Actress Vivica A. Fox, who starred in films Kill Bill, Independence Day, and Booty Call, has signed up for the next season of Dancing with the Stars.
Actor Harry Hamelin who’s also the husband of Lisa Rinna is also rumored to be one of the celebrity dancers.
Technorati Tags: Dancing with the Stars, television
UCI Anteaters built a Highly Interactive Parallelized Display Wall, dubbed HIPerWall, at their Center of GRAVITY (Graphics, Visualization, and Imaging Technology) using fifty 30-in Apple Cinema Displays.
Powered by 25 PowerMacs, this video wall can display 200 megapixels of information. Nice!
Just a little more proof that blog searching sites like Technorati work. Yesterday, Pulpconnection received 142 hits, a record high. The main draw was the post about the Top Chef finale and most of the hits funneled through Technorati.
In a typical day, Pulpconnection gets about 30 hits. I made the Top Chef post about 11:00 on Wednesday night. Around 8:00 the next morning, there were already 80 hits, and hits kept coming throughout the day.
What does this 5x increase in hits show? Technorati works and Top Chef has an audience. 🙂
Technorati Tags: blog, search, Technorati
Just one last tidbit from the Top Chef finals. Here are the results from my unofficial, on-line poll of who will be Top Chef.
Even in this poll, Harold was the clear favorite. I started the poll before part one of the final competition so Dave Martin was a valid choice.
Thanks to everyone who voted!
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
I’m only a fair-weather Lost follower but did watch the taped season finale (since Top Chef was ending). Some answers were finally provided but of course, more mysteries arose. Pushing that darn button every 108 minutes actually does something and isn’t just a psych experiment. If you don’t reset the timer, Magneto from the X-Men apparently wakes up does weird thing to metallic items.
The “Others” only keep the good looking, white folk (without kids). Everyone else need not apply. Hurley of Hispanic heritage was one of the targets but was told to go home and tell his hommies not to cross the border. Michael and his son were put on a boat. The Others didn’t even want the Asians or the Iraqi, Sayid. The kooky Eko is in his own spiritual world, and the Hobbit is too goofy looking for the Others. The self-proclaimed good guys have some high standards in order to run with their crowd.
Did Desmond die? And what’s the deal with his girlfriend who has enough cash to have guys sitting around waiting for Magneto to wake up?
If you missed this finale, don’t forget you can watch a streaming version free from ABC or buy a no-commercial version from iTunes.
Technorati Tags: Lost, television
And your American Idol is Taylor Hicks! The reason the plane crashed on the island is… Sorry, from the powerhouse finales on Wednesday night, the big news was Harold Dieterle, the self-described “cook,” won the Top Chef competition. The final elimination featured an all out five-course meal for the judges without any gimmicks. The last four eliminated chefs, Dave, Lee Anne, Stephen, and Miguel, were brought back as sous chefs to help the finalists. Dave, Lee Anne, and Miguel opted to join Harold’s team while matured Stephen sided with Tiffani to keep things interesting. To even out the teams, democratic Harold recommended drawing knives to see who would join Tiffani’s team. Through kismet, the oil and water combination of Dave and Tiffani were reunited.
The final competition wasn’t just about the food. Teamwork was a huge factor. While both chefs are very competent with their culinary skills, Harold had the decided edge in teamwork and likeability. Yes, likeability. I talked about likeability in the workplace being an important factor, rated higher than skill level or competency. Likeability is important in the kitchen as well as Harold’s team gelled while Dave and Stephen quietly clashed with their Chef.
I thought Harold showed more qualities of a Top Chef as described by judge Tom Colicchio and said the right things and involved his teammates. Tiffani on the other hand simply didn’t bring out the best of her and her team. Okay, okay, Dave and Stephen were still blitzed from partying the night before, but they still made major contributions to the meal, especially Dave whose dessert rocked the judges. When asked who was responsible for the dessert, Tiffani took the credit. Likeabilitiy -1.
The truly defining moment of the competition happened when the judges asked the sous chefs their opinion of who should be Top Chef. It was unanimous. All were in favor of Harold. Tiffani freaked when she heard this and made a comment about her back running into Harold’s knife. Whoa, what’d Harold do but be more likeable? Likeability -2.
And finally, some parting comments to this entertaining series. What’s with Harold and Lee Anne? A slight touch here, a hand on the back there, a better-than-friends embrace at the end of the show. Hmmm… Dave was in fine form. His commentary and facial expressions while working with Tiffani were classic. We need to see Dave again somewhere. If Tiffani had won, our household would have boycotted the next Top Chef competition.
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
Look at this alliance – Apple and Nike working together. How much better can it get? Nike and Apple released a system to track your workouts on an iPod Nano. The Nike+iPod Sport Kit is a wireless system for runners that connects Nike+ products to your Nano to record time, distance, calories and pace. This data can then be stored on Nikeplus.com and even shared to have a virtual race with other runners. Eventually the iTunes Music Store will feature a Nike Sport Music section to fuel the music for your workouts.
