EdKopp4

With the exception of a small number of good shows that are on right now, including So You Think You Can Dance, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, In Plain Sight, and Doctor Who, there's currently very little on TV worth watching. That should all change in the near future when three great shows return with all new episodes, practically doubling the number of good shows on TV (sadly, Doctor Who will be back in reruns in the US shortly). Unfortunately, we won't be seeing any more of The 4400, The Dead Zone, Bionic Woman, or Journeyman, but we will be seeing lots of three excellent shows that have been gone for far too long. Starting tonight, Burn Notice will return to USA Network (10 PM EST). Based on last season's episodes, I expect this will be just as action-packed, funny, and well-written as ever. Then, tomorrow night marks the return of Stargate: Atlantis (10 PM EST), with the following Friday offering up the debut of the latest season of Monk (9 PM EST). It won't be quite the same without Dr. Kroger helping Monk when he needs him the most, but I'm sure it will be well-written and well-acted as usual. If you can't watch Monk or Burn Notice the first time around, they will likely be posting the episodes to USANetwork.com not long after the initial showings, so you should be able to catch these great shows whenever you are able to fit them into your schedule.

It's amazing just how many web sites and services are now available to make it as easy as possible to keep in contact with someone or get to know that person better. Way back when, your best bet to keep in contact was to email them or perhaps to instant message them. For finding long lost friends, your only good hope was the now-antiquated Classmates.com. If you wanted to get to know someone better, your options were pretty limited, with a personal web page being about as good as you could get. Now, it's possible to network with friends (and strangers), keep in touch, find out what's new with people you know, get to know friends better, and meet interesting new people with minimal effort. Over the last few years, sites that make such actions easy have become incredibly common, and given my love of most things technology or internet-related, I've signed up with a decent number of them. If you know me, or even if you don't know me and want to get to know me better, you now have a multitude of ways to keep up with what I've been doing lately and to get to know me better. Below are some links to some of the more significant social networking/profile sites I'm on. Feel free to befriend me (like on Facebook or MySpace), follow me (like on Twitter), or just give my profiles a glance. You can even poke me if you want (only on Facebook, I believe). For a list of more of the sites I'm on along with links to those profiles, you can go here or go to the main page of my Windows Live Space and click on the "My Profiles" link near the top left of the page.

Here are the links to my profiles: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, MyBlogLog, Last.fm, YouTube, del.icio.us, Xbox Live, reddit, Digg

Thanks to a handy visitor statistics feature present in Windows Live Spaces, I'm able to see the referring address for visitors to my blog. I've noticed a trend over the last month or two that a number of visitors are coming here looking for information on the season premieres of The 4400 and The Dead Zone sometime this year. I thought that I should take a moment here and let anyone who happens to stumble across my blog know that you can stop looking for information on these premieres. Both of these shows were canceled, and as such you can expect no more season premieres or new episodes of any kind. I was rather shocked when I first learned the news from TV Guide late last year, but with the promise of new episodes of Monk and Burn Notice plus an interesting new series in the form of In Plain Sight, I've slowly gotten over losing these two great shows. They definitely had many exciting episodes left before their proper endings, but the last season finales should serve at least as reasonably solid series finales as well. Luckily, we live in an age where the majority of TV shows are available to own on DVD, and these shows are no exception, letting avid viewers like me relive these shows whenever I want. Sadly, besides the possible occasional rerun, this is our best way of watching these shows now.

I remember when seasons of Star Trek on DVD were around $100 (or more depending on where you shopped). For the longest time, it seemed like the price would never drop. I've been a fan of Star Trek in all its TV iterations for quite some time, and I was eager to own it and watch it in high-quality whenever I wanted, so I slowly but surely started buying the DVDs. After a few years, a lot of money spent, and some very generous gifts, I finally owned all of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and The Original Series. It was a lot of money, but I didn't mind too much because I love those shows and knew I would get a lot of enjoyment out of them, and I certainly have done just that. However, after I'd bought those seasons and it seemed like the price would never change for years to come, Paramount went and lowered the prices on all of the seasons I'd already bought. As a result, it's not unusual now to find the aforementioned seasons for about $50. Naturally, Voyager and Enterprise, the two series I still have yet to buy, still have the same old high suggested price. I'm not one for overpaying when I know there's a better price to be had, even if it means a little waiting, so I wasn't about to buy seasons from either series until the price dropped as they were bound to do sooner or later given the price drops for the other seasons.

