Free Christmas Music MP3s!

Just in time! At http://garritan.com/Xmas.html you can download five full albums of free Christmas music! It sounds really good, too; perfect for playing during a Christmas party or on Christmas morning while you open presents.

From the website:
"Welcome to the 5th Annual Garritan Community Christmas Album, a unique musical project. A community of musicians from all over the world met on the Garritan community forum and agreed to submit their own recordings of holiday music, to be freely distributed. Each of these orchestral recordings were made not with large live orchestras in vast recording studios at huge expense, but rather were created by a single person working on their own desktop or laptop computer. What they have in common is the use of Garritan libraries representing software musical instruments based on samples of real instruments."

Enjoy!
I saw this on the Lifehacker blog at http://tinyurl.com/9e8tgk

$1 Eye Glasses

You may have heard of the "1 laptop per child" idea where someone is making laptops so cheap that even very poor countries can have one per child (http://laptop.org/en/). That's a very noble and worthy cause, certainly, but I'm more impressed with what I saw today, to say the least. A man has invented glasses that you can adjust the prescription on without needing an eye doctor, making glasses significantly more available for underdeveloped countries where having poor eye sight could mean you can't support yourself or your Family, not to mention degrading your quality of life.

"Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription."

That's an awesome contribution to make to the world. How great is that?

The glasses aren't quite $1 each yet, but they are working on the model to reduce costs. Just having the idea to make something like this is huge. I can't wait to see this be successful.

I found the article on a blog here: http://tinyurl.com/ay8mmy
There is a link to the full article on that page.

12 Days of Christmas

This is just awesome. The video explains it very well in the intro. It's a very well done A Cappella. Merry Christmas.

Motivational video

Ok, I don't think I'm as hyped up as the guys who posted the video here: http://lifehacker.com/5108538/forty-inspirational-speeches-from-the-movies-in-two-minutes
. . . but I still think it's cool. Want a pick-me-up? Try this video. It might strike a chord for you. I nearly lost it when they included Peter Pan, personally.



FYI, the part with Fozzie Bear is the best IMHO!

Bentō - sushi art

Coolest. Food. Ever.

Bentō is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bento

Bentō is seen in the pictures. Even I would eat sushi that looked this cool.

I found this on one of my RSS feeds from http://www.makezine.com/
The specific article is here: http://tinyurl.com/5tzxap
Makezine is pretty cool for neat pictures and ideas. I never thought I'd see sushi there, but I never thought I'd see it here either . . .

Balloon Culture

There's an entire balloon culture out there that I had no idea about. Frankly I'm scared. These two are the best, but you can see more, as well as a video of a man trying to get in a super strong balloon that deflates when he is half way in, nearly suffocating him here: http://www.urlesque.com/2008/12/05/balloons-of-the-web-we-salute-you/ He lives, but you really have to wonder if he learned to carry a knife in case of another balloon related near death experience. At least have a friend over to help . . . oh, right . . . either there aren't many friends to speak of, or you don't want to admit you're trying to crawl inside a giant balloon in your apartment.

Either way, Balloon Jesus and Balloon Tank are impressive.

Lego over-achiever

I tried to find some example patterns to load into the Lego Digital Designer that I could use to buy the kit without all the work, and I came across this. This guy has tons of things built out of Legos on his site.

Here's the story about this model, with several other pics linked at the bottom of it: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/santa.html

Here's the main site: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/
Make sure you check out the "portfolio."

To be fair to other blogs, this is where I found the story while searching: http://www.curbly.com/vhotho/posts/3326-Eric-Harshbarger-s-LEGO-Santa

Christmas Lego sets

Many of us remember getting Lego Santa sets not too long ago, but I haven't seen any now that I want to give them to my kids. Luckily, there is a cool alternative on the Lego web site.

If you go to their holiday page (http://shop.lego.com/HolidayShop/), and scroll to the bottom, you'll see the same picture as in this post with two links. One (http://cache.lego.com/2057/images/shop/shop06/LandingPages/HolidayGiftShop/PABBuildingInstr.pdf) will get you a nine page pdf file with instructions to build several really cool sets, including the snowman in the picture and the Santa I was looking for.

