Paul Newman: Celebrity Worth Celebrating

"He was smilin'. You know, that ole Luke Smile.'

The first time I saw Paul Newman was in The Sting. My dad and I watched it together one Sunday afternoon when I was about 7 or 8 years old. A few Sundays later, we watched Cool Hand Luke. Saying these films had an impact on me is an understatement. I wanted to be Paul Newman. And if I'm honest, I still do.

I've seen all of Newman's films save a couple, (still haven't gotten around to The Silver Chalice), and I'm never checked my watch while he's on screen. I still find him electric.

Though I can't ever say who my favorite actor of all time is, I would say Newman is the closest to being just that.

Of all the actors who represented The New Men (Brando, Dean, Cliff, Newman, etc.) none of them were as consistent, revealing, charming, and beloved.

Even though many may think Newman never quite hit the notes Brando did, I think, even if I don't necessarily agree with that assertion, that Newman showed us what an exceptionally good-looking man, with exceptional acting chops could do with dedication, hard work, personal stability, and a humble approach to life with a low center of gravity. Most of our movie stars go the other way.

A contemporary of Brando, comparisons abound. But Newman was criticized as not being quite the talent Brando was, and not quite as good looking as Brando was. But, ladies and gentlemen, they are two different types of actors, and VERY different types of men. But who else can you compare Newman with other than Brando? Who else has left a mark so deep, wide, and enduring on American Film. Who else, at 83, was still a relevant force in cinema? And Newman never, ever, went anywhere. There was no flame-out, or mini-retirement, or comeback. From 1954 to 2006 he made roughly and movie a year.

And out of those movies, at least 10 are certified classics of American cinema.

1. The Hustler
2. Hud
3. Sweet Bird Of Youth
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
5. The Long Hot Summer
6. Cool Hand Luke
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
8. The Sting
9. The Verdict
10. Absence of Malice
11. The Color of Money
12. Nobody's Fool

I listed 12 because some may disagree with one or two.

The point remains: Who compares?

In addition to being a cinematic national treasure, Newman was also one of our greatest philanthropists. His charity work is the stuff of legend.

We've lost one of our greatest citizens. A role model for all who cared to look and pay attention.

Paul, you'll be missed deeply.

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Seems Low to Me

Slashdot | Quarter of Workers' Time Online Is Personal

"Most people spend more than 25 per cent of their time online at work on personal activities. And 80 per cent of emails sent by volume in the workplace are personal. Bosses often have no way of tracking Internet activity or policies to define what staff can and cannot do. Paul Hortop, who reviews company network security for consultancy Voco, said the most common websites visited by personal web surfers were online trading sites, instant messaging/chat services and peer-to-peer sharing sites (allowing movie, music and software sharing)."

Ebert on 'Choke'

Choke :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

All the pieces are here, but you have to glue the kite together to make it fly. "Choke" centers on a character who is content to be skanky and despicable, and who does not reform, although the plot seems to be pushing him alarmingly in that direction.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I did read the book and found it to be disjointed. SO Ebert's first line about the movie seems to me to correct so far as the story would go. It was extremely funny at times, sometimes for a long time. But at the end of the day, it left me feeling bad about things in general. I think Rockwell would be perfectly cast though. I'll be giving it a watch.

That's Pretty Sweet

Electronista | Samsung brings 8MP camera to touch phones

The M8800 Pixon is the first known touchscreen cellphone to carry an eight-megapixel camera and carries extra photography features normally reserved for dedicated cameras, including blink and face detection, a wide dynamic color range and image stabilization. Video capture is also sharper than most at a roughly DVD-level 720x480 at full speed.

Sweet!

Bookmarks: Foxmarks Takes Your Bookmarks Mobile

Bookmark-syncing application Foxmarks has updated their site to support easy access to your bookmarks from your iPhone, iPod touch, or other mobile device. Last week we highlighted O-Marks, an native iPhone application that syncs bookmarks to your iPhone. O-Marks requires you to access those bookmarks outside your browser, though, which isn't ideal, and it seems like a bit of an overkill for something as simple as bookmarks. With the Foxmarks update, just point your mobile browser to my.foxmarks.com, and it'll serve up the mobile interface of your bookmarks complete with search. It's fast and easy to use, but I'd throw in a vote for opening links in new windows so you can switch back to it more easily. A direct bookmark sync with mobile Safari would be ideal, but the mobile version of Foxmarks is a close second. Don't have an iPhone? The Foxmarks update includes a similar small screen interface for your mobile device, too.

I already use foxmarks to keep my bookmarks synced between machines. This will be a nice addition to the iPod Touch in my pocket.

Score One for the Citizens... This is America, After All

DoJ to Congress: We've got better things to do than act as pro-bono lawyers for Hollywood, scrap the IP Enforcement proposal - Boing Boing

Fred sez, "Yesterday, the DoJ sent a letter to Senators Specter and Leahy blasting the new civil enforcement provisions in the latest "IP enforcement" legislation, S.3325, pending in the Senate. The letter is a hum-dinger, pointing out that the bill would turn taxpayer-supported DoJ civil servants into pro bono lawyers for Hollywood."

Comcast Bandwidth Cap News

Electronista | Comcast: data caps will rise over time

Comcast on Wednesday told GigaOM that the company will adjust its Internet bandwidth caps if it becomes clear that overall use is increasing. Although not explaining any specific corporate policy, provider spokesman Charlie Douglas says the company's 250GB threshold isn't fixed and that the cap is liable to change over time either as the average use goes up. A large number of complaints is also likely to trigger changes.

The monthly cap, which goes into effect at the beginning of next month, has drawn mixed reactions for its effect on Internet use. Although the set limit addresses earlier problems with Comcast instituting varying, secret caps, the company so far has not provided any means for customers to buy more bandwidth or outlined a specific point at which it would change the cap. Other providers, such as Rogers in Canada, have already instituted clear limits but also allow overage charges with their own cap to prevent excessive fees.

Critics have likewise charged that the very existence of a cap discourages the use of Apple TV and other media devices and services that would otherwise challenge Comcast's legacy cable TV business. Although Douglas claims the average user depends on just one hundredth the amount of data used in the cap, a single online HD movie often consumes between 4GB and 6GB of data by itself.

Hilarious. Not Surprising, But Hilarious

'I'm a PC' made on a Mac

Microsoft's "I'm a PC" advertising campaign was created on a Mac and the celebrity spruikers brought in by the software giant are all professed Apple fans, it has been revealed.

Hidden information contained in images from the ads published on Microsoft's website show they were created on Macs, a Flickr user revealed in a published screen shot.

Microsoft responded by quickly scrubbing the hidden "metadata" information from the images.

