TV Barn: Barnhart's top 10 of 2002 ...

My Top 10 for 2002:
10. BBC America: Monarch of the Glen and So Graham Norton.
9. Enterprise - better than the movie.
8. Andy Richter Controls the Universe - always funny.
7. Futurama - always funny in a smart way.
6. The Simpsons - always funny in a funny smart way.
5. The Sopranos - a few excellent episodes this season.
4. 24 - love the camera work and 2 out of 3 of the storylines.
3. Temptation Island - Nice scenery.
2. The Bachelor - Brooke!
1. American Idol - I was hooked.

First Night Boston.
Happy New Year!

If you're in New York City, go see my friend Paul Wagner's THE COMICS ROUNDTABLE.

Rael messages from aliens.

All about UFOs.

Mass Office of Consumer Affairs - Do Not Call List Registry.
Sign up today.

No more telemarketing calls for you!

Sticker Shock.
This is what happened today.

I went to the car dealer and got a new set of wiper blades and a new headlight.

Then I went to a gas station for an inspection sticker.

The technician came out and said that I needed a new set of wiper blades and my headlights adjusted.

I told him that I just purchased new wiper blades from my dealer 1 hour ago.

He said they were 'streaky'.

I asked him to show me and he said, "no, you can't go in there," meaning the garage.

I told my story to the station manger who went in to take a look.

He came out and said I needed new wiper blades and my headlights adjusted.

$77 dolars later I left with my new inspection sticker.

BAD BOYS II.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

The Toro 1800 Electric Snow Blower Rules.

I just finished cleaning up from the 'Christmas Storm'. It's the first time I used my new Toro 1800 Snow Blower.

It's great.

No gas. And the snow blower doesn't need any gas either!

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Everybody who has ever worked Christmas in a newsroom knows the drill: there are certain standard news stories that run every year.

Happy Holidays!

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993).
The Music He Created Was Strange. His Life Was Even Stranger.

Gilligan's Island: Mary Anne and Ginger Christmas Picture.

How to: Make a Movie with Digital Stills

"Don't get the idea that I do any fancy z-axis 3-D virtual camera math or programming! I just combine elements from a couple of pictures, separate things into layers in Photoshop, replace backgrounds and then wiggle 'em around in After Effects. All the parallax scrolling and zooming are figured out as I go shot by shot. I think of myself as primarily a live action guy so I just adjust the scale, position, and blur keyframes until they look right to my eye."

So that's how he did it.

Insane bike messenger and his nike watch navigate the mean streets of NYC.

$20 to NYC.

Sant'a New Beetle.

Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife’s Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There? by Nicholas Monahan.

Compare and Contrast over at Metafilter.

Calendars Net: Interactive Calendar Hosting.
Create your own online calendar.

The Hard Rock Cafe Vault is now open in Orlando, where you can pay money to see old rock and roll junk.

How + Why.

... grab a pole, and some friends, use your imagination

Guys rearange advertising signs for fun.
via [ geek life ]

What Hi-Fi?
They'll tell you that and more.

LIVE PHISH DOWNLOADS

Live Phish Downloads offers high quality, unedited soundboard recordings of select shows in the form of MP3 and Shorten digital music files via a state-of-the-art delivery system.

Wow!

I'd buy that from lots of artists.

I hope more bands jump on this bandwagon. :-)

mau mau sex sex.

... interviews with octogenarians David Friedman and Dan Sonney, who made exquisitely bad films such as Blood Feast and She Freak between 1930 and 1970. Together, the two pioneered the "exploitation" genre –- cheap films packed with sex and violence whose sole raison d'etre is making money off social taboos.

Why Isn't Bernard Law in Jail?

Cooking with Google.

Jewish Boy Meets Chinese Girl and SOY VAY! A Sauce is Born.
This is good stuff!

This Liz Phair Music Video is sooo cool. It looks like it's all made of still photos.

How come they look like they have three dimensions?

Looks like I could spend the rest of the day here.

via [ Rich ]

iStopMotion, ustopMotion, we_allStopMotion.
This software lets you use your video camera to make one of those stop motion movies. Not tape involved. Goes right to disk. Bring the stop motion movies you create into iMovie of Final Cut Pro for further editing.

I give it 5 stars (5 out of 5).

Mac OS X only [ Full Stop ]

TELEMARKETERS: Do Not Call Me in 2003.

