Google Wants To Save Your Searching Habits

Ever find what you're looking for with Google, then promptly forget what you found? If so, you'll enjoy My Search History. It's a new service on Google Labs which lets you view and manage your search history from any computer via "My Search History" links in the upper-right corner of your Google home page and search results pages.

My Search History shows you all the searches you've done on Google and the search results you've clicked on. It presents this information in ways they think are most useful. If you don't remember an exact search query, but you do remember when you did the search, you can use My Search History's calendar feature to check the searches you did on a given day and navigate to any of them with a single click. Full-text search over your history means you can easily find any search query or results page. It also shows you related history over time. You can review everything Google has ever shown you about "boobs", "spam" or "exotic cars" for instance by clicking the "Related history" link next to any search term when it appears.

My Search History also gives you useful info while you're searching on Google. Next to your search results, you'll see how many times you've visited a certain search result and the last time you viewed it. It is to help you find what you're looking for, it will grab pages you've already clicked on and put them above your regular web results. So there's only one problem...do you REALLY want Google or any other search engine to remember what you searched for? Think about that, especially guys (cough). Next time you type in a query of "naked Oprah pics", Google may be logging it and pointing it back to you! Ok, they won't be UNLESS you choose to opt-in to their latest beta test of My Search History. All-in-all a cool feature, but it scares me a little...not that I have anything to hide when I surf the WWW since you are the one surfing for naked Oprah pics and not me. ;)

Protecting Your Blog Investment

If you are like me, you have been blogging for awhile now. Over that time you have accumulated hundreds (even thousands) of posts. So who isn't to say a glitch takes place on the Blogger servers or a hacker chooses to make your blog his little evil playground? As a result, all of those posts, comments and images you slaved over are destroyed in the blink of an eye! Don't panic, I have a way to keep your blog safe and your sanity in tact. The solution is to backup your blog just as you do (or SHOULD be doing) with your computer data.

Backing up your blog is easy and you can find step by step instructions on how to do this by reading this article...How do I create a backup of my entire blog? I highly suggest every blogger takes a few minutes to read that article and make a backup on their blog/s on a regular basis. Better safe than sorry as they say, so do the smart thing and backup today! I guarantee you'll thank me for it later.

Run Forest Run!

Last night after a particularly exhausting and painful day (yes woman can and will do that to you, but that's another story in itself), I came home to relax. While laying on the couch, I heard a strange noise coming from my basement. I did what any lazy person would do after a long day, I muted the TV to further investigate, instead of getting off my ass and going to check it out. Of course there was silence, not a noise made. I turned the TV back up and a few minutes later the noise had returned. Again I did the mute trick and again, silence. This time I knew I wasn't hearing things so I turned the TV back up once more and continued to listen with both ears - one on Sports Center and the other on the strange basement noise. Sure enough a few minutes had passed and the noise started up again, but this time it was really "active". I had no choice but to solve the great mystery and go see what was going on.

To my surprise/delight/discus I saw I had caught a mouse! About a month ago I noticed some scratches and a few mouse poos (yeah I know gross) around my basement door and garage. Naturally I wasn't happy about that. I don't have a cat to do my mouse catching and my dog is worthless when it comes to this type of thing, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I decided that I need to look for where they were getting in and to set some traps to catch the intruder (perhaps intruderS). I found a few holes in the garage, but not much in the basement. I plugged the holes and set out the traps with a little peanut butter (works better than cheese in my experience). The traps hadn't seen much action since I had set them. I figured it was just a one time visitor and he had come and gone and that would be the end of it. So now a month later it looks like he is either back or he invited a friend to the crib. The night before I had heard some strange noises that were mixing in with my dreams. Now looking back, it makes sense. The mouse got caught in the middle of the night and had spent that night and all of yesterday trapped. You would think when I came home from work, I would of heard nothing and just discovered him dead...but not this fighter.

I am not a hunter. I couldn't ever see the sense in shooting an animal I have no intention of eating. Sorry but I don't find the "thrill of the hunt". I find the "bore of the hunt". I certainly am not the type of person who is into hanging deer antlers, rabbit feet, rodent furs and other crap around my house - just not my style. Although I do enjoy fishing - relaxing. Anyways, when I get a mouse in the house, I feel the need to kill it. Why? Well unless you plan on driving 5 miles down the road to drop him off alive, then he will just come right back into the house. So you sort of have to kill him. Unfortunately for this little brown mouse, his death didn't occur at the snap of the trap. No for him the trap snapped his face, locking him there helpless. He ran, kicked and fought hard to set himself free but to no avail. Therefore when I came home to find that he was still alive and had been fighting this going on 12+ hours. Like me, he was exhausted and in pain. I felt pity for him and decided to break him free, ending his suffering. It was sort of like Forest Gump breaking the leg braces off and running with a new found respect for life and never looking back. (Ok maybe not that dramatic, but I could of shouted RUN FOREST RUN!)

Do you think I did the good thing here in setting the little guy free, ending his pain and suffering? Or should I of just killed him and not of given him a second chance knowing he more than likely would find his way back into my house? I know setting a trapped mouse free is far from heroic, or anything special for that matter. I guess I just felt bad knowing he was down there suffering so long and for what reason - because he was following his instinct to search for food and shelter? You can't really say he's wrong there. I just wish he didn't pick my house. It truly sucks being in pain and suffering from anything. A little kindness can go a long way. How hard is it to show some compassion, even if it's just a mouse? Maybe some good will come from it. Isn't that what karma is all about?

Tomorrow I will be posting a little project that some of you may want to do this weekend. It coincides with this past Wednesday's post - hint, hint. I was going to post it today, but I thought I would mix it up and share my tale here instead.

***UPDATE***
Sad news to report...later last night I discovered the mouse dead about 30 feet or so from where I released him. RIP little fellow. I tried, but in the end it looks like karma got you since you were making your way back towards the house to enter again. Too bad you had to learn the hard way. I can't help but feel the efforts I put out in different areas of my life continue to go unnoticed (unless I point them out like in this post). It seems to be pointless to do things when the outcome is never what you hoped for or expected.

Beware Of Malicious Blogs

Hackers have turned to blogs to store and distribute viruses, worms, keyloggers and other malicious code. There are literally hundreds of these infected blogs out there and all it takes to be infected is visiting their blog. In particular, keyloggers and other Trojan downloaders and droppers are being stored and updated from blog sites.

