Chad W Smith's Home online

Why I won't be buying a new iPhone.

2008-06-24T13:53:00.001-05:00

Because, I know you guys were all wondering. ;)

The 2-year contract. I've never had a 2-year contract in my life. For anything. My college was semester to semester. Heck, my marriage didn't last a year. Being locked into a $30 data plan + whatever the calling plan is - per month - for the next 24 months. You realize that is over $700 - *just for the data plan!* - and that's not counting the $199 for the phone itself. In the end, it will cost more than $1000 for the iPhone. To put that in perspective - I pay $10 a month for my phone now. The data plan alone - (keep in mind, there's a voice plan to be added here too) - would cost me almost $500 more over the next two years. And, right now, I can cancel at any time with no ETF.
There are better phones. That's right, you heard me. There are *BETTER* phones. The key word being "PHONE". The iPhone is this weird jack-of-all-trades / master-of-none device. It's not a very good phone. I don't want a slippery phone. I don't want a smudgable phone. I don't want a phone that I can't blind-dial. I don't want a phone that I can't swap the battery out of. I don't want a phone I can't swap the SIM out of. I don't want a $200 phone that can't voice dial. Then there's the lack of MMS, the lack of external storage, the lack of copy and paste for crying out loud... It's not a very good phone.
There are better pocketable internet devices. The Nokia Internet Tablets kick the iPhone's ass when it comes to pocketable Internet. Let me prove it in one word. FLASH. Yeah. Real desktop Flash - on a device that has a much higher resolution screen, with a physical keyboard. I owned an N800 for almost a year, and it rarely was far away from me. And that model didn't have a keyboard. But it did have a 800 x 480 screen, a real AJAX/Flash capable browser, (there was never a site I couldn't use/view on my N800 - and I use Google Docs, Blogger, and YouTube a lot). Tons of open source software (that didn't have to be approved by Steve Jobs, or anyone else - other than ME, to work on MY device). It did USB in and out - BlueTooth, FM radio, a much faster processor, 2 SD slots... The newer models have all that, plus GPS, plus a physical keyboard. And the new Pandora (the reason I don't have my N800 anymore) will be even more powerful processor, game controls, and the convenient no-in-pocket-accidental dialing clam-shell design.
There are better media players. The iPod Touch comes to mind. It doesn't have a monthly fee. But there are also things like the N8x0 series I was talking about. Or the Archos PMPs. Something with removeable (read:unlimited/upgradable) storage. Something with a bigger screen. Something that can play anything. But, seriously, if you just want the iPhone for it's media potential - get the iPod Touch. You'll pay more upfront (now) - but that's all you'll pay. Plus, it's thinner, and you can get more storage. Plus, you can afford to buy a descent phone to go with it.
There are better smartphones. Ok - you want an all-in-one. You don't want a phone and an internet device. Get a BlackJack II. Get a BlackBerry. Get an EnV. Get something that will work as a modem. (I really can't believe the 3G iPhone still won't let you BlueTooth pair with another device for Wireless Internet. I should be able to pair the iPhone up with my MacBook and go online.) Get something that will copy & paste - (that is insane - that's GUI 101 - that's features the most basic computers back in the 1980s had). Get something that can open Office documents and PDFs! Get something with a physical keyboard.
There are better media phones. This might be harder to prove. but that's just because I'm not a big media phone guy. But to me, external storage is a given. To me, video recording is a given. To me, a decent camera is a given. To me, MMS is a given.
There are better GPS devices. Like say, um, any dedicated GPS device. And many GPS enabled phones. Voice recognition is pretty key here. Being big enough to see while mounted in a car is too.

