tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37009202009-02-20T18:50:58.878-08:00Act of Dog - Drink from the fountain of knowledgeWelcome to Act of Dog. Any reasonable person would be wise to leave now, before they spend too much time reading this worthless blog. Damn, too late.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1154069437179612002006-07-27T23:40:00.000-07:002006-07-27T23:57:00.643-07:00David Hasselhoff: International Superstar, Domestic JokeAll the war, famine, natural disasters and bloodshed may have convinced some that the end of the world is near, but I've never bought it. That is, until I heard about Hasselhoff: The Musical. It seems that "The Hoff", as he is known by fans, is planning to give audiences an intimate look at his genius by creating a musical about his life. ItCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1152642324022982472006-07-11T11:25:00.000-07:002006-07-11T11:28:21.533-07:00Hans Rosling on TED TalksThis is a really fascinating presentation from the 2006 TED conference. Rosling provides very compelling visualizations of public health and global economic data.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1150916001734572042006-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:002006-06-21T11:53:21.746-07:00Just downloaded Windows Vista Beta and installed it on a fairly new Dell Precision M70 (which I hate, BTW). It literally took 2 hours to install, after which it rebooted several times and then presented me with the Blue Screen of Death. Hooray!My advice? Don't try the Beta. Don't even try the final release. Switch to a Mac. :)Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1150731978242202692006-06-19T08:46:00.000-07:002006-06-19T08:54:32.743-07:00Smart (?) CarGet a load of this little Smart car. SF Gate did a feature article on its rising popularity. Now, I'm all for smaller, smarter cars, but this one doesn't seem to make any sense. It costs somewhere in the mid $20,000 range and it gets a mere 40 MPG. Exqueeze me? I'm gonna pay $25k for a car that barely seats 2, has 60hp and only gets me 40mpg? That's just plain silly. Do these cars Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1150690461803644852006-06-18T21:14:00.000-07:002006-06-18T21:14:21.860-07:00Web auctions, the new jackpot for middle Americans - Yahoo! NewsRegular folk attend this years' eBay Live! event hoping to learn the secret to making big money on eBay. The truth is, it's just like most anything else. A lot of work.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1150433732849731962006-06-15T21:37:00.000-07:002006-06-15T21:59:30.096-07:00Everyone's buzzin 'bout ParallelsHave you heard? Parallels, a little startup that makes virtualization software has just released Parallels for Intel Macs. What is Parallels, you ask? It's a piece of software that mimics a PC and lets you run Windows on your Mac. What's the big deal about that, you ask? Hasn't VirtualPC been doing this for years? In a word, yes. But this time it's different. ThisCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1150071523717303842006-06-11T17:13:00.000-07:002006-06-11T17:18:43.716-07:00Food Network.... why?So, I'm channel surfing this weekend and I happen to catch the Food Network show Unwrapped. I've seen Unwrapped before, but this time something sets me off. I'm watching some candy mnufacturing process and it starts to occur to me that even though this is a candy I haven't seen before, it's the same damn process I've already seen 100 times on this show. I mean, how many vats Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1147834685674460292006-05-16T19:58:00.000-07:002006-05-16T19:58:05.736-07:00$295 leather carry case for $349 iPod HiFiOkay, so this is just stupid. There's no other way to describe it. If you're even thinking about wasting money on this kind of crap, give me a ring so I can slap some sense into you.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1146810114510343882006-05-04T22:53:00.000-07:002006-05-04T23:21:54.530-07:00Windows Vista => OS X?There's been a lot of speculation recently about the future of Mac OS given the move to Intel processors and the release of BootCamp. Some are speculating that perhaps this is the beginning of the end for Mac OS; that Apple will begin shipping Macs that run Windows Vista, perhaps (a recent Apple ad campaign suggests otherwise). There's also been a lot of discussion about theCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1146028536761500922006-04-25T21:59:00.000-07:002006-04-25T22:17:45.540-07:00eBay Express LaunchedeBay has officially launched eBay Express, a new site aimed at creating an eBay experience that is more like traditional online retailers. eBay Express' big innovation is a shopping cart. I know what you're thinking. Shopping cart? What's the big deal? With eBay's auction model, you can't simply find an item and buy it, you have to participate in an auction (at least for mostCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1144686564453015862006-04-10T09:27:00.000-07:002006-04-10T09:31:57.263-07:00Missed My Train!Can nothing go right these days? After last week's incidents with Caltrain running over people and endless rain impacting my otherwise smooth commute, I end up missing my train this morning by, literally, 10 seconds.It was pretty stupid, really. I couldn't remember whether my train left at 8:51 or 8:56. I mentally granted myself the extra 5 minutes and was shocked to see the train pulling up Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1144253917124208042006-04-05T09:17:00.000-07:002006-04-05T09:18:37.180-07:00Windows on Macs - It's OfficialWell, the day has finally (or suddenly, depending on your perspective) come when Mac users can boot Windows on their machines. Not emulated Windows, but real Windows. I'm not sure what this will mean to Mac OS in the long run. It certainly remains a marginal OS in terms of distribution. However, it's gaining lots of popularty in IT departments thanks to its UNIX core. And of course, it's still Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1143343537276656052006-03-25T19:24:00.000-08:002006-03-25T19:27:00.683-08:00CompUSA Sucks... really, I'm serious.I just visited my local CompUSA which is literally 2 blocks from my house. Convenient, you might say... or is it? I've had the misfortune of visiting CompUSA