Consuming "Iron Man (Ultimate Two-Disc Edition) [Blu-ray]"
Shipped on 10/02/08.
After ultrarich inventor and weapons maker Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) escapes from kidnappers using makeshift power armor, he turns his invention to good by using it to fight crime. But when he must face the evil Iron Monger, his skills are stretched to the limit. Based on the Marvel comic, this captivating superhero tale from director Jon Favreau co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard.

Received on 10/02/08. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/I_Am_Legend/70060015 to rate it.

Received on 08/12/08. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Saw_IV/70060007 to rate it.
Shipped on 08/11/08.
Director Adrian Lyne's erotic drama is a thoughtful examination of obsession and passion -- and blindfolds, chocolate syrup and more. Involved in a relationship based on sex and fantasy, art gallery worker Elizabeth (Kim Basinger) and commodities broker John (Mickey Rourke) must face the consequences as fantasy falls away and the reality of their affair takes hold. The film's mix of the erotic and the everyday raised many eyebrows.

Received on 08/11/08. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Knocked_Up/70059982 to rate it.
And the world yawned. Jabber and Sametime have had this from the beginning.
It seems to me, that's not quite right.
Great Commercial. Why can't they make commercials like this here?
An Indian man with a fetus in his stomach. This case called “Fetus in fetus” and the fetus is the man’s dead twin. As the man grown the “parasite” twin did to. Watch this incredible medicin video, but have in mind, there are some shocking scenes.
Keep your eye on the bottom left corner of the screen. I haven't laughed this hard in forever. Pure Gold.
Watch this replay as France's star player levels Italy's Materazzi, for which he recieves a red card. Some of the worst sportsmanship ever from one of the sport's best
Get a tour of Leo's house and his set up. Those were the good ole days of TechTV. They were all actually worth watching unlike the network now.
This month we present you with the lovely, Lauren Reeves, a former Alaskan ABC news reporter turned NY actress, comedian, and model – and of course, a bonafide Mac Geek! (How BIG a Mac Geek? Well, she sent us her submission in APPLEWORKS for crying out loud! I mean, even WE don’t use AppleWorks!). A regular on Letterman, SNL, and Conan O'Brien...
Undercover reporter Michelle Madigan (Associate Producer of NBC Dateline) got a little more than she bargained for when she tried to sneak in to DEFCON 2007 with hidden cameras to get someone to confess to a felony. When DEFCON staff announced the “spot the undercover reporter” game and told the...
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by fullamef titled "Untitled" regarding be wonderful:
I’m not biased. You are absolutely, without exception, wonderful.
"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."
The Merlin Show arrives Monday, February 26th, at thirty theoretically productive frames per second.
Derik DeLong added an entry about go to macworld:
I went to MWSF2007 and even got to see the Keynote first hand. It’s seriously something every Mac user should experience.
Derik DeLong added an entry about buy a hybrid car:
I got a 2007 Camry Hybrid. Quite simply, this car rocks. It may not have the mileage of a Prius, but it’s such a pleasure to drive.
Something has been building steadily for a couple weeks now and I just can’t contain it anymore. After countless hours of reading though, the rage within me has reached the spilling level. I read nearly every Mac website I can find (via RSS). I can give non-Mac news sources a pass on this, but the rest of you should hang your heads in shame.
Macworld, as in Macworld Magazine and Macworld Expo, is spelled as I have it. Macworld Expo is like Mecca, but for Mac users. It’s the ultimate event in the Mac universe. Given that fact, why is it so god damned hard to spell it right?
I’ve noticed two groups are the worst offenders, or at least get under my skin the most: vendors sending out promotional emails and Mac news outlets and blogs. The two most common misspellings are MacWorld and Mac World. Let me tell you something guys, it’s your responsibility to at least be able to spell the name of the event.
The news sites/blogs are the worst because they act as authoritative sources about Mac culture and information. How am I supposed to take your predictions and prognostications seriously when you don’t even spell it right. No matter how hard I try to displace my thoughts, all those articles end up looking like:
At teh MacWorld expo I preedict the AWEsome iPhone!!11!!!!!11!!
