The search continues!

Still no definitive answers from anyone on the job front, I had an interview Tuesday and I think it went OK. They said I should hear back from them next week if they want me to come back for a second interview. Still waiting to get my results from the test I took for a job with the city of Columbus - I took the test over 2 weeks ago and still haven't received notification yet of how I did. I called them yesterday and left a voicemail, and they called back and said I should get something 'by next week'. So we'll see how that goes. I'd really like to know one way or another on these prospects soon, so I'm really hoping they do let me know next week as promised. It's so difficult to find a new job... but hey, at least I've had a couple of interviews! Up until recently I wasn't even getting THAT far, so getting to a first interview is at least progress in the right direction.

I wonder...

So I'm sure you've heard about Ritchie Sambora and Heather Locklear and their marital difficulty (if not, you can read about it here). I wonder... when she found out and they talked about it, did the conversation maybe go something like this?

Ritchie: Heather, what's up?
Heather: Ritchie, I found these emails, and frankly, I think You Give Love A Bad Name.
Ritchie: Ah baby, no... you gotta believe it ain't like that - I love you, I'm Livin' On A Prayer here baby!
Heather: Look, we knew it might never be a Bed of Roses, and now it looks like it's over.
Ritchie: Ah, baby no - that's some Bad Medicine!!

Yep, I'll bet it was just like that :)

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Greetings all! Unfortunately posting to the blog has taken a back seat recently to the big job search, and to being crazy busy at my current (cruddy) job. It's really been bad, but hope springs eternal! I have an interview with the city of Delaware on Monday, and I'm still in the hunt for a job with the city of Columbus (should hopefully be hearing from them soon). With any luck something will pan out soon, and I'll be telling you all about it right here folks!

Still hoping...

Haven't heard anything back on the "Matt needs a new job" front - yet. Got a few irons in the fire still, and unfortunately none of the places I'm in the process with are moving very fast. With any luck I'll find out something from one (or more) of them next week. I'm still hopeful that at least one of these will pan out... Wish me luck!!

Keep EVERYTHING crossed...

Cause with any luck, I'll have a new job soon. Haven't been able to post recently cause things have been CRAZY at my current job - it's just incredibly busy, and I haven't had time to write any posts up of any significance. So here's a quick post, just a fast update - I'm working on three different jobs I'm currently in the running for, one I am waiting to see if I get a second interview, another I filled out a pre-screening questionnaire and turned it in yesterday, and the last I have to take an exam to see if they think I'm qualified or not. I'll be taking that on Monday. So, we will see how things go over the next couple of weeks - but with any luck, I'll have a new job soon.

Well THAT was annoying

Hello, and thanks for reading an official NOT 'spam blog'. Apparently Blogger has bots that sweep through blogs they host and flag them as 'spam blogs', disabling them from posting till the owner fills out a form and submits it to Blogger. And my blog was flagged yesterday - I just got access to post back today. So I had already written the post below this one, and decided to go ahead and publish it too. Silly automated processes, but it's all better because the Blogger admins have my blog on the whitelist now. Still was a pain in the rear though.

It was 20 years ago yesterday...

Yes folks, on January 19th, 1986 the first computer virus was discovered. It was a boot sector virus, and was spread from infected floppy disks (ah, those were the days...), a far less serious problem than the worms and trojans and other crud traversing the networks of today thanks to the internet. So in honor of this historic moment in history, let's all make sure our anti-virus programs are up to date and we do a full virus scan, what do you say?

Arrgh...

I hate cars. I totally hate them, with a passion. It never fails, just when you think one is running alright and everything is fine... BAM!!
I had a problem a few months back with the power window on the passenger side of my truck (this is not the actual truck (mine is magenta), just a picture I found so you could see what it looks like). It was stuck down, and I couldn't get the power window to roll back up! I could pull it up so that it was closed at least, but it would slide back down if you hit a bump. So it turns out that the regulator for that window had died, and after a few days and $500 (or so) dollars, it was fixed. Well, now (of course) the DRIVER side window is broken - only this time, I can't get at it to pull it back up! So it's stuck ALL THE WAY DOWN, and folks, it was a COLD drive to work today. I'm very annoyed and pissed off, and since I'll bet the regulator on that window is dead (cause it just figures it will be), it looks like I'm also out another $500...

iPod users are not as likely to steal music

According to a study conducted recently, owners of Apple iPods are less likely to steal music than users of other MP3 players. The survey of US and UK music buyers reveals that even though 25 per cent of people admit to downloading music from file-sharing services, only seven per cent of iPod owners do so. I guess we iPod owners are just an honest bunch, eh? This sure would seem to contradict Steve Ballmer's opinion of iPod users, back in 2004 he told reporters in London that "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'". Oh well, I guess you can't be right all of the time, right Steve?

Email spam on the decline - uh yeah... sure it is

Here's another quick post for today - I found a funny opinion article written for The Guardian that seems to think that spam emails are on the decline. Right - SURE they are :) I get quite a bit of spam still, but I'll admit that very little of it ever hits my inbox. The majority of it is filtered out by the spam filters I use - my ISP provided accounts (which are POP accounts) I pull down with Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5, and it has a really great built in junk mail filter. I also have a Google Gmail account, and their spam filtering works really well too. I still get spam - but I can just delete it easily and never really have to look at it much. Which is nice, since I'm not looking to buy any penny stocks, or help out the Nigerian Finance Minister, or increase the size of my member.

