Ok, I’ll admit I’m more than a bit of a candy-holic. It’s fallout from when I quit smoking many moons ago. This new Laffy Taffy is pretty yummy! One flavor on the outside, another on the inside, sort of like a Rainbow soda. That sweet nicotine is something I never could get over. I wonder what other quit smoking techniques (create you own quit plan) and tips other people have tried?

Our youngest son has his first football game tomorrow. His number? “1″ We’ll be there with camera to capture the moment. Check our moblog [9/10/07 8:52am PST: Textamerica linkrot] tomorrow for live updates from the game, assuming we are in a wireless zone of course.

This blog was created on July 4, 2003 and in that time I’ve sent out several links to others, added sites to my blogroll, and removed some too. This entry is to confirm that my search is still very much active and ongoing for interesting blogs that I can add/update to the site. So what is this blog’s criteria for linking (or linking back to) another blog? It’s really pretty simple:

Something well written, frequently updated, useful, and/or compelling on pretty much any current event or web or tech-related topics (but I will link other than web/tech-related events).

Here’s the problem:

I can only visit and search through so many blogs a day, looking for those gems in the slushpile (sorry, but a lot of the blogs I’ve visited are like reading unsolicited novel manuscripts). So if I don’t know that your wonderfully fresh perspective blog exists, I cannot visit and read through for entries I can link up – I won’t be able to find (well maybe eventually I will find your blog) in order to add it to my list of regular reads. You might have the best blog in the world but unless you stop by and comment on something I’ve written and/or put a link on your blog to an entry of this site so that you show up in the referrer logs then how will I find you?

The outgoing link value, blogshares players, for this site is currently: $277.54. From my very basic understanding and analysis of this game, this isn’t too bad for a youthful blog and should help raise up your value if this site links to you. But in order to do that I do need at teensy bit of your help

I know you are out there, gentle blog owner, and wanting links, traffic, readers, so please you just have to help me out by raising your hand and making it known that you are there.

Keeping this in mind, I’ve put up this entry so that you can click on the comments and tell me what your blog is about. Oh, and if you want to tune in or call into my radio show and tell me about your blog that’s ok too. Email isn’t the best or most reliable contact option for me because of the volume (mostly BS like the everybody else) that I need to sift through. We stream across the internet in multiple bandwidths every Friday at 2pm PT / 5pm ET. Today is our 156th week of broadcasting and we have a toll free caller line for those in the United States. Plenty of ways to get the word out to me that you are there and you are blogging.

What do you say? Comment and link away

Among the wave of Sobig garbage a positive note from the Google Adsense program: 2 new formats are now available. A horizontal option: 728 x 90:

and an inline rectangle 300 x 250:

This program so far is working really well for me on one domain where I’m trying it out, as mentioned on my radio show the last 2 weeks.

Related entries:
Google adds more free services and features
Privacy conscious search engine user: paranoia?
Google’s Page Rank, weblogs and the future
Do Blogs spam Google results?