It issued a statement saying: "As is common in almost all campaign workflow, agencies and production houses use a wide variety of software and hardware to create, edit and distribute content, including both Macs and PCs."

The revelation is ironic because the ads are part of a broader $300 million campaign designed to spruce up Windows Vista's image and tout the PC's advantages over the Mac.

Microsoft has already run two ad spots featuring Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld awkwardly meeting in a discount shoe shop and attempting to reconnect with real people by moving in with a normal family.

But even though a third ad featuring Seinfeld was filmed, Microsoft dumped the comic last week in favour of new ads featuring more current celebrities such as actress Eva Longoria, singer Pharrell Williams and even author Deepak Chopra declaring "I'm a PC".

But all three are Mac fans, Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag revealed. Longoria owns a MacBook and Williams carries an iPhone encased in gold, while Chopra, in a column on nuclear weapons published in the Huffington Post, said it was "good to sell more iPods" as they were "entertaining and harmless".

Great News for Beefeaters and Porklovers (Such as Myself)

An interview with Jennifer McLagan, author of "Fat" | Salon Life

Jennifer McLagan is on a mission: to dispel the myth that fat is a "greasy killer." Or, as she writes in her new book, "Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes": "Human nutrition is complex, and no two bodies function the same way, but for the majority of us, eating animal fat is not the death sentence we have been led to believe."

Weak Wireless?

Lifehacker has collected some cheap ideas for extending your home wireless network to reach your special spot.

Parabolic surfaces are perfect for collecting errant wireless signals and focusing them, and the food strainer in your kitchen cabinet is a parabola waiting to do something other than hold pasta. Instructables user Dan Folkes describes how to turn a $10 Asian cooking strainer and an equally cheap USB Wi-Fi dongle into a signal-boosting dish. Dan boost his signal enough to detect an additional 20 Wi-Fi hotspots using NetStumbler to sniff them out. If you'd like to modify your wireless router instead, check out how to boost your Wi-Fi antennae for less than a dollar with an antenna replacement and how to boost your wireless signal with tinfoil "sails" on your router antennae.

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Cool Hand Luke USB Stick

For years people have taken it upon themselves to turn geeky items into cool, trendy, must-have gadgets. Look at the success of Nintendo with the Wii, they finally were able to make videogames cool! Other examples include digital cameras, cell phones, glasses, and opening boxes.

Well, now, finally someone has gotten the USB stick right! I’ve seen plenty of failed attempts at making the USB stick cool: the flash light, laser pointer, fan, magnifying glass, etc. I actually don’t understand why it took so long to figure this one out. It was as simple as putting a bottle opener on it! Here’s a quick description from the TrekStor web site: “It is special because it incorporates an extra bottle opener function combining practical data storage with a thirst-quenching aid that is always to hand.”

“Special” might be an understatement, this is awesome!

Original Post: Engadget

(Hat tip: Tasty Booze)

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Make a Mac Out of your Eee PC

Wired tells you how.

Feel like stepping beyond the limits of Apple hardware? Want a Mac netbook for under $650? How about an EeePC running Mac OS X?

At least part of the appeal of the dimunitive EeePC netbook is its hackability -- from Linux to Vista, intrepid hackers have figured out how to run just about everything on the EeePC.

In fact, this tutorial was written on a Mac OS X-powered EeePC.

While many would question why you'd want to go to the trouble of installing OS X when there are many Windows and Linux distributions available out of the box? Maybe you're looking for a challenge. Installing OS X on non-Apple hardware provides plenty of chances to flex those (very metaphorical) geek muscles.

Have fun.
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Ninja Roller-Skate Attack!!

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Neal Stephensons New Book - Released, and this...

From Popular Science:

Neal Stephenson's Top 6 Heroes—and Their Awesome Jobs

The cult legend's newest book, Anathem, hits stores today, destined to be an instant sci-fi classic. In honor of the launch, PM's resident Stephenson expert breaks down why his favorite characters represent the best of what the beloved author's out-of-this-world vision has to offer to the geekosphere here on Planet Earth.

Read the list here.

(Hat tip: Instapundit)
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Lars Ulrich is an Idiot

While I have a softspot for the other members of Metallica, I have long disliked Lars. And this proves no exception.

This video suffers from his presence, his proximity to the camera, his fidgeting, and his apparent miscalculation that thinking of what to say before the camera rolls is a good idea.

And to the Metallica fans out there participating in this event, I warn you to be careful, it's probably a trap in which you do this and then Lars asks for full payment for the rights of the songs.

Good luck.


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Hitler and I Feel the Same Way

Who knew the Fuhrer was a Volunteer fan...


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No Shit, Sherlock

DreamWorks' "Disturbia" is a rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Manhattan federal court.

You don't have to be Jimmy Stewart in a wheelchair to figure that one out.

Full article.
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Go, Mickey! And, er, Barton Fink.. ?

TORONTO — Fox Searchlight Pictures put some heat into an otherwise cool film market this week by beating out competitors for distribution rights to “The Wrestler.”

The film, which is directed by Darren Aronofsky (“The Fountain”) and stars Mickey Rourke as a retired wrestler looking to make a comeback, was picked up after a Sunday night screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Variety, an industry trade paper, reported the acquisition price as $4 million, but a person briefed on the sale said the price was somewhat lower. The bid was nonetheless a strong one, given the surplus of films and scarcity of buyers.

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Battlefield YouTube!

Over a period of twelve hours, between this Thursday night and Friday morning, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology. Clips included footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology , and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting. Many accounts were suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.

YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up. Whether or not American Rights Counsel, LLC represents the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology is unclear, but this would not be the first time that the Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to silence Scientology critics. The Church of Scientology DMCA complaints shut down the YouTube channel of critic Mark Bunker in June, 2008. Bunker’s account, XenuTV, was also among the channels shut down in this latest flurry of takedown notices.

Original article.
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Sad, but Apparently True. De Niro Please Wake Up

I think the last good De Niro film was The Score. My Favorite Last De Niro film was Ronin.

Since then we have a parade of crap. And I don't think Pacino has done much better.

After leaving CAA, a post by an insider at the agency left the entertainment industry talking.

Here's the article from Alternative Film Guide.

Robert De Niro’s CAA Controversy

April 22nd, 2008 by Andre Soares

In her blog Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke posted an "exclusive" scoop about Robert De Niro’s departure from Creative Arts Agency (CAA) to look for greener pastures at Endeavor. One commenter, purportedly a disgruntled (and anonymous) "CAA Agent," posted the following message that has been circulating all over town (make it "all over world" by now).

