Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Evolution...

2006-02-16T15:31:00.000-05:00

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).

Where can I get one of these..

2006-02-16T10:49:00.000-05:00

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?

Adsense in Space?

2006-01-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

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).

Have to check this one out..

2006-01-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

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..

What a long stange journey

2006-01-20T10:24:00.000-05:00

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!!!).

Need Some Tunes..

2006-01-19T15:20:00.000-05:00

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.

One Word Answer.. NO

2006-01-19T11:34:00.000-05:00

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

On the Bleeding Edge

2006-01-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

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..

Skewer the skewers...

2006-01-18T18:40:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-01-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

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"...

New Ad Placement

2006-01-18T11:23:00.000-05:00

TOD has new Advertising

With the advent of DVR technology and cable companies having to offer these services to be able to keep customers (as well as to charge a premium for said services), now Comcase has come up with a new way to get the advertisements into the program..

On Exercise TV, the ads will be integrated into the programs. Comcast has sold exclusive advertising rights to New Balance, the footwear maker, for several million dollars. This will allow the company to insert its products and logo in and around the programs, initially a selection of 90 fitness episodes.

I am not that down on this. I think that this is going to be the way of the future, and also the way that the networks are going to have to make that advertising dollar. I am willing to put up with a small logo, or a mention during the broadcast that states that "My Name is Earl is brought to you by.. " for the ability to watch less commercials. This is the way that it works on line where advertising is everywhere on a site, but not to the point that the reader/visitor cannot find what they are looking for. A model such as this will also allow for products to be better targeted towards the viewers of said program. All sports broadcasts could be brought to you by some sort of beverage company, while shows such as CSI would offer products aimed at its main demographic (whatever that may be).

All networks need to do something like this. I have had my DVR for only a handful of weeks, but last night was a perfect example of where the advertising that are buying the commercial time are losing so many people. I was watching NCIS, had to pause it to take care of some stuff. restarted it about 20 minutes later, realized that I was going to miss Scrubs by a couple of minutes, so I set that up to record. When I was done with NCIS (about 7 minutes late), switched over to the beginning of Scrubs and was able to make up for all of the missed time by the time the second episode started. How many commercials did I watch.. 0! I consider myself a tad ahead of the curve on this type of technology, but once the "masses" figure it out, that is when the "new" marketing is going to have to take over, or it will be real trouble for the networks. They already do this for some sports, such as the World Cup, where they show the whole half straight with logos and what not.. and ESPN does it for their coverage of IRL, but they actual have a dual screen for this (hopefully the networks that show NASCAR will get on board with this).

Sportscolumn

2006-01-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

Open Source Sports Writing..

I was given the link to this site in a comment under the Sportiki post from last week. Where this is different from that site, which is mainly going for a stats/data model, the Sportscolumn site is meant to be an alternative to the ESPN columnist and the like. As the comment from the post states:

the problem with ESPN is not the fact its the ...commentary of the writers and the Stephen.A.Smith-inizing of sports commentary. To yell is to be heard.

I took a look at the site (as well as signed up as a member) and it seems to me that the people writing it get it. I agree with the comment above that all of the "commentary" shows on the ever expanding ESPN networks are getting out of control. PTI, Around the Horn, whatever the Steven A Smith show is called, all of these guys are just there to get face time and yell over one another. (I almost forgot one, Cold Pizza, where Woody Paige and Skip Bayless attack one another, do I really need to see/hear this?) I am a smart guy and there are some writers that I respect their opinions, but a great majority of them are awful and are out there only for themselves. A good example of this in the Boston market is Ron Borges, who for some reason does nothing but kill the Patriots (yeah the guys that won 3 out of 4 Superbowls) apparently because he has some sort of personal issues with the coach. If one were to at least come clean and state that this is my opinion and how one arrives at that opinion, that is fine, but do not try to pass off a column as gospel when it is really just a sounding post for you to attack another individual.

Anyway, after that short rant, the cool part of Sportcolumn is that the articles can be written by anyone, and are voted on by the community (kind of like Digg.com on a smaller scale) in order to get moved into rotation. Take a look, and let me know what you think.

