• OK, time to resume the ponderings posts. I’ve got a ton of backlogged stuff to mention, so I’ll try to space it out for the rest of the week. Some of this stuff will be from over the last month or two (during my connectivity blackouts at the house).
• First, I must wish Battlestar Galactica a happy 30th birthday today. I was a Galactica fan as a little kid. I adore the original series, and I’m a rabid fan of the current remake - one of the greatest series in television history. Darth Mojo also posted a nice history of the cylons.
• Speaking of Battlestar, here’s a very cool look at the impressive book that was given to the cast and crew of the series when the series wrapped.
• Here’s an awesome bit of news from way back at Comic-Con: The character of Mary Ann Marie Beetle from Wonderfalls (one of the greatest TV series of all time) will be making an appearance on Pushing Daisies this season. Since that was also a Bryan Fuller show, it’s cool to see him cross over some characters. His mention of wanting the lead character of Jaye Tyler from Wonderfalls to appear would be SO awesome if he could pull it off. There’s plenty of quirky characters from Wonderfalls that could easily drop into Pushing Daisies (which, btw, is the best show on network TV - which is a convenient way of ruling out Battlestar Galactica, being a cable series).
• Speaking of Pushing Daisies, congratulations are in order for their two creative arts Emmy wins last weekend. Both are well deserved, but I’m particularly proud of Jim Dooley winning a best score Emmy for the show. He does fantastic work on the series.
• And just to prove that I can’t get off the subject of Battlestar, I must also congratulate them on winning two creative arts Emmy awards as well. And like last year, Galactica took home a VERY much deserved visual effects award. No other TV series comes anywhere close to the fantastic vfx work that Battlestar cranks out. Most feature films should be jealous of the show. How they pull off the stuff they do on a TV budget and schedule is a mystery, but boy do they ever.
• While it’s fantastic news to hear via yesterday’s online chat with Warner Home Video that Night Court will be seeing another season set on DVD, as will Everwood (hopefully they’ll get this one right, too), and that Moonlight will be getting a release, it’s downright frustrating news that the brilliant folks at Warner really aren’t going to release the 4th and final volume of Animaniacs. It’s a darn good thing that Pinky & The Brain fit onto 3 sets, so it didn’t suffer the same retarded fate. Come on WB, finish what you started. Seriously, how stupid and annoying could it be to release 3 out of 4 sets for an entire series run then stop? For this one colossal screw-up alone, Warner gets the spot of worst studio for video releases in 2008. This completely negates all the amazing work you did with Blade Runner.
• Mr. & Mrs. Vader
• You think you’ve got dialing skills…
• An actual feral girl - and a sad story.
• Coolness. A TARDIS cabinet for MAME play.
• How to protect your car in a hurricane
• The awesome ninja cat
• The Dream Hamster, indeed.
• That’ll do for today. Much more will be on the way, including some movie reviews. I’m going to try and start doing at least a movie review a day. If I’ll actually manage that will be another matter entirely.

• OK, the Ponderings postings are gonna have to be split up for the rest of the week. After the long down time, things have built up to the point where I don’t wanna overwhelm you with too much at once. So, let’s see if I can sufficiently whelm you. And I’m hoping to catch up on a number of movie reviews throughout the rest of the week.
• RIP: Isaac Hayes & Bernie Mac
• Check out this fantastic Willy Wonka recut trailer perfectly titled “Wonka” - it’s so awesome, I wish I had thought to do it first.
• Happy 100th birthday to animated film
• I can’t wait to see James Cameron’s new, technology-pushing, state-of-the-art, 3D extravaganza Avatar. Here’s an interesting article on it.
• Speaking of 3D, The Polar Express is coming to Blu-Ray in 3D! Now I’d like to see Monster House and Beowulf get 3D releases on BD.
• Holy cow! 9/11 really was a conspiracy…
• Now this is one very impressive obituary
• The crazy Burj Dubai skyscraper is nearly finished. This thing is insane. Check out these photos.
• Here’s some very cool lightning photos from the massive lightning storm that rolled through here in the Chicago area a couple weeks ago.
• Speaking of lightning, you’ve gotta check out this awesome slo-mo footage of a lightning strike
• Still speaking of lightning, here’s one crazy video of a CLOSE strike (warning: strong language)
• And if you think that lightning strike was close, how bout being on a bus as it’s hit by a tornado (or grazed pretty darn close, at the very least)
• Google Insights is a pretty cool new service
• Now here’s some awesome chess set design
• Too cool - Yoda The Cat
• Warp Drive: yet another Star Trek technology that scientists are determined to actually make possible
• In the market for a new car?
• Here’s a vantage point that I bet you’ve never seen a shuttle launch from before
• Slightly older news that somehow got past me, which I had to learn about in print form in Doctor Who Magazine. Anwyay, something I’ve been wanting since Doctor Who returned to the airwaves is to have Nicholas Courtney return as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. I’m finally getting my wish. Well, almost - he’s appearing on spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. Frankly, that’s almost a better show for him to appear on, as he has a direct history with actress Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane.
• Speaking of Doctor Who, congratulations are due for the brilliant Steven Moffat for winning his third consecutive Hugo Award for Doctor Who. This time for the episode titled Blink, which is possbily my all-time favorite episode of the series (new or old). I’ve watched it dozens and dozens of times.
• Composer Bear McCreary hasn’t done as much posting to his blog over the summer, what with Battlestar between episode runs and him being busy on multiple other shows. However, he just popped in with this amusing bit of trivia that was brought to his attention. As always, the stuff he posts is fascinating in its detail. Not only does he point out and provide clips of the two versions of the sequence, but he even provides the clip with the rejected original cue. This is what us film score nut-jobs geek out on (and BSG fans). Yeah, I’m a dork. A dork who’s anxiously awaiting the new CD release of Bear’s score for Eureka, which I’ve ordered, and will be winging its way to my door very soon.

