Katie and I are heading to Austin for a few days

Today was my last day of (scheduled) work until July 11th. Our company shuts down for a week in mid-July and everyone takes a vacation, so Katie and I jumped at the opportunity to get away for a few days. After narrowing down the selection of possible cities, we decided on Austin, TX (with a day trip to San Antonio).

We're still planning things out, but it looks like we'll get to see the Capitol building, the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue (my idear), the bats in Austin, the Alamo, the 4th of July celebration in Austin, and maybe Sea World if we get a hankering. Those are the main things that attracted us to these particular cities.

Tonight, in looking around for a few more attractions, I found that there's a theater in Austin that's STILL showing muppets from space. - one of my favorite movies. We'll see how this news strikes the Katie, but I'm stoked.

We're still in the planning stages even though we leave in less than 2 days. We figure that we have a 6 hour drive (thereabouts) ahead of us, so with our Austin book we'll be able to talk about what we want to do at that time.

Our hotel supposedly has some kind of internet, so I'll consider posting some pics from there. I may just wait until I get back to post all the pics at once though... the gallery has been in need of some new pics for a while now.

Oh, sweet irony. Justice Souter at risk of losing his own property?

I have to hand it to these people, they know how to make a point. I don't think there's any way that this will actually go through, but here's the deal...

A private developer contacted the local government in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown in New Hampshire yesterday asking that the property of the judge – who voted in favor of a controversial decision allowing a city to take residents' homes for private development – be seized to make room for a new hotel.

I just enjoy the fact that someone took the time to tell the judge, on a personal (non-violent, non-threatening) level, that people are not happy about this decision.

Eminent Domain is just plain wrong

I've never been in a situation where I thought something was blatantly unamerican. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever even written or spoken the word unamerican... until I heard the ruling that the Supreme Court handed down regarding eminent domain.

If you're new to this subject, eminent domain is a concept that allows the government to seize privately owned land with fair compensation to the owner, regardless of the willingness of the owner to sell. This means that if a city wants to build a street, a court house, or a school where a private citizen has their home or business, 0they can do this through eminent domain. They would be required to show that the public project would be for the public good, and would be required to compensate the property owner.

The latest news on this subject came this past Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that eminent domain can be used to seize land for private economic development. This means that the government can take your land from you to hand over to Wal-mart or Target without having to prove that your neighborhood is "blighted". Blighted, of course, being a term that used to mean "anything that mars or prevents growth or prosperity" now means "what wal-mart lawyers call your house before they come with city officials to take it from you".

So, now you're up to speed. I'll allow you a minute to let that soak in... Ok, great. Remember, you live in America. This is the country that was imagined early on as a country that protects Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (though those words never showed up in the constitution... unfortunately).

I look at the recent ruling by the Supreme Court and can't help but think that something here has gone wrong. I realize that the Supreme Court looks to the Constitution for interpretation when situations get complicated. They try (their best, I assume) to come to a decision that they believe is in line with the law and what was set up in our constitution. Something still doesn't seem right though.

When did the government stop being a function of the people and turn into a body that rules the people. Maybe I misunderstood this whole government thing from the get go... and that's entirely possible. My assumption was that the government was here to represent the people's interest and ensure our safety and well being.

Increasingly, I see decisions and legislation that don't have the people's interest at heart. It all begins (in my opinion) with corporate interests being able to control/influence legislation. Wal-mart passes a few bucks to Senator X's campaign fund, and he writes a bill that has a few perks for them. The RIAA and MPAA are experiencing a decline in sales... more money is passed around, back-room deals are made and finally the consumer ends up with a bunch of ridiculous anti-piracy, Intellectual property laws.

The latest eminent domain ruling is just another example of this, in my opinion. I'm not trying to say that the money influenced the Supreme Court in any way. What I'm trying to convey here is the trend in recent years of legislation and judicial decisions to favor corporations and other private, wealthy entities.

To close this rant out, I guess I'd suggest writing your congressman or representative. Tell them how disgusted you are about this trend, or more specifically tell them how apalled you are about the recent Eminent Domain ruling. Just do something...

