Let the fire sales begin, Sony is axing the UMD, says Gamespot. UMD is done, dead, zilch, kaput. So what does Sony do? Announce a new entertainment pak called the Memory Stick Entertainment Packs (MSEP) that contained movies on a Sony Memory stick, of course.

Sony, who isn’t a stranger to failed entertainment formats (Betamax, MiniDisc, soon Blu-Ray) has been losing support for UMD for awhile now. In march, Universal and Paramount stopped releasing its movies on UMD, and Wal-Mart and Best Buy recently decreased their presence in stores.

The emphasis on the Cinematical quote above is mine. Who is psyched about Blu-Ray now? Sure, if it comes with the PS3 it might get some juice like UMDs did on the PSP, but this clearly shows that having a cool gaming system doesn’t guarantee the success of a proprietary format.

Nearly a year ago I called UMDs a collector’s item when reading reports that they were selling well (August 2005) — was that just marketing spin or what? — and then came the stories that they were causing confusion in stores (January 2006). And now this. Talk about a short lifespan.

Keep your eyes peeled for the UMD bargain bins.

Forget abut HD-DVD and Blu-Ray for now, imagine storing your entire collection on one piece of media. This has been the promise and allure of holographic storage, but there is another storage type that could be on the horizon beyond that.

Scientist Professor V Renugopalakrishna is working on a protein-based storage system:

The new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices such as the Blue-ray as well, because the information is stored in proteins that are only a few nanometres across.

“The protein-based DVDs will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information. You can pack literally thousands and thousands of those proteins on a media like a DVD, a CD or a film or whatever,” he said.

This is all wishful thinking at this point so don’t get too excited but it is fascinating imagining the demise of hard drives. And web based storage? Who would bother if/when they could carry around their entire life on a DVD? Piracy alarmists will not be psyched, but I’m sure there will be advances in anti-piracy and DRM long before protein-based storage does or does not become a real world option.

And it looks like we’re going to have to live through at least two more iterations of storage technology (HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and then holographic) before getting anywhere near these types of massive storage options. Expensive future for those who repeatedly keep buying the same media on newer, faster, better formats.

Since buying an iSight camera for our Mac in November 2005 I haven’t used it much. Not really that into the whole webcam scene so the camera has sort of sat perched on the monitor waiting on a friend.

Over about the same time I’ve been searching for a good way to inventory our collection of movies, games, CDs and books. I’d read and heard lots of good things about Delicious Library (Mac, Regular price $40) but what has kept me away from using that was that it was a Mac-only program.

Sunday I finally downloaded the program and then started scanning our DVD bar codes with the iSight. The virtual shelves started to fill. The demo version of the program lets you scan in up to 25 items. Before I reached even 20, I moved for the plastic. I paid $43 and some change after sales tax. As of this writing — if only I had waited, bummer — the price is now $35 + tax, so you can save a few bones over what I paid.

Delicious Library makes the inventory process fun. It’s like the first time you scan your own groceries.

In a mere couple hours time we scanned the bar codes of most of our DVD collection (over 400 and counting). Unfortunately, some movies didn’t have bar codes like Futurama, The Simpsons, Star Trek The Next Generation and others so I had to use the Enter Title option. To enter a new item just hold down the Apple key + N and type in the title. Though we’re not done entering all the DVDs, and we haven’t even started on the games or CDs, the movie process was fairly smooth and fast. A couple hours may seem like a lot, but I can only imagine if we tried entering in all the information for each DVD by hand, including Amazon review and codes.

A video window that can be sized bigger with red lines allows you to line up the bar code with the iSight. Some bar codes seemed to scan better than others but overall the experience worked pretty good.

Once you scan an item a beep sound will be heard and shortly followed by a speech synthesized voice reading back the title. Our middle teenage son got a kick out of the computer saying Meet The Fockers with a “u” instead of an “o.”

Also, there are a couple of easter egg messages like when we scanned the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD an additional sound file played whispered: “I am your father.” Clever.

Sorting and searching
The interface is graphically pleasing allowing multiple ways to sort, scale the item’s size and search through your virtual shelf of items.