See below:

(Note: I didn’t bother using [sic] next to the several typos. The name of the Al Pacino movie, by the way, is 88 Minutes. The three-hour De Niro film is called The Good Shepherd. It could be that the "CAA Agent" got those film titles wrong; it could also be that all the typos found in the message were deliberately made; and it could be that the message itself is a total fake.)

Why did Bobby leave us?

They promised they could turn back time.

They promised they could get him 20m a picture.

They promised they could get a release for his Something happened, a Barry Levinson show biz pic that’s has no market, and Mark Cuban lost a fortune on.

They promised they could get him the $1m production fee on every picture he does, that he and his partner put their names on, and do nothing to earn.

They promised they could convince Hollywood that they should still pay that 1m vig on top of his acting fees.

They promised him they’d find a respectable release for the Pacino picture he did last summer [Righteous Kill], that basically stars two 65 year old guys as detectives — while the audience is under 35, and has no interest in seeing.

As I said, they promised him they could turn back time, and make him 50 again, and relevant, and hot, and interesting to today’s movie going audience.

And they probably promised that they’d find a way to erase the memory of all of America about the number of god-awful paycheck films he did during the past ten years.

DeNiro had a choice ten or so years ago. He could either go the Nicholson route — very selective, very particular, protect the brand — or go out sending himself up in tripe like Analyze this, which made money but turned him into that "old psycho guy."

And he could of concentrated on quality stuff, but instead wanted to keep funding his little empire in New York.

A year ago, Bobby came to us complaining that he was losing a fortune underwriting the film festival every year, and wanted us to find bigger corporate sponsors.

We tried, but the stumbling block was always the same thing: The corporations all thought that the Tribeca film festival was a not-for-profit organization, sponsored by the city. But when they got under the hood, they found out that it was all for the greater glory of Bobby and Jane and her husband, and the corporate stuff shied away from it. Bobby held us responsible for his own greed, his own avarice, and his own megalomania.

And it’s just like the studios now ask us: Why should we pay this guy - who doesn’t open a movie - the payoff to his production company, just so he can add his name as a producer.

Sure, there’s more; he thought we should have delivered an Oscar for his paint-drying slow 3 hour Good Shepard. But we couldn’t.

And finally, if really want to understand why now, why today, look at the review today in Variety for the Pacino "86 Minutes" stinker. It’s directed by Jon Avnet, (a career ending review), who just happens to be the director of Bobby’s next movie. (With Pacino.)

Bobby blames everybody but himself for the way he’s squandered his career, and refused lots of quality pictures because they wouldn’t give him producer credit.

Good luck in the Hotel Business, pal.

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PC, Mac, Linux Variant? Does it Even Matter Anymore?

LifeHacker asks, with the advent of WebApps, is the OS battle a moot point? I personally don't think so. No matter what browser you use, or can use, you still have to have a machine, and that machine still has to be able to A) Boot up, and B) Access local files

I used to be thye guy on the left, but I'm now the guy in the middle, who is, since the release of OS X, more a composite of the guy on the right.

The biggest difference between Windows on the one hand and Mac/Linux on the other is that Windows seems to be always set up to make it easier for the computer to do what it wants you to do. Macs seem to be set up to make it easier for you to get the computer to do what you want it to do.
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iTunes 8.0 Leaked - Mock-Up Revealed

Check out the article on AppleInsider.
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Cyber Crime Hall of Fame

Interesting article in PC Mag, which compiles a list of the most infamous hackers and their crimes.

There are all sorts of crimes, but the ones that probably happen most often and hurt the most are crimes of opportunity—breaking into a house with an open window, nabbing the wallet from a purse left unattended, stealing an unlocked car, etc. Now, for the average Joe, breaking into NASA's infrastructure and bringing online giants like Amazon to a grinding halt would not fall into that category; for someone with in-depth networking and computer know-how, though, it's a different story altogether. Often the greatest tech crimes in history have little more reason behind them than "because it was there." More often than not, a hacker sees an open window—a hole in system's security, a backdoor, etc.—and climbs on through. And they don't do it for any real worldly gain, but merely to prove that they can. That's not to say that there isn't malicious intent underlying some attacks (take Vladimir Levin's $10.7 million hoax on CitiBank, for example). And we're not saying that all hackers are bad guys, but a few fall prey to the dark side and use their talents for evil—not good.

What does it take for a cyber crime to catch our eye? In compiling our list, we looked for a few things: ingenuity (had it been done before?), scope (how many computers, agencies, companies, sites, etc. did it affect?), cost (how much in monetary damages did it cause?), and historical significance (did it start a new trend?). Only one of the nine crimes we highlight ranks on all four counts. No matter how you slice it, though, each one of these security cracks warrants a, well, we'll let you fill in the exclamation.

Read it.

(Hat tip: Slashdot)
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iLovePhotos on the Way

Facial recognition software to organize and tag your digital photo collection?

Blue Lava has announced a new photo organizing app that relies on facial recognition technology. As users import pictures, iLovePhotos automatically detects the faces of the individuals in each picture; this allows users to then filter their library to show only photos of specific people. As users tag subjects, the app also begins to pull information from Address Book, relying on this to set up automatic sharing feeds. Photos can thus be set to upload automatically, and trigger e-mail notices with links.

From MacNN.
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Futurists

An interesting article from Rule 42 on Futurists' predictions from the past. A taste:

Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future
Date: 1963
Accuracy rate: 39%
Best predictions: Global library, subnuclear structure
Worst predictions: Cyborgs, fusion power

Clarke began this book with the statement “It is impossible to predict the future.” What he attempted to do instead was outline, in seventeen different chapters, seventeen different directions in which future research and technology might head, and the consequences of various inventions of the future. For the most part, he successfully navigated between what he identified as the Scylla and Charbydis of prophecy: the failure of nerve (not properly extrapolating from what already exists) and the failure of imagination (not factoring in the unexpected developments of the future). And since he was wise enough not to commit to concrete dates in those seventeen chapters, it’s nigh-impossible to grade his predictions, except to say that they still seem plausible.

In an appendix, however, he offered a “Chart of the Future,” and it is this frivolous exercise that I took advantage of. While Clarke correctly predicted translating software and personal radios, we still don’t have “wireless” energy or fluency in cetacean languages. Nevertheless, Clarke’s multiple visions of our future still seem much more cogent than most of the other futurists I read; he was just off on the time frame, which, as he admitted in his introduction, was not his strong point. I’ll give him a few more decades.

Some funny and interesting stuff. Read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: Boing Boing)
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Comcast to Limit Usage to 250GB/mo

Yikes!

The part that's scary is that they will suspend your service for up to a year if you happen to exceed the limit.

WHAT?! Note to Comcast... this is America. You CHARGE if we go over the limit. What are you, the high school principal?

