Have you checked out the Capture the Witchblade sweepstakes from Newsarama?
http://witchblade.newsarama.com 

The grand prize winner will receive a character inspired by them in the comic.

There are other great prizes too!
- One lucky second prize winner will receive an original drawing from cover illustrator Stjepan Sejic.

- 100 third prize winners will each receive a copy of the “Witchblade Volume 1” paperback autographed by author Ron Marz

So what are you waiting for? Enter now for your chance to rub shoulders with the folks at the Big Apple’s One Eight.

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AP - PETER JACKSON TO EXECUTIVE PRODUCE TWO HOBBIT MOVIES

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JAKE COYLE

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) After publicly feuding for more than a year, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned two-film prequel to the blockbuster trilogy.

Jackson, who directed “Rings,” will serve as executive producer for two “Hobbit” pictures. They will tell the story of how the young hobbit Bilbo Baggins originally came to possess the nefarious One Ring that Frodo, his adopted heir, needed three films to dispose of.

A director for the films has yet to be named. Production is tentatively set to begin in 2009 with a release planned for 2010, and the sequel following in 2011.

Relations between Jackson and New Line soured after “Rings” despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion (euro2.08 billion). Jackson shepherded Tolkien’s Middle-Earth saga to a combined 17 Academy Awards including best picture for 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The trilogy also includes 2002’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and 2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”

“I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line,” Jackson said in a statement. “We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth.”

Late last year, acrimony between the 46-year-old Jackson and New Line became very public, with the studio announcing they would move forward with “The Hobbit” without him. Jackson sued New Line over the amount he was paid _ including DVD payments _ for “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first installment of the trilogy.

“The low point was when we both started getting a little too personal about this whole thing,” said New Line co-chairman and co-CEO Bob Shaye on Tuesday. “From my own perspective, I realized that I shouldn’t be so thin-skinned about everything that goes on in my professional life.”

Jackson’s suit, the two sides announced Tuesday, has been settled. The terms of the settlement were not announced, though Shaye cheerfully said: “One of the key terms was we all shake hands with each other.”

In his statement, Jackson thanked Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) Chairman and CEO Harry Sloan for helping him and New Line “find the common ground necessary to continue that journey.”

New Line, which is owned by Time Warner Inc., holds the rights to produce “The Hobbit,” while MGM, which is owned by a consortium including Sony Corp. and Comcast Corp., has the right to distribute it. The two studios will split financing and distribution costs, with New Line handling distribution in North America and MGM distributing internationally.

Two “Hobbit” films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three “Lord of the Rings” films were made all at once. Shaye and Sloan both said it was Jackson’s idea to divide the story, adapted from Tolkien’s first book about Middle Earth (which was about half the length of any from the trilogy that followed).

The film’s production schedule is subject to how long the writers strike lasts, which some forecast could continue for many months. There is not currently a script for either “Hobbit” film, and producers will be unable to even approach writers until the strike is over.

“If the writers strike drags on, then everything can change in terms of the time table,” Sloan said Tuesday.

Sloan added that some patience has been necessary for making “The Hobbit” happen: “We’ve always taken the position that we wanted Peter to be involved in this project, but it’s taken some time to work out the differences.”

Jackson, who directed “King Kong” after finishing the trilogy, is currently finishing shooting for “The Lovely Bones,” based on Alice Sebold’s novel.

The three “Lord of the Rings” films rank among the 25 most lucrative films of all time, made more financially successful by the risky strategy of shooting all three together. The production budget for the trilogy has been estimated at around $300 million (euro208.1 million).

___

On the Net:

http://www.TheHobbitBlog.com

http://tbhl.theonering.net/

AP - PETER JACKSON TO EXECUTIVE PRODUCE TWO HOBBIT MOVIES - NEWSARAMA

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HELP HERO WIN UP TO $50K VIA YAHOO CONTEST

Press Release

Until December 19th, The Hero Initiative is sharing a story of a good deed related to our nonprofit for a chance to be featured on Yahoo! and receive up to $50,000 in matching funds. It is up to YOU to vote for us as one of five most inspiring stories.

During the week of December 25, the five finalists will be featured on Yahoo! to inspire others to give to a good cause too. YOU, our supporters, will be invited to donate to Hero, if we are one of the finalists. The featured nonprofit that gets the greatest number of
unique donations that week on Yahoo! will get a matching donation of up to $50,000 from Yahoo!. Please vote for Hero and help us fight the good fight for comic book veterans in need.

