads like a movie, so you end up really seeing the characters develop as the story progresses.
- Comics have a strange thing that’s the opposite of books, where they’re usually collected in paperback first, then hardcover later if they’re successful. The hardcovers are usually printed on better paper, collect more issues per book, and contain lots of extras like sketches and interviews. The downside is that where the paperbacks usually lag behind the monthly comic by 6 months to a year, the hardcovers are that much farther behind the current storyline. The hardcover “book 2”, which will collect 13-24, is due out in February. By that time you’ll be about a year behind the comics, which will be at issue 33 or so I think. I hate owning series in multiple formats. If I start reading it from issue number 1, I’ll keep reading it as a monthly comic. If I start reading it late, I’ll only pick up the softcovers. Since I’m already behind on this one, I’m just going to wait for the hardcovers, and when the series ends I’ll have a nice set of volumes to lend out. ↩
Go Nintendo's Halloween Banner
Just a quick shout out to Go Nintendo for their excellent Halloween banner image.
The Walking Dead, Book One
Finally got around to reading this over the weekend. It gets my highest recommendation for Halloween reading.
Every Woman Wants a Harley Quinn Costume For Halloween
Every Woman Wants a Harley Quinn Costume For Halloween
Apparently Harley costumes sell out before Supergirl and Wonder Woman in some stores.
300 comic to screen comparison
300 comic to screen comparison
I always like seeing these, but really, if you’re a filmmaker, why wouldn’t you use the comic as a storyboard reference? Seems like it just saves you work.
29 October 2006
Seven Soldiers Annotations
The series finally ended this week. Here’s a set of annotations to help you figure it out.
28 October 2006
Next Generation
Good, well thought-out piece by John Siracusa about the Wii. As he admits, Nintendo may and probably does have something going with its approach to the console, but it’s a shame they didn’t try harder to match the competition’s processor power. Sure, gaming needs to be about fun, but looks do matter. My hope is that creators will flex their muscles to make things look cool rather than photo-realistic. For example I’d love to see a game that looks like a cartoon, or a grainy black-and-white horror movie. Still, more computational ability couldn’t hurt.
While I’m very excited about the Wii, and I’m behind the idea of a new kind of gaming involving motion control, I think there’s a big flaw in Nintendo’s strategy: there’s nothing wrong with the status quo. I’ve been enjoying games for years now using joysticks and buttons. Maybe Nintendo’s new generation will be so much more fun that I’ll completely forget the old way, and picking up an old game will be like using a rotary telephone, but I’m not so sure. I have a feeling you’ll still want to play some games with a standard controller, and then with the Wii you’ll be stuck with the same game as you’d have on the XBOX 360, only not as pretty.
Still, my money’s on the Wii.
27 October 2006
Daring Fireball: Can I Get an "Hallelujah" for Auto-Completion With the Esc Key?
Daring Fireball: Can I Get an “Hallelujah” for Auto-Completion With the Esc Key?
I never knew about this. Quite handy, but sadly on for Cocoa apps.
The Year Of Playing Dirtier: Negative Ads Get Positively Surreal
The Year Of Playing Dirtier: Negative Ads Get Positively Surreal
Washington Post piece on this year’s crop of negative ads.
iPod Etiquette
“Remove your earbuds to interact” is one I see broken often. Whenever — whenever — you’re talking to someone, you should take off your headphones.
26 October 2006
First look at 2007's Marvel stamps
First look at 2007’s Marvel stamps
I was impressed at how cool and colorful the DC stamps were when I saw them in person. The Marvel ones look nice, but I’m surprised to see Spider-Woman there instead of perhaps Invisible Woman.
Artificial Diamonds Starting to Go On Sale
A piece on Slashdot today says that a company called Adia Diamonds is finally getting some lab-grown diamonds out and into people’s hands. My hope is that in a few years you’ll be able to get man-made diamonds much more easily than you can today and we don’t have to depend on DeBeers’s monopoly for our shiny stuff. I’ll spare the lecture on why DeBeers is one of the most evil companies in the world, profiting from the slaughter of lots and lots of people, especially in Africa, to sell a gem that isn’t even all that rare.
Some good reading on the topic:
- Wired: The New Diamond Age, about the rise of man-made diamonds, which are exactly like natural diamonds in every way, except cheaper and more perfect.
- The Atlantic: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?, about how DeBeers tricked the ladies of the world into needing diamonds in the first place.
Stuart Immonen confirmed as new Ultimate Spider-Man artist
Stuart Immonen confirmed as new Ultimate Spider-Man artist
He’ll be taking over when Mark Bagley leaves after a record 110 issues on the same book.
