To Much Heat and Time

What do you do when you have 2 cases of CPU fans and some spare time in during your lunch hours?

You build this...




According to the builder (who worked at a computer store) it didn't make the machine run any faster but did make it weigh more. Comparing it to a "freshly-dead hippopotamus".

McEnroe thinks someone else is taking a "whack" at Tennis

What happens when matches start to look suspicious? Well John seems to think that someone is being threatened.

"Someone may have threatened the players, and they are put in a situation. I'm guessing that could happen. That would make more sense to me than top players throwing a match for money."

And he doesn't think throwing a match makes financial sense which is why he thinks that people are being threatened.

"Throwing a match for money would be stupid, as you would be risking losing what you've worked for your whole life. It seems crazy that players would take that risk for money. It would make more sense that they've been threatened in some way and that's why they're doing it.

So now after thinking about every late game call in basketball, whether my baseball player is on the juice, and if my football coach is cheating now we get to think about this as well? That is if anyone is still watching tennis.

A Brief History of the Sitcom

With the writers strike going on I thought it would be valuable to review the history of the TV sitcom. That bastion of new and fresh ideas.

Controlling the HD-DVD with Wizardry

Trying to choose which format to choose in the HD Wars? Well HD-DVD has a new feature that is being released on the latest Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD. In this new release you can control the HD-DVD player of your friends and have a screening party in multiple locations. Here is the quote directly from www.lookandsoundperfect.com

Gather your own army of fellow wizards for a live community screening party. Invite other owners of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD to simultaneously watch from their own internet-accessed players and text with your remote, PC or cell phone. When you host an invitation-only viewing, you control the film by pausing and playing the feature on everyone’s machine. You can chat live with your friends as you watch.

While many people will try to understand why you would want to text on your phone to your BFF while the movie is playing instead of just going over to their house I have a different take on this. How useful will this be for creative houses that want to show and review the latest edit but the customer is in a different city? This technology could be quite useful edit and post houses who struggle to control the experience and the review process of their customers when they are outside of the walls of their suite.

Will it Rock?

I put a story about Will it Blend in a company newsletter earlier this year. Here is the newest installment.

Swimming Upstream

So we have seen many things move from the land of the virtual to television but not usually the other way. Well Apple is showing a great use of the virtual space to create an ad the would never be possible on the idiot box. We have all seen the Justin Long and John Hodgman Mac vs. PC ads and they are now crossing their own fourth wall and admitting that they are inside the virtual world of the web along with all of us. The ad consists of a banner across the top of the page and then Justin and John in video window on the side of the page.

Take a look at this very cool and I believe highly effective ad. Because of the nature of advertising on the web I cannot link to it but someone (Mac Rumors) has been nice enough to capture it and post it on You Tube.

Totally Shelved

Well, after an announcement at CES 2007 of a dual format HD Disc by Warner Home Entertainment that they were developing, the dual format HD DVD/Blue-ray hybrid disc is now "on-hold".

"The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold," explained Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats...

So for a format that was announced..
Six months later pushed back...
And is now on hold, Jim Noonan has this to say...

It was offered purely as an industry solution -- and it is still a good and viable solution that has no expiration date.

So in deference to the news I will put my moment of silence for Total HD on hold... with no expiration date.

Two Words - Good Video

While I am not into campaigning for anyone it appears that Chuck Norris is. Check out this video posted on You Tube from the Huckabee campaign. This is a great example of how candidates (and companies) can reach out and talk directly to voters or customers. And Mike Huckabee is pretty funny...