So please, I beg of the Mac community: spell it right. Don’t look like an idiot. Don’t make us all look like idiots.
Brian Ball agreed to pay $5,520 for xPad by Garrett Murray - after one month in, he stopped paying, ceased all communication, and found a loophole to get out of his end of the contract. Very sneaky indeed, and I certainly won't be purchasing anything from macZOT again.
The iPhone is a VOIP phone made by Linksys. Cisco, their parent company, has owned the trademark since 1996.They will be announcing their product in a few hours.Brian Lam, of course, was aware of this when he made his post last week, stating that the iPhone would be announced on Monday.
I’ve been using Gmail for most of my mailing lists. There’s a very good reason for this. It groups things into discussions beautifully. I also subscribe to several mailing lists that reside on the same server. For example, I subscribe to BBEdit Talk and Yojimbo Talk, both of which are run by Bare Bones (shocking, considering they develop them).
They don’t have a domain that’s dedicated to mailing lists, so the addresses are productname-talk@barebones.com. I’m also a compulsive filer, so I apply labels to these messages for quick manipulation. One label is “mailing lists”. Rather than map email “To:” each of these email addresses, I’ve been using the fact that filters work on a contains instead of match basis to simplify. For the longest time a filter that looked for “To: talk@barebones.com” worked perfectly. It’s suddenly stopped working. It’s now an exact match.
Dear Google,
Don’t change filter behavior without notifying your users and giving them an alternative method to attain the same functionality.
Thanks,
Derik
Here’s the wacky part. If you filter based upon an email string with nothing preceding the at sign, such as “@barebones.com”, the filter becomes a contain based filter. Ugh. Say it with me: inconsistent.
I was willing to cut Google some slack with their filters and the fact that it can’t filter based on arbitrary headers (like the list headers that most mailing lists slap on for easy filtering). It’s annoying, but something I could live with. Now the filters are essentially useless. Why? It’s not hard to implement powerful, flexible filters. As accurate and fast as their search is, I still want to organize my email to help prune. It makes the results more manageable. It’s almost as if Google is intentionally trying make its filters impotent to the point that users have to stop using it, at which point, Google can axe it completely.
Watch this collection of the coverage of the Zune that the Today Show broadcast. Notice anything in particular about the iPods in the comparison and stock footage shots? Yeah, apparently, iPods are now available with black and white screens! No, that's NBC making the iPods look bad in comparison to the Zune. And watch the end for the disclaimer.
Thanks to my article about a bullshit Steve Jobs interview, I’ve gotten my first threat.
12:11:04 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dlong
12:11:08 AM mmskmmskmmsk: get the fuck outta here
12:11:16 AM mmskmmskmmsk: posting garbage on digg
12:11:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: trying to promote your own shitty site
12:11:44 AM mmskmmskmmsk: like you broke a story or something
12:11:48 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you didnt break shit
12:12:00 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the article on that site was not proven fake
12:12:11 AM dbasstard: oh, you’re an ewoky guy!
Changed status to Online (12:12:11 AM)
12:12:12 AM mmskmmskmmsk: so stop trying to get press off it like you owned them
12:12:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: nope
12:12:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: but ive followed this since last night
12:12:34 AM mmskmmskmmsk: and you’re acting like a retard trying to cash in
12:12:51 AM dbasstard: so, is it Chris? or Lethal?
12:13:00 AM dbasstard: why are you so obsessed about this?
12:13:05 AM mmskmmskmmsk: because you are
12:13:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: because you’re trying to fuck up someones site
12:13:21 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the shit was explained
12:13:29 AM mmskmmskmmsk: but no, you had to go and fuck with them
12:13:30 AM dbasstard: no, I’m pointing out a fraudulent article
12:13:38 AM mmskmmskmmsk: no you’re not
12:13:41 AM mmskmmskmmsk: it wasnt proven
12:13:45 AM mmskmmskmmsk: its speculation
12:13:50 AM dbasstard: dude, I wrote to Apple
12:13:58 AM mmskmmskmmsk: and why are you on it anyway? bored? no real news to report?
