Just wanted to share a photo of my recent success on Woot.com. Unbeknownst to me, Woot apparently does a BoC (aka: Bag of Crap, Bandoleer of Carrots, Baggy of Camomile, Box of Chorizo, etc.) every year on April 1st, or April Fool's Day. I was right in the middle of playing KotOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) when I hear a shrieking from my Wootalyzer and my gameplay window minimizes on its own. Usually, Wootalyzer shrieking indicates the beginning of a Woot-Off, but they'd just had one, so I knew that wasn't it. Lo and behold, there in the photo box for current Woot items was a Bag o' Crap! Those of you familiar with Woot and the Bags of Crap are aware of the frenzied clickety-clickety and the racing of the heart that followed. I won't go into full detail, but apparently the festive spirit of that particular date goes hand-in-hand with Woot's usual antics, and they took full advantage of it. CLICK HERE to see what I'm talking about and you can figure it out for yourself.    Needless to say, there was a bit of a delay before the BoCs sold out (normally they're gone in mere moments) and I was able to snag myself one, despite a few setbacks. See below for my spoils:

1. The Original Lava Brand Fire Fly Lamp
2. Memorex External 20x Lightscribe DVD Recorder
3. Buquet Supply, Inc. Pail #4 Bright Red
4. 2x "One Cheer for Broccoli" Woot Tees - Men's Sz. Large

Not a bad haul!  

Spring is upon us!




A dogwood tree blooming in our backyard, one of the few that hasn't died from some strange disease that's been killing them all off. This is the most any of the dogwoods in our yard have bloomed in years. Click for bigger photo!

Flowers (that didn't get killed during the snowstorm) are blooming, the trees are getting their leaves back, rainy days are coming in droves, and the bunnies... well, they're doing what bunnies do best. Unfortunately for one litter, their mama picked a very bad spot to make her nest. If you look on the far left side of the photo above, you'll see one of those yellow "crossing" signs. It says "Chicken Xing", and is hanging on the corner of our (now unoccupied) chicken yard. The coop, or henhouse, is attached to the left side of the yard, and underneath that is where Mama Coney decided to have her nursery. What she didn't know is that there was a cold-blooded killer living on the same property... bumbumBUUUMMMM...!!
   That's Kobe... he's a hunter at heart, probably learned from his days spent wandering the countryside on his own in Chesterfield, SC, before we rescued him. He's got a nose like a hound and will track down any varmint that's dumb enough to come onto his turf. He's gotten chippies (chipmunks... sorry, Dave), squirrels, mice, moles, shrews, and even birds. I know he's had confrontations with a possum at least once, but there's never been any evidence that he killed one. Seriously wounded, yes, but the possums usually take off or are removed from the yard before we can verify expiration. All that being said, you've probably guessed that the baby bunnies hidden under the chicken coop were toast. I don't know if the mama was just "out" at the time, or ran off in fear, but Kobe managed to squeeze himself under the henhouse (raised up on cinder-blocks), and emerged with the little squeakers, one by one.

WARNING: Don't click here if you don't like seeing dead baby bunnies. :-(

Don't know how many were in the litter, but Kobe got three that we know of. Picced the others, but they were... err... a bit more gruesome-looking as they'd been gnawed on a bit. ó_ò Poor things. Though I doubt Kobe would have left any alive, I'd almost feel worse for any sibs that are still under the coop because it's a sure bet that mom's not coming back if she's still alive. Sad, but such is life, and the species certainly isn't on the extinction list.    Oh, and not sure if I've posted this one before, but... as a bonus:


Little squirt (that's Rob Roy, or "Woobie", as we call him) ended up with this, though not sure he can claim that he actually caught it. Sorry for the bad photo, it was taken with an ancient cell phone.

