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...