When I woke up this morning, my Tivo displayed an alert message warning that NBC had scheduled non-standard start times and lengths for it's Thursday night shows. As reported on various weblogs and Tivo forums, this seems clearly designed to manipulate Tivo boxes out there to skip recording other programming because of a conflict, all because of a 1 minute start time overlap. It's interesting to see how far a network (which has a financial stake in the Tivo service) will go to manipulate technology. Regardless of warnings from Tivo, there will be a lot of angry CSI fans surprised to see only ER on their PVR tonight.

Judging by the new trailer for Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Kill Bill, the film looks to be a winner. What's not as certain is can the film survive being split into two parts: Volume 1 in October, and Volume 2 next Feburary. I'm all for director's cuts, but can one martial arts action flick work spread across two films? You can discuss that issue and more at the official Kill Bill forum.

My California Governor Recall Election Absentee ballot arrived in the mail today. Unfortunately, this whole recall election enterprise is a complete failure and a waste of time and money that California couldn't afford. Regardless of the outcome of this bogus election, I don't see how it will help the trouble the state's economy is in. (And this should probably be obvious, but I will not be voting for Arnold or any of the other "stunt" candidates.)

Opus of Bloom County is expected to return to the Sunday Comics! Details are a bit sparse, but apparently Opus (who hasn't appeared in comics since 1995's "Outland" strip) will apear in a new Sunday-only color strip courtesy of creator Berke Breathed.

Here is a collection of Japanese optical illusions that just might give you a headache.