Apple's phone

I was listening to The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte this morning when some guy called in with all kinds of details on the upcoming Apple phone. You never know how solid this kind of information is, but Leo seemed to find it credible. The guy said the phone will come in 4 GB and 8GB versions at $275 and $335 and will include Bluetooth 2 and some kind of accelerated data transfer technology. He also said it would be made out of zirconium. The caller said he had a friend who works at Apple -- don't all these guys with the rumors? There were more details but I am not much of a phone person so I didn't write anything down. I listen to Leo's show once in a while and I've never heard a call like that before, so maybe it had some real inside information. We should know in 9 days.

Navigation system getting irritating

The navigation system we have had in our car for a few weeks performed pretty well on our trip this week, at least as far as providing directions to known destinations. It's not very good when you are looking for a particular kind of store, as entering text is slow and it presents you with all local stores first and you have to scroll through several screens to get to the point where you can expand your search. It doesn't seem to have a search function, so you can't look for "Del Taco" or something like that. Maybe you can and I just can't find it.

One thing I am tiring of is the warning message that shows up every time the thing starts up. Don't try to calculate your position while driving... I got it the first 10 times and now it's just an irritation. Maybe it can be turned off.

IKEA Winter sale commercial

I don't watch too much television, so I don't see lots of commercials, but I did notice the IKEA Winter sale commercial this evening during the Lakers game. At one point, almost every piece of furniture in our house larger than a desk lamp came from IKEA, and the closest store was 350 miles away in Burbank! Eventually I got tired of the text free directions they provided and the time it took to assemble some of the furniture, plus we had very little room left for anything else, but I have never gotten tired of browsing the store or the catalog. In fact, we went to the IKEA in Tustin yesterday. Once I visited 4 IKEA stores in one day and rented a car to take everything home.

Anyway, the unique thing about the IKEA commercial is that in the process of making the point that sofas and families come in many different varieties (I think they use another term, but I can't remember what it was), the commercial ends with a shot of a couple sitting on the floor in front of a sofa with their child. I don't know if this is a first for television in the US, but the couple in the shot are two men, something I don't think I've seen before in a TV commercial. I don't know if this is an LA only commerical or if they show it everywhere there's an IKEA store nearby.

Time Goes By

I'm starting to think about resources for a one day class on blogging that I'll be teaching in February. The course is open to anyone, but should have a good number of "older" people because it's being offered at a location which has a number of programs targeted at people over 50. I'm not sure that over 50 is really old any more, but that's what it is.

One resource I think is a good one for this class is Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By. She talks about aging and ageism at work and in the media, among other topics.

MacAppADay seems to have run out

MacAppADay shut down for about 5 days and they seem to really be creating a problem for themselves by promising certain things and then not delivering on them. Today's free app isn't an app at all. It's a 3 month trial membership to beta test a new site for creating web pages. Since the site hosts your content, it seems like you won't have access to it after 3 months unless you pay, which makes this one a little different than all the other freebies which were actually applications you could use.

Mostly bad customer service, with one exception

On our short trip to Long Beach, we had various encounters with bad customer service. Restuarants, Costco, the Aquarium. I don't have time to go into detail as I'm still on the road, but there was one exception. The Hyatt really surprised me with their response to a problem. I'll write it up later.

Disclosure problem for bloggers

and it's not related to PayPerPost! Microsoft gave a bunch of bloggers laptops with Windows Vista on them, presumably to write a review. At least one blogger didn't point out that the laptop was a gift and that got him into some trouble, at least in the comments on his site. Then MS decided the laptops weren't gifts after all, and everyone has to give them back! Sounds like a PR disaster all around.

We visited the Aquarium of the Pacific

I guess I was spoiled by the last Aquarium I went to -- the Monterey Aquarium. The Aquarium of the Pacific isn't bad, but it was smaller than I figured and was pretty busy today. It was a little bit of an adventure just getting the tickets. Costco advertises discount tickets, but they didn't have any at our local Costco, so we drove to Long Beach and stopped at the Costco there. Turns out they only sell the tickets in the summer. Plan B was to go to the hotel and order the tickets online at the hotel and then pick them up across the street at the Aquarium. I would save about $16 that way. Well, the Hyatt doesn't have any free Internet access. I could have sworn that when I upgraded to a nicer room it said "high speed wireless Internet". Actually, it did, but they left out the $9.99 per day fee. They do have one free access station in the special room for people who pay more money for their rooms. Since I did that this time, I was able to get in that room and buy the tickets. We walked over in very strong winds and I went to the kiosk to pick up the tickets. They expect you to bring along the confirmation code -- 15 digits -- even though when you purchase the tickets online they do not say that you need the code to pick them up. It just says swipe your credit card. Anyway, I got the tickets and we joined the crowd inside.

Aquarium of the Pacific

We are making a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific tomorrow. It should be interesting. I haven't spent much time in Long Beach since I lived there about 13 years ago and it has changed quite a bit. I think the area around the Aquarium has been developed. The Hyatt hotel was being used to shoot a movie with Arnold Schwarzenneger when I lived there. They build some kind of device on the outside of the building for a particular shot which seemed to take weeks. I don't remember the movie, but I don't think it was very good.

MaternityCard can help with having a baby

Having a baby is a complicated matter. I didn't realize how much went into it and how expensive the Cost of Having a Baby could get until we had our first child. We went through some training classes and got a tour of the hospital where our son would be born and learned what to do when the time came. I remember looking at the intensive care unit and assuming I would never have to deal with that, but our son had some serious complications which kept him in the hospital for 8 days after he was born, and he spent some of that time in one of those isolation rooms. It was very stressful and it would have been even more stressful if we didn't have a good medical plan covering the expenses.

I think anyone who is having a baby would benefit from the kind of services provided by MaternityCard. For a monthly fee, they offer a comprehensive maternity service package which includes everything you need related to have a baby. They guarantee their services will pay for themselves or you will be refunded the difference plus $200, which is a nice deal.

MaternityCard works with with a very large network of doctors, obstetricians, hospitals and medical facilities to make sure women who are expecting a baby receive the best care available at the very best rates. Their services extend to the first two years after your child is born and will cover checkups, immunizations and any other medical costs. It's good to have that kind of coverage just in case you need it because you never know what may come up.

Christmas gift

I didn't buy any hi tech stuff this Christmas, at least not for myself. I got 4 of those stick people animated cubes for my sons, but I'm not sure those are going to get a lot of use. I'm saving my money for the Apple streaming device which may or may not show up at Macworld. I hope it will be worth the wait.

Jeff Garcia fan

I always liked Jeff Garcia when he was with the 49ers. We lived in San Jose at the time and he did too, plus he was from San Jose and his dad was his coach. I felt bad for him when the 49ers let him go and also when he had to endure some of the stupid comments made by Terrell Owens. Glad to see that Jeff Garcia is doing well and it was quite a contrast to watch the post game comments he made compared with Terrell Owens, who only complained about not getting the ball. Garcia is a team guy and he shows that in the way he plays. Owens has always been a me-first player who disrupts the team whenever things aren't going his way. I don't expect him to be back with the Cowboys next year and maybe other teams will wise up and see that as good as he can be on the field, his other antics make him not worth the effort.

MacSanta ended at 9 PM EST

I got my answer on that one as the coupon failed to work on the last application I tried to buy, CSSEdit. I can get it later for full price if necessary. It probably would have been a good idea to indicate the expiration time on the MacSanta site, as there was really no way to know which time zone they were using. One other minor gripe -- Rogue Ameoba was behind the site, but they didn't offer the discount on their Fission & Audio Hijack Pro bundle. You could either take the bundle discount or the MacSanta discount, but not both. Other vendors did allow the use of the MacSanta coupon with their bundles.

I went back and checked and at least on some of the sites, the coupon was still working, so maybe there was something wrong with the CSSEdit site to begin with, although the MacSanta site does say the deal is over.

Lean and mean on PayPerPost

I am running low on open opportunities on PayPerPost. It's Christmas and things have been slow for a while, but there are a few remaining opportunities that I haven't done. Not many, but a few. Some of them are in the list 2 or 3 times and I don't think it looks good to have the same one every day. I think at this point there are only 3 that I could do. I was all set to finally break down and do that old one about moving to Scottsdale, Arizona -- 10 words for $2.50 but it disappeared! Finally... Let's hope things pick up again soon, although for the sake of the PayPerPost staff, they should probably have the rest of the week off.

