Darren McGavin RIP

I'm old enough to have seen the original Night Stalker when it first showed as a made-for-TV movie and then as a short TV series. It starred Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a reporter who searches for all kinds of weird phenomena. It was a great movie and series, and it was of course a huge influence for the creators of one of my other favorite series, The X-Files. Others might be familiar with McGavin with his role as the father in A Christmas Story.

He died of natural causes yesterday at age 83. Rest in peace, Carl Kolchak.

"Night Stalker," "Christmas Story" Star Dies - Yahoo! News

Boycott Blu-Ray and HD-DVD

So says Mike Evangelist (creator of various DVD authoring programs) and I am quite inclined to agree with him. Yes, the movie studios would like to make it as inconvenient as possible to watch their new HD disc formats (if you don't have a HDCP-compliant HDTV or computer monitor, a HDCP-compliant player, and a HDCP-compliant computer/video card, you are SOL), while still charging us yet again as we buy yet another version of Lord of the Rings and Matrix and Star Wars.

Let's put it this way: I'll boycott until AACS is cracked. I still have my DeCSS t-shirt that is illegal under the DMCA: hopefully DVD Jon is working on a DeAACS...


The HD boycott begins now

Put your CD on your iPod, break the law.

At least according to the RIAA, who, along with the MPAA, are trying to make their customers into thieving criminals rather than happy consumers.

Apparently, the RIAA does NOT consider copying a CD that you've purchased onto your MP3 player to be a "fair use" in the legal sense of the term. They merely consider it a temporarily authorized copy... and it's only "authorized" because they really have no way of stopping you. If they had a way, you can be sure they would not allow you to do so without charging you for that privilege.

Unreal. I think if the RIAA and MPAA could come up with a way of charging people for THINKING about a song or a movie clip, they would do so.

EFF: DeepLinks

Finally found a pic of my first computer

I'd forgotten that I was given this toy when I was a wee lad. It was basically my first computer. A very goofy computer, but my first computer nonetheless. Finally entered the magic words in Google ("toy computer plastic wire") which led me to one picture, which led me to this better picture. Behold! The Digi-Comp1!

Digicomp-Kit-1963

The Great HDCP Fiasco

More consumer-hostile fallout from the upcoming high-definition disc wars. Regardless of whether you're in the Blu-Ray or the HD-DVD camp, you are going to be screwed when it comes to watching your discs on your computer. Not only will it require Windows Vista (ick) and a HDCP-compliant monitor (which virtually no one has), but it will also require a HDCP-compliant video card. And Firing Squad reports that NONE of the current shipping ATI or Nvidia cards will work. They all support HDCP, but none of them actually have the key on the card that allow them to tell the monitor it's OK to display the HD video.

Add that to the recent cable card news that only certain manufacturers will be able to make/sell cable-card-ready systems, and you're basically talking about a business plan that makes it as difficult as possible for its customers to purchase a working product. Hollywood is slitting its own throat.

The Great HDCP Fiasco

If you turn me up...

Not sure if this link requires registration, but it's a review of the all HD (well, pretty much all HD) Super Bowl XL. It's favorable overall, with one glaring exception, which we all noticed at the time. Namely, the audio for the Rolling Stones. It was so bad over HD that I switched back to SD (ick) for a while just to see if it was a Dolby 5.1 problem. Basically, it was just plain horrible, in either mode of audio. You want the Stones to be loud, but you could barely hear them. Ironic that Sir Mick had a bazillion audio monitors all around the tongue-shaped stage, but we couldn't hear jack. Someone's head should have rolled.

Super Bowl XL Review

Sorry, no more questions for the President.

We had a very very fortunate opportunity to take a tour of the West Wing--yes, the real one, not the set of the soon-to-be-defunct series. The only place we were allowed to take pictures was in the press conference room. So we all clambored behind the podium for our turn. The room is amazingly smaller than it seems on TV. Maybe Anna will be standing behind the podium for real taking questions one day... hopefully as President and not as Press Secretary, but I'd be proud of either...

Keith Olbermann rips Bill O'Reilly a new one

Excellent abuse of the egomaniacal Bill O'Reilly by MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann. Love it love it love it.

onegoodmove: Olbermann Skewers O'Reilly, Again