- Karl says enough explanations, just fix whatever caused the blackout. Amen.
- Schwarzenegger can’t be interviewed on Stern unless all 130 candidates are given equal time, according to some “inane FCC rule”, <a href=”http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_08.html#004485″>points out</a> Jeff. And I don’t know why Arnold didn’t dress up in Terminator garb <a href=”http://www.joinarnold.com/video.html”>in this video</a> if he is going to do the “we’ll be back” thing.
- SBC Yahoo’s DSL <a href=”http://chris.pirillo.com/archives/2003_08.html#006726″>really upsets</a> Chris Pirillo
- Jim Rome doesn’t think a <a href=”http://www.jimrome.com/home/article/article_3.html”>”porn skank”</a> has a chance at being Governor in California
- <em>Home users can avoid infection by updating their anti-virus software and by being suspicious of unexpected e-mail messages they get from people they do not know well. </em> BBC: <a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3169573.stm”>Sobig is biggest virus of all</a>
- Humorous: <a href=”http://www.foxpop.co.uk/eclectica/pda_06.htm”>A Day in the Life of the PDA user</a> breakdown. <em>Looking at the screen you see Fatal Exception, Reset!</em>. MacGyver alert: I keep a thumb tack near the computer ready to reset the Palm.
- Mike at Techdirt <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030821/0323236_F.shtml”>points</a> to <a href=”http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/19/1061261151432.html”>a car that parks itself</a> I think in the next 20 years computer controlled cars will be in the mainstream. In the next 10 we’ll see mostly luxury cars with this kind of technology.
- The word <a href=”http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2003/08/20/164992-ap.html”>”blog”</a> officially enters Oxford dictionary as well as egosurfing, shotgun cloning, nerd, geek, and bad hair day.
- <a href=”http://www.youplaygames.com/LearnMore.aspx”>Fragging others</a> can win real money for those playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
- 1 in 3 cell phones to <a href=”http://www.up2speed.com/archives/2003/08/20/one_in_three_phones_to_have_camera_by_2008/”>have cameras</a> by 2008
- New <a href=”http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5065582.html”>Microsoft 2003 Office pricing</a> has been announced.

Typing in URLs into my cell phone using the standard telephone keypad is a chore. Especially if it uses the characters that you have to press multiple times. I decided that if I wanted to make a wireless-friendly version of a website that the URLs for the subdirectories and filenames should be quick and easy to type into the phone.

Therefore, I decided to write a basic PHP utility script which would allow me to get codes to use for short URLs and valid subdirectory names when designing a wireless site that would be easy to type in the URL from the phone using the keypad.

First I looked at the numbers that are one press on the cell phone and easy to enter in: 2 = a, 3 = d, 4 = g, 5 = j, 6 = m, 7 = p , 8 = t, 9 = w, 0 (zero) = 0

Using the following free utility you can easily generate your own random numbers / URLs of up to 10 characters:

Easy Cell Code Generator by TD Scripts

Happy coding to you!

Yesterday, BlogTV quietly launched.

I’ve been checking back periodically to see what became of this new service as it was originally slated to launch Monday 8/18 at noon and was understandably a bit delayed. I have linked to them almost since my blog started, so I have looked forward to this. I thought it might be some technological leap forward in blogging. Something new and exciting in the blogosphere.

At launch, however, there are still more questions than answers for this service. If you click the support link it goes directly to a password-protected area. Click the forum link and it says that section is coming soon. Maybe the “official” launch date should have been moved back and changed to September 18?

They have bought up a bunch of blog-related domains to launch their service: (blogpolitics, blogmovies, bloghealth, blogfamily, blogdiets, blogcars, blogsex, etc) and are offering 3 pricing structures for hosting blogs: $9.95/month for one blog and 1 gig traffic per month,  $14.95/month for two channels and still 1 gig per month, and the family pack (4 channels) for $24.95/month. The $9.95 plan offers a 30 day free trial to check it out and lists a bunch of features, many of which promise a (secret?) community atmosphere: “Lose weight via blogdiets (meet others like you)” and ”Surviving with Cancer? (…You’re not alone)” 

Interestingly, all their channels still redirect to BlogTV (as of the time of this writing), so I guess they launched with no hosted blogs or community members? It’s curious why they didn’t they go out and solicit at least one or two bloggers for each category/domain to use their service so they could launch with some content? Even comped account shills would be better than a big goose egg. Without startup content, they are little more than a shell for a blog-only (?) hosting company and thus will almost immediately be compared to other similar services and straight hosts by prospective customers.

For the $14.95 and $24.95/month plans more than 1 gig traffic a month should be included. A good profit can still be made if they charge $5 per gig, so give the user 5 gigs at least for 25 bones a month. If the blog uses video clips, lots of pictures, and enjoys even modest success (my guess is the blogsex.com channel will be especially easy to exceed this included limit), then 1 gig will not be that difficult to burn through. Video especially has a healthy appetite for bandwith. I couldn’t find how much overages were charged at easily on the website as many pages still say: “this page is still being updated” and that’s not good. How about a terms of service or privacy policy? Nadda.

