• Closed on the house yesterday. Began making a checklist of all the things we need to do in it.  The devil is in the details, the list is ever-expanding, and multiple trips to Home Depot and Cost Cutters/Target are to be expected for the next month. Thus, you get a link dump today.

• I’m not sure — are these pictures troubling or just plain cool?  They are old black and white photos made into 3D images very simply.  Fascinating trick.

• Funny video for font geeks. Both of you. Huge demerits, though, for making Comic Sans the hero. UGH

• Here’s a must-read interview for PIXAR fans, of how a movie gets made and why it’s done that way.

• Remember: Just because you don’t like it, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fans.  Take, for example, “Lifetime Wow!” It’s a website dedicated to reviewing Lifetime women-in-danger movies.

• XKCD beautifully tracks hurricanes.

• Trying to play catch-up on blogging this week already.  Go read today’s Pipeline when it’s up at CBR.  It’s a loooong one, but with some interesting thoughts in it, I think.

• Flash Game du Jour: Totem Destroyer

• Lots of pictures of Mike Tyson’s abandoned mansion. Includes tiger cages and a sundae bar.

• Ebert and Roeper is done.  Disney might try to keep it going somehow, but it’s done.

• Last week, I tweeted:

The Watchmen trailer was a very pleasant surprise. So, how many sites are working tonight on matching specific panels with screen grabs?

Here’s one!

Some companies are clueless.  They look at the console wars as being between the PS3 and the XBox 360.  That’s just a nice way to fool themselves into thinking they’re not losing, though.

Nintendo: Wii Outsells Xbox 360 In U.S. | Game | Life from Wired.com

The Wii has officially outsold the Xbox 360 in the U.S., making it the number-one console in America, Nintendo said Thursday.

Maybe the Wii isn’t just winning the war, but also defining the terms of it? Just a thought.

I mean, Microsoft thinks the Wii is a fad because non-gamers play it.  Yeah, it must suck to have your industry actually GROW. . .

iTunes is offering up a $5.00 video of the All Star Game.  What’s in it?

That wretching sound you just heard me make after reading the first five lines above is sponsored by Coca-Cola — stir to remove bubbles, and drink to cure your nausea!

The good news is, that $5.00 charge is considered a “Season Pass,” so it pays for four files.  The game, itself, runs 3:30.  Impressive.  Once you eliminate the commercials, it’s not THAT long a 15 inning game. . .  Individual files can be had for $1.99.

Say what you will about the Yankees, but at least they didn’t sell out on the name of their stadium to the highest bidder. (Wait, they haven’t sold out on the new Stadium, have they?)

Nomo calls it a career after 12 years in majors - MLB - SI.com

[Hideo] Nomo announced his retirement Thursday, agent Don Nomura said. Once known for a deceptive delivery and a devastating forkball, the 39-year-old Nomo was released by the Kansas City Royals in late April.

When is your baseball career over?  When not even the Royals want you. .

• The very definition of cute — saving ducks.

• No, seriously, this Java game is played on your Favicon.  Look up.

• We haven’t had the need to update the SCO story for a long time. I thought it was over.  Turns out, it’s not.  And this latest update is so insane, I couldn’t explain it if I tried.  I link you to Slashdot to give it a try.

I haven’t done a full scale Twitter post lately, but here are some recent highlights of the last couple days:

• I love PayPal and all, but still think they take too big a chunk out of my change, if you know what I mean.

• San Diego is one week away. I may begin crying —- now.

• First reaction to new OAR album - very radio friendly. Almost too much so. That’s only the first half, though. And I like the first single

• 15 inning all star game? Who the heck pitched?!? Did they pull Wade Boggs out of retirement or something?

• So, Amazon’s new Buy Me Later means I have to write them a check at the end of the process? JUST TAKE PAYPAL, AMAZON! Sheesh

• The cell phone kept dying overnight. Then I realized there was no signal near my temp bed and searching for one for hours was killing it.

• Wow, that’s an insane number of songs for Rock Band II. Bonus: I recognize more than a dozen.

• We haven’t done a Flash Game of the Day in a while, have we?  How about a puzzle game called “Open Doors,” then?  I breezed through the first 7 levels.  Now I seem to be slightly stuck.  How embarrassing.

• How fair is Monopoly, mathematically?  (See also this link dump for more on Monopoly game play.)

• The “GigaPan” gives you enormous pictures you can zoom in on and pan across like you wouldn’t believe.  Here’s a panorama of Yankee Stadium from July 4th.

• J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe” will be aired as full fifty minute episodes, not the barely 40 minute episodes most dramas are today. That, alone, is enough reason to give it a chance. Abrams demanded it, and got it.

• Five years ago at Various and Sundry: A pretty cool Rubik’s Cube prank in NYC.

Commerce Bank recently updated their ATM menus.  It dawns on me now just how bad the user interface design is.  It may look more modern, with a slick graphical set of buttons to replace the old almost-DOS feel to the whole process.  But there are a couple of things that bother me.

