I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my post-Honeymoon Pipeline or not, but I’m going to bring it up here anyway. It’s Saturday and I have nothing else to write about:

Part of the deal at the All Inclusive Resort the Mrs. VandS and I stayed at is that they’ll take your picture. They have roving photographers who show up, take a series of pictures of you, and then offer you the chance to buy prints afterwards. At the end of the day, you can go up to the photo office, look through the pics snapped of you, and buy prints of any of the ones you like.

In the end we didn’t buy any. They just weren’t good enough. There was always something wrong. Or we didn’t want to spend the money on a photo that might have a spot in a photo album and that’s it. They’re not exactly cheap — that’s how they make the money on the deal.

However, they do have a “killer deal.” You can buy a photo or a series of photos for a slightly higher price and they’ll include a frame with the pictures.

I somehow doubt that any honeymooner there went for that deal. Anyone who’s recently married can point to a stack of frames in the corner of the closet that have piled up since they announced their engagement. People get so excited that you’re getting married that they buy you a present. Then they’ll buy you something for your shower. Then they get you something for getting married.

The default gift for all occasions, I learned in the last year, is a frame. We have a ton of them. I’m not complaining. Some are quite lovely. Some are already in use. Others will be filled with wedding pictures. We just bought shelves to nail to the walls to display more frames with more pictures.

You know what we’re learning? They’re useless. The wedding photographer’s pictures are 4 x 6 or 8 x 12. Frames are 8 x 10. You wind up having to cut off two inches of each picture to fit it in the frame. In my case, we have pictures that will only fit in frames if we crop them to the point where it looks like I’m ducking to fit in the frame. I’m tall, so my head barely fits in these pictures to begin with. Now, it’s even worse.

Life is never easy.

pamie.com: office space

After the episode was over, I had to go to the Warner Brothers lot for a meeting, and I was kicking myself for not taking more photographs of Stars Hollow when I worked on the lot a couple of years ago. I rode a bike through there every day, and gave mini-tours to my co-workers (Did you know Stars Hollow had a Repertory Theatre? It did. I saw the storefront sign.) So, after my meeting was over, I wandered over to where Stars Hollow used to live, to see if anything was left.

Pictures of an empty Stars Hollow at the link. The Mrs. and I will begin catching up on the final five episodes of the series this weekend.

CW Announces 2007-8 Lineup

Earlier Thursday, the CW said it had canceled the cult hit “Veronica Mars”

Thankfully, I still have season three to watch. I caught the first two on DVD.

This week, we saw a contestant leave the show. She was the best of the three remaining contestants, but the judges complained she was too old for the show, that she started out good and stayed good throughout. In that industry, looking old is death. She did the best in that week’s competition, and even the judges admitted it.

Who am I talking about? Rene from America’s Next Top Model, or Melinda on American Idol?

Tough to tell.

BitTorrent in Focus: TV-series are Hot | TorrentFreak

TV-series are by far the most shared files on BitTorrent. Nearly 50% of all the people who use BitTorrent at any given point in time do this to download a TV-show, even though the number of available torrents are much lower than for Music or Video. The second most popular torrent category based on the number of downloaders and uploaders is Video (15.7%), followed by Games (8.6%), Music (7.8) and of course XXX (6.0%).

Not surprising in the least to me.

I do not condone copyright infringement.  But BitTorrent can be convenient in spots for people.

It will never happen. It’s nice to ponder a future where we all read books on “electronic paper,” pay bills on-line or via some wand waved in front of every cash register. It’s pleasant to imagine no more letters lost in the mail, no more unsolicited advertisements clogging our mailboxes. It’s nice to think of an earth where paper usage is so low that forests grow thicker every year.

But here’s a great example of why it will never happen:

As previously mentioned, I bought a new cell phone over the weekend. With it came a contract I had to sign. With it came a super-long cash register receipt I had to sign to decline the insurance. They have duplicate copies of both for their records. Then there’s the sales receipt, the authorization receipt to add my phone number to my wife’s plan, and the contract to move the cell phone number over to the new company, after writing it down on a slip of paper to give to the guy helping us out.

Now I need to photocopy all of my materials before I send the originals out to the place where I can get my rebate — they already have my e-mail address, cell phone number, and home address. Why are we going through this rebate process? Beats me. That’s all they ask for on the receipt that was already filled out for me when I got it. But now I can stuff that all in an envelope and mail that out in a hurry before postage rates go up.

And all of this is so I can enter the brave digital world of wireless communication.

Ironic, don’tcha think?

And their head is placed firmly up their bottom:

Tectonic: Microsoft ‘evidence’ turns against them

The claim by Microsoft earlier this week that open source infringes 235 patents, has taken an interesting turn.

Steve Ballmer cited an independent report published last year that he said claimed that open source Linux violates 228 patents. The author, Dan Ravicher, said that the report “actually proves the opposite of what they claim it does,” and that it did not claim that open source software faces legal problems.