The new bandwidth cap will affect less than 1 percent of Comcast customers, Douglas said. Those customers "are using so much bandwidth that they are degrading the experience of other users," he added. "Two-hundred-and-fifty gigabytes is an extremely large amount of data."

Some high-bandwidth users have asked Comcast to identify a specific cap so they know where the line is, Douglas added. Some other broadband providers also warn customers about excessive bandwidth use.

An average Comcast customer uses two to three gigabytes of bandwidth a month, Comcast said. To reach the 250G-byte limit, a customer would have to do one of the following: send 50 million e-mails, download 62,500 songs or download 125 standard-definition movies, the company said in its announcement.

(Hat tip: PC World)
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W0W

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And On Top of Everything Else...

Reports are that Paul Newman has only a few weeks to live. I guess I should have expected it at some point, but I didn't.

I'm reeling.

More on this to come.
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Isaac Hayes - R.I.P.

A voice and music that defined a whole era of sound. What strides he made in his own music and the production of the music of others. Bad weekend.

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Bernie Mac - R.I.P.

There are a whole lot of hilarious Bernie Mac moments. But one that made me laugh more than most of them was that scene in Ocean's Eleven where he is complimenting the car salesman's soft hands. I saw the movie on DVD and I hit rewind about five times and it never really got any less funny. Such discomfort for the salesman!

We lost one funny man. I was really hoping his funniest moments were ahead of him.
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Stay Informed - Here's What the MPAA is Up To

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Would You Drop In?

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WOW...

From Boston Dynamics:



What's eerie is the emotional reaction I have to seeing this robot get kicked or slip on ice. Actual empathy.
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Get Some Nutz

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How to Look Like a Responsible Adult with Help from the Internet

If you're tired of forgetting things, then the internet can help you remember. Even if you don't have mobile web access. And it's slick!

This is what I've been doing for the past few days.

First of all I'll give you my device breakdown.

RAZR cell phone (Verizon)
iPod Touch 16GB
MacBook Pro
MacPro (Work)
Dell something (Home)

So, I can get to the internet from all of these devices but the phone. The downside is I have to find some WiFi to do it. I don't need WiFi for a cellphone. But I don't get web access from it.

I list my number of devices so you can understand my need for synchronicity. The way to get that is through the web, but if I can't to the web when I'm standing in the middle of the grocery store, what good is all the stuff online going to do me?

Well, I have solved the problem - and then some.


Two free services Jott and Sandy, provide me with exactly what I was looking for.

Let me give you and example:

I'm at the bookstore and I know there are a couple of books that friends have recommended to me, but I wrote them down in a note pad that I left on the dresser at home. So I wonder around, buy a magazine and go home.

Ever happened to you?

Now, let's look at another example.

I'm at the bookstore and I know there are a couple of books that friends have recommended to me, so I send a text message "lookup books" to the Sandy email address.
A moment later I get a text message that reads:

(Re: lookup books)
I looked up "books" and found:

#1 Books
*Anathem - Neal Stephenson
*Bloods a Rover - James Ellroy
*Motherless Brooklynn - ?

That was a text from Sandy. Neat-O.

Now let's say I'm driving down the road and I suddenly remember that I'm supposed to call my mother tomorrow and wish her a Happy Birthday. I don't trust myself to remember this at the proper time by sheer brain power.

So I hit speed dial on my cell phone and call Jott. Here's the way the call goes:

Jott: Who do you want to Jott?
Me: Sandy.
Jott: Sandy. Is this correct?
Me: Yes.
Jott: BEEP!
Me: Remember to wish mom happy birthday tomorrow at ten a-m tag with annually
Jott: Got it!

So here's what happens behind the scenes:

Jott records and transcribes my call. The text of what I said is sent to Sandy. Sandy sets up a reminder to text (or email) me tomorrow at 10 AM to wish my mom a happy birthday. And by saying "tag with annually" Sandy has set this to happen every year at the same time.

So the next day I'm at my desk and get a text message that says, "Wish mom a happy birthday."

And I do.

These are just two examples. Both of these services have full web interfaces so you can tweak and refine as you see fit.

And the best part: both are absolutely FREE.

Check them out here:

Jott

Sandy

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Neil Young on How The Man is Keeping Us Down

Neil Young slams Apple, iTunes

Folk and rock star Neil Young has issued sharp criticism of Apple and the iPod, Fortune reports. Speaking at a conference hosted by the magazine, Young said that the sound quality of recordings has been reduced to "Fisher-Price toy" levels in recent years, and companies like Apple are to blame. "Apple has taken a detour down the convenience highway," says Young. "Quality has taken a complete backseat -- if it even gets in the car at all."

Although providing faster downloads and more space on music players, Young believes that the prevalence of the MP3 format -- spurred in part by the iPod -- has resulted in a general lowering of sound standards. Music has become more "like wallpaper" as a result, he claims. "We have beautiful computers now but high-resolution music is one of the missing elements," he adds. "The ears are the windows to the soul."

The soul. Yeah, like, far out, man.

As expected, Mr. Young blames the evil corporation, rather than acknowledging that it's apparently what the consumers want and will pay for.

There are lossless formats widely available Mr. Harvest Moon, you stone-aged dinosaur. The problem is they are HUGE files, and nobody but the strictest audiophiles insist on using a terabyte for what they could put on 10 gigabytes.

The fact of the matter is anything at over 256kps on an mp3 is virtually the same (to humans, anyway) as a lossless recording. Anything at 320kps and above and only the most minute dynamics are lost. So when you compare the file size of a 320kps rip and a Lossless FLAC rip (roughly a 1:5 ratio) I along with 99% of everyone else in the rockin' free world is willing to make that trade off.

For those who aren't, they don't need an iPod to begin with.

It's not the format that's making your music sound like shit. That would be your whiny, crackly voice. But to make sound even worse is your record company's and producer's jacking up the compression levels. That's not the fault of a format.

I can't believe somebody thought this newsworthy. From you I mean. I can't believe I'm even responding. Oh, well. Done now.

(Hat tip: iPodNN)
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OmniFocus for iPhone or iPod Touch

So far the iPhone/Touch 2.0 firmware upgrade is everything I want it to be EXCEPT for the lack of sync in the apps and their desktop counterparts. Many syncs are coming, but we're having to wait a bit.

One of the most annoying things about the upgrade is that Apple is still not offering any sync between Notes and Notes or a sync for To Do List. WTF?

So anyway, for those of you who were debating on dropping a Jackson on OmniFocus's syncable iPhone counterpart, here's the Macworld Review.

I'm passing. Partly due to the fact that at $19.99 OmniFocus iPhone is a full 2x the price of any app in that category, and for that I want flawlessness and perfection.

