I decided to play around with iCal today and found myself entering all the upcoming anime DVD releases into it (through 9/7/2004) based on the information at AnimeonDVD.com. I published it so that it can be viewed via the web or 
subscribed to in iCal (I think Mozilla Calendar lets you do this also, but I’m not sure).
I’ll try and keep this updated with around a month’s worth of information.
I decided to play around with iCal today and found myself entering all the upcoming anime DVD releases into it (through 9/7/2004) based on the information at AnimeonDVD.com. I published it so that it can be viewed via the web or 
subscribed to in iCal (I think Mozilla Calendar lets you do this also, but I’m not sure).
I’ll try and keep this updated with around a month’s worth of information.
LA Weekly has a cool feature on the history of the Internet Movie Database. The part of the article I was happy to see was acknowledging the early roots of the database.
That’s a bit of an understatement considering Needham ended up transforming a small hobby into an international business. But remember, back in 1989, terms like “World Wide Web” were totally foreign. Needham joined a movie discussion group on what was then the fledgling university-linked Internet. The members were almost all American male college students, and their favorite topic was — you guessed it — who’s the most attractive actress and what movies has she been in.
Soon, the guys volunteered their private databases and actresses begat actors, which begat directors, which begat writers, which begat cinematographers, which begat plot summaries. [LA Weekly]
I remember when I was at CMU hanging out on rec.arts.movies and people discussing THE LIST. Which was this list of actresses and movies. If you search on Google Groups you can find numerous mentions of it.
Once again that #!/usr/bin/girl finds the cool flash games. This time it is Shoot the Cliche. My high score was around 252, but I only played it twice. And remember. Spare the kittens.
I was going through my bookmarks, cleaning up things that I hadn’t visited in ages or that were dead, and I ran into a link for The Monolith Game. Someday I’d love to try and set up a game of this, just to see if it were actually doable.
Another thing I’d love to try post transplant is the Tube Challenge.
Hmm. I wonder if I can use this service yet. I mean, if I had a date anytime in the next decade.
‘Escape-A-Date’ ringtones help you lie like an (unwired) dog
Cingular Wireless recently introduced an odd new tool for subscribers. “Escape-a-Date” is touted as “the perfect service to use when you are afraid that your blind date may not be just right for you.” Users schedule a “rescue” phone call at a pre-set time which tells them exactly how to lie their way into speedy escape. Eight randomly-generated humorous scripts are offered, here’s a snip from one:
Hey, this is your escape-a-date call. If you’re looking for an excuse, I got it. Just repeat after me, and you’ll be on your way!
“Not again! Why does that always happen to you? … Alright, I’ll be right there.” Now tell ’em that your roommate got locked out, and you have to go let them in. Good luck!”
I remember doing this kind of thing to get out of meetings that were driving me insane.
Tsk. Tsk. George. You know you shouldn’t be blogging while on the job.
[via Waxy.org Links]
Alfred North Whitehead
“We think in generalities, but we live in detail.”
[Quotes of the Day]
Tim Wu (over on lessig blog) has listed a bunch of Jack Valenti quotes from over the years. Here’s a sample:
On the nascent cable industry, in 1974
“[Cable will become] a huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.”On the VCR, 1983
“We are facing a very new and a very troubling assault … and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape.
We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry … whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine [the VCR].”
“[Some say] that the VCR is the greatest friend that the American film producer ever had. I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”On the public domain, 1995
“A public domain work is an orphan. No one is responsible for its life. But everyone exploits its use, until that time certain when it becomes soiled and haggard, barren of its previous virtues. How does the consumer benefit from the steady decline of a film’s quality?”On the meaning of value, 1983
“Nothing of value is free. It is very easy … to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else’s property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled.”And the Valenti slogan
“If you cannot protect what you own, you don’t own anything.”
Over on Gizmodo there’s a post about the new SMC SMCWRK-G, which is a portable wireless access point similar to the Airport Express.
SMC has announced a new portable wireless access point a la the Airport Express. They’re calling it the “EZ Connect™ g 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Traveler’s Kit SMCWTK-G,” but we’ll probably just call it the SMCWRK-G or Dance Panda Mandy, as it suits us. For what it lacks in good looks it makes up in features, as the SMCWRK-G can do everything the Airport Express can do and more (save the iTunes streaming), including act as an Ethernet bridge. It might not be attractive, but it’s $30 cheaper, ringing in at just $100.
Perennial Wi-Fi smart guy Glenn Fleishmann weighs in with a little more detail at Wi-Fi Networking News.
Read – SMC Offers Multifunction Traveling Gateway [WiFiNetNews]
Read – Press Release [SMC][Gizmodo]
The Airport Express is also a print server, which SMC isn’t listing as a feature for this device. This looks like it is more useful if you just need wireless access when you travel. But for $30 you’re losing a bit of functionality, and you need to carry around a power supply to go with it.