How to steal an election by hacking the vote
How to steal an election by hacking the vote
I can't stress enough how scary it is that our democratic process has been ruined by these voting machines.
Happy Vox Launch Day!
I’ve been testing Vox for a few months, and it really is a great service. If you don’t have a blog, or want a fresh start on one, this is the place to do it.
25 October 2006
Firefox 2
Hot on the heels of IE7, Mozilla released a new version of Firefox today. Ars Technica wrote a review of one of the betas which is mostly still relevant, if you want to know about what’s new in this version. Mostly it’s just polish, with some performance fixes and a new phishing detector to protect you from sites pretending to be your bank. All the polish adds up to a nice browser, but there aren’t any major new features that will change how you surf the inter-tubes. Still, it’s free and it renders webpages better than Internet Explorer, so give it a download.
Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates' Names
Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates’ Names
Let the games begin! I cannot believe how much money we’re paying these incompetent companies to run our elections as poorly as they do.
10-Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson
10-Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson
Man oh man do I hate the entire tip system. Having been a waiter, I’ve yet to hear a single good reason why the food shouldn’t just cost more and you should simply expect good service. A bad tip just makes me think you’re cheap, not that I gave you poor s
J.G. Jones on 52 Week 25's cover
J.G. Jones on 52 Week 25’s cover
Great cover this week. He did a great job of making them look like store bought costumes.
Very Short Stories
The print edition really does these much better justice, and none of them measure up to Hemmingway’s, but I nonetheless adore these.
Why do coins smell like they do?
Why do coins smell like they do?
They don’t. Touching metal causes a reaction in your skin that has a smell. Blood causes a similar reaction and smell.
24 October 2006
Flickr Comment Notifications
Unless I’m missing something, Flickr doesn’t notify you when people leave comments on your photos. If you have your own account, you do have a recent activity page, which has its own feed, but I’d still like to be able to get emails.
So, sorry if you left a comment on a photo of mine and I never responded. I probably didn’t even see it until today.
23 October 2006
Threadless T-Shirts - Wait, why is everything $10!?
Threadless T-Shirts - Wait, why is everything $10!?
T-shirt sale for the next two days.
Happy birthday, universe
If you believe that God created the universe in 4000 B. C., today it its birthday.
22 October 2006
List of Starfleet starships ordered by class
List of Starfleet starships ordered by class
Many classes have full entries with photos.
Zombie Library
Acquired Shaun of the Dead last week completing, I think, the perfect A-list zombie movie collection:
Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead
28 Days Later
Shaun of the Dead
With that lot I’m properly equipped for Halloween, but there’s always the question of when to break out The Nightmare Before Christmas. You don’t want to watch it too early, or you’ll find yourself in the Christmas mood well before your disposition is ready for it. But it has a good bit of Halloween charm to it, so you don’t want to wait too long to watch it, either. I think I’ll probably break it out in the second week of November or so.
At CHS, band doesn't take back seat to sports
At CHS, band doesn’t take back seat to sports
I, too, played a varsity sport and marched in the band. It’s hard to explain to people the culture of Charlottesville High School, where a tenth of the school is in the band and no one really cares about the football.
YouTube - bjork - bachelorette
YouTube - bjork - bachelorette
I’m not much of a bjork fan, but this video is quite cool. (via waxy)
21 October 2006
20 October 2006
Bowling + Rollercoaster = Fun!
Bowling + Rollercoaster = Fun!
There has never been a sim made that didn’t invite bloodbaths and carnage. No good sim, at least.
What would CNN's website look like if you removed everything but the real news?
What would CNN’s website look like if you removed everything but the real news?
I don’t totally agree here. Entertainment news is pretty important to our culture, as are sports, but yeah, I’d love to see real stories.
Voltage Self-Illuminating Hair Gel
Voltage Self-Illuminating Hair Gel
Colored hair gel that gives off light!
Technorati Weblog: Blog Claiming with OpenId
Technorati Weblog: Blog Claiming with OpenId
I don’t have much use for Technorati, but it’s good to see another big name supporting OpenID.
19 October 2006
The Architecture of Security
From castles to concrete barriers, threats have often changed architecture for the worse, only to disappear and leave ungainly buildings still standing.
18 October 2006
The Onion AV Club on Studio 60
The Onion AV Club, writing about the new fall season:
Every other scene seems to be Matthew Perry or Bradley Whitford congratulating each other on their genius or talking about the genius of Sarah Paulson’s character.