• Today was one of those days where nothing could go quite right for me. Not that it was filled with major problems, just lots of bad bits of timing and other stupidities. So, I’ll try and end the day by digging through some fun stuff and sharing it with y’all…
• NASA has mapped out the final flights of the space shuttles through 2010. Only 10 more launches, then the remaining 3 shuttles of the fleet will be retired. It’ll be the end of an era.
• Good ol’ Darth Mojo has done an excellent, detailed write-up of the Battlestar Galactica wrap-party (well, part one of his write-up, with more parts to follow soon)
  
• So, will The Dark Knight meet the $130 million opening weekend expectations? As the article says, WB is predicting $100 to make it easier for expectations to be met. It’s amazing for some of these films to be able to low ball conservative numbers at $100 million. My prediction will be somewhere around $140 million. I’m absolutely going to be seeing The Dark Knight in IMAX form (with some scenes featuring native IMAX filming with full IMAX screen aspect), but I’m not crazy enough to try the IMAX screenings on opening weekend. If the fan anticipation of this movie wasn’t high enough, the critic response so far has been through the roof.
• In a neato marketing move, Warner Bros is promoting The Dark Knight with an actual bat signal.
• A nice list of Firefox 3 features most folks don’t know about. Multi-select is my favorite
• Here’s a stunning shot of Dubai covered in fog, taken from the very high Burj Dubai Tower
• An amusing photo lampooning the questionable recent missile test photos from Iran
• DrivePricing.com is a nifty mash-up of Google maps with gas pricing and such
• Or if you’d prefer something a little more cheerful than gas pricing in your Google Maps mash-up, try HealthMap.org.
• So, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 has truly hit the end of life cycle
• This is just too good - Buzz Aldrin decks a very annoying conspiracy theorist
• Google is making a nice change to GMail’s contact system, introducting a new version of the contact manager that doesn’t automatically add everyone you send an e-mail to into your contacts. It’ll have a new “suggested contacts.”
• Mary Parent, who was the studio exec at Universal who green lit Joss Whedon’s long-shot Serenity, has given the green light to a script by Joss & writer Drew Goddard called The Cabin In The Woods now that she’s over at MGM. This is quite cool. Goddard has become quite the collaborator with both Joss Whedon (formerly working on Buffy & Angel) as well as JJ Abrams (working on Alias & Lost, and the feature film Cloverfield).

• Surprising praise goes to Sony Home Entertainment for their DVD release this week of Square Pegs. As a vaguely remembered show from the early 80’s (one of the first to have that TRUE 80’s feel), it’s one of those surprises to see get a DVD release. I remember seeing a handful of episodes at some point many years ago and liking it. I just picked up a copy of the set today, which lists one basic special feature, “Weemawee Yearbook Memories (Interviews with the Cast and Crew).” In the age of everything having basic special features, I figured this was some brief, fluffy, basic set of interview clips. I was shocked to discover that these are some extensive interviews with all the cast. And they’re great, nostalgic interviews. There’s gotta be at least an hour and a half of them in total, spread across the three discs. Even Sarah Jessica Parker has a solid 15 minutes of interview, fondly remembering her experience shooting the series. The interviews reminded me of the wonderful interviews found on the (new version) My So-Called Life DVD set. Except these memories of shooting Square Pegs are twice as old as having shot My So-Called Life. Frankly, I always like interviews and commentaries from somewhat aged productions, because the people involved feel a little bit more free to give their real memories and opinions when they have distanced themselves from the experience (and all the PR blitz that goes with it). And also, Sony did a bang up job on the quality of the episode transfers in this release. This series has never looked this good - surely not when it originally aired. And the running times make it quite clear that these are the original aired cuts, not some butchered syndicated edits. Then again, watching these discs makes me all the more annoyed that Sony is STILL sitting on Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, which is currently my #1 most desired TV on DVD release. The Square Pegs set may not be a staggering special edition mega-production, but it’s got the kind of quality that would thrill me to see given to Parker Lewis. Please, Sony? PRETTY PLEASE?
• Incidentally, I guess this is an evening for me to slip into totally 80’s mode. As I sit here typing about Square Pegs, a show from 1982-1983, I have playing the brand new CD release of Bruce Broughton’s score to 1984’s “Ice Pirates” which was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home.
• GASP! What’s this? The Pushing Daisies season 1 release is not only going to be on DVD, but on Blu-Ray as well? And at a reasonable price, no less? Woo hoo!
• Gosh, it’s amazing the level of quality that exists on visual effects animatics these days, and for TV no less. Then again, this is Battlestar we’re talking about - a show with better visual effects than most any feature film.
• An amusing combination of stories
• Here’s a phrase I would have never anticipated myself uttering: That’s one awesome table
• Fun Rubik’s Cube ads
• Would you pick up this hitchhiker? Indeed…

