The Geek Squad used to be a good company until they were bought up by Best Buy, and I have a feeling that the same fate awaits Speakeasy. Link via Consumerist.
Hacking John McCain
This is why you should not only avoid stealing layouts without credit, but you should certainly copy images to your own server.
Snarky Bend Is No More
I’m sure we all remember SnarkyBend, the anonymous blogger who was constantly poking fun at KTVZ, KFXO and other media and locals in general. He was a voice for free speech in the area, basically saying some of the things we’ve all really thought, and I always supported him/her/it. It was always an entertaining read, but whoever was running it quit posting content quite a while ago, and the blog is now officially gone, replaced with a spam-blog.
Snarky, are you still out there? Care to share what happened to you? If you need another place to post your rants, you’ve welcome to an account here anytime.
You can still read excepts from his posts over at the BendBlogs.com archive.
Is Volvo Trying To Make Drivers Dumber?
Has anybody else seen the Volvo S80 commercials that tout their new fancy safety features? In reality, they are just making it easier for people to drive like morons.
I can’t find a link to these videos anywhere, but there are a couple commercials that strike me as off. One has a woman driving the Volvo with a pile of file folders on her passenger seat. Something causes a couple of the folders to come off the seat onto the floor. So instead of waiting until she’s stopped to get the folders off the floor, she continues driving and leans down to pick her folders. Her head is below her windshield so she obviously can’t see or isn’t even remotely watching the road in front of her. Thankfully the car is smarter than she is, and its collision detection system kicks it, makes an awful noise to warn her and gets the car ready to brake, saving her (and her files) just in time.
The second commercial shows a guy driving down a freeway. In the commercial, the guy nearly changes lanes right into the motorcycle in the lane next to him, something he could’ve avoided if a) he’d been paying attention to traffic as he’s going down the freeway), b) actually turned his head before changing lanes, like you’re supposed to do (everybody remembers that part of driver’s ed., right?) or c) he had his mirrors adjusted so blind spots weren’t as big of an issue. But he avoids the accident because of the “Blind Spot Information System” (which, for all I can tell, is a little red light on the mirror that lights up when you’re about to clobber somebody).
Now don’t get me wrong — these are all great safety features, and these are nice cars (I’d drive one if someone gave me one), but my worry is that this is going to teach drivers to rely on these features instead of just flat-out paying attention while they’re driving. They should be a supplement for a driver, not a replacement for common sense.
(Edited: Fixed a couple of stupid typos.)
Round Four Is Over
The Final Four of Ohio State, Georgetown, Florida, and UCLA has been set. It’s stupidly late right now, and I’m really tired (why I’m still up, I have no idea), so I’ll posted the updated tournament scores tomorrow.
Update on 3/26: Here are the updated standings:
- Coz’s Bracket: 103
- goldenglove7624: 103
- shots hot: 100
- monkeyinabox: 100
- Repeating Greatness: 98
- bend no more: 98
- whiteybarkley: 98
- jenB_goDucks!: 95
- Scott’s Mad Dribblerz: 94
- #1 bracket: 93
- bojack: 93
- Reigning Dud: 91
- jaylee: 90
- Rusty from Portland: 89
- Briar Patch Project: 86
- casual picks: 86
- MN Shivs: 83
- GO GATORS!!: 83
- steph: 83
- PLU_STATS_231_2: 82
- Bowser: 81
- Canadian Bacon: 79
- Tasmanian Devils: 78
- kandray’s bracket: 75
- HEELSTAR: 70
- PAIZANO’S PIZZA: 69
- I can’t think of a name: 67
- Jake’s ’07 Pick ’em: 63
- shlid: 48
- Bretigny: 42
Bollywood Does The Beatles
This is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen all day…
Peyton Manning United Way Spoof
I’ve actually loved all the commercials and such that Peyton Manning does, and he hosted Saturday Night Live yesterday. This skit with him was hilarious (no, I did not see the whole episode)…
Round Four, Day One Is Over
Day one of the round four is in the books, and two teams punched their tickets to the Final Four. Here’s how the tournament scores are doing now:
- Coz’s Bracket: 95
- monkeyinabox: 92
- Repeating Greatness: 90
- jenB_goDucks!: 87
- goldenglove7624: 87
- Scott’s Mad Dribblerz: 86
- #1 bracket: 85
- shots hot: 84
- Reigning Dud: 83
- steph: 83
- jaylee: 82
- whiteybarkley: 82
- bend no more: 82
- Rusty from Portland: 81
- bojack: 77
- GO GATORS!!: 75
- PLU_STATS_231_2: 74
- Bowser: 73
- Canadian Bacon: 71
- HEELSTAR: 70
- Briar Patch Project: 70
- casual picks: 70
- kandray’s bracket: 67
- MN Shivs: 67
- Jake’s ’07 Pick ’em: 63
- Tasmanian Devils: 62
- PAIZANO’S PIZZA: 61
- I can’t think of a name: 59
- shlid: 48
- Bretigny: 42
Now I’m rooting for the Ducks and Georgetown tomorrow. My bracket’s already screwed anyway, so those are just who I’d like to actually see win.
Round Three’s Over…
…and there’s a three-way tie for the lead of the tourney (with all-new leaders, thanks to the higher point value of correct picks in later rounds):
- goldenglove7624: 79
- Coz’s Bracket: 79
- jenB_goDucks!: 79
- Scott’s Mad Dribblerz: 78
- #1 bracket: 77
- bojack: 77
- monkeyinabox: 76
- steph: 75
- PLU_STATS_231_2: 74
- jaylee: 74
- whiteybarkley: 74
- Repeating Greatness: 74
- Rusty from Portland: 73
- Canadian Bacon: 71
- casual picks: 70
- shots hot: 68
- GO GATORS!!: 67
- Reigning Dud: 67
- bend no more: 66
- Bowser: 65
- HEELSTAR: 62
- Briar Patch Project: 62
- PAIZANO’S PIZZA: 61
- kandray’s bracket: 59
- MN Shivs: 59
- Jake’s ’07 Pick ’em: 55
- Tasmanian Devils: 54
- I can’t think of a name: 51
- shlid: 48
- Bretigny: 34
There are still ways for a lot of players to win this as many folks in the top 10 picked some of these teams — the next 10 days are going to be exciting!