Flickr middle finger as slideshow (Flickr shows 10,140 results). This would be one to put on one of those picture frames above your TV — or on your TV — to freak out guests. Flickr competitor Zooomr only has 7 middle finger pictures.

At least 3,335 are showing their middle fingers on Photobucket:

The middle finger photoshopped out of flames seems to be one of the more popular pictures. Popular at Imageshack too which has 4 versions of it in the top 10 results out of 267 total pictures.

I would show you the results for Smugmug but as of this writing they are having Amazon S3 image hosting problems:

Historically, Amazon has been very stable.  We’ve seen three of these in our entire history with Amazon (>2 years), including this one.  I expect, like the last two, that service will be restored shortly.

Don doesn’t seem to think this is a middle finger image moment. Those paying for Smugmug, might think so. Moving on, webshots has 19,627 middle finger images and hey, not a one of them is that flaming finger.

I checked AOL pictures but didn’t turn up any middle finger photos. Am I doing something wrong there? Oh, and yes, there is at least one middle finger picture here. This makes 21 posts out of 4,777 where the words middle finger have been used over the last 5+ years this blog has been in existence.

Did I miss a good place for more middle finger images?

At their newer site MissionMetallica.com you can register for free and gain free access to download several full past concerts plus get nearly daily updates on the upcoming album: Death Magnetic.

And speaking of Death Magnetic, the 7/17 update shares the album art for the new album (pictured above). You can download from MissionMetallica the album art in the following resolutions: 1280×1024, 1024×768, 800×600 as well as instant messenger buddy icons. One thing missing from the MissionMetallica.com website are RSS updates and podcasts. There are regular updates with some meat on the bones, check this screenshot out:

Optionally, you can choose to purchase three additional Mission Metallica experiences:

• Experience #2: $24.99 includes everything that Experience #1 (FREE) includes (whichI’ve written about in this post) plus download of Death Magnetic at midnight on street date at 320kbps + downloads of two entire shows from the summer tour + almost 2 hrs. of additional "fly on the wall" footage + 250 additional photos, ringtones of riffs from the new album + exclusive contests and $10 off merch or Fan Club membership at Metallica.com.
• Experience #3: $32.99 includes everything from Experience #1 and #2 + Death Magnetic CD with FREE shipping. I’ve got my eye on this one.
• Experience #4: $124.99 includes everything from Experience #1,#2 and #3 + a limited edition collectible 5LP 180 gram box with 5 individual sleeves.

Album art looks like Twilight Zone meets The Mummy. I’m psyched. I know, St. Anger was a letdown, but I’m ready for Death Magnetic and liking what the boys are doing with their music and multiple websites these days. If Death Magnetic is good they should go a long way to earning back some lost fans. Probably not the ones they were in favor of suing, but hey, it’s a start. Check it out.

My wife just brought me some fresh baked cinnamon rolls. A quick Hmm search revealed I’ve never written about cinnamon rolls before. In 5+ years nary a word said about one of my favorite breakfast-time desserts? Sacrilege!

Cinnamon rolls are best with a tall glass of cool milk. Any other cinnamon roll fans reading? If you don’t like cinnamon rolls, what other dessert catches your sweet tooth?

The picture is a bit blurry, BTW, because my growling stomach was shaking the camera

Additionally, on Friday’s they offer 5 albums for $5 each. Sure, they might be taking a loss on some of these, but they are getting me in the habit of checking in daily to see what they have to offer, and of course as long as I’m there, I may end up picking up a song or too.

The folks at Amazon are smart, Chris. They have found a way to make money using Twitter, something that people have been wondering how to do since it became popular among the tech crowd.

AmazonMP3 is doing everything Chris mentions above in their Twitter feed in 140 characters or less. I’m sure this is 98% automated and a great example of how to use Twitter to keep people updated as well as to encourage shopping.

 
In the last week along I’ve bought a complete MP3 album and a couple individual songs that started the shopping from deals in the AmazonMP3 Twitter feed, something I can’t remember doing from another Twitter feed. @amazonmp3 is the only Twitter RSS feed I’m subscribed to in my RSS reader, as well to be certain I don’t miss a single message. Highly recommended for online music shoppers.