12:13:59 AM dbasstard: it was fraudulent
12:14:03 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you suck as a reporter
12:14:09 AM mmskmmskmmsk: prove it then
12:14:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you suck as a journalist
12:14:27 AM mmskmmskmmsk: be a man
12:14:30 AM dbasstard: how would you like it proven?
12:14:30 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dont be a girl
12:14:38 AM mmskmmskmmsk: actual evidence
12:14:43 AM dbasstard: like what?
12:14:51 AM mmskmmskmmsk: fuck you anyway, your article will die soon
12:14:56 AM dbasstard: besides the email from Apple PR?
12:15:03 AM mmskmmskmmsk: fucking wannabe reporter
12:15:06 AM mmskmmskmmsk: watch your back
12:15:10 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dont fuck with people asshole
12:15:14 AM mmskmmskmmsk: warning u
Changed status to Offline (12:15:20 AM)
Real mature.
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by Tommy Taplow titled "I find it strange only approx. 300 people out of the whole of this site wanna go here, that's Bush for ya" regarding United States:
You know, I don’t come to this site and sign up for question emails to read Bush bashing.
When MacZOT first launched earlier this year everyone was excited. Cheap and nice Mac software. However, it seems that recently MacZOT has run out of ideas.
It's quite simple really. You post pictures of you, your friends, or of people you don't really like (it doesn't matter).. We the people will then tell you how drunk we'd have to be before we think he/she/they are hot enough to have sex with..
iTunes 7.0.1 addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more.
While I’m going on and on about utility companies (because let’s face it, Verizon and Comcast are rapidly becoming nearly the same), how about I write up the experience I just had.
I don’t normally expect visitors on a Saturday unannounced. Further, I don’t get packages. When I got to my front door, it was a Comcast employee. He warmed up by asking if I had Verizon home phone service. Well, seeing as I don’t like getting taken advantage of, the answer is no. He then asked me if I had a home phone. It’s clear where he was going, so I played along. Yes, I have internet phone service (Vonage in particular). He guessed that it was Vonage.
He then told me that Comcast offered the same service, but with better quality. That could be, but I haven’t had any issues. He then told me that Vonage uses their pipes (that’s not a quote, I don’t remember the exact phrasing) and that they allowed that, but they could shut them off at any time. For $8/month more than what I’m currently paying, I’d get a phone line through them and I’d get digital cable with a free year of Starz and HBO.
If I dropped Vonage, I would save money. However, I like the portability of being able to bring my box anywhere with me. When I go to Macworld Expo in San Francisco next year, being able to bring my phone with me will be a big bonus. Plus, I plan on spending a good amount of time at my parents’ fancy new house in Maine. I can’t do that with Comcast.
I’m sure you’re brain is bubbling, or you may be even screaming. Why haven’t I said anything about Comcast basically telling me that they could shut off Vonage whenever they want? Well, that’s because I wanted to get the other stuff out of the way first.
Pay attention boys and girls: this is Net Neutrality hitting home. Comcast threatened to degrade my independent internet phone service to the point of being shutoff in order to promote their own service. That internet connection they supply is for my use and what I choose to do with it is my business. If I want to use Vonage, I can use Vonage. The day they lock me out of it is the day they lose me as a customer. It’s unacceptable.
However, I think it’s all bark. The real question is do I want to pay $8 for an extra phone line, digital cable, and some premium channels. I think I might.
Justin Long and Maggie Q are coming aboard "Live Free or Die Hard," 20th Century Fox's fourth installment of the "Die Hard" series. Len Wiseman is directing. Long will play a smart, younger guy who assists McClane. Q will play a world-class hacker at odds with McClane. Production begins this month. Go Cheswick!