Paramount (technically CBS Television now, I suppose) still hasn't lowered the MSRP on Voyager or Enterprise yet, but that hasn't stopped Amazon from going ahead and lowering the price anyway. Thanks to a handy extension for Firefox, I've been monitoring the prices of these Star Trek DVDs, and I was shocked when I unexpectedly saw Amazon's lower price. At first, I thought it would be a temporary reduction, but after watching the prices stay the same ever since, I think it's safe to say that Amazon is keeping the price of all Star Trek seasons low for the foreseeable future. Voyager season one had been $116.99 as of 10/30/07. Amazon cut the price to $59.99. Enterprise season one was $116.99 on 10/30/07. Amazon changed it to $69.98. Both of those price cuts offer a significant price cut to Trek fans, and it's even more impressive given that the MSRP has stayed high with no expected change in the immediate future. As someone who still has yet to buy these seasons, that got me really excited.

Then, I saw Amazon's latest promotion. As part of a promotion for a new section of its site called Amazon Cosmotopia, Amazon.com is lowering the price of all Star Trek seasons on DVD to $35.49 per season during the month of April (2008). I thought that $60 or so per season was a great price, but $35.49 per season is simply an unbelievable bargain that you may not see again this year (who knows, maybe ever). Unfortunately for me, I don't have any spare money to get these DVDs right now, but that doesn't stop anyone else out there from getting them at this stellar price (pun definitely intended). If you're like me and don't have the money to spare right now, the prices will likely go back to around $60 for a season after this month, which is still very reasonable compared to the old prices that topped $100. For your convenience, I've included links below to each season that's on sale (technically, that's all the Star Trek seasons). Amazon hasn't just reduced the price on Star Trek, though. There are many other great deals to be had during this promotion. In my opinion, two of the best other deals are the entire series of Buffy on DVD (40 discs, no less) for just $99.99 and the first four seasons of The Dead Zone for a mere $11.99 each. So, if you have the spare money and are looking for some great, cheap entertainment to last you for years to come, this sale is just for you. I don't think that you can beat these prices anywhere, either - even DeepDiscount.com isn't this cheap, and in this sale, you're dealing with a site you know you can trust no matter what and you won't even have to pay tax (or shipping, for that matter, assuming you spend at least $25). Enjoy.

Star Trek (Seasons 1, 2, and 3) - $35.49 per season
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) - $35.49 per season
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) - $35.49 per season
Star Trek: Voyager (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) - $35.49 per season
Star Trek: Enterprise (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4) - $35.49 per season

The Dead Zone (Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4) - $11.99 per season; Season 5 - $15.49; The Final Season - $23.99
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Collector's Set (40 discs) - $99.99 $164.99

Update (4/11/08): At least for the moment, it appears that Amazon has raised the price of the Buffy set up to $164.99. Shame on them. That was definitely one of the best DVD deals around.

I was trying to upload some video files to Xdrive last night, so I fired up Xdrive Desktop Lite. It was taking far too long to browse to different folders and see their contents, so I decided to quit that and try the classic web interface instead. Before I did so, however, I noticed something curious in the top right of the screen. It said that I have "7.31 GB Free". While I found this odd, I thought that maybe it had something to do with the fact that I have a lot of full resolution photos stored at AOL Pictures and that there was an error in this fairly new program that misinterpreted my total storage space. However, when I navigated to the web interface in Firefox, I saw yet another unusual yet similar sight. In the top right next to the bar that indicates how much storage you've used, it says "7.49 GB available". To make things even more strange, upon highlighting the bar, I saw the alt text "7.49 GB of 5 GB remaining".

This just strikes me as odd. Is this a system-wide error? Does is have to do with the recently-released (although, in my opinion, buggy and slow - it results in the continuous accessing of my floppy drive) Xdrive Desktop Lite application? Lastly, could it be that AOL has felt more pressure in this space thanks to Microsoft's recent release of Windows Live SkyDrive out of beta with an equivalent 5 GB of storage and has decided to up its own storage limit to fend off this attack on its territory? I would like to believe this is true, but the rest of the site indicates that they're still only offering 5 GB in their free offering. As often happens with sudden product changes, however, it could just be that they have yet to change all of the related information on the site to reflect an increase in storage space. I suppose that only time will tell what the real situation is. Whatever the outcome, though, it appears that things aren't going perfectly over at Xdrive when it comes to calculating storage space.