I think it's time to retool my web design skillset

I've been hearing a few keywords lately that have given me reason to doubt my own skills as a web programmer. They might be outdated.

Until recently, I didn't know what Ajax was. I have no idea what Ruby is... and what in the world is Ruby on Rails? Well, I intend to go out and update my skills to include these new technologies.

In a quick search for info on what Ajax is and how it works, I found this page at adaptivepath.com. It explains, in detail, what Ajax is about, where I've seen it before and how it works. It's a good intro. Now, I need to find out how I can use it, and if I can write a nice little application to learn more about it... after I finish the fantasy football app, that is.

Give the article a read if you've been hearing about Ajax, but you're not sure exactly what it is.

I think I've decided to switch my blog assistant project to the web, if at all possible. I'm still annoyed by the fact that I can't just select an image from a group and have it put the html code for the image (with style alignment) in this post. This post just made me realize that the admin page could probably be the host to a button for the same "assistant" features without the need for an extra java app.

Music I be liking... while my grammar be lacking

With nothing else to do online, and no real interest in coding on the fantasy football project tonight (rough coding day at work:\), I think a quick post about recent music is in order.

It's harder to find time to scour the internet and radio for new music that I might enjoy and I'm dern sure not gonna let MTV tell me what to like *cough*50 cent*cough*. In what little time I do have to branch out into finding new music, I've been going through fairly recent albums that I've downloaded but never listened to. Two gems from this collection, American Idiot by Green Day and A Crow Left to the Murder by Incubus.

Personal Favorites from the two albums... First, the Green Day album, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Holiday (which have both gotten considerable radio play, or so Katie tells me). From the Incubus album, I sing aloud to Beware, Criminal! and Agoraphobia. A word of warning about the Incubus cd though... it took me a few listenings before I liked the music even though I'm an Incubus fan. So, just give the album a chance if you're gonna try it at all.

These cd's and a pack of chewing gum keep me awake at work. Chewing gum does wonders to cure my sleepiness at work. The music just distracts me from everyone else's phone conversations and banter.

Katie Holmes, brainwashed?

I never thought the day would come when I post about a celebrity relationship, but this one is just too strange. If you haven't heard, Katie Holmes is engaged to Tom Cruise, the zen alien: level 3 scientologist.

Fox news poses an interesting question, and points out a few things that seem mighty strange in the situation. Where was Katie Holmes during the 16 day period after her first meeting with Tom Cruise? They're hinting that she was being brainwashed.

I wouldn't put it past those scientology monkeys. They're strange creatures... believers in a religion that was created by a science fiction author that seem to relate your spiritual well-being with the amount of money you have, and more importantly, how much you give them.

Fantasy Football mock draft progress (with screenshot)

I finally got some more time to play around with the fantasy football mock draft program.

To recap, I'm making a fantasy football live mock draft program. Ideally, it will allow up to 12 people to conduct a live mock draft without having to resort to e-mail or use a pay service.

I'm a long way from finishing, and have recently enlisted the help of my brother to take over the server portion of the program. I've already set up all the connection code, and have defined a few basic commands that will be necessary for client/server interaction. He'll likely be designing/coding most of the SQL interaction and finishing the rest of the turn progression stuff.

So, what's left to do... everything basically.

• Think up a method for people to enroll in drafts
• Finish designing the GUI
• Finish coding the guts of the GUI
• Finish up the server design
• Figure out how in the world this will interact with a web page
• Decide whether to release the software for use anywhere or limit use to this or another server
• Write code to keep track of the state of the draft and advance the state.

What's done, you say? Well, only a little, but these accomplishments are nothing to sneeze at. The part I was the most worried about was the connection inner workings, and that's done thanks to a helpful open source library.

• Set up skeleton GUI
• Design DB schema
• Setup connection framework for client/server interaction

Here's a preliminary screenshot:

If anyone has any suggestions for how to fill the space at the top right, or how to improve on the interface, post a comment. I'd like to hear any ideas on how to create a better interface without cluttering it with a bunch of team buttons at the top.

