News Tuesday - 1/15/08

• Hasbro Sues Scrabulous For Being Too Scrabble-ish (2008-01-12)
• Images: Linux gets a taste of Windows and Mac (2008-01-11)
• Rogue Black Holes May Be Wandering Through Galaxy (2008-01-09)
• Rain and shine hit Google Maps and Google Earth (2008-01-09)
• New Line Confirms It Will Move To Blu-ray Exclusively As Well (2008-01-08)
• Apache Wicket 1.3 set for Java Web development (2008-01-04)
• [+1380] Stop-Motion Human Tetris (2008-01-02)
• 'Conan,' 'Pirates,' 'Warhammer': Three New MMOs Challenge 'World of Warcraft' in 2008 (2008-01-02)
• Clinton, McCain or Paul? New Website Tells You Who to Vote For (2008-01-02)
• Mac market share breaks 8% mark in 2007's final days - Computerworld (2008-01-02)
• A roadmap for ending the high-def format quagmire (2008-01-02)
• New Dell PC Design Rivals the iMac (2008-01-03)

Remember When?

Remember awhile ago when I said that the Chargers were the most frustrating team to watch in the NFL? Well, while they were at that time (we were close to 50% on wins), it is no longer the true! In case you've been living in a hole for a couple of days, the Chargers successfully defeated the Colts on Sunday. Not in a way that could have been considered lucky, or a fluke, but a legitimate win (when at times it seemed like even the refs were against them). Now, I know that everyone has already counted them out against the Patriots, who are currently playing a perfect season, but you just can't count them out. On any given day, any team can win, even against the Patriots! Of course, I'm not expecting it, but I believe that it's possible, and really, I'd just like to see a close game. Go Chargers!

News Tewsday (A week plus a day late) - 1/2/2008

• After home-sales drop, what to watch in 2008 (2007-12-29)
• Junk Science: Top 10 Climate Myth-Busters for 2007 (2007-12-27)
• [+2068] Lego Portal (2007-12-27)
• [+3945] The coolest animated .GIF tiled background perhaps ever (2007-12-27)
• New Dell PC Design Rivals the iMac (2007-12-28)
• Apple Stock Breaks the $200 Barrier for First Time (2007-12-26)
• GOP Race Wide Open (2007-12-20)
• Apple Rumor Site to Shut Down in Settlement - New York Times (2007-12-21)
• Shave time off your Web searches by using operators (2007-12-20)
• Toyota Wants to Make Sure You're Never Too Old to Drive (2007-12-19)
• Who should have made the Pro Bowl? - FOXSports.com (2007-12-19)
• Microsoft co-founder looks to add to spectrum cache - MarketWatch (2007-12-22)
• South American Ants Eating Way Across California (2007-12-19)
• Judge Sides With Man Fired for Posting 'Dilbert' at Work (2007-12-19)
• Fantasy Real Estate Game Lets You Play Realtor (2007-12-19)
• Vladimir Putin Named Time's 'Person of the Year' (2007-12-19)
• Bush Signs Bill Boosting Auto Fuel-Efficiency Standards (2007-12-19)
• The 7 most annoying developments in software (2007-12-19)
• New Net neutrality proposal planned for January (2007-12-19)
• Is Apple in danger of becoming Microsoft? (2007-12-19)
• CNET's Top 10 games of 2007 (2007-12-19)

Unobvious Christmas Gifts...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas this week! I just wanted to ask a quick question: Do you ever receive what I call "Unobvious Christmas Gifts?" What I mean by "Unobvious" is that you receive something that wasn't necessarily on your list, and if you told someone else what you got, they would say something like, "You got what for Christmas?" But, at the same time, it is an awesome gift from your perspective.

For example, this year I received a 32 oz. Nalgene water bottle. Now, some may already be thinking, "why would you ever want a water bottle for Christmas?" Let me explain: a few months ago, I put my previous 32 oz. Nalgene in the dishwasher. However, I made the mistake of putting it in the bottom section, which allowed the lid to drift down into the very bottom of the dishwasher, melting it into a funny shape, rendering the bottle useless. Luckily, we have a collection of 16oz water bottles at home, so I've been bringing 2 of those to work with me every day for the past few months. It worked, but it just wasn't convenient.

So, when I opened up the 32 oz. Nalgene on Christmas morning, I was stoked!

Did you get any "Unobvious Christmas Gifts" this year?

Music Review - Jon Foreman

I recently purchased Jon Foreman's Fall EP (there is expected to be an EP for each of the seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, you get the idea). For those of you who may not have ever heard of Jon Foreman, he is the lead singer/song writer for Switchfoot. And if you haven't heard of Switchfoot or Jon Foreman, then shame on you :) The EP contains 6 songs, all accoustic, each with their own distinct sound.

I've only listened to it a few times through so far, but I would say that my two favorite tracks at this point are "The Cure for Pain" and "Equally Skilled." If you're a fan of Switchfoot, or of Coldplay, or a similar sounding band, it's definitely worth checking out!

I'll give it a 4.5 out of 5.

News Tewsday - 12/18/07

• GarageBand 4.1.1 Offers Custom Ringtones for iPhone (2007-12-14)
• Google develops Wikipedia rival (2007-12-14)
• Celebrating 60 years of transistors (2007-12-14)
• No download needed: OpenOffice beta available as Web app (2007-12-12)
• The most useful keyboard shortcuts you probably don't know about (2007-12-13)
• The waterless car wash (2007-12-13)
• Word-of-the-Year Ritual Pauses for Puzzlement - New York Times (2007-12-13)
• 'Danger: Avoid Death' Wins Annual Wacky Warning Contest (2007-12-12)
• Celebrating one of the best-selling PCs ever (2007-12-12)
• Get DivX Pro for free (2007-12-12)
• Humans Evolving 100 Times Faster Than Ever (2007-12-11)
• Honda unveils robots that 'talk' to each other, work in pairs - USA Today (2007-12-11)
• December MacUpdate Software Bundle Sale [11th App Added] (2007-12-11)
• Arkansas Boy, 5, Kills 445-Pound Black Bear (2007-12-11)
• Father Jonathan: An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins (2007-12-11)
• Top Sellers of the Year on iTunes Revealed (2007-12-11)
• Firefox 3.0 beta 2 due by year's end (2007-12-11)
• NBC hitches onto download service from Apple rival SanDisk (2007-12-11)
• Zune vs iPod: The Results Are In (2007-12-10)
• Microsoft Disses Windows to Sell More Windows (2007-12-10)
• Fan Falls to His Death During Football Game (2007-12-10)

Questions? Comments?

Tech Blog Up and Running

For anyone who's interested, I have also started a blog that focuses more on my technical thoughts. There's a link on the right side of this page... or you can get to it directly from here.