No, it has not been four months since I last posted. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Moving on…

Continuing with the series of “10 Things I Love” we reach the next item on the list, something that without which you would not be reading these very words:

THE INTERWEBS.

Yes, as lame as it sounds, I love the Internet. It’s completely changed my life and managed to make things both more efficient AND take away hours of free time at the same time.

Where did it all begin? Where did this fascination of wanting to be online and interacting with complete strangers come from?

Follow me as we take a short detour to my teenage years.

My first exposure to the open publicity of the Internet was before it was even widely available outside of college campuses. I was an avid user of Dial-Up chat boards, back in the days of the BBS - Bulletin Board System. For those who have no idea what that is, it was basically either a single person or a small company who allowed people to call into their computers via the phone lines. Once connected, it was a small site that had message boards or text games.

The larger systems had multiple phone lines so that you could chat with other users, and the chat boards were born. In Houston we had a few that I would regularly call and stay online with until the wee hours of the summer mornings. Off the top of my head the ones I visited most were: Houston After Dark, Houston Teen Beat (once we were all kicked off HAD), and later on Colors of Chat. There was also Matchmaker, but it was not only expensive but also was a haven for the dark side of the scene (there always is one).

Once dial-up Internet hit the world, and I’m not talking about America On-Line, I had a whole new world to explore. At the time there wasn’t much but E-Mail, Usenet, and IRC, but then Netscape Navigator debuted and gave us the World Wide Web and it was a whole new game.

Over the years I’ve found new obsessions birthed by the Internet: Napster, Blogs (since 2002!), YouTube, MySpace / Facebook, Social Networking, MMORPG’s, and much much more.

Here’s a few of the things that I primarily do because the internet allows me to better than ever before, and the tools I use:

Balance My Bank Account & Pay Bills

Mint / Yodlee

Online Banking? Whatever. I need more than just my bank balance. I need to be able to enter in manual transactions, see how I’m doing on my budget, set saving goals, and reoccurring transactions. And I also need this available wherever I am going.

Enter Yodlee Moneycenter and Mint, both really good applications that are taking online banking to the next level. I’ve been testing Mint for about eight months now and it’s pretty great in its beta stages, but lately I’ve been gravitating over to Yodlee simply because it offers much more.

Mint and Yodlee both allow you to set budgets, see your spending habits, and set budget/account alerts, but Yodlee allows you to import not only your bank account but also Loans, Electricity and Utility bills, and even reward systems like the Best Buy Reward Center.

If you have doubts about security, then fear not: Yodlee is the major engine behind almost all of the bank’s online banking. The security to login is almost annoying but understood; this is my money we’re dealing with.

Keep My Life in Order

Remember the Milk

I am a complete scatterbrain. If I don’t write something down, typically I’ve forgotten it by the time it’s crossed my — ooh look, a bunny!

Uh.. nevermind. The moral of the story is, I need something to help me. Not just remember things like my friends and families birthdays, but also things like thinking I need ketchup, only to discover the two other bottles in the pantry upon return from the grocery store.

Enter Remember The Milk. This simple task service allows you to make any list you wish, whether its just a simple grocery list (with priorities), birthdays, bill payment due dates, or simply adding upcoming events.

While opening Notepad and writing a list is easy enough, RTM allows interfacing through several methods: through a plugin for Firefox/gMail/Google Apps, text messaging services, Twitter direct messages, and even a Google Talk account.

Find Old Friends

Facebook/MySpace

I check my E-Mail about ten million times a day, and probably check Facebook and MySpace about half that. When I joined MySpace I was suddenly being contacted with people I hadn’t spoken to in 5-10 years, sometimes more. The list only grew once Facebook opened up for more than just college students.

It’s been a little easier and less time-consuming with great tools like Digsby, which allow me to update my status and check on friend updates without making me go to the websites. Facebook I don’t mind so much, but MySpace — new design or not — looks like ass, so I avoid it as much as possible these days.

