loonyblog.

Engadget has posted screenshots of a real, live working TiVo Series3.

Why must TiVo torture me so? Give me a definite timeframe…a price point so I can start saving…anything!

Heather and I are going on vacation next week (we’re spending 10 days in London), and as an early anniversary present, my parents gave us a new digital camera to replace the aging (and slow as dirt) one we had. Naturally I needed to test it out on something, so I’ve posted some pictures of my most recent Warhammer 40k figures on my .Mac site.

One of many nice things about this camera (it’s a Canon PowerShot S80) is that it can take extreme closeup photos, so I can finally actually show some of the detail I’ve done on these figures, instead of the blurry ones I posted last time. Check ‘em out.

As noted by the Superman Homepage, A visit to Ilya Salkind’s website reveals that the producer of the Christopher Reeve-era Superman movies (also Supergirl and the 80’s Superboy TV show) is developing a movie based on the lives of Siegel & Shuster. While I’m all for a biopic of the creators of the greatest pop culture icon of the 20th century (take that Mickey Mouse), it’s a very, very difficult story to tell, and I’m not sure I trust Salkind to do it justice. Not necessarily encouraging is the fact that the credited writers are related to Shuster and not experienced screenwriters.

I recently read Gerard Jones’ Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, and what makes it such a great book (easily the best I’ve read on the subject) is how it makes no attempt to glorify the early days or idolize the creators. It’s an absolute warts and all approach to the subject.

An adaptation of that book I’d love to see. It’s a riveting account. But I’m not sure Hollywood is quite ready to see an honest depiction of Jerry Siegel (to say nothing of the seedy people in his life), and I’m not terribly confident in these people to make an honest movie.

But hey, we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be first in line to see it.

Faced with the prospect of being completely iPod-less, I went out and bought a 30 GB iPod yesterday. I’ve only barely used the thing, but so far, it’s very, very nice. It’s a lot smaller physically than my iPod photo was, although that size carries with it a reduction in disk space by 10 gigs. Since I never came close to filling that, that’s not a big deal (if it had been, I’d have gone with the 60 gig model), but we’ll see what happens down the road.

I do of course, have some serious issues with the thing. While the box for my iPod phot was crammed with stuff, this one came with the iPod, a USB cable, headphones, a flimsy pouch and an adapter for the Apple universal dock. And that’s it. Since it turns out that the iPod photo dock isn’t a universal dock, that means I’d have to pay for a new one. I decided that wasn’t worth it.

I did however get Apple’s radio remote, which is pretty slick. I’m not sure if I’ll ever actually use the FM radio feature, but as an in-line remote, it works really well. Much better than the previous generation. It’s annoying that it plugs in the bottom of the device, but I’ll learn to live with that.

My biggest issue with this iPod is the lack of support for FireWire. It can charge over FireWire, but transfers are exclusively over USB. Unfortunately, my Mac desktop doesn’t have USB 2.0, so I had to transfer all my music over crappy USB 1.0. I had to leave it copying overnight…it probably took something like seven hours to copy my 12 gigs of music. That was unacceptably slow, so I shelled out $10 (shipped from Newegg) for a USB 2.0 PCI card. While I hate upgrading my Mac this late in its lifespan (it’s on its last legs), $10 when I’ve already spent $300 on my iPod, isn’t much. And USB 1.0 is so pathetically slow that it’s necessary.

I’ve attempted to watch some short videos on this thing, and while the screen is gorgeous, it pales in comparison to my PSP. I think I’ll experiment and grab a couple of shows off iTunes, but I can’t see it replacing my PSP (especially now that I have a 4 gig memory stick). Also the battery life when watching video is pathetically short (around two to two and a half hours).

But really, I use my iPod for music and audiobooks, and it does that exceptionally well. It’s much thinner than my iPod photo and the remote is much nicer to boot. If you’re curious, the case I went with was the iSee Video from Contour. They made the best case for my previous model as well, and everyone I’ve talked to who has the video pod swears by this one.

My iPod died today. This is a very sad thing. It’s not that the battery died, either…the iPod is well and truly b0rked. Now, I didn’t actually pay for this iPod, so I shouldn’t be all that upset, but my iPod is something I use every single day. I listen to audiobooks when I walk around the city, and I do that all the time.

Naturally, since I didn’t buy it, I certainly didn’t bother to get the AppleCare two year warranty on it. Now, if the problem is just the battery, they’ll replace it for $60 plus shipping. If the problem is something more insidious (like mine, unfortunately), they charge a whopping $249 for a non-Nano/non-shuffle iPod. Considering that a new iPod costs $299, that’s a complete and utter ripoff. I ain’t paying that.

Unfortunately that means I’m going iPod shopping. This time though, I’m getting that damn AppleCare. History has shown pretty conclusively that iPods don’t survive more than two years (lord knows mine haven’t). So I’ll suck it up and hope it dies before my $60 investment runs out.

For some reason, the last few times I’ve gone drinking, they’ve been epic in nature. I’ve already posted about my evening of booze with the Irish, but after that came Comic-Con, and while I was out there, I apparently helped collectively set a record at a bar for the most number of shots had in one sitting. I say “apparently” because I have no recollection of any of this transpiring. My last memory of that evening was several rounds before this supposed entry in the history books, so I’m relying entirely on second-hand sources for that. I do know that I woke up fully clothed, in my hotel room with one of those epic hangovers, but as to how I managed to get there, your guess is as good as mine.

Then there was the other night, when a whole bunch of us at the office went out for drinks as a birthday celebration for a coworker. Incredibly, I didn’t drink myself into a complete stupor, but I did invent a drink. Seriously.

It’s called the Tom Bass, named after one of my coworkers, and it’s a variation on the Car Bomb. Only instead of Guinness (which I cannot and will not drink as a shot) it’s a pint (or half-pint…I’d go with the half if you’re gonna shoot it) of Bass, and instead of Bailey’s it’s a shot of Jägermeister. Maybe it’s because I had a bunch of them, but I actually enjoyed the taste (the bartender certainly did…I get free Tom Bass’ for life there). Here’s the Wikipedia entry.

I’m probably going out tomorrow night…I may have to order a Tom Bass just to spread it around.