• My review for Prince Caspian should be posted within the next day. In short, I liked it. I’ll try to get my review of the midnight screening of Indy 4 posted late Wednesday/early Thursday.
• Cover and specs for the new 10th anniversary special edition release of Sports Night on DVD by Shout! Factory. Can’t wait.
• And just to top that cool set of news and cover art, here’s the specs and art for the upcoming Blu-Ray Director’s Cut of Dark City. Now there’s a disc I can’t wait to get my paws on. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies, and it looks like it’s getting the attention it deserves.
• Hmmm, more Battlestar possibly in the works? I’m all for it, only if Ron & David have creative reasons to want to do it, not just pressure from the network/studio.
• Wall sized, touch-screen Missile Command! Too awesome.
• The greatest news report sign-off. ever.
• I haven’t commented on all the network upfront announcements as yet, and will probably do that in a posting all of its own, but I will say that it’s sad to see CBS kill Moonlight.
• I’ve officially become addicted to National Geographic Channel’s Mayday/Air Emergency/Air Crash Investigations (depending on your locale). It’s a well produced series that plays into a natural interest of mine. I watched the first 2.5 seasons of the show over the weekend, and I’ll surely continue the marathon through the week.
• The first promo cast shot for Dollhouse.
• For you fellow space geeks, here’s one heck of an interactive timeline
• Amy Winehouse bows out of Quantum Of Solace theme, with the dumbest explanation possible. Thank goodness and good riddance. Perhaps now they can pick somebody with at least 1 billionth an ounce of talent for the job.
• Ah, good ol’ schadenfreude
• A collection of cool, archival, panoramic photos
• Another ultra-cute kitten video. This time, on a treadmill.
• Speaking of panoramic photos, check out this very cool, modern, HDR shot
• Another particularly cool HDR wallpaper up at InterfaceLIFT.com
• Stick it to the RIAA
• Yippie, a new Joe Dante movie
• You don’t want to read this story
• “Sorry, we’re open” indeed
• Hey, where’d that rope come from?
• Some awesome insights into the Cylon VFX (as well as part 2)
• Ah, the joys of typos (at least I hope so)
• The archive of September 11 TV broadcasts
• For you fellow IT/tech nerds: the current status of the elusive WinFS

• Wow. Did you all enjoy this weekend’s bright, shiny, happy episode of Battlestar Galactica? Fantastic episode, but man the network must have hated this one. High praise goes out to four aspects of this one. First, Nicki Clyne. I won’t say why, cause many people probably haven’t watched the episode yet. You’ll know when you see it. Second, Gary Hutzel and his VFX team. Not only have they continued to refine their exterior ship effects, but they finally nailed the new centurion effects. This is the first episode where the Cylon centurions really felt like they were really in the room (though there were some nice shots down on Caprica when they were chasing Boomer and Helo in the first season). Third, Bear McCreary’s bleary, out-of-body music score. Which brings me to the fourth in the list, the combined and brilliantly odd cinematography and editing of the episode (particularly Cally’s material), which also plays perfectly into McCreary’s score. Overall, another great episode. One can feel the series hurtling through its final act at this point.
• Here’s a hilarious example of what happens when big corporations start throwing law suits out there for the heck of it, without thinking things through.
• Here’s another prime example of why DRM systems completely suck. It’s just one of a great many reasons why I don’t EVER touch any DRM protected media. Never. Ever.
• The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a second season
• I ran into this exact same retarded captcha approach on the same site trying to download a shared file the other day. I tried a half dozen times to verify what they wanted, and just couldn’t get it right. I had to give up. It really is the worst captcha variety I’ve ever witnessed, so I’m in total agreement with that post.
• Here’s an amusing list of some of the dumbest business decisions in history
• Some more insane spam statistics
• Western Digital has launched the VelociRaptor
• Check out the unpacking of a second recreation of Babbage’s differene engine
• What happens when a goat is challenged by a golden eagle?
• This is just plain wrong
• Need some “professional” help installing that XBox game?
• And oh yeah, Dilbert.com has gotten a major overhaul
• Lastly, here’s a very cool shot of the ISS from above. I’ve also done a cropped version of that picture for use on 1920×1200 widescreen monitors, linked below.

• As you might have noticed, I’ve been posting more movie reviews. I’m still going to be playing catch-up on those for a little while. With the last batch, I started something different. I’m alternating between the newest ones and the oldest 2008 reviews I still have pending. So, today I posted reviews for Smart People and The Ruins, the two most recent movies I’ve seen, as well as The Spiderwick Chronicles and Be Kind Rewind, which were the oldest of the 2008 films I’ve seen that were pending reviews. I’ll continue alternative like this until that gap is closed. There are still 14 reviews left in that gap for me to get posted. As always, you can see my current log of movie going, and the list of 2008 films is typically up to date, or close to. (both of those are always available in the Movies menu up top)
• I’ve been loving the new seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who so far. Both have had two episodes so far (if you’re up to speed with the UK debut of Doctor Who, that is). It’s so great to have them both back on the air. I look forward to the upcoming episodes of the show.
• Speaking of great shows, I need to put in a plug for Eli Stone. It’s a delightfully off-beat series, from Greg Berlanti (the man behind shows like Everwood and Jack & Bobby). It has a flat-out wonderful cast. Jonny Lee Miller is great in the lead as Eli Stone. I’ve always considered him to be an underrated actor, and he gets to do both great comedic and dramatic acting in this role. The fantastic Victor Garber is, as expected, great. Natasha Henstridge pulls off a tricky “straight man” role very well (though like everyone else, she gets to cut loose in the musical moments of the show). The biggest highlight for me, though, is Julie Gonzalo. She’s pitch perfect in the series, and I was thrilled to see her get this role after taking a liking to her in the final season of Veronica Mars (she was a new supporting character in that third and last season of Veronica Mars, one of the greatest shows in TV history). Her performance in the role is truly perfect, and she plays off of Miller brilliantly. This show is second only to Pushing Daisies as best new show of the year (followed by Reaper, Carpoolers and Chuck).
• While we’re on the subject of new shows of the season, I’ve got to begrudgingly admit that I’ve been liking Moonlight quite a bit. Despite all the things stacked against it, like seeming to be a rip-off of Angel (and other shows of the genre that have come before it) and all the behind-the-scenes shake-ups that the show went though during the lead up to and first handful of episodes, I have to admit that I’ve really been liking it a lot. In particular, the cast is excellent (primarily when you consider that almost all of them were replaced before it went to series). Alex O’Loughlin is quite good in the lead. Sophia Myles (who us Doctor Who fans will be familiar with) is fantastic as the co-star. And hey, we get another of the Veronica Mars cast in this series, the great Jason Dohring in a smaller supporting role (incidentally, Moonlight is exec produced by Joel Silver, as was Veronica Mars).
• So it’s official, the new X-Files film is to be titled The X-Files: I Want To Believe. It’s a nice title for us fans of the show, and I happily approve. This is still #2 on my list of most anticipated movies of the year. Can’t wait for July 25.
• Check out this hilarious video: An Engineer’s Guide To Cats (the “corporal cuddling” bit alone is worth it)
• This is so cool: an Apple IIGS converted into a laptop (yes, I’m a nerd)
• Speaking of nerds, here’s a particularly dedicated one
• Google Earth 4.3 has been released, with some nice new features.
• An amusing new Numb3rs commercial
• Some lunatic has done a scale model of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin
• Ever wonder what salt & pepper really look like?
• Now here’s a cool pool shot
• How bout a man who survived a 1,500 foot drop into Mount St. Helens? I’m not sure if he’s lucky or unlucky.
• Welcome back, Demonoid
• And here’s some entertainment for you feminists out there: the 1943 Guide To Hiring Women
• He’s dead, Jim