So I'm fishing around in the garage, trying to locate some all-purpose cleaning rags and I came across something that kinda creeped me out. Check it out. I was all, "Wha-?" I had my hair cut about a week ago. I get it chopped off above my shoulders every year (though it's usually a little later), and my dad just does it for me. I came home from work one night last week, frustrated with the length and frizziness, and just grabbed a brush and some scissors and dragged him out to the garage to get rid of the pesky locks. I thought he'd tossed the hair out into the woods beside our house, but there it was. Just... lying there.    Still felt pretty clean, too, despite sitting out in the damp (it's been raining a lot lately). I just left it. People kept asking after I got it cut if I'd donated to Locks of Love, but I don't think it was long enough. I was thinking they wanted a foot, but it's 10" from tip to tip. Bleh, don't think I could wait for it to get that long. I'm going to try and keep it short this year. SO much easier to wash and maintain.    Guess I should go toss the chopped stuff in the compost pile. Heheheh... o_o

So, Prof. Clemons of The Wharton School of the Univ. of Penn. has done a study basically predicting a steep decline in revenue generated by online advertising within the next 5 years, and written a nice piece about it for TechCrunch.
   While I am aware that there's a lot a whole lot of money being thrown around out there on internet ads, I don't pay much attention to the trends or ups and downs of that business. However, I do consider myself more-or-less an average consumer, and I do at least 75% of my shopping online. RARELY OR NEVER, though, do sponsored links or banner ads come into the picture.
   Most will agree that pretty much every business needs some form of advertising to grow. The oldest and most influential and trustworthy form would be word-of-mouth advertising. Your friend tells you he tried a new barber the other day and had a great experience, loved the service, reasonable pricing, short wait time, etc., that is an enormous plug for that establishment and you will remember that next time you get POed with your regular hair-cutter, but still need a trim.
   "Hmmm... John said that place over on Central was really good. I think I'll give it a try."
   Eventually, every media outlet that comes along (newspapers, billboards, radio, television, cinema, internet, SMS and text messages) will include advertising. Every flat surface in sports stadiums is plastered with logos. Anything that people spend more than a few moments in, around, on, at, or with on a regular basis will be used as an outlet for advertising. That's just the way it works. Supposedly, the more frequently you advertise and the more widespread your advertising (across multiple mediums and location-wise), the more business you will get and the more revenue you will generate. However, because of the ease and relatively low-cost of internet advertising, the practice of drawing in consumers via this medium has become extremely excessive. Though a company may pay out the wazoo depending on where and how often their ads are placed on web pages, the cost to actually place these ads on those pages is next to nothing. Therefore, they're everywhere. Sometimes, the same ad will appear in three our four different places on a single web page, all of them "above the fold"!
   Now, I cannot speak for everyone, but I do not trust any kind of online ad or sponsored link, and there are only a couple of reasons that will ever make me bring my mouse-pointer near them.

1. By clicking said ad or link, I'm supporting or generating revenue for an individual or charitable organization that I want to help out
2. By clicking said ad or link, I'll receive some sort of promotional coupon or discount off the price I would have paid had I not gone through the ad or link (for example: my online broker, Scottrade, advertised a percentage off TurboTax e-filing fees if I clicked through the little ad on their site)

Even then, I'm wary. Because most banner ads are javascript-based, they can incorporate all sorts of things into the redirect you get into by clicking on them. I don't trust this and if I do see something advertised that I'm interested in, I will go Google the company or product and pull it up the conventional way (NOT via sponsored links). In this sense, sites that generate revenue based on how many people actually click or open the ads/links on their sites does not work with me (or a lot of people, I suspect). Even worse are those that receive money based on how many people click through and then actually spend money.
   Now, in a different sense, advertising still kind of works because it may be informing you about a product or service you may not have seen before, or saw and were interested in but forgot about. This will either generate or renew interest, in which case the company behind the ad has successfully gotten your attention, and, thus, can potentially make a sale. While you may have nothing else to do with the ad after that, the brand name and/or product are on your mind.
   However, as professor Clemons noted, even this kind of advertising is, in a way, unneeded. In an information age when people carry the internet around in their pockets and have instant access to an unfathomable amount of information, the only real purpose of an ad anymore is to get your name out there. People need merely see a Sony logo next to a new MP3 player model, and can get all the information they want (and then some), by running a quick search on "Sony MP3 player". Instantly, links for customer reviews, tech-expert reviews, online retailers, blog postings, Wikipedia entries and the official site will be displayed, and consumers can pick and choose the information they wish to receive about the product. Gone are the days of 5-10 minute television ads where the product is modeled, tested, reviewed, explained, and even shown throughout its manufacturing process. In those days, that was one of the only means people had for learning about this latest and greatest thing they were supposed to be spending their hard-earned dollars on. Now, you can find out almost everything about anything even before it's made available to regular consumers. Bits of information are leaked throughout the early developmental stages so that you could practically rattle off all the features and tech specs a month before the product has hit the mass market.
   I'm sure everyone's seen at least one or two films set in the "future" featuring cityscapes plastered with various means of advertising. Everywhere you look, flashing signs and giant LCD screens and posters. Ever notice that most of what's featured are simply logos and catchphrases? Companies want their names to be the first thing that pops into Joe-consumer's mind when he thinks about certain products. Keep flashing it at him over and over and over, and that may just do the trick. However, as an informational outlet, or as a means of generating any kind of revenue other that which comes from pointing consumers in your direction (preferably before your competitors) to spend their money, online ads are slowly but surely becoming obsolete.