There it is. Seven reason I won't be buying an iPhone. To sum all those up - I don't have to have every little thing crammed into one device. I could have gone on - there are better digital cameras - there are better camera phones - there are better tablet devices - etc. But the main thing is - the iPhone tries to be everything but doesn't do anything very well. If I wanted to get the coolest phone - if I could only have one electronic device for the rest of my life - I might pick the iPhone. It's good if you don't have anything else with you. But I'd have more with me. I plan on getting a Pandora and keeping my camera phone, and I'll be good to go. I also have my MacBook, DS Lite, Eee PC, and PSP Slim if I ever need more power or more games.

That said - if anyone wants to give me their unlocked jailbroken iPhone, or an iPod Touch - I'll be happy to take it off your hands. Everything is better when its free. :)

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Half a Million minutes

2008-06-12T15:19:00.002-05:00

Sometime in the next 30 hours or so, I will pass a milestone. Sometime today or tomorrow will mark 500,000 minutes from the time I said "I do".

I do - promise to have to hold
I do - pledge to forsake all others and keep myself only to her
I do - vow to love, honor, and cherish....

I will - stay through better or worse
I will - remain for richer or poorer
I will - stand by her in sickness and in health...

"til death do us part....

Pretty sweet, huh? The only problem is, for more than 175,000 of those 1/2 a million minutes, she's been gone. No phone number. No forwarding address. No word. No contact whatsoever.

And, when she left, she was pregnant.

I left my hometown for her - I left my friends, my apartment, my bed, my car, my church, my life. I moved halfway across the country - literally hundreds of miles from anyone I ever met - for the woman I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. It didn't last 7 months.

We're still married - legally. But it's hard to say you're married when you haven't seen your "wife" in over 4 months - and you don't even know where she is.

In another couple of weeks - those 500,000 minutes will become a full year. And in another 2 months - my marriage will be more time separated than together...

I don't know why I'm writing this. I just had to get it out somehow. I haven't spoken much about my personal life on this blog. (With at least one notable exception - one that got me phone calls from my boss, no less.) I'm hoping that this post goes by a lot more unnoticed. I just needed to vent.

Thanks.

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Gas Price Irony

2008-06-10T11:27:00.003-05:00

One of life's little ironies. The higher gas prices go, the more likely people are to go out of their way to save a few pennies per gallon. Now, this might not seem ironic at first, but think about it - the higher the base price of gasoline, the *LESS* important ten cents is.

I've made a chart that demonstrates all of this, but I'll try to explain it as well. Some people will get the chart better, some will get the words. So, I'll do both.

Back in 2000, when gas was $1.50 a gallon on average, (this is for my fellow Americans, btw, I don't know what other countries' gas prices or gas buying habits are), it made sense to do a little driving to save 10¢. Because, that 10¢ reprented 1/15 of a gallon - and on a 15 gallon tank of gas - that's an extra gallon of gas for the same price of a fill up. I'll come back to this example in a minute.

Today, the average price of gas is hovering close to $4.00 a gallon. So a savings of 10¢ is only 1/40 of a gallon - or (on that same 15 gallon tank) - an extra 15/40 or 0.375 gallons per fill up.

Now, lets put that in a little perpective, back at $1.50 a gallon, driving 5 miles out of your way (and thus driving 5 miles back - for a total of 10 extra miles) might have made sense. If your car gets 20 mpg, then that extra gallon you got (see two paragraphs ago) paid for the extra drive - and still gives you 10 more miles of driving.

Today, at the $4.00 mark, with a 15 gallon tank, you'd have to drive less than 3.75 miles out of your way (7.5 mile round trip) to even break even. (You get 15/40 gallons extra - or 20*15/40 miles, which is 7.5 miles.)

Let me put it this way, the amount of "Free gas" you got by shopping around back at $1.50 is a whole lot more than the amount of "Free gas" you get now.

I do understand that "Every little bit helps" - but not when you are actually using *more gas* than you are getting by shopping around. In every way, you are actually paying *more* for gas, if you drive farther than you save.

Now, if the cheaper gas is across the street, and you have more than fumes in your tank, of course it's cheaper to drive over there, (unless there is a huge line and you leave your car idling while you wait).

