Year: 2005

DivorceKevin.com

Post ImageIt doesn’t matter whether you like Britney Spears or not, this website is very amusing! And I suppose not that surprising, given how popular Ms. Spears is, even when she doesn’t do anything. From the DivorceKevin.com introduction (via orangebuffalo):

Britney you got us good!! You really had us going!! Where is Ashton, because we have obviously all been PUNKED!

Welcome to the home of the Anti-Kevin movement. Are you sick of seeing the train wreck that is Britney and Kevin? Sign the K-Fed Up Petition, grab your Divorce Kevin gear™ and help Britney remove the boil that is Kevin from herself and her payroll!

Yes, some good fun to be had on that site indeed. Their gear is pretty funny too – I like the shirt that says “Oops, I did it with him?”

Read: DivorceKevin.com

Starbucks vs. Second Cup at Christmas

Post ImageAs a self-described caffeine addict, I end up spending a lot of money on drinks at Christmas from Starbucks and Second Cup. When I need a good fix, I usually just have my Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, but when it’s Christmas I tend to have a lot of lattes (and I guess, less caffeine). I realize that Starbucks vs. Second Cup is nothing like Coke vs. Pepsi, but it’s interesting nonetheless. My Grandma, for example, prefers Second Cup while I prefer Starbucks – but what about at Christmas? Here’s a quick comparison:

  • In terms of the cups, I think Second Cup wins. I really like the red cup at Starbucks, but the Second Cup one looks so much more festive (and more colorful!). I also like that they make the cardboard sleeve pink too. That being said, Starbucks has the much better marketing campaign! Check out http://www.theredcup.com.
  • My favorite drink of all is definitely the Eggnog Latte at Starbucks. Unfortunately there is nothing similar at Second Cup.
  • Both shops have a Gingerbread Latte, but I think the Second Cup version tastes much better.
  • The Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks and the Candycane Latte at Second Cup are somewhat similar, but I much prefer the Peppermint Mocha.
  • I don’t buy hot chocolate, so I am not sure how their respective holiday versions stack up!

What’s your favorite? Any other coffee houses with good Christmas offerings?

2005 Google Zeitgeist

Post ImageTis the season for year end lists and reflection on the year 2005. Darren has a pretty good collection of lists, but I particularly like Google’s Zeitgeist. Here’s what it’s all about:

It turns out that looking at the aggregation of billions of search queries people type into Google reveals something about our curiosity, our thirst for news, and perhaps even our desires. Considering all that has occurred in 2005, we thought it would be interesting to study just a few of the significant events, and names that make this a memorable year. (We’ll leave it to the historians to determine which ones are lasting and which ephemeral.) We hope you enjoy this selective view of our collective year.

This year’s zeitgeist appears to be much better organized than in previous years. Britney Spears was popular once again, while “weapons of mass destruction” fell quite drastically. Podcasting still lags behind both ipod and mp3, and judging by the graph Google provides, it doesn’t appear to be growing very fast either. Looks like 2006 has lots of room for improvement!

Read: Google Zeitgeist

Notes for 12/19/2005

Here are some notes for Monday, since I didn’t get a chance to post anything last night.

  • del.icio.us is down, apparently from a power outage. Back on December 2nd I wrote about Malware and Web 2.0, but my comments apply just as equally to other negative things, like power outages: So what happens in a few years when the vast majority of our data is stored online?…All of that data needs to be proactively protected from attacks, it needs to be backed up in case of a successful attempt, and it really should be available all the time.
  • I leave for Inuvik on Friday! I did a ton of shopping yesterday, so I’m getting closer to being ready to go. You can see Inuvik’s weather here.
  • PayPal more cost effective than the credit card services? Interesting article from the New York Times.
  • Last exam of the semester for me is tomorrow morning.
  • Is Google ready to take a stake in AOL? Not everyone hopes so.
  • Was there a tech product you wanted this year that never shipped? Vote for it in Wired’s Vaporware 2005.
  • As much as I don’t like the cold, I wish it would just snow and stay here for a while so I don’t have to keep washing my car!

