Insider - Star Trek purists, take a deep breath! On Sept. 16, the iconic ‘60s series will return to syndication for the first time since 1990, but with a startling difference: All 79 episodes are being digitally remastered with computer-generated effects not possible when Gene Roddenberry created the show 40 years ago. The news could cause Roddenberry loyalists to have a collective cow, but the longtime Trek staffers in charge of the makeover say they’re honoring the late maestro’s vision, not changing it.

Doing stuff like this is a slipery slope, to be sure. However, given the circumstances and options for the Original Series to date, I’m actually quite happy they are doing this. For starters, the Original Series has already had some very nice quality mastered DVD releases to date, preserving the original history - at quality levels better than they’d had before. This isn’t like George Lucas wiping his original trilogy from history, at least with any sense of modern quality. This project has been in the rumor vinelines for a little while, but the big surprise is that we’ll be seeing the first episodes of these withing the next couple weeks. I was NOT expecting to see finished product that fast. Ultimately, nothing makes me happier about this whole thing than knowing that Mike & Denise Okuda are overseeing it. They are the undisputed masters of all information Trek related, having written more encyclopedic and trivia information about Trek than most likely anyone else. Mike is one of the single most reliable Trek authorities that exists, so this project being under his supervision should be done with taste. And, knowing the reputation of this bunch of people, it surely means that they have nice, high-def masters of the original episodes, in untouched form as well (if for no other reason than for them to work with as source material). If/when they get around to releasing the episodes in HD form on whatever HD media they choose to, I’d be thrilled to have them put both the new updated versions as well as the high-def mastered originals on the releases. That would be truly wonderful.

Here’s a link to the StarTrek.com article.

In case anyone else wants to use it, I cropped one of the nice new Galactica season 3 promo shots for use on widescreen monitors (it’s 1920×1200). And hey, if you’re a fan of Galacitca (new or old - I’m a huge fan of both) and haven’t checked out the excellent work of all the folks over at the Battlestar Wiki project, you should spend some time on the site. It is in a constant state of improvement, and is rapidly becoming THE source of Galactica related info.

Official Bear McCreary Site - I am just finishing up the first two-hour episode and moving on to the following one. That episode actually turned out so epic that they recently split it into two shows. The second half of that split contains one of the most exhilarating action sequences I’ve seen… like, ever. I jumped out of my chair during the spotting session! You’re all in for a treat in October…

Composer Bear McCreary does fantastic work scoring the episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I love how frequently the Battlestar folks have to split episodes into two parts or get permission to air them long (or just cut them down and put the longer version on DVD, like the episode Pegasus will be on the upcoming season 2.5 DVD release). Hearing McCreary make a comment like the one above makes me drool with anticipation, particularly given some of the sequences that have even just been on this series previously. I have little doubt that the show can pull off a sequence as “exhilarating” as he mentions.

So, just finished watching the second episodes of Prison Break’s second season and Vanished’s first. Both were improvements over their season (and series) openers. Prison Break seems to be falling into a rhythm that was very much missing in the season opener, and it looks like they are going to follow through on staying with what happened in the closing of the previous episode. Vanished sparked a definite improvement over the less-than-perfect pilot. It’s still not great, but it’s surely and improvement. Mimi Leder follows up on the pilot by directing this episode as well. I’ll be curious to see how many she directs. I do have to wonder one thing, though. Why is it in these serialized dramas they have to make the 18 year old daughter character a complete and total frickin’ idiot (I’m reminded of Elisha Cuthbert’s character during the first season of 24)? They’re not doing too much better with the son. Though I think that plot might go in a radically different direction than they are leading us to believe. I’m gonna predict that Penelope Ann Miller’s ex-wife character will turn out to be a good guy, hiding from the senator and whatever underhanded thing he’s involved in (which is surely tied to the kidnapping, and the reason the ex was meeting with the current kidnapped wife). That’s my prediction, anyway. And hey, great to see Penelope Ann Miller getting some work. She’s an undervalued actress who needs to get some more high profile roles. Here’s hoping these two shows can continue to improve. They’ve got the advantage of a jump start on the other fall shows (how odd to get a jump start on anything when you are airing on Fox).

The Dilbert Blog - So the bottom line is that America is the father, the Islamic countries in the Middle East are the mother, and Israel is the offspring conceived by rape.