Also, a key feature that neither the chart nor my examples take into consideration is the value of your time. Back at $1.50 it might have cost less money to drive 5 miles out of your way and 5 miles back - but, in the city that 10 mile round trip could take you 20 minutes or more. Which, at minimum wage is almost two bucks right there. And, your "free gallon" was only worth $1.50... So, you lose money that way, and that's without adding back in the cost of gas for driving that far - once you do that, you've lost more than $2.25 - or more than 1.5 gallons - by trying to "save money".

I said all this to say - stop wasting time, wasting money, wasting gas, and polluting more - by stressing and planning and freaking out about trying to save a few pennies a gallon. It's just not worth it. If you really want to save money - take a bus, walk, ride a bike, or stay home.

Goodbye N800 - Hello Eee PC

2008-05-15T10:28:00.001-05:00

You can't have it all. Which sucks. But sometimes you can have a little bit at a time.

Thanks to a random comment on an Engadget article - I am now trading "straight up" my Nokia N-Series Internet Tablet for a Modified Asus 4GB Eee PC 701 Model. The Mods include BlueTooth, 2 GB of RAM, and an overclocked CPU. Also it has Windows XP & MS Office, (although, I'm not sure that I will keep the OS - I know OS X has been ported to the Eee PC). And an external 20GB HD, and a wireless mouse.

What I'm giving up is my N800, the sleeve and case I have for it, a BT fold out keyboard (with its own case), and an adapter that lets it serve as a USB host. Also all the software needed to run it, and to accept a WiiMote as input.

Is it an even trade? I dunno. But we both seem pretty excited about it. And as long as we are both happy - that's what matter, right?

I am really gonna miss my N800. But - let me tell you why I was willing to let it go. I plan on getting a Pandora as soon as it comes out - and the Pandora would have obsoleted my N800.

What's a Pandora? I'm glad you asked. Here's an un-official "press release" from the Pandora forums.

The latest handheld gaming/computing device is nearing completion. The spiritual successor to the GP2X, the Pandora is already capable of running Playstation 1 games at full speed and has the potential for more advanced console emulation in the future. The Pandora is a fully open computing platform which will run a custom Linux OS on TI's latest ARM SoC, the OMAP3530. Beta hardware is already being tested by well known handheld scene developers.

ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
WiFi 802.11b/g & High Speed USB Host
Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
Dual Analog and Digital gaming controls
43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
Approx. 10+ Hours battery life

For more information, visit the official web site http://openpandora.org or the Pandora Wiki at http://pandorawiki.org

Here's what I call it - it's a UMPC with a focus on gaming. It is more powerful than even the N810 WiMax Edition - except without the BT or GPS. It's the same architecture as the N8X0 series - so porting the open source version of Maemo (Tablet OS2008) shouldn't be a problem - and devs are already working on it. (both BT and GPS could easily be added via USB.)

So, anyway, with the Pandora coming out in a couple of months - and this Eee PC deal on the table - and the N800 potentially loosing a lot of cash value with the impending release of the N810 WiMax Edition - I jumped at the opportunity.

I know the guy I'm trading with has read my blog (that's how he knew I had a N800 in the first place). So, I hope he doesn't get upset with the trade after reading this. :) Bare in mind, Korey, the Pandora will cost about $330 - so it's not like you could have gotten the Pandora for your Eee PC. Like I said in the beginning. I'm not sure that this is a fair trade.

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The next DS Revision could be smaller than the GameBoy Micro

2008-05-11T01:47:00.001-05:00

Check out the pics and the video - groundbreaking design! Yeah, I know - it's a fake. But it's cool!

read more | digg story

Here's a video of my Pandora GUI

2008-05-04T22:53:00.002-05:00

Hi all - here's my "Tango" GUI "in action" so-to-speak. It's just a slideshow on my N800 and my PSP. But it kind of gives a feel (i hope!) to what it would look like on a handheld UMPC and a gaming device. Enjoy!