MacSanta closing up shop

I am not sure if MacSanta ends at midnight Pacific Time or some other midnight, but I'm trying to get all my purchases done by 12 EST. One thing that is frustrating is that for a number of the apps there is not a clear way to use the discount. It doesn't always work in the coupon field and sometimes I've had to go through the process 3 times to get it right. Not to mention that not everyone takes PayPal and that sometimes if you use PayPal you can't use the coupon. Strange.

Chargers win

The Chargers didn't look too good against the Seahawks today in the second half, which was when I was watching. They did manage to pull it out at the end, so they have the best record in the NFL now. I think if they can avoid playing games in bad weather they should make it to the Super Bowl as long as Philip Rivers can limit his mistakes. He didn't have a good game today but he made the big play when it counted.

One thing that bugged me watching the game was hearing Dick Enberg and Randy Cross keep saying that guys were dropping balls and Rivers had a poor completion percentage and they never once mentioned the fact that it was raining the entire game. Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

MacAppADay takes 3 days off

MacAppADay is off until the 27th, when presumably they will finish off the week with a few more free apps for the Mac with something special on January 1. The special might be a bundle for purchase. Fine by me. Although MacAppADay is taking a break, there is no holiday among the commenters who keep finding more things to dislike about a site which is giving stuff away for free. The complaints range from not liking the fact that the free applications aren't upgradeable to the site's claim that they would give away an application each day in December and haven't lived up to that. Maybe those people should find other stuff to gripe about. Sure, you don't get the same rights with the software that you would get if you bought it, but who can give away 5000 copies of their software for free and stay in business? Many of these applications are things I had never heard of before, so I can't imagine that they have a huge customer base. It's been a good way to learn about new applications, along with MacZot and MacSanta.

Costco moves stuff around

I drove about 20 miles to another Costco beyond the one in my town to pick up something that was only available there. It was a gift certificate to a local spa. I looked all around the store but didn't find it. It wasn't in the area with the other gift cards. Finally I asked a manager and she said it was in the Christmas gifts section. I went back there and didn't find it. I looked around some more and asked another manager. He said they had moved it this morning but he didn't know where it was, so he would just get the product number for me and I could pay for it that way. Sounded good. He had to deal with a problem in the digital camera display so I had to wait there with him. As he did that, I noticed that the gift card I was looking for was stacked up behind the digital cameras! I'm not sure anyone would have looked there. It wasn't even on display. Maybe they really do want you to walk all over the store so you'll see everything else they have.

LA Times customer service - are they people or robots?

My copy of the LA Times wasn't delivered this morning, so I called their missing paper number and requested a replacement. That didn't show up, so I called back again and was routed to customer service. I'm not sure where the customer service people work, but "Mike" seemed like an automotan. He asked for my name, address and phone number, the same information I had already entered in the automated system. He also asked why I was calling, so I told him I didn't get today's paper. He was having trouble finding my account. I told him it might be under my wife's last name, which I gave to him. He found it. Then he said "please give me your address." I said, "it's the same one I just gave you," but I had to recite it again. Then he said "How can I help you today?" -- as if we had never spoken. I told him I had not received my paper and was calling to see if I could get a copy delivered. He said he would make sure I got my paper and that was the end of the conversation. The paper never arrived.

MacSanta stops at 104

The MacSanta site seems to have topped out at 104 companies, selling way more than 104 applications. 20% off is a nice deal and I've got my list and will be trying some of them out over the weekend. Last day to buy is Monday with the discount. I don't expect to see any new names on the list, but you never know. I guess GeeThree never heard my pleas because they didn't show up on the MacSanta list.

Baseball injury was really a video game injury

Remember in the baseball playoffs when the Tigers couldn't use their flamethrower, Joel Zumaya? He had wrist and elbow problems. Turns out that it didn't have anything to do with baseball:

The Tigers believe Joel Zumaya's right wrist and forearm inflammation came not from throwing his 103-mph fastball but from excessively playing Guitar Hero, a PlayStation 2 game where participants simulate popular songs with by tugging on a guitar-shaped apparatus. GM Dave Dombrowski told WXYT it was the video game that caused Zumaya to miss three ALCS games.

From Jon Heyman at si.com.

MacSanta hits 100

MacSanta has 100 companies now in the 20% off promotion. I have a long list of stuff I'm going to buy in the next few days and maybe some more items if I have time to try them out. I'm still looking for GeeThree to show up on the list...it's not too late! GollyGee is there already with their GollyGeeBlocks, so some of the GeeThree iMovie plugins would make a nice addition to the list.

Boinx joins MacSanta

I didn't think it would happen, but Boinx software, maker of iStopMotion as well as some other great software, is now on the MacSanta list. That means I can save a few dollars when I buy iStopMotion as a gift. Maybe it's just a coincidence that I mentioned this twice already on my blogs, but probably not. Boinx had a link to the MacSanta site on their blog, so it seemed like a good chance they would get on the list.

NC school district bans book about penguins

Another politician helps keep the world safe from gay penguins..."And Tango makes Three," a story about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin, was banned by the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, there were no complaints about the book from any parents, and Superintendent Peter Gorman either screwed up or make a mistake. He received an email inquiring about the book from a local politician:

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, had e-mailed Gorman to see if the district had the book.

"I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said.

After that, Gorman wrote a memo which led to the book banning. Either he caved in or he didn't write a clear memo.

The ban came in a Nov. 30 memo from district administrators to school principals and library staff. Gorman said parents and a Republican county official had asked him about the book.

A miscommunication between Gorman and his chief of staff, Robert Avossa, led to the book being banned with neither a written complaint nor an advisory committee review at a school as required by district policy, Gorman said.

"I screwed this one up," Gorman told The Charlotte Observer.

BrooWaha

The LA Times has a story today about BrooWaha which is an amateur online newspaper. It looks like a newspaper online, although I'm not sure that's a requirement. The paper covers the LA area. There are more and more of these local news sites which rely on user generated content rather than paid professionals. I think it's a good idea. In my area, there isn't much newspaper coverage and almost no TV coverage, so it might be a good thing around here.

More MacSanta

That MacSanta site has quite a list of applications, although still no sign of anything from Boinx. I'm hoping for an iStopMotion discount but maybe that's not going to happen until right after I purchase it...Some of the software on the list includes Voodoo Pad, Yojimbo, Fission, RapidWeaver, Sandvox, Tinderbox, and even Nisus Writer Express, something I gave up on long ago in favor of Mellel. That transition to OS X didn't go well for Nisus from what I remember.

MacSanta fills the void

MacAppADay is shut down today while they move to a new server and the last couple of applications on MacZot haven't been too interesting to me, so it's been a slow couple of days on the Mac shareware front. However, MacSanta showed up yesterday with 20% off on a number of applications, so that looked pretty good. Today, the MacSanta list seems to have tripled and I think there are 3 or 4 items on there that I'd like to get. There are now 63 companies listed. ScreenCasts online just got added in the past few hours. That's one I'm going to jump on. It's a good list and a good deal.

Bonehead drivers

I live on a small street that has an even smaller (1 lot length) entry street perpendicular to it which has a stop sign. Anytime I'm outside I can watch as people blow right through the stop sign where you have to go left or right. So typically they don't look at all and hardly slow down. This evening we were driving over to the library when some clown came right through the stop sign and turned left right in front of me as I was turning left. He stopped when I blew the horn and waved as if he was thanking me.

500

In baseball, 500 home runs used to be a big deal until the players started using steroids and now lots of guys are close to 500. In the world of PayPerPost, 500 posts is a big number. Only a couple of other people have made that many since PayPerPost started back in July. I'm now the third person with 500 posts (I think). That last one was number 500. I've averaged around $7 per post, which isn't too bad. At least I'm making more money than those people who stand out on the corner and wave signs as advertising.

NFL Network again

I'm watching the Cowboys play the Falcons on the NFL network. It's a good game, but it is painful to listen to Dick Vermeil provide commentary. He has a bad case of laryngitis and should have stayed home. Bryant Gumbel's minimalist play by play technique is fine with me and I guess I have gotten used to the idea that he doesn't have one of those announcer voices that sounds like it's amplified.