Watch TV

Hulu / Windows Media Center / iTunes Store

Remember the days when if you happened to miss an episode of your favorite show, you had to wait until summer to watch the rerun? I do, and it was terrible. Luckily there were a lot more non-linear shows around back then, but it was still a hassle to deal with.

With the internet, if I miss a show I can pop on one of the network websites and watch it the next day, sometimes hours after the original broadcast. Miss an episode of LOST? Pop on ABC.com and watch it in HD. Want to take it with me? Go on iTunes and download the episode for $1.99 and I can watch it on my iPod anywhere.

Not only does this apply to new shows, but older shows are finding new life on the internet. Recently several networks joined together and created hulu, which catalogs both new and old series ranging from fan (and personal) favorite Arrested Development to classic television like Buck Rogers.

Also available on Windows Vista and Windows Media Center Edition is the Media Center application from Microsoft. The Vista version has direct links to several online providers of television and film content, as well as full-length movies.

Play Video Games

World of Warcraft / Halo 2

As I spoke about in the first “10 Things I Love” list, I do so love video games. Even more than playing them by myself, I love to play them with friends even more. The social aspect of playing games always makes them that much more fun, whether you are fighting against each other, or helping to achieve a shared goal.

MMORPG’s are the ultimate in shared experience games. I’ve made several friends among those in my World of Warcraft guild, many of which live hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away.

Video game consoles have also benefited from online multiplay. Halo is a fun game, sure, but it’s so much more fun when you can play with four of your friends online from the comfort of their own couch, and you don’t even have to share the screen with your opponents. It’s even brought the “trash talk” element to the console with voice chat.

Discover New Music

Last.fm

Music, which is going to be the feature of its own “10 Things” article, is something else that is very important to me. There is hardly a time in the day where I don’t have music playing, either in concentration or just simply background noise.

I’m pretty good about discovering new artists and new songs on my own, but there have been times when I’ve used the aid of one of my favorite social networks, Last.fm. What started out as Audioscrobbler, a tool for sending your music listening statistics to show how much you listen to what, eventually became Last.fm, a full social network for people who love music and want more of it.

It started with recommendations. A click on the artist profile you are listening to shows you “Similar artists” based on the listening habits of other users who listen to the same band or song. Then came the playlists and user radio, which played back streaming songs picked right out of your own tracks and other artists like them. Last.fm’s latest allows paid subscribers access to full-length tracks and videos by several recording artists out there.

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I’ve so firmly immersed my life with the Internet it’s difficult to imagine a world where it doesn’t exist. The one thing I haven’t decided on though, is if my life would be more or less productive. While I’ve been good about listing productive services (not counting Facebook/Myspace) I use, I also spend an equal amount of time on sites like Fark, Twitter, and my Google Reader RSS feeds.

Regardless of productivity or not, the Internet continues to shape and change the way I do ordinary tasks. I don’t want to be part of a world that isn’t connected.

I logged into my Wordpress dashboard the other day and realized I was only ten entries away from my 1,000th blog. I’ve been busy with life and haven’t had the motivation to post lately, even so much as letting the fifth anniversary of the website come and go without a mention.

Since 10 is such an easy number to work into blog entries, I thought I’d do a “10 Things” list, but break it into ten separate entries with more content than a typical top ten list does.

The topics discussed are in no particular order, except for the 1000th entry.

10 Things I Love: VIDEO GAMES

It’s no surprise to people who know me and for the regular readers of this website that I’m a big fan of video games.

It all started when I was a small child and my granddad let me play his Colecovision for the first time. Playing with those blocky characters and obnoxious tweets and chirps that passed for video game sound effects opened me up to a whole other world that I had never seen before.