My Suggested GUI for the Pandora Gaming UMPC

2008-05-04T00:43:00.009-05:00

With thanks to everyone who has helped me with advice on the GUI, Joppa, Sinbad, Chip, Rokdcasbah, and everyone else - as well as to the Tango library for their icons (which are free to anyone). Here is my concept of a GUI for the Pandora. Brief explanation to follow - but in-depth discussion was started here.

The home screen - user controlled widgets
Click for big.

The Slider Mode of the Emu tab
Click For big.

The Grid Mode of the Emu tab
Click for big.

The "Alt+Tab" Shot / Active App Picker
Click for big.

TABS, (from left to right):
Home (described below), Applications (OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, TuxPaint, PDF Viewer, ComicBook Reader, ImageViewer, Calculator, Calendar, etc.), Web (Firefox, Email Client, Chat, SIPPhone, Feed Reader, Contacts list), Media (Mplayer, VLC, Internet Radio, Podcasts, Voice Recorder), Emus, Pandora (Native Games - Native apps that don't fit anywhere else), Prefrences (Wallpaper, network settings, power save, control panel type stuff).

CONTROLS:
Shoulder buttons recycle among the tabs, which are on the bottom for easy tapping. All icons are tappable (touchscreen) or selectable through the D-pad and main face button (X, A, rhombus, whatever it is). Right and left on the D-pad scroll through icons on the Slider view, or among the icons in Gird mode. The extreme right and left center of the screen, when tapped, will move to the next screen in Grid, and the next icon in Slider. Analog stick scrolls through icons as well. Main button selects. Secondary button gives info about the selected icon. A keyboard shortcut can switch among selecting the icons in the main window - the fixed icons across the top (Options, WiFi, Volume, Battery, Help) - and the tabs. The Options menu is where users select from Slider, Grid, or List.

HOME TAB:
(Similar to the Home of the Nokia Maemo-powered N-Series Internet tablets, Apples Dashboard, iGoogle.com, etc.)
Widgets are user controlled. Using the touchscreen, they can resize and move the widgets on the screen. Widgets are selected and deselected using the options menu. Widgets could include News Feeds, Weather, Internet Radio, Media player, Search box, mini-games, (tictactoe, Sudoku, etc.), maps, contacts, chat, email, etc..
The boxes become solid when selected. (The Search box is selected in the picture.) This draws focus to the selected item. The Pandora Logo seen the bottom right would, if you click on it, take you to the Pandora homepage (assuming you are online) - http://www.openpandora.org/
The Search box has a drop down menu, just like the Firefox search box, hence the little down arrow. The current icon - the Pandora icon - searches your Pandora - the onboard storage, as well as any flash cards or USB drives that are attached, (assuming theyve been indexed). It would just be a name search - not a content search. So think Windows Search box from 98 - not Mac OS X Safari, or Google Desktop. You could select Google, Yahoo, Live, ThePirateBay, whatever search engines you install. But again, those only work while online - so it defaults to Pandora search, (maybe you can pick the default search).
The Weather automatically updates whenever you are online. I forgot to add the Currently info, but you get the idea. You type in the zip code (for US - postal code, city & country, etc - for other countries), and it tells you the weather.
The News Reader can be set to whatever RSS/Atom/Podcast feeds you want - again, automatically updates when online.

SLIDER MODE:
(Similar to the PSP firmware menu, and Apples CoverFlow)
On Slider, three icons are seen at a time, the selected icon is in the center. It is in full color, completely solid (100% opacity), drop shadowed, glowing, and larger than the other icons. Two other icons are visible on either side. They are 75% the size of the selected icon - the fade to greyscale as they approach the sides of the screen, and they are 75% opacity - no shadow or glow. *Note - the screenshot is representative of the last game played, or of a favorite game for that emulator. You're scrolling through emulators (systems) not individual roms (games). A couple dozen at most - not thousands. Perhaps screenshots should be replaced by shots of the systems, as pictured in the Grid mode shot.