I have never seen this happen before, but at halftime, they replaced Dick Vermeil with Deon Sanders and Marshall Faulk. Dick will try to come back on Thursday and do another game.

How come every time Bryant Gumbel mentioned that the guy he usually works with, Cris Collinsworth, wasn't at the game, he said that it was "planned in advance"? I guess because people say they don't like each other and have no chemistry.

History of Temecula at library

I didn't take pictures because of bad weather but one thing I like at the new library is the history of Temecula told as you walk along the path from the parking lot to the library. It looks good and should expose some people to things they probably didn't know. They even have one of those stationary binocular set ups at the end. I will take pictures and post them on the next sunny day.

Temecula library

We made our first visit to the Temecula library. It's really nice inside and outside. Much nicer than I expected. There are lots of computers, including a very large homework room with about 30 computers in the teen area. There are lots of places to sit and enjoy a great view of the Sports Park while you read or do some work. The library has free wireless although I didn't try that out. Lots of books and videos and magazines and other things you would expect from a library. I think I will work at the library some of the time when I'm working at home. It even has a meditation garden. Overall, it's very impressive.

Temecula Library to offer food service

I thought you couldn't eat or drink inside most libraries, but I also thought using a cell phone in the library was a bad idea and that doesn't seem to be true either. The new Temecula library will have food and beverage service provided by local merchant, the European Cafe. Regular library hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Concessions will be available 10-5 every day except Sunday.

Temecula Library opens

The new Temecula library opened yesterday. It looked good from the outside as I drove by in the morning, and workers were still doing more landscaping. It's amazing how they can make a place look like it's been there for some time with the right landscaping. PE.com says 250 people showed up for the opening last night. The library should have a nice view of the Sports Park below it. I hope to take a walk over on Saturday.

Driving the speed limit is a little hazardous

In my quest for the maximum miles per gallon to and from work, I am driving at or under the speed limit. The only other people doing that are either 80 years old or driving huge trucks that can't go much faster. It gets a little trick on a two lane highway to pass people when you are only doing 60 or 65. Most drivers are at 75 or more. I managed to crack the 60 miles per gallon mark last night on my way home and then this morning I got 54 on the way to work, which is an all time high. It's only 40 miles each way, so it might not be representative of much other than my commute, but it's still pretty good.

Clustrmaps

I was looking for a plugin which would create a cloud with the locations of visitors to this blog. I didn't find that, but I did find Clustrmaps, which creates a world map with dots representing the locations of the visitors. It's free and easy to set up and install. I think it looks pretty good so far, but I've only had 109 visitors in 3 days. Once the number gets bigger, it may be hard to read the little map in the sidebar.

Mozilla - Firefox - Bon Echo crashes

One thing that has been happening very regularly on my Intel iMac is that all non-Safari browsers that I use have been locking up. This happens frequently with no consistent pattern involved. Bon Echo -- an Intel compiled build of Firefox which is normally very fast, is the biggest culprit, but it also happens with Firefox and even Mozilla. It may be time to check the plugins since I've reinstalled the latest versions and they still crash.

UCLA data loss

I'm not one of the 800,000 people who had their personal data exposed in that UCLA database that was compromised recently. I was in the UC Berkeley database that was on a laptop which was stolen though. That was a few years ago. It makes you wonder if places can't keep this information secure, is it safe to give it to them in the first place. The social security number in particular seems very risky if it's so easy to get into these databases.

Today's MacAppADay

The app today on MacAppADay was Overflow, which helps organize your dock, giving you more room for icons. It's a pretty nice tool and was also part of the MacHeist giveaway. So I have a couple of copies which I can use on two of my Macs. The MacHeist bundle still looks good at $49 but because I have 4 of the apps, I'm not getting in on that. I'm still hoping to see something different on MacZot or MacAppADay.

MacHeist bundle

I don't think I'm going to spend the $45 on the MacHeist bundle. It comes down to only 4 applications and I probably wouldn't use any of them. It's a great deal if you don't have some of the others like FotoMagico or RapidWeaver, but I already paid for both of them and I have two others out of the 8. So I'll wait for another deal.

58 miles per gallon

I was able to get 58 miles per gallon on my way home this evening. I'm driving a Honda Civic Hybrid and I kept my speed at or below the speed limit (65 miles an hour). There were several slow downs on the route and it was only about 38 miles total, with a decline in elevation, so there was some fuel savings there. I think it's possible to get more than 60 miles per gallon on this route with some more attention to speed.

Thrupp

Today's MacAppADay is Thrupp. This is the first one I have absolutely never heard of. It's a tool for managing your iTunes library with non-iPod mp3 players or memory cards. It also does a few other things like converting bitrates. Get it while it's still free...

Lifehacker uses Stock Xchng photos...

Funny coincidence -- I was looking through LifeHacker and noticed an entry "The hidden causes of worker burnout." The image with it looked familiar. I had come across the image on Friday looking through Stock Xchng, the free stock photo site, for images related to studying. This one shows a guy sleeping on his books. In a different context, I guess he's a burned out worker!

Chargers win big

The Broncos are a good team, but the Chargers blew them out after the Broncos made a game of it in the third quarter. With Gates, Tomlinson, the other receivers and Philip Rivers, I don't think the Chargers are going to be stopped on offense very easily. They just have too much. As long as their defense plays well they should be competitive against anyone. The two games they lost this year could easily have gone the other way and they could be undefeated.

Chargers looking good today

I'm watching some of the Chargers - Broncos game and the Chargers have looked pretty good except for a turnover in the 3rd period. I think this may be the year they get back to the Super Bowl. They have an excellent defense and their offense is outstanding also. As long as Marty Schottenheimer doesn't get conservative with the play calling, they are a strong team. They've got the best player in the league on offense, Ladanian Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman has to be one of the top defensive players. The will be hard to beat.

Tori Spelling yard sale

The LA Times has a big article about Tori Spelling's yard sale yesterday. Ten helicopters for a yard sale? The last yard sale we had earned us $30 and it was irritating to deal with so many people who wanted to bargain down the price on clothes from a dollar each. The article says that blogger Perez Hilton showed up, but no sign of anything related to the yard sale on his site. The article also says that Tori Spelling and her husband plan to open a bed and breakfast, and they are considering Ojai, Temecula, and Idylwild as the locations. Here's one vote for Ojai...

MacAppADay - Mira

Today's free app at MacAppADay was Mira from Twisted Melon. It adds more functionality to the Apple Remote. I was hoping for this one to show up because with my new MacBook Pro, I might actually use the remote. It might be a good way to impress the Windows users.

It says on the site that tomorrow's free app will be another one from Devon Technologies. I have 4 new applications from them in the past 2 weeks, so there's a fair chance I already have what they are giving away.

LA Times for kids

The LA Times has a nice page for kids each day in the print newspaper. This week's feature has been about the LA Times and how the newspaper is produced. Interesting to me because my dad worked at a newspaper when I was young and I remember making some visits to the building where they printed the paper -- The Perth Amboy Evening News. I did a school report on typesetting and had some pieces of metal type to show.

One thing they don't mention on the LA Times kids page is the pay wall which hides most of the stories they publish:

Each separate Web page is tied to the main site for latimes.com, called the "home" page. It's like a table of contents for the whole website. All these pages are tied together and arranged so you can find every story in the paper. Then they are sent to a central computer, called a "server."

So maybe you can find every story in the paper the day it's published, but if you look for something next week you may not find it.

CW Nevius blog

People sometimes say that sportswriters are some of the best journalists. Jim Murray of the LA Times was one sportswriter like that, and CW Nevius, although not a sportswriter any longer, does a really excellent job on non-sports topics. I really liked his commentary on overbearing parents at children's sporting events a few months back, and today he has a great piece on the James Kim story. While he addresses the complaints that some people have about the story, he gets to the heart of why it was so compelling and sad for most people.