A keylogger is the term for a type of spyware that watches for, records, then transmits to the hacker identities surreptitiously hijacked from PCs. Malware and spyware writers are turning to blogs and away from traditional hosting and/or e-mail services because they offer large amounts of free storage space, they don't require any identity authentication to post and most blog hosting services don't scan posted files for viruses, worms or spyware.

It's partly the storage, partly the ease of use of blogs and partly a stability issue. Hacked machines, for instance, can easily go down if the actual owner discovers his computer's being used, but the blogs are always there. Different hackers use blogs different ways. Some may create a blog on a legitimate service, then post viral or keylogging code on the page and entice users to visit the page where they're infected using spam or spim. Others may use the blog only as storage for malware which previously-planted Trojan horses access to update themselves or install a keylogger onto the infected PC.

In those cases, victims don't even see the blog or the blog site. Hackers are using the storage space on the blog site because, unlike personal storage and mail hosting facilities, most blogs aren't running anti-virus software on posted files. The use of blogs further disguises the true identity of the hacker and adds another route in the labyrinth-like path that attackers use to disseminate their code. The blogs are being used as the first step of a multi-layered attack that could also involve a spoofed e-mail, Trojan horse or a keylogger.

While end-users can do little beyond using safe and smart computer practices (don't open attachments, don't travel to questionable links within e-mail or instant messages), it may be a good idea NOT to use the "next blog surf feature" Blogger.com offers at the top right corner of every blog. Even I have used that before and found my computer detecting a virus being downloaded directly from the blog I was then visiting. If you are smart, you run anti-virus software to guard from this, but sometimes that won't even protect you. My best advice it to play it safe and do not use the "next" feature to surf unknown/random blogs.

Study Claims E-mail Destroys The Mind Faster Than Weed

Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London and the curse of "messaging" is to blame. E-mail users suffered a 10% drop in IQ scores, more than twice the fall recorded by marijuana users, in a clinical trial of over a thousand participants. Doziness, lethargy and an inability to focus are classic characteristics, but e-mail users exhibited these particular symptoms to a startling degree, according to Dr Glenn Wilson.

The deterioration in mental capacity was the direct result of the trial subject's addiction to technology, researchers discovered. E-mail addicts were bombarded by context switches and developed an inability to distinguish between trivial and significant messages. Incredibly, 20% of trialists jeopardized their immediate social relations by rushing off to "check their messages" in the middle of a conversation.

Computer technology in its modern, interconnected form is making the population dumber more rapidly than television. A study of 100,000 school children in over 30 countries around the world testified that non-computer using kids performed better in literacy and numeracy schools than PC-using children. Education experts have dubbed it the "problem solving deficit disorder". King's College's pioneering study focused solely on messaging, but there are many other emerging technologies that could be making us stupid too, but their consequences haven't been fully explored.

If you are a tech savvy person and you use e-mail and IM, do you really believe your IQ is decreasing because of these activities...even more so than your average pot head's IQ level decrease? I don't know, but I do wonder what they have to say about blogging (probably decreases my IQ too). I guess if any good comes out of this, it's that stoners have one more reason to give in favor or legalizing weed. So roll that joint, hit that bong and pass that "sticky icky" around instead of launching Outlook. Perhaps weed isn't as harmfull to your brain as sorting thru spam.

Blowfish

This moblog photo was sent to me. It's a shot from inside a little place called "Blowfish". It's rated as one of the best sushi restaurants in Southern CA. If you are a sushi eater, go ahead and name what all that junk on the plate is. I'm a sushi virgin myself so I couldn't tell you what it is, let alone say if it's any good. Enlighten me.

Obsessive Blogger Addiction = Blogger Burnout

While blogging for most (myself included) is either a hobby or part of their business, it takes a relative small amount of time. I spend no more than 15 minutes (sometimes less or more) gathering my material, organizing my thoughts and putting it into the blog to publish. I know it's hard to believe because my blog posts are just so damn good and insightful, but it is true. However for some people this little activity has consumed their life. One blogger openly admits he spends anywhere from 3-8 hours a day blogging! To me that is just excessive even if it is for business purposes, which by the way his is not. So I ask you, how much is too much? (I sense my writing style here resembles Carrie's from Sex And The City a little. Interesting, but pointless for me to mention - back on topic now.)

Most psychologists will tell you anything that takes time away from other things you should be doing in your everyday life is a problem. For example, if you play alot of video games. If the Madden season is interfering with your homework, eating, sleeping, bathing, social life and working...well then son you have a problem and it's called an addiction. You are doing an activity to excess and it's not healthy and it needs to stop or at the very least cut back, perhaps WAY back. This is what I would tell the guy who spends 3-8 hours a day blogging. That's just crazy and please seek help, sorry but you really need it! So what do you do if you are reading this and thinking you are a blog addict or on the verge of becoming one? Well I have your treatment right here (on what else, a blog for the blog addict reading this - ironic) without the ridiculous hourly shrink fee you may be needing. Plus forget the 12 step program. I've manage to cut it in half and there is just 6 steps now. I even amaze myself sometimes. Read on.

1. Get Your Priorities Right
Is starting a new blog really going to help your business or personal objectives? If not, then don’t. Simple as that. Save your energy for the blogs that help you achieve your objectives.

2. Put It To Rest
Do you have a blog that is not “hot” anymore (or maybe never was)? If you have a blog that is not getting much traffic or is about topics that no one wants to read about anymore (or maybe never did), give it a quiet burial.

3. Grow Up
Are you continuing to blog (whether it serves your purpose or not), out of some misplaced emotional attachment to your blog? Then you probably need a 12 step program. Lots of blogs are abandoned everyday because they stopped serving their purpose, or more often, because the bloggers just grew up and moved to greener pastures. Find more appropriate ways to spend your time.

Hmm, should I be offended by that? Nah, I'm too immature to even give a sh*t to what I say myself. :P

4. Get A Life
Most creative types know that in order to keep your mind brimming with ideas you need to do things that nurture your mind and body. I enjoy playing sports, riding my motorcycle, watching a movie or hanging out with friends and family. Take a walk in the park, workout in the gym, get out of the house and get some fresh air. Just shut down your PC and get away from it for a while. You’ll be amazed at how easy and fun it can be it to get your creative instincts flowing again.

