Re-gifting

I still find if funny how ingrained Seinfeld has become in our culture.

“First he re-gifted, then he de-gifted, and then he tried to turn an upstairs invite into a Super Bowl sex romp!”

Sometimes you…

…have to go backwards to get anywhere these days.  Just ask this guy.

Accountants are

crazy.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What can we eat?

First spinach, now lettuce.  What’s next?

Geek News Central Unreadable

Todd Cochrane has run a site/blog called Geek News Central for a number of years now.  About a year and half ago he started doing a podcast about technology that is actually pretty good.  It’s one of the most listened-to podcasts out there, and was one of the first that I listened to when I was introduced to podcasting last year.  One thing Todd always stresses is actually going to his blog in conjunction with the podcast to be able to check out various links and such.  Well, I can’t take his blog anymore.  Over the past couple of months I have become increasingly irritated with the postings because the grammar and spelling are so bad that they’re (which does not mean the same thing as “there” or “their” ) virtually unreadable.

Now, I know that blogging is not a “professional” publication, but for someone who hosts a blog as widely read as Todd’s, you would think he could take two minutes and reread his posts before publishing them.  Everyone makes mistakes, and I’m sure some wise guy will probably find a few in this very post, but this is consistent and really annoying.  Take, for example, a post from earlier today about Technorati:

“What is the deal with Technorati. It seems every time I go to that
site and enter a search term their search is broken. I am finding more
cross linked post not via Google than I am Technorati. Has the
blogsphere gotten so big that they cannot handle the task if indexing
the blogs.  I am really disappointed in there performance and really tired of
getting screen that say this feature is not implemented yet. By the way
when you get that error it’s because their servers were to busy if you
try five minutes later you can usually get a search result.”

Why don’t we help Todd out here, shall we?

“What is the deal with Technorati?  It seems every time I go to that site and enter a search term, their search is broken.  I am finding more cross linked posts via Technorati than I am with Google.  Has the blogosphere gotten so big that they cannot handle the task of indexing the blogs?  I am really disappointed in their performance, and really tired of getting the screen that says, “this feature is not implemented yet”.  By the way, when you get that error it’s because their servers were too busy.  If you try five minutes later, you can usually get a search result.”

Honestly, there were parts of that post that I had to reread four times to understand what he was trying to say.  I’m not trying to be a jerk here, because Todd seems like a good guy and is usually pretty entertaining to listen to.  But we’re talking basic, junior high grammar here.  There are roughly 15 errors in that 5 sentence post.  I’m just trying to say that the more popular bloggers out there should take a little more responsibility for their work.  Thousands of people read you every day, Todd.  I know you’re busy, but would an extra two minutes of time per post kill you?  It’d make at least this subscriber check out your feed a bit more often.

The power of blogging is undeniable.  In the future, people are going to continue to get their news not from traditional sources, but by going to Technorati or Ice Rocket and seeing what the blogosphere has to say about an issue.  People are reading fewer books and other edited forms of literature and reading more MySpace pages.  People are writing fewer academic papers and composing more instant messages.  If “popular” blogs don’t start writing properly, we’re going to be a nation of people that doesn’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re” in a few years.  Take responsibility.  Quit being lazy.  If you have to, hire an editor with the ad revenue you’re making.  Please, just make your blogs readable. 

Technorati Tags: geek news central, todd cochrane, blogging, blogosphere, grammar, spelling, english, future

Male Restroom Etiquette

In case you haven’t seen it yet, this Male Restroom Etiquette video is fantastic.  Every man should know this stuff, but sometimes you run into a guy that doesn’t and it’s annoying.

Google’s Pinging

You can now ping Google from your blog with updates, and Dave Winer reports that it’s compatible with Weblogs, Inc.  Sweeeet.

Technorati Tags: google, ping, winer, scripting news

Google loves Youtube?

Mike Arrington reports a rumor of a possible acquisition of Youtube by Google for $1.6 billion.  Based on his experience, he thinks that it’s about 40% likely that the rumor is at least partially true.

Technorati Tags: google, youtube, techcrunch, m&a

Smart move by Nikon

Here’s a really interesting story. Nikon handed out a bunch of their new D80 DSLR cameras to “prolific” Flickr photographers as an advertising stunt. They collected all the photos shot by the people and included them in a Flash-based website, and then used them in an advertising campaign. What a great freaking idea. As the article says, this is how viral marketing should be done. It makes Nikon look “cool” to the Web 2.0 crowd.

I have a Nikon D50, which has been among most popular cameras for Flickr users forever, and absolutely love the thing. If Nikon keeps doing stuff like this, I’m sure more and more people will be turning to them in the future.

Technorati Tags: nikon, web 2.0, viral marketing, flickr

Flickr is addicting…

I absolutely love Flickr.  Once you start using it, you start getting hooked on it.  There is some amazing photography going on over there.  Take the below image, for example.  Despite the fact that it’s pretty disturbing, it’s an amazing capture.  Is that cool, or what?

