7-5-09 Catch up post

RIP Karl Malden. The actor died at 97. Sources: CNN, Zap2It, BBC, Yahoo

The Locus Poll Award winners were announced. Neil Gaiman's response to best YA novel.

Facebook is eliminating "Private by default", so this is the time to check your settings. More on this at SF Gate or CNet.

There may be a winner for the $1 million Netflix prize (for improving their recommending engine by >10%). Sources: Wired, Slashdot

Goodbye Kodachrome. Kodak is no longer making the film that inspired one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkle songs. Sources: CNet article, CNet photo gallery, Wired

Another rule change for the Oscars. Best Song nominees will now get a score from 6 to 10, and no award will be given if they all don't get at least 8.25. So, unless all the nominees are considered to be "worthy", nobody wins.

Firefox 3.5 has been released, and everyone is commenting. Check out PC World, Wired, Slate, and several articles at CNet: New CSS rule for fonts, slideshow of 3.5 images, add-ons which work and don't work in 3.5, visual history of Firefox, and other improvements under development.

Also Firefox related, Technology Review has an article about their approach to preventing scripting attacks.

Pandora has changed its submission process and now accepts only music from bands that have a physical CD listed on Amazon.

CNet Crave has an article on making the iPhone into an even better gaming device.

SciFi Wire has an interview with Colin Morgan about his role in Merlin, which I'm actually enjoying.

SF Gate has an article about a new device that may help patients stabilize and survive long enough to receive a liver transplant.

Apple has joined other manufacturers in agreeing to the micro-USB charger standard for cell phones.

Caffeine may help reverse Alzheimer's memory loss.

Futon Critic has more info on the new Noah Wyle & Steven Spielberg project for TNT.

DVRs for the week:
Sun 8pm Merlin
Mon 6pm The Closer
Tue 6pm Warehouse 13 (2-hr series premiere)
Thu 6pm Burn Notice
Thu 7pm Royal Pains
Fri 6pm Eureka (3rd season premiere)
Sat 6pm Primeval
Sun 6pm True Blood
Sun 8pm Merlin