"But I don't have the bricks to build it!" No problem, they've got you covered at http://shop.lego.com/pab/?warning=false . You can buy the sets, brick-by-brick, based on the part numbers from the instructions.

Have fun building the Santa, and the entire Christmas village that most of you realized you could build after seeing the last link! If your creative juices are flowing, make sure you go back and read this post: http://noahsentme.blogspot.com/2008/06/lego-digital-designer.html . It should help with the model of Santa's workshop you're thinking about!

I can't believe I haven't seen this before! Go to http://www.hulu.com/ to see full episodes of tons of shows (like The Office, for example). It uses "minimal advertising" which meant 3 ads during the show I watched. The ads show up on the progress bar as dots just like the messages in you-tube videos, if you're familiar. You can even watch in HD. There is a ton to choose from if you're looking for something to watch. Now you just need an Xbox or Xbox 360 with Media Center to stream the show to your TV, and I just need an iPhone application that works with the site.

It does a body good

Drink Milk. (<-- click here)

Free eBooks and Audio Books

If you're a gadget fan and enjoy being able to read a book on your iPhone, Palm Pilot, etc, then you owe it to yourself to check out http://manybooks.net/ There are thousands of free eBooks available for a lot of format choices, including Kindle, eReader, PDF, Mobipocket, Plucker, iSolo, and about twenty more. They're all public domain so they're free, but you'll find tons of books that you want to read if you look around. The "special collections" link has a list of "books to read before you die" if you need some ideas. I found several classics that I had thought about buying, and have expanded to a full library through the afternoon. I only stopped so I could actually read one of them.

You can get a program to view eBooks on your computer at http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/browse.htm

If you use the eReader software for the iPhone, you need to click the "+" sign on your bookshelf screen, and choose "manybooks.net." It will download the book directly to your iPhone bookshelf. I don't know a way to transfer them from the PC, but they only take about three seconds to download on the phone, so I don't think it could get any easier.



Reading not your thing? Still want to enjoy a book? How about an audio book? "Too expensive," you say? Well, what if a bunch of people volunteer to read to you? That's what you get on http://librivox.org/ The file format seems to be MP3 and Ogg Vorbis for the ones I checked out. Be prepared for big downloads, though. You can get each part seperately, or look for the "entire book in zip format" link to get it all at once. If you're really bored or feeling altruistic, you can record yourself reading a part of a book and upload it for others to download. It's limited to public domain, though. Check the instructions on the website before you spend your day in your recording studio. (The manybooks.net site actually has a collection of books in a category called "Audible" that all have links to librivox.org so you can get the eBook and the Audio version.)


Of course, if you don't already know, most libraries allow you to check out eBooks and audio books from their web pages that expire after a certain amount of time. It is definitely worth it to get the latest book without paying a ton, as long as you don't feel the need to fill your own library.

I also haven't scratched the surface of Project Gutenburg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) or the Google Book Search (http://books.google.com/). There are a ton of ways to get books for free, even if you don't want to leave your house to go to the library. It might motivate you to go check that building out again actually, when you start realizing how much money you're saving! Especially after shelling out the money for that iPhone!

Free Magazine Subscriptions

Right now you can go to the website http://goreadgreen.com/ and get a free 1 year subscription to one of many magazines in a digital format. You read it online or in a downloadable viewer through Zinio where you usually have to pay full price for the subscriptions.

The magazines look great, and have clickable links in the table of contents to take you straight to the page you want to go to.

You can actually get one magazine per unique e-mail address, and all the magazines I got all opened in my one Zinio account. You get an e-mail each month when the next edition is available for you to view/download.

This is an amazing deal! It's too cool not to share!

Google voice search

Google usually makes some really cool things, and this one is no different. This really only helps the iPhone users, but is really awesome. Today, instead of trying to type "notary public" on a touch screen while driving and trying to hold the phone by the same screen, I could have just held the phone to my ear and said "notary public" and gotten the same results. Since driving and talking on a phone is illegal here, I could get a ticket, but I can easily say it wasn't a phone call, I was surfing the web.

