Zeigen

This morning, the kids and I had a leisurely breakfast before I took them to pre-school. No rushing or hurrying. Then I stopped in at a local coffee store and read just about every page of today’s paper — something I haven’t done in months. Right now I’m relaxing at home and will probably play some video games. Later today, Kimi and I will go and check out mini-vans.

Slacker much? It’s Friday! Why aren’t I working?

Today is the National TiVo Holiday known as “Blue Moon,” which I’ve written about in some detail before. I’ve now been at TiVo for nine years (nearly a quarter of my life), and this is my tenth Blue Moon. There were 90 employees when I started, and 15 of those 90 (one in six) are still at TiVo after nine years. I think that’s impressive, and speaks to what a great company TiVo is to work for.

Pony’s got a post up at the TiVo Community forum with his version of the story.

In other news, Sophie is now six months old, and we just started her on solid food this week. She didn’t seem to care for it, actually. But she’s doing well, and has started sleeping through the night every now and then, just to taunt us by showing us that she can do it, if and only if she wants to. On the plus side, I’ve managed to see some amazing sunrises.

Sammy, now two-and-a-half, has taken to saying, “I don’t know” when I ask him questions about things he knows very well. He’s also in the “what’s that?” phase, pointing at things he fully understands (like grass and trees) just to get me to talk; I think he’s reveling in the ability to be able to hold a conversation and make me answer questions.

When I picked him up from school yesterday, he told me he wanted to eat out. What do you want to eat, Sammy? “Shushi.” He’s on a sushi kick. His favorites are California roll, shrimp tempura, tuna, and hamachi. He also devours the pickled ginger.

Last Friday, while Kimi went to spend time with John and Yvonne and newborn Logan at the hospital, I took Sammy and Sophie to sushi at the local place near Safeway, which I picked because it’s usually empty. Instead it was crowded (even some TiVo co-workers), and Sammy now loves to point to things (like artwork or calligraphy) and say, “That’s Japanese!”

To celebrate Blue Moon and a small raise, all of us went to Sono Sushi (sushi boats) on Castro last night. For once Sammy seemed a bit more interested in the lollipops on the sushi boats than the actual sushi, but he still devoured some raw fish and declared it to be his favorite. I love this kid. He’s definitely his father’s son.

I know I owe some pictures. I have some free time today, so watch for them later…

Between watching my NCAA bracket get destroyed by a co-worker in the first round and working to add more and more channels to the newly-released Web Season Pass feature, what was I watching this week?

1. Even though I love Brit-Brit (shout out for your appearance on “How I Met Your Mother” this week), I still got a big laugh from this week’s episode of Super Deluxe Sings.
2. As I’ve said before, I’m a huge gaming nerd but I also love the environment. Why not combine the best of both worlds? ViroPOP helps me with a list of environmentally-conscious video games.
3. Not since Joe Theismann got his leg broken by LT have I seen anything that made me shudder like last week’s “Most Awesome Broken Bones” from Break.com. And as I heard in a meeting today, “What was the escalator guy trying to do?” Judge for yourself.
4. If you like animation, you need only read these two words: Chuck Jones. This week’s “Refrederator” episode of Channel Frederator brings us a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon that includes all my favorite Looney Tunes gags (including characters imagining that other characters are talking food).
5. Do you like cake? How about liquor? What if the two could be combined? Wonder no more! Mark Bittman brings together apple, cake and “any liquor you’d actually drink” into a dessert that makes me want to bake immediately on this week’s The Minimalist from The New York Times.

Enjoy!

–John

There’s an old joke that goes something like this:

A man is cleaning out his attic, and finds an old trunk from an ancestor. Inside is an old brass lamp; after rubbing the lamp, a genie appears.

“For freeing me, mortal, I will grant you any three wishes. But know this: Any wish I bestow upon you, I will also give twice as much to your worst enemy.”

The man is overjoyed. “I want a billion dollars!”

The genie nods and claps his hands. “Very well. You are now a billion dollars richer. But your worst enemy now has two billion dollars in his bank account.”

The man says, “I want to date a Playboy playmate!”

