Vote Today
Be sure to vote today to make your voice heard during this historic election.
Cheers
Blog Scraping
For the uninitiated:
Blog scraping is the process of scanning through a large number of blogs, usually daily, searching for and copying content. This process is conducted through automated software. The software and the individuals who run the software are sometimes referred to as blog scrapers.
Scraping is copying a blog that is not owned by the individual initiating the scraping process. If the material is copyrighted it is considered copyright infringement, unless there is a license relaxing the copyright. The scraped content is often used on spam blogs or splogs.
A Lack of Civility
Ever since I discovered Craigslist a few years back I’ve found it to be a great resource to buy and sell things, as well as, procure services from handymen, cleaning ladies and more. The ease of searching for what you want, the anonymity that comes inherently with posting things and the localized focus allows me to deal with people local to me rather than across the country.
The Dreaded RROD
XBOX 360 RROD
The dreaded RROD (Red Ring of Death) has hit my XBOX 360 console. A few months back I experieced the disc unreadable error while playing Mass Effect. The error was quite annoying as it happened at key parts of the game where I didn’t have a checkpoint to revert to. However, I could take the disc out, restart the console and continue playing.
Since that time, I haven’t had the time for any gaming and with the release of Fable II I thought I’d spend some time with the X360 again, and now the disc unreadable error has progressed into it’s inevitable end resulting in the RROD.
Thankfully, with Microsoft’s new policy on the RROD, though my console is out of warranty, I have been setup with free repairs and will likely get a different console than the one here (hopefully a newer console. 
). Unfortunately, the turn-around time for the repairs will run right into my vacation, so I will only be able to play Fable II and other games after I return in December. Shucks!
Cheers
Ohio Voters Scare Me
This video is from a rally Sarah Palin had in Ohio and listening to the voters express their opinions of why they would not vote for Obama but rather McCain/Palin is absolutely scary. It isn’t the fact that they are bigoted, religious fanatics that see the “Lord’s glow” in Palin, but they are so completely detached from reality. I don’t admonish voting for a particular candidate you agree with their policies, but voting for John McCain just because you think Obama is anti-white, or he’s a Muslim, or the fact that his name is indeed Barack Obama and not some clean-cut Anglo-Christian name is downright outrageous.
Android Market
There’s been a lot of hoopla about the Apple App Store which allows you to download free and paid applications to extend the functionality of your iPhone. With jailbroken phones you get the additional benefit of Cydia to install a larger variety of applications not screened by Apple.
Android has slowly been taking shape to be a viable competitor to the iPhone in all aspects. The release of the recent SDK and announcements of the upcoming HTC Dream shows the progress that has been made. The SDK includes an emulator that allows developers to get a head start in creating all sorts of applications and test them out well before any phone is released.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (SW: TFU) has a demo up on the XBOX Live and I grabbed it today to check out the gameplay for myself. The game was previewed some time ago with spectacular force powers. It also has particle and physics technologies like DMM and Havoc which are said to heighten the effects of the overkill force powers.
The demo allows you to take control of the Apprentice through the Tie Fighter factory hunting for a Jedi master. You come pre-equipped with force push, lightening, grip and of course your trusty lightsaber. The game is set to be released in a couple of weeks, so a demo is appropriately timed to hype the game in addition to the plethora of videos readily available on any gaming website.
UP
Pixar has always made excellent movies. From the first Toy Story to Ratatouille (I haven’t had a chance to see Wall-E yet) the stories and characters have been very memorable.
This teaser for their next movie UP continues that fine tradition in an approx. 45 second video. Enjoy
Cheers
Not So Cuil
I read about Cuil (pronounced as Cool) this morning and decided to see what it can do. It was created by former Google employees with the hopes of upstaging Google with it’s search prowess. However, a few simple search in Cuil yielded no useful results at all.
Cuil - A new search engine to rival Google
I searched for the string “linux usb hardy” in relation to an issue I was having with VirtuaBox on my Hardy based Linux machine and got back 2 completely useless results in Cuil while a plethora of useful results were hurled at me by Google.
I think Cuil has a way to go before declaring themselves “the world’s biggest search engine”.
Cheers
Psychological Warfare
With growing technology, how long do you think it’ll be before cars themselves have the WiFi capability and the numerous hackers out there trying to wage war on it.