In the report, Ravicher sought to stress the difference between potential and actual patent violation. This difference has been ignored in Microsoft’s reference to the report.

Idiots.

I can’t believe I lost my nerve.  I should have called Melinda this week to go.  I even provided enough good reasons for it in my writeup yesterday. But, then, I bowed to conventional wisdom and went with Blake.  Stupid stupid me.

Yes, Melinda is the best singer in IDOL history, and I think that worked against her.  She’s already a professional singer for some big name singers.  She’s an old 29.  She has no signature style, besides just being able to sing everything well.

And in a self-selecting voting population dominated by the young and the female, the votes were naturally going in the direction of Blake and Jordin.

It might not be the best-sung finale that it might have been next week, but it certainly will be more interesting.  The field is wide open.  The two choices are completely different styles. Whose camp will win it all?  Will Blake’s appeal to the girls be enough to carry him through?  Will Jordin’s more classical song style win her the typical Idol vote?

I don’t think it’ll be an easy call next week at all, but I think the final vote will be decisive one way or the other.

And if they had 60 million votes this week, I can’t wait to hear what the total will be next week.

De Blieck Out!

Get well, Pam Beesly - Pop Candy - USATODAY.com

[Jenna] Fischer’s publicist tells me the Office star “fractured her lower back in four places” in New York Monday after falling down some marble stairs in high heels. Her pal and co-star Angela Kinsey “has been with her the whole time” and her husband, filmmaker/actor James Gunn, has flown to be with her.

Filming for the season has wrapped — the finale is tomorrow night — so this shouldn’t impact the show’s production schedule anywhere near as badly as the near-guaranteed writer’s strike will.

This week, each of the three remaining contestants sang three songs. Two weeks ago, each of the four remaining contestants sang four songs, and Ryan spent the hour complaining that they had to move REALLY fast to fit eight songs in. Last night, they squeezed in nine without a problem and only ran their typical one minute over. So what’s the diff, guys?

The three songs were: Singer’s choice, Judge’s Choice, and Producer’s Choice.

Jordin was given “Wishing On A Star” by Simon, who clearly wants to move her into more of an R&B sound. When she does a record, this is likely what it will sound like, and most likely why I won’t be buying it. She got drowned out a little by the band in spots, but she sounded great otherwise. The dress was horrible, though.

The producers then gave her “She Works Hard For The Money,” which sounded a little pitchy early on, but otherwise worked fine. It made Simon positively giddy. He didn’t complain that the song sounded old, though he did with her last song, which came out in the same decade. Go figure.

Jordin chose “I Who Have Nothing,” against Simon’s wishes. I don’t care — I still get goosebumps when she does that song. I think it’s her signature song for the season and the one she’s done best with.

Blake got the Police’s “Roxanne” from Paula. She must really hate him, given how many Police songs have gone horribly awry this season. Again, the producers added a bit of echo to his voice in the song, but it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t spectacular, but it worked for Blake. He wasn’t trying to be something he wasn’t. He didn’t reach up for the falsetto he doesn’t have. He kept the song grounded, though it’s a bit of a boring and repetitious song for IDOL.

The producers then gave him Maroon 5’s “This Love,” which made me jump. I know that somewhere this season I made the comment that if this Idol thing doesn’t work out for him, he should join Maroon 5. Dangit, I can’t find that in the archives. I either wrote it in my notes and never typed it up, or I used it in the comments somewhere, which don’t get searched by the blog. Argh! (I did make the comment about a Rock Star: Supernova contestant last summer, though.)

In any case, he did a good job with a song that’s so quirky that it’s like the Police song — you can’t picture anyone else singing it any other way. It needed a little more beatboxing, too. I thought it would have been appropriate to add it in one or two more places.

Somewhere over the course of the night, the Coca-Cola question was asked of Blake, “Who would play you in a movie about your life?” I refer you to my comments from the Round of 16: ” Blake Lewis began by showing off his Jim Carrey impersonation improvisational skills. . .”

And then Blake answered, “Jim Carrey.” Whoo! I get points for that one.

Finally, Blake chose to sing “When I Get You Alone,” by Alan Thicke’s kid. It’s a funky upbeat number that allowed for the beatboxing. I liked it, but thought he would have done better going back to his Bon Jovi song.

Overall, Blake had three good songs for his vocals and performing abilities, but none of them are going to prove to be “Idol Moments,” or the stuff that will prompt the extra voters he needs to vote for him.

Melinda started with Randy’s recommendation, Whitney Houston’s “I Believe In You And Me.” I thought she missed a high note or two, but you almost couldn’t tell. She’s a professional, and can sing anything. Still, the first half of the song was kind of boring for me.

The producers gave her Ike and Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits,” which further proved that Melinda can sing anything well. It was interesting seeing her go rock and roll for us this week.

