From AnimeNation news:

Live Action Witch Hunter Robin Confirmed

Mr. Joe Menosky, writer and producer for TV series including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and The Dead Zone, has contacted AnimeNation with confirmation that last Friday, January 16th, the Sci-Fi Channel closed a deal with Sunrise Studios of Japan to remake Witch Hunter Robin as a live-action American television series. Mr. Menosky will write the series and executive produce along with Mr. Roy Lee (who licensed the remake of “Ring”) and his business partner Doug Davison.

According to Mr. Menosky, “There may or may not be an announcement in the Hollywood tradepapers — which tend to wait until a pilot script is completed, greenlit for production, with director and actors attached before they consider a television series worthy of mention. But given the focus of AnimeNation, I thought you might find the project of interest.” [AnimeNation News]

I’m really not quite sure what to think about this. But it does seem to scare me some. I could see it really sucking. We’ll see.

From over on The Industry Standard Blog:

Click and Clack: Real no more

Wayne Robins writes to alert us to this piece in today’s NY Times about the public radio show Car Talk dumping the RealPlayer in favor of its Microsoft rival because “it’s so hard to find the free Real player on the company’s Web site.”

P.S. I’m told there’s a service that lets blogs point to piece on NYTimes.com without forcing those linked to be registered on the site. If you know more about that program than I do (shouldn’t be hard), please write me. [The Industry Standard: Guest Blog]

Blah. It’s just audio, why not just stream mp3 instead of going with something like Real or Microsoft?

Seen over on evhead.com:

The Industry Standard: The Blog
Jimmy Guterman: “For all of us, this is a chance to remain associated with a brand that still means a great deal to us, in whatever form. None of us are getting paid for this (at least I’m not getting paid; compadres, let me know if I’m getting a raw deal). It’s a hobby. Hey, it’s either this or clean the kitchen.” [evhead]

Looking for a way to make the State of the Union Address on January 20th more fun?

“The State of the Union Address Drinking…
“The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2004” [Daypop Top 40] [JCD]

Richard Feynman: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” [Quotes of the Day]

The other day John Perry Barlow posted about his missing friend Spalding Gray. It is a beautiful post, and the comments are worth the read too. I still hope he turns up alive.

Update: An update from John Perry Barlow posted soon after I posted this..

I found out today that my old high school is closing one of its campuses. I had heard that something like this was coming for a while, but hearing it officially really threw me for a loop. The campus they are closing is one of my favorite places, even now after all this time. I really loved driving through campus last fall, it is one of those places that still has that ‘home’ feeling to me. I know that due to financial reasons they have to do this (It’s quite expensive to keep two campuses running), but that doesn’t seem to make things much easier.

The thing that annoys me about the decision is some of the positive spin they are trying to throw on it. Of the major objectives this says they will be able to achieve I find the first three to be lame. I’m sorry, I didn’t feel any kind of skimping of academic excellence with there being two campuses. I think that their ability to continue to provide lots of financial aid is very good though. To me that was always one of the strongest aspects of the school.

I’m wondering what kind of reaction people who went to the Northfield campus before the schools merged will have.

Now playing: ABC – How To Be A Millionaire

Is this proof of life on Mars?

So a bunch of people I know have been talking about Konfabulator lately so I thought I’d give it a try again. There are definitely some better widgets out there then when I last looked, but my big problem with it seems to remain. After running for about 12 hours it just seems to start slowing down my system. I’d open up a finder window and it would just lag while doing so.

Edit: I think I found the solution, hopefully this will help.

Thursday was a prime example of my laziness and the bad timing that seems to haunt me endlessly. I had just gotten out of a therapy appointment and was walking back to my car when I noticed it had a boot on it. Ugs. Figures that this happens on one of the coldest days of the week (and year, and so on). Bit of bad timing one. It’s 4pm and the cambridge parking office closes at 5pm. Luckily I have my cell phone (with almost no battery left) on me and call a taxi. I’m able to pay just in time and call for a cab back. The problem is I have to walk out to the street to wait for it. Have I mentioned that it was one of the coldest days? Oh yes, and somewhere in this I’ve lost a glove. I have no idea where, but I know I lost it before I got into the first cab. I’m waiting for about 5 min for a cab and see another one that is empty and flag that down instead. By now I’m half frozen. So after waiting in my car for about 15 minutes playing on my GBA for the guy to come by and remove the boot.

So this is where bad timing part 2 and my stupidity comes in. I really should have payed these parking tickets ages ago, that way it would have been cheaper and I wouldn’t have had to deal with the boot on the coldest day of the year. Also, on Monday I am going to be getting a parking permit for the next year, and was planning on paying my tickets then. So I would have been paying them within days anyways. Oh well, maybe this time I’ll learn that I should pay parking tickets the moment I get them (but I wouldn’t count on it).