iRotate 1.32 – a free screen rotation utility
This from Softpedia.com:
iRotate is a free screen rotation utility, providing administrators, end-users and manufacturers of pivoting monitors with a standardized, simple mechanism to control screen orientation across multiple monitors, operating systems and graphics cards.
I have an LCD monitor that has the ability to pivot from the conventional landscape mode to not so conventional portrait mode. What I don’t have is a way of letting my computer know that I am switching from landscape mode to portrait mode – until now.
I tried using Pivot Pro when I first converted my monitor into having the ability to pivot, but I wasn’t keen on spending $50 for the non-trial version. CDisplay, The program I use the monitor in portrait mode for has pivot support built right in. It would be nice to surf the web with the monitor in portrait mode.
Do people still say “surfing the web“? At least I didn’t call it the Information Superhighway.
NBC thumbs its nose at iTunes
NBC Universal, the No. 1 supplier of digital video to Apple’s online iTunes Store has notified Apple that it has decided to not renew its contract to sell of television show downloads on iTunes. Supposedly NBC Universal wanted to have more control over how the television shows were sold to consumers. They evidently didn’t like how consumers had the option of paying $1.99 to download an episode. They wanted to force consumers into purchasing an entire season of a television show.
I’m a big fan of the iTunes $.99 music downloads and $1.99 television program downloads. I appreciate the ability to purchase only the media that I want. If I want to watch the first of Heroes, I shouldn’t have to purchase the entire season. That is what NBC Universal wants the power to do. They want to be able to force consumers into buying product they may not want.
What NBC Universal did is really quite laughable. This was free money for them. Apple was selling product that they had already used for programing on their television networks. They didn’t produce anything new for the iTunes Store. It was stuff that had already gone out over the air or through the cable. People were actually paying for media content that they themselves had been distributing for free. Leave it to NBC Universal to screw that up.
Greed is an awful thing. Now people who want to download digital episodes of The Office, Heroes, and Battlestar Galactica will have to do it the old fashioned way – they will have to bittorrent it.
Comic Collector 3.0 Pro
I thought I would follow up my review of the comic book software that is touted at the world’s #1 comic book collecting software with a review of the program that actually deserves the distinction.
It’s Comic Collector produced by Collectorz.com. It is hands down the best piece of comic book collecting software I have ever used. Though it doesn’t (as of yet) support a barcode scanner for adding comics to your collection, it does allow you to make entries automatically. Enter the series name and then select the specific issues you want to add. Comic Collector will then download all of that comic’s data, including the cover images from the extensive Collectorz.com Comic Database.
If you don’t want to go that route, you can still add comics the old fashioned way. Add one comic at a time or add an entire series. The choice is yours.
You can also edit the information you have for your comics. You can either edit the information for one single comic or edit multiple comics all at the same time. For instance, you can highlight all of the comics stored in a single long or short box and then do a group edit changing the location of these comics. That’s something you cannot do with ComicBase.
You can also view your collection any way you want to. The possibilities are limitless. You can view your collection by series, genre, publisher, location, or even by inker or colorist. Once again, you cannot do this with ComicBase.
You can also print very detailed and robust reports with Comic Collector. You can print reports showing comics you want to purchase or ones you already have or anything else you want a report of. It’s up to you.
My favorite feature and the thing that makes this software such a killer app is the ability to export your entire comic collection to your iPod. I made use of this the last time I went to a comic book convention and was able to pick up a lot of comics I did not have. I exported my entire collection to my iPod before I left for the con. All I had to do to access my collection was to click on Extras>Notes>Comic Collector and I would see a list of every comic title I owned. I would then scroll down to the specific title I wanted and select it. I would then see a list of the issues I owned. I was able to fill a lot of holes in my The Walking Dead collection by using this and I didn’t mistakenly purchase comics I already owned.
Not only can you export to an iPod, but to a PDA or Pocket PC. I’ve never tried this feature, but its there for people that want to use it.
You can download a fully functional trial version of this program to try. The only restriction is that you are limited to 100 comics. If you decide to buy the program, you have up to 30 days to change your mind. If it turns out that you don’t like it and wish you hadn’t spend the money on it, you can get a full refund.
When you compare Comic Collector to ComicBase, it’s really hard to figure out why ComicBase is the world’s #1 software for managing comic book collections.
