Mint.com

Mint.com sounds like a great idea, but frankly, I'm a bit hesitant to put all my financial information into a single website like that. I believe the technology can be safe, but quite frankly, humans are involved...

I might just register and check it out.

Still playing Weewar

Ok, since I've had my fourth kid now, personal time is at a premium. Luckily, I can still manage to get 10 minutes here or there to play some Weewar.

Pet Peeve

A series of my pet peeves involve the molestation of the english language. While not perfect, I make some attempt at correct spelling and punctuation. Superfluous commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks are at the top of this long list of things that cause spontaneous eye rolling, sighing, and outright expletives from me. Imagine my amusement when I found a blog that seeks to call out offenders of the excessive quotation marks!

the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

WeeWar

If you like the board games Risk or Axis and Allies, you might like WeeWar. It is a browser-based online game against other players. It is turn-based, and the person that starts up a game can control the pace of the game by limiting the time that a person has to make a move. This type of game is great from someone like me who likes strategy games but doesn't want to sit down for hours at a time to play, but instead can allow up to 3 days to make a move. It's nice to have a limit, so that if you are playing with a stranger, they can't just disappear from the face of the earth.

Anyway, it's a hoot to play if you like strategy games instead of the run-around-and-shoot-em-up stuff that's out there.

Last Minute...

Quick!! Tomorrow is the 8th Annual Sysadmin Appreciation Day!

Why didn't someone think of this earlier?

In an effort to slim down one's wallet, one might wish that they didn't have so many membership cards in their wallet. You have a few choices:

1) Take them out and try to remember to bring the right one along when you shop at the store. (Good luck with that and let me know how it works out.)
2) Store the info electronically using a program like eWallet on your PDA. (You obviously have to have said PDA.)
3) http://www.justoneclubcard.com/

While I've gone to using option number 2 personally, I think the third option is a stroke of genius. Actually, I suppose it's probably common sense, but I'm glad someone stepped up and did it.

Justoneclubcard lets you submit your barcode numbers (up to 8 of them) via a web site and then generates a card you can print and put in your wallet. I would like to see them offer a premium service where you are sent the bar codes on a laminated card for a small fee, too.

Ikea Hacker

I stumbled across an interesting blog about hacking Ikea furniture.

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

Trampolines

If I ever opened a trampoline store, I don't think I'd call it Trampoland, because you might think it was a store for tramps, which is not the impression we are trying to convey with our store. On the other hand, we would not prohibit tramps from browsing or testing the trampolines, unless a tramp's gyrations seem to be getting out of control.– Jack Handey

Google knows...

Most Honest Politician

When you feel like killing someone...

Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the person's house, and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern, with a knife stuck in the side of its head, with a note that says "you". After that, I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.– Jack Handey

Your Choice

I'm in IT and I can't tell you how many times someone calls me and trys to tell me that their whatchamacallit is broken or their thingamabob isn't working right. Then after figuring out what they are talking about, I try to explain what it's called. Instead of taking the opportunity to learn something I'm met with either severe apathy, or in some cases, an accusing tone when they tell me I'm being too picky about stuff.

My new policy will be to offer them a choice:
A) You can tell me what the problem is, using correct and specific terms.
or
B) We can spend the first three quarters of our converstation with me trying to figure out what you mean, then when I finally figure it out, I can help you.

Alternative Energy

If you're interested in alternative forms of energy, specifically renewable forms, check out Heliotropic.

The Transformers Movie

The Transformers movie was very entertaining. I really enjoyed the mix of ordinance and epic robot battles. The transforming action wasn't quite realistic, but enjoyable nonetheless. They did choose some pretty sweet vehicles to model the Autobots after. Megatron was pretty lame, he was some generic spaceship, and Spielberg must have known that Megatron was lame, because there weren't any cinematic shots of Megatron as a spaceship. There were no shortage of sweet shots of the Autobots as the cars, probably at least partially because GM paid through the nose to have their cars be the models for the Autobots, and it was just good paid product placement.

Fire

If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid looking in a mirror, because I bet that will really throw you into a panic.– Jack Handey

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of mass destruction, we should be thinking about getting more use out of the ones we already have.– Jack Handey

Firstborn

Forbes published an article about a study done by Norwegian researchers. The study alleges that the firstborn in a family is likely to have a higher IQ than the subsequent children. Although my little sister may take issue with the study, I'm quite confident that this is accurate...

Un-DRMed Music

According to the Inquirer, sales of un-DRMed music have risen between 17% and 24%. Gee, I suppose it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that people are more likely to purchase something they can use more widely, whether it's music or not.

For whatever reason, the RIAA and MPAA view sales of un-DRMed music as potential lost revenue. If they had two braincells to rub together, they'd realized that a 24% increase in sales is an INCREASE IN SALES. duh...

Ron Paul

He's unelectable, given all his good sense, but a guy can dream...

Vote Ron Paul!!

Free and Alive!!

Ron Paul's Blog

Blogger browsing

When clicking "next blog" on the banner at the top of blogger sites, I wish you could select to only browse blogs of a certain language. Now that I think about it, I think being able to browse blogs by a certain subject would be cool, too...

Social networking for fatties...

Sometime last year it sank in that a lot of the men in my family have heart problems. Between that and looking in the mirror every morning, I decided to change my lifestyle somewhat to make it more likely that I'll last long enough to see all my kids graduate and get married.

I'm not a very disciplined person, by nature, so the change wasn't drastic. I started going to the gym, and asked my wife to cook more with my health in mind. My wonderful wife just happens to be a fantastic cook (if everyone who eats her cooking is to be believed), and she made minor adjustments to our food for me.

A year later, I've lost 25 pounds, but also increased my muscle mass significantly. I think, at least this time, results are their own motivation.

This brings me to the subject of my post...

With Myspace and Facebook all the rage, it's only a matter of time until every social niche has its own social networking site built to cater. Fatsecret is just such a site for people using diet to alter their phyisical being. It's something of a cross between a wiki and a forum. People can contribute content to diet information, recipes, share success and failure stories, and network with each other for encouragement. The site is free, and doesn't seem to feature advertising. As with most websites, I'm curious what their business plan is and how they plan to make money, but in the mean time, it seems like it has some potential as a social networking niche site. If dieting is of any interest to you, this site may be worth a look.