GRID MODE:
(Similar to the traditional desktop of most user oriented operating systems)
A grid of icons that are spaced into two rows of 4 icons each, the name of the file underneath. Collected into pages that can be scrolled through by tapping the extreme sides of the center of the screen.

BTW - these are just mock-ups. so the icons used, like for the different systems, are not finished products. This is all just my suggestions (altered, of course, by people's feedback) in a visual form. I know the resolution / coloring sucks on some of the stuff. It's just a mock-up. If I were actually making the GUI things would be much better looking.

I want to add a mock-up of the List view, and maybe the options screen. Again, thanks to everyone for their comments, critiques, and suggestions!

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Pandora Demo - the Linux Based Handheld Gaming System / UMPC

2008-04-30T11:01:00.001-05:00

This is the spiritual successor to the GP2X / GP32, with a little Eee PC thrown in. It is designed as an ultra portable open source computer with gaming controls, a QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, & 800x480 4.3" touchscreen. It's very small, around about the size of a DS. It can easily fit in your pocket. For more info visit: http://www.openpadora.org

read more | digg story

N800 + Hard Work and about $35 = New Gaming system?

2008-04-28T15:32:00.001-05:00

Ok - so here’s the idea. Turn the Nokia N-Series N800 Internet Tablet into a handheld gaming device.

Yeah, I know, there are already games for it. Emulators, too. But touch screen without other controls sucks for all but a very select few games.

Take a USB game controller - slice and dice it until you can fit the N800 inside it like a cradle - (like the grips + battery for the PSP Lite) and build in a spare battery for it.

You would need a N800 (obviously) - games / emus / etc. - a program called USB Control which turns the N800 into a USB Host as well as a hard drive - a USB gender changer - a USB game controller - and a emergency charger. (You would stick the emergency charger inside one of the hollow grips, and you’d have to remove the kick-stand for the N800.)

Oh, and you’d have to code a driver for the USB controller, since the N800 doesn’t know what to do with it.

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All 120 Crayon Names, Color Codes and Fun Facts

2008-04-23T23:20:00.001-05:00

For the last 100 years or so kids have been exploring and creating worlds of color with Crayons. For a lot of us, our life long love affairs with color began with these wax sticks and a blank sheet of paper. Here we go down crayon color memory lane with all 120 color names and hex codes, fun facts and photos.

read more | digg story

Build your own Portable NES

2008-04-08T20:30:00.001-05:00

Yeah, anyone can buy a mod chip for your DS to play illegal NES ROMs on the go - but how many people have built their own portable NES that actually plays NES cartridges? Now you can be one of them.

read more | digg story

The Classmate 2 is here - and it's better than the Eee PC

2008-04-03T22:54:00.001-05:00

Check out the latest version of Intel's Classmate PC. Improvements include a Webcam, improved keyboard, more responsive trackpad, better processor, a 9 inch screen version, and, oh yeah, it's going to be available to the public on Amazon.com under the name 2go PC, or the Netbook.

read more | digg story

Quiz: Moore's Law Revisted

2008-03-27T15:33:00.000-05:00

View this quiz on Quibblo
More quizzes on Quibblo

How seriously should we take Moore's Law?

2008-03-27T14:56:00.003-05:00

I'm going to need some feedback on this one.

My neighbor's computer died. She's borrowing one of my old ones for the time being. She's on a fixed income and it will be a little while before she can buy a new one.

I'm the most tech savvy person she knows, so she was talking to me about what she should get. A little bit of back ground, she's retired, in her sixties, and uses her computer mostly for email, financial stuff, and some cheap mind-challenging puzzle games.

So - I told her, you can get a brand new desktop for $300 or less - actually $200 if you got with a gPC or similar. (And I explained what a gPC was.) She then followed up with a "Yeah, but I think I'd rather save up a little while longer and get what I really want."

