• Illustrator Tutorials. (Via)

• Our Favorites Fonts of 2005. Part One.

• Podnova’s Top 40 Podcasts.

• Podcasts for a fee? Don’t worry — mine will always be free. I’m not really worth paying for – I know that much. The hook here is that you’ll pay for them through iTunes. There are already podcasts you need to pay for — many radio shows and stations already offer those.

• 15 Most Influential Games of All Time.

• ReactOS: The free software Windows XP emulation project.

• Of all the crazy Mac rumors floating around these days, this one is either the craziest or the most brilliant.

It’s a short one this week, folks. About 2.5 minutes.

This is the 51st DVD podcast:
Listen directly to the MP3 file

Vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley.com.

Read about this podcast in PODCASTING HACKS.

Where to find release lists: DVDJournal’s release list TVShowsonDVD.com – monthly release list

Where to find more information on these movies: Internet Movie Database

You can also subscribe to the podcast, and not have to wait for me to remember this posting to listen to the podcast.

E-mail me or send voice comments to AUGIEDB at GMAIL dot COM. Or leave your comments in the comments section of this message.

• The National Film Registry announced 25 new movies to add to its roster, including TOY STORY, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.

• POLICE SQUAD! is coming to DVD, at last! Summer 2006.

• So is DINOSAURS! “Not the Mama!”

• Over 100 million DVD players have now been sold. Anyone else remember when the last studio hold outs were saying they wouldn’t release their movies on DVD until there were at least a million units out there? Ah, good times. . .

• Short but powerful Linux tips.

• I’m not sure I can explain why, but this Java Zen thing is very cool and very relaxing.

• This is a pretty cool friggin’ pic of Mars. That’s not the desert — that’s a whole ‘nother planet. Wow.

• Are Podcasts a guy thing? I remember articles like these when the web was first getting popular. UGH

This came in too late to make the link dump, but I can’t just ignore it.

The Dunkin’ Donuts baker has died.

Michael Vale, the actor best known for his portrayal of a sleepy-eyed Dunkin’ Donuts baker who said “Time to make the donuts,” has died, his family said on Tuesday. He was 83 years old. Vale’s long-running character, “Fred the Baker,” became a cultural icon. The ad campaign lasted 15 years, until Vale retired in 1997.

• We’re beginning a new age: Netflix is worth more than Blockbuster.

• Time to upgrade again, bloggers: WordPress 2.0 is now available.

• How to nap well. (Via)

• Have a song but don’t know what it is? Play a bit of it for the computer and let Tunatic tell you what it is and who sings it.

• Wired’s Foot In Mouth Awards. I think they’re also still looking for Vaporware of the Year nominees, too.

Various and Sundry Politics is on vacation this week, but will return on the first Tuesday in January.

This website will be updated daily throughout the holiday week, although it’ll be minimal posting — usually only one post per day.

Thanks for stopping by and for all your support this year. And I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

The folks at DVDJournal.com have a full release list. I have some highlights.

American Pie: Band Camp (unrated) (widescreen) (2005) American Pie: Band Camp (R-rated) (widescreen) (2005)

I’ve lost all track of these movies. The last one came out this year? Hunh.

Dark Water (2005)

Wasn’t there a “Dark Water” animated mini-series about a decade ago? This ain’t it. This is that remake of the Japanese horror flic that came and went earlier this year.

Nowhere Man: The Complete Series

I talked about this a little bit last week. It’s a paranoid conspiracy thriller show. Lots of fun, starring Bruce Greenwood. Its creator had an internet presence back when the show was first on, making him one of the first TV producers to recognize such a thing could be good. And the final episode did wrap up the series.

Think THE PRISONER, but set in the real world without umbrella-toting midgets.

The Shield: Season Four (4-disc set)

The series returns to the air in just a couple of weeks and I can’t wait. It’s the best show on television when it’s on.

At the same time, 24 will be returning, and I’ll be bouncing back and forth between the two shows as being the Best Show On Television. I seem to have given up on ALIAS this year, though, so there’s less competition now.

Toy Story 2: Special Edition (1999)

I already own a version of this movie that makes me happy.

The Twilight Zone: Season Five

When I’m rich and retired, I’ll be buying all of these to enjoy.

Next week promises not a whole heck of a lot. Maybe these will interest you: Alien Nation (4-disc set), Dumb & Dumber: Unrated Edition, Wedding Crashers: Uncorked Edition (unrated). Nothing for me, though.

