Scout Company

"Obviously, it's been a crazy summer," says David Collins, one of the principals at Scout, the production company behind "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Just about any eye can see it's not going to get any more sane anytime soon. For anyone who has been spending the last two months looking at Mars rather than media outlets, "Queer Eye" (NBC/Bravo) is a bona fide smash hit.

"Obviously, it's been a crazy summer," says David Collins, one of the principals at Scout, the production company behind "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Just about any eye can see it's not going to get any more sane anytime soon. For anyone who has been spending the last two months looking at Mars rather than media outlets, "Queer Eye" (NBC/Bravo) is a bona fide smash hit.

As another college football recruiting season goes from "promise us" to "sign on the dotted line," there is probably at least one high school player in the country who owes his scholarship to a computer in Calabasas. The machine, a Hewlett-Packard 3000, is fed highly subjective information on thousands of high school and junior college football players who are eligible prospects. It whirs and gurgles and somehow brings order out of chaos.

As another college football recruiting season goes from "promise us" to "sign on the dotted line," there is probably at least one high school player in the country who owes his scholarship to a computer in Calabasas. The machine, a Hewlett-Packard 3000, is fed highly subjective information on thousands of high school and junior college football players who are eligible prospects. It whirs and gurgles and somehow brings order out of chaos.

Michael J. Fox went back to his past earlier this week, thanks to the high-profile release of the three "Back to the Future" films on DVD. It's been 12 years since the actor was last seen in his signature big-screen role, the tireless time-traveling Marty McFly in the hugely successful trilogy.

As part of its bid to become the region's preeminent high-tech company, Broadcom Corp. added to its record growth Wednesday with the planned purchase of its eighth company in a little more than a year. Using its skyrocketing shares as currency, the Irvine chip developer, already the fastest-growing chip maker ever, said it planned to buy Stellar Semiconductor Inc. in San Jose for an estimated $180 million in stock.