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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