Do not buy a business over the phone!

Be careful. Not everything on television or on the Internet is true.

1. There is no such thing as a sure deal. If they could guarantee you that there would be no losses, they would never want your investment. 
2.  In business, there are no money back guarantees. 
3. If you need to pay money (no matter how little the amount is) to make money, it is a red flag. Proceed with caution.
   

Watch the videos below and learn more at federal trade commission's website at ftc.gov (the address must end in a .gov for it to be a legitimate US government website.)

Issued in public interest. This blog is not affiliated with any of the entities in the video.



--
Too busy? Watch the short version:

"To make something special, you just have to believe it is special." - Kung Fu Panda

Jim Carrey is on the show Monday, look at how he made his entrance...

on the ellen degeneres show, day after tomorrow!

Lord of the Rings II

"My precious", says ... from The Two Towers

I am

Back

cnnbrk: Obama announces he will lift 22-year ban on entry into U.S. for people infected with HIV/AIDS #cnn

Risk at Halloween-what has been cannot be unseen!

Main takeaway-use common sense

We could have a race where the last person would win. Not fun if the cycles have training wheels.

Risk management

cnnbrk: Dutch court rules against letting 14-year-old sail solo around world, says she's not experienced enough. #cnn

Weather:
Marshall, TX
TODAY: 45F-59F, Thunderstorm

It is pretty sweet that windows server 2008 will just resume updating after waking up. (There has been so much bad publicity around Vista that every little thing that goes right feels like a miracle.) I need to try ie8 but I will not be switching anytime soon. In Mozilla Weave, I think we might have eound something ie might like replicating. By the way this is only a test of the texting capabilities of the lg trax CU 575. It seems to be a decent phone so far apart from the fading in the back cover. :-[

@peytonp everything is normal afaik

Sirens

Lnts of people

First Bite

Rachel Fitzgerald makes her second video blog.

Google Music and possible short-term decline in Youtube traffic

As Google has come up with music search (example), it is possible that youtube might see a slight decline in views. I am sure a lot of people would like to get their hands on the data of the rise of Google Music and the change in youtube's traffic during the same time period.

Homecoming Remix

M Murphy and K Renfrow with a great song, the eye of the tiger (remix). From the official youtube channel for etbu

According to Google, thunderstorm expected today and tomorow. Chances of rain on Saturday. Not really my idea of good news.

New post on verizon soon!

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII

The new Super Mario Bros will be available on Nintendo Wii soon!

Running late

Test

Cloudy day, I hope it does not rain today. It's not supposed to. ^o^

Watching the review for lg trax cu575 on cnet

RT @cnnbrk: 3 U.N. staff members killed in firefight in central Kabul. Unclear whether they were target or in the wrong place at the wrong time

1524 pages remaining

Is it illegal to utter obscenities in a text message? :-*

How To Make a 100ft Glow Stick!!!

in an entirely unrelated news,

Tiger Soccer posts a 1-0 win against UT Dallas Saturday in the home finale of the season. ETBU is still in the... http://bit.ly/1GRr6r

Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident

a great uplifting song from LTE

Laundry room locked!

Laundry

RT @nytimes: French Fraud Conviction for Church of Scientology http://bit.ly/2VBLXH.

RT @cnnbrk: French court convicts Church of #Scientology & 6 members of organized fraud. Stops short of banning church http://www.CNN.com #newcnn

Official Google Blog: Use Google Voice with your existing number

Official Google Blog: Use Google Voice with your existing number


are you still here? head over to the google blog for more information! :D

Sardines are good.

RT @nytimes: Kerry Calls for Limiting Expectations in Afghanistan http://bit.ly/3ypRSL

Pomegranate from walmart - two dollars each! Why did we buy them? ^o^

Workout w roomies!

RT @cnnbrk: Breaking months-long silence, Majority Leader Harry Reid says Senate health care bill will include public option provision. http://CNN.com

buy B because it is not A

This is a really funny marketing tactic. They tell us to buy product B "because it is not product A". well then, why buy product B? (chirp chirp)

Tech News World has more.

1535

RT @nytimes: NYT NEWS ALERT: Yankees Beat Angels and Advance to World Series

arrington: RT @TechCrunch Tonight, You Too Can Watch U2 On YouTube, Live http://bit.ly/zob3w

About WikiReader

Looks like a great idea to me. :D

(Strictly expeqimental)This is an experiment in editing the title tag.