• Hope y’all enjoy your April Fools Day…
• Only 4 days until the first episode of Battlestar Galactica’s 4th (and final) season, and 5 days until the first episode of Doctor Who’s 4th season!
• Congrats to Wikipedia for reaching their 10 millionth article
• Jericho gets some season 2 DVD specs and cover art (I kinda like the art). Cool that they are including both endings.
• Creative Labs has sparked a hilarious backlash, deservedly so.
• Check out this fascinating article on the stupidities of the raw materials involved in US currency
• So, Wal-Mart was the biggest helper during the Katrina disaster. That may sound strange given their usual bad rep, but frankly I’m not all too surprised.
• Here’s a nifty Viper flight sim console
• This soldier certainly deserves the award he’s being considered for
• Sometimes natural selection takes out the wrong person
• Cracked.com has another great article - The 10 Craziest Scientific Experiments Ever Conducted. Cracked.com has countless hilarious articles (as always, any article from cracked.com comes with a language warning)
• Good grief
• And here’s the final, official funeral for the HD-DVD format

• Woo hoo! “Doctor Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog” will actually exist. For those not in the know, this is a made-for-the-internet series of 3 ten minute musicals made by Joss Whedon, starring none-other-than Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Can’t wait.
• Now this is WAY too cool. Check out FlickrVision (be sure to check out the even-cooler 3D version that’s linked on the page)
• Holy cow. ABC is actually giving Rob Thomas another shot at his Cupid series.
• The cool Google Sky has hit the web
• X-Files 2 has wrapped
• Cute. 10 of main cast from Battlestar Galactica are hosting Dave’s top 10 list on March 19th.
• A marriage made in Heaven: Blue Man Group on Blu-Ray.
• Speaking of Blu-Ray, could it be that Fox has FINALLY gotten a release done right? And of all surprising titles to do so with, it’s gonna be Patton.
• Here’s a cool remix of gun shots from Call Of Duty 4
• So, not only will David Yates stay on as director of Harry Potter 7, but it will be split into two films.
• Finally, the RIAA are gonna be in court, with the tables turned on them. Hurray!
• A “droopy pants” law - how do we get it passed in my state (Illinois)?
• More evidence that we, as a species, are done.
• RIP: F-117 Stealth

• Only an hour and a half or so until the launch of Endeavour for NASA’s STS-123 mission. I’ve got the launch preparations playing back on the live NASA TV streaming feed. Speaking of which, check out one of the items that Endeavour is carrying to the ISS, “Dextre.”
• You must check out this momentous, riveting, breaking news story
• Coolness. The WB to return in online form? Sure, it’s hardly a relaunch of a network, but still fun for us nostalgic few.
• Happy slightly-belated 30th birthday to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor.
• The final poster for Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has been revealed. A nice entry into Drew Struzan’s portfolio.
• Check out this awesome video of a flying car (of sorts)
• The Waldo Ultimatum. Too funny.
• Here’s somebody who REALLY knows how to have fun with an Etch-A-Sketch
• Check out these very nice Chicago photos (many of which are beautiful HDR shots)
• A complete Futurama timeline
• Oh, to be in LA on April 13th.
• This month marks the 10 year anniversary of the MP3 player. Bet you can’t name the manufacturer of the first one.
• The sixth and final season of The Dead Zone gets a DVD announcement
• Anyone who can utter the phrase, “Our current plan is not to integrate the time zone package with SP3, but instead release a new updated update to windows update,” deserves some odd praise.
• This makes the out-of-control parties seen in raucous teen comedy films seem like a trip to the petting zoo. Er, strike that. Make that a trip to some other innocuous, pre-adolescent destination.
• Wheelchair Dude?