The genie agrees. Miss October appears in the man’s arms. The genie intones, “Bear in mind, your worst enemy is now dating twins, both Playboy playmates in their own right. Now, for your third and final wish?”

The man says, “I want you to be beat me half to death.”

Har har. Ok, there are many possible punchlines. Presuming you have a “worst enemy” and have no moral qualms against inflicting death, dismemberment, or the ravages of plague upon that enemy, what would you wish for as the third wish in this scenario?

At 1:50am today, Logan Chachere entered the world, weighing in at (if I remember correctly) 7 pounds 9 ounces, and 19 inches tall.

Kimi picked up an Applewood pizza and she and I were able to pay a brief visit to proud parents John and Yvonne and meet Logan this evening, over at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital next to Stanford. (Their patient board showed them to be amazingly busy, I have to say.)

Everyone was doing very well, although the first taste of sleep deprivation was starting to set in for the parents. Welcome to parenthood!

Logan is an adorable baby:

John and Yvonne are very happy.

Here’s this week’s top 5:

1. South by Southwest coverage and inside-out teddy bears! What more could you ask for from EPIC-FU?
2. Making a pet bed from a suitcase is a stroke of genius. ThreadBangers‘ new Tuesday show, “Décor It Yourself,” has me thinking about other DIY projects I should complete…or start.
3. I don’t watch “American Idol,” but my friend across the aisle here at TiVo does. If not for TV Junkies‘ weekly recaps, I wouldn’t know David Cook from David Archuleta — and Carrie would never forgive me.
4. If you haven’t seen the Tony Soprano impression from last Friday’s Break.com Top 5, stop reading this and go watch it right now. Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
5. What’s funnier about Super Deluxe’s parody of Britney Spears and reality television? The host’s terrible wig, or the fact that he keeps calling her “Mama Brit Brit”? Either way, “Brit Nation” is definitely worth a look.

Thanks!

– John

Rocketboom’s Kenyatta Cheese pulled off a live rickroll of Next New Networks founder Tim Shey: Check it out here at Andrew Baron’s blog (especially the video at the bottom).

As today’s press release announces, version 2.6 of the TiVo Desktop is now available, which adds support for our new Web Season Pass feature.

(There’s coverage from Zatz Not Funny, TiVo Lovers and Engadget.)

This is a great new feature which lets you use your PC to automatically bring your favorite online videos straight to your DVR (so you don’t have to watch Ask-A-Ninja on your PC or laptop in an office chair — you can watch it on your TV while sitting on your couch instead).

With your paid upgrade to TiVo Desktop (just $24.95), not only do you get the previous advanced features allowing you to transfer your recordings from your DVR to your portable video player, but now you get the ability to automatically bring web video to your DVR. If you previously upgraded, the new feature is free.

(On our recent trip to Tacoma, there was a bit of time when both my kids were sleeping, and it was great to be able to watch a show on my video iPod. That feature alone is worth the $24.95 to me. With the new functionality, it’s a no-brainer.)

In conjunction with the release of TiVo Desktop 2.6, you’ll notice a few changes to the TiVoCast feature as well.

• Categories! Now you can browse the list of channels using categories like “Automotive” and “Comedy” (or “All” to get the complete list). This makes it easier to find interesting videos.
• More choices for Music Choice — including “Most Demanded” and “New and Approved!” to help you find popular and new videos.
• Easier to find the “Top Movie Rentals” category from Amazon Unbox.

You’ll notice some name changes. The menu item under TiVo Central -> Find Programs has changed. Previously it was called “Download TV & Movies” and now it’s called “Download TV, Movies, & Web Video.”

Furthermore, if you’re eagle-eyed, you may notice a new title at the top of the screen when you choose that menu item. The name “TiVoCast” itself will be changing to “Video Downloads.” We’ve found that the name “TiVoCast” isn’t a clear description to customers about what the feature is, so you’ll see us start to change our references from TiVoCast to Video Downloads, starting right here in the application itself.

Let us know what you think!

