Monthly Archives: June 2008

Planetary to Conclude

Posted on June 18, 2008 by Kelson

Warren Ellis just posted to his Bad Signal mailing list that John Cassiday has started drawing Planetary #27! It’s been something like a year since Ellis finished writing the issue, and closer to two years since the last issue shipped. Wildstorm even released Absolute Planetary in a not-quite-absolute state, rather than waiting for a story that’s described as an epilogue. (I seem to recall hearing that they planned to add it in a second edition.) Edit: I should have realized from the page count, but the listing at Amazon makes it clear that this is Absolute Planetary Volume 1, and only covers the first 12 issues.

9 years is a bit long for a 27-issue comic book series, but Planetary has been consistently worth the wait.

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Firefox Download Day is Upon Us!

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Kelson

Download DayJust a reminder: Tuesday is Firefox Download Day, and Firefox is trying to set a world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.

It starts at 10:00 AM Pacific Daylight Saving Time (the Mozilla offices are in Mountain View, California), i.e. 17:00 UTC. You can use a time zone converter to figure out your what time that is in your own time zone.

Only full downloads count, so if you’ve been using one of the release candidates and want your download to be counted for the record, you’ll have to go to the website instead of just using auto-update. Edit: The Download Day page is swamped — just head to Mozilla.com for now.

And yes, Firefox 3 is good. I’ve been using the betas and release candidates for several months, and it’s a huge improvement over version 2!

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Announcing SpeedForce.org!

Posted on June 15, 2008 by Kelson

Bart Allen as the FlashI’ve just launched SpeedForce.org, a companion blog to the website, Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.

Since I started adding news items to the front page of Ride the Lightning, it’s started to get a bit crowded. I thought about converting it to a del.icio.us feed, but then I realized it really ought to be a blog. There hasn’t been a major Flash-focused blog out there since Crimson Lightning shut down, so I figured I’d step in and fill the gap. And I could use the domain I picked up last year!

I’ll be posting Flash-related news there, including a weekly round-up of Flash comics, as well as articles that might not fit into the existing site structure, and (eventually) reviews as well. Some stuff that I would have posted here will end up on the new site. Certainly Flash news, but I may start shifting more comics-related commentary over there as well.

I’ll be refining the look and features over the next couple of weeks, and cross-linking it more into Ride the Lightning. I might keep the current theme with a few tweaks, or I might try to match Ride the Lightning, or I might build something else entirely.

So please, check it out and let me know what you think! I’m open to suggestions as to content, design, etc. And of course bug reports.

Posted in Comics, Site Updates | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

TV Shows that Should be on DVD

Posted on June 13, 2008 by Kelson

One nice thing about the DVD market is that it seems like just about every TV show imaginable has gotten released on DVD over the past few years (to the point where, in some cases, it feels like studios are scraping the bottom of the barrel). But if you look at the full list at TV Shows On DVD, the percentage of shows available is actually quite small.

Once the trend had been established, I waited years for first Babylon 5, then Animaniacs, and then The Flash to make the list. I’m still waiting for VR.5, a show from the mid-1990s that, like Firefly and Drive, got half a season on Fox and didn’t even see every episode aired. (Okay, the premise was total fantasy wrapped in a sci-fi buzzword, but the concept, characters, and storyline were interesting.)

So, what TV shows of days past are you hoping to see again? I’m mainly curious about shows that have been off the air for at least 5 years.

Posted in Entertainment | Tagged | 2 Comments

Opera 9.5 Release Round-Up

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Kelson

Opera 9.5 Banner

Yes, Opera 9.5 is now available, beating Firefox 3 by just 5 days! Highlights include:

  • Opera Link synchronizes your bookmarks, Speed Dial, and notes between Opera on different computers, and even links to Opera Mini on your phone!
  • Enhanced address bar searches your entire browsing history, including the contents of each page.
  • Security enhancements: malware protection, improved fraud protection, and support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates
  • New rendering engine with improved site compatibility and performance.
  • Opera Dragonfly, the long-awaited tools for web developers.
  • New theme inspired by Scandinavian design.

(List re-used from my Opera Watch post on the then-imminent release.)

Link Round-Up

Digg it or Download it!

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Smilers in Concert

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Kelson

Went to see Aimee Mann on Friday at the House of Blues. She’s promoting her new album, @#%&*! Smilers (and yes, it’s pronounced as you might expect, though she also gave an alternate pronunciation of “Effing Smilers”), which just came out last week. Of course, this meant that most of the audience either hadn’t heard the new songs, or had only heard them a few days before. Old favorites like “Save Me” tended to get cheers as soon as people recognized the intro music. With the new stuff, people were quieter, as if they were waiting to hear the song for the first time. But they all got applause in the end.