Lord willing, I'll finish this thing by the time football season rolls around. However, my first big deadline at work falls on August 8th, and the month of July will probably be crunch time... so this program may not hit shelves (or my server:)) until next season.

Open Range, and why I like westerns.

I've been on a horse once. I choose those words carefully because I don't think you can consider what I was doing "riding". Now, if riding means sitting on a wild beast while it takes me wherever it likes while I sweat nervous bullets, then ok, I rode a horse. I don't drink whiskey, I don't own a gun and didn't even play cowboys and indians as a youngster.

I'm sitting in front of the computer, posting a blog entry about westerns. Linkin Park's Reanimation CD is playing. The air conditioner is on full blast to make sure a single drop of sweat doesn't form, where it might drop and defile the einstein t-shirt I'm wearing. Needless to say I'm not the "macho type" that I typically associate with those people who watch westerns.

Every time I'd see a western at blockbuster or on TV, I would pass it by for a more recent action movie or a good comedy. I like to think that I enjoy watching movies that I can relate to...or I used to anyway. Having seen my share of westerns,though, I've realized that I enjoy almost everything about them.

After watching "Open Range" today, I thought I'd post about my appreciation for them and recommend that anyone who enjoys westerns, or can stand westerns if they're good, watch this movie. It has a good mix of humor and action, a group of likable characters and a simple but interesting story line. That's all it takes to make a western, really.

Kevin Costner (Charlie Waite) and Robert Duvall (Boss Spearman) play a pair of cowboys driving their herd through the open range. Two younger men, Mose and Button (I don't know their real names, and you wouldn't recognize them anyway probably) are along for the journey also.

The plot revolves around a rancher who is claiming the land that Boss Spearman and his riders are crossing. Ranchers who are trying to lay claim to portions of land don't look kindly on "free grazers", those cowboys who lead their herds across their land, grazing on their grass. The two groups soon get in a conflict that stems from Boss Pearlman's cattle grazing on the rancher's land. That's it... simple enough.

To keep my opnion of the movie short and sweet I'll say that I think the acting was great (except maybe costner), the scenery was great, the characters were likeable and the plot was good too.

On a side note, I've gained an appreciation for Robert Duvall. He was fantastic in this movie, and I'm hard pressed to find a movie of his that I haven't enjoyed his character. Let's see, there was John Q, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Phenomenon, The Godfather... well, that's all I have, but I liked him in those movies.

Anywho, if you're in the mood for a simple movie, and you enjoy westerns, see this movie.

Google Page Rank article by Ian Rogers

This article has one of the best explanations of google's page rank algorithm that I've ever read. Granted, I don't understand the method completely, but if the underlying assumptions about how the google page rank system works are still valid, the author of this article has to be pretty close to understanding (an explaining) the intricacies of the PR system.

The diagrams put this page above the rest of the PR sites out there. Oh, and there's a nifty formula with lots of P's and parenthesis, so it automatically gets a position of high prestige in my book.

It isn't one of those sites telling you how you can exploit Google's Page Rank with cheap hacks, so if that's what you're looking for I doubt it will do you much good. It may help you have an understanding of how google assigns the rank between pages on your site and how inbound/outbound links contribute to your PR.

Eastbay 30% off

Need some shoes? Eastbay has a 30% off coupon that is good until the 19th of June, 2005. There's also some kind of sneaky way (possibly) to buy gift cards at 20% off and use those with the 30% off discount. See fatwallet's hot deals forums and search for eastbay for more info.

Coupon code: LKS1FE19.

Some stuff isn't available with the coupon, but most is. Katie got a pair of shoes (Nike Shox no less) that were marked down from $100 to $70, then used the %30 of and ended up paying about 60 with shipping and all I think.

The coupon won't show the discount until after you've entered credit card information, which sucks, but I think most shoes will be available for use with the discount.

Dora the Explorer on cakes = bad; kids happy = bad

I thoroughly enjoyed this post at boing boing [found via waxy links].

Not only do they cover the story itself, but they allow the readers to comment, and highlight those comments which are insightful or from credible sources. In this case though, there is a half-credible law clerk trying to explain to everyone else why they're wrong.