My next great adventure in video games came with the release of the most perfect toy in the world for a boy in 1988: The Nintendo Entertainment System. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have one myself, but luckily I had a friend who was terrible at it and asked me to beat Legend of Zelda while he watched. I was over at his house every weekend for like two months exploring the first version of Hyrule, occasionally breaking to jump on Koopas dressed like an Italian plumber.

If the Colecovision was my gateway drug into video games, then Nintendo was the crack that got me hooked for a lifetime. The addiction only got worse as I grew older.

THE ARCADES
As the years passed and arcades began dwindling down to mostly movie theaters and an occasional mall (as the early 80’s arcade craze had come and gone), a few revolutionary titles started popping up that took my interest.

One of these was a game that has no equal: Street Fighter II Turbo Edition.

This simple 2D side scrolling fighter game lured a whole new generation of teenagers back to the arcades, myself included. My previous arcade game experience only really included the original sit-down-in-it Star Wars game, the Simpsons game, and of course the classics like Galaga and Pac-Man. Street Fighter II blew me away though. It wasn’t just that you could play with your friends in the game, it was the fact that you could KICK THEIR ASSES in it.

Later Mortal Kombat would come and kick all our asses bloodily, and the Street Fighter series went from sequel to sequel to eventually fighting the entire Marvel Universe and SF parent company Capcom’s entire character library. Arcade fighters have all but disappeared nowadays as the home consoles are easier and cheaper to develop for, but you can still find them hidden in corners of places, begging for your quarters.

THE PC YEARS

The very first REAL PC Video Game I played (read: not Solitaire) is one that would have made my Mother very angry if she knew I was playing it (at 13): Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. The very adult-oriented game only accepted text input commands like “LOOK IN SINK” “GET DIAMOND RING”, or “TALK TO HOOKER” “WEAR CONDOM” “HAVE SEX WITH HOOKER”. (Seriously, if you didn’t wear the condom, you died immediately afterwards as the hooker endlessly smoked her 8-bit cigarette.)

I followed it up with less risque fare from the fledgling Sierra Industries: Space Quest, Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, etc. As the genre grew popular and people actually became interested in playing computer games, along came other classics like LucasArts Maniac Mansion (and the awesome sequel, Day of the Tentacle), and Escape from Monkey Island, all using the same text-based input and eventually using that newfangled mouse device people liked so much.

I also played the original Wolfenstein 3D, the precursor to DOOM, QUAKE, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, etc. Quake was amazing in that it was the first FPS to allow multiplayer right out of the box, albeit only over my 9600 baud modem. Yes, I’m name dropping the l33t early 90s tech. Maybe I’ll talk about my ZIP drive later.

Real Time Strategy came into play with Warcraft and Command and Conquer, titles that still are producing quality games today and eventually leading to my current obsessions: MMO’s.

THE MMO’S

Most people know of Ultima Online or Everquest as their first MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online Game), but I started with possibly the worst one I could have chosen, but was blinded by the belief that the franchise wouldn’t let me down: Star Wars Galaxies.

It was.. disappointing. After barely a month playing I quit the game and discontinued my account, believing I was signing off of MMO’s for ever. I eventually heard of a new one that included one of my other loves: Comics. That game was City of Heroes.

I played CoH for about eight months, never quite reaching the max level (which was 40 at the time), but through the game I forged some far away friendships that I would never have had the opportunity to in the past with other games. Eventually I and most of my other CoH mates moved over to the current giant elephant in the room: World of Warcraft.

No need to go into WoW as I’ve discussed it several times on this site already and pretty much everyone knows what it is at this point. I have tried other MMO games since, including City of Villains, the follow-up/expansion to CoH, Dungeons & Dragons Online (OMG SUXX0R), Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars, Tabular Rasa, Fly For Fun, MapleStory, and a couple others not worth mentioning.

CONSOLES

I have a love/hate relationship with consoles. Since I’m such a hardcore PC gamer, i’m always reticent to thrown money on a $300-400 console that is planned to be obsolete in 2-3 years, if not less when I already have a computer more than capable of playing many of the same games. The need has grown even less over the years as computer graphics have gotten better and better.