A few of my favorites include a track of the upcoming Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy album (when will this album be released?) and:

The Who "Pinball Wizard"
Judas Priest "Painkiller"
AC/DC "Let There Be Rock"
Bad Company "Shooting Star"
Fleetwood Mac "Go Your Own Way"
Ratt "Round and Round"
The Guess Who "American Woman"

Rock Band is also releasing a feature that will allow 4 on 4 battle of the bands over Xbox Live. Oh yeah, bring it.

One of my earlier requests was that artists would be releasing complete albums for play in Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero the same time their new albums came out. Motley Crue (Saints of Los Angeles review) and Judas Priest (Nostradamus review) both missed out with their new releases, but Metallica will answer the call and release the complete album of Death Magnetic, due out in the Fall on Guitar Hero. I keep writing this is a huge opportunity for bands and clearly some are seeing this with comments from Metallica like (emphasis mine):

We are so psyched that we’ll be the first out of the gate with this simultaneous release . . . who knows, maybe a few years from now this will be the norm when your favorite band’s new record comes out.

Amen. This is shaping up to be an awesome — and spendy — second half of the year for music video games with sequels for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, not to mention drums and vocals being added to Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero is also going to have a way for gamers to create and share their own songs.  Start saving those pennies now.

Going through the comment spam on another blog and had a good laugh. Because this doesn’t really fit any topic over on that blog, I’m sharing the God comment spam (pictured above, text below) here:

This website is very nice and colorful too. Its nice to have something to show others where you attend church and to show all the smiling people filled of the goodness of the Lord. You have a wonderful website here. May God rich bless you always.

Maybe Judy is not a comment spammer, and hopefully I won’t burn in hell for bringing the following things to light, but there are some problems with her description of the blog in question. Let’s take a look at the blog — it’s my TD Scripts Wordpress plugin and mod blog. Here’s a screenshot for reference:

Does the above design seem "colorful." The design is like 95% whitespace. Ok, maybe the blue hyperlinks (the internet default, yes?) are colorful. The text is mostly black, so no hit there.  She called the website "very nice" which I’m honored if she felt that way, but doubt that it’s sincere, especially when the comment comes with a link to a site trying to sell such wonderful things as Penis Growth Pills (sorry, no link here) and Penis Growth Oil. Judy, Judy, Judy.

So what should I read into a comment that leads readers to male enhancement stuff? Now I know "Judy" what will "show all the smiling people the goodness of the Lord." Something tells me God has seen penises of all shapes and sizes.

I took the liberty to check your IP location, "Judy" because, well, I’m sure God might appreciate a friendly remember where another lowlife comment spammer hails from:

Yes, I smiled thinking about how God feels about "Judy’s" penis enhancement comment spam. Assuming there are such places in the afterlife, comment spammers who combine religion and penis size deserve a one way ticket to hell.

via Bloomberg:

The PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 in the U.S. in the first five months of 2008 after trailing Microsoft’s console in 2007. New exclusive games, such as “Metal Gear Solid 4,” and the rise of Sony’s Blu-ray as the dominant high-definition DVD player may enable PlayStation 3 to hold onto its lead.

One has to wonder just how much of an impact that has had on beating the Xbox 360 sales numbers at the start of 2008?

I’ve never seen the logic in purchasing a standalone Blu-ray player versus buying a PS3. The prices are about the same and with the ability to update firmware in the PS3 it’s a no brainer. What kind of ruthless salesperson tells an uninformed customer to buy a standalone Blu-ray player?

The PS3 improved sales are not all about Blu-ray of course, noticeable improvements have been made on the Sony gaming front. HOME still isn’t here, but several high quality games have been released plus PS3 customers received token achievement system support in the form of trophies with 2.41 for free last week. I still haven’t bagged any trophies yet, but hope to be able to change that soon.

Microsoft isn’t standing around completely flat-footed though, they are dumping the Xbox with 20GB hard drive at $299 and introducing a new standard 60GB version at $349. The Xbox Elite with 120GB sells for $449 and if you’ve got the dough, that’s the one to get. There hundreds of Xbox Arcade games, not to mention movies and TV shows; you’ll want the extra hard drive space. Sony’s Playstation Network still doesn’t hold up to Xbox Live. I realize it’s pay vs. free, which is a debate in itself, but why can’t I play great PS3 games like Super Stardust Co-op across the network with another player? When Sony answers this call, the real gamer competition will be on.