Some of Scott Adams’ best material happens when it doesn’t have to go through an editor. Such is the case on his Dilbert Blog. Most of the posts he makes to the blog are great. This one struck me as particularly funny and true. As he mentions the ability to be self-critical, I have little doubt as to which member of the quoted equation above would take more offense.

With all my recent reviews of upcoming fall shows, I want to particularly single out one new show that has already finished half of its first season run: USA’s comedy/mystery show Psych. It’s basically the new companion show to USA’s brilliant show Monk, and it’s a perfect companion. Like Monk, it does an 8 episode run during the summer then does the later 8 starting again in January. It’s basically half season runs. Well, Monk & Psych just finished their 8th and last episode of thier summer run last night. Over the last week or so I’ve been watching all 8 of Psych’s episodes, and have completely loved the show. It’s definitely one of the funniest shows on the air, and I highly recommend it. If tradition holds, USA will be rerunning the episodes frequently over the next few months before the second half of the season starts back up in January (and typically, they’ll do a marathon or to before that startup). I highly recommend checking out this fun and hilarious show.

The Inquirer - If you remember Commodore 64 that means you are not a teenager any more. We certainly spent a piece of our life playing with that machine in the dawn of PC gaming. Now, the Commodore brand sits on a range of high-end PCs equipped with Nvidia’s 7950 GX2 card and an AMD FX 60. Commodore is now a Dutch company and is testing the waters to see is there a market for such a PC with this legendary brand on it.

Cool. Trippy to see that logo and name on a modern machine? What’s next, the return of V-Tech’s “Laser” brand? How about some modern Heath Kits? Better yet, some modern Sinclair?

APC Magazine - Microsoft revealed today that no 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will be able to play back “next generation high definition protected content” (translation – studio-released BluRay and HD-DVD movies).

You know, everybody involved in any aspect of high definition media is, by simple deduction, retarded. I’m telling you, with every decision they are presented, every last one of them says to themselves, “how could we make this most frustrating for the consumer we are trying to sell this to?” Pointless format war? Check. Idiotic encryption requirements? Check. Unprepared and dimwitted format launches? Check. Every possible compatability and playback limitation we can possible think of? Check. Speaking as somebody who has a 1080p capable monitor that’s less than a year old that can’t do HDCP, I truly don’t care what these freakin’ maroons at the big companies do to screw up the world of HD anymore. I’m just gonna rely on hackers are large to correct the entire industry. If there was EVER a technology that begged and pleaded to be hacked every which way possible from the day it was conceived, it’s the HD formats of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Add to that the fact that the satellite and cable companies still can’t get their HD act together - not to mention the DVR fiascos of late - and one gets the notion that nobody in the industry has any clue anymore of how to advance technology. The more litigious the industry gets, the more inept and useless it becomes. I’m a technology geek. I owned a DVD player on the day it launched in the initial 7 test cities (one of which was Chicago, near which I live), and have been a DVD fan ever since. It wasn’t a perfect launch, but it was FAR, *FAR* better handled than this borked HD mess. I have yet to get an HD satellite receiver (or go HD cable - either of which are an option at this point as far as I’m concerned, as I’ll go with whoever gets it right first). I’m not touching HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until one of them gets their act together - and that just isn’t gonna happen. It’s gonna take some resourceful hackers to make that crap work right as far as I’m concerned. Frankly, nothing would make me happier than to see both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray crash and burn in horrible, fiery deaths. At some point, consumers must revolt against the paranoia of the media industries. The digital music industry is bad enough (for similar and completely different reasons), but the movie studios are even worse.

