Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Bloglines Adds Package Tracking
I pimp Bloglines a good amount already. Now that they’ve added package tracking (UPS, FedEx, and USPS), well, I’ll just keep pimping it. Not only cool, but extremely useful and easy to use.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Nigel’s Blog
Crossing Jordan fans have a blog to add to their feedreaders. Dr. Nigel Townsend (played by Steve Valentine) keeps a blog, aptly named Nigel’s Blog.
There’s more than just a character’s personal entries there. Nigel is posting information about some cases the ME is having trouble solving and comments are on all entries to allow people to post feedback, and theories. NBC is encouraging comments by giving away prizes for people who post information leading to the capture of the killer.
It’s done pretty well, and it’s really the perfect kind of tag-along for this type of show.
It would be nice if they offered an rss feed for updates.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Undisguised Police Cars
I was in the back of a cab the other day when I noticed another cab passed us. It took all of about one second to realize it wasn’t a taxi, but a police car. I understand they want to drive around incognito and such, but this faux cab just didn’t cut it.
If you’re in back of the cab you notice a funny antenna behind the numbers that light up on top. No giveaway by any means, but when you also notice there’s no partition (yes, some real cabs have none, but they all stand out) and that there are two people in the front of the cab with no one in back and the light off on top, it’s just a dead giveaway. I mentioned it to the cabbie and he laughed and said “yup” and then a few blocks later we saw it pull into a spot in front of a precinct.
The no partition thing was weird. I mean, doesn’t a normal police car have a partition in it? Was it just so perfect that we (the cabbie and I) missed it? The two riders in front are really what tips you off anyway. If you’ve got no one in the back, turn on the “off duty” lights to make it more believable. Plus, I can’t imagine it not being fun to put some perp in the back and flip it off (and have a fake meter just to bust his chops).
The stickers on the side looked a little different, but it was nighttime and I didn’t get the best look at them.
The cab’s a good concept and I understand why the police do it, but I think they can definitely tweak the current model so it blends in a bit more.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Craigslist Rant
The latest great rant on craigslist. It’s actually almost a month old, but who’s counting…
Thanks to Vinnie for the link.
Monday, March 14, 2005
It’s Pi Day
Today, March 14th (3/14), is π (Pi) Day.
While this post missed 1:59 AM, you can celebrate it at 1:59 PM, I won’t tell.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Atari Releases Faux “What’s That In the Background” Home Video
Ever see those Photoshopped pics of someone standing at the top of the WTC with a plane in the background? There are a good number of variations out there of different catastrophic events. The premise is simple: someone was taking a touristy pic and they accident grabbed something in the background.
Now take one of those home videos when people are randomly recording something and get some event on camera (police brutality come to mind for whatever reason, someone always has a camera around then it seems…).
Add those two together and you get Atari’s new viral campaign for Act of War:
www.how-safe-are-we.com
Via AdJab
Forbes Highlights the Haters
Forbes Magazine has published the Top Corporate Hate Web Sites.
The following nine sites—there were ten, but one went unexpectedly dark during the editing of this story—are the crème de la crème of online rage. Note that we substantially cleaned up some of the posts, editing out odd capitulation schemes, iffy grammar and plain incoherence. Apparently blinding anger does not go hand in hand with dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s.
The companies hated on:
KB Homes
PayPal
Allstate
Microsoft
American Express
Wal-Mart
Verizon
United
UPS
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Thankfully There’s No Hockey to Cry Over
Cablevision and Time Warner are feuding once more.
Here it is, past midnight and FSNY and MSG are both gone from the Time Warner channel lineup. The guide says they’ve been replaced by CSTV (College Sports TV) and NBA TV, although both channels seem to both be NBA TV right now.
There’s no hockey, and I don’t watch too many Knicks or Mets games, so I’m not bothered by losing these two channels all too much other than being annoyed that these two companies have again locked NYers out of their sports channels.
I have both NBA TV and CSTV already, so this is no bonus to me by any means. CSTV usually shows college hockey on Friday nights for those that are interested (although nothing is scheduled this Friday), so if this blackout lasts long enough NYers will probably see more hockey than they would have with FSNY and MSG.
Of course - the reason I have the package that NBA TV and CSTV are included in is for the Fox Sports College stations (there are three, Atlantic, Central and Pacific). I subscribe to those for the good amount of college hockey those stations broadcast. Those are gone now as well with a message that I’ll be credited for those stations until this is resolved. The credit is $3.45 per month, the package is $3.95 per month. While it’s only 50 cents a month to wait it out, there’s not much college hockey left, and there’s not much of a reason for me to continue on with a package I won’t watch anyway, even when it does return. I’ll just see what my options are in the fall.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Fried, and Fried Again
For the second time in about two weeks I fried a processor. Both times were exactly the same: I touch my mouse, I feel a huge spark, and my computer freezes and then shuts off. Today was a bigger spark than the last time, and other people actually smelt the burn coming from the computer.
I have no idea why this happens, how I’m so full of static, but I have been grounding myself each and every time I sit down now. I also have a new mouse, just in case. Oh, I also have a headache, but I think that’s due to having to set up my computer - again.
This time I have a completely new model, so I have to slave my hard drive to another machine and hopefully get all the data off of it.
I love a fresh start, but prefer to have my fresh starts more spread out. That and being taken out of the loop for most of a day (when you expect to be in it) really drives you mad.