I wrote last year that I felt this coming holiday season would be the first time we’d have a true competition between the game systems. In speaking of who will be in second place that makes sense (I don’t see Microsoft or Sony unseating the Wii this coming holiday season). That comment assumed that the PS3 would have HOME which is due out (in beta, finally) this Fall. Microsoft will release their Fall update to the dashboard.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii continues to kick both systems in the hiney sales-wise. Nintendo’s network is still a joke compared to Xbox Live and less so to the Playstation Store, but nobody seems to care. The Wii has catapulted Nintendo back into the game console manufacturer driver’s seat. So much for the one year lead Microsoft had with the Xbox 360. And I have yet to see Wii Fit in any store in stock locally. Step up the production already, Nintendo!

“There’s nothing about this technology that limits its application to counterfeit investigations,” says Seth Schoen, a computer programmer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Some people who aren’t doing anything wrong may have their privacy threatened.” Schoen’s tests have found the dots produced by 111 color laser printers made by 13 companies including Xerox, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Brother.

Privacy concerns seem not to be the biggest issue here. The bigger issue is whether or not this would actually help track down the counterfeiter. I’m not Perry Mason, but while the serial number might identify the printer used, it doesn’t mean:

1) the counterfeiter is the same person who bought the printer.
2) the store can identify who it sold the printer to. Does every store track the identity of the printer sold. I know if you buy a warranty or something, the store will get that information, but what if a warranty isn’t purchased?

Even though I’m not a counterfeiter and don’t plan on ever being one this gives me even more reasons NOT to register any laser printer I buy in the future, as well as give the store personally identifying information about me with my purchase. I don’t like how stores always try and identify me for every little purchase anyway. I’m buying a CD and you need my phone number? Why?

However I use rewards and cash back cards and those identify me, so my purchases are already being tracked and identified by several places. Go figure.

I surfed YouTube for ‘Samsung Instinct‘  videos and there were 334 as of this writing. You don’t have to actually own an Instinct phone, but do have to feature it in your video. Don’t forget your video camera as you head into the store to check out an Instinct if you’re interested in the deal. There are numerous unboxing videos like the one shown below:

Obvious comparisons are being made to the iPhone and Geek.com reviewed and compared to the iPhone:

Sprint has been aggressively pitching the Instinct, long before its arrival, as an iPhone killer. After using it for more than two weeks, and putting it through its paces, including surfing the Web, sending and receiving texts and e-mails, using it as a GPS navigator, and more, I can say that it’s not an iPhone killer, per se, but does offer a nice challenge to what the iPhone is known for delivering.

I have nothing against Apple or the iPhone, but cannot stand AT&T. I’m not that thrilled about any of the cell phone carriers, but Sprint has treated us ok with our EVDO and two phone accounts for our teenagers.  Adding a third account for the Instinct which costs $229 ($129 if you count the $100 mail-in rebate) and switching to their Everything Plan would cost us $40/month more than we’re paying. Not bad.

Any readers try or buy the Instinct yet? Would be curious what your thoughts are as we continue to mull this over.

That’s how I came upon stillsleepy.com which is one of the best looking pharmacy promotion sites I’ve seen to date. It has videos, information, a clean design and is SEO personified. If I ever was to consider going down the dark path of being a spammer — and don’t worry I’m not — this is the type of site I’d want to promote.

It’s almost useful. Even though I don’t have a sleeping disorder, this site makes me go hmm.

Check out the track how sleepy you are widget to the left (the primary reason I made this post). Unfortunately the website mentions the drug Provigil dozens of times (don’t worry I’m only going to mention it in this paragraph) but check out the side effects of this drug:

may cause you to have a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may result in hospitalization or be life-threatening. If you develop a rash, hives, sores, swelling, or trouble swallowing or breathing, stop taking PROVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency treatment.

Think I’d rather have sleeping problems than a serious rash or allergic reaction that may result in hospitalization. Not to mention hives, sores or swelling? Being sleepy sucks, yes, but taking this drug sounds potentially worse than, well, just taking a nap.

Are you a power napper?
As I get older I’m finding power naps to be helpful. Just short naps here and there, usually after lunch get me raring to rock and roll for the rest of the day. I don’t know if this is something normal as one gets older, but I’m about 99.5% certain I’d never take any drugs if I was too sleepy. Yes, even if prescribed. I hate taking meds. I’d much rather go natural. Eat more fruit and vegetables, exercise more, swing from vines, whatever.