The most valuable info is the last paragraph wherein a lawyer from the EFF jumps in and tells the law clerk and everyone else what's what.

Whoever you are, I love you

This girl has a sense of humor just like mine. The picture wouldn't have been as funny without the huge grin on her face... I hear a "tee hee" in my head when I see that smile.

I bought a Sirius reciever today

After my previous post, I decided that it was time for action. So, I went into research mode. I went to best buy and looked at the receivers, looked on the internet for ratings of the different receivers, looked at what people had to say about XM vs. Sirius. In the end, I came away with a Sirius satellite receiver (SP-R1, which came with a car Kit, SP-K1), for a few reasons.

First, because the sirius satellite receiver has a $50 dollar rebate. I believe that most any Sirius satellite receivers will have this rebate until the 25th of June. Not just the Sirius branded receivers, but the players made by JVC and other manufacturers that are able to receive the Sirius satellite content.

The XM radios had a buy one get one free, but the free had a big honking star by it, so I knew there was something fishy. Sure enough, you have to subscribe to the family plan ($20 per month) and have it active for three months... I think you even have to pay up front for those months. I didn't like the idea of that, though it wasn't a terrible deal.

The second factor in my choice was the content offered on Sirius.

Both networks have very similar channels, and will probably offer the same selection of music (Note: if you like Howard Stern, Sirius will have exclusive rights to his content starting January 2006... but this didn't affect my decision). Since the two networks provide the same content, basically, I tried to look for the channels that were unique and make a decision based on those channels. I found the classics radio and the NFL broadcasts to be reason enough to favor Sirius. I'll probably be listening to a few NFL games on the way to or from Church and lunch with Katie's family on Sundays, so it will come in handy and the classic stories on the radio always entertain me.

So, after I'd decided on Sirius, what led me to this particular receiver, you ask? Well, it was the built-in FM Modulator, the big display, the rebate, and the game alert. It looks nice too, but most of them look about the same (except maybe the delphi brand).

The last factor in my decision was the fact that Best Buy currently has a 10% off coupon for in store purchases. So, basically, I could run out and buy the satellite receiver, less the tax, and get half my money back in 6-8 weeks via mail-in rebate.

So, now you know why I chose Sirius, and why I chose the receiver. Now, let me get to the complaining.

Complaints:

The worst thing about the new receiver is the fact that I have a big honking receiver on my dash in a docking kit. Cords are everywhere, and the thing just looks pretty bad. Maybe I'll get used to it, but right now it's still new, so it's hard to say whether I'll be accustomed to it soon. I do know that I should've bought the deck with a built in xm or sirius tuner when I got my Honda.

It's also kind of a pain to install. It's not that bad, but putting the antenna on the top of the car, and running the wire under the back window's rubber seal, through the trunk, through the back seat and then all the way back up front sucked. The whole process probably took 30 minutes from cracking the box open to activating service, but it was still a pain to do all that. A built in tuner ,again, is very appealing.

Even after I got the antenna cable installed, I plugged it in and kept getting a No Antenna Detected error, or some garbage like that. I repositioned the antenna a few times, but nothing really helped. It seems that simply turning the antenna plug (into the receiver) to where the incoming cord faced upwards gave me reception. If I let the cord dangle, my reception was shoddy... for no good reason. I hope I don't have a short in the antenna cable:(.

Let me stick in another short complaint here. Why advertise your own content when the only way to get that content is by subscribing? They cross promote all their channels in little promos. It's annoying. I paid for this because I like the idea of Sirius, so stop telling me I should subscribe and listen to the Discovery Channel. I'm listening to this channel because I like it better than the Discovery Channel, that's why I'm tuned here.

My last complaint is that the stinking remote for the receiver didn't include a battery. How cheap can you be, Sirius? It's a little round watch/CMOS battery if you're familiar with that type of battery. So, I've gotta go to radio shack or wal-mart to pick one up. That annoys me. I mounted my docking kit at the end of my arm's length, so finding out that my new toy's remote doesn't work was not a pleasant revelation.

