I've been meaning to get up to speed on VoIP, but haven't really ever found the time. I know Skype must be pretty easy, but again, I haven't ever used it. There has just been some barrier there for me, and I'm generally a pretty early adopter of on line technology. But MagicJack sounds like it might be lowering the bar enough for me to take the plunge.

Techs, telcos team up to set Internet TV standard

A word of explanation: "Open IPTV Forum" isn't about having open, non-proprietary IPTV for the end-consumer. It's about having open, non-proprietary systems components for the service providers to choose from to build their closed, proprietary service delivery platforms.

Analogous organization: DVB, which sets standards used by a variety of satellite, terrestrial, and mobile TV systems ... some of which are "open" from the end consumer's perspective.

I saw 300. I totally missed the build-up until Jim mentioned it a couple of weeks ago and then I saw a History Channel treatment of the “facts”. It’s quite a piece of work. Easily the best approximation of comic book values into film that I’ve seen. That means an adolescent male ethos which is no more defensible than the cartoonish vision of history, but criticizing these things is beside the point. What struck me was the way it achieved a mythic scale (even though it’s Greek history, not myth.) The storytelling is highly condensed, with lots of voice-over and semi-static tableau, like comic book panels. I found it a great relief from the psychological “realism” that pervades even the worst of Hollywood films, in which actors strive for that subtle brow wrinkle which no more than suggests the deep mental turmoil within. It’s kind of like the difference between Poussin and Rembrandt, where Poussin uses an established roster of rhetorical facial expressions to convey a narrative, while Rembrandt’s faces have no expression, allowing us to read whatever we want into them, thereby appearing more “realistic.” The film’s success apparently came as a surprise to the establishment, but you’d think they’d have figured it out by now. Every Marvel comic movie has debuted at number 1, even though they’ve all suffered from the realistic treatment. The real tragedy is that crappy Brad Pitt Troy movie a couple of years back: if they’d put these guys in charge we might have had something worth watching.

Oh, and when Jim described the story I recognized it as Thermopylae, but couldn’t come up with the T. S. Eliot reference: it’s Gerontion.

Will Apple TV Be Bigger than the iPhone?

EU may force single mobile TV standard on cellular carriers

im not particularly impressed by this 1984/apple parody. i suppose it reinforces the idea that hillary is the establishment candidate but who didnt know that. no matter how clever political ads they are a blight on intelligent debate. but then, whod want that? once again, the real story is youtube. the viral distribution is the message.

finally got around to watching the riches premiere on fx. definitely showed some promise. very dark comedy about a family of "american gypsies" who decide to "settle down" by stealing a rich dead couples identity. episode 2 airs tonight.

soros on aipac

Walter Tetley was a prolific character actor in the mediums of film, radio, and animation for many years. Like thousands of others I enjoyed his appearances in old movies, his cartoon voice work, and his steady comedy roles on golden age radio. The thing was, I thought I was enjoying three different people. It took many years for me to figure out that the anonymous bellhop in countless Hollywood films was the same guy I was always hearing on things like the famous 1961 comedy LP Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One.

Walter Tetley had the voice of a pre-pubescent schoolboy. Born with a rare hormonal disease that prevented him from fully experiencing the changes that puberty normally brings, Tetley's voice is best remembered today as the bespeckled cartoon nerd Sherman, boy companion to Mister Peabody on The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. Many would surely be surprised to discover that the brainiac dog's boy companion in all ninety-one segments of Peabody's Improbable History was actually a man in his late forties.

What better way to celebrate than with a record dramatizing the novel's steamiest scenes, complete with orchestral accompaniment? Unless you consider “phallus” and “sex” to be obscene words, you'll find yourself quaintly charmed by the idea that this once caused an uproar, even though the anonymous actors do their best to sell the sex with breathless, melodramatic readings.

Both the jacket and the album feature the notation, “Vol. 1,” on all sides, suggesting that this was the first in a series. As the album covers the entire plot of Lady Chatterly's Lover, I must assume that they never found another piece of adult-oriented literature worthy of adaptation.

three hours of galapagos just started on nat'l geo channel.

of course am watching the english beat pledge drive on 13. the zombies actually turned into real zombies and eric burden is a caveman.

this is pretty cool although not exactly the lineup i might have favored. directv is broadcasting shows from sxsw this weekend. the quality of the visuals are excellent.

Vegan Try Fector last week......

Stop 1 Hangawi: went al la cart....wrong move except one amazing dish of a seasonal mountain root salad....rest ok at best:<(
Stop 2 Mandoo Bar: its a dumpling bar 2 w 32nd and sensational,
wish we went here to start...
Stop 3 Kyotufo Dessert Bar, 707?? 9t Ave, very very good, drinks + dessert chef from Japan...

Straight Talk Express can't get it up for a condom

get yer grateful dead-sponsored, lithuanian basketball team shirt. who knew?

Shares of BigBand Networks Spike After Pricing of $139 Million IPO

BigBand is a developer of technology that allows cable TV providers and telephone companies to offer video, voice and data services.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has raised more than $100 million from investors, and achieved profitability last year.

Its clients include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Rogers Cable.

Nice to see an IPO in this space. Although with $100M in at least some of the VCs got less than the 10-1 pop that they dream of.

Unused TV spectrum eyed for Web service

CBS shoots the NCAA to YouTube

Mark Raby, March 16, 2007 10:42, San Bruno (CA) - Bringing March Madness to the online video forefront, CBS today announced a new advertising partnership with Pontiac to bring NCAA game highlights to YouTube.

Nintendo's Still the One

By Fred J. Aun, TechNewsWorld, 03/16/07 11:04 AM PT -- Nintendo blew away the competition in February gaming console sales, according to an NPD report. The company sold 485,000 DS units and 335,000 Wii consoles in the month. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 228,000 units, while Sony continued to struggle as its PlayStation 3 lagged with only 127,000 units sold.

and in other news, i will be suing tim conway for not being funny.

Giant ice cap found under the south pole of Mars that, if thawed, would cover the entire planet with 30 feet of water.

i cant even begin to imagine one good thing to say about karl rove but i was just watching a rerun of keith olbermann and during the entire segment while discussing roves involvement in the prosecutor scandal they had "turdblossom" under his picture. seemed a little unseemly for a news organization to go there. but then what do i know of decorum?

Aggressive Intel Quad-core Price Cuts Before "Barcelona"

Intel is trying to steal AMD's thunder by cutting prices deeply. The Q6600 is a Core 2 Quad with 1066 MHz front side bus (connects to the memory controller chip), 8 MBytes of cache, and 2.4 GHz operating frequency. It will be $266 (in quantity) by Q3 of this year. Earlier this year, the retail price of the 2.93 GHz sibling was around $2k.

Four screaming-fast 64-bit processors for $266. Awesome.

garbo speaks!