What is this dude going to do for a living? What kind of dreams does/did he have growing up? As my buddy here at work puts it, he probably has a great great great grandaddy who was born in 1932!

–asked by my friend at work, when I told him there was a new addition to our team while he was gone.

My favorite site takes a look at the computer I just built for myself, as did my friend, Chris, the Shuttle SN95G5.

In reading their review, you’ll find it very concise. They explain who this machine is made for. They also give it a 9 out of 10!

[Listening to: Because Our Love Is Real - Erasure - Nightbird (3:39)]

Microsoft to deny Windows Update to those who aren’t validated

Under the current plan, validated genuine Windows users will have unfettered access to Windows Update, and Microsoft’s Download Center. Those that are not validated will not have direct access to Windows Update or the Download Center. However, “to help customers who may require more time to move to genuine Windows software,” un-validated users will continue to receive automatic updates of critical patches, if their computer is configured to receive them. Per Microsoft’s wording, it is clear that this may be yanked at any given time.

[Listening to: Don’t Need Your Love - The Game - The Documentary (4:26)]

Cool, this new version of w.bloggar works very well!!!

I seem to have had a problem publishing my last blog entry using w.bloggar. I was using version 3.03. My webhost made some changes to my web server software on Friday night that may have affected my ability to use w.bloggar 3.03 to post my blog entries.

Let’s see if version 4.00 from bloggar’s site will fix it.

This time, Google has a new search feature called Google Video.

From their site:
Our mission is to organize the world’s information, and that includes the thousands of programs that play on our TVs every day. Google Video enables you to search a growing archive of televised content ? everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows.

Just type in your search term (for instance, ipod or Napa Valley) or do a more advanced search (for instance, title:nightline) and Google Video will search the closed captioning text of all the programs in our archive for relevant results. Click on a program title on your results page and you can look through short snippets of the text along with still images from the show. Visit the “About this show” side panel to learn when this show will air next.

Right now we’re just testing this product, so you’ll find programs only from a limited number of channels, which we’ve been indexing since late December 2004. You can expect to see more and more content as we continue to add new channels.

Our mission is to give viewers complete access to public affairs programming and we are committed to use new technologies to enhance the value of our services. This partnership with Google further demonstrates how new technologies will expand our audience and make it easier to conduct online searches of our content for information most relevant to them.

• Brian Lamb, C-SPAN Chairman and CEO

Also, Google has released a new version of Picasa, the photo album software they purchased this year. It competes directly with Adobe Photoshop Album. If you’re into photos and keeping them on your PC, Picasa does an excellent job of giving you a portal to them in a nicely organized user interface. It also does an excellent job of doing simple photo edits and effects!

Thanks to Ars Technica for the link to this.

Apples and Oranges

Dinner Friday
What a nice weekend we had. Friday night, we had a nice dinner with my cousin, Ike, and his girlfriend, April. Michelle and I hadn’t oficially been there together since Ike bought his house half a year ago or so. Anyway, what a cute place. The place is gorgeous, and the food was even better! Thanks Ike and April!

Snowstorm and Saturday’s Class
Friday night, we had the beginning of a snowstorm that was supposed to only dump about 3-6 inches near us and maybe 7-10 inches south of Detroit. Well, we already had about 6 inches on the ground by Saturday morning. Michelle and I have a class about 40 minutes away, so we headed out a little early. We didn’t bother checking Wayne State’s site for school closings because we didn’t hear it announced on the radio. Anyway, we missed our exit ramp to get to school, so I proceeded to climb up the embankment, which was about 35 degrees or so, perpendicular to the ramp itself. Well, the TrailBlazer did just fine! Anyway, we got to school and found out our professor had called in. Should have called the extension center we go to so that we’d have known not to bother.

Birthday Party at Chubby’s
Saturday night was lots of fun. We met up at Chubby’s BBQ on M59, a new BBQ joint that used to be a pub called the 59th Street Pub. Anyway, I’m not a big ribs guy, but this place had some damn good ribs. The meat peeled right off the bone. I was able to use a knife and fork and get not a drop of food on my face!!! Perfect! I was so happy to see my family and friends show up and celebrate with me!

Guilt Free Gaming (GFG) and Baby shower registering
Yesterday, I got up at 730a so that I could play World of Warcraft for a few hours before we went up to Babies ‘R’ Us to meet up with Kim to register. Nuts to get up at 730a on a Sunday to play games? No way! We were supposed to do it on Saturday, but we canceled due to the storm. Anyway, the registering was an absolute BLAST! I thought it’d be boring, but it was all fun stuff we registered for. The most boring thing we registered for was probably burping cloths or something!

Dinner and Cake at Mom and Dad’s
We had a dual celebration on Sunday evening at my parents’ house for my birthday and my dad’s nameday, which was on January 18th. My mom made us a great dinner and Gina picked up some nice appetizers, including some sushi! Michelle brought an awesome chocolate cake, and we topped it off with some ice cream that Gina picked up. Kyle and I installed a digital thermostat for my parents’ house that I got for my Dad’s birthday, which was on January 6. They had the old, nasty analog thermostat and it was time to get them modernized in terms of their heating and cooling. I hope they enjoy it. It’s a touch screen model and it even comes with a cute littlle stylus. I hope they “get” it and learn to love it.

World of Warcraft is VERY ADDICTING!!!
So addicting, in fact, that someone even has created a guild that plays on the addictive qualities of World of Warcraft.

Now, this is HILARIOUS!!! Oh yeah, Blizzard is who makes the game!

I posted their first link, I hope. This second installment in their photo guide is wonderful. Helps a computer guy, like myself, get a bit more interested and involved in recreational photography!

Portraits

Nasty card. Nasty. New fan design, bah! Crap. Good thing Newegg.com is nice enough to RMA this for me. I’ve read too many stories about people being on their 2nd and 3rd 6600GTs. Why bother?

MSI is quiet, solid. I’ve heard no complaints from people who use their cards. I built a system for a friend of mine with an MSI 6600GT PCI-e, and his card is 4x quieter than my XFX 6600GT AGP was. Now, my card is quiet, it’s dead.

It started last night when I was playing World of Warcraft. I noticed the largests graphics tearing I’ve ever seen in my life and then I heard the sound start stuttering. I was able to alt-tab out and check the temps. Nothing exorbitant, something like 90C, which was normal for me on this abomination of a card.

I rebooted my machine 3-6 times and I couldn’t even get to the World of Warcraft login screen.

Anywho, the card is on its way to La Puente, CA, the town we’ve all grown to love.

EA <> ESPN Deal

First, I thought it was nuts that the NFL would even do a deal like the one they did with EA, locking EA Sports into having exclusive NFL rights for five years. This was a big blow to ESPN NFL 2K5 fans. It was only 20 bux. Say goodbye.

Now, EA has wiped ESPN Video Games out completely with this 15 year deal!

I hope something postive happens with this CT state rep’s proposition.

When does the movie really start?

I can’t wait!!!

Speed increases!

This is pretty funny. I had to post it.

Subject: Friendly Rivalry

A Greek and an Italian were sitting down one day debating who had the
superior culture.

The Greek says, “We have the Parthenon”

The Italian says, “We have the Coliseum”

The Greek says “We had great Mathematicians”

The Italian says, “We had the Roman Empire” and so on and so on and then:

The Greek Says, “We invented sex!”

The Italian says, “That is true, but it was the Italians who introduced it
to women.”