Official Google page here:
(http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/app.html)

Perpetual fetch machine

Who's smarter? The guy who built the machine or the dog who operates it?

"What do we do now?" :)

I just thought it was funny. No political message here. More of a "what do Americans rally on now" point of view. I say we focus on Thanksgiving, then Christmas, in that order.

The Matrix beta test

The Matrix . . . Ghost in the Shell . . . Neuromancer . . . whichever story you name, they all start at least something like this . . .


Watch CBS Videos Online

The full article is HERE. The video is amazing. It is really crazy what they've been able to develop and how close they are to helping people who are trapped in their bodies with no way to interact with the world.

A sign of the times

EXTRALIFE - Web comic for geeks, gamers, and stuff like that

Most. Awesome. Thing. Ever.

Ok, so I'm just talking about the iPhone again. I'm having a ball with
it. I'm trying it out for mobile blogging as I decide whether to do it
or just post to Facebook. We'll see. Either way, I'm starting with a
post including a screen shot taken from within the iPhone itself, and
now sent by the iPhone. Well, here it goes ... Take one.

Ultimate campaign tool

I saw this yesterday in Sacramento, CA. It's a giant TV (of sorts) on a trailer, just driving down the road with a campaign video on a loop. Distracting, but very interesting. I wonder how much this cost and who paid for it? This is the ultimate camping equipment to play video games on. In fact, I just realized how close camping sounds like campaign. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Wootalyzer

I've blogged about Woot.com before. What I want to introduce you to today is the WOOTALYZER!!! This program updates itself every night when Woot changes over to the new day's item (10pm PST). It also tracks many other sites like woot - you can find some great deals without viewing several pages. I got a "random video game" from Stootsi for 99 cents the other day. It turned out to be "Alias" based on the TV show. I, of course, posted it on GOOZEX for 100 points . . . you could get it for free for clicking the Goozex link, no kidding!

The best part about the WOOTALYZER though, is it's support through Woot-offs. It updates to show you how long until the current item sells out, updates and sounds an alarm when a new item is offered, and can even open the "buy" window when a "Bandolier of Carrots" is offered. Many different customization options available. I highly endorse it.

Close-up picture of your house

Call it awesome, call it freaky, but it's interesting. Google has apparently taken pictures of the entire world (or is working on it). Take little Manteca, CA for instance. If you search for the City Hall, you can see not only a satellite picture, but a view from the street. Apparently you can see most of that city, and many more. Search for any address on Google maps and then click "Street View" in the upper right corner. If the street is highlighted in blue, you can see up close pictures of the address. It doesn't work well back home, but I do get the option to click "pictures" or "wikipedia" which gave me more links. Eventually you'll be able to search for your address, fly through your window, and access your webcam.

I just want to know who took all the 360 degree pictures of these towns, how much they got paid, and how you get that job?! How often are the photos updated? Google is awesome.

Skype

I didn't know it until recently, but Skype (the free program that lets you make phone calls from computer to computer for free) lets you do video calls just as easily. What, you didn't know about Skype at all? Well, it's just like a chat program, but instead of typing to each other you actually use your microphone and speakers (and web cam if you want) to talk (and see) each other. You can type if you want, but why would you use Skype for that? As long as the call is from your skype account to another Skype account, it's a free phone call over the internet! You can actually call other phones too, for what I'm told is cheap, but I use my cell phone for that.

What I'm really using Skype for is an easy way to show the kids off to family while we're apart. If anyone wants to connect on Skype, shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you how to find me. I think you can use my e-mail to search for me, too. It's as easy as clicking my name in your contacts list and you can see and hear everyone here. Super cool.

Updated: Goozex - trade your games

UPDATE: I've blogged about this site before. Right now, however, you get 100 points and 1 free trade just for signing up . . . that's enough to get a free video game for nothing! You've got nothing to loose by looking, and you get a free video game if you sign up! The only other time I've known them to run this deal was for military personnel, so if you were on the fence about this site, now's the time to try it out.

