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This is a short episode with a quick look at the NexStar GX, an excellent USB 2.0 external hard drive enclousure with 3 extra USB ports as well. A nice piece of equipment that would set you back about 50 dollars. Music is “La Tortura” by Shakira.
I’ve got some emails in the last two weeks or so about the quality of the podcasts. Issue being that the audio is only in one channel (what I actually record, not the songs at the end). Because of this, it has to be some issue that I have with my mic and the way I record. I went back a few episodes to see how long this has been an issue and it seems that it has been while.
Thanks for all of the feedback and don’t ever hestitate to let me know, as I don’t pick up on some things after you’ve sit here and recorded and all that. I need to get started earlier and let the episode sit some so when I listen to it again I can truly edit it correctly, but alas…..
I’m looking into the issue and will play around with it this weekend so that hopefully it will be fixed for this week’s issue. Which will be out later Sunday evening, EST.
A rather long title for a disturbing article. To boil it all down, a huge fan of the Carolina Panthers was “chosen” as the recipient of a “new car” at the last game. The announcers made it very believable and all, but when the cameras zoomed in on the guy, he got a toy car instead. He never receieved the real thing. Fox Sports made a fool out of him on national TV.
The author goes on to vent and rant about how bad this guy has it. He has a few kids and a beatup Chevy van with 130,000 on it. However, he also had the money to attend all the Panther’s games, buy other season related stuff, and manufacture a few thousand custom bobble-head dolls based on himself. Sounds like he could have went out and bought himself a Ford Focus if he wanted to. So, while it was wrong for Fox Sports to treat a guy like that, I still don’t think that he should get a new car just to make the public happy.
I’m not sure how many of you out there have ever used Facebook before, but it’s basically a much better (in my opinion) version of MySpace for college students (and some high school students, as more schools are added).
The controversy this week has been over a new feature added that allows you to easily see what has been going on in your social network. I’m going to take the time to argue against that here.
There have been groups formed and angry words already thrown over this feature that was just implemented about 2 days ago at most. I for one really like it though. It’s based on a cool web technology (RSS) and lets me see when my friends add some photos to their page, make comments, leave messages, etc. I’m not exactly sure why this is stalking because I could get the same information if I just went to their page directly and took the time to look around and see what had changed and what had been added. However, having several friends, I don’t have the time to do this. I don’t know when someone gets around to finally posting pictures from their summer trip, etc.
I like this feature, I think it’s very cool and lets me keep up with what is going on with people that aren’t in my immediate “talk-on-the-phone” everyday kinda thing. Some of these people I don’t have classes with anymore and this is about the only way that I get to stay in touch. Any little thing to help that along is appreciated by me.
With all that said, I was going to post some pictures of what it looks like. But then I got to thinking how long it would take me to blur out alll the names, so I’m skipping on that. What angers me is that people argue that this is an invasion of privacy. All the users have posted this information so that people can see it. Only people that are labeled as your “friends” are going to be able to see the information, and it’s information that was already available, if not just a bit more obscure to see the changes. So, long story short, I’m imagining this feature will probably be deactivated here shortly as I haven’t met anyone else that likes it and the groups online have mustered up thousands of members for destroying the new feature as soon as possible. If you’re on facebook, be sure to search for the one group titled “I love the new mini-feed” as that’s the only one (with a riveting 53 members) that is in support of the mini-feed. Alas, sometimes I just want to slap people instead of debate….
I just thought that I would throw in my two cents on my feelings about the new iMacs. The specs on these things are amazing, especially when you consider the price. They make me want a desktop now more than ever and the 2000 dollar one with the built in 24″ display makes my mouth water. I can’t wait to get to my nearest Apple Store and see it first hand!
All are impressive machines and the 24″ model has some extra goodies like a better viewing angle on the display, a better graphics card, Firewire 800 and 24 watt built-in speakers (as opposed to 12 watt, I wonder if they really sound that much better?).
A killer machine and the 17″ model looks like a good place to start looking for a replacement for my mom’s aging 1.8Ghz P4 Dell machine from a few years back. The Mac mini is of course a good choice as well, but for the extra couple hundred bucks, this thing rocks.
Oh, and we now have all of our desktop machines (except for the Mac Mini) over to 64 bit processors. I just thought that was cool.
I’m not sure that I would get rid of Transmission just yet, but I like the way that this torrent client works. Besides just downloading the torrents, it has a built-in RSS reader so that you can subscribe to the sites and be notified of the latest torrents added, lets you create and seed torrents, lets you search the sites from within the application so much more. The interface is actually quite nice and offers a lot of options. I’ll be playing around with this more in the next week or so and will probably give a review shortly.
Paul over at One Digital Life is really into keeping the planet healthy, something maybe more common over in California, but an unheard of topic here in Tennessee. To spread the word, however, here is a rehash of his latest post, just because he wanted it reposted and I agree with what he’s saying.
1. Don’t drive 1 in 5. This means that one day out of the week… carpool, bike, or ride public transportation to work. C’mon, just one day… you can do it. If it works out well, add more days.
2. Keep your fridge full. An empty refrigerator uses more energy. If you’re not keeping it full with food, keep it full with gallon-jugs of water.
3. Turn stuff off. It’s easy to remember to turn big things off, like lights or TVs , but don’t forget about the small stuff… like VCR, DVD, computer speakers, and printers. If they’re on, they’re using energy, even if you aren’t actively using them.
4. Stop that Junk Mail. Junk mail wastes tons of paper every day, and you don’t want it anyway. Here’s some info about having your name removed from junk mail lists.
5. Take your own bags to the grocery store. Canvas tote bags work great, but you can also take back the plastic bags that your got from your last trip to the store. Reuse them over and over, and then recycle them. Many stores give you a small discount for bringing your own bags.
6. Water at night. If you water your lawn and other outdoor plants at night, or early in the morning, you’ll lose less water to evaporation, so you’ll be able to water less.
7. Run appliances at night. Many electric companies actually lower their rates during off-peak hours. Running your dishwasher or washer/dryer at night, can save you some money, and reduce the amount of electricity that the power-plant needs to generate. Check with your power company for a list of off-peak hours.
8. Do full loads. When you do run your dishwasher or washer/dryer, make sure they’re full. running a half-full dishwasher is very wasteful.
9. Maximize trash bags. Wait till your trash is full before taking it out. The less bags you put into a landfill, the better.
10. Recycle! Most cities offer recycling programs. Recycle everything you can… at home, and at work. There’s no sense filling up a landfill with items that can be recycled. If your work doesn’t offer a recycling program, start one.
Like I said, these are things everyone can do. You don’t have to go out and buy a new hybrid car, or energy efficient appliances to make a difference. Although, those things are good too.
You can check out Paul’s new blog, called A Green Idea here.
So I expect that most people that check in here are pretty well aware of what’s going in the Mac community. However, this post over at AppleInsider gives me goose bumps with excitement. New high-capicity iPod Nanos, video-streaming AirPort Express stations, movie downloads via the iTMS, 23″ HD Core 2 Duo based iMacs…..wow, if we even get a few of those on the September 12th date we will be lucky.
I found this while searching through Google Video and had to share. This well done skit says that Microsoft gets to punish the bad coders that introduce bugs into the OS. I found it really, really funny and I hope that you do too.
Link: Google Video
I found this picture on the internet awhile ago and just thought that I would repost it here. Note to everyone, don’t ever do Meth as you will end up looking like something out of a Sci-Fi movie real quick. Bone chilling because it’s real.
