Daily DigVid Review: Today Marks My 100th Post!

Mark your calendars: Joss Whedon’s writers’ strike project – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – comes to the Internet on Tuesday, July 15. The next two (of three total) episodes will then be released on Thursday, July 17 and Saturday, July 19, with free airing apparently disappearing into the ether at midnight on July 20, making Dr. Horrible sort of like the Cinderella of Web series. If you watch the episodes during those six days, you get to watch for free. After that, you need to download and pay. This is explained by Joss himself here. Whedon created the Web series – starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion — during the writers’ strike when he couldn’t be working on the much-anticipated Dollhouse. So all you Whedon fans, just look at this as a little snack to tide you over until the banquet begins. (Well, assuming Fox doesn’t schedule Dollhouse on Fridays at 8 p.m. as it did with the all-too-short-lived but very beloved Firefly.)

Sundance founder and acting legend Robert Redford tells the New York Times that he still plans to be involved in the network he launched. Sundance now is owned by Rainbow Media, which it bought from NBC Universal and CBS-owned Showtime (probably not the world’s best couple, considering their competitive interests) for $500 million just a couple of weeks ago. Even though Redford is 71 (and is it wrong that I desperately miss him at 35? Sorry, but I recently had a little Redford film festival and he was just truly stunning), he’s hip to new technologies: he wants to create mini-documentaries that will air on mobile devices. Still, he continues to sound like the consummate filmmaker: “[I’m] ultimately interested in whether we’re providing stories well told,” he told the Times. By the way, if you are interested in your watching your own Redford film festival over the holiday weekend, let me recommend The Sting, Barefoot in the Park, Jeremiah Johnson and All the President’s Men.

Do you think Microsoft is doing all this acquiring just to hurt Yahoo!’s feelings? Today, Microsoft confirmed via its Live Search blog that it’s acquiring “semantic” search engine Powerset, with reports estimating the deal at $100 million-plus. The blogosphere seems to feel that Yahoo!’s still the one that got away, but Microsoft has to get into the search game somehow.