Computer problems driving UK citizens to alcohol and smoking to cope with the stress

Howdy all - sorry I haven't posted in so long, but I've been pretty busy recently. Having to come back to work after a vacation sucks, hard. Anyhow, I was reading this article from BBC News about a poll conducted by UK charity Developing Patient Partnerships about what causes stress for them. 30% responded that 'IT Problems' cause them the most stress, and out of the 1000 people polled, 27% of men and 23% of women said they would light up a cigarette in such situations. And more than a third of men and a quarter of women have a drink to cope with stress. So it looks like computer woes are leading people in the UK to ruin - I know that my problems make me wish I could have a few drinks every now and then!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Here's hoping that everyone out there (all three or four of you who read this blog) has a wonderful New Year - get out and party tonight like it's 2005! I'll be taking next week off, and will be working on my New Year's resolution... get a new job (I really need one). I definitely need the time off, it'll hopefully help me start 2006 right. So here's to Auld Lang Syne and all that - Happy New Year everybody!

AOL's Top Ten list of Spam e-mail subjects

AOL published it's yearly list of the top ten spam email subject lines recently, and here it is -

1. Donald Trump Wants You - Please Respond
2. Double Standards New Product - Penis Patch
3. Body Wrap: Lose 6-20 inches in one hour
4. Get an Apple iPod Nano (or PS3 or Xbox 360) for Free
5. It's Lisa, I must have sent you to the wrong site
6. Breaking Stock News** Small Cap Issue Poised to Triple
7. Thank you for your business. Shipment notification
8. Your Mortgage Application is Ready
9. Thank you: Your $199 Rolex Special Included
and 10. Online Prescriptions Made Easy

In this article from InformationWeek.com, they talk about the list and also mention that AOL is reporting that they blocked an average of 1.5 billion spam messages each day. The total number of emails blocked in 2005 was OVER 556 billion. Damn! Are enough people actually BUYING penis patches to justify sending out that much spam? Seems like the problem is only getting worse, but the article also mentions that the average amount of spam that actually reached their user's mailboxes declined 75% over last year. Well, that's something, I guess.

Wish I'd come up with this idea...

Alex Tew, a 21-year old student from a small English town, came up with one hell of an idea to come up with money to pay for his education. He decided to start a website, appropriately named milliondollarhomepage.com, and sold it as a billboard site - anyone who wants can buy 1 pixel on the page for $1. So a 10x10 section would cost $100, etc. He sold a few sections to some friends and family, and with the $1000 those sales raised he issued a press release. Which was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites and casinos to real estate agents and even The Times of London were putting up real cash for his pixels, with weblinks to their own sites of course. So far he's raised $936,700 - in only four months. Damn, that's quite a lot of money!! If you want to get in on the action, you'd better hurry - there's only 63,300 pixels left.

Coming to a PC near you - an unpatched Windows flaw that exploits Windows Meta File (WMF files) - The zero-day exploit

It's time yet again to watch what emails you open, which sites you visit, and what IM's you click links on VERY carefully! A flaw in the way Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server OS handles Windows Meta File (WMF) files has been exploited, and it can affect your PC even if your copy of Windows XP is fully patches and you run up-to-date anti-virus. As of this writing, Microsoft has no patch ready to fix the flaw in Windows, and the exploit is rampant on thousands of malicious websites. Read more about it here.
There is a workaround available, thanks to Verisign's iDefense. I've copied the procedure (and the possible drawback) below.

According to iDefense, Windows users can disable the rendering of WMF files using the following hack:

1. Click on the Start button on the taskbar.
2. Click on Run...
3. Type "regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll" to disable.
4. Click ok when the change dialog appears.

iDefense notes that this workaround may interfere with certain thumbnail images loading correctly. The company notes that once Microsoft issues a patch, the WMF feature may be enabled again by entering the command "regsvr32 shimgvw.dll" in step three above.

Hope that helps you if you are worried about this - and I think you should be!

A well deserved honor - TIME names Battlestar Galactica the best show of 2005

And I'd have to agree - it was the best show of 2005. Here's a link to the article so you can read the rest of the list. I don't agree with everything (come on - How I Met Your Mother? Except for Neil Patrick Harris that show blows!!) but most of it is right on the money. Although I would have put My Name Is Earl up higher on the list. The new season of Battlestar Galactica starts on January 6th - and I can't wait!!

Track Santa's progress using Google Earth

Have Google Earth? You can use it to track Santa today - it started 2pm GMT. Here's a link to the post about it from the Google Blog. If you want to download Google Earth, just click the Google Earth link above!

Proof that I work for truly bad people

Cause here I am at work today, posting to let you all know about it. I had the day scheduled off, but apparently that's not good enough for the higher-ups around here! I can't get into it too much unfortunately, but suffice it to say that you can just call me Dante Hicks today, cause "I'm not even supposed to BE here today!!"

Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Yule/etc.

I'm going to be unavailable for the next few days most likely, so I thought I'd pop in for a quick post to wish one and all a very happy (insert holiday here). I'll be posting again as soon as I can to let you all know how my holiday went, and whether or not I ever got into the holiday spirit (which is currently still up in the air as of this writing). So here's wishing a very merry (whichever) to all, and I hope you all get what you're looking for from the holiday!

The 'must-have' toys of the last 100 years

So we can pretty safely assume that the 'must-have' item of the year is the Xbox 360, but do you know what the 'must-have' toy of the 60's was? Or the 1900's? Well, click here to find out!

Here's your funny webpage for the day - The Turnpike Prank

Found this page this morning and I had to share, cause it's hilarious!
Click the link to read all about The Turnpike Prank - it almost made me spit up coffee all over my keyboard!