The flash menu with sound is sharp, but it takes a few seconds to load on a 500k DSL connection, and I’m not a big fan of sound on webpages by default. It’s ok if I want to enable it, but sound should be turned off when surfers enter a page unless they are expecting sound.

BlogTV launches with a sharp, slick designed interface and promises many features — but it seems that the details and examples of these features in action can only be used once you break out the plastic. I might be willing to sign up if I could at least see screenshots or download a trial of the exclusive Blogcast software mentioned in the feature details of all three plans. 

With all the prehype surrounding this site, one would have expected it to launch with more information for those in the tour phase of the site. Where is the advertised community atmosphere? You can’t have a community without people, and you can’t start a community promising that there is a community, when there is no community. Why should I join to be part of a community of one?

So sorry, BlogTV, I’m not ready to reach for the credit card yet, however I’ve bookmarked the site and will check back in a couple weeks to see if it’s more fleshed out and ready for a complete review at that time. In the meantime, I wish them good luck — because in its current launch state they’ll need it – competing with the zillion other hosting companies and Typepad which offers 3 GB traffic a month for their Pro service, unlimited number of blogs, and is $10 less per month.

Is Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens heading out to the highway on a high-pitched note?

Judas Priest most recent CD release, April 8, 2003, Live In London was originally recorded December 19, 2001 and released on VHS and DVD in 2002. This is the second live CD released in the Rippers Owens vocals period and contains 25 tracks spanning nearly 30 years of material.

If you haven’t heard yet, Rob Halford, the ear-piercing, original vocalist, has officially reuinted with Judas Priest! Quoted from their site: Several exciting projects, in addition to the 2004 world tour, are in the early planning stages. Great news for those who felt that Priest wasn’t Priest without Halford, sort of like those who felt Black Sabbath sans Ozzy was never the same. However one could argue that Ripper Owens stood in admirably for Halford even if they never had a huge hit song or CD during his tenure.

I first experienced Priest on the Defender of the Faith tour and they are one band who does not disappoint live and this CD brings out some of that familiar energy and excitement. They are also one of those bands that sounds eerily as good live, maybe better, than in the studio. When Halford left the band, I thought they were finished; I mean who would have ever thought anybody else could hit those ridiculously high notes? But then along comes Ripper Owens! His inspiring story is told in the CD insert: he was playing in a Judas Priest tribute band when someone sent the real Priest a tape. They apparently flew in Owens for an audition and halfway through singing Victim of Changes they halted the song and offered him the job.

Live In London is a two-disc set that leans heavy into Priest’s older stuff playing a lot of songs from British Steel: Metal Gods, Grinder, Breaking the Law, United (first live recording?), Living after Midnight — which is good, because I think British Steel was their best studio release to date (although Screaming for Vengeance and others enjoyed more commercial and radio airplay success). Live in London also manages to blend in solid versions of post-Vengeance/Defender Priest which many fans say was when things started to go downhill for them musically with Touch of Evil and Turbo Lover. They even mixed in a little more brutal fanfare with Painkiller.

Personally, I didn’t care too much for Priest’s most recent studio release: Demolition, where I felt that they tried to do too much with Ripper’s vocals and making for a different and unique sound. What makes bands think that fans want to hear something different musically after 25+ years? Priest excels when they are jamming heavy, two-guitar melodies played an octave apart like Victim of Changes, not when they are trying to play experimental, Metallica-esq songs (and since Metallica came after them, it seems odd to make this comparison). With that in mind, if you still enjoyed Demolition, then you will also enjoy the only available live versions of these songs on this CD to date: Feed On Me, One on One and Hell is Home. 

Point of Entry fans will get their fix with Live in London because there are compelling versions of Heading out to the Highway and Desert Plains. Also satisfying are classics like Victim of Changes, Green Manalishi (with the two pronged crown), Running Wild, Hell Bent for Leather, Hellion/Electric Eye, You Got Another Thing Comin (of course!), The Sentinel, and the “what’s my name?” song: Ripper. in for sur-prise … you’re in for a sho-OCK! 

