Bruchal.com: Rich & Shannon’s Musings

I’m a little late to the party, but today I downloaded and tried Times Reader, the standalone application that downloads and displays the New York Times.

At first blush, I like it a lot. It took a long time to download, mostly because it uses .NET 3.0, which I didn’t have on my XP machine (it’s a built in part of Vista though), and therefore had to be downloaded. And it also took a while to populate (it archives a weeks worth of news). But once it was done, it was smooth sailing.

I think the main reason I like it is that it’s well laid out. It has sections and columns, just like you’d expect a “real” newspaper to have. There’s a front page, which seems to correspond more or less to the print edition’s front page, and each section (Sports, Business, etc.) also has a page. Each is laid out something like a traditional newspaper - in columns, with the size and position of the headline being a visual indication of the “importance” of the story. Pictures and graphics are positioned like they would be in print as well. There’s an aesthetic there that’s somehow missing from most online news. And the display is very nice - crisp and clear. All this makes for an experience more like reading a traditional newspaper, but with the advantages of being online. Which is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I like the convenience of getting my news online, but I miss the structure and organization of a traditional newspaper, as opposed to the constant linear flow of articles that you tend to see online.

Of course, time will tell if it works well for me or not. It’s free for me, since I already subscribe to the print edition. I’m bummed that it’s not available on OS X, my primary OS at home. I’ve heard that Microsoft is working on a cross platform version of WPF (and some other parts of the .NET CLR) and that when it’s available, the Times will port the Reader. We’ll see if that ever works out. But so far, it’s great.

Original Star Trek Gets Upgraded: “Kiss the miniature Enterprise model goodbye: CBS is releasing digitally remastered episodes of the beloved 1960s TV series. Will modern, computer-generated special effects leave fans beaming?

My guess is no. Look at the backlash against George Lucas when he “updated’ Star Wars.

(Via Wired News: Top Stories.)

Law & Order & Muppets: “

It’s not the same as an invisible Snuffleupagus, but there is something very exciting happening with Sesame Street. On August 14, a segment called ‘Law and Order Special Letters Unit’ will premiere, starting with ‘The Missing M.’ Hal Boedeker at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the actual cast voices will be used, and Dick Wolf himself said, ‘I feel like a tobacco company executive, because hopefully we will hook 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds on the brand now.’ A Sesame Street press release says that there’s definitely a Richard Belzer muppet and that plot includes detectives finding ‘things that start with the letter ‘M’ such as a cow named Murray that makes mmooo sounds.’ Hmm, Law & Order: Playground Control Team, anyone? And as we did some searching, we found this cool video of ‘Law & Order: Special Muppets Unit’ on YouTube!

And the Muppets Wiki noted when Detective Lennie Briscoe (RIP, Jerry!) mentioned Sesame Street.

Comment

”

(Via Gothamist.)

Simpsons live-action video a marketing campaign: ”

src="http://www.tvsquad.com/media/2006/03/simpsonhjsj.gif" />This way cool live-action version of the opening
sequence of The Simpsons might be a little less cool now that we know what it’s about. It turns out, the video
is part of a viral marketing
campaign by UK broadcasting network, Sky. The network and its ad agency created the dead-on, live-action video as
part of an on-air promotion for The Simpsons. They even had the blessings of Simpsons producers and
creator Matt Groening. The ad gurus thought it was so cool that they decided to launch it on the internet and just let
word-of-mouth go to work for them. Obviously, they were successful. The video is huge right now. And, unlike NBC, Sky has no plans to
pull it from the ‘net.

I had a feeling it was something like that. the effects are too good for someone random Joe to have made in iMovie.

(Via TV Squad.)

The Torn-Up Credit Card Experiment: “Chase issues a Mastercard to taped-up card applications for another address [via]’”

This is not good. Apparently, this guy tried an experiment where he tried to mimic someone finding a credit card application in your trash and using it to get credit in your name.

He tore up a credit card application he received in the mail, taped it back together again, changed the address to a different one and used a different phone number (his cell phone number). He got the card. Oy.

(Via Waxy.org Links.)

Six Feet Under surfaces on Bravo:

Bravo has the exclusive rights
to air all 63 episodes of the HBO hit series, Six Feet Under. Bravo says it’ll start airing the entire series
sometime this year, possibly this fall, although the announcement doesn’t give an exact date. HBO
refuses to say exactly how much the syndication deal is worth but this report puts it at $15 million, or $250,000 an
episode. HBO originally pimped out Six Feet Under for $450,000 but that was a little too rich for other
networks’ blood. As with Sex and the City, HBO has given Bravo the go-ahead to clean up the language and
video.

“

I loved Six Feet Under (the series finale was one of the best ever), but I wonder how some of this stuff can be cleaned up for non-HBO TV.

(Via TV Squad.)

Severed arm found near accident still clutching cellphone

Not that it’s proof of blame or anything
but a woman recently veered her truck into the median, over-corrected, and then flipped her vehicle several times
before coming to rest — minus her cellphone which was found still clutched in the hand of her severed arm nearby. What
have we learned oh gentle readers? Well, she was either blabbing into her cellphone which caused the horrific crash
thereby supporting study after study warning of such dangers. Or
perhaps the torque created at impact while presumably holding a DynaTac was just a bit too much for the old ball-and-socket
to bear. Folks, stay safe and upgrade often, mkay?

Eeeew. I’m glad I’ve got my Bluetooth headset.

(Via Engadget Mobile.)