MySpace For Dummies

Proving that MySpace is a horribly organized, hard to deal with, generally stupid and hidious Web site, a book has been created to help you with MySpace, though I really think that “MySpace is For Dummies” would be a more appropriate title, and obviously I wasn’t the only one that thought that.

Yes, I know the irony of bad-mouthing MySpace when I have a profile there, but as you can tell I don’t spend any time there at all — maybe 10 minutes a month, max. The only reason I have the profile setup is so I can actually track down my friends who do nothing but spend time on MySpace, and refuse to read messages to them unless they come through their MySpace inbox or their stupid MySpace instant messaging program (get a real IM handle, folks). They’ll send me messages from their messaging system, and my reply is always “Look, if you really want to talk to me, e-mail me at insert my e-mail address as I can’t stand this site. They refuse to start a blog or send e-mails to people and post their life history on MySpace instead and expect everybody to go there to read it. And then they make their profiles private, which makes it so I have to login every time as MySpace can’t seem to hold onto a login cookie in Firefox for its life, and external RSS readers can’t read it if they post something on their blog (they use the news postings area instead, which doesn’t have RSS). Ugh…I wish that site wasn’t so popular, as it’s making idiots out of everybody. I just logged in there to see, just for giggles, if I had a message in there, and apparently I had 15 — all with profiles who have magically disappeared. I felt my IQ drop 10 points just by logging in.</rant>

January 28, 2007

I Can’t Believe They Used To Sell This Stuff

Does anybody else find it creepy that you could buy synthetic cocaine and that there were TV commercials for it? Video below…

(more…)

January 28, 2007

Parenting At Its Finest

I really can’t believe people like this exist…

ORLANDO, Fla. – A woman was charged with aggravated child abuse for putting her baby in an oven, turning it on and leaving her apartment after fighting with her boyfriend, police said.

The oven had not gotten hot enough to burn the child, whose age was not immediately available.

January 25, 2007

What If Abe Lincoln Had Powerpoint?

The Getteysburg Address might have gone something like this.

(Yes, I know it’s been around a while, but I hadn’t seen it.)

January 25, 2007

Welcome Source Readers

Apparently The Source, who interviewed me a couple weeks ago for their latest issue (on the stands today), thinks of me as the “godfather of local blogs.” I certainly don’t think I’d go that far, especially considering there are a few bloggers around here (Jon and Shannon come to mind) that I’m pretty sure have been doing this longer than I have, even if my site does get more traffic. But I do like to watch over my local blogging buddies, so I guess you could call me that. Out of all the things I’ve been called, it could’ve been a lot worse I guess.

Just the same, welcome to anybody who’s here because of that little blip. I can’t find the story on the Source’s web site, otherwise I’d link to it. But the quote the writer got from a local blog (which I can’t find on Bend Blogs right now as I don’t feel like digging for it, but I have no doubt that he got it from there) is worth picking up a copy just to read as it’s pretty funny.

January 25, 2007

Anybody Heard Of Hungry Howie’s Pizza?

Apparently they’re coming to Bend, or at least somebody covered a franchise agreement that covers this city as well as Portland. I honestly have never heard of the place, but here’s their Web page, but they have them all over the place with over 500 locations. Sounds like a better quality Little Ceasars, basically, but somebody correct me if I’m wrong.

January 24, 2007

Stupidly Handy Windows Applications (and FireFox extensions, too)

I can’t believe I didn’t find Taskbar Shuffle a lot earlier, as I’ve always wanted the ability to rearrange my taskbar buttons like I do with my Firefox tabs.

Then I realized something: I have a ton of small little applications installed that make my windows experience a heck of a lot more entertaining, usable, and flexible, and all of them are free. And I’ve never documented them all in one place, so I’m going to make the attempt here (mostly so I can remember these in the future should my computer ever go haywire). These are in no particular order, and this post has been several weeks in the making.

Full list after the jump.

(more…)

January 24, 2007

Why Bother With Second Life?

What most of the people who are on Second Life really need to get is a First Life. Be sure to read the backstory and the hilarious response from Second Life’s creators.

Links via Waxy.

January 23, 2007

The Food Network is Trying To Brainwash You

I was wondering why I had a hankering for McDonalds after watching Iron Chef America on Sunday night (video after the jump)…

(more…)

January 23, 2007

Did KBND Kill Their Afternoon News?

Did I miss something here? Every day on my commute home, I had been listening to the local news on KBND before switching over to NPR. The last few days, however, when I turn on the radio, I hear that crack-pot Sean Hannity (which I’ve already made clear they’ve basically lost me as a listener because of it). But despite what it says on their on-air schedule, it appears they’ve decided to bulldoze their 5-6PM news hour (or at least part of it — I’d usually listen between 5:30 and 6:00, as that’s when I was generally in the car).

Anybody have any idea what’s going on? It does mean that they’re now broadcasting 10 hours of conservative talk radio between 6AM and midnight, assuming that Hannity has taken over that hour that used to be the afternoon news.

I do have an e-mail into them to see what’s going on, and will update here accordingly, but I’ll be flipping off KBND for good now (other than during Oregon Duck games) if this is the case.

January 23, 2007