Here’s how to vote:

1. GO TO THE CONTEST PAGE
http://bix.yahoo.com/contest/31907

2. PAIRS OF STORIES WILL COME UP
Vote for the best of the pair even if our story isn’t in it

3. WHEN THE HERO INITIATIVE STORY COMES UP
Vote for us! (IF you think it is the best)

So you have to vote for some of the others and vote several times, but
go do it now! Thanks!

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How to play the Comcast word game

How to play the Comcast word game

Nov 26th, 2007 by ME2

Clearly, there is something going on (see: wrong) with Comcast’s definition of unrestricted Internet access (see: Comcast/BitTorrent interference lawsuit). They say they are not blocking anything, and in fact, they are telling the truth. So if you call Comcast to complain about a service problem; do not use that verbiage. If you do, and you are persistent, they can and will will deem you a disgruntled or uncooperative caller and ignore you.

What you need to do is play their word game.

Their word game is not to call the teakettle black - but to say that it is less reflective to light due to its dark color. I.e.,
they aren’t blocking ports outright - they are hindering normal
communication or doing something to affect it in a way that causes it
to fail.

By using this type of wording and phrasing, I was able to get
Comcast to admit that they block ports - something they are currently
denying in court and normally never admit to. See below for the quote I
got from a tech support representative.

However, in case you were wondering, I was not calling to complain about BitTorrent. I
was calling to complain about their interference with other protocols;
in my case, it was RDP for use with Windows Remote Desktop, as well as
DameWare. These protocols/services have begun to be
“interfered with” for me in the past couple of months, although they
used to work flawlessly. Now they do not work across the
Comcast network at all. Being a network administrator and having
knowledge that nothing has changed on my home or work networks, I knew
the problem had to be with the man in the middle: Comcast.

Kevin Kanarski, working as a Lotus Notes messaging engineer,
observed that Comcast is indeed interfering with other network
applications. In the case of Lotus Notes, Comcast is
sending a RST (reset) packet to both the client and server in the
connection intentionally killed emails with large attachments.

So, in this case, Comcast is sending false packets to the client
and/or server in order to reset the connection (TCP packet with an RST
flag). RST-reset connections are immediately closed without without any
acknowledgment/confirmation handshake regarding the request between the
client and server. My knowledge of TCP/IP protocol operation is
limited, but this is my understanding of the condition that the RST
packets cause.

Unbelievably, this is the crux of a man-in-the-middle_attack, and it’s being perpetrated by my own ISP!

However, as you can see: this is “interfering”, not blocking. And this is how Comcast is playing their game.

If you do have a complaint about connectivity issues
with Comcast, their regular support cannot (or will not) help you.
First, they won’t help you if it involves any technology that they
don’t support or have an obligation to support. Second,
they will declare that “Comcast does not block ports”. However, they
can (if you are lucky enough and they do not simply stonewall you)
refer you to contact abuse@comcast.net. Yep, that’s right; the abuse department: The Comcast abuse department is in control of port blocking. To support this, here is a quote I finagled out of a tech support rep:

That department does not only deal with abuse, they
deal with any blocking of port numbers, or any problems with connection
or email port number blocking.

Wait a second here - So, Comcast has a department that deals with port blocking - ergo Comcast is port blocking! Oh my stars and garters…

But this is just a start, and it’s where your and my fun begins, because abuse@comcast.net
doesn’t get read by humans. If you send an email to that address,
you’ll receive a boilerplate auto-reply e-mail response with links to
common Comcast customer issue - although none of them will involve
anything relating to port blocking/interference problems.

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This definitely looks suspicious, its trying to load a javascript from 208.122.2.22 which resolves out to http://voxel.net/
a media hosting company.

This is exactly why i use Firefox withNoScript, to protect myself from stuff like this. I submitted the info
to the guys at the Internet Storm Center, they will figure out what is
up. I would be careful going there, or just skip it all together, there isn’t anything worth reading anyway.

Blog@Newsarama » Wizard website is viral. In the wrong way.

Wizard website is viral. In the wrong way.

Tuesday November 20, 2007, 12:15 pm

Admit it; you’ve always thought that Wizard was bad for comics. But did you know that it’s bad for your computer, as well?

