With all the extra work I’ve been doing from home I’ve gotten really behind on a lot of the news I usually follow. I haven’t been watching the Daily Show as much (there’s a new supreme court nominee, what?), and I’ve been missing out on some tech news stories I might otherwise have talked about. So here’s where I catch up.

• It looks like Warner Brothers is going to offer classic TV for free. They plan to launch an ad-supported service called In2TV early next year. Almost 5,000 episodes will be made available in the first year with older shows like The Fugitive and Maverick to more recent ones like Babylon 5. Their saying the system may even use peer-t0-pear file-sharing techonology, acknowledging that it does indeed have legitimate, legal uses. I think this is a great idea. I only sort of understand the big three’s motivation to sell their current content after it airs, but I think there’s only a limited amount of people wanting to buy TV, when they can record it for free and oftentimes put it into whatever format they want (if they’re willing to work for it). Keeping it free allows people to enjoy the TV they want, when they want it, and get it delivered in a manner convenient to them.
• Two teams of engineers decided to try to test the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci. We’ve all seen his drawings of a flying machine, but what about an 80-foot weapon designed to defend castles? Well these engineers set out to build these machines, staying as close to Da Vinci’s specs as they possibly could. The results are pretty sweet!
• Every Playboy Centerfold from 1988-1997. It’s not what you think.
• A portable Nintendo 64!
• This is exactly why I want a Digital Rebel.
• Sony:
  • First attempt to make up for their mistakes. This took entirely too long.
  • Sony apologizes. Wait, they call that an apology?
  • Here’s a pretty good article summing up the rootkit issue. It also goes into detail on how computer security companies have reacted (poorly). Interesting that tech blogs have done more to protect consumers than Sony, Microsoft, or antivirus software makers combined.
  • The company continues to have problems.
• Marines get a new weapon. Just check out the photos.
• Boeing is introducing a bigger and better 747 model. Check out the two interior pictures under Innovation. I like the site design but they overlooked some critical problems (zoom in on a picture and you can still click on the images under it).
• AIM decided it was going to add some bots to my buddy list. It didn’t ask me if I wanted to add them now that they were available, it just did it without my permission. I deleted them immediately, because frankly I don’t need a bot to tell me when movie showtimes are. I know how to use the internet to find out on my own. This is just another example of why I’ll probably dump AIM soon and move to Trillian or some less annoying app for my instant messaging needs.
• I saw this article while I was sitting in the waiting room at GHC, waiting to have the pressures checked in my eyes (a strange story for another time – ever had your vision bounce?). I was hoping to find it online because it’s a pretty cool story. A guy in Minnesota spent 11 years trying to make a colored soap bubble that won’t stain. It’s a fun (scientific) read.
• A new iPod Shuffle may be on the way. I still think the shuffle is the most disappointing iPod to date, and I still wish they hadn’t killed the mini. It’ll be interesting to see if they can improve the shuffle or just succeed in capturing the low price flash market.
• Newegg.com is now offering a Trade-in Program for your old computers and tech stuff. I’ve got some older stuff I want to get rid of. This could be really cool. Also, here’s an article about what makes Newegg succesful.
• The next major update to Firefox may come before the end of the month. Sweet.
• Here’s some bad news for the low lifes that create spyware and adware. The senate has passed a bill to make it illegal.
• Record companies want Apple to change the flat rate pricing scheme of iTunes. Why? Here’s one idea; he makes an excellent point.
• The first reviews of Xbox 360 are in and the results are so-so. I had a chance to play one the other day, and while it did look nice, I wasn’t overly impressed either.
• A Zelda movie may be in the works! This is one game I think has enough backstory that it could actually make a good movie.

Whew! I hate getting so far behind.