• A new trailer for Get Smart has hit the web. I continue to have high hopes for the film. 
• Entertainment Weekly did a very cool “Battlestar Galactica Last Supper” photo shoot (here’s a high-res version). And there’s some factoids about the photo up at EW’s site.
• Ah yes, good ol’ Gopher
• This must have definitely made for one very interesting kayak trip
• Here’s 20 cool HDR photos. I’ve gotta get around to doing some HDR experimentation with my new Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
• Those of you afraid of spiders might want to avoid this area
• For those who haven’t heard, New Line Cinema has been folded into Warner Bros. Seeing as both of them were Time Warner companies, this isn’t a huge change.
• I’m thinking that Sprint’s purchase of Nextel will certainly go down in the record books as something of a bad decision.
• Here’s an interesting story that might make you think twice before living near power lines.
• I updated the few missing entries on my 2007 Films and 2007 Film Scores lists. I’ve also brought the 2008 Films and 2008 Film Scores lists up to date.

• Happy New Year!
• Here’s a very cool new teaser promo for season 4 of Battlestar
• Speaking of Battlestar, there’s finally some actual info (and artwork even) for the delayed release of the season 3 DVD set.
• Here’s a semi-techie article about the death of high fidelity. I’ve seen more than enough examples of what they are talking about. ‘Tis sad.
• Excellent. Sony has put Gattaca back on the release schedule for Blu-Ray release. Definitely picking that one up.
• Speaking of high-def discs, HighDefDigest.com has put up their list of best and worst high def discs of 2007. A good list that I can’t argue with. I definitely agree with his choice of Blade Runner as release of the year. Boy do I agree with that. Close Encounters is also deserving. I’ve been wanting to pick up 2001, but have been waiting for it to fall into one of the many 2-for-1 deals of late, but it hasn’t. I might just pick it up at shelf price anyway. It’s been getting rave reviews. I’m anxious to check it out.
• And speaking of Close Encounters, both it and Back to the Future were accepted into the national film registry this year. Neato. Then again, so did Dances With Wolves…
• Hurray! Another major label drops DRM from their catalog.
• Here’s a cool archaeological discovery in Russia
• Another amusing Dilbert Blog post by Scott Adams
• Pregnancy: The next major outsourced industry?
• RIP: Netscape
• Old news by this point, but looks like karma continues to catch up with Paris Hilton

• Poor, out-of-work Cylon. Too funny.
• Neato - Star Trek: The Tour. And it’ll be visiting Chicago. I’ll be checking that one out.
• Excellent photo of an aurora borealis over Bear Lake, Alaska.
• A great response to Microsoft’s recent slamming of the benchmarks showing XP SP3 to be significantly faster than Vista SP1.
• The MPAA hilariously violated copyright law in a recent attempt at tracking student activity at universities.

• Not particularly spoilery (if you’ve seen Razor, that is), here’s a brief set of interviews about the upcoming season 4 of Battlestar.
• So I guess one of my major reasons for jumping from my DSL connection to Comcast a couple months ago has been confirmed. They are going to be rolling out the new DOCSIS 3 services next year. I sure hope I’ll be in one of their earlier markets. My brains begin bleeding out my ears in happiness at the idea of 160 MB speeds…
• Christian Bale has been officialy confirmed as John Connor in the upcoming Terminator 4 film. Excellent to hear the rumor as final. That’s a great bit of casting.
• Major milestone in the history of Activision: they are merging with Vivendi’s Blizzard game company to form (wait for it…) Activision Blizzard.
• The next step in the evolution of Google Apps has been previewed, based on JotSpot.

• Yeah, the many reviews for which I’m behind will finally start to show up over the holiday weekend. For a list of what I’ve seen that don’t yet have reviews posted, just check out the latter part of my 2007 viewing log.
• I’m enjoying listening to Alan Silvestri’s great Beowulf score on CD (released today) as I type this. Great score (great movie, too).
• Coolness. Director David Twohy hasn’t given up on another Riddick movie. I hope he can pull it off.
• The interesting impact of the writer strike on the production (and completion) of Battlestar. Man, it would royally suck if the show got prematurely cut short, so very close to the planned finish line. I’m sure Ron Moore will fight tooth and nail to get it to that finish line. BTW, don’t forget that Razor airs on Saturday. I’ve already seen it in a theater last week, and it’s great. Some cool moments for classic Battlestar geeks like myself for added fun.
• Some specs and the cool cover art are detailed for the HD-DVD release of David Fincher’s Zodiac. Given his previous special edition DVD sets for his other movies, I’m sure this release will be spectacular. Can’t wait.
• Speaking of DVD releases, A&E has revealed some neato specs on their upcoming season 1 & 2 set for the Weird Science TV series. I was a fan of the show (still have many of them on tape from their original USA Network airings). Very cool that they got Vanessa Angel, Michael Manasseri and John Mallory Asher to all contribute in audio commentaries.
• So, Hasselhoff might appear on the new Knight Rider remake.
• Looks like I’ve figured what my next portable media player will be: the Cowon A3. I currently own the Cowon X5, which is an overall nice player (my battery is near dead, and I need to get around to replacing it). I’m not in a big hurry to upgrade, but that A3 sure does look awesome.