Google adds music search feature

This article from the Google Blog explains it all, and it's a very neat new built in function of Google. Let's say you go to Google and search for 'The Beatles'. Well, as you'll see if you just clicked on that link you'll have a picture of The Beatles at the top of the search results, and a music search-specific link for them as well. Clicking the link will take you to an expanded music search with album covers and links to specific albums and songs - as well as links to buy them online from iTunes or Amazon or Rhapsody (and others as well). Pretty slick!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas??

Eh, I don't know... Maybe it's just me, but I'm not in much of a Christmas mood recently. And it's not like I've got a huge amount of time to try and change that, seeing as how it's only ten days till Christmas! It's snowing outside right now, and you would think that the prospect of a white Christmas would improve my mood, but I can't get over what a pain in the ass it is to have to drive through it and shovel it. It was so much easier when we were kids - the entire kid year was centered around Christmas, and you spent so much time anticipating it that it became a magical event. And I'm not talking about just getting presents, because as great as getting tons of fun stuff for Christmas was, it was the whole experience that was more fun for me. All the traditions you would have, like in my family we used to travel to my paternal grandparents home on Christmas Eve, and spend the afternoon and evening with them that opening presents from them and having a Christmas dinner. We'd go back to our apartment that night and spend Christmas morning at home, opening presents and having brunch and playing with new toys, finally getting ready to go over to my maternal grandparents house to spend the rest of Christmas Day with them. Maybe it's all the time with family I miss, since now that we are spread out across the country it's just impossible to all get together for the holidays except in small groups. Hopefully getting to spend time with my immediate family and with my wife's family next week will improve my mood. I certainly don't want to be a Scrooge at Christmas!

Creepy!! The Miss Digital World beauty pageant

It's deeply weird, yet technically interesting idea, I suppose - here's an article from Wired about the finalists in the Miss Digital World pageant. If this catches on, the models might one day be 100 percent photo-realistic. Right now, they look sort of... off.

Sony rethinking it's anti-piracy policy

After weeks and weeks of criticism, Sony BMG head of global digital business Thomas Hesse says they are 're-evaluating' their use of anti-theft software (also known as Digital Rights Management or DRM). Good idea I think, seeing as how their XCP anti-piracy programs installed themselves onto your PC and then acted like a rootkit - a program which helps an intruder maintain access to a system without the user's knowledge. Even better, they released a removal program which actually makes the problem WORSE. More information about the whole debacle can be found here.

'Podcast' to be added to the New Oxford Dictionary

In lighter news today, the BBC is reporting that the New Oxford Dictionary is officially adding the word 'podcast', which is defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player". It'll be added to the online version of the dictionary early next year. Podcast has been included in the Oxford Dictionary of English since last summer. Podcast beat other words up for consideration, like 'lifehack' and 'rootkit' for inclusion. Like Slashdot notes in their post about this development, "Guess no one needs to know what a rootkit is." Heh.

A very sad anniversary : 25 years since the death of John Lennon

It's true - on December 8th, 1980 John Lennon was shot outside his apartment building by a mentally disturbed fan named Mark David Chapman. Lennon died on route to the hospital. So today marks the 25th anniversary of that event, and this article from CNN.com really helps explain the impact of the event to those born since, or are to young to remember it well.

Watch out - the next Sober worm attack is coming

Here's a rather disturbing piece of news - the next round of widespread attack of the Sober email worm are going to happen on January 5th, 2006, which is the 87th anniversary of the beginnings of what became the Nazi Party in Germany. Fun! Gotta love those virus writers and their love of history, huh?

The Forbes fictional 15

Ever wonder who the richest fictional characters are? Than look no farther than this article from Forbes.com, where all will be (hilariously) revealed!

Will Windows Vista make the 'update Windows, reboot' cycle a thing of the past?

You know the current drill - you need to apply Windows updates, so you get them downloaded, then they install, then the PC has to reboot. But Microsoft's new version of Windows, Windows Vista, may just change all that thanks to a new component the engineers are building into it - Restart Manager. It'll be a nice feature if it works - I guess we'll just have to wait and see because Vista won't be coming out till sometime in the last half of 2006.

4000 hits!

Well, it's official - as of yesterday, the blog has received a total of 4,000 hits. I'd like to thank my readers (both of you ;)) for helping my little piece of the blogosphere reach this milestone. Sure my blog my not get as many hits as the big sites, but I think it's quality, not quantity, that counts. Right?

Anyhow, I'll keep posting things here that interest me or bother me (or both), and you guys and gals just keep reading them whenever you get the chance. I'm sure we'll get to 5,000 hits in no time at all!

Cost breakdown : Xbox 360 retails for less than it cost to make

Not a surprise to those who know about the video game industry, but the Xbox 360 console costs Microsoft more per unit to make than they are selling it for. This is actually standard practice in the industry - the console is a loss leader, the company manufacturing it makes their money through software and peripherals and licensing fees. Also, as more consoles are produced, the cost per unit will come down. Eventually. The article linked above goes into a lot of detail, giving the breakdown of what's inside the Xbox 360 and how much each of the components cost.

More info about the Xbox 360 bugs

Here's another article with more information about the bugs people are experiencing while playing games on their new Xbox 360. Seems to not be a widespread issue, at least according to Microsoft, whose spokesperson Molly O'Donnell states in the article that "The call rate is well below what you'd expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity". Sounds like the problems people are having are really annoying though - makes me a little glad I don't have one, cause I can guarantee you that I'd be one of the 'lucky' ones having trouble!

RIP : actor Pat Morita dead at 73

Just saw this a minute ago - Pat Morita has died of natural causes, he was 73 years old. Very sad news indeed. I remember him first as Arnold on Happy Days, but he's best known as Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies. Pat was a very funny guy, he will be missed.

