10:00 AM
Man oh man, they sure timed last night's South Park perfectly. They managed to squeeze the Sony PSP and Terry Schiavo into a single episode together - complete with a Last Starfighter reference. South Park is funniest when it's all about current events.
8:58 AM ATI provides on their website a single video driver that works with pretty much every chipset they've ever made. They call it the Catalyst driver, and they update it pretty regularly so that it can boost performance in games, fix bugs, whatever.
In recent years ATI's Mobility Radeon series of video processors have worked worked their way into laptops across the industry. ATI feels that the responsibility for providing updated video drivers for these laptops should rest on the shoulders of the laptop manufacturer. They've gone so far as to prevent their Catalyst driver installer package from installing on any machine with a Mobility Radeon chip.
That sucks ass because laptop owners often get stuck using hopelessly out-of-date video drivers, most of which are never updated after their initial release.
Luckily someone has seen fit to change all that! DriverHeaven's Mobility Modder will modify the detection routine of the Catalyst installer, allowing anyone with a mobile ATI video chipset to install the latest drivers from ATI themselves.
Installation is a breeze and the drivers work flawlessly. If you're using a laptop now and are having troubles running say, Half Life 2, these new drivers will hook you up!
9:26 AM
I don't know what it is about golf video games, but I love them with an unexplainable passion.
Imagine my joy this morning when I came across Shot Online, a totally free online multiplayer golf game. You can level-up your character, advance your career, earn better clubs, and do all kinds of crazy golf-related things!
I'd never heard of Lucien Lavoute before downloading the album, but it's worth a listen! This is some of the best tightly-arranged 60s production music you'll ever hear!
Bonnie opened up with the usual "I'm so sick of crying at work" routine and was generally okay, but Rich had really tightened up his act since he left Last Comic Standing.
11:31 AM
Looks like Tivo rolled out the first of their 'banner ads while fast-forwarding' over the weekend.
Now would be a good time to enable the 30-second skip backdoor on your Tivo! To enable the toggle hit Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select. This will turn the skip-to-end button (->|) into a 30-second skip button. I've had mixed results trying to use it in the past, but now it looks like I've got a reason to learn how to use it well.
ZeldaClassic has been developed into an exact replica of the NES version that we all know and love. Beyond that, Zelda Classic allows the development of new quests that can use either the traditional graphics or enhanced graphics, as well as new enemies, items, and challenges.
This isn't just some simple rom hacker or emulation tomfoolery - this is a real-life port of 8-bit Zelda to Windows. Once you've finished the game you'll find plenty of downloadable quests to keep you busy, handmade by Zelda lovers just like you and me!
2:49 PM
Tivo's wishlists are great. I'd been waiting months for Obstinato to come on the air again after I missed it the first time around, and Tivo made sure to grab it for me when it popped up on some obscure channel last night.
Bela Fleck is the greatest banjo player in the world. The closeup shots of his fingers flying forced me to put down my martini and stare at the screen in open-mouthed dumbfoundedness.
12:17 PM
I just heard back from the Discovery Channel. Apparently they must get witty messages like mine all the time.
Thank you for contacting Discovery Networks. We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. Your comments will be forwarded to our program management and executives and will be taken into consideration. Comments such as yours are very important to us, as viewer opinions tell us what we can improve on and what our audience enjoys. It is these types of comments that contribute to creating change and improving programming.
A reply to this message is not necessary. For more information about schedules and programming check our website, www.discovery.com. If you have any further inquiries or comments, please contact us via our webform at http://extweb.discovery.com/ViewerRelations. Thank you again for expressing your interest in our programming.
Sincerely, Barbara Viewer Relations Discovery Networks
Something has happened in recent years that has caused the Discovery channel to turn into something I just don't want to watch anymore. Shows like American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Monster Garage, Surprise by Design, and even Party Planner have replaced the constant flood of documentaries that I fell in love with in the mid-90s. It's so very, very sad.
Why did you abandon your tried-and-true formula, Discovery? Was it a ratings thing? When your red-headed stepchild, TLC, started broadcasting home-improvement shows 24/7, I didn't complain - I just turned to you and watched shows about gazelles grazing and electrons flowing. But now I can't even tell you and TLC apart anymore. Shows about home improvement and motorcycle building have all but replaced my beloved documentaries about whales and lasers.
I'm letting you know that I'm leaving you, Discovery. I'm leaving you for a younger woman. The History Channel knows what it takes to turn this 26 year old on. I can watch incredible shows like Modern Marvels EVERY DAY on The History Channel.
So you keep airing shows about angry motorcycle building guys with more muscles and testosterone than I'll ever have, and I'll be watching the History Channel. I won't give up on you, though...I'll check in from time to time to see if you've gone back to your roots, and if that day ever comes rest assured I'll start watching just as much as I used to. But for now, my heart belongs to History.
2:21 PM
You hear a lot about bloggers in the news and whatever... But the news media only seem to care about politically-themed blogs, even though they're such a small percentage of weblogs in general. The White House even invited this blogger guy to a press briefing today. WTF?
So what's the deal? Does anyone actually read political blogs? I sure don't! But that's what the media would have you believe!
11:24 AM
Today I'm a little wiped out from the Indiana Jones event and the copious amount of gin consumed as we waited for the event to start last night at 8:30.
We had a blast. The food was great, the free gifts were classy, and we got to ride Indiana Jones with the lights on. Some guy wrote up a summary of the event with a few (small) pictures, so instead of me talking about it I'll just link you to that one.
4:01 PM
As of this writing, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters has been open to the public for a grand total of one hour - yesterday morning during its first soft opening to both guests and cast members.
There's already a downloadable video of the complete attraction over at mouseinfo.com!
1:07 PM GMail Drive shell extension: "GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer."
![[Powered by Blogger]](http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif){kind=small}