• Yeah, about a week and a half after my most recent posting, activity finally returns. I continued to suffer Comcast connectivity issues (which as of yesterday seem to finally be fixed), among other reasons for my lack of postings. I have also continued to fall farther behind on movie reviews. I swear I’ll get a bunch of those kicked out this week…
• Hurrah! Pushing Daisies has received the order for a full season. Have I mentioned how much I love this show?
• Check out this hilarious video from the always-great The Onion. Classic stuff.
• Those of you with a Facebook account should join in the Colbert fun (it’s a slightly older article, which I only post now cause I haven’t posted in a while - the member count has already gone well past a million)
  
• GMail has finally added IMAP functionality.
• So, Daniel Craig is to play James Bond for at least 5 movies. Great news, as far as I’m concerned. I think he’s fantastic in the role.
• Sony releases yet another cool ad for their Bravia TV’s.
• So, not only are the Battlestar season 3 DVD’s delayed until a rumored April 2008 release, but so is the fourth season of the show. Set to debut in April, it will also feature the directorial debut of Ron Moore (hurray!).
• Speaking of Battlestar, Galactica.TV has a nice interview with VFX master Gary Hutzel about the original series styled Cylons in the upcoming Razor special. It’s spoilery, so be warned.
• Speaking even more of Battlestar, I’ll be at the 9:00 (or 10:00 if I’m to believe the confirmation e-mail) showing of Razor at the Cinemark theaters in Evanston, IL. All you fellow Battlestar fans should join in on the fun. Hey, it’s even free.
• Oh, and don’t forget that Blade Runner: The Final Cut hits The Music Box Theatre (in Chicago) on Friday.
• To borrow a couple comments from others about this video. “Ow, my sanity!” and “Monty Python would be proud.”
• Here’s a small collection of impressive California fire photos
• Could Apple really be pulling in $18 per iPhone per month? Is there any wonder there’s so much bad blood between everyone involved when numbers like that are on the line?
• This just in from the “good grief department” - Lynne Spears (Britney’s mom) is set to have a book on parenting published.
• Bionic Woman gets yet another show runner in play. This time it’s Jason Cahill, who I know nothing about other than the fact that the article points out he previously worked on The Sopranos - which is reason enough for me to think it’s a bad move.
• And a slightly older piece of news. James Cameron’s new 3D sci-fi film has set up shop shooting in New Zealand. Can’t wait to see it. I’m sure he’ll push the VFX word forward yet another 10 years in production technology.

• Today was my 32nd birthday. Didn’t do a whole lot other than lounging about and taking it easy. Saw Michael Clayton, which was excellent (review for that and a couple other movies coming within the next day or so). Also, connectivity to this blog and some other sites related to me and people I know have been experiencing some issues (due to a couple unrelated problems). I’m working at moving everything to a new solution, so hang tight while that’s all squared away…
• The most insane and impressive stuff I’ve seen in a while. Check out these talented basejumping windsuit lunatics
• Another of Douglas Adams’ books gets radio serialization - his Dirk Gently series. Very cool.
• And here’s the awesome news of Simon Pegg being cast as Scotty in JJ Abrams new Star Trek film. He’s not the first person I would have thought of for the role, but he’s great in anything, so I’m happy to hear it. Also, John Cho is well cast as Sulu.
• Oooh, Dan Waters doing a sci-fi dramedy? I’m there.
• The hits just keep on coming. Madonna has jumped ship from the recording industry. Her move is a bit different than other recent ones, but any move against the recording industry is a good move. Particularly by a performer as notable as Madonna.
• How about the world’s worst attempt at a prison escape?
• Here’s the cover art & menu screen for the Galactica 1980 DVD release
• Check out this timeline analysis of wars and casualties in US history, attributed to partisan administrations and leaders. It’s a really well put together presentation.

• While I may not be a fan of bands like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, they are my current heroes in the music realm. Their recent snubbing of the recording conglomerates was absolutely fantastic. This article also touches upon some wonderful statements by Yahoo’s music chief to the “big 4.” Folks like Yahoo and Amazon have begun paving the way for the future of the music industry. Said industry has been dragged through the mud time and time again in recent years, most deservedly so, and it’s moves like this from very high profile performers like Radiohead & NIN that could be the spark to ignite the real fire. Here’s hoping that the music industry is set ablaze by the resulting inferno. Doubtlessly a disco inferno. As a film score fan, I’d be more than happy to see some of the specialty labels like Varese Sarabande, Intrada, Film Score Monthly, La-La Land, Prometheus and others continue their move towards limited release efforts. Intrada in particular has gone full guns on that approach, and the results to date have been more than pleasing. Personally, I still prefer to have a physical CD as opposed to a download, if for no other reason than the fine packaging design the score labels put forth, and for the quality improvements. Still, regardless of how things adapt, odds are extraordinarily slim that the end result of the music industry getting bottomed out could possibly result in things getting any more annoying or worse than their current utter mismanagement of the situation. My two cents.
• Speaking of score label La-La Land, here’s a first listen preview of their upcoming Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 CD. It’s due out 2 weeks from today, on the 23rd. I’m an impatient little imp waiting for this one. Composer Bear McCreary continues to out-due himself for this series.
• Speaking of Galactica, Sci-Fi has begun posting the mini-episodes that lead up to November’s Razor tele-movie event online (one new one each Friday). These aren’t just scenes from Razor, but extra little snippets they shot to lead into that narrative.
• Now here’s an NCM Fathom event that I’ll actually drag myself out to see - Star Trek: The Original Series’ restored episode The Menagerie.
• Shots of the packaging for Shout Factory’s sure-to-be-great new release of My So-Called Life on DVD. As somebody who went through the Another Universe special lunchbox edition debacle back in the day (yes, I actually got one), I’m looking forward to a company that can actually do a great job with the deserving series.
• Speaking of under appreciated shows getting DVD releases, it looks like A&E is going to start releasing the overlooked cable series adaptation of Weird Science on DVD. Neato.
• Fox has released the first trailer for the interesting looking new film Jumper. It’s directed by the very talented Doug Liman, so I have high hopes. If nothing else, it’ll hopefully provide for another great music score from composer John Powell (though I’m not sure if he’s been attached to the project yet - but given his work on both Bourne and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I’d kinda assume he’ll get the gig).
• I haven’t yet watched the few episodes since the pilot for Gossip Girl (but will by this weekend). However, the series has earned the distinction of being the first of the new season to pick up a full season order.
• A 75-year-old woman has done what a great many of Comcast’s subscribers have dreamed of.
• Check out the video of the truly nifty door
• So, not only is McG rumored to be directing Terminator 4, but Vin Diesel is the rumored star. Hmmm. I guess he’d work pretty good in the role.
• SNL has been on a roll lately. Here’s an amusing skit about K-Fed as the #1 parent.
• For those of you lucky enough to have gotten in on Google’s stock when it was still a decent deal, you’re surely happy that it made its first crossing of the $600 a share barrier.