5. Give Yourself A Break
If you miss blogging about something big because you had something else equally pressing, don’t punish yourself for it. Don’t force yourself to keep up with an impossible schedule. Nothing is so important that it can’t wait a day or two. Sometimes procrastination is not a bad thing at all. If it helps, write a bunch of posts at a time, so you can take a break and attend to other matters when you need to.

That is exactly what I do and I highly recommend it.

6. Quality Not Quantity
Blog frequently, but not too often. The guy that was spending 3-8 hours a day blogging was publishing 4-5 posts a day! There is no need for that. One post a day is more than enough and if you must, 2 posts should cover it. I post just once daily and on a rare occasion I may post 2 or not post at all. Most bloggers say that two or three posts a week is a pretty good frequency. Never push yourself more than you have to. The key is to make your posts count. Don’t post about anything and everything in your field just because you have to. Posts that are original and full of opinion are more likely to get noticed and linked to than those that are just a few words with a link to the news source.

It's the weekend. This was a test. You are failing. Why are you reading this? Get out and enjoy your weekend. Take a day or two away from blogging. Now. Go on. Bye.

Russian Hackers Are #1

A member of the Russian police force proclaimed that Russian hackers are "the best in the world." The statement came from Boris Miroshnikov, who works in the Russian police force's cybercrime division. His reason for making such a statement was to highlight the problem of cybercrime. He went on to point out what everyone already knows that Russians are well-known for their math skills, making them good at writing software and therefore good hackers as well. It's a tall statement to live up to, but even I will admit that they just may be right.

Protest held to help "free" Russian hacker

Dmitry Sklyarov after he cracked the DMCA

One of the reasons Russia has so many skilled hackers is because they begin at a young age, many in their teens or even younger, developing their techniques as they grow older. They realize if you are clever at something then you should use it to earn a living, which in this case includes criminal activities. They are hacking to get rich and uniting over networks making very effective groups of malicious attackers.

Miroshnikov wants the security community to come together and formulate laws that apply internationally so that it is easier to actually track down and arrest these malicious hackers wherever they may be in the world. Cybercrime can only be tackled with everyone working together, including governments, law enforcement and public and private companies.

Virtual Bartender

As promised, I have a little something for the guys to start their weekend off right. It's Friday and if you are like most people, that means you are hitting up happy hour after work. So what better way to prep yourself for happy hour festivities than to brush up on your flirting skills with that cute little bartender at the other end of the counter. Introducing the Virtual Bartender brought to you by Beer.com

Play Virtual Bartender 1 (one girl)

Play Virtual Bartender 2 (two girls)

This blonde girl named Tammy will do just about anything you ask her to do, well almost anything. Just like a real bartender you can push her limits, but there are a couple things she will shake her finger at and say "no no" to. Give it shot. It's pretty fun. Just type in what you want to say to her from as simple as "hi" or "give me a beer" to "kiss me" and "show me your panties". (By the way I highly recommend you ask to see her underwear/take off her shorts. It's a thong and a great view, need I say more?) Of course like most blondes (ha-ha), Tammy gets a little confused when you say certain things to her. For some reason she thinks "finger" means her "boob". I won't get into what I mean there and leave you figure that one out on your own. So use your imagination and have a little fun with Tammy the Virtual Bartender!

If Tammy isn't enough for you, how about 2 hot chicks instead of one? Now that's what I'm talking about! If you can handle it, let me introduce the follow-up game, Virtual Bartender 2 with what else but 2 barmaids at your perverted service. One cute blonde and one cute brunette on call just for you. Ask them to kiss/make out with each other, fight, do cartwheels, role play and of course get naked. Have fun and remember in no way should an online game like this substitute for real women. Enjoy your weekend!

***UPDATE***
For the women out there that read my blog, I'm sure you won't be too interested in these chicks, so how about a REAL chick for you to mess with? Say hello to Subservient Chicken which is the same idea as the Virtual Bartender except it's some dumb ass dressed in a chicken suit. I rather stick with the barmaids myself, but you may enjoyt this.

Blogger Alternatives

Getting sick of all the Blogger.com outages lately - the glitches, bugs, error pages? Well you aren't alone. Some people are so fed up with complaining to Blogger tech support about these issues that they have decided to throw their hands up, give up and move on to other blog alternatives. So if you are at this point where you want to say bye-bye to Blogger and hello to another blogging service, let me point out what alternatives are out there for you to try.

Here are some just to name a few. There of course are many more, but these are the more popular ones with Blogger.com still remaining the leader.

• LiveJournal.com
• TypePad.com
• WordPress.com
• MovableType.org
• TextAmerica.com

***UPDATE***
I've added the Moblog Photos section to my blog. You'll notice it's linked to on the sidebar "Archives, By Topic". I'm not sure how often I will be moblogging. It won't be daily, but you can expect something new on occasion.

Look Who Has Been Visiting My Blog!

Now if I can only get the Dolly Lama to surf in here, my mission would be complete.

AOL Members Are Pedophiles & Now So Are AOL Employees

Everyone has probably at one time or another been on AOL even if you hate to look back and admit it. Whether it was your first Internet service provider or you just logged on from a friend or family member's account, you are familiar with their service...or lack of service. I'm not an AOL fan for many reasons which I won't go into - too long to explain. Let's just say they are a very filtered and restricted version of the Internet and leave it at that. I'm also sure everyone has heard tales of online pedophiles and all that other scary/gross stuff that comes with cyberspace. Although I bet you haven't heard this...

AOL for years now (well since their existence back in 1985 when they were called Quantum Computer Services and then changed the name to America Online, Inc. in 1991) has claimed to be the "safe haven" for kids, a place where parents can breathe easy when it comes to their little ones surfing, chatting and e-mailing. AOL makes endless advertising campaigns about their Parental Control system where a parent can lockout certain online areas, even restrict IMs, chat rooms, message boards, websites, e-mail and online usage time. AOL stands proudly by their TOS (Terms Of Service) agreement/policy and uses "volunteers" to help patrol/monitor chat rooms and message boards. They even give their members the oh so powerful (sarcastic) "Notify" button on their IMs and chat rooms. That way if someone sends you a bad message, you can report their behavior right to the oh so helpful (more sarcasm) AOL staff. Then what happens? Well if you are lucky you get a nice canned, automated e-mail response bounced to you from one of AOL's e-mail servers. They tell you they are reviewing your complaint and the appropriate action will be taken. Yeah right. Don't expect it to even be read by human eyes let alone processed. Now to make my point...

