End-to-end... and everything in between

Way to go, Disney! I just read an article stating that Disney will be including a regular DVD with several Blu-Ray releases. As both a new Blu-Ray owner, and a parent of two five-year-old Disney fans, I'm pretty thrilled about this. Our SUV/crossover has a DVD player for long trips (our rule: one-way Trips of >= 1 hour only), and we were curious about what we were going to do if/when we started moving to Blu-Ray for our purchases. I don't know if this will affect Pixar releases (our Wall-E, for example, has no DVD copy), but it'll be nice knowing that at least for some purchases, we get the hi-def version AND one we can play on those >= 1 hour car trips. (2009-01-07 17:36:39.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Who am I rooting for this weekend? Michigan! If the oddsmakers and pundits are to be believed, my two favorite NFL teams (my current-home Patriots and my childhood-home Packers) will be facing each other in a couple of weeks at the Super Bowl. Remember I said *if* the oddsmakers and pundits are right. If they are, I'm going to have to hide my Packers sweatshirt for the rest of January. And worse (well, worse for the football fan in me), I'm going to miss the game 'cause I'm on vacation with my family!

So what am I going to do? Simple: Root for Michigan!

Huh? Sure Dan - Michigan won their bowl game already... showing the SEC that not ALL Big Ten teams are pushovers, and sending Lloyd on with one more bowl win. What's this got to do with the NFL conference championships?

Well let's see here:

• Chargers - Well, nobody's perfect!
• Giants - Amani Toomer, who SI's Peter King calls, "one of the good guys... also one of the underrated guys.
• Packers - Michigan Heisman winner Charles Woodson (who I saw at the 1997 Rose Bowl). The last Heisman winner Michigan had also spent some of his late career with Green Bay... and Desmond Howard took home a Super Bowl ring!
• Patriots - Sitting on the bench at that 1997 Rose Bowl was a 6th round draft pick named Tom Brady.

No matter who you're rooting for this weekend, I've two words for you: GO BLUE! (2008-01-16 21:40:32.0) Permalink Comments [0]

No HD happiness. Who do I blame? DirecTV? TiVo? Both of 'em? Telcos? Okay... I'm mad. I see that TiVo is offering another lifetime subscription transfer if you buy a new HD TiVo between now and the 8th of November. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, it's anything BUT cool if that lifetime subscription is on a DirecTV + TiVo box. TiVo's fine-print spells out quite clearly that:

DirecTV DVR's with TiVo service not eligible for offer. I know TiVo and DirecTV get along about as well as Sun and NetApp (okay... maybe not THAT bad), but this leaves me, and I gotta believe some others, in the lurch.

I've determined I'm more TiVo-happy than DirecTV-happy. I've heard multiple-independent accounts that other DVR services and software leave a lot to be desired, especially if one had TiVo at one point. I've also continued to hear verification that the cable companies still suck, and my own recent experiences with the Cable Company have been less than stellar. I even started using Verizon for local phone service... something I swore I'd never do after then-Bell-Atlantic botched a simple two-phone-line installation so badly that I had to violate the network interface boundary to fix it.

So I see several opportunities for improvement, but I'm assuming any of the companies in question will bite. I doubt it'll happen, but if the Red Sox can win a second World Series in four years (GO SOX!), anything's possible.

Hey telcos --> pay attention, here's one geek's wishlist:

• Comcast - Start charging rates for two-cable-card HD setups that are competitive with DirecTV. You can get bonus points if I can get bundled discounts with business-class Internet service.
• Verizon - Stop holding the Mass. legislature hostage with a statewide TV franchise bill and keep rolling out more FiOS. I'd kill for 5MB upstream (lets me do more work), and I'd even pay for it. Throw in FiOS TV (which is supposed to have the bandwidth of DirecTV with the bundling/saving opportunities of cable) and I might be all over it. I told your phone reps that if they do well, they'd get more of my monthly subscription money!
• DirecTV - Get over yourself and re-partner with TiVO. I hear that if John Malone gets a large interest that such a re-partnering may very well happen. Throw in the $200 lifetime subscription upgrade fee, and I'll keep facing South-Southwest!
• TiVo - Unless one of the above miracles happens, please consider a migration path for DirecTV Tivo users? I've a bad feeling one of your divorce terms was to not poach from the DirecTV subscriber base. If so, that's too bad, because I'll bet there are a lot of people who want to keep TiVo more than DirecTV.