I don't have a problem with that line of thinking - except I don't think she knows what she wants. I mean, the old clunker she's borrowing can do everything she wants to do, it may be a little slow in doing it, but it works. A new computer - even the cheapest on the market - would do it all and be faster than the 3 year old PC she had that died.

Here's my thinking. I'm not worried about how long she borrows my old PC. It's not like I was using it. If she wants to save up $600 or $700 and get a powerful desktop - that's her business. I just think you could save up your $600 - spend $300 of it now, and get a very useful machine - and set the other $300 in a cookie jar, wait a year, and get a more powerful computer for that $300 then than you could with your $600 now.

Questions:

Am I being too generous to Moore's Law? Would next year's $300 desktop be more powerful than this year's $600 one?
Keep in mind her basic uses of the PC - no hard core gaming - no terabytes of pirated movies to store - no video editing or 3D rendering taking place - no galaxies to map .... What could you get for $600 that you can get for $400?
Should I suggest her get a $600 laptop instead of a $600 desktop? She does travel to see family pretty often. (Read - several times a year.)

Write what you want

2008-03-27T01:40:00.002-05:00

The Internet is a very cool thing for numerous reasons, but one of the main ones that has taken over in the last few years is the idea of putting content creation into the hands of ... well, everybody! Blogger, YouTube, Wikipedia, craigslist, myspace, digg... All of them have one thing in common, if the users don't create content - there is no site. We, the people of the World Wide Web, we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. The Snosberries taste like snosberries.

One of the problems is, though, all the content created by the Internet (as in, the Us of the Internet) mostly stays on the Internet. You can't go to Barns and Noble and pick up a copy of Wikipedia. You can buy the YouTube DVD. You can have Blogger delivered to your front door (unless your front door is WiFi enabled!). Online content is online, and only online.

But what if your artistic abilities need to be shared with those unforunate souls who are neither wired nor wireless. The great unplugged masses that have yet to discover the Wild Wild Web. Well, do not fear. There is help. And it's online.

There are places on the web that let you Self Publish the Great American Novel - or the pretty good Mexican cook book - or the not-that-bad French screenplay - or the so-so Canadian self help guide. Whatever your fingers can type. And some places, like Author House, do more than let you publish whatever falls out of your head - they also have experts who can offer advice, critiques, and encouragement in your labor of love that is writing. Check it out!

Apple's fixes show it is a good open-source citizen

2008-03-21T21:58:00.003-05:00

Over half the software security fixes this month are actually in or part of open source software (OSS) packages... Whether or not it's just a necessary thing to do in order to keep OS X secure, there are some significant benefits to Apple's use of open source and Mac OS X being built on BSD.

read more | digg story

Publisher Posts Mac Books on The Pirate Bay

2008-03-21T21:58:00.001-05:00

No Starch Press and Wired’s news editor Leander Kahney have released free copies of “The Cult of Mac” and “The Cult of iPod” on the Pirate Bay. Publishing music, movies and books on BitTorrent seems to be becoming a trend, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

read more | digg story

The Housing Market Slump

2008-03-19T01:05:00.002-05:00

I have friends who moved into town last Summer. Since then they've been paying two Mortgages, one here in St Louis, and one in Chicago, where they are from. Their old house has been on the market this whole time, and no buyers. No one even close to becoming a buyer. Finally, after about 7 or 8 months - they started renting the place out. It seems that it sucks for home sellers across the country. The Fed even had to bail out one major lender, and now there are problems of cooked books and all kinds of stuff going on for even the biggest mortgage firms in the country. And, from what I've seen, the Fed just lowered interest rates again. It's the ultimate buyer's market, but nobody's buying. What's up with that?

Apple snags 14 percent of US PC retail sales in February!!!