I have owned a few consoles over the years. The first being the Sega Genesis, which I (foolishly) traded my friend the whole original Weapon X saga in Marvel Comics Presents for it. That saga is worth about four times today what the Genesis was brand new when released. I had Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Kid Chameleon (with its maddening 99 levels of nonsense).

I was able to finagle myself an XBOX when it came out and was actually quite pleased with it for a few years until I finally sold it to a video game shop. I even bought a refurbished PS2 just to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then returned both when I finished. I absolutely hate Playstation and their ridiculously expensive peripherals that are required to play games (read: Memory card) but don’t come included with the system.

PS3 and XBOX360 dropped and I could care less. I would only want the XBOX360 just for the media-center capabilities of it, but the PS3 is a glorified BlueRay marketing device with a dwindling catalog of stale video games.

However when I caught wind of the Nintendo Wii, I became a rabid fanboy to which I still am a legion of today. Not only was it moderately priced, but the games are actually FUN on it and encouraged me to do more than move my thumbs (and throw the controller across the room in frustration). Guitar Hero III, Super Mario Galaxy, and Smash Brothers Brawl all reinforced the absolute FUN of the system.

THE FUTURE

Who knows? With strange and new titles like Spore coming out, as well as rumors of Blizzard’s new MMO and Starcraft II, the future of video games is only getting more and more integrated into daily life for a lot of people. Either they’re grinding to level whatever in their MMO, outracing their opponents on Mario Kart, sticking a plasma grenade to your friends head in Halo 3, or even attending a concert in Second Life, people of all ages are beginning to enjoy video games in many forms.

For me, I’ll be right there playing whatever new time sucking game comes out next until I am old and my grandchildren have beaten me ruthlessly in Unreal Live Tournament 2060.

My name is Haggis. I live in San Antonio, Texas, and I’m an Orc Warrior. For the HORDE!

Of course it’s no secret that i’m an avid addict player of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft. In fact I’ve been playing the MMO off and on since it came out.

I am attempting a milestone in the game, a first for me. The games level cap, or maximum level, is 70. I am currently 1/3 the way through level 69, so I decided to live blog the event.

I have vowed to reach level 70 before the new year, which is as the start of this article, 20 hours away. Since the company I work for is so awesome, I’ve got the next two days off to do nothing but play this game and ring in the New Year.

I stopped at the store and got a 24oz Mocha Cappuccino, a bag of Doritos, two bags of peanut M&M’s, some Sour Nerds (which are awesome, by the way), and a 12 pack of Coca-Cola.

If I don’t die from lack of sleep or go into a diabetic coma, I should be able to achieve this modest goal.

So here goes.

2:00am - Been playing for 2h 36m already, gained 119k experience from about five quests. Stopped momentarily to start this article. I am currently 6 1/2 bars out of 20 from leveling. Yay!

2:10am - I mention the liveblogging on my guild channel. I get accused of spamming. (He was kidding). I keep forgetting to buy ammo.

2:20am - Died. I did take two with me though. I’d like to take this opportunity (while I run back to my corpse) to explain why it’s taken me several years, off and on, to bring one character to the level cap.

I am the slowest leveler ever. I am extremely casual with the game, so I do what i’m having fun with. If I’m getting killed all the time by high level enemies, i’ll do something else like try to level up my fishing skill for a week, or another week flying around getting rare cooking recipes. I really did this. I don’t care if I should be getting xp, I want to experience everything the game has to offer, and I think I’ve done very well so far.

I am looking forward to the endgame content, which is coming very soon. Ok, back to grinding.

2:45am - Died once more from the elite you see in the pic above. Did finish the quest. Small break for bio (ie refreshments and/or bathroom).

3:00am - Writer and fellow WoW addict Smokin is joining me to help me knock out a few quests faster with his uber level 70 mage skills. Should help knock out a few more knotches. 64% left until level!

