Tottenham Hotspur Football Club Blog
I had an interesting meeting tonight over at a family friends house with "The Bagel" from Beef Bagel. He just happened to run a blog that covers the best team in the English Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur. The blog is an opinion site on the spurs news of the day, and "The Bagel" does a fantastic job of capturing the mood of the fan. Good luck Bagel!
Audere est Facere
Where to buy a nintendo wii for xmas
From me of course! Im selling 4 of them on ebay right now - Get your nintendo wii here!
Is Allofmp3.com as good as the iTunes Music Store?
Allofmp3.com has been making a lot of noise in the news lately. I heard about it several years ago when they were just starting out, but discounted the service because of the lack of good (subjective) music. I took a look again after hearing how Russia's entry into the WTO was being blocked because of Allofmp3.com. Im an iPod and iTunes Music Store user so that will be my baseline comparison.
Interface
Allofmp3.com is your standard website interface. It's not overly fancy with Ajax etc... it just works. You can preview songs without having an account and they have their bestseller lists organized by region. Though the site is based in Russia, they have spent the time to make it seem like it could be an American owned site. It's not as nice as the iTunes Music Store interface, but it does its job.
Politicians are all liars. Here is an unbiased way to see how!
A while ago, I found out about Factcheck.org. They are an organization that essentially calls bullshit when politicians start mudslinging.
From the horses mouth:
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
I strongly encourage to sign up on their site to get their email updates. They are especially relevant around election time as sort of a gut check to see if the jerk you are planning on voting for is really honest. Most arent 
Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione – my next car?
This car is fantastic. It is the most beautiful car I have seen in a while. It is just a shame it is rumored to be costing $200,000. I would buy it for $80,000! Maybe I will just have to save for a used Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Get rid of your stank-ass breath
I dont have chronic bad breath. I get morning breath. I also remember Ryan Pacheco telling me my breath stunk in spanish class
when we were 13 or 14. I think i have been paranoid since then. Thanks Ryan! Aside from that my breath is ok (as far as I know!). One of the other people in my office was talking about BreathRX. It's a new product on the market developed by the "Extreme Makeover" dentist, Dr. Bill Dorfman. Well, if that doesnt excite you - then how about this testimony:
The BreathRX system has stopped my breath smelling. I can finally get close to women without making them cringe, and I dont make small children cry anymore.
- Chip Chipney, Boise, ID
I can also give my testimony that the stuff works. The really great part is the tongue scraper. I've used tongue scrapers to get the nasty, yellow, smelly plaque-teria (word is my creation) off my tongue. I have used none better than the simple one that comes with BreathRX. Check it out at your local pharmacy - you should be able to pick up a basic kid for $10.
Unashamed self promotion.
Check out these scans of an article about Onmac.net that were in the japanese magazine Ascii. Does this count as my five minutes of fame? I wonder what the article actually says...
Translation:
The Man Who Opened Forbidden Doors
...??
The best World Cup 2006 spreadsheet
I was sent this as a mass forward and this sheet is fantastic. I tried to search for it because my version had a bunch of bugs and got a junky, poorly done sheets back so I thought I would post the best damn world cup excel sheet up here. Probably the best thing about it is the TV schedule so it shows all the local times.
Features (from the website)
There are 4 sheets in the workbook. The Match Schedule sheet lists every match in match day order and is where you enter the scores. The Groups sheet is the list of group tables. The Wallchart sheet is a chart display of match results for the knockout stages. The TV schedule sheet lists each match in date/time order displaying both the German kick off time and your local time.
Each country has their flag displayed for the matches and the group tables.
Clicking on a country flag will play the national anthem and display the lyrics if possible. Note that this requires Internet Explorer to be your default web browser.
You can select your favourite team by clicking in cell to the right of the text 'My Favourite Team'. All matches involving your favourite team will be highlighted in all 4 sheets.
A map of Germany is displayed in the Match Schedule sheet. When you select the row for the match the row will be highlighted and the city where the match is being played will be coloured in the map.
Clicking on on a city in the map will display a picture of the stadium for 2 seconds.
The Match Schedule sheet will automatically scroll up or down based on your currently selected cell so that the map is in view.
After the scores for a match have been entered the group tables will be updated and sorted in accordance with the official FIFA rules for the tournament. If a group is tied after the first 6 criteria, a userform will appear asking you to rank the teams for the result of drawing lots by the FIFA World Cup committee. If you make a mistake click the Draw Lots button at the bottom of the Groups sheet.