Positives:

The good things (that still far outweigh the complaints): great music, great variety, talk radio is pretty good, a clean comedy channel *with commercials...*, and no commercials on the music channels. Oh, and free online access to the music channels (via Sirius.com). It's nice.

The bottom line is that I will put up with cords and installation hassles if the content is good, and so far I'm very pleased with the content.

Katie's going to Six Flags this weekend

Katie's going to Six Flags this weekend, leaving me with a Saturday all to my lonesome. I'm thinking about spending Saturday and Sunday coding. I know, I do that for a living now.

I've got two programs that I'm working on at the moment, though. The first, a blog assistant program, that will hold commonly used text that I use frequently. The text snippets will be held in a tree structure, and can be input and saved like a bookmark. So, instead of creating all my header, footer, image, and div tags, I can go in there and reuse HTML and CSS code that I use on the site frequently. I plan to put a little image browser in there too that can navigate an ftp directory and automatically generate the image code.

The second program, and the most interesting to me is a fantasy football mock draft program. I'm looking to design a fantasy football mock draft program in java that will allow up to 12 people to draft a fantasy football team live.

The program, as I envision it, would have to have three parts: the client app, the server app, and a host configuration program.

Each client will have a java applet that will allow them to choose their players, set a queue and browse the other teams drafted players and chat with each other. Just a regular ol' draft client. However, I'd like to remove the brunt of the work from the server (whatever server is hosting the draft) and allow the client applications to transmit data directly to each other somehow. The chat messages would be especially important since I don't have any servers that would be capable of handling the bandwidth (were I to allow anyone to use the program).

The server side code would only be responsible for tracking the users and a minimal amount of data. I might try to capture the end result, if I make the program freely available (if I can finish one in time for football season) and post a compilation of the results on my site. That's always good to know, who's getting drafted at what position by the public.

The last part of the program, the host configuration application would exist to allow the person who started their mock draft to configure all their options. This includes loading an XML file containing the player names (which means other sports could be included)... and selecting how many players of each position would be available. On second thought, it might take a little bit more work to design the XML parser to accept a position list and a player list.

This is an open invitation for suggestions for either program. If you've used blog assistants before, or mock draft applications, let me know what you liked/disliked. If you're interested in helping, or think you've got some info that would be helpful, let me know. I'm always open to suggestions.

Java Comparator - The non-natural ordering example.

As I mentioned on my blog previously, a project at work allowed me to experiment with the java comparator class. I created a class that would allow me to sort xml elements, since the recipient of the xml file validates it against a schema that requires adherence to that order.

It wasn't the prettiest comparator class ever written, and had a few modifications in order to get it to work exactly the way I wanted, but the result was success, and that's all that mattered to me at the time.

To demonstrate the method I used, I designed a little program that applies a pre-defined order to a short list of objects according to how much I like each of them. The items I like the most appear at the top of the list (or, if you prefer, the beginning of the list) and the items I like the least will be at the bottom (which can be thought of as the end of the list).

To begin, let's review the concepts involved in creating a comparator class. There are only three things that you should keep in mind.

First, that the comparator is an interface, so you have to define the methods yourself. Second, remember that the only method you need to implement is the compare() method, which takes two objects as parameters and returns an integer. Lastly, this compare method returns a negative integer when the object you're adding is past its "ordered position", a zero when you've got it at the right spot, and a positive integer if your Object is ahead of its correct position in the Collection. The previous sentence may not make sense at the moment, but it will shortly.

Here's my list of things, ordered according to how much I like each.

• Monkeys
• Squirrels
• SpongeBob
• Ostrich
• Lemmings
• Toe Fungus
• Rosie O'Donnell

To demonstrate the ordering methods, I'll be adding these objects to two seperate collections. The first is a Vector, which does not order it's elements. The second a TreeSet, which orders it's elements according to the comparator I've created. I've also created another Vector to store the Objects temporarily. To the bat code!