So, it's been less than 24 hours since my previous review of Microsoft's new browser version, Internet Explorer (IE) 8, and it's already time for round two! I've noticed quite a few more new and different things since last night (just in my regular daily surfing and whatnot), so here's the latest:

COLOR-CODED TABS

• Those that have used IE7 will know that when that version was opening a tab and the page it was loading threw out a pop-up box or request that needed to be addressed before the page could load, the tab would flash orange. Well, those that are used to that feature may initially find the color-coded tabs a bit distracting (especially yellow), as they may appear to be tabs requesting something before their respective pages can load. You get used to this very quickly, but it's a little annoying at first.
• It appears that there are only four colors used in a sequence before they start over: yellow, purple, green and blue (they are used in that order). Standalone tabs remain the neutral light-blue used in the browser theme.
• Another slight annoyance: when you have multiple tabs open (more than three or four), the color-coding makes it a little difficult to detect which tab you are currently resting on. The only indication is a little bit of white shading at the bottom of the tab to indicate it's your current window, but it's difficult to detect at a glance. You have to scrutinize the line-up to figure out where you are. Check out this screenshot. Browse some of the page content and, without looking directly at the tabs, try to pick out which one you're on. Then move your eyes up to the center of the strip of tabs. See it yet? I couldn't. I had to look at each one to find out where I was so I could close out that tab. Granted, I could simply have used Ctrl+W, but you should ideally be able to pick out your current tab from the line-up as long as the strip is somewhere within your range of vision. Possibly super-saturating the color of the tab you're on or assigning a very visible color to your "current" tab, like red would help out with that.

FIND FUNCTION (CTRL+F)

• Changes have been made to Find or "search page" function (Ctrl+F). Don't know about you guys, but I use this a LOT! Used to be, a little box would pop-up where you could enter your term(s) and the browser would locate any/all of that term on the current page, jumping to and highlighting the next occurence either by clicking the Next button in the box or by hitting Enter/Return. IE8, however, has gone all Firefox-esque by opening a new slot underneath the tab strip for entering your "find" terms (though I think Firefox has theirs at the bottom of the browser). Adobe Acrobat Reader does it this way as well. Your "Previous" and "Next" buttons are still there and a little drop-down menu has replaced the checkboxes for the "Match Case" and "Match Whole Word Only" options. On the one hand, this is a nice change:
  • The little search box that was used previously had a tendency to remain fixed in place, even if that meant sitting directly in front of a highlighted term. So you'd click the Next button to jump to the next occurence of your search terms on the page and be looking and looking for that little highlighted portion, only to drag the Find box aside and see the term was behind it. (Kinda retarded, no? The whole point of jumping and highlighting is to make what you're looking for absolutely visible, and the freakin' box is just sitting right in front of it!). Moving this function to a strip at the top of the page (and, thus, part of the menu section) makes it impossible for it to obscure any portion of the page content it's trying to show you (what a concept... Firefox had IE cold on this one).
  Now, IMHO, there is also a downside to this new design for Find:
  • As I mentioned previously, I hate a bloated menu section, and the find slot creates a third bar and, thus, less space for actual page content. If you want it to go away, you have to go up there and click the "X" to close it out. Now, I know you had to do this for the pop-up box that was previously used, but somehow, I just expected that bar to close out or go away when I simply clicked anywhere within the current page. Have no idea where I'm getting that from (Firefox's Find bar must be manually "closed" as well), but on multiple occasions I've found myself clicking the page when I've finished with Find only to look up and realize the bar has not gone away (call me lazy). Would be a nice feature, regardless!
  • One more thing I don't like is that (like Firefox), the Find function will begin jumping and highlighting AS SOON as you start typing. So, I'm still entering my term(s) and IE is already doing the hokey-pokey all over the page. I found that pretty visually distracting. I'd prefer to finish entering what I want found and then hit "Run", "Search", whatever and THEN start viewing the results. As it is, IE8's Find function highlights EVERY instance of the term(s) in yellow, and the instance you're currently looking at in blue. Though the yellow highlighting for every instance is actually kinda handy, I'd prefer to run the Find command on my own, rather than having it instantly occur as I type.