Senator Larry Craig is not gay, he just likes to have sex with men in public restrooms
I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t quite understand what attraction some gay men have with sexual encounters in public restrooms. I don’t even like using a public restroom to go to the restroom. Public restrooms are nasty and I don’t like using them unless I really need to.
Craig claims that he is not gay. Its hard to imagine why then he would plead guilty to disorderly conduct in conjunction to being arrested for lewd conduct in a men’s room.
This whole thing would be so much easier to understand if he was gay. It’s his assertion that he is a woman-loving heterosexual that makes this whole story really creepy. Being gay would only help to explain this whole thing, especially if he was a closeted Republican gay man.
The sad part about all this mess is that some people out there will take this story and conclude from this that all gay men like to troll public restrooms for gay sex. That’s simply not true. Gay men and women can be in committed relationships like anyone else. Why do conservatives so fervently battle the idea of gay marriage? If gay people are not capable of a committed relationship as they argue, why even bother trying to stop gay marriage?
Jen from Big Brother 8 speaks
TV Guide has an interview with Jen from Big Brother 8. I thought it was an interesting interview. She was introduced on the show as being a nanny. In the interview, we learn that she is Vanna White’s nanny. We also learn why she went off her food restriction and ate regular food even though she wasn’t allowed to. As any Big Brother fan will tell you, she was supposed to only eat slop. She was the first in Big Brother history to break a food restriction and received a penalty vote because of it. That too was a Big Brother first. That means instead of getting voted off 5-0 by her five voting fellow contestants, the final tally was 6-0. Big whoop.
This is what Jen had to say about eating regular food and why she did it:
I was previously told it was OK to destroy Dick’s cigarettes, and then when I did it, I was told that they were going to replace them. I was really upset that I had gone through all that hassle, that I was going to deal with Dick being upset with me, and that I got nothing out of it. So I was like, “I’m just going to eat!” It was the only thing I could think of. But the sad thing is, I really did like being on slop. I actually gained weight on slop. It’s kind of like lumpy, chunky oatmeal.
So the Big Brother producers replaced his smokes. I was glad when Jen destroyed Dick’s cigarettes. He deserved it. He deserved to be punched in the throat. He constantly bullied and tried to intimidate the women, especially Jen. He obviously has issues with women. It was nice to see him lose so many of his precious cigarettes, especially at the hands of Jen. I thought it might actually make him think twice in the future about treating any of the remaining women like garbage if he had to face negative repercussions for it. Like getting his smokes destroyed. I get the impression that the producers want Dick to act that way towards the women. Imagine that.
I’m now convinced that Dick is plant. I think he was put on the show and told to act a certain way to help generate drama. If he was just another contestant who wasn’t working for them, they wouldn’t have replaced his smokes. When the Big Brother producers instructed Erik to destroy something of Jen’s and he smeared mustard on one of her shirts, did they then turn around and replace her shirt?
I was looking forward to Dick running out of cigarettes. What a shame the producers had to step in and screw with it.
ComicBase Express
Last year I purchased ComicBase Express. It is a comic book collection database program published by Human Computing. ComicBase has been out for years. I was always interested in owning it, but the price was always too rich for my blood. With the release of the ComicBase “express” version, owning the software was finally a possibility for me.
This from the official ComicBase website:
ComicBase Express is the ideal program for the budget-conscious collector. It comes with a massive, built-in database for over 275,000 comics, all with current pricing from the Comic Buyer’s Guide. It also sports over 5,000 cover images; a year of free, downloadable price updates; and the sleek, easy-to-use interface that ComicBase is famous for.
Unlike its Pro and Archive counterparts, ComicBase Express is compact enough to download, but still offers everything a collector needs to manage a serious collection.
I should point out that even though it is labeled as being for the “budget-conscious collector” it still sells for $49.95.
One of the reasons I wanted to purchase ComicBase was because it supports the use of a handheld barcode scanner. You can scan the UPC code on the cover of the comic and it will add that comic to your collection. Human Computing releases a download update file every week that contains the UPC codes for that week’s comics.
My initial reaction to the software was not good. The overall look of the interface left a lot to be desired. To say that it looked dated is putting it mildly. It looked like a computer program from 1994. It was also extremely slow and clunky. It took a very long time to load up and took even longer to close.
My real problem with the software was not how painfully slow it was or how ancient the interface looked. My main criticism was one of basic functionality. Even though it was advertised as having everything a collector needs to manage a serious collection, it would not allow me to enter a comic book’s actual physical location.