CommonSenseMedia

One problem in many families where children use the Internet extensively and parents don't is that the parents aren't engaged enough in monitoring what their kids are doing. I have always been surprised at the number of kids under 10 who are allowed to play video games with Teen or even Mature ratings and watch R rated movies at home. I've interviewed many children who have told me this and have also heard more examples through my sons. To me, it's just a time bomb for parents to not be involved in what media their children consume. SFGate has a story today about CommonSenseMedia.org is a website where people are trying to address this problem by rating movies, games, music, books and websites. Their recommendations for what age is appropriate are a little more realistic than the movie industry's -- for example, they say that the movie Blood Diamond, rated R, is okay for anyone older than 15. It's a good resource for parents and children.

MacAppADay may need registration...

I've been hitting the MacAppADay site every morning and downloading whatever they are offering each day. Today I finally noticed that in some cases you also need to download a registration key, or request one. I'm usually barely awake and I can hardly read the screen, so I think I missed that on a couple of the early ones. Today's app was DevonAgent, version 1.7. I bought version 2.0 last week. If you get 1.7 they give you $20 off if you upgrade, a savings of $30.

Speed of MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro I have is way faster than my iMac. Both have Intel chips, although not the same ones, but I have a feeling that the 2GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro is making a big difference. My iMac has slowed to a crawl at times and it can be pretty frustrating to work with when that happens. Time for more memory!

Christmas Lights

It seems like a slow year for Christmas lights in my neighborhood. We have one street nearby where in past years every single home has been way overdone with lights and decorations and inflatable characters. It causes a traffic jam some nights. This year, only one house out of about ten has any lights at all, but it's early. I always fear climbing up to put the lights on my garage and falling off the ladder onto my car. That would be bad. I hope to get the lights up this week though.

SFGate profiles Mike Arrington

There is a long article in today's SFGate about TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington. His quick rise to powerful blogger and Web 2.0 influencer is pretty incredible. They even call him Mr. Web 2.0. TechCrunch is a great source of information, but not knowing the relationships which exist between TechCrunch and the companies they review is a little bit of a concern.

Old-school journalists question Arrington's ethics and potential for conflicts of interest. He even engaged in a high-profile dustup with the New York Times at an Online News Association conference in October in which he accused the Times of ethical lapses but later backed down. Blogger and author Nick Carr charged that while Arrington discloses his investments when he writes about companies, he doesn't always disclose those investments when he writes -- sometimes negatively -- about their competitors. Tech gossip blog Valleywag has a field day with each alleged transgression.

Arrington struck back on his blog, writing that his friendships and his activity as an entrepreneur and investor help him get access to inside information.

"No one should think TechCrunch is objective or conflict-free," he wrote. "We aren't. We never have been. We never will be."

Get your mail delivered at a mailstop

Sometimes it's useful to have a place to have mail delivered other than at your home address or place of business. I used a mailbox when I was selling stuff on eBay because I was paranoid about having some weirdo hunt me down and rob me. It's safer and easier to pick up the mail at a maildrop, especially if you get packages. It can be challenging to find a maildrop, but Maildropguide.com has done the work of locating mailboxes for you. Just enter your city or zip code and you'll quickly have a list of places where you can get a mailbox. If you aren't sure how a maildrop works, check out the guide. Maildropguide also offers listing service -- $40 for a lifetime listing -- if you run a business which provides mail boxes.

New laptop arrives

After more than a month of waiting and a few more days of preparation, my MacBook Pro arrived at work today. I have the 15" model and it seems huge after using a 12" Powerbook for 2+ years. I have pretty much the standard set of software, plus the unavoidable MS Office, 2 GB of RAM, and Windows XP set up with Bootcamp. I tried the Parallels beta to use XP from Bootcamp but didn't get that to work. I'll have to do some troubleshooting there. My primary use of XP will be with Camtasia, but I am considering scrapping that plan and doing the screen recording with Snapz Pro on the Mac side. Not perfect, but it should do the job for me and maybe I can wait and see if Camtasia comes out for the Mac at MacWorld.

Record your voice memos with BrainCast

Something that happens to me all the time when I'm listening to the radio in the car is that I need to make a note of something like a URL or the name of a musician, and I can't do it. I'm driving with both hands on the wheel and trying to grab a pen and write things down can be dangerous. A great solution for this would be the new BrainCast Beta -- BrainCast is a free service which allows you to record voice memos from any phone. No charge. Just call their 800 number, say what's on your mind and they will call your phone and leave a message reminding you to pick up your voice memo. They'll even send you an RSS feed listing your memos. It works with any US cell phone carrier and you can sign up and get started in no time. And of course, you can use it for more serious things than saving the URL from some company mentioned on the radio.

Navigation system still needs work

We tried out the Magellan navigation system for a 3 mile trip. It took a while to get our address into the system since it didn't recognize our street name, which has two words. Once we didn't use the first word, it worked, but by then we were already where we were going. On the way back, it seemed to follow our route fine and call out directions, but it was a little bit slow as we got closer to home. In fact, once we were in the driveway, it said "in about a quarter of a mile, turn right into destination". So maybe it could be a little more accurate.

Navigation system

We received a portable navigation system as a gift today. It looks pretty good and we will give it a try. I'm not sure how much use it would get day to day but my wife often gets lost, so it would probably be useful for her. I think there's only one way for me to get to work and back and 98% of that is on the freeway, but I guess if I need to get off the road somewhere and look for a 7-11, this would help.

Adding to Technorati

Just an empty post to set up my blog on Technorati. There's nothing here. Just for the Technorati Profile.

Tint your own windows and save some money!

If you live anyplace where there is sun, you may have noticed that windows let in UV rays which can do bad things like fade your curtains and furniture or make your car really hot inside. You could plant shade trees around your house or build your house into the side of a hill or maybe live in a cave, but otherwise you need to protect yourself against the bad effects of too much sunlight. SnapTint.com sells window tint kits for your car and home. They are pre-cut to the measurements of your windows, and it's simple enough that you can do the installation yourself. There are a choice of colors, all of which offer glare reduction, UC protection and heat protection. Where I live, it can get up to around 110 degrees in the summer and that can make it too hot to even grip your car's steering wheel if it's been outside too long. Check out SnapTint.com if you need some window tinting and you'd like to save some money by doing it yourself. I could tint the back windows of my Honda Civic for only $55, which would be a nice savings over paying someone to do it. It's $75 for a Honda CRV - back windows.

Gators are in

So my hope for dual national championships at UF in football and basketball at the same time is still a possibility... The Gators are going to have to play a great game to beat Ohio State, but I think it can happen. Florida had the most difficult schedule in the nation this year and ended up 12-1. They've played a number of tough teams and although they haven't always won by big numbers, they have won. Urban Meyer is a great coach and with a month to prepare, he will be ready for Ohio State. I think the Gator defense has been their strength all season and they're going to need it against OSU.

Check out Cave Creek in Scottsdale

Scottsdale Arizona is hot! Yes, it's really hot in the summer, but it's a hot area as far as real estate goes. The Cave Creek Resort and Casitas is located in Scottsdale and offers a unique investment opportunity. You can buy a Cave Creek Condo and rent it out as a hotel when you aren't there. You'll have a beautiful place to vacation whenever you like and the rest of the year you can earn income and pay your mortgage by using it as a rental. Cave Creek Real Estate is a great opportunity in a great location. Check it out!

Temecula library opens Dec. 15th

The new Temecula library is very high tech, according to the NC Times. It's got close to 100 computers and will be the largest library in the county, at 34,000 square feet, which is impressive. Because it's so large, there are going to be lots of new books -- 80,000 books total. Apparently those books are arriving each day and are being cataloged and put on the shelves. They better hurry -- opening day is in 11 days! I'm looking forward to it and hope to get over there on the second or third day it's open.

Software project management with VPMI from VCS

Software projects can be very complex. Just ask Microsoft about Vista! Multiple people working with the same code with multiple features, plus testing and documentation add up to a very complicated task. VCS Project Management Software can help you manage your software project, whether it's small or very large. Check out the features of their software to see if it will do the job for you. They've got a long list of happy customers you can check out, and a range of solutions to fit your project and company. You can even compare the features available in the enterprise and professional versions of the software. Check out the VCSOnline blog where you can learn about what's new, like the latest updates.