Time Persons of the Year

Post ImageTime announced their “person of the year” for 2005 this morning, except that it’s “persons” – three in fact. Dubbed the “The Good Samaritans”, the magazine has chosen Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as the “Persons of the Year“. From the cover story article:

These are not the people you expect to come to the rescue.

Rock stars are designed to be shiny, shallow creatures, furloughed from reality for all time. Billionaires are even more removed, nestled atop fantastic wealth where they never again have to place their own calls or defrost dinner or fly commercial. So Bono spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates, the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house. It makes you think that if these guys can decide to make it…

For full access to the article, you can watch a brief advertisement, otherwise you’ll have to pay a few dollars (or wait for the actual magazine to come out). I think the three make a very interesting choice. There’s no doubt that Bono is an activist unlike any other, and the Gates give more money each year than you can imagine.

Read: Time.com

King Kong

Post ImageI went to see King Kong on Friday night, a movie I have been looking forward to seeing for quite a while. And I wasn’t looking forward to it because of Peter Jackson or any reason in particular, other than the fact that it looked pretty amazing in trailers and commercials. Overall, I’d say I came away quite impressed.

The film has an excellent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and most of the negative reviews cite the fact that the film is over three hours in length as a drawback. After watching the movie though, I didn’t feel that it was excessively long at all! In fact, if I didn’t know any better I wouldn’t have thought it was a three hour movie. I thought it flowed quite well, and unlike some other long movies (Pearl Harbor, for example) there was no point at which you go “ah, it could have ended there.”

A group of us went on Friday, including Sharon who said that she really didn’t like Jack Black. I on the other hand was quite impressed by Jack Black and somewhat disappointed by Adrien Brody. I think Black played his character very well, even if he did have some of the cheesier lines in the movie. Brody on the other hand didn’t seem to make his character that endearing – I was less interested in his character than almost any other.

The CGI in King Kong is quite simply, amazing. There was only one, maybe two places where you think “ah that looks kind of like a green screen” or something. For the most part, I felt the CGI was so good you don’t even realize that you’re watching something that isn’t real. Well, aside from the fact that there are dinosaurs and bugs as large as houses. Some will say that the movie went overboard with all of the different creatures on the island, but I think it was an incredibly brave undertaking by Jackson and his crew, and it paid off. The movie would have been much less interesting if they hadn’t created an entirely new world with really a entire ecosystem all it’s own.

The stars of the movie, King Kong and Ann Darrow, were awesome. Naomi Watts was brilliantly cast, and she did a great job considering almost ever scene she’s in has tons of CGI. In a lot of places she looked kind of like Scarlett Johansson, but other than that, I don’t have any ideas for who else I would have cast. Andy Serkis once again brought a computer generated character to life, and he did a great job at it indeed. Kong is very believable throughout the movie.

There were only minor oddities with the film. For instance, the beginning of the movie does a good job of portraying Depression-era New York (the film takes place in 1933) but when Denham and his team return from the island a month or so later with Kong, everyone seems rich again. People will think the creatures were overdone, but I think the Natives were overdone. I mean really, they were incredibly too ugly, and far too scary. The airplanes at the end seemed kind of fake, but fortunately they were probably the worst of the CGI. Maybe it’s because I have seen Serendipity too many times, but I felt that the ice skating scene was far too “stereotypical New York”.

Yes on the whole, I really enjoyed King Kong! There is a lot to like in the movie, and the critics are right, it’s quite a ride. The action sequences are incredible, broken up by a very interesting storyline. I am not a huge Lord of the Rings fan, so I don’t know if Jackson-faithful will enjoy the movie, but I think most others will.