The search is along the bottom and seemed to work fairly ok. I put in “Vader” and nothing was returned, but a search for “star” returned 23 DVDs including Starship Troopers and Star Trek as well as more unusual titles like Dogtown and Z Boys, Dickie Roberts and Bounce. The search is dynamic and will respond to what you type in AJAX-type fashion, but performed a little on the sluggish side. This might be the fault of my 256 MB RAM eMac and be snappier and more responsive on a faster Mac. Also, the search seemed somewhat limited in scope. For example, I searched for “ben affleck” and nothing was returned. So the search works primarily off the title field? That search should have returned Pearl Harbor, Paycheck, Bounce and more, but the shelf remained empty. Sometimes I don’t remember the title of a movie, only those who played in it, or perhaps a bit of what it is about.

Note: there also is a voice search option which I didn’t test for this review.

As for sorting, these are the following comprehensive options:

- title, creator, amazon users (?), played / read
- secondary stuff: series, numbers in series, genres, publisher/label, release date, edition, format, # of media, language, rare
- movie: starred rating, MPAA rating, theatrical debut, features, running time
- collecting: retail price, currrent value, purchase price, purchase date, used, condition, signed item
- where: location in building, owner
- creation: creation time, lookup time, Amazon #, u.p.c

Import/Export
Even though this is a Mac-only program, it still allows exporting the data to a tab-delimited file so you could take and import into a Windows inventory program. Conversely you can import from a tab-delimited file too, although scanning with the iSight is more than half the fun of using this program. Our kids liked that part anyway.

Borrowers
As the name implies, you can also check out and track any item loaned to other people or even yourself (I suppose this would be useful for tracking items kept in different places?). To create a borrower just click the icon with the person + next to it in the lower lefthand corner of the interface and then choose “New Person.” From there you enter in the first name, last name and email address of the borrower. To delete a borrower, highlight the borrower name and then navigate to Edit -> Delete borrower.

Multiple shelves
For those who want to have multiple shelves, that’s no problem either. Simply click on the shelf + icon in the lower lefthand corner of the interface. Then name your new shelf and start importing, scanning or typing in items.

Final thoughts
Delicious Library is a great example of a feature intensive, but not feature-bloated program. Anybody with a Mac and an iSight camera should be able to use this program without consulting the Help menu first. No surprise that it was chosen for an Apple Design Award for the 2005 Best Mac OS X User Experience and received 4 1/2 mice from Macworld. This is how commercial software should be built and deployed. The creators of the program are in the Seattle area too it seems. They should make a version for Windows, especially now with the switch to Intel Macs. Grade: A

Just got back from taking the family and one of our son’s friends to see Adam Sandler’s new movie: Click.

Like most of the rest of the world who has seen the previews and thought this movie would be just another Sandler vehicle, it actually surprised me with an underlying storyline that’s perfect for summertime: family matters. We can always work but the kids will grow up and be gone. Fast forwarding to that next promotion will leave a hole left in your life. Go hug your kids, tell them how much you love them and kiss your significant other.

Guess the Libra in me got choked up during this movie. You know us Libras seek balance. With all the competition going on these days, the A,B, C lists. Power down. Spend the time doing some things with and for the people in this world who really matter.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of stories like these. Sandler’s wife, played by Kate Beckinsale, is sizzling hot. Christopher Walken is at his usual level of brilliance with his trademark stutter (I kept hoping he’d break out and say “more cowbell”). I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie is panned by hardcore critics (it’s got a 29% as of this writing at Rotten Tomatoes), but don’t listen to any negative reviews, go see this movie with the ones you love and listen to the message. Tonight. Review: A.

We cancelled our Vongo monthly service in favor of a local Hollywood Video MVP (2 movies at a time, unlimited rentals, $24.99+tax) but we keep receiving Vongo email. Like this one that arrived — Friday mailings are big with movie services — a few minutes ago:

The newest pitch shows off the Vongo Superbunny. I watched a few minutes of these short animated bunny films. They’re ok. They didn’t make me go hmm, but what did was thinking how much more viral they might be on the outside of the STARZ Vongo site (Update: Bunny Fims are available via Angry Alien Productions, thanks Wayne for the correction), drawing people into Vongo to subscribe. I wonder how much content is out there that would do better for promoting the pay services to be on the outside vs. inside.

With the many different video sites out there like YouTube and Google Video, at least shorter versions of these bunny films should be considered. I did find a CES 2006 video of Vongo which also explains why they built it completely in Flash.