Update (3/27/08): Xdrive's classic web interface is once again showing 5 GB as the storage limit. I guess this means it was a bug after all. I still hope that in the near future they will increase the storage space for real, though.

It appears that the recent run of midnight movies at Regal Fenway 13 was a success, because four additional movies have been added to the list of upcoming films. The original list ended with Fight Club (to be shown initially on 2/22), leaving me to wonder just what other films, if any, would follow. Thanks to a recent post at the official Facebook group (Flashback Features At Regal Fenway 13), we now know what movies will be shown in late February and most of March. Here's how the schedule looks:

Fri., 2/29: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Encore Performance - Wed., 3/5 @ 8pm)
Fri., 3/7: Home Alone (Encore Performance - Wed., 3/12 @ 8pm)
Fri., 3/14: Pretty in Pink (Encore Performance - Wed., 3/19 @ 8pm)
Fri., 3/21: Office Space (Encore Performance - Wed., 3/26 @ 8pm)

First, I have to point out that I cannot verify firsthand that this is in fact the correct schedule. However, the post by one of the administrators of the Facebook group seems very credible, so I'll take him at his word. If I find out anything to the contrary, I will of course post an update, but as of now, I'd say it's safe to say this is the schedule.

In all, I'd say that it's a pretty decent schedule, although I think it could have definitely been made stronger had better choices been made. Ferris Bueller's Day Off should bring in a large audience, and given that I've only seen it on a TV, it should be pretty enjoyable for me too. Home Alone is a classic, and although it would be better suited to a showing right before Christmas, I certainly can't deny that it would be fun to see it on the big screen any time of year. Office Space should draw a good crowd as well, but I can't help but feel that this slot in the schedule will be wasted on it given that I saw it during the previous run of AMC Fenway 13 midnight movies on 4/29/05. I suppose three years is enough space between showings, but I think I would rather see another classic film instead. The only strange choice in the bunch, at least in my opinion, is Pretty in Pink. I know that they're trying to pick a diverse schedule that appeals to everyone, but I can think of much better films to take its place (I would much rather see Jaws or The Blues Brothers, thank you very much). Who knows, perhaps I'll give it a chance and go watch it anyway. It's only $6, after all.

If the previous movies are any indication, I'd expect all of these films to draw a pretty good number of people, and at $6, it's hard to go wrong. It's practically impossible to find movies in the theatre for even close to that price these days. If you read this and you'll be going to one of these films, you'll probably see me there as well. Look for me to likely be in the back middle of the front section since the middle front of the back section seems to always be filled when I get in the theatre. Maybe I'll have better luck with one of these films.

I was looking around the movie listings at Google last night in preparation for my viewing of Cloverfield earlier today when I saw something that immediately brought a smile to my face. In fact, at first I couldn't believe my eyes, but there it was: a listing for Reservoir Dogs at 11:59 PM on 1/18 at Regal Fenway 13. Could it be? Yes, indeed it was. The long-absent weekly midnight movie series made famous by AMC when they owned that theatre has returned at last. I saw many excellent movies thanks to that previous series of midnight movies, and I was certainly upset when they discontinued it right before Regal took over. I was hoping that Regal would catch on and bring it back, and it seems that they have. I did some searching after seeing that listing, and apparently they are referring to this series of movies as "Flashback Features." At the moment, they only list six movies (including the one tonight), but with any luck, they'll be adding to that list.

While I was at the theatre today to see the 1:10 PM showing of Cloverfield (which was excellent, by the way), I looked around with the hope of getting some more information about this series. According to the display stand they have set up in the lobby, this series of movies is exclusive to Fenway 13 and the list of coming movies shown on the stand agrees with the list I found online. Apparently, they also had one more movie in the series that was shown last Friday. That movie was Pulp Fiction. It's unfortunate that I couldn't see it, but I wasn't even in Boston at the time. I'm just glad that I found out about this before I had missed too many movies. Now that all the backstory is out of the way, here is the list of movies coming to Regal Fenway 13 that I found on this page at Fandango.

