2004 October

Come on down! I'm waiting in line for The Price is Right. I'll be driving… MY OLD CAR to the front door at six in the morning. Apparently, this is a very popular game show? I remember watching Bob Barker when I was a kid – and we're finally getting a chance to see him on stage tomorrow. Chance, as in – we may not make it through the door. With the rain, we're hoping that few will turn out to possibly play Plinko. Who knows?

Read more on The Price is Right!…

Piggybacking my earlier entry, I wanted to comment on Dave's recent post to BloggerCon (which, by the way, Ponzi and I will be attending in a few weeks). “Should journalists listen to their customers?” Yes and no.

Read more on I'm Listening…

Am I the only one looking forward to tonight's Daily Show? If you haven't already seen the fire, Jon Stewart did what so many others have only dreamed about doing. I've never had so many “He didn't just say that, did he?” moments. Allegedly, Jon's audience shrank a little when he came out to publicly support a candidate, but… my guess is that his numbers will shoot through the roof after folks catch his (first and last) Crossfire appearance. You can't write funnier material – unless, of course, you write for The Daily Show. I'm one of those Americans who gets his news from Jon Stewart, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I like to laugh… so sue me.

Read more on The Political Machine…

I think we're already living in a haunted house, so there's no need to pay money to have someone else frighten us. You see, our ghosts leave fecal deposits scattered throughout our home when we're not looking. Wicket and Pixie swear they don't know what's going on, either. This isn't a trick or a treat, to tell you the truth – and we're probably going to have to call in a priest before all is said and done. These demons won't leave us alone! I'm thinking of swinging by the costume shop and picking up a mask or two. Are specters scared of rubber? Oh, the joys of Halloween!

Read more on Halloweenies…

A Gnomie (Jason Fling) agrees with my perspective on Norton's Crapware, after one of our contributors posted something about it being a great suite of tools: “I'd have to respectively disagree with your listing of Norton Systemworks on the best diagnostics tools list. A quick Google search will reveal an above normal amount of problems with the last few versions. With my own experience, the only consumer product that Symantec makes that I recommend to my customer is Norton AV. Even with NAV 2004 & 2005 the activation portion of the setup is so clumsy and bulky that it's hard to recommend it, but no other manufacturer even gets close to NAV, when working properly.”

Read more on Hey, Norton……

There's nothing wrong with using the word “podcasting” to label a synchronization process, although I'm certain a million and one new alternatives are going to start springing up. Is a podcast limited to iPods? Will Zencasting be limited to Creative's products? Should Rivercasting be limited to iRiver players? Will my girlfriend ever understand?

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After updating our Amazon RSS Generator and warning folks about RSS Spammers, I was directed to Wired's article on RSS advertising. Lockergnome has been doing it for years now – long before it was even a topic of discussion. This is nothing new, nothing revolutionary, and nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.

Read more on Wired News: Not Very Wired?…

Ponzi's listening to Pat Benetar and Blondie right now. I requested a bit of Ric Ocasek, but he's on the rack with Boy George at the moment. 80s music is the best! It was such a “Oh Mickey, you're so fine” time (to quote a zaftig comedienne). If I'm to compile a playlist, what bands must I remember to include? A-Ha, Van Halen, Madonna… as long as they come on cassette tape. We're talkin' about the 80s, dude… like, totally. Music was the only thing I could count on. That, and my Rubik's Cube.

Read more on 80s Music Rewind…

So, Jasc was consumed by Corel today. I've been using Paint Shop Pro ever since version 2.x. It was quite powerful back then, and it's still quite powerful today. My only complaints in recent releases (7, 8, and the new 9) have to do with their UI mistakes. Yes, PSP sports a poor exterior. They tried to make it look and feel like Microsoft Office, but failed miserably. We'll see if this new company does anything cool with the product, or abandons it entirely. Photoshop Elements (or Photoshop itself) may very well become my new favorites. Or, perhaps Microsoft will eventually get their act together with their Digital Image software line? I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry, but I hope that Corel dumps Jasc's entire interface team if they decide to move forward with the code. Paint Shop Pro? I'm not so sure anymore.

Read more on Photo Fun!…

Podcasting – it's not just for iPod users, but too many non-iPodders have already dismissed the concept as something NOT important. That, to me, is a major problem. It's nothing more than Internet radio at its core, folks. It's audio, on-demand, that's easily synchronized with your computer system / portable media device… in theory. Yes, there are a few fantastic programmers who are making it easier to “do,” but if we can't get people over the initial branding hump, I just can't see it as succeeding in the mainstream. You could easily argue that I buy tissue paper, not Kleenex… but when someone wants to pause live television, they walk into a store and ask for… a TiVo, not a PVR.

Read more on This is Simply Smarter Broadcasting…