        MyComparatorExample comparator = new MyComparatorExample();

        Vector tempV = new Vector(1,1);
        TreeSet ts = new TreeSet(comparator);
        
        Vector animalV = new Vector(1,1);
        animalV.add("Rosie O'Donnell");
        animalV.add("Monkeys");
        animalV.add("Squirrels");
        animalV.add("Ostrich");
        animalV.add("SpongeBob");
        animalV.add("Toe Fungus");
        animalV.add("Lemmings");

So, we've got two empty collections (tempV and ts) and another collection (animalV) containing the objects to be added to both empty collections.

To create my order, I created a comparator class.

public class MyComparatorExample implements Comparator{
    
        Hashtable exhash = new Hashtable();
    
    public MyComparatorExample() {
        exhash.put("Monkeys", "1");
        exhash.put("Squirrels","2");
        exhash.put("SpongeBob","3");
        exhash.put("Ostrich","4");
        exhash.put("Lemmings", "5");
        exhash.put("Toe Fungus","6");
        exhash.put("Rosie O'Donnell","7");
    }
    
    public int compare(Object o1, Object o2){
        if(o1==null||o2==null){
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }
        
        int index1 = Integer.parseInt((String)exhash.get(o1));
        int index2 = Integer.parseInt((String)exhash.get(o2));
        return index1 - index2;        
        
    }
    
}

First things first, I indicate that the class implements the Comparator interface.

        public class MyComparatorExample implements Comparator

Next, I create a hashtable that contains two objects: the object (String representation) and a ranking (again a String representation).

        Hashtable exhash = new Hashtable();
        exhash.put("Monkeys"<--key, "1" <--rank value);

Next, look at the compare() method.

        public int compare(Object o1, Object o2)

It takes two objects as parameters, o1 and o2, and just as I said it returns an integer.

        if(o1==null||o2==null){
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }

I make sure that the objects are not null. If they are null, I throw an exception. If they are not, I move on to the following code.

        int index1 = Integer.parseInt((String)exhash.get(o1));
        int index2 = Integer.parseInt((String)exhash.get(o2));
        return index1 - index2;

This code may look confusing if you've not used a hashtable or the parseInt method before. It's really simple though. Hashtables hold two things, a "key" and a "value"... remember when I wrote:

        exhash.put("Monkeys", "1");

The String "Monkeys" is the key, and the String "1" is the value. If I called the get method here, exhash.get("Monkeys");, it would look for a key that matches "Monkeys" and return the value associated with it. Using "Monkeys" as the key, the get method it would return "1".

In this case, the compare method is passed two Objects.

        compare(Object o1, Object o2)

I take the first Object, look it up in the hashtable with the code: "exhash.get(o1)".

Since I want to perform arithmetic on these ranking numbers, I have to convert the number from String to int. This is done by using an Integer object's parseInt method.

        Integer.parseInt((String)exhash.get(o2));

After this conversion, I'm left with two numbers. The numerical rank of the first object and the numerical rank of the second object. I subtract the two, and return that value.

        return index1 - index2;

In order to illustrate the difference in ordering and that the comparator does actually do something, I added each of the objects to be compared to the two empty collections in the same order. Here's the code:

        for(int i=0;i<animalV.size();i++){
            
            tempV.add(animalV.elementAt(i));
            ts.add(animalV.elementAt(i));

        }

I created a simple GUI, and displayed the two collections in a JList after all the objects had been added.

The JList on the left contains the tempV Vector, the right contains the TreeSet. You can see that the TreeSet, using the comparator, ordered the items correctly. Monkeys way at the top, Rosie O'Donnell down beneath Toe Fungus.

I hope that shows a little bit about how comparators work. I can't really think of any other common uses for comparators, but you might come across them one day as I did. If anyone does know a common use for comparators (with non-natural ordering) please let me know.

I'm considering XM radio

I've grown tired of my mp3's. Plain and simple. Tired.

It seems impossible with 30-40 gigs of music, but I managed to do it. The same mp3's of the same CD's I bought years ago are being played on my computer, on the radio and in my car now. Since I only listen to a small selection of those mp3's (regularly), I've become less and less enthralled with my collection.