First, the machine doesn’t hold your card while you’re doing a transaction. Now, you have to click a button confirming your transaction is done.  If you don’t, the next person walking up to the machine has access to your account and can just pull more money out of your account at will. (I haven’t tested this, but maybe — just maybe — you have to type in your PIN for each transaction?  I hope so.)
Second, I laughed out loud at the withdrawal system.  They tell you that you can only withdraw a dollar amount in  multiples of $20.  Some might question why the interface would then allow you to type in a number not in such an increment.  Wouldn’t an up/down arrow make more sense?

No, the thing that REALLY bothers me is that I have to type in the dollar amount I want to withdraw INCLUDING the cents amount.  I’ve never in my life seen an ATM machine that gives you spare change.  Why do I have to type the cents?  Why give people the option of something they can never get.  And you have to do it.  If you don’t, that $140 you’re trying to get will look to the machine like $1.40 and be rejected.

Wouldn’t it be simpler if you only had to punch in the dollar amount?  Or are they afraid that you, the simple user, are so used to their nonsensical system by now that disrupting it like that would be a bother?   I don’t think the ATM would dispense $2000, so it’s not like someone might accidentally overdraw their account while trying to get out $20.

I’m staying with the greatest sister-in-law and family ever.  The accomodations are more than comfortable.  The children adore me. The refrigerator is fully stocked.

And any purchases they may wish to make for birthday purposes for their daughters can be done via the Amazon Search link in the right column of this website.  Just over there ——>

(This post has nothing to do with the fact that they found my blog this weekend. Honest.  Riiiiight.)

The wife and I are moving out of the one bedroom condo we’ve called home for the past few years.  (The wife has been here four, I’ve been here nearly two.)  We won’t move into our bigger and better home for a couple of weeks, but I am afraid I need to take a vacation day today.

Please, talk amongst yourselves in the comments below.  Give me all your harrowing moving stories.  By the time I read them, mine will be over and I won’t get nervous from reading about how bad it might get.

Thanks, and have a good weekend.  I’ll see you back here on Monday!

• Sometimes, the technicalities of rules can lead a sports team to do funny things. This 1994 soccer game takes the cake! It ends in a team scoring on itself in order to win.  Fascinating!

• Is this the look of the new MacBook Pro?

• Fans of reality TV are well aware of how aware the shows’ contestants are of the fact that they’re on reality shows.  Very meta, don’tcha think?  It also means the cliches have crept up.  Note this video of “I didn’t come here to make friends” pronouncements.   I hope someone follows this up with a video of losing contestants saying how happy they are to walk out as themselves, and not lose their souls to win.  ::sigh::

• Mike Tyson’s Punch Out — as played with Donkey Konga bongo drums.  Cool!

• Now THAT is a sandstorm! It looks like something out of “The Mummy.”

• Squirrels hide in the darnedest places.

• Is Mercedes phasing out gasoline in the next seven years?!?  Seems very quick, but I suppose it’s possible. Gotta love modern technology!

• While we’re on the topic: Solar-powered Prius. The ultimate vehicle?  Right now, they’d only power the air conditioning.  But, hey, it’s a start.

• The most amazing stat I’ve seen in a while: 62% of dial-up users have no interest in upgrading to a broadband connection.  In related news, 62% of horse owners want nothing to do with the internal combustion engine.

• Video of 100% score on the hardest Guitar Hero song.  Looks painful.

• Download Firefox 3 builds optimized for the Mac.

• Michael Bay’s rejected “Dark Knight” script.

Here’s what I’m excited about:

That’s the deluxe boxed set, which is the only one worth getting.

Interesting landscape this week:

• Batman: Gotham Knight

It’s the animated prequel to “The Dark Knight.”  Written by a bunch of comic writers.

• Superhero Movie

This is the superhero movie parody movie.  Somehow, it didn’t get sued by DC/Marvel for using their joint “superhero” trademart.  Still, it made almost $60 million worldwide.

• Jake and the Fatman: Season One

It’s my list.  I can include whatever I want.  And for some reason, I feel like mentioning this one.  Odd.

• Fastlane: Complete Series

If you’re a “Saved by the Bell” completist and you want to fill out your Tiffani Amber Thiesson collection after “Beverly Hills 90210,” here you go.

Next week: “Birds of Prey: The Complete Series”

• Funniest XKCD comic I’ve seen: MacGyver Gets Lazy.

• Scully’s father died.  Sad. He was also on that Stargate show, it seems.

• Greatest alarm clock ever: Every time you don’t wake up, it calls a random number on your cell phone.  Wake up by ticking off your friends!

• Hellboy on Inside the Actor’s Studio.  I laughed.

• I never thought a show like “Wipeout” would make it to air in America, just for litigious reasons. It’s way too easy a show for a contestant to get hurt on and sue for big damages.  Why risk it?  Why not just do a trivia show?  There’s a fifty page release form contestants have to sign, and special mud to make their landings soft.

Yes, this one is short.  Time for a long weekend. I’ll see you back here on Monday, for sure.  But you never know — if something strikes my fancy, I might pop up over the weekend.