Click HERE to sign up: by using this link you get another 100 points when you complete a trade and give me 100 free points for referring you. Thanks!

(By the way, since my last post I have received Final Fantasy VII for PC and have World in Conflict for PC being mailed to me right now. GTA4 is pending approval for trade by its owner)

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original post
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I have to share this site. This is where I've posted all my bargain bin games and traded them to get points that I then traded for today's top games. I've gotten thest games COMPLETELY FREE (after trading my other games) from this site: Final Fantasy Ring of Fates, Smarty Pants, God of War Chains of Olympus, Innocent Life, Final Fantasy XII Revanant Wings, Turning Point Fall of Liberty, Crazy Taxi for PSP, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Elder Scrolls IV Shievering Isles, The Lord of the Rings Tactics, Heroes of Might and Magic V, and the Sims Complete Collection. I'm currently in line for Final Fantasy XII for PC, Wild Arms XF, GTA IV, and Outlaw Golf for PC. You can trade your games, too. Click here to accept my recommendation. Once you complete your first FREE trade (get a FREE game! Honestly!! It's how I started!!), I'll get more points added to my account! It's easy! E-mail me if you have questions. My wife and I have both been putting our games on here for a long time now, and we love being able to get rid of games we no longer want to someone who will enjoy them, while being able to get a brand new game for ourselves!

Replica of Noah's Ark

Wow, talk about something awesome . . . Johan Huibers from the Netherlands has built a replica of Noah's ark using the scale from the measurements in the Bible. The measurements he used are: "Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan's fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house."

The really amazing part is that, according to several articles, "Noah's Ark as described in the Bible was five times larger than Johan's Ark."

You can see the articles here: Article1 and Article2 (with video of the inside). There are many more if you Google "Working replica of Noah's Ark" or something like it.

The ark was apparently built in 2007. I can't believe I've never heard of it until now. How did I hear of it? I can't remember what I was looking for, but a link of it popped up while I was just surfing the internet - completely unrelated surfing, at that. (I don't normally surf for real life replicas of Bible stories, but I may start).

So, what have YOU done this week? Johan built an ark . . . I can't even fault him for making it 1/5 real size - it's still awesome.

Geocaching

Got a GPS device (or want a reason to get one)? Have you heard of Geocaching?

Click on over to Geocaching.com and see what's hidden in your neighborhood. That's right - thousands of people with GPSs have hidden ammo cans, film canisters, and Tupperware around the world for you to find and sign their log book! You could be living right next to one and not know it. Once you create your free account you can view the exact coordinates and walk right up to it using your handy GPSr. I use a Garmin Sportrak, FYI. Most recent GPSrs have started tending to the street direction demands and aren't as good for this as the off road variety. Look throught the comments for Geocaching compatibility. You can even view the forums on Geocaching.com for some recommended brands.

Don't want to buy into my hobby but want to participate in the global scavenger hunt? Try Letterboxing.org. It was around before GPS was invented. It's a little different, though. Instead of trading an item for another item you are suppossed to trade a stamp for a stamp. Each letterbox has a stamp log and a stamp inside. You stamp your log with the stamp inside and then leave your mark on the Letterbox's log. There are some hybrid hides that are listed on both sites, which are way cool.

Let me know if you've heard of geocaching or if you create a new account. Leave a comment in the comments and I can give you some more pointers. If you're close by I can even take you on a hunt. Kids love this stuff - just tell them pirates hid a treasure nearby and you've found one of their maps . . . my boys had a fit the first time we did it! :)

Remember to read the expected behavior on the website, trade up, and leave nothing but foot prints. (There is even an annual Cache-In-Trash-Out clean up day "CITO" on Geocaching.com).

There are more cache types as well, such as web cam, CITO, multiples, etc, but I leave that as an exercise for the class.

Happy caching!

Lego Digital Designer

This is way too cool. I got this from the lifehacker blog entry about it, which has a link in it, but you can go directly to the link here if you would rather do that.