After each group is complete (i.e. the 6 matches for the group have been played) the round of 16 team names will begin to appear in the match day list.
If there is a tie after extra time in the knockout stages (match day 49 onwards) a userform will appear asking you to enter the results of the penalty shootout.
The page setup has been set for you to print each sheet on a single page. You can freely adjust these settings as you please.
Macbook Pro – In the mail!
I ordered my MacBook pro on Friday as a replacement for both my IBM desktop at work and for my Powerbook G4 1.25 Ghz as my backup / presentation computer. Im really excited for it to arrive, and I am taking a little bit of a gamble that someone will figure out how to make it run windows pretty quickly so that I can switch between the two operating systems. Should be pretty great. The main thing I am worried about now is when I will get natively compiled updates to previous software programs - like adobe photoshop etc... Anyway, I like being on the cutting edge.
Review of Packet 8 VOIP / Ip Phone / Internet Telephone service
After 3 years of having a personal cell phone and a few months of having $200+ phone bills, I decided that I didnt like Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Cingular etc... I had heard about these *new* Internet telephones /VOIP / IP Phones (they go by many names) and decided to give one a try. So, I did my research. My requirements were as follows:
Requirements
- Able to use a regular phone
- Doesn't require a computer
- Must have cheap international rates
- Must be reasonable sound quality
My family lives in London and I work for a company that deals with customers worldwide so I make phonecalls overseas in the evening after work and on the weekends. I narrowed my search down to two providers - Vonage and Packet 8. What sold me on Packet 8 was the cheaper plan (19.99 per month gets you unlimited nationwide calls) and cheaper international rates ($0.02 per minute to London).
After using Packet 8 for several months now, here are my conclusions...
Good
- Rates are really that good! After the $19.99, I spend about $3 - 4 additional on international calls.
- Simultaneous ringing - I can forward my home phone to ring on my work cell phone (and at home) when I am out
- Voicemail to email - To archive your voicemail, packet8 can send it to you in your email. You can then send it on to relevant people or keep a record for yourself
- I can bring my box with me anywhere there is a broadband connection and have my Texas phone number (better and cheaper coverage than most cell phone providers)
- Price - I cant accentuate this enough - Cell phones are a ripoff. I was paying $55 a month for a cell phone (verizon) and then I spent about $20 in international calls on a calling card (to save money). I use the phone about as much and pay $25
Bad
- It doesnt always ring! (when you dial) This can be annoying because you doubt that the call is going through
- Doesnt always connect either
- Some countries have terrible sound quality (Taiwan) and bad delay (Singapore, Australia) - Some worse than my cell phone
- Not easy to connect up to every phone outlet in the house (I hear it is possible though!)
- Does not have 100% uptime - they are basically limited to both your internet provider and the various internet providers they use around the world to guarantee that calls go through. There have been about 2 outages that affected all Packet 8 users and a few times that my cable connection was down + a couple of power outages. I fixed the power problem and have my Cable modem, router and Packet 8 box on a battery backup so I can make calls even without power
- Packet 8 was incompetent and unable to port my old cell phone number to this line
- Limited 911 service
Conclusion
As a 2nd phone for home, this is an excellent solution. With a IP telephone, you experience many similar annoyances to having a cell phone. However, at minimal cost, and great international and national rates, why wouldnt you use it! The uptime and call quality will sort itself out and eventually IP phones will increase in reliability in line with your cable / dsl provider. I would highly recommend Packet 8 as long as you are aware of and accept the possible draw backs.
Other information
Packet 8
Vonage
The Economist: The phone call is dead; long live the phone call
Another Review (probably better than mine)
SHOUTcast
I have been using SHOUTcast a bunch recently. Shoutcast probably has the best selection of radio stations on the internet. Way more than iTunes or Windows Media Player. The coolest thing is that I can listen to it at work on Winamp, on my Mac with iTunes, or on my T.V. with my Xbox and XBMC. Check it out. I like Virgin's Classic rock station for work and then Digitally Imported - Ambient or Chillout for home.
Affordable Diamonds online – Blue Nile
Not that I am looking for em, but I found a great website to buy diamonds online. The website is Blue Nile. I also read an article about it from Forbes who have also reviewed the website. Seems like you can save a bunch of $$$ by not buying from Tiffany's since they have similar stones at much lower prices.