2008-03-19T01:02:00.003-05:00

Growth in Apple's personal computer business continued to outpace the industry average last month, with Macs accounting for a 14 percent unit share and 25 percent dollar share of all US-based PC retail sales, according to market research firm NPD.

read more | digg story

Six-core Intel processors coming this year

2008-03-19T01:02:00.001-05:00

Intel will move to a processor design that utilizes scalable cores, from two all the way to eight using another new microarchitecture, and it will phase out the front-side bus as a component of its architecture. The six-core Dunnington server CPU platform using Penryn architecture, with 16 Mb of L3 cache, goes into production as soon as this summer

read more | digg story

Just when you thought it was safe to go to Vegas

2008-03-18T23:27:00.002-05:00

Las Vegas, home of such wonderful events such as Def Con, the Star Trek Experience, the recreation of most of the world's most incredible monuments, 8 out of 10 of Britney Spears' marriages, and National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, the least bad of the recent National Lampoon movies. However, just as Sin City was becoming a safe and lovable place to take the kids, terrifying news has hit the interwebs. It seems that they will soon be selling Cher tickets at Ceasar's Palace.

Following what Wikipedia reports as her 4 year long series of "Farewell Tours" - (which resulted in several lawsuits from people who bought tickets to early shows at outrageous prices, being told that this would be the last chance they had to see Cher in concert, only to have her return to town a few years later on the same never-ending "Farewell Tour". In fact, it kept going on so long that they renamed it the "Never say goodbye" tour - since Cher refused to leave. (It's amazing what you can learn on Wikipedia.)

Well, it seems that those same ticket buyers might have more reasons to sue, since Cher is going to be performing well into her golden years in Las Vegas, Nevada. She's 61, and the contract, according to Wikipedia, last into the next 3 years.

Now, why would a straight, married 30 year old man be writing about Cher? Well - because this post is brought to you by the people promoting the show, of course. Looks like I won't be going to Vegas any time soon. Not that I really planned on it anyway.

Shrink Calls "Net Addiction" a Real Illness

2008-03-18T13:27:00.001-05:00

A psychiatrist says that, for some of us, online fixation can be serious a problem--a compulsive-impulsive disorder whose sufferers endure gadget cravings, broadband-deprivation withdrawal, increasing tolerance for spending large amounts of time online, & no apparent embarrassment when they wake up in the morning with a keyboard imprint on our face

read more | digg story

I just got a whole lot stronger!

2008-03-13T22:42:00.004-05:00

Well, at least part of me did. I was recently selected to receive a test sample of Naked Naturals natural shampoo and conditioner. They promise that this shampoo is "clinically proven to make your hair up to 7x stronger". Well, I have no way of clinically measuring the exact strength of my hair, but I have noticed it feels a lot better.

I recently turned 30, and my hairline has already started slowly retreating from the threat of my eyes. Now, this shampoo doesn't make any claims about curing baldness or regrowing hair - but if it can help strengthen the hair I have, it might help it stick around awhile. Again - that's just my thinking - not any kind of claim from the company.

naked naturals is also about being natural - as the name would imply. Speaking of the name - the website is nakednaturals.com - but I promise you, it's safe for work. Nothing risqué, (although they do offer you the chance to "Shop Naked"). The Naked refers to them leaving out any harsh extra chemicals that some other shampoos and conditioners put in. Stuff like DEA or TEA or Lauryl / Laureth Sulfates. Things like that can be bad for your hair - and bad for the environment. So Naked Naturals leaves them out.

I'm no fashion expert - nor am I a doctor - but this stuff seems to work for me. Worth checking out, especially if you have damaged, color treated, or easily-broken hair.

My "BitStrip"

2008-03-13T10:34:00.002-05:00

Get the Nokia N-Series N810 - now almost $100 less!

2008-03-11T17:50:00.001-05:00

The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, the latest model in the lineup, is now $90 cheaper than its original launch price. Nokia took a big bite out of the suggested retail price which brings the gadget down to $389.99.

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