Problems reported with some Xbox 360's already

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving - I've been in Cincinnati so I wasn't able to post till now. Saw this article from Wednesday about problems being reported with some Xbox 360's already today, and I have to say this actually isn't really that surprising. Microsoft had some trouble with the original Xbox too, they'd overheat or lockup and do other weird things. Hopefully they are helping the affected buyers quickly - I know I'd be pretty pissed if I'd waited in a line for hours to buy one and then it doesn't work once I get it home!

I've seen it, and it's good - Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

Saw it last night, and I thought it was pretty good. There are some differences between the book and the movie, of course, but nothing of major importance was cut out. The pace of the movie was good, it didn't feel like a 2 and a half hour long movie, and I never had a moment of boredom. I didn't think Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes) was quite as scary as he should have been. He was REALLY creepy though, and I can't really think of a better actor to play him (here's a joke only my wife will get - Ralph Fiennes!! Yeah, he was great in The Pianist.) Great performances once again from the kids (Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and of course Daniel Radcliffe), they are really capturing their characters better and better with each film. Overall, I have to hand it to Mike Newell - he took a HUGE book that had enough stuff going on in it to make two movies, and turned it into one really good movie. It's a little darker in tone than the first two movies, and about in line with the tone of Prisoner of Azkaban, so it might not be appropriate for the younger kids - but I'd highly recommend it, even to people who aren't Potter fans!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I'm going to go see it tonight - so I'll give you my two cents on how good or bad it was tomorrow. For now, here's a link to the Goblet of Fire site so you can watch the trailer! You can also get wallpapers and AIM Buddy Icons from the main Harry Potter site.

Want an Xbox360? You might be better off waiting...

...says a review written by CNN Money. A light (although diverse) offering of launch titles with no clear breakout game would be the strongest reason to do so. The built in support for Xbox Live and the new content available though it (including downloadable game demos) are the strongest reasons to go ahead and get one. The biggest question is - will you be able to find one?

Dear Steve Jobs : PLEASE don't change the pricing on iTunes Music Store

This worries me - Forbes.com believes that the flat-fee structure on the iTunes Music Store is coming to an end within the next year. Executives from EMI, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG have apparently been pushing Steve Jobs toward adoption of a tiered pricing scheme - i.e., an older song could be downloaded for less than $0.99, but newer more popular songs would cost more - and would probably be priced at over a dollar a download. The whole appeal to the iTunes Music Store is it's easy to use and cheap - why by a whole album if you only like one song, right? So why should I have to pay more for a song that's more popular - it seems to me that is just a way for the music companies to make more money off the popular songs, cause you know that none of that extra money is going to find it's way to the musicians themselves. I guess all good things come to an end eventually, eh?

Apple to start selling iBook with Intel processor next January

Found this on ThinkSecret - they have word from reliable sources that the first Apple machine to sport an Intel processor will be the iBook, and it will have it's debut at Macworld Expo next January. The say in their article that their sources are the same sources that gave them the scoop on the Mac Mini and iPod Photo before their respective releases. It would be very cool to get a new Apple iBook running an Intel processor - as long as the price is right. If they do bring the iBook down in price to $699 or $799 it would be hard to pass up that kind of a deal! I guess we'll see what happens at the next Macworld...

It's official - Ben Heckendorn has WAY to much time on his hands

For the uninitiated, Ben Heckendorn loves to tinker with old technology, and to make it portable. He made a portable NES, and a portable SNES - and now he's made his own laptop. Using an Atari 800 XE (well, actually an Atari XE GS which was the same thing in game system version). Click the link above to check out some pics (and the other projects he's done) on his website. Man, do I ever wish I had the kind of time to putter around with old tech like he does. That would be lots of fun!

Gaming addicts = drug addicts?

This article from the New Scientist about a new study conducted in Germany found that people addicted to gaming have many similarities to people addicted to drugs. Very interesting - so does this mean that gaming addicts who want to be cured would go to rehab centers like drug addicts do? Would a recovering addict have fallen off the wagon if he was caught hanging out at an EB Games store? Will people now say things like "Oh, I'm just a casual gamer - I can take it or leave it anytime"? Too many questions...

The Darwin Awards - always good for a chuckle

There is still time to vote on the prospective nominees for this year's Darwin Awards - click the link and go right to the page with the list of nominees. Of course you can also checkout the previous winners, and the honorable mentions (people who get honorable mention did not die), and other fun stuff. At the very least, reading some of these will make you feel like your life could certainly be worse!

Say it ain't so - FOX cancels Arrested Development

It figures this would happen, since it almost was cancelled once already, but apparently this time it's a done deal - FOX cancels Arrested Development. They've also cancelled Kitchen Confidential, which also suffered from low viewership. Frankly I'm kind of mad about this, because I think Arrested Development is a great show, the funniest comedy on TV is quite some time. It's a real shame, I think. Fine shows get cancelled, and crap like Trading Spouses stays on the air.

'Body sushi' - Got $500 to spend?

If you've got the free money, here's a unique way to spend it - Body Sushi. Your all-you-can-eat sushi meal is served on a semi-nude woman. The restaurant in Chicago called is called Kizoku, and the woman your meal is served on - a belly dancer and friend of the owner Eddy Pinto from Las Vegas who goes by the name Tabitha - wears a G-string, some cellophane, a few strategically placed seashells and not much else. The sushi is placed atop bamboo leaves arranged on her thighs, stomach and chest, so none of the food touches her skin directly. Alrighty then. I can't stand fish (raw or cooked), and I don't know if the new 'presentation' would make me change my mind. It is a pretty unique idea though, I must admit!

