Movies Moving Closer to the Net

I can't remember the last day as beautiful as today in Austin. I can't believe that it's 58 degrees outside this very minute. The daytime hovered around the 70s and what was great is that it's that perfect mix of breeze and cool with warm sunlight. It's like when you keep your place a few degrees cooler than you would like to be so you can curl up in a blanket, but the blanket is the sun. Anyway, Universal is the first major studio (to my knowledge, at least) that plans to offer movies online by the end of this year. I guess that with the unprecedented growth of the web this year they're realizing that it's important to tap into this new, tech-savvy audience. They're making a really smart move and I hope they do get something workable together. Meanwhile, smaller producers are following suit (or I guess it's the other way around, really) and finding that it's cheaper for them to distribute their work online rather than in movie theaters. That's more focused towards television programming, but Brightcove has the right idea by possibly offering a pilot episode for free and then subsequent episodes would be $1 apiece. I think other networks are starting to catching on as well, so I can't wait to see where we'll be by next Spring.

That's right, GTA: San Andreas is coming back to us in all it's rated M glory. As you can see, it looks a little different and will feature 3 DVD discs to also include some introductory material and a documentary of sorts. Keep your eyes peeled for how many retailers actually will carry it (the ones who haven't sold out I mean). Has anyone else noticed that Google Maps Beta is now Google Local and looks a little different? It now features a quasi-command line interface rather than tabs and I think that's better except that I see some delay in it drawing a path for directions. It also would appear that Google really is going to feature a button on its toolbar to allow web users to access Sun's OpenOffice, which is either a strike against Microsoft or a move to get closer to Sun (or both I suppose). Lastly, ZDNet features that we shouldn't shrug off Microsoft's contributions to trying to encourage standards (though I realize the irony in how many standards IE isn't compliant with) with things such as DRM and COM. Consistency is important after all.

I'm starting to get tired of Martin Campbell's lies. First, he says that there are three men at the forefront for the role of James Bond and now he says that there's really no one who's in the lead. Either he's trying to throw us off or he's really incompetent. Could it be that the costumes for Spider-man 3's villains will stink? One source seems to think so, we don't really have much to go on ourselves though other than his word so stay tuned for more. If you don't watch live TV much, like me, then you'll want to head to IGN for a couple of TV spots for the Goblet of Fire. The San Francisco Chronicle has a rather long report from the set of Zodiac, David Fincher's next thriller and though I couldn't read this whole thing I'm still wildly intrigued. Lastly, this teaser image from King Kong is just too cool for me to not showcase:



Now for the 3x Thursday meme:

1. Name a band/group/performer that you love to listen to, but normally wouldn't listen to. Why do you like them so much?
Sadly, Mariah Carey. I'm not a big fan of pop, but I've been listening to her since I was a wee little boy and I just think she has an awesome voice.

2.Name a movie that usually you wouldn't like, but for whatever reason, you love.
Now this is really a tough one. I don't normally have a particular affinity for sports movies though yet I thought Friday Night Lights was awesome and very entertaining. Napoleon Dynamite is another because it's just a really stupid comedy, but there's something funny about it.

3. Do you have a talent that not many other people poesess? What is it?
I can twitch my ears? I don't really know. I'm a pretty determined person, which means I stay on top of my work and my exercise regiment.