RT @nytimes: Baseball Is Flipping Calendar for Series http://bit.ly/n7cfr

RT nytimes: Another Day Off for Yankees and Angels, and It's Not Exactly Welcome http://bit.ly/OFSS2

Angels game apparently postponed until tomorrow. Tune in at 8 20 ET tomorrow!

Keli Peppers and Seth Walker win the 2009 Homecoming Court at etbu.

The campus looks empty. Where are the people?

RT @nytimes: Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency http://bit.ly/2EuBIE

Clappers!

Flowers from carolyn

RT @nytimes: NYT NEWS ALERT: Obama Declares H1N1 Flu a National Emergency

Going to the gym soon

Rt @arrington: Apparently in a down economy a lot of people bail on their dogs. lots of them in need of a home right now.

Vista install in 2 minutes

Install "shiny" and "pretty" Microsoft Windows Vista in two minutes! (also works for Windows 7 :P)

Google Calendar: Don't delete button

The prompt for deleting recurring even has four buttons, including a "don't delete" button. As Google Apps goes mainstream, I guess a simple cross on the top right is no longer sufficient.

In an unrelated note, blogger in draft still cannot tell my location. XD

Waiting

Could it be that myths were created because the way the human brain retains memories best is with "why"-type questions?

Tip ofthe day- You can use gogle calendar from your cell-phone. Just type "Help" and send it to GVENT (48368) if you need more help away from the computer.

Is a router a glorified switch or a humble 'computer'? What do you think?

Take Apart MacBook 13" - Disassembly: Display

Watch and learn. Try it at our own risk, though. Oh, and let us know how it went.

Windows mobile has a new version. 6.5 Do you care? If you already have a windows mobile phone, will you upgrade soon?

W

Are you 'addicted' to anyone?

Life is a bowl of... compromises!

'become your toughest critic' more on this later

Book excerpt: The craft of research

In the book (preview), the authors write:

If you are a beginning researcher, do not think you have to meet an expectation that high.*

* Page 21 in my clothbound version. Your page number may differ by binding and/or edition.

Guess who's back!

Walking

Just got back from dinner

Typo fixed

Breakfast is what I meant :D

btw, it seems that the location feature is still not working...

Stop discrimination based on marital status!

As honestar runner noted, apple is not candy.

Windows Presentation Format fail

A picture taken just recently on Firefox nightly build on Windows XP
Check out the article "Mozilla disables vulnerable Microsoft plugin
for Firefox" from Ars Technica at
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/10/mozilla-disables-vulnerable-microsoft-plugin-for-firefox.ars

Typo fixed

Halloween is here.

old news? AT&T A list

Well, I guess you could say we got the memo a bit too late. If only I got a penny...

Anyways, AT&T has thrown its hat into the arena of free circles with high-minutes. This is by no means a review (I have yet to test it myself!) but just a note to tell you guys that I am working on it. In the meantime, check out this line from ther terms:

AT&T reserves the right to block any A-List number and to reduce the amount of telephone numbers that can be used for A-List without notice. [1]

[1] http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp

on an unrelated note, it seems that the location feature in blogger in draft is broken.

Good night, blog! I still have some more things to do

(Texting:))Now i can update this thing on the go

Natalie Portman with Rashid Jones: A fake solution to the global financial meltdown

NATALIE PORTMAN & RASHIDA JONES Speak Out from Natalie Portman

Check out the video! and the second and third videos at FOD :D

All your domains are belong to us: a short offhand comment on wwwbing.com

No children, that was not a typographical error on my title. It does read wwwbing.com, which according to Tech Crunch, is a troll website. If you ask me, that should not be a problem for Microsoft. Why? Please read this article on slate.com (disclaimer: slate.com is a Microsoft-owned magazine).

Do I need to explain any further? Let me tell you something. Most of us are lazy on the Internet. Why would you type in www.bing.com when you could get away with typing bing.com? That's four letters fewer that you have to type every single time. I know it is not television and it is a lean forward instead of a lean backward idea but still, if people can get away with spending less energy, they might as well.

October 17, 2009.

Yes, that's today's date where I am. If it is after 2005 and you have not configured your website so that something.com works in lieu of www.something.com, it is your fault. Not mine, not a squatter's, not your neighbor's. However, even that comes behind the bigger picture: search engines.