SEARCH FUNCTION

• On an up note, here's something AWESOME I discovered about the main search box next to the address bar! When you run a search using Google, if your search terms contain a mispelling or typo and you subsequently select Google's "Did you mean?" suggestion in the page search results, not only do you get a corrected search, the terms you initially entered in the main search box are corrected as well! This is a big deal for me, because I often make typos in an initial search, and (though I'd choose Google's corrected suggestion in the results) would forget to change my typo when adding or rearranging the main search box terms to expand or change my results. So, I'd have to take Google's corrected version AGAIN and then have to go up and fix my typo for my next search. So far, it doesn't look like this occurs when using any other search providers, just Google. However, as that's what a lot of folks are using up there about 75% of the time, it's no biggie. (Most of the other search providers I have don't recognize misspellings or typos and offer a correction. For those, you only realize the typo when you get odd or NO results [exception: Amazon recognizes some typos, but they don't correct it in the main search box when you choose their suggestion]).
• Another neat thing: when typing terms into the main search box, not only does it use the auto-complete drop-down list of previous search terms, below those in a separate menu is a history of previous searches run with the same or similar terms. So, if you ran a search on "black duct tape" an hour ago via Google, Amazon, and PriceGrabber, and are currently typing into Google search, planning to select PriceGrabber again as your search provider, you need not type the term and then click to specify PriceGrabber. Just key down to the previous PriceGrabber search and bring it up again! Pretty cool.

That's it for now, but I'm coming across new stuff constantly (since I pretty much live in front of my PC when not at work), so watch for additional reviews!

So I was going through my TechCrunch feeds and saw that Internet Explorer (IE) 8 had finally been cleared for wide-release.



I'd heard it was being beta-tested, but didn't pay much heed to that... beta-testing has never been my thing. I'll let everyone else work out the bugs and crappy features and then revel in the final product.
   Now, I've almost always been an IE person. Back when Mozilla's Firefox first got big, I decided to see what all the hullabaloo was about and tried it. (Plus, I needed it anyways as a tester for web page compatibility issues.) I probably used it for about a month and finally threw in the towel and had to switch back to my beloved IE. Firefox was cool in its own way... it was kinda like getting the adventure bug and running away from home to crash with a bunch of older, cooler kids. At first, you're hanging on to their every word and are just idolizing everything about them, feeling you're taking part in this magnificent and revolutionary experience. But after a day or two, you realize that the people you were venerating are basically just a bunch of pot-heads standing around mumbling about Freud, and they've failed to live up to your expectations and you're homesick, so back home you run, embracing it with anxious arms upon arrival.
   Unfortunately, I found there were too many cons and not enough pros for Firefox. It was ugly, very slow, making selections in the menus was a total pain because the buttons were too sensitive (had to move quick or the menu would close out!), sites and pages just looked weird (I can appreciate literal code translation, but EW!), and I did not like that a right-click and "View Page Source" opened the code in some sort of freaky Firefox window with strange, color-coded HTML instead of just plain ol' Notepad. Thus, I went scampering back to IE and have never gone back. Sorry, Firefox freaks fans... can't say I didn't at least try it.
   However, I did not venture blindly into this new territory in a lemming-like fashion, trustingly accepting whatever what set before by the almighty Microsoft... (okay, so maybe I did, but I'd read this Yahoo! Tech article a few days prior, so I was not completely ignorant!). I had my reservations, but trusted that the hard-working and sacrificial beta-crowd would not let me down. So, a few clickety-clicks and a reboot later, I was opening up the sparkling, new IE8 for a first look. These were my initial impressions:

