In the Words of Napoleon Dynamite, "Idiot!"

This is a sure sign that some telecom execs are complete morons. Boo-freakin' hoo, someone else is generating revenue from utilizing Verizon's network. When are these guys going to learn that the cable/satellite TV paradigm does not work for the internet? It is pretty apparent that people are willing to pay what they do for internet access because of the sheer volume and diversity of choices available on it, otherwise AOL would be the model everyone else would have followed. Verizon should be more concerned with providing a stable, high-speed network; if they want more of the pie, they should become a content and/or ad provider themselves.

Web 2.0

Over the last few months I have become increasingly obsessed with web 2.0 sites. If you aren't familiar with web 2.0, it is time you get on the bus; you probably are actually already climbing aboard, but may not know it. Do you blog? Do you use RSS? Do you use Ajax pages, such as Google Personalized Home, Microsoft's Start.com, or my favorite, Netvibes.com? Wiki addict? Like Pandora? Are you a Firefox user? Do you know what a tag is? If you answered yes to any of these you are already familiar with some of the advancements that web 2.0 brings. For most of us, web 2.0 is the next step of web-as-platform, giving us wonderful applications that run off the web, usually for little to no cost for us. Oh, and you can thank Google's advancements in web ads for that.

Here are some of my favorite (or need-to-check-out-now) web 2.0 sites, in addition to Netvibes, which totally rocks, by the way.

BillMonk is a site I have not really gotten into yet, but it is sure to appeal to the tightwad in all of us. BillMonk is billed as "making social money painless." Just go look at it.

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site (the link is to my part of del.icio.us); it is just a site to compile all of your bookmarks, tag them, and access them from wherever you want. Tagging is just a way of grouping bookmarks using single-word tags to describe what the site is about, e.g. foxsoccer.com is tagged with soccer and sports; click the tag within my del.icio.us and you can see what other sites are tagged similarly--think of it as Six Degrees of Separation for the web. The social aspect of it is that your bookmarks are, by default, shared with the rest of the delicious community. Bookmarks also include links for other users who have saved the same bookmark, allowing people to discover the web in this manner. Where delicious really takes off is on the front page of the entire site, which lists the most recent posts, which aren't necessarily standard run-of-the-mill bookmarks, but links to hot topics and sites. Sites similar to del.icio.us include digg.com, which is very tech oriented and not as straight-forward as del.icio.us.

Airset.com is an awesome calendar site. I have my personal calendar, as well as a calendar for an organization I belong to, set up on this site. The flexibility offered by it is mind-boggling, and the folks running it are always working to improve it.

My favorite and the most useful 2.0 site, though, has to be Gmail. Let me know if you need an invite, I've got 100! ;)

iLounge Blog: Your senator needs an iPod

From a post on one of my favorite iPod-related sites, this is an absolutely brilliant idea. For the sake of all of us who are techheads we need to support ideas like this, not so that lawmakers get a bunch of free swag, but so that we know an effort is being made to educate these people about how tech-related legislation affects us all. It's all about innovation, baby, not protecting outmoded businesses.

Is the saying "Beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer, never fear" physiologically accurate?

Awesome! I just knew that the idiots I went to college with were complete idiots!

Ahh, Eminent Domain Rears its Ugly Head Again

Is this the wrong way to engage in civil protest? Sure, it is radical and, from far away, a bit comedic. However, the fact that this action helps bring the issue further into the spotlight, not allowing it to fade away, is positive. People living in areas bordering commercial properties, in particular, should work to ensure that state legislatures try to do the right thing for everyone.

Coffee of the Week...

...for my coffee press at work is Ethiopian Harrar, courtesy (well, not really since I bought it) of River City Coffee and Tea. I made the first pot just after lunch; it was pretty good, definitely the dry-processed variety--pretty dry grounds, very earthy, some chocolate overtones, but not as much as I expected. I think I will chalk that up to the water not being quite hot enough, but I am afraid that the roast is just not dark enough to bring out the best in the coffee. We shall see.

The Quest for Democracy

In tiny Arab state, Web takes on ruling elite | CNET News.com. It is refreshing to see some of the citizens of Bahrain have a go at creating a democratic movement, even in the face of a certain government's hypocrisy.

The RIAA Makes Me Laugh

I was never a Grokster user, but the RIAA's feeble attempt at trying to threaten Grokster users makes me laugh and laugh and laugh some more.

So Wrong It Hurts

Computer Monitor Jacob's Ladder. Good luck with this if you try it.

Wikipedia

Joho has an excellent entry in the discussion regarding how Wikipedia has become the universal dartboard for traditional media in the us vs. them, finger-pointing campaign that some in the traditional media have embarked on lately. It really is sickening; from the reaction to Wikipedia's public statement about self-monitoring and self-correcting and the recent changes it has made to its creation policy, one would think these journalists work for good editors whose publications are monitored by truly honorable ombudsmen. But who are we kidding?

Finally!