Flash software not doing the job

I have the latest version of Flash 8 Professional, but it's not native for the Intel Mac, and has run into some problems with recent updates to Quicktime. I thought Flash had become well integrated with Quicktime, but yesterday I found out otherwise. I spent some time creating an animation in Flash and then when I went to export it, I learned that it isn't working so well with Quicktime at all. I couldn't export to anything other than the .swf format, and when I did that, I couldn't open the file in any application other than the one I created it in. So there was no way to play back the exported movie due to some kind of incompatibility with Quicktime. I ended up playing the Flash video in Flash Professional 8 and capturing in with a screen capture program in order to convert it to Quicktime. That worked, but was not optimal. I need to investigate the problem more before I go ahead with my purchase of the Adobe Suite at work. It may be best to wait until the Spring when all of these applications are updated to work properly with the Intel Macs.

Manage your stocks with stockwrap

Stockwrap Express Charts is an application designed for stock traders. It provides real time data from stock exchanges in the US and Canada, as well as live news. If you trade stocks and would like to check out stockwrap, sign up and become an Ayamae StockWrap Member and you can download the free version right away. There is also a paid version in addition to the free, ad-supported version. Both have lots of bells and whistles which help you manage your stocks. Both are Windows-only at the moment, but a Mac version is on the way. You can check out some of the screens from the application, which is still in beta.

Go Gators

I was pretty shocked that USC couldn't beat UCLA, but the UCLA defense was outstanding and shut down USC's offense, especially their running game. If Florida beats Arkansas, I think they have a good chance to get to the title game. Not because they are better than Michigan, but just because most people won't want to see another Ohio State vs. Michigan game. With the Gators beating Arkansas 38-28, I think they have a pretty good case even though they have not looked too strong the past few weeks. I still think USC is a better team, but you have to give it to Michigan or Florida. If Michigan gets the title game and beats Ohio State, then who is number 1? I don't think it should be Michigan.

Temecula library opening soon?

Progress on the new library in Temecula seems to be coming along. I noticed today that the sign is up and most of the exterior looks done. I don't know if they have any books in there, or where the books will come from, or how long it will take to organize all the books, but maybe it will actually open this year. That's what the city's web page about the library says. It also points out that the library will have close to 100 computers. It's a short walk from my house, so I hope to use the new library -- I have never used the existing library although I went inside once.

Lifehacker book preview

Lifehacker has a book coming out soon and they are running some excerpts on the site. Today's is from Chapter 2: Firewall Your Attention. I like the technology analogy there because using a computer all day has way too many distractions available. This chapters gives some tips and practical things you can do to keep yourself focused on what you need to get done. There are links to software and recommendations on sites to stay off during the day. I'm staying away from that one myself so I don't even know about those really distracting sites.

David Allen interview podcast

Merlin Mann posted his full 8 part series interview with GTD guy David Allen earlier this week. I have listened to about half of it and I found it pretty interesting. David Allen gets right to the point and Merlin Mann is a bit of a character, so they make a good pair. The file is available in mp3 and m4a formats.

Technology bites back

It hasn't been a good day with technology. In the morning, I couldn't help my sons print their homework and ended up writing out a note to each of their teachers explaining that I had a computer problem and they would turn in the work tomorrow. Of course, five minutes after they went to school, everything printed. Then I worked on my presentation for a meeting this afternoon for a couple of hours, saved it and then copied it to my hard drive which I took to work. When I got there, no files had been copied and I had to re-create the presentation in about 20 minutes. I tried to call my wife and have her email it to me from home, but she had turned off her phone. So much for cell phones. Finally, I got an email from the Vizio tech support about my TV image problems. The guy said it was probably my Dish HD box and that I might not even be getting an HD signal. Nice try, but that's not the problem. It's the TV and I'm going to return it. It's always an easy out to blame the other guy for your problem.

Check out KidsFirst first for your kids

If you have kids, you know that there are always things you need for them as well as things they want, and it can require trips to various stores to find those things, to say nothing of trying to find them at a good price. KidsFirstInternet is a one stop shopping center for anything kid-related, from kids toys to bedding to shoes, furniture and more. If there's a product for kids, they can help you find it. Right now, they are tracking more than 300,000 products from more than 400 stores. KidsFirstInternet does the comparison shopping for you, saving you time and money. Looking for a rug? Check out their list. They've got a clearance section and a what's new area, so if you need to save a little more money or you want the latest and greatest, KidsFirstInternet can help you out.

Re-do the training

I thought some more about the day long PowerPoint festival/new employee training event I attended this week. I think it would be more cost effective to cut it down to half a day. Record the presenters on video and give everyone a CD or DVD they can watch. Use the first hour and a half to take care of the team building activities and covering the key stuff everyone needs to know. Then take the group on a walking tour of campus with a good leader who tells you the history of things and have people create something or do some other hands on activity.

Who is Steve Wozniak

I met Steve Wozniak once and spoke to him after a presentation I made when I was working for Apple. He's an interesting guy who likes to pull pranks, among other things. At yesterday's staff orientation, there was a game where people had the name of a famous UC graduate on their back and other people gave hints so they could figure out who the person was. Someone had Steve Wozniak, and I gave her all kinds of hints but she never got it. "First name is Steve, last name isn't Jobs, and he created the personal computer". "Wrote a book about himself called iWoz". "Has a big collection of Segways." Those didn't do the job. I guess she may have been a little too young to remember the Apple II.

Track your child's MySpace use

MySpace is supposed to have a 13 year old age requirement, but most people are aware that kids much younger can easily get around that by checking a box and adding a few years to their birthday. Around one third of the 10 year olds in my son's class last year had MySpace accounts and in many cases, their parents have no idea. While some of the hype about the dangers of MySpace and other sites like it is overblown, there are some definite concerns and parents need to be aware of what their child is doing on MySpace and online in general, and who they are interacting with. Many people online aren't who they pretend to be, and many kids can easily be duped. Myspace tracking is one way to keep tabs on your child's use of MySpace. With SpectorPro 6.0, you can log all the activity your child has online -- keystrokes, websites visited, emails, and chats. The software costs $99.95 and has won a couple of PC Magazine Editor's Choice awards for recording computer activity. You can install it and use it without anyone's knowledge of it, or you can say upfront that you are concerned about some of the online predators who might be out there and let your child know that you will be tracking what they do online. Either way, using SpectorPro 6.0 can give you some peace of mind and keep your child safe online. The software isn't limited to tracking MySpace use -- it will capture everything that goes on.

It didn't work too well for Napster

Napster wasn't able to successfully switch from a free for all download system to one where people paid to download. Not many of the paid systems do much business anyway, but the ones which start out with no rules and try to change run into a culture problem. BitTorrent is the next one which will experience that as they try to partner with some of the desparate movie studios to offer paid downloads of movies. So while some people are going to download the latest James Bond for free, another group will use the same service to pay for the same movie. Probably not going to happen.

But at least that idea isn't as ridiculous as WalMart's buy a DVD and then pay more to get a copy for your video device or computer. I don't see that being too popular either. Who wants to pay twice or three times for the same content?

Check out the Southwest Inn in Sedona

Sedona is a place I have not visited but have read lots about. I think it's kind of a new age resort area with lots of spas and nature-oriented things to do. They even have had the Digital Storytelling Festival there in the past. Well, the The Southwest Inn at Sedona (Voted Sedona's Best) is a great place to stay if you go to Sedona. It's a small luxury hotel and bed and breakfast. They emphasize customer service and it's been voted the best place to stay in Sedona three years in a row. Free 800 calls and the whole place is non-smoking, plus each room has a 25" TV, DVD/CD players, refrigerators, free high speed wireless internet access and "Sedona Dream" pillow top mattresses plus coffee makers and 2 telephones. You may never need to leave the room. Each room includes a deluxe continental breakfast and the property has a pool and spa. It sounds great.

Web Desktop

LifeHacker points to WebDesktop today. It's an interesting application that puts a web page on your desktop. You can interact with it, but you can also set a refresh rate. So if you are monitoring a site which changes often but doesn't autoupdate, you can set it to refresh every minute or 3 minutes or whatever and never miss anything. Combine that with a screen capture every time and you have a record of all changes...

