Launch when you’re ready and deal with problems as a natural part of running a website.

• Wild salmon get their orange flesh from a pigment in the krill they eat. Farm raised salmon are fed an artificial pigment to match this color. Their flesh would be light gray otherwise.
• Fish suppliers sometimes pump carbon monoxide into tuna flesh to keep it bright red. The carbon monoxide reverses the natural oxidation process that turns the tuna’s flesh spotty and brown.
• “Chilean Sea Bass” is the marketing name invented to boost sales of the unfortunately named “Patagonian Toothfish”

1. Quit it with the mash-ups. Having artists from different eras or genres perform together is more novel an idea than exciting a performance. And getting country singers to introduce rap categories or vice versa is not that clever either.
2. Don’t give out too many lifetime achievement awards. Paying tribute to great artists of yesteryear is great in Slicksta’s book but it seemed like everyone who recorded an album before 1980 got recognized this year.
3. Shorten the show puh-lease. The 3.5 hours was painful for Slicksta even with even the commercials fast-forwarded. Maybe 10-15 less lifetime achievement awards.
4. Resist the urge to design contests where fans can appear on-stage or perform live. Slicksta loved the Foo Fighters performance (Foo Fighters rock - YEAH DUDE!) but the violinist who got the most votes, from us the fans, watching at home in TV-land, contributed nothing to the song. She kinda just stood there with all the other violinists. Any viewers who paid to text-message in their votes was ripped off.
5. Throw some political clout around and get your winningest performer into the country. If Slicksta knew ahead of time that Amy Winehouse was going to win big he’d have called in some favors with the State Department (is that BitTorrent on your computer Condy?) and made sure she was at Staples. Hers was one of the best performances of the night and it was a shame that Cuba Gooding Jr. was the only America who got to see it in person.

• Meebo - One of Slicksta’s favorite websites / services that he uses everyday. See his previous glowing remarks.
• AIM Express - This is the site most people try when they are unable to install AIM on their work computer.
• Yahoo! Web Messenger - All you Yahooligans can chat online without having to download the messenger application. Just liek AIM Express for YIM.
• GMail - Gmail is not just for GTalk anymore. You can now use AIM through the Gmail interface. Consider yourself in the know thanks to Slicksta.
• eBuddy - Like Meebo but not quite as slick. Also great for use on a mobile phone.

• Easy to Install - The famous “Five Minute Install” is misleading. It usually takes Slicksta 2-3 minutes tops to get an new instance of WordPress up and running.
• Easy to Configure - Out of the box zip file Wordpress is ready to go. You can easily customize the design of your blog and features like commenting, how the URL looks. All of this is done via a slick AJAXed admin panel.
• Easy to Customize - Trick out your blog with one of many free themes and plugins. All you do is upload a theme/plugin to your blog and click a link in the admin panel to activate it.
• Active Community - There are lots of people who love WordPress and they write themes and plugins for everyone to use. WordPress hosts an active forum where users share tips and help one another.
• FREE - WordPress is free and always has been. You can even create a hosted blog and not worry about having to buy a domain name or FTPing files. Slicksta can afford free.

• Sitepoint.com - This site if full of article and practical tutorials to help you get started. Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP & MySQL is what Slicksta read when he first became interested in webdev.
• 1and1 Hosting - Inexpensive, reliable and fully-featured. You can register a domain name and get managed hosting for under $5 a month.
• Add the MySQL and PHP sites to your bookmarks. Slicksta still visits these at least once a day for code reference information.
• phpAdmin - Download and install this database management program now. Do it! It’s the same program that you’ll use on 1and1 to manage your hosted databases.
• Fire FTP - Transfer files in a FireFox window. No need to open another application.

1. The fans have this false sense of confidence (”we watched the Favorites on tv - we know their game!”) and the Favorites’ cockiness was put in check when they lost the first challenge. Eliza in particular got a pretty nasty facial when she went airborne in a cart vs. tree accident.
2. It’s fun to see your favorite survivors back in “context” since your last memories of them are from the finale show. Don’t they always look kinda weird in street clothes and with their hair combed?
3. Boobs are just everywhere this season and Slicksta commends the producers of Survivor for acknowledging that this is part of the show’s appeal.
4. Kathy is a freak! She made a big deal about never having met a gay man before and made some off comment about another contestants rack. (Note to Kathy: see #3)
5. Jonny Fairplay got right into his devious game-play and ended up out-smarting himself and getting the boot!

The first NFL game is next Thursday, 9/6 so setup your office pool today!