To be fair, pedophiles are everywhere! They are online. They are offline. They are on ALL the ISPs and they are probably even in your neighborhood. Although these days, statistics show that AOL has become the most useful tool for predators to use in order to seek out and contact young prey. Why? Well the answer is simple and makes total sense - kids love the Internet and most kids come home from school and logon to AOL. Within minutes they receive IMs and e-mails from complete strangers. Someone who is looking to engage in sexual acts with a child will search the member profiles for information they like (age, sex, location, interests, ect.) or just contact random screen names that sound like they belong to a child (ex. JessieCool13). They then will use that information to start up a conversation and begun building up the trust before making further advances - sending photos or meeting in person. Like the AOL slogan goes..."it's so easy to use, no wonder it's #1". Pedophiles know this.

So what makes this post so important and different? We've all heard about some AOL members that are labeled as pedophiles, but recently news broke that even AOL EMPLOYEES are pedophiles themselves! Basically the same online service that boosts about how safe they are and how well protected your kids will be with an AOL account, couldn't be farther from the truth. It's sort of like a crocked cop. You grow up being told that a policeman is your friend and he is there to protect and serve you. That whenever you are lost or there is trouble, seek a police officer out and he will guide you to a happy ending. This is much of the same mindset AOL wants the public and more importantly their members to believe is true. Let me make it clear, there are good cops too, but there are also a fair share of corrupt ones. The same can be said about AOL employees, good and bad ones. This applies to every business, not just AOL and the police force. There will always be a few bad apples that will spoil the bunch. This particular case went much like this...

An Internet chat room monitor, hired to keep children safe from sexual predators, seduced a California girl online. He was about to meet her for sex when he was found out by an America Online co-worker, a lawsuit charges from the victim now 19. According to documents filed April 1 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the online relationship began four years ago, when the girl was 15. She met the AOL employee in a children's chat room and confided in him about her parents divorce, her trouble making friends at school and some other problems. Their conversations online and by phone became increasingly explicit. Matthew Wright sent sexual videos of himself, asked the girl to send nudes of herself to him and engage in phone sex. They were preparing to meet on the girl's 17th birthday (which would STILL make her a minor = illegal) when one of the monitor's co-workers became suspicious and prevented the encounter. The lawsuit charges AOL and its parent company, Time Warner Inc., with failing to supervise the employee and of falsely advertising that its online service was safe for children. It also charges the monitor with inflicting emotional distress. America Online spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company fired the monitor and contacted authorities after learning of the situation in April 2003. The man, who was 23 when he met the girl online, has not been charged with a crime at this time.

Now I know what you are thinking. There are people eager to comment to this post and say well that girl's parents should of done this or that or not allowed this or that. I know, I know and I agree. The moral of this story is do not buy into the advertising hype that AOL or any other company or person shoves down your throat. Just because AOL's latest software is called "Security Edition" doesn't mean jack sh*t. It's an advertising gimmick - a way for paranoid, uneducated/computer illiterate Moms and Dads to sign up for the $25 a month service (which by the way is a complete rip-off) and make-believe that their little Suzie is safe from Mr. Perv on the other end of the screen. These days you also need to concern yourself with the ISP employees themselves who are out to lure your kids in, just like the grown guy living in his Mom's basement like a hermit. Of course given his AOL employee/good guy/safe haven status, it makes him all the more of a threat to a naive/trusting child. Pedophiles work off of trust, getting their victim to trust them and this guy had it easy (because of the nature of his job) in reaching his goal. Keep that in mind next time you let your kid get online or tell them to trust a certain person because of what their occupation is.

Pope Or Nope

Everyone has heard of sites like "HotOrNot.com" or "RateMyRack.com" just to name a few, but now along comes "PopeOrNope". That's right, it's your turn to select the next Pope by rating next in line Cardinals to the most holy of all positions. So if you have time to waste, head on over to play PopeOrNope.

The Pope is watching! Vote wisely my friends.

There's Only 1 Internet Right? Wrong!

More than 400 college students are being sued for allegedly swapping pirated music files over a super-fast computer network called Internet2. The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry trade group behind the lawsuits, claims that the students have "hijacked" Internet2 and turned it into a tool for massive music piracy. Few people have heard of Internet2, until now. For those of you interested in learning more, I've composed a FAQ on Internet2 below.

What is Internet2?
Think of Internet2 as a higher-tech version of the regular Internet. Like "Internet1," Internet2 connects computers all across the country, but it uses newer, more experimental technology. That can make it less stable than Internet1, but it's also about 100 times as fast under typical conditions.

Who gets to use it?
More than 200 universities and 60 companies belong to Internet2, as do a handful of organizations and government agencies. To join, members must contribute research toward "developing a better Internet". It is not open to the public.

Who pays for it?
Users pay fees to the non-profit that administers the network. A typical university would pay about $200,000 a year. Government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, also provide some funding.

Is it connected to the regular Internet?
No, it's a separate network. Internet2 users can only contact other Internet2 users. That's why all the accused file-swappers are college students.

The original Internet works fine. Why is Internet2 needed?
In 1969, the University of California at Los Angeles and Stanford University set up a simple computer network that could send data back and forth between the two campuses. For more than 20 years, academics tinkered with this network and its successors. They used the networks to test computer technology and send research data. In the early 1990s, commercial interest in one of the successor networks, now called the Internet, soared. Web pages popped up and suddenly it became impractical to tinker with the network for research projects. Scientists wanted their own network again and in 1996 they created Internet2.

What kind of work is done on Internet2?
Research mostly. At the University of Missouri-Rolla, nuclear engineers use it to send high-quality video links to labs at other universities. At the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), biomedical researchers use it to access giant genetic databases. At Wichita State University, mathematicians use it to tap into distant supercomputers.

How do you use Internet2?
At many schools, Internet2 is combined with Internet1 behind the scenes. A student sending e-mail will have all her messages travel across Internet1, until she e-mails a student at another Internet2 university. That message travels over Internet2.