Technorati Tags: flickr

Illinois Flag-Planting Video

I mentioned the Illinois football team trying to plant their flag at MSU after their big win Saturday, but I just now came across a video of the incident taken by a fan in the stands.  Pretty good stuff.  Man, I hate Michigan State.

Technorati Tags: michigan state, illinois, flag planting

Utility companies suck

If you’re playing Monopoly, it’s always a good thing to gobble up the utilities.  Those suckers add up.  But in real life, they suck.  Let me give you my reason why in the form of a scenario:

1. Aspiring, young, handsome man buys a house in August of 2005 and goes about the normal business of setting up electricity service to his new home.

2. The electric company, PECO, informs the aspiring, young, handsome man that he will be forced to pay a deposit on his account in the total of $150 because he is a perceived credit risk.  Following 1 year of timely payments, the deposit will be credited to his account.

3. Given the fact that the aspiring, young, handsome man has never paid a bill late in his life, has zero credit card debt, and an overall credit score in the mid 700’s, aspiring, young, handsome man understandably protests said deposit.

4. Electric company informs aspiring, young handsome, man that many times during the process of purchasing a house, one’s credit score decreases because of the number of credit checks run against him in a short period of time.  Evidently, when a credit check is run on a person, that person’s credit score almost automatically decreases with each check.

5. Pissed off, aspiring, young, handsome man decides to just bite the bullet and pay the stupid deposit to avoid further argument with idiotic utility company.

6. One year hence, aspiring, young, handsome man receives his electric bill as usual after 1 year of timely payments and does not see his deposit credited to his account.

7. Aspiring, young, handsome man places an agitated phone call to utility company to demand the whereabouts of his deposit.  Almost expecting the call, customer service representative interrupts the story and asks, “I bet you want your deposit back, don’t you?”

8. After an emphatic “YES!”, aspiring, young, handsome man wonders if said utility company would have ever volunteered the return of the deposit, or just “let sleeping dogs lie” hoping that a less than astute customer would forget about it.

This begs the question: how much money does PECO bilk out of its underpriviledged customers every year?  Generally the type of people that are “perceived credit risks” aren’t the type of people that categorize every expense they have down to the minutest of details (just ask CMB).  In my mind, the type of people they’re charging these deposits aren’t going to remember they were paid over a year later and demand them back.  What a bunch of slimeballs at PECO.

Technorati Tags: utility company, power, electric, bills, credit risk

You know what I hate?

One-ply toilet paper.  I’ll leave it at that.

Best of Unnecessary Censorship

Jimmy Kimmel does this bit called “Unnecessary Censorship”.  It needs no explanation.  Just watch and pee yourself.

Today in History: O.J. Simpson Acquitted

Has it really been 11 years since O.J. legalized murder?  Time flies.

Technorati Tags: o.j. simpson

Wife succumbs to pressure, creates Myspace page

More big news out of SE PA today as CMB (current Mrs. Butter) has set up her very own Myspace page.  Unfortunately she as of yet has zero friends.  Do you have a Myspace account?  Do you have very few friends and a lot of time to screw around on the internet?  Do you want to be CMB’s friend?  Look her up here!

CMB has been a little perturbed at some of the postings around here lately, and I think she wants her own voice for the world to hear.  Whether or not anyone will listen remains to be seen.  Note the incredibly attractive man in the picture in the upper left hand corner.  Man, that man is incredibly attractive.

Thankfully “Notre Dame football” came in just ahead of “sweatpants” on CMB’s list of interests.  Although, “spending time with my hubby” and “playing with my puppy Roxy” seem to be transposed.

Technorati Tags: myspace

A map of the shooting…

Just to give you some perspective, here’s a map of where the shooting occured (based off the best info I can find right now…might be a bit off) in relation to my office.  Lots of farmland out here, as you can see.

Technorati Tags: lancaster, pa, shooting, amish

Amish Schoolhouse Shooting Update

This is crazy this is right down the road from me.  It’s making worldwide headlines as evidenced below:

BBC
ABC
El Pais
El Mundo
CNN
Yahoo
Google

Technorati Tags: amish, shooting, lancaster pa

Breaking news: Shooting at Amish Schoolhouse

Looks like there’s been a shooting at an Amish schoolhouse about 5 miles from my office that’s making national news.

NICKEL MINES, Pa. - A gunman killed “a number”
of people at a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday in Pennsylvania’s
Lancaster County, state police said.

The shooter was among the dead, state police Cpl. Ralph Striebig said.

“There are a number of people dead,” Striebig said. “The exact number I do not know yet.”

State police later said it’s possible that five people died.

About
three dozen Amish people earlier were standing behind a police line,
and at least two ambulances had left the scene, WGAL-TV said.
Television news helicopters showed a person being taken away on a
stretcher to a waiting medical helicopter.

The
Lancaster County 911 Web site reported that dozens of emergency units
were dispatched to a “medical emergency” at 10:45 a.m. Monday.

Technorati Tags: amish, shooting, lancaster, pa

Dogs at weddings

If I let my wife have her way all the time, this could have been me.