Confidential to new Macbook users: a new QuickTime update fixes the totally stupid DRM issue I blogged about a week or so ago.

I have a long Thanksgiving break this year (something I must admit I'm very thankful for). Here's a few links to celebrate my good fortune.

* Google is now hosting thousands of images from Life magazine dating back to the 1800s. At right: my guy Albert Einstein. More good off-the-top-of-your-head searches at the Valve.

* Boston College will stop offering incoming students email addresses; instead, they will redirect email to a private service of the students' choice. In other words, the moronic email addresses they made up as a joke in eighth grade will now follow BC students forever.

* The new MacBook Pros (like mine!) come saddled with major DRM problems. The good news is that your machine is only crippled for media you purchase legally; pirated media still works just fine.

* Pushing Daisies has been canceled. It's a shame.

* Two pop-criticism reviews of Quantum of Solace I liked: "Guilt-Flavored Ice Cream" and "Quantum of Anti-Imperialism."

* Nabokov, on YouTube.

We watched The Man from Earth on Netflix DVD tonight after first hearing about it a few weeks ago, when the producer of the film thanked the P2P networks for the free publicity. The plot, more or less, is this: a man who has been alive since the late Paleolithic decides to reveal the truth about his long life to his colleagues on the night before he is set to once again retire and disappear. (It reminded me a little bit of Suzy McKee Charnas's The Vampire Tapestry, still the best vampire novel that no one else has ever heard of—but it goes in a much different direction.)

Although nominally a science-fiction film, this is much more like a one-act play—aside from a handful of exterior shots, there is only one set, and all of the action is dialogue. There are no special effects and hardly any soundtrack. But despite or because of its simplicity I found it quite enjoyable, probably the best sci-fi film I've seen since the (also independent) Primer. Check it out (through legal channels if you can). It's worth seeing. It won't kill you.