Will Internet2 ever be open to the public?
Probably not. But the technologies developed in Internet2 will gradually be transferred to the original Internet, making it faster and more stable. The goal is to "create the next-generation Internet".

Turn Me On

One of the first blog posts I ever did showcased a rather interesting "art piece" of a Mac addict who shaved the Apple logo into the back of his head. This girl pictured below has taken it a step farther and made her "art piece" a permanent part of her body by getting a tattoo of the Mac power button on her lower back. I'm sure geeks wish it was this easy to "turn a girl on".

Al Gore Did NOT Invent The Internet

For the extremely gullible out there, here is just more proof that Al Gore did NOT invent the Internet. If you want the REAL story of how the Internet was invented, visit the site www.wbglinks.net/pages/history

Filling Fluffy With Lead

I didn't hear about this until the other morning while listening to the Howard Stern show. A real "cat fight" is brewing out in Wisconsin. It seems that people are not following Bob Barker's motto of getting their pets spayed and neutered. As a result, the cat population in the state of Wisconsin is out of control. Therefore a vote is being held in order to decided if they should open up a cat hunting season! Yes, you heard that right - cat hunting of domestic felines from kittens to adults.

Don't be alarmed. Random photo found on the web.

I'm not even sure if that's real or a Photoshop job.

The proposal would allow licensed hunters to kill free-roaming cats, including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar, just like skunks or gophers. Of course the Humane Society and all cat lovers are enraged and horrified at the very thought of this idea. They have begun protesting in hopes the law will not pass so they can protect their furry friends from getting blasted into pieces. What do you think about legalized cat hunting? Do you support the idea given the reasoning why Wisconsin wants to sign for this, or are you against it no matter how over populated an area gets with stray cats and kittens?

New Member Of The Exclusive MILF Club

I'm a day or two late posting this, but you know I couldn't let breaking news surrounding a hot girl go unblogged around here...even if it is another tiring celeb story. If you haven't heard already, Britney Spears announced she's pregnant. The 23-year-old, who recently married her backup dancer Kevin Federline this past September, announced on her website (www.britneyspears.com) that her "fat rumors" where actually the beginning of her pregnancy weight gain. So I guess it's bye-bye to her smokin' hot body with the hard abs. Of course I still have the memories of her at the VMA's ripping off her clothes and the next year dancing with an albino snake on her neck. While both were arousing numbers, neither performance could out due the girl on girl action that took place though.

A little tongue never hurt anyone. You go girl!

This will be Spears first child and Ferderline's third. He has 2 previous children with an ex-girlfriend. Actually he meet Britney while his former girlfriend was pregnant with their second child. Smooth huh? Personally I think this Ferderline sounds like a real winner (sarcastic) with 3 children out of wedlock from two different women. Britney is certainty no genius herself - she's the one that married the dude after all. Whoever thinks hot girls need to be smart, isn't that smart themselves. We all know it's what is on the outside that really counts. Ha ha. Seriously though, I give this baby and marriage a year at best.

The good news (or bad news depending how you look at it) is that Britney is no virgin as she once claimed to be. She even went as far as boosting to the press about her innocence at one time. I never really believed that she was virgin for as long as she said, but for argument sake let's give her the benefit of the doubt and say she was "pure" until recently. Now the bad news is that it's probably safe to say she isn't a lesbian. Although every guy was hoping she would swing that way after witnessing the French kiss she shared with Madonna - SUPER HOT! Madonna, who by the way, is probably the only over 40-year-old woman that I find sexy. I think it's because she is kind of dirty and bad. The seductive voice she has helps too.

I like to think, even if it's true or not, that Britnay might be bisexual like Madonna. That would just make her even more appealing to men. So today I officially include Britney (along side Madonna) in my small exclusive MILF club.

***UPDATE***
While surfing around to find the above photo, I came across JLo.net which states "Was JLo going to kiss Madonna? Evidently Jennifer was supposed to be in the performance with Madonna at the VMAs in which Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot and Madonna all sang together...and a little more." MAN! I wish that would of happened, dream come true for me. I love JLo in case you didn't know already. :P

I Will Comply

I found this on another blog and thought it was interesting, so I decided to do my own. This sort of reminds me of those e-mails people (mostly women) forward around and I have to admit that 9 times out of 10 I don't read them. However in this case, I not only read it but even participated! Impressive huh? The first part "I am:" is already done and then your job is to complete the sentence. So the way I did it was to just write the first thing that came to my head as to how I would finish the sentence. That way I suppose you get a more accurate idea of who you are rather then sitting there and trying to say "the right thing". Feel free to steal this idea (since I stole it too) and pass it around or even post yours in the comment section. Sorry guys, I will stop with the chick flavored posting here after today and get back to other things.

I am: a good person
I know: I can be a better man
I have: to tell myself that sometimes
I wish: I did believe that more
I hate: how I feel right now
I miss: being in love
I fear: failure
I hear: music wherever I go
I search: for a reason
I wonder: if I have a purpose/meaning in life
I regret: not being able to protect or always be there
I love: with all my heart and with no regrets
I'm lucky because: that helmet saved my life
I ache: on the 3rd day
I care: what they think to an extent
I always: have a condom with me
I am not: going to take sh*t
I dance: like Fred Astaire crossed with Usher :P
I sing: in my car
I do not always: say I love you to those I should
I should not: allow frustration to take control of me
I am: always thirsty for more knowledge
I love: an adrenaline rush
I write: from within
I also fear: disappointment
I win: every girl I've ever wanted
I lose: every girl I've ever truly loved
I confuse: even myself sometimes
I listen: to my mother's advice/wisdom
I go: to bed angry or sad too much
I am glad that: my family is still together and always has my back
I am happy about: how successful my business is becoming
I am obsessed with: Jennifer Lopez's ass
I should be: finding more time to vacation
I want: just to be happy

Help Me Find Some Spiritual Relief

I'll admit I'm hesitant to post this because I'm a little embarrassed (and afraid that I will come off sounding like some freak), but I'm probably more backward when it comes to asking people for help in my real life. So if I ask for help on here from people, I can do it anonymously or if they know me, at least I don't have to actually say it to their face and humiliate myself in the process. I'm not sure if I explained/worded that right, but hopefully you understand what I mean.