They’re not wrong here. Sports Night’s characters all cared deeply about their show, but they had fun doing it. On The West Wing, everyone knew what they were doing really was important, and the hours and dedication that they put in match what their real world counterparts do. On Studio 60 it feels like no one told the cast that comedy is supposed to be fun.
Paulson is fine in the role, but the sketches just aren’t there. It’s like a movie that spends all its time talking about the genius of a painter who only draws stick men.
Entirely true. On Sports Night, making the show look good just involved showing Dan and Casey having some fun on the air talking about fictitious games. On Studio 60, you can’t show the audience cracking up and have Danny patting Matt on the back about how funny a sketch is if it isn’t actually that funny. Example: would Nate Corddry’s lobster suit gag from this week been nearly as funny if we had just seen the sketch with him in it? No, what was funny was seeing him taking a nap on the couch in the costume.
I’m still loving the show, though.
Learn Your Alphabet with the X-Men
Learn Your Alphabet with the X-Men
A is for Angel, who soars with the birds. / B is for Beast, who uses very big words.
Building a Better Voting Machine
Building a Better Voting Machine
Wired’s doing a feature on how to make sure our elections are fair.
17 October 2006
"A blank CD for a tenner?"
UK band Superthriller is selling a blank album. Buy it, then log onto their website, pick out 25 songs (including various remixes), and burn the album yourself. (via Kenjisan)
del.icio.us to Google Bookmarks
del.icio.us to Google Bookmarks
Tool to import del.icio.us links into Google’s Bookmarks utility. I don’t know why you’d want to, but there it is.
Please standby
How much power do your electronics use when they’re turned off? How much money would you save if they were all more efficient?
Which is better for the environment: buying a CD or downloading it?
Which is better for the environment: buying a CD or downloading it?
Study looked into the environmental weight of mp3 players versus CDs.
HerbEly: Intercessions at Our Son's Wedding
HerbEly: Intercessions at Our Son’s Wedding
This is the reading my dad did at my wedding.
Interview with Heroes creator Tim Kring
Interview with Heroes creator Tim Kring
I’m enjoying this show, but the marketing really sucks. They’re trying way too hard to get us to understand that it’s a saga and we absolutely must tune in each week to see the next chapter.
Studio 60 and Allusion 1
Though I’m really liking Studio 60, I have a hard time seeing past Sorkin being Sorkin. Last night I just kept thinking that the reporter was written exactly like CJ from The West Wing. People in his shows all act like they could only exist in the Sorkinv
What if you built a machine to predict hit movies?
What if you built a machine to predict hit movies?
Malcolm Gladwell piece on movie marketing.
Web 2.0 Thinking Game
I’m so tired of the “Web 2.0” term, and really anything using a version number except software.
16 October 2006
You pull, Wii push
The Wii has a higher profit margin for retailers than the XBOX 360. Can you believe that stores only make $7 on an XBOX?!
About the Heap // ShaunInman.com/post
About the Heap // ShaunInman.com/post
Interesting redesign concept.
IE 7
Microsoft officially released Internet Explorer 7 yesterday, which can be downloaded for free at microsoft.com/ie. The big catch is that it only runs on Windows XP SP2. In November it’ll start showing up in Windows Update, but there’s no reason not to upgrade now, except for the fact that there’s no reason you should be using IE at all as Firefox is still a better browser. C|Net’s review of IE7 is pretty good. IE7 plugs most of the security holes found in previous versions, has tabbed browsing, and does a better job of rendering webpages properly than it used to, but Firefox is still faster, more secure, and supports web standards more completely.
In Mozilla news, Firefox 2 will be out this month as well. It’s not a huge upgrade, but they’ve squashed a bunch of bugs and improved the app’s operation in a few areas.
Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo's train stations
Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo’s train stations
I like the zoatrope movies that Metro’s installed, but I wish they’d put new ones in more often.
William and Mary to change athletic logo before Fall 2007
William and Mary to change athletic logo before Fall 2007
This is obnoxious, but fine. I’m glad the NCAA didn’t force a name change, as unlike some team names, Tribe isn’t offensive, but as long as the new logo looks nice I’m fine with this.
14 October 2006
Does Battlestar: Galactica support the Iraqi insurgency?
Does Battlestar: Galactica support the Iraqi insurgency?
There metaphor’s certainly there, but I don’t think it needs to be taken too far. The point of BSG at the moment is to make you think about these issues, but not to be a total allegory and certainly not to present a solution.
13 October 2006
Wii Pre-Orders
I’ve decided after much deliberation not to worry about getting a Wii on launch day. Final Fantasy III for the DS comes out the same week, so I’m going to enjoy that and pick up a Wii sometime later.