• APPEARANCE: WOW... first thing I noticed was that the new appearance was a little bit cleaner and more business. Gone were the super-rounded corners and the bubbly surfaces. The bubble-blue "Back" and "Forward" arrows remained and most of the icons ("Favorites", "Home", "Refresh", etc.) remained the same, but everything seemed more compact and streamlined. It looked like a lot of the margin space had been removed to leave as much room for the actual viewing window and content as possible. When I first opened the browser, the Favorites menu icon and "Favorites Bar" were resting in their own slot between the address bar/search bar and the tabs bar. I moved the Favorites icon back to it's usual spot. However, the "Add to Favorites" icon (the sister star) seems fixed to the Favorites Bar, which, unfortunately, cannot be placed with the main Favorites icon to the left of all your tabs. It can either go above, creating an extra, middle slot, or you can shove it over next to the "Command Bar" (Home, Feeds, etc.). I chose the latter, wishing to retain as much space for actual content as possible. I hate a bloated menu/command section, and don't mind clicking or mousing through several menus to get where I need to go in order to save space.
• ACCELERATORS: During the initial setup that IE inevitably steps you through, I was introduced to several new terms and concepts. The most evident was that of "Accelerators". Accelerators, apparently are little menu options that allow you to select portions of web page content and plug them into a desired function with a single click. For example:
  • You select a string of text on a web page.
  • After you've made your selection, a little blue and white arrow box appears next to your selection (Office 2007 users, think the formatting box that appears when you select text!).
  • When you click on the box, a little drop-down menu appears with a list of your default Accelerators in various categories ("Search with Google", "Post to LiveJournal" (woohoo!), "Define with Dictionary.com", etc.)
  • You can apply any of these functions to whatever you just highlighted.
  There are a lot of practical uses for this.
  • Say you're reading something online and come across a big word you've never heard of. You highlight the word, click your blue box and select the Dictionary Accelerator (you can choose from a number of pre-determined dictionary sites). In an instant, a new tab is opened, displaying a definition of the word(s) you selected. (The new tab is nice, as it doesn't interupt your reading or lose your spot on the page!)
  • In another example, you come across a street address on a web page and would like directions. Highlight it, blue box, select your default Mapping Accelerator (mine is Google Maps right now because Microsoft has not seen fit to add MapQuest to their list, grrrrrr...) BOOM, a new tab with the street address mapped out for you. I don't know about you, but I usually have to copy the address, open a new tab, go to MapQuest, paste in the address and run a search to get to where Accelerators now get you to with a simple "highlight, click, click". Not too shabby!
  There are currently 15+ Accelerator categories, and each one has multiple sites to choose from. Microsoft expands in both areas daily, so if you don't see your favorite social networking site or finance advisor right now, be sure to check back!
• SUGGESTED SITES: An equally nifty, but perhaps not as handy function is the "Suggested Sites" button in the Favorites Bar. When you click on it, it generates a short list of recommended sites it thinks you might like based on the page you're viewing when you click it. The links it generates are not terrible exciting, but I'm going to watch for improvements and options for customization. It's one of those things you might get a kick out of when you're super-bored at work and have already canvassed all of your emails, feeds, social networking sites, IMs, blogs and the entirety of YouTube twice-over during the first hour of your shift.
• COLOR-CODED TABS: A lovely little option for my fellow taboholics out there is the new color-coded tabs! It's kind of like leaving a little bread-crumb trail to trace opened tabs back to their original source. For example:
  • If I'm on the Yahoo! home page and open a news link in a new tab, IE will assign a color (say: yellow) to both the Yahoo! tab and the new tab I just opened.
  • If, while reading the article I opened, I see a "related article" that I also want to read and open that in a new tab, it, too, will be yellow.
  • Then, if I open a brand new blank tab and go to Google, then run a search open one of the results in a new tab, IE will assign a new color (say: purple) to the Google tab and the one that I opened from the search results.
  • At that point, I have two clusters of tabs: yellow (3) and purple (2). I can trace all the yellow tabs back to Yahoo! and the purple back to my Google search results.
  Some people may not see the purpose of this feature, and I'm not entirely sure that I do either (yet), but because of my browsing habits, I can't see how it could be a bad thing. (I will peruse an entire page of content boxes filled with news links, not reading anything right away, but instead opening anything that looks interesting in a new tab and resuming my perusal of headlines. When I've completely gone through the news boxes, I'll then methodically go through the long line of tabs that have accumulated, browsing the articles/pages one at a time, closing out each tab as I finish until they're all gone. As you can imagine, I can rack up quite a string of tabs this way, and while many may be from a single page--and, thus, share a single color--I do have a couple of different "mother pages" I'll browse off of.) Plus, a rainbow of pretty colors in your tab bar? I mean, c'mon... you have to admit that's cool.

