You gotta watch Frontline 

Tonight's program is about old media problems and schloops into the web, bloggers and vloggers, interviewing Andrew Baron, Jeff Jarvis, and covering Rathergate. Good stuff, and pretty fair.

Doing my little bit to get the word out 

Week 6 clip in Clip(s) of the Week, my podcast game.

See if you can identify the podcast -- almost a podcast -- and who is speaking. Check the site on Friday to learn the solution, or subscribe to just the clips or to clips and answers.

Good move 

Huh! Now Condi Rice is saying they will talk to the Iranians. That's quite a switch from Sunday. Good. Dumb to be so bullheaded and always think about blowing things up as a first reaction.

Screencasting on the cheap 

There's a newer, better version of Wink, the free demomaking software, since I last tried it. Available for Windows and Linux. It seems to have added a lot of the features of Macromedia's Captivate (formerly RoboDemo). I think I still want to get the new version of Captivate, mostly for its quizmaking talents. I've never tried Camtasia, favored by Jon Udell for his famous screencasts.

Later: Nope, snap judgment, I know, but I'm spoiled now. I don't like it. Sound is breaking up, and I'm not motivated to figure out what's wrong when I know I can get something that I like and that works.

Ha! 

Chris Matthews hopes Bill Clinton isn't "playing Holly Golightly up there in New York." I've heard Matthews issue these warnings before and I don't think it's intended for viewers. I think he's trying to shame Clinton into behaving himself.

Ashamed of my country 

I'm reading George McGovern and William Polk's Out of Iraq. A lot of it is a recounting of events and deeds we all know, but seeing them laid down one after the other is crystalizing. Good God, no wonder they hate us.

Going boldly 

I can totally see Matt Damon playing Captain Kirk. Only I'd hope the movie would be done tongue in cheek, playing with Kirk's Casanova proclivities, and using all the cliches in a fun way. That probably won't happen because Hollywood is safe and likes to copy the latest stuff that's worked, and the trend seems to be looking at the shadowy side of classic heros.

Adrien Brody as Spock and Gary Sinise as McCoy sound like pretty good casting, too.

Some of my picks for best casting ever in adaptations or biopics:

- Clark Gable as Rhett Butler (no accident there; Margaret Mitchell was said to have been picturing him as she wrote the character)

- Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy

- John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and as Babe Ruth

- Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch (in A Room with a View)