Unless your comic book collection is very small, you most likely have your comic books in more then just one location. I have comics in long boxes and short boxes. I have boxes on shelves and in closets. I wanted a way of keeping track of what box each comic was located.
I initially thought I was doing something wrong. It never occurred to me that a comic book inventory program would not have the capability to keep track of where a comic book was being kept. I went to the ComicBase forum and asked.
The response I got on the forum surprised me. I was told that my budget-conscious collector version of ComicBase didn’t allow me to use the location feature. I was told that if I wanted to actually keep track of a comic’s actual location, I would need to upgrade to the Professional version of ComicBase. The price for upgrading would be another $99.99.
I decided to stop using ComicBase and I went back to using my other comic book collecting program. It didn’t support the use of a barcode scanner, but at least I could easily enter where the comic was being stored.
I honestly don’t know how Human Computing can claim that ComicBase is the #1 comic book collecting software. Just because it’s the most expensive comic book collecting software doesn’t mean it’s the best.
Something I didn’t realize when I purchased the software was that the weekly updates are only free for the first year. After a one year, you must purchase a one-year subscription for $49.99 to continue downloading the updates. It is actually cheaper to buy a new copy of the software every year. The downloadable version of ComicBase Express is $44.99 and it includes a free one-year subscription to their weekly updates.
That’s just nutty.
Rags Morales vs. Rob Liefeld
“And as far as being me? I’m sure you’d lop off your right hand at the wrist to be me. If you knew what a wrist looks like”.
Rags Morales
responding to the online insults of Rob Liefeld
Comic Book retailer Gordon Lee trial to begin this week
Though I am willing to apologize for this particular art book getting in the hands that found it offensive, I will adamantly agree that the book is not ‘harmful to children’ or ‘obscene.’ In my opinion, this book is no more offensive then viewing the beautiful paintings of the Sistine Chapel or reading one of the best selling books with stories of sex, lust and nudity known as the Bible.”
What does the Sistine Chapel have in common with a comic where a nude Pablo Picasso is shown telling some naked chick to “Drink Penis“?
Georgia comic book shop owner Gordon Lee will be getting is day in court this week. I think I blogged about this case once or twice. I even got into some lively arguments about it on Newsarama. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has spent a whopping $80,000 on the case and they are planning on spending yet another $20,000 before it is all over.
To read about the specifics of the case, you can go here.
The trial was scheduled to begin yesterday, but it had to be postponed due to a malfunctioning air conditioning system in the courthouse. Evidently justice is a dish best served cold. I seem to remember seeing old movies that take place in southern courtrooms. You see everyone sitting around in white linen suits fanning themselves with paper fans as slow moving ceiling fans oscillate overhead. Those were the days.
My feelings about this case are quite different then most comic book nerds. Imagine that. Though I don’t think Lee should go to jail, I do think he did the wrong thing when he allowed an adult themed book to get into the hands of a 6-year old.
I also think the CBLDF’s participation in this has actually exacerbated the case. In a perfect world, this case would have ended a long time ago with a plea bargain that included no jail time and maybe a $100 fine. Lee made a mistake, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Because the CBLDF is running the case, there can be no plea bargain. They have a policy of only taking on cases where the defendant agrees beforehand not to accept a plea bargain. Because of this, cases must either be dismissed outright by the prosecution or they must take the case to trial.
If a defendant does not agree to this no plea bargain condition, the CBLDF will not take on the case.
The CBLDF exists to defend against censorship of comic books. What happens if nobody is actually trying to censor comic books? We see them put all their resources into cases such as this.
Update: Not so fast. The trial has been postponed yet again. This time the judge is feeling ill.
Tax exempt bigotry
The nondenominational High Point Church of Arlington, Texas canceled the memorial service for Cecil Howard Sinclair, a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay. How pathetically sad.
According to the man’s sister, Kathleen Wright, the church knew the man was gay when they offered to host the service. Sinclair’s brother works for the church as a custodian. When they learned of the brother’s death, they offered to host the memorial. They changed their mind though after there was a mention of the man’s life partner in his published obituary.
The High Point Church was founded by the Rev. Gary Simons and his wife April. She is the sister of Joel Osteen, pastor of the 38,000-member megachurch Lakewood Church in Houston.