about 4 times in the last couple years. Each experience has been a miserable one. It's sort of Staples meets Fry's with non-existent customer service. That's not due to lack of employees, however. Every time I'm in there must be 8 people Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1142490014400737432006-03-15T22:19:00.000-08:002006-03-15T22:20:14.446-08:00Okay, so it's been almost a week now with the new Mac and I'm smitten! Everything just works (except connecting to my PC over the network). Wifi connection? No problem. Exchange server connectivity at work? Piece of cake. Need software, but don't want to spend any money? Also no problem. This was the biggest surprise for me. There's a lot of really high quality software available for the Mac thatCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1142057252324767052006-03-10T22:06:00.000-08:002006-03-10T22:07:32.330-08:00So I finally got my MacBook Pro from Amazon today. It's an amazing piece of work. Setup was incredibly easy. For example, it immediately recognized my wireless network and just worked right out of the box. That would have taken hours on a PC. The damn thing just works. I expereienced a bit of pain with transferring my iTunes music over from my PC to my Mac. I ended up using iPodRip, which seems Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1141789330276335582006-03-07T19:36:00.000-08:002006-03-07T19:42:10.286-08:00Gumshoo Receives Honorable Mention in 2006 eBay Developer ChallengeI'm proud to report that gumshoo was the recipient of an honorable mention in the 2006 eBay Developer Challenge. This contest was sponsored by eBay to encourage innovative new products based on the eBay developer API. Using the eBay API, we were able to create a sophisticated filtering, misspelleing search and risk analysis Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1139985516136313812006-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:002006-02-14T22:38:36.200-08:00Apple Computer, Inc. :: Apple Begins Shipping MacBook ProWoohoo! Bust out the champagne! The MacBook Pro is finally starting to ship. Of course, I ordered mine from Amazon and don't expect to see it for another 3-4 weeks. I assume that Apple will supply their own retail stores before they begin supplying other retailers. But hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised with a nice new laptop a littleCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1139069938090161952006-02-04T08:13:00.000-08:002006-02-04T08:20:31.386-08:00Scam-tastic eBay ListingWow! I've seen some pretty amazing scams listed on eBay before, but this has got to be one of my favorites. The listing below is for a "Mystery Box" with bidding starting at a mere $1000. Note that the seller explicity says "You are only bidding on the box and the box alone, not anything that could be in the box." He or she then proceeds to describe all sorts of wonderful Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1139026610042334302006-02-03T20:04:00.000-08:002006-02-03T20:22:25.990-08:00Introducing the Magic 8NT BallInspired by the classic Magic 8 Ball, the Magic 8NT (pronounced Ain't) Ball brings a refreshing urban attitude to the semi-faux-occult classic. Just ask the Magic 8NT Ball a question and it will magically respond... with attitude! Responses include:Oh no you di-inBaleee DatI don't think soSay what?and many more...Coming soon: Magic H8 BallCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138870419561816912006-02-02T00:53:00.000-08:002006-02-03T20:25:09.210-08:00MercuryNews.com | 02/01/2006 | Lawsuit: iPods can lead to permanent hearing lossAm I the only one who finds this a bit on the silly side? Did Apple invent loud music or volume levels that go to 11? Of course not. So why should Apple alone be mentioned in this lawsuit? Methinks this smells of greed and lawyers in seek of a high profile case. It is interesting that the French require the iPod to Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138497084402270362006-01-28T17:11:00.000-08:002006-01-31T21:36:20.356-08:00MercuryNews.com | 01/28/2006 | Biting into online fraudDurzy said eBay can't be responsible for everything that happens on the site."The people who were defrauded maybe didn't take the proper steps to begin with when they were shopping," he said. "Maybe they didn't take advantage of the fact that they could see the history of the seller."gumshoo.com - The simplest, quickest, safest way to shop Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138478134807577752006-01-28T11:55:00.000-08:002006-02-04T07:49:07.253-08:00Seeing Fakes, Angry Traders Confront EBay - New York TimesThis article demonstrates that it's getting harder and harder for eBay to argue that they have no responsibility to protect their users from the various scams and fraud being perpetrated all over the site. While eBay claims that these scams account for only a tiny fraction of transactions on the site, their estimates wildly under representCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138340911340677542006-01-26T21:48:00.000-08:002006-01-26T21:48:32.080-08:00Picasa Floating Teddy BearPicasa Floating Teddy Bear Originally uploaded by cvilly.WTF? There's a floating teddy bear in my Picasa! Is this an Easter egg? Has anyone else seen this?Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138324141564311922006-01-26T17:04:00.000-08:002006-01-26T17:09:01.576-08:00I heard it on the radio....Just before stepping out of my car this morning, I heard the beginning of a radio commercial that asked, "what would you do with a pool that let you swim as long as you wanted without ever reaching the edge?" I thought about that question for a moment and surmised that eventually I would get tired and drown.Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3700920.post-1138170330389029702006-01-24T22:25:00.000-08:002006-01-24T22:25:30.400-08:00Wired News: EBay Scam Uses IPods as BaitThis is a great article about the "matrix scams" being perpetrated on eBay. You know the ones. They appear to offer iPods for dirt cheap or free, but they are simply pyramid schemes designed to get you and 6 or 7 of your closest friends to sign up for music clubs and other services which cost money. Here's my favorite part of the article: EBay spokesman Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03894106590234975953noreply@blogger.com0