Ironically to the picture shown above, Flash is a bit like kryptonite for web surfers. A little is usually ok, and welcomed, but a lot except in very specific circumstances can have them exiting in a hurry.

Ahh, serendipity. This morning I learned how the fearsome Death Star could have destroyed a planet like Alderon. In painstaking detail.

It’s actually a well-written and hmm-inspiring article. If you like Star Wars, anyway. Also saw a rumor recently that there will be 3D versions coming someday. The flight scenes especially would look good in 3D.

Just saw this crazy link which turns your website into a midi sequence. If that link is down check back later as it’s getting hammered. Here’s the one for MakeYouGoHmm.com: hmm-soundslike.mid

Our midi sequences sounds a bit like a trip to the ocean meets reggae vs. birds gone wild. I should use it for the next Hmmcast. Go ahead and share a direct link to your site’s MIDI file in the comments below.

Thanks Make where one of the creators of the program explains its origins:

The applet makes it’s dope beats by exploiting the musical structure of HTML tags and creating nesting loops which are the audible equivalent to nesting tags. Content is not played, because we are purists, however it is searched for keywords which help define song progression and instrument sets. For further insight into its workings, try to read the source code while listening to the song. Once you have a good idea of what does what you can begin composing songs and posting them on the web!

Now don’t anybody get too caught up in this and autoplay your Source Code Sounds onload, there are already enough bad midi-entangled pages out there.

Update 12:40pm PST: The authors ask that if you tag your MIDI in de.liciou.us to use “wlb” for “World’s Largest Band.” Tip: you can click the del.icio.us link below to tag this post or any other from del.iciou.us if you want.

My wife and I have noticed more resistance to doing family-oriented activities as our kids turned into teenagers. We heard all along that this would happen but it’s sad when it becomes a reality. It’s not like we don’t go fun places, like today we’re suggesting seeing X-Men 3 and the two older ones are resisting. Our youngest son said he doesn’t want to go if his brothers don’t go.

[sigh]

So now it’s either lay down the law and insist they come — which is followed by several minutes of arguing — or say fine and go see the movie without them. Here’s the sad thing, we will have plenty of time to do things without the kids (assuming our health remains) when the kids are grown up and gone but an ever-diminishing amount of time while they are still here. Someday a time will come when they wish they can go some place with us — movie, to the beach, concert, a ferry ride, park — and we will not be there.

Enjoy the time with your kids while they actually want to come with you places, because those days will pass faster than you think.

I just heard my wife laying the law down. Sounds like they are going. I’m sure once we actually get into the car their attitudes will change.

Teenagers, argh.

Probably won’t do this every month, but I’ve been keeping track of what movies we’ve rented at Hollywood Video for their unlimited 2/DVDs at a time MVP program that we signed up for in the first week of May. In the month of May we paid $24.99 and rented 24 movies, but remember to factor in gas which I’ve calculated at an average of $2.25 per trip (2 movies at a time) so total amount spent on DVD rentals in May 2006:

$21.99 (goes up to $24.99 after the first month)
$27.00 = $2.25 x 12 trips (24 movies total)
——–
$48.99

We’re going to see X-Men 3 in the theater with at least three of our family and I’m certain after tickets, gas and snacks we’ll easily burn through more than 49 bones. So 24 movies for less money than 1 in the theater? It’s easy to see why more folks are just staying home.

I’ve also learned that the Hollywood Video website doesn’t have all the movies available online that are in the store making their rating program of questionable usefulness. Also there doesn’t appear to be any way (?) to tie it into your actual Hollywood Video account so you can see what movies you’ve rented like Netflix. This would be a handy feature for people to be able to add a rating and even blog a brief review about the flick like below.

A good place for the hreview microformat to be used?
They could really be cutting edge and allow their members to export their ratings as an hreview microformat, but that’s so far out there geek-wise that we’ll probably not see the movie rental services key into this for years, if ever. There is an hreview generator here which will produce the microformat code to use. There’s also an hreview microformat Wordpress plugin for those who want to experiment with including reviews in their posts.

Rented 5/2006 (from best to worst)
[A ] Just Like Heaven - A man moves into an apartment and is the only one who sees Reese Witherspoon who at first can’t remember who she is, romance and hilarity ensue.