Pre-orders started, and ended it seems, today. If you hadn’t decided you wanted one on November 19, you may be out of luck until the second shipments roll in. Joystiq has a few journal entries up chronicalling their line-waiting:
Seems like stores are getting between six and thirty-two units to sell on launch day. In all the above cases each store sold out its pre-order quotas just from the people waiting in line. I feel like making people wait in line for a pre-order is a little silly. Why not have a sign-up box and do a raffle? I guess a line builds hype, but it’s not like EB Games store managers really like having people hanging around outside their stores all morning, nor do they like turning away customers who didn’t wake up early enough.
Regardless of this, my guess is that there will be plenty available to buy if you go for one in early December, and none to be found if you want to get one in late December. I’m guessing Amazon will have a good supply.
12 October 2006
YouTube - Stephen Colbert vs George Lucas on a lightsaber duel!
YouTube - Stephen Colbert vs George Lucas on a lightsaber duel!
I’m not always the greatest fan of Colbert, but the whole lightsaber gag has been great.
11 October 2006
Lost city 'could rewrite history'
Lost city ‘could rewrite history’
Discovery of a 9000 year old could change our understanding of early civilization.
Infinite Rewrites, or: Crisis on Infinite Versions of DC's Major Crossover Series
Infinite Rewrites, or: Crisis on Infinite Versions of DC’s Major Crossover Series
The hardcover of Infinite Crisis, in addition to entirely new artwork at the end, contains new dialogue that implies Earth-2 will be coming back.
Dance of the Puppets: Twenty one years
Dance of the Puppets: Twenty one years
21 years ago DC published an editorial about how heroines aren’t given a proper chance to shine and are, in fact, put down by writers who don’t understand them. Little has changed.
Official Google Blog: Better together: Docs & Spreadsheets
Official Google Blog: Better together: Docs & Spreadsheets
This is all very clever, but I’m still not sure how to use it all. Certainly the ability to access documents anywhere is handy.
10 October 2006
Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke
Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmaduke
“I already walked you in my other nightmare.”
09 October 2006
Lost and "Make Your Own Kind Of Music"
Lost and “Make Your Own Kind Of Music”
I agree about that second season premier. The first scene was awesome and the music choice was perfect.
Book sales get a lift from Google scan plan
Book sales get a lift from Google scan plan
Making it easier to find relevant text inside books helps sales? Who’d have thunk it?
05 October 2006
Eight Rooms, Well, Nine, but That's Their Secret
Eight Rooms, Well, Nine, but That’s Their Secret
New York Times on people installing secret rooms in their homes.
New Google Groups
Does anyone else find it odd that Google’s suddenly releasing lots of new versions of their ancillary products? First a new Blogger, then a new Google Reader after basically a year with no changes, and today a new Google Groups. It’s like they realized that some of us actually use these things every day.
The new Google Groups is a welcome change. The old layout tried too hard to mimic Gmail’s layout and it felt forced. The new version feels more like a message board, without all the terrible color schemes and huge signature images.
04 October 2006
Animal-based computer-generated cartoons aren't doing well at the box office
Animal-based computer-generated cartoons aren’t doing well at the box office
Who’d have thought that a glut of CGI movies would suddenly backfire? Hopefully the channel will clear out so that the Wallace and Grommits and Incredibles of the genre can float back to the top. Also, Disney needs to go back to traditional animation.
Veronica Mars: Welcome Wagon
Veronica Mars debuted last night. Funny how shows starting in October seem really late this year. I don’t have much to say about the season premier itself. It was a pretty good episode, clearly designed more to introduce new viewers to the characters than to deal with last season’s continuity. I would have liked a more compelling multi-episode mystery than the head shaving thing from last year. It will probably develop into something more, but I’d have liked to see something that we’d all be talking and theorizing about today.
The big thing I noticed was that they revamped the opening credits. You get used to hearing the same music and seeing the same basic visuals each week. For season three, there’s a new mix of The Dandy Warhol’s We Used to be Friends, and the images are… orange. It’s funny how much a change like that can affect one’s perception of an episode. I went from being excited about seeing the characters again to worrying the show was being retooled for a new network. I don’t have any indication The CW is meddling or anything, but certainly the creators know they need to pick up a lot of Gilmore Girls’s audience for the network to order the back nine. I’m sure once the season starts running my worries will melt away, and I’ll get used to the new intro, it was just a little unsettling not to have the familiar sights and sounds.
Fleischer Studios Superman
From 1941 to 1943, Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios produced a series of 17 short Superman films which are now in the public domain. Google Video and the Internet Archive both offer downloads of the shorts, which are well worth the bandwidth.
