For all the comic book readers out there:

The new Comic News Tracker website is open for Beta business. If you’re a Digg fan, you’ll get what this is all about right away. If not, think of it this way — you can vote for the stories you like, submit the stories you like for others to vote up, and find new stories you didn’t know you were looking for. Yes, it has the wonderfly Web 2.0 URL of ComicNe.ws. There is no “.com” there. Think of sites like Del.icio.us, and you’ll get this one.

Check out this YouTube video.

You wouldn’t believe me if I tried to describe this one. Must be seen. It frightens me, yet it looks like fun. I wonder if they’ll add clothing to the characters for the American release.

If you’re sending me an e-mail in regards to something, it’s always a smart idea to summarize that idea in the subject header. “Blog Entry.” “Wii Sports rulez!” “This week’s Pipeline column.” “Various and Sundry Redesign.”

That’s what the subject header is there for. It’s a good place to mention that.

It is, however, highly redundant to preface that with a “re:”. I think your original subject header contains an implied “Re:.” And you know what? Lots and lots of Spam I receive starts with “re:” unnecessarily. You’re tempting the spam filter fates by prefacing your subject with the re:. It’s fine when you’re responding to something. That’s standard protocol for e-mail going back to, well, probably the beginning.  But if I see an unfamiliar name sending me an e-mail for the first time with “re:” at the beginning of it, I’m unlikely to open it.
It also helps to get past the spam filter if you include something of interest in the subject line. “Hello” and “I agree” doesn’t help the filter much, nor me.

Just some tips for beating the world of spam to get your personal message through to me.

As you may have no doubt already noticed — assuming you’re not just reading the RSS feed — things look different around here.  A couple of months in the making, my own personal redesign of the default template for WordPress is complete.  The code isn’t always necessarily pretty and needs to be cleaned up a little on the backend, but the results are still good, I think.

Let me know what you think.  Let me know if you find any bugs.  Yes, I know that the sidebar doesn’t extend all the way to the bottom of the front page, but that doesn’t bother me all that much.  I could fix it easily enough, though, if there’s an outcry against that white space on the bottom half.  Also, the comments page doesn’t have the sidebar at all.  I’ll likely be adding that back in one of these days.  Right now, I just want to get this thing live.

If there’s any weirdness in the formatting you notice, please let me know in the comments section, preferably with your OS and browser noted.  I designed this in Firefox.  It looks best there.  It looks mostly the same in IE, but it really sings in Firefox.

The really funny thing is that I was playing with some color setting just before I uploaded this design and already have an idea for the next modification.  This redesign business can just suck up all your time if you’re not careful.  But I really do like the next idea I have in mind — plus, it’ll be timely by the time I do it.  That’s all I’ll say for now.

Diabetes breakthrough

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”

The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market.

Give it another year or two and we’ll see how this cure will also kill us and we’ll all be back to the drawing board.

NUM LOCK

Really. Who uses the numeric keypad for arrowing around a screen?

CAPS LOCK looks productive by comparison. SCROLL LOCK looks positively — wait, no. Has anyone ever used SCROLL LOCK for anything since 1985? Why is it still on there? (Here are its origins.)

Place your votes now — which key should be taken off of a Microsoft standard keyboard first? NUM LOCK or SCROLL LOCK?

GAMING:

• Gaming story of the year: Detroit Tigers pitcher missed three post-season games because he hurt his arm playing too much GUITAR HERO.
• Amazon.com to have fresh stock of Wii and PS3s soon, too? File this under rumor and Refresh-That-Website.
• I attempted Wii Sports Boxing last night for the first time in a couple of weeks. I still hate the controls. Tedious, non-intuitive. Not good at all. I punch and nothing happens. I try flicking my wrist and a punch flies at a completely different angle. Then the wire between the Nunchuk and the Wiimote gets wrapped around my hand and I quit. I’ll try again in the new year, perhaps, after I’ve gold-medaled all the other training levels. (Darn putting level is killing me. Can’t get past 9 holes.)

TECH:

• Apple rumor of the day: Will Apple’s new phone be announced on Monday?
• Another Apple rumor of the day: Is this the iTV’s remote? I hope not. It’s not very pleasant looking.
• Wil Wheaton has joined Netscape’s Digg-likesite. I know we all made lots of jokes about it when it first started, but I think there’s enough of a difference between the two services to give Netscape a chance. The extra level of editorial control might scare off the anarchists, but I can see it as a boon for those who don’t want to page through tons of links to get the biggest news of the day. Even on Digg, the biggest news items don’t stay on the front page longer than a few hours. And if Netscape wants to hire me next, I’m listening. ;-)

They’re issuing replacement straps for the Wiimote for those who have no self control and damage things around them.

| Nintendo - Customer Service | Wii Remote Wrist Strap Replacement

Nintendo is offering to replace the original version of the wrist straps for the Wii Remote with a newer version. Because Wii consoles shipped starting in early December already utilized the newer version of the strap, you will need to determine which version of the strap you have before ordering a replacement. To view the difference between the original and the new version of the strap, please click here.

If you have an original version of the strap, please complete the form below to get a replacement (also, to ensure you continue to have a fun & safe experience, please read our Safety Information for Playing Wii by clicking here).

Once your replacement wrist strap has shipped, you will receive a confirmation email from Nintendo. We expect to begin shipping replacement straps around December 21st. It will take 5 to 9 days for delivery depending on your location. Please do not contact Nintendo regarding your replacement wrist strap until after that time period has passed.