The Omni Group’s getting things done (GTD) desktop application for the Mac, OmniFocus, has both proponents and detractors. Many people who buy into David Allen’s Getting Things Done workflow philosophy (and who take the time to learn more about how GTD is done) find OmniFocus to be a powerful tool for creating and organizing tasks. Others, confounded by OmniFocus’ occasional complexities, wonder if maybe they’d have more time to get things done if they spent less time trying to figure out how OmniFocus can aid their organizational efforts. It’s likely OmniFocus for the iPhone‚ although not as deep as the desktop version‚ will be similarly viewed.

Full Review.
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LifeHacker's Brillant Idea

Build a Headless Laptop System [How To]

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

If you've got an old laptop with a busted monitor and nothing left on your warranty, don't trash it. Instead, consider the route taken by a user on the MacNN forums, who beheaded his laptop and turned it into a small-form desktop PC that fits on the underside of his desk—sort of like the under-desk gadget mount. Even if you don't feel like removing your laptop's LCD, you can still mount your laptop under your desk for the same super-clean effect. Be sure to check out the post for more details and to see the uncluttered finished product. If you're looking to have a little more fun with your headless laptop, check out how you can turn it into an arcade cocktail cabinet.

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Welp, That Settles That Then

From Wired:

Myth #10) The FBI has Nikola Tesla's plans for a "death ray."

Okay.
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For 650 (EUROS, I Think) The Slinky Chair

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Let the Arguments Begin...

I09's

Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction
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Much Needed

Viscous keyboard-cleaning goop

Posted by Cory Doctorow, July 22, 2008 11:32 PM | permalink

This Swiss goop ("Cyber Clean") is a viscous slime that you roll around on your keyboard, so that all the food particles and fingernail parings are swept away, while the germicidal surface de-germifies your icky, filthy, disgusting keyboard. Link (via Red Ferret)

From Boing Boing.
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Note to MPAA: GTFO of My Living Room

The MPAA is petitioning the FCC to lard cable television with "selectable output control," a DRM system that allows broadcasters to specify which of your TV devices can decode which shows. With selectable output control, parts of your home theater would go dark as you flipped up and down the dial: this show won't play through your Dolby, that one won't go to your PVR, this one won't go to your DVD recorder, that one won't work with your DTV set. It's the digital TV equivalent of one of those absurd Bond-villain world-domination schemes -- the idea that every device that can plug into a TV (including PCs, game consoles, etc) will be designed to shut itself off in the presence of a flag saying, "This device may not receive that program."

Media fascists.

Full article.
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'War Games' is to Geeks as 'Gotcha' is to Paintballers

From Wired:

Over the years, WarGames has written itself into the cult lore of Silicon Valley. Google hosted a 25th-anniversary screening in May, where keyboard jockeys cheered Broderick's DOS acrobatics. (Imagine Rocky Horror, but picture the audience in Hawaiian shirts and mandals.) "Many of us grew up with this movie," Google cofounder Sergey Brin told the packed house. "It was a key movie of a generation, especially for those of us who got into computing."

Fun article. Read it here. They have the original trailer and everything.
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Should Be an Interesting Read

I saw this author interviewed on Colbert. The interview was good comedy, but as an interview, it sucked - par for the course. So I was wanting to see what somebody thought of it outside Comedy Central.

I've just finished reading Jonathan Zittrain's The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, a provocative, well-reasoned, well-informed and sometimes frustrating book about the power of the Internet to allow people to be more effective at taking action -- whether that action is good or bad.

Zittrain talks about the principle of "generativity" in technology: the capacity of some technology to allow its users to make new things out of it, things the designer never anticipated, and does a very good job in enumerating the characteristics that make a technology more or less generative. Zittrain is more-or-less in favor of generativity: he talks about all the amazing things that the human race has accomplished by using that most generative of technologies: the public Internet and the general-purpose PC.

But Zittrain points out that generativity contains the seeds of its own destruction, because it allows bad people to leverage their malicious intentions -- with malware, spyware, DDoS attacks and so on -- to the point that an average person using the Internet is at constant risk from creeps and thugs. And what's more, all average people use the Internet because it's been so thoroughly woven into our lives.

Zittrain fears that the power of the Internet to let creeps do bad things will lead to a regulatory backlash and a series of Draconian laws that take away all the social benefits of the Internet, and that this will be enabled by a consumer backlash against general-purpose PCs in favor of "tethered appliances" -- TiVos, iPhones, etc -- that grant a measure of security by taking away the user-modifiability that is at the heart of the principle of generativity.

Full post.
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Things in the Night Sky

From Boing Boing:

UFOCapture is a Windows application that helps you videotape meteors and other fast-moving stuff in space. You hook up a sensitive video camera to your computer, point it out your window, and while you slumber, the software saves all the good bits.

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For Sale: Douglas Adams's 'Hitchhiker' Typewriter

From Boing Boing:

There's something so appropriately surreal and disarming about seeing a literary cultural artifact like the autographed typewriter Douglas Adams used to write The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on a book reseller website and sitting right next to a huge red "Add to Basket" button. But there it is, the original Babelfish that translated Adams' own genius-madness into transmissionable form!

Current Bid:

$25,257.94

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Neal Stephenson: Do Genres Even Matter Anymore?

This is a 40 min lecture by one of my favorite authors. If you click on 'Open Tools' there are chapters you can skip to.


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Whoa!

Long lost Metropolis scenes found!

Among the footage that has now been discovered, according to the unanimous opinion of the three experts that ZEITmagazin asked to appraise the pictures, there are several scenes which are essential in order to understand the film: The role played by the actor Fritz Rasp in the film for instance, can finally be understood. Other scenes, such as for instance the saving of the children from the worker's underworld, are considerably more dramatic...

Can't wait to see this.

(Hat tip: Boing Boing)
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Hellboy vs Ghost Hunters

One of our favorite super heros in a spot with our favorite scifi channel duo.


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More European Street Soccer Insanity

Pub Fifa Street 3 (Foot Capoeira)
by mehzz

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LMAO!!

Awesome... probably old, but I just saw it.


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What I Watched in June

Slow month for movie-watching.

Evil Dead 2 (rewatch) |8| High-energy, mad-cap horror. Got to explain the term "Camp" to my daughter.

Semi-Pro | 5 | Without John C. Reilly, Will Farrell is only half as funny. Some hilarious moments. But only lukewarm overall.

Frailty (rewatch) |9| Excellent thriller. Great cast/performances. Wonderful piece of writing.

Mixed Blood |6| Gritty, ultra-low budget, drug-gang movie from the mid-80s. Even the New York Cops speak with foreign accents.

Army of Darkness (rewatch) |8| Third Evil Dead installment. I forgot just how great it was.