Two great tastes that would taste really bad together - Coffee Beer

This just sounds like an odd idea to me - Nestle patents coffee beer. It's a coffee flavor fermented beverage, which tastes like strong coffee but has no alcohol content. See? Weird. I'm not sure who would want this, but I guess you never know.

Fun link of the day - George W. Bush speechwriter

This is fun! You can create a speech and hear it read in Bush's voice - George W. Bush Speechwriter. Click on the 6 blue tabs on the Bank to switch between different sound bites, then drag a bit over to the Speech side. Once you're done, click Play Speech to hear Bush say what you want him to say! You can make him say some very funny things, and you can save a speech to reload later. Loads of fun!

Mr. Sulu comes out of the closet

I can't apply anything funnier to this than the subject line of the email my brother sent me about it - "Star Trek's Mr. Sulu come out. Set phasers to 'fabulous!'". You have to applaud him for finally breaking his silence, but I've gotta admit this one surprised me a little. When it was revealed that Liberace was gay, I was like 'Duh.' Rock Hudson - 'Yep. I knew it.' Richard Chamberlin - 'I always knew it. I KNEW IT!!!' But this one I did not see coming.

[singing] Real Men of The Empire...[/singing]

Hee hee hee - if you've ever heard the Budweiser 'Real Men of Genius' ads, and you are a Star Wars fan, than this links for you! Real Men of The Empire.

I hope he doesn't force R2 to run Windows...

This post isn't quite keeping with the trend of today's posts so far, but I just had to share this. I mean geez, I've seen some crazy PC case modifications before, but this one takes the cake - pictures of an R2D2 case mod project. The guy did a pretty good job on it too, it must have taken him a very long time. I'm sure it was totally worth it - well, to him at least!

Ever wonder what was inside a Magic 8 Ball?

Continuing in the metaphysical vein of today's posts, here's a site that wanted an answer to the age-old question - What's inside a Magic 8 Ball? The whole 'experiment' was conducted with large amounts of humor apparently - and they even had some test subjects drink the fluid from inside the ball! That sounds pretty gross...

Find out who you were in a past life (interesting)

Even if you don't believe in past life experiences (like me), this is kinda fun - Past Life Analysis. It's at least good for a laugh!

Violation of free speech - or protecting the children?

Well it's a tough call on this one - a Catholic high school principal has informed his students that they must take down their blogs and other personal online sites like pages on myspace.com and xanga.com. So that begs the question - is he violating their rights to free speech, or just doing what he thinks is right to protect his kids from predators online? It's a tough call - I can see both arguments having validity, but I bet the voices on the side of protecting the students (the principal, his staff, the kids' parents) will veto any arguments the kids can come up with against this new policy.

Gotta go back in time...

Check it out folks - someone went to all the time and trouble to craft the DeLorean from Back to the Future out of LEGO - here's the link to the pictures.

NASA worries that long space missions could be jeopardized by - wait for it... SEX!!

Oh yeah, I'm not kidding. Here's the link to the New Scientist article I just read that goes into NASA's misgivings about sex in space - in detail. So OK - people but together on a long space mission like say, to Mars (it would most likely be a 30 month trip to reach Mars), would potentially want to do it. That is a given, I think. So now NASA is going to study the issue, and they better hurry - they plan to conduct new missions to the moon by 2018! Do you think they have enough time?

Yep, more pictures from Vegas

Here are some pictures of a few hotels on the Strip -

Here's The Mirage.

This is The Palms - the new tower was still under construction while we were there.

Here's a shot of The Venetian.

And here's a shot of The Stratosphere.

Yet more Vegas pictures

Here you go, even more pictures from Vegas!!

Inside the Wynn lobby, they have trees with large topiary balls hanging from them, so here's a shot of one.

This is a shot of the stream that runs through the landscaping outside the hotel.

Here's a shot of the cool hanging lanterns inside the Wynn.

The Wynn lobby also has these neat tile mosaics all over the place, inlaid into the marble floors. Very fancy!

Even more Vegas pictures

Got some more Vegas pictures for you - here's a few more of the new Wynn hotel.

Another exterior shot of the Wynn Las Vegas

Like other Vegas hotels, the Wynn has a video sign outside - but the Wynn's is special. The video is one thing while the logo is down, like this shot...

And switches to something different while the logo moves up, like it is in this shot. Pretty cool when you see it in action.

And here's a shot looking into the lobby of the Wynn hotel.

I've got a few more shots taken at the Wynn, and I'll share them soon!

More Vegas pictures

Well, I'm posting it later than I'd hoped to, but as promised - here's are more of my pictures from our Vegas trip.

Another shot of the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas.

A shot of the fountain outside Paris Las Vegas.

Here's the electronic sign outside Paris Las Vegas - it's even more impressive at night!

Here's an exterior shot of the new Wynn Las Vegas - a pretty cool place indeed.

More pictures from Vegas (better late than never...)

I know I promised more pics - here they are (finally)!

This is the replica Arc De Triomphe outside of Paris Las Vegas

And here is a shot of the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas

More to come - perhaps later today, if I have a chance (fingers crossed!)

Apple announces new iPod that plays video

There had been rumors that Steve Jobs was going to make the announcement about video iPods on the 12th, then the websites spreading those rumors were told to stop. And sure enough, Jobs announced that new iPods would soon be available that play video. 150 hours of video (on the 60 GB model I'd assume) - but you have to watch it on a 2.5 inch screen. Maybe I'll wait till they make one with a bigger screen... nah, who am I kidding - I want one now!

One day only - download Divx Create software for free!

