Online Video On-demand in Infancy

Before I start, Circuit City is selling the special edition of Reservoir Dogs for only $7, which is a steal. If you haven't seen it but you like any of Tarantino's other movies I highly reccomend it since it's only a few bucks more than renting it and it's a great film. A few months ago, Google started accepting submissions for its Google Video service free of charge at the moment. Now, it has developed its own cross-platform in-browser video player called the VLC media player to view the videos and has started making certain videos available. The download is quick and painless, and then you can start searching its database based on keywords provided by the uploader and watch those with a play button next to them. What's great about this media player is that it shows screen shots from points in the first few minutes of the videos and allows you to start from there. The problem is that it doesn't go much farther than that for all long videos and there's no way to adjust the video size. Nonetheless, I think they're off to a good start and this may provide a vehicle for people to watch missed tv shows online, which many of you know is a cause I really identify with. This service is still in very early stages and they still have many kinks to work out, but at least they were bold enough to make that first step. Anyway, if you want to try it out yourself check out "breakdancing".

There is more techie news out there today. It's a great day for Linux users who can now play most Windows games on Linspire using Cedega for just $50. I'm kind of surprised that no one had previously done this, and this is a big step forward in making Linux a more easy-to-swallow operating system. Sun is edging closer to open source methodology itself by releasing the source code for its upcoming Java Application System Server. It's better than nothing. Some American scientists have found a way to bring dogs back to life after being clinically dead by draining their blood and replacing it with a cold saline solution. The craziest thing about that discovery is that it'll supposedly be ready for human testing within a year, which could be able to keep people alive long enough to say, "Goodbye," to loved ones. If you haven't been enamored by the iPod then you should take a look at this collection of articles about how rival companies designed their mp3 players to complete with Apple. The key is really to add important features (like radio and a mic and stuff) not in the iPod while keeping it simple and dependable. If you're interested in using VoIP to make unlimited calls over your cell phone you should check out this article explaining how to route calls through IPDrum. It's a little complicated, but worthwhile if you make a lot of calls and are short on cash. Lastly, it looks like Grokster has lost the case against MGM and while it's only overturning a previous decision it does come as a blow to P2P. I'll bring you more on the next step of the war as it develops.

I think I'll start off the movie news with some multimedia. Japan actually has a Fantastic Four trailer that makes the movie look better than we all would think it to be and is worth a look. If you missed the King Kong teaser premiere tonight then you can still check it out on the Volkswagen website. You can catch some shots from it here. IGN has the theatrical trailer for Cry Wolf that makes it look very analogous to Scream. It even has a token Black dude and Asian chick, both of whom I'll bet will be killed. Yahoo! Movies put up an exclusive clip from Hustle & Flow showing how good the acting is even in simple scenes. Harry Knowles put up a riveting review for War of the Worlds hailing it as his favorite movie for the year and upping the anty on my expectations for the production. I doubt the movie will disappoint though, and it will be out in theaters this weekend. There's an engaging interview with George Romero at IGN and it's sad how bad his movie did in theaters this past weekend. I didn't see it only beause I was so busy with suprise parties. Fox has decided to pick up hit video game Max Payne for a movie and it should be interesting since the game itself is so cinematic. David Goyer will be directing an original thriller called The Invisible this September and while the plot (an assaulted teenager trapped in limbo and trying to find his body) sounds neat I'm concerned that this will keep him from doing a Batman Begins sequel. I hope he gets his priorities straight! Lastly, hottie Peta Wilson has been cast in Superman Returns for a currently unannounced role and despite the unfamiliar name this is indeed notable because of how she looks:



There are a couple of items of randomness left. You may soon have to pay taxes for ordering items online from some popular sites like Amazon.com due to legislators exploiting a loophole of an online company having an offline store in the purchaser's state (such as with Amazon.com and Borders). This could come to a huge blow to such sites since it would reduce the savings to customers. The other thing I wanted to mention was all the theories regarding the source of the huge housing market bubble stateside. I personally subscribe to the international influence theory, particularly Asian savings.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. If I could just figure out how to __________, I'd be real happy.
get a girl who's interested in me
2. I would be happy to hand over cleaning the __________ to someone else.
furniture (dusting)
3. One thing I try to do every day is ___________.
practice classical guitar
4. Someone once told me that I was very _________.
smart
5. Probably the one word/phrase I tend to overuse is _____________.
indeed (apparently)
6. I need to work on ___________.
talking slower
7. When I'm cleaning house I like to listen to __________.
high energy music (Audioslave, Incubus, etc)