AI or BI

2006-01-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Artificial Business Intelligence

Interesting story here on HP using a 'new' type of Business Intelligence software that not only helps an enterprise look at what is happening but gives them the ability to look at what the software thinks if going to happen given certain variables, called predictive analysis. This is the type of analysis that a any manager, executive or even employee does on the fly almost day to day. For example, in a call center, managers are always looking at forecast models for the call volumes for that day, mostly by using specific software (INSIGHT, Blue Pumpkin and the like) and then they are able to play with variables within the software. For instance they would be able to see what would happen to the service level for the center if there is a 10% spoke in volumes for the day, if a certain amount of people are not there either for sick time or training and other such variables. The software will then tell you the minimum amount of reps needed in order to guarantee a certain level of service, what the optimum amount of people would be based in budget and so on.

What these very specialized packages are showing is the ability for the decisions to be made quicker and in some cases by the software in order to take a little more guess work out of the decisions. I am not sure that this will ever fly in most companies, given that most of the VPs and other management that I have had to deal with over the years always want to see the data before they make any kind of decision. As is stated in the article, this seems to be the next logical step in BI, don't just tell what happened yesterday, but tell me what is going to happen today and what may happen in the next 3 months.

One side note in the article is about Oracle eying Business Objects (who bought Cryastal Reports) as a take over target. I would think that this is going to happen, Oracle want the whole chain, the back end DB, the services that the enterprise needs to implement the back end, and then the reporting software that the companies need to get at the data in the database. Oracle has gone from a mainly database shop to being a one stop shopping firm that can offer any data solution that you need, as well as the people that are needed to implement it.

24 Rocks!

2006-01-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

24 is back and so am I

I have not watched the last couple of seasons of 24 for some unknown reason and now I know that I shold go right to the video store and rent all of the seasons to watch again. I remember when Keifer was in some of my favorite movies as a kid (mainly Flatliners and Stand by Me ), but he is now the best hero in all of television. I watched the 1st episode on Sunday on a whim and I had been readin about the new season and how it was the best ever. It also helped that during the NFL playoffs (too bad Pats.. HA HA Peyton! ) Fox was hyping it like NBS does the Olympics . First Palmer gets killed in the 1st 10 minutes and then it is go time from there.

While no one will mistake 24 as a "ripped from the headlines" like the Law and Order series is, it has an almost cinematic quality to it as well as a kind of serial aspect that harkens back to the old movies that always had a cliffhanger there at the end to keep you coming back. The whole takes place in 'real' time (which I think they use loosely) gimick is pretty cool as well. Someone this morning made a great point on the radio on the way in today, in a real show or a movie the bad guys that got it last night would have been around for the entire storyline, but on 24, 3 hours into the day.. GONE! They were just a means to an end to get to the next plot line (which will probably take the rest of the season to go through). I am not a big fan of Fox, but when they make a good show, they make a good show. (when they make a bad show, they make a bad show). Here is my advice, if you are watching CSI, L&O or another one of those cookie cutter shows, drop them and watch this, it is a much better ride.

Office in a Browser - Writely

2006-01-16T12:23:00.000-05:00

OK, so know you have some communication and something that will keep you apprised of what needs to be done, or what was done when. The next application is a word processor so you can send professional documents to the people that you are doing business with. For this I would recommend Writely, which is a neat little application out there that not only allows for documents to be created on the web, but also allows for collaboration between people, meaning if you need someone to proof read your blog entry, all they do is get permission from you to access the data and you send them the URL to the document.

Editing a document is as simple as it is on a word processor, as can be seen from the menus listed here. Another really cool part of the application is that it allows for versioning of the document, as well as gives you a live look at who is currently editing the document

One other cool part is the ability to post to a blog (such as this one) directly from Writely, meaning it is a Blog editor as well. You can also edit blogs from the application as well (meaning you can remove and add posts from it). I do not use it for this (yet.. ) instead using a juices up with Greasemonkey Blogger post editor window (I like the "Blog This" bookmarlet.