Thoughts on the debate

Post ImageI watched the start and finish of the first English debate last night, and I listened to most of the rest on the radio. I think the format worked pretty well, except I felt at times that it would have been good to let the leaders get at each other’s throats! I was talking with some friends last night at Denny’s and we couldn’t figure out who Trina McQueen was. A quick Google search reveals that she is on the CBC’s Board of Directors. She did a good job of keeping everyone in line. Here are some thoughts on the debate:

  • Jack Layton was definitely passionate, but he was also the only one who repeatedly went over time. Ms. McQueen had to cut him off quite a few times.
  • Anyone else think it was funny that Gilles Duceppe kept saying that most of the issues were provincial and not national problems? That seemed to be his response to everything.
  • I think that both Stephen Harper and Paul Martin did quite well. They seemed to be very sure of their answers. I also like that Harper spent more time promoting his own platform than trying to bring down the Liberals (unlike Duceppe, and to a lesser extent Layton).
  • I still think the Green Party should have been part of the debate. I signed their petition.
  • One of the best moments for Harper was when the question turned to Belinda Stronach – I think Harper handled that issue better than any of the other leaders.
  • I don’t think any of them really answered questions about NAFTA very well. Seemed to me they all tried to skirt the issue. Same goes for the same sex marriage issue, there was nothing new presented, just the same old rhetoric from each.

I’m looking forward to the next debate – should be interesting. Not surprisingly, there are lots of news articles offering opinions on the debate if you missed it.

Country Flashback

On the way home tonight I decided to give Big Earl a quick listen to see what kind of banjo music they happened to be playing. As soon as I heard the song though, my country days came flying back! I actually remembered almost all the words to Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With The Boy” – pretty good song, I must say.

Maybe I’ll have to check it out again sometime!

Google Music Search

Post ImageGoogle launched a new music search service today, very cleverly called Google Music. From the Google Blog:

A few of us decided to try to make the information you get for these searches even better, so we created a music search feature. Now you can search for a popular artist name, like the Beatles or the Pixies, and often Google will show some information about that artist, like cover art, reviews, and links to stores where you can download the track or buy a CD via a link at the top of your web search results page.

I just gave it a quick try, and I rather like it! I have long wanted to find a service like IMDB but for music, and I have never come across it. Google Music is most definitely not that service, but it is a step in the right direction. Usually I end up trying to find track listings for albums, and unfortunately Amazon doesn’t always have the track listing. I’ll have to play with Google Music a little more to see if it is any more reliable.

I really like that Google Music will show lyrics for a song, other versions of the song, and the authors too (whoever wrote the song). You can also buy songs directly, currently there are links to iTunes and Real Rhapsody. Would be cool to have a “similar artists” feature or even just “similar albums” so you could discover new music using the search too.

Read: Google Music Search

Using NewsGator Online

Post ImageAs many of you probably are aware, my aggregator of choice is NewsGator Outlook Edition. I like it because I always have Outlook open anyway, and I can take posts offline and read them when I don’t have an Internet connection. It’s also handy to take advantage of the search folders, flags, and other features of Outlook. Since installing Visual Studio 2005 and switching tablets, NGOE has not worked. I am told there is a conflict that they are working to fix, and I expect it’ll be working again before long. So in the meantime, I’ve been using NewsGator Online, or Web Edition, and I’ve made the following observations:

  • I really miss the ability to read stuff offline. You don’t realize how much you use it until it’s gone! And since I always have my tablet with me, I don’t find being able to access my subscriptions anywhere just because they are online all that handy.
  • I rather like the Web Edition’s “mark all items on this page as read” feature. It would be good if the Outlook edition had a similar feature that hid items you’ve already read. Each post in the Web Edition also has a “mark as read” button, but unfortunately the item doesn’t disappear, it just is grayed out. Would be much better if the item disappeared!
  • I find the online interface clean, but very pale. Sometimes it’s hard to read because everything is so white and grey.
  • The “My Clippings” feature works well and is akin to dragging a post to a different folder in Outlook, or perhaps flagging it.

So I guess that while it works quite well, I’ll probably go back to my Outlook version when the conflict is all fixed up.