Get mileage by shopping

My wife puts a lot of mileage on the car on trips to various malls and department stores, but she doesn't get any kind of mileage rewards in the process. Now you can get airline miles just by shopping, and you don't even have to leave home. Just buy through shop4miles.com and earn free frequent flyer miles. Right now you can get Delta, US Airways, and Alaska Airlines miles just by shopping. My wife could earn a free trip someplace in about a month doing this! Plus, the site is a comparison shopping site, so you'll save money at the same time you are earning those miles.

Buyer's remorse

Last week I bought DevonThink Professional using the 30% off coupon from 43 Folders. I haven't even unpacked it yet and today I got an email asking if I want to spend $60 to upgrade to DevonThink Professional Office for $60 more... Maybe that's why it was 30% off.

Get your vitamins

Eating right is an important part of maintaining good health. Even when you eat right, you may not be getting enough of some important vitamins and minerals. Stress can also affect what your body needs, and vitamins and mineral supplements may be helpful. N101 Nutrition has a wide selection of supplements, herbs and natural beauty products. They carry name brands like Nature's Way, TwinLab, Avalon Organics and more, all at good prices. They offer volume discounts and free shipping on many items. Check out N101 for the best brands in natural skin care, beauty, vitamins, supplements and sports nutrition. Whether you are looking for protein powder, vitamin C, or green tea, N101 has what you need.

Andy Ihnatko doesn't care for the Zune

Andy Ihnatko's Zune review in the Chicago Sun Times is a little negative. Andy is a Mac guy, but he's pretty reasonable about things most of the time. He sure doesn't like the Zune.

You'll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry's Bizarro World, where users aren't allowed to do anything that isn't in the industry's direct interests.

Take the Zune's one unique and potentially ginchy feature: Wi-Fi. You see this printed on the box and you immediately think "Cool. So I can sync files from my desktop library without having to plug in a USB cable, right? Maybe even download new content directly to the device from the Internet?"

Typical, selfish user: How does your convenience help make money for Universal? No wonder Doug despises you.

No, the Zune's sole wireless feature is "squirting" -- I know, I know, it's Microsoft's term, not mine -- music and pictures to any other Zune device within direct Wi-Fi range. Even if the track is inherently free (like a podcast) the Zune wraps it in a DRM scheme that causes the track to self-destruct after three days or three plays, whichever comes first.

After that, it's nothing more than a bookmark for purchasing the track in the Zune Marketplace. It amounts to nothing more than free advertising.

The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba's Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune's limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.

If you really want to hear what Andy thinks, check out the recent MacNotables podcast, where he joins in with Adam Engst to rip the Zune. Very funny. I think the Zune really does show how Apple is more focused on the user than Microsoft when it comes to designing products.

HP Digital Cameras are great for schools

I really like to take pictures and I think the digital camera is probably the greatest gadget to come along in many years. The only thing better is a digital camera and a printer to print out the photos. Although I've never owned an HP digital camera myself, I have bought a couple of them for other people and smuggled them through customs in Jamaica to get them to my friends. It's hard to buy stuff like that in Jamaica... The HP cameras have a solid feel to them and take great photos. I used to have a neighbor who worked on HP's printers and he told me many times about how good their cameras were getting, and he was right.

If I had an HP digital camera and printer, I would take them to the local elementary school and teach students how to use them and help the students with a digital photography project for the rest of this school year. We would document what's going on at the school and on field trips, and incorporate the photos into a digital yearbook and use some of them to create digital stories with voice narration by the students. I would do my best to see that all students had a chance to use the camera -- around 300 students. We could use the printer to print some photos and put them up around the school and we'll put the digital stories onto a DVD and make them available to parents. I think a project like this would really show that not only can you take some great pictures with a digital camera, there are some great things you can do with the pictures!

This post was brought to you by HP

Florida won't be national champs in two sports

Not at the same time, anyway, and not in football and basketball, which would have been quite an accomplishment. After watching the Gators beat FSU and USC take care of Notre Dame, I don't think there is much of a comparison between the two schools. Florida's offense looks weak compared to USC and USC has a better defense also. Florida is not beating up on some of the weak teams, like FSU this year while USC has handled some excellent teams with no problem. It's clear that USC should be #2. Whether they can beat Ohio State is a different question, but Pete Carroll is an outstanding coach and I wouldn't bet against him.

Adopt an Alien

Who knows what happend with that flying saucer that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico a long time ago? I'm pretty sure that's not the source for the Alien Adoption kit from alienadoptionworld. With the kit and some free time, you can grow your own aliens, right in your home. They even have the elongated heads and large eyes which are commonplace among aliens who have been seen on Earth. This could be a fun toy for the UFOlogist on your holiday shopping list, or maybe for a lonely neighbor who doesn't quite fit in.


For $39.95 you get two alien creatures who you raise from powder up to full size. They have a chip for a brain and you can help them communicate with the website. I don't think this increases your chances of being visited by other aliens, but I guess you won't know until you try it out. Hours of fun is ahead with your own personal aliens. Buy a couple and share one with a friend, or keep both and see if they can get along. You won't be able to claim them as dependents on your income taxes, but if you need a couple of roommates who can really control, this may be the way to go.

Kids growing up faster

SFGate says that 10 is the new 15...and that kids who are 8-12 are doing things previously done mainly by teenagers.

Zach Plante is close with his parents — he plays baseball with them and, on weekends, helps with work in the small vineyard they keep at their northern California home. Lately, though, his parents have begun to notice subtle changes in their son. Among other things, he's announced that he wants to grow his hair longer — and sometimes greets his father with "Yo, Dad!"

Sounds almost exactly like my son, who is also 10, like Zach. He's already got the long hair.

In some ways, it's simply part of a kid's natural journey toward independence. But child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among "tweens" — kids ages 8 to 12.

What happens when these kids get to 13 and older? In many cases, it just comes down to what the parents will allow and how far the kids push it. Considering the influence of peer groups, there is only so much you can do as a parent, but unless there are some limits, you will have problems.

Wedding invitations the easy way

Weddings can be complicated, with dresses, tuxedos, photographers, videographers, menus, music and more to worry about. One thing you can take care of easily are wedding shower invitations and invitations to the wedding itself. The Weddingneeds site can help you find the invitations you need easily. They've got several hundred kinds of wedding invitations to choose from. Photo Fabulous, at $269 for 100 invitations, looks like a nice one to me. The bridal shower invitations look great, too, and there are many styles available. Whether you need thank you notes, invitations, or direction cards, the Weddingneeds site has it!

Raiders find a way to lose

The Raiders were looking pretty good against the Chargers today and I thought they might pull off an upset. However, as they have done many times, they managed to self destruct and blow it in the fourth quarter. Their defense was good but spent too much time on the field in the second half and probably wore down. The Chargers didn't look as good as the past few weeks but they made the big plays when they needed them and that was the difference.

Gators win

UF beat FSU 21-14 which was not an overwhelming win, but good enough. Now, they need to knock off Arkansas and hope that USC loses to either Notre Dame or UCLA. That way, The Gators should have a shot at the BCS championship. I think USC is looking better than Florida at this point, and if they beat Notre Dame today, they should move into 2nd place in the polls.

Not Leaving Las Vegas

It only seems like everyone is moving to Las Vegas. Actually, around 5,000 people do it every month month, and they aren't all going there to work in casinos. It's an affordable place to live, with lots of homes for rent and for sale available for rent check: There are also lots of new homes under construction, with lots of incentives to buy them, like upgrades, help with downpayments or no closing costs.

If you are thinking about moving to Las Vegas, check out Las Vegas real estate before you go and you can get an idea of what it will cost and what you can get for your money.

LCD TV not too hot with computer hook up

I hooked up my laptop to my LCD tv using a DVI to HDMI connection which should have produced a nice picture. It didn't. The text was not readable at all. Half of each letter was missing and the entire image was stretched out beyond the frame of the TV. Something's not right with the TV. I need to get some tech support or take it back. It looks good on some channels, terrible on others and unbelievably bad with the computer. I haven't tried a DVD yet.