Fri., 1/18: Reservoir Dogs (Encore Performance - Wed., 1/23 @ 8pm)
Fri., 1/25: The Shining (Encore Performance - Wed., 1/30 @ 8pm)
Fri., 2/1: The Goonies (Encore Performance - Wed., 2/6 @ 8pm)
Fri., 2/8: The Matrix (Encore Performance - Wed., 2/13 @ 8pm)
Fri., 2/15: Princess Bride (Encore Performance - Wed., 2/20 @ 8pm)
Fri., 2/22: Fight Club (Encore Performance - Wed., 2/27 @ 8pm)

In particular, I'm looking forward to The Goonies (which I've only seen on the small screen) and The Matrix (which will be quite a treat since I really like that film and its sequels and haven't seen it in its true glory since its original theatrical release). Also, as you may have noticed from the list above, all of these movies will be reshown the following Wednesday at 8 PM. That seems like a bit of an odd day and time, but if you can't make it to the Friday night showing, it's certainly nice to have an alternative. As if the quality of these movies wasn't reason enough to see them, the fact that tickets are only $6 (as opposed to the student price of $8.50) should make you want to go even more. I know I'll be seeing Reservoir Dogs later tonight.

I love Amazon.com. It almost always has the best prices, carries pretty much any item I can want, especially when it comes to DVDs and CDs, doesn't charge tax, and ships purchases over $25 for free. Thanks to an article at Lifehacker, a while back I got to liking Amazon for yet another reason. If you buy anything at Amazon.com and they lower the price on that item within 30 days after your purchase, they'll refund you the difference in price. I don't know of too many stores that do that. In fact, I don't know if I can think of any stores that do that besides Amazon. I've yet to have an opportunity to test this policy myself, but it certainly is reassuring knowing that you can buy any item confident that they won't lower the price just days later and you'll be stuck paying the higher price. Unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately for Amazon), not many people seem to know about this great policy. I know that I've tried to mention this to everyone when the topic of buying things online comes up in conversation, but people are still generally unaware of this fact. With any luck, this post and others like it will help make people more aware of the potential savings to be had, especially given how many purchases people made recently at Amazon for their holiday gifts. For the complete guide on how to use this policy to your advantage, you should read this wonderful article that Lifehacker pointed to in its article on the subject. Now go get some of your hard-earned money back.

Every spring and fall, Xbox fans start getting excited as they wonder what Microsoft has in store in its biannual 360 dashboard updates. Although some updates are better than others, every update has delivered at least some features that make using Xbox 360 more enjoyable and makes a great console even better. A while back I posted a list of the 30 improvements that I'd like to see come to Xbox 360, and these fall and spring updates are exactly where Microsoft would deliver such improvements. People have been speculating wildly lately as to what this fall's update will bring, and as of today, they don't have to speculate any longer. While there are still some things missing from this update that I would have liked to have been included, I have to say that this update is looking to be one of the best yet, adding a ton of new features and improvements that I and many others have been hoping for ever since (sometimes even before) we got our hands on a 360.

I'll have to wait until Christmas break to download and experiment with this latest update, but everyone else with a 360 readily available and a high speed internet connection will be able to upgrade on December 4th. There are a lot of features that I'm looking forward to putting to good use, but a few really stand out. In particular, I'm looking forward to:

• DivX and Xvid support - With this addition, Xbox 360 will finally support just about any video format you can ask for (well, unless you're asking for Flash Video, in which case you're out of luck). If you're wondering about video specifics, the Xbox Team recently posted a handy FAQ over at MSDN on this very subject.
  