• World’s tallest man sticks long arms down dolphin’s throat to save its life.
• ‘24′ turned down Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller for being too recognizable.
• Apple speaks: iTunes sales are fine.
• Mark Cuban wants Google to step in, offer the music for free, make money on ads, and destroy Apple and Microsoft. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but if anyone knows how to sell ads, it’s Google.
• Someone doesn’t get magazine advertising models. All of those ads pay for the printing. Subscriptions are dirt cheap, because it means more eyeballs for the advertisers. Don’t pay newsstand price for WIRED. It’s a great magazine for $10 or $12 a year, though.
• Microsoft talks about the Game Studios Express developers tool, released this week for the XBox 360. Might it create hundreds of new home brew game creators? How will they be compensated?
• The next BOND film to be based on another Ian Fleming short story? Perhaps if they keep is simple, they can get it out to the theaters in a reasonable period of time, too. Here’s hoping.
• Did the Dolphins buy audio tapes to decipher the Patriots’ audibles? Or, you know, did the Pats just have a really bad game?
• Undersea hotels are popping up. . .
• 15 best web sites to waste time on.
• Screen shot comparisons between DVD and HD-DVD. (Scroll down a bit for those.) There is a clear difference, but is it worth the expense? If I already had an XBox 360, perhaps it would be. . .

Caught this at the top of some documentation at work the other day:

“Note: This document was reviewed for content only. Grammer and Spelling were not considered…”

No duh.

• Christmas tree lights wreak havoc on the Wiimote. But if you set one up on either side of the TV, it’ll probably work out all right. ;-)
• Looks like GameStop will have more Wiis in stock on Sunday.
• Europe sold 350,000 Wii units in its first week there. That’s impressive — more impressive is that the DS Lite outsold it by a couple hundred thousand. Whoa.
• Nintendo bought Wii.com from a “forest products” company. Just how much did it cost them? The world may never know, thanks to NDAs.
• Since everyone else is linking to it: The new Wii Strap: Handcuffs!
• Nintendo has sold 2,000,000 Wiis worldwide already.
• Video of someone taking a Wii apart to examine the internals.
• Trade your Wii codes on-line. (Thanks, Jacob!)
• I just noticed last night that the other Mii I created on the Wii is always sitting behind me when I’m bowling. Cool!  Makes me want to create more.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Viewers fooled by ‘Belgium split’

Belgians reacted with widespread alarm to news that their country had been split in two - before finding out they had been spoofed.

The Belgian public television station RTBF ran a bogus report saying the Dutch-speaking half of the nation had declared independence.

Later it said Wednesday night’s programme was meant to stir up debate.

Oh, those wacky Flemish folks!

Rumor: Best Buy Holding Wii Shipments Until Dec.17 - Kotaku

GoNintendo.com has managed to get their hands on a Best Buy employee missive that states all Wii shipments are to be held until Dec. 17th.

There’s an image of the letter included in the story there.  They see this weekend as the last weekend to harvest the full force of holiday shoppers, desperate for that new gaming system. And stores will have lots of stock — maybe not as many as at launch, but a healthier number than you ever saw of PS3s.

• Sad news: Skype’s free calling plan WILL end on January 1st, and we’ll be paying $30 a year to call landlines from the computer. It’ll only be $15 if you sign up by the end of January, though. So it’s not THAT much more expensive to do your podcasts. . .
• This morning, I feel like dancing on AOL’s grave some more. They get what they deserve.
• More icon theft. This one company - Panic, makers of the excellent Mac FTP program Transmit - has so many examples that they crafted an entire page to them. What’s really funny is to see how many times the picture of their office got lifted. Sadly, the interface on the page stinks and is slow.
• Google Earth interface — using the Wii remote.
• Red Hat Linux is moving from the NASDAQ to the NYSE. I can still remember the crazy day when they went public in the first place. It was supposed to be the start of the Linux Dot Com boom. Oh, well.
• Corner Shop helps you create graphics with rounded corners for your web site.
• If you like bleeding edge tech, I give you Firefox 3.0 Alpha.

First, a gaming note: Super Swing Golf for the Wii is released today, too. I’ve finally gotten the hang of Wii Sports Golf, but there’s only nine holes to play. I’m interested to see the play of a full scale Wii Golf game. I’ll be sure to post some major web sites’ reviews for this thing as soon as I start seeing them.

Now, onto the world of DVDs:

• Bugsy: Extended Cut (2-disc set) (1991)

Because who can get enough Warren Beatty in their lives?

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: Extended Edition (4-disc set) (2005)

Hey, the formula worked so well for Peter Jackson that it should work for NARNIA, right?

• The Devil Wears Prada (widescreen) (2006)

I saw this one in the theaters. It’s a surprisingly good movie. Lots of funny little bits in there, and Meryl Streep is ruthless.

• James Bond: The Ultimate Collection: Vol. 3 (10-disc set)
• James Bond: The Ultimate Collection: Vol. 4 (10-disc set)

The anti-PRADA movie collection.

• St. Elsewhere: Season One (4-disc set)

Some of you were waiting for this one, I’m sure. The continuity freaks are skipping it because none of it really ever happened!

• Stacked: The Complete Series (3-disc set)

Never a good sign when an American TV series can have a “complete” release in three discs. This is the production company trying desperately to make its money back.

• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: Unrated (widescreen) (2006)
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (widescreen) (2006)

Definitely not for me, but Farrel has his fans out there.

• World Trade Center: Collector’s Edition (2-disc set) (widescreen) (2006)
• World Trade Center (widescreen) (2006)

Oliver Stone finally makes a movie without a conspiracy theory or biting political commentary.

Previews for next week: Another SIMPSONS season, another M. Knight Shyamalan movie, A SCANNER DARKLY, MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND, and more.

Stay tuned for the Various and Sundry DVD podcast later tonight, as well!