Verizon FiOS is looking real good, $44.95 for 15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. My Comcast cable access is 8 Mbps for $52.95. Verizon sends me advertisements in the mail multiple times per week advertising their fiber internet service.
Given, it’s lumped in with those mass mailers that clog my mailbox, but it’s getting sent directly to my house. They proclaim in big proud letters:
The limitless fiber-optic power of Verizon FiOS Internet is now here.
Am I interested? You bet. Inevitably, their address checker proclaims me ineligible. After getting the 20th advertisement, I decided I wanted to find out why Verizon was taunting me. I got back this response:
Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. My name is [deleted], and I will be handling your request today.
This message is in response to your email dated September 20, 2006. You inquired about receiving advertisements for FiOS through the mail. I understand your concern and I will be happy to assist you.
I apologize for any misunderstanding. Unfortunately, we do not have the capability of pre-qualifying all of our customers lines for FiOS service before sending out the advertisements for our products and services. Our advertisements include the disclaimer that states that Verizon FiOS/DSL Internet Service is provided by Verizon Online and is not available in all areas. Service availability is subject to final confirmation by Verizon.
At this time we do not have a date when FiOS will be available.
Verizon continues to work to provide FiOS access to as many customers as possible. So, while you may not qualify for high-speed Internet access from Verizon today, it is possible that you could be able to receive it in the future as the technologies improve.
If you haven’t already done so, you may check the availability of Verizon Fios any time you wish at:
http://www.verizon.net/fiosSimply enter your telephone number in the space provided. If FiOS is not available, you will have the option of requesting an email notification when it is available.
It has been my goal today to address and clarify your concerns related to Fios service availability. I hope I have succeeded in meeting that goal. In the meantime, if you have any other questions, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.
Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.
Pleasant enough, so I can’t fault them for that. However, the line “Unfortunately, we do not have the capability of pre-qualifying all of our customers lines for FiOS service before sending out the advertisements for our products and services.” is bunk. They can automatically supply that information using the database linked to their website.
Naturally, perhaps the advertising company they’ve hired just blankets areas, but that’s a problem they are completely in control of. They could market more accurately.
Could I just ignore it? Sure, but the fact is that very rarely am I interested in things I get in the mail. The one time I’m interested in buying the product I get jerked around. Bah.
All right guys, Fall is fast approaching and you know what that means. It’s time for football. Last year we all had a lot of fun (though I barely summarized each week’s results and that’s likely to be worse this year).
Without further ado, here is the info to join up.
Go to Yahoo’s Football Pick’em page. You’ll need a Yahoo! account.
Once there, choose to join a private group.
Group ID: 31839
Password: sharpie
I hope you all join.
http://www.last.fm/music/Wynton+Marsalis+Septet
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by Havelynn titled "Did you buy more than you can afford? How did you manage? I found the perfect place, well almost, but it is way over budget but very reasonable for that area. It is a good invesment." regarding buy a condo:
Yeah, pretty much. I cranked back my 401k contribution quite a bit (a house is a great investment unto itself) and fortunately I got offered a part time job that I could do in my spare time for extra money. Even without that though, I would have been fine.
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by Havelynn titled "Did you buy more than you can afford? How did you manage? I found the perfect place, well almost, but it is way over budget but very reasonable for that area. It is a good invesment." regarding buy a condo:
I spent more than I planned to. Quite a bit more in fact.
Like Klausa, my father helped me with the downpayment. However, I quickly found out that not only was the mortgage manageable, but I could pay my father back aggressively.
I think that if you can pull it off, paying more will get you a place you’ll be happy with far more and in the long run, you won’t regret it at all.
http://www.last.fm/music/%E8%8F%85%E9%87%8E%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E5%AD%90
http://www.last.fm/music/%E8%8F%85%E9%87%8E%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E5%AD%90
http://www.last.fm/music/%E8%8F%85%E9%87%8E%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E5%AD%90
http://www.last.fm/music/%E8%8F%85%E9%87%8E%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E5%AD%90
Despite my sporadic blogging here lately, I got chosen to be interviewed with a local newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News, for an article in their Sunday edition today. I haven’t seen the finished product, but we talked about blogging, professional blogging, journalistic integrity, and a blog’s effect upon your job and career in general.
