Hit the accelerator!

Star Wars rebooted for the short-attention-span fanboy. I love it!



This is clearly a popcorn-worthy train-wreck in the making. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

The Man Who Can't Be Moved

Now that iTunes has finally caught up with all our recent computer and hard-drive switches, we are facing the dreaded limits of DRM protection on some of our music.

I know that there are solutions to all of this, and that you can go through the whole rigamarole of deauthorizing computers or burning encrypted tunes so you can then reload them, but frankly, I can't be bothered.

Listening to my music -- that we paid for -- shouldn't be so complicated.

So the iTunes Store is now officially banned in our house until they unchain my music.

For the most part, this is easy. We're still old school and buy most things on CD. At least that way you know you own your music, and it provides a handy backup copy, just in case.

That said, there's something to be said for DRM-free, click-and-download convenience.

So tonight, on a lark, wanting to hear some stuff by the The Script, a new Irish band that I missed as a free iTunes single last week, I decided to test drive AmazonMP3 for some instant gratification.

The result?

Suprisingly simple, and, more-importantly, easily transferable.

Amazon has set up a program that downloads seamlessly into iTunes, making the process hassle-free. Copying the files over to our other computer worked perfectly.

I know this is exactly what the music labels want to hear. That the marketplace is shifting to Amazon, providing competition to Apple's dominance in online music.

Unfortunately this all just continues to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

The bottom line is that I want to buy my music on iTunes. I like my iPod and iPhone just fine, and like the convenience of having a one-stop hub for it all.

I know it's all a silly old pissing war between the dominant online music store and the still-petrified old-school labels, but come on guys, why aggravate a customer who still doesn't mind paying for the songs?

Oh yeah, The Script album is actually really good. Here's a taste of them live, singing The Man Who Can't Be Moved:

Shaking up Shopping Online

What happens when products collide online?

HEMA, a Dutch retailer, has the answer!

Thanks to a cousin of mine for the heads up on this great, eye-catching way to mix things up for the cyberspace shopper.

Doogie Belts It and James Bond Does His Best to Kill the Disco

ABBA may be timeless, but Dr. Horrible steals the show this weekend.

We packed a theater for Mamma Mia! last night, and while the film has it's highlights (Christine Baranski steals the film at one point), there's one glaring flat note in the guise of a former James Bond. Pierce Brosnan can't hold a tune for his life, and drags down the Aegean ABBA romp hard-core. Everyone else, Meryl Streep-included, is toe-tapping serviceable, if not completely memorable.

There were still plenty of cheesy ABBA-tastic numbers to leave me grinning at the end, but this is no classic movie musical. It's disposable popcorn fluff, semi-choreographed on a Greek pseudo-isle (you never see more than a little bay).

I missed the get-everyone-dancing-in-the-aisles energy of the original stage show where confused suburbanites wondered why we knew all the words to ABBA tunes from the 1970s and heaven-forbid would get up to dance during a Broadway spectacle!

Hope, however, is not lost in the musical this weekend, because Neil Patrick Harris has an evil plan to bring it to the interwebs and perhaps take over the world.

A writer's strike induced whim of a project from Joss Whedon and company, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is a warped trio of episodes chronicling the rise of an Harris' evil henchman and his trusty death ray. Throw in Nathan Fillion as a sterotypical all-american hero who lands the girl with a heart of gold that Dr. Horrible loves. Oh yeah, and they sing.

Pierce Brosnan eat your heart out, because a trio of mini-webisodes are eating your big screen for lunch.

You can watch the three Dr. Horrible episodes for free today and tomorrow, after that you'll have to pay a few bucks on iTunes . It's money well spent for a lark of a side project that is charming, campy and fun. I know I'll be picking up the special edition DVD.

Between this and How I Met Your Mother, I am just loving the reinvention of Neil Patrick Harris (no, I haven't seen his unicorn turn on the Harold and Kumar movies, but thank you stoners for bringing him back into the zeitgeist).

The Illusion of Propaganda in the Digital World

With Iran showing off it's missle prowess this week, what's wrong with the front page of all these major newspapers?


One of those four launches never happened. The image was digitally altered from this photo:



With photos getting beamed around the world, in this case by Agence France-Presse, and published in newspapers and websites alike instantaneously, how do you know something is real?