So, what am I to do? Scour the internet for new material, downloading mp3's where I can get them? I could always pay Apple for their itunes product, but then I'd have crappy DRM that limits the mobility of the music I purchase. There's always terrestrial radio :)... well, nevermind. Clear channel bought every radio station in existence and gave them all the same playlist, so that's out.

The last, and best option I can figure for my situation is satellite radio. $~13 a month for 150 or so channels, depending on which provider I choose. 95% of the content is commercial-free and I'd get niche programming like the Radio classics channel, which gets more exciting as I think about it. If I'm not in the mood for music, I can always turn on the talk stations for news (Taylor would be happy to see that they've got the fox news radio channel).

The best feature I can see for these services, in adding a definite value anyways, is that I can access the channels online for free as a subscriber. No need to buy a seperate home kit, or whatever it is. I can simple tune in online.

I'm looking into the receivers and the two providers (XM vs. Sirius) and I'll probably buy one soon, and post the results after a few weeks of use. If anyone already owns XM or Satellite, or has experience with either from another person's vehicle, leave a comment... of course, this assumes that people read this blog *crickets chirping*.

I'll never smoke weed with Willie again

I heard this on the Bob and Tom show this morning. Hilarious. The name of the song is "I'll never smoke weed with Willie (Nelson) again", performed by Toby Keith and Scott Emerick.

Here's the mp3.

CPU Magazine - The Good Stuff

I know I've mentioned it here before, but I have to talk about it again after reading the latest issue. For the price, CPU Magazine can't be beat.

For a short spell in my early college days I was a big fan of the Maximum PC magazine. They had cool, edgy graphics, game reviews, funny articles here and there. It was everything that the PC magazines I read growing up weren't. Maybe that's why I was satisfied with what they were providing.

After the first five or so years of college, I started to notice that my interests weren't being addressed by the Maximum PC's anymore. I wasn't interested in which $500 video card could give an extra 30 fps in a first person shooter. It didn't even tickle my fancy when I read that I could overclock my Pentium 3 with liquid nitrogen to 7.8 GHz.

In the search for a new tech content provider, I found TechTV, which was the ONLY channel I watched for close to 6 months. However, after their management/ownership committed the worst sin in cable history, I was forced to go back to magazines. This is when I found CPU magazine.

It's not a complete frag-boy magazine, but has a little bit of video game coverage. It features dream hardware reviews and benchmarks, but doesn't solely talk about hardware I will never buy. In those respects it achieves a happy medium. However, in all the other areas, I think it excels.

It has a great assortment of contributing writers who write a column each month. This month's issue had the regular writers covering the creative commons license, the Xbox 360, instant messaging, and some kind of phone thing I haven't had a chance to read yet.

I'm tired, otherwise I would go grab the magazine and talk about some of the good stuff that's available there, but instead, you can just go to cpumag.com and look at what's inside the current issue.

On a related note, maximum PC is now $10!!!! I saw the price at wal-mart this weekend and nearly soiled myself. Not cool.

ipodder.org has the worst interface imaginable

As I've mentioned before, I've discovered podcasting. I'm not running a podcast (though I'd consider doing one were I more interesting), but listening to them.

In trying to discover more podcasts and podcast client software I found ipodder.org. I'm not sure if it's the best podcasting site out there (as far as content goes), but it's definitely the one that comes up first on most search terms, and gets a ton of links from other podcast sites.

I'm not really sure why. Their interface is horrid. Go to their site and see for yourself. Folders in the middle of each page? You can't even click on the text of the category names... you have to click on the little 20 pixel folder image, or globe image. Ads all over the place. Inline frames on the right hand side between content and ads!? Someone get me some smelling salts, I feel faint.

That being said, I can't really completely crap on the site. I mean, it might look better were I to do that, but the content seems to be good. They have a large amount of podcasts and a large amount of software too... but come on ipodder.org people, just gimme a little color. You don't even have to use images... CSS is your friend in bandwidth strapped sites.

If you've got a better podcasting site, with a better interface, please let me know. I'll keep my eyes posted, and will post a better site if I find it.

Katie's first post!

The girlfriend has made her first post. I hope she keeps it up. I'd like to be able to read her blog until she can finish her time in Ruston and move to Shreveport.