One of my favorite columnists, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Carroll, has a column today about the new HBO series “In Treatment” starring Gabriel Byrne as a therapist treating five different patients.

If you’re interested, the first 15 episodes can be downloaded from Amazon Unbox at no charge. Just head to TiVo Central and catch the menu item promoting this series, then select “Available Downloads.”

Read this Mark Morford column about the 1959 Dyatlov Pass accident. (I’m waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Oh, done? Great!)

Unexplained things happen all the time. We humans work hard to try to understand the universe, but the universe is vast and our minds are only so good at figuring things out.

But just because something is unexplained, why is that taken (as Mark seems to) as proof of the supernatural?

Doubtless we will never know what happened to those hapless nine hikers back in 1959. But here’s one thing I’m sure of: It wasn’t aliens. I’m also sure it wasn’t bigfoot, a yeti, the abominable snowman, vampires, ghosts, telepathic reindeer, telekinetic yaks, or any of a dozen other proposed paranormal theories.

As Carl Sagan argued in Cosmos, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” The only evidence in Dyatlov is that something happened we don’t yet understand.

I like a good science fiction novel or movie as much as the next guy, and as interesting and exciting as it would be for supernatural things to be real, at this point, we all can be very certain that none of that stuff is real.

Why?

Because if any of this baloney were genuine, don’t you think, with all the cameras we have — video cameras, closed circuit cameras, cell phone cameras, satellite cameras — someone would have recorded some genuine proof by now? Just how is it that vampires (plus ghosts, psychic powers, and all the rest) have managed to go undetected for so long?

There are many plausible non-supernatural explanations for what happened at the Dyatlov Pass, including exaggeration by those reporting the incident, solar flares, an avalanche, altitude sickness in one or more of the hikers, and so on. Will we ever know the truth? Most likely never. But one cannot take a genuinely mysterious event, such as this one, and present it as “proof” of the supernatural — that’s too far a jump.

I’ll believe in psychic powers, ghosts or other aspects of the supernatural when there is reliable documentation of something supernatural that actually happened, rather than lack of knowledge of what did happen.

Since I’m watching everything there is to watch on TiVoCast every week, we’ll be posting a Top 5 list on the forums each week of shows that we enjoyed via TiVoCast over the last 7 days.

Here are my top 5 favorite downloads for the past 7 days… in no particular order:

1. I’m a video game nerd (and loved Chuck E. Cheese) so I loved the retrospective of the Atari 2600 from GameTap TV.
2. Octopus, it’s not just for sushi anymore — thanks to The Minimalist at the New York Times.
3. Since The Third Man should be on everyone’s all-time top movies list, there was a great primer on the basics of Film Noir from Indy Mogul’s 4 Minute Film School.
4. Since I watch a lot of web videos, “Be Neat, Delete” from Super Deluxe was a slam dunk in my wheel house of mixed metaphors.
5. And with everything happening so quickly in New York this week, I definitely needed someone to explain just how things went down so I turned to Josh Marshall and TPMtv from Veracifier.

Enjoy!

–John

To round out today’s TiVoCast news, starting today we’ll be posting a new feature here on the blog.

John T., one of our TiVoCast team members, is a production specialist, and he watches EVERYTHING we publish on TiVoCast each week. Every Wednesday he’ll pick the five best TiVoCast programs and tell us why he liked it.

Welcome to the blog, John!

It was only a couple of months ago that Super Deluxe launched on TiVoCast, and it’s quickly grown to be one of our most popular channels.

We received some feedback from you that you wanted a bit more control over which types of Super Deluxe videos you received. You also told us you wanted more more more even more MORE more Super Deluxe.

Well, the only reason we on the TiVoCast team come to work each day is to make you happy. Both wishes are granted. Starting this week, there are now 10 new sub-channels of Super Deluxe! You can pick and choose which ones you like (and set how many episodes for each channel separately). Or, you can subscribe to the “All” channel, and get everything.

Here’s the new lineup (with the descriptions provided by Super Deluxe). Each channel has at least three episodes published currently, and new ones will appear weekly. (That’s ten new episodes each week instead of the current five!)