• Oooh, Nana Visitor is going to be guest starring in the sixth episode of Battlestar’s upcoming fourth and final season. Great to see a DS9 alumni appearing. Like the writer of the linked story says, DS9 is also my favorite of the Trek shows. Visitor will be a welcome guest star.
• I watched the second episode of Sci-Fi Channel’s Flash Gordon out of morbid curiosity. I’m impressed. Impressed that it could actually be worse than the horrible pilot. Bonnie Hammer needs to employ some programming execs at that network who aren’t smoking crack.
• Looks like GMail is FINALLY getting some work done. A new version 2.0 of the e-mail service is on the horizon. The article mentions my #1 desire, SORTING. I mean, come on, how could it possibly take this long to be able to sort columns in the thing? Anyway, any enhancement will come as a welcome overhaul. I look forward to checking out the new relaunch.
• Speaking of Google, there are hints that some social networking aspects are pending for Google Earth. Should be interesting.
• Too funny: The world’s laziest mother
• A funny list of the 10 most traumatizing kids movies. (language warning)
• Giovanni Ribisi has joined the cast of James Cameron’s Avatar. Can’t wait for that movie to open…
• If you use multiple computers, particularly at different locations, Windows Live FolderShare is a nice little toy.
• So EchoStar (Dish Network, etc) is buying Sling. Interesting. Doesn’t matter to me either way, but interesting.
• A funny comparison of Simpsons parody scenes with their source material. Speaking of The Simpsons, check out the first episode opening of this new season, which has some funny references to their great feature film from this summer.