Make money with affiliate marketing

Working online from home is a nice dream for many people, myself included, but something hard to achieve. There aren't too many professional bloggers, and Google Ads are still a mystery to most people. I've made 7 dollars that way in the past year! Jeremy Palmer's site Quit Your Day Job is a great resource for anyone looking to work from home by doing affiliate marketing through websites. Jeremy has an interesting story to tell about how he started small with affiliate marketing but was very quickly able to turn it into a full time job, earning more than he had made working for a financial services company. During his second year in affiliate marketing, he earned more than a million dollars! That's what I call working from home in style! Jeremy's e-book, High Performance Affiliate Marketing is available from his site for $49.95 through December 2nd. In it, he shares his techniques to help you quit your day job and work from home. There are also a number of great testimonials on the site from satisfied customers who have followed in Jeremy's footsteps using his techniques. These personal stories are inspirational, with quotes like this one from Tanya: "Your ebook has changed my life completely." What more can you say. Well, how about this one from Robert Benson:

I would like to commend you on the absolutely best e-book I have ever seen about affiliate marketing!I have wandered through this online maze of "gurus" and ebooks, courses, downloads and the next best thing to hit the Internet, but you have completely outdone all of them by writing a precise, hands-on, well explained e-book for the people who are trying to succeed in a very competitive online world.

The site and book are certainly worth checking out for anyone with hopes of getting in on some of the unique opportunities the Internet makes possible. Affiliate marketing offers a way to make money if you know what you are doing, and Jeremy knows what he is doing. He's even offering a 60 day money back guarantee on the e-book, which is a better deal than I've ever seen on any kind of book.

He's also got a blog on his site, with interesting entries related to the online world, so if you are hesitant, read up and see what he has to say.

Dishwasher repair

My dishwasher has been leaking for a few weeks and the last couple of days it got really bad. My plumbing experience is pretty limited. I've replaced some faucets and toilets. That's about it. I took the dishwasher out using instructions I found online, replaced the dishwasher elbow, tightened it up, hooked the water back up, and tightened things until the leaking stopped. Not too bad. I think I could replace a dishwasher by myself, with instructions.

Furniture for kids

Finding the right furniture for kids can be tricky. You don't want to re-purchase the same items every few years, but you also can't put a toddler in a full size bed. Finding pieces that look good and are functional and durable can take time. Fortunately, Great Priced Furniture has a big selection of kids furniture. They've got some really nice beds, colorful rugs, and some desks that are so nice I would like to have one of them. Great Priced Furniture offers a 30 day money back guarantee and they'll get your order to you in 1 to 3 and a half weeks. If you need something for Christmas, get your order in by November 28th, which is in less than a week.

Neighbor's new truck

My neighbor got a new used truck. His other truck was 25 years old and leaked oil all over the street. The new one was a gift from his son who wasn't using it. He told his dad he would like the truck back when he dies. That's the kind of giving you like to see during the holidays. It's yours, but if you die, I'm gonna come get it!

Can you hear me?

There is big business in providing voiceovers for commercials, jingles, cartoons, documentary movies (or even regular movies where the plot doesn't make sense and you need someone to tell you what's going on), answering machines, podcasts, video games, and more.

If you do voiceovers or you need someone to do a voiceover for you, check out Voices.com. They've got job listings as well as a search page where you can find the voice talent you need to complete your project. They are eager to sign up actors and musicians, and if you aren't sure how to make the move to voiceovers, they can help you with that, too.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are a family of vegetarians, so eating turkey on Thanksgiving isn't part of our routine. We'll be having a special meal but not eating to excess.

A good place to learn about Thanksgiving is the Plimoth.org site. It's designed for students and they even have a detective section where you can do some research.

Free online gaming

Online games like World of Warcraft can get pretty expensive with the monthly fees plus buying stuff in the game. And console games are around $60 for the new PS3 and XBox 360, plus hundreds for the machines. Believe it or not, there are plenty of free online games you can enjoy. Excessively.net one of the first two sites allowing you to play classic Nintendo games online, and they are still doing it, all for free. Great games like Pacman, SuperMario, and Frogger are ready and waiting for you. You can even embed the games in your blog. They look just like the arcade versions, too. So if you would like to play free online games, check out Excessively.net and get started with some exciting gameplay. They've got enough games to keep you busy for months.

Family trip to El Capitan Theater

We made the unwise decision to go to El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood today. Not only was the traffic getting there and coming back a nightmare, the street in front of the theater was blocked off for a concert. We spent the majority of our time driving on freeways. Things were so bad on the way there that I didn't think we would make it in time to see the movie. There is a stage show plus a movie and a live organist. We arrived just as the movie started and then stuck around to watch the organist and the stage show for the next time slot. The theater was nice and it wasn't crowded. The Santa Clause 3 movie wasn't too bad although the plot was a little weak. Driving home took about 3 hours on 6 different freeways. Too much work for one day.

And why do they call it "The El Capitan Theatre"? Isn't that like saying "The The Capitan Theatre"?

Where did your family name come from?

Ever wonder who your ancestors were and where they lived? Maybe there are some famous people in your family tree. Or maybe some infamous ones? It's pretty interesting to research your family history and save something for future generations. Our Name in History will do the work for you and will produce a nice hardbound book about your family name, complete with graphs and images for only $39.95. Check it out and see if they've got enough information on your last name to create the book, which looks pretty nice.

400th PayPerPost entry

I just did my 400th PayPerPost blog entry. That is a lot of blogging. I didn't realize I had done so many. I've also done at least 400 more in the same time period, so it's probably close to 1000 in 3 months or around 10 per day. I'm no Perez Hilton, but that's a lot of writing and linking.

Christmas shopping

I have done no Christmas shopping and don't have a Christmas list ready either. I know Black Friday is coming up, but I don't plan to be in line at 3 AM for that $100 laptop. Maybe I'll buy some stuff online, but I need to plan ahead, otherwise I'll end up with a bunch of tech toys that no one wants except me. I plan not to overdo it this year. That would be a good accomplishment.

Memories of Christmas

I have many good memories of Christmas from my childhood. Most involve getting gifts, but making a snowman in the front yard was a real favorite thing to do. Also, visiting with relatives on Christmas was a great time as a child. My grandfather used to wear a special vest with lights which was very entertaining for the kids. He also gave everybody the same gift, but that was okay since there were so many kids. I don't remember any Christmas Elves at any of the Christmas parties, but I do remember them from my dreams since they were setting up the gifts under the tree and helping Santa. Most of my memories of Christmas involve snow, which I never see now, living in southern California.

It's Christmas time already?

I usually wait until December 1st before I put up any Christmas lights. People in my neighborhood go all out with giant displays and characters and sound and more. I try to keep it reasonable. One neighbor already has his full set of giant lights up and on and it's only November 21st. Why so early?

Never miss an email with emoze

In my opinion, email has to be one of the top two things about the Internet, with the other one being the ability to create and browse websites, which might count as two more. I use email much more than the telephone because it's so much easier to deal with and you can do it on your own time. I get news, updates, product info and of course lots of spam via email every day. I'm not away from my computer very often for more than a few hours, so getting to my email isn't a big deal. However, if I had a job where I was traveling long distances quite a bit or spent lots of time in the car or in meetings, not having easy access to email would be an issue. If you are one of those people who needs to get to your email often but you can't get to a computer to go online for whatever reason, Emoze has a solution for you, and the price is right. That's right,
www.emoze.com offers a free mobile email service which will push your email to your cell phone or PDA. You can be just like those people walking around with a Blackberry getting email all day long no matter where you are.

Emoze works with a corporate or consumer email account -- you can use more than one -- and any compatible phone or PDA. The emoze software has an interface similar to most email software, so you can pick it up quickly. And the software is free at www.emoze.com. Just download, install and you are ready to go.

You can use emoze with any Microsoft Mobile or Symbian device with a GPRS or other data connection with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes Domino servers and POP3 online email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail.

Very soon, you will be able to use emoze without a PC, so no software will be necessary. Good things are ahead for emoze users, so take a look now and think about how much you will save each month by not buying that Blackberry.

Back online

My blog has been resurrected and is online again. I missed it!

Blogger makes > 100k/yr with no Internet access

LATimes has a story about blogger "Perez Hilton" today. It says he makes more than 100k/yr from blogging and does not have Internet access! His blog is about celebrities with some emphasis on gay celebrities. Like many other stories about online sites, the LA Times doesn't include the URL of his website... -- http://www.perezhilton.com/

He does not own a TV or read books and has no Internet at home. He is a voracious consumer of magazines, though, and has a network of trusted friends and tipsters who, he said, have yet to lead him astray.