Overall, while not as robust as a standalone word processor, it does what I would think most people would need it to do. Sign up for a free account today!!!

ESPN for the masses???

2006-01-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

Sportiki

Ran across this one while going through some recent Digg stories.. interesting, a Wiki for sports (that typical suspects no less, which means the big 4 as well as Golf and NASCAR and for some reason Tennis, which I really do not see as relevant anymore). If I get some time, I might have to contribute to this, perhaps in the NCAA FB or NASCAR categories. Give it a look and if you have a few spare moments, put something in there.

Office in a Browser - HipCal

2006-01-13T13:13:00.000-05:00

Formerly MyPimp (they changed the name so to make the application more professional, which was a good idea, but I am kind of nostalgic for the old name and domain), HipCal is an Ajaxish online calendar application with multiple views, a really good interface (which is constantly being worked on), SMS reminders as well as a bunch of other stuff with more to come in the future.

This is the first view one would see when they sign into the site. The first view is the "upcoming" view which includes the next 2 days of activities (I really do not have much going on right now as can be plainly seen) as well as a calendar view of the next 3 weeks. On the right, there is a top-do/task list as well as well as the very necessary Adsense ads (got to pay for the server somehow). This view is a bit different than others that I have seen and I can definitely see the worth of it. It is basically a snapshot of what is on the horizon, and while not the whole week (which they are currently working on) it gives a really good look at what is coming really soon as well as how it could impact the next couple of weeks. Then there is the day/month and year views.. I never really saw the usefulness of the year view but it is there.

This is the option setting screen where one would set up the SMS (Mobile) options. This is the main reason that I would go with this system over the Goowy calendar, I can definitely see this being a huge value add to someone on the road a lot, or someone that is not around a computer all day (like I am) to keep track of anything important. There are the other typical options involved here as well, including "Personal" where you could upload a photo (umm.. No) and what not. But another cool feature is the ability to add categories ...

In here you can add any type of category and color code it.. we all like colors right..

There are a ton of Calendar apps out there on the web right now, including the 800lb gorilla, Yahoo Calendar, but I just like the feel of this app as well as these guys (classmates/alum from RPI) when they have time seem to want to keep this constantly improving and they seem to listen to what the users have to say. As far as what this can do for the Office in a browser concept, once again this would be a tab open in Firefox at all times.. no toggling within an application, cut and paste notes from email, add reminders for tracking shipments, have appointments/reminders sent to you cell phone. Lot of good stuff going on here. Keep up the good work guys..

Let's get (blog)rolling

2006-01-13T12:50:00.000-05:00

Since I had changed jobs for the 3rd time this year, I had fallen behind on my RSS feeds at Bloglines. Figured now was as good time as any to add my blogroll to this fine area of the web. If you look, it is pretty varied in far as what the main topics of each are. Paruse them if you wish, it is probably going to change a little bit (it is a bit larger than I would like to see, hard to manage). If anyone out ther has any recommedations on some feeds let me know.

Office in a Browser - Goowy

2006-01-11T11:22:00.000-05:00

Unlike other Web 2.0 applications that are out there that are usually written in AJAX, Goowy is actually written in Flash. This flash based interface makes it really slick (however can be a drain on slower machines, such as mine at work) and allows for a lot of interactivity. Like I stated before, I really only use this for email and not for the other features (even if they are really good as well) since the Calendar is only in beta (but has worked on occasion for me for meeting invites from people using MS Outlook).

The main "start"age is kind of like a desktop full of widgets (or not, depending on your tastes)

The main widgets that are seen on here are the ever present weather widget, an Itunes Widget, email status (what is in your inbox, how many are new, and storage remaining), some RSS feeds, Google etc.

The bottom toolbar allows for toggle between applications, including Email, Calendar and Contacts. For the time being I am only going to be concerned with the Email (and the associated options) since Hipcal is going to be our calendar and contact application.