Stop reading now if this post

is too deep and/or serious for you.

If you know me at all or have been following my blog, you know I don't care to discuss much of my personal life with the public. In fact I do my best to keep my private life just that - private. With that said, it's not like me to post this but I am posting it because I feel I need this help/advice/guidance right now. Without getting into too much detail, I am basically asking for reader feedback (I may regret doing this later after I saw how the moblog post went. I hope this doesn't turn into a mess too.) on what YOUR methods are in the forms of relaxation/stress relief, what helps you refocus, gives you some type of satisfaction - inner peace and hope for the future. Like everyone I too have challenges and some pain among other things in my life that I am trying to get thru. Some things I am not able to control and it's become extremely frustrating for me so I'm just looking for some ways to deal with things better and make it thru.

Don't get me wrong, I'm catholic but I don't want this to turn into some bible banging preacher post. I don't attend mass regularly anymore and I just feel like maybe I should or maybe there are other options out there that I should look into trying in order to get some type of relief from things in my life. I'm open to suggestions from aromatherapy, to massage, to acupuncture, to religion, to yoga, to meditation, to volunteering, to even counseling and beyond you name it. I have done a few of these, but still things just aren't working for me. So that is why I am asking for some help. I appreciate and encourage your comments, but please try not to jump all over me or each other in doing so. Thanks.

Celebrating 100 Posts Today!

Well today is the big day for my blog as it marks the 100th post! Technically it's really the 105th post counting today because I double posted on a few days, but today is the 100th day of my blog being active on the web. So for all intensive purposes, I'm going to still call this my 100th post celebration day because I'm dumb like that. No matter how you want to look at it, everyone owes me a congratulations either way. ;)

Is she scaring anyone else but me?

Can you believe it? It seemed to go by fast for me. I didn't think I would keep this blog going considering I signed up for the service in early 2002 and pretty much never touched it until this year. Not sure why I decided to pick it up, to try something new I guess and then it just became part of a little daily routine. Believe it or not, it only takes me just a couple minutes a day to post to my blog. Actually most of the time is not spent writing, but rather trying to get Blogger to actually publish correctly for me. They seem to be extra glitchy lately and it's become rather annoying to say the least.

Anyways, I'm not going to make a Hailey Berry speech that goes on for an hour with tears of joy flowing down my cheeks. Sorry, but a blog hitting 100 posts is really not all that exciting. (Personally I didn't find Hailey Berry winning an award and giving a speech to be that Earth shattering either. She looked hot, but her "hotness" was ruined by all that over emotional drama.) So I will just say thanks for stopping by and commenting. I hope you continue to come back so I will feel motivated enough to reach for post #200 and so on. You help me make this little "time wasting activity" of mine a little more meaningful and I hope I make a positive impact in the time you waste coming to my blog. See, it all boils down to a win-win, waste-waste situation. Life is grand. If you don't have a blog already, I hope this speech was inspiriting enough to encourage you to start one. Blog on!

***UPDATE***
Over the weekend I asked your thoughts on if I should start a moblog or not. Yes seemed to be the unanimous choice. So time willing, I will be doing that along with a couple other new additions/changes...hopefully sooner than later. Thanks for the input.

Should I Start A Moblog?

I've been throwing around the idea for awhile now. I have a camera phone and I have a blog, so why not combine both to spice it up and make a moblog? What do you guys think?

It would most likely contain some odd and some interesting photos like the one above. Well I can do better, but it would basically be what the world looks like thru my eyes...like a glimpse of what I see and do in my everyday life played out thru snapshots. A few people have suggested I do one. Maybe it is something new I can start to help celebrate the upcoming 100th post on my site. Perhaps it would give some new life to the blog. Creativity and change is usually a good thing. Don't get me wrong, the same type of content I've always been posting will continue with just the moblogging added. Give me some feedback so I can steer this in the right direction. Thanks!

Nerd Porn

If you don't get this, then I'm not explaining. It's techy and it speaks for itself.

FORE!

You might hear me yelling FORE as I'm off to spend some time on the greens (weather permitting). Instead of working today, I'll be working on my swing and my charm skills as I go with some clients to play golf at Treesdale's Country Club. It's a good way to "work" outside the office. Even "The Donald" would tell you that. I'm not the world's biggest golf fan and I'm definitely not the best golfer either. I can usually get around par though so I'm not horrible. It's just that you will never see me going to play religiously (slow moving, bores me) or competing with the likes of Tiger Woods. Every once in awhile I am fine with it and when it comes to closing business deals, it comes in handy to be able to play the game without looking like a complete jackass.

Treesdale Country Club

I've played at Treesdale before and it is tough course to say the least. It was designed by Jack Nicolas so you know there are plenty of sand pits, water holes, ect. I'm in for a real challenge which is fine with me because I am fueled by some good competition. I just hope I don't get too frustrated or bored after the first 9 holes (which is all I care to play before I'm itching to leave). So wish me luck and have a good weekend everyone.

7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Tonight on my favorite show The Apprentice, they are going to be competing in an AE challenge. For those of you out of touch with things, AE stands for American Eagle which is a casual clothing store targeting 15-30 year-olds much like Abercrombie & Fitch. My sister worked for AE for a couple years (in their corporate office, not the store) and I have done some modeling for them before so it will be cool to see if I know any of the people on tonight's The Apprentice episode. Now what does this have to do with Kevin Bacon and the seven degrees thing? Well I'm getting to it...

Mr. 80's Footloose Heartthrob Himself

I'm sure most of you know what the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon is about. If you don't, it just means that anyone can think of Kevin Bacon and count back to 7 people or less that are connected to Kevin Bacon and yourself. Sounds weird, but true. Try it. It doesn't have to be Kevin Bacon, it can be any person - famous people of course being more fun/entertaining to do. So this popped into my mind when I heard about tonight's show. How could I be connected to "The Donald"? Then my mind started wondering about other famous people and how I could possibly be connected to them thru the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon theory. I'm not into the Hollywood celeb crap, but I thought this is kind of fun. So here is a handful (wide variety) of people that I came up with. Surprisingly I am connected in just 2-3 degrees to these people!