This isn't a new problem. Think back to the O.J. Simpson trial when Time Magazine controversially altered a photo of the former football star for it's cover.

The challenge for media in the digital age is how to catch these things, and more importantly, how to acknowledge when they've been duped.

Iran clearly wanted to show four launches.

The real story is that their missile tests didn't quite go according to plan.

The Thing About Making it Easy...

More anecdotal evidence that the music companies face an uphill climb to replace iTunes...

Gee, who would have thought that integration and ease of use might matter more to the masses than just DRM.

Pop Siren

So, I was long a fan of Sarah Lane ever since she was the less-bosomy antidote to Kevin Pereira's amusing pseudo-machismo over on G4's Attack of the Show.

After teasing me with some adventures abroad last year, she has emerged again with a fun Internet show that I just stumbled upon tonight.

Enjoy the latest episode of Pop Siren:

"There is something very appealing about this guy's warped mind."

An apt reaction from the friend who clued me into this on Facebook.

If you are still trying to find that perfect holiday gift for the person who has everything, THIS may be the perfect antidote to having it all.

Unless you're a lady and you meet Ellen

You get the feeling 30 Rock kisses up to their corporate masters with product placement one week, so they can push the envelope the next.

Thanks to yet another Tina Fey and company "oh no they didn't" moment, we may need to add GFJ to the old worn out GLBT:



As an aside, this clip is my first attempt at playing with NBC's new Hulu content portal that I wrote about HERE.

It's still a bit clunky, but it did let me pick out the section I wanted to embed here.

That said, I do not like how it makes replaying selected clips difficult. As with my previous experience with Hulu, I'm not sure I am really looking to play a whole episode on my blog, as much as NBC might prefer that.

Yet another content portal...

I saw the future of streaming video today (at least as far as NBC and Fox are concerned) and, it wasn't that exciting.

Hulu is NBC and Fox's latest attempt at a content portal. It's still in hush-hush beta-testing, but they've started leaking embeddable files, which is how I ended up watching the pilot episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer tonight on EW.com



There's a lot I could complain about the user experience, but I'm sure some of that will be tweaked before they fully launch.

My overriding feeling though?

Why would I want to watch this on my computer?

Buffy was better than I expected, but the tight confines of an embedded window only made it look murky. Despite the hype of better streaming quality, it completely froze 37 minutes in.

I'll grant that Hulu was a step up in quality from YouTube, but what's the point? I don't go to YouTube for hi-def. What I do go to YouTube for is a one-stop shop for content (preferably in small bites).

When it comes to TV shows and movies. I prefer to watch on those nice big flat screen TVs we have in the living room and bedroom. You know, where you don't have to squint to see things for 43 minutes.

It used to be "57 channels and nothing's on." Cable and satellite have already exploded that number. I don't think we really need thousands of Hulus to comb through on top of that, along with their annoyingly incompatible, or undownloadable, file types. Don't get me started on Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD, either.

At some point by throwing so many darts at the board, are media companies making it too much of a bother for me to find their media anymore? I'll stick mostly to CDs and DVDs until they're done pissing on each other.

Social networking gets complicated

How did social networking become so complicated?

Social networking sites are supposed to make my life easier, my friendships stronger, reconnect me, help me professionally, or whatever else some net marketing hookster comes up with next.

The problem is, I'm up to five already, and counting...

Here's the rundown:

Friendster: The grand-daddy of them all. Remember when we were all writing the cute testimonials that started this whole craze? I only pop on there occasionally when I get a birthday reminder.

Connexion: The gay Friendster. This one I use more frequently, but mainly because it has become a useful e-vite alternative for many of my Denver friends.

ASmallWorld: The exclusive Friendster. This is the pseudo-swanky invite-only network towards which old friends from my travelling days have migrated. I check it sporadically for old friends.

LinkedIn: The professional friendster. In theory it finds you jobs and professional opportunities. I rarely check it.

FaceBook: I just got roped into this one by another long-lost friend. It looks like the new Friendster for those who've outgrown myspace (which I skipped, as the too-young-for-me friendster) but are too cool for Friendster anymore.

I also have a pending invite to something called Doostang, which sounds like the "exclusive" LinkedIn. I've declined others along the way.

At some point doesn't this get too complicated and defeat the whole purpose?

I keep finding that the glory of web 2.0 seems a bit overhyped as we all find our own little niches where to hide.

Who has time for all this?