This is a screen shot of the email application (obviously). It has the pretty standard layout (which makes it really useful to me) of a message list on the left, message body on the right and a folder list on the bottom left. Any message can be dragged to a folder (something that I need, I know that most people swear by Gmail, but I just cannot get used to it). You get 2G of storage, so as long as you are not a huge spam target you should be all set for a long time. You can also mark messages as junk, and other stand things, but no labeling at this point, but I would assume that this would be something that they would be looking at in the future,

Here is the setting panel, from here you can set all the normal types of settings (font, signature , sounds, even change the background). It is here that you can add all of the folders that you need. For example, if you sell on Ebay, you could have a posted to ebay folder as well as a sold on eBay folder (organization is everything).

Why Goowy? Like I said Gmail seems to be the one and only to most people (still others like yahoo and hotmail) but I really liked the interface on this, as well as the drag and drop features. In the future the creators are looking to add the possibility of online storage (one of the other areas of an "office" I an going to explore later) so this in essence could become the main anchor in any browser based office "suite".

Office in a Browser?

2006-01-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of talk lately about Live Office and the coming of Web 2.0 versions of applications that we use everyday and that someday most people will be able to log into their PCs and do all of their "work" from a browser. Bill Gates disagrees with this, saying that there is so much functionality that is available in the stand alone versions that online versions will never fully compete. This may be true, but I contend and will aim to show in the next few posts, that this is possible now using some of the web services that are already out there. All of the needed applications for a what I will term a "micro-business", such as an online seller on eBay, an independent consultant or a professional blogger, are available to be used.

Email: Goowy (which has much more than email attached with it) However, I am only going to use this as an email with a stand alone calendar application so that the risk if data loss is mitigated (as well as to spotlight another good product out there)

Calendar: Hipcal (formerly MyPimp) is my favorite as well. Group calendar sharing, great interface, reminders via email and SMS etc..

Word processor: Writely. Once again, great interface, good tools and the ability to share documents

Spreadsheet: NumSum (looks like Jotspot is coming up with something though). Decent, if not a bit slow interface, but allows for simple spreadsheets to be made and shared with others (as well as tagged for ease of search)

Presentation: SoapBX This one is in the infancy stages but does a good job of allowing web based, Powerpoint type presentations to be created and shared. Based on the S5 project, which is more powerful, but needs am HTML editor and some HTML skills as well.

Nothing for a Database type application that I can see out there (at least for FREE) right now (if anyone knows of one, I would love to hear about it). Next is file storage, which to me is the glue that brings this all together. There are a couple of places out there now that are going to do this, or you could use a Gmail type of hack like gSpace (extension for Firefox), but there is something coming very soon that could be very useful, Omnidrive, which is about to open up its Beta.

Finally, how to make this look "good"? By using the best browser in the world, Firefox of course. In essence with the tabbed features of FF you can have all of the applications opened at the same time and toggle between them. Make a sale on Ebay and need to send it out? Cut and paste from Ebay into Writely, format and print the invoice and then add it to you spreadsheet in NumSum as a sale, using your Goowy email as your communication with customer and add an entry to Hipcal for the shipping (date sent, tracking number, etc..).

So what I am going to attempt to do is go into greater detail on all of these services, how a small business person could use them and then tie it all together with a FF customization that would make it simpler to navigate through the apps (adding certain extensions, moving around some of the UI, etc). If anyone else has any good ideas, please feel free to contribute, this is in no way an exhaustive list or maybe even the best way to go about this, so all comments are welcome.

BI vendor dumped for Siebel solution...

2006-01-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

Intergrated BI within Oracle

Interesting, can't say that I have not seen this one coming, especially when you have MS packaging a BI module with SQL Sever 2005. The most telling quote to the story is the following:

But, beyond that, the decision making process also considered the fact that Oracle is promising the company that the Siebel solution will integrate with its current Oracle CRM and ERP suites.