This program lets you play with virtual Lego blocks to design the ultimate Lego masterpiece. When you're done, it lets you order all the pieces you just used as a special kit!

There are starter models to work off of, and there are 763 available block types! This could be good just to get the pieces from the sets I have that aren't complete anymore - but I could make them more awesome now! . . . for the kids I mean! . . . yeah . . .

ThinkingRock for Getting Things Done

I'm always looking for a better way to stay organized and manage my lists in a way that's compliant with Getting Things Done methodology (GTD) and not exclusive to any of the 7 Habits thought processes. Today I've spent a lot of time with ThinkingRock and am very pleased.

The 2.0 version is set to be released soon with lots of fixes, but I must say the current version is quite polished. You really have to read "Getting Things Done" first to really understand why the program is doing what it's trying to do.

I have been looking at GTD software for about a year now, and have passed this one over several times as too complicated - in my searches I have come closer and closer to wanting something that does what this program does as I understood the GTD methodology in more detail. My last attempt was a spreadsheet that I made myself that is very close to this exact approach but no where near as easy to use.

There is a lot of support in the forums for the program. It's free, like a lot of programs trying to make automated GTD work, so it has a large forum. Someone even found a way to print on note-cards to make this compatible with the previously mentioned Hipster PDA. I prefer printing my lists from this program in the Pocket MOD format right now (fully supported by ThinkingRock), based just on today's expiraments. I'm going to transfer this program to my USB stick, too, so I may not need any paper to carry around.

This is a great program for anyone who's trying to get to a 4th generation planning tool. You should read about GTD regardless if you use this program or not (it's a great system). After you have, you should try this program.

Like this program? Use another? Let us know in the comments.

Firefox 3

FF3 is out, finally! It pulled all my old information from FF 2 so I get all the new features with all my old settings. If you have never tried Firefox, you really should. It is a full replacement for IE. It's better in so many ways. Once you try it and get to know it's full potential, you'll never go back. Click the picture to join the (ongoing) revolution - (or click HERE).

Free Senseo

Want a free Senseo coffee maker? "An $80 coffee maker for free? What's the catch?" you say. Well, you do have to click this link HERE. After you fill out a short survey it will tell you if you qualify or not. I have one of these babies in my office right now - 100% free. No less than five of the people I work with also received one (I haven't checked on all the others I gave the link to). My Brother and my Mom both also received one for free. There is NO catch, no membership, and no further obligation (unless you count the free coffee they sent me later, too).

It seems that if your answers show that you are influential and would be getting people to buy these, and/or the pods that go with them, then they want you to have one for free so you can show those people you influence how cool it is. It is a great coffee maker when I don't have time to wait for the whole pot to brew or only want 1 cup. Target makes pods that fit it, too (Archer Farms brand).

How's that for awesome! :)

Free Office Suite

Can't afford Microsoft Office? The 2003 version can be found at around $160 for the Student and Teachers version - that's what I use. I bought it before there was a really good (any) alternative. I won't buy another version, though.

For those of you who haven't spent your money yet, you should really try Open Office first. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and does almost every exact same thing. Some of the user interface is different, and the menu names may be slightly changed, but the help files will help you figure it out quickly. There is a huge internet following of Open Office who will be glad to help. Go to the support tab on the Open Office page for their forums. You can probably find what you need with a quick Google search as well.

You can also get Open Office as part of the "Google Pack." Google Pack comes with several other free programs that you select, and it manages the updating of all of them so you always have the latest version. To see what I'm talking about, either click above or click the Google Pack link on the right side of the page (under the labels). I'm a big fan of Google Earth, personally. I waste a lot of time just looking at different places on the globe. It's fun (addicting) finding houses where I used to live and schools I used to go to. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Freecycle

Got junk around the house? Thinking about a garage sale . . . someday? Want to clear up some space but can't bear to through out that . . . whatever?

Try joining a Freecycle network. It's like "RE"cycling, but it involves giving stuff to other people for "FREE" (freecycling . . . get it). You post what you have and don't want, and someone comes and gets it. Easy.