• People who were under 18 when they signed up for Xbox Live (like me) but who have since passed this landmark birthday will no longer have to see that annoying "What are you waiting for?" message every time you boot up your console. You joined Xbox Live, you're an adult, and now you get to be treated as an adult by Xbox Live thanks to a handy "child account graduation" feature. Major Nelson has more info on that here.
• For those who linked their gamertag to a Windows Live ID they no longer use, you will finally be able to change the ID your gamertag is associated with. You can also get info on that here.
• A faster Guide - I love the Guide. It's handy, always there, and gives me a ton of info. However, it is definitely slower than it needs to be. If a line near the end of the fall update list of features is correct, the guide will now be a lot quicker. How quick? How about "~2x". Twice as fast sounds good to me.
• Cheaper Xbox Live Arcade games. I call it finally lowering the prices on old titles that don't sell as well anymore, they call it "Xbox LIVE Arcade Hits."
• "Enhanced online profile" - Some people may not care for this, but I look forward to being able to put a little bit more about me on Xbox Live for my friends (or pseudo-friends) to see. Did you forget who I am because we haven't played together in a while? That's OK. Check out my profile to refresh your memory.
• "Expanded Friends List access" - I don't think I ever even thought of this feature before, but I'm really looking forward to it. The people I play with are all of a similar type, in that they all play nice, are good sports, don't curse and scream, and are just all-around fun to play with. My friends also seem to only have people like that on their friends list. Instead of having to wait and play with some of these great people, I'll be able to just go down a friend's friends list and find someone fun to play with. This will also come in handy if you play with someone who you know is friends with one of your friends but you can't remember their exact gamertag.

There are a lot of other fixes and features coming in this update, but these are the ones that get me the most excited at the moment. Now I'll just have to wait a few weeks to give it a spin. For more info on the major features that have been added, check our Major Nelson's recent article. If you'd rather look at the full list of updates heading our way, you can read this extensive article at Xbox.com. If these new features have you excited too, then go over to this thread at Xbox365 that I started and add your thoughts.

To beging with, I own an iPod. While I still think that it's overpriced compared to other portable MP3 players on the market, I certainly believe that it has one of the best interfaces available, a great look, and generally solid performance. However, one thing about the iPod that I have never liked is its advertising campaign. It seems like wherever I go, I see another advertisement for an iPod, with each ad looking almost exactly the same. It's always an overly large, bright colored poster depicting an apparently young, happy person dancing while listening to music on their iPod. These people aren't just dancing though. Many of them are so into the music that they look like they're about to fall over. Never mind the fact that this is a bit unrealistic. Even in the best concerts I've been to where people were really into the music, I don't recall ever seeing anyone act like that, but that's OK. In the heat of the moment (and the privacy of one's own home), I suppose it's possible.

However, what I do have a problem with is that dancing to the music, exhibiting pure happiness and love of the music, and listening to an iPod simply do not go together in real life. Maybe the Apple advertisers would like you to think of their product as a cool, fun product that makes you happy and brings some joy to your otherwise boring life, but the reality is that the iPod seems to do just the opposite. It seems like wherever I go, whether it be waiting at an airport, walking down the street, sitting in a subway car, or standing in line to pay for something, I see at least one person listening to an iPod, and everytime, without exception, I see the exact same thing. Instead of showing happiness and feeling, these iPod junkies look dazed and out of touch with reality, almost like they're staring at a TV right in front of them that only they can see. Rarely do you see one of them crack a smile, or even exhibit any emotion as a result of listening to the music being pumped through their iPod. If I didn't know that they were listening to an iPod, I might otherwise think that these people were high on pain killers or some other equally-numbing medication or drug. These people paid hundreds of dollars for a device so they can listen to their music on the go and add some fun to their lives, and instead they get something that makes them look and act just like zombies. They're as out of touch with reality while connected to an iPod as can be, and exhibit none of the social characteristics that a non-iPod person would. To make matters worse, many of these people seem to even be addicted to their iPods, sticking those white ear buds to their ears every chance they get, just as zombies crave human flesh.

Whenever I use an iPod, I tend to be in a situation where there is little else to do and I need something to occupy me, such as at an airport or on a train or airplane. Unlike these iPod junkies, though, I can never resist the urge to feel the music and tap or move as necessary with the music. If you see someone playing the air drums or conducting an invisible orchestra at the airport, that's probably me. I don't know why I am able to use my iPod like it should be used (for happiness and enjoying music) and these junkies are not, but it certainly is worrying. Our society already has too many people who watch TV or play video games so incessantly that they have lost touch with reality and their physical wellbeing has suffered as a result. I sincerely hope that in the future, this iPod syndrome doesn't have any ill effects on us or future generations, because like it or not, it would seem that the iPod, and along with it its numbing syndrome are here to stay. If you're wondering what you can be for Halloween (which is tonight, by the way - Happy Halloween!), don't bother going to the costume store. Instead, just fire up your iPod and insert the white ear buds. I guarantee that you'll look just like a zombie and perhaps even scare a few people who have yet to be infected by the iPod syndrome. Happy listening...