3:35am - Sleepy eyes are hitting me, but i’m still all hyper from the cappuccino and all the sugar. Pausing to adjust my iTunes playlist for more upbeat music to smash things to.

5:00am - I can’t believe I’m still awake, and still slightly coherent. I’m more than halfway now, with 43% to go. I’ve gained 332,684 since I started at 11:30pm, not bad for 5 1/2 hours. I think I’ve actually caught a second wind, and I’m gonna keep on for a few more hours after a quick stop to the Shattrath to drop stuff off in the bank.

5:35am - Back to the grind. Smokin is out, he’s about to fall asleep at the keyboard. I need another soda. I submitted this story to WoWInsider, hopefully I’ll get some kind of honorable mention. Probably not.

5:37am - Here’s the link to my character on the WoW Armory: Haggis on Mug’Thol. And for those curious, my total /played time so far is 24 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes. I don’t think that’s terrible overall, right?

5:51am - Okay so I just spent 15 minutes on taking a screenshot of me doing the Hammer Time. I think it was totally worth it.

I got bored with my music so I turned on the TV and found the original Star Trek series on TV Land, followed by Night Court. Awesome.

6:10am - Okay, I remember Markie Post’s hair being bad, but not that bad. The intro song is just as great as I remembered it.

6:40am - Wings is on now. It’s amazing so many of these people went on to much bigger roles, especially Tony Shaloub. I just died twice in a row, but the second time was my fault. I was trying to sneak around to get a quest item, and I forgot that Warriors aren’t too subtle. 5 1/2 bars to go.

7:19am - Dear god, the sun is up. I am out of my mind.

7:30am - Submitted to Digg. I’m definitely out of my mind.

8:12am - Three bars left! OMG! The Today Show is boring.

9:03am - Thanks for all the support and blog mentions, it’s keeping me going! Not that I have far to go, with 7.3% left, or 1 1/2 bar! Gah I’m so tired.

And in response to Horns, I am a casual player, but I am also a bit of a nut. I haven’t been playing the whole time. I played for about 8 months then quit for over a year, till about three months ago. Not so bad I guess.

10:04am - I’m still here! Somehow. I have 14k remaining, and I just finished two quests. Prepare yourselves! XD

10:16am - DING! I did it!

Here’s a few statistics for this play session:

Total time played: 24d 8h 22m
Total time played this session: 10h 50m
Total XP Gained this session: 649,810
Total Gold Gained: 215gp 57s

10:49am - Yes, I’m still awake. Had to borrow a hundred gold or so for my flying mount, and picked up my first piece of Season 1 Gear, the Gladiator’s Plate Gauntlets. Flying to Shadowmoon at this moment.

10:55am - Okay, I’m about 200gp short for the skill, so I’m calling it a day for now. I’ll get the rest later, I’m just happy I finally made it.

I hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the experience with me. It’s certainly taken me a very, very long time to get here, but I’ve enjoyed (almost) every step of the way. I think Terrokar Forest, Tarren Mill, and Stranglethorn Veil were my least favorite zones in the whole game, the ones that almost made me quit.

Thanks again for everyone’s support, especially my friends and fellow guild mates:

Oldrengrim/Smokin for helping me grind through those tough parts when I needed a lot more damage done.

Grimish & Gruelosh for cheering me on for 2 1/2 years and keeping me in every guild that you belong with.

Tyla, Nathran, Bourban, and Lumas for making all those instances lately a blast. You guys are the reason for my no Pick Up Groups rule, why would I want to go with anyone else?

Everyone else in Warlords on Mug’Thol, and everyone reading this blog entry last night/this morning. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this, but I’m going to sleep now and not waking up until it’s dark again.

Woot!

Yes, I’m a huge nerd and also a World of Warcraft addict.

And if you’ve never played the game (or any MMO, for that matter) you won’t get the jokes in the animated image above.