Read the etiquette of your local organization. Posting in several areas is usually frowned upon. The group usually has specific words to have at the beginning of your listing ("OFFER," "TAKEN," "WANTED," etc).

Some groups have more "WANTED" than "OFFER" posts, but you can usually find a person to take your stuff and sometimes see a good deal every so often. Make sure you set your e-mail preferences to something you can live with. Until I switched to a one-time daily e-mail, I was going nuts as my inbox filled up. I don't get the first chance on many items, but I can live with that for the trade off.

EepyBird, Diet Coke, and Mentos

You HAVE to go to EepyBird.com. It's the home of this video. I still have not been given permission to recreate this by my wife, but one day . . .



The event make a Do-It-Yourself kit now!

Creepy weird stop animation of the day

This video amazes me at how long it must have taken. I don't have that much patience at work, much less for a hobby or for free. Very cool techniques.

Movie starts at about 25 seconds - it gets really going at about 45.

Practical joke of the day

The solution is to hold "ctrl" + "alt" and press the up arrow. What am I talking about?

Try this: hold down "ctrl" + "alt" and press the down arrow on your keyboard. If you are one of the many Windows users with Tablet PC features built in, your screen just turned upside down. It also works with the left and right arrow, but turns the screen on its side. That' why I put how to fix it (the up arrow) first . . . otherwise you'd be yelling at me and trying to read this upside down to see how to fix it!

It doesn't work on all computers. How did I find this "feature" on my desktop? Apparently toddlers don't need a manual to randomly press keys and scare the wits out of their parents. We had no idea what they did, but google helped, and showed me that there are millions of other parents who went through the same thing.

I'm not condoning it, but this seems like a real funny joke to play on people at work . . . you have to go back and help them fix it though - that's just not nice.

Free game - Trackmania Nations Forever

I was sitting here playing this game and then remem- bered that it cost me all of $0 - great price for a game that takes up a LOT of my time because it's so fun to play. I don't even like racing games, but I like driving up ramps, jumps, corkscrews, and the like, all at incredible speeds, doing tricks and trying to get the best time . . . you won't understand until you play.

This game has a solo AND online mode - you can play against people all over the world in races for the track record effortlessly. If you don't want to see all those other cars on your track you can try to earn gold medals by beating solo mode goals. If you want, you can build your own trick track and even upload it for others to play on.

You can paint your car with a very easy to use paint mode. You can see the fruit of my efforts - that fly purple ride in the pictures is mine. Others you play against won't be able to see your artwork unless you pay for the game or pay a monthly fee, but since I don't think it's worth my money to do that I haven't.

This is a smooth, polished game, and definitely worth the time for you to download and check it out. The game plays well, looks great, and is a lot of fun. If you have a controller and a good graphics card, it gets even better, but the game plays well even on my laptop. You can download the game at trackmania.com. Let me know if you start playing so we can add to each others' friends lists and take some races on together.

Here's the game's trailer. I hope to see you online.

Free PC games

This site, "Game Giveaway of the Day" gives away one game each day that is free as long as you download it within the 24 hours it's offered. They're usually casual games that don't appeal as much to me, but they are free and I have been caught by more than one to waste my time on.

Also, from my own Steam account, I have a few games that need a good owner. I owned the game before, and when it came bundled with Half Life: Orange Box later, I ended up with a version I could give away. If you want a copy of Half Life 2 or Half Life 2: Episode One, let me know. Please be sure your computer can handle it first, and have Steam already installed (there are other free games and demos you can get with it on that page - you HAVE to try Portal . . . more Portal here). I can help with either of those pre-requisites.

Support you might not have known about

Most people don't know about these, but they've both come in handy for me recently:

1) Rock Band warranty - if you have Rock Band and experience the problem we just had (strum bar quit working) or any similar problem, you might be like me and start looking for a replacement controller. Thankfully a Gamestop employee clued us in on the piece of paper that came in the Rock Band box with this link. I submitted that I had a problem and they sent me a brand new guitar with a box to return my old one in (much like Microsoft did for my Xbox 360 with the red ring of death . . . ask me if you need help with that one). Outstanding support with no questions asked from the folks that make Rock Band - it's completely changed my attitude since the first guitar broke.