• OK, bit of an absence in posts for the last week (more, actually). They’ll be picking up in frequency, finally. To kick things off, we’ve got a handful of over-due movie reviews that’ll follow this posting shortly.
• Neato. USB 3.0 is coming.
• The hilarious and hugely underappreciated series Psych has been picked up for a third season on USA. Psych and Monk are the single best scheduled pair of shows on network or cable TV. Rarely in the history of TV has their been two shows that so perfectly fit together in consecutive time slots. To be honest, and as much as I love Monk, I’ve enjoyed watching Psych even more lately.
• If you’re a Battlestar fan or a science geek, or both, here’s a cool interview with Dr. Kevin Frazier, Battlestar’s science advisor. It’s really a cool interview session, and he amusingly geeks out on 2010, admitting he likes it better than 2001. I’ve always been fond of 2010 as well, though not quite for all the same reasons as him. Still, a great interview session worth checking out.
• Speaking of Battlestar, here’s some info on the state of the show and the network ponderings of late. Now, I know that networks are all about the bottom dollar. Truly, if you think any decisions at a TV/Cable network are driven by anything less than 99% care about the bottom dollar, you are living in a world made of gingerbread and should be waiting for your fairytale prince/princess to walk through that door. But still, as a Battlestar fan, can I just request that the execs at Universal tie their “money people” to a chair and tar & feather them? Just do it for the fan base. They are the pointy haired bosses of such an equasion. What do these money people think their money is driven by? As one of the first commenters on the linked story wonders, have they learned nothing from Jericho? If you’ve got the choice, KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE NEEDLESSLY IMMENSE GAPS IN AIRING SCHEDULES! Seriously. I’d much prefer it if more shows do what Fox & ABC did for a bit with Alias & 24. When you’ve got a heavily serialized show like Battlestar (or Alias, 24, etc), air them as close together as possible. And in those examples, do it one a week, with no breaks. It’s something else if you’ve got a very self-contained anthology/procedural like CSI or Psych. I’d still prefer smaller breaks, but it’s not as critical a thing. Oh, and on the topic of Caprica, I’d love to see it finally go into production. I think the mini-series test approach is fine. It worked for Battlestar, it can work again. Like they say, at worst, they should be able to break even with video sales if it completely falls flat on the air.
• So, figure I’d chime in on the Emmy’s for this year. Overall, a good ceremony. Despite the mocking by many of the presenters, I rather liked the 360 degree approach to the awards, grouping the shows (Speaking of which, it was fun to see Kristen Bell already included with the Heroes cast). Battlestar didn’t win the writing or directing awards, but I didn’t expect them to. At least they won the visual effects award at the tech ceremony a couple weeks previous, which they most surely should have won. Great to see 30 Rock pick up best comedy series. Absolutely fantastic to know that this was the last and final Emmy awards to include anything Sopranos. Good riddance. The highlight of the awards was the Colbert/Stewart stuff. When Stewart & Colbert presented the award that Ricky Gervais won but wasn’t there to accept, they proceded to award it to also-nominated Steve Carrell (and fellow Daily Show alum), who came up and enthusiastically accepted it, I was laughing. But the real highlight of thiers was with the other fellow nominees for writing in a variety or music show. Colbert’s montage of writers abusing him and Stewart’s C-Span dubbing were hilarious. Somebody saved me the effort of editing that bit out to post. Great fun.
• Pushing Daisies picks up another guest actor, Molly Shannon. I think she’ll be a fanstastic addition to the cast. BTW, if you wanna see some truly fanstic acting by Molly Shannon, you need to see Year Of The Dog, a movie from earlier this year. She’s fantastic in it. The movie is charming and excellent as well. Can’t wait for Pushing Daisies to hit the air at the beginning of October. If you can only watch one new show this year, Pushing Daisies (ABC) should be it. No contest. If you can only watch 2, make the other one Reaper (CW).
• Here’s a post that stirred up a little debate & controversy on a handful of sites. It got attention when it made it to the front page on sites like DIGG (where I stumbled upon it). It’s worth reading through, as it takes an interesting left turn in topic. It’s a write-up I fully agree with. He posted a follow-up second post that’s linked at the bottom of the main one, explaining his sentiments, primarily due to the amount of attention it got. I won’t spoil what his topic is really about, but I will say that I’ve seen numerous examples of this over the years (more than most people would believe) and am often times dumbstruck by it.
• So, we all knew this day would come eventually - Google has begun testing the rollout of flash-based ads. It’s no big shock, but it still drops their coolness factor a couple points as a company.
• Wow, MediaDefender is getting pummeled upside the head. First, a bunch of their internal e-mail is leaked, and they poorly try to send out take-down orders for them. Then their source code is leaked. Sucks to be them. This time for more reasons than the usual.
• An amusing write-up about DHS’s interesting spy tower initiative.
• Wanting to learn another language? Try out the new, FREE online system called Mango. After kicking the tires for 5 minutes, it seems pretty simple and nice.
• Who knows, perhaps the Star Wars TV shows will turn out cool after all. It’s possible.
• For those of you like me, who were wondering where all the Blu-Ray copies of Smallville Season 6 were on Tuesday, despite the fact that everyone had the HD-DVD version, here’s why.
• Speaking of the HD formats, here’s a story with a shocker revelation. Consumers are confused and frustrated by the format war? Well shut my mouth wide open…
• Speaking of speaking of the HD formats, I’ve been scrounging up whatever Blu-Ray and HD-DVD titles I could get good deals on or just couldn’t resist getting lately. While it’s awesome to see recent big-budget hit movies like 300 in their HD glory, I get the nicest warm fuzzies when seeing gorgeous HD transfers of older movies. Paramount’s HD transfer of Black Rain is beautiful. That movie has never looked better. Seriously. Never. The combination of Ridley Scott and Jan De Bont on that movie resulted in a visual look far surpassing what the material really deserves, and it really stands out in this new transfer. It’s amusing how many of the urban Japanese location shots looks like stuff out of Blade Runner. Then again, there are older movies that just CAN’T manage to look much better in HD, like Universal’s new HD-DVD release of The Last Starfighter this week. Sure, there are moments that look nice, but much of it just can’t look any better than it already did. Hey Paramount, can we get Ridley Scott’s 1492 on HD-DVD? Please? You morons never even managed to get the standard def DVD released (though y’all did manage to get a nice 2 disc SE standard DVD releases in Brazil!).
• While the general public has become annoyed by NBC/Universal’s split with iTunes, I think it’s a good move. If they can do their own version better, go for it. Sure, it sounded like the main reason the split happened was NBCU being too greedy in their contract demands with Apple, but what the heck do I care? iTunes doesn’t need to be the end-all/be-all. Heck, I’d prefer they not be.
• For the very small handful of people who couldn’t see the downfall of SCO coming YEARS ago, when they started the whole lawsuit fiasco, the delisting of their stock on NASDAQ might actually come as a surprise. For the rest of us, it’s more like “I can’t believe it took this long to happen.”
• More historical proof that Fox’s advertising department sucks. And this is probably the best promo they came up with for the show.
• Speaking of Firefly, it’s so cool to see the DVD set still popping up into top sales lists (#27 on the linked one). I mean, check out that weeks-in-release number.
• Did we really need more proof that The View is an astoundingly retarded program?
• Google reveals their new “Shared Stuff” platform. I don’t consider it useful yet. Once they start tying in their other services to it, then I’ll play with it again. Still, interesting to see.
• OK, one of my longer Ponderings posts. Probably cause I waited too long after the previous one. And I refrained from adding more than twice as much as I did include.

They did it! They fracking well did it! Battlestar FINALLY picked up a visual effects Emmy! The “Creative Arts” Emmy Awards are done before the primary awards, and are all the nitty-gritty categories that don’t make the primary ceremony/broadcast. Battlestar lost their other creative arts nominated category, for sound editing. Still, the one that I swore I’d boycott the Emmy Awards forever for actually won. I can’t believe that Gary Hutzel and his VFX teams on the series have finally been recognized with the award they have deserved from the beginning. And if Exodus Part 2 wasn’t an episode that could finally win the award for them, I don’t know what would have. Now, here’s hoping one of the other two nominations can win during the primary awards next weekend. It’d be a royal hoot if Ron Moore’s nomination for writing could pick up a win. On the non-Battlestar front, great to see that Monk picked up a guest actor win for Stanly Tucci’s funny performance. Oh, and it’s heart-warming to see that the academy aren’t complete idiots in passing up Planet Earth for cinematography in a non-fiction series. That series was breathtakingly shot. It also won best non-fiction series as well, for which it was deserving (as well as a couple other categories).

• Here’s a funny example of advertising campaigns being used in an on-the-fly, funny way.
• Ever wonder where that rebate you sent in ended up?
• In the seemingly continuous shake-up of producers on Bionic Woman, Glen Morgan has stepped down. The series sure does seem plagued by “creative differences.” And, while I’m looking forward to the series, the rough cut pilot definitely needed some work. I wouldn’t bet on the success of the show, but I hope it can make it.
• This is a hilarious anti-piracy ad parody from the UK’s series, The IT Crowd