Finally, Melinda went with “I’m A Woman” and brought out the background singers to the stage to sing it with her.  Strong stuff again.
Melinda is a chameleon. She can sing anything. But what should she sing? What’s her particular style? What does she add to each song that’s uniquely hers? I haven’t a clue. Amazing singer, though.

It’s tough to figure out who won the night. You have three completely different singers on stage now. I suppose you could make the argument that Melinda and Jordin are in the same category, with Blake singing a different style that will pail by comparison on most nights. As I said last week, beatboxing is a novelty, while holding a note for ten seconds and wiggling one’s chin is considered applause-worthy.

You could, then, make the argument that Melinda and Jordin will split the vote and Blake will go through. Conventional Wisdom right know seems to be that Blake is the goner tonight. And wasn’t Blake in the bottom two last week? But won’t that spur his fans to vote even more this week? On the other hand, everyone who’s gone first in this week goes home. Has Melinda been TOO consistent from week to week? You need to be peaking in the final weeks, not just giving more great performances. (I know that’s an awful thing to say, but it’s reality.) And will America hold it against Melinda that she’s already an accomplished professional singer, or that she’s so much older than the others? Will America listen to Simon and not vote for Jordin because she sings songs that are too old for her? Or because she’s too young, has too much room to grow yet, or wears awful clothes most nights? (If the latter, Melinda is in trouble, too.)
I thought at the beginning of the season that the final two would be Melinda and Lakisha, and that we’d have a battle of divas like never before. So I’ll stick with that thinking, but sub in Jordin for Lakisha. I’ll miss Blake, though. He was always entertaining.

Variety.com - Fox orders more ‘24′

Jack’s back - and on board to save the world at least two more times.Fox has ordered two more seasons of “24,” keeping the Emmy-winning drama on the net through the 2008-2009 TV season.

Announcement comes on the eve of Fox’s Thursday upfront presentation. Show remains a powerful player for Fox, despite ratings dips and critical knocks this season.

Exec producers for “24″ have already told several publications that they plan to make some changes on the show next season - but the twist will remain the same: Each episode covering one hour of real time as special agent Jack Bauer races against the clock to stop something bad from happening.

And, on the other side of the world of TV, GILMORE GIRLS concludes tonight.

That’s two geektacular movies, and one nearly-forgotten 80s/90s favorite sit-com.

Next week: Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima (confused yet?), and Scrubs Season Five.

ScienceDaily: ‘Virus Sponge’ Could Improve Flu Treatments, Diabetes Care, Vaccine Development

Researchers at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering have created a “virus sponge” that could filter a patient’s blood in a process similar to kidney dialysis, removing the virus from the patient’s body. The concept could also be used to make vaccine production more efficient and in a pill to reduce glucose levels in diabetics, among other applications.

OK, so it’s more of an alternative treatment than a cure, but we’ll see if this one ever comes to market. . .

I got a new cell phone over the weekend. At long last, I replaced the piece of crap Worst Cell Phone ever that I had been using for the last two years. It was a Sony Ericsson, model T637, I believe. It was a horror. I got it for the blue tooth, but the buttons worked about half the time. The little joystick controller that came with it would usually only work in one direction. And since it wasn’t a flip phone, I was always having to lock the keyboard so as not to call people while it was in my pocket. It was a little beast.

I upgraded to a Razr, which is a much nicer, sleeker, and easier-to-use camera. It still has the Bluetooth and the camera, but as a bonus, the keypad works!

It did mean, however, that I needed to manually re-enter all the phone numbers back in. Some points on that:
* It’s amazing how people can enter your life and leave your life. I didn’t bother transferring over a bunch of numbers. Some people I just haven’t talked to in over a year. Some people left for new jobs. Some just moved on. Whatever. I saved a lot of typing by not including those people.

* Here’s the thing I found most interesting: I put some names into the cell phone because I need to know in advance when they call. I have no intention of ever calling them, but I need to know when to avoid their calls. Don’t worry — I’m not talking about you here. ;-)

* My fingers hurt and my eyes cross over now looking at the keypad. I can’t believe there are people who like texting each other back and forth and find it a pleasing exercise.

* Why is it that none of my friends have names that are spelled with the first letter on each number key? There are no “Pat”s or “Matt”s on my phone, but lots of annoying names to type in like “Phil” (7-4-4-pause-4-4-4-5-5-5) and “Scott” (7-7-7-7-2-2-2-6-6-6-8-pause-8). And those are just the first names!

* I can’t believe it, either: I switched from Cingular to Verizon. I won’t be owning an iPhone for at least two years now.

• You can’t have the internet without open source.
• But Microsoft wants to sue that all away. Hey, it worked so well for SCO, didn’t it? ::sigh::
• Looks like Mozilla does want to compete with Silverlight, et. al.
• Jonathan Coulton and others make music on the internet.
• Jonathan Coulton’s “Code Monkey” is a must-listen if you’re a programmer.
• Y Combinator Boot Camp jump-starts wannabe start-ups.
• Web Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen doesn’t like Web 2.0 designs.