Looks like this is legitimate - one day only (today), you can download the Divx Create software package for free. It's normally $19.99, but they are giving it away free today to celebrate their five year anniversary. Here's the link - enjoy!!

Meeting of the minds - TIME interviews Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman

And as you can read in the article, both Neil and Joss have film coming out this Friday. Neil's got Mirrormask, and Joss has Serenity (of course). It's a pretty long article (so long that I've only had time to skim it so far), but pretty interesting. And Neil has declared September 30th as 'National Geek Day', and it sure will be! I'll be in a theater watching Serenity on Friday - how about you?

Windows Vista - the REAL reason it's taking so long to bring it out

Here's a great article from the Wall Street Journal all about the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and the problems that have caused it to be delayed many times over. It goes into the change Microsoft implemented in how they code their software, and how it wasn't an easy sell with their engineers - or Bill Gates himself. Definitely worth a read.

From the Earth to the Moon - again

Well, it's official - NASA is going to return to the Moon before the end of the next decade, probably in 2018. The spacecraft they plan to develop looks remarkable similar to the Apollo program spacecraft - but it will be updated (of course). It'll also apparently cost somewhere on the order of $100+ billion dollars to develop and build. Not sure if it's worth it, but the new vehicle is also expected to be the main way to deliver people and supplies to the International Space Station (replacing the Shuttle) and will also possibly be the vehicle (or one of the vehicles) used for human exploration of Mars. Maybe it's worth it, but I don't know - we'll see I suppose. I'm sure many people will weigh in with their opinions over the next few days and weeks.

Nintendo reveals the real reason they are calling their next console 'Revolution'

The story broke yesterday - Nintendo, which has been very tight about info on the new Nintendo Revolution console up till now, officially unveiled the new controller for it at the Tokyo Game Show. Big deal, I'll bet you're thinking. But it actually is - read this article from 1up.com to find out all about it. Has Nintendo done it again - or will the Revolution suffer the same fate as the GameCube?

Release date for Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children

It's been a long time coming, but the fully CGI rendered movie 'sequel' to Final Fantasy VII will be available on DVD on November 29th. More info about the DVD available from AnimeNation. You can also find out more about Advent Children on it's website - it's a Japanese site, but not too hard to glean at least some info from it. You might also be interested in this interview with Tetsuyo Nomura (Director of Advent Children), where he talks about his idea of remaking the original FFVII, as a full CGI version for Playstation 3. Now THAT would be awesome - getting to play FFVII again, but it looks like the CGI animation used in Advent Children!!

As promised - some pictures I took in Vegas

I know I promised this a long LONG time ago, but here it is finally - I've got some pictures I took in Vegas to share with you. Like this one - a shot of the hallway leading away from our room at Rio (exciting stuff, I know).



Here's one of the cars on the Las Vegas Monorail - all Borgified. Cool, huh?



I've got more to share - but no time to put 'em up right now, unfortunately. Hopefully later today or tomorrow.

The Bushes on vacation

Man, this picture is hilarious! My father-in-law emailed it to me, so thanks go out to him for brightening my day! If you want to see the image larger you can just click on it.

Bill Gates speaks out about the competition facing Microsoft

Here's a link to an interview Bill Gates did with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, where he talks about Windows Vista, the next version of Office, and the competition Microsoft faces from such companies as Apple and Google - who he admits are doing some things better than Microsoft is. Of course, he believes that he'll eventually crush them, but that's nothing new. Interestingly enough, Gates also recently did an interview with CNET - here's the link to that one. If you're pressed for time the interview in the Seattle PI isn't very long, but I think the one in CNET is more in depth.

Oh, this is just too funny - check this link out!

Got the link to this website emailed to me by a friend, and I laughed my butt off once I went there and read the site - here's the link. You may not want to read this if you believe in creationism/intelligent design, unless you have a good sense of humor!

American traveler's apology t-shirt

Here's another fun thing I found recently - Are you a American, a world traveler, and tired of having to apologize for your government? Wear this stylish and functional t-shirt, and it will do the apologizing for you! I think it's pretty cool, I might just need to get one...

Now available at the iTunes Music Store

Do you have an iPod? Do you love Harry Potter? Well now you're in luck - you can bring the two together! Just go to the iTunes Music Store and download the Complete Harry Potter Collection - you can even use the convenient link I've added to the sidebar (hint, hint) to get it. What could be cooler, right?

And with the new updated iTunes 5, it's even easier to sample and subscribe to thousands of free podcasts at the iTunes Music Store.

Here's another cool link to get some new content from iTunes - just the thing for you Madonna fans out there -


Enjoy!

Let the President know how you feel about his response to Hurricane Katrina

You've seen the devastation on TV (or in person), you've heard the pleas of the displaced citizens and the mayor of New Orleans, and you've seen the complete failure of the government to properly respond and help the survivors of Katrina. Want to let Bush know how you feel? Sign this petition and let your opinion be heard.
You can also catch a bit of the awesome (and hilarious) Katrina coverage that was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Tuesday night here - check out the Bush's Timeline video.

iTunes 5 and iPod Nano

Greetings! I know, it's been a while since I've posted AGAIN. Sorry about the lack of posts recently - I'm trying to write more often, it's just been tough recently. I promise I'll explain more, but not now. Now there is very interesting news to report on the Apple iPod/iTunes front - the new version of iTunes (version 5) is now available for download (get it here). The new version is a little more streamlined, they say the search is faster (I thought it was pretty fast already), and it supports the new iTunes for Mobile Phone (which only works with Cingular). Also new is the iPod Nano, which looks just like the normal iPod but is pencil-thin (dimensions are 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27 inches), and comes in a 2GB ($199) and 4GB ($249) version. You can get one in either white or black. So it looks like this new iPod officially signs the death warrant for the iPod Mini - it's better though so it's not a big surprise I guess. Check out the links if you want more info about the new iTunes or iPod Nano.