[B+] Sky High - Superhero school and fun for the whole family starring Kurt Russell
[B+] Fun with Dick and Jane - Jim Carey plays Dick, Tea Leoni plays Jane, playing modern day Robin Hoods, giving to themselves mostly. Some laugh out loud moments.
[B+] Grandma’s Boy (unrated version) - playful, adult-oriented romp about a video game tester slacker who lives with his grandma and her two friends
[B ] When a Stranger Calls - somebody is up to no good and using the phone as their weapon
[B-] Last Holiday - Queen Latifah plays a woman who takes the vacation she always wanted to have with her final few days of life. Kind of slow in parts.

[C ] Cheaper by the Dozen 2 - a movie that makes you glad you have less kids. Most Steve Martin films I find to be just average and not that funny.
[C ] Monster-In-Law - Jane Fonda looking weathered plays a cantankerous mother-in-law. Jennifer Lopez stars and it’s debateable if she can actually act
[C-] Hit-Me - mathematician hired for card counting scheme that goes wrong in Vegas
[C ] Just Friends - successful man returns to high school sweetheard story. Cliched and played out but some funny parts, particularly when the guys cries: “No, not Santa!”
[C ] The Ringer - man tries to pull a scam by joining the special olympics in order to pay for his gardner’s fingers. Yeah, that’s really the plot. It has some ok moments, mostly coming from the real mentally retarded actors.
[C ] Flight 93 - As soon as United 93 is on DVD rent that instead, but ok if you want to see a TV-version of the 911 attack that didn’t go as planned.
[C-] Batman Begins - too much pre-Batman story for me but generally well received by critics.
[C-] Swarmed - a bunch of DNA-altered bees go on a meat-hungry tear. Too bad humans and acting get in the way.
[C-] The Triangle - story too long (like two hours too long) about uncovering the mystery surrounding the bermuda triangle
[C-] Big Momma’s House 2 - mildly compelling follow-up to Martin Lawrence dressing up as a big momma

[D+] Hollow Man 2 - the Hollow Man seems angrier about life this time then I remember from the first. Not a particularly compelling plot either.
[D ] Hillside Cannibals - sadistic low rent horror flick where the title pretty much tells the story
[D ] King Kong - I wondered how Jack Black would be in a serious role of this classic reprisal. Worked about as good as I suspected (not).
[D ] The Gingerbread Man - Gary Busey at his worst, think Chucky meets gingerbread. Avoid this bakery at all costs unless you are baked. And maybe even if you are baked you won’t like it.
[D-] Rumor Has It - Jennifer Aniston can’t save this odd love triangle story of a woman searching for a possible biological father.

[F ] Dukes of Hazzard - Not even Daisy’s bouncing beauties can redeem this flick. Burt Reynolds as Boss Hawg? Terrible.
[F ] Date Movie - spoofs just haven’t worked for me since Naked Gun, sorry to 2 of the 5 writers of Scary Movie
[F ] Millions - a bag with money drops into a boy’s lap and his brother and he wrestle over what to do with it, while viewers get bored quickly

DVDs looking forward
Am looking forward to buying the Complete First Season of My Name is Earl, Season 3 of Alf and the final season of Soap. Earl is the only one not released yet. From what we saw of that show it was one of the funniest on TV this last year.

Starship Troopers (ST, 1997) [IMDB] is one of my favorite sci-fi movies and is the only UMD we have purchased to date for the PSP (although I’m sure we’ll pick up more once they get into bargain bin mode). Since it didn’t do so hot in theaters the sequel went straight to DVD. We bought the sequel too, but I didn’t care for that one nearly much. Must have not done that badly sales-wise, because the rumor is now there will be a third ST.

# After shoving out a direct-to-dvd sequel, the folks behind Starship Troopers are now looking to produce a third installment of the cult hit. However, this time they want to go back to where it all began and, not only create a film much like the first, but also use some of the original talent. Yes folks, Casper Van Dien said he’s involved and will be reprising the role of Johnny Rico.

And Johnny Rico as a general, nonetheless.

Let’s hope the budget is a little bit higher than it was for the last film. I think that was the single biggest problem that for a movie of this type, special effects and gore were an key ingredient. Got to have more alien bugs getting splattered. And somebody get veteran director Paul Verhoeven to throw in another gratuituous nude bathroom scene. Wouldn’t hurt to use another Robert Heinlein novel either for at least some of the backstory, if one exists anyway.