MASSACHUSETTS Consumers can sign up any time between January 1, 2003 and March 1, 2003 to be included in the first release of the "Do Not Call" list, which will be submitted to telemarketers in April 2003.

I mean it!

Paul Mecurio: Jokes pay off for former finance lawyer.

NYC TRIP REPORT
FLY/TRAIN/FLY/TRAIN.

That’s the age-old dilemma. You’ve got to leave early to get to the airport and then you have to get there an hour early and then once you land in NYC, if your flight hasn’t been delayed, you need to catch a cab to the airport. With the train, it’s off to the train station and it’s a straight shot down to NYC.

So I took the Acela high-speed train to New York City today. It’s great. Funny thing is that they let you board the train only 10 minutes prior to departure. So you don’t even have to worry about getting there 1 hour prior.

You really don’t even have to talk to anyone either if you bought a ticket over the internet with a credit card. You just stick your credit card into a machine and it prints out your train tickets. Nice.

On the train I was reading the New York Times Circuits section. It’s a great technology section of the paper.

This week they’ve recycled about six of my stories that you’ve already seen here on Off On A Tangent! Oh yes, if you want to read the news before it happens, Off On A Tangent is the place.

Here are the stories that I had before they did:

1. Jason Eric Smith Got his Mac Back from an eBay scammer. One interesting thing the Times uncovered was the fact that eBay wasn’t actually involved in the transaction because the buyer asked the seller to end the auction early and sell the Mac directly bypassing eBay. That isn’t right

2. Firewire Dinosaur – This is old news. I’m sure I already talked about this over a month ago.

3. Advent calendar – Had it already. Remember the snowman thing I posted a link to?

4. Picture yourself – Did that too, remember when I ate the Kugel and took a scary picture of myself. Josh says I looked scary, I just thought I looked hungry.

5. That guy who tracked a package sent to Santa – This just proves that electronic new dissemination is much more speedy that the old once a week techie newspaper column.

6. Virtual Tour of Boston’s Big Dig – OK, that’s the last straw. The writers of this whole section must have been reading me daily. I mean how can they find this tour plus all the other stuff? When I saw this story I said, “Harumph.” The other people on the Acela were looking at me with crazed looks on their faces. Well, not really, there were only 5 other people in my car that’s meant to seat about 70. Hey Acela, how about some discount tickets?

So I got off the train in Penn Station and needed to find the Krispy Kreme Donuts. That was the meeting place Josh and I agreed upon. Well as I got off the train and entered the big lobby of Penn Station I saw about 6 people eating Krispy Kreme Donuts! I went over to the fat guy was just finishing off a six pack, of donuts. He pointed me in the right direction.

Once we got outside in the street we saw a McDonuts! Hey, we don’t have that in Boston. I guess hte pressure from Krispy Kreme is geting to them. they were even making donuts in the window.

We went on an excursion to the Mecca of videographers. That’s what we are. We went to B&H Photo.

It just so happened that right outside of Penn Station a guy was handing out B&H pamplets. He directed us to the store.

I didn’t know that B&H Photo was run by orthodox Jews. Most of the sales people in the store had a Yarmulke.

After our fun experience at B&H we needed to find a place for lunch. We went back to the B&H guy, since he was so good at directions the first time, and he sent us over to the STAGE DOOR DELICATESSEN and RESTAURANT. It’s at 5 PENN PLAZA. It was a great place for lunch.

Josh said I made a good call in deciding that we should split the sandwich instead of each getting our own. So we each got a half of a pastrami sandwich that wouldn’t fit into our mouths.

Our business meeting went well and I caught and earlier train back to Boston in time to have a Beer at the Hard Rock Café in Boston. It’s at the BAck Bay Station which is one stop before south Station and a lot more convenient if you live in town.

Oh, one more thing, there’s this Christmas CD out with music made by a couple of guys using rubber bands. It’s called a Rubber Band Christmas. Download free mp3’s of Rudolph the rubber Nosed Reindeer and Deck the Halls with Rubber at http://www.bostonphoenix.com/Bost_mp3/previous/RUBBER_BAND.html

Nice was to pass the time on a train trip, writing the longest weblog post ever.

Watch some 0tv from Milwaukee, WI.

Don't miss Matt Cook's Yesterday's News.

Play guess his name.

I got it, 1st try!