• Fark TV: It’s not news, it’s Fark TV! This extension of the infamous fark.com Web site brings you the coverage you can count on about the stories you could give a crap about.
• I Am Baby Cakes: Behold! Baby Cakes, the man-child brainchild of Brad Neely speaketh, singeth and rappeth about keeping it real…simple.
• The Professor Brothers: The Professor Brothers, Frank and Steve, are holding tenure and they aren’t afraid to sing about it. From the mind of Brad Neely.
• Animation Explosion: Here are some animated features to expand your mind with from the folks behind Wonder Showzen, A Scanner Darkly and Quack Media.
• Celebrity Skewing: No one is better at mocking pop culture icons — and the occasional celebutards — than Super Deluxe.
• Super Deluxe Sings: Not all musical numbers are frilly. SD’s are funny, mean and sometimes subversive. Sing along!
• Nerve’s Position of The Day: Sex is so complicated. That’s why we’re glad Nerve.com offered us these handy positions of the day. Watch and learn!
• What Boys Like: Video games, drinking, chicks, weed. These are things that boys like, and we love creating comedy around.
• Movie Trailer Park: We all love a good movie. Super Deluxe loves them even more when we’re spoofing ‘em. Behold, our criterion collection!
• Funny Ladies: Who says the fairer sex can’t be funny? Maria Bamford, Chelsea Peretti and their pals debunk the stereotypes.

Pretty cool, right?

Ok, here are a few technical details:

If you subscribe to “All Super Deluxe Channels” watch out — you don’t want to also subscribe to any of the sub-channels, or else you’ll get more than one copy of the videos. And that’s just redundant.

Because of how sub-channels work behind the scenes, we had to move around the subscriptions a bit today. If you previously had subscribed to the old single Super Deluxe channel, you’re now automatically subscribed to the new “All Super Deluxe Channels” offering, but if you had previously set your Keep At Most limit to something other than the default 5, we weren’t able to preserve that setting. Sorry.

Finally, there’s a slight, teensy eensy, chance that you may have recently unsubscribed from Super Deluxe, only to have us automatically resubscribe you today. Sorry about that. But maybe you should give Super Deluxe a second chance?

The migration is now all done, so you can now change your Super Deluxe subscriptions as much as you like. If you like, you can unsubscribe from the “All Super Deluxe Channels” feed and just pick and choose your favorites.

As always, to try out Super Deluxe, all you need is a TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR connected via broadband, and you can pick a channel to try out or subscribe to by heading to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV & Movies -> Super Deluxe.

Or, since you’re reading this on the web, you can just visit the TiVo Central Online Super Deluxe page.

(Want to learn more about TiVoCast? Need help getting your DVR connected via broadband?)

Let us know how you like the new Super Deluxe setup.

Last week (right after I left for vacation), TiVoCast added five new channels of content from TrueFire, the folks who have been putting together guitar instructional videos since 1991.

“Guitar Sherpa” will carry you to your guitar-playing destination, with five channels to choose from:

• Beginner: Learn how to play hundreds of songs on guitar! Get a grip on the basics with these Beginner lessons on tuning, chords and strumming.
• Intermediate: Learn dozens of rhythm patterns, lead guitar and improvisation for blues, jazz and rock guitar. Tab and practice rhythm tracks too!
• Advanced: Expand your repertoire, technique and improvisation skills with advanced lessons for blues, rock, jazz and fingerstyle guitar.
• TrueFire Concert Hall: Grab a front row seat and tune in on-demand performances from some of the world’s top electric and acoustic guitar players.
• Little Kids Rock: Get a grip on the basics and start to rock! Designed just for kids, these Beginner guitar lessons cover all of the bases.

New episodes for each channel are published every Monday.

What’s the cost? Free of course, if you have a Series2 or Series3 TiVo DVR connected to broadband. To subscribe to a channel, just visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV & Movies on your DVR, or head to the TrueFire Guitar Sherpa page on TiVo Central Online.

