All signs point to this being the last season we can expect Barry Zito to be playing the role of the A's ace in their pitching rotation. With the division race close, and his free agency on everyone's minds, the focus is to win now - even if it takes some creative thinking from those on and off the field. The ANtics investigates...

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ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | Hi-Res PDF (20 MB) | Poll

With small exceptions, including extended hours trading, the time in which the general public has the opportunity to buy and sell individual stocks is still largely tied to ages-old tradition and scheduling, tied to the East Coast (New York City) and arcane hours kept by men who it seems can't eke out an eight-hour day. For those of us on the West Coast, the time in which the stock market is open is surprisingly fleet - the market opens, for real, at 6:30 a.m. Pacific, and closes shop at 1 p.m. - just under seven hours (not taking time for lunch).

As somebody who works for a living during normal business hours on the Pacific side, but also prefers staying up late to getting up early, overlap between open market hours and time I have to actually study the market and make transactions is ridiculously small. In an era of 24-hour shopping networks on TV, and anytime shopping, news and sports on the Internet, it really doesn't make any sense that trades can't take place whenever the heck I feel - after all, it's my money.

The idea that a bunch of businessmen in suits, shouting noisily, waving papers in the air continue to dictate the time in which I can make significant financial decisions, in this era, is ridiculous. Though there are a few loopholes, it's often the case that the majority of stock moves have taken place before I've even checked the ticker. I look forward to the times, and soon, that this changes.

Listening to ''Nautical Bodies'', by Paul Oakenfold (Play Count: 5)

As four and five year olds, my brother and I rarely passed a day without donning our Superman capes, Superman shirts, or a one-piece Superman outfit that zipped up the front. It wasn't that we thought we were Superman, or anticipated soaring above Metropolis, fighting bad guys. Instead, Superman epitomized all that was good - he fought the bad guys, always won, and was invincible! The guy could see through walls, except lead, and always outsmarted the criminal henchmen. Who better to emulate?


Following this innocent time, when Christopher Reeve, as Superman, first hit theaters, the franchise frittered itself away, most notably in Superman III when Richard Pryor threatened to turn the superhero gig into slapstick comedy, or even earlier, when Superman spins the Earth backwards to reverse time - all in an effort to save Lois. Pretty silly stuff.

So, with that said, Superman returned to the theaters in a big way this last month, with Superman Returns, aptly named. Set five years or so after having left Metropolis to investigate the last vestiges of home planet Krypton, he returns to a world that has both changed greatly but remained the same. And though I hadn't expected any much more than the standard summer blockbuster fare, I left very impressed. The show's plot, though farfetched, was ingeniously clever, and the characters seemed believable. Far from the laughingstock shown in Superman III, Superman Returns returned the franchise to glory all through fighting for truth, justice and... all that stuff.

The show may not have the urgency of An Inconvenient Truth or the box office dollars of Pirates of the Carribean 2, but it certainly holds its own, and was worth seeing, opening up plot twists and surprises that even my biased, jaded mind hadn't anticipated, while still retaining options for an expected sequel. For two hours and thirty minutes at least, we had traveled back in time two decades and donned the cape again, to fight evil. And we were invincible.

Listening to ''Doorway'', by The Usual Suspects (Play Count: 2)

More in an irregularly occurring series...

Guy Kawasaki debuts a 10-question interview with David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, the world's largest blog search engine, which stands head and shoulders above the competition, including Google. However, as I commented on Guy's site, I think the major thing that would stand in their way is scalability. We've all seen search times on Technorati lag, especially on peak hours, and even weekends. The company needs to stay on top of its hardware infrastructure while still maintaining its leading Web interface. Let's hope they do so.

Mini Microsoft's rumored demise seems to be exaggerated, as the site continues to be updated, most recently with a discussion on how online anonymity can be maintained, but only through cooperation from others. We've all seen the story of how you trust one or two people with a secret, and then they trust one or two people, and so on. Could be trouble. In their case, anonymity is a requirement. The site has provided tremendous insight into Microsoft's ongoing activity, with concerns about the future, if the software behemoth doesn't reduce expenses and increase focus.

In the category of copycat technology cronyism, Fortune has an extensive piece on AOL trying to become the new Yahoo!. Amusingly, Valleywag seizes on that, and notes that everybody wants to be somebody else. Is Google the new Microsoft, for instance? Or is it Google who is the new Yahoo!?

And, I've chronicled the benefits of Apple's .Mac service on here a few times - including cross-computer synchronization and Webmail, but Om Malik of GigaOm properly breaks down the service and says it simply hasn't kept pace with... Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft for features, while maintaining a high price tag. The only catch is, if I ever did want to switch, I'd have to ditch my mac.com e-mail address, and that'd be a serious pain.

Listening to ''Jaded'', by The Crystal Method (Play Count: 2)