Links to ganderize

I've seen a few interesting links lately that are worth sharing.

• First, a "time management solution" called ClockWork for people who bill clients by the hour, or need to keep track of time spent on individual tasks. The site has the ability to add new tasks, display those tasks, and pause and start tasks to keep track of time spent. The site allows you to login as Admin : DemoDemo to test the system out. It's pretty neat.
• Next, another grand list of bittorrent sites provided by ZeroPaid.com (how fitting). I posted a link a few months ago to a site that featured a large collection of sites with an online/offline status notification, telling users which sites were up or down. Well, that site seems to be slow in updating, and bittorrent sites are going down quicker than paris hilton's drawers after a glass of champagne. So, this site seems to be a pretty good list for the more recent sites. BTW, check out the pirate bay's legal threats section if you're in need of a good laugh.
• Lastly, a few toys/gadgets to peruse.

I want a fiber connection

Take a look at these new fiber connections verizon is offering:

5 Mbps down /2 Mbps up = $39

30 Mbps down /5 Mbps up = $199

I estimate that it will be 4 years before I'm able to take advantage of fiber services (without moving), but I still appreciate what Verizon's doing. With that kind of speed, I could rule the internet.

Simpson's Law Strikes Again

I wrote a little bit about Simpson's Law last week in my post about the This Week In Tech podcast (BTW, their new episode is out).

This law states that 86.54% (as of the latest study) of the products/items a Simpson family member is fond of will be cancelled, discontinued, imploded, or pillaged.

This weekend Simpson's Law strikes again. It appears that Fatty's, my favorite new restaurant in Ruston, may have closed. I say that they may have closed because they still have all the equipment in the restaurant, including the neon open sign. We went to go have a few meat pies Friday night and there were no cars and the neon open sign was off.

Just add them to the list of victims of Simpson's Law.

Zug.com's pranks

Katie's at work, and I'm bored, looking for anything to fill my time. In my random wandering on the internet I found Zug.com. This site is run by some character named John Hargrave who conducts "experiments" and pranks.

If you've got some time to kill, read through his large list of pranks.

I particularly enjoyed the Outgoing Mail section, featuring the Bugging Out letter.

Dear Raid:

Recently I bought a packege of Raid ant traps, putting them around the house to get rid of some pesky ants. After two weeks of use, not only were my ants still there, but they had grown LARGER!!! In the same way that roaches can survive a nucular holacoust, I think that Raid Ant Traps make the ants BIGGER and STRONGER. They take your magic ant juice back to their nests where they geneticlly GROW and become IMMUNE to death!!! One of the ants was the size of a squirrel, Im not kidding!!! I took some pictures of these MONSTER ANTS and would like to send them to you, since I think it was Raid Ant Traps that did it. I am scared to leaev my house since the ants are waiting for me outside!!

Please help, Raid!

Love,
Jim Ohnhargrave

They wrote back:).

The best dog name ever

I've decided that the best dog name, and the name of my next dog of course, will be Rufus. More Specifically, Rufus T. <last name yet to be determined... but currently MoneyBags is the front runner>. If you've got a good suggestion for my future puppy's last name, leave a comment. For those of you without the ability to post a comment (because of my site messing up or whatever other reason) feel free to register for the forum and post it in there if you like (forum.jojometal.com).

Update: In searching for a picture of other previous rufii (rufuses), I came across this site, apparently owned by a spanish rufus owner.

From the site:

Rufus e Caesar receberam recentemente a visita de Ginger e Sheeba, irmãs da raça Cockapoo, "filhas" dos nossos amigos Vinnie e Delwing. A foto ficou parecendo que eles estão cantando, e não resisti ao trocadilho do título deste post.

Ah, hoje é Thanksgiving. Bom feriado pra quem comemora!

Rough translation: Rufus and Ceasar receive a visit from Ginger and Sheeba, a stinky little cockapoo. "Cockapoo" being a word coined by my good friend Vinnie E. Delwing. I can't believe I just said cockapoo, and resisted the urge to snortle.

Ah, Happy Thanksgiving. Long live the chicken!