BC Crawler

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
November 21, 2007

By Alex Weprin

[Google Wants to Sell Ads on Your Baby] OK, not really, but they are definitely trying to expand their reach further and further. A few weeks back they unveiled Android, an open source operating system for mobile phones, now their next target may be something near and dear to our heart here at B&C: TV. According to TechCrunch, Google may be looking to do to the set top box what they are doing with android. After all, as TechCrunch notes, set top boxes are basically just computers with their functions limited, if we could get in and make some tweeks… “If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is at the game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on their TVs? No problem.”

Exciting stuff. Scary, exciting stuff.

[That’s like, Four Meals at Craft] The writers strike could be costing the economy $21.3 million a day, according to FilmL.A., a non-profit that monitors the industry. And that estimate is conservative. The measurement only accounts for jobs in the industry, so the losses felt by that deli across the street from the set of The Tonight Show aren’t taken into consideration. The estimate also does not consider the feature film sector, which is yet to feel the brunt of the strike. On second thought, CAA may have to ditch Craft altogether and go to the In-N-Out, it might be all they can afford.

[If It Hasn’t Happened to Larry King…] Larry King, as we all know, has been on the air for a long time. So when something happens that has never happened before on his show, you know it must be good.

Dr. Jan Adams, who performed surgery on Kanye West’s mother the day before she died of complications from said surgery, was Larry’s guest. He walked out. TVNewser puts his time on the program at 1 minute and 23 seconds, coming on only to tell Larry he won’t be talking. The remaining 58 minutes and 37 seconds were spent talking with other experts about the situation.

[Oprah on the Trail] Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey is hitting the campaign trail for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Winfrey will be heading to Iowa and New Hampshire to stump for the Senator from Illinois. Here’s a tip: Oprah, your “favorite things” episodes are ludicrously popular. Maybe if you had an audience of undecided voters…

[Fracking Awesome!] Battlestar Galactica returns with a DVD release: Battlestar Galactica: Razor. What makes it so unusual is that the two hour episode, which airs Saturday, will be available on DVD immediately. DVDs have changed the way TV shows are produced. Family Guy was resurrected thanks to DVD, as was Futurama, which will return to TV on Comedy Central next year. Futurama will actually be releasing all the episodes on DVD first, as four full length movies, before bringing them to the comedy network next year with bonus content. That’s right, bonus content on TV, that isn’t on the DVD.

Anyway, the Battlestar Galactica move was interesting for a number of other reasons too, for example the home entertainment division of Universal Studios picked up much of the tab for the show. But of course if they get a sweet DVD out of it, it kind of makes sense.

[1010011010] Here’s a fun way to spend Thanksgiving: watching those old Futurama DVDs and spotting the wacky ways the writers incorporated physics and mathematics into the show! The binary code above is a perfect example of how witty and smart they are. I won’t spoil the joke for you. Any cartoon that teaches you about Schrödingers Cat has to be cool.

My favorite: discreet and discrete. Ha! It’s a robot thing.

Posted by BC Crawler on November 21, 2007 | Comments (2)