Rod Beck dies at 38

Very sad to hear this, during today’s Yankees – Giants game. Always enjoyed watching him pitch. He was found dead, alone in his home in San Diego.
Beck dies at 38

Nicknamed “Shooter,” Beck played for the Giants (1991-97), the Chicago Cubs (1998-99) and the Boston Red Sox (1999-2001) before finishing his career with the Padres (2003-04). Beck reportedly was living in a camper behind the Iowa Cubs’ center-field fence when San Diego called.

Sport’s Illustrated
CBS Sportsline news
Beck’s Statistics

Top 100 Movies

Kane PosterThe American Film Institute has released their annual list of the Top 100 Movies.

1 CITIZEN KANE
2 THE GODFATHER
3 CASABLANCA
4 RAGING BULL
5 SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
6 GONE WITH THE WIND
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
8 SCHINDLER’S LIST
9 VERTIGO
10 THE WIZARD OF OZ

Their site has a nice tour of the top 100 and some other nice info / trivia. Can’t find much wrong with the list.

It’s remarkable Raging Bull has now entered the Top 10. The Searchers (John Wayne) from 1956 charged the chart from 96 to 12 !

American Film Institute Top 100 Movies

Sopranos: Made in America

After watching the final episode all I could think was: ‘So this was it ?‘. A pretty lacklustre final episode, the only thing that was even close to exciting / interesting was the killing of Leotardo. AJ got really on my nerves this episode. And what happened to Tony’s huge gun ? Everybody thought it would play some sort of role this episode, only to be never seen again.

Tony's final scene

I watched the final scene a few times, and it sort of hints as if something is coming, but we all know Chase likes to suggest things that eventually never happen. I just think that this series, one of the best in TV history, deserved a better ending…

Anyway here are some links And ofcourse there is plenty more all over the blogosphere !

The ‘Sopranos’ Finale Nod to ‘The Twilight Zone’
Jon Swift Blog
deadlinehollywood.
Crazy Monk
Entertainment Now
blog.nj.com
nettertainment

Apple Safari on Windows

My verdict: back to the drawing board for Apple 😉 . If I released a turd like this, I think I’d be invited into my director’s office for a little chat. Below you can see how this site gets rendered. Basically every Header text is simply omitted. They’re just not there. At least the javascript seems to work.

Furthermore, I think it’s a little bit crazy to simple take an Apple program and port that directly to the Windows Environment, same interface, same font rendering etc.. For example it’s pretty tough to resize the browser window, you need to place the mouse pointer exactly at the little bottom triangle thingy in the right bottom. Also some dialogues have the OK and CANCEL reversed from what you’d expect in windows. And the look just stands out like a sore thumb compared to the other programs I have opened.

And to call this a Beta release is beyond a joke, it’s way too buggy and incomplete for that. I don’t see why apple is using up resources to release a browser for windows in the first place, but why they hurt their own reputation by releasing this piece of crap is beyond me… BTW I never use Safari in my Mac Mini, never liked it. Camino is so much better…

More links:
Wired Review
Scott Hanselman’s review
joel on software
Channel 9 Thread

Wilco, Sun Volt

Haven’t mentioned anything music related lately. That is mainly because I mostly listen to podcasts these days, but I managed to check out two new albums by two related Alt-Country artists. I would certainly recommend them if you like that kind of music:
Sky Blue Sky by Wilco
The Search by Jay Farrar’s Son Volt

I especially like The Search, it gets better and better each time you play the album. It’s been on my mp3 player for quite a while now ;).

Needless to say the two bands are closely related, if you want to read a bit more on their history, check out the Uncle Tupelo’s wiki page.

Search Wilco on bt.etree.org for torrents on live performances.

Jeff Tweedy Soundboard Recording 3/3/2007 on bt.etree.org, 3cd’s filled with goodness 😉 .