2) Wii remote jackets - there are many versions on sale to protect your controller as it slips from your hand and smacks the walls of your home, but Nintendo has created an official version that ships with all new Wiis. "Not fair!" you cry. "My Wii didn't come with one!" Relax, fair citizen - Nintendo has come to your aid. Simply go to their website and give them the serial number of your Wii - I got 4 of them, and they're GREAT! It is SO easy to change the batteries with these jackets, compared to the third-party ones I had bought, and they are designed perfectly. Great job, Nintendo.

Free Guild Wars trials

I've got 3 free 14 day trials to Guild Wars . . . who wants them?

Free Senseo coffee maker

Get a free Senseo coffee maker! I'm serious! I've got one in my office, my Mom just got one of her own, and my Brother just recieved his. If you fill out this survey, and you seem to be the kind of person that could give Senseo good publicity, you'll get an $80 coffee maker and a bag of pods for free!! You can actually buy Target brand pods that say "compatible with Senseo" and save some money later.

This program has NO requirements; they just want you to pass along the word about how great their coffee maker is! It really is cool, by the way . . . especially free!!!

I got one for myself months ago - the program is legit and an incredible deal. You won't be sorry!

Is anyone out there?

Ok, seriously . . . I'm wondering how many people actually read my blog. If you can, please post a comment or e-mail me and tell me you're following along. I'd like to know if anyone is actually reading what I'm writing each night. Thanks! e-mail me at noah.secondary@gmail.com if you don't want to create a post (post is preferred).

Free prize for first to post. I don't know what it will be. Don't be greedy.

Mind map on the interweb

Mind mapping - not widely known about, but popular in the organization crowd and blogosphere. If you're into it, here's a nifty page that does it well. Text 2 Mindmap. If you're interested, you should google it and read up; then come back and see why this page is awesome.

Videos for the night

Ok, here's some hilarity for tonight. I wonder, what's a good gift for Father's Day . . . if your Dad is a NINJA!!

Or, on a more serious "big brother's gonna get you" note, check out this new song. I heard it on the radio the other day, and I thought it was cute until it started the call for everyone to rise up and cleanse the land . . . you're interpretation may vary. "Handlebars" by the Flobots

Not useful stuff - but awesome stuff.

Late night videos

Late night tonight - Here are some videos that I liked as I got ready to call it a day:

1) DRUM SOLO!! At 3:04 in the video, he actually starts head-banging . . . it's not a rock group.
2) Simple follow-along video to be just like Linkin Park. Kinda cool, actually . . .
3) A VERY annoying character keeps very annoying in this video, but here is an explanation of how Guitar Hero on the DS is going to work . . . I am very interested, but that screaming dude gets on my nerves after about the 17th time.

I hope you're having a great Friday-eve.

DIY Planner Kits / WOOT

Here's something many people can use. There are some nifty downloadable forms from diyplanner.com that you can use to print your own planner. I have dabbled with the note card version, and some of the forms worked really well, bound together with a clip, as a portable planner known as a "Hipster PDA." It doesn't give me the technology fix I need, but it does feed the office-supply-fetish pretty well. Considering how much I used to spend on planning systems, paper and electronic, this frees up a lot more video game money.

While you're building your new planner, check out this page: woot.com. There is a new item every day at 1000 pm (PST). It's not always great, but I have gotten some cheap and neat things from there. You have to keep an eye out for the random "woot off" where they put up an item until it sells out and then post another, continuously, for around 24 hours or longer. The holy grail of the woot-off is the BOC. It stands for Bag of Crap, otherwise called the Bandolier of Carrots or some other BOC fitting phrase. It sells for $1, is sold out under a minute, and can be whatever woot.com wants to send you. You could get something great! . . . or otherwise . . . I've not gotten one yet, and only met one person who has. He got a wooden snake and covers for an MP3 player (player not included), but he forever has bragging rights . . . you'll understand when you start going to the site!

