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?