No big deal though, almost everybody does.

The pressure is on.

Mr Beaver .net

Sexiest 100. Vote today.
Elisha Cuthbert is #16 right now.

This page has a funny Inter Face.
Tell Barbara Streisand.
via [ The Presurfer ]

Festivus: December 23rd.
via [ Mac Slash ] by way of [ shjendraszak ]

imashimaro, click play.

japanese nipple babies.
via [ everlasting blort ]

Crossword.
A new Electrotank game.

No shooting, you've gotta type in words and stuff.

Who's We Studios.

Business or Pleasure?
via [ inloosgeweldig ]

You have 4 hours, 48 hours, 30 days to make a film.

Pick One.

Audri Dalio ‘Disney's Beauty and the Beast’ Understudy is a Rising Star.
Audri was good but I think the doormat stole the show.

Taken.
Best episodes ever.

I still have two more episodes of Taken left to go. It was a big commitment, to invest 20 hours in this mini-series, but with TiVo I could schedule my viewing at a time that was convenient to me. TiVo rocks!

The characters were well developed, and I'm not just talking about the ladies. ;-)

When my favorite charaters were killed off, I was sad to see them go. Yet, at the same time, I was impressed that a TV show could make me feel that way after so short a time.

When I've viewed the last episode and deleted it, I'll be crying as I hit TiVo's [ Select ] key.

The Orphanage.
Former ILM guys make DV look like FILM.

They do other stuff too.

A Guy Thing: Official Movie Site.
The trailer for this movie looks funny.

I hope they still have some other funny stuff in the movie.

How I Caught a Counterfeiter with a Little Help from my Friends [ a true story by Jason Eric Smith ]

I called the Secret Service and the Chicago PD, pleading, all they had to do was be there when Fedex dropped off the package. It was a guaranteed hit, he'd have another counterfeit cashier's check, all you'd have to do is arrest him. Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Sorry, Detective McDonaugh will be out until next Wednesday, can I take a message?" Fine, if the cops won't do it, I decided I'd just Priceline a ticket and be waiting next door when it got dropped off.

Soon to be a major motion picture.

Maybe.

Star Trek Nemesis.
Worst episode ever.

Harry didn't like it either.

Wait for it to go on cable.

Then don't watch it.

Big Dig Virtual Tunnel Tours.
Not much traffic now.

Just three other nondescript cars on the road ahead of me.

Kinda quiet too.

Meet Market "Hottie of the Month".
Girl 6 is the winner.

Did you hear how Moby was beat up in front of the Paradise Rock Club in Boston?

Now he's puffy.

Princess Madeleine of Sweden.

Redate: The Creative Anniversary Calculator.
I've blinked about 236 million times in my life time.

I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

Pajama Clad Teen Hogties Intruder.

A petite 17-year-old, irate after seeing three men running from her home in the wee morning hours Tuesday, sprinted outdoors barefoot, clad in pajamas, outran one of the trespassers, tackled and straddled him, then hog-tied him with a rope until police arrived minutes later.

Irritating Rainbow - The Car Album.

Google Viewer.
New from Google Labs, Google Viewer shows you the results of your search in a slide show. You can vary the speed, stop the slides, and manually click through the sites.

It's nice.

The family was getting sick of my old slide shows anyway.

Spiffle! is a Coffee Geek.

Advent calendar, 2002.
Day 8 was good.

Widelux Panoramas.

Track A Flight In Real Time.
Trip.com doesn't seem to have FlightTracker anymore.

I found another version at: RLM Software -- Home of FlightView.

MovieJuice!:  A Janeane Garofalo Christmas Carol.

La Jetee.
It's a movie made up of still photos.

Geezer - All the Blues You Can Use.
Nothin' in Your Stocking.mp3!

Download it today!

STEVE'S SHOW.
If you have access to ATT BROADBAND Cable in Boston, you have the opportunity to watch a 30 minute show I put together for the Public Access channel, BNN 23.

It's scheduled for broadcast on these dates:
Monday Dec 9 @ 10:30 pm
Wednesday Dec 11 @ 6 pm
Monday Dec 23 @ 10:30 pm

this is your alternative...this is radioio.

radioio and Limelight Networks team with Apple QuickTime to deliver the industry's first mpeg- 4 radio webcast, delivering the world's first end-to-end mpeg-4 based internet broadcast system!