- Superman a.k.a. The Mad Scientist (archive)
- The Mechanical Monsters (archive)
- Billion Dollar Limited (archive)
- The Arctic Giant (archive)
- The Bulleteers (archive)
- The Magnetic Telescope (archive)
- Electric Earthquake (archive)
- Volcano
- Terror on the Midway
- The Japoteurs (archive)
- Showdown (archive)
- Eleventh Hour (archive)
- Destruction, Inc. (archive)
- The Mummy Strikes (archive)
- Jungle Drums (archive)
- The Underground World
- Secret Agent (archive)
More information about the series is available on Wikipedia and Amazon has what looke like a nice DVD set.
Help Cure Cancer, Buy a DS Lite
Help Cure Cancer, Buy a DS Lite
This week Target is donating 100% of sales of Coral Pink DS Lites to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Google Gadgets For Your Webpage
Google Gadgets For Your Webpage
Lots of little things you can fill your site with.
03 October 2006
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Google Video
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Google Video
This video is in the public domain, so download away.
Who Killed TiVoToGo?
EFF piece on why you can’t move shows from your TiVo to your computer on the new HD units.
Usability tweaks in the Series 3 Remote | PVRblog
Usability tweaks in the Series 3 Remote | PVRblog
I’ve actually been waiting for someone to write about the new remote ever since I heard the HD units had different ones. The traditional TiVo remote is designed so damn well.
The mystery is solved: Neil Armstrong really did say "a"
The mystery is solved: Neil Armstrong really did say “a”
Interesting stuff. I do agree that “for a man” sounds less poetic than “for man”.
Lefty Gamer: Mario Hoops 3-on-3
Earlier worries that Mario Hoops 3-on-3 would be unplayable for lefties have been put to rest. The game, as with most DS titles, offers an option to flip controls for left-handed players. The default control scheme involves using the stylus in one’s right hand to dribble, shoot, block, etc., and using the D-pad to control your player. Switching to left-handed mode lets you hold the stylus in your left hand and use the A, B, X, and Y buttons to move players around the court. It works pretty well, though not as cleanly as using the D-pad. All stylus-intensive DS games have the same problem, whether you’re left-handed or wrong, which is that you have to support most of the weight of the unit with your offhand. Mario Hoops, unlike Metroid, understands this and doesn’t require too much use of L or R. Also, it’s built that you’ll only use the same shoulder button you use to move your character, so you don’t have to figure out how to hit L while holding the stylus in your left hand, for example.
The game itself is pretty fun so far. I found the tutorial so be a tad overwhelming. You’re quickly taught how to run, shoot, dribble, block, steal, dunk, jump, dash, use items, and so forth all with various taps or flicks of the stylus, and it’s a lot to take in, but once you get playing you realize that they’re all basically the same commands. An upward swish can be a shoot, a dunk, or a jump block, but it in practice the game works out the proper context and provides the appropriate verb pretty well. One review I read expressed frustration that when you try to pass to a teammate who’s too close to the net you’ll often shoot instead. The game designers actually did anticipate this, so if you want to pass into that zone you need hold R (for lefties).
Worry set in when my trio of Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi were able to breeze through the first tournament with little idea of what I was doing. Penny Arcade indicates quite clearly that the game gets harder as it goes along, and as soon as I started the Flower Cup I began to see the other team doing some better block and ball handling. Nothing I couldn’t manage, but I’m guessing things will get trickier from here on out.
Flash mockup of the Mii Maker
Make your own Wii avatar. I’m guessing the actual thing will have a male/female body option, or am I missing it on this one?
The knowing charms of Studio 60
The knowing charms of Studio 60
Slate’s take on Studio 60, which I adore. (Slate’s a little slow right now. If you get an error, just wait for it to reload.)
02 October 2006
Cold open - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cold open - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I didn’t know this TV term until last week’s Studio 60.
Schneier on Security: Expensive Cameras in Checked Luggage
Schneier on Security: Expensive Cameras in Checked Luggage
Saw this awhile ago. Pack a gun in your checked luggage (and declare it) to make the airline take extra care of your stuff.
01 October 2006
SNL 32
Yikes. The season premier of Saturday Night Live does not bode well for the year. The show had been doing pretty well in the past two years, but there wasn’t one funny sketch on last night, though I do have to give them credit for making fun of themselves at the end of the water bottle bit. the references to Studio 60 and 30 Rock were astute, but served to remind me that the two shows about fake SNL shows are going to be better than the actual thing.
Wario Ware Wii Demostration
Just linking to this video because it shows that the game asks if you’re left- or right-handed before you start playing.
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