Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular and enduring characters in all of English literature. In addition to the 60 original stories and novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, there are dozens and dozens of additional takes on the Sherlock mythos by successful authors—among them Laurie R. King, Michael Chabon, Nicholas Meyer, and Carole Nelson Douglas—with further adventures, alternative perspectives, and interesting new interpretations. More than 200 movies and TV shows (with 75 different actors portraying Holmes), radio episodes, and so on. To write that Holmes is beloved by many is a serious understatement.

The vast majority of the presentations, across all media, preserve the Victorian setting of the original stories, or at most advance the setting and the age of the detective. This Fall brought something new, a thoroughly modernized Sherlock Holmes who texts, blogs, and hacks into other people’s computers. And even up against modern CSI techniques, he still makes those around him look dim with his brilliant observations, deductions, and leaps of logic. (Some police call him “Freak.” To his face.)

The creators recognized that what mattered were the characters of Holmes and Watson, and that they are as compelling in 21^st century London as they were a century earlier. The characters, setting, stories, and dialog are completely contemporary—while remaining faithful to the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Indeed, Holmes fanatics will find many small references to original stories, in dialog, plot lines, and character names.

I think this is the best new series on TV this year. The writing and actual mysteries are solid, with light touches of humor, much of it involving people thinking that two men who live and spend most of their time together must be a couple. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) The actors, principals and supporting, are all excellent. The production values are very high, with great photography of London, and a creative way of showing Holmes’s thinking process via on-screen HUD-style text. This is a terrific show, and after very positive reviews and viewer numbers, more episodes are planned (sadly, not until Fall 2011).

Sherlock initially aired on the BBC this Summer, in three 90 minute episodes. The past three weekends it came to Masterpiece Mystery! on PBS. Check your listings for repeat airings, or view them in full at Sherlock on Masterpiece PBS. If you have an iPad, you can even view them in the PBS iPad app. And as of this weekend you can get Sherlock on Netflix. Joe Bob says check it out.

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I agree with everything he wrote

That doesn’t change my conclusion that I won’t buy any more content from the iTunes Store until I can play it on my Sonos and TiVo systems. I don’t care if the source of the issue is Apple or the record companies, I only care that I can’t play it on devices I own and enjoy using.

If Steve is serious about offering non-DRM-wrapped content on the iTunes Store, there should be non-DRM-wrapped content on the iTunes Store

There are non-big four labels ready to do away with DRM yesterday, including those behind artists like Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, and Avril Lavigne. Steve’s letter is currently undermined by the lack of any unprotected content on the iTunes Store. If he’s serious, that should change. That would put additional pressure on the big four labels to think about dropping DRM, as well as reduce pressure from the groups that are currently after Apple to open up FairPlay, redirecting it at the same big four. That seems like such a big win for Apple, I expect it to be their next move in this particular game.

The “big four” have to change something

The heart of Steve’s argument goes basically like this: (a) All DRM systems rely on secrets. (b) Once the secrets are known, it is possible, common, inevitable that the DRM will be broken, worldwide. ( c) If the DRM is broken, Apple is required by contract to rapidly fix it, or lose the ability to sell the majority of the music in the iTunes Store. (d) Licensing FairPlay means more people have the FairPlay secrets, which increases the risk of the secrets escaping. (e) The increase in risk is not acceptable, which is why Apple won’t license FairPlay.

That’s a pretty strong argument. It’s hard to suggest that Apple should significantly increase their business risk to assist their competitors, by licensing Apple technology to let those competitors improve their products. Yeah, it would be good for customers too, but the current situation, as Steve points out, only causes problems for 3% of people’s content. It’s a trade-off, and it’s reasonable for Apple to come down on the side of Apple.

The big four record companies are already suggesting that Apple is wrong and should work to license FairPlay. Fine. All they need to do is take ( c) above out of the equation. That’s something totally under their control, and if they are serious about wanting to see interoperability, instead of dropping DRM entirely as Steve suggests, then they need to put their lawyers were their mouthpieces are.

As Roman Strauss said in Dead Again, I think this is all very far from over.

In any event, your best bet for getting actual news of what’s going on in America will be from NPR or the international edition of the “BBC”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/.

Like the Matrix films, V certainly is the kind of movie that benefits from the extra detail on the IMAX screen. I highly recommend seeing it, even if you don’t have an IMAX theater in your area. But if you do, spend the extra money and see it on the huge screen.

Video Shows Bush Warned before Katrina Hit
The Associated Press, March 1 2006

No wonder the administration doesn’t want to “play the blame game.”:http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/09/meet_the_fucker.html

Audible.com’s features provide support for receiving paid content using the same process for subscribing to the free podcasts which have recently become very popular. Although his article uses the very nice iPodder application to demonstrate the features, there’s no reason why you can’t use the built-in podcasting features of iTunes 4.9, and skip the extra application.

Here are instructions and a couple of screenshots, which you can splice into Phillip’s article where he’s working with iPodder.

Subscribing to Audible.com Podcasts in iTunes

Note: These instructions require iTunes 4.9 or later, available as a free download from Apple.com. These instructions may be used with both the OS X and Windows versions of iTunes.

1. Visit Audible.com, log in, and go to the My Audible Podcasts page (irritatingly non-linkable, currently in the Gifts & Tips box on the left side of Audible.com pages).
   
2. Copy the personalized Audible.com podcasts URL provided there. (These first two steps are exactly as documented by Phillip.)
3. Switch to iTunes, and choose Subscribe to Podcast… from the Advanced menu.
   
4. Paste in your Audible.com podcasts URL, and click OK.
   

You can now view and manage your Audible.com podcasts in the iTunes podcasts window, just as you would any other podcast:

Note: I don’t have any periodic subscriptions at this time, so there’s not much to see in my Podcasts list. I currently use Audible.com exclusively for audiobooks…

Global Frequency ringtone (MP3, 12 kbytes)

Note: You may need to Right-Click on the link and choose Save As… to get it to download, instead of playing in your browser.

Another Note: I cannot help you install this on your phone, so hopefully you can figure that out on your own.

1. Search Livetorrents.com for the Global Frequency pilot TV episode. (When you find it, it might look something like this.) Download the torrent, and watch the show.
2. Read some comments of the show’s writer/producer. You can read the front page of his weblog or just some of the most relevant posts:
   1. GF wow
   2. It’s a ‘Global’ Frequency Now…
   3. One Last GF Question…
3. Await further instructions on this and other channels.

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If a month goes by and Pascal Rigo doesn’t buy something or open a new cafe, I feel like I’m missing something. Well, he’s back at it. Eight months after opening Rigolo, he has bought Movida Lounge at 200 Fillmore St. (at Waller Street) in San Francisco, and will turn it into Le Cafe di Soleil.

Monsieur Rigo is the restaurateur behind our favorite bakeries, Boulangerie Bay Bread and Boulange De Cole Valley, among other establishments. The croissants made at his bakeries are better than most I had in Paris, and their walnut baguette is a staple at our parties, because it goes so perfectly with cheese.

I’m not kidding about tearing up when I read this; it’s the most exciting food news for our neighborhood since Memphis Minnie’s opened up across the street. Having one of M. Rigo’s establishments right around the corner will probably not be good for my waistline, but I will certainly enjoy the fight!

I dunno if anyone thought of that scenario when they decided to run the spots during the Tournament, but if they did, all I can say is wow.