Homicide (rewatch) |9| Flipping channels and caught this on Encore. Highly recommended.

The Onion |8| Not really sure how to rate this. If you enjoy The Onion paper/website, you'll enjoy this movie. Or this stream of sketches. Or whatever. Funny offensive stuff. Pleasantly surprised.
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Heh.

From Boing Boing:

My latest Guardian column is up: "Warning to copyright enforcers: Three strikes and you're out" argues that if the entertainment industry wants the right to disconnect accused infringers after three accusations, then they should be prepared to have their corporate Internet access terminated if they make three false accusations. Thanks to Kevin Marks for the idea!

The internet is only that wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press in a single connection. It's only vital to the livelihood, social lives, health, civic engagement, education and leisure of hundreds of millions of people (and growing every day).

This trivial bit of kit is so unimportant that it's only natural that we equip the companies that brought us Police Academy 11, Windows Vista, Milli Vanilli and Celebrity Dancing With the Stars with wire-cutters that allow them to disconnect anyone in the country on their own say-so, without proving a solitary act of wrongdoing.

But if that magic wire is indeed so trivial, they won't mind if we hold them to the same standard, right?

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Neal Stephensons New Book

Coupla things:

Ask Neal Stephenson questions about Anathem

and

Spooky, wonderful music CD in Neal Stephenson's new novel

Stoked.
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Blade Runner Lego

One of a kind, though. Sorry.

Check it out.
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Pistol-Cam

No...seriously. Look.

I'm so getting one.
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Vis a Vis that post of Italian OST Music...

... Rod (of the Bloody Pit of...) sends me here for an interview with Fabio Frizzi:

This was also the start of a fruitful collaboration between Frizzi as a solo composer and Lucio Fulci. "Fulci loved music and knew very well what kind of score his film needed," Frizzi says. "As usual, after reading the screenplay, we talked about our project; then it was time for demos, discussions, arrangements, and recordings. We were always in close contact." Frizzi also talks about his personal relationship with Fulci; "He was a friend, probably my first 'senior' friend. I'm grateful to Lucio; he's one of the [people] who helped me to learn how to compose my beautiful and hard work." Frizzi composed the music for Fulci's ultra violent mafia film Contraband in 1980, and then worked on the scores for the films that many consider to be of Fulci's "golden era"; The City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell, 1980) and The Beyond (aka Seven Doors of Death,1981). Frizzi's film themes aided Fulci in his dark atmospheric works, by creating scores composed of dissonant orchestral themes and eerie sounds made from the most radical synthesizers of the time.

Read it all.
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Watching Movies with My Daughter

My daughter, 11, is my buddy. But at 11, I'm sure she's every bit as impressionable as I was at that age. So as we delve into more mature content, I really have to watch it. As a family, we enjoy watching true crime shows, ghost shows (except with stoopid British psychics), and stuff like that. Lately, though, she has expressed a strong interest in "scary" movies, and that puts me in a tough spot. Horror has never really been my thing, I've seen quite a bit of it, and I know what I like and what I don't like. And what I don't like is ultra-realistic gore. Bleh. I haven't seen Hostel, Saw, or any of that cause I just don't consider it a pleasant way to spend time.

However, I think The Shining is one of the finest films ever made. And she is loving the NBC Fear Itself series on TV (as am I). And while I'm not letting her watch The Shining just yet, I am having a blast letting her watch things like Jaws and Alien. Watching her try to make up her mind - as the shark threw itself on the back of the Orca, and Quint lost his grip - if she really, really, truly wanted to see Quint get chomped on, is a series of facial expressions I'll never forget. (She passed - this time).

But with a movie like Frailty, for example, while there's no gore, and very little in he way of lanuage, deals with themes I'm not sure I'd like her dealing with just yet. Doubting God, religion, and daddy. That's a tough spot. Even though I think Frailty is a great movie, can I actively endorse it to my 11 year old daughter? I'll pass.

We did watch Evil Dead 2, though. HAHAHA! She loved it. Army of Darkness is on deck. It's so funny cause she knows Bruce Campell from some kid's show that she watches (!) But I get to explain to her that these movies are where he got his start and that the director is the guy who did the Spider-Man movies. She eats it up.

I need to go back and watch Bubba Ho-Tep cause I can't remember the language.

So you'll see a lot of rewatches in my monthly movie summaries. My baby-girl is why.
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Proof? We Don't Need No Stinking Proof!

What could possible go wrong?

From Wired:

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

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Ghost Hunters

Few shows entertain me and the fam more than Ghost Hunters. We watch it religiously. It's by far they best of all the haunted house shows on television. I really shouldn't even say that. It's in a league of it's own. They don't employ psychics or any of that, and they spend most of their time trying to debunk claims of paranormal activity. And while their methods aren't exactly scientific, they are fun to watch and think about.

Here's a vid someboy compiled of what they consider the Ghost Hunter's best evidences for paranormal activity spanning the run of the series. There are a couple of good ones missing. And I doubt any of this wil mystify you without seeing the full episode from which the evidence comes in its full context. But it's still fun.


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Fear Itself: Episode 3 "The Family Man"

As I previously mentioned, I wasn't all that impressed with the opening episode of this series, but the second episode was VERY good, and the third and current episode keeps that pace.

These episodes are stand-alone, 40 min horror/supernatural thriller movies. So you don't have to know what's going on before watching the latest episode. But if you want to catch up, you can watch full episodes online here.
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A Man Who Uses His Remarkable Skills for Evil

FOOT 2008 (REMI GAILLARD)
Uploaded by nqtv

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GOL!

Got this the other day from sources undisclosed.

Excellent fun.
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Firefox 3 - SMOOOOOKIN'

This is awesome. Good lookin', quick and chock full of features I haven't even gotten to yet.
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Firefox 3 Debuts In the Morning

From Wired:

Firefox 3 — available for download at 10am PDT Tuesday — is the culmination of a two-year quest to build the best browser ever. And while it’s not perfect, it comes pretty close.

If you're not already a Firefox user, nows the time to make the switch. If you are, you're stoked.
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Pocket Money (1972)

Just ordered this on DVD for like $1.95 plus S/H.



I think this movie is hilarious. It's not for everybody, and it wonders in places. But there is plenty of hysterical moments between Newman and Marvin. Oddly enough, Terrence Malick wrote the screenplay. More than worth the 2 bucks from sellers on Amazon.
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Speaking of The Wire

While surfing past the trailer for the last post, I came across this gem for fans of The Wire.

The Wire with a laugh track. Genius.


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From the Creators of the Wire

Generation Kill premiers July 13th on HBO. Seven part miniseries. Based on a book I haven't read.

Nonetheless... stoked.