Now, I understand your concern. Why, you would say, would Microsoft want people to Google them instead of going directly to their own website? For one thing, they already advertise Bing on Google (so well, in fact that one wonders what their bids for their AdWords campaigns look like. I have read (though not verified) that the average cost is around 80 cents per click (Google does not charge money for clicks it considers suspicious. Lets leave the AdWords/AdSense scaremongering for another day). One can simply type in bing on their Awesome Bar and get to the Microsoft search engine.

So let us sum up:

1. bing.com works just as fine. People, stop typing in that dagnabbin* www already.
   
2. Search it. If it is worth its money, it will be on the first page. No, people will not mind if they see you using Cuil, although it is kind of strange if you ask me. 
3. Get a better browser! A modern browser will allow you to search directly from the location bar or from a search bar close to the location bar. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (7 and above)**, Mozilla Firefox (and its derivatives), Google Chrome, Apple's Safari***, K-Meleon, and Opera have this in common.
   

* Thanks to Taylor Weaver (585699309 on fb) for the awesome new word. 
** If you still use IE6 or below, please upgrade your browser experience with getfirefox.com I understand it is not possible for everyone. If you cannot, just be very careful of any website (including this one) and remember, it is not paranoia if the threat is real. 
*** Saying Chrome originates from safari is like saying men originate from Macaques but that's a story for another day. Google Chrome uses the same webkit base but it is not a Safari derivative. 

Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else

Viewers' discretion advised.

Finding a great teacher: lesson from ratatouille

"[...]Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can
come from anywhere. [...]"
~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/quotes

Replacing with teacher: Maybe not everyone can become a great teacher,
but a great teacher can come from anywhere. What do you think about
this? Leave me a comment! To learn more about the movie itself, please
visit the wikipedia article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatouille_(film)

Ciao!

Kushal's take on Google Wave

Abstract:

Basically, we are trying out this new real-time, multi-party
collaboration tool from Google. With a large test base (~900k users
around the world), we hope to learn whether the "wave" could be a
viable replacement for existing means of communication like email and
instant messaging.

--
Body:

Google Wave is a new protocol that hopes to augment and eventually
replace e-mail as we know today. It is under heavy development and
things could change dramatically going forward.

Google wave is places great emphasis on multi-party and real time
collaboration. Google wave will play nicely with the Google wave
federation protocol (which is open source) which guarantees that
Google competitors will be able to offer similar, inter-operable
services.

Where does all this fit into Google's financial outlook? Glad you asked.

Google Wave is strongly centralized. Everything is in the "cloud".
Specifically, everything is stored on server where a wave originated.

As more people begin using Google Wave, they will realize that they
can do so much more if they are connected to the web all the time. The
more time people spend online, the better for Google. Google gets an
overwhelming majority of its monies from online advertising. It
believes that the more people are online, the better is the revenue
pie (and hence the bigger is Google's share of the pie).

--
Disclaimer:

The above is a personal opinion. It is not professional advice. May
contain errors. Please remember that you accept this document "as-is".

Official Google Blog: Making mobile search complete, easy and local

Something that I find out of the blue, Google announced a "Go Mobile" week today. Today's focus is on mobile searches (as the title of this blog post suggests). It is a lengthy blog post at Google so I will let you head over there instead of wasting your time here:

Official Google Blog: Making mobile search complete, easy and local

Ciao!

technorati

r2kyi7qdt4

By Your Side - The Passion of the Christ (available in HD)

Thanks to TrentDeWhite for not disabling embedded viewing.

Thanks to Whitney Fuller (id=608656201) for bringing this youtube video to my attention.

From the video description:

"By Your Side" - Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

(Chorus 2x)

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

(Chorus 2x)
Category: Music
Tags:
Christian Jesus Easter redeemer savior god passion of the Christ sacrifice gospel Good Friday Tenth Avenue North

technorati

r2kyi7qdt4

Jeff Stapleton

Jeff Stapleton
Originally uploaded by KushalHada

Jeff at the sidelines in the etbu vs hardin simmons game.

For game stats, please visit https://www.etbu.edu/Current_Athletic_News/Football/Statistics/2009/vshsu09.htm

view count lagging behind

This pertains to the previous blog post from youtube. It seems that the view count is lagging behind as I write this post. As you can see in the screen shot to the right, the viewcount only reads 311 when the ratings count reads 784. By the way, if you cannot find the previous post or would like to see the video on YouTube for some reason, please click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnSbpPXlmvo) Just to put the conspiracy minds to rest, I visited the link a few minutes myself and put the second screenshot up there too. :) 

Oh, and by the way, I would like to wish YouTube a very happy birthday (I don't know the exact dates) and congratulations on being the lovable giant that serves us over a billion video views every day.