“AVG detects a virus everytime I go to the Wizard site today. Just giving a heads up to those who haven’t visited the site yet.”

“I too just got an error from mine. Virus detected on Wizarduniverse.com”

“The site said I needed a chinese language pack for some reason when I was on there earlier today.”

“It may not be a virus, perhaps the site is coded ina away it
ehibits ‘virus like’ activity that triggers your AV proggy. Similar to
the way steam from a shower could trigger older model smoke detectors.”

“Could be, but they need to fix that, who really wants to go there
and take the chance? Besides I’ve been there before and it never
triggered it, shouldn’t it do it everytime? Not just every now and then
for a week or so?”

“I got something on my home pc last weekend, My AV picked it up. The
only site I looked at, beyond here and the BBC News website, was
Wizard’s…”

Consider this a warning.

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♦

Comic Collector Live - Welcome

The Lone Ranger Rides for Comic Collector Live

October 17, 2007

John Cassaday, Eisner Award-Winning artist, has been commissioned by
Comic Collector Live for a special variant cover of the Lone Ranger (#10) series
from Dynamite Entertainment.

The Lone Ranger’s second exciting story arc featuring The Lone Ranger and Tonto
concludes here in part 4 of this 4 part adventure!

Comic Collector Live creator Joe Butler, in announcing the special variant, was
quick to pay homage to Cassaday and Dynamite. “Any time you can work
with a great artist like John, it’s an honor!” said Butler. “We are
especially excited about the Lone Ranger series because it’s an American original.
And we are thankful for the folks at Dynamite for allowing us to be part of this
Eisner Nominated Best New Series!”

Comic Collector Live is offering these special variant issues exclusively
on its website and expects to offer a select number of issues at comic book conventions
such as Wizard World Texas in Arlington, November 16-18th.

Comic Collector Live members can pre-purchase these exclusive variants by clicking on the
cover links. The issues will be shipping in Mid-November.

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On June 4th Comics2Film.com, the web’s longest-running resource for news about comic-based movies relaunches with a new look, new features and a year’s worth of daily giveaways for the fans.

——–

Detroit, MI (PRWEB) June 4, 2007 - Rob M. Worley announced today the official unveiling of the all-new, all-different Comics2Film.com, in celebration of the website’s 10th anniversary online. With a new look, new features and daily giveaways of DVDs, studio swag and other prizes, C2F stands ready to celebrate with fans during what’s shaping up to be the most explosive box office season for comic-based movies yet.

With films like SPIDER-MAN 3, 300, GHOST RIDER and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES dominating 2007’s early box office season there’s little doubt that comic book movies are here to stay.

“When I started Comics2Film in May of 1997 it was born out of simple passion as a fan,” said Worley, founder and editor of the site. “Disappointing movies like STEEL and BATMAN & ROBIN were pretty much what we had come to expect from comic-to-film adaptations, but I loved them anyway. And I knew there were great, visual stories being told in comics, and Hollywood was going to tap into that in a big way eventually.”

Readers have clicked-in daily as Comics2Film has charted the progress of films like BLADE, X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN, which combined to transform Marvel comics from box-office poison to an unstoppable hit-making machine. As the site’s audience grew, C2F began routinely breaking stories ahead of the mainstream Hollywood press. Worley has frequently been cited as an expert on the subject by such news outlets as USA Today, CNN, Fox News and many others.

“It’s amazing to see how far the notion of a comic-book movie has come, and 2007 is just getting started,” Worley said. “Fans have movies like FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, TRANSFORMERS and STARDUST in the pipeline still, and a seemingly endless list of projects down the road. Comics2Film, in its newest form, will be there for the next ten years covering everything, from the big Marvel and DC blockbusters, to indie-based TV fare like Jimmy Palmiotti’s PAINKILLER JANE, Mike Oeming’s THEM and Komikwerks’ WORLD OF QUEST.”

That new form includes new writers bringing exclusive stories to the fans, a completely revamped look and feel, and new features to encourage reader participation. Last, but certainly not least, this week will bring the launch of daily giveaways on the site, with cool prizes including hard-to-find movie gear direct from the studios, premium items like maquettes and iPods, and numerous DVDs.

The excitement starts Monday at http://www.comics2film.com and lasts a full year as Comics2Film celebrates its 10th birt