Then there’s Microsoft’s x64 build of Vista - which is as frustrating as the x64 build of Windows XP. The 32 bit version of Vista is pretty good in its current form. I had a recent build of the 32 bit Vista on my fancy machine at the house recently for a week or so. While it still had enough quirks to keep me from using it permanently, it was close. Before I used that 32-bit one, I had put the x64 bit version on the machine. It was taken of in a matter of hours. Compatibility, in broad terms, isn’t too bad with the x64 version, but in the details of quirks and compatibilities it simply sucks. While I agree with many of the choices MS has made in locking down the x64 build of Vista - like keeping companies like Symantec out of the kernel (and even MS products are locked out of the kernel level) - their completely paranoid approach to the OS makes a great many things frustrating to no end. This latest announcement of 32 bit Vista not supporting stuff like AACS (which is, itself, the spawn of Satan) is yet another point of frustration. I’ve got a kick-butt 64-bit Athlon 2X rig at the house, and I run the 32-bit build of XP on it, not the x64 because the x64 is just too frustrating to deal with for all its compatibility quirks. The x64 of Vista I messed with had all the exact same quirks, then some. Perhaps it’ll be better by the time Vista is finalized, but I doubt it’ll be by much. I’m telling you, the Vista launch is going to be a PAINFUL launch for MS. For all the cool stuff they are doing with it, there are just as many stupid and frustrating things as well. I can’t wait to hear all the users I know whine and complain instantly (as did I) about Vista’s User Access Control component. Took me all of 10 minutes to disable it. I don’t care what MS says about not disabling it. I would consider the computer too frustrating to even use with it left on. Yes, it’s that bad. It’s like a paranoid software firewall on crystal meth.

And here’s the kicker. I already rely on the hackers at large for my HD content. I’ll freely admit that I download most of the TV I watch. I have an active Dish Network subscription, with an SD DVR receiver. I watch nearly everything from downloaded, high res (typically DivX HR spec) encoded versions. As somebody who has historically archived what he watches (you wouldn’t have believed the VHS collection of TV stuff I used to have - or my current TV on DVD collection), there just aren’t any good choices out there for doing so with HD without turning to those who rip and post them online. HD is, in every possible way, designed proactively and aggressively against true TV addicts. The studios wanna think I’m robbing them of income by downloading all this stuff? I defy one of them to look at the room dedicated to all my CD’s and DVD’s and still manage to tell me that I’m robbing them of income. There are few who support them as much. And even I have turned to downloading things from online sources - because that is my only choice in the matter at this time.

UC Berkeley News - A species of ant native to Central and South America is entering the annals of extreme animal movement, boasting jaws arguably more impressive than such noteworthy contenders as the great white shark and the spotted hyena.

I can’t believe what I’m watching. This is INSANE. These ants have no business existing in my universe. That’s just unreal. The link to the videos of the ants in action is a must-see. That bottom one, with the Evil Knievel ant jumping all the others, is stupifying. They could take some lessons from cats about landing on their feet.

Engadget - Ok, so it’s really more of a hotplate than a Barbeque, but for sheer excessiveness and USB-ness this DIY project from Kaizo Aho Ichidai cannot be denied. After not surprisingly failing to get enough juice from a single 500mw USB port to fry an egg, Kaizo went all out and dropped six USB expansion cards into his PC, giving him a ridiculous total of 30 USB ports, all of which got re-wired to a modified USB cup warmer.

Eeeeeeek! That’s insane. What lunatic would go through all that? Rather than using it for power, that machine should be used for transfer speed. 14,400 MB/s port speed…

Reuters.com - Striptease send-offs at funerals may become a thing of the past in east China after five people were arrested for organizing the intimate farewells, state media reported on Wednesday.

Well then, let my wishes be known thusly - to have a bunch of people attending my funeral…

Just finished watching the season 2 kick-off episode of Prison Break. I was completely and thoroughly underwhelmed. The semi-surprise moment near the end was interesting, and I’m curious to see if they are serious about it or not (I won’t spoil what it is). Hopefully the show will find its feet again. It’s awesome to have William Fichtner in the mix now. Some shows, particularly concept shows, have difficulty finding their way when their second season first kicks off. This is probably no different. I know these guys already had the first handful of seasons planned out, so I’m guessing they’ll get their game back on soon enough. Still, a rather lackluster season opener.

Starpulse News Blog - Patricia Arquette was outraged when she was asked to lose her baby weight for her role as psychic detective Allison DuBois in TV series Medium because the character is a mother of three. The star refused to slim for the motherly role, insisting the request simply didn’t make sense.