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This Looks Like Fun

Fat Guy Stuck in the Internet.
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Poster Printing... Solved!

I found out recently that an old standby of common printer drivers since Print Shop and C64 days has disappeared from almost all normal printers. That i sthe poster setting. This setting simply allowed a user to take a file that was large and print it out - full sized over several sheets of paper that were then taped or glued together to make one large print out.

Well, good luck finding that feature now. Especially on common (whether expensive or not) HP models. From a choice of over five (!) HP printers and one non-HP on my network at the office, not one had the ole poster print feature.

I was trying to print a rather large Network Logic Diagram. Something one would figure a lot of companies do from time to time. Other people may want to print, say, an 8 foot poster of Lee Marvin holding Angie Dickenson upside down out a window... or something. The concept is the same.

Anyway, for Mac users, problem solved.
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O.M.G

Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files.

For years, both kinds of Web surfers have paid the same price for access. But now three of the country's largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity.

One of them, Time Warner Cable, began a trial of "Internet metering" in one Texas city early this month, asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cellphone minutes.

That same week, Comcast said that it would expand on a strategy it uses to manage Internet traffic: slowing down the connections of the heaviest users, so-called bandwidth hogs, at peak times.

AT&T also said Thursday that limits on heavy use were inevitable and that it was considering pricing based on data volume. "Based on current trends, total bandwidth in the AT&T network will increase by four times over the next three years," the company said in a statement.

All three companies say that placing caps on broadband use will ensure fair access for all users.

Full article.
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Wireless N

Wired Magazine does a good round-up of some of the latest N Routers.

Good stuff if you're in the market. I'm not now, but will be in a few months.

Check it out.
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Hyperwords Is a Bad Mofo

Don't use Firefox? What are you thinking?

Here's another awesome reason to use the best browser in the world.

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Fear Itself

I tuned in for the first episode of NBCs new series Fear Itself, a Twilight Zone-style 13 episode series and was impressed enough to tune in this week.

I'm glad I did. The second episode, "Spooked," was much better than the first. Eric Roberts starred as a rough cop turned private eye who is haunted by his past. I know it sounds conventional, but it's not. The writing is tight as a drum.

Excellent episode. You can catch it here.
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Eastwood to Spike Lee: 'Shut your face.'

This is great:

Clint Eastwood says Spike Lee should "shut his face" about the lack of African-Americans in "Flags of Our Fathers."

"Has he ever studied the history?" Eastwood asked the U.K.'s Guardian in an interview published on Friday.

While promoting his own war movie, "Miracle at St. Anna," about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought the Germans in Italy during World War II, Lee said Eastwood's Iwo Jima movie "Flags of Our Fathers" lacked a single African-American.

"There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in 'Flags' or 'Letters From Iwo Jima']. That was his version: The negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version," Lee said recently at the Cannes film festival in France.

In response, Eastwood told the Guardian: "A guy like him should shut his face."

"He was complaining when I did 'Bird' [the 1988 biopic of Charlie Parker]. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else."

As for "Flags of Our Fathers," he says there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, "but they didn't raise the flag. The story is 'Flags of Our Fathers,' the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate."

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Funny Stuff

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr.

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Spot a Fake Photo

In case your interested or curious, you can check this out at Scientific American.
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Y'all Hear That? We Usin' Code Names

Apple is indeed well into the development of Mac OS X 10.6, which the company has internally code-named "Snow Leopard," according to ArsTechnica.

Citing a person familiar with the situation, the technology website confirms several of details the next major Mac OS X upgrade first reported on Tuesday, including a scheduled release as soon as Macworld 2009 this coming January, and that it will not introduce any major new features.

Instead, Snow Leopard is said to focus heavily on performance optimization and security, a move that will in all likelihood widen the gap between Mac OS X and Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system in those areas.

"Things like the MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod touch, and other mysterious devices that have yet to be announced need better performance for better battery life, and that's definitely something Apple wants to excel at in the years to come," wrote Ars' Jacqui Cheng.

Unconfirmed is whether the software will be shown off or discussed at the company's annual developers conference next week. However, AppleInsider in recent weeks has been told to expect discussion of "another big cat" at the event.

Also unconfirmed, but somewhat likely, is that Apple will completely wrap Snow Leopard in its Cocoa application programming interface (API) set, meaning that applications written via the company's legacy Carbon API will fail to run on the new system.

Adding corroboration to an AppleInsider report published last September, Ars adds that Mac OS X 10.6 is expected to support only Intel-based Macs, leaving owners of PowerPC-based systems of yesteryear out in the cold.

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Email Selected Text From Firefox with Right-Click

This is an awesome little Firefox plugin.

Highly recommended. Mac users Ctrl+Click and Email-To (Seamonkey) will activate Apple Mail.

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): If you find yourself regularly selecting, copying, and then pasting text from your browser into emails, Email This! is a definite time saver. A right-click (or toolbar) menu lets you directly compose a new Gmail, Yahoo, or Google Apps web mail message with the selected text, or pass it into a mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook. Those options can be added to or whittled down, and helpful shortcuts (Alt+G for Gmail) makes text sending even quicker. Email This! is a free add-on, and works wherever Firefox does.

Email This! [via gHacks]

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One of These Days We Won't Install Anything

Adobe has launched a new online office suite that brings together several existing Adobe services under a new domain — Acrobat.com. Adobe’s online office tools include its Buzzword word processor, the conferencing app ConnectNow and a 5GB online storage area for sharing documents with other Acrobat.com users.

It continues...

While Acrobat.com is available through your browser and is squarely aimed at competing with the likes of Google Docs and Zoho Office, Adobe is also offering a version that runs from the desktop via AIR. For the moment, the AIR version doesn’t allow offline document access and syncing, but Adobe claims that will be part of a future release.

Aside from a much slicker interface, Acrobat.com doesn’t offer many features above and beyond what you’ll find in Google Docs or Zoho Office. However, when the AIR version gains offline syncing capabilities, Adobe may possibly have a real winner on its hands. Other potentially interesting developments include the possibility of integrating Photoshop Express, the company’s online version of Photoshop, into the suite.

Full Story.
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Secret Everyday Tips and Trick from Japan

I get a kick out of stuff like this:

When it comes to life and getting things done, we like to do things a little differently in Japan. When I break a glass in the kitchen, I don't use my vacuum cleaner to clean it up; I use a slice of bread. When my socks become dirt-stained from running in a muddy ravine, I don't pour bleach on them; I stuff them with marbles. And to save space and money, I have never bought a document shredder. I just stuff incriminating documents in a stocking and toss them in the washing machine.