I freaking managed to dismantle the thick code that Blogger and Halo Scan conspired to create for my blog and now have everything working. Who cares that the Permalink link is permanently embedded on the page, even the permalinked page itself? Not I, though I could probably obsess about it like I did the Halo Scan commenting not appearing on my Permalinked pages. ARRRGGGGGGGH! I had forgotten how painful it can be to scour through web code. I thank my lucky stars every day that I am not a programmer/architect. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I Love My Coffee...

...but seriously, some people go a bit too far to enjoy a connoisseur's experience. This is just wrong.

Now for some other coffee stuff. Thanks to my wife Ashley for getting me an iPod for Christmas, I have now officially become a podcast addict (I'll have to post on that later), but one of the podcast discoveries I have made is coffeegeek.com's podcast. Mark Prince knows his stuff and is pretty humorous and sarcastic at the same time, even if he is a coffee snob. I am just getting into the accompanying website, so I will let you know, faithful readers, if the snobbery is too much to stand. Right now I am happy with my pre-ground (gasp) Starbucks and my French Press.

Also, another site I will be checking out is coffeereview.com, a self-described "Wine Spectator for coffee lovers". The site is written and edited by Kenneth Davids, one of the pioneers of the specialty coffee industry in North America (I learned that from listening to episode 11 of the Coffee Geek podcast, which contains the first in a three-part series of interviews with Mr. Davids). He is a big proponent of home roasting, which does not really interest me, but the site is really devoted to reviewing different coffees that are commercially available in North America, which does interest me.

Hmm, time to make some coffee!

This Is Only a Test

I changed out the template and forgot to add in Haloscan commenting. Hopefully this has now been resolved...

PCWorld.com - The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

This is a pretty neat list of gadgets. Many of them were introduced during my lifetime, so either I am getting old or all the cool stuff has been created in the last 30 or so years. ;) A few of these are items I had never seen or heard of previously, but many of them are either items I or friends of mine have owned. A good time-killer nostalgia trip.

And the Stockings...

 ...were hung by the chimney with care.
 

Christmas Bliss

  Is there any other way of describing this?
 

Louis...

 
...the Christmas Demon, thinking of bad things to do.
 

Firefox

Love it, until I notice that it gags on things that Internet Explorer digests properly. This one is minor, but the only reason I am posting right now is to add more length to the left side of my blog, so that maybe, maybe, maybe all of the things that are supposed to be on the right side of the page (instead of beneath my last post) will appear correctly. Grr. Bad Firefox, bad.

Christmas Weekend

Good times with both sides of the family, and I didn't have to drive more than a few minutes, to boot (viva la Tom!).

Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family at our house. I am extremely pleased that we all made it through the serious conversations without getting inappropriately emotional (except for one moment when I started yelling about McCarthyism and "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance). It was amusing seeing my aunt, mom, dad, and grandmother (!) getting schnockered on eggnog. Took lots of candids with my wife's new digital camera (score one for me), and came away with some good memories. Christmas Eve service would have been nice had we not all been packed in like sardines. Some jerkwad sat behind us with his two misbehaving toddlers, one of whom kept kicking the pew and grabbing Ashley. Not a fun time. All in all, though, it was a good day.

On Christmas Day we went over to Ashley's childhood home, all of roughly 5 blocks away from our house. Excellent food was eaten and gifts exchanged. After letting our food settle a bit, Gene (father-in-law) and I went through a storage room in his shop, searching through old boxes and miscellaneous items for two old arm chairs and an all-wood World War II era filing cabinet that Ashley wants to restore for our house. Along the way I saw/handled several pieces of furniture and "stuff" from the Moss and Gipson families' histories. I always get a kick out of this kind of backyard social anthropology.

I am off work for the rest of the week but I fully expect to receive a few phone calls related to a major project that is due for completion the first week of February. I hope I do not get sucked into any lengthy conference calls (ugh).

It's Been Awhile...

...but I am posting once again. At the request of my good friend Ken (he who delisted me from his blog list--jerk! ;) ) I have decided to re-embark (is that a word?) on my quest for enlightenment through this writing exercise known as the blog. Changes shall be made to the blog; new words shall be written in new and exciting sentences. Erm. Hmm. Dunno about that last bit, but I digress.

Ashley and I ate dinner with friends Friday night at the Oyster Bar--good food, but perhaps a little less fried goodness will be better next time. Followed that up with a DVD rental--Batman Begins. I missed it in the theatre so this was my first viewing. It was also the first movie I have watched at full volume on the new stereo--very, very nice, but I really need a new TV--I have my eye on a 32" HDTV; we will see if it can be afforded in the new year.

Last night Ashley and I watched Garden Stateon DISH DVR--it had been recorded in mid-November, so it was about time. Heck, we have about a dozen movies that we DVR'd but have not watched dating back to May. Sheesh, you'd think we had a bigtime social life and never watched TV by looking at the volume of unwatched programming on the DVR. Funny how things work sometimes--

"Yeah, I think that would be good to record so we can watch it at a normal hour."

"Ok, sounds good."

"Hey, you know we still have to watch, right?"

"Yeah, I know, but I really want to see this."

"Ok."

Ahh, technology. Bliss.