Hopefully I’ll come across as insightful. I’ll try to post the link once it appears on the website.
Update: The article is up. The print version lacked my picture. I don’t know why, but I’ll suggest it’s because I’m so attractive.
Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I’d figure out who said it first, but that would mean I have time to. Here’s a quick rundown of everything that’s been keeping me busy.
I’ve been involved in a task that’s rather new to me, high pressure, and interesting. Overall I’m enjoying it, but it’s still soaking up my free time.
I managed to take a softball to the face 2.5 weeks ago. I was wearing my glasses and as a result, I managed to shift my nose over. I didn’t feel any pain and the initial swelling hid the fact that my nose became crooked. I had a nose bleed, but it went away quickly, so I didn’t get it looked at immediately.
Once I found out if it was fractured, I signed up for surgery I underwent Wednesday. My phobia of needles nearly made me faint as they put in the IV. Luckily, I didn’t and moments after they started pumping drugs into me, I was out. They straightened my nose and now I’m in a good deal of pain. I went to work Thursday, which was a total mistake, but the new task was acting rather needy. Luckily, my real coworkers could tell I wasn’t doing well and told me to go home.
I’m taking this week off, so I should be normal again by the time I go to work.
MacUser, Gadgetbox, and iPod case reviews for Playlist Mag are fast becoming more than a part time job.
After blogging on the former two sites, it’s usually just too late for me to do it here. I miss it. I have a bit more freedom here and I’m not really obligated to find a picture to go with my posts, which takes up a surprising amount of time.
I bought a Nintendo DS Lite and I love it. I got the New Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age, and Zelda: the Minnish Cap. If you have Mario Kart DS, let me know. I want to play you.
I want to resume normal posting, but it’s all time dependent. I get a surprising number of compliments from people that I contact for MacUser on this site and it’s made me realize that I was building a readership that’s likely rather disappointed I went on such a long hiatus. It’s time I returned.
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by Derik DeLong titled "Current Status" regarding watch the IMDB.com Top 100 movies:
I watched the Incredibles (91).
Recent price drop from the makers of this amazing little box. They are also running a contest for cool community projects.
If you keep your eye on Macs, you probably already know about Boot Camp. It’s a bit of a surprise, but I suspect it was done so that users choosing to run Windows can do so in a safer manner with proper drivers. The drivers included with the new software are the key part of this announcement.
Hacking the firmware to coerce a Mac into booting Windows took a little while, but it wasn’t really all that complicated. However, putting money into a development staff for Windows drivers is quite an expensive proposition and it goes to show Apple’s commitment to leverage the move to x86 to their full benefit. They can easily scoop up fence sitters that afraid of losing the ability to run Windows.
It’s a bold move and I’m a fan.
Von-Age; the tele-fon works!: Vonage has sent me dozens and dozens of advertizements and free phone deals for months lately. Seems like they’re stalking me out after Verizon mentioned how I threatened to go into their Manhattan office three years ago in order to cancel my line faster (really it was a simple request they couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, cancel my line as of that day, they took 40 days to cancel my phone)
Anywho’s, Saturday night about 3am I signed up to Vonage after my friend d00d (hi d00d!) sent me an invitation to try it out.
[Via bored. beyond. belief.]
This is just more backup that the telcos have something to fear, and it ain’t Skype.
Putz of last week. The article is rife with errors and comes to a dubious, moronic solution. The guy's site has a splash screen, need I say more?
I constantly say "Good, and you?" even if I asked first.
All it needs is a WiFi connection? Now this will give Skype some momentum.
Derik DeLong commented on an entry by Derik DeLong titled "Current Status" regarding watch the IMDB.com Top 100 movies:
Goodfellas (29) and Apocalypse Now (35)
Derik DeLong added an entry about Buy a House:
I’ve decided that buying my townhouse was close enough. :)