Been a long time - but here's a new post

Greetings - I know it's been a VERY long time since I last posted anything, but I promise there is a good reason for the delay. I'm not going to go into it right now, but I promise soon I'll write something about it. Vacation went pretty well, although I didn't want to leave Vegas. That happens pretty much every time I'm there though, so it was no surprise :) I have some pictures to share, so I'll be throwing a few of them up here sometime in the next few days. Not a whole lot else going on right now - work sucks (no surprise, I know), and we'll be going to Chicago for a few days this weekend. So that means it'll be a while till I post again. Someday soon I hope to get back to posting more regularly - keep your fingers crossed for me!

VEGAS BABY!!! VEGAS!!!!

Oh yeah - even though the countdown began weeks ago, now it's really getting down to the wire. If I can only make it through the day, then I can just relax and take it easy in Las Vegas. It's almost vacation time - and I just can't wait! It's hard to be here at work today because my mind is just not on work at all. I think it already went out to Vegas ahead of me maybe. Isn't it just the worst thing in the world to have to go into work right before vacation? You just can't concentrate. Well, wish me luck trying to make it through the rest of the day...

This is kinda creepy

Looks like the Japanese have developed a robot that looks very realistic - too realistic, if you ask me. Read the BBC News article here, and here's a link to a National Geographic article with another couple of pictures. Very creepy - what's next Blade Runner style replicants?

Vacation just can't start fast enough...

Work is still kicking my ass, but thankfully it's almost over - it's almost vacation time!! BB and I will be going to Las Vegas this Sunday, and we'll be there for a whole week - I am really looking forward to it, especially with how bad work has been recently. I'll try to get some cool pictures, and I may just be posting a few of them here, we'll see...

If your desk has a forehead shaped divot in it - does that mean you bang your head against it too much?

Still suffering under the yoke of my horrible job - it's been a week from hell, but thankfully it'll be over soon. Since my work week runs Wednesday through Saturday, I have the next three days off! YAY!!! And very soon (but not hardly soon enough) BB and I will be off to wonderful Las Vegas for a well deserved vacation. We'll be staying at the Rio, they have a really cool pool area - it's gonna be a great vacation!

I hate my job

I know, I know - big surprise, everyone hates their job. But I hate my job with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns, it's a hate akin to the pure hatred Ahab had for Moby Dick ("to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." Now THAT'S some hate!) Suffice to say, my job sucks. We'll leave it at that, or I'll get all worked up about it.
Anyways, I haven't been able to post over the past couple of days - let's see, what's been happening in the last couple days...

More bombings in London, police shoot a suspect.

Bush picks a nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, John Roberts - his mother says his Roman Catholic faith his very important to him. [sarcasm]Yay.[/sarcasm]

Microsoft renames Longhorn - it's now Windows Vista. VISTA?!?!? WTF??

And on a very sad note, James Doohan died Wednesday morning. He will be cremated and his ashes launched into 'space, the final frontier'. Jimmy Doohan was a very cool guy, it's obvious from the articles all over the web how special he was and how he'll be missed.

The next step in broadband internet - 100Mbps connection in your home

It's being rolled out over in the Netherlands as a trial soon, and looks promising. How cool would it be to be downloading files from your favorite (LEGAL) music service, and getting them in a split second? You can read more about it here.

Harry Potter Mania!!!

So, the new Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out today. Since stores started selling the book at midnight, BB and I went out and picked up a copy last night. And it was quite an adventure! We went to a Meijer's (because they were selling the book really cheap, $14.87 or something) and arrived about quarter till midnight, and got in one heck of a long ass line. At midnight they started moving people through the line and just handing them books - you had to go out to the registers at the front of the store to purchase it. It moved pretty fast, considering that there were probably 300 or so people in front of us in the line. Quite a few people behind us too - I've no idea how many total, but A LOT I'm sure. Anyway, even though BB was all worried we wouldn't get a copy, we did - and she's happily reading it right now. So all's well that ends well, right? Oh, and the Half Blood Prince? Yeah, it's Hagrid. (Actually, I've no idea. I haven't read a word of the book yet. But wouldn't it be funny if I was right?)

Movies to see : Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers

My wife (who I've decided to call BB, since constantly typing 'my wife and I' is retarded) and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday. Man, that was a great film - much truer to the book. We both really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to any fan of the book. They even included the part from the book with the Indian prince who asks Wonka to build him a palace made entirely of chocolate (and it was a great scene).
BB and I (See? Much easier) also went to see Wedding Crashers recently. We saw an advance screening of it on Monday, but I didn't get an opportunity to write about it till now. Very fun movie - definitely NOT a family film. Lots of lewd conduct and naked boobies and such. But if you like Vince Vaughn, go see this movie - because he is great in it. Owen Wilson is good too, but Vince is just terrific. Plus there's a special surprise cameo from one of Vince's Old School co-stars. Very funny! Another good movie that I would highly recommend.

Latest on the delayed Space Shuttle launch

Here's the word from NASA on what's happening with the investigation into the problem with the engine cut-off sensor that was malfunctioning - 'The sensor protects an orbiter's main engines by triggering them to shut down in the event fuel runs unexpectedly low. Space Shuttle Program managers plan a series of meetings Thursday to discuss the problem and determine the steps necessary to get back into the launch countdown. As of now, the most optimistic possibility for the next launch attempt is no earlier than 2:40 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 16.' NASA has been really good about updating their Return To Flight section of their site, so check there for further updates.
I had tried to write an update about the Shuttle launch as soon as it was announced, but Blogger had some weird glitch and wouldn't publish my post. I tried a few times and kept getting odd errors. Then I look at the blog later, and there's the post Blogger was telling me it couldn't publish. Maybe Blogger was overloaded with people posting all at the same time, I don't know. Weird stuff, but it seems to be better today.