He starts work around 6:30 a.m., sometimes posting 30 times a day, a far more prodigious output than many fully staffed sites. By sheer energy and personality, his site and he are rapidly evolving into a brand. He is in demand by radio and TV outlets as a celebrity commentator. He recently taught a Learning Annex class, "How to Blog Your Way to Fame and Fortune." ("I inspired myself!" he said.)

Track your vehicles with gps

Do you have a vehicle you need to keep tabs on? Maybe do some Teen Tracking with a teenage driver who might get a little too far away from home or a fleet of delivery vehicles where you need to locate them quickly to provide good service? Or maybe your spouse has been visiting somebody else's house a little too often for your comfort? There are lots of cases where you might want to know where a vehicle is and the Brickhouse Security LightningGPS tracking device can do the job for you. Check out their demo and you'll be able to track a car live on a map. Pretty impressive! The tracking device needs to be hardwired into a car, so you can't just slap it on anybody's vehicle and see where they are going. Put it on your own car or install it in your company's vehicles. You could prevent problems or improve service by knowing how well your employees are staying on task. The device costs $489.95 and there is a monthly service fee so you can do the live tracking. I think this would work best if everyone driving the vehicles knew the device was on there rather than trying to surprise people with some bad news about where they were when they were supposed to be somewhere else. Rather than be deceptive, you can head off trouble by letting the driver(s) know that you'll know where they are.

vizaweb letting me down again

Everytime vizaweb has an outage I figure it's time to change hosts. But I haven't done it yet because once the service is working again, I'm happy to keep things as they are. Today is another day with no access to my site. I'm sure they'll fix it but this has become too common. I need a new host...

Make your own coffee

Many people like to start their day with a fresh, hot cup of coffee. My wife is one of those people and I know she would like to have a nice, reliable espresso coffee maker in the kitchen, ready to go in the morning before she has to go to work. Choosing a coffee machine can be a little daunting since there are so many brands with different features and prices. This guide will help you figure out what you need for the kind of coffee you like and the amount of money you'd like to spend. A new coffee machine would make a great holiday gift.

ImageWell works well

I have been using ImageWell for some time now primarily for resizing images before uploading them to the web. It's an easy to use program which works quickly. It has other features like watermarking and drawing tools, but I haven't spent much time with those. It's a Mac only program and frequently at work I wish I had something like it for Windows. There must be something that does the same stuff.

Don't age so fast

Getting old is part of life. Your body changes, and in the process some things which you used to do easily may get harder to do, like hearing people who are talking to you or walking up the stairs or remembering the names of your children. You can do your best with exercise, getting enough sleep, stimulating your brain by reading and thinking and doing crossword puzzles and your income tax, and by eating right, but sometimes that may not be enough.

For many people, supplements can make up deficiencies in diet or damage that is done because of the environment where you live or work, or because of stress in your life. A new product called Proleva is designed to protect your body at the cellular level from free radicals, the molecules responsible for aging. Proleva is made from fruit and berry extracts and gives you the antioxidant equivalent of one and a half pounds of fresh fruit. I don't know about you, but if I ate that much fruit every day, I don't think my stomach and digestive system would like it too much. Taking Proleva each day can protect you from aging at the cellular level and keep your brain functioning at optimal levels. It can also improve your cardiovascular and immmune systems and improve your energy. It sounds like a miracle pill and although it isn't, there is research which shows that Proleva can reduce the damage that free radicals do to human cells by up to 700%.

Proleva costs $59.95 for a one month supply -- about $2.00 per day. If you buy in larger quantities, the price can get down to $1.40 per day. It comes with a 90 day money back guarantee, so you can return it if you don't think you are getting the results you expect. Your health and well being are important and considering the cost of health care and the value of keeping your body and mind in top shape, Proleva is a pretty good deal.

USC Wins

Cal lost. It wasn't much of a game at all in the second half. USC just made better adjustments and controlled the game. No punts to Jackson and very little in the way of Cal offense. USC made the big plays and showed they were better. If they can beat Notre Dame next Saturday I think they deserve a chance against Ohio State and if they get that far I wouldn't be against Pete Carroll.

Delightful Deliveries

Holiday shopping can be painful -- long lines, crowded roads and parking lots, pushy people, hard to find stuff and then there's the problem of figuring out what to buy for some people on your shopping list. And if you wait too long, you can't even get the gifts you'd like to buy without running all over town looking for them. One way to simplify the job is to buy online, and one place where you can do that is at America's #1 Gift Basket Website, Delightful Deliveries. They've got gift baskets, chocolates, gourmet meals, fresh flowers, corporate gifts and more. They deliver anywhere in the U.S. and have various shipping options plus free gift wrapping. A great choice for your holiday shopping if you've got anyone on your list who likes to eat.

Not sure what you are looking for? Check out their holiday gifts. Last year I had problems buying and shipping things to members of my family who live across the country. If you wait too long, the stuff won't get there on time. This year, I'm going to check out Delightful Deliveries early and get my shopping done the easy way -- online. The Ghirardelli's Greatest Hits looks like a winner for a chocolate lover and you don't have to go to San Francisco to get it, although that would be a nice trip to make.

PayPerPost wedding

I watched the live stream of the PayPerPost wedding at 5:00. The wedding looked fun, especially at the end when Ted counted out $1000 for the bride and groom. The Elvis impersonator did a nice job on his second song, Burning Love. His first number was too choppy on the video stream for me to tell whether it was good. Most of the time the audio went in and out and at times the video stopped completely, but it wasn't too bad.

DUI Lawyer in San Diego

I live near San Diego and drive on the freeways to and from San Diego pretty often. It can be a little tricky to navigate the roads, especially at night. Sometimes, people make poor choices and do things which aren't the best or safest, like drinking and driving. Rick Mueller, the San Diego DUI lawyer, can help you out if you get arrested for DUI. Rick's list of successful cases is a long one, and some of them involve situations which you would expect to be pretty solid for the prosecution. So, if you need the services of a DUI lawyer in San Diego, check out Rick Mueller, the San Diego DUI lawyer.

Cal - USC

I expect today's Cal - USC game to be a high scoring game and as a Cal graduate, I'm planning on Cal coming out on top. I think USC's defense has gotten much better, but they've still got some weaknesses and Cal has more offense than the teams they've played so far. USC gets an advantage since the game is at home, but I think if Cal can come out early and get the lead, they will be in good shape. So if Cal wins, USC is out of the BCS picture and Cal gets back into the top 10. On the other hand, if USC wins and they can also beat Notre Dame, then I think they deserve a chance to be number 1.

SuppliesNet light box

With so many people using digital cameras, you might think that the light box as an essential tool for photographers has seen better days. Maybe not. Plenty of people still have slides and negatives hanging around, and a light box can come in handy for those. It's also nice for tracing and for cutting and drawing when you are working on a scrapbook. SuppliesNet.com have lots of stuff for drawing, drafting, crafting and more. Free shipping if you spend a hundred bucks or more.

Crazy stuff with the PS3

I hate to read those stories about people waiting in line all night only to have some jerks cut in front of them right before the store opens and end up with whatever they were waiting for. Decent people always lose out in these cases. The PS3 thing is probably about greed -- buying it to sell for a quick profit on eBay. And what is with the goofballs who wait in line to buy one, then take it outside and smash it with a sledgehammer in front of a whole bunch of other people who are waiting in line for one?

SEO'Brien blog

Paul O'Brien's blog is a good one to check out if you are interested in search engines and online marketing. He's got lots of practical experience and shares that in his blog entries. Search Engine optimization and online marketing from SEO'Brien is updated frequently and I always find something new and interesting when I'm visiting the site. His most recent entry discusses the importance for webmasters of the announcement that Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft will all recognize the same sitemap format, making it easier to index websites. Although it doesn't have anything to do with search, I liked the recent entry about the Verrado planned community in Arizona which highlighted some marketing ideas as well as the importance of online and offline networks. The place reminds me a little bit of Celebration, Florida, another planned community where I happened to spend a lot of time some years ago.