This week’s podcast won’t be up until tomorrow night at the earliest.

When it comes to classical music, I have a real weakness for Franz Liszt, who I once read referred to as the Elvis Presley of classical music. So much of his music was used in the classic animated shorts of Warner Brothers and Hanna Barbera that it’s still well known to this day. Tops on that list is his Hungarian Rhapsodies. I’m partial to “Totentanz,” which has a hard-driving piano solo that has to be heard to be believed.

But what I’d really like to see is a pianist performing Liszt’s work. A look at Amazon doesn’t turn up much, although this DVD looks promising. So I throw it out to all of you. Perhaps there’s at least one classical fan out there who knows of a DVD somewhere that might have what I’m looking for. Anyone? Please?

Normal blogging will resume Monday. Fonts by Blambot!

It’s Christmas weekend, so I’m allowed to give myself a little something. In this case, I’m eschewing the normal link dumps and concentrating on the greatest computer language of all time, Perl. I know I just lost 90% of you, and for that I’m sorry. For the rest of us — whoo-hoo!

If I didn’t lose you already, here’s something funny from the Perl documentation, about the creator of the language, Larry Wall:

1. Larry is always by definition right about how Perl should behave. This means he has final veto power on the core functionality. 2. Larry is allowed to change his mind about any matter at a later date, regardless of whether he previously invoked Rule 1.

Got that? Larry is always right, even when he was wrong. 

• Perl.com

• Larry Wall discusses Perl 6. (Via)

• Documentation on the Games::Cards module. It should allow you to more easily write card games in Perl. For the graphical interface, check out the Games::Cards::Tk module.

• An Obfuscated Perl program, along with commentary by its author, who wasn’t too happy to come in second place.

• Find Perl on any operating system. I used this to better understand how Perl is set up on my Mac.

• Want to write GUI applications in Perl? Use Perl/Tk.

• Ubuntu Live CD release for different OSes. I can run Linux on my Mac without futzing with the hard drive this way.

• And just for pure geek fun: Use Linux as a Windows screensaver.

• Sorry for the lateness today. I have the day off today and am working like a busy worker bee to clean things up radically here at home.

• Worst case scenario: Billy Crystal isn’t hosting the Oscars. Ugh. Maybe Chapelle is free? (Kidding.)

• Guaranteed to make you scream: Kim Bauer returns. (Last two links via TVTattle.com.)

• Top Ten Web Site redesigns of the year.

• I need to run down a list of all the possible releases being announced at MacWorld. It’s been insane for the past month with rumors of Intel Macs, slimmer PowerBooks, widescreen video iPods, Mac mini TiVos, etc. Add to that: An OS X upgrade?

I know there’s been some discussion in the comment threads around here recently about the short window between theatrical release and DVD release. We’re talking about how a movie like TITANIC today might not last so long in the theaters, since most people would expect it on DVD in relatively short order.

Then I read this today:

The Digital Bits – We Know DVD!

Okay… back to those announcements. First up, Sony has set Rent for release on 2/21. I believe we’ve mentioned this one before, but Universal has set The Ice Harvest for 2/28. Here’s a few new ones for you: Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain are both on the way for a 3/7 release, with Pride & Prejudice set to follow on 3/14.

Has BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN even gone into wide release yet?!?

ICE HARVEST and RENT both bombed in relatively short order, but I know RENT is being announced about a month after it debuted in theaters, if not less.

THE APPRENTICE’s Rebecca adds details to the curious last-minute disappearing act from Joe Piscopo during the final episode:

My immediate reaction was, “If Joe Piscopo is dropping out at the last minute, let’s have a talk with his union and we’ll make it all work out,” but I was told, “No, you can’t make a call to the union [and] you can’t talk to Joe anymore.” I don’t know if they showed this, but Joe Piscopo came to the event at the end; maybe — and this is my own personal inference — that is a sign that some external factor, whether it was a union, NBC, [Apprentice executive producer] Mark Burnett or whatever, forced him to not present, but somewhere inside of himself he couldn’t handle the idea of not supporting a good cause. He did the right thing by showing up, and I commend him for doing that.

And is it wrong of me to chuckle and shudder everytime Larry King uses the word “blogger?”

(Both links via TVTattle.com)