In Japan, there's an organic, non-commercial cure for almost anything. It's a tradition that blossomed in the post-WW2 era when people had to save money and space for economic reasons. Today, this habit of utilitarian thriftiness paired with a quirky national sensibility has spawned a phenomenon called urawaza—a collection of offbeat life hacks and unmapped shortcuts. It's also the subject of my new book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan. Keep reading for excerpts on how to silence a crying baby, get rid of splinters, swim backward, make grass greener, and easily clean up egg yolk... all using common household objects.

1. How to make a baby stop crying
Dilemma: Sure, the baby's cute. But why won't he stop crying?
Solution: The secret to stop a crying baby lies in making the sound you produce during the mouthfeel stage of wine tasting.
Why this works: When babies are still in the womb, the noises they can hear are limited to those in the 6000-8000mHz range. The sound you make when you slosh the liquid behind your lips during wine tasting takes place at about 7000mHz, reminding the baby of a time when the world around was peaceful and the whirs and stirs inside Mommy's tummy soothed him back to a sleepy state.

2. How to get rid of surface splinters
Dilemma: You have dozens of little splinters in your hands and arms from helping your little brother with his secret wooden fort. Isn't there a way to get rid of them without having to pluck each and every one out with tweezers?
Solution: Dip your finger in a tub of liquid glue and smear it all over the problem area. Once it dries, peel it off, just the way you used to when you were a bored little kid in arts-and-crafts class. The splinters will come right out along with the peeling glue!
Why this works: Surface splinters are hard to get out not because they're deeply embedded but because they're tiny and hard to grasp even with the daintiest of fingers. The sticky glue serves a function similar to a lint roller when the glue is applied evenly across the splintery surface of your skin. Plus, it's super fun to peel glue off your hands.

3. How to clean up spilled egg yolk
Dilemma: The egg was supposed to crack in the pan—not on the floor. Now there's gook all over the linoleum.
Solution: Sprinkle some table salt on the spilled egg and wait ten minutes for it to soak in, then sweep the egg yolk right off the floor with a broom.
Why this works: The salt dissolves the lipoproteins in the egg yolk, which changes its texture from gooey to nongooey, making it easier to clean.

4. How to make the grass green again
Dilemma: You got a new puppy, and now your once beautifully green lawn has bare brown patches all over it from dog pee.
Solution: Pour some beer on the problem areas, making sure the foam's covering all the naked spots. The grass will be greener in no time.
Why this works: Beer has fermented sugars in it, which can act as natural fertilizer. The dying grass will feed on these sugars, detrimental fungi will die, and your lawn will start looking normal again.

5. How to swim backward
Dilemma: Your breaststroke is weak, your dives all end up as belly flops, and you can't even do half a somersault without getting water up your nose. You need some kind of skill that will set you apart from the rest of the pool party this summer—but what?
Solution: Learn how to swim backward! When you flex your feet instead of pointing them while holding onto a kick board, your body will chug through the water in reverse gear.
Why this works: The direction you advance in the water depends on which way you're kicking. When you kick away from your body—which is essentially what you appear to be doing when you flex your feet—you reverse the body's inclination to go forward. It takes a little bit of practice, but once you perfect it, the whole party will be wide-eyed with wonder at your newfound skill. Images by Joel Holland for Chronicle Books.

Check out Urawaza videos here.

Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan [Amazon]

Courtesy of Lifehacker.
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Mac Maintenance Myths

Confused on what needs to be done (or not) to keep your Mac running in tip-top shape? Dan Frakes at Macworld discusses some common disinformation.
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Speaking of Filesharing...

Why BitTorrent causes so much latency and how to fix it

(Hat tip: Slashdot)
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File Sharer? Check This Out:

By embracing DRM-free music, the record labels have finally admitted the truth to themselves: not just that the cat’s out of the bag, but that he’s high-tailed it halfway across the country. The levels of piracy were already immense before the recent DRM-free push, so the music companies clutching onto rights management was like polishing the brass on the Titanic.

Instead, the labels have redefined their enemy: sure, they’re still concerned about the shadowy legions of faceless file-sharers casually trading MP3s, but shadows are by nature intangible and hard to pin down. It’s much easier to fight an enemy that you can see, one that doesn’t bother trying to hide from you.

Like, say, Apple.

Full article at Macworld.
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Ubik Coming to a Theater Near You?

I'm going to act like I didn't see this until I hear more.

The French production company Celluloid Dreams has obtained the movie rights to Philip K. Dick's science fiction novel Ubik.

Ubik will join a growing list of Philip K. Dick novels and short stories that have been adapted into big screen movies (some badly, others brilliantly). Past movie adaptations include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Imposter, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly.

While a movie version of Dick’s masterwork Ubik is excellent news for fans of quality science fiction, its themes of regression and restoration, death and decay, the real and unreal, are likely to present challenges for any director hoping to capture the novel's complexity.

(Hat tip: Slashdot)
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Two Computers and an iPod?

The you'll immediately see the benefit of a program like this.

SuperSync has released the v2.4 update to its self-titled software, used to manage multiple iTunes libraries across multiple computers and iPods. The update adds several significant features, most notably the saving of user-created metadata, such as groupings, play counts, and volume and EQ adjustments. Supported custom video metadata now includes series and episode numbers, as well as type, whether movie, TV show or music video.

Check it out the review at MacNN.

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New Quicksilver Skins

If you're on a Mac and you don't use Quicksilver, you should probably check it out. Like so much great Mac stuff, it's freeware.

If you've tried Quicksilver in the past and couldn't "get" it, maybe a new interface will help.

Try some of these.

Windows user, the closest you're going to find to Quicksilver is Dash Command. I've used it and it's pretty darn good. It'll cost you $20 after a limited function trial.

Either way, you'll be amazed at how much time you can save by not stopping to go to the mouse every five seconds. Watch these videos.



Mac Users (Quicksilver).



Windows Users (Dash Command).


(Hat tip to Lifehacker on the new skins)
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Scientific Proof: Video Games Are Good For You

I knew it!!!

In the study, conducted as part of Hutton’s graduate thesis, 98 undergraduate and graduate students were asked to play a popular video game, Dance Dance Revolution, at various levels of complexity. The students took a standard creativity test after playing. The researchers also took readings of the players' skin conductance and asked players if they were feeling either positive or negative after the game.

"We looked at two emotional variables: arousal and valence," said Hutton. "Arousal is the degree of physical excitation -- as measured through skin conductance -- and valence, which is the range of positive or negative feeling."

When the researchers ran a statistical analysis of the two emotional variables and the students' creativity scores, they found two totally different groups with high scores.

Players with a high degree of arousal and positive mood were most likely to have new ideas for problem solving. The statistical tests also revealed that creativity scores were highest for players with low arousal and a negative mood.

Full article.

(Hat tip: Slashdot)
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