One stop shopping is going to be the name of the game. Oracle wants to provide all enterprises its front-end as well as the back-end so that you become very dependent on them. As always, Oracle is not alone in this. Will this hasten the "death" of BI providers? Given what I have seen on the past with some of the BI systems that are used out there, half of the issues in putting one in is the ability of the application layer to interface with the data. In the case of a company that has only Oracle (or only SQL Server) as a backend, I would think that using an interface that perfectly fits with the data would only make sense. However, in the majority of the places I have been at or talked to, the issue is that they do not have on common data system. There are places that have both SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and to some extent MS Access housing all of their data. It is in these instances where the BI companies can really offer more. But then again, if I were one of the big boys, like Oracle, I would sell the fact that by moving all of the data to one "Oracle" warehouse and then implementing their analytics would make more sense. But this can be expensive, and very, very time consuming. Time and money that most places would not even think of spending at this time.

Rose Bowl..

2006-01-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

Out of respect for what Vince did.. He gets the picture on this post...

OK, I have been a huge USC fan for as long as I can remember (I am talking from the late 70s here, and I am not that old) and to say that they have been on a roll for the past couple of years is an understatement. I have let a few days go by and have seen/read the fall out from one of the "greatest college football games ever" and I think I am now ready to comment. (if anyone cares..)

I like Pete Carroll, but I will admit when he was hired by SC I was really not "jacked" up about it. You see, I live in New England and he did not have the best reputation around here (even though he had an overall winning record and took them to the playoffs 2 out of 3 years..) but I can see that he has brought back SC to the days of McKay. However, I cannot figure out what his plan was for Vince Young (have fun on the Titans by the way, tell Norm we say hi). He has some freshman on him all night and let's face it, they took advantage of that. Perhaps moving Bing up would have made a difference, but probably not, it was the Vince Young show and he made the most of it.

However, it is not like SC was without its chances. First of all, I think Reggie Bush was still trying to win the Heisman when he tried that lateral. You cannot do that against a mediocre team, let alone an awesome one. They really had 2 4th downs that if they were converted would have made a big difference, the first one on one of the 1st drives on the 17 yard line and the last one on 4th and 2 (where was Reggie?!?!?!?) that would have won the game.

I am not whining about this at all. Texas was the better team (and Vince was by far the best player on the field) and they deserve to win. The outlook for Texas for next year just got really foggy in that Wince sis leaving, and SC is going to have to re-load..

Hello John David Booty, this is why you came here early from High School (watch out for Mark Sanchez though)..
Goodbye Matt.. good luck in New Orleans you are going to need it, but I contend that the NFL is going to move them to LA once it is plain to all that NO cannot support a team .
Hello Lendale... PLEASE STAY!!!! I would not blame you if you left, but if you stay with that O-Line you will rip it up and probably compete for the Heisman.
Goodbye Reggie.. I will watch you whenever possible, but considering you will be on Houston that may be a tad hard
Hello Dwayne Jarrett.. given what is probably going to happen with everyone leaving this is now going to be your team, and to think you wanted to leave during your freshman year.

Well.. spring ball is right around the corner.. we will see what is going to happen. It is probable that SC will still win the PAC-10 and go back to the Rose, however, looking at OSU, PSU and ND, is appears that the power in CFB next year will be in the mid-west (sorry SEC people).

Where is Open Office???

2006-01-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

Google Pack

I had read about Google Pack over the weekend (between football games and painting my son's new room) and what I notices right off the bat is that I have and use most of this software. I really thought that Google would go all the way on this one and also package in some office applications. These are 'essential' applications according to them which some of them are.

Google Earth - A really cool application, but for the everyday person this wears really quick, how can much can you, as an average user use this app (and it is a CPU hog as well, so make sure you have the proper specs for this one) actually get from this.

Picassa - I use this for all my digital photo needs and it is GREAT. Must have

Google Pack Screensaver - Don't know about most people, but I have not used a screensaver in a very long time, so this seems kind of frivolous.

Google Desktop - Good application, and also probably why they did not bundle an email reader in the pack since this can read that as well. I would also have to believe that they would prefer to use Gmail above any other application based email. I have a gmail account, but as I have stated before Goowy is the best at web-based email to this point. The desktop also has some really cool features, but I have found it to be obtrusive at times. For all of the widgets that are built into it, I use the Yahoo Widget Engine.