In the past, when we’ve gone to the Anaheim House of Blues, we’ve tried to eat at Downtown Disney. It always proves problematical, with restaurants either not taking reservations for parties of two or not having any reservations left. This time we just ate near home and drove up after dinner. We got there after the doors opened, but before most of the audience arrived, and managed to claim a spot dead center in the main floor, much closer than we’d ever been to this stage.

The opening act was Rebecca Pigeon. She was quite good, and a good match stylistically. (Too often, you only get one — or neither. We still joke about “Corn Mo” who opened for TMBG a few years ago.) She started with “Tough on Crime,” which Katie figures has to have a Heroes video in it somewhere. Interesting fact: it turns out she’s married to David Mamet.

By the end of the opening act, the house had filled up considerably, and was respectably packed by the time Aimee Mann took the stage. Continue reading →

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The Race is On

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Kelson

[Opera Logo]Firefox.With the Firefox 3 release imminent, Opera Software has just announced a release candidate for Opera 9.5, “arriving very soon.”

Neither browser has announced a definite release date (though Mozilla has stated Firefox 3 will launch in “late June”), but both are in the final stages. Update: Mozilla has announced a release date of June 17.

Update 2: Opera wins with a June 12 release.

Posted in Browsers, Mozilla, Opera | Leave a comment

The Accidental Beekeeper

Posted on June 8, 2008 by Kelson

On Monday, Katie found a bee flying around the kitchen, and a disturbing buzzing sound coming from the stove vent. Outside, bees were swarming around the outlet. We clearly had bees in the ceiling. Worse, they were getting into the kitchen. By Monday evening, we’d found at least 8 bees in the kitchen, two of them at once.

Maintenance came out that afternoon, realized there were too many bees to handle, and called in the professionals to come out on Tuesday. By Tuesday evening, there were only a handful of bees outside, and we found a half dozen dead on the floor near the window. And, disturbingly, one dying bee stuck in a pool of unidentified goo in a skillet that had been left to dry on the stove.

And that was the end of it, until Katie opened up the cabinet above the stove today, and was greeted by the sight of dozens of dead bees:

They weren’t just in the vent, or the ceiling: if we’d opened that cabinet on Monday, we’d have had a full-on swarm in the kitchen.

Posted in Strange World | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Flash Companion Arrives in July

Posted on June 8, 2008 by Kelson

Cover: The Flash CompanionA couple of bits of news on TwoMorrows’ upcoming book, The Flash Companion by Keith Dallas. This is the book for which I wrote several articles last fall.

First, the book has been scheduled for July 23, which brings it out just in time for San Diego Comic-Con.

Second, I noticed this week that Amazon is offering 26% off on pre-orders, bringing it to $19.81.

I’ll let the official summary speak for itself (with a bit of reformatting):

The Flash Companion details the publication histories of the four heroes who have individually earned the right to be declared DC Comics’ “Fastest Man Alive”: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen.

With articles about legendary creators Shelly Mayer, Gardner Fox, E.E. Hibbard, Julius Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Ross Andru, Irv Novick and all new interviews of Harry Lampert, Carmine Infantino, Cary Bates, Alex Saviuk, Mike W. Barr, Marv Wolfman, Mike Baron, Jackson Guice, Mark Waid, Scott Kolins, among others, The Flash Companion recounts the scarlet speedster’s evolution from the Golden Age to the 21st century.

Also featured are “lost covers,” never before published commission pieces by Flash artists throughout the decades, a Rogues Gallery detailing The Flash’s most famous foes (including 3 profiles by the author of this website) a tribute to late artist Mike Wieringo by Mark Waid, a look at the speedster’s 1990s TV show, and “Flash facts” detailing pivotal moments in Flash history. Written by Keith Dallas, with a cover by Don Kramer (Detective Comics, JSA) with colors by Moose Baumann (Green Lantern).

I’ve contributed three articles to the Rogues Gallery section, and a convention photo. I’ve had a chance to read some of the other articles and interviews, and this is going to be a great read for Flash fans!

Edit: One more item: This is small press, and I’m not the main author on the book, so I’m not getting paid for the articles I contributed. But I do have an Amazon Affiliate account, so if you order through this link, I’ll actually get paid a little in a roundabout way.

Posted in Comic Con 2008, Comics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Quick Thoughts on Gas Mileage

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Kelson

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the fact that, in response to soaring gas prices, smaller cars are outselling light trucks (which include SUVs, pickups, and minivans) in the US for the first time since 1996. Last night I was going through old magazines that we’d just tossed in a bag before moving. I found the September 2006 issue of Westways (the California Auto Club’s magazine), with a cover story about the new breed of small cars, wondering when the market would shift in response to the high prices. Now there’s timing.

On a related note, 9 months of driving a Prius has given me a somewhat different perspective on “good” and “bad” mileage. When I see averages of 38–48 MPG over the course of a tank of gas, and can get up to 60 MPG on straight, flat stretches of freeway, advertisements touting 25–30 MPG just don’t sound that enticing.

Posted in Tech | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment