Evolution...

No.. I am not going to do on some diatribe on the theory of evolution, but in this case what I am talking about is some of the changes on the blog.. meaning some of the what I would call cool stuff. First and foremost you will now be able to tell what time it is where I am thanks to my nandy dandy clock. I have also added a blogroll which will continue to grow over time, it really contains some random type of stuff. I also added headlines to Digg so that we can all be up on what is cool in technology (or what some people term cool.. and yes I have learned my lesson, no longer will I be linking there to this blog unless it is something that I deem to be original enough to warrant such).

However, the newest of the new is the Feedshare box from Rojo (wicked Web 2.0 stuff there). What this does is "advertise" for other blogs and their feeds in return to having people advertise for this one. Interesting concept (which is in a test phase right now.. ) which could be really cool, it not only drives traffic to your site and others but also to Rojo..

Almost forgot my favortite.. I talked about Pandora some time ago.. well I now have a link to them that allows any reader to start their own station from here.. pretty cool.. and much and I mean much better than Launchcast (and Last.fm if you ask me).

Tags: Pandora, Web Clock, Rojo, Web 2.0

Where can I get one of these..

OK, I am back from an extended time away from the blog.. did do some work on the layout and what not, but I am now ready to start with the posting again.

So a buddy of mine sends me the picture you see here and asks me to try to find it.. if one of you fine readers knows where.. send me an email or leave something in the comments...

Not sure what the use of these are, wouldn't the beer get really warm by the time you are half way done?

Tags: Beer, Huge cups, Party Supplies, Odd

Adsense in Space?

Is this the next step?



I should have seen this one coming, but some people out there are theorizing that with the ever growing popularity of Google Maps (the satellite view) and Google Earth, that some people will make the use of their roofs as billboards from space. While this may Target was head of the game, since for any one of their stores that are visible to incoming/outgoing air traffic have the logo painted on the roof. Is this really worth it? If I am flying in from Chicago, and I see a Target, do I think to myself, man I got to get there? Probably not.

However, what is to stop companies like Google to spice up the Satellite images that they use (they are not love, or even that recent.. my house has 2 red cars in the driveway in Google Earth.. have not had that for almost 2 years). But what if a store/company signs up for Adsense (and with the advent of the "blue balloon" in Google maps, you now know who is paying to be in the map) but wants something a little more including a logo or something similar (a virtual billboard).

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Maps, Sightseeing, Advertising

Have to check this one out..

1491



Ran across this one on one of the blogs that I check out from time to time, Cool Tools, so he gets the credit for this one. The book (it can be pre-ordered on Amazon )
contends that the history that we were taught as kids, that when the European settlers came to America, the Indians that they ran into and experienced were "primitive". According to this book, that was far from the truth, and that the native Americans had progressed very far and they were not impressed with the E Europeans. In fact according to one of the excerpts :

Guns are an example. As Chaplin, the Harvard historian, has argued, New England Indians were indeed disconcerted by their first experiences with European guns: the explosion and smoke, the lack of a visible projectile. But the natives soon learned that most of the British were terrible shots, from lack of practice -- their guns were little more than noisemakers. Even for a crack shot, a seventeenth-century gun had fewer advantages over a longbow than my be supposed.

that actually makes sense since a really good bowman can get off more than 5 quivers in less than a minute (I saw this on a History Channel show.. ), while the "guns" that the settlers used were actually pretty primitive. It was not until the machine gun was created that there was ever a true advantage, when one had to re-load each shot, you were a sitting duck..

As an aside, according to a book I read when I was in college The Social History of the Machine Gun , when the machine gun became more "portable" and more common place, there was thought that no one would ever use this in a war and it would become a true deterrent to war. (Obviouly not the case, in fact it only escalated it). Sorry to get all philosophical on you, but I found it interesting..

Technorati Tags: History, 1491, American History

What a long stange journey

The Evolution of ESPN.com



Wow.. nice "redisign" ESPN.com.. well I would not go all that far to call it an overhaul, since they have held onto a lot of the elements that they already had, including what I think is one of the most ober-stuffed main menu bars at the top as well as the ESPN News headlines, which I would prefer to be both scrolling and customizable by user (they can do it for the Bottom Line application, but not for a site?). And just like the old site, the front page is loaded with advertisements and links that only lead to the "Insider" content. I was an insider for a short time (when I actually thought they were going to let insiders stream CFB games... which never happened), and to be honest.. it is not really worth it since most of the information can be found though 'alternative means'.

What I found funny was not the redesign but the "slideshow" of the past 10 years front pages. Do you think that broadband has made a different, the first couple of years look to me like they are meant for aol.com accounts and the like. The graphics are really simple and the pictures are really grainy as well, and they give the all important (especially in those days) "text-only" option. Now look at the new one, a bunch of embeeded Flash presentations, scrolling scoreboards and the like. What a long trip it has been (imagine what it is going to be like in only a couple of more years where broadband is 5 times faster!!!).

Technorati Tags: ESPN, ESPN.com, Web Development, FLASH, Sports Web Sites

Need Some Tunes..

I am in the process of liquidating my CD collection via Half.com. If you want some interesting and inexpensive music (leave a comment about one you would like, I will give a 10% discount) check out the link in the sidebar. Like much of what I write about my musical tastes are pretty eclectic.

Tags: Music, Used CDs, Eclectic, Discount, Jazz, Alternative, Half.com

One Word Answer.. NO

Truce...???

I will answer this for all of America (and I know that I usually do not get into diatribes like this) but how can there be a truce between a sovereign nation and a random band of terrorists? It cannot and will not happen, the only way that this will ever end is when Bin Laden is dead, plain and simple, you killed over 3000 innocent people on our soil, caused unbelievable heartbreak and sorrow for this entire nation.. there will be no truce. Kind of interesting though that he came out with this after we bombed a bunch of his cronies.. maybe we are closer than we think (or the CIA will tell us).


So.. NO WAY BIN LADEN.. you started this and at some point we are going to end it

Tags: News, Terrorism, Bin Laden, Twin Towers, Truce

On the Bleeding Edge

Belkin Pre-N Router

Yeah this thing looks funny, but according to the review, if you are one of the early adopter types and need the ability to stream HD (maybe to your new XBOX 360) this is the router for you. Even without the Pre-N (the standard has not been ratified yet) card for your laptop, there will still be a 20 percent gain in performance. But when you put in the new card.. the range is unbelievable (around 200 feet) and the throughput is up there with a wired LAN.

I would think that once the standard becomes ratified, this will become the new standard that is put into these new multimedia laptops. This technology has been available for around a year now, and it is still expensive (around 2 bills for the set of both cards), but if you think about how the prices of G routers dropped like stones, it is only a matter of time before this becomes more consumer friendly.

There is a Belkin

or a Linksys

or a Netgear

If you want true, ultra fast wireless performance.. check these bad boys out..

Tags: Pre-N, Routers, Belkin, Wireless Networking, Linksys

Skewer the skewers...

DEADSPIN

I have been reading this bog for some time (it is from Gawker media, home of on of the other really good blogs out there.. Lifehacker ). This is exactly what the blogosphere needs for a sports blog. They are not afraid to absolutely kill the people in the sport media that are starting to think that they are above the sports that they actually cover. Let's put it this way, they had a poll on who would win ina fight between Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) and Isiah Thomas. They also have a regular feature called "Why Your Hometown Columnist Sucks.. ", I just hope that they take a look at some of the fine Boston Writers that I have mentioned in the past.

These guys do not take themselves or the stuff that they cover too seriously which I think should be a pre-req for all sports journalist, since you are in fact doing something that most guys would love to do, you go to any game that you want, meet any of the athletes that you want and you get to write about stuff that you love. Instead it appears that most of the people that do this hold some contempt for the people that they cover.. as well as for the people that read what they write (and by that fact pay them).

I now go to Deadspin more than ESPN or any other sports site and so should you. To steal from Bill O'Reilly (and yes I do think he is a clown).. it is the "NO SPIN" zone for sports..

World Series of...

BEER PONG!!!!


Just ran across this one, apparently nothing is off limits in Vegas (yeah I know.. what happens in Vegas.. ) but apparently a "beer pong" accessory provider sponsored a national tournament to see who the best "players" were. Two "recent grads" from BLUE (Univeristy of Michigan) won it and get to split the 10K.. after paying back the bar owner who sponsored them...

I love the line..

"It's like playing darts at a bar," Coben told The Ann Arbor News.

Well, not really since Darts takes some math skills, and when you miss you do not have to down a beer..

Not sure what is worse.. the fact that this took place or that there is a company that sells "supplies"...

Technorati Tags: Vegas, Beer, Beer Pong, Strange