N00b.

My favorite part has to be that they suspect Boromir of being a ninja. “I get plate drops kk?”

After 12 months, numerous phone calls, several weekend huntings, and in incredible amount of frustration, I have done what seemed like the impossible:

I now own my very own Nintendo Wii.

The adventure began Saturday afternoon.

I went to Best Buy to grab a Gaming Headset for voice chat on World of Warcraft (you’re welcome, Ack), and while in the checkout I got the fairly standard “Did you find everything you needed today?” question from the clerk, which I followed up with “Yeah, unless you have a Nintendo Wii stashed in the back somewhere.”

He paused, looked around, and then whispered “They’re getting in a shipment tomorrow morning. We’re not supposed to tell anyone but I overheard them talking about it.”

My eyes went wide with happiness, and I thanked him profusely. I left and immediately got on the phone to my neighbors and friends ML & X and told them about it, and we planned on a group effort to Best Buy at 9:30am Sunday morning.

At 9:45am we were in line outside the Best Buy when the clerk came out and announced “There are 14 people in line, and we have 10 Wii’s in stock. Sorry.”

Not ready to give up, we went across the parking lot to the Circuit City where we discovered (along with the crazy talkative lady that had been there since 5am or something), that they only had ONE to sell.

At this point we were getting frustrated and a little defeated, so we decided to make one more pit stop at another Best Buy across town, and lo and behold we were able to each grab one. I spent the entire day yesterday playing Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Metroid Prime 3.

The best? The three-person Wii Tennis tournament.

Any Daily Haggis readers have a Nintendo Wii that’s hooked up to the internet? Add me to your Wii Friends!

Here’s my Wii Console Number: 2491 3501 5181 4878

While musing with a co-worker on integrating terminology and actions from constantly playing massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft, our conversation inspired me to create a comparison of real life versus MMO life, and what it would be like if the two were mutually exclusive.

If Real Life Were Like An MMO:

• While waiting for friends to show up, you spontaneously break into dance with no accompanying music, although it’s just the same dance move over and over.
• Every time you go walking, you are forced off your path every minute because you need to go dig up a flower or hammer at some rocks.
• You are constantly pestered by teenagers asking you for money or if they’ll take you through an area too scary for their age. Oh wait, this is called parenting.
• You can sleep anywhere, and stop right in the middle of the road for a snack or to read a book.
• The local mall will become an area for smaller groups yelling “Looking for more to shop at Old Navy! Please send text!” They may also walk around wearing a sign that says “LFG ON. PST” and you would know exactly what it meant.
• People will laugh and cheer if a random person decides to stand in a public area in their underwear dancing. Usually this is reserved for private establishments by the airport.
• Sometimes when you ask for a strangers’ help, they may just stand by the door and take credit for your work until you kick them out.
• You can fight someone until almost death, and afterwards they will only reply “good match!”
• Every few months the government will make a massive change to every profession, requiring you to learn all your skills over again–but for free!
• Any store you go into will buy anything you have to sell, but the really good and expensive items are sold on eBay. (Auction house, get it?)

Feel free to add your own in the comments section!

The end is here, and it’s damn funny.

The Austin based machinima creators Rooster Teeth released the final episode of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles late last night. Culminating in 100 total episodes, plus several Public Service Announcements, the series has gone from a relatively unknown web series to a featured spotlight on Microsoft’s XBox Live service and the funny bastard children of Bungie, the creators of Halo.

I’ll save any spoilers for after the jump, and as soon as they release the embeddable version of the episode I’ll put it at the bottom of the article, but for now:

Click here to watch the series finale of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles.

NOTE: There are actually THREE different endings to the episode, all available through the different links at the top. “Red vs. Blue” takes you to the first cut, “Episode” takes you to the second cut (and my personal favorite ending), and “100″ takes you to the third ending.