Any takers? (I somehow doubt it, but a guy can hope...) (2007-10-30 22:14:08.0) Permalink Comments [1]

"Adaptation Issues", and a Neuromancer movie? Ahh what to do while test runs finish? Sometimes I get additional real work done, but when it gets close to a holiday, or just the end of a day, I visit Movie websites.

Coming Soon recently quoted an article from Variety about one of my favorite novels - William Gibson's Neuromancer getting a producer for a (long-overdue, IMHO) movie.

Now granted, some of the book hasn't aged very well (Gibson's introduction to a recent re-issue asks about the lack of cell phones), but some of it would still translate VERY nicely to the big screen. Of course, the last major-release attempt to bring one of his works to the big screen was a dismal failure, story-wise, even though (again IMHO) the look-and-feel was close.

Another movie site I visit introduced me to a phrase - "adaptation issues". Basically, if one has enjoyed a story in one form, one may have problem what that story is retold in another form. Ask die-hard (insert-book or comic here) fans about how (book or comic)'s movie version just messed things up SO BADLY. Often, some of their criticisms turn out to be well-based, other times, it's just acute fan{boy,girl} nitpicking. One's adaptation issues seem to be tied to how beloved the original source material is by someone. My only real experience with adaptation issues was the reaction I had to Johnny Mnemonic, where I felt like there was a wonderful opportunity that had been squandered. I really hope Neuromancer's movie adaptation doesn't leave me feeling the same way.

To that end, I'm going to resurrect a conversation I had with a former movie-site writer about who should be cast in a Neuromancer movie. Hey Widge -- care to revisit that cast again?
(2007-05-21 08:58:29.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Grudge Match (TM) to Jump the Shark (TM)? Now that I've got my "I like end-systems doing the heavy lifting" rant out there, it's time to lighten up for a bit.

One of my favorite humor sites is the World-Wide Web Fights - Grudge Match page. They take the 4th-grade (age 9 for our international readers) concept of "oooh, what if the Enterprise took on the Death Star?" to its maximum silliness and fun. I've been a regular reader (and occasional Bronze-Medal contributor as well) for most of its 10 years of existence.

So now, their current match has the interesting property of having cursed-actor Ted McGinty as one of the contestants... and their hint for their next match is "Jumping the Shark", which I'll let readers follow this link to see background information on the term.

I was concerned that one of my favorite sites would not make it to its 10-year anniversary. So I sent a mail, and got this enigmatic response (full poor-form top-posted reply included):

To: danmcd@kebe.com
Subject: Re: You're not going off the air, are you?

I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors.

- Brian (tm)

Dan McDonald wrote:
> 
> Please tell me it's a 10-year anniversary stunt... bringing Ted McGinley
> aboard, and then teasing us about Jumping the Shark... please, please, please
> don't go off the air!
> 
> A fan since 1995 (and recipient of both a Final Word and a Bronze Grudgie),
> Dan McD.

-- 
- Brian Wright
WWWF Grudge Match
http://www.grudge-match.com/

"So consistently funny it ought to be developed into
a series for Comedy Central!"
                                - Entertainment Weekly

So I'm hoping it's just a stunt - and a funny one at that. If you're semi-knowledgible about American pop culture, you'll probably bust a gut at some of the matches on this site. Please click that link above and visit... before it's too late?!? (2005-01-09 19:19:23.0) Permalink Comments [0]