Add it to your newly printed schedule - Happy wooting!

Personal (free) transcription service

Here's something I use nearly every day. The page is called Jott (link here) and it can do some awesome things. I personally have it set up as a speed dial on my cell phone where I can call and leave a message - it takes the message and translates it into text that it e-mails back to me. I no longer have to listen to my recorded notes or find scraps of paper I wrote stuff on when I had a stroke of genius. You can actually use it to Jott directly to a blog or several other sites - I haven't started using it to its full capacity, yet. I have quite an accent, and as long as I speak slow and clear, it does a pretty good job. The e-mail it sends comes with a link to listen to my own voice, so if it didn't get it right I can always play it back and see what I 'meant' to say.

I got the idea to use this from the Lifehacker web page. If you search that page for Jott, you can see a lot of other users ideas for how to use it. One of its intended purposes is to set up contacts other than your self that you can send text messages and e-mails to from your phone. I'm contect to have it e-mail and text me until I fully overcome my accent limitations - I'll send the message on after I've proof read it - too much opportunity for embarassment.

Happy Memorial Day

I have special ties to this day, to say the least. I think this link is a special story for the holiday. A 107 old man is the last remaining veteran from WWI. Wow . . . I'd like to talk to him.

Have a safe holiday.

Trade your video games

I have to share this site. This is where I've posted all my bargain bin games and traded them to get points that I then traded for today's top games. I've gotten thest games COMPLETELY FREE (after trading my other games) from this site: Final Fantasy Ring of Fates, Smarty Pants, God of War Chains of Olympus, Innocent Life, Final Fantasy XII Revanant Wings, Turning Point Fall of Liberty, Crazy Taxi for PSP, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Elder Scrolls IV Shievering Isles, The Lord of the Rings Tactics, Heroes of Might and Magic V, and the Sims Complete Collection. I'm currently in line for Final Fantasy XII for PC, Wild Arms XF, GTA IV, and Outlaw Golf for PC. You can trade your games, too. Click here to accept my recommendation. Once you complete your first FREE trade (get a FREE game! Honestly!! It's how I started!!), I'll get more points added to my account! It's easy! E-mail me if you have questions. My wife and I have both been putting our games on here for a long time now, and we love being able to get rid of games we no longer want to someone who will enjoy them, while being able to get a brand new game for ourselves!

Blogging from my phone . . . oh, boy

I just learned to blog by phone - watch out world! Every stupid or funny thing I see from now on is fair game.

Puzzle of the Day

Here's something to burn your brain. I tried playing the Nintendo DS game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" last night and came across this puzzle that took me WAY longer than I expected to solve. I've had a lot of fun today telling it to people and watching their head explode. Try it . . . I'll post the answer later. Feel free to e-mail me your guess. (*there's a demo of the game on the web-page that lets you play through a different puzzle in your browser)

"Imagine a digital clock (one that displays like '3:33'). How many times will the clock display three or more of the same number in a row over the course of one day? In case you were wondering, the clock in this puzzle displays time on a 12-hour scale, not military time."


While you're pondering the puzzle, try out this webpage that I created an account on yesterday. You may have heard of it: last.fm

You choose an artist and it plays songs from other people who like that artist. The presumption is that if you both share an interest, you'll probably like their other interests as well. There's a download that reads the songs you play in Window's Media Player and suggests songs, too. I'm still playing with it, but I like the idea.

There's another webpage that looks at lots of different characteristics of a song (voice, tempo, speed, etc) and characterizes songs together - a "music genome project." It's called Pandora and is pretty cool.

Good luck with the puzzle! It's not as easy as you think!

Why blog now?

I am starting the blog, one of many in my interweb history (none actually used), because I see too much too often that I need to share, and I'm tired of spamming friends on facebook or myspace.

For example:

If you have ever watched YouTube, you will know all the references in the new Weezer video for "Pork and Beans" . . . if you don't get it, I've got more awesome links for you.

More to come, whether you want them or not.

Noah