The one thing that Halford is going to have a difficult time bringing back to Priest is Tim Owens obvious deep admiration and passion for the band which can be heard and felt in his amazingly similar vocals. He parted with the band on good terms it seems, so if Halford has another change of heart after their 30 year reunion, we may not have heard the last of Tim Owens.

My only complaint, and it’s a big one, is that we’ve already heard the melancholy Beyond the Realms of Death, the semi-acoustic mellow-to-metal version of Diamonds and Rust and too many other songs sung by Ripper and backed by the band on their previously released live CD ’98 Meltdown. In fact, if you compare these two live CDs you’ll find that both contain *18* of the same songs. And if you listen to both they are all too similar versions as well. Therefore, if you already own ‘98 Meltdown, you didn’t like Demolition and you aren’t sentimental to possessing/collecting possibly Ripper Owens’ Priest swan song, then you have very little reason to buy this CD.

In summary, Live in London is as familiar and somewhat predictable as the signature Priest Harley riding in for a whipping encore performance of Hell Bent for Leather. It isn’t quite the same caliber as Unleashed in The East or even the later Priest Live, but it shouldn’t taint Ripper Owens resume nor leave heavy metal Priest fans screaming for vengeance. Priest, we’ll see you on tour in 2004! Grade B-

Related Judas Priest CD:
Screaming for Vengeance
Point of Entry
British Steel

Gender Genie evaluates your writing and attempts to determine if you are male or female based this algorithm created by Moshe Koppel and Shlomo Argamon. Thanks Jeff for pointing to this entry

It is supposed to be right 80% of the time, according to the text, but the actual percentage at the time of my review was more like 52%. Since it requires voluntary polling, the actual percentage could be skewed.

So I was curious, as I’m sure many of you will be, and ran this tool against 10 of my recent blog entries (which contained at least one decent paragraph of text) and the following were the results:

1) Multiple installed browsers more than a good idea - female - wrong
2) Sorry, no pics of Ted’s head here - female - wrong
3) Blogstakes launches: refer the winner and you could win too - female - wrong
4) Radiation from cell phones: concern or no? - male - #!CORRECT!#
5) Bargain basement pricing for dialup growing market - female - wrong
6) Review: Freddy vs. Jason - female - wrong
7) True Lies? Schwarzenegger still hasn’t announced his political position - female - wrong
Feedback: The Register - Webloggers deal Harvard a black eye - female - wrong
9) Rising cell phone city, state and federal taxes … for what? - female - wrong
10) AOL broadband pricing discussed and debated - female - wrong

Yikes, the computer was only right 10% of the time (1 / 10). So does this mean the computer is calling me a pussy? Grrr.

The next time you check your mail, your Norton is probably going to go crazy. Mine has been. 100 copies just got mailed to me of this Sobig variant This thing is spreading rapidly …

<img src=”/images/sobigvirus.jpg” border=”0″>

Well I tried to get back to work but one machine here was suddenly on the fritz. Internet Explorer is fried — will not load or repair itself – and unfortunately it is the only installed browser on that machine.

I just realized how paralyzed how one can be if their only browser on their only machine is down! And if you can’t get to the web then you could be in real trouble downloading a new version. Isn’t it kind of ironic how often these days many technical support folks point you to their websites for support? That’s great if you have a working browser and internet connection, but if you don’t have a browser that’s working on the machine or a working internet connection, it’s like trying to jog across the Atlantic.

Since this isn’t my only machine I was able to download on another machine on the network, then bring the file across and install that way, but I had sudden feelings for those who only have one computer. If anybody reading this fits into this category then make sure you download a second browser in case your sole browser goes down.

Might be a good time to add a second browser to your machine, even if you rarely use it. <a href=”http://mozilla.org”>mozilla</a> and <a href=”http://www.makeyougohmm.com/archive_2003-w27.phtml#standard-2″>Irider</a> are good choices.