There’s a Radiohead song called Anyone Can Play Guitar. Now’s your chance to find out if that’s true. (In my case, I think I’d have to learn some rhythm first…)

So we got back from Tacoma in last night (and thanks go to John C. for dropping us off and picking us up from SJC). It was a good trip — a chance for us to spend time with our relatives there in Washington State, and for them to meet Sophie and us to meet my nephew-in-law Fallon, who was born in July.

(He’s the smiley one on the right.)

While we were there, we visited the Point Defiance Zoo (some pictures forthcoming if I get around to it), celebrated Kira’s fifth birthday, as well as her mom Tomi’s birthday, as well as my brother-in-law Rob’s birthday, plus Fallon’s baptism, as well as a trip to the Tacoma Children’s Museum, a big group family photo session, and a lavish fondue dinner at The Melting Pot.

John and I also caught Vantage Point, which I thought was a bit repetitive (the Rashomon-style retelling doesn’t hold up if you end up reshowing the same scene six times) but still a worthy distraction of a movie with some good performances and action scenes.

In answer to a dilemma I posted earlier, Sophie and Sammy were well-behaved on both airplane rides, but every one of us was sick (our hosts were just getting over bronchitis) and Sophie was having a very tough time at night (especially the first night there), so Kimi and I ended up more exhausted than we’d normally be after a trip like this. Poor Kimi’s very much under the weather right now.

Still, we had a great time and it was wonderful to get out of California for a bit. Thanks go to John, Tomi, Kira and Fallon for hosting us, plus thanks to Rob for taking time off work to hang out with us. Finally, big thanks to John’s parents, Foote and Louise, for some wonderful gifts and for watching Sammy and Sophie and Kira and Fallon on fondue night.

I don’t have the highest opinion of Wal-Mart (in part from watching this Frontline episode), and I admit I associate Wal-Mart with “low brow” and “middle America.”

(Even setting aside any anti-competitiveness, gentrification, and globalization issues, I don’t really like shopping there, because the one near us is always very crowded, and the shelves don’t seem well maintained to me. It always seems to be in disarray.)

But there’s no denying Wal-Mart’s importance as a retailer, so for a while I’ve been reading their Check Out blog.

I was startled the other day when I read this entry, which starts with a reference to philosopher Thomas Kuhn and one of his groundbeaking works (a book which profoundly influenced my way of thinking after I studied it in college).

The juxtaposition of Wal-Mart and deep thinkers: Not what I expected. So boo on me for my stereotyped perception that a Wal-Mart blog would be written to appeal to the lowest comment denominator.

Another daylight saving, another round of adjusting myriad clocks and devices, and dealing with the disruption to our children’s sleep schedules.

Why do we still put up with this farce?

Let’s just leave our clocks alone. The issue is that there isn’t as much daylight (where I live, this time of year, there’s about 11.8 hours of daylight, per the almanac). But mucking about with the clocks doesn’t manufacture daylight. What’s the benefit to morning daylight for people who don’t need it? Some people I know like it light in the evening, some the morning — you can’t have both (there just isn’t enough daylight), so some people are going to be upset.

Instead of tedious and disruptive adjustment of clocks, how about this simple workaround: If you want morning daylight, get up when the sun rises. In theory it’s the farmers who want morning daylight the most. Fine — hey farmers, set your day according to when the sun rises, ok? If that means telling your workers to set the schedule to have the day start at 7am half the year and 8am the rest of the year, what’s so bad about that?

My kids thank you. In turn, that would make me grateful by not being up at 3:30 because their schedule is all messed up.

Ban clock adjustment. It’s a stupid, time-consuming, disruptive exercise that has no place in the 21st century.

This guy’s career needs a twist. Can The Happening beat the trend?

(Click on the graph to see a larger version.)

Pop quiz, parents: You’re going on an airplane trip and you get a choice. Either:

Scenario 1: Your 5-month old is perfect on the airplane, requiring no attention and cooing merrily to the delight of nearby passengers. However, that night, she never manages to sleep for more than half an hour, getting you up about 15 times, and crying loud enough to wake up everyone in the house sleeping nearby.