It’s bad enough for this church to judge Cecil Sinclair and decide to treat him and his memory in a bigoted fashion. What’s worse is that they are able to enjoy tax exempt status while discriminating against a veteran. They pay no taxes on the massive amount of revenue they generate. I bet that Cecil Sinclair and his life partner paid their fair share in taxes.
Because churches are tax exempt in our country, High Point Church is being financially subsidized in part by the very people they discriminate against. People like Cecil Sinclair and his partner.
And that is wrong.
Michael George faces more charges
The prosecutor in Michigan is charging Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book retailer Michael George with new charges.
George, 47 — who is accused in the slaying of his 32-year-old wife, Barbara, in his Clinton Township store — faces two new charges: insurance fraud and obtaining money under false pretenses.
“The proofs will show that nothing was taken,” said Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan.
He acknowledged that the murder charge is more pressing, but he said that George received $13,000 in insurance money.
George reported that two boxes of valuable comics were stolen from a back storage room during his wife’s murder. The police now contend that no comics were missing and that George simply made the whole thing up to receive insurance money and to make the police believe that the his wife’s murder was the result of a robbery gone bad.
More information about the Michael George case – Update
I’ve been trying to keep up with news concerning the 1990 murder case involving comic book retailer and con organizer Michael George and his first wife Barbara. As I wrote in my previous blog post about this whole mess, he used to own the comic shop in Chambersburg I buy my comics from.
From the Daily American:
The July 13, 1990, killing was the result of an extramarital affair George was having with a store employee, said Macomb County prosecutor Eric J. Smith. George also stood to benefit financially, Smith said, with a six-figure pay out on Barbara’s life insurance policy.
“It’s a classic case of domestic murder,” Smith said. “One partner wants out of the marriage the quickest way possible. Loved turned to hate.”
From The Detroit News:
The Georges’ two children were 3 and 5 years old when their mother died. Police believed robbery may have been a motive, but nothing was missing from the store, the body or the cash register.
Within months of his wife’s death, Michael George moved in with an employee of the store.
“Evidence does exist she was unhappy in the marriage,” said Macomb Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan. “She had strong suspicions of his infidelity.”
George married his employee and moved to Pennsylvania with his two children and his new wife’s five children.
I’m sure a lot more information will come out concerning this whole story as time goes on. A lot of the information so far just does not make a lot of sense. For instance, if it was a robbery gone bad, why didn’t the killer take the money out of the register? Also, George claimed at the time that $30,000 worth of comics was stolen. That’s a lot of comic books, especially considering it was 1990. The shop in Windber doesn’t seem to be the type that would have a lot of high-end premium comics in stock.
Update: Someone claiming to be Mike George’s stepson has posted on Newsarama that seems to contradict some of what was reported in The Detroit News. He writes:
For instance, my mother did not “leave” nor “abandon” my siblings and me in Michigan. She attempted to take us to Pennsylvania with her, but this move was fought by my father, who eventually won the ensuing custody battle. I chose to rejoin her in 1995 at age 15, and my siblings followed later. I’m sure all this could have been discovered with a FOIA request or two. But then, television journalists are not known for their competence.
This contradicts the story that Mike George and his new wife moved to Pennsylvania with his two children and her five children. Her children evidently remained in Michigan with their father for at least three years.
Pittsburgh Comicon organizer Michael George arrested for murder
The man behind the annual Pittsburgh Comicon has been arrested for murdering his first wife execution-style 17 years ago in Michigan.
His 32-year-old wife, Barbara Marie George, was shot in the head in 1990 in the Comics World store they owned in Clinton Township, north of Detroit.
Her body was found in the shop she had closed that day to surprise Michael George on his 30th birthday, The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens reported.
Comic books valued at $30,000 were taken.
Michael George moved to Pennsylvania following his wife’s death. He opened another Comics World shop in Windber, Pa.
Clinton Township detectives reopened the case in January.
Not only did he open another Comics World in Windber, he also eventually opened one in Chambersburg. It’s where I buy my comics every week. George eventually sold the Chambersburg store, but it retained the name.
Continued Reading
Mayor of San Diego makes a snarky remark about comic book fans
Two fans were driving home from the San Diego Comic-Con. They were listening to talk radio and heard the mayor of San Diego say something quite peculiar. He was discussing how American Idol was coming into town for tryouts. He said:
We’ve put up the superheroes and now we’re on to the people with actual talent.
I have to wonder if the honorable mayor has ever watched American Idol. Though you are sure to see many different things at these American Idol regional tryouts, talent isn’t one of them.
