Category: Uncategorized

It’s been a while, but thought I’d note that I did see War of the Worlds a couple of weeks ago. Nothing special, but Tim Robbins must have had fun with his small role. Metacritic gives the movie a 74, for “generally favorable reviews” — seems about right.

TiVo means watching the early season Arsenal-Chelsea fixture over two nights nearly ten days after the match is played. Yes, Arsenal lost, as they did in the Community Shield. Yes, Thierry Henry needs to be patient as the team adjusts to new midfielders who don’t serve him as well as Patrick Viera did. But worthy game all the same, and I’m glad that I can stay willingly ignorant of the score all this time. Yes, the Chronicle prints brief scores in the paper, but I avert my eyes, and I rarely visit sports websites. To me, the game was new, and that’s all that matters.

Now I have to hope I can duck the Chelsea-Tottenham score until I find time to watch that match, too.

Great run this morning with my friend Billy… first time in a while I’ve gone more than five miles. Twenty minutes after finishing the run, though, the back seized up, reminding me that I’m not fully recovered from wrenching it nine days ago. Ouch!

But it was still a rewarding run. Nothing like Narendra’s 50 miles in any respect, just a nice solid tempo, with a manageable heart-rate. Now I have to stretch and be patient and be cautious again for several days… and, if I’m smart, maybe longer than last time.

And getting older is fun because…?

When Scoble points out that Technorati’s top searches this weekend were for Barcamp and Foocamp, all I can think is… we’re not swimming in the mainstream just yet. Not all bad, but (repeat after me) it’s still early. I love being immersed in this bubbling broth of media, but perhaps it’s still an acquired taste?

Last night, before bed, I read Deep Into Sleep. This Harvard Magazine article explores sleep research, along with some of the statistics about how poorly rested we all are. Great survey of the field, especially for someone who is only learning now (as a parent) to appreciate the joys of a great nap.

The unmistakeable irony? I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep.

Just one tidbit to share with you:

Rats totally deprived of sleep die in 17 to 20 days: their hair starts falling out, and they become hypermetabolic, burning lots of calories while just standing still.

Sounds like an unpleasant way to go… back to bed!

Gmaps Pedometer is the coolest tool I’ve seen in a while. Focused on a small task, the Pedometer delivers a better-than-real-world experience. And my running commute is 3.263935141910354 miles long. New feature idea: allow me to plug in a time for the distance travelled, and spit out a pace. That’s more interesting than a calorie counter, as energy use is widely variable by terrain and individual. But it’s cool as is, and cheaper/lighter than carrying a device compatible with MotionBased.

Thanks to James Kim, I was able to pass along a useful recommendation to my mom about technology. The narrow limits of my expertise were quickly exposed when trying to help her pick the right digital audio player for listening to audiobooks which can be borrowed from her local library. Here is what I asked James:

My mother wants to buy an MP3 player to listen to audiobooks, as her public library is soon to offer electronic files in addition to (or replacement for) cassettes and CDs. She runs Windows XP, and knows that the library system will be using Microsoft’s DRM, and thinks (based on some articles she’s seen) that she needs 1GB to have an entire book (or two?) at a time on a single device.

CNET reviews hundreds of these devices, but I took advantage of the workplace to get a direct answer from an expert.

If the library is using Windows Media, she should be able to fit many books on the typical player. A one-GB player would be sutiable for her, though I would recommend the Rio ce2100, a 2.5GB player that costs about $130 on the street. For a better deal, get the Rio Carbon 5GB for only a few dollars more ($160 is the lowest I’ve seen). Both players play both WMA and Audible and are easy to use and include a bookmarking feature — very useful for audio books. She can always get a smaller flash player with 1GB or so, but these are a little harder to use and don’t include bookmarking– but they can be a few dollars cheaper.

Much experience distilled to answer a very specific question… and now blogged with the hope that someone else can benefit from this piece of knowledge.

I don’t even try to follow ego feeds for John Roberts anymore (thanks to the Supreme Court), so I missed when Steve Gillmor called my response to Steve Rubel a new form of spam, based on my presumed status as an “incumbent.”

Last I checked, CNET News.com wasn’t even nine years old yet. Whatever audience has been earned in that time, by many folks before and besides myself, returns because there is worthwhile information every day. If not, no one spends their time. It’s that simple, isn’t it?

Steve G thinks it’s disingenuous for publishers to talk about what readers want. I disagree, on two counts. First, I’m a reader, too. Second, without readers, there is no business. Responding to what readers want is how media businesses remain businesses. It’s quite clear that not all media outlets are businesses, nor do they need/aspire/want to be, necessarily. I work for a media business, as I have in one form or another for 14 years.

Before coming to San Francisco in 1996, I spent five years at a magazine where the door code was the year of its founding… 1857. That is incumbency. Even then, we brought The Atlantic online (first on AOL in 1993, then the web in 1995) because that’s where the readers (yes, readers) were going to be. The forward-thinking Kim Jensen (sadly gone now) realized the future could not rest solely on the aging print subscribers, and acted to stay relevant. Verdict is still out for The Atlantic, in my judgment, but I still find it compelling enough to spend a few hours/month on, in print even.

If incumbency means people still care about what your organization does 150 years later, then, sure, incumbency is a goal.

I can’t get the picture of the unchanged McDonald’s french fries in a glass jar out of my head. Unchanged… after weeks. That — and a renewed commitment to eating fresh, even when eating unhealthy — is the lasting legacy of watching Super Size Me last week. Every American should see this film. Be afraid, be very afraid.

It’s all about the comic book heroes come to life, isn’t it? Sony wishes they had a Spiderman movie every summer, and Marvel and Stan Lee are opening their archives as fast as they can. So I went with a brother-in-law to see Fantastic Four.

Metacritic did not give the movie a great score. I’ve rarely toured this site, but CNET Networks acquired the site according to today’s announcement, so wanted to check it out. I would give this movie a higher score than 40 out of 100 (critics’ score). I’m more in line with the 5.9 out of 10 given by the users. Maybe that’s a good sign.

I thought the best scene was on the bridge, as the foursome are learning how to apply their powers. Also, the end felt like a true comic book, setting the hook for the sequel (of course). The close evoked the end of the first Indiana Jones movie, as the ark is stored in an endless warehouse… this time, we know the crate, with its deadly cargo of Doctor Doom, will come back.

Overall, good fun for the evening, and we both agreed that the preview for Transporter 2 looks like fun, even if the preview showed us all the good parts. Neither of us had ever heard of the first Transporter, though I caught most of it a few nights ago flipping through some channels… about what I expected. Better metacritic score, from both critics and users, than Fantastic Four.

I’m almost caught up with my mainstream media consumption for the summer. Which film should I have watched?