"Crank It Up" is a new Ashley Tisdale Official Music Video!

To all the Ashley Tisdale fans out there: Good news! Ashley just released the music video to her song Crank it up. I would like to express my special thanks to Ashley's team for NOT disabling embedding. Love you guys! :) As usual, here is the video information from youtube:

Video information (youtube):
http://www.ashleytisdale.com - Ashley Tisdale - "Crank It Up" Official Music Video. New album Guilty Pleasure available now!

T Pain Obama Auto-Tune

Thanks to Jason Soles for bringing this awesome video to my attention. :)

Jimmy Kimmel Live - T Pain Obama Auto-Tune

Additional production assistance provided by: the Gregory Brothers

Special thanks to Jimmy Kimmel team for not disabling embedded view.

Matt and Kim - Daylight on Piano

I am all thumbs but I thought you guys would benefit from this tutoring. :) Great song even if you don't want to learn to play the piano. :)

ETBU rules..

David Massie talks about the rules and regulations at etbu. Here's the video information:

This was a presentation I did for one of my classes. I thought it was a compelling argument to hopefully get some of the outdated rules and policies changed. Hopefully you guys will agree, who knows maybe if we get the right people to see this something will be done about it!

Social Psychology Experiment

From the video description:

Experiment: Conformity to gender roles. We placed common male and female signs on opposite transparent doors instructing people to walk through the correct entrance. (Sorry, no music. Youtube made me remove it)

Gmail in Mail.app 4.1

I just noticed that Mail.app is synchronizing my gmail (IMAP). I saw the mail count that needed to be downloaded and could not stop myself from taking a screenshot and posting it on my blog.

The screenshot reads:

MAIL ACTIVITY

Incoming Mess...

4573 of 17448 [Close]

I have seen gmail accounts with 30k+ emails so I know my situation is not as bad as it looks. That and I pretty much never delete emails if I can help it.

Spam alert! from gfnrob@earthlink.net

 If you got a message like this, I urge you to exercise great caution. Please do not click on the links unless you expected such an email beforehand.

from gfnrob@earthlink.net
reply-to nobody@earthlink.net
to [hidden]@gmail.com
date Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 4:35 PM
subject Re: Freq. Asked Questions
mailed-by bounce.earthlink.net

I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.

To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.

If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.

Click the link below to fill out the request:

https://webmail.pas.earthlink.net/wam/addme?a=gfnrob@earthlink.net&[hidden]

Once again, if you get such an email, please be aware that I did not send it. Thank you and have a great day!

Update: Network world has an interesting piece on the subject. 

Evony advertisement is not offensive

Evony, the makers of Evony, have drawn substantial negative criticism towards their ad campaign (even as the game Evony gets mixed/good reaction). Please see the wikipedia article for more details on Evony.

Here'a a picture of one I saw just today on facebook.com Is this a sign of a strategic marketing maneuver? Or is it a way to expand their marketing to other demographics? We will soon find out.

When we are at it, let me give a shout out to Justin. Hi, Justin! :)

Cisco to Acquire Tandberg

From the video info:

John Chambers, Cisco Chairman and CEO, and Fredrik Halvorsen, Tandberg CEO, discuss how the combination of Cisco and Tandberg will disrupt the collaboration market.

Recommended reading:

Official announcement: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/corp_093009.html

New York Times report:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/technology/companies/02cisco.html

A word that might not exist: ciliantris

As far as I know, ciliantris is not a word. If you googled it before today, you would get something like:

Your search - ciliantris - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.

If you were thinking of something edible, may I suggest the word cilantro? Have a great day!

Girls vs Boys: Amazing Holly presents

One of Nalts channels on youtube, Amazing Holly showcases a cute and smart little girl named Holly. In this episode, Holly presents her case on why girls are better than boys.

Leverage - project brt at last.fm

Needing some cool music for your website or some background noise at your party? Well, just remember project brt. http://www.last.fm/music/project+brt

I am feeling confident at leveraging this service at last.fm because it is purportedly free. I do not suggest you throw good money at buying these glorified loops online.

When we are at it, have you heard of the tv series called leverage? What do you think of me trying to leverage some cool-ish ideas?