• Donald Trump - 3 degrees...me, know AE executives, execs worked with Trump ( I could have another connection to Trump's wife, but I have yet to think that thru.)
• Bill Gates - 3 degrees...me, worked with a guy who has a brother at Microsoft, brother "works" for Bill Gates
• Jennifer Lopez - 3 degrees...me, know a girl, girl has as a friend who is J Lo's trainer
• Michael Jordan - 3 degrees...me, UNC former coach Dean Smith came with recruits and talked with me when I played basketball, Dean Smith coached Jordan in college
• President Bush - 2 degrees...me, know Senator Rick Santorum, Santorum knows President George Bush
• Howard Stern - 3 degrees...me, know Beth Ostrosky, Beth is Stern's girlfriend

If you have any good connection thru the 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon theory, post about it in the comment section. People like Michael Jackson, The Pope or other obscure famous person might be interesting to try. It's alot like "name dropping" in a way (which I hate), but in a more humorous fashion.

Run A Website Out Of Your Ass, Literally

Let's just call it what it is, a highly embarrassing/disgusting first for the Internet. Utilizing a USB webserver about half the size of a pack of gum that runs Perl, PHP, SMTP and POP3 was able to run a web page from a volunteer’s rectum. No joke. The USB thumb drive was first wrapped in a condom. Then with the aid of some KY and a latex gloved doc, the procedure was underway. (Getting nauseas yet?)


Stephen Patt, M.D. inserted the device. “We made it as safe and sanitary as possible,” he said, “but it is a little different.” (Nah, really?) Different enough to grab about 24,000 page views in the 40 minutes or so that the server was lodged in its temporary home. So how did it feel? “It was tight,” the volunteer admitted. “It was slightly unpleasant, but I always hoped to live my life in infamy and I think I will now.” (Oooook.) The server has since been dislodged, but you can visit the web page at www.yourassgotserved.com (I think I have now officially lost my lunch.) Before anyone asks, no this is not a late April Fool's Day joke - this was REAL!

WARNING: Do NOT attempt to recreate this at home!

(Ah, duh - what "ass" would want to anyway?)

Studies Reveal Your Work Productivity or Lack Thereof

If you work in an office then more than likely most of the men (and even some of the women) have been "wasting" a considerable amount of time on the March Madness office poll. So this post comes at a very appropriate time. I'll be the first to say that no human being was meant to spend 40 hours (perhaps longer) a week in a cube, but alot of people find themselves stuck in that position. Are you actually being productive while in your little cube or are you just taking up space? So if you are wondering how much time is REALLY wasted at work by people goofing off, well then take a look at these stats...

According to the Nielsen Net Ratings (the global standard for Internet audience measure and analyst), people spend a considerable amount of time doing non-work related activities. These included e-mailing, IMing, blogging, shopping online, surfing the web and making personal phone calls. I'll admit I'm also a little guilty of this. Even though I am in business for myself, still I'm on other people's time so to speak. Let me add to this and say this blog post was mostly written at home on my own time and not a client's time. Good boy huh? ;)

If you are male, statistics show you spend more time goofing off at work than your female co-workers. In 2002, men spent an average of 31 hours doing non-work related activities in the office as compared to women who spent an average of 27 hours doing non-work related activities. Still, male or female - wow! That is alot of wasted time considering that only leaves 9-13 hours of REAL actual work done during an entire week! I bet employers are reading this and cringing, wondering why you even get the salary that you do for such little productive work time spent. Those are the facts though. The study is a few years old and I will look for 2004 or 2005 stats, but I'm guessing the numbers will be similar. So much for the "hard day of honest work" slogan.

Now that you are done reading this post AT WORK (ha ha), get back TO WORK. Don't get mad, you only have to put in a good 2 solid hours today anyways.

***UPDATE***
Did you know that you can use the Blogger Search field in the upper left hand corner of this site to search just my blog? Just type in a word or key phrase you want - for example "ass". Your results will come back as "fake ass, crazy ass, her ass and ass kisser". Educational and time worthy isn't it? For awhile it wasn't working, but now it seems to be fine. It's powered by Google so check it out in the those 6 hours of non-work today. ;)

DoorManBot, Offline Messaging System

If you use AIM, than you may of heard of DoorManBot. DoorManBot is a message-relaying system on AOL Instant Messenger for people wanting to leave a message for an offline buddy. DoorManBot delivers messages much like an answering machine does for phone calls. Essentially, DoorManBot records a user's message and delivers it to the recipient when he/she signs on. The great advantage of this is, you don't have to be online for your buddy to read your message, hence the term "Offline Messages". If you want a friend of yours to get a message when they sign on, simply IM DoorManBot5 with a screenname of the buddy and your message.

For example:
AIMBuddy123: Hey! Call me when you get this message!

Last night I received this message on my AIM...

DoorManBot73 (11:43:50 PM):
(4/4/2005 8:54:35 PM EST)
---------------------------------------------------------------
doormanbot: Hi. I noticed your post here: http://diamondkt.blogspot.com/2005/02/paris-hilton-and-t-mobile-hacked-again.html This problem was actually fixed just after you posted about it. Your guess was correct, btw, the server was becoming overloaded and disposing of messages improperly. E-mail me at matt@doorman.info if you want to talk.
---------------------------------------------------------------
This message brought to you by DoorManBot messages

The message was from Matt Goldstein co-creator of the DoorManBot project. I'm not sure how you got my screen name Matt (good/easy guess perhaps?) or how you came upon my blog (random surfing?). Anyways, just wanted to reply and say thanks for the info and I thought I would give DoorManBot a little plug here on my blog since I've used it before myself. You can read more about DoorManBot at www.doorman.info

Cinderella To Be Crowned At The Big Dance

The day has finally come! NCAA Championship basketball airs tonight on CBS at 9PM ET. Obviously I will be spending my evening watching the game and routing for my March Madness pick North Carolina. I bet that Illinois and NC would play for the crown and it looks like I was right on the money. Nice job if I do say so myself.

So how did I do in my office poll? Well here are my stats...64 total teams compete and I picked 39 winning teams correctly (62% right) which isn't too shabby. Then if NC wins tonight, it bumps me up to 64% right (technically 63.5% but I rounded up) so I think I faired pretty well.