It's gotta be better than the selection of commercial stations we have in Boston.

I hope it has no commercials!

FilmJerk.com: Moore on the upcoming "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries.

Our ships will be treated like real ships that someone had to go out and film with a real camera. That means no 3-D "hero" shots panning and zooming wildly with the touch of a mousepad. The questions we will ask before every VFX shot are things like: "How did we get this shot? Where is the camera? Who's holding it? Is the cameraman in another spacecraft? Is the camera mounted on the wing?"

It's a webcam!

The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide.
Rock on!

TiVo - "Just get it and then you'll understand," Joshua.
TiVo Community Forum.
The TiVo Web Project.
The unofficial TiVo Hackers Site.
TiVo: Case-study in embedded Linux.

What is Red Hat Linux?

The Photography Collection - Western History / Genealogy Department - at The Denver Public Library.
Old photos are cool.

Let's get Small Sites.

Zoom And Go is looking for pictures of hotels.

Mike Maginnis probably won't be sending any in.

USA Patriot Act.

EFF Analysis Of The Provisions Of The USA PATRIOT Act.

Fun with FedEx: Is There A Santa Claus.

ChanceOnBoston.com - Chance McCutcheon, Your Buddy in Boston.

Match Game.org.

How Deep Is Your Love?

Google Search: All Macintosh All The Time.

FootnoteTV: The Sopranos.
Answers your questions about subjects from The Sopranos including HUD and mortgage fraud, Competency to stand trial, Missing children, the Military's homosexual conduct policy, Spousal privileges, Suicide in the United States, and more.

Gateway.com: 42" Plasma TV Series.
Only $2,999.

I hope it doesn't run on Windows, because I'd be really mad if I got a blue screen of death in the middle of The Sopranos.

What's Up Chuck?
Ha Ha. I said upchuck.

Bottle Cap - Smart or Stupid?
Just because a Snapple bottle cap tells me that, "No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times," I'm no going to post it to a very popular weblog without first trying it out.

First I tried a little 5" x 7" piece of paper and it can not be folded more than 7 times.

Ok, maybe it was too small. Next up was two pages of the Boston Globe. You know, two connected pages, which make up one huge piece of paper. This should be able to be folded up a gazillion times.

So I folded it up, once, twice, thrice... up to seven times, yet alas, it would not fold an eighth time.

The bottle cap was right.

Damn.

A bottle cap is smarter than me!

This Show Was Filmed In Front of a Live Man With a Tape Player.

I am about to write a sentence that has never before been written in the history of mankind:

Something funny happened during last week's episode of Yes, Dear.

I have never watched Yes, Dear.

MP4.com: For those who like to watch.

This week's WeeklyDV is 90 Feet Tall.

ANI MOLLER: Superior Content, Hot Text.
Save Ani!

Jim Gaffigan's Web Site.

I realize that to many, my having a web site appears very vain. Well, what if I told you God told me to have this web site? Huh? What about that? OK, I'm exaggerating a little. He didn't exactly tell me. He sent me an e-mail.

Kidding.

You're kidding, right?

Q. Why should I go to pubs ?

A. Beer.
via [ nautilus-blue ] from [ domesticat.net ] by way of [ big pink cookie ]

Picture Yourself.

Anti-telemarketing Counterscript.
What's your name?

Can you spell it for me?

WSJ.com - If TiVo Thinks You Are Gay, Here's How to Set It Straight.

Mike Binder, creator and star of that show, had set his home TiVo to record his 1999 movie, "The Sex Monster," about a man whose wife becomes bisexual. After that, Mr. Binder's TiVo assumed he would enjoy a steady stream of gay programming. Unnerved, he counteracted the onslaught by recording the Playboy Channel and MTV's spring break bikini coverage. It worked, he says. "My TiVo doesn't look at me funny anymore."

His wife, however, was taken aback when she saw all the half-naked women he was ordering through TiVo. He told her those women meant nothing to him: "I'm just counterprogramming because TiVo thinks I'm gay." She was unamused.

TiVo Rules!

Exploit Boston!
Greater Boston's Independent Guide to Arts, Culture and Entertainment Events.
via [ Biz Stone, Genius ]

World AIDS Day was yesterday.

Interview with Mark Frauenfelder, owner of BoingBoing.net weblog and ex-editor-in-chief of Wired.com.