That is the sum of my initial impression of IE8. Not too in-depth so far, but then it's only been a couple of hours. I'll very likely return to post again as I come across new and cool elements (and will definitely post again if I come across something I dislike!).
   Overall, I'd recommend IE8 to anyone who enjoyed IE7 or is looking for a new, slick browser with lots of cool features and is not too picky about heavy customization. IE8 still gets the job done as well as its predecessor with a few new surprises thrown in to improve and speed up your browsing experience. It's also resembles big brother Vista over little bro XP in looks, toning down some of that bright, smooth glossy coat that XP displayed, trading it in for a sharper, more "business casual" appearance. Because this is a brand new version, keep your expectations average, as there are inevitably bugs to be worked out. Don't shy away because of bad reviews, though. Pessimists and haters shout the loudest, and may drown out some of the praise this browser rightly deserves.


My specs so you can see what I'm running IE8 on... again, not slow at all!

WOW... I'm definitely one of those people who dislike all the "touching" involved with touchscreens. Touchscreens on your phone, at the ATM, on your MP3 player, on your netbook, everywhere, gah! How can people stand it? Every time they use these devices, they're getting nasty, horrible, greasy, dirty fingerprint smudges and streaks all over the lovely, clear screens. I finally broke down a few months back and got an LG Voyager which has a touch screen on the front (I needed a phone with a QWERTY keyboard). I am constantly wiping off all the darned thing's multiple shiny surfaces, especially the touchscreen. I use my nails or a pen cap whenever possible to make selections. Needless to say, this article intrigued me very much! A "touchless" touchscreen...? Can it be? No vids, but some nice photos and a lengthy explanation of the technology. Sounds like it could have some pretty awesome possibilities for future tech. I shall be keeping my eye on the concept!

WOW... check out this awesome PC casemod. Not bad at all! Here's a preview:



Preeeeetttttyyyyyy...

So... was just browsing some feeds and found a cool new trailer for Pixar's UP, an upcoming Tim Burton film called 9 (CGI, never heard of it, but Elijah Wood is doing a voice!), and a berry awesome new laptop being released by the very innovative and ever-growing ASUS, which is successfully cutting its way into US markets (much to the delight of American consumers). Check out the links below for content described above!

Pixar's UP!
"9" (looks pretty cool)
Sweet new ASUS package

Enjoy!

So... after reviewing all of the Super Bowl commercials (or at least the ones they had available for viewing) on NBC.com, I came up with my Top 10 list for 2009:

1. Hulu: Alec and Huluwood
2. NBC: Heroes Football
3. Transformers 2 Trailer
4. Star Trek Trailer
5. E*Trade: Talking Baby
6. Pepsi: Refresh Anthem
7. Pepsi Max: I'm Good
8. NFL Super Ad: Usama Young
9. Monster: Need a New Job?
10. Doritos: Crystal Ball

I'm counting the movie trailers because that's the first time they were made available. And sorry to the Budweiser Clydesdales fans... the three Clydesdale ads were cute, but none of them had that heartwarming "awwww" factor this year... not like this one, from the 2006 Super Bowl. I'd post links, but not all of these are on YouTube, and the quality is better on NBC.com anyways. Just go there to view! Disagree with my picks? Comment!