The comic blogesphere has reacted in a very predictable fashion. Many called for the con to move to another city. Never mind the Comic-Con organizers recently extended the contract with the San Diego Convention Center till 2012. The mayor said a snide remark so the con must move.
I don’t get that. Its not like this is the first time someone has said something snide about comic books. I’d be willing to bet that anyone offended by the mayor’s comment have had worse things said about comics by members of their own family. If they are truly offended, they need to get over it.
Who cares what the mayor of San Diego says about the Comic-Con? I cant even remember his name and I’m feeling too lazy to go look it up. That’s how unimportant his opinion is to me.
Todd Cochrane is at it again
I strolled over to Geek News Central the other day to see what Todd was railing against these days. Big surprise, he is upset about how the FCC will handle the auction for the 700 MHz frequency spectrum. That’s the area of the frequency spectrum currently used by old fashioned analog broadcast TV. Starting in 2009, TV stations wont be broadcasting analog signals on the 700 MHz spectrum and will instead be forced (kicking and screaming) to switch to broadcasting a digital signal on frequencies other then the 700 MHz range.
This leaves the 700 MHz spectrum open for other things such as cell phones or wireless Internet. Signals in the 700 MHz spectrum can travel up to four times farther then signals transmitted on the current wireless frequencies. They are also better at going through walls and they don’t kill bees like microwave cell phone frequencies do.
Some have been advocating that the entire spectrum should be completely open-access. The FCC announced that only a third of the 700 MHz spectrum will be open-access.
I am severely pissed off. Sure, the rules state that the spectrum must have Open Devices and Open Applications but the FCC threw out the baby with the bath water when they reversed course on what could have been the most positive wireless spectrum development since the invention of the radio when they closed the door and are going to allow CLOSED SERVICES and CLOSED NETWORKS.
I am truly unhappy and I hope you are as well. I encourage you to pick up the phone and call anyone and everyone you know with influence and tell them how you really feel about this.
The problem is that the majority of Americans are quite content with these companies getting their way every time. It is beyond criminal to say the very least.
I don’t know who exactly Todd is accusing of criminal activity. Is it the FCC? Verizon? Sprint? Google? How about AOL? They don’t have a stake in this, but Todd often sets his sights on AOL, even going so far as to encouraging people to sell off all their shares in AOL. Never mind that AOL is part of Time-Warner and there is no such thing as AOL stock.
Who exactly then is the criminal here? I really don’t know. I left a comment on his blog yesterday asking just this very question, but it never appeared. Todd is one of those bloggers that runs a CLOSED SERVICE blog. He personally must approve each and every comment that appears. I can only assume that is why most of his blog posts have 0 comments. Maybe people are leaving comments, but their comments don’t pass muster.
I’ve never really understood why some bloggers feel the need to engage comment moderation on their blog. What are they afraid of? That someone will disagree with him?
The ironic thing about this is that he is all for openness when it comes to radio frequencies, but not when it comes to the comment section of his own blog. That’s kind of sad.
Does Todd know what throwing out the “baby with the bath water” means? I don’t see how the expression actually applies.
Luke Skywalker used to shoot these back home in his T-16
So this is what a wombat looks like. The mystery is finally solved.
I found this photo over on Yahoo in the photo section of Yahoo News. This evidently was one of the most emailed photos for yesterday. I enjoy going there to see what photos people are emailing to each other. The photos usually fall in to different categories – fashion models in their underwear or cute baby animals.
These wambats are from the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo. The baby wambat’s name is “Joey” and the mother’s name is “Kambora”.
Now that I know what a wombat looks like, I have to wonder why Luke Skywalker was bragging about shooting them. When being briefed on the mission to take out the Death Star, he told everyone he used to bullseye wombats in his T-16 back home. He also claimed that they were not much bigger than two meters. From the looks of the photo, they are a lot smaller then two meters. I think maybe he was exaggerating his story a bit to make it sound somehow more impressive.
I never liked Luke Skywalker. There was just something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. If he wasn’t trying to suck face with his own sister, he was bragging about killing cute defensive animals. I’m surprised he didn’t try to tell everyone about the time he got into a bare knuckle fist fight with a Jawa. He would undoubtedly leave out the part about Jawas only being 3 feet tall or the fact that the Jawa kicked his ass.
Luke Skywalker is a dick.
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