Round #1 consists of 32 winners = I correctly picked 24 of them (75% right)
Round #2 consists of 16 winners = I correctly picked 8 of them (50% right)
Round #3 consists of 8 winners = I correctly picked 4 of them (50% right)
Round #4 consists of 4 winners = I correctly picked 2 of them (50% right)
Final Game consists of 2 teams BOTH of which I picked correctly (100%)
National Champion yet to be known, but if it's North Carolina...I win! (100%)

Both Illinois and North Carolina are #1 seeded teams and match up evenly, so it should make for a great game! The final score I'm predicting to be in the 80 point range. I guess we will all see how close I am on this. As promised last month, look for my "work productivity or lack thereof" post tomorrow since March Madness office polling will be officially over after tonight. For those with money riding on all of this, I wish you luck!

GO TAR HEELS!

Play Ball! Pirates Opening Day

I'm not much of a baseball fan. Personally I find the game too slow moving (sorry), but since it's major sports news and I'm a sports fan, it deserves at least a small post here. I can't say I've been following the Pittsburgh Pirates pre-season or even know about all the local trades and singings, but I do however know about the biggest trade - the lose of our former starting catcher/lead off hitter Jason Kendall. The Pirates have never been a great team and the last time they made it deep in the post-season, I wasn't even born. So for me, the only good Pirates players that come to mind who I have seen play infront of me have been Barry Bonds and Jason Kendall.

PNC Park, Home Of The Pittsburgh Pirates

I could go on and say how Pittsburgh spent all this money on PNC Park and left little to give our money hungry pro baseball players, therefore the stars left for greener pastures (making us a mediocre team season after season). I could even give the other side and say how Pittsburgh has to spend money to better the city and PNC Park fits that bill. I could also go on and debate that saying no matter how nice our baseball park, football stadium and hockey arena get, that it still doesn't help the fact that statistics show younger people attend these events and without good job market growth in Pittsburgh, more entertainment and a happening nightlife...that young people will continue to move away. I could say all of that and get into it, but I won't. I will just say the Pirates play the Brewers today in their home opener at 1:35 and if you have tickets, enjoy the game.

My apologies if that post sounds a little cynical, but those are the facts. It might also sound a little cynical because I know this city doesn't have much to offer me anymore. More than likely, I think I will be moving myself and my business into a city like NY or maybe San Francisco where I feel I can be alot more successful and happy.

Pope John Paul II Dies

After 27 years, the leader of the Catholic church, Pope John Paul II passed away Saturday afternoon. The Vatican announced that the pope died from septic shock and cardiocirculatory collapse at the age of 84. This morning, tens of thousands of mourners filled St. Peter's Square for the first of nine elaborate masses marking the death of the pope. The nine days of official mourning is referred to as "Novendiales". President Bush and other world leaders will be attending his services.

1920-2005

For those of you that are not Catholic or familiar with the religion, then this might not mean much to you. Although I decided to post this not only because I am Catholic, but also because it's a good way to understand other people's beliefs, customs and cultures by sharing your own. My Grandmother is very religious and had actually met Pope John Paul II several years ago. She has a photo framed in her house with her kissing the Pope's ring (which is custom when you meet him). He will be sadly missed.

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

If you are into video games at all, more than likely you have heard of the Tom Clancey's Splinter Cell series. First there was "Splinter Cell", then "Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow" and now the 3rd title "Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory" which was just released days ago.

So what is a Splinter Cell? It is when intelligence deemed critical to national security can not be obtained by traditional means. Third Echelon (a subagency of the NSA, an elite team of strategists, hackers and field operatives who collect intelligence to anticipate and respond to crises of information warfare) is granted clearance to conduct physical operations. Its existence denied by the U.S. government, Third Echelon deploys units known as Splinter Cells (elite intelligence-gathering forces consisting of a lone field operative supported by a remote team). Like a sliver of glass, a Splinter Cell is small, sharp and nearly invisible. Your job in the game is to play a Splinter Cell named Sam Fisher who has to fight cyberterrorism/information warfare. Basically, my dream job!

To put it bluntly, this game kicks ass! It is super addicting, very realistic and just a blast to play. You will constantly be challenged to think like an OPSEC. Believe it or not, after playing this game, you will find yourself in your real life looking over your shoulder - thinking you are being followed, hiding in the shadows and entering and exiting areas in stealth mode. You may even be tempted to pull out your gun and snipe a passer-by or two. Crazy huh? Trust me, I'm not the only one who got this weird feeling after playing the game.

I'm not a HUGE gamer, but I do like my PS2 and I will play it from time to time. I never really got into the online computer games. I rather use my PC for other things and stick with the TV to do my gaming. I'm also not into games that you have to complete levels in order to continue like Splinter Cell, but even this game has me hooked. Most of the time I stick to fighting, racing or sports games. So even if you are not into video games or into the level games, I really think you will enjoy Splinter Cell. It's available on the PC, XBOX and PS2. I am going to pick up my PS2 copy this weekend and try it out. I promise to tear myself away from it for fresh air. ;)

Gmail Expands From 1GB to 2GB

On the 1 year birthday of Gmail, Google's free web based e-mail service, they announced that they are expanding from their current 1GB of storage space up to 2GB! Very generous indeed and more than enough storage space for the average e-mail user.

Last year when Gmail was introduced on April 1st, many people thought it was Google's idea of a April Fool's Day joke, but it actually turned out to be a real product. Gmail is still in beta testing, but awhile back they expanded their "invite list" from 5 to 50. It only looks like Gmail is getting bigger and better. Other free web based e-mail services like Hotmail and Yahoo struggle to keep members and match the features that Gmail is offering. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top, but I would bet on Gmail to be the winner.

Watch Me Hack Your Computer!

Don't believe that I can access your hard drive within seconds? If you want to challenge me, then I dare you to click this link.

That was an extremely lame April Fool's Day gag, but if you seriously think about it, every April Fool's Day gag would be lame to pull on a blog. Oh well, I tried. I'll think of something good to pull in "real life".

On a side note, it's month #4 of my blog and more than likely I'll be reaching my 100th post shortly. Not sure what I will do to "celebrate that achievement" - maybe do a new template/theme for the blog. Time will tell. As always, last month's posts have been archived and if you want to search for posts by topic, then I have compiled a list of those as well. Both Monthly Archives and Topic Archives are linked on the sidebar.