(more…)

Almost twenty years have passed since the classic Nintendo game Punch-Out came and changed our childhoods forever. From the awesome music to the state of the art 8-bit graphics, no fighting game would ever be the same after Little Mac and gang were through with us.

As a tribute to the boxing classic, the guys at Team Awesome put together this mock movie trailer of Mac’s triumphant return to the ring. The film uses a good mix of live action, over-the-top acting, and graphics pulled straight out of the original game (and a few from Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros.)

I was a big fan of the game when it debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System and played it constantly, so I got all the in-jokes in the film, but even a casual observer of the game will get the main points of the parody.

As a bonus, after the jump you can watch the outtakes of the film, which at times can be even funnier than the edited final trailer.

(more…)

I have officially joined the technology of the 21st century. I found a hell of a deal on a 27″ HDTV online and couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I shelled out the money and couldn’t be more pleased. Now I just need to switch my cable box out for an HDTV unit, and I’ll be one happy camper. It’ll come in handy next weekend when I get my wisdom teeth pulled and will be stuck on the couch hopped up on goofballs. Good times.

Here’s This Week In Links for Friday, April 20, 2007:

A remake of a John Waters film? John Travolta dressed in drag as an overweight woman, AND married to Christopher Walken? Cinematical has your first look at the remake of HAIRSPRAY! [Cinematical]

Lawrence Fishburn, previously rumored to be voicing the planet-eating giant Galactus in the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, has actually been cast as the voice of Silver Surfer instead. [Hollywood Reporter]

Joystiq has coverage of the art gallery exhibit honoring all that is great in the old school video game world: The “I am 8-bit” art exhibit. Over 200 attended the showing, some of which had “questionable hygiene”. [Joystiq]

For the IMAX release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros is modifying the last 20 minutes of the film to be displayed in IMAX’s 3D technology. The last film broke IMAX box office records when released in 2005. [Sci Fi Wire]

Matthew Fox (Lost, Party of Five) is in final negotiations to play Speed Racer’s competition and long-”Lost” (heh, get it?) brother in the Wachowski Brother’s Speed Racer adaptation. If cast, he will join Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, and John Goodman who recently joined. [Sci Fi Wire]

IGN had an exclusive interview with Orson Scott Card about his adaptation of his most famous work, Ender’s Game. Despite numerous stalls and script rejections, he still is planning to move forward with the film, even if it means producing the film independently. He also reveals that the movie will be a combination of the novel and its mirror novel, Ender’s Shadow. [IGN]

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have stated that the hit BBC/HBO comedy Extras will not return for a third season (or series, as they’re called in the UK). This is not much of a surprise to fans of Gervais previous work, the original BBC version of The Office, which itself only had two seasons that wrapped up the loose ends with a special. The same is said to happen to Extras. [TV Squad]

Heroes creator Tim Kring revealed some details about the season finale, and a few tidbits of what to come in Season 2. Death is inevitable for some of the main cast, but as Kring pointed out: “… the one caveat is, on a show like Heroes, you may not always [stay] dead” [Sci Fi Wire]

Let Li is in talks to star in the next sequel in the Mummy franchise, boringly titled The Mummy 3 for the moment. The sequel will revolve around the grown-up son of the two main characters, shown as a little boy in the last film. [Hollywood Reporter]

Windows Tech Guru Paul Thurrott has some screenshots of his experience with the brand new AppleTV unit. The system is an all-in-one media center that allows video, music, and server features. [Paul Thurrott’s Internet Nexus]

The reincarnated BBC Series Doctor Who was recently given the go-ahead for a fourth season, featuring David Tennent as the good Doctor and a whole new companion played by Freema Agyeman. [Sci Fi Wire]

Microsoft strikes back at Sony at the European launch of the Playstation 3. Here’s my favorite of the shenanigans: A price comparison of XBOX360 vs PS3 in beer cost. To the left, XBOX360 and several cases of beer. To the right, a PS3 and one beer. [Joystiq]