I’m not usually one for the entertainment business’ gossip-styled news, but this one definitely caught my attention. Arquette deserves some praise. Good for you. It not only doesn’t make sense that she’s asked to lose weight for the role, it’s counterintuitive. I mean, is it just some “every actress on TV must be skinny” kind of mandate that the producers and networks insist on? Her looks and a little extra weight actually MAKE SENSE for the role she plays on Medium. It’s actually kinda refreshing to see a lead series actress who doesn’t look like a mannequin. The very reason she has a little extra weight is exactly the reason why her character needs such a touch. It’s the kind of role where I would almost expect them to ask the actress to put ON a little extra weight. Idiot producers…

Here’s a listing of the Fall 2006 pilot episodes I’ve watched so far, in the order in which I’ve liked them. Favorites are on top to least favorites on bottom. I’ve not included the ones I’ve watched and reviewed that weren’t picked up. Each entry will link back to the post one which I put my review. The mid-season shows are marked with an *

1. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (NBC)
2. The Nine (ABC)
3. Raines (NBC) *
4. Jericho (CBS)
5. Knights Of Prosperity (ABC)
6. The Singles Table (NBC)
7. Kidnapped (NBC)
8. Shark (CBS)
9. Justice (FOX)
10. Heroes (NBC)
11. Traveler (ABC) *
12. The Class (CBS)
13. Runaway (CW)
14. Vanished (FOX)
15. The Black Donnellys (NBC) *
16. Friday Night Lights (NBC)

Follow-up to part 1, part 2 & part 3, this is the fourth set of pilot episodes for the fall TV season that I’ve checked out (in order of viewing).

Raines (NBC): Los Angeles. Present day. Michael Raines, an eccentric but brilliant cop, solves murders in a very unusual way – he turns the victims into his partners. These visions are figments of Raines’ imagination, and he knows it, but when he can’t make the dead disappear, he works with them to find the killer. Through his discussions, along with the evidence, Raines’ image of the victim changes until he has a clear picture of what really happened. Only when the case is closed do the visions end. Other detectives question Raines’ sanity, and occasionally so does he. However, as long as his unique methods are helping catch criminals, Raines imagines he’ll be just fine.

Here’s one of the surprises that happen each season - a show that I love that was under my RADAR and came out of nowhere. Here is one such example. The bad news is that this is a mid-season show, so you won’t be able to catch it until the end of the year or so. The good news is that I loved this pilot. Talented writer/producers Graham Yost and Frank Darabont bring some excellent production and slick, fun writing. Jeff Goldblum does an excellent job at making the unique character work. There’s a moment or two that are a bit to expositional, but otherwise it’s a pilot I absolutely loved. There are elements from a great number of other excellent shows to be found in this one, such as Monk, Medium and I suppose even Veronica Mars (in more of a style sense than much any other). The nice twist on this one is that Goldblum’s character isn’t actually seeing dead people like Medium does, but is actually just imagining them, and knows it. It’s cool to watch the person he sees change as he learns more about them, filling in the gaps. And Goldblum’s sarcastic nature lends itself well to dealing with such things. Plus, the show likes to undercut some of the most stereotypical aspects of the narrative, typically with the character’s slightly dark and off-center sense of humor. High marks also go to the selection of temp score, from Being John Malkovich to Basic Instinct, it helps the texture of the show work. Wonder who’ll get the stylistic challenge of doing the final music for the series. Read the rest of this entry »

The Inquirer - Buying a white plastic robotic rabbit that connects to the Internet via Wi Fi has probably got to rank among my more unusual ideas, but these are the occupational hazards of surfing the web after one too many to drink.

Man, that’s way too funny. Or should I say “way too bunny” (hardy har har)

Jet Beetle - This is a my street-legal jet car on full afterburner. The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back. The idea is that you drive around legally on the gasoline engine and when you want to have some fun, you spin up the jet and get on the burner (you can start the jet while driving along on the gasoline engine). The car was built because I wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible. With this project, I was able to use some stuff I learned while getting my fancy engineering degree (I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University) to design a street-legal jet car without the distraction of how other people have done it in the past - because no one has. I don’t know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn’t stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though.

That’s just too cool, and too funny. The pics of the thing with the afterburner lit are classic. The write-up is quite funny, too. And hey, that scooter would even be cool (or, uh, hot).

JPL - Voyager 1, already the most distant human-made object in the cosmos, reaches 100 astronomical units from the sun on Tuesday, August 15 at 5:13 p.m. Eastern time (2:13 p.m. Pacific time). That means the spacecraft, which launched nearly three decades ago, will be 100 times more distant from the sun than Earth is.

Good ol’ V’Ger is still out there learning, collecting all it’s data before it returns to transmit all that data to its creator…