Legal music downloads on the rise

The latest Neilsen Soundscan report tracking legal music downloads shows a threefold increase in downloads from January to June 2005 (compared to the same period in 2004). The article notes that Compact Disc sales within the same period decreased by 7 percent, and that single-song downloads account for six percent of overall music sales, up by four percent compared to last year. Of course the recording industry has no problem with this, as they have their hooks into the legal music download services like iTunes Music Store and Napster - so they get a piece of every song sold. Of course they are still after illegal downloads, and that's mentioned in the article as well.

Space Shuttle Lanch postponed

The launch scheduled to happen today at 3:51pm EDT has been postponed - looks like a faulty sensor onboard the orbiter is to blame. Additional info available through NASA's website or CNN. Too bad, but I guess they want to be absolutely certain nothing goes wrong. You really can't blame NASA for being extra careful.

The NHL lockout may be over - finally

Here's the article straight from ESPN.com - as long as both sides ratify the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), then the lockout is over and next season will happen. SWEET!

Return to Flight - NASA prepares for Discovery launch today

It is looking good for the anticipated 3:51pm launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, despite problems with a window cover that fell off the orbiter yesterday and a problem with a launch pad heater during fueling this morning. The orbiter is fueled up as of 9am, and the short delay won't affect the launch (NASA builds extra time into launch preparation for problems like these). Get all the latest info online from MSNBC here, and from NASA's website here.

Rockstar has a problem with some "hot coffee"

Looks like there's a mod available for the PC version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas which adds explicit sexual content to the game - and it's causing quite a stir. Rockstar states that the content is added to the game by the mod (the developer of the mod, Patrick Wildenborg, calls it 'hot coffee'), and is not existing content that is unlocked by it. Here's the word from Rockstar's official statement - "So far we have learned that the "hot coffee" modification is the work of a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game, in violation of the software user agreement, hackers created the 'hot coffee' modification by disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game's source code. Since the 'hot coffee' scenes cannot be created without intentional and significant technical modifications and reverse engineering of the game's source code, we are currently investigating ways that we can increase the security protection of the source code and prevent the game from being altered by the 'hot coffee' modification." Of course, no steps taken by a software developer can completely kill such modifications - but Rockstar is smart to clearly state that the questionable content was not pre-existing within the game. Now, can they prove it?

Windows Longhorn begins beta testing

It's official - Microsoft's long delayed new operating system, code name Longhorn, has officially begun beta testing. The invited will be able to download Longhorn Beta 1 and conduct the first official beta testing, and it's expected that Microsoft will allow the public to apply for the beta program later this summer. I remember getting a Beta version of Windows XP many years back - I wonder if Microsoft will send me one of the invites?

Is the end to the NHL lockout in sight?

God, we can only hope. I don't know if I could handle another season without hockey. Read this very informative article from the New York Daily News to get the whole story on the current status of the negotiations. Count me among the many people with their fingers crossed hoping this deal really does go through and that hockey starts again next season.

Google Toolbar coming to Firefox?

There is a strong possibility it is, according to this article from ZDNet. Firefox users have had the GoogleBar extension for a while now, but this would be a translation of the Internet Explorer version, and would come from Google itself. Interesting news, but it would have to be pretty special for me to use it. Firefox already has pop-up blocking, so the Firefox version of Google Toolbar won't need that - and there's already a Google search box built into the browser (and right on the home page if you use the Firefox Start Page). Well, it's interesting news at least - it's good to see more software developers making use of Firefox.

I wish I was rich... Star Wars memorabilia going up for auction

Looks like film producer Gary Kurtz is putting some of his Star Wars collection up for auction - you can get more info from this site. They will also be auctioning off some other Star Wars stuff, and the mileage signpost from the M*A*S*H television series! Odds are that they'll make a decent amount of cash off of some of those pieces, like the lightsaber - that'd be the one that I'd want. Now if only I were fabulously wealthy...

Secret Wall Tattoos

This is a very interesting concept - check out Secret Wall Tattoos. Unless I miss my guess, these are all hotel/motel rooms - I wonder how many of them have been discovered by the staff? And if any of the artists got in trouble for them?

A cautionary tale for users of wireless routers

If you have your own wireless router and operate it without any security measures at all - you need to read this article. Just a friendly reminder that running a wireless network with no security is a BAD IDEA.

Google Video

Google is beta testing their new video search at video.google.com - you'll need a browser plug-in to watch the videos (available here). If you'd like to patch the "feature" of the viewer that prevents you watching videos not hosted on Google's servers, than you'll need to check out this website.

Playstation 3 may be priced at $399

Looks like the Playstation 3 will cost Sony $454 to make, and they will most likely sell it for $399. Pricey. I haven't seen a price for Xbox 360 yet, but I bet it's less - most likely less by only a little, but less. Of course I want both of them - but we'll have to see if that actually happens or not. I may not be able to afford it!

Error message Generator

Ever wanted to craft a humorous Windows error message, maybe just for fun or to use on a forum or message board? Well, problem solved! Here's Atom Smasher's Error Message Generator! Fun for the whole family!

Apple upgrades iTunes to version 4.9

If you haven't upgraded iTunes yet, click here to get the new version, which includes support for podcasts. Cool!!