This is just the beginning as more Nike+ products are expected in the future.
My on-line poll of “Who Will Be Top Chef?” is still open for votes. Here’s the current tally.
The choice is now between Harold and Tiffani, so make your pick of who will be Top Chef come Wednesday’s finale.
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
It is what it isn’t on Part 1 of the Finals of Top Chef. I can’t believe Dave Martin was eliminated in the QuickFire, leaving Harold and Tiffani. It just didn’t make sense.
I purposely haven’t read the judges’ blogs (yet) to understand their decision. Given the criteria for the elimination, Dave seemed to have the upper hand over Tiffani. Harold won two of the decisions, and Dave won the third. Tiffani didn’t win any, and most of her dishes didn’t wow any of the guest judges. Okay, okay, Dave screwed up on the last round and only made two dishes, not three as specified. So disqualify Dave from that round which Harold won anyway. Dave did get good reviews for his two dishes while Tiffani’s dishes got comments of “rubbery,” “fishy,” and “salty.” Seemingly, Tiffani finished last in each round but still made it past Dave. What’s cooking here? Was the decision based on drawing higher ratings with a finals of Harold going up against Tiffani? A finals of Dave and Harold wouldn’t be as exciting so was this the factor in Dave’s elimination?
So it is what it isn’t on this episode of Top Chef.
It was fun to see the last three eliminated chefs (Lee Anne, Stephen, and Miguel) return as “high rolling” guest judges. From the previews of next week’s final episode, it looks like they (along with eliminated Dave) will be playing a part in determining the winner.
Oh yeah, the polls are still open to submit your vote of who will be Top Chef.
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
Got the open source blog server WordPress running at work the other day. Gonna try to use it for some internal work we want to improve on. Installation of all the components (Apache, PHP, MySQL, phpAdmin, and WordPress) was okay, a little confusing at times, but not too bad.
Finding WP themes to match a project’s “style” is harder and more important than I thought. I figured any theme would do since it’s all eye candy but not really. The structure of the theme (number of columns, where data is placed, etc.) actually does make a difference on perception (and therefore) usage of the blog.
Also learned that WP supports many different plugins that add features to your blog. Have to look through the various plugins and try some of them, especially the ones that help draw out important or the latest information.
Hope to have a solid start for next week.
The Top Chef finals in Las Vegas are coming up so who do you think will become the Top Chef?
Although I haven’t had a chance to watch the post production Top Chef reunion episode for clues (it’s still on my time shift recorder aka VCR), our household opinion is that Tiffani will be the Top Chef. She has won several of the Quickfire contests and has done well throughout the series. Harold is good as well, but I think he’ll come up short. Likable Dave, who the judges describe as the “wildcard,” is too mercurial, and you’re not quite sure how he’ll perform.
Reading through the judges’ blogs, it feels like Gail Simmons is apologizing for Tiffani’s on-screen behavior while Tom Colicchio implores Tiffani to understand how her personality impacts others. Are the judges rationalizing their choice for the Top Chef winner? We’ll find out soon enough!
Technorati Tags: television, Top Chef
While out running and letting my mind wander, I got to thinking about the possibility of Apple opening a second store at Kahala Mall. What’s a good location for an Apple Store? Then I remembered that the Consolidated Theaters in the mall were still closed after the freak floods damaged the complex. Hmm…
How about redoing the theaters into a massive Apple Store? Not quite like the glass cube Apple Store in New York, but you get the idea. That’s too much space you say, and I would agree unless Apple started branching out into its fledgling media markets. You know, the one where Apple is involved with music, videos, television shows, and movies. Movies you say? Apple doesn’t do movies yet. With Apple’s partnership with movie companies and Apple’s push towards HD and the adoption of QuickTime and high quality codecs like H.264, why not make a move towards movies with a movie theater?
Customers can go see a movie then visit the adjoining Apple Store that’ll be selling movie soundtracks on iTunes by the way. So bring your iPod with you to get instant downloads after the movie. Or thinking more progressively, why not let the people buy the movie they just watched in the theater? Pay an extra $20 to get an iPod-playable version of the just released flick! Go get coffee at Starbucks while your iPod downloads the movie. Go ahead, let your friends watch the show. That $20 you paid covers the cost of admission for two so not all ticket revenues are lost. Also, don’t forget that Apple’s DRM, Fairplay, is still in the mix preventing pirating of these movies.
How about television shows? Would you pay a few bucks to watch a television show (without commercials) on the big screen? How about if the show was an advanced showing that didn’t air on network TV yet? Say $4-5 to watch two shows like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy on Saturday before they air on ABC on Sunday night? Would that attract viewers? Don’t know. How about including exclusive content that can’t be seen anywhere else. Would that entice people? You’d be among other fans watching the shows so there’s an instant community of fans to talk shop.
I like it!
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Macintosh, music, television