Scenario 2: Your 5-month old is a terror on the airplane, refusing to calm down upon take off, throwing up, screaming the whole time, and generating two disgusting dirty diapers (nearly impossible to change in those tiny bathrooms). The screams prompt glares from those nearby and one request from the flight attendant to please attend to the baby because she is disturbing the other passengers. However, that night, she has her best night of sleep of her life so far, resting for 10 solid hours with no interruption.

What do you choose? WHAT do you CHOOSE? (Ooops, channeling Speed there.)

The worst thing about vacations is staying up late getting all your work done ahead of time, and the second worst thing is catching up on work when you get back.

We’re off to Tacoma tomorrow to visit my sister-in-law and her family (Tomi, John, Kira, and new baby Fallon). Sammy’s over two now, so needs his own seat. He doesn’t remember flying before (although this will be his fifth plane trip), so in preparation we spent this evening reading just about every book he has about planes. I think he’s pretty excited! And so am I.

Not sure if I’ll have time to post from Tacoma, although I hope so because there are a couple of fun things I’m working on. If I don’t post, I’ll see you all next Wednesday after we fly back.

Gary Gygax passed away yesterday. Tributes and discussions popped up all over the web for the co-inventor of Dungeons and Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons — the venerable tabletop roleplaying game (”RPG”), forerunner of today’s immensely popular fantasy multi-player computer roleplaying games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft.

(My favorite article about Gygax, which I read far too late into the evening last night, was this extremely funny and well-written story from 2006.)

In 1979, as an awkward 12-year-old newly arrived to America, with a weird British accent and not a single friend in the entire country, I stumbled across a lunchtime club at my junior high school playing AD&D. I joined in. In the first few minutes I played, the party was encountering a group of mind flayers, far tougher monsters than our group of low-level characters could handle. The mind flayers asked for a sacrifice to let the rest of the party go free. Not understanding the rules at all, trying to hard to ingratiate myself with the other players, I volunteered to be the sacrifice. The DM nodded and said, “Ok, you’re dead.” Wait, what? Your character can die in this game? What kind of game is this! Fortunately, over time, I got better at playing.

I introduced the game to my brothers and cousin, and we played. A lot. An awful lot. I played with them and other groups, through college and beyond. We tried many different RPGs over the years, but always kept going back to AD&D. To the chagrin of my wife, there’s still a huge stash of old AD&D books and modules and character sheets taking up space in our hall closet.

As my brother Rob said, on one occasion of taking up the game again, “The fact you can kill some monsters, roll some dice, and end up with 10,000 gold pieces is just awesome.” Sure, more modern games are better designed, better balanced, take less time — but the appeal of a game with such charming and bizarre rules, that is powered mainly by imagination, and offers infinite (even unbalanced) possibilities, and defies the entire concept of “game” by having no winners and no end — well, you can’t beat that. (Literally.)

Over the years, Gary lost control of the company he founded to sell D&D, and different versions of the game came out that he had nothing to do with. The newest versions seem to have lost a lot of the soul and quirkiness of the original. The original game was earnestly written, each page of the dense rules packed with ideas all happily lifted from dozens of sources ranging from Tolkien to Moorcock; dungeons were populated with mythic Greek creatures living side by side with creatures out of Arthurian legend or gothic horror or Arabian Nights. It stretched my vocabulary and creativity.

It was never a “cool” game though, and even here and now it’s a bit weird to be typing this up, knowing there’s a stigma with associating yourself with such an uncool pastime. I never met Gary, but the profiles and interviews paint him as an uncool guy. But a happy guy, a generous guy, and a supremely creative guy — who was not ashamed to be uncool.

These days, geeks and nerds aren’t so reluctant to identify themselves as such. Geekdom is slowly becoming cool. Vin Diesel plays D&D, and Vin Diesel is cool. So what the heck. In honor of Ernest Gary Gygax, creator of works that fired up my teenage imagination such as The Tomb of Horrors, and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and (most of all) Against the Giants — I hereby admit my enjoyment of Dungeons and Dragons, and raise a flagon of mead to salute the life of the man who started it all. Thank you, Gary, and RIP.