Google Toolbar for IE - I am confused.. what is IE and who uses it?

Firefox with Toolbar - This is more like it. I use Firefox for EVERYTHING and so should everyone else. Best browser in the world, I don't generally use toolbars at all, except for bookmarking, but the Google Toolbar must be helpful.

Norton - Why? I thought this was all free programs. As has been brought up on Lifehacker, Norton is not free, or at least not free after 6 months. Most PC makers pre-install Norton, only it is a 3 month 'trial' which unless you buy the updates renders the product completely useless. A tad bit misleading on Google's part on this one. Lifehacker's recommendation of ClamWin is a good choice (free is for me!!!)

Ad-Aware SE - Get this.. you need it if you don't already have it, or something like it. I have even used the MS spyware remover and it is actually not that bad.

Adobe Reader - definitely essential, go to read those PDFs.

What is missing? Umm.. Word Processor to begin with, or even an entire office suite. I have been using Open Office (which is now in 2.0) for 3 years now and it is just as good as Office and guess what.. FREE!!! Using the open document standard also helps, making documents readable in almost any application, so if you send someone something from this program, chances are they will be able to open it. I can see what Google maybe thinking, baby steps. Get this out there, get a known customer base and then get something like this. The rumors of a Google Cube were out there for some time, and most of this stuff is cross platform (in other words it will work in Linux) so this could be the first step towards that end, have to wait and see what else the Goog has coming.

Go to Whitehouse.gov.. run Ad-Aware

2005-12-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

U.S. to Probe Contractor's Web Tracking

Apparently, unknown until know, the White House has been using tracking cookies on their web page for some time now, even though there was a policy in place from 2003 that eliminated this. The spin on this is that they do not actually do any of the tracking, and that these cookies are not put there by the government site, but by other sites that use Webtrend (which is used by countless sites out there to track where people go on a site and how often they come back). At the most, this information would only tell the government how many times someone has gone to the site, and let's face it, that site does not really have much to it as far as "important" information goes.

What is interesting is that this is blamed on a contractor, while there is an "Internet Director" for the White House, whom one would think would be able to keep track of these things, as well as just know what they are. But then again this is a political job, and its not what you know, bit who you know

Anyway, I recommend Ad-Aware (and believe it or not the Windows Anti-Spyware) to get rid of those pesky tracking cookies.

"Fun" Freshman Seminars or how to boost your GPA

2005-12-30T10:53:00.000-05:00

Fun Freshman Seminars Gain in Popularity

Ahh.. Conn College.. a nice little liberal (and I mean LIBERAL) art school right in New London is offering "fun" classes to incoming freshman so that they can basically, in my eyes, get some filler for that tough schedule of classes and to get an easy grade to help boost that Freshman GPA (which for most drops from HS due to some "social" circumstances). I had two of these, the first was at Manahttanville College (not unlike Conn College in its student population, hence my transfer a year later) and was taught by your academic advisor. It was a tad interesting, if not a little hokey, in that the name of the class was "The search for the good Life" and the final paper, which as I recall was 5 pages, was to explain what your version of the good life was, and why. Thinking back on that, things have certainly changed. I got an A though!

Then onto Bryant College (the exact opposite of Manhattanville in student population in that most leaned to the right) where I had another one of these (since I was a transfer). What I remember about that was it was basically reading a bunch of "classics" and looking at art. I think this was the way that Bryant back in that day tried to make a "well rounded" student, since everything from there on out was B-school stuff.

What I really do not like about these classes is that they are pretty simple to begin with and really are not indicative of what college is and what it is going to be for then next 3 years. In my experience, I also thought that the time spent on those classes would be better suited for more skill based courses, which in most schools are lacking. It seems that John Gardner had a similar thought as well....

"It is possible you get a student motivated and stimulated with an almost graduate-like experience," said Gardner, who advises colleges on such programs. "And then ' bang! ' you turn them loose on the real first year, which isn't anything like that."