xkcd is even cooler than I thought

How did I miss the ALT tags in xkcd?

(hat tip)

No Wonder No One Listens to Classical Music

I was listening to WCRB (Boston's classical music station), and their station identification phrase is "Relaxing and Unique, Boston's Classical Music Station".

No wonder so many people think that classical music is the province of orthodontist waiting rooms.

Feh.

Missing Bill Clinton, part the Nth

Bill Clinton on the Moveon.org ad posturing.

Bad Web UI Rant #769

Is it just me, or are more and more web sites looking more and more like bad knockoffs of MYST, without the pretty pictures? I mean, in terms of trying to find functionality -- you have to go rooting around a bunch of different pages and dropdown menus and make sure you don't overlook some small link over in the corner, and so on.

No, wait, MYST was fun. These are more like bad knockoffs of Riven.

(I am mostly referring to DNS registrars, who in my experience mostly suck. There's a reason I'm up at this hour.)

WTF? #1517

In Orem, Utah, a 70-year-old woman was arrested for not watering her lawn.

Apparently she "is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors."

WTF?

Failing to water your lawn is a misdemeanor? In Utah? It's a desert, for crying out loud!

Review: Heroes

Heroes Season 1 came out on DVD a couple of weeks ago, and The Spouse and I got it from Netflix (actually, we rented disks 3 and 4 from our local video store because we were impatient) and watched it. We enjoyed it immensely.

Good writing, good acting (great casting), high quality production values (including really perfect use of CGI to flesh out various locations), great camera work, and a fabulous soundtrack (which isn't out in audio form yet, more's the pity). Overall, it's one of the best shows I've seen in a long time.

What I'm mostly worried about going into Season 2 are (a) having to go from a DVD marathon to week-to-week broadcasts; and (b) how do you top Season 1? A big problem with a lot of SF/Fantasy work is that the first volume (book, season, whatever) establishes the backstory and the universe (which is, after all, a whole lot of the fun), and later volumes can't do more than embroider it or maybe reinterpret it.

One minor quibble: we were both able to predict a major plot point in the season finale based on a prophetic dream they showed us about 2/3 of the way through the season. It seemed fairly obvious. But there were enough twists and turns throughout the season that had us chortling and OMFG-ing that I can't really hold that against them too terribly. (There was one episode mid-season that had a really big plot hole in it, but I cannot at this moment remember what it was, so I guess it didn't stress me out too much.) The pacing was pretty good, too.

Bottom line: highly recommended.

Bad Web UI Rant #761

Today's things I hate about bad web sites:

• Sites which can't (won't) take passwords with non-alphanumeric symbols. (I've even run across some sites which won't take numbers. [!])
• Form fields which are supposed to take numbers (like phone or credit card numbers) and require you to not include spaces or dashes. How hard is it to strip those out?

Weak.

</rant>

Summer Movie Roundup

Well, RavenWeb did a summer roundup, so this give me the excuse to do so as well....

I finally saw two Will Ferrell movies on DVD over the past few days: Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory.

Talladega Nights is somewhat funny, and might be worth a rainy-Saturday rental, but it's not fantastic. (The extras are far funnier than the movie, which is always a bad sign.) It's too long by 30 minutes or so, and goes in too many directions at once -- over the top crazy for a while, then maudlin, then tear-jerker, then crazy again. It takes genius writing and editing to pull that off, and the filmmakers don't in this case. The supporting cast is quite good, with small but good supporting turns by Molly Shannon, Amy Adams, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jane Lynch, and Gary Cole, plus a criminally underutilized Sacha Baron Cohen. The two actors playing "Ricky Bobby"s sons ("Walker" and "Texas Ranger") are fantastic, especially the younger, Grayson Russell. Expect to see more of him.

Blades of Glory was a pleasant surprise: a tight, funny movie that never takes itself terribly seriously. Ferrell and Jon Heder play men's figure skaters who get booted out of competition for fighting, and later combine to do doubles skating (through a rules loophole) to get back on the ice. Hilarity ensues. Lots of homosqueamish jokes ensue, but they don't seem mean-spirited (except towards the characters showing the squeamishness). Good guest turns by Jenna Fischer, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and several real figure skaters round out a fun time. Recommended for a nice brainless hour and a half of fun.

RavenWeb may have liked Knocked Up, but I thought it rotted. The 40 Year Old Virgin was far funnier, and far less stupid, in my opinion. I found Knocked Up implausible, semi-insulting, and far too hyped. Plus, I don't like Seth Rogen much. Paul Rudd was good in the supporting role, but it's Leslie Mann (director Judd Apatow's wife) who really shines -- as an actress -- her character was annoying.

I know I saw more movies this summer, but I can't remember them.

If Edward Gorey Adapted "The Trouble With Tribbles"

For all of you who don't read Making Light, Edward Gorey's version of "The Trouble With Tribbles".

<stunned, awed silence>

Time to Sell Sun Microsystems Stock?

Sun is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

WTF?

Bandwidth Theft

So apparently dozens of people have decided to use a picture from my web site as their blog picture, by simply linking to it (which of course, means that my web site gets a hit every time someone reads that blog page). Many of these are in Spain.

I have renamed the picture and unlinked it from anything in my web pages (it was only linked to one).

I am very tempted to replace the picture with a GIF containing the text "I Steal Bandwidth", in English and Spanish. But since the original picture was a copyright-violating scan of the Michael Whelan cover of Chanur's Venture (which ironically has no cover image available on Amazon), I think I'll (regretfully) pass.

Don't Use Antibacterial Soap

I've long thought that antibacterial soap should be banned, and now scientists confirm this.

It does make me wonder how creationists deal with this, since antibiotic resistance is clearly Evolution In Action.

Why Cory Doctorow Matters

Cory Doctorow writing in the Guardian about Digital Rights Management:

The DRM business model is the urinary tract infection of media experiences: all of the uses that used to come in an easy gush now come in a mingy, painful dribble - a few pennies out of your pocket every time you want to watch a show again, hit the pause button, or rewind.

Cheney Earns his First Name, Again

Dick Cheney in 1994 explains why George H.W. Bush didn't push on to Baghdad after the Gulf War.

If I weren't so cynical about the current Administration, I'd wonder what happened to Cheney between 1994 and 2000 to make him so seriously crazy.

Stardust

Saw Stardust tonight with The Spouse. We both enjoyed it a lot. The theater was at most 25% full for a 6:30 show, which doesn't bode well for the weekend gross. It's not like I'm not going to buy it on DVD anyway.

It's a tad long and a bit loose at the end -- some extra editing might have kept the pace up. But other than that, it's really enjoyable. Some reviews knocked Claire Danes, but I thought she was well cast. Some reviews (possibly the same ones) thought it was confusing -- but that just tells you something about the reviewers, since I thought everything was fairly clear. (Admittedly, I've read the book -- but not in a couple of years.) Michelle Pfeiffer was great, De Niro was over-the-top (in a good way), and small parts by Rupert Everett and Ricky Gervais were wonderful. But in my opinion, the real find is Charlie Cox, as Tristran (the hero).

Highly recommended.

Best Panda Video Ever

Back in the mists of time, one of the first things we recorded on our first TiVo was an Animal Planet (I think) show on pandas. There was a clip that we used the TiVo "jump back 8 seconds button" on incessantly. I wish we'd kept that recording, but now we don't have to worry, because the Group Mind has placed it on YouTube. Now if only can I figure out how to put it on continuous loop....

Congress to President Chimpy: Sure, Go Ahead, Spy on Americans, We Don't Care, We're Pussies

Once again The Onion lives up to its motto ("America's Finest News Source"): Congress Approves Surveillance Measures: What do You Think?.

John Scalzi on Floridians

John Scalzi wonders What the F**k is Up With Floridians.

Avenue Q meets Fiddler on the Roof

I can't believe I haven't already linked to this mashup between Avenue Q and Fiddler on the Roof. (Part of the Broadway Cares / Equity Fight AIDS program from 2006.) Possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in years.

Netflix